The Unofficial Manual for Zorin 17 Core
by
swarfendor437
(E. & O.E.)
[ This Edition updated/created 27.12.2023 ]
(amended from the Unofficial Manual for ZorinOS 15 Core)
(The Zorin name and any of the ZorinOS trade marks, logos, domain
names, and other distinctive features are property of The Zorin
Group.)
1
(All content in this manual is written under Creative Commons Licence – this
unofficial manual can be reproduced in whole or in part but without the official
Zorin Z logo or Zorin OS logo whom the author has no rights to if intended to
upload elsewhere. All content can be printed for personal use only without
monetary gain).
Acknowledgements
The Zorin Team.
Cover image taken from a plymouth theme available from gnome-look.org,
https://www.gnome-look.org/p/2105968
The Z logo I embellished with fire effect, ‘Zorin on fire’! using Inkscape and
GIMP.
Wallpaper added to collection:
https://www.pling.com/p/1394577
TextMaker Professional 2024 (Linux Edition) used to produce this offering and
exporting to pdf.
Formats of this manual have been published as:
.odt (Open Document Template)
.pdf (Portable Document Format - A)
.tmdx (TextMaker document)
.docx (Microsoft 2007-2021 document)
2
Contents Page
Acknowledgements..............................................................................................1 System Requirements:.........................................................................................9 Advice on where to get Zorin:............................................................................11 Changing the Boot order:...................................................................................13 A warning to Notebook (Laptop) owners!:.........................................................14 1. Booting your Zorin media in 'live' mode.......................................................19 2. The Live Desktop – a guided tour..................................................................23 Sub-menus:........................................................................................................48 i. Accessories;...................................................................................................48 ii. Graphics;.......................................................................................................52 iii. Internet........................................................................................................55 iv. Office............................................................................................................57 v. Sound & Video;..............................................................................................63 vi. a. System Tools – Top;..................................................................................68 vi. b. System Tools – Bottom.............................................................................74 3. Zorin Appearance.........................................................................................80 vii. a. Utilities (Top);.........................................................................................109 vii. b. Utilities (bottom)...................................................................................131 4. Live session user.........................................................................................140 5. Settings: ....................................................................................................145 [ This section contains elements from the Unofficial Manual for Zorin 15 Core ]
.......................................................................................................................
..198 First things to do after installation...................................................................199 a. Change Software Sources first, then Update the system............................199 b. Update the System: Menu | System Tools | Software Updater....................200 c. GNOME Tweaks (gnome-tweaks) –[formerly gnome-tweak-tool].................202 d. Dconf Editor................................................................................................210 e. ClamTk:.......................................................................................................211 f. rkhunter (root-kit hunter):............................................................................212 6. Accessibility:...............................................................................................213 7. Recommended Applications:......................................................................222 a. PDF Mod .....................................................................................................222 b. Shutter:.......................................................................................................223 c. Stacer: - available in the Software Channel:...............................................224 d. Alternative File Manager: Krusader (File Manager/Explorer):......................231 e. MultiSystem:...............................................................................................253 f. Calibre – Ebook reader/viewer/converter:....................................................254 g. Graphics Packages/3d Modelling:...............................................................255 h. DeskTopPublishing – Scribus:......................................................................264 i. Video Editing:...............................................................................................265 k. Screencast software....................................................................................266 l. Internet packages:.......................................................................................267 m. CD Emulation.............................................................................................269 n. Accountancy Application.............................................................................270 o. Virtual Machine Software............................................................................271
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p. K3b ........................................................................................................... 272 q. System Restore utility: Timeshift .............................................................. 273
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Troubleshooting tips:........................................................................................276 1. Installation:.................................................................................................276 2. The Login Loop – You try to login but after you enter your assword you are back to where you started!..............................................................................278 3. How to recover a ‘/home’ partition marked as unallocated........................281
Addendum - more useful software...................................................................286 Another useful utility, a video and audio file converter, Winff.........................286 OCR and pdf Software......................................................................................287
5
Introduction/Foreword (whatever …)
Welcome to the wonderful world of ZorinOS where it is hoped you too will enjoy
this beautifully garnered Operating System. I first ‘discovered’ Zorin when it
was at release 4 (around 2010?) which led to my first installation video of triple
booting Windows™ XP/Windows™ 7/Zorin 4 64-bit:
(http://www.veoh.com/watch/v283328437Pyp3Byy)
I have been fortunate to have experience of GNU/Linux since 2002, introduced
to me by a brilliant School IT Technician, named Chris, who gave me Knoppix
2.9 – Wow! an OS that had a human voice to alert you to the fact the system
was up and running – and not even installed!
I was determined that Zorin should not go the way of Freespire, which until I
discovered Zorin, was the only community-based OS to have a Windows™ feel
(apart from the commercial parent, Linspire, which rose and fell by the hands of
the same man, Michael Robertson.) Having joined the forum, initially in 2010,
and had been providing answers to unanswered threads, after 2 weeks I
suddenly found myself becoming a moderator! A great honour and great
responsibility. I hope I have been able to enrich users experience of ZorinOS
over the years.
6
System Requirements:
https://help.zorin.com/docs/getting-started/system-requirements/
Now to the nitty-gritty. Before going any further, to quote Wolfman,
"Preparation and planning prevent poor performance! "
subtitled "Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail!"
To dual-booters, before doing anything to your Other OS, make sure it is up-to-
date and you have a backup of your entire system, (at the very least your data)
in the event something should go wrong, or to quote Admiral Jack Denver
"Anything could happen in the next half hour!". For complete system
backup my preferred paid for option is Acronis (for Windows™)
(https://www.acronis.com/en-gb/personal/true-image-comparison/), and best
free option for simplicity of use, is rescuezilla (https://rescuezilla.com/). The
pros of Acronis is that you can 'squash' a hard drive image to varying degrees
of compression, but primarily its advantage is that it can do proportional image
copying from a large to small drive and vice versa but only works for creating
backups of Winidows, rescuezilla has to be the same size of drive or bigger – it
can not clone proportionally. There are other free ones too, Easeus
(https://www.easeus.com/) and Paragon
(https://www.paragon-software.com/free/br-free/) to name but two - remember
these are Windows™ applications and no guarantee they will ever work in
respect of GNU/Linux. These are Windows™ specific options, only rescuezilla is
a cross-platform backup tool.
7
Whilst we are on the subject of backup, System Repair software is something to
also have present: If you have Windows™ 7 or higher, make yourself a System
Repair Disc now before anything else, especially notebook users who may not
have access to Windows™ Media – Just enter ‘Repair Disc’ in the Windows™
Menu Search bar, it should be the first thing to come up in results. System
Rescue CD (https://www.system-rescue-cd.org/), Ultimate Boot CD
(https://www.ultimatebootcd.com/) are excellent tools for issues with booting
Windows. For data recovery I would only trust one piece of software following a
trial of its demo (I still don’t own a copy): GetDataBack for NTFS (et.al.)
(https://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm)
If you are an existing GNU/Linux or Zorin OS user, backup your ‘/home’ folder/s
(folders if more than one user) and be sure to use Ctrl+ H to show all your
hidden folders to ensure your settings of currently installed apps are preserved.
Please note that you cannot preserve your Printers, just as you can’t in that
other OS, and if you installed 3rd party applications, make sure you have
backed up any .deb file or .tar.gz or other file that contains applications from
sources other than from the Zorin Software Channel or alternative Package
Manager (e.g., Synaptic).
Update your system!: When was the last time you bothered to update any
of your manufacturers hardware drivers, in particular the BIOS? Some
members of the Zorin forum in the past have had issues with installation,
quickly resolved by an update to the Motherboard’s BIOS. Also be sure you
follow the manufacturer’s guidelines on how to update the BIOS. On some
earlier systems (early 00’s) some manufacturer/s were offering an update via
Windows – bad move – you could so easily, er hem, trash the BIOS undertaking
such a route! Those wanting to dual-boot should use that Other OS’s Disk
Management Utility to shrink the main system partition to allow room for Zorin
to reside, and never put any GNU/Linux on a drive at the start of the drive if
dual booting as you are opening yourself up to potential future woes. Finally, if
you are looking at dual-booting you should ALWAYS choose the ‘Something
Else’ method. Tutorial video on dual-booting with Windows™ 7 here:
https:// vimeo.com/110085401
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Dual booting tutorial for Windows™ 8/(10) here (extra special thanks to
Matthew Moore): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlTgaWs9BD0
Advice on where to get Zorin:
https://zorin.com/os/download/
Validation of downloaded .iso:
When downloading DO NOT use any Download Accelerator Managers as this
has been known to cause corrupt downloads.
Once you have downloaded the .iso, check its integrity (checksum) by using
either SHA256 (https://itsfoss.com/checksum-tools-guide-linux/ this useful
walkthrough will show you how to use gtkhash tool) if you are using GNU/Linux.
For Windows users download Raymond’s utility from here:
https://www.softpedia.com/get/Security/Security-Related/MD5-and-SHA-1-
Checksum-Utility.shtml
Correct SHA256 checksums for
Zorin OS 16.3 Core 64-bit
Zorin OS 16.3 Lite 64-bit
Zorin OS 16.3 Pro 64-bit
Zorin OS 16.3 Pro Lite 64-bit
Zorin OS 16.3 Education 64-bit
Zorin OS 16.3 Eduction Lite 64-bit
Zorin OS 17 Core 64-bit
can be found here
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If you install K3b CD/DVD burner this will generate the MD5 sum of the iso:
If you are going to burn a DVD for Zorin in Windows, I can only recommend one
product and that is imgburn – get it from here: https://ninite.com
When using image burn, burn at the SLOWEST possible speed – this used to be
1x but most modern burners slowest speed these days is 8x. So even if you
selected 1x, imgburn is smart enough to automatically adjust to your burner's
speed.
If you intend to install via USB/Thumb Drive, format it to FAT32 File System and
then follow the guide here:
https://help.zorin.com/docs/getting-started/install-zorin-os/
or alternatively if using Windows use ‘Rufus’:
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/pro-tip-use-rufus-to-create-a-bootable-
usb-drive-to-install-almost-any-os/
And one other option, Ventoy – it works for me!:
https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html
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Whether installing alongside an existing Operating System or on its own, I
always select 'something else' or 'advanced' dependent on what GNU/Linux
system I am installing – it means you are in control with less likelihood of things
going wrong.
Changing the Boot order:
Now once you have your chosen media you will need to change your Boot order
from HDD/SSD to DVD/USB. This on grey machines (system builds that are not
manufacture branded) will require booting to the BIOS and going to the ‘Boot
Options’ page, and changing the order of boot sequence to the device that
holds the image of Zorin. Some motherboards in the past have had a default
key of F8 which is a bit bizarre from a Windows™ users perspective!
On Dell machines it is F2 to enter the BIOS, F12 to do a one time change in the
boot order, For HP PCs (https://support.hp.com/in-en/document/c00364979), HP
Notebooks (https://www.support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01443326/), Toshiba
(https://support.toshiba.com/sscontent?docId=98080545), Acer
(https://uk.answers.acer.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/7550/~/changing-boot-
order) Asus (https://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1008277/) Lenovo
(https://support.lenovo.com/gb/en/solutions/ht117661)
How to manage UEFI when installing Zorin:
https://www.howtogeek.com/56958/htg-explains-how-uefi-will-replace-the-bios/
https://altgov2.org/csm-vs-uefi/
Understanding the difference between MBR (Master Boot Record) and the
newer GPT (GUID Partition Table)
(https://www.howtogeek.com/193669/whats-the-difference-between-gpt-and-
mbr-when-partitioning-a-drive/)
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A warning to Notebook (Laptop) owners!:
I can only speak of HP Note/Netbooks but this may also be true of others.
