Neptunno's questions

I've been trying to customize my Ubuntu 12.04 Unity desktop. I am describing what I've done until now to make it easier to understand what is my practical question. Please don't refer to it as too localized.

I like to have my desktop as clean and simple as possible, where the colors of the background image are shared by every other item. To accomplish this I edited the Radiance theme. I used My Unity for launcher color and transparency and also for top panel transparency.

This is how it looks so far.

Now I am attempting to edit the Nautilus color by following the instructions present in here.

I want that the Nautilus windows have the same color as the Unity launcher. I used gcolor2 to pick the exact same color and then copy the hex code to the css file. The problem is I don't know if it is possible or how to edit transparency in css files. Besides, I also want to change the font color to white and I don't know how.

Take a look at an example of a Nautilus window.

The color of the side menu is the same as the unity launcher, except the launcher and dash have transparency. Also the font is barely readable and so I would like to change its color if possible.

The question is if it is possible to set transparency on the side menu color and change the font color? If so, how do I do it? I can't find a GUI for that purpose (MyUnity and Ubuntu Tweak don't have) so I assume that it would require editing of css files.

I went here and downloaded a theme named Ubuntaero_v1.0. Then I extracted the files to /usr/share/icons. After rebooting the system, the default cursor theme remains, except when moving the mouse over some applications' windows, such as KeepassX.

However, when I take a screenshot of that same window, the outcome shows the default cursor again.

Then I went to terminal:

sudo update-alternatives --config x-cursor-theme

The ubuntaero theme is not listed. It seems I am missing something in installing a cursor theme. What could it be?

I just installed lxde to boot into when laptop is using battery, but I really miss at least a simple search feature, I am used to Unity so I find myself losing too much time navigating on the menus, given that the LXDE menu is just a list with a basic categorization. I would prefer to avoid creating shortcuts everywhere if possible.

I want to encrypt my Sony USB pendrive.

Unfortunatelly my model is not supported by their own software, EasyLock.

Since I have to look for alternatives, I would like something that could work both on Windows and Ubuntu, because even though this pendrive is meant for carrying data to other PC's (university, pub PC's, etc) which probably run Windows, I would like the possibility to decrypt and access the data on Ubuntu as well, so a multiplatform solution would be welcome.

I am aware of Truecrypt, it works great and it doesn't require installation, I can just bring the executable with me but it requires admin privileges for mounting the volumes in Windows, and I really need to make sure I can decrypt the data whenever I need it, even if it is on a Windows PC running a limited user account.

Is there any multiplatform encryption software for full USB pendrive or even creation of individual volumes that can decrypt its contents on Ubuntu and also on Windows without requiring admin privileges?

I am buying a new desktop PC in early 2013, anyway this question should apply to someone intending to buy a new laptop/ultrabook as well.

This machine is not meant for gaming, and if I ocasionally do it, I can survive with minimum graphics. However I may need some heavy multimedia edition or multitasking at times, so basically my greatest priority is a good processor, after that perhaps average graphic card (if onboards are not enough, I am still not informed enough about that), at least 4GB of RAM with possibility of expansion.

I know there are some PC models specially designed to ship with Ubuntu, which is the OS I use the most these days. However, most people around me use Windows and some software with unsupported versions for Linux and not having a Windows license becomes a bit problematic.

Given that, I would like to find information about which PC models or even manufacters currently on the market have the best compatibility with Ubuntu, I am still undecided between building my own desktop or buying a pre-made model, so I would like to find information both for certified models and certified hardware or even Ubuntu partners that may work closely with Canonical.

Where to find this information in order to make sure that I will have a good experience with Ubuntu on my new PC in the years to come?

In my laptop I currently have Windows 7 and Ubuntu 12.04 in dual-boot.

I tried the newest version of WattOS (based in Ubuntu) today from a live-USB, and decided to install it to my hard drive, to use whenever I am completely dependent on battery energy.

However I don't want to create any conflicts and boot problems, specially because my DVD drive is not working and thus I am unable to use Windows 7 DVD to repair MBR.

What is the safest way to install a second Linux distribution (in this case Watt OS) and update Grub Menu, without major trouble?

I usually have different instances of my web browsers to attend to various types of usages, on Windows that means using portable versions of Chrome and Firefox. The existing portable versions of Firefox and Chromium for Linux are outdated and lack immediate support, compared with the portable apps for Windows. I am wondering if there is any way to make the current versions of Firefox and Chromium provided by Ubuntu work as "portable", which by that I mean running as the equivalent of a Windows portable app, detached from the default browsers.

I've read the community wiki and some questions here on Ask Ubuntu about security measures on Ubuntu, but I would like to focus on the security of online money transactions.

Is a VPN service with SSL connection enough to make this kind of operation as secure as possible (even if using public wireless spots?)

I am counting on using a Live-USB with Firefox or Chrome browser, both the Live system and the browser used only and strictly for this delicate purpose, thus creating an independent system to take precautions against any potential malware that may have infiltrated my regular everyday system and browser and I'll also be using a secure connection. Any other security measures that I should be aware of?

