Run Script Automaticaly with LinuxMint Cinnamon

I worked out how to automatically run my Wacom tablet setup script in Xubuntu, but in Cinnamon none of those options worked.

Eventually I found the .config/autostart directory and modified an existing .desktop file to start the script. This is what I came up with (I assume the file can be called anything, I just called it xsetwacom.desktop):

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=xsetwacom
Exec=/home/<username>/.xsetwacom.sh
Terminal=false
Icon=terminal
Comment=Set up the Wacom tablet rotation
Categories=Utility;Application;

(Then I found this post that describes how to do it graphically, which might be easier.)

Building i5-3470: Summary

The following is a summary post for my i5-3470 build. Unfortunately a lot of the photos didn't turn out all that well, which will teach me for using my phone instead of a real camera. Oh well.

Part 1: Build Overview

Over Christmas 2012 I gathered together parts to build a new computer.

Group shot!

Machine requirements: general purpose day-to-day workhorse. Needs to be able to do most tasks from email/internet, document/artwork creation, software development, light gaming, virtual machines and (possibly) animation rendering. The last two are not going to be often, but it'll need to handle them.

Chosen parts (desktop box):

• Case: Corsair 300R
• PSU: Antec Neo Eco 520C
• Motherboard: ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP
• CPU: Intel i5 3470
• RAM: G-Skill Ares 2x4GB
• SSD: Samsung 830 128GB
• HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB
• ODD: Samsung 22x DVD R/W
• OS: LinuxMint 14 (Cinnamon) [since ditched in favour of Xubuntu 12.10]

The Corsair 300R

Accessories (some added post-build):

• Monitor: Dell U2412M (24" IPS)
• Keyboard: Ducky DK9008 Shine II (Cherry Browns)
• Mouse: Logitech G400

(Yes, I splashed out on an expensive keyboard. Don't you judge me!)

Part 2: Case and Power Supply

After unboxing the case and the power supply, I had a couple of minor conerns:

• The case had a blemish on the inside about where the motherboard would sit (see image). While it might have been an indication that the case was a return and not brand new, everything else seemed fine and I'm not really sure what difference a "returned" case would make. Also, this could have just been a manufacturing thing anyway.
  

  Corsair 300R with minor blemish on interior

  This pic also shows up the "bump risers" in the 300R, which comes up later.
• The box the PSU came in was a little bit beat up, but there was nothing on the inside that made me think it was anything but new.
  

  The Antec Neo Eco 520C

The first step is to mount the PSU in the case and screw it in. This immediately led to the question: PSU fan up or fan down? A quick web search suggested that down may be slightly better (potentially lower temps on the system, but also someone pointed out you're less likely to drop small items like screws into the fan).

The 300R has a bottom vent, so I decided to go with "fan down".

Case with PSU installed

Next potential concern: there was no voltage selector on the Neo Eco 520C. Other (cheaper) power supplies I've used have had selectors. The lack of one suggested that the Antec could handle either 115V or 240V, and reading the labelling confirmed this. So there was no need to "select" an option.

It's also worth noting that the Antec Neo Eco 520C (and I guess all Neo Ecos?) doesn't come with a power cable. For me this wasn't a problem since I had half a dozen laying around, but might be a problem for some people.

Part 3: Motherboard Installation

Some people like to install the CPU/heatsink/RAM before putting the motherboard into the case. I just whacked the motherboard in there right up front, mainly because I didn't have a place where I felt comfortable putting it to then push and prod other parts into it.

The first issue I had with the motherboard was: where are the motherboard risers? The Corsair 300R only came with one motherboard riser in the pack of screws. This confused me, since in the past the cases I'd used needed at least half a dozen risers to prop the motherboard up so it wouldn't touch the case and short out.

It turns out that the 300R has "bump" style risers, where you don't actually need to screw in anything. Convenient...once you know about it.

Motherboard with CPU installed

After that, the CPU went in without an issue. It can only go in one way, you just have to line up the bumps and indentations. The heatsink/fan was a different story.

