Laptop screen brightness fucked up

I have a dualscreen setup with my laptop (HP 8730w) and an external monitor, running Ubuntu 10.04. Sometimes when logging in (can be after suspending or after locking the screen), the screen brightness of the laptop is set to really low and nothing in the system (brightness applet or brightness adjustment keys) can change it. The only solution until today was logging out, making sure that the mouse was on the laptop screen and logging in again. Voila, setting returned.

Now I have another way. As root, you type the following:
# cat /proc/acpi/video/DGFX/LCD/brightness
levels:  30 37 44 51 58 65 72 79 86 93 100
current: 100
# echo -n 86 > /proc/acpi/video/DGFX/LCD/brightness
where DGFX is replaced with whatever you have available in your system.

The value after echo (here 86) is the brightness percentage you want to set. Please note, that only values that are mentioned in the levels-line are accepted.

(Thanks go to susundberg @ #ubuntu for pointing me in the correct direction.)

More latex tweaks

1) if you ever are in the situation that you want to use a *.bst file and don't know where to put it, the answer is simple. *.bst-files (used for defining personal bibliography styles) go into the same directory where your sourcefile is located.

2) *.cls-files (customised class files; often used by journals) go into /usr/share/texmf-texlive/tex/latex/whateveryouwannacallit and afterwards you run sudo mktexlsr

Afterwards, your document should compile. 

installing latex packages in ubuntu

I installed the new Ubuntu yesterday and as I expected my latex file didn't compile anymore. I'm using so exotic packages as siunitx and bpchem which do not come with ubuntu (I got everything installed together with kile).

To get it working, I needed to do the following:
1) download the *.zip packages from ctan.
2) extract to a random directory, you'll see that they contain a package.ins and a package.dtx file
3) go to the random directory and do pdflatex package.ins (you could also do pdflatex package.dtx but it was complaining about a missing template.sty)
4) copy the whole folder to /usr/share/texmf-texlive/tex/latex (sudo cp -r source dest)
5) sudo mktexlsr

and voila, it works.

gconf

I've edited my gconf for the first time ever today. I didn't really want to, but there was no other way to change the shutdown behaviour of Ubuntu Jaunty. Nowadays when choosing Shutdown a dialog box pops up saying that the PC will be shut down in 60 seconds. This can be suppressed by opening the gconf-editor and searching for shutdown (with both options 'search also in key names' and 'search also in key values' enabled). The key you want to edit is found in /apps/panel/applets/applet_fusa_auto_migrated/prefs/suppress_logout_restart_shutdown and by enabling the checkbox the confirmation dialog is suppressed. Voila!

Actually, in Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope it can also be changed, I found out later, by right-clicking on the 'new' log-out/IM status button and choosing preferences. There is a check box for 'Show confirm dialogs for logout, restart and shutdown'.
That makes it a bit easier, but now that I've discovered gconf-editor, I find it really handy for changing a lot of things :)

Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope and Flash

After upgrading to Karmic a short time ago, my in hard work fixed flash broke again. Finally I managed to fix it again.

Problem: I'm running the 64-bit version.
Solution: downloaded the 64-bit prerelease version from adobe, extracted the file and copied it to $HOME/.mozilla/plugins and voila - it works :)

restore grub

grub
find /boot/grub/stage1
root (hd0,1)
setup (hd0)
type quit and reboot.

grins

new skype version = video for linux!! *freu*

suspend working (noch)

Created a new script /etc/acpi/resume.d/99-reinit-i8042.sh

Code:

#!/bin/sh 

# Force re-init of the i8042 PS/2 keyboard/mouse controller
echo -n "i8042" > /sys/bus/platform/drivers/i8042/unbind
echo -n "i8042" > /sys/bus/platform/drivers/i8042/bind

Power tweaks

lesswatts.org

1. disable bluetooth
hciconfig hci0 down
rmmod hci_usb

2. change scaling mode
cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors

echo powersave > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor

3. stop cdrom polling
hal-disable-polling --device /dev/scd0

katapult

mein neues lieblingsprogramm!! ALT + Space oeffnet jedes programm :)

things to install

ubuntu:
brightside (mouse gestures)
katapult (program launcher) (or deskbar?)
Liferea (feed reader, already installed?)

general to look into:
secpanel (GUI for scp, ssh)

...stumbler (wlan detector)
synergy (share keyboard)
angry ip scanner

i has spielzeug!!

und ich bin glücklich mit ihnen! thx leute!!

unter win rennt alles, unter ubuntu muss ich noch tricksen :) (geht auch schon, dank an lukas)!
abgesehen davon dass das linux skype kein video kann


ist die maus nicht süß? so klein und putzig und sie funktioniert super
und die webcam geht auch :)

sudo invoke-rc.d bluetooth stop
sudo invoke-rc.d bluetooth start