Basically what HP does is make a System Partition – this would normally get
created with Windows™ 8/10, and appears at the start of the hard drive. Next
comes the partition with Windows on it (C:\ drive), then a ‘system
restore/drivers’ partition, and lastly media recovery creator to create DVD’s to
reinstall the original OS to the Notebook. All of these partitions, even the FAT32
ones, are flagged as Primary Partitions – this prevents the installation of any
other Operating System so you need to make some hard decisions on what to
do. My advice would be to create the reinstall media and save in a safe place
then delete that partition which does that. Regardless of how many drives you
have, you can only ever have 4 primary Partitions. You will need only ONE
primary partition to be created for Zorin after you have used Windows Drive
Manager to shrink C:\ drive.
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Basic manual formatting and installation:
1. One Primary partition, formatted to Ext4 FS (File System) to hold the 'root'
system - '/' - 80 Gb or 81920 Mib should be more than adequate.
2. An extended partition after the Primary, at the END of which you create a
'swap area' equivalent to double the amount of Physical Memory you have
installed in your machine. No need to specify a file system as due to the very
nature of creating a 'swap area' it knows what to do.
3. Whatever is left at the start of the Extended partition, format to Ext4, and
mark it as '/home' - this is where all your Personal Files (and other users '/home'
folders) will reside, including any Windows applications in the hidden '.wine'
folder.
4. If you are installing to a complex OS structure, you may need to create a
'/boot' partition of 512 Mb BEFORE the '/' partition – as this is where you will
store GRUB if you intend to use the 'non-traditional method' using EasyBCD
(the free one) from NeoSmart Technologies (https://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/). It
('/boot') is also useful on Asus eeePc’s that had the 10 Gb split SSD where
Windows™ could not be put on the larger part – well you can with GNU/Linux!
Please note that EasyBCD cannot be used with Windows™ 11.
Booting from a USB on a Notebook/Desktop whose BIOS prevents
booting from USB:
Possible Solution 1: Check for BIOS updates from your dedicated manufacturer
website (PC, Notebook, Motherboard).
Possible Solution 2: (You will need a floppy drive/external floppy drive for this
or an external/optical drive):
https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanagers.html
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Only Zorin to be installed?:
If Zorin is going to be the only system on your device, then choose the first
installation option where it wants to wipe everything out. If you have a
Note/Net-book you may want to backup your entire drive/system using either
Acronis or free system backup software and an external Hard Drive before
commencing. Particular care should be taken if attempting to install to an
eMMC device – these are worse than Celeron and Sempron powered devices as
they have limited storage space (normally 32 Gb) and limited memory (2 Gb)
and if one component fails on the main processing board, the machine
becomes dead as nothing can be replaced/repaired. So avoid Chromebooks
and their adversarial spin-offs like the plague! If you have the spare cash to
buy a machine that is dedicated to run GNU/Linux then I advise you to take a
look at the following potential suppliers – but read reviews before taking the
plunge:
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GNU/Linux dedicated Hardware Manufacturers/Suppliers:
Respect Your Freedom (RYF) Certified:
(https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom)
Others: https://linuxpreloaded.com/
https://www.cyberciti.biz/hardware/laptop-computers-with-linux-installed-or-
preloaded/
United Kingdom:
https://www.entroware.com/store/desktops
https://www.entroware.com/store/laptops
https://minifree.org/ (ship worldwide)
https://zorinos.com/computers/ (https://starlabs.systems/?
rfsn=2798196.ef7ef&utm_source=zorin)
Netherlands: https://zorinos.com/computers/ (http://bit.ly/novacustomzorin)
Australia:
https://www.linuxnow.com.au/dsintro.html#standarddesktops
USA (Desktop, Notebook and hardware components and peripherals –
ship worldwide)
https://www.thinkpenguin.com/
https://system76.com/
https://zareason.com/
https://puri.sm/products/
If you must:
https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/cty/pdp/spd/xps-13-9370-laptop?
view=configurations
15
Before you make any purchase, search for video reviews, owner reviews before
making your choice should you go down a dedicated GNU/Linux route – you will
pay a premium above a mass produced device for that Other OS but you will be
guaranteed that GNU/Linux will run on them. If you are considering purchasing
any machine, particularly Notebooks, that currently has Windows™ 10 on them,
ask the vendor to boot into the BIOS to see if you are able to disable Fast Boot
and Windows™ Boot Manager. If you can't then don't buy it.
16
1. Booting your Zorin media in 'live' mode.
This is what the initial boot screen should look like before you start.
There are no options to select unlike Zorin 12.x other then selecting ENTER to
boot your desired choice or press the TAB key to amend the boot parameters,
such as nomodeset, acpi=off etc. During boot you should see the ‘Z’ logo
briefly, then this screen:
17
If you wait for the integrity check to complete, you will see this screen on
successful completion:
Next you will see the new 'ZORIN' logo appear, flying in from left to right
quickly, letter by letter to make this:
18
You should eventually see the following image, the default wallpaper:
Then these options appear, together with the login sound:
19
Notice you get a second bite at the cherry to 'Try Zorin' or 'Install Zorin' – note
also in the left pane is a list of languages – choose the one that meets your
locale before proceeding – you should still opt for 'Try Zorin' to discover how
well it is compatible with your system. Please bear in mind that Hardware is
generally manufactured to Windows™ specifications which is a Closed Source
Operating System, which means none of it's code is freely available to alter to
meet the needs of GNU/Linux users or their hardware driver needs. You need to
click on the 'Try Zorin' button – the screen will momentarily go black and shortly
afterward the Desktop appears.
20
2. The Live Desktop – a guided tour.
This is the default desktop image (changing the image for something else will
be covered later under 'Settings'.
21
First up the 'Dash' (formerly called 'Panel') at the bottom of the screen
comprises of the Menu (indicated by the ‘Z’) immediately to the right is the
Overview button, followed by the default Browser, Firefox (Flatpak edition),
Files (formerly Nautilus [File Explorer]), and finally, Software channel icon.
On the far right is the equivalent, but very much different to, the System Tray
that can be found on Windows.
22
The Dash (formerly ‘Panel’) - left side.
From left to right we have the Z Menu, Activities Overview, Firefox (Web
Browser), Files (File Explorer), Software (Application Store).
The Z Menu icon - Left Clicking on this launches the familiar Zorin Menu.
23
The Activities Overview Icon - left clicking this will show all open Windows
on the Desktop:
Notice you can see the edge of another screen to the right - this is the second
workspace allowing you to have a different application open on each
workspace which you can easily toggle between. Whilst you are in Activities
Overview mode you can drag open windows to the next adjacent worksapce.
When you do this, you will notice that a third empty workspace is created as
indicated by the little windows at the top of the screen as shown at the top of
the next page:
24
You can use the wheel on your mouse to navigate between workspaces, or
alternatively, use Ctrl+ Alt+ L or R arrow (cursor) keys.
25
Firefox - Web browser.
Notice that the Firefox icon on the Dash has a line underneath it - this indicates
that you have the application open and one window/tab open. Opening a new
window will show 2 lines, one long one, a space, and the start of another line.
Floating your mouse cursor over the Firefox icon will create two tiny pop-up
windows - move your pointer to the window you wish to view.
26
Files (File Explorer):
Software - This is where you can install applications.
27
But this is not the only source of Software. Other options include downloading
applications from the official website of an application producer, or an
alternative option, if you don’t wish to use sandboxed applications which are
either flatpak, snap, from the Software application or an App Image, you
can use Synaptic (Package Manager) [ but there are some applications in
the Software channel that offer more than one option, including APT packages -
the latest Zorin release is a big improvement in this area. ] My preferred
method of installing Synaptic is via the terminal (Ctrl+ Alt+ T or Menu |
Utilities | Terminal). sudo apt install synaptic
You will need to supply your login password to elevate yourself to root, or better
still, when you install Zorin, create an ‘administrator’ account, then yourself as
a Standard user - installing applications would then need the password of the
‘administrator’ account, just like that other OS! You can stay in the terminal to
launch Synaptic because you have already elevated the terminal to ‘root’
privileges, just enter - sudo synaptic.
When you launch Synaptic Package Manager it brings up this interface:
28
Synaptic is split into 3 main panes, with a Menu Bar at the top of the window
which has ‘Reload’, ‘Mark All Upgrades’ and ‘Apply’ (greyed out) buttons
beneath it. To the far right on the same line as these buttons, ‘Properties’
(greyed out), and ‘Search’ (magnifying glass).
The left hand pane comprises of different Sections, laid out in alphabetical
order. Above all the sections is the all encompassing word All which basically
that if you placed your cursor in the pane to the right, you would have a very
long scrolling time to view all the available applications. By far the easiest
method is to use the Search function (please remember that any Software
application only looks for GNU/Linux applications, not Windows or Mac or
Android apps!) When you select an application with the left mouse button in
the top right pane, a description of that application appears in the bottom right
pane. If you wish to install an application that you are interested in having,
right-click the little square to the left of the application name which will bring
up these options:
To install, select Mark for Installation, then click on the Apply button - this
will begin the installation process.
29
At the very top of the column of little squares you will see the letter S. If you
click on this, all of the applications that are installed in Zorin will be brought to
the top of the list in alphabetical order.
30
For 3rd party applications, for example, FreeOffice from SoftMaker or the paid
version, SoftMakerOffice 2024 Professional .deb file, then a useful utility is
gdebi (gnome .deb installer).
The nice thing about gdebi is that it checks that all dependencies are present,
and it also lets you know if additional packages are going to be installed. When
you click on the Install Package button you will be asked for your password to
elevate you to ‘root’, unless you have made a separate ‘administrator’ account,
then you would enter that password.
31
You then get a new popup window, similar to software update to say it is
installing the package:
32
Once complete, you will be notified:
After you click on the ‘Close’ button the gdebi interface shows this:
33
So if the application did not install correctly first time, you can select Reinstall
Package or if you have changed your mind, Remove Package.
In terms of third party .deb packages it is worth inspecting them before you
extract them to make sure there are no malware present in the package.
[ From Unofficial Manual for Zorin 15 Core:
Inspect 3rd Party .deb packages before installing:
These should always be inspected before 'extracting' as whilst not a virus,
malicious code could be lurking there:
"I always open the debs and check for suspicious post-install scripts
This is how to do that. ...
Listing the files from a debian package using dpkg -c
dpkg is the package manager for debian. So using dpkg command you can list
and extract the packages, as shown below.
To view the content of *.deb file:
Code:
:
$ dpkg -c ovpc_1.06.94-3_i386.deb
dr-xr-xr-x root/root 0 2010-02-25 10:54 ./
dr-xr-xr-x root/root 0 2010-02-25 10:54 ./ovpc/
dr-xr-xr-x root/root 0 2010-02-25 10:54 ./ovpc/pkg/
dr-xr-xr-x root/root 0 2010-02-25 10:54 ./ovpc/pkg/lib/
dr-xr-xr-x root/root 0 2010-02-25 10:48 ./ovpc/pkg/lib/header/
-r-xr-xr-x root/root 130 2009-10-29 17:06 ./ovpc/pkg/lib/header/libov.so
.
.
.
-r-xr-xr-x root/root 131 2009-10-29 17:06 ./ovpc/pkg/etc/conf
34
dr-xr-xr-x root/root 0 2010-02-25 10:54 ./ovpc/pkg/etc/conf/log.conf
35
Extracting the files from a debian package using dpkg -x
Use dpkg -x to extract the files from a deb package as shown below.
