How To Install Indicator-Applet In Gnome Classic in Ubuntu 11.10

Indicator-Applet-Complete in Gnome-Session-Fallback (Gnome Classic) in Ubuntu 11.10
[Click to enlarge]

Too many people still deeply in love with GNOME 2 UI and still find the ways to bring that desktop back. One way to bring back GNOME 2 interface is by using GNOME Fallback that shipped with GNOME 3.

In Ubuntu 11.10 we get GNOME 3.2 and we can install gnome-session-fallback from its repository. In previous post, I've posted how to make GNOME 3 looks like GNOME 2. Now, I want to share one completion stuff to make GNOME 3 (almost) same to GNOME 2. The stuff I meant is : Indicator Applet.

Since Ubuntu 10.04, there are a amazing gnome applets called indicator-applet. In Ubuntu 11.04 and and later in Ubuntu 11.10, it appeared more amazing than before. But, the bad news is, it is not included as default in gnome-session-fallback package. So, if we install gnome-session-fallback, we won't get it and we will just get default applets from gnome-panel in gnome-session-fallback package.

But, apparently, this great stuff has already been ported into gtk3 and we could install it very easy. Here are the simple steps to install indicator-applet to GNOME 3 gnome-session-fallback.

1. Go to Launchapad, to THIS PAGE.

2. Select Page Details, and download the appropriate package for your system (x86 or x64, Ubuntu 11.10 or Ubuntu 12.04). Select the package indicator-applet-complet and download it.

3. Last, install it by terminal : sudo dpkg -i *.deb

4. Now, we get our indicator-applet-complete back to our new GNOME 3 gnome-session-fallback desktop :)

Linux Mint Debian Edition Review : How Fast and Stable Is Debian Desktop?

When I first came into Linux world, the first distro I tried is Kubuntu (I got it from my friend). In that moment, I was so impressed but later little upset by its policy to not includes multimedia codecs as default. Worst, I had no Internet connection and so I was absolutely blind.

Because of my eager to explore “another operating system”, I chose to convert all my mp3 music collection into oggs. I happily worked hard to explore KDE 3.5x desktop but not long time later I was bored and rapidly sought another better distro and then I found Mandriva (version 2006 at that moment). With multimedia codecs included as default, and then I immediately thought “This is the one”.

Day by day passed, I was enjoying worked with Mandriva Linux but then I found Ubuntu (version 6.06 LTS) and I suddenly I was so amazed by its GNOME desktop. I thought “What is it? It looks so different. It has no Windows taste.. It is awesome...” So my adventure with Ubuntu began and from that moment I have became Ubuntu user. I go to Internet Cafe to Google so many howtos to use Linux desktop (particularly GNOME desktop and Ubuntu) and not long time later I got the point of using Linux desktop.

Evolution happens and Linux desktop has grown so rapid. And today, we have GNOME 3, KDE 4, LXDE and XFCE 4.8.x. Controversies born and people got so many confusing choice in Linux desktop and distro. I still hold Ubuntu as my default operating system and don't have any other explorations with other Linux distros. But recently, I got a little sensitive issue about Ubuntu and it upstream, Debian. Some people said that Ubuntu has became to far from its upstream, in packaging and in desktop customization. The result is, though Ubuntu that become “ultimate” desktop, it brings a side negative effect that Ubuntu has became more heavy from “Pure” or “Vanilla” Debian desktop. Logically, pure Debian desktop is lighter than Ubuntu. But is that true? Lets we see.

As we know, Debian has three branches : (1) Stable, (2) Testing and (3) Unstable. Stable, as shown in its name, is the main tree, the main release. It provides stability, but less up-to-date (or even not up-to-date, compared to another Linux distro life cycle). It has no certain release date in its early releases. But, since Debian 6 (Squeeze), its developer team decided to set the stable release cycle to every 2 years once.

