Ubuntu Starters - Brightness to Bluetooth

Ever since I came to know of Ubuntu and Linux (Linux Is Not UniX) I wanted to try them and learn about them. During university days I installed Ubuntu side by side with windows but never actually explored it, except probably the install and uninstall part which I did quite a few times. This time however as my new laptop came with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and I decided not to uninstall it for the sake of installing Windows, I did try my hands on one or two things. In this post I'll put a few things that could give a brief idea about Ubuntu if you ever wish to try it out (it is worth a shot, who knows it might trigger your love for complicatedly simple software engineering)

Installing Ubuntu is similar to how you install Windows, you can install it side by side as well. There are enough websites and forums to give you more than enough knowledge if you ever decide to install it. The only probable difference points you would notice are that the partition type is EXT3 or 4 and not NTFS (like for Windows), that there is something called mount point, which you can think of as start point/home directory and, that there is something called Swap Area which I understood as a virtual RAM. For a computer with, say, 2GB+ RAM I don't think it would be required for a basic user, so I guess ignoring Swap Area wouldn't cause any issue. Anyways, like I said, there is enough information available online. If you install Ubuntu alongside Windows, you get to choose at every start which OS to boot into. There is a sequence in which these OS are displayed and there is a time-out after which either default or highlighted OS is loaded (I don't remember which). You can change the boot loader sequence and also the time-out and the default OS.

After you have installed Ubuntu you would probably find yourself handicapped at first as every audio / video you play might ask you to install plugins. Also there might be an update manager popping up giving a list of updates adding up to a huge file size. It is TOTALLY ALRIGHT. You can just go to Ubuntu Software Center and install VLC Media Player. Now this one is really cool. You can just browse stuff like you do in case of Android Play Store. Search for what software you need, read description, if it serves your purpose then install, Simple and Elegant. Just that it is not flooded with options.

Something that you might find interesting or annoying is that bluetooth is on and brightness is set to full every time you restart. To change that I had to browse multiple forums. It would be easier for me to just put some code here rather than to find and link those websites now.

Open Terminal (ctrl+alt+t) the command prompt in Ubuntu

type following code and hit enter

sudo gedit /etc/rc.local

this opens a file in text editor (gedit)

Before the last line of the file which should say "exit 0" Add the following two lines

rfkill block bluetooth
echo 0 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness

save (ctrl+s)

exit editor (alt+F4) - only then you will be able to exit terminal

exit terminal - type exit and hit enter (or if you wish to check you can type sudo reboot and hit enter)

sudo is to run as administrator so it asks for your admin password (only first time in that Terminal session). In the two lines above, first line kills the bluetooth process and second line sets the value of brightness variable to 0. It is wise to check if such variable is there at that location (/sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/). and the value 0 can be changed to suit your requirement. For the range of this value you will have to change and monitor the variable value at the location where it is stored. rc.local is something which, you may say, is something run at every start. You want to explore more, read about RunLevels. for now That's All Folks

Cheers