Code:
:
$ dpkg -x ovpc_1.06.94-3_i386.deb /tmp/ov
$ ls /tmp/ov
ovpc
DEB files are ar archives, which always contains the three files — debian-
binary, control.tar.gz, and data.tar.gz. We can use ar command and tar
command to extract and view the files from the deb package, as shown below.
First, extract the content of *.deb archive file using ar command.
Code:
:
$ ar -vx ovpc_1.06.94-3_i386.deb
x - debian-binary
x - control.tar.gz
x - data.tar.gz
$
36
Next, extract the content of data.tar.gz file as shown below.
Code:
:
$ tar -xvzf data.tar.gz
./
./ovpc/
./ovpc/pkg/
./ovpc/pkg/lib/
./ovpc/pkg/lib/header/
./ovpc/pkg/lib/header/libov.so
.
.
./ovpc/pkg/etc/conf
./ovpc/pkg/etc/conf/log.con
"
[ With acknowledgement to Blackwolf on ultimateeditionoz.com forum –
sadly the forum is no more. ]
There was an instance of a GNU/Linux theme uploaded to gnome-look.org
called Ubundows that had not been checked by Admin for that site; the file
once extracted executed 'Unix' commands to wipe the hard drive clean of all
content - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
[ End of extract from Unofficial Manual for Zorin 15 Core. ]
37
Dash - the right side, the System Tray.
Starting on the left we have a triangle pointing upwards with a line underneath.
Left click on this icon to reveal what devices are attached to the machine such
as USB drives, with the option to view their contents, or unmount the drive for
removal (though I always prefer to play safe and use Disks to power off, after
unmounting.)
38
The next item is a group of 3 icons, the group name of which is Quick
Settings, comprising of Network, Sound (Audio), Power options.
Left click on this group to reveal this interface revealing further shortcuts to
Screenshot/Desktop screencast (Camera Icon), Display settings (cog),
Lock Screen (padlock), and Dark Mode (if you want to manually change the
screen from Light to Dark and vice-versa:
39
Selecting the Camera icon found top-left of the interface, launches the
Screenshot application interface (can also be launched via Search bar on
Menu):
By default, the first option is to take a screenshot of a selected area that you
wish to capture, and if the area is not in the part of the screen you want the
screenshot to be taken you can move the highlighted square’s corners by
dragging them with the mouse where you want the content of the screen to be
captured. Notice also the group of 2 icons bottom left - the default setting is to
take a still shot, the next option is to make a video of the desktop, a
screencast. To take a snapshot of the desktop using the camera function, or to
start capturing a video, you left click on the large black circle which has a black
ring around it.
The pointer bottom right is not selected - select it if you want the pointer to be
captured in the screenshot/video capture. Your captured still image of the area
of the desktop or Desktop selection is saved in Home | Pictures |
Screenshots.
40
When recording a video of the desktop, a timer shows up in the Dash
as shown below. To stop recording, left-click the red box with the timer.
Your screencast will get saved in Home | Videos | Screencasts
41
Returning to the expanded panel:
Selecting the cog to the right of the camera button reveals the Displays
settiings within the Settings menu:
Selecting the Padlock icon, activates the Screen Lock.
42
Selecting the Power icon gives you the following options:
To close this window, just press Esc on the keyboard.
Using the left mouse button and holding the white circle on the Speaker line
and dragging to the left decreases system volume, to the right, increases the
system volume.
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The blue bar with the Network icon identifies the connection as being Wired.
If you click on the part which has the Network icon and word Wired, it
disconnects you from the network, i.e., turns network connection off. Selecting
the arrow on the right reveals the following:
Selecting Wired Settings takes you to the Network section of Settings.
To the right of the Network ‘bar’ can be seen the greyed out bar with the word
Balanced. This is the quick setting for Power Management. Selecting this
item changes the setting from Balanced to Power Saver.
Lastly, the greyed out bar with the symbol of dark and light with the words
Dark Mode to the right is an instant switch from the default Light Mode to
Dark Mode and vice-versa.
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The last item of the System Tray is the Date & Time section. Right-click this
part of the System Tray and you will reveal, Calendar, World Clocks (you
have to add Cities in the Clocks application to see these), and Weather (you
will need to add your location to the Weather application in Accessories
before you can see it here:
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a. The Zorin Menu and its sub-menus:
The default Menu of Zorin will be familiar to a lot of Windows migrators similar
to that of Windows 7 with Applications listed on the left and Personal Folders
and System Settings to the right and a 'search' bar at the bottom:
The key sub menus are: Accessories, Graphics, Internet, Office, Sound &
Video, System Tools, Utilities.
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Sub-menus:
i. Accessories;
Here we have Clocks, Files, Text Editor (gedit), Weather (On the old version
you needed to enter a sub-district of your City, now it will accept City entered,
provided it is in the Weather provider’s Database.)
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Clocks
Clocks allows you to: Add a World Clock (Major cities on Timelines) (Useful if
you have business contacts abroad and you need to speak to them before their
office closes!), set Alarms, run a Stopwatch, or start a Timer.
Files (formerly Nautilus file explorer)
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Text Editor (gedit), similar to Notepad it is used to create .txt files.
Weather
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ii. Graphics;
The Graphics applications on offer are Image Viewer (View images you have
downloaded or in your Pictures folder within Home), LibreOffice Draw
(Create your own diagrams), and Photos (from Online Accounts or Pictures
Folder).
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Image Viewer
LibreOffice Draw
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Photos
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iii. Internet
The applications in this sub-menu comprise of Firefox (Web Browser, see page
25), and Remmina (Remote Desktop Access for GNU/Linux).
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Remmina
This is a useful tool to connect to a private web page at your work to access
servers. I will share with you my experience, ironically only found out how to
do this 1 month before retirement, working from home! At the time I was
running Devuan 3.1.1 and using virt-manager to run Windows 8.1 Professional
32-bit. Using Edge, I logged into the private page. Once there I had to click on
a link to the shared drive. When this was selected, the server downloaded a
tiny .exe file called cpub.exe. I saved this to a mounted USB in the VM. I then
unmounted the USB from the VM and mounted it in the Host. I then launched
Remmina within Devuan and pointed it to the cpub.exe file - RESULT! Once I
had this setup, all I had to do was enter my username, credentials, and domain
and I gained access immediately, unlike Windows which required me to provide
my username and credentials 3 times!
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iv. Office
In this section we have Calendar, Contacts, Evolution (an Outlook Gnome
equivalent mail client), Libre Office (overview of all applications) – Calc
(spreadsheet application), Draw (simple Drawing application), Impress
(Presentation application), Writer (Text processor).
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Calendar
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Contacts
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Evolution (Linux equivalent of Outlook with Calendar):
LibreOffice (central)
59
LibreOffice Calc (Spreadsheet application):
LibreOffice Draw - already covered on page 50
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LibreOffice Impress - Presentation application.
LibreOffice Writer - Text Processor.
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v. Sound & Video;
This section comprises of Brasero (disc burner – Audio, Data, DVD, Video,
Music), Cheese (Web cam application with built-in effects), Rhythmbox
(default audio player), Sound Recorder, Videos (default movie/video file
player).
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Brasero
Always launch Brasero first before burning a disc. Right-clicking an .iso and
then from a context menu selecting ‘Burn with Brasero’ has always led me to
burn coasters!
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Cheese (Webcam application).
Currently I don’t have a webcam attached, hence the black screen!
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Rhythmbox (Application to play your music collection, internet radio, online
music accounts).
Sound recorder (use a microphone or the mic built in to your webcam).
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Videos (this is a multimedia application that can also play audio files as well as
videos). Additionally can access Internet media streams as shown below.
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vi. a. System Tools – Top;
In live mode comprises Boot Repair, Disks, GParted, Install Zorin OS 17,
Main Menu, Mozc Setup, Power Statistics, Settings.
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Boot Repair, (this item is only present while running in live mode, should you
have issues with the installed system).
Disks (for mounting / unmounting and safely powering off / removing
external / additional drives, including USB thumb drives, and can also be used
to check the current health of your hard drive/s),
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Gparted (Gnome Partition Editor – for partitioning Hard Drive – gets removed
after installation!).
Install Zorin OS 17 (this launches the installation to hard disk interface –
don’t do this until you are happy that Zorin performs as you expect it to in live
mode – you could also use the shortcut on the desktop to start the installation
procedure.
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71
Main Menu – (Al Acarte Menu editor to edit your main menu to show hide
applications as you so wish and add new ones),
Mozc Setup, (Japanese Input settings),
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Power Statistics (Processor wakeups information),
No information given as screenshot of Power Statistics is of VM (Virtual
Machine).
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Settings (the GNU/Linux equivalent of ‘Control Panel’ but very different in lots
of ways but simple enough to understand – covered later in the manual),
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vi. b. System Tools – Bottom
Here we have Software (Main source of Applications, predominantly in
Flatpak format, but other formats included, such as APT, Software Updater
which updates your System Software as well as Applications, Startup
Applications are those which start to run automatically immediately after you
have signed in to the desktop, Tour, a slideshow presentation of guiding you
round the layout and features of the OS (Operating System), Upgrade Zorin
OS is a tool designed to allow you to upgrade to the next major release of
Zorin, which will be 18 - the tool Is not currently ready for use with Zorin 17, but
is available for Zorin 15 for those wishing to upgrade to 16, and for Zorin 16
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users it is also available to upgrade to the latest release, 17.
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Windows App Support, when you select this it will install the current stable
version of WINE (Wine Is No Emulator), together with PlayOnLinux, Zorin
Appearance contains a multitude of different ways for your Desktop to look
and behave, and lastly Zorin Connect, software which enables your
smartphone to be connected to your Zorin Desktop.
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Software has been covered elsewhere in the manual(see page 26), so will now
look at:
Startup Applications:
Notice that he Startup Sound only works during live mode. After installation
it becomes disabled. If you like the startup sound being present after you login,
check mark the circle to the left, then select the Close button. You can add or
remove applications you want to run automatically after you have logged in.
You can edit entries, so that if you wanted a different startup sound you could
change it for another one.
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Tour (This is a slideshow built into the system to help show you around the
Desktop, starting with the Menu, then Appearance (where you choose how
your Desktop Environment should look to your personal preferences, advisory if
you are running inside a Virtual Machine as you get better performance if
installed, option to Connect Online Accounts (this excludes Facebook
because Gnome developers have not resolved the issue since it was discovered
7 years ago, or it could be down to Facebook not liking GNU/Linux. (I can’t
stand Facebook, never been on it, never will!), Link your phone and computer
with Zorin Connect - you need to download the smartphone app, Zorin
Connect, in order to use this function, Use Software to find and install apps
(but you are not limited to using the Software Channel, but more on that later),
final slide offering a link to the Help section of ZorinOS,
https://help.zorin.com/).
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Upgrade Zorin OS - This is the upgrade tool that allows you to upgrade to the
newest version of Zorin OS. Once it is up and running, always err on the side of
caution by backing up either your whole system, or just the /home folder,
including hidden files which store application information/preferences - if they
are not shown, press Ctrl+ H to unhide them - they all start with a period/full
stop, e.g., .wine, this would hold all your WINE configurations for any Windows
Applications you install.
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Windows App Support - This installs the current version of WINE (WINE Is
No Emulator), including PlayOnLinux for you to install Windows
Applications/Games. Please be aware that not all Windows Applications will run
using WINE. To find out what runs, visit the commercial site of the WINE
developers here:
https://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility
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3. Zorin Appearance
This is where you can change your Layout (DE styling), Theme (colours,
light/dark), Effects (Animations, Spatial Desktop (Cube), Interface (Titlebar
Buttons, Left Super Key (binding) and Advanced Window Tiling and Taskbar
Settings, Desktop (icons), Fonts (system-wide).
