greg's questions

I have a working VPN connection. Works like a dream.

What isn't working though, is the 'Connect Automatically' option in the Network Connections Manager Panel. It never connects automatically, not at boot, and not after disconnect. I'm not quite sure what that option is for. And I'll get disconnected from the VPN with no warning whatsoever.

Is there a way to make sure my computer only connects to the internet through a VPN? So that if the VPN connection isn't established, my computer can't reach the internet. And is there a way to get ubuntu to attempt to reconnect to the VPN automatically if for some reason the connection drops?

Downloaded a .deb file for a game (voxatron) and installed it through the software center. Searching the 'installed' section of the software center for 'voxatron' or 'vox' produces nothing. The software center history is also devoid of any reference to voxatron.

Is there a way to un-install .deb packages downloaded outside of the software center but installed through the software center?

Is there a way to quickly check the amount of free / used disk space in Ubuntu?

I would assume you could right click on 'file system' in the file browser and choose 'properties' or something but there is no such option.

logged into my ubuntu account and found myself on a screen with just my desktop background and nothing else.

pressing the volume buttons displays the indicator, and i can get to a tty session but i can't do anything else. restarting gdm doesn't seem to help at all either

I'm running 11.10, upgraded from a wubi install of 11.04.

any thoughts?

Anyone know a library, preferably for ruby or python, that will let you access a list of open applications and let you manipulate them? All I really want to be able to do is change their geometry and minimize or close them. I've been messing around with ruby-gnome2 a bit but haven't found anything for manipulating windows other than the ones of your own process.

I'm using 10.10.