Change the menu bar and main menu logos in ubuntu

UPDATE: I updated this post for gutsy. Thanks to gnuman for the information.

This would be useful for someone wanting to make their desktop look like OS X or something of that sort.

First make a .svg icon that you want to use. Name it start-here.svg. I have provided mine for you to download here. On the page that opens up, click “Free” at the bottom of the page, enter the code shown in the box, and then click download.

Now that you have your logo, put it into the /scalable/places folder inside your icon set’s directory. If you are using an icon set included with edgy, all the icon set directories are in /usr/share/icons/. Custom icon sets are located in ~/.icons/. If you don’t know which icon set you are using, you can check by going to System, Preferences, Theme, and then clicking the “Icons” tab.

These examples may help you locate the proper directory for your icon. If you are using the default (human) icon set that comes with gutsy, the directory where you would place start-here.svg is /usr/share/icons/Human/scalable/places/. One of my old custom icon sets is called “Glass Icons” so I went to my ~/.icons/ folder and found that my icons were stored in the folder ~/.icons/glass-icons. So my directory for start-here.svg is ~/.icons/glass-icons/scalable/places. I had to create the /places folder. Note that the folder name’s syntax is different from the icon set’s name. (Glass Icons vs. glass-icons)

Be aware that many custom themes also use the “GNOME” icon set by default.
Once you have placed start-here.svg in the correct directory, run:

killall gnome-panel

You should now see your logo in your menu bar, like in this screenshot:

If you have any problems with this guide or can’t figure it out, feel free to ask me.

Clean up unnecessary packages on ubuntu

Sometimes it seems like packages get messy, so here are a few ways I have found to keep your system clean.

First, we are going to remove residual config packages. Go to System –> Administration –> Synaptic Package Manager. On the bottom left corner of this window, there are four buttons, one of which says “Status.” Click it, and on the left column there should be a list of items such as Installed, Installed (local or obsolete), Not Installed, Not Installed (residual config). That last one is the one we want. Click on it, and it will bring up a few packages in the package selector part of the window. Right click on these packages and select “Mark for Complete Removal.” You can also click on one of them and hit Ctrl + A to select them all, then right click once instead of doing them all individually. When you’re done hit “Apply” at the top of the screen, and it will remove all those unnecessary packages from your system.

Second, install localepurge. This works automatically whenever you install any packages. To get it, type in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install localepurge

Third is just one command that you should enter periodically:

sudo apt-get autoclean

Fourth is a way to remove orphaned packages. These are packages that aren’t used by any other programs on your computer. I believe the extra repositories must be enabled for this to work. If you don’t already have them enabled click here for edgy or here for dapper.

Now that you have that done you need to install deborphan:

sudo apt-get install deborphan

Once that’s done you can now enter the following command into the terminal periodically to remove all orphaned packages automatically:

sudo deborphan | xargs sudo apt-get -y remove --purge

I find it is helpful to put these commands (sudo deborphan | xargs sudo apt-get -y remove –purge && sudo apt-get autoclean) into a sticky note on my desktop so that I can use them easily all the time.

Create a startup script in ubuntu

Write a script in a text editor. put it in the /etc/init.d/ directory.

Lets say you called it FOO. You then run

sudo update-rc.d FOO defaults

You also have to make the file you created, FOO, executable:

sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/FOO

Remove, turn off, or disable the system beep in ubuntu

The system beep on my laptop is really loud and it’s embarrassing when it goes off in a public place. To permanently disable it, you need to add a line line to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.

echo "blacklist pcspkr" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

When you reboot your computer the system beep should be disabled everywhere. If you don’t want to reboot your computer right now you can just run:

sudo modprobe -r pcspkr

Fix sound problems in ubuntu

I have a Dell Inspiron E1705 laptop and sometimes after formatting, the sound doesn’t work for some reason. Entering this command should fix this problem for you. It unmutes the master and puts its output volume at full.

amixer set Master 31 unmute

If you have other sound problems, check out the Comprehensive Sound Problems Solutions Guide at the Ubuntu Document Storage Facility.