Karmic, VPN, ItsHidden.com

To use the VPN service provided by ItsHidden.com in Karmic, complete the following steps (one thing changed since Jaunty):

1. Install the PPTP plug-in for Network Manager
   $ sudo apt-get install network-manager-pptp
2. Restart Network Manager
   $ sudo service network-manager restart
3. Create the VPN connection
4. In the "Advanced..." settings, enable "Use Point-to-Point encryption (MPPE)"

The one change is minor. Instead of the command "sudo /etc/init.d/NetworkManager restart" in step 2, it is now "sudo service network-manager restart". Both commands seem to work, but the new command is the preferred method.

(I had a previous post about getting ItsHidden.com to work in Jaunty.)

Karmic, Java

To install Java in Karmic, execute the following command:

$ sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts

When you have to accept the licence agreements, use the "Tab" key to cycle through the options and the "Enter" key select an option.

(I got this answer from here.)

Gnome, Panel, Moving Panel

To move a Gnome panel, you can use the menu option: right-click panel -> Properties -> Orientation. The "Orientation" drop-down has four options, one for each side of the screen: Top, Bottom, Left, Right. However, there is no menu option to move a panel to a second monitor. To accomplish this, hold down alt and drag the panel to the desired location.

I added a Ubuntu Brainstorm idea about this issue and added a possible solution. Go and vote for your favorite solution or add your own:

Jaunty, VPN, ItsHidden.com

UPDATE: Improved directions for Karmic!

To use the VPN service provided by ItsHidden.com in Jaunty, complete the following steps (that were partially found in this Ubuntu forum thread):

1. Install the PPTP plug-in for Network Manager
   $ sudo apt-get install network-manager-pptp
2. Restart Network Manager
   $ sudo /etc/init.d/NetworkManager restart
3. Create the VPN connection
4. In the "Advanced..." settings, enable "Use Point-to-Point encryption (MPPE)"

This most difficult part of this process was figuring out about the need to install the necessary plug-in and restart the Network Manager. Cast your vote on Ubuntu Brainstorm to raise awareness about this issue:

Jaunty, Firefox, Notifications

To get the new notification system in Jaunty, install the Firefox plugin called FirefoxNotify.

Jaunty, Firefox, Flash

After upgrading from 8.10 Intrepid to 9.04 Jaunty, flash no longer worked in Firefox. I found the following workaround on this Ubuntu forum thread:

$ sudo apt-get remove flashplugin-* --purge
$ sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

I am not sure why "reinstalling" the flash plugin does the trick, but I knew that just doing a --reinstall or the above commands without the --purge did not work for me.