Various problmes on a new installation

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Matsetes

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I just installed Trisquel 5.5 64 bit on my new laptop.
Now I'm not able to change the settings of the touchpad, cause in "System settings → Mouse and touchpad " I have only the first tab, the one called mouse, there is not the second, the one I need for changing the settings of the scrolling on the touchpad... Why? What can I do?

Problem 2: I want to change the side of the buttons "- + x" for closing (etc) the window, the last time I did it pressing ALT + F2, typing "gconf-editor" and changing the settings, now if I type gconf-editor I get an error saying that there is no directory in the home with that name... Why? What can I do?

Problem 3: I want to create a shortcut from keyboard that allows me to change the volume (mute / + / -). Is there a command from the terminal that allows me to change the volume?

lembas
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Joined: 05/13/2010

1. You might want to try a newer Linux-libre kernel

3. amixer

aloniv

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2. Try dconf-editor.

Matsetes

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1. But in the last laptop there was already the option... Why?
2. The same problem also with dconf-editor
3. Which is the syntax for amixer for increasing and decreasing the volume?

Thx

BrianYRoush
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Joined: 06/21/2013

To activate the volume controls on the keyboard, I had to open
~/.config/openbox/trisquel-mini-rc.xml
look for
  </keyboard>

and add the following above that line:
    <keybind key="XF86AudioMute">
      <action name="Execute">
        <command>~/.local/share/volume.sh toggle</command>
      </action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="XF86AudioRaiseVolume">
      <action name="Execute">
        <command>~/.local/share/volume.sh up 5%</command>
      </action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="XF86AudioLowerVolume">
      <action name="Execute">
        <command>~/.local/share/volume.sh down 5%</command>
      </action>
    </keybind>

then, create a file named ~/.local/share/volume.sh:
touch ~/.local/share/volume.sh
chmod +x ~/.local/share/volume.sh

open the file and put the following:
#!/bin/bash

# Check that amixer exists or exit
[[ -z `which amixer` ]] && exit 1

case "$1" in
[uU] | [uU][pP])
echo "Volume up by $2";
amixer set Master "$2"+;
;;
[dD] | [dD][oO][wW][nN])
echo "Volume up by $2";
amixer set Master "$2"-;
;;
[mM] | [mM][uU][tT][eE])
echo "Muting";
amixer set Master mute;
;;
[uU][nN] | [uU][nN][mM][uU][tT][eE])
echo "Unmuting all";
for i in {Master,Headphone,PCM,Speaker}; do
amixer set "$i" unmute;
done;
;;
[tT] | [tT][oO][gG][gG][lL][eE])
echo "Toggling all according to Master";
# Get the status of the Master control
M=$(amixer get Master | grep 'dB.*\[o' | awk '{print $NF}' | tr -d '[]');
for i in {Master,Headphone,PCM,Speaker}; do
# If the master is on, mute it (set on)
if [[ $M == "on" ]]; then
amixer set "$i" mute;
# If the master is off, unmute it (set off)
elif [[ $M == "off" ]]; then
amixer set "$i" unmute;
fi;
done;
;;
esac

then run openbox --reconfigure

and I would like to see these changes in the next release of Trisquel!_* please.

lembas
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Joined: 05/13/2010

1. Don't know if this will help, just something you can try.
2. Do you have the package installed?
3. man amixer

Matsetes

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1. Is there a package that can help managing these settings?
2. Ok, I solved, the package was not installed...
3. I solved changing the shortcuts in the settings of the keyboard, it was really simple =)

lembas
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1. You can try gpointing-device-settings

Matsetes

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It allows only to use all the touchpad to scroll, not only a side of it...
Other problem:
4. The brightness of the screen is changed and setted at almost 0 every time that I connect it to the electricity or I disconnect it, also when restarted... This is really boring!

GustavoCM

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Matsetes

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@Gustavo But I think is a problem of the OS and not of the laptop... Is it possible to find a way to solve the problem? The same thing that I would like for the first problem: everything is born from a lack of Trisquel, I think, so I'm searching to fix it... E.g. the settings of the mouse are managed by one software, which is its package? Perhaps I have to update it or to reinstall it...

Other problem is that I cannot hide the desktop icons such "Computer" and "Trash", I used gconf-editor and I changed the value of the booleans for not showing them, but they're still here.

linuxbookpro
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Joined: 03/18/2012

Hi Matsetes,

Try installing gnome-tweak-tool

# apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool

That will allow you to modify Gnome 3's desktop settings including desktop icons.

For the tackpad I'm not sure but you may want to check the Ubuntu Forums and see if someone had a similar problem for the same laptop.