Testing, is a development branch of the next Debian stable release. It has more new and updated packages and softwares, but “less” stable than the stable. Unstable, is the “cutting-edge” or “bleeding edge” branch. It has no release date, because it is a place where developers put their newest project into Debian repository. Then, every package in unstable repository, will be tested by Debian developers and then passed to Testing repository.

Because of its dynamics, I than decided to choose Debian testing to be tried. Because of it has no LiveCD version of Debian testing, I need to use a distro that based on it, and my choice is given to Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE). It uses Debian Testing as based and in its homepage, claimed as “more reactive than Ubuntu”.

I chose LMDE 201109 and this is the result :

1. Installer

   Installer is good, though it has no complete choice in partitioning like in Ubiquity (Ubuntu installer). If we have two or more harddisks, we must choose one of them, and then we must choose one partition to become /root partition. We could also mount another partition but only in the same harddisk we chose.

   Installation took no long time to be completed. It is absolutely great compared to Ubuntu instalation. We have to wait about more than 20 minutes to install Ubuntu, and even in older computers, it could be more than 30 minutes.

2. Desktop

   LMDE 201109 brings GNOME 2.30.2 as its default desktop. It is great for us who still deeply in love with old school GNOME 2 desktop (like me). I love so much with this desktop.

   Strangely, it is mixed with some stuffs taken from GNOME 3 project, such as : Gnome Terminal and Gnome System Monitor.

3. Memory Consumtion

   I look at Gnome System Monitor and it runs slightly more light than Ubuntu.

Troubles :

1. Partition Management

   Not like Ubuntu, LMDE is unable to automaticaly mount another FAT or NTFS partition. If we didn't mount them at the installation, we will be asked to give root authority in every time we want to mount our FAT or NTFS partitions. It is ultimately different compared to Ubuntu. In Ubuntu, “everything” is automatic.

2. Stability

   I got very annoying trouble with GIMP. It often crashed when I made image editing with it. It is closed suddenly, again and again. I love GIMP and because of this trouble, I was of course upset.

Conclusion :

Speed issue between Ubuntu and “pure” Debian, for me, is not really a reality in real. Debian is just slightly more light than Ubuntu, but not extreme fast. About stability issue, it is another particular issue. An Ubuntu bug, is also a Debian bug. Though, of course, sometimes, it is a particular Ubuntu bug and didn't occur in Debian (like in Ubuntu Natty desktop, I found my desktop logout suddenly if I use Classic Desktop).

Ubuntu is made as a polished and easy to use Debian. The choice is ours, both of Ubuntu and Debian are Debian with its different goals and visions.

How To Install LibreOffice / OpenOffice.org in Slackware / Vector Linux

LibreOffice 3.5 running on Vector Linux 7 (Slackware based distro)
[Click to enlarge]

I've recently tried Vector Linux 7, a Slackware based Linux distro. It is stable, rock solid and modern. But, there is one missing thing in Slackware world : there is no native package for LibreOffice or OpenOffice.org office suite. And so, how to get it? We all know, LibreOffice / OOo has became mainstream office suite and has been used widely as ultimate office suite alternative to Microsoft Office.

I cold say : There is no worry. There are some tools to get tgz Slackware package from another linux packages such as DEB and RPM. We could use rpm2tgz or deb2tgz.

As an Ubuntu user, I of course choose deb2tgz. We could download it from HERE, and then install it by terminal : # installpkg *.tgz (as root). Then, there is very simple to install LibreOffice in Slackware.

First, download DEB version from LibreOffice homepage, extract it. Enter to the extraction folder by terminal, and covert them as tgz by deb2tgz tool : $ deb2tgz *.deb. Last, install them simply by terminal too : # installpkg *.tgz.

Very last step, we need to make LibreOffice shortcut manually. In XFCE desktop, we could do this by right click at the Desktop, and select Create Launcher. At Create Launcher dialog box, put a name “LibreOffice Writer”, and at Command column, direct it to this working directory /opt/LibreOffice3.5/program/swriter (depends on which LibreOffice you choose, it could be LibreOffice3.4, 3.6 etc). Repeat this step for another LibreOffice shortcut.