I've done it a couple of times now, so I seem to have a knack for seating the heatsink in such a way that the power cord for the CPU fan won't reach the spot on the motherboard where it plugs in. This time I misread the "CHA1 fan" as "CPU fan", and seated the heatsink accordingly. After realising my mistake, I pulled it off and rotated 90 degrees so it would plug into the correct spot. (Technically, since I pulled the heatsink off after being seated on the CPU, I should have redone the thermal paste, but since the machine hadn't ever been powered up, I felt it wasn't that much of a risk. But I noted it to check the temps first thing after powering on).

CPU fan plugged into wrong spot

The only interesting thing with the RAM is that the ASRock motherboard doesn't colour-code the slots like, say, a Gigabyte motherboard. But to use dual-channel, the RAM goes in the same way (that is, leave a gap between the RAM sticks to run in dual-channel).

Motherboard with RAM installed

Part 4: Plugs, Cables and Initial Bootup

Next was to plug in all the drives (DVD, HDD, SSD), case fans and the front-of-case switches, LEDs and USB cables.

Corsair 300R cable management (back view)

The cabling with the 300R turned out fairly nice, with the USB3 and leftover molex/PCI power cables being the most obtrusive. It really helps having someone else around to hold and adjust cables from one side while you're trying to tie them (thanks Dad).

Corsair 300R cable management (front view)

That brings us to the moment of truth: the first power on.

I flicked the switch and passed the first test: it didn't explode. However, the power cables for the CPU fan were wound so tightly around the heatsink that they caught on the fan and prevented it from spinning. This has happened almost every time I've installed an Intel stock fan, so from now on I check this before turning on.

After noticing the fan not spinning, I shut down straight away. Even though the CPU should protect itself from overheating and kill the power, it's not something you want to risk if you don't have to. I rearranged the wires of the CPU fan and everything went okay on the next powerup.

I'd forgotten that I had a Bodhilinux distro installed on the SSD from when I tested it out in a previous machine. When I turned it on (in this completely new build), it ran up without a glitch.

Initial impression of the sound is that the stock CPU fan is a little louder than the i3 3220. May have just been imagination, or something to do with re-seating it, but it's still a bit louder than what I was expecting/hoping for.

Build complete

Overall, pretty happy with the build. Next step is installing (and experimenting) with a GPU while running Linux.

Dual-booting Vista and Linux

I found these notes from a while back on re-partitioning (and then reverting) a dual-boot Linux install on Windows. After working this out I now prefer to install on physically separate disks (due to the problem of reverting it if you ever want to). However, someone might find the following process of use.

Installation is easy; reverting back to a single boot, single partition is much more difficult.

If you're thinking of installing Linux as an alternative to the wonderland of Windows, consider these things:

• Run Linux from a Live DVD (basically the .iso image of the distribution burnt to a CD/DVD) to test device drivers for all your hardware. This way you don't have to change disk partitions until you're happy that it's going to work. Consider the software you want to run as well.
• Decide what is a showstopper, hardware compatibility-wise.
• If you want to go ahead and dual-boot Linux and Windows on the same drive, be really sure because you will need to repartition the hard drive. Repartitioning isn't hard -- the Linux installer takes care of it -- but if you want to reverse the process and remote the partition, it is a pain in the arse.
• Backup everything first.

If you install and then decide you want to revert, these are the steps I found worked (note: this was done in Vista. Process may be different for Windows 7):

1. Download mbrfix to restore the Master Boot Record (MBR). Run the following from a command prompt:

   mbrfix /drive 0 fixmbr /vista

   Important: To start the command prompt, right click on the shortcut and choose "Run as administrator" (even if you're logged in as administrator), otherwise you will get the following error:

   System error 5 has occurred. Access is denied

2. Check that Windows boots normally.
3. Delete and reallocate the partitions. Avoid Vista's partition management -- it doesn't work. I burnt a GParted Live CD (iso image) and used that. It takes a long time, but it works.
4. After re-partitioning the drive, I had a problem with a missing winboot.exe. Inserting the Vista installation DVD and choosing the "Repair your computer" option fixed this problem.

