1. Get lightning fast and clever at the command line

You can use keyboard shortcuts and other command line tricks to make entering commands easier and faster. You might already know about the ‘tab’ key which completes partial commands and even file and directory names.

Here are some other keyboard shortcuts you can use within terminal:

Also don’t forget to check out 4 websites where you can learn cool command line tricks

2. Launch Ubuntu Linux Applications with keyboard

There are two ways you can achieve this:

• Use applications like Launchy or Gnome-Do that make it easier to launch applications by typing a few characters of the application’s name.
• Or you can summon gconf editor (Alt+F2 then type gconf-editor and hit enter), and navigate to apps > metacity > global_keybindings, double click on any of the run_command_N and type in the keyboard shortcut you want to assign to an application then make a mental note of the number N. Then go to apps > metacity > keybinding_commands and double click on command_N (N being the number you used above) and type in the command you want to run. As an example if you wanted to run Firefox you would type in firefox.

Also check out these Ubuntu keyboard shortcuts you might not know about.

3. Start from wherever you left off

You can make Ubuntu remember the applications you had open when you last logged out, so that when you log back in again you’ll find all those applications running and you can resume right from where you left off.

To achieve this go to System > Preferences > Startup Applications, then go to the options tab and check "Automatically remember running applications when logging out"

4. Create a Separate Ubuntu Linux Home Partition

New versions of Ubuntu arrive every 6 months. Although you can upgrade to the latest version via the update manager, sometimes the upgrade doesn’t work as expected so some users like to do a fresh clean install.

The disadvantage with that of course is that you lose data you had in your home directory. To overcome this you can create a separate Home partition when you are installing Ubuntu, size it according to your requirements and then when you decide to install Ubuntu the next time, simply specify this partition as the Home partition (by choosing /home as the mount point).

All your files and data on the Home partition will be preserved even after a fresh install.

5. Update and Install Ubuntu Linux Software Without Internet Connection

There are lots of way to do this, the easiest of all is to use APTonCD. APTonCD allows you to create CDs and DVD’s containing all the packages you want, which you can then use to install software on computers without an internet connection.

Note that APTonCD requires you to have an internet connection (or downloaded packages) to create the installed media. However once the media is ready you don’t need an internet connection for any of the machines you want to install the software on. Insert the appropriate CD/DVD and use apt-get as you would normally.

6. Install new fonts, Microsoft fonts and improve font rendering

Ubuntu doesn’t offer many choices when it comes to the fonts. However you can easily install new fonts including those from Microsoft like Arial, Verdana, impact and many more. You can use different sites to find the kind of font you are looking for.

7. Use PPAs, Install latest versions of software

There are a lot of steps that a software has to go through before it becomes part of Ubuntu or becomes available through the Ubuntu repositories. While all those steps lend additional stability, it generally means that you don’t get the latest versions of all the software as soon as they are released.

If you like to stay on the cutting edge, you can search for Personal Package Archives for your favorite software on Launchpad and add those to your installation’s software sources. I briefly touched on PPAs and how to use them here. If that seems like too much work, you can also download the latest deb packages and install them by double clicking (you won’t get automatic updates for the software if you install it this way).

Remember you might get into an occasional trouble or two with the latest versions, but mostly it wouldn’t be catastrophic. You can always hop over to the Ubuntu Forums to get quick help.

8. Be the root

The root account is disabled by default on Ubuntu installations, mainly to prevent you from doing something you didn’t intend to do. However if you "promise to be careful" you can enable root account as follows:

1. Type sudo passwd root and provide a root password.
2. Then head on over to System > Administration > Login Window, go to the Security tab and check "Enable local system administrator login"

You should now be able to login as root from the Login prompt. As an alternative you can use "sudo su" to provide your password and get root prompt.

9. Run Windows applications and games

Who wouldn’t like to play Counter Strike on Ubuntu (unless of course you are completely not into it) or perhaps even run Photoshop? Well it is very much possible and here is how to do it.

10. Shorten boot time with profiling

Ubuntu Linux devs have done a great job with the boot time, Jaunty is fast and Karmic is slotted to be even faster. There is however a bit more you can do by profiling your boot. Profiling lets Ubuntu make a list of all the files that are accessed during bootup, it then sorts the files according to how they are stored on your hard disk. So the next time the system is booted, the files would be read faster.

To profile boot you need to follow these steps

• At the grub menu highlight the kernel you boot most often.
• Press e for edit.
• Choose the line starting with kernel and press e again. Now add the word profile to the end of this line. Hit Enter and then press b to boot

Note that while profiling, the system will boot slower this one time, the next time however you should see an improvement. Also keep in mind that all this is machine-dependent and also depends on the arrangement of files on your hard disk, so the difference you see might not be huge, or even nil in some cases.

11. Try out different Ubuntu Linux Desktop Environments and Desktop Managers

If you are looking for something different than the default Gnome interface, you should check out alternative desktop managers that you can use. If it is a complete Desktop Environment you are looking for, KDE4 has come a long way and is now impressively usable and fun. You can do a "sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop" to get KDE.

