Disable Synaptics Touchpad while Typing

Laptop touchpads get in the way of typing quite often and can actually cause accidental highligh and deletion when such a thing is not intended. This workaround inserts a small delay in the response of the touchpad after typing:

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup
sudo vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Into the "Synaptics Touchpad" section insert the following:

Option "SHMConfig" "on"

Start the syndaemon automatically during startup: Open System -> Preferences -> Sessions and add the following:

syndaemon -i 1 -d

Finally restart Gnome.

Ubuntu 7.10 on a Thoshiba U300-143

I recently bought a Toshiba U300-143 laptop with M$-Vista preinstalled. I made quite an effort to customize it in such a way that would resemble my previous ubuntu laptop (by installing cygwin and such utilities) but even the simplest tasks in Linux took for ever in Vista. So I decided to install Ubuntu, after loosing 4 days of hopeless Vista cutomization.

It turned out that Ubuntu installation was not an easy task: I had to google for almost two days to compile the following information from various web pages. I provide these pieces of information here primarily for my own reference and with the hope that somebody else might find them useful. Please keep in mind that what follows works for my installation, on my laptop so follow them completely at your own risk.

Realtek HD Audio

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-generic

Fix 1280x800 resolution

Modify your /etc/X11/xorg.conf like this:

Section "Device"

Identifier "Generic Video Card"

Driver "intel"

BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
Option "monitor-TV" "TVOutput"
...
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "TVOutput"
Option "Disable" "true"
EndSection

Fix usplash resolution

Edit /etc/usplash.conf:

xres=1280 yres=800

And then update initrd:

sudo update-initramfs -u

Download and compile the web cam driver:

svn co http://svn.berlios.de/svnroot/repos/linux-uvc/linux-uvc/trunk/ make sudo make install

Finally add uvcvideo in /etc/modules

Download and compile the Toshiba-Omnibook module

svn co https://omnibook.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/omnibook/omnibook/trunk

Then follow the directions given in this thread.

Bash scripting

This is a bash script that converts a bunch of pdf files to encapsulated postscript:

for filename in `ls *.pdf`
do
     pdftops -eps $filename
done

Barack Obama captures the computer scientist vote

How to fix Mathematica 5 on Ubuntu 7.10

Mathematica 5 crashes on Ubuntu 7.10 as it assumes "historical" locations of some X11 directories. In order to fix it:

$ sudo ln -s /usr/share/X11/XKeysymDB \
> /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XKeysymDB
$ sudo ln -s /usr/share/X11/locale \
> /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/locale
$ sudo ln -s /usr/share/fonts/X11 \
> /usr/share/X11/fonts

ΑΠΟΛΕΙΠΕΙΝ Ο ΘΕΟΣ ΑΝΤΩΝΙΟΝ

Σαν έξαφνα ώρα μεσάνυχτ' ακουσθεί
αόρατος θίασος να περνά
με μουσικές εξαίσιες, με φωνές
την τύχη σου που ενδίδει πιά, τα έργα σου
που απέτυχαν, τα σχέδια της ζωής σου
που βγήκαν όλα πλάνες μη ανοφέλετα θρηνήσεις.
Σαν έτοιμος από καιρό, σα θαρραλέος,
αποχαιρέτα την, την Αλεξάνδρεια που φεύγει.
Προ πάντων να μη γελασθείς, μην πεις πως ήταν
ένα όνειρο, πως απατήθηκεν η ακοή σου,
μάταιες ελπίδες τέτοιες μην καταδεχθείς.
Σαν έτοιμος από καιρό, σα θαρραλέος,
σαν που ταιριάζει σε που αξιώθηκες μια τέτοια πόλι,
πλησιάσε σταθερά προς το παράθυρο,
κι άκουσε με συγκίνησιν, αλλ´ όχι
με των δειλών τα παρακάλια και παράπονα,
ως τελευταία απόλαυσι τους ήχους,
τα εξαίσια όργανα του μυστικού θιάσου,
κι αποχαιρέτα την, την Αλεξάνδρεια που χάνεις.