This is a Systemd version of earlier article How To Restart Network service in openSUSE, GNOME. The below methods have been tested and they work on openSUSE 12.2, GNOME 3.4.2. Systemd is the replacement for SysVinit based service management system.
Restart from terminal
Open command launcher (Alt+F2) and through it open terminal (gnome-terminal) and then run the below command to restart network service.
sudo systemctl restart network.service
Restart from command launcher
Open command launcher (Alt+F2) and through it open terminal ( gnome-terminal ) and then run the below command to restart network service.
gnomesu systemctl restart network.service
Note:- sudo elevates permission to super user level in a terminal whereas in GUI mode we need to use gnomesu
For more information you can run Man command for systemctl (xdg-open man:systemctl) from command launcher (Alt+F2). To know more about Man command usage you may read through Demystifying Man
It is very easy to configure and use scanner on openSUSE 12.2, GNOME 3.4.2 thanks to YaST.
Connect the scanner
I own a HP scanjet 2300c flatbed Scanner. I connect the scanner to the power adapter. Then i use the USB connector cable to connect the scanner and the computer. I ensure that the light in scanner bed is glowing.
Configure the scanner in YaST
I proceed to open GNOME Activities using left "Win" key or by pressing "Alt+F1". Then type in the search query as "YaST" and YaST should appear grouped under "Applications". On opening YaST we will be prompted to enter administrative password which we must provide.
In YaST we need to locate scanner settings by searching for scanner applet.
In the scanner configuration window it is recommended that we click on the edit button and reconfigure the scanner even though you may see a default scan driver showing up in the menu.
In the setup wizard we can type in the scanner model and search for the relevant scanner driver and apply the settings using the "Next" button at the bottom of the window. The YaST wizard will save the settings and you can exit the Scanner Configurator by pressing the "OK" button.
Scan Documents
In order to start scanning i go back to GNOME activities by pressing left "Win" key or by pressing "Alt+F1". Then i type in the search query "Simple Scan" and Scanner application will show up grouped under applications.
I am using my old stamp collection as test subject and I placed the stamp album page facing the light / glass on the scanner. Then I click on "Single Page" sub menu under "Scan" menu and viola the scanner could scan the pages. Thank you openSUSE :-)
With default installation of openSUSE 12.2 , GNOME 3.4 it is difficult to ascertain as to which application is consuming how much of your internet bandwidth. We need to install an application / package called "nethogs" to check bandwidth consumed by each application. It is essentially a Network Bandwidth Usage Monitor.
NetHogs is a small command line based 'net top' tool. It groups bandwidth by process. This tool makes it easy to identify programs that have gone wild and are suddenly taking up your bandwidth.
Install NetHogs
Method 1 (1Click)
Navigate to this openSUSE AppStore page and click on relevant 1 Click Install link to install the tool.
Method 2 (YaST)
Using YaST you can add the appropriate repos and install the relevant packages. For more details about YaST usage, check out the links provided below.
Repo for openSUSE 12.1 http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/network:/utilities/openSUSE_12.1/ Repo for openSUSE 12.2 http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/network:/utilities/openSUSE_12.2/
open command launcher(Alt+F2), open GNOME terminal (gnome-terminal) and then using zypper you can add the relevant repos and then install "nethogs" package.
Repo for openSUSE 12.1 http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/network:/utilities/openSUSE_12.1/network:utilities.repo Repo for openSUSE 12.2 http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/network:/utilities/openSUSE_12.2/network:utilities.repo
Add repo sudo zypper ar -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/network:/utilities/openSUSE_12.2/network:utilities.repo
Install nethogs sudo zypper in nethogs
Notes:-sudo is used to switch to super user mode; zypper is package manager; ar option adds repo; -f option sets the repository flag as auto refreshed; in option is for installation.
NetHogs Usage
open command launcher(Alt+F2), open GNOME terminal (gnome-terminal) and then launch nethogs as shown below. NetHogs will clearly show you which program is using up your bandwidth.
If are posting an article and if you want to "link" any any webpage or website from your blog or website then you need manually create a html anchor tag and you will need plugin:-
Webpage url
Webpage title
To simplify things I have written some bookmarklets which you can easily create in your browsers bookmarks toolbar. You can plugin the below codes in location / url textbox when creating a bookmark or favourites. In Firefox, SeaMonkey and Opera "ctrl+D" is the shortcut to create bookmarks. After creating the bookmarklet all you need to do is navigate to the relevant webpage and then click on the bookmarlet to get the anchor tag in a popup / alert window.
