This isn’t a milestone release, but it has been introduced the PolicyKit mechanism. So in the upcoming 0.3.x series, Ubuntu Tweak will have more “Tweak” features.

—–

Now let’s see what does Ubuntu Tweak 0.3.4 look like.

Faster launch

I’ve optimized the code of Ubuntu Tweak, now it has a faster launch speed than before.

As a reflection of it, You’ll see a “wait” screen when you select one item at the first time. But the time is short, you’ll ignore it.

Simple Add/Remove

Ubuntu Tweak has now a simple interface to add/remove applications. It is like Ubuntu’s Add/Remove, but it is fewer applications, only the widely used applications displayed. The category is resorted, it will  faster to find what application you are looking for.

Third Party Software Sources

With this feature, you’ll never to modify the sources.list.

Add a sources for an application, you’ll always follow the latest version of an application.

Of source, when you want to follow Ubuntu Tweak’s release, just check it like the screenshot.

Downloads

Source Code:

ubuntu-tweak_0.3.4.orig.tar.gz

Deb package for all:

ubuntu-tweak_0.3.4-1~ppa1_all.deb

Enjoy with Ubuntu Tweak 0.3.4!

You may wait a long time. These days, I was done much of Ubuntu Tweak. I’ve overcame some technical problems, now Ubuntu Tweak have much improvement.

Let’s go and see what it looks like now.

—–

Few days ago, I’ve seen sedra12’s comment on How to fix the startup problem of 0.3.2. He pointed out that Ubuntu Tweak is becoming a bloatware. That’s true.

While more and more new features had been added to Ubuntu Tweak, its startup is becoming more and more slowly.

Do you know why the version 0.3.2 has a startup splash screen? Yes. Just because of its slower startup.

So these days, I’ve done many work to optimize the code of Ubuntu Tweak. I’ve changed the startup mode from “load all when startup” to “load when request”.

Now Ubuntu Tweak can startup in just one or two second(in your computer’s performance) when its first start. When it has started, it is also fast to access the functions you want to use.

Not only Ubuntu Tweak is speed up, but also a major feature is included in it. That’s “PolicyKit” mechanism.

Through the “PolicyKit”, Ubuntu Tweak have the ability to do more privileged operations.

At present, I’ve added a new feature using PolicyKit to Ubuntu Tweak. That’s “Third-Party Sources”. You can add the Third-Party Sources through Ubuntu Tweak with simple operation, after that your system will be able to follow the latest application in your mind.

For example, if you like to play with Compiz Fusion, you can enable the third-party source of Compiz Fusion. After updating, your system’s Compiz Fusion will be the latest, so you can play with more plugins with it. That’s what I like to do.

Here’s the three pictures show the PolicyKit on Ubuntu Tweak and “Third-Party sources” feature. I think you may be familiar with the “Unlock” button and the authenticate dialog.

It’s welcome that you can provide your favourite third-party sources, I’ll add it to Ubuntu Tweak.

Other advice is welcome too.

BTW: all the Third-Party sources that I collect is coming from the Launchpad PPA repository. So it’s stable and safe to use.

I’ve seen that some people won’t be able to start Ubuntu Tweak 0.3.2. The condition may like this:

The splash screen is displayed and then nothing.

It’s not a common bug so I wrote this article to tell you how to fix this problem.

—–

Thanks crjackson and the bug reporter Mark Krapivner and Soulou at launchpad:bug#238158

I saw your outputs, and there was nothing  serious  error message that cause the Ubuntu Tweak can’t start.

So I assume that the splash screen cause the problem, now I tell you how to disable the splash, I hope it’ll solve it.

First, open your terminal(gnome-terminal), and type the following command.

sudo gedit /usr/share/ubuntu-tweak/ubuntu-tweak.py

At the line 33, you’ll see “thread.start_new_thread(self.show_splash, ()) “, now you can put an “#” in font of line or delete this line.

