MySQL Workbench can't store connection passwords

This is workaround if you have issue like this. Add hardcoded password in each connection in ~/.mysql/workbench/connections.xml

<value type="string" key="password">yoursecretpassword</value>

Asus N46VZ on Xubuntu 12.04 64 bit

1. Laptop randomly freeze.
It is because a problem in kernel 3.2 with Intel Ivy Bridge Integrated HD 4000 Graphics. It's fix by kernel 3.3, so please upgrade kernel to quantal or raring kernel.
$ sudo apt-get install linux-generic-lts-raring

2. Brightness key not works
Fn+F5 (BrightnessDown) and Fn+F6 (BrightnessUp) not works, it fix by add "acpi_osi=!Windows 2012" in kernel parameter:
$ vim /etc/default/grub
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="acpi_osi=\"!Windows 2012\""

3. Wireless key not works
Fn+Fn (Wireless Toggle) fix by adding following kernel parameter:
$ vim /etc/default/grub
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="pciehp.pciehp_force=1 pciehp.pciehp_poll=1 acpi_osi=\"!Windows 2012\""

4. Keyboard backlight key
Please use this tutorial. then add following line at the and of /etc/rc.local:
chmod 777 /sys/class/leds/asus::kbd_backlight/brightness

Add those scripts to Xfce keyboard shortcut in Setting Manager > Keyboard > Application Shortcuts:

5. Touchpad toggle not works
Use the following script then to to keyboard shortcut as step 4
~$ cat touchpad_toggle.sh 
#!/bin/bash
res=$(synclient -l | grep TouchpadOff | cut -d '=' -f2)
if [ $res -eq ' 0' ]; then
    synclient TouchpadOff=1
    kill -9 `pidof syndaemon`
elif [ ${res} -eq ' 1' ]; then
    synclient TouchpadOff=0
    syndaemon -i .4 -k -d
fi

syndaemon is for disable touchpad while typing.

6. Set "3 finger click as middle click" and "disable touchpad while typing" on auto startup apps.

Copy following script:

~$ cat touchpad_settings.sh 

#!/bin/bash

# 3 finger click as middle click

synclient TapButton3=2

synclient ClickFinger3=2

# disable touchpad while typing

kill -9 `pidof syndaemon`

syndaemon -i .4 -k -d

Then add in autostart applications in Xfce. Setting Manager > Session and Startup > Application Autostart

7. Install VGA Hybrid Driver using bumblebee

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia virtualgl linux-headers-generic-lts-raring

Reboot

Install Checkpoint VPN (SNX) on Linux x86_64

$ sudo apt-get install libstdc++5:i386 libx11-6:i386 libpam0g:i386
$ sudo ./snx_install.sh

Tumbler: disabling PDF and ODF

1. Rename/delete tumbler's shared library related to PDF and ODF file:
$ sudo mv /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/tumbler-1/plugins/tumbler-poppler-thumbnailer.so /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/tumbler-1/plugins/tumbler-poppler-thumbnailer.so.bak

$ sudo mv /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/tumbler-1/plugins/tumbler-odf-thumbnailer.so /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/tumbler-1/plugins/tumbler-odf-thumbnailer.so.bak

Replace i386 to x86_64 if you have 64 bit OS.

2. Regenerate thumbnails:
$ rm ~/.thumbnails

Fixing SSH connection Cisco VPN Client in Ubuntu Oneiric

1. To make NetworkManager connect to Cisco VPN. Update your NM packages. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1750132

2. VPN connected.

3. SSH failed to connect

kholis@kalau:~$ ssh -v user01@192.168.1.2
OpenSSH_5.8p1 Debian-7ubuntu1, OpenSSL 1.0.0e 6 Sep 2011
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: Applying options for *
debug1: Connecting to 192.168.1.2 [192.168.1.2] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file /home/kholis/.ssh/id_rsa type 1

Fix missing flag xfce4-xkb-plugin

When I use this plugin to change the keyboard layout to arabic. Text "ara" is appear instead of arabic flag.

I see arabic flag in /usr/share/xfce4/xkb/flags/ which has name sa.svg. To display flag in panel, simply copy or make link to ara.svg from that file.
$ cd /usr/share/xfce4/xkb/flags/
$ sudo ln -s sa.svg ara.svg

Hatteland 3M Microtouch Driver on Linux

The original driver work well if using default serial port, but it doesn't work for USB to Serial converter. If you have this problem, you can use open source mtouch driver in linux.

1. Detect your usb device
$ dmesg | grep usb
Usually /dev/ttyUSB0

2. Install mtouch driver
$ sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-mutouch

3. Install inputattach to make the device using mtouch driver
$ sudo apt-get install inputattach
In other distro, it packaged as xinput-utils.

4. Connect the device
$ sudo inputattach -mtouch /dev/ttyUSB0

5. You can calibrate it by using xinput_calibrator
$ sudo apt-get install xinput-calibrator

Oblivion theme for Netbeans

I found Oblivion theme for netbeans in this blog but there many differences compare to the original one (gedit) in Java code. I made some little modification of it. Here is the result:

You can download it here.

Bugs and Annoying Things on Solaris 11 Express

1. Delete button produce "~" character in gnome-terminal
Problem: Delete button always produce tilde(~) character on terminal. we cannot delete character in front of current cursor
Solution: https://defect.opensolaris.org/bz/show_bug.cgi?id=3090

2. System error bell set to true by default
Problem: Motherboard speaker always ringing loudly when we did something wrong. such as unavailable command in terminal, press right arrow button on the end of line in editor, etc.
Solution: http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/how-to-linux-disable-or-turn-off-beep-sound-for-terminal/

Fixing mcedit transparent problem in mc 4.7.0.x series

In previous release of mc, we just need to add following code to make it transparent in [Colors] section:

base_color=normal=editnormal=,default:

But since version 4.7.0.x (using in Ubuntu 10.04 and later) it doesn't work. Especially while using mcedit, it looks ugly. it still using normal background color for empty space, see this bug.

To make it works again, replace code above with this:

Nautilus Script: Extract to Folder

Use this script if you want to extract compressed file into a folder in nautilus.
Make text file named "Extract to Folder" in ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts/ then just put the following code into it.

make it executable using $chmod +x ~/gnome2/nautilus-scripts/Extract\ to\ Folder
and now you can use it in nautilus by simply right click > Scripts > Extract to Folder.