The current Ubuntu desktop

Even tho the calendar says it isn't, summer is upon us...

No more scrobbling for you!

It finally went kaput this morning... It just keeps adding the played songs to the queue.
During the last couple of days I was having problems scrobbling songs from VLC as well.
Too bad, I love gathering statistics on the way I listen to music.

The current GNOME 3 extensions

Installed a couple more today.

The current GNOME 3 extensions

Finally, after 20 days of Gnome 3 on Stilgar I finally caved in and installed a couple of Extensions...
For the moment, those will do.

The current Ubuntu desktop

With a slight 80's twist.

Scrobbling to Last.fm from VLC

This seem to be easy enough, but nevertheless I had to enable an extra setting (the one on the first screenshot) in order to get the whole thing up & running for good.

VLC > Tools > Preferences

And then set that to "Show settings" > "All"
Interface > Control Interfaces > and enable "Submission of played songs to last.fm"

Then goto Audioscrobbler and complete yout login info for Last.fm.

You are done. It scrobbles songs, but only after they have been played in their entirety, there is no "Currently Listening".

The current Ubuntu desktop

Once again Gnome Shell on the Thinkpad T60p.
High resolution glory!

Stilgar got its GNOME Shell Remix

Installed GNOME Shell Remix once again.
This time on my beloved Stilgar, haven't nuked the Scientific Linux install, but made the GNOME 3 install on Sojourner's HDD, a 500 GB that it is a bit beat but seems to be holding up Ok.
This HDD was originally from an old laptop that I don't have any more, the thin and somewhat fragile Dell XPS M1330; the HDD has a couple of bad sectors, so I'll keep and eye on it, and make plenty of backups.
As far as the GNOME Shell Remix goes, things seem to be pretty nice so far, this lappie only has 3 GB of RAM -and I've used modern distros on it-, so the system its a 32 bits, and overall things are obviously slower than on Usul and its 8 GB of RAM, but can be used as a day in day out box no problem.
The T60p huge screen (1600x1200) its the most amazing thing I've ever seeing.

This thing with the Suspend

Well, this come back from suspend to hieroglyphs -or rather, "login back from suspend to hieroglyphs"- just because it actually happens after resuming the suspend, and after login back in onto a Gnome desktop session, has me totally and completely fed up.

Last Saturday installed a bunch of updates on Usul, a kernel, X Window server, the works... I thought that after that things might improve... But they didn't.
Another thing... The now old problem that used to force me to edit the "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" after each update to regain the ability to increase or reduce brightness seems to be fixed.
It is something I guess...

Gnome 3: Smaller title bars on Metacity

Been using the T410 non stop for the last 10 days or so. With the maxxed RAM it makes a magnificent machine.
Gnome Shell Remix -that is, Gnome 3- flies on it, when it comes to Linux, everything works A Ok on the laptop, software or hardware wise... It has only two drawbacks, the screen sucks, really, really sucks; and the speakers are weak, and I mean really, but, really weak.
Besides that, the screen only has 1280x800, so it gets kind cramped sometimes...

I've modified a bit the default Metacity theme, reducing the title bar size, which originally its gigantic, BTW...
On the file "/usr/share/themes/Adwaita/metacity-1/metacity-theme-3.xml", edited the lines:

On frame_geometry name="normal":

<!--    <distance name="title_vertical_pad" value="9"/> -->
        <distance name="title_vertical_pad" value="5"/>

And on frame_geometry name="max":

<!--   <distance name="title_vertical_pad" value="8"/>  -->
       <distance name="title_vertical_pad" value="4"/>

The result of this can be seen on the latest screenshot.
I've done something similar in the past, but that was for the Metacity theme used on the Fallback Mode.

The current Ubuntu desktop

(It was time for an Ubuntu desktop post!! Even tho, this one is actually a GNOME Shell Remix one..)

The setup I'm using at the moment.
As usual, very much towards the standards.

Chromium closes all open tabs

These last few days I've been using Usul (with Ubuntu GNOME Shell Remix) a lot, like all the time, specially now with the maxxed RAM.
Trying to use Chromium as my day to day browser too, so now becomes really important to correct that BS about closing all open tabs when the main window is closed.
Extensions to the rescue!
Another extension, or add on, that I now find essential on Chromium:

Window Close Protector

gsettings galore!

The gsettings configurations I have at the moment on Usul, with its 14" @1280x800 screen.

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface menus-have-icons true
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface toolbar-style icons
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface text-scaling-factor "0.8"
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.clock show-date true
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface 'buttons-have-icons' true

Usul moves a notch up

Maxxed the RAM to 8 GB, just now.
Testing it right now while posting this.
Gnome 3 feels mighty snappy.

And yet another one...

The third one (so far???) of those Fuzzy Panels on GNOME 3.
It seems like this has to be a software problem that goes beyond Unity; or maybe a hardware problem with the NVIDIA driver?

From Precise to Gnome Remix

Last night did a wipe and clean install on Usul.
 It had the Precise Pangolin, the first "production" install I did, back on May.

A plain vanilla 64 bits Precise, with a PPA added with an installation of GNOME 3, it performed A Ok, but I wanted a truly clean install, without all that Unity stuff that I'm positive I'll never ever going to use.

 So, after an hour of base and updates installation, I've been restoring files all day long.

Clearlooks for Adwaita install

Download the theme: Clearlooks-Phenix

~# mv clearlooks-phenix-master Clearlooks-Phenix
~# sudo cp -R Clearlooks-Phenix /usr/share/themes/
~# gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'Clearlooks-Phenix'
~# gconftool-2 --type string --set /apps/metacity/general/theme 'Clearlooks-Phenix' 

You are done

Sojourner got updated

 Moved from Lucid Lynx to Precise Pangolin my beloved T60, Sojourner... It was about time, it had Lucid for I don't remember how long.
Choose to go with Ubuntu GNOME Shell Remix and then run GNOME Classic, after the tests I've done with the T43, this combination seems more and more seductive, I'm seriously considering doing the same with the T60p.

More Gnome3 testing

That is, testing the Classic Gnome one once again.
Really digging this one, maybe I'll switch distros once again...

Yet another test with GNOME 3

But this time, with the (now) classic one...

Installed on the little T43 on Saturday... That poor laptop is certainly getting a beating lately, distro hop is not for the faint hardware...
Installed once again the Ubuntu Gnome Shell Remix, but this time choose to go all the way the way with the classic Gnome, specifically the one with No Effects, just to see how things were running that and only that.

 It does look good, and it is pretty, pretty usable, just a milliliter away from what the real and ole Gnome was.

A very short roundup of thing I like about it:

Advantages:

• I can use my beloved Global Menu. (Or the new equivalent program, tha even works better).

• The Panel calendar displays events synced with my Google Calendar.  (The Mint calendar doesn't, at least at the moment).

• Even tho it is called "GNOME Classic without Effects" it has drop shadows.

• I can group windows on the Window List applet on the lower Panel.

Disadvantages:

• It seems like it uses an insane amount of resources

The screenshot was taken while running:

Skype (making a test call)
Pidgin
Evolution (truly a RAM hogger)
Firefox (with this site open)
Gnome Terminal