And now, we have LIbreOffice suite in our beloved Slackware desktop :)

Vector Linux 7 Standar Gold Review, a Slackware Based Distro

[Click to enlarge]

For so long time, I've used Ubuntu as my main Linux desktop and almost never took another distros a try. Several years ago, I ever used a Slackware based distro called KateOS. Also, I'd tried another popular distros such as Fedora, openSUSE, Mandriva, and PCLinuxOS.

Strangely, I was so impressed by KateOS, a Slackware based distro. It is solid, and ultimately stable. And now, after has been tired by “a consolidation” with Unity and Gnome 3 issues, I want to take a rest with another distro and my mind suddenly reminds me about Slackware based distros. I then google to find the right distro and finally I found Vector Linux, a Slackware based distro.

Go to the homepage, and I got its newest release : Vector Linux 7 Standar GOLD, based on newest Slackware release (13.37). This distro offers two edition : Standard and SOHO. Standard version is a single free full-featured installation CD, and SOHO is a non-free edition that we must purchase. SOHO offers dual CD : an installation and an extra-apps CD. My choice is of course Standard version, but apparently it is not just “a standard” CD. It is amazing!

These are all I got in Vector Linux 7 Standard GOLD :

1. Kernel Linux 3.0.8

2. XFCE 4.8

3. GNOME Mplayer, UMPlayer, Xine, Exaile, Brasero

4. Firefox 8, Opera 11, Flashplugin 11, JRE 1.6, Pidgin, gFTP

5. Geany, Cmake, Glade

6. Abiword, Gnumeric, J-Pilot

7. GIMP 2.6.11, Inkscape 0.48, Shotwell

8. Cairo Dock with OS X like theme :)

9. Gslapt Package Manager (GUI toolkit for slapt-get, an apt implementation in Slackware)

10. and so many usable stuffs

With a 696,4 MB iso, I got almost all I need to work with a Linux desktop. Also, if we have internet connection, we could install another apps easily by Gslapt. Yes, Vector Linux has its own repository with thousands of useful apps and easily installable by either Gslapt or slapt-get.

But, I found a missing and enough crucial thing that is not included in the distro : Bluetooth front-end (Gnome Bluetooth, Blueman).

Installation

Default iso file for VL 7 STD GOLD is 696,4 MB. I ever got one experience, burning a close-to-700MB image into a CD could gave an error CD so I decided to use DVD instead of CD. For now, there is no way to install Vector Linux using USB like another linux distro (but it is OK).

VL 7 STD has already had GUI Installer. But I got a problem : the GUI installer didn’t work well, so I repeat the installation and I chose the older text installer. Installation process took about 30 minutes long. After installation is done, I was asked about basic system configuration including : bootloader installation, root password, user creation etc. Then, once reboot, I was asked one more time about last system configuration. After once more reboot, I got my amazing Vector Linux desktop :)

BlankOn 8 (Rote) Review

Menu Settings tidak muncul di sesi Fallback

BlankOn Panel Membeku

Konsumsi memori sangat hemat

Manajemen partisi yang kurang praktis

BlankOn Linux adalah distribusi karya anak bangsa yang telah mengalami beberapa kali perombakan. Dimulai dengan kelahirannya berbasis Fedora Core, lalu kemudian beralih ke Ubuntu mulai dari versi 2 hingga 7, dan terakhir, di versi development 8 (Rote), BlankOn Linux beralih ke Debian Unstable sebagai basis.

Sebagai anak bangsa, saya merasa bangga dengan BlankOn Linux, walau terakhir saya memakai BlankOn Linux adalah versi 3 (Lontara) yang berbasis Ubuntu Hardy Heron. Setelah beberapa tahun tidak lagi memakai BlankOn sebagai desktop linux utama, saya tertarik untuk menguji coba versi development dari BlankOn Linux 8 (Rote) yang berbasis Debian Unstable (sid).