The four DE (Desktop Environment) styles available are as follows. Top Left is a
layout similar to Windows 7, so that when you have an application open that is
on the Dash you get a tiny preview as you hover over the icon.
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The top right option is more like Windows 2000 where the name of the
application that is open is shown in the Dash as opposed to Icons.
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The bottom left style is aimed at Tablets and touch screens and is similar to
Pantheon as used in another distribution.
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The mini screens at the top indicate you have potentially 12 different
workspaces at your disposal when you select the ‘Grid’ Menu button on the
Dash. The dots at the bottom of the grid indicate that there are 3 screens of
applications in total, each screen containing up to 24 icons per screen. To move
to the next screen, click on the right arrow. The search bar at the top to find
applications by name should you wish to do so. I have noticed that the first
page of applications on my screenshot is not in strict alphabetical order but the
subsequent pages are.
The last one, bottom right, is a Gnome style desktop which is different to the
original concept of Gnome and I for one found it painful to use. To see the Dash
at the Bottom you have to click on the Activities Overview button at the top.
I also discovered that the Window Buttons to minimise, maximise disappear,
leaving only the close button option.
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Theme
This option shows the different colour schemes available for Icons and
Windows. There are two tabs, Zorin and Other.
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The Default Zorin Accent Colour is Blue:
Green:
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Orange:
Red:
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Purple:
Grey:
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Background
This setting gives you the option to have a light Background, dark Background,
or a combination, where it is light during the daytime and transforms to dark at
night time. You can set this middle option, and a Schedule appears, which can
be Manual where you enter the time when the desktop should be Light and
when it should change to Dark. Alternatively you can use ‘Sunset to Sunrise’
setting, but I somehow feel it should say ‘Sunrise to Sunset’ - or Is it just me!
Light
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Dark
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Other
This comprises of 3 blank fields, Applications, Icons and Shell.
If things don’t go as you expected with the drop-down options available, the
escape route is to click on Reset to defaults.
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Applications drop-down list:
Icons drop-down list:
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Please be aware I have added some additional icons whilst playing around with
Plasma DE! (Amy-Light-Icons, Breeze, Breeze-Dark, Carboniferous-Gold,
Colorful-Dark-Icons, Gnome, Goldy-Dark-Icons, Gradient-Dark-Icons, Gradient-
Light-Icons, Magna-Dark-Icons, Magna-Light-Icons being the ones that are not
present in the Beta).
Hicolor and HighContrast are the only options available by default.
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Amy-Light-Icons:
Breeze:
Breeze-dark (Not bothered to do a screenshot, the only change it made was the
icon for virt-manager and changed it from black … to white!)
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Carboniferous-Gold:
Colorful-Dark-Icons:
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Gnome:
Goldy-Dark-Icons:
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Gradient-Dark-Icons: (Gradient-Light-Icons not much different so no
screenshot.)
Magna-Dark-Icons: (Magna-Light-Icons - not much different so no screenshot.)
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Hicolor:
HighContrast:
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Effects - see video I created here:
https://vimeo.com/893473421?share=copy
Interface
This is where you can decide on where the Titlebar Buttons are placed
(minimise, maximise, close), what to designate the Left Super Key to do. The
default is Activities Overview, but you can change this to Zorin Menu by
using the drop down arrow to the right.
Advanced Window Tiling. Not quite sure how to describe what this does!
Selecting the cog reveals the following interface (top-half) on the next page.
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Advance Woindow Tiling - General Settings (top half)
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Advance Window Tiling - General Settings (bottom-half)
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Advanced Window Tiling - Keybindings
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Taskbar Settings
Style
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Taskbar Settings
Position
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Taskbar Settings
Behavior
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Taskbar Settings
Action
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Desktop
This is where you can decide whether or not you wish to have system icons
(Home, Rubbish Bin, Mounted Volumes, Network Servers) on the Desktop or
not, and what size you would like them to be (Tiny, Small, Standard or Large).
Fonts - This is where you can decide on the fonts you wish to use throughout
the system. You might have noticed that I have adopted the ‘Comic Relief’ font,
which is the open source equivalent of Microsoft’s Comic Sans font.
Interface Text, Monospace Text and Document Text.
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Zorin Connect- This is software to enable your smartphone to connect with
the Zorin Desktop. With Zorin Connect you can see SMS messages on your
Desktop, Send SMS messages from the Desktop, use your phone as a
Multimedia Control device for Music, Video, or even as a Presentation remote
control, the only requirement being that your smartphone has the Zorin
Connect application installed and both have access to the same Network
connection. You will need to download Zorin Connect for Android, either from
Playstore or F-Droid or for I-Phone, App Store.
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vii. a. Utilities (Top);
Advanced Network Configuration - Of all the latest changes to the OS, this
has got to be one of the most outstanding updates to the Zorin Operating
System. Gone are the days where users were struggling to connect using
DSL/PPPoE - it’s all here (see screenshot on next page).
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Archive Manager - this is similar to Winzip, WinRAR, 7-Zip archiving tool
where you can extract compressed files, and compress files individually or as a
batch.
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Click on the ‘hamburger’ icon (3 horizontal bars) to open the menu options:
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Here I am selecting ‘Betterbird’, a fork of Thunderbird:
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When selected you can extract to the original location (Desktop in this
example) or a place of your choosing:
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Backups - this is the new name for Déjà Dup - guide on its use here:
https://askmeaboutlinux.com/2022/10/27/deja-dup-for-backups-on-linux/
(Personally, it is just a lot simpler to create a folder on an external drive and
copy the entire contents of your home folder into it (including hidden files), or
better still, use Timeshift (more on this later), but it is always good practice to
backup to an external drive on a regular basis to prevent loss of data.
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Calculator - a calculator with many faces, Basic, Advanced (Scientific),
Financial (includes currency converter), Programming, Keyboard (= same as
using Paper option as it used to be called - linear mathematics for want of a
better description!
Basic:
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Advanced:
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Financial:
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Programming:
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Keyboard:
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Characters- basically, fancy emojis! Here is a sample:
Disk Usage Analyzer - Analyses what is taking up space on your Disk/s:
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Disks (see page 36) - this is a repeat of what can be found in System Tools -
the choice is yours if you want to keep both Menu items or simply untick the
one you don’t want to appear in the Menu.
Document Scanner - simple interface to access your Scanner (if it is
supported - most scanners are but there might be the odd one that doesn’t
work (such as my Canon LiDE 500F!). It will work, generally, with most ‘All-in-
One’ Printer/Scanners. If not you can always purchase VueScan from here:
https://www.hamrick.com/
After installing Zorin 17 as a VM and trying to run Document Scanner I got this
message:
When you click on the link, it takes you to the SANE project page to ‘backend’
drivers. An easier option is to go to (if you have a Canon Scanner/All-in-One
Printer) to the Canon website and download the scangearmp2-3.50-1-deb.tar.gz
file:
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Then extract the .tar.gz file within Downloads:
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Open the extracted folder:
Next, open the subfolder, packages.
You need to install the amd64.deb package:
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Right-click and choose the first option Open With Install Linux Application
or if installed gdebi then select Open With Other Application.
When choosing the first option you will get this warning message:
Select Run anyway and this window opens, click on Install button:
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You will then be presented with the Authorisation window, which, depending on
how you install Zorin will be your password if you are an Administrator, or the
Administrator account password if you are a Standard user.
After installing, reboot your computer and launch Document Scanner. From the
dropdown list you should choose eSCL Canon TS8100 series (USB) if
connected to the computer. If an all-in-one device is on the network, then
select the first option, Canon PIXMA TS8100 Series.
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Selecting the drop-down arrow in the box next to the button with Scan on it,
choose the method of scanning you need to deploy:
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Selecting Preferences opens up this window:
Once you are happy with your choices, select Scan.
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Other options in regard to what you want to do with your scanned documents is
achieved via the ‘hamburger’ (3 horizontal bars) button on the right of the
interface:
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Document Viewer - Evince by any other name! Supports documents in PDF,
PS, EPS, XPS, DjVu, TIFF, DVI (with SyncTex), and Comic Books archives (CBR,
CBT, CBZ, CB7).
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vii. b. Utilities (bottom)
Here we have Fonts (font viewer), Help, Logs, Password and Keys, System
Monitor (Task Manager), Terminal (Command prompt).
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Fonts (Font viewer)
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Help - This launches an interactive help guide. My only criticism is that it is
basically a Gnome guide which does not reflect the Zorin Desktop Environment
which is my only criticism - that is why I made the Unofficial Manuals for Zorin
12 and Zorin 15.
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Logs - a useful utility, telling you of any errors that might be in the system.
Here is a screenshot from the VM I created in order to create this Manual:
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Passwords and Keys - Seahorse by any other name! This utility is to help
store your PGP keys and passwords. Never got my head round this!
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System Monitor - this is the GNU/Linux equivalent of Task Manager in that
other OS!:
Processes:
Resources:
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File Systems:
Terminal - The end of the line by any other name! I gest of course!
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4. Live session user.
If you run Zorin 17 in Live Mode, then it will show your user name as ‘Live
session user’.
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If you left click the User part of the menu, this opens up the Users section of
Settings. In live mode it will show no users found, but on an installed version it
shows all the Users of the system:
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If you click on the account’s avatar, you have an option to change the one
automatically created, which shows the first letter of the User in a circle to
something else, either ones supplied by Zorin, or use of a file from you
computer (click on the ‘Select a File …’ button):
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Here’s mine:
If you select the ‘pen/cil’ icon to the right of the name, an editable box appears
around the name to enable you to change the user name, but you will need to
unlock Users by supplying the password for that user. If you have setup a
separate Administrator account as I have done, you may need to enter that
password if, as I have done, set myself up to be a Standard user.
Below the User Avatar and name is Account Settings - this is where you
decide on whether the user is to have the power of an Administrator or
Standard user. For increased security, when you are installing Zorin OS it is
better to setup the Administrator account first before creating your own user
which should be set as a Standard user. Always make sure you have two
different passwords for Adminstrator and Standard user or having a separae
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administrator account is pointless!
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Below the account user’s status is:
Authentication & Login
The first field is Password. Here you can change your password to a new one.
Below it is:
Automatic Login
This is for lazy people and can create issues when trying to update the system.
Having said that, it should not be a problem if you have an Administrator
account that needs to login, and you have a Standard user who doesn’t need
to login. If you just have one user for the System and have autologin enabled,
problems will occur when you need to update the system and applications
which usually require the password of the account with Administrator
privileges. The other aspect of this is that you are reducing the security of your
computer by allowing anyone to access your personal data.
Account Activity
This let’s you see who is logged in. Left clicking Account Activity shows a log
of account activity, showing Dates and Times when a Session Started and when
a Session Ended.
Remove User
To be used with caution - you don’t want to remove someone in error!
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Software - This has already been covered (see Page 26)
5. Settings: This is where you are able to make a host of settings, related to hardware
such as Network, Bluetooth (if present), Sound, Displays (Monitors),
Printers, Removable Media.
Software elements include Background (Desktop Wallpaper/Solid
Colours/Picture choice from Pictures folder), Notifications (/Do not disturb),
Search (function/criteria - what to include, what not to), Multitasking (seeing
what applications you have open (Activities overview options, if you wish to
have it), Applications (Integration of the application that uses system features
is by default turned on, i.e., Notifications, can either be on or off for each
application) and below it you are notified of what the Default handlers are,
i.e., Types of files and links that the application opens.
