RIP kiba-dock

Well that didn't go well. Every attempted install failed. (And there are four all up). However I should point out that I didn't follow the procedure to the letter and tried the update to a working Akamaru during the first round.

Anyway, I've decided to move to a dock which is a little less fiddly to install. So I killed the kiba-dock downloads folder (and installation - I hope) with one line of code:

sudo rm -r kiba-dock

Note - if you want to kill a nested folder you have to navigate there first with cd.

Cairo dock anyone?

The best docks for Ubuntu.

Latest deb packages for Cairo Dock.

But there's no need to follow that link, because you can download and install Cairo-dock via synaptic.

putting the physics back into kiba-dock

I've just installed kiba-dock using the instructions from my install of Hardy Heron. Unfortunately the sensational elastic snooker-ball effects weren't in evidence. To fix this, I'm going to follow the different install procedure I found at HOW TO: Install Kiba-Dock in the Ubuntu forums.

First of all, remove all existing kiba- and akamaru programs via synaptic (and delete their folders).

The next step is to install the build dependencies with this code:
* sudo aptitude remove automake1.4
* sudo apt-get install fakeroot automake1.9 build-essential libpango1.0-dev libgtk2.0-dev libgconf2-dev libglitz-glx1-dev librsvg2-dev libglade2-dev libxcomposite-dev subversion libtool libgtop2-dev python-gtk2-dev libgnome-menu-dev libgnomeui-dev libgnomevfs2-dev intltool libxml2-dev libglitz1-dev libcairo2 libdbus-1-dev libgtop2-7 libgnomevfs2-0 libgnomeui-0 librsvg2-2 python-feedparser libasound2-dev libsdl1.2-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev libgstreamer0.10-dev libgstreamer0.10-0 pidgin-dev libpurple-dev

Then make the directory into which kiba-dock will be installed:
* mkdir kiba-dock
* cd kiba-dock
* svn co https://kibadock.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/kibadock/trunk/akamaru/ akamaru
* svn co https://kibadock.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/kibadock/trunk/kiba-dock/ kiba-dock
* svn co https://kibadock.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/kibadock/trunk/kiba-plugins/ kiba-plugins
* svn co https://kibadock.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/kibadock/trunk/kiba-dbus-plugins/ kiba-dbus-plugins

For the physics, you need this code:
* svn update -r 602 *

Next enter the following code, typing each line at a time:
cd akamaru/
./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr --exec-prefix=/usr
sudo make install
cd ..
cd kiba-dock/
./autogen.sh
sudo make install
cd ..
cd kiba-plugins/
./autogen.sh
sudo make install
cd ..
cd kiba-dbus-plugins/
./autogen.sh
sudo make install
cd ..

Now all you have to do is type 'kiba-dock' into a terminal.

To start kiba-dock on login, go to System -> Preferences -> Sessions and click 'add new' under the start-up tab.
Name = Kiba-Dock
Command = kiba-dock

how to kill kiba-dock

in terminal type:
pidof kiba-dock (returns 1518)
kill 1518

show me the splash screen

A small thing that irked me was the absence of splash screen (aka Plymouth) on boot-up. I put the advice from two entries in the Ubuntu forums together and came up with this solution:

* type the following lines separately into a terminal, pressing 'enter' after each:
sudo bash
xxxx (password)
echo FRAMEBUFFER=y > /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/splash
update-initramfs -u

He presto! Splash screen.

Unfortunately there is still a slight delay before the splash graphic displays, and the boot-up process is slightly longer. But I'll live with that.

Mounting Windows Partitions in Ubuntu

I found the following details at: Mounting Windows Partitions in Ubuntu.

1. install ntfs-config;
2. go to System > Administration > NTFS Configuration Tool to launch it;
3. when asked "type what directory you want the drive to appear in", /media/Windows is a good choice;
4. The window hiding behind that one allows you to enable write support for the device, too;

solving the media maze

If you click an mp3 file in Lucid (or just import one into your Rythmbox library), you will be prompted to download the necessary codec. The same will not happen for a wma file. For that you need to go to the Medibuntu site. There you will find a link to Lucid packages, and from there to the Windows 32-bit codecs.

Manually download the deb file and install it. (Enabling Medibuntu as a repository in Synaptic will provide updates, but I don't see the need for that.)