RutSum

PCLinuxOS Rediscovered

Now that I’m back on PCLinuxOS, I feel a lot more comfortable with my PC, and my productivity (if I do something productive, that is) has increased 10 folds, as compared to Windows XP, and just about a billion times if compared to Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon.

This time, it didn’t take me a lot of time to configure my system, maybe because I’ve done it so many times that I have become exceedingly efficient at it. So here’s what I did, after of course, installing the basic system, in chronological order.

1) Fixed my screen resolution through the PCLOS control center. Though this is temporary, but extremely important for even the 1-2 hours I need to work to get my graphic card drivers installed. The resolution I choose is 1152×864. The default open source drivers work just fine for the basic use, but for OpenGL apps, I need to install the ATI drivers.

2) Next I configure networking, again from the Control Center, assign a static IP to my Ethernet connection, and put in the OpenDNS servers, in the order -

208.67.220.220
208.67.222.222

3) Next, I fire up Synaptic and mark the following changes -

Remove all the crappy things that slow down my system, like Ooo, and all the graphic apps, like digikam, and the fax apps.

Install/Upgrade -
Amarok
apt
Codecs (win32, and all other proprietary codecs needed to play video/music)
ATI drivers
DoAsRoot
FlashPlayer
Fonts
FretsOnFire
Frostwire
GCC
Gimp
Java
K3B
Kaffiene
Kicker Applets/Plugins
KDE artwork/graphics/styles/themes
KOffice
KTorrent
NTFS-3G
MPlayer
Opera
Picasa
Pidgin
QtRuby
Rar
RealPlayer
UnRAR
VLC Media Player

4) While I wait for this to happen, I manually edit my /etc/fstab, and set options to automount my NTFS partitions in write mode.

5) After this, a quick reboot, and when I’m back, I have a desktop with a screwed resolution. (The ATI drivers have been installed, but not configured). I don’t know why but after the ATI drivers are installed, the 1152×864 mode stops working correctly. This has a quite easy but lame fix, I switch to a resolution of 1280×960, which is actually not supported by my monitor. When I switch to that resoution, I get a resolution of 1152×864, with a refresh rate of 75 Hz (don’t ask me how, I just get it.) The weird thing is that after this is done, the Control Center shows my resolution as 1280×960, while the KDesktop properties (Right Click on Desktop >> Configure Desktop) shows it as 1152×864.

6) I change the window style to domino, from the KDE Control Center, use the Breathless Icon theme, change the default font to Lucida Sans, and place shortcuts to my NTFS drives on my desktop, remove all the remaining icons except for Home, change the icons for the shortcuts I’ve jus created.

7) Now for Kicker configuration. I remove all the icons from the taskbar panel (except for the KMenu), and create a new dock (right click on taskbar panel >> Add new panel>> panel), where I place all my icons. Then I change the size for the taskbar panel to ‘Tiny’, and for the dock to a custom 38 pixels. I remove all hiding buttons, shorten the length of the dock panel suitably, and make my panels translucent. Then I add 2 applets to the taskbar panel, a news ticker for updates, and a Runaway process catcher. Then I lock the panels.

I’m almost done! I change the wallpaper, and then just check out all the new apps I’ve installed!

Here’s a screen of my final desktop -

P.S. I also change some of the default KDE shortcuts, like associating PrntScr with KSnapshot.

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