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So let’s start with a screenshot of Settings (top half):
I have just taken a screenshot of the left pane for ease of reading, more detail
of each section to follow. Next the bottom-half of Settings.
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Settings (bottom half)
Now for each section of Settings.
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Network
This is the section that should autopopulate, depending on your current
Network configuration, whether it is via Ethernet, WiFi or other connection
method.
By default my system (and the VM that this screenshot was taken from) is via
Ethernet. Clicking on the switch to disconnect is useful if you wish to search for
items on an external storage device to prevent ransomware attack, or when
backing up data or your system to an external device. The cog next to it shows
connection details to the network/Internet, as shown on the following pages:
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Details tab:
Identity tab:
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IPv4 tab:
IPv6 tab:
Note under the IPv6 tab, this is set to automatic, if like me, you ISP (Internet
Service Provider) does not support IPv6 and you are having issues connecting
to the internet, select Disable and click on the Apply button.
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Security tab:
The security tab and 802.1x Security option is there for systems connected to
a Corporate Server, so should not be turned on.
Network Proxy setting. Clicking on the cog reveals:
Disabled is the default setting for Network Proxy, and should not cause any
issues unless of course you do use a Network Proxy.
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Firewall Configuration
This launches the Gnome Uncomplicated Firewall (Gufw) application. By default
it is off - Turn it on!
Firewall is off in this image. Select the Status: switch to turn it on.
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Firewall is on in this screenshot:
The Profile: options available are Home, Office, and Public. Obviously,
personal users should just leave the Profile set to Home. However, if using a
notebook in an internet cafe, you may need to change this to Public, but not a
good idea for security. Better to be safe and Tether your smartphone for
security reasons.
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Bluetooth
This should list available/connected Bluetooth devices, if any.
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Background
This is where you can choose your desktop wallpaper and if you don’t fancy
what is on offer you can choose a picture from your Pictures folder by clicking
on Add Picture …:
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Selecting a picture changes the Desktop Background/Wallpaper instantly:
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Notifications
This section lists all the applications that are capable of using the system
feature of notifications being enabled. If you want some time to concentrate on
producing the next best version of ZorinOS, switch on ‘Do Not Disturb’ - just like
your smartphone!
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Search
Control which search results are shown in the Activities Overview. The order
of search results can also be changed by moving rows in this list.
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Multitasking
This is the place where you can get an overview of the applications you
currently have open on your Desktop so you can quickly switch to the one you
need access to. The settings covered under Multitasking are:
General - Hot Corner, Active Screen Edges.
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Workspaces - Dynamic, or fixed number of workspaces.
Multi-Monitor - Workspaces on primary monitor or on all monitors.
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Application Switching:
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Applications
This lists the Applications present on the system and how they are integrated
with System features used by the application. Common to all is Notifications.
This function can be turned off if you want to for each one. The other
information provided are the Default Handlers. Basically the types of files
that these applications are capable of opening etc.
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Privacy
This is split into five sections, Connectivity, Location Services,
Thunderbolt, File History & Trash, and Screen.
Connectivity
Location Services - default setting is off.
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Thunderbolt
Personally, I don’t have such ports, but if I did, I would probably disable them!
https://www.slashgear.com/809436/new-thunderbolt-hack-exposes-your-files-
how-to-check-if-youre-safe-updated/
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File History & Trash
Always good to clear out your Temporary Files and File History as needed.
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Screen
This is all to do with the Screen Lock settings. Remember Zorin has inherited
Gnome Settings, so my comment is aimed at Gnome Devs - why not label the
primary title of this section Screen Lock? (It could also be argued that Gnome
Devs don’t know how to use the alphabet! Notice how the different sections in
Settings are not in Alphabetical Order? Also notice that they don’t split items
into different sections like you would get on other Desktop Environments!)
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Online Accounts - Connect to your data in the cloud. The following services
are available (Facebook is not listed because the Gnome Developers have
never addressed the issue for over 7 years! That said, perhaps Facebook is not
GNU/Linux friendly! I’ve never used Facebook, nor have any intention to do so
in the future!)
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Sharing - let’s you choose whether to share your Desktop remotely, or share
your Media. The default setting is ‘Off’:
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Sound
This item is split into 5 subcategories:
System Volume - This is basically the ‘Global’ settings of your Sound Volume.
Volume Levels - this is with regard to System Sounds, default is muted.
Output - this indicates the source of your Audio, whether it be on-board sound
that comes with your motherboard, or a Sound Card, such as a Sound Blaster
Audigy 5Rx which is what I have but the screenshot is from a VM so it is using a
passthrough from the Sound Card. You can also adjust the Balance between
the speakers.
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Input - The usual default device will be a Microphone, either attached to the
jack port of your onboard, or if you have a webcam attached, the drop-down
arrow would reveal that.
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Power
This is split into two sections, Power Mode and Power Saving Options.
Power Mode:
Power Saving Options:
Screen Blank - the default is set for the display (monitor) to go Blank after 5
minutes. Other options are for 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 15 minutes, or Never.
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Displays - This section concerns information about your monitor. As the
screenshot is from a VM of Zorin 17 Beta, running inside of Zorin 17 Beta, it
reports that the Display (make) is unknown.
Night Light requires you to either use Location Services so that the screen
changes from a blue hue to a warmer red one, or you can set the time manually
to your preferences.
200
201
Mouse & Touchpad
You can make adjustments and then Test Your Settings:
202
203
Keyboard - This section has four sub categories, Input Sources, Input
Source Switching, Special Character Entry, and Keyboard Shortcuts.
Input Sources: The default options are shown.
Clicking on the ‘+’ button allows you to add the Locale of your choice.
Clicking on the three vertical buttons to the far right of each locale brings up
the following options:
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Printers
Before looking at printer installation we need to disable ‘autodiscovery’,
otherwise you will end up with multiple instances of your printer!
So first off, open a a Terminal (Ctrl+ Alt+ T or Menu | Utilities | Terminal and
enter:
sudo systemctl stop cups-browsed
Followed by:
sudo systemctl disable cups-browsed
Once you have done this enter:
sudo system-config-printer
This brings up the following interface and as you have launched it with ‘root’
privileges (sudo command) it will be better for install. You will need to provide
your user password, or the administrator password if you have setup a
separate admin user, with yourself as a standard user like me.
205
206
Click on Add and the following interface appears:
207
If you see something like the top entry here, you may think Printers application
has detected the printer is connected via USB, but it is driverless:
Then select the Forward Button and a new window appears with Choose
Driver as shown on the next page.
208
You will need to scroll down until you see the manufacturer’s name of your
printer. In my case it is Canon. And once we have found the correct name,
select Forward bottom right of the window.
209
A window now appears with numerous models made by the manufacturer of
your printer, scroll down until you find it:
210
In my case, for my Pixma TS-8151 printer I need to choose the TS8100 series
driver.
However, note what it says in the Drivers pane … driverless … which means
we are going to have to visit Canon support page to download the Linux driver
which is this one:
211
212
Just as we did for the Scanner driver we need to extract the tarball and install
the amd64.deb file from packages.
Launching via command line again things have changed!
A new entry has appeared, and if we click on forward:
213
and then Apply:
214
Then right-clicking the printer icon and selecting Properties we can see that
the Canon 5.50 driver is in use under Settings:
215
The next item is Policies:
Access Control (Decide who has printing rights and who hasn’t if any):
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217
Printer Options:
218
Job Options:
219
220
Ink/Toner Levels:
This will be blank until you have printed a Test Page.
In my case the Icon of the Printer has now changed to include an orange
triangle with a white exclamation mark - this indicates that one of the ink
cartridges is getting low/empty. So when we now check the Ink/Toner Levels
section we get an accurate reflection of what the Printer LCD screen reports:
221
Removable Media:
This section of Settings has settings on how different media should be
handled, Ask what to do, Do nothing, Open folder.
Colour - Each device needs an up to date colour profile to be colour managed.
222
223
Region & Language - There are two items, My Account and Login Screen,
Only just discovered that during install I selected English United Kingdom and it
has only changed My Account! Had to change Login Screen from English
United States to English United Kingdom!
224
225
Accessibility (top half)
Note that I have Enable Animations enabled - this should only be use in
relation to Pointer Location for low-vision users, no other animations should
be enabled.
226
If Always Show Accessibility Menu is turned on, this will appear in the
System Tray area of the Dash.
227
Accessibility (bottom half)
228
Users - this has already been covered (see page 132)
Default Applications - This section indicates which applications will launch by
default in respect of Web, Mail, Calendar, Music, Video, Photos.
You can change the default applications to your preferred one. For example, the
default Mail Client is Evolution that comes with Zorin. You would need to install
an alternative Mail Client, fill out your email account details in the alternative
client, start it running then come back to this section and use the Drop-down
arrow to see the installed alternatives. In the example below, I have installed
GIMP and Shutter which I could select for viewing Photos:
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Date & Time - in this section of Settings, Date & Time is set to Automatic
Date & Time, which gets its settings from the Internet.
Turning the switch to off for Automatic Date & Time off means time will be
coming from the BIOS which will be reliant on the CMOS battery on the
motherboard being operational. To manually change the Date & Time, click on
Date & Time below Automatic Date & Time and the following interface
appears:
230
231
Should you wish to change the Time Zone to a different one, click on Time
Zone and a World Map appears. Type in a City in the Box above the Map and it
will take you there:
In the example above I have moved from GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) to New
York, United States EST (UTC-05)
Time Format - set to 24-hour - use the drop-down arrow to change to AM/PM.
232
About - this section provides the Device Name (Computer name you gave it
at point of Install), Hardware details and Operating System details.
233
Zorin Appearance - this has been covered earlier (see page 71)
234
[ This section contains elements from the Unofficial Manual for Zorin 15 Core ]
235
First things to do after installation.
a. Change Software Sources first, then Update the
system. First open Menu | System Tools | Software Updater and click on the Stop
button, then select the Settings button to change your download location
sources from your country’s server to Main Server – this will ensure you get all
the correct updates to kernels and security updates. You will still receive
ZorinOS specific updates when changing to this server and it will update your
browsers without direct links to the Zorin Google search page that comes by
default.
When you select ‘Download from:’ you will be asked for your login
password of your account to elevate your user status to ‘root’ (Administrator) in
order to do this.
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b. Update the System: Menu | System Tools | Software Updater You will be asked for your login password to elevate you to ‘root’
(administrator) before being allowed to apply the updates.
Notice the ‘arrowhead’ / triangle to the left of ‘Zorin OS base’ - left clicking on
the ‘arrowhead’ expands the information as seen in the picture on the next
page.
Clicking on the ‘arrowhead’ to the left of ‘Technical description’ opens up a
bottom pane with more detailed information as to the changes it makes, also
shown in the image on the next page.
237
The bottom pane has two tabs: ‘Changes’ and ‘Description’.
Here the Changes section explains what changes will be made and why they
are being made, usually fixes to problems with earlier releases.
238
c. GNOME Tweaks (gnome-tweaks) –[formerly gnome-tweak- tool] Since Zorin 12, Zorin has used the Gnome Shell Desktop Environment. Whilst
Gnome Shell works reasonably well, as in all things there can be room for
improvement.