I connected the camera via USB and it was promptly recognized by Ubuntu and Shotwell, however when attempting to import photos, Shotwell can only find a single photo among hundreds. When accessing the camera via Nautilus, I can see the folders and all photos there but they are all greyed, not accessible and I am unable to find a way to transfer them.

I've been here and my camera is not present, however some others quite similar are listed. Also I've been at HP support and the drivers for download are available for Windows and Mac only. I do know that I can transfer the photos on Windows using Windows Photo Gallery and I did not need to install additional drivers to do it, so I was expecting Ubuntu could do the same.

I'm not sure if it is an issue with Shotwell not supporting the camera, missing drivers or something else, because it is a bit strange that it can find a single photo instead of not finding anything at all, which is why I decided to ask this question, despite knowing that there are similar questions (such as this and this) about this topic, however all of them report completely unsuccessful transfer attempts

Is there any way to make shotwell transfer the photos? If not, any other application that might do it successfully?

I've been using Chromium instead of Firefox, but I really do miss the Tab Groups Firefox feature, which is great to group tabs and organize them, it really is a boost on my productivity. Are you aware of any add-on which is similar for Chrome/Chromium? I've searched around on Chrome's Web Store but no luck at the moment.

I have a desktop where I dual-boot Windows XP and Lubuntu. Given that Wubi makes use of Windows Boot Menu, If I install Ubuntu 12.04 from Wubi installer on Windows, will it be present on Grub Menu? Will there be any conflict between Wubi and Grub Menu?

I want to create a bootable Live-USB to be able to run Ubuntu on any machine I need, independently of its hardware specs. As there are some Pentium III and IV still around, how should I proceed to enable Unity 2D on my live session by default instead of Unity 3D?

Ubuntu 12.04 allows to move a window from a workspace to another using the mouse, but once in a while, that feature is very inconvenient because when the active window detaches from the top bar, it slips to the upper border and the top part of the window goes to the bottom workspace, which makes me change workspace in order grab it to the current workspace.

So basically I just need, under certain circumstances, to treat every workspace independently, with locked borders, instead of having a giant workspace divided into four sections.

Is there any way to accomplish this??

I have a Windows Live ID and I use it to talk with my friends, who use Windows Live Messenger 2009 or 2011. I've adopted Pidgin as my main conversation client because it is universal and it is cross-platform.

However I still can't have video conversations with my contacts, the options are all grey and I can't configure anything.

How do I configure pidgin to be able to make video and audio conversations with Windows Live Messenger users? Is there any missing plugin?

Firefox was automatically updated to version 14 a few days ago through update manager, but Chromium web browser is still stuck in version 18 while Google Chrome is already in version 20. Why does this happen and how can I update my Chromium to a more recent version?

I found this Lubi installer (Linux Ubuntu Installer) which is similar to Wubi, except it allows to install any of Ubuntu derivatives and do it from Linux and not Windows. It is exactly what I needed, installing Ubuntu without having to burn to USB stick, mess again with the partitions, I have the iso downloaded already, it would be just install and run, really useful.

I've tried already to proceed as described here, however, even though all process was easy to follow and appeared to have been successfully executed, when I reboot PC, there isn't Ubuntu option to boot from in the Grub Menu.

Then I checked the requirements and it states that Lubi will not work on any systems using LVM, EVMS, or another logical volume manager, or filesystems other than ext2, ext3, reiserfs, vfat, ntfs, jfs, or xfs.

My home partition default filesystem is ext4, which is not listed in here. This may possibly be the reason why it doesn't work. Is there anyway to make Lubi work on ext4 filesystem? I've been on this thread already and some other people have this issue as well, but there is no activity in there for over an year and no further updates about this.

I am trying to run Portable Truecrypt from a USB Pendrive. I already extracted the package and all but the only way I can really open Truecrypt portable is if the executable is somewhere in my home folder. It never does when I open the executable from the pendrive. I'm using Ubuntu 12.04.

I have tried to go to permissions and set "allow to run as an application" but anyway when double-clicking, the same alert comes up:

Unable to present media/Kingston/usr/bin/truecrypt, there is no application 
installed for executable files.

However it does open normally from home folder, so I do not understand this output that Ubuntu can't find an application to open executable files, given that it opens them just fine as long as they are present in the home folder.

I've formatted another pendrive as NFTS first and then as ext4 to check if it was related to filesystems, opened it with full administrative rights, extracted Truecrypt files there, but still the same error returns, and while attempting to execute the file from terminal, permission is denied.

I installed Ubuntu 12.04 a few days ago but strangely I seem to have skipped the part about choosing to encrypt home folder. Now if it is encrypted I do not know what is the encryption key. How do I check if it is really encrypted? (and also the swap partition).

When logging in lubuntu 12.04, my background image always disappears, leaving the screen with color only and then I have to go to definitions and set the image in the background again.

I notice that this does not happen with low-resolution images, only with high ones, but also happens with images that fit my screen resolution (1280 X 720).

Any ideas on how to fix this?

The image remains at it's location, but on the desktop preferences, the pathway to the file location is lost and set to none.

I have a quick question about file shredding. Is there any application with graphical interface capable of shredding files and folders?

I know bleachbit has that feature but there are no options or configurations and I really can't know if the files are unrecoverable or not.