Dark Themes
Gnome Cursor
One flaw in Gnome's theme controls is that programs such as GEdit and BlueFish (with which this site was built) have a fixed cursor color, black, and no apparent way to change it. When the background is black, the cursor becomes invisible. This is easily remedied by creating and/or editing the file .gtkrc-2.0 in your home directory. You can download the sample file, which changes the cursor color to white (remember to rename it to put the '.' in front). If you would like to modify this file, there is more information at the Bluefish reference and Gnome API Docs.
For GAIM/Pidgin, you can select your own cursor color through the GAIM GTK+ Theme Control plugin, under Tools->Plugins.
Syntax Highlighting
Syntax highlighting is often messed up by dark themes, because the highlighting is too dark. Currently, the best solution I have found involves editing the preferences of various editors manually. Ideally, there would be a python script to analyze the config files, change the background colors, and make everything else lighter.
64 Bit Computing
Reasons to go 64
- Performance: 64 bit mode has more registers available, and the 64 bit data processing may speed up integer arithmetic and calculations that involve 64 bit types. Furthermore, 64 bit addressing rasies the memory ceiling, although it is doubtful that the average user would hit the 32 bit memory ceiling. In general, I would expect 64 bit systems to run faster, even with the caveat below.
- Versatility: 64 bit systems can still run 32 bit compiled programs with the fixe(s) listed below.
Reasons to stay 32
- Performance: most of today's programs are optimized for 32 bit systems, which may reduce performance on 64 bit mode. 64 bit pointers are twice as large, which may affect caching and space requirements.
- Compatibility: many commonly used programs (Flash, Java Applets) are not available in 64 bit form, and may require special fixes to run. Your processor may not support 64 bit mode (such as the original Core Duo and Centrino).
Finding Software
The single most valuable tool I've found in this regard it Simple64, a script for Ubuntu that can be used to install the 32 bit version of common programs that have trouble in 64 bits.
Because Firefox plugins tend to be 32 bit only, and becasue Firefox gets bigger and slower with every release, I would ecommend using SwiftWeasel, a platform-optimized build that is 100% extension/plugin compatible, instead. There are versions of this program specially built to install a 32 bit browser on a 64 bit platform. For Ubuntu users, there is a good forum post explaining various methods, how to use them, and what is necessary to get SwiftWeasel to install through dpkg.
Another option for browser plugins is NSPluginWrapper, which allows 32 bit plugins like Flash to work in 64 bit Firefox. It is not completely stable, and does not support the Java plugin. It is still possible to install the Blackdown Java 1.4 plugin in 64 bit, but this version is heavily outdated.
There exists a native port of Unreal Tournament 2004 to 64 bit Linux. The demo is still available for download.
Compiz Fusion
Suspend to Ram
If turning on compositing breaks suspend (causing nothing, a small, white sqaure, or only the mouse pointer to display on resume), turning off "sync to vblank" (usually somewhere in the general prefs) usually eliminates this problem. My guess is that this works for Beryl and pure Compiz as well, but I have not tested it there.
Compiz Fusion on Ubuntu Fiesty
There is a good guide, with links to repositories that will pull the latest version straight from git. Note that this is not stable at all. In terms of getting it to run, turning on "enable desktop effects" tends to enable it with no window decorations, and I think it fails to load the plugins. From your preferences menu, find the "sessions" preference, and add a new startup program with the command "compiz --replace -c emerald". This will load it when you log in and enable the effects. This also works from the command line, and "metacity --replace" will bring you back to gnome's metacity (turning compositing off). KDE does not use metacity but should have an equivalent command.
Performance Problems
If games run at horrible FPS, battery life falls incredibly, or something just doesn't seem right, it is quite possibly a configuration issue with the compositing manager. Firstly, checking "unredirect fullscreen windows" (usually found in general preferences) should increase gaming performance significantly. This had some problems when I tried it in Beryl, but Compiz Fusion seems to have eliminated them. Another thing to be aware of is that some of the more awesome plugins (such as the fish tank) are CPU hogs. Generally, if something is constantly animated, it's taking CPU. Plugins like the cube, Window transparency when in motion, paint with fire, and others that only appear during specific actions are much safer.
Despite the settings mentioned above, and getting negligible CPU usage from Compiz Fusion, I still experience noticeably degraded performance while gaming. If someone has a fix, I am sure that many like me are looking for it, and would appreciate information.
Intel Pro Wireless
Suspend-to-Ram
At least one of my friends and I have noticed that ipw3945 and ipw2200 (the wireless cards in Centrino, Core Duo and Core 2 Duo notebooks) fail on resume from suspend-to-ram. This is fixed by typing the commands "sudo rmmod ipwXXXX" and "sudo modprobe ipwXXXX", but I have written a script for the 3945 a/b/g version. The "3945" can be replaced with whatever your model is. Just drop the script into "/etc/acpi/resume.d" (as root), "sudo chown root file", "sudo chmod +x file" to make it executable, and your wireless card should automatically re-initialize itself. I believe that the "97" in front refers to exectuion order, and that this will execute just before the computer unlocks with #98 (as I believe it should).