Setelah mengunduh, menginstalasi dan menguji coba BlankOn Linux 8 Jahitan 4, berikut ini beberapa kesimpulan yang bisa saya catat :

PLUS

1. Proses Instalasi

Di atas mesin Intel Pentium 4 2,4 Ghz, dengan memori 2 GB, proses instalasi BlankOn Linux 8 hanya memakan waktu tidak lebih dari 15 menit. Jika dibandingkan dengan proses instalasi Ubuntu 11.10 yang memakan waktu hingga setengah jam, proses instalasi BlankOn Linux 8 bisa saya katakan : Sangat Cepat.

2. Installer

BlankOn-Installer yang menurut sumber yang pernah saya baca, adalah installer berbasis debian-installer, boleh saya katakan : excelent ! —kecuali untuk satu hal. Amat sangat mudah dipahami bahkan oleh pengguna linux awam sekalipun :)

3. Waktu Booting

Waktu booting BlankOn Linux 8, sekali lagi, lebih cepat dari proses booting Ubuntu. Di komputer saya, saya tidak tahu apa ini memang kesengajaan, proses booting berbasis teks (verbose). Tetapi, saya justru sangat senang dengan proses booting berbasis teks, karena kita jadi tahu proses apa yang sedang berjalan. Tapi poin utamanya adalah : proses Booting BlankOn Linux 8 adalah CEPAT (saya tidak sempat mencatatnya menggunakan timer) :)

4. Konsumsi Sumberdaya Perangkat Keras

Begitu masuk desktop, begitu klik klik dan klik, saya terkejut : loh, kok, ringan sekali. Padahal ini Gnome 3 ! Setelah saya cek di Gnome System Monitor, memang desktop Gnome 3 di BlankOn Linux 8 SANGAT RAMAH. Ia hanya mengkonsumsi sekitar 112 MB dari sumberdaya memori (RAM). Jika dibandingkan dengan Ubuntu, ini mengagumkan !.

MINUS

1. Proses Instalasi

Proses instalasi tanpa opsi advanced partitioning seperti pada ubiquity-nya Ubuntu. Ini cukup disayangkan, karena, advanced partitioning sungguh merupakan fitur yang berguna :)

2. Minus Tema di BlankOn Fallback

Komputer yang saya pakai menggunakan VGA onboard SiS 661 FX, dimana belum mendukung akselerasi 3D, sehingga desktop default langsung di redirect ke BlankOn Fallback. Di sesi BlankOn Fallback, tema tidak berfungsi sehingga saya dibawa ke tema dasar Gnome yang sangat tidak indah dan menjemukan.

3. Jam Selalu Muncul di atas Window

Applet jam kotak di kanan bawah selalu di atas window (always on top) dan tidak ada pengaturan untuk hal tersebut. Ini jelas mengganggu. Sebab : Keindahan tidak boleh mengganggu fungsionalitas.

4. Minus Settings di BlankOn Fallback

Di BlankOn Fallback, saya tidak menemukan ada menu Settings untuk mengatur tema dan behaviour desktop seperti memunculkan ikon devices dll.

5. Manajemen Partisi

Saya bukan seorang pemrogram, atau seorang user Linux dengan pemahaman programming yang mendalam, sehingga saya tidak mengetahui sebabnya, tetapi, karena tidak ada opsi advanced partitioning, tiap kali saya hendak mengakses partisi data saya dalam format FAT32, saya harus memasukkan password.

Hal ini berbeda sekali dengan di Ubuntu, dimana, walau kita tidak mengaitkan satu partisi di fstab, kita tidak perlu memasukkan password tiap hendak mengakses partisi FAT32/NTFS. Mungkin, hal ini disebabkan, kernel di Ubuntu telah ditambahi pelbagai skrip tambahan termasuk manajemen partisi yang otomatis.

6. BlankOn Panel Membeku

Tiap hendak logout, shutdown atau reboot, blankon-panel akan membeku dan proses eksekusi logout/shutdown/reboot menjadi cukup lama, yaitu ada jeda sekitar 2 menit.