Get Link with title for webpage. javascript:window.alert("<a%20href=\""+document.location.href+"\">"+document.title+"</a>");
Get Link with title and a nofollow tag for a webpage. javascript:window.alert("<a%20rel=\"nofollow\"%20href=\""+document.location.href+"\">"+document.title+"</a>");
Get Link with title no follow and open in new tab or window for a webpage. javascript:window.alert("<a%20rel=\"nofollow\"%20target=\"_blank\"%20href=\""+document.location.href+"\">"+document.title+"</a>");
The below screenshot shows as to how to create the bookmarklet in SeaMonkey / Firefox after pressing Ctrl+D .
After creation of bookmarlet click on it to get webpage link
I have been creating a some screencasts and posting the same on my blog recently. The list of videos have been linked in a separate videos tab. But whenever I uploaded the video onto youtube, it would complain that it is not able to detect any audio stream on my videos. That triggered an interest in experimenting with adding a sound track to one of my videos. I started searching on the net and tried to get some audio clips filed under "Creative commons" license. I found a webpage (Legal Music For Videos) which lists many sites which showcase good audio content. I narrowed down the choice of tracks to two of them and finally choose the first one.
Now comes the hard part of muxing / mixing of the audio track onto videos. Two potential candidate emerged that can easily mix audio streams onto video files. Both are command line tools (mencoder , ffmpeg). I saw sample code for both of them here. I also found that in order to use mencoder(based on mplayer), i had to un-install mplayer2-as-mplayer as it conflicts with mplayer backend :-(. I did not want to do this and opted for ffmpeg instead.
The command to mix the audio into video is pretty basic
I choose one of my recent videos and tried to add the sound track. I substituted the file names as appropriate and got the below command and it did produce a output file. But when i played the output video i found that audio kept playing even after the video had ended. I realised that this was due to the audio track length being greater than that of video.
After making a few more search I found this page which talked about using the "shorten" option. I opened "man" for ffmpeg in GNOME "help browser" using command launcher (Alt+F2) and command "xdg-open man:ffmpeg".Demystifying Man explains various ways of using man command. I found that "shortest" option should be used in a manner as shown below and came up with revised code to convert the video.
-shortest (output) - Finish encoding when the shortest input stream ends.
Demo video where i have mixed audio stream and video Stream of different playlengths. Since the audio is lifted from a Gramophone record it is course at some places.
Yesterday I saw a comment in one of my articles about "Adding a new application to Universal Access Settings". Brief transcript of the conversation is as below :-
@Yogesh-I want to add my own new customize setting in this menu? is it possible ,if yes then how? @vazhavandan- what kind of customised setting do you want ? Please be more specific @super hero -i want to add new feature in universal access setting panel that will open particular application for eg.Eekboard
I admit that i am not geeky enough to hack "Universal Access menu". Here is my workaround.
I first install Eekboard(eekboard is a virtual keyboard) using the one click from this page.
Then i set about installing a extension known as QuickLaunch. For more details about some cool extensions one can take a look at this article.
Then i restart GNOME Shell using command launcher (Alt+F2) and then typing in r followed by return or enter key. Now the extension will appear in top panel / taskbar.
I click on "Create new launcher..' menu in the extension and it opens up"gnome-desktop-item-edit" application where i can create shortcut for any application.
Notes
By default all new shortcuts or launchers are placed in below folder:- /home/<profileName>/.local/share/gnome-shell/quicklaunch
(OR) ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/quicklaunch
All the GNOME Shell Extensions are installed into below folder:- /home/<profileName>/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions
(OR) ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions
Creating new menu item for Eekboard
Now i can launch the application using the new menu
Update to Article:-
The user pointed out that he / she did not want to use quicklaunch and pointed out to files under frolder /usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/status/
@super hero - Thank You for your reply. i don't want to use Quick Launch. I want to add new option on Universal Access setting Panel ,which will open installed application. i came to know about accessibility.js file (/usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/ status/),which has all UI details, but i am not getting how it launches that particular application.
