TornadoPath .net

Well Unity is here in Ubuntu-11.10 and there is no easy way to go back to Gnome2. Admitidly there are some things I like but for people who need alot of things open and who go back and forth alot between applications nither Unity or Gnome-Shell make much sense for them. The comment I here from people who have tried it is “It looks like a tablet desktop designed for the touch screen”. For me I simply find Unity un-attractive as a desktop, the artwork is not very interesting. Unfortunatly, in Unity there is not much you can do to improve the look so I decided to Google to see if I could do something about the desktop look.
In Ubuntu-11.10 there is no easy path back to Gnome2, if you install Gnome you get Gnome Classic and Gnome 2D but they are modified fallback versions of Gnome3 (Gnome-Shell) that really are not Gnome2.  So what to do….    I discovered that I could install Gnome-Shell in Ubuntu-11.10, but an accelerated graphics capable video chip or card is absolutly required. Provided your hardware meets the criteria you can try Gnome-Shell.

So here we go….

  Befor I get started lets  take  a   look at what we  will be creating.  I’m going  to  describe how I created  the  Desktop -’Look’ that  you see  in these screen-  shots.  This  shot shows  Gnome-Shell with  an  application open.

 Click on the image to view ‘Full Size’

 This is the view when you  select ‘Applications’ (Gnome  Foot) , notice  apps are also  organized  under  group  headdings in  the right  panel.

When you select an  application to ‘run’ the  view  switches back to the  screen  shot above.  Hopefully you  get the idea if not; you can  install the Ubuntu-11.10 Live CD to at least try Unity.  Both Unity and Gnome-Shell work in similar manner.

The big difference between Unity and Gnome-Shell that I like is the abilty to remake the look of Gnome-Shell.  Below are the steps needed to create the Gnome-Shell Look shown above.

1.  Install Gnome-Shell from the command line using the following commands as the ‘sudoer’.

• me@mymachine $ sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

Once Gnome-Shell is installed reboot your machine and select ‘Gnome’ from the drop down list in the Login Panel. Once logged in you should see a top menu bar with the word ‘Activities’ on the far left.

Install the Gnome Tweak Tool

Select ‘Application’ -> then switch from Windows to -> ‘Applications and locate & open a Terminal window.  Enter the command below to install the Tweak-Tool.

• me@mymachine $ sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool

sudo the following commands to add a gnome-shell extension allowing system users to modify their desktop theme.

• me@mymachine $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/gnome3
• me@mymachine $ sudo apt-get update
• me@mymachine $ sudo apt-get install gnome-shell-extensions-user-theme

If all went well you should  now be able to open the  Gnome-Tweak-Tool under  ’Applications’ it is the app  called ‘Advanced-Settings’.  Once open select Shell  Extensions and set the  User  Themes Extension to  ’ON”.

Next select the ‘Theme’ button to modify the Look of Gnome-Shell, but you will need to go get and install the following Background, Icon Theme, Shell & Metacity artwork so that the Tweak Tool can manipulate it into the views shown above.

From Gnome-Look.Org get the following artwork pieces.

Under Artwork -> Gnome Shell get…

• Gnome Light 1.1 (For Gnome 3.2)
• Metal X 1.4 (For Gnome 3.2)

Click on Window  Theme  and select  Equinox-  ivolution  Midnight.

For Curser Theme select  WhiteGlass.  Next select  Hydroxygen as your Icon  Theme and for the Gtk-Theme keep Adwaita (default) for defining Window Controls.

When you finish you should be able to restart your desktop and see/ use your new desktop.  Now that you see how to make these kind of changes to Gnome3 try creating tour own.

I needed a computer that was HDMI capable to connect to our Big Screen LED TV. The computer hardware needed to be capable of smooth 1080p video and support all web and media formats, tools etc… In addition I thought it would be nice to have a reasonable amount of storage meaning at least 320GB. This is my story; what I bought, the specs and approximately how much you should expect to pay.
I think the best place to start is here,    MiniBox . Com

 Most of the hardware components from this project come from Mini-Box.  Below are the parts that I got from them with a little bit of info on specs and price.

1. Your Case   $39.95

- Fanless, natural convection design
- Fits Intel stock CPU heat-sink
- Hidden area for USB / WIFI / Storage
- Smart front power button
- SMA Antenna hole
- Up to two 2.5″ drives, **one HDD bracket included**
- Size 192 x 210 x 62mm

2. MSI E350IA-E45 mini-ITX Motherboard   $139.00

- E350 APU with AMD Fusion 1.6 GHz dual-core CPU
- APU: Accelerated Processing Unit (integrating CPU&GPU)
- AMD HUDSON M1 Single-Chip Chip-set, 1ea PCI Express x16 slot with x4 operation

- AMD Radeon HD 6310 graphics processor
- Supports two DDR3, 8GB Max
- 1 x Graphic Card port,  1 x HDMI - 6 x USB 2.0 ports,  2 x USB 3.0 ports (Up to 5Gb/s)
-  4ea SATA 6Gb/s ports (up to 6Gb/s)

3. PicoPSU-90-XLP 12V DC-DC ATX    $29.95

- Greenest DC-DC ATX PSU to date.
- Ultra low power Standby consumption  (<0.050 watt)
- High efficiency in the low (5-15 watt) and high power range
- Easily meets EU low power regulation
- 0-90 Watts, 12V input
- 100% silent, fanless
- Over 95% combined efficiency
- Plugs directly into the ATX connector
- 12V-ATX cable

4. AC – DC Transformer for use with PicoPSU-90-XLP   $25.00

80 Watt (12v/ 6.6 Amp) AC – DC Power Adaptor, with cord.

5.   You might consider adding this fan from Mini-Box, connect it to the rail above the motherboard so that it blows air on the Video DSP and Bus controller .