So ubuntu-tweak.py will like this:

……..

class TweakLauncher:
def __init__(self):
gtk.gdk.threads_init()
#            thread.start_new_thread(self.show_splash, ())

try:
from PackageWorker import update_apt_cache
except ImportError:
pass

……..

Now save the file and try to start Ubuntu Tweak.

Please tell me the whether it is useful, thanks!

Good luck!

Bug fixed and new tweak items added. Hope you’ll like it.

—–

Follows the main ChangLog:

• Fixed the bug that can’t show a warning message while running under other desktop environment(only can run under GNOME).
• When launch Ubuntu Tweak, it will show a splash screen. Because Ubuntu Tweak become bigger and bigger, the launch speed is slow, so show a splash screen is a proper way while waiting.
• Added the options to install Compiz and Nautilus Extensions. You can through the interface to easily install some useful package.
• History settings: To protect your privacy, you may want to disable Recently Used. Now Ubuntu Tweak can disable it.

Some screenshots below:

If you disable the System-wide ‘Recently Used’ list, all the applications’ history will gone, and the ‘Recently Documents’ list is unavailable too.

Downloads

Source Code:

ubuntu-tweak_0.3.2.orig.tar.gz

Deb package for all:

ubuntu-tweak_0.3.2-1~ppa1_all.deb

OK, let’s me know your feelings. And the next version won’t take a long time.

It had never been downloaded so much times in just a week, So I’m glad to see that more and more people using this application. I’ll make it as powerful as possibile.

Now I’m releasing the version 0.3.1 with bug fix. Also with a little improvement.

—-

I don’t know that how many people like to use deb package, and how many people like to use apt source.

The deb package user must can’t always follow the newest version of Ubuntu Tweak, because they should always notice the new version’s release, download and update by themselves.

So at Ubuntu Tweak 0.3.1, I’ve added a Check New Version function. When you’re using Ubuntu Tweak, it’ll check if there’s new version available automatically. If has, it’ll make a dialog for you like this:

The Check Version has another function, it’ll submit your distribution and locale to the server, so that I can know about the base information of users, to help me develop and translate this application.

And in the future, I may add some more feature through network interactive.

Although it is only a small improvement, it is a large step for me. I’ve never deal with threading in the past, now I’ve overcame some technical problems. This means in the future, I’ll have more work to do.

Other update

• Rewrote the setup.py for other distributions.
• Fixed the shell script of templates.
• Fixed a translation string of Shortcuts.
• Fixed the bug of Icon settings.

Downloads:

Source Code:

ubuntu-tweak_0.3.1.orig.tar.gz

Deb package for all:

ubuntu-tweak_0.3.1-1~ppa1_all.deb

I decided to release it when the Ubuntu 8.04’s release, but something wasn’t done yet.

I saw some people can’t run Ubuntu Tweak 0.2.10 under Ubuntu 8.04, so the 0.3.0 comes, you should get it. It is support Hardy with full features!

—–

At Ubuntu Tweak 0.3.0, there’s many bugs fix and ui improvement, you may not notice it, but it’s really happens.

The most important thing is: Ubuntu Tweak is not only support Ubuntu, it is also support some major distributions, such as Fedora, OpenSUSE. Of course, it must be GNOME desktop. But I haven’t the time to create other distribution’s package, and I’ll continue focus on Ubuntu system.

The screeshot shows that Ubuntu Tweak running on Fedora 9 Preview:

New feature? Yes. One new feature is added, that’s “Shortcuts” settings.

At daily work, You must have some often used applications, why not start them by just press one key(single or combination). Through Ubuntu Tweak 0.3.0, it’s very easy to set a shortcut.

The screenshot of shortcuts settings:

I hope this new feature would be helpful to you.

Thanks to the people report bugs on https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-tweak/trunk/, I’ve fixed most bugs, now this application is more stable than before. It can run well since Ubuntu 7.04(GNOME 2.18).

OK, You must want to get it.

