Java (Applets) in Fedora 18

After some applets wouldn't run in either Chrome or Firefox on my Fedora 18 system, it was time for some investigation.
First I tried installing Oracle Java as some applets might be requiring it explicitely.

Oracle Java

Download Java from here. Follow the instructions for installing, from here.
Then, open "about:plugins" in your browser and check if the Java plugin is displayed there.

Verify Java installation here. Test applet support here or on JavaTester.
Remove old versions, as specified here.

While I first installed 32-bit version of Java, as suggested on Oracle's site, this is not correct. The proper version to install, even for applet support, is 64-bit, if on 64-bit system. After installing 64-bit version and setting it to be the active one, using 'alternatives', applets worked in both browsers!

"Open in Terminal" in Nautilus

There is a cool Nautilus plugin that allows opening a Terminal in the current directory. The package is called "nautilus-open-terminal".

Source: link

Caffeine on Fedora 18

If annoyed by the lack of handy options for preventing computer sleep while watching movies, Caffeine is the answer.
There is a Gnome Extension if you are using Gnome Shell but if you are using Cinnamon then that doesn't work. Fortunately, there is a Caffeine application that works in that case. It is not in official Fedora repository but is available at RPM Sphere (link).

The project homepage is here. Software can also be downloaded from there and installed by following these instructions (link). That, however, did not work for me but installing the RPM package right after this did.

Edit: Since Caffeine does not seem to work with current Fedora 18, this still seems to be the only way to prevent Gnome from going to sleep.

Kernel 3.7.2 and VMWare Workstation 9

After upgrading kernel to version 3.7.2 on Fedora 18, VMWare Workstation 9 requires recompilation and installation of kernel-level modules required for its operation. This is normally transparent and done automatically. However, with this update the source code structure has changed and the automatic recompilation does not succeed. Fortunately, the solution is simple. Create the symbolic link as below


sudo ln -s /usr/src/kernels/3.7.2-201.fc18.x86_64/include/generated/uapi/linux/version.h /usr/src/kernels/3.7.2-201.fc18.x86_64/include/linux/version.h


and then run

sudo vmware

so that permissions are available for recompilation and installation of the modules.

More info: Linux Kernel 3.7, VMWare Workstation and NVidia Driver (link)

Configuring startup programs in Gnome

To view and modify startup programs in Gnome (Linux), run

gnome-session-properties

A simple way is to run gnome-open by pressing Alt+F2 and typing the name of the program above.

The easiest way to edit mime type handlers in Linux

The easiest way I found to set a Mime Type handler in Linux is the following:

• Create a .desktop file for a handler application, in "/home/alen/.local/share/applications". Make sure that the MimeType is set in the .desktop file.
• Open Dolphin (KDE file browser), select a file you want to handle, right-click it and select Properties. Next to Type, click the wrench icon to open file type editor (KEditFileType). Set the handlers there (add, edit, remove, or set preference order).

This setting has effect on the whole system so Mime Type handler preference order will be reflected in other file browsers (Nemo, Nautilus, etc.). 

Creating 32-bit Wine prefix on a 64-bit system

In order to create a 32-bit Wine prefix on a 64-bit system, Wine has to create the prefix directory itself. Run

WINEPREFIX='/home/wine/photoshop' WINEARCH='win32' wine 'wineboot'

More:

wineboot unable to create win32 prefix under certain conditions (link) 

Wood Theme for Cinnamon

Cinnamon shell has its own share of customization themes. Below is the link to one of my favorites, a wood theme.

http://cinnamon-spices.linuxmint.com/themes/view/24

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a Linux shell that runs on top of Gnome. It adds value to the Gnome experience by improving on some of the characteristics of Gnome 3 that drew complaints as of late.
While I like Gnome 3 interface, there is a nasty glitch in a combination of Gnome 3 + NVidia drivers + VMWare Workstation, where Gnome session will stop responding. One can still switch to another console and kill the session but that can take down any running Virtual Machine or other programs that were active in the unresponsive session.
So, as a suggestion from VMWare Community, I found Cinnamon and am giving it a try. So far the impression is positive but I'm missing my Caffeine extension that prevents the system from locking down in the middle of a movie.

