GS Design Just another developer blog

A friend of mine just bought a e-pc from acer that runs a custom linux OS called aspire one.
At first sight it seems like it a great solution for basic users since it has a very friendly interface, and it comes preinstalled with a a pack of software that is generally used like IM client, email reader, browser, office suite and much more.

But although this looks nice, it becomes a problem when you want more from your epc, when you want to install new apps or want to customize something. You dont even have a right menu on the desktop.

How to enable advanced menu [small hack]

To do this you will need to go to Files > My Documents. In the window opened go to the File Menu and click on Terminal.
In the terminal window input xfce-setting-show and hit enter.
This will bring up the Xfce Settings Manager.

Click on the Desktop link and you will get the Desktop Preferences window where you must select the Behavior tab.
Now mark under Menus the Show desktop menu on right click option and close the window.

Now you will bring up the normal desktop menu when you right click somewhere on the desktop which contains more options than the limited user interface on the Aspire One.

Changing the root password

Now for even more advanced usage you will need to use the root user. But after a lot of searching i came to the conclusion that you cant find out what the password for the root is, instead you can change it.

To do so you must click on the desktop and open a terminal window ( you can find it under System > Terminal ).
In the terminal window first type “Sudo –su” and hit Enter.
Then type “passwd” and hit Enter.
You will now be prompted to enter the new password. After typing press enter and retype it.
That is it. You have successfully changed the root password

Installing new applications

Now that you have enabled the advanced menu and have the root password you can proceed to installing new applications.
This is quite simple, you just right click on the desktop and select System > Add/Remove Software.
You will be prompted to enter the root password and after you enter it the package manager will launch.
And now the install should be easy as cake and is similar to any Linux based OS.

Adding new shortcuts to your desktop

Even though you have enabled the new advanced menu and you can access your new installed software from that menu, it just doesn’t feel right. I bet you want them to be included in the shortcuts from the desktop. Well that is just a bit tricky, you will need to edit an xml config file.
The address for it is :

/home/user/.config/xfce4/desktop/group-a pp.xml

Hope this was helpfull,
Cheers

You downloaded a CD image in a bin format. However, nothing will read it. Here’s what you do.

You just downloaded the latest, baddest program from some torrent somewhere. However, it’s just a bunch of bin files. You realize these are CD images or ISOs… but you don’t know how to run them.

You just create a text file that is named the exact same thing as your bin file except with a cue extension. In this text file you need this information:

FILE “yourbinfilenamehere.bin” BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE1/2352
INDEX 01 00:00:00

Step-by-step:

Say you have a file called gameiso.bin

1. Right click on a blank space in the same folder
2. Select new text document
3. Double click to open your New Text Document.txt
4. Paste this into the file:
FILE “gameiso.bin” BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE1/2352
INDEX 01 00:00:00

Make sure you edit gameiso.bin to the exact name of your bin file.

5. Click File menu
6. Click Save
7. Click the Red X to close it
8. Right click the New Text Document.txt and select Rename
9. Rename it like your bin file except with a cue extension:
gameiso.cue
10. Now any program that can read CD-rom ISOs (nero, alcohol, etc) should be ready to read the file.