7. Totem

Totem kadangkala tidak mampu memutar video dengan sempurna (hanya suara dengan gambar yang berantakan). Tambahan, Totem masih buruk dalam hal dukungan subtitle.

SARAN-SARAN

1. Instalasi

Akan lebih baik jika opsi advanced partitioning disertakan seperti dalam ubiquity. Fitur ini sungguh-sungguh berguna, karena hampir dalam semua distribusi Linux, fitur ini juga disertakan dalam proses instalasi (satu-satunya distribusi yang tidak menyertakan fitur ini, sepengetahuan saya, hanya Freespire/Linspire)

2. Manajemen Login

Fitur autologin sebaiknya tidak dijadikan opsi default. Jika penggguna Windows saja membuat agar windows mereka tidak autologin, kenapa desktop Linux justru dibuat autologin? Opsi autologin menghilangkan banyak pilihan, seperti : kita harus logout hanya untuk memilih desktop environment. Sungguh, fitur autologin sebaiknya jangan dijadikan opsi default.

3. Totem

Sejak dulu, Totem tidak memiliki basis pengguna yang luas, karena beberapa kekurangan. Pilihan terbaik ada di Mplayer. Saat ini, ada banyak pilihan front-end untuk Mplayer, seperti GNOME Mplayer dan SMPlayer. Sungguh lebih baik mengganti Totem dengan GNOME Mplayer.

(Sekaligus, ini bisa menghemat space karena tidak perlu menambahan codec multimedia ekstra Gstreamer, dan hanya menambahkan Mplayer)

4. Manokwari

BlankOn panel, yang sekarang diganti nama menjadi Manokwari, sungguh suatu terobosan yang brilian, sekaligus membuktikan bahwa anak bangsa mampu membuat UI sendiri yang menggabungkan aspek fungsionalitas dan modernity. Hanya saja, pada opsi Fallback, Manokwari belum berjalan sempurna (minus tema). Pada rilis final, hal ini tentu bisa diperbaiki. Akan tetapi, jika memang buggy, mungkin lebih baik, untuk sesi 2D, diganti saja dengan gnome-fallback.

Demikian review singkat saya tentang BlankOn Linux 8 (Rote) Jahitan 4. semoga bisa jadi informasi yang berguna untuk kita semua. Maju terus komunitas Linux Indonesia. Bebaskan negeri ini dari konsumsi perangkat lunak ilegal.

Catatan teknis :

Sistem : BlankOn 8 (Rote) Jahitan 4

CPU : Intel Pentium 4 2,4 Ghz

Memori : DDR 2 GB

VGA : Onboard SiS 661FX

How To Add Custom Command in File Properties In GNOME 3 / How To Change Default Preffered Application in GNOME 3

GNOME 3 has dropped its capability to add custom command as the default application to open specific file with specific formats. In Gnome 2, we could do this by select at the file right click > properties > Custom Command. But, in Gnome 3, this feature is dropped.

And so, how to replace the default application to open specific file with our preferred favorite application. Example : we want to replace Ubuntu Software Center with Gdebi to open .deb files as default. The only way is : we must add our application manually, by editing application list file configuration named /etc/gnome/defaults.list or by creating a local mimetype list in our home folder named /home/ourname/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list.

Both ways work, but the easier is by editing file /etc/gnome/defaults.list. To edit this file, just simply type in terminal : sudo gedit /etc/gnome/defaults.list. After opened, we will see long lines about default mimetypes with their default applications to open.

As an example, we want to replace Ubuntu Software Center with Gdebi, these are the steps :

1. The most first, of course, we have to install gdebi by apt : sudo apt-get install gdebi

2. Find two lines and replace them

   application/x-deb=ubuntu-software-center.desktop

   application/x-debian-package= ubuntu-software-center.desktop

3. with these :

   application/x-deb=gdebi.desktop

   application/x-debian-package=gdebi.desktop

4. logout and login back.