More on Cinnamon: http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com/

Type umlauts on Dvorak keyboard in Linux

Here is an article explaining how to enable typing German umlauts (and others) in Linux. This is so convenient. Now I can type umlauts straight from Dvorak keyboard layout.
Basically, in the keyboard layout settings, set the Compose key. In Fedora 18 Gnome 3.6 this is in Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> Typing.
I use Right Alt for this. And then type key combinations to get umlauts:

• ä = compose, ", a
• ö = compose, ", o
• ü = compose, ", u
• ß = compose, s, s

and so on. There are many other special characters that can be typed this way.
Source Article.

Enabling Java applets in Chrome on Fedora

To enable running Java applets in Google Chrome under 64-bit Linux (Fedora 17 x86_64) the following steps should get you going.

Install Java Runtime Environment. The version 1.7.0_04 uses the directories specified below. 

# mkdir /opt/google/chrome/plugins

# cd /opt/google/chrome/plugins

and then either

# ln -s /usr/java/default/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so

for 32-bit version (i586), or

# ln -s /usr/java/default/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so

for 64-bit version (x64) of JRE. 

After this, go here to test whether Java applet support is successfully installed in Chrome.

Setting the default file handler in Gnome

Changing the default image viewer in Nautilus (default file manager in Gnome 3.4) is quite easy. Right-click on an image, select Properties, then go to Open With tab. Either select a different image viewer from the list there and click 'Set as default' or select a different handler by clicking 'Show other applications' button and searching for the desired application.

This process works if you want to change the default file handlers for any file type.

Useful Shortcuts in Nautilus

I'm getting used to Nautilus as a default file manager in Gnome. While at first it seemed inferior to Dolphin from KDE, after discovering plugins and shortcuts to different features, I find it quite convenient and capable. It has all the features I'm used to with Dolphin (or Windows Explorer for that matter).

Some of these features would be WebDAV support (mentioned earlier), integration with desktop search, being supported by Beyond Compare, terminal integration, and so on.

Here I will list some of the useful plugin packages and shortcuts when using Nautilus.

Plugins

• File Roller
• Gnome Exe Thumbnailer
• Nautilus Actions
• Nautilus Dropbox
• Nautilus Extensions
• Nautilus Open Terminal
• Nautilus SendTo
• Nautilus Terminal
• Seahorse Nautilus
• Sushi
• TortoiseHg Nautilus
• Tracker Nautilus Plugin

Keyboard Shortcuts

• F3 = Extra pane
• F4 = Terminal window (Nautilus Terminal)
• F6 = Switch panels
• F9 = toggle sidebar
• Ctrl+1..3 = view (Icons, Compact, List)
• Ctrl+T = New tab
• Ctrl+PgUp (or PgDn) = browse tabs
• Alt+1..n = browse tabs by number
• Ctrl+F = search

At first I was not sure what the extra pane was used for. I prefered using tabs. Panel, however, is a completely new panel view that can have its own tabs. This allows a setup pretty similar to Total Commander (and the likes). Nautilus supports Copy and Move to the Other Panel commands, which is very convenient. This is one of the things I *loved* in Total Commander and was missing in Windows Explorer.

Vice, Commodore 64 Emulator on Linux

A night of fun and nostalgia - playing with Vice, Commodore emulator on Linux. Available as a package simply named "vice" in official Fedora repository, 5.8 MB in size, is a relatively quick download.

Some useful settings on modern screens would be to increase the size of the display by using Settings -> Vic-II Settings -> Double Size; or use Alt+D to turn on Full Screen mode altogether. To enable Full Screen mode, I had to switch Settings -> VIC-II setting -> Fullscreen settings -> Fullscreen device to VidMode instead of XRandR.

Then, going through the list of repositories of C64 games and programs listed earlier, searching for more online and adjusting the list. Hoping to find some of the old hits. Finding Elite, Le Mans, Infiltrator, Laser Squad, Usagi Yojimbo.