Software entry:
239
Tweaks interface:
General (this was not present in earlier versions)
240
Appearance
241
If like me you prefer something Darker, then the following themes from
https://www.opendesktop.org are, in no particular order:
1. Neon_Knights_Blue (https://www.gnome-look.org/p/1320471)
2. Delorean Dark Themes
(https://www.deviantart.com/killhellokitty/art/Delorean-dark-3-12-5-08242014-
476093824)
3. Midnight-GnomeShell-Blue (https://www.pling.com/p/1273210/)
Only Midnight Shell theme worked, Neon Knights did not show up even after
manually placing in the correct folder having ‘chown’d the relevant folder.
Delorean Dark worked with the style of Windows but in doing so, background
images broke and all borders around context menus became a list like a
minimalist GNU/Linux distro!
242
Fonts
243
Keyboard & Mouse:
Startup Applications:
244
245
Top Bar:
Window Titlebars:
246
Windows:
247
d. Dconf Editor This is particularly useful for changing desktop settings. It’s layout reminds me
of a registry editor, but it is in no way shape or form a registry editor. You are
warned that messing with settings in ‘dconf Editor’ could make the system
unstable so be careful what you do with it.
Entry in Software Channel.
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e. ClamTk:
This is the AV software for GNU/Linux – installing ClamTk not only
installs the back-end of Clam AV but also It’s graphical front-end
shown in screen shot – you can schedule updates to be done
automatically. There are two entries in Software channel - choose the second
one as the top one is from flathub.
249
f. rkhunter (root-kit hunter):
This has to be installed via Synaptic Package Manager, it is not available in the
Software Channel. This has to be run via the Terminal but is easy enough to do.
Be advised that you may get some error reporting about some changes –
rkhunter looks at what the system looked like when it was installed and uses
that as the base-line, so when kernels and other security updates get installed
it compares the system with the earlier installs and will give a false-positive.
You will just need to update it’s baseline accordingly.Here is a link to the
website for download information and important README:
http://rkhunter.sourceforge.net/
and why you should install it:
http://resources.infosecinstitute.com/need-know-linux-rootkits/
250
6. Accessibility: One of the great things about Zorin is that its Accessibility options are available
at the login screen. (“OK”, I can hear you say, “that has always been the case
with Windows 7!”). That is true but how many operating systems come with a
free fully functional screen reader built into the OS at no cost to the end user?
The options are shown in the screenshot below:
All the options available are currently switched off in the picture above: High
Contrast (Top/First option), Zoom, Large Text, Screen Reader, Screen Keyboard,
Visual Alerts, Sticky Keys, Slow Keys, Bounce Keys, Mouse Keys. To turn a
function on, simply press the space bar. At present I cannot discover if the
‘menu’ or ‘right-mouse key’ key will activate the accessibility menu as I am
using a gaming keyboard which has a ‘backlight’ key where normally a ‘right-
mouse button’ key would reside. However, using Alt+ Super+ S will start the
screen reader function.
Full details here:
https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-help/stable/a11y.html.en
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Screen Reader (Orca):
N.B. ‘Super’ key equals ‘Meta’ or ‘Windows’ key.
The keyboard command to turn on the screen reader is a combination of Alt+
Super+ S – the same key combination also turns it off.
To access preferences, the default key bindings are Insert+ Space (if this does
not work, press Alt+ F2 and enter ‘orca --setup’ without the quotes):
General: Keyboard Layout, Mouse, Time and Date, Profiles, Progress Bar
Updates, Say All
252
Choice of Voice: Voice Type Settings, Global Voice Settings
Speech Settings: Verbosity, Punctuation Level, Spoken Context.
253
Braille Settings: Display Settings, Verbosity, Selection Indicator, Hyperlink
Indicator, Flash Message Settings.
Echo Settings:
254
255
Key Bindings (Default 1)
Key Bindings (Default 2):
256
257
Key Bindings (Default 3):
Key Bindings (Unbound 1):
258
259
Key Bindings (Unbound 2):
Key Bindings (Braille Bindings):
260
Pronunciation:
261
Text Attributes (top):
Text Attributes (bottom):
262
263
7. Recommended Applications:
a. PDF Mod (by Novell, the makers of Open SuSE): Available from ‘Software’ or via Synaptic.
264
b. Shutter: More versatile than the bundled ‘Screenshot’. Can be installed from Software
Channel or via Synaptic.
265
c. Stacer: - available in the Software Channel:
Dashboard:
266
267
Startup Applications:
System Cleaner:
268
269
Search (Beta):
Services:
270
271
Processes:
Uninstaller:
272
273
Resources:
Helpers:
274
275
APT Repository Manager:
Settings:
276
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Feedback:
If you decide to ‘Close’ Stacer you have the option of minimising it to the tray
and access any of its features from the system tray icon:
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d. Alternative File Manager: Krusader (File Manager/Explorer): Available in ‘Software’.
Krusader has changed quite a lot so after install you will get screens of advice
should you need elements that require additional items/packages/settings.
Unfortunately after removing and reinstalling I can no longer replicate the
‘warning/advisories’ - there will be two screens so make sure you inspect them
carefully and make any adjustments. There are further tweaks available after
installation – In respect of a needed text editor, because Krusader was aimed at
the KDE (Kool) desktop it will need ‘Kate’ (Kool Text Editor) if Text Editing is
required using Krusader. (You may wish to use this instead of the default Files
which you should leave on the system – removing it [Files] also removes
Rhythmbox and a host of other functions needed for the OS to work smoothly!
Screenshot of general interface on next page - after installing Kate it works but
be sure to choose the APT version of Kate as the first option in Software is snap
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which baulked!:
280
Configure crusader (from Settings on Menu bar): Configure startup of App.
281
282
Panel - General Tab:
283
Panel - View Tab:
284
Panel - Buttons Tab:
285
Panel - Selection Mode tab:
286
Panel Media Menu tab:
287
Panel - Layout tab:
288
Colours - Active tab
289
Colours - Inactive tab
290
Colours - Synchroniser tab
291
Colours - Other tab
292
Basic Operations - General tab:
293
Basic Operations - Viewer/Editor tab:
294
Basic Operations - Atomic extensions tab:
295
Advanced:
296
Archives:
297
Dependencies - General tab:
298
Dependencies - Packers tab:
299
Dependencies - Checksum Utilities tab:
300
User Actions:
301
Protocols:
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e. MultiSystem:
MultiSystem: Probably the best USB MultiBoot System there is – yet another
fantastic piece of French Software! Get the original package from here:
https://zoringroup.com/forum/viewtopic.php?
f=4&t=8933&hilit=+Multisystem.tar.gz#p43425
and update after installing!
(Update - doesn’t update now as based on Ubuntu16.04 but generally still
works!)
Tutorial video here:
https://vimeo.com/104187694?share=copy
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f. Calibre – Ebook reader/viewer/converter: Available in ‘Software’.
304
g. Graphics Packages/3d Modelling: Blender: available from the ‘Software’ channel.
305
darktable: available from the ‘Software’ channel.
306
Dia: For a whole host of Diagram/flowchart/circuits etc with plugins available
for additional ‘sheets’ from the website, such as chemsistry. Available from the
‘Software’ channel.
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Inkscape: available from the ‘Software’ channel (always choose APT!).
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My Paint: get it from https:// mypaint.org/downloads/
This is a really cool paint package as it has a ‘mirror’ function so that
everything you draw on one side of the canvas is replicated exactly on the
opposing side which is what I used to create the above wallpaper.
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LibreCAD: Available from the ‘Software’ channel.
310
Hugin Panorama Stitcher: Available from the ‘Software’ Channel.
(Only available as a flatpak application).
311
Stop animation:
qstopmotion: available via Software.
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Stopmotion: Available from Software channel:
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h. DeskTopPublishing – Scribus:
Available from the Software channel.
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i. Video Editing:
KDEnlive: available in the Software channel.
On a personal note I use KDEnlive to Edit and render all my desktop
screencasts to my Vimeo account.
Tutorial video by Nixie Pixel here: https://youtu.be/1eHEAfNFJ0k?feature=shared
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k. Screencast software. Vokoscreen-ng: Screencast application in Software channel.
This is my preferred application for capturing the desktop for my Vimeo videos.
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l. Internet packages:
Deluge (for Torrents): Available in the Software channel.
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IceCat (formerly Iceweasel): for Secure internet browsing:
Available from: https://www.gnu.org/software/gnuzilla/
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m. CD Emulation. GCDEmu https://sourceforge.net/projects/cdemu/files/?source=navbar
This has proven very useful for creating and storing virtual CD Drives for
Windows games as an example. Here is what you need to do:
1. Go to this page: https://www.unixmen.com/cdemu-virtual-cddvd-drive-linux/
After you have followed the instructions to install, it places it in the startup
applications folder but does not check mark it so do that before proceeding.
2. Next find your favourite game, pop it in the Optical Drive and 'Open' it to
view all files.
3. Go to your Menu, then Wine then 'Browse C Drive'.
4. Create a new folder in C and name it exactly the same as the game CD.
5. In the game CD window select all files and copy to the newly created folder
in the fake C drive.
6. right-click the 'setup.exe' file, select properties, then the permissions tab
and check mark the last item of allowing it to run as a program – this should
now install the game to your fake C: Drive.
7. Some games won't run without the CD present – this is where gCDEmu
comes into play. Open Brasero and from the list of optoins, select 'Copy disc'.
8. Now copy to 'image file' from the drop-down selection instead of original
optical drive – this places a .toc and .toc.bin file in your /home folder.
9. Launch gCDEmu from the panel and select device #00 (Empty)/
10. Load the file with the suffix .toc.bin and you should see the same icon
appear on your desktop as you would if you were placing it in the optical drive.
11. Go to your wine menu and select the correct launcher for the game to run.
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n. Accountancy Application There can only be one decent Accountancy Application and that is GnuCash –
find it in the Software Channel or Synaptic Package Manager.
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o. Virtual Machine Software
At one time I would have recommended Virtual Box, but not anymore. virt-
manager stands head and shoulders above Virtual Box any day. Get it from
the Software channel.
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p. K3b This is an alternative to Brasero, the default Zorin CD/DVD Burning Software. I
prefer to use it when creating Creative Commons Licenced music I have
collected for it is better at duplicating with Track Titles than Brasero – it also
has a built in md5 checksum utility to verify the validity of downloaded .iso’s.
Get it from the Software channel.
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q. System Restore utility: Timeshift
Full how-to here:
https://itsfoss.com/backup-restore-linux-timeshift/
If you ever run into difficulties at login time and you need to start the terminal
in Advanced | Safe Recovery mode, the terminal commands to restore an
image for Timeshift is:
timeshift –restore
Then follow the prompts that appear. If saving snapshots to an external device
make sure the drive is formatted to the same filesystem as the one chosen for
the Zorin installation.
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Troubleshooting tips:
1. Installation:
On newer machines from about 5 years ago, M$ introduced the Secure Boot
System. Over time Fedora and Ubuntu released 'shims' to solve this issue and
fell into disrepute with the Free Software Foundation. History lesson aside, this
is how it should be done for Zorin 15.
First a handy explanatory article:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/659588/what-is-the-efi-esp-partition
Here is mine gone wrong! (By that my choice of 100 Mb appears to have
turned into 100 Gb!:
So, your drive, assuming no Windows and no other hard drives would be
probably 'sda#' - because of me playing around with other distributions (I have
a choice of 5 at boot time!) and various reinstalls of Zorin it has become 'sdb#'.
So when you get to the something else part of install and GParted, (Gnome
Partition editor) comes on screen, if you have any existing partitions, (extened
ones will need to be 'unmounted' before you can delete anything inside it),
delete all of them unless you are intending to dual-boot with Windows. This
tutorial is purely made for the purpose of installing Zorin/GNU/Linux of your
choice with EFI support.