I found the file in question accessibility.js and I opened that file and added the below lines and it worked. I never dreamt GNOME would be some simple to change :-) this.menu.addSettingsAction(_("Universal Access Settings"), 'gnome-universal-access-panel.desktop');
//Add the damn new virtual keyboard
this.menu.addSettingsAction(_("Eekboard"), 'eekboard.desktop');
Zypper is the default command line package manager on openSUSE. The following video demonstrates using zypper through gnome-terminal for :-
Installation of various packages like audacious and audacious-plugins using "in" option
Removal of packages using "rm" option . It also demonstrates use of -u param to automatically remove dependencies which become unneeded after removal of requested packages.
I had earlier written about forcing programs to appear in open with list. There is one more method of :-
Adding file associations / context menu / right click entries.
Setting order of programs for opening in context menu.
Setting default program for a file type.
on GNOME 3.4.2 / openSUSE 12.2, all in a single shot.
I am taking a Flash video as a sample and i find the file associations as shown below and I set about modifying it.
Step 1
Find the file mimeapps.list on your machine. It will be under the folder path as shown below.
~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list
Step 2
Check the file type or mime type of the file by right clicking and checking properties. Since I am taking a Flash video as a sample, I find that mime type is (video/x-flv).
Step 3
Open it in your favourite text editor. I am using gedit to edit the file. Open command launcher (Or) quick launch window (Alt+F2) and type in following commands followed by return or enter key to edit the file.
After opening the file we will find some existing entries in the file. Don't remove any existing entries. Just append any new entries at the end. After deciding on the default application for a file we make an entry under "Default Applications". Then we put this default application first under "Added Associations" and then add subsequent entries as shown below. Save and exit the file.
Why does openSUSE always ship olderversions of GNOME ?
It has been three months since openSUSE 12.3 Milestone 1 GNOME 3.6 has been released and I am eagerly waiting for getting my hands on GNOME 3.6. Somehow or the other openSUSE always falls behind other distros in packaging the latest version of GNOME 3.X. I know that it is possible to install GNOME 3.6 on openSUSE 12.2, but it is not officially supported. openSUSE 12.2 was released on Sep 5th 2012 and GNOME 3.6 was released on Sep 24th 2012 and hence openSUSE 12.2 came out with GNOME 3.4 version :-(. As the old saying goes "History repeats itself" and openSUSE 12.3 is scheduled to come out on "13 Mar 2013" but GNOME 3.8 is scheduled for release on "27 March 2013" which is a couple of weeks after openSUSE comes out. Hopefully by the time 13.1 comes out both schedules will gets synced and openSUSE will ship latest version of GNOME :-)
openSUSE 12.3 RC1 GNOME 3.6 Live ISO
I have followed a procedure similar to what is described in Sneak Peek at KDE / openSUSE 12.3 RC1 Live ISO to download and boot into GNOME 3.6 Live ISO. The slight difference being that when i tried to boot GNOME Live ISO from MicroSD it refused to boot. Then I had to write the ISO onto a USB / Pen drive and boot from it.
First impressions
The default wallpaper is cool and is titled "grow".
The animations / desktop effects are smooth. The dimming effects are especially good.
The desktop feels a lot snappier and faster.
Screenshots
The wallpaper is similar on both KDE as well as GNOME and the default GNOME desktop is as bland and minimalistic as ever.
"GNOME System Monitor" can be launched from command launcher (Alt+F2) using command "gnome-system-monitor". The System monitor shows that openSUSE 12.3 / GNOME 3.6 will ship kernel version 3.7.x and GNOME version 3.6.2.
The below Screenshot shows "YaST" tool and System Settings (gnome-control-center) where most of the system related settings are configured in openSUSE.
It is pretty easy to set up "Online accounts" with Skydrive and Google Docs. First we press the left "win" key and to bring up Activities. Here we can type "online" and "Online Accounts" application will appear in Activities. We can then open the application and click on the plus (+) button and use the wizard to add new accounts .
After configuring "online accounts" we can open "Documents" application which will automatically pull the list of documents saved online as well as documents present on our harddisk. The below screenshot shows as how how we can check the pdfs we own, both online as well as offline. Documents application can be also launched through command launcher (Alt+F2) using command "gnome-documents".
In Alacarte, the "Revert" button is changed to a "Restore System Configuration" button in GNOME version 3.6. This button will restore the default set of applications in the "Applications menu" if you had turned "off" some of the applications earlier.
Ctrl+Alt+Tab key combination will bring up the accessibility switcher in Activities window and it now allows one to switch to "Message Tray" too.
Various functionalities from GNOME 2.X desktop can be reclaimed on GNOME 3.6 using GNOME shell extensions. The below screenshot shows the GNOME 2.X Application menu and Places menu restored on the top panel. We can also get Legacy Tray icons (Liferea icon) restored using "TopIcons" extension.