Downloads

Source Code:

ubuntu-tweak_0.3.0.orig.tar.gz

Deb package for all:

ubuntu-tweak_0.3.0-1~ppa3_all.deb

APT Source User Notice

If you use the apt source to update Ubuntu Tweak, Please change the distribution from “gutsy” to “hardy”.

Add the following two line to your sources.list. The details can be seen at Downloads

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/tualatrix/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/tualatrix/ubuntu hardy main

Enjoy! And don’t forget to tell me your feelings!

If you’ve downloaded or updated the version that released at 8 hours ago, please update again. The old version has some bugs.

Sorry. I’ve left away for a long time. I saw that many people left their suggestions here, first thank you very much. Maybe I haven’t the enough ability to implement all of them now, but Tweak will grew up step by step.

Now, I’ll show you the preview of Tweak 0.3. Not Ubuntu Tweak, because it’s running on Arch Linux.

In order to make Ubuntu Tweak running on other distributions of different versions(GNOME 2.18, GNOME 2.20 and GNOME 2.22), I’ve wrote many code, and almost re-wrote the most important part of it.

The progress is good. Tweak 0.3 can run on Arch Linux now, and it is the same to other distributions based on GNOME desktop environment.

I don’t change the GUI yet, so the picture only show Tweak 0.3 is running on Arch Linux.

Although there’s many differences among distributions, the GNOME desktop is almost the same.

So I do some work to make this application can be used by more people, but I’m sure that in the 0.3.X, I’ll add some Ubuntu specific tweaks.

Still Many work to be done. Hope it will be released soon.

There’re 7 scripts in Ubuntu Tweak by default. I think the scripts will be helpful in your daily work.

So, Please Download or Update it!

Source Code:

ubuntu-tweak_0.2.10.orig.tar.gz

Deb package:

ubuntu-tweak_0.2.10-1~ppa1_all.deb

If you have added the repository, just “sudo apt-get update” and “sudo apt-get dist-upgrade”.

The screenshots aren’t fresh yet, I’ve posted it in Ubuntu Tweak with Power Scripts.

You may not satisfied with the 7 default scripts. I promise, in the 0.3 series, I’ll add more “power scripts”.

So…This time, I really go to write the 0.3 series! See you!

Today I want to break it, because a new feature is added to Ubuntu Tweak again. This time, with Power Scripts.

You may ask what is “Power Scripts”. First, it is a kind of nautilus scripts.

Have you ever used nautilus scripts? Through nautilus scripts, you’ll done many kinds of work by just selecting files, and choosing what script to run.

But there’s a little limitation of nautilus scripts, we can’t do the work with interactive, and it has none output to tell us the progress or status. zenity isn’t so flexible as I expect.

I wrote some simple code the make the scripts more powerful. So I called it “Power Scripts”. And I wrote a interface of Ubuntu Tweak to manage the scripts.

Here’s the screenshots:

The way to manage the script is the same as Manage Teampltes. Just drag and drop.

Three default power scripts with interactive mode.

For example, select a file and run “Copy to”, a file chooser dialog will disappear and you can select the folder where you want copy the file to. If the target is exist, it will display a dialog and stop the work.

And multiple selection is supported.

I only wrote the three scripts with interactive, in the future, more power scripts will be added. Such as convert pictures, music or videos. This should take much time.

Of course, the nautilus scripts is supported too. Just drag and drop them.

What’s next? Waiting for your translation, the power scripts are translatable!

The version will be 0.2.10. I’ve made a mistake while releasing 0.2.8, so the 0.2.9 is used:)

Ubuntu Tweak 0.2.8 released! It is an improved release, has no new feature added.

Here’s the changelog:

• Removed the debian directory from the tarball source.
• Fixed a spelling error under templates.
• Made the templates translatable.
• Fixed the ubuntu-tweak.desktop.
• Some GUI improvement.

Downloads

Debian Package：

ubuntu-tweak_0.2.8-1~ppa2_all.debTarball Source：

ubuntu-tweak_0.2.8.orig.tar.gz

The repository is updated too.

Enjoy!

I’m continue to work with 0.3 series. Bye!