NEMO, Change It's Default Start Directory

I want Nemo (File Manager) to open the Downloads directory by default instead of my Home directory.  Let's change it now 

Step 1.  Right-click on the menu button (bottom left of your desktop).

Step 2.  Left Click on "Configure" from the popup.

Step 3.  Left Click on the "Menu" tab. 

Step 4.  Left Click on "Open the menu editor". 

Step 5.  Left Click on "Accessories", then Left Click on "Files"

Step 6.  Left Click on "Properties" and type "Downloads" to the end of the 'Command' section. 

NOTE: There is a SPACE separating "nemo %U" and "Downloads".  The "Command" section should read:

nemo %U Downloads

If you want Nemo to default to a different directory just replace "Downloads" with the directory name you want to see when Nemo launches. 

ALT key not working on Windows 10 running in Virtualbox

I run Microsoft's Windows 10 as a Virtualbox Guest Machine from my Ubuntu 22.04 HOST.  I switched my Ubuntu 22.04 desktop to Cinnamon from Gnome.  The main reason I use the Windows 10 Virtual is to use Photoshop. 

Photoshop uses several shortcut keys, however when you run Windows 10 virtually, with Virtualbox, it honors some system keyboard shortcuts from your HOST system even when your using the virtual.  In my case Photoshop in Windows 10 uses the "ALT - Mouse (Left Click)"  keyboard shortcut for a lot of its functions.  Unfortunately Cinnamon also uses "ALT - Mouse (Left Click)" as a system keyboard shortcut for "Moving and Resizing Windows" and this Host System Keyboard Shortcut overrides your Virtual Guest making it impossible to use "ALT - Mouse (Left Click)" in Photoshop.

To fix this you need to change the HOST (Ubuntu's) "ALT - Mouse (Left Click)" keyboard shortcut to some other key/mouse combination.  The "ALT - Mouse (Left Click)" keyboard shortcut is assigned to  "Special key to move and resize windows option" by default in Ubuntu with Cinnamon Desktop (and on the Gnome desktop too).  To change the default keyboard/mouse shortcut do the following:

1. Click on your menu button and navigate to:
      MENU --> PREFERENCES --> SYSTEM SETTINGS 

2. Select the WINDOWS settings option.

3. Now select the BEHAVIOR tab.

4.  Finally under the "Moving and Resizing Windows" section;
     a. Select "Special key to move and resize windows option".
     b. Change the shortcut key to  <SUPER>. 

This will change your HOST's shortcut key from ALT Left-Click to SUPER Left-Click.  This mean that when you are in your virtual GUEST (Windows 10) the HOST (Ubuntu) setting will no longer over ride the "ALT - Mouse (Left Click)" keyboard shortcut and your ALT will now function as expected in your Guest OS. 

NOTE: This system shortcut key will also cause the same problem if your running GNOME Desktop too and the fix is the same but finding the shortcut assignments in Gnome will require a little google searching 

Enable AppImages and FlatPaks on Ubuntu 22.04 +

 Enabling APPIMAGES on Ubuntu 22.04 +

Ubuntu 22.04 does not included the libfuse2 package by default. The AppImage distribution and most AppImage Apps need the libfuse2 package to function.  So AppImage will not work on Ubuntu 22.04 out of the box.  We need to install the libfuse2 package through a Terminal Window to fix this problem. Just open a Terminal Window and type the following:

sudo apt install libfuse2*

That's it, your AppImage's should now work.  Short and easy! To use your AppImage files just Right Click on your AppImage File and enabled ‘allow executing file as program’.  After that double click on your AppImage File to run it.

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Enabling FLATPAK on Ubuntu 22.04 

All you need to do is install FlatPak by running the following command in a Terminal Window.

sudo apt install flatpak

You can visit https://flathub.org to browse FlatPak Apps.  Once you find the App you want to install just click on it to go to that Apps webpage.  At the bottom of that App's page is a flatpak install command.  Just copy and paste that command into a terminal window and execute it to install that App. 

Or

If you have downloaded a .flatpak install file to your Downloads directory you can run the following command in a terminal window (replace XXX with the install files name) 

flatpak install ~/Downloads/XXX.flatpak

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There you go, now you can use .deb, snap, appimage or flatpak Apps on you Ubuntu 22.04 + system. 

"The following packages have been kept back" Error

You're getting the error "The following packages have been kept back: <list of packages>" after you run the sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade commands.