The extensions can be installed by toggling the "ON/OFF" slider on each extension page and then clicking the install button when the pop-up appears as shown below. The article 10 + GNOME Shell extensions that I found useful explains the working of a few extensions.
The "Shell Extension Preferences" application can be used to change the settings of individual extensions. This application can be launched through command launcher (Alt+F2) using command "gnome-shell-extension-prefs". The below screen shot shows the available settings for "NetSpeed" shell extension.
openSUSE 12.3 / GNOME 3.6 packs a two pane file manager called Midnight Commander probably to attract hard code command-line enthusiasts as it does have a legacy feel to it.
The fallback mode which imitates the classic GNOME 2.X desktop look is same as ever and one can add applets to panel by pressing on "Alt" key and then "right clicking" on the panel. The panel also features the all to familiar application window list. I could successfully add a "minimize all" applet, search applet etc... to the panel.
Also take a look at openSUSE 12.3 Milestone 1 GNOME 3.6 where I have described changes related to GNOME Tweak Tool, Nautilus, Activites window, File preview and dimming desktop effects.
I saw a spare MicroSD card lying around when I had a brain wave. I loaded the MicroSD onto a USB Card reader and proceeded to download KDE Live ISO (openSUSE 12.3 RC1) from openSUSE development site using Transmission. After downloading it I burnt the image onto the Micro SD card using SUSE Studio ImageWriter. This article is being written from the Live KDE ISO to test the stability of the system.
Few thoughts about KDE RC1 Live ISO
Good looking default theme and wallpaper. The desktop seems to be kind of "Tronish". The new wallpaper can be downloaded from this link and is titled "grow". The wallpaper is an winning entry from a contest organised through Flickr. You can view all the submissions for the contest here.
The desktop effects are smooth and fluid and it is a lot less glassy compared to earlier openSUSE/KDE avatars.
Even though it is a RC1 release, ISO image is of top grade quality. There were no hiccups when booting using the ISO.
Browsing does work on the Live ISO which is a big plus. I could play only WebM encoded files like this one "Adobe Flash Versus GNOME Totem Vegas webm" in Firefox as native "h.264" support doesn't seem to be available. Many videos in youtube complain that flash is not installed, but they start playing once I closed the error window which seemed kind of funny.
In Dolphin (File manger) everything is invoked through "single click" which can be a pain sometimes.
Screenshots
Default desktop has a openSUSE greeter and provides links to key webpages associated with the project .
On clicking the "KInfocenter" icon in the desktop we get to see that openSUSE 12.3 will most probably be shipping kernel 3.7.x and KDE version 4.10. KInfocenter is a nice tool to have and does provide a lot of nice info about Hardware configuration of the underlying system.
Firefox playing a WebM encoded video in youtube.
A lot of plasma widgets come pre-installed. You can see Weather, Calendar, RSS feed ticker, Hardware information and Disk Space widget in the below screenshot.
To open the widget browser we need to Right click on panel ==> Navigate to Panel options ==> Add Widgets ==> Get New Widgets ==> Download New Plasma Widgets. This tool will allow us to add more widgets to the desktop. At long last I am in widget heaven :-)
For those who prefer a more contemporary desktop there is "Desktop Icons Activity". The Activity manager can be accessed by clicking the icon next to the kickoff menu (Alt+F1).
The following screenshot shows two main configuration tools available on openSUSE namely "YaST" and "KDE Settings"
Konqueror passes youtube's html5 test but Firfox doesn't.
When I wanted to read a pdf i found that there is no pdf reader on Live ISO? In these days when even cheap mobiles have all kinds of document readers, I feel that Live ISOs ought to have some kind of readers on them.
Apper notification indicate that I need to update some packages indicating that openSUSE 12.3 is still under heavy development :-) When I click on the notification, it shows the packages that I need to update.
Found KWrite to be a exceptionally easy to use. I liked as to how "Find & Replace" function has been implemented. It highlights all replacements and the number of replacements made. Kwrite has a vi editor mode (Win key+Ctrl+v) which allows "vi" enthusiasts to edit text using commands (dd does delete entire line in this mode).
Final Thoughts
Lot of widgets, desktop effects, great theme and other eye-candy are available.
The new KDE does makes all the right noises and sounds.
