How to disable the native element inspector in Firefox 13

Fairly recently I stumbled upon this article on how to disable firefox’s native element inspector:
http://jamesroberts.name/blog/2012/02/07/disable-firefox-native-ispect-element-context-menu/

It gave a quick solution to disable the native element inspector but recently I noticed the native element inspector was back, even after I made the change from the above article. I am on ubuntu and haven’t noticed if this problem exists for mac/ms as well.

After a lil snooping around it looks like they changed it up a bit back there since the last firefox update. Here are the steps I took to get it disabled again. Obviously if you bork something back there it is your problem.

1. launch firefox
2. type ‘about:config’ into url bar and press enter (then, go ahead and click the button once you’ve read the warning)
3. in the search bar type ‘inspector’
4. find ‘extensions.firebug.hideDefaultInspector’ and click on the value ‘false’ to make it be ‘true’

Since I had done as suggested in the link I posted above I also made a point to change ‘devtools.inspector.enabled’ back to ‘true’ since it was no longer disabling the native element inspector.

 

Ubuntu 11.04 – the Natty Narwhal

ubuntu 11.04 - natty narwhal

So I finally grew a pair and did the upgrade to Ubuntu 11.04. All went smoothly but it took like damn near four hours for everything to be done. The new unity interface is still kinda lame (I used netbook edition of 10.10 and hated the sidebar launcher) and I still don’t dig the sidebar launcher thing even though it doesn’t take up the screen space like it used to since the windows now cover it. I immediately went right back to the desktop edition which they now call “classic.” My boot time is now more like 30+ seconds, which isn’t too bad since my first install of 10.10 had some missing file error that caused it to be around 20 seconds instead of the famous 10 second boot so I never had a chance to be spoiled by a quick boot. I also had to re-configure a few things to get everything back to how it was.

First thing I had to do was install CompizConfig Settings Manager (ccsm) from the Ubuntu Software Center. I believe they got rid of whatever handled the effects in 10.10 and this is what you use now to manage all the effects. Although it doesn’t seem to apply the settings in some instances (?) The drop shadows on the windows look like crap and have a massive x-offset.

Second thing I had to do was the re-install the NotifyOSD Configuration since the previous version was just for 10.10. Simple instructions to do that are here. They also added the ability to turn the fade off on hover and to be able to click on the notification to close it. However it might be worth mentioning that “once you run NotifyOSD Config tool, these two last options (to prevent fading and to close the notification bubbles on click) will be removed from the ~/.nofiy-osd file so use NotifyOSD Config firstly and then tweak this or remember to add these options back to the file if you use the config tool later on.” In other words it might be easier to just edit the settings via the command line w/ gedit. If not you will find that every time you edit the file, kill the process and open the Notify config you will have the settings replaced by some odd default settings. I am not sure why this doesn’t come packaged with ubuntu in the first place but all in all it was a quick fix. Link: http://www.webupd8.org/2011/05/configurable-notifyosd-bubbles-for.html

I sort of wish I hadn’t upgraded as everything seemed a bit snappier and was less buggy in 10.10 but I’ll give natty a little time to grow on me.

once you run NotifyOSD Config tool, these two last options (to prevent fading and to close the notification bubbles on click) will be removed from the ~/.nofiy-osd file so use NotifyOSD Config firstly and then tweak this or remember to add these options back to the file if you use the config tool later on.

Oh snaps!

Ubuntu 11.4 was released today. I’m think I’m going to wait a little before updating my netbook but I am eager to give it a go.

Samsung NC10 Net Book X Ubuntu 10.10

Samsung NC10 x Ubuntu 10.10

Well where to start? I guess I got the Samsung NC10 because it was on craigslist and it was affordable. I researched it and it was fairly compatible with linux. It was also a nice net book on it’s own when it came out a year or so ago. I also recently purchased a Samsung Vibrant and it is a nice chunk of phone and runs android smoothly. Seeing as android is somewhat based on linux I figured Samsung would be a nice option. I also looked into a few other Acer and Samsung net books but just figured I’d get more bang for my buck from the NC10.

I found a few good resources on the Samsung NC10:

As far as my linux flavor I originally intended to run Fedora but did not find as much information about it in regards to the NC10 net book. So after looking around it seemed people were having more success and ease using ubuntu. Plus I am a total linux noob and ubuntu for some reason just felt more user friendly and like I would have less of hassle converting over as a windows user who uses a mac at work.

Preparation

I read about a few instances of some of the function keys not working on the NC10 once ubuntu was installed. The people who didn’t have this problem were on a later BIOS (11CA). I looked into flashing the BIOS. Some people did it some people said not to. I went ahead and upgraded the BIOS before testing out ubuntu as I didn’t want to have to deal with figuring out how to get regular stuff like the functions keys working upon switching operating systems. Everything worked fine. Get BIOS here: http://www.samsungpc.com/08/products/nc10/firmware.html#firmware (you’ll want 11CA) Folks who were against upgrading the BIOS preferred connecting to voRia’s repository via ubuntu’s update manager, link for that here: http://www.voria.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=296 Note: Do this after you install ubuntu.