Here are three solutions to getting the "kept back" packages upgraded.  Open a Terminal Window and try one of the following three solutions

1. This may install the "kept back" packages with little risk.

sudo apt-get --with-new-pkgs upgrade

2. This will install each of the "kept back" packages specifically.  Replace <list of packages kept back> with the exact names of the packages listed as "kept back" (this solution usually works for me). 

sudo apt-get install <list of packages kept back>

3.  If the first two solutions didn't work you can try dist-upgrade.  dist-upgrade can be dangerous as it forces the installation of the new dependencies. It may remove packages to resolve complex dependency issues. Use this at your own risk. 

apt-get dist-upgrade 

That's it.  Hope this helps.  I've ran into this problem a few times and solution number two usually works for me.  Once I used solution three without issue.  When using solution two you can copy and paste the list of kept back packages from the Terminal Window.

Cinnamon Desktop / Gnome Desktop Nvidia Graphic Driver Fix

I switched to Cinnamon Desktop a few days ago and did my first update today.  After the update I started getting an error when I logged on saying  "Your system is currently running without video hardware acceleration, you may experience poor performance and high CPU usage".  I noticed a Kernel Update during the update which was a clue to what happened.  I also booted to Gnome Desktop and noticed my Nvidia drivers were not working nor would they reinstall. In both Cinnamon and Gnome Desktop in Additional Drivers, section it showed Nvidia drivers active but system info showed X.ORG X or Nouveau drivers were in use.  In Steam all my games were running at 1 or 2 frames a second.  In addition I noticed that my option to logon to Gnome Wayland Desktop was missing as an option too.

To fix your Nvidia drivers if they broke after a kernel update it may be caused by missing headers. To fix the missing headers open a Terminal Window and type the following command:

sudo apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

After rebooting, the above command fixed all my Nvidia driver problems.  Below, in the Trouble Shooting Section, are some of the commands and tools I used trying to solve this problem.

Trouble Shooting Section:

If missing headers are not your troubles here are a few thing to help you diagnose the problem.  Open a Terminal Window and type:

inxi -Fxxxz

This will display a very useful and long list of things about your system.  For our purpose we are only interested the GRAPHICS: section (see screen shot below for what a correct Nvidia install looks like)

This command will let you know if your system sees your video card.  If it doesn't it may be a problem in BIOS:

sudo lshw -C display

This command will display more information from the NVIDIA System Management Interface program.  It can do a lot more than display info so read it's manual here: Link to nvidia-smi PDF manual:  Note: that this command may not run if your Nvidia driver installation is broken.

nvidia-smi

Output of nvidia-smi on a working machine

This command will use nvidia-smi to display your Nvidia driver version:

 

nvidia-smi --query-gpu=driver_version --format=csv

To make changes to your Nvidia driver settings (launch Nvidia X Server Setting GUI) using the following command.  Leave out the SUDO if you just want to view setting in the GUI.

 sudo nvidia-settings

Sometimes you need to completely remove the Nvidia drivers to fix them.  To completely remove your Nvidia Drivers from your system with Terminal Commands type the following: 

sudo apt-get purge nvidia*

sudo apt --purge autoremove

After you removed your Nvidia drivers you will need to reinstall them.  To do this you will need to figure out what Nvidia drivers are available.  To do this use the following command to a list all Nvidia driver's names: 

apt-cache search 'nvidia-driver-' | grep '^nvidia-driver-[[:digit:]]*'

After you've found the driver version you want to install use the following three (3) commands to reinstall your Nvidia Drivers.  NOTE: Change the "nvidia-driver-525" part to the name of the driver you want to install ( the apt-cache search 'nvidia-driver-' | grep '^nvidia-driver-[[:digit:]]*' command above will provide you with the needed driver name)

sudo apt update

sudo apt upgrade

sudo apt install --reinstall nvidia-driver-525

Another, more complete, install command you can use in place of sudo apt install --reinstall nvidia-driver-525 is: (again replace the 525 with your desired version number) :

sudo apt install nvidia-driver-525 nvidia-dkms-525

Once you've installed/re-installed your desired driver version reboot your system with

sudo reboot

After the reboot, verify your driver install using the nvidia-smi command (above) to verify the installation.

Well that's it, that's everything I went through trying to fix the "Your system is currently running without video hardware acceleration, you may experience poor performance and high CPU usage" .  I had just switched to Cinnamon Desktop a couple of days ago and thought I'd ruined my system on it's first update.  I was getting ready to reinstall my complete operating system when I stumbled onto a solution to someone else's problem.  The "missing headers" was a suggestion to fix their problem.  It didn't work for them, but it did for me.

Dumped Gnome Desktop for Cinnamon Desktop

I have become sick of trying to track down a memory leak in Gnome Desktop on my Ubuntu 22.04.  It eats up 12gb of ram over a 4 day period.  logging off and back on fixes it but I shouldn't have to do this.  I tried logging on using Wayland and Classic Gnome, neither of which fixed the problem.  I was using the Ubuntu desktop at logon but it had the same issue.  I also disabled all the Extensions which slowed it down but didn't stop it.  

