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Monthly Archives: May 2010

Changing Bootup Resolution (Plymouth) in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

May 26, 2010 by Naman Bagga | 17 Comments | Filed in Linux, Tech Talk

I've written a post on adjusting the bootup resolution i.e. the resolution of the splash screen that shows up when you start Ubuntu. Lots of things have changed since then. GRUB2 has replaced GRUB as the default bootloader and Plymouth has replaced Usplash so although changing the bootup resolution has a similar procedure, its a bit more complicated with GRUB2 and Plymouth.

Why would you want to change the bootup resolution? People are complaining that the ubuntu logo in the startup splash screen has turned large and ugly after installing ATI or Nvidia propitiatory divers. That is because the bootup resolution is too low. Other people might not be able to see the splash screen at all. In short, if you have any issue related to the splash screen not showing up properly, you are recommended to try this procedure. This is what the splash screen would normally look like(click to view full size)-

Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Splash Screen

Nice and Purple: The Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Splash Screen


Note- In this procedure, I've assumed that your monitor supports a resolution of 1280x1024 and used this resolution in the steps. If you have an old monitor, it is possible that it might support a maximum resolution of 1024x768. You are free to try any resolution your monitor supports. If its a widescreen, you might want to try widescreen resolutions as well. Any resolution would work as long as your monitor supports it. And for those who think its not obvious, when I write 'run ' it means you need to run it in a terminal.

Here's how to change the bootup resolution and fix the big, low-res Plymouth logo-

1. First of all, run sudo apt-get install v86d in a terminal to install the v86d package.

2. Now you need to edit the resolutions in the GRUB2 files so run sudo gedit /etc/default/grub and look for the line-

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

and replace it with-

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset video=uvesafb:mode_option=1280x1024-24,mtrr=3,scroll=ywrap"

Then look for-

#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

and replace it with-

GRUB_GFXMODE=1280x1024

Note that you need to remove the # from the beginning of the GRUB_GFXMODE line else it will be commented out. Also, I repeat, you may use any resolution you wish to use in place of 1280x1024 as long as your monitor supports it. Save the file and close the text editor.

3. Now you need to edit another file, so run sudo gedit /etc/initramfs-tools/modules and add the following line at the end of the file-

uvesafb mode_option=1280x1024-24 mtrr=3 scroll=ywrap

Don't forget you need to replace 1280x1024 if you used some other resolution in the last step. Save the file and close the text editor.

4. Now run echo FRAMEBUFFER=y | sudo tee /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/splash
You'll get FRAMEBUFFER=y as output.

5. Now run sudo update-grub2
This will generate the updated grub.cfg file.

6. The last step is generating the new splash screen. To do that, just run sudo update-initramfs -u

Now reboot Ubuntu and you should see a much better looking, high resolution splash screen and GRUB menu. If you see nothing at all, it might be because your monitor does not support the resolution you set. Try a lower resolution in that case.

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Auto-rotate applications in Samsung Corby PRO(GT-B5310)

May 25, 2010 by Naman Bagga | 123 Comments | Filed in MobiWorld

Not very recently, in January, I bought a new phone- the Samsung Corby PRO aka GT-B5310, known as the Genio PRO in the UK. The Corby series is great value for money and I'll be posting a review of the phone and reasons for buying it soon.

The phone has a sliding QWERTY keypad and so most of the inbuilt apps and stuff rotates automatically when you slide-out the keypad. If you've been using the Corby PRO for a while, you would've noticed that the additional Java applications you've installed don't have auto-rotate support and its quite a PITA to type with the QWERTY keypad while the display is in portrait mode. Thankfully, there is a solution to this problem. All you need is an archive manager and a text editor. Here's what you need to do-

1. Download the jar file on your computer.
2. Use an archive manager to open it and edit the MANIFEST.MF file found in the META-INF folder.
3. Add these lines at the bottom of MANIFEST.MF to enable support for auto-rotate-

X-Pax-Keyboard: Qwerty
X-Pax-TextInput-Hidden: true
MIDlet-Touch-Support: TRUE
MIDlet-ScreenMode: ROTATE

4. Save the jar archive after making the above changes.

Now transfer the jar file to your phone. But there's a catch here too. The Corby PRO's OS doesn't allow you to install Java applications by just opening jar files from the file manager. The only way to install applications is by downloading them from your phone. But thinking about it carefully, you don't really need to upload the jar file anywhere. All you need to do is create a HTML page and transfer it along with the jar file to your phone. Opening the HTML page from your phone will open it using the phone's web browser and you won't need GPRS to install the application. Here's what you need to do to create the html file-

1. Open a text editor like notepad.
2. Write this in the file-

<html>
<body>
<a href="<insert filename here>">Install Application</a><br>
</body>
</html>

Replace with the name of the jar file; for example, if you are installing the IM client Palringo and the file name is Palringo.jar, the code would be-

<html>
<body>
<a href="Palringo.jar">Install Application</a><br>
</body>
</html>

3. Save the file with a .html extension and give it any name like installer.html

Now when you open the HTML file from your phone, you'll see a Install Application link. Clicking on it will install the Jar file you just edited. I managed to get all the applications I use to auto-rotate like this apart from those ones which don't let you download the jar file from your computer. This should work for all applications. If you face any problems, feel free to leave a comment.

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Changing Window Button Positions In Ubuntu

May 2, 2010 by Naman Bagga | 4 Comments | Filed in Linux, Tech Talk

People who upgraded to Ubuntu 10.04 would've noticed that the new Ambiance theme has window buttons on the left side of the window border. This means, when you install Ubuntu, you get an unordered set of buttons on the left which look like this-

Unordered buttons on the left

Unordered buttons on the left side spells DISASTER

At first sight, it doesn't seem to be much of a problem to have the window buttons on the left. But it gets really irritating when you start using it and tend to move your mouse pointer towards the top right to find absolutely no buttons there. I tried living with it for a couple of hours before I finally gave up. Its pointless to get used to working with the window buttons on the left. You'll go crazy when you'll have to work on other computers in your office/labs with buttons on the right. So its highly recommended to change the position of the Window button and bring them back to the right side. Doing this is pretty simple.

1. Open the GNOME Configuration Editor. There are many ways to do this like typing 'gconf-editor' in the terminal.

2. Move to '/apps/metacity/general' and edit the 'button_layout' key.

3. Set the 'button_layout' key to 'menu:minimize,maximize,close' as shown-

Ordered Buttons

Edit the button_layout key to change the button position to right as shown.

The buttons mentioned before the colon appear on the left and after the colon appear on the right. Your buttons will now be on the right side of the window border.

If you still didn't get it, here's a video tutorial explaining how to do this-

Ankur suggested me a simple python script that uses a GUI to change the button position on the fly. You can check that out if you're more of a GUI person.

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