DF124010BM 40X40x10mm Fan $2.99

The remaining computer components are DDR3 memory and the Hard Disk, these can be purchased from NewEgg

NewEgg If you have not heard of them before and you buy a lot of computer toys you need to check them out.

5.  Western Digital, Scorpio Black, 2.5″ Hardisk, WDBABD3200ANC NRSN  $130.00    

- 320GB Capacity, 16MB Cache, SATA 3.0Gb/Sec
- 7200 RPM
6.  Memory  Kingston KVR1333D3N9K2/4G, Set of two sticks    $29.00

- CAS Latency 9, 1.5 Volts, Un-Buffered

Well these are the parts, when you get everything in one pile it should make sense what goes where.  The case includes a bracket that mounts above the Motherboard, mount the Hard Drive on one of these rails.  Use your imagination and a couple of tie-wraps.

I’m running Ubuntu-10.10 on this machine with excellent results.  The Wifi is abit tough to set up if you want WAP-2 security, here is my configuration howto:

I’m using a Linksys Wireless N Gigabit Router Model: WRT310N with a Hornettek, Model: HT-2223BK Wireles USB adaptor.  The Hornettek USB WIreless Adaptor uses Realteck Chips and utilizes the RTL8187 driver in the Linux Kernel. The Wireles USB device should be discovered in Ubuntu-10.10 or higher when inserted.For more info on Hornettek and the HT-2223BK goto:     

Please Note:  If you want to use the MSI E350IA-E45 mini-ITX Motherboard in this project you should know that it is necessary to use the Proprietary Linux or Windows drivers that AMD provides.  Sound, Networking, Use of the HDMI interface all require or are enhanced by the use of the proprietary driver.  In Ubuntu-10.10 you can select System -> Administration -> Additional Drivers and try to install the driver from there.  You will definitely have problems with the AMD chips on this motherboard if you don’t install the AMD driver. 

Before you begin to set up wireless networking on the MSI E350-AI-E45 you should decide if you will be using the GUI  in System -> Preferences -> Network Connections or Manually configuring networking from the Command Line using the /etc/network/interfaces file. Using the GUI is straight forward, select Wireless and enter your SSID and then select Wireless Security. Under ‘Security’ select WPA & WPA2 Personal and then enter the password that the Manual steps below describe how to generate. Select IPv4 Settings and enter DHCP or Manual Setting as are appropriate for you Network ( See Manual Network Settings  Description below for details on IPv4).  What you don’t want to try to do is use the GUI and then manually set networking up.  If you do want to use the Manual method described below make sure you delete all of you GUI based configurations.

To configure Wireless Communications between these devices using WPA-2 security, do the following.  On your Wireless Linksys Router goto the Wireless Tab , then select Wireless Security.  Under Security Mode: select Wep and  then press the Generate Button to create a 10 digit ASCII Key, use the 40/ 64-bit setting to create the Key with.  Once you have a key write it down (Example: 28E08D779C) and then make sure you change the Security Mode setting to WPA-2 Personal.  Also, select AES for Encryption on the same Linksys screen.  In the next paragraph below we will be generating the PSK Passphrase: that this screen also requires so leave it open for now.

Now from the Ubuntu-10.10 Linux command line we will be creating our PSK KEY which will be used in our Linksys as the Passphrase and also in our Ubuntu-10.10 Network Configuration.

Type in the following as any user:

me@mymachine $ wpa-passphrase <Your essid> <Your ASCII 10 digit key>

Example: me@mymachine $ wpa-passphrase wireless 28E08D779C

Result:  me@mymachine $ network={ ssid=”wireless”                                                                            #psk=”28E08D779C”                                                                                                                          psk=c652d6250613877e40c6f1f183ab0012d1006c74edd51a4ba205da26be527e7 }

Paste the PSK Key value above into your Linksys Wireless Security page and then select the default key renewal value of 3600 seconds. You are done with your Linksys setup and can close this screen.

Now from the Ubuntu-10.10 command line open the /etc/network interfaces file as ‘root’ and make it look like the configuration lines below.

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
address 192.168.1.24 # Put your own IP address here
netmask 255.255.255.0
broadcast 192.168.1.255
gateway 192.168.1.1 # Put your own gateway here
dns-nameserver 192.168.1.100 # This could be your own DNS Server or your ISP’s
wpa-driver wext
wpa-ssid <Put the same ssid you set in yopur Linksys Router> # No blank spaces or Quotes
wpa-ap-scan 1 # Use 2 if you want to hide your ssid
wpa-proto RSN # WPA-2
wpa-pairwise CCMP
wpa-group CCMP
wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK
wpa-psk c652d6250613877e40c6f1f183ab0012d1006c74edd51a4ba205da26be527e7 # Same key as used in your Linksys Wireless Security setting above

Now you can either reboot the machine or as ‘root’ type:

me@mymachine # /etc/init.d/networking restart

If all went well you should be able to connect to the internet wirelessly.