GDM2Setup is a tool that allows one to change the background image and GTK engine of the new GDM for GNOME 2.30. In Linux Mint 9/Ubuntu 10.4, open terminal and type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gdm2setup/gdm2setup
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python-gdm2setup

Once done there will be a second Login Screen in your menus indicated with (GDM2Setup). From there one can change general options, wallpaper, decoration, and theme of GDM.

I just purchased a refurbished NETGEAR USB wireless adapter that was reported to work through the Linux Wireless project. Getting it to work should be a simple issue of downloading the firmware and moving it to /lib/firmware. However, this is reported for the version 1 and I have version 2. I followed Green_Bean’s instructions for ndiswrapper which worked. To simplify things I created a package for Debian/Ubuntu on the Oojah Repo!

NOTE: It is common practice for manufactures to change the chip sets of a wireless adapter and not change the model number (especially with USB devices). This can cause a lot of headaches for Linux users who, like me, do their research find a compatible device to find out they have a new subversion with a chipset that either doesn’t work or requires the slightly messy busyness of using ndiswrapper with windows drivers.

I have been giving the new Linux Mint (based on the latest Ubuntu) a spin and encountered a problem with my webcam and Skype. The webcam is found and works well within cheese and other applications; however, Skype sees the web-cam but cannot render the incoming image.  I found the solution on the Linux Mint forums. To quote veanidon:

1) Rename /usr/bin/skype to /usr/bin/skype.real
2) Create a batch file called ‘/usr/bin/skype’ owned by root as follows:-

#!/bin/sh
export XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype.real “$@” 2>/dev/null
exit 0

3) Make the newly created /usr/bin/skype executable

After following these instructions the problem was solved.

As some people have noticed, Debian has switched from the old Grub 0.9x series to the new Grub2 and where some things look like business as usual on the surface you quickly learn they are not. Case in point, changing the resolution of the grub menu and the terminal. This used to be accomplished by editing the /boot/grub/menu.lst file and amending VGA=791. However, trying this with the new Grub2 does nothing. It took me a while to find a descent explanation and tutorial on how to do this in Grub2. I found one from Harrison3001′s blog. I will summarize the steps I had taken to get the desired effect; however, I highly recommend reading the post to get a better understanding of what is different between Grub2 and Grub Legacy.

first as root edit /etc/default/grub and uncomment (remove the # before) and change the value to look like this:

GRUB_GFXMODE=1280×800

Then as root edit /etc/grub.d/00_header and find this line:

set gfxmode=${GRUB_GFXMODE}

insert below it this line:

set gfxpayload=keep

Once that is done run as root:

update-grub

Now reboot and you should have the Grub2 menu and the terminal set to the new monitor resolution.

I have been having problems with Firefox/Swiftfox/Iceweasel and java on my Debian Squeeze box. There are a couple of issues at hand. The first is that the plugin package for java simply creates the appropriate simlink to the plugin provided by the parent java package and is dependent upon Iceweasel. This is a problem for me because I prefer the more streamlined and up to date packages available for Swiftfox and really do not want to have to have both on my system. the second problem is when I created the simlink manually and point to a java test page I get an error loading java. I did some reading and found out there are network issues with ipv6 and java which seems to be a common problem. I found this post and followed its suggestion. Everything seemed to look okay at the test page. When i tried to login to this WordPress blog (which uses WordPress Fluency) the browser crashes with a segmentation fault. At that point I am absolutely frustrated with the whole nonsenses and simply remove java from my system and install the open source IcedTea by installing it with apt:

sudo aptitude install icedtea6-plugin

which will remove Sun Java 6 and install the appropriate IcedTea packages. Now that is done Java applets and Java powered web applications seem to work just fine.