12. Create a media center or a media server

It would be great if you could easily browse and manage your huge collection of music, videos and pictures. Mesmerized by Windows Media Center’s slick interface? Wait till you see what all cool options you have to turn your Ubuntu system into a media center. You can even access your media collection on your phone, PSP or a different computer if you set up a media server on your Ubuntu machine.

13. Share Firefox profile data with Windows

Many people use Windows and Linux on the same machine. If you are one of them, there would have been times you couldn’t find that bookmark you created or password you stored when you were using Firefox from within Windows. Check out how you can share Firefox profile data across operating systems without syncing it over the web (works best if you have the same version of Firefox in both OS’s). For different computers you can of course use Weave.

14. Customize Nautilus to your liking

Nautilus is the default file manager on Ubuntu. While you may be content with what it does, there is lots more you can make it do. You can use extensions to improve functionality and even add custom functionality to Nautilus

15. Compile your own Kernel

If you can’t find something to keep you busy for the weekend and you have your customization hat on, how about building a kernel to specifically meet your requirements? This is frankly more of a learning experience. Some might say that it enables you to use just the features and drivers you require, but if everything is working fine with the kernel supplied and you don’t have any interest in the Linux kernel, skip ahead this one is not for you.

If however you require some of the experimental features of the kernel, or need it to be compiled in some other special way we say you check out this guide within Ubuntu Documentation.

16. Change Usplash Screen and create a custom splash screen for GRUB

So you didn’t count the last one? Here is another one then. A Usplash screen is Ubuntu text and a logo with a progress bar that you see when you boot up Ubuntu.

If you would like to change that to something more interesting follow these steps. What better way to show your Linux fu than customizing the very first screen that appears? You can create a custom splash screen using one of your photos, GIMP and a little tweaking. Here is the how-to.

Know some more tips or great hacks for Ubuntu Linux users? Sure you do, go ahead let us know about them in the comments.

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So obviously it would be cool and productive to some tools that make your work easier. Nautilus actions allow you to add custom functionality to Nautilus. This is achieved via the right click menu. You can inter-convert files in various formats, mount ISO files, merge PDF files all from within Mautilus without launching any other application all from the right click context menu. The possibilities here are only limited by your imagination!

Adding such custom functionality is pretty easy. You don’t need to be a Linux hacker or programmer to get it working. All you need is:

• The ‘nautilus-actions’ package
• The knowledge of an equivalent command to achieve the same objective

The Nautilus-Actions Package

The nautilus-actions package is what provides you with a nice graphical tool where you can create, edit and remove nautilus-actions or the custom functionality we are looking for. It is easily available through your distribution’s package manager.

Knowledge Of The Command

As a Linux user you are no stranger to the fact that most of the tasks that you perform via the mouse and GUI can be accomplished via commands as well. Want to print resume.doc? Just enter ‘oowriter -p resume.doc’ in the terminal. Need to convert a jpeg file to gif? Enter ‘convert logo.jpeg logo.gif’ (requires imagemagick). Want to set an image as wallpaper? Type ‘gconftool-2 -t str –set /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename ‘.

So you can achieve almost anything from the command line and this is what we will exploit here.

Create An Action

Let me illustrate the steps you need to follow with an example. We will create a nautilus action to convert flv files to mp4 suitable for playback in an iPod Touch/iPhone. I will use ffmpeg for conversion, so make sure you have it installed (mostly available through package managers, ’sudo apt-get install ffmpeg’ on ubuntu) if you plan to use the action or try along.

• Go to System > Preferences > Nautilus Actions



• Click on Add. (Note that you can edit, remove, import/export actions from here on in)



• In the label field, type the text you want to appear in the right click context menu of flv files. You can choose an icon and specify a tooltip which provides information about what this option would do. I will skip both of these as they are not essential for functionality.
• Path and Parameters is where all the action is. In path put in the utility that you will use to perform the action. We will be using ffmpeg so put in /usr/bin/ffmpeg here. If you are not sure where the utility resides use the ‘where is’ command to find out. eg use ‘whereis ffmpeg‘ to know its location.
• The parameter line is going to be scary so hold your breath and copy paste:’ -i %d/%f -f mp4 -vcodec libxvid -maxrate 01000 -qmin 3 -qmax 5 -bufsize 4096 -g 300 -acodec aac -s 480×320 -ab 0128000 -b 400000 %d/%f.mp4 ‘  Don’t blame me, this is what you need to enter on the command line to convert flv to mp4 with ffmpeg (refer man ffmpeg for more details)! What is noteworthy is the %d and %f. These two provide information on which file you right clicked. Click on the legend button for more details. By the way, I am no video expert and I don’t claim the options above to be perfect, it does the job just fine. So if you have some suggestions please feel free to share them in comments.

  

• Next click on the condition tab.  This is where you will limit your options to the context menu’s required file types (flv in our case). You can limit your choices via the filename metacharacters or via the mimetype. Additionally you can specify if your action appears for files only or for files and folders as well. We will type ‘*.flv’ for filename and apply our actions to files only.