If we want to replace another default applications (such as : evince with foxit-reader to open pdf), just do the same way. Find the file type, and replace its defaults application to open the file.

Unity Desktop Is Not That Bad

Unity 2D in Ubuntu 11.10

Gnome Session Fallback, combined with Unity Launcher (click to enlarge)

Unity has brought Ubuntu to new “tragic” direction : it has made Ubuntu loses its popularity. Based on recent Distrowatch hits, Linux Mint has became the first, and then Ubuntu in the second. For many Ubuntu fans, this is probably a most tragic tragedy in Ubuntu history. But, if we want to honestly make a confession, Linux Mint “win” is also ultimately Ubuntu “win” (Linux Mint is directly a non-official Ubuntu derivative).

Alongside this dynamics, after much time enough exploration, I have to say a fact that : Unity is not that bad. In my opinion, Unity is just less efficient. We need to make more clicking to find and run an application. Example : to open Terminal, we have to click Dash > More Apps > Filter Results > Accessories > Terminal.

But, for the look and feel, Unity is cute and awesome. Everybody loves Ubuntu Ambiance Theme, everybody loves Ubuntu look, and unity-panel is obviously gorgeous : it is elegant, and looks professional (compare it to Gnome-Shell panel, that looks just black without theme). But, for me, the most favorite part of the Unity Desktop is Unity Launcher. Although it resembles Mac OS X dock, it is better in behavior and simplicity.

Because of its inefficiently, now, I'm using a combination between Unity Launcher and Gnome-Session-Fallback. I always need Gnome classic menu and task bar at bottom panel, but I also love the Unity Launcher. To perform this UI, I did this ways :

1. Install Gnome Session Fallback

   sudo apt-get install gnome-session-fallback

2. Add Unity Launcher to the autostarted application list

   Create a folder /home/ourname/.config/autostart (If we haven't had it yet already)

3. Open Gedit, and write these lines :

   [Desktop Entry]

   Name=Unity Launcher

   Exec=unity-2d-launcher

   Save as unity-launcher.desktop (or whatever.desktop) and put in the folder /home/ourname/.config/autostart

4. Logout and login back. And now, we have a pretty combination between familiar classic gnome desktop, and modern Ubuntu style :)

System Comparison :

System : Ubuntu 11.10

GNOME Session Fallback : 3.2.1-0ubuntu1

Unity Launcher : unity-2d-launcher 4.12.0-0ubuntu1

How To Print With CMYK Color Profile In Linux (Ubuntu)

Without Internet Connection, driver download will be failed. But this is the trick to let the system uses Gutenprint driver :D

Printer Canon PIXUS iP2700 was recognized and Gutenprint has already had the driver

Configuration done !

Now, in printer properties, we will get (generic) CMYK color profile

In digital media, there are two main color profile to arrange colored images/objects. First, RGB (Red-Green-Blue) color profile, used in monitors, and televisions. Also, RGB color profile is used in digital cameras to capture photos. And second, CMYK color profile, used in publishing industry to print medias (magazine, newspaper etc).

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? Simply, as an end user view, we could say, printing medias with CMYK color profile, will result more bright, smooth, and real --as real as the reality. We could make comparison between printing medias in RGB and CMYK color profile, and we could see, printing medias in RGB color profile results more dark and blurred pictures.

In publishing industry, we maybe know that Macintosh (now, branded as Mac OS X) machines is very popular. But why does that OS become so popular in publishing industry? The answer is, Macintosh uses CMYK color profile as default to print medias, and also, uses CMYK color profile in its monitor (Macbooks, Mac PCs).

In Linux, if we realize, there is RGB color profile that used as default color profile to perform desktop appearance and also used RGB color profile as default profile to print medias. And then, is there any way to print media in Linux using CMYK color profile? The answer is Yes, there are.

Here are the ways to print media in Linux in CMYK color profile :

First, we could use a professional tool called TurboPrint. It is a set of complete printer driver in Linux, with a professional tool in printing. But, it is not a FOSS software. It's proprietary and you must purchase to use this tool. But, the good news is, you could use its 30 days shareware version and you will get a complete set of professional printing. You can visit its homepage here.

