Ubuntu Tutorials

This morning Ubuntu Tutorials made the front-page of LifeHacker in regards to installing Gnome-Do Plugins.  Based on some of the feedback on the past few Gnome-Do posts I’ve updated my plugin.  If you have been using the old-version you’ll likely want to replace your current apturl.dll with this new version.

The new code is much more efficient, and I’ve made the code available for anyone that wants to improve it.  I should mention that it could make for a decent launcher template.  Basically you should be able to update the exec line:

exec = "apturl";

and the term.StartInfo.Arguments line for any arguments the exec command needs:

term.StartInfo.Arguments = "apt:"+ packagename +"";

I wonder what type of plugins this could lead to…  I also want to thank Stuart Jansen (yet again) for help with the cleanup.  In any event, the updated .dll and the released .sc are available here.

Hopefully you caught yesterday’s post on How To Install Gnome Do. If not, head back and check it out. It’s a really sweet app. As promised yesterday I wanted to outline how to install plugins for Gnome-Do, which really add to the functionality.

Installing Plugins for Gnome-Do

Installing plugins for Gnome-Do is really a simple matter of downloading a plugin file and dropping it into a directory. Once you’ve restarted Gnome-Do you’ll have the added functionality that the plugin offers.

Below are a few example plugins (a longer list can be found here). Simply download the .dll file and save it to ~/.local/share/gnome-do/plugins. If the directory doesn’t exist you’ll need to create it. A quick example in the terminal:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/gnome-do/plugins
cp ~/Desktop/plugin.dll ~/.local/share/gnome-do/plugins/

Here are some of the plugins:

Banshee Plugin for Gnome-Do:

This plugin allows you to launch Gnome-Do and navigate through your music collection stored in Banshee.

Another plugin that I have been using is the Twitter plugin:

This plugin allows you to update your twitter status via Gnome-Do. No, you don’t get updates from your follows, just send outgoing updates. It’s good for a quick update.

Another plugin that I’ve been using is the SSH plugin:

This plugin allows you to quickly connect to any SSH server. It even auto-browses your .ssh/config file for known, defined servers!

There are quite a few more, but the last one I want to mention is the one I hacked together the night I found Gnome-Do (yes, it really is that inspiring!). I call it the APTurl plugin.

My plugin ties into APTurl to allow you to quickly install packages via Gnome-Do. Access the plugin by typing “aptitude” and then tab over and provide a package name. It’ll prompt you to install it if its a valid package.

And there you have it. Again, if you haven’t yet installed Gnome-Do I might have to just write a plugin that Gnome-Do Installs Gnome-Do for you!

Yesterday I started using an application called Gnome-Do, which I have to say is awesome. If you’ve used Quicksilver on OSX or Katapult on KDE its really similar. It’s a quick-launch tool to get you what you need as fast as possible (but not faster, of course!). It allows you to quick launch desktop applications with a few quick keystrokes and just generally makes life easy.

I thought I would outline how to install Gnome-Do on Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy” and also on Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy” for those early adopters like myself.

Installing Gnome-Do on Ubuntu 7.10

To install Gnome-Do on Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy” you’ll need to add the Gnome-Do PPA from launchpad. Add the following line to your /etc/apt/sources.list file:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-core/ubuntu gutsy main

After you’ve added the repository you’ll need to update your repository cache and then install the package. Two more commands to take care of that:

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install gnome-do

Installing Gnome-Do on Ubuntu 8.04

For those early adopters out there that are already running Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy” you’re lucky to have Gnome-Do in the repositories. You’ll just need a simple:

sudo aptitude install gnome-do

To launch Gnome-Do you’ll need to start it manually. This can be done a few ways:

1. ALT-F2: gnome-do
2. Open a terminal: gnome-do
3. Add it to your System > Preferences > Sessions: gnome-do --quiet (for autostart at login)

Once it’s launched you can access the Gnome-Do interface via “Super”-space (windows button+spacebar). This key binding can also be changed in the gconf-editor (/apps/gnome-do/preferences/key_binding) On my next post I’ll outline how to install Gnome-Do plugins, which add so much more functionality you’ll be amazed. I’ve also hacked together a Gnome-Do plugin myself that will let you quickly install packages via Gnome-Do. I’m looking for a few good C# devels that can help me improve it. Details soon!