• In the advanced condition tab, you can further limit your choice to local files, samba shares, ftp files etc. We will choose local files here.
• Click OK and you are done!

Now go look for an flv file. Right click and presto, there is your very own custom ‘Convert for iPod’ option. Click on it and you will see a new mp4 file in the same folder.

For The Lazier Geeks

If the above seems like too much work for you, check out here for ready made actions!

Some Tips

Experiment on the command line with file names and the options for the utility. When you are pretty sure about a functionality that you require for certain type of files, replace the file name in the command with %d/%f.

If you want to act on more than one files use %M instead.

For performing complicated operations (e.g. to email a file to someone from the context menu) its best to create a script and pass the appropriate arguments within the script. This will help you to debug and allow greater control altogether.

With nautilus actions you can transform any task that you perform often or a cumbersome command line like above into a convenient easy to use context menu option. Here is the ‘Convert for iPod’ Action if you need it. Check out other nautilus addons previously covered on MakeUseOf.

Have you used nautilus-actions before? What actions you are currently using? Have a great idea to turn into an action? Share with us in the comments, who knows you might just get an action! Oh and in case you are puzzled by the topmost image, it is a nautilus!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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Other than a file browser, Nautilus also comes with a good list of capabilities that you can use right off the context menu. If you are using Ubuntu 8.04, you will find that you can easily encrypt a file, sign a document or even share files/folders with others over the Samba network, with just a simple right-click on the mouse. If that is not enough for you, you can also install additional nautilus extensions to increase its functionality.

Below I have listed 6 useful extensions and scripts that you can use to power up your Nautilus.

1. nautilus- gksu

If you hate the way that Linux restricts your user privileges and access to certain files, then nautilus-gksu is the easiest way to get yourself out of it. “Nautilus-gksu” adds a “Open as administrator” entry in the context menu. When you need to open any files with root permission, you just have to right-click on the file, select “Open as Administrator” and you will be able to read/edit/modify the file.

(In Ubuntu, type sudo apt-get install nautilus-gksu in the terminal to install)

2. nautilus-actions

“Nautilus-action” allows you to define custom actions or commands for certain file types or files with names matching your description. There are plenty of things that you can do with “nautilus-action”, such as adding an audio file to the queue in Rhythmbox music player or send a particular picture to your friends via Evolution.

In one of my tutorials at Make Tech Easier, I make use of “nautilus-actions” to place a ’shred’ command in the context menu. When I want to wipe off a confidential file from my hard disk completely, I can simply right-click and select ’shred’.

You can also check out the Ubuntu forum for more things that you can do with “nautilus-actions”

(In Ubuntu, type sudo apt-get install nautilus-actions in the terminal to install)

3. nautilus-wallpaper

Sometimes you might come across an image that you like so much and decide to make it your wallpaper. Instead of going through all the processes just to change the wallpaper on your desktop, you can quickly change your wallpaper with “nautilus-wallpaper”. All it takes is only a right-click and select “Set as Wallpaper”.

(In Ubuntu, type sudo apt-get install nautilus-wallpaper in the terminal to install)

4. Nautilus-image-converter

When I first checked out this extension, I thought that it would convert an image from one format to another (i.e convert from jpg to png). I was wrong. This extension does not convert the image format. Instead, it allows you to mass resize or rotate images. Though not what I really thought it was, it is still an useful extension. Imagine the time wasted on opening the GIMP image editor, opening the file, selecting the image resize function, then saving the file.

Now you can select a bunch of image files, right-click the mouse, select “Resize image” and that’s it. There are pre-defined image sizes that you can choose from, and if none suits your criteria, you can even set your own image width and height. The same goes for rotate image function.

(In Ubuntu, type sudo apt-get install nautilus-image-converter in the terminal to install)

5. nautilus-dropbox

If you have read our previous review of Dropbox, you will know that the ‘killer’ factor that it has over other competitors is that it provides a desktop client for all platforms and you can easily backup your files with simple drag and drop.

In Linux, the desktop client is actually a Nautilus extension. The “nautilus-dropbox” extension creates a folder in your Home folder. Whenever you drag and drop a file/folder into the Dropbox folder, it will automatically sync with the online server and make sure your files/folders are safely backed up.

I am not sure if the 1GB storage space is enough for you, but I am sure that this “nautilus-dropbox” extension will make your backup a painless process.

(To install nautilus-dropbox, download the deb file from GetDropBox.com)

6. Nautilus-script-audio-convert

This is not a nautilus extension, but a widely used nautilus script. If you frequently work with audio files of mp3, wav or even flac format, then this audio convert script will be useful to you. You can easily convert your audio files from one format to another.

Note: You will need to install the necessary audio codecs before you can convert the audio files to the format you want.

(In Ubuntu, type sudo apt-get install nautilus-script-audio-convert in the terminal to install)

What is your favorite nautilus extensions and scripts?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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