Colin Robinson

Linux

How to setup LUKS on LVM for Arch

In this blog post, I’ll guide you through the steps to set up LUKS on LVM with Arch Linux. Step 1: Boot the Arch Linux installation media To start, you need to boot from the Arch Linux installation media. You can download the latest ISO file from the Arch Linux website and create a bootable […]

Use MariaDB with PhpStorm

Update August 2018: PHPStorm now includes MariaDB as a schema type but does not include the driver files. It does offer to download the MariaDB driver for you, but if you want to use the native driver, install mariadb-jdbc from the AUR and edit the MariaDB entry in PHPStorm to use /usr/share/java/mariadb-jdbc/mariadb-java-client.jar as the driver […]

Automatically switch Xfce panel layout when plugging in a monitor

Xfce has great multi-monitor support. Different panels on each monitor, it all works great. I’ve used it with multiple monitors on my desktop for 5+ years. Love it. But you run into some annoyances with laptops. Half the time I’m using my laptop on its own, and half the time I’m using it with an […]

Clicking notifications in Chrome causes the window to change workspaces

This is a simple and obvious fix, but it was annoying me for awhile before I looked into it. The situation: You have a Chrome window open in workspace that’s different to the one you’re currently in. You receive a desktop notification from WhatsApp, Hangouts, 8tracks, ect. When you click the notification, it brings that […]

Use Bash to get the memory usage of applications like Chromium

It’s not always easy to tell how much memory Chromium/Chrome is using, because of the different threads it starts. Here are a couple snippets with explanations to get you started. Percent of memory use Code: ps -eo pmem,comm | grep chromium | cut -d ” ” -f 2 | paste -sd+ | bc | awk […]

Play games in borderless windows with Compiz

I like to play games and luckily there are a lot of games for Linux now; I have 51 games in Steam which run on Linux. But not all of these games do a good job when running at fullscreen (diustorted resolutions, hidden cursors, ect). So I like to run games in a borderless window […]

Compiz – Window border edge overlaps when using the grid plugin

Problem: Window borders overlap when using the grid plugin in Compiz This one has been bothering me for awhile. Turns out it isn’t a Compiz bug at all (well maybe it is), it’s an Emerald bug! Are you also using Emerald as your window decorator? Open emerald-theme-manager. Emerald Settings > uncheck Use Decoration Cropping Problem […]

English style decimal marks with a European keyboard layout

Suppose you live in Europe where they separate numbers with commas instead of periods. Written: Six thousand eight hundred and forty three and two tenths English/American: 6,843.2 European 6 843,2 Suppose you also have a European keyboard and use a European keyboard layout but the stupid comma in the numpad drives you mad. Simple fix […]

How to make Chrome use Deluge for magnet links in Fedora

Sep 2014 update: This was written for Fedora 17. Apparently the desktop file has been renamed to deluge.desktop (the sane choice). The three things you need to know: 1) Unlike Firefox, Chrome uses xdg-open to choose the default program to open a file. 2) You can set the default application for each type by using […]

How to install Compiz on Fedora 17 XFCE Spin

Let’s just be clear, this is not for the faint of heart. Why isn’t Compiz in the Fedora 17 repos? Compiz is a replacement window manager for the GNOME window manager called Metacity. When GNOME 3 came out last year, they replaced Metacity with Mutter. Apparently there are library incompatibilities that prevent Compiz from replacing Mutter. I […]

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