In addition to the memory leak, I have become annoyed at the Gnome Desktop Development Team for removing features and "dumbing down" the desktop to the point to where it is just a picture display machine.  Oh, they will tell you that you can add the missing features back in with Extensions but then the memory leaks start and since they don't have or change their Extensions API, the Extensions rarely work from one version to the next.  When you are releasing a new version of your desktop and the most exciting new feature is a new theme then it's time to move on.

What I want in my desktop is a functional file manage with more features than just copy, cut and paste (Yes I'm talking about you Nautilus), I want desktop shortcuts built in, and the ability to customize my desktop more than just changing the background image.  What I don't want is an Apple IOS Tablet ripoff like Gnome 3.x has become.  I've tried Gnome 3 vanilla, Ubuntu Gnome 3, KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, Xfce, and Mate. Of all those, Cinnamon, comes the closest to what I want.  KDE Plasma was good but was a bit too "busy" for me, Xfce and Mate were alright too just a little too "lite" for what I was looking for.  The sad thing is, all these other desktops were better than Gnome 3.x in my opinion, why Ubuntu keeps it as their main build is beyond me. 

The Cinnamon Desktop

Enough ranting lets install the Cinnamon Desktop.  I figured it would be harder than it was to change your desktop or I would have done this months ago.  Okay, open a Terminal Window and type the following two command.  Wait until the first command finishes before starting the second one.

sudo apt update

sudo apt install cinnamon-desktop-environment

Once the commands are finished all you need to do is reboot your computer.  Then on the logon screen, click on the little gear cog in the lower right corner which will bring up a menu that will let you select your Desktop.  Once you've clicked on your desktop choice, just type in your password like normal and your done.  You should now see your new Desktop.  If you don't like the new Desktop just log out and select the desktop you want.

Sorry for the bad picture but it's your logon screen.

Gnome Desktop Extensions I Use.

Here is a list and link to all the Gnome Desktop (Shell) Extension I use.  I've been trying to find a memory leak in Gnome Shell (or one of it's Extensions) so I've been looking at this list for days.  I figured that maybe someone else would be interested in some of these.

AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support - Adds AppIndicator, KStatusNotifierItem and legacy Tray icons support to the Gnome Shell allowing short cut icons on the "Application Bar".

ArcMenu - Replacement Application Menu for GNOME Shell.  Features include: various menu layouts, built in GNOME search, quick access to system shortcuts, and much more.

Desktop Icons: Neo - This adds desktop icons to GNOME. A fork of Desktop Icons NG with a massive amount of customizations (like icon shapes and curved corners), features, bug fixes, and overall polish.

Battery Indicator (upower) - Display battery level indicators for connected devices in GNOME Shell on the "Application Bar".  It displays battery levels for items such as mouse, keyboard, game controller, touchpad ... as reported by upower.

Clipboard Indicator - Clipboard Manager extension for Gnome-Shell - Adds a clipboard Icon Shortcut  to the top panel "Application Bar", and caches clipboard history.  This allows you to retrieve your CUT/COPY history and select those older items for PASTING.  

GSConnect - GSConnect is a complete implementation of KDE Connect especially for GNOME Shell with Nautilus, Chrome and Firefox integration.  KDE Connect allows devices (i.e. Cellphones) to securely share content like notifications or files and other features like SMS messaging and remote control. It allows for wireless file sharing between computer and cellphone, send SMS message from your computer and you will see incoming cellphone events on your computer (incoming call, texts, other cellphone notifications). It does not rely on the KDE Connect desktop application and will not work with it installed.

Launch New Instance - Always launch a new instance when clicking in the dash or the application view.

This extension is part of Classic Mode and is officially supported by GNOME.

OpenWeather - Display weather information for any location on Earth in GNOME Shell on the "Application Bar"

Printers - Manage Jobs and Printers from a shortcut icon on the "Application Bar". Required package: cups-bsd

Sound Input & Output Device Chooser - Shows a list of sound output and input devices (similar to gnome sound settings) in the status menu below the volume slider. Various active ports like HDMI , Speakers etc. of the same device are also displayed for selection.

Ubuntu Dock - A dock for the Gnome Shell, default Ubuntu experience. This extension is a modified version of Dash To Dock with different defaults. Dash To Dock can be installed to replace it and give more (but unsupported) configuration options.

Windows List - Display a list of running applications at the bottom of the screen like MS Windows. This extension is part of Classic Mode and is officially supported by GNOME. 

Here you can see many of the Extensions running on my desktop and my Power Off Menu.  ArcMenu has too many features to show so you'll have to visit their extension page to get an idea of it's power.

NOTE:  The descriptions are mostly copied and pasted directly from the Extensions install pages.