Adding custom menu entries in Debian/Ubuntu

Some of the applications which we install from third party sources are not indexed in the Applications tab in the GNOME shell.

The problem in such a case is the high chances of forgetting what the application name is! And this happens so often with me, that I am forced to create these entries in the Applications menu.

Here's a simple procedure to do this. Although there's System->Preferences->Main Menu to do this, this one is better for some obvious reasons (you can give your custom icons)

• The Applications Menu entries reside in the directory /usr/share/applications , and to create a new entry create a .desktop file in this directory

cd /usr/share/applications

sudo nano myapp.desktop

• The .desktop files have just the information needed to put up an entry in the Applications tab, and to run your app; Here is the sample content of the Qtoctave entry from the file qtoctave.desktop

[Desktop Entry]

Version=1.0

Name=QtOctave

Comment=Graphical Qt frontend for GNU Octave

TryExec=qtoctave

Exec=qtoctave

Icon=qtoctave

Type=Application

Categories=Development;Math;Science;Education;Electronics

• Make these entries into the myapp.desktop file with relevant modifications like your executable file name in the exec field.
• After modification of the .desktop file, save and close it. Now, the entry should appear in the categories which you mention.
• To add your application an icon, crop a 32x32 png image and add it into the default icons directory /usr/share/app-install/icons/,

sudo cp myicon.png /usr/share/app-install/icons/ 

In the Icon field of the .desktop file, provide the file name if the icon resides in the aforementioned default directory, or give the full path of the icon

And there you go, your own custom application entry with a custom icon!

Over to Oneiric Ocelot

Ubuntu 11.10 aka Oneiric Ocelot made a silent appearance yesterday in the Operating system arena. Although it has come silently, it does make quite a bit of noise with whatever it has brought along.

After Natty Narhwal and the controversial Unity, Oneiric Ocelot comes somewhat as a pacifier, with improvements on Unity (yes, Unity is here to stay) and official support to Gnome3.


Here are some salient features of Oneiric.

• Linux kernel 3.0! 

Of all the reviews I had read, no one seemed to have noticed that Ubuntu 11.10 ships with the Linux 3 series kernel. That is certainly worth a mention. Although the Linux3.0 by itself has had no major changes except for the notation and rumors about power regression. Will keep an eye on the battery on my machine.

• Unity revamped

As all other reviews have been posting, Unity does get a revamp and seems more stable. It responds quickly, no lag whatsoever. And the aesthetics are more pleasing than in Natty. When I am going to get Oneiric as my production OS, I will certainly want to have picked up all the keyboard shortcuts for Unity.
super+s, super+a, super+f and super+m are for now really handy to view the workspaces, browse applications, files and music respectively.

Another important aspect about the feel of Unity is the dash itself. The new dash is gorgeous which acquires a tinge correlating the backdrop of the other windows/the desktop itself.

• Login screen is sleeker

Another small but pleasing change is on the Login screen itself. It looks simple, yet futuristic. There is also something about the new asterisk while typing the password which grabs one's attention :-)

• No Me menu

The elaborate Me menu has been removed and a less elaborate dock with access to most performance options like Power, hardware, etc.. has been added. Unclear of the intent of this change though.

• Evolution gives way to Thunderbird

Evolution the  long associate as the default mail client has been replaced with Mozilla Thunderbird. Having used only Evolution and not Thunderbird I'm not in  a position to comment on it. From Mozilla must be good. 

• Software Centre is bigger, better

I haven't been a big fan of Software Center. Nonetheless, it has a more professional look and will be of certain use to new users. First thing, I am getting Synaptic, just for sentimental reasons ;-) 

• Missing applications

After removing GIMP from the default install in Maverick, there's no Synaptic Package Manager and Pitivi video editor. Nonetheless, still very much supported by Ubuntu.

• Miscellaneous: Default font all across is the Ubuntu font. Looks a little weird on the terminal though. The default set of wallpapers are amazing, except for the Oneiric one.

• Installation took about 7 minutes and that is still the best in Industry!

• Multitouch support still there; One point touch is left click, Two point touch is right click and the accelerometer simulation kind of an effect with the track pad are still thriving.

• Booting takes about 10-12 seconds on a fresh install; Will see if it slows down as Natty did when I had loaded with hundreds of startup applications. 

 Of all the current OS'es, Oneiric, if not for everything, just for its aesthetics takes a far leap ahead!