But the Live ISO cannot be used on a day to day basis as it doesn't pack any document reader, dictionary and other niche tools.
SUSE Studio ImageWriter cannot create persistent USBs which is a real bummer.
Tor (The onion router) is a anonymizing overlay network for TCP. Simply put, Tor allows one to browse anonymously over the internet.
Tor provides:-
Virtual tunnels that should theoretically improve privacy and security when browsing over the Internet.
Low latency anonymous communication system.
Proxying services to various applications on your machine using SOCKS protocol.
Necessary abstraction framework that would make it harder for websites to figure out and find the actual geographical location of your machine.
Tor is not:-
Proxy server.
Totally foolproof way of staying anonymous online.
How can you help Tor project ?
You can help or contribute back to the project by making the Tor network large enough so that it can handle all the users who want privacy and security on the Internet. Configure your Tor to relay traffic for others.
We need to install packages called tor (main application) as well as torsocks (enables applications to use "Tor") to use the application efficiently.
Install using CLI
Open application launcher (Alt+F2) and open terminal ("gnome-terminal"). After completion of step 1 all we need to do is install the relevant packages using zypper as shown below.
$sudo zypper in tor torsocks
Notes:-
sudo - runs command as super user,
zypper - package manager on openSUSE,
in - instructs zypper to install the packages
Install using GUI
To locate YaST installer on GNOME 3.X
desktop, you can use the left "win" key or "Alt+F1" key combination to
open "Activities" window. In this window you can start typing a search
query like "install" when YaST installer will show up grouped under
"Applications" as shown below.
After opening YaST you can select the relevant packages and click on "Apply" button to finish the installation.
Starting Tor
Start Tor as daemon:-
If you want to start Tor as a daemon / service (running in background) then you can follow the following steps:-
Open YaST
To locate YaST administrative tools on GNOME 3.X
desktop, you can use the left "win" key or "Alt+F1" key combination to
open "Activities" window. In this window you can start typing a search
query like "yast" when YaST settings application will show up grouped under
"Applications" as shown below.
Open RunLevel Edior
In YaST "Administrator Settings" window you can search for "RunLevel" editor and open the same. This is a System services tool which can be used to set Tor as a daemon.
Setup Tor Daemon
After opening System Services you need to switch to "Expert Mode" by selecting the radio button at the top of the tool. Then we need to locate the "tor" service and set it up to start at appropriate RunLevel, using the check boxes at the bottom of the tool and click "Ok" button. This will ensure that the next time system starts / boots up, "Tor" would already be running.
Starting Tor from Shell Activities
If you don't want "Tor" to start along with the system and want to start it as and when its is required, then you can easily add it to "Activities" menu or launcher.
First we open command launcher (Alt+F2) and launch "alacarte" menu editor.
In Alacarte we can add a relevant menu item as shown below. To check status of Tor when it starts up, it is better to set the application "type" as "Application in Terminal".
To locate "tor" on GNOME 3.X
desktop, you can use the left "win" key or "Alt+F1" key combination to
open "Activities" window. In this window you can start typing a search
query like "tor" when "Tor" will show up grouped under
"Applications" as shown below.
Setting up browser to use Tor
Use Torify command
After starting Tor as a daemon or through GNOME Shell Activities, we can use the commands "torify" to enable almost any application to use Tor proxying service and connect to the internet. The command to open w3m text browser using Tor is as follows:-
$torify w3m http://ip.nefsc.noaa.gov/
Screenshot showing w3m opening a webpage on the left and Tor running on the right inside GNOME terminal.
Configure Socks proxy in various browsers
By default Tor is accessible through port "9050" and network address "127.0.0.1". It is easy to Setup Tor as Socks proxy in SeaMonKey and other Gecko based browsers like Firefox by opening "about:config" through address bar and by settings the following values:-
In SeaMonkey you can also set the Socks proxy using the menu, Edit ==> Preferences ==> Advanced ==> Proxies ==> Manual Proxy configuration ==> Advanced button ==> Generic proxy. Here we set "Socks Proxy" as "127.0.0.1" and "Port" as "9050.
Screenshot of SeaMonkey showing Socks Proxy settings configured through "about:config" as well as "Preferences".
Screenshot showing setting up of setup Socks proxy in Opera using "opera:config" alias "Preferences" editor.
Is Tor working properly ?
In order to check whether Tor is working properly or not, you can use the link (What's My IP Address?) and check whether you see different ip addresses in the browser each time Tor is restarted.
