Gnome-do

Apr 30, 2009 by mohamed hanoosh


Gnome-do is a powerful utility to deploy applications or directories. You can start applications, visit url, or browse through directories .. without moving your hands from keyboard to mouse.

Install gnome-do. Strat it(u can assign a short cut key ). Just type the name of application, directory,url .. you want. Press Enter key. You will get what u want.

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How to be root using sudo

by mohamed hanoosh

If you want to execute a series of commands with root privilege then it is cumbersome to type sudo before every command. Instead just type sudo -i This will take you to root login with required environment variables. You can continue your work there.
hash@ssl50:~$ sudo -i
[sudo] password for hash:
root@ssl50:~#

For more details check manpage for sudo.

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pdftk : manipulate pdf files

Apr 29, 2009 by mohamed hanoosh


pdftk (pdf toolkit) is a tool for manipulating pdf files. It can be used for
  • concatenating pdf files
  • splitting files
  • update files
  • ....
It's very easy to use the tool. For example, to combine two pdf documents say part1.pdf and part2.pdf to get full.pdf just type
pdftk part1.pdf part2.pdf cat output full.pdf

For more details visit http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/

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zenity : dialogs from command line and shell script

Apr 11, 2009 by mohamed hanoosh

zenity is a tool for displaying gtk+ dialogs from command line or shell scripts. It can be used for displaying various kind of dialog boxes.

It is easy to use zenity for simpler applications compared to writing a GTK based program.

Following are some of dialogs that can be created using zenity.

  • Read text (entry)


    • hash@ssl50:~$ name=`zenity --entry --title="Example" --text="Your name please"`



  • Calendar


    • hash@ssl50:~$ zenity --calendar --title="Example" --text="Select the day"


  • Filechooser


    • hash@ssl50:~$ filename=`zenity --file-selection`



  • Question

    hash@ssl50:~$ zenity --question --text="Are you sure ?" ; echo $?



Check man page of zenity for more information.

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Using multimedia keys for amarok in gnome

Apr 5, 2009 by mohamed hanoosh

Amarok Icon

Gnome global keyboard short cuts can't be applied to Amarok, which is basically a KDE application. There is an amarok script available (Gnome Multimedia Keys in kde-apps.org ) for mapping those keys to the amarok short cuts. Extract the package and just run the python script. Whenever the script is running and amarok is ON the keys will work.

For more details visit http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=60910

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Gnome reduce font size

Apr 3, 2009 by mohamed hanoosh

I like Ubuntu and hence gnome very much. When I use it in my laptop a lot of visible area is occupied by different interfaces (like the tool bar,menu bar etc). I thought reducing the font size can give enough work space. Here are two methods I could find out for doing that


  • Using gconf editor

    • Open gconf-editor (type the command gconf-editor). Install the package gconf-editor if it is not already installed. Go to desktop>gnome>interface. Change value of font_name to the font and the size required. For example set it to "Sans 8". Size 8 is enough for me.

  • Using gtkrc file

    • Create the file .gtkrc in your home folder and put the following in it.
    style "user-font" {
        font_name = " Sans 8"
    }
    widget_class "*" style "user-font"
    gtk-font-name="Sans 8"
    Restart xserver (just logout and login again)


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Indian languages in gmail

Apr 1, 2009 by mohamed hanoosh

Now Gmail has introduced the facility to mail in Indian languages. This setting is made active by default in India. If it is not active just go to settings, language section, enable transliteration. You should have the necessary fonts in you machine.


For typing in a language, just select the language in the compose page. Type as you speak in your language (transliteration).

For more details visit Official Google Blog: Email in Indian languages

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