A4Tech KLS-5 Makeshift Interim Keyboard

So I built a new computer, and while I'm transferring stuff from the old one to the new one I'm running both at the same time. And I found that I only have one keyboard in the house (!).

Rather than get irritated swapping keyboard cables over all the time, I looked up what was the cheapest wired keyboard I could find, then went out and got an A4Tech KLS-5 wired USB keyboard for $9.

Size comparison to my old Logitech keyboard

It's small, and the build quality is...light, but for the price, I was actually pleasantly surprised. I hit keys and the characters appear on the screen. I couldn't ask for more.

There is only one problem (keep in mind, this is a $9 keyboard we're talking about), and that is the location of the \| key: it's right where Enter is on a normal keyboard. Every single carriage return I hit the \ key instead.

But for a short-term "give me a keyboard so I can type" solution, I would heartily recommend...well, nothing. My cheap keyboard worked. Now you know.

Remove annoying "WD SmartWare" automount

If you've got a WD USB hard drive plugged in, it will probably automount both the "content" part and the annoying "WD SmartWare" part.

The SmartWare is WD's attempt to help people out with some backup and other data management software. It cops a fair bit of flack from what I can see. I never used it, so can't comment, but I'm pretty sure it's all Windows-based anyway. On Linux it makes no sense to have it appear all the time.

To get rid of the automount, edit /etc/fstab (requires sudo) and add the following line:

LABEL=WD\x20SmartWare none udf rw,noauto 0 0

This solution was one of many possible solutions I found, but it worked and was easy. Thanks saltydog.

Update: While initially I thought the above solution worked, it stopped working at some point, because the "WD SmartWare" has now reappeared on my desktop. So I'm open to any other solutions...

Crowdsourcing FTW

Awesome example of a crowd-sourced investigation and solution:

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=2025126.

Wacom Intuos 5 Rotation

To rotate the Intuos 5 for sinister left-handed people:

$ xsetwacom set "Wacom Intuos5 M Pen stylus" Rotate half
$ xsetwacom set "Wacom Intuos5 M Pen eraser" Rotate half
$ xsetwacom set "Wacom Intuos5 M Pen cursor" Rotate half
$ xsetwacom set "Wacom Intuos5 M Pen pad" Rotate half

To get these commands to run at startup, I added them to $HOME/.profile (after trying .bashrc and .Xsession, neither of which worked [running Xubuntu]).

Adapted from notes at linuxwacom sourceforge site.

Dual-screen Setup

(Updated 24 Feb 2013)

After getting an nVidia GPU, I had much more luck getting dual-monitors to work than with either AMD or Intel graphics. By default though the tablet will span across all monitors. If you want to reduce this to a single monitor, do this:

$ xsetwacom set "Wacom Intuos5 M Pen stylus" MapToOutput HEAD-0

Note: if you're not using nVidia drivers, the output of xrandr will give you the names of your screens, rather than HEAD-0, HEAD-1, etc. as shown above.

Lock Screen Command in Gnome/Cinnamon

The correct lock screen command in Gnome (and hence Cinnamon) is:

gnome-screensaver-command --lock

This is useful in the context of remapping keyboard shortcuts. For some reason, lots of internet searches come up with the equivalent X-based command for locking the screen.

Mapping Keyboard Shortcuts in Cinnamon

Using gconf-editor, follow instructions at http://www.maphew.com/Linux/Use_WinKey_in_Ubuntu.html.

The example is to map Super+E (or Windows+E) to start nautilus, like Windows opens Windows Explorer. The important steps (in gconf-editor) are:

1. Go to /Apps/metacity/global_keybidings
2. Set run_command_1 to <Super>E
3. Go to /Apps/metacity/keybinding_commands
4. Set command_1 to /usr/bin/nautilus

Installing Canon-MF4140 Drivers on Mint 64-bit

I'd installed drivers for my Canon MF4140 on Linux Mint 11 (32-bit) with a bit of fluffing around. For the 64-bit Linux Mint 13, more fluffing around was required, but of a different sort.

