Ubuntu 18.04 says goodbye to gksu as it is no longer installed by default. Actually it can't be installed at all because it no longer has an installation candidate. Searching in synaptic returns zero results for gksu and opening a terminal and using apt gives the following output.
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package gksu is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package 'gksu' has no installation candidate
Do a search on duck and you will find that gksu has not only been deprecated, but has already been removed from Debian. Ubuntu is just following. Developers have suggested that people should start looking towards using PolicyKit. For those of us still running and using older versions of Ubuntu, we can continue using gksu until we upgrade.
Sometimes you may need to add a user to a specific group. To do so enter the following command into a new terminal window and press enter.
usermod -aG sudo furycd001
Remember to change “furycd001” to whatever your actual username is, and also to change the group name from “sudo” to whatever group you need. You can leave the group name as sudo if you need to give the user sudo privileges. Also remember to type the group name correctly. If you fail to change the user name or type the group name wrong then you will be presented with the two error messages below.
usermod: user 'furycd002' does not exist
usermod: group 'sudi' does not exist
You can upgrade to a new Ubuntu release before it has officially been released. The release will obviously still be being tested and will most likely have a few bugs and or glitches, but there is a number of reasons you may want to upgrade early. Here is a few of those reasons.
Testing....
Contributing to reporting bugs, glitches & errors....
Helping fix bugs, glitches & errors....
Accessing a newer version of an application....
Meh just fell like upgrading....
Wanting to get your software ready for the new version....
If you wish to upgrade early you can do so either via GUI or command line. All you have to do is launch the update manager with the “-d” perimeter at the end. See below for the commands that you can enter into your terminal. The first one is for upgrading via GUI & the second one is for upgrading via the terminal. Remember to enter your user password whenever prompt.
sudo update-manager -d
sudo do-release-upgrade -d
Upgrading early should be pretty straight forward, but just like any upgrade, always remember to backup your needed data before you begin the upgrade process.
When Ubuntu releases a new version you don't necessarily need to create a new usb & do a fresh install. Although that can sometimes be great, you can just simply upgrade to a new version from your existing one. To do so, simply follow the steps listed below.
Open the “Software & Updates” app....
Head to the “Updates” tab....
Look for the section at the bottom titled “Notify me of a new Ubuntu version” & make your selection....
Click ‘Close’ & wait to be notified....
Once notified follow the on screen instructions & proceed to upgrade your system....
Alternatively you can upgrade from the terminal.
First make sure that everything is up to date & that you have update-manager-core installed. You can do so by running the following command....
Next you can issue the following command to search for a new Ubuntu version....
sudo do-release-upgrade
Any required files will be download & you will be prompt to install them. If you wish to upgrade press y & then hit enter on your keyboard. It may take some time to download everything....
Once everything has finished download & installing, you can reboot your computer to start using your new release of ubuntu....
Some people might not know this, but xfce4-terminal can be launched in a quake style drop-down mode. Here's the command.
xfce4-terminal —drop-down
You can easily make it more accessible by binding the above command to a keyboard shortcut.
Open “xfce4-setting-manager” from your menu or application finder....
Click on the Keyboard icon under Hardware section....
Under the application shortcuts tab, click on the add button and type the command above into the provided box....
Now you’re able to press a keyboard shortcut to launch a drop-down Xfce4 terminal. You can click on the button at the bottom right of the terminal window to open the preferences dialog and edit various things.
Xubuntu core is essentially Xubuntu without all the additional features. It installs only the the basic look and feel of Xubuntu. There's no office suite, media player, or any of the usual stuff that comes pre-installed with regular Xubuntu. The best thing about it is that it is around 600MB in size, so will be faster to download and can easily fit on a cd. You can install Xubuntu core from the Mini iso either by running the “Xubuntu minimal installation task” or by finishing the minimal install and typing “sudo apt-get install xubuntu-core^” once you have logged in. Alternatively you can download one of the community ISOs. Xfce is a great desktop environment & Xubuntu is a great distro to use (my fav for a while now). Xubuntu core is a nice thing to have if you don't like bloat and want something that you can call your own.
Gnome developer “Tobias Bernard” has wrote a lengthily post on his blog about how people have thought that GTK 3 supports theming. This is not true, as there is only CSS stylesheets. These CSS stylesheets were only ever meant to be used by the platform and app developers. The platform stylesheet is called Adwaita. You can check out the full post over on his blog. It's totally worth reading & he has some other interesting post work checking out too....
Lipstick left is a simple theme with only a left border. This theme is designed to be super minimal, space saving & out of the way. Download the theme from GitHub or check out my post on r/unixporn. Below is a dirty & clean screenshot....
Lubuntu is an operating system based on Ubuntu and for the most part has aimed itself towards user’s with older hardware. With the transition to LXQt currently under way, the Lubuntu team have made the decision to take a new direction. You can read everything about this on their blog post....