Did you try installing any of these packages already?

gpointing-device-settings - configuration tool for pointing devices
gsynaptics - configuration tool for pointing devices (transitional package)
tpconfig - touchpad device configuration utility
xserver-xorg-input-synaptics - Synaptics TouchPad driver for X.Org server
xserver-xorg-input-synaptics-dev - Synaptics TouchPad driver for X.Org server (d

lembas
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I think the problem with your touchpad is it's detected as a mouse for whatever reason.

To hide the icons, you need to e.g.

gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.desktop computer-icon-visible false

the other prefs are

org.gnome.nautilus.desktop home-icon-visible
org.gnome.nautilus.desktop network-icon-visible
org.gnome.nautilus.desktop trash-icon-visible

Not sure if the gsettings package is installed by default.

...or goto settings > advanced > desktop.

You can find all kind of interesting settings by grepping output of gsettings list-recursively.

Matsetes

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@linuxbookpro
I tried the first but it setted the whole touchpad to scroll and I was not able to move the cursor, now I tried again and nothing happens...
The second is installed with the first, so nothing new
The 3rd say that "Could not open PS/2 Port [/dev/psaux]."
The 4th is already installed, but I'm not able to open it, if I type "xserver-xorg-input-synaptics" on the terminal it does not find the command.

@lembas
gsettings and the prefs you gived worked very well, I wonder why with gconf-editor this did not run...

lembas
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>I wonder why with gconf-editor this did not run... I hear they've moved some settings away from gconf. Quite a lot ot stuff changes between versions. It's a blessing and a curse.

linuxbookpro
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Perhaps kernel is older then the laptop so drivers don't exsist for 3.0.0-24 (the kernel i'm using)

Have you tried the alpha version of 6? My guess it will fix the trackpad problem but since it's Alpha you will could run into other glitches.

jxself
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Joined: 09/13/2010

Your touchpad's probably not recognized as a touchpad but as a mouse. A newer kernel could help (or not.) There's one available for easy testing to see if it makes a difference or not: http://jxself.org/linux-libre/

Matsetes

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I have no time now, I will try later the new kernel, and I hope it will fix the problem. Yes, I really think that is recognized as mouse and not touchpad...

And for the automatic change of brightness?

lembas
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>And for the automatic change of brightness?

The laptop mode tools could be the answer if you can change brightness in software. Let's see:

What's the output (if any) of ls /sys/class/backlight/

Matsetes

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It says intel_backlight and it's coloured in light blue

lembas
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(blue means it's a folder)

In the intel_backlight folder there is a file named brightness. cat its value and then change the brightness and cat again. Does this number change? Try changing the number.

sudo sh -c "echo X > /path/to/file" where X is some number

Does the brightness change when you change the number?

Matsetes

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Yes, the number change when I change the brightness and the brightness change if I change the number...

lembas
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Congrats! So, now you should install the laptop-mode-tools package as suggested by GustavoCM and configure it.

man laptop-mode.conf

Matsetes

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I've installed it... How does it work? What I have to configure?

lembas
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Read the manual page, there's a section about brightness. I've never used it but it would seem to be able to control brightness on AC and battery.

man laptop-mode.conf

Matsetes

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I read all, now it's more clear, but I didn't understand what I have to write on:
BATT_BRIGHTNESS_COMMAND="echo [value]"
LM_AC_BRIGHTNESS_COMMAND="echo [value]"
NOLM_AC_BRIGHTNESS_COMMAND="echo [value]"

I know the meaning of echo, but not the name of the variables... Have I to fill all them? With what?

lembas
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I would expect them to mean

BATT_BRIGHTNESS_COMMAND whenever you're on battery
LM_AC_BRIGHTNESS_COMMAND on ac and laptop mode
NOLM_AC_BRIGHTNESS_COMMAND on ac and no laptop mode

the value is the number that controls the brightness

BRIGHTNESS_OUTPUT is /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness

So, the brightness will still change but you can control to what it changes. On my laptop I cannot change brightness in software at all. The hardware remembers 2 values for brightness, one for ac and one for battery... You might want to check if there is some setting in BIOS, probably not.

And if you really want to go overboard, you could write a silly little script that would copy the current value of brightness somewhere every minute or so and then would set the new brightness to that whenever there is ac/battery change. Of course any brightness changes within the last minute would be lost. There wouldn't happen to be such a file already, like previous_brightness in the folder? :)

Or then you could try to see if you can catch the change when it happens by putting a very early and a very late script to power.d to see if they see different values, then you wouldn't need such a silly polling script and wouldn't have such a bad 1 minute retention. Donät expect this to work though but could be worth trying.

Matsetes

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I did not understand what I have to do...