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1. Create a partition of 512 Mb. Format this partition to FAT32 and mark it as
boot/efi using the 'flags' manager.
2. Next create your 'root' file system, make this 80 Gb in size. Format to Ext4
and mark it as '/',
3. Next up at the end of the free space after '/' partition create your swap area-
make it double the size of your installed RAM.
4. Finally, the space left in between should be formatted to Ext4 and marked
as '/home'
Next proceed with the installation, remembering to ensure that you have told
the installer to install the bootloader to 'sda' and then click on continue.
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2. The Login Loop – You try to login but after you enter your
assword you are back to where you started!
[UPDATE 20.01.2020 - Have found another potential cause to this problem -
corrupt files. I booted a recent install of Zorin Education 15.1 on works
Notebook and had login loop. Started in Advanced | Safe mode and ran FSCK -
it could not run automatically, stated it would need to run manually.
So at the prompt you type:
[code]fsck /dev/sda1[/code]
This is assuming there is only one hard drive in the machine - you would of
course put the device label according to which drive Zorin is on.
fsck runs and reports file errors in inodes and asks if you want to repair - well
yes, you do obviously! Enter 'y' for any other prompts - it will tell you when you
have finished. On completion of the task you will be returned to the safe mode
options menu - don't select 'RESUME' - turn off the machine and power up -
problem solved! :D ]
The 'de facto' solution...
Is usually is to boot into advanced | recovery mode then from the recovery
memory launch 'root' (terminal) then enter:
[code]mount -n -o remount,rw /[/code] then press Enter.
[code]passwd your_username[/code] then enter new password, shutdown and
reboot.
If this does not work, and if you have Timeshift installed then boot from live
DVD/memory stick and point to where the snapshots are held and see if that
works. If it doesn't try one of the following 3 options (acknowledgements to
https://www.linuxslaves.com/2016/05/3-ways-fix-ubuntu-gets-stuck-login-
loop.html? )
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"Method #1 Fix Ubuntu login screen loop
The first is quite simple. The file is located under the current user's home
directory. All you will have to do is change the owner of .Xauthority file.
Step 1 - At login time, use Ctrl+Alt+F3 to switch and access the command line
interface mode.
Step 2 - Login into the shell using your username and your password. In this
case, username will be your username you set when you installed Ubuntu.
Step 3 - Once logged in, now run ls -lah to view list directory contents. Look for
the line that ends with .Xauthority
[code]# ls -lah
-rw------- 1 root root 53 Nov 29 10:19 .Xauthority
[/code]
Step 4 - You need to do chown. Type and run the following command :
[code] ['sudo' if not currently 'root'] chown username:username
.Xauthority[/code]
Now reboot and see if you can log in - if not:
Step 5 - If it does not work, try renaming.
[code]mv .Xauthority .Xauthority.bak[/code]
Now reboot and try re-logging in.
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Method #2 How to Fix Ubuntu login screen loop
Step 1 - Run ls -ld /tmp. Check for the first 10 letters in the left: they should
read exactly so: drwxrwxrwt
[code]# ls -ld /tmp
drwxrwxrwt 15 root root 4096 Nov 30 04:17 /tmp[/code]
Step 2 - You may need to changing permission. Run the command below :
[code]sudo chmod a+wt /tmp[/code]
Method #3 How to Fix Ubuntu login screen loop
If even both did not work for you, try the last one! Please make sure you are
connected to active internet. Check this out!
Step 1 - Uninstall and reinstall Ubuntu lightdm. Run the following :
[code]sudo apt-get purge lightdm
sudo apt-get install lightdm
dpkg-reconfigure lightdm[/code]
Step 2 - Once reconfigured, now reboot."
[I have modified the instructions as it is not clear at which point you become
'root' using the 'sudo' command - if the last element of a terminal prompt is '#'
then you are in the terminal as 'root' with elevated privileges. If the last
element of the command prompt is '$' you are a standard user, and not 'root'. I
have written this tutorial experiencing just this and used Method 1 which solved
the issue for me in FerenOS]
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3. How to recover a ‘/home’ partition marked as unallocated.
OK, new motherboard, old drive, /home (of Zorin Lite 12.4) marked / identified
as 'unallocated' space in GParted! Scratched head and remembered reading
somewhere that Gparted comes with Test Disk (this might be the live version,
not sure) so I began looking at the options. Before going any further you may
well need a live version of GParted if you don't have another drive with another
GNU/Linux installed on it. The scenario I am sharing is a drive with Feren OS
which has GParted installed, but I discovered when first attempting to check for
filesystems on the drive affected there was a package missing, 'gpart' - you
may need to install this. I did it through the terminal:
[code]sudo apt-get install gpart[/code]
Now read on:
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1.
Here you can see the drive that contains:
sda1 - '/' root partition
sda2 - 'unallocated' (actually '/home' - so potentially a partition table
error/something else/failing drive.)
sda 3 - ntfs data share partition - I also backed this up - just in case - using the
data recovery through GParted.
Next we go to the 'Device' heading in the menu bar of GParted and select
'Attempt Data Rescue ...' shown below. (Next page)
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2.
You will receive this notification:
3.
You are advised it may take some time but for me was very quick because of
the new rig (Ryzen 7 with 16 Gb RAM).
333
4.
In this scenario, you cannot view the 'root' filesystem (#1) as it is protected file
system being 'root' and we need to recover the '/home' partition, which is #2 …
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5.
I then simply dragged the 'swarfendor437' folder onto my external drive so I
am now safe in the knowledge I can reinstall Zorin (hopefully!) and to play
extra safe, filesystem #3 was the NTFS system partition for Data Sharing I
created a tutorial video for before installing any GNU/Linux so you can access
data both from GNU/Linux and your Windows machines (or smartphone using
Obmin installed in Zorin).
[ Footnote: having looked at the images supplied I spotted an instant error - my
NTFS data share partition is marked as Bootable - changed the Zorin '/' partition
to be marked as bootable and on booting get the Windows 'Missing Operating
System' - this is what comes when you don't follow your own advice (I could cry
like Alice in Wonderland - but won't! :lol: ) of disconnecting drives you are not
working on! ]
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Addendum - more useful software.
Another useful utility, a video and audio file converter,
Winff.
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OCR and pdf Software
Linux applications for modifying/extracting text from pdfs.
This information is prepared on the understanding that the
applications have been installed/exist in the distribution being used.
1. ocrmypdf. (Available via Synaptic Package Manager)
This is a command line utility (there is no front end) and provided
user is confident of navigating inside a terminal there should be no
issues. One thing to bear in mind when cd .. ing to a different
directory. To open a Terminal, either (depending on the DE - Desktop
Environment) Ctrl+ Alt+ T launches the terminal. Alternatively Alt+
F2 brings up quick search/launch bar - just enter Terminal (Gnome
DE), Xterm (xfce DE), Konsole (KDE/Plasma DE).
337
Once in the terminal you will be in the base part of your /home
directory of you (user). So first off we need to change directory (cd ..
command, just like windows) and move to ‘Documents’ - be aware
that Linux terminal navigation is case sensitive so ‘cd .. documents’
would get you nowhere.
If a folder has a lengthy name e.g., Staff Mandarin Class we would
have to, once in documents, cd .. \Staff \Mandarin \Class. If we know
the name of the pdf e.g., Mandarin.pdf that is contains ‘images’ of
text we then enter:
ocrmypdf Mandarin.pdf output_pdf.
After a few seconds of whirring, it will report what it has done
including any concerns about potential orientation. It reports usually
that it has transformed into a type 2A pdf as expected. I have found
this to be invaluable recently whilst searching for a potential
solution for another VI forum member, I stumbled upon it, and glad
that I did!
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2. Okular. (Available in the Software channel).
This was designed for the KDE/Plasma DE (as an aside KDE/Plasma
DE can be applied to Windows but it will not mean you can take
advantage of the inbuilt screen reading capability of Okular that is
found in the Linux version. The Windows version is in the Windows
Store or the nightly stable build can be acquired from here:
https://binary-factory.kde.org/job/Okular_Nightly_win64/ lastStableBuild/
To launch Okular, use Alt+ F2 to get the launch bar and enter the
applicaton name - on entering Ok... it should autofill to read Okular
as there are not many apps starting with Ok!, then press enter to
launch Okular.
To open a file (Ctrl+ O). As selection tools tend to be visually
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orientated for someon reliant on a screenreader, I would export as a
‘text’ file - this is the 13th option under File menu (Alt+ F) then scroll
down until you hear ‘Export as’ announced. then right arrow to
select ‘plain text’. What this actually does is create its own version
of a pdf which does not show up under Open files - you need to use
the drop down option in the interface box to open it up again in
Okular by choosing ‘All Files’.
Once opened, to choose the text selection tool by entering the key
combination of Ctrl+ 4. Next use Ctrl+ A to select the entire
document, then Ctrl+ C to copy to Clipboard, open up your
preferred Text Processor, then Ctrl+ V. Be aware that when a text
document pdf is created it does not move any images across - it
purely extracts the text from the document.
Okular handbook:
https://docs.kde.org/stable5/en/kdegraphics/okular//
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3. L.I.O.S (Linux Intelligent OCR Solution). (Available in Software.)
This is another application useful for extracting text. It does a
reasonable job, but fancy Capital T’s can usually endup having a
single speech mark to the left of it but it can be removed in the Edit
window. Now I am not too sure how good it works with Commands
for non-sighted use. What is slightly annoying is it accumulates
page numbers at the top of each image, even from ones worked on
before so the image window of the application needs to be entered
to delete the first line. That aside it is a pleasant application to
work with from a sighted modifiers perspective as unlike Abbyy
FineReader and other OCR applications for Windows, font styles are
not embedded, it is just pure text so, so long as the Text Processor
you are working with is set to the correct Font and Font size you
only need to go to Home | Font and select ‘Set as Default’ for
current document only, and then when pasting from LIOS it
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transforms into the correct size and typeface required.
From the Help file:
Linux-Intelligent-OCR-Solution
*** What is Lios ***
Lios is a free and open source software for converting print in to text
using either scanner or a camera, It can also produce text out of
scanned images from other sources such as Pdf, Image, Folder
containing Images or screenshot. Program is given total accessibility
for visually impaired. Lios is written in python3, and we release it
under GPL-3 license. There are great many possibilities for this
program, Feedback is the key to it.
Report your feedback through : https://groups.google.com/forum/#!
forum/lios
*** Features of Lios ***
1. Import images from Scanner, PDFs, Folder, or Webcam,
2. Take and Recognize Screenshot,
3. Recognize Selected Areas(Rectangle selection),
4. Support two OCR Engines (Cuneiform,Tesseract),
5. 24 Language support (Given at the end), 30 more languages can
be installed in Tesseract,
6. Full Auto Rotation for any Language(If aspell installed for the
language, Eg : "sudo apt-get install aspell-hi" for Hindi,
7. Side by side view of image and output
8. Advanced Scanner Brightness optimizer,
9. Text Reader for low vision with Highlighting, With user selected
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Color, Font, and Background Color,
10. Audio converter(espeak),
11. Spell-checker(aspell),
12. Export as pdf (text/images),
13. Dictionary Support for English(Artha)
14. Options for save, load and reset settings,
15. Other options - Find, Find-and-Replace, Go-To-Page, Go-To-Line,
Append file, Punch File, Selection of starting page number, page
numbering mode and number of pages to scan, Selection of Scan
area, brightness, resolution and time between repeated scanning,
Output Insert position, image rotation and zoom options, etc
*** Opening and Closing ***
For opening Lios launch Application menu > Graphics > Lios. Or
one can search in dash board and start Lios from there.