Installing Ubuntu

After that I followed the online guide to making the usb launcher http://www.ubuntu.com/netbook/get-ubuntu/download#column-8. This is pretty cool and allows you to run your net book on ubuntu when you have the usb drive plugged in. However upon restarting the net book with the usb plugged in it didn’t restart into ubuntu. I tried it a few times and could not get it to work. I looked online and found out I had to move the usb drive above the C drive in the BIOS mode. You get into BIOS by pressing F2 when the samsung logo displays (right when you turn on the comp, don’t blink or you might miss it) Once in there be careful and look for the tab that says “Boot”. When you are on the boot page select the first item “Boot Device Priority”. Follow the directions on the page for rearranging the boot order. Save and re-boot and it should read the usb drive before the hard drive.

Once I got that all sorted out I gave ubuntu a try and everything seemed to work just like it did in windows. My wireless connected up, webcam worked, function keys worked and firefox worked. I went with ubuntu netbook 10.10 and after testing out I installed it. A few minutes later I was running ubuntu on my Samsung NC10. I opted to go for a complete hard drive wipe but ubuntu also offers the option to dual boot so when you start your netbook you can choose if you would like to boot in ubuntu or windows. You can also partition your drives when you are installing if you are into that sort of thing.

Once everything was installed and running I unplugged the usb and began figuring stuff out. The netbook version of ubuntu lets you choose from a few different versions of ubuntu when you’re on the log in page. This came in handy later as I was not digging the netbook version sidebar. It has no options to be hidden or moved around at all. It did look really nice though and it kept me happy for about two days. Then I noticed I could log in to different versions of ubuntu and I have been using the desktop version since. The desktop version allowed me to maximize the space in ways the netbook version wouldn’t. However the netbook version offered a really simple interface that made it operate more like a giant ipod touch or something like that. Whereas the desktop version is much more like what you’d expect if you were coming from windows/mac.

Post Installation

I set up the desktop just how I like it once I became familiar with how the panels work (so awesome!) and I got all the programs I need to build a solid website (except for photoshop but I got GIMP). It also has workspaces, a growl style notification system, easy way to make launcher icons (shortcuts), compiz effects and all sorts of expected stuff (mail/chat/social clients, rhythmbox (itunes like music app), open office, photo manager, software center).

Some helpful links for getting things right:

Gripes

Not many but still a few. First, when you start up the machine there is some scary bug that throws the following error message “modprobe: FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.35-generic/modules.deb, no such file or directory” it appears to be harmless and just something that was overlooked (?) I haven’t really looked into fixing it after finding out it wasn’t anything to be worried about. Second, Evolution mail is turds and I cannot get it to connect to my gmail contacts for the life of me. But to be fair I haven’t really looked into that too much either since I usually just use my gmail in firefox. Gwibber appends the word “is” to facebook posts and in general I found the unity one interface to still need a little bit of work, mainly the sidebar needs get out of the way as it eats up a bit of precious screen space. But that’s it! Anything else was too minor to remember or I can live with.

Final Thoughts

Ubuntu rocks! Use terminal, it is your friend. Don’t be scared, the water’s fine.

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Post Turkey Reflections & Ubuntu

First off, a big thank you to Conor & Lu, his awesome family and Bob & Des. I would like to think I’m too cool for thanksgiving but I can’t lie, I was slightly bummed that again I did nothing for thanksgiving with my own family because my mother and brother were both working. So it was really nice to get my mind off the that and get some turkey in me while sharing laughs with good people. Um… not once but twice yo! It was a nice long weekend with mucho good foods (yum!)

When I wasn’t eating I was getting to know my new Samsung net book. I recently had the urge to fiddle with linux so I installed ubuntu on the net book and rid myself of windows xp and I must say I am impressed. Once I am fully comfortable with linux and all it’s ups and downs I would even entertain the possibility of becoming a linux only household with a crappy pc around in case of emergency. Yeah it’s like that.

Why so impressed? First off, it is really easy to install: download ubuntu, make a usb installer, reboot with usb drive plugged in, test it out and install. That’s it! I will admit I was a bit frazzled watching windows xp go bye bye, hoping it went smoothly and that I wouldn’t be stuck with a bricked net book I just purchased. But it was fine and in a few minutes I was rockin and rollin in ubuntu figuring stuff out. Second reason is it works. It actually works, I thought I’d be hacking it to bits to get it how I like but right out of the box it works well enough for any seasoned mac or pc user to find his or her way around. And the most important reason I was so impressed was that it’s FREE! By free I mean free, zero dollars for a product that is in my opinion as good if not better than windows or mac (depending on your needs). There is something way gratifying about knowing that I’m running a computer that will in no way give any money to Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. It is also gratifying to know that I am using a product that is put together by people who are working on it out of love for the technology and not for the money (sort of, I’m sure most of em have other paying gigs). That isn’t to say the good folks at windows and mac don’t love their jobs, just not enough to do it for donations.

So yeah, nothing but good things to say (okay, okay a few uber nerdy gripes but I’ll be okay) I will cover my particular net book model, ubuntu version and gripes in a later post in case anyone is heading down the same path.