How to Remove The Annoying Update manager Pop-up in Ubuntu Jaunty

Damien — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:33:59 +0000

For those who are using Ubuntu Jaunty, you will notice that there is a change in the way the system notifies you to upgrade software. In the past, an icon will appear on the system tray whenever there is new update available. In Ubuntu Jaunty, instead of showing the icon, the update manager will now pop up the window as and when it detects new update. While this is a good way to grab the user attention and get them to upgrade to the latest software version promptly, it can be pretty annoying for many, especially when you are in the midst of your work. To make it worst, if you close it without updating, it will keep on popping up in regular interval until you have upgraded your system.

Luckily, you can turn off this pop up feature easily and switch back to the old icon-appear-at-system-tray mode.

Open up a terminal, type

gconf-editor

This will load up the gconf editor window

Navigate to Apps->Update Notifier. On the right, unchecked the auto_launch box. Close the window.

That’s it.

To recover the auto launch pop up function, simply repeat the above step, but place a check in the auto_launch box.

Alternative method (via the terminal)

If you are just plain lazy, here’s a much easier step.

In your terminal, type the following command:

gconftool -s --type bool /apps/update-notifier/auto_launch false

To recover:

gconftool -s --type bool /apps/update-notifier/auto_launch true

How to Remove The Annoying Update manager Pop-up in Ubuntu Jaunty originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

What’s New In Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

Damien — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:16:56 +0000

23^rd April 2009 is the day when Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope will be released. I am sure many of you have already marked down the date and prepare yourselves for the launch.

I have been using Ubuntu 9.04 since the beta release and I must admit that I am really impressed with it. Not only is it faster, it is also more stable, user-friendly and definitely more elegant.

To better prepare all of you for Ubuntu Jaunty, I will be publishing a 5-part series, covering tips and tricks and some points to take note when dealing with Ubuntu Jaunty. This series will be published every day, for the next 5 days.

For the first part of the series, we are going to look at the new features of Ubuntu Jaunty and why is it a must-have for existing (and future) Ubuntu users.

Kernel

The kernel is not a part of the system that we meddle with everyday, but it is the most important part that determines how well your system runs. In 9.04, the the 2.6.28-11.37 kernel based on 2.6.28.8 was used. In simple term, this kernel supports Ext 4 filesystem, has a better memory management , provide better disk shock protection and many more useful features that you won’t see it in the frontend.

Desktop Manager

For Ubuntu, the latest Gnome 2.26 is included as the main desktop manager. Gnome 2.26 comes with plenty of improvements. The more notable ones include:

Brasero as the default disc burning utility in Nautilus
Improved handling of multiple monitors
Evolution now supports Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders (PST files) including E-mail, contacts, appointments, tasks and journal entries. It also added support for the Microsoft Exchange’s MAPI protocol, which makes Evolution’s integration with hosting Exchange servers a much easier task.
Movie player now comes with several more new plugins such as sutbitle downloader, video disc recorder and Jamendo

Ext4 Filesystem

Ubuntu 9.04 officially supports the Ext4 filesystem. In case you are not aware, Ext4 has a bigger files support (supports volume up to 1 exabytes and file of size 16 terabytes), backward compatible, making it possible to mount ext3 and ext2 filesystems as ext4 and a faster filesystem checking.

While the default filesystem in Ubuntu Jaunty is still ext3, there is an option to format your hard disk to ext4 during the installation process. Those who are adventurous enough can try it out. For your information, I have reformated my system to ext4 and it works great.

Software

Open Office 3.0

Open Office 3.0 did not make it in time for the previous 8.10 release. This time, OpenOffice 3.0.1 was included as the default office suite in Ubuntu 9.04.

Session Manager renamed as Startup Applications

Previously, if you need to make changes to the startup applications, you need to go to the Session Manager and add/delete the entries. In Ubuntu 9.04, the Session Manager is renamed as Startup Applications, probably to avoid confusion and provide more clarity to new users.

Computer Janitor

This application is a new inclusion in Ubuntu. What it does is to help you find and remove software packages you might not need anymore. It also suggests configuration changes that might benefit you.

Look and Feel

There have been a lot of improvement on the look and feel in this version.

New usplash screen

New login screen

New notification style

New default wallpapers

Even though the background color is still the dull brown, they are definitely a radical change from the previous series of wallpapers.

New desktop themes

Dust theme

Dust Sand theme

New Wave theme

Speed

If there is anything that I am extremely impress with this new release, it must be the fast boot-up speed. The boot up (and shut down) speed is much faster. If you have installed Ubuntu 9.04 in ext4 format, enable automatic login and disable most startup applications, you should be able to boot up to your desktop in less than 18 seconds, as experimented by Matt Cutts. That is really fast!

Ubuntu 9.04 will be released on 23rd April 2009. You can download the LiveCD from the download site. To upgrade your current version of Ubuntu, simply run the following command in the terminal:

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Even though the Ubuntu site stated that the beta and RC release are not meant to use on production machine, I have installed and tested them out and they both work fine on my computer. For those who can’t wait for the actual release, you might want to upgrade to the RC version. One thing though, do remember to run the Update Manager everyday to get the latest software update.

Image credit: notebooknotes

What’s New In Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

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