Themes in Gnome

So I have decided it is about time to get rid of the large title bar on top of the windows in Gnome 3.4 (Fedora 17 #linux) and looked into customization options. The components I found can be customized are:

• window look
• icons
• cursors

Where to find?

Gnome-look.org site contains lots of theme packages for any of the above components. Apart from these, there's lots of other Linux/Gnome components that can be customized, like Nautilus, GDM, and so on.

How to install?

Installation is quite simple. Once a theme is downloaded in .tar.gz format, unpack the directory from the archive into an appropriate location.

• Window themes are to be found in /usr/share/themes.
• Icons and mouse cursors are in /usr/share/icons.

The above locations are used as a shared location for all users. If you want to install a theme only for yourself then place the themes in an appropriate directory within your home location. Icons themes, for example, are found in ~/.icons/ and window/GTK themes are in ~/.themes/.
Once installed, these will be available through Gnome Tweak Tool or, in Cinnamon, through Theme settings.

My Favorites

My current favorites are listed below:

• Window: Adwaita Cupertino (link)
• Icons: Faience (link)
• Cursors: Aero Mouse Cursors with Drop Shadow (link)

Wine Virtual Desktop from the Command Line

Some programs, when run with Wine under Linux, are next to useless when run without Virtual Desktop emulated by Wine. This usually happens when programs have dialog boxes, like Open File, displayed beside the main program window. In such a case, turning on the Virtual Desktop option in Wine solves these issues and the dialog boxes are displayed properly. 

Unfortunately, there is no option to instruct Wine to use Virtual Desktop when run from the command line. There was (is?) an option for older versions of Wine, using "wine explore /desktop=default,1280x1024 <program.exe>" but this does not seem to work when run under Wine 1.5.3 that I have.

The good news is that there is a workaround available. You can use q4wine. Create a shortcut in there, setting all the properties as desired. There you can specify which Wine prefix to use and whether to use Virtual Desktop or not. Then, you can right-click the created shortcut, select Copy to Clipboard -> q4wine-cli cmd, and it will copy something like

/usr/bin/q4wine-cli  -p "Quicken" -i "Quicken"

to clipboard. You can use this as an Exec line in the .desktop shortcut file that you can create in Gnome, for example. It will run the shortcut you created with the Virtual Desktop setting. This can be used for multiple purposes but I need it mostly in order to run Quicken, which prompts the user for certain input entries and confirmations on startup.

Changing default system language in Fedora 17 Gnome

To change the default system language, use 

system-config-language

In case you don't have it installed, simply install the package with the same name.

Once changed, the settings apply when you log in the next time.

Application Shortcuts in Gnome

#linux, Fedora 17, Gnome 3.4

To create application shortcuts in Gnome, simply create a .desktop file in 

/home/<user>/.local/share/applications/

and they will become visible in the Applications menu or in application search. To get a sample, get one of the existing files or check the reference page below for the basic options.

References: Desktop Entry Files (link)

Document Viewer for Linux

The best document viewer for Linux I found is Okular. It reads PDF, CHM, and mobile formats.

Fedora 17: [Errno -1] Metadata file does not match checksum

Running updates for Fedora 17 on a slow connection and after I reset the repositories, I started getting the above error. I assume the reason is that the mirrors that get selected for the download of repolist.xml and the database are different and, hence, the database hash does not match the one in the repolist.
To solve this, I'm using dl.fedoraproject.org as the primary URL for the fedora repository until the repolist and the database are downloaded.
If you get the above message try "yum clean all" although some mention that "yum clean metadata" should be enough. Then, in the fedora.repo, comment the line for mirrors and add a new line for the baseurl and add a desired mirror URL. I went straight to the source, with:

baseurl=http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/$releasever/$basearch/os/
#mirrorlist=https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/metalink?repo=fedora-$releasever&arch=$basearch

After the database is downloaded, I enabled the mirrorlist line and disable the baseurl so the updates continue as usual.