Wavelab with GNU Octave

GNU Octave is the Free Software used for mathematical computation. With an extensive support for versatile library functions, and code compatibility with Matlab, GNU Octave is a sweet treat to every engineer and researcher.

Apart from the officially supported libraries and application toolboxes, GNU Octave also has abundant support and addons from extraneous efforts.

The Signal processing toolboxes, are exhaustive enough and consist of speech processing, image processing and video processing functionalities, which provide a common, stable and evolving platform for any of these domain specific applications.


Taking signal processing to the next level, when one is looking for some advanced signal processing functions, rendezvous with Wavelet Transforms is assured.


While GNU Octave does not officially, as yet , support a Wavelet Transform toolbox, the Wavelab toolbox from the Stanford University project works like a charm. With this extensive background to the toolbox itself, I present the procedure for incorporating this Wavelab toolbox with GNU Octave.

• Download the Wavelab toolbox  http://www-stat.stanford.edu/~wavelab/Wavelab_850/WAVELAB850.ZIP

• Unzip the archive; A folder Wavelab850 will be created with the contents of the toolbox

• Create a directory /usr/toolbox to dump the Wavelab toolbox

sudo mkdir /usr/toolbox

• Copy the unzipped contents to the location /usr/toolbox 

sudo cp -r Wavelab850 /usr/toolbox

• To link the Wavelab library to GNU Octave, open the GNU Octave interpreter in the GNU/Linux terminal, and add the path of the previously added Wavelab850 directory, so that GNU Octave can fetch the Wavelab library files when the function call is made 

octave:2> addpath /usr/toolbox/Wavelab850

• Now, invoke the functions from Wavelab by running the Wavelab file WavePath.m in the octave terminal, by just typing WavePath in the interpreter.

octave:2> WavePath

• If the WaveLab has been invoked a welcome message as shown below would appear  

• Now all the amazing Wavelab functions are available in GNU Octave! 

• To take a stroll into WaveLab, type WTBrowser. "Chapter 2 Fourier Kingdom" is something every science enthusiast must look into and understand! 

• Further one particluar example code I was deeply impressed with is the 2-D analysis of synthetic objects ( like images). Type in toon0231 in the interpreter to have some pleasing revelations of Wavelet Transforms

octave:2> toon0231

 Happy Hacking, Happy Learning !
PS: In subsequent posts I will try to regress and give some more fundamental features of GNU Octave. 

i-freesoftware: My eulogy to Steve Jobs

Well, it might sound abusive to add the i-tag to Free Software, I suppose.

After the demise of Steve Jobs, and the initial outpour of adulation of Steve Jobs and few trickles of criticism, I am late in getting this post up.


Steve Jobs' demise, personally to me has been the loss of an individual who showed people how to fight the odds. Like the many of you, even I too was deeply moved and inspired by his Stanford Speech. There is no denying that he was a man to look up to, and learn from at various levels.

But, when it comes to the perception of the entreprenuer Steve Jobs, there lies a deep disdain for some really important reasons I shall try to putforth in this post.

Steve Jobs: The Entreprenuer is not someone I would really be missing (I wrote this before RMS could say something on these lines); Given the fact that I am at awe with the aesthetics embedded in sleek pieces of Apple hardware, the point of contention is Steve Jobs being the grandest mascot of "Closed, Proprietary Technology" and  in this process Jobs has driven his customers into the most dreadful of the proprietary shackles.

Before a couple of years, while I was in an offline discussion with Eben Moglen, he had expressed serious bitterness towards Steve Jobs and Apple. I later realized it was about the BSD code of the UNIX which all Apple products embed, and also of the initial free software projects which today reside behind Apple's closed doors. And today, carrying on with that legacy, there is virtually nothing that ain't super proprietary and really closed when it comes to Apple.

Further, Apple products apart from being the zenith of closed source software, they are also the certain baton holders of highly closed hardware, and now into the Digital Restricted Media realms, ultimately rendering the users with zero freedom.


And as the brain behind most of the Apple decisions, these are certain moves by Steve Jobs which have made the technological world a really bad place! It might be good for technology, it certainly is not for people!

Although a person who showed courage in battling his life through odds will be missed, a ruthless entrepreneuer and mascot of unfreedom will certainly become oblivous.

People, and their freedom first, is what we believe in the Free Software Movement.