FettesPS

After upgrading the hard drive on my desktop Linux box I decided that I would install the newest version of Linux Mint on it. Although I love Ubuntu I find Mint to be quite refreshing and less time consuming to get all set up, as a result my 3 most used linux boxes are now all running Mint. Despite how well configured Mint is “out of the box” I do find myself tweaking it extensively just as I would any OS. After installing it I promptly moved the main panel to the top and removed the MintMenu, as I am not a fan of it, and decided that this time instead of my usual setup I would try using Docky for Gnome-Do as my application launcher.

I am one of those people who loves a clean desktop, I hate it when files and up scattered upon it and do not like how some icons are “glued” to the desktop by default in every operating system. So when I went to remove these icons from my desktop I found that I couldn’t just delete them as I had expected. I even tried doing it through the terminal, expecting to find symlinks in the ~/Desktop/ directory but it was empty. At that point I figured I’d have to bust out the gconf-editor, having done so in the past to remove the mounted drives from the desktop. It turns out there is a more simple solution in Linux Mint.

After digging around I found the Desktop Configuration Tool. If you are using the MintMenu then you can find it under

• MintMenu
• Preferences
• Desktop Configuration Tool

Once it is loaded you will see that it is a very simple utility, on your first tab all you have to do is uncheck Computer, Home, and Mounted Volumes. From there just click Apply and close the window, and you’re done!

Every laptop user has experience this, you’re typing away and without noticing you graze over the trackpad and your cursor jumps to the middle of the first paragraph. By the time you notice you’ve injected half of the third paragraph into the first. After correcting that typo you find yourself doing the same thing only moments later. Fear not, there is a solution to this madness.

The first thing you’ll need to do is tweak your xorg.conf file, before doing that you should backup your existing configuration. In the event that you make a mistake you can restore it by restoring it in your terminal.

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.bak

Now that you’ve created a backup, open xorg.conf in your favourite text editor.

sudo pico /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Look for a section named “InputDevice” or create it if it does not exist.

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
    Driver "synaptics"
    Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
    Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
    Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
    Option "SHMConfig" "on"
EndSection

The line you want to pay attention to here is the one regarding SHMConfig, this will disable the trackpad while typing. But you’re not quite done yet. Next hit Alt+F2 which will give you the Run Application dialog. Enter the following command and hit Run:

/usr/bin/syndaemon -d -t -i 2

Afterwards, restart your display manager by holding Alt and hitting Backspace. Your keypad is now disabled!

Just as I was in the middle of installing iTunes my computer locked up. I rebooted and ran the installation again only to be presented with the following error after plugging in my phone:

A quick reinstall of iTunes left me in the same boat. It turns out that you have to remove several Apple products in a specific order before reinstalling iTunes. So open up your Control Panel then uninstall these components in the following order:

• 
  

  iTunes

• QuickTime
• Apple Software Update
• Apple Mobile Device Support
• Bonjour
• Apple Application Support*

At this point you can now install the newest iTunes and you should be able to sync your iPhone without any issues.

*iTunes 9 or later