Open with image items or PDF
One can select required images to be imported from the file browser
and open the context menu using right click or application key and
select open with Lios
Closing
Select Quit from File menu or press Ctrl+Q
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*** Importing images from various sources ***
# Importing image
At first choose the import-image from the file menu of Lios. This will
cause a file chooser dialogue to appear. One can select a particular
image or multiple images files. The images will appear on image list
of Lios.
# Importing images from PDF
At first select import-PDF item from file menu. A file chooser
dialogue will appear, here you can select the PDF file to be
extracted.
# Importing all images in a folder
At first choose the import-folder from the file menu of Lios. This will
cause a file chooser dialogue to appear. One can select the folder
containing images files. The images will appear on image list of
Lios.
# Importing image from scanner
Before scanning make sure that scan menu is available and select
the scanner from the Lios main interface if multiple scanners are
connected. You should press Update-Scanner-List when a scanner is
connected or removed.
The pages and their brightness may be different. So it is important
to select apt resolution, brightness and scan area while scanning
book. One can change these settings from scanning page of Lios
preferences. Increasing or decreasing resolution can be done by
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clicking on '+ - 'button or pressing up and down arrow from the
resolution spin button. (Default 300)
increasing or decreasing brightness can also be done in the same
way. However It's better to use the brightness optimizer to set the
exact brightness value for a particular book. (Default 50)
The scan area can be selected using the scan-area combobox. It can
be quarter, half or three quarter. (Default - Full)
One can make scan using scan-image(F8) button from the scan
menu
# Import image from scanner repeatedly
One can set the number of pages to be scanned repeatedly
from scanning page of preferences also the time between the two
scanning can be changed. One can start scanning repeatedly using
scan-repeatedly(Ctrl+F8) item from scan menu. If you want to stop
repeated scanning using stop-all-process(Ctrl+F4) item in the scan
menu.
# Take Screenshot
One can take screenshot and recognize that using this features.
There are two modes the first one is capture entire screen and the
second one is capture by selecting an area. Both of this options are
placed in scan menu. The second option is more preferred. This
feature can be used for recognizing text from videos.
# Capture image using Webcam
One can start capturing by selecting Scan-Using-Webcam from scan
menu. Then adjust the webcam and click on take button to capture
the image. After capturing enough images close the window and
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select image from icon view on left side of lios and process it.
*** Manipulation of imported Images ***
Image manipulation options are available in Image Menu of Lios.
# Invert List
This is used to change the order of images
# Reposition of image items
one can click and drag image to any position among other images in
the list.
# Rotate selected Images
One can rotate bunch of images that are not in exact rotation.
# Delete selected Images
One can delete all images or selected images from the list.
# Save Images
Used to save all images or selected images to a folder.
# Save images as PDF
One can save all images as pdf or save selected images as pdf.
# OCR images without rotating
Before running ocr on images we can set OCR engine, language and
insert position.
These options are in recognition page of Lios preferences. The
selection of engine will affect the supported languages combobox.
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One can decide the place in which 'output text' is added. It can be
at the starting position end position or wherever the cursor blinks.
After setting this, one can ocr images without rotation using ocr-
selected-images-without-rotating item from the ocr menu. Or
selecting the images from the image list and using the same option
from the properties menu(Right click)
# OCR images with rotation
The mode rotation can be selected from the recognition page of Lios
preferences. The options available are Full automatic, Partial
automatic and Manual.
Full automatic – The Lios will automatically select the apt rotation.
The detection may take several seconds. Partial automatic- In
partial automatic mode first scanned orientation is the model for the
rest. Manual – In this you can give any orientation you like for each
and every image, The rotation should be set in the recognition page
of Lios preferences.
# OCR Rectangle selections
One can select the region of interest from an image by drawing
rectangles in the image using mouse. After selecting the regions
one can OCR the items using Recognize-Selected-Areas Button
shown left side of image view. For each entry in the list there will be
starting X,Y, width and height. The overlap won't be allowed.
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*** Scan and OCR directly ***
One can do scan and ocr directly using scan-and-ocr(F9) button
from scan menu. This will first make a scan and add image to the
list then ocr the image with respect to the rotation policy.
# Scan-and-ocr-repeatedly(Ctrl+F9) will scan and recognize images
repeatedly. The process can be stopped using stop-all-
process(Ctrl+F4) button.
*** Manipulation of OCR Output ***
# New
One can start a new book or clear the entire text by selecting
new(Ctrl+N) from the File menu. This will ask confirmation if text is
not saved.
# Open
To open a file in Lios, select the Open(Ctrl+O) button in File menu.
This will cause the Open dialog to appear. Use your mouse or
keyboard to select the file that you wish to open, and then click
Open. The file that you've selected will open.
# Save/Save As
To save a file in Lios, select the Save(Ctrl+S) button from the file
menu.
If you are saving a new file, the Save As dialog will appear, and you
can select a name for the file, as well as the directory where you
would like the file to be saved.
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*** Other Basic Options ***
This includes all text manipulation tools like cut, copy, paste, and
delete text.
# Punch
This is used to open text on a file and paste that text in the current
cursor position. This will cause the open dialog to appear, and there
you can select the file to be punched.
# Append
Same as punch but the text will be added at the end of the current
text.
# Find
This can be used for finding out the word in text. Finding the word in
Lios can be done via Opening the find tool by Choosing Find(Ctrl+F)
item from Edit menu. Enter the text that you wish to search into the
Find word field. To find the next match, click Next. To find the
previous match, click Previous. One can see the context for current
match above the Previous and Next buttons. Also the matched word
will be highlighted.
# Find and Replace
Editing text can be time consuming. To save time, Lios includes a
Replace function that helps you to find and replace portions of text.
In order to replace select Find-and-Replace(Ctrl+R) from Edit menu.
Enter the text that you wish to replace into the word field. Enter the
new replacement text into the Replace word field. To find the next
match, click Next. To find the previous match, click Previous. One
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can see the context for current match below the Previous and Next
buttons. To replace only the current match, click Replace. To replace
all occurrences of the searched-for text, click Replace All.
# Spell checker
One can manually check the spelling of a text selection or the entire
document.
To check the spelling of a text, the appropriate dictionaries must be
installed. The spell check starts at the current cursor position, or at
the beginning of the text selection. Click in the document, or select
the text that you want to check. Choose Spell-Check(Ctrl+F7) from
the Tools menu. When a possible spelling error is encountered, the
Spell check dialog opens and Lios offers some suggested
corrections. Do one of the following:
To accept a correction, click the suggestion, and then click change.
Edit the sentence in the upper text box, and then click change. Or to
add the unknown word to a user-defined dictionary, click Add to
user dict.
*** Readability ***
# Font and Color : - General page includes options for changing
Font, Color and Background colour and same options for
highlighting. This can increase the readability of text.
# Go-to-line
Select Go-to-line(Ctrl+L) from Edit menu. The go-to-line dialogue
box will appear with current line number. Now type the line number
and press Enter.
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# Go-to-page
Select Go-to-Page(Ctrl+L) from Edit menu. The Go-to-Page dialogue
box will appear, type the page number and press Enter.
# Text Reader
One can Read the output text using TTS via setting the cursor and
activating the Start-Reader(F5) item from tools menu. One can
change the speed, rate, voice and reading volume from general
page of Lios preferences. One can increase or decrease the speech
rate while reading using Increase-Reader-Speed (Ctrl+PageUp) and
Decrease-Reader-Speed (Ctrl+PageDown) buttons on the same
menu.
*** Utilities ***
# Brightness Optimizer
One can find the apt brightness for a book using the brightness
optimizer
brightness checker is one of the major utilities of Lios. different
books demands different brightness level depending on the quality
of the paper. ocr process results best on the brightness level set.
It can be done using the brightness spin button in the recognition
page in the Lios preferences.
If one is not familiar with determining the brightness of a book, can
use the brightness optimizer in the scan menu. To start optimizer
select Optimize-Scanner-Brightness from scan menu. Then Lios will
ask you to set the following parameters.
Note that if mode of rotation in preferences is Full-Automatic or
Partial-Automatic then lios will try to detect the rotation using a
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single scan and pop-up Optimize Scanner-Brightness dialog.
In optimize dialog the first one is angle-to-be-rotated of rotation for
optimizing, The second one Current-Value that is existing
brightness(default value is 50), The third parameter is Start, it
means, the value from which the brightness check starts(default
start is 10). the forth one is distance, that is, difference between
brightness level set for each consecutive scanning(default distance
is 10). The forth parameter is End, it means, the value from which
the brightness check Ends (default end is 90). If one does not
change any value and click the optimize button.
The program will scan from 10 to 90 with a gap of 10. After each
scanning, the total number of words detected will be announced.
After ten scanning, one can opt for further accuracy in brightness
changing the values or just click Optimize button to follow the
changed default values. In the end click the apply button and ocr
process will be done on the brightness level set. It is highly
recommended that at the beginning of a new Book, this utility may
be used. Also note that a typical page that represents the quality of
the book may be selected and no movement of the page kept in the
scanner may be made till the process is over.
# Audio converter
One can use audio converter to change the text into small pieces of
audio and save it as WAV Files. You can decide the speed, pitch,
split time (to decide length of each WAV files) and volume before
conversion.
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# Artha
One can findout the meaning of any word using artha. Select the
word and Press Alt+Ctrl+W to get the meaning, synonyms,
antonyms, derivatives, word related to them, and words similar to
them.
# Saving and Loading Preferences
Lios Preferences dialogue box contains three pages, General,
Recognition and Scanning. One can save and load preferences for
each book. Also one can reset the preferences using Restore item in
Preferences menu.
*** Scanner Trouble Shooting ***
These options can be changed from scanning page of Lios
Preferences.
# Changing the driver
The next item for selecting driver. If one driver is not working one
can select the other one.
# Change to Lineart or binary
Lineart and binary are two modes which allow user to scan directly
as black and white image. This is more appropriate for recognition.
One can disable this but color scanning will take more time than
lineart.
# Cache Calibration
By enabling Cache Calibration one can avoid heating scanner lamp
each time.
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*** Disclaimer ***
Copyright (c) 2011-2015 Lios Development Team All rights
reserved . Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or
without modification, are permitted provided that the following
license conditions are met:
License: GPL-3
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html
.
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published
by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty
of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See
the
GNU General Public License for more details.
.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see
<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
.
On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public
License
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version 3 can be found in `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-3'.
FREE SOFTWARE FREE SOCIETY
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4. OCRFeeder. Only available via Synaptic Package Manager.
Where Okular uses the ‘de facto’ Tesseract engine, OCR Feeder
offers the user 3 additional OCR engines - Cuneiform, GOCR, and
Ocrad. Details of each one (and more) here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/OCR
Open a file (Ctrl+ O)
Import page from Scanner (Shift+ Ctrl+ I)
Export (Shift Ctrl+ E) - options - default is ODT (LibreOffice
Template), HTML,
PDF, Texto simples.
Recognize document (Shift+ Ctrl+ D)
Recognize page (Shift+ Ctrl+G)
Website: https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/OCRFeeder
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5. pdftk (pdf tool kit) - to fix corrupt pdfs and more.
Available via Synaptic Package Manager only.
Open a terminal or Konsole and once you have cd .. ‘d to the
directory where the faulty pdf is enter:
pdftk broken.pdf output fixed.pdf
This was a life saver for me when I had a failing hard drive which
corrupted an A-Level Physics Paper I was working on!
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6. pdf Arranger. (Available in the Software channel.)
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