To start with, the drivers from Canon don't have .deb files for 64-bit, so you need to install alien and convert the .rpm files to .deb.

sudo apt-get install alien
sudo alien -k --scripts cndrvcups-common-2.40-2.x86_64.rpm
sudo alien -k --scripts cndrvcups-ufr2-uk-2.40-2.x86_64.rpm

This creates two .deb files, which can be installed with dpkg -i <filename>.rpm. This all worked fine, the printer was detected and added, but nothing would print.

Following this thread, I ended up getting it working, but I did a number of steps suggested, so I'm not sure which ones were necessary.

Overall:

1. Copy the files as suggested here from /usr/lib64 to /usr/lib. Some of the files might already exist.
2. Install some more "silent dependencies" as described here: sudo apt-get install libc6-i386 ia32-libs lib32z1. This adds 150Mb or so of dependencies -- quite a lot. Not sure if they were actually needed...
3. In the end, because this was Mint 13, the important files to copy from /usr/lib64 to /usr/lib were libcanonc3pl.so and libcanonc3pl.so.1. This was the step that got things working, so I'm not sure if steps 1 and 2 were actually necessary. My printer is working, I'm not touching these files again.

Running Diablo II under wine in Linux Mint Cinnamon

Disabling or re-mapping Alt+Click
If you're playing Diablo II in wine, the default Alt+Click mapping in Cinnamon (which moves the underlying window) is kind of annoying. Since the desktop environment is based on Gnome (I guess), you can use the gconf-editor tool to edit the mappings.

Under Mint 13, the configuration editor isn't installed by default, so you might have to do this:

    sudo apt-get install gconf-editor
    gconf-editor

Then navigate to apps/metacity/general and edit the mouse_button_modifier key to something else (I used "Control" which seems to be fine).

Getting "pick up items with Alt held down" to work
Holding down Alt highlights items. If you can't pick up items with Alt held down, you may need to disable the window manager control of the wine window.

To do this, run winecfg, go to Graphics tab, and uncheck the "Allow the window manager to control the windows" option.

Alt+Click for item pick up now works. The downside is that the window won't appear in the taskbar any more, and when you minimise it you get a little icon in the bottom left-hand corner. But it works.

Note: While initially I did this and it seemed to helped, it might also cause keyboard interaction to stop working. I was playing around with the "Window focus mode" in Cinnamon -> Window Settings at the same time, so at the moment I've turned the window manager control back on in winecfg and it's okay.

Bash Shell Case Insensitive

The very first thing to do on a fresh Linux install: make bash shell tab-completion case-insensitive.

Edit /etc/inputrc and add the following line:

set completion-ignore-case on

(As per the instructions at this Cyberciti FAQ)

Canon MF4140 in Linux Mint

I'd never been able to get the printer driver for my Canon MF4140 to install properly in Linux. The driver is the one available from the Canon driver download site.

The installation failed with a message about "gs-esp" being a dependency, but gs-esp doesn't seem to be a supported package any more.

So I went on a search and tried out "lenny", which apparently is an implementation or contains gs-esp. This did the trick: the Canon printer drivers then installed without a problem.

To install this package (on Linux Mint):

    sudo dpkg -i gs-esp_8.62.dfsg.1-3.2lenny5_all.deb

Automatically Start a Script in Linux Mint LXDE

In a default install, the directory to put an autostart script doesn't exist.

I found it was:

    ~/.config/lxsession/Mint-LXDE

Add a file called autostart here to automatically run scripts or start applications.

Getting rid of Media Info from context menus

If a "Media Info" option appears in Windows Explorer context menus and you want to get rid of it, delete the following key from the registry:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\Media Info

(Original link for solution.)

This option in the menu is particularly annoying if you're using the keyboard to rename a file (pressing Menu, m). Instead of jumping to rename, it would select Media Info first.