Category: Linux

I’m regularly asked about the setup of my laptop: a System76 Gazelle Professional named Felix running Ubuntu 14.04. Writing a return to that query produced the following:

Chromium Addons:

Pocket #Formerly Read It Later
Lazarus
GmailTeX #Gmail + LaTeX = GmailTeX
AdBlock [for YouTube] #Saves time
Session Buddy
Diigo
HTTPS Everywhere
Disconnect
Incognito-Filter #Great for keeping facebook.com, accounts.google.com, etc. from hijacking web history
Hacker Vision #Save your eyes!
The Great Suspender #Suspends tabs not in use
What font? #satisfies curiosity
Wolfram Alpha
GHangouts
Chrome Downloads
Have I Downloaded This Before?
BetterTube #Optimize your YouTube experience

Get Flashplugin working on Chromium:

get adobe-flashplugin
#if that doesn't work, try:
sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ $(lsb_release -sc) partner"
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer

Some of my favorite term aliases*:

alias up='sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade'
alias meta='sudo vi ~/.bashrc'
alias rmeta='. ~/.bashrc'
alias sag='sudo apt-get'
alias cx='chmod +x'
alias purge='rm `find *~`'
alias ip='ifconfig | grep "inet addr:"| grep -v "127.0.0.1" | cut -d: -f2 | awk "{ print $1}"'
alias get='sudo apt-get install'
alias matlab='matlab -glnx86'
alias p='python'
alias pipi='sudo pip install'
alias sim='cd ~/V-REP_PRO_EDU_V3_0_4_64_Linux/ && ./vrep.sh'

Python-based Research:

get python-pip #pip for managing packages
get build-essential liblapack-dev gfortran gcc g++ 
#Either the ATLAS or OpenBLAS implementation of BLAS. OpenBLAS is speedier but finnicky wrt multiprocessing.
get libatlas-dev libatlas3-base 
#or
get libopenblas-dev
sudo easy_install -U distribute
pipi dev numpy scipy setuptools matplotlib
pipi nose #nicer testing
#Machine Learning
pipi -U scikit-learn
#Computer Vision
get gcc g++ cmake
#download latest opencv from #website
#untar it with
tar -xvf opencv-* #or
unzip opencv-*
#inside untarred folder make new folder call "r" (arbitrary name)
#run the following command in it
cmake -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RELEASE -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local -D BUILD_NEW_PYTHON_SUPPORT=ON -D BUILD_EXAMPLES=ON ..
make
make install

A few choice packages/programs:

get guake #drop down term window - crazy useful (Sublime users: check this out)
get vim
get screen
get tex4ht #convert LaTeX to html
get chromium-browser #Preferred browser
get gparted #for managing partitions
get wine #Run (some) Windows on Linux
get haskell-platform
get vlc #My favorite multimedia plugin
get ipython #Bro, do you even Python?
get texmaker #LaTeX editor of choice (gedit plugin is also nice)
get openjdk-6-jre openjdk-7-jre #Open source Java platform
get geary #Alternative to thunderbird
get gwenview #crop pictures
get p7zip #extract *.7z files
get unrar #extract rar
get bleachbit #free your disk space
#ffmpeg
get libav-tools
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:samrog131/ppa
sudo apt-get update
get ffmpeg
#dropbox
cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86" | tar xzf -
~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd
#broke grub?
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair
up
get -y boot-repair
boot-repair #run boot-repair after installation
#Be safe, use a proxy or VPN (more info)
get squid squid-common
#Note: If you are running 13.04, sudo service squid3 (start|stop|restart)
#evernote on linux
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nvbn-rm/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install everpad
#numlock activates at startup
sudo apt-get -y install numlockx
sudo sed -i 's|^exit 0.*$|# Numlock enablen[ -x /usr/bin/numlockx ] && numlockx onnnexit 0|' /etc/rc.local
"""
For quick scripting, I use or IntelliJ IDEA or Sublime with vim command mode enabled. 
To enable control mode in Sublime Text 2: Find Preferences.sublime-settings 
Change the line "ignored_packages": ["Vintage"] to "ignored_packages": []. 
Restart Sublime: boom! Vim controls.
"""
#xscreensaver
sudo apt-get remove gnome-screensaver
sudo apt-get install xscreensaver xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl-extra
#Oracle(Sun) Java (docs)
cd ~/
wget https://github.com/flexiondotorg/oab-java6/raw/0.3.0/oab-java.sh -O oab-java.sh
chmod +x oab-java.sh
sudo ./oab-java.sh
get sun-java6-jre
#VMWare Workstation
#compiz
get compiz compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-fusion-plugins-extra compiz-fusion-plugins-main compiz-plugins
#matlab from cd
cd /media/MATLAB{version}
gksu ./install
#blender
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:irie/blender
sudo apt-get update
get blender
get myunity #Awesome control panel for unity
#Deprecated: get unity-tweak-tool 
#My free robotics simulator of choice, the educational version is free for all and available for OSX, Windows, 32 and 64bit Linux
v-rep

*To edit your own cd && vim ~/.bashrc
After editing, refresh your bashrc with . ~/.bashrc. Now your aliases can be used! Huzzah!

Using a US Keyboard Layout to type in German? Lesen diesen Beitrag für deutsche Tastaturkürzel.

Want to type in another language but you love your US keyboard layout?

Fear not. In Linux, this power is acquired as follows:

System Preferences -> Keyboard Layout
Click Options (bottom right-hand corner)
Expand Compose key position
Check Right Ctrl is Compose

Now that we have a functional compose key, we can utilize it to combine characters (sequentially). You now have the power to combine multitudes of characters; this is a German tutorial, so I’ll cover ß, ä, ü, and ö.

ß = RCtrl -> s -> s

This procedure imposes an umlaut on a, o and u:

ä = RCtrl -> " -> a

Tschüß und Happy Hacking!