Second, we could use Gutenprint. Just like TurboPrint, it is a set of generic printer driver that built by FOSS community. Although Gutenprint doesn't have additional professional tools in printing (such as GUI control panel to control brightnesses, head cleaning etc), it offers complete set of printing profiles (includes CMYK color printing).

Now, how to configure our printer in Linux, by using Gutenprint, and so we could print medias in CMYK color profile? Here is the ways :

1. Login into Ubuntu Linux and choose Unity or Unity-2D desktop. Why is it necessary? Because, since Ubuntu 11.10, Ubuntu has made complex configuration, that affects, we only could get full desktop functionality if we use Unity/Unity-2D desktop. So, even though we dislike Unity, it is wise for us to don't remove Unity as a “recovery” desktop.

2. DO NOT CONNECT TO THE INTERNET. If you have Internet connection, unplug.

3. Plug our printer in, and switch it on. Wait and we will get notification, that there is no driver for our printer, but recognized by the system.

4. Go to System Settings (appears in Unity Launcher), and select Printers.

5. Select Add, and then, we will see our printer has already been recognized. Just click Forward, and wait for driver downloading process. Because we ain't connected to the Internet, there will appear an error message : “Downloading package indexes failed, please check your network status. Most drivers will not be available”. Just leave the message, and select Forward.

6. Next, there is a list of Printers, and our Printer brand is recognized. Just select it, and Forward. Then, we will get our printer be configured and there is a notification “Would you like to print a test page?”. Click Print Test Page if you wish, and Cancel if not.

7. Go to LibreOffice and try to print an image. Go to Print dialog by hitting Ctrl+P, and then select Properties>Device>Color Model. We will see some color profiles includes CMYK.

FOR CONFIGURED AND EXISTING PRINTER

If we have had our printer been configured before, we could just easily edit our printer driver and add some line to put color profile configuration.

1. The most important thing in editing file configuration in Linux is, You must backup it first. So if our configuration ain't success, we could easily restore the file. To backup our printer driver, open terminal and type this :

dir /etc/cups/ppd

There will appear a our_printer_name.ppd

Then, copy it to the Home by cp /etc/cups/ppd/our_printer_name.ppd ~/

2. Then, edit our printer driver by sudo gedit /etc/cups/ppd/our_printer_name.ppd and add these lines (carefully) :

*ColorKeyWords: "ColorModel"

*OpenUI *ColorModel/Color Model: PickOne

*OPOptionHints ColorModel: "radiobuttons"

*OrderDependency: 10 AnySetup *ColorModel

*DefaultColorModel: RGB

*StpDefaultColorModel: RGB

*ColorModel Gray/Grayscale: "<>setpagedevice"

*ColorModel Black/Inverted Grayscale: "<>setpagedevice"

*ColorModel RGB/RGB Color: "<>setpagedevice"

*ColorModel CMY/CMY Color: "<>setpagedevice"

*ColorModel CMYK/CMYK: "<>setpagedevice"

*ColorModel KCMY/KCMY: "<>setpagedevice"

*CloseUI: *ColorModel

3. Save and exit.

4. Open LibreOffice, and Print any images. Go to printer properties, and there will appear color model choice.

5. But, if this modification doesn't affect or even make our printer doesn't work, just restore our old printer home by :

sudo cp /home/ourname/our_printer_name.ppd /etc/cups/ppd

To make our printer driver readable by CUPS, change the permission file by :

sudo chmod 777 /etc/cups/ppd/our_printer_name.ppd

Happy Linuxing ! :D

Technical Comparison :

System : Ubuntu 11.10

Gutenprint version : cups-driver-gutenprint 5.2.7-2ubuntu4

Printer : Canon PIXUS iP2700

This way was done in Ubuntu Linux 11.10, if you’re using another distros, please give us reports. Does this way work in another distro, or not?