i3 (EndeavouOS edition): Multiple keyboard layouts

Here I will show you how to add a ukrainian keyboard layout to an existing layout (in this case us), so you can type using different languages.

• First add the following to your ~/.config/i3/config file:

  # add layouts
  exec setxkbmap -layout us,ua
  # set a switching shortcut
  exec setxkbmap -option 'grp:alt_shift_toggle'
  

• Now we want to show the current layout in the system tray (this might be distribution dependent, I guess). EndeavourOS provides some ready scripts for which I needed to install dependencies and uncomment some lines in the ~/.config/i3/i3blocks.config.
  • Install dependencies

    yay xkblayout-state
    

  • Uncomment the following block in ~/.config/i3/i3blocks.config:

    [keyboard-layout]
    command=~/.config/i3/scripts/keyboard-layout
    interval=2
    

Here is the screenshot of the way my env looks right now.

Manjaro with Deepin desktop environment

This is another motivation screenshot of a newly installed Linux on my old Thinkpad laptop. I like how it looks (you can easily transform the bottom panel to a dock).. And I have not encountered any serious or annoying bugs yet. Another thing I like is the availability of software, that I use, from the Arch User Repositories. I have installed Atom (atom-editor), Pycharm, etc. Everything seems to run fast and looks solid. It has also installed correct NVidia drivers without any problems and without the famous black screen after reboot. So in conclusion, if you are tired of usual desktop environments like GNOME, KDE, MATE or Cinnamon the Deepin might be a nice new thing to try. There is a Deepin Linux as well, but I have not used that so cannot say much about it.

One thing that might be wrong with my setup is the messed up desktop wallpaper after hibernate... I saw it happen only once and it went away after changing the wallpaper in the desktop settings. I'll comment later if it'll turn out again. I was also having trouble setting up the wifi connection at my University, but that was fixed by escaping the '\' in my identity with another '\'. I'll try to report this issue later..

Update: The problem with suspend is recurrent, but it does not happen with the open source nouveau graphics driver. So I'll stick to the open source version for now, though I do not really see any drawbacks yet.

Update: I did find a major problem with the setup. It's the keyboard layout switching... i.e. once you switch from English to French it is not possible to switch back easily.... So if you are a multilingual user beware of it!

Fedora 22 Gnome, motivation screenshot

This is the screenshot of my current system at home... Looks very nice. The theme is EvoPop, cursors: breeze_theme, icons are also evopop... The theme is installed through Fedy and set with Tweak tool.

Q4OS - motivation screenshot

I have changed a cooler in my lenovo laptop (which is very old T61p that I have had since 2008). And it really helped the performance. So I decided to stress test it with a virtual system. For a long time I was contemplating to test the Q4OS, which is a minimalist system. So here is the first screenshot from the current virtualbox installation.

I have only good things to say about it for now. It proposes and installs Google Chrome browser right from the start. "apt-get install" seems to work well.

Kubuntu 12.10 motivation screenshot

Kubunutu 12.10 motivation screenshot

Ubuntu 10.10 looks like Mac Os

Recently my friend sent me an interesting link to an application that makes your ubuntu look just like Mac(here it is http://lifehacker.com/5665765/macbuntu-makes-your-linux-desktop-look-like-mac-os-x). I installed it successfully, but have problems with links in places and the link to nautilus in the dock, they do not work, and also strange duplicates in places. I think later I will figure out how to fix it.))

But still I enjoy it very much.

Ubuntu gnome, another motivational screenshot

I just like to see the different looks of my ubuntu box(Linux san-laptop 2.6.32-24-generic #41-Ubuntu SMP Thu Aug 19 01:38:40 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux), so, here is how it looks now)) The dock is the application called docky, can be found at synaptic repositories.

Installed KDE, like it

Recently my HDD crashed, and I had to buy a new one. Reinstalled the system Ubuntu 9.10 and set up, backup system on the external usb drive,which was also bought after this occasion, after which I have lost a peace of important data. The most important homeworks and projects were saved at dropbox site. Also besides Gnome installed KDE, since now I have more space. It looks very nice, so also with this post I would like to start a series of motivation screenshots of KDE. Also I like that I could just logout from kde and start gnome, but still it is not necessary since all the gnome applications are available in KDE and vice versa.

First try of Ubuntu

2 weeks ago I bought a new ThinkPad t61p with 4 GB of RAM and Windows XP Professional (32 bit) installed. And since the windows is 32 bit it was able to see only 3 GB of the RAM. That is why I decided to use 64 bit Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. During 2 days I was able to install all necessary programs and solve most of annoying problems.

Things I liked in 8.04:
1. User interface
2. Ease of use
3. Fast start up
4. Video and audio works great. I like RhythmBox player very much.
5. You can update to newer version of the system via its update manager.

Things I didn't like:
1. Suspend and hibernate does not work properly.
2. Some modal dialogs are not visible in IntellijIdea when system visual effects are enabled.
3. RapidSVN crashes while performing commit
4. Network manager is not able to remember password for my wireless, so it was necessary to enter it after each reboot.

So I decided to update to 8.10:

1. It brought me problems with logout.
Solved via installing nvidia drivers (v. 173) using EnvyNG. 173 is recommended in spite of the version 177 is the latest.
2. I am able to save wireless network configuration. But do not use Network Manager, since I couldn't create connection with it. So I just edited the file:

$sudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces

iface wlan0 inet static
address 192.168.0.5
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.0.1
wpa-psk mypassword
wpa-driver wext
wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK
wpa-proto WPA
wpa-ssid dlink
auto wlan0

And now wifi works great. The only thing there is no any confirmation of it in the tray.
3. sourcing scripts in my ~/.profile broke, since the system adds its command line argument "default". It is solved via moving source statements to ~/.bashrc.
4. Solved problems with IntellijIDEA.
5. Solved problems with RapidSVN.
6. Startup became a little longer.

At the end I would like to admit that Ubuntu is the best Linux distribution I have ever seen. And I enjoy it very much. Here is a screenshot of my dearest desktop:)



Yet another motivating screen shot of my ubuntu desktop.
Here is how it looks like after 6 months of usage:


After almost a year of usage, I have problems with skype and the following ubuntu 9.04 desktop.
Allways wanted the clock to be somewhat integrated into the wallpaper.


Another motivation screenshot of my ubuntu after one year and a half of usage.