Tips and Tricks for Elementary OS Luna

Nasser Alshammari — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 19:19:00 GMT

Date:: 2012-12-11 19:19
category:: Linux
slug:: tips-and-tricks-for-elementary-os-luna
tags:: elementary OS, linux, tips and tricks

After using Elementary OS as my main distro on my Desktop and my laptop for sometime, Here are some tips and tricks and small modifications that I have right now:

Make sure you have dconf-editor installed you can do so by running this command:

sudo apt-get install dconf-tools

Remove ubuntu overlay scroll bars:

open dconf-editor then go to this path:

org.gnome.desktop.interface

And uncheck the ubuntu-overlay-scrollbars entry.

Silencing the bell:

This for muting that annoying sound when you try to auto-complete something in the terminal and nothing matches. Go to this path with dconf-editor:

org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences

And uncheck the audible-bell entry.

Modify the dock:

I like to have the indicators on so I can know whether a program is running or not. To do so, open up this file with your favorite text editor:

~/.config/plank/theme/dock.theme

And change this line:

IndicatorSize=5

Its default value was zero on my installation, it might be different on yours. You can change a lot of stuff in here, like the color of the dock, the padding of the items, etc. Each entry is commented with a small description.

On my laptop I have a limited vertical space, so having the dock on the bottom wasn't the best idea in my opinion. So to change the position of the dock, open up this file

~/.config/plank/dock1/settings

And change the value of the "Position" variable to either 0,1,2,3.

0 to move it to the left.

1 to move it to the right.

2 to move it to the top (doesn't work since we have the top bar).

3 to move it to the bottom (the default value).

That's it for now, hope you like it and to the elementary devs and designers, you guys rock! \m/,

Boosting Your ATI Graphics Performance

Nasser Alshammari — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 19:31:00 GMT

Date:: 2012-10-06 20:31
category:: Linux
slug:: boosting-your-ati-graphics-performance
tags:: ati, elementary OS, linux, radeon, ubuntu

If you have an ATI graphics card (ATI Radeon HD 3000 series or newer) and using the open source driver you can get better performance by enabling PCI-E Gen2 option. To enable this on Ubuntu 12.04, you must pass this boot parameter:

radeon.pcie_gen2=1

Here are the detailed steps:

Run the following command in a terminal (use your favorite text editor):

sudo vim /etc/default/grub

Change the line that says:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash radeon.pcie_gen2=1"

Save the file and run the following command:

sudo update-grub

Reboot and enjoy the butter smooth performance.

I'm getting really great result while testing Elementary OS luna. Everything is so smooth and nice, Good job elementary team :)

Nasser's Blog (Posts about elementary OS)

Tips and Tricks for Elementary OS Luna

Remove ubuntu overlay scroll bars:

Silencing the bell:

Modify the dock:

Boosting Your ATI Graphics Performance