Watchtower Library 2015 on Ubuntu 14.04

I got my Watchtower Library 2015 DVD and installed it.

No problems to report so far, but I would like to point out that I did use the "PlayOnLinux" method I wrote about in July.

As the screen shot below shows, it was a "smashing success".

Here is the article: http://dennygoot.blogspot.com/2015/07/watchtower-library-2014-with-playonlinux.html

And here is the walk through again in that article:

If you have had issues installing a newer version of wine, or need an older version of wine for another app, PlayOnLinux is a great way to install the Watchtower Library on Linux.

Before we start, I must tell you the PlayOnLinux way takes longer, and needs to download packages from the internet to accomplish it's task.

First of all is the installation of PlayOnLinux. In Ubuntu (or other Debian Linux distros) you just type sudo apt-get install playonlinux in the terminal, or look for playonlinux in synaptic or the Ubuntu Software Center.

Once that is done and you start PlayOnLinux, here is how you install the Watchtower Library:

This screen, choose "Install a program"

Wait for the load screen to end

Type in "Watchtower Library" (without the quotes) 

and choose your version

Once this screen arrives, click next, and wait.. 

it takes a while to install.

PlayOnLinux has to install several packages, 

this is the first, wine 1.7.

More wait time, extracting Wine. (Patience!)

Another package to install, wine gecko.

Now for wine mono. Keep waiting.

Nearing the end, PlayOnLinux needs to make a 

virtual drive c for all of this wine goodness.

Now the screen we waited for. I personally store

the watchtower library cd files on a usb drive,

but for most people you will want to choose 

"use cd-rom".

Point the program to the CD or place you have the Watchtower Library files, and the rest is just like installing it on Windows or older versions of wine.

After installation, PlayOnLinux will make a desktop icon.

If you want to have a menu entry instead, start your favorite menu editor (i.e. menulibre) and put this info into your new menu entry:

Command: /usr/share/playonlinux/playonlinux --run "Watchtower Library 2014" %F

Icon location: /home/xubuntu/.PlayOnLinux//icones/full_size/Watchtower Library 2014
(Change the "xubuntu" to your username.)

I hope this how to is useful.

As always, if you need help, you can reach me with the info in the "Contact and about Denny" section on the right.

-Denny

Cub Linux, the new Chromixium

While looking through Ubuntu based Linux distributions I came across some news that Google requested that an Ubuntu derivative change it's name. It was called Chromixium, it would now be called Cub Linux.

I looked into the Cub Linux design, and liked what I saw. Being the owner of a Chromebook, the design was very familiar to me. I also liked how light it was on it's feet.

Cub as I said looks like Chrome OS from the line of Chromebooks. It's running on Openbox.

This gives the distro a very speedy feel. It's also a very polished, rather nice looking feel for an Openbox based desktop.

I made a few tweaks to Cub, and want to mention those here.

First off, I am a Netflix viewer, so for me Chromium had to go for regular Google Chrome.

This is actually a very easy transition. It's a menu entry!

Right-click on the desktop
Click on Applications —> Internet —> Google Browser Choice
Enter your password

Then just follow the step by step guide. If for some strange reason you do not have the google browser choice app or something seems to go wrong, check this link out here: http://chromixium.wikidot.com/switch-to-chrome.

Next I needed to kill my touch pad. I am just not a touchpad person. Can't stand how they get in the way of my typing.

So thanks to a former article I wrote, I already had the tools to kill it myself.

First you run xinput list in a terminal window. Once you have determined where your touch pad resides on that list, then you simply add xinput set-prop (your device's number here) "Device Enabled" 0 in your Openbox's autostart file.

The autostart file can be found here: /home/(user name here)/.config/openbox/autostart

And my Cub Linux Openbox autostart looks like this:

# ob-autostart is a simple GUI to add/remove .desktop
# files to the ~/.config/ob-autostart/conf file for autostarting
# with Openbox:
xinput set-prop 13 "Device Enabled" 0 &
xinput set-prop 14 "Device Enabled" 0 &
post-install &
ob-autostart -d &

You can see I killed my touch pad, and that goofy gumdrop in the keyboard looking pointing device as well.

Lastly I added parcellite, which is a good clip board manager. Without one, anythimg you want to copy and paste will be lost if you close that application.

That can be very frustrating. You can get parcellite from synaptic, apt-get or the software center app. Here is Parcellite's official page: http://parcellite.sourceforge.net/

So having done that, and setting my most used apps on the desktop, a wallpaper of my choosing and a few other things here and there I got this very useful and quick desktop:

My desktop, click to enlarge

Me showing off the right click menu. 

Very sharp for a openbox distro.

And this is the "Google Services" menu 

(magnifying lens on bottom left)

Here is what the Cub Linux people have to say about their unique Linux distro:

"Cub Linux is a web-focused, fast but familiar operating system.
It can be as simple or as powerful as you need it to be.

Cub Linux combines the best of Chromium and Ubuntu Linux. Hence: Cub = Chromium + Ubuntu.

Cub Linux is an operating system that combines the best of aspects of the Chromium browser (speed, Google integration, web apps) with the best of Ubuntu Linux (hardware compatibility, thousands of mainstream applications) to create a user experience that is as familiar as Chrome OS and as powerful as Ubuntu Linux.

Cub Linux is free to download and use forever. It was formally known as Chromixium OS and is created by the same developer, RichJack.

Turn any computer into a powerful Chromebook-like device. Tap into the power of the Google ecosystem without being tied to the cloud. Install conventional applications for productivity, media or pleasure and store and print documents offline. Use the Chromium browser and enhance it with Google and other apps from the Chrome store. Sync with your Google account and access gmail, Google documents, hangouts and YouTube amongst others.

Cub Linux is an independent project to provide the best of the Chromium open source project with the Ubuntu open source operating system." -https://cublinux.com/about/