Ubuntu - add a folder to bookmarks on the left panel

Bookmarking a folder on Ubuntu is easier as expected: just open the folder you want to have at hand in the left-hand-side panel, and from the above menu choose Bookmarks, and then Add Bookmark. In alternative, directly from the folder press CTRL+D, and a shortcut will be created in the bookmarks tab.

[SOLVED] Add custom characters to keyboard layout in Ubuntu

After a lot of attempts, which were not definitive, I finally managed to add some custom characters to my keyboard layout which were not included, avoiding to switch form one layout to another for just some characters.

Here I use as example how I added some German characters (ä,ö,ü,...) on my Italian layout.

• temporally change your layout with a similar one:
  Menu -> Keyboard Layout ->  Layout -> + -> chose a different one from your current (I chose English UK)
• open a terminal (CTRL+ALT+T)
• type cd /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/
• type ls to see all the layouts, and identify which one your was (in my case it, in the following steps substitute it with your layout)
• make a backup copy: sudo cp it it.backup
• open the file: sudo gedit it &
• identify the key you want to edit: if for example you want to add the "ä" as third option on the "A" key, search for the lines which contain "a" and "A" at the beginning; in this case it is:
      key <AC01> { [a, A, aring, Aring] };
• substitute the third element ("aring" or whatever you have) with "adiaeresis" and eventually the fourth with "Adiaeresis" in order to get an "Ä"; this in ALL lines (there can be more of them for different layout settings) where that specific key appears. 'A' key lines should then look like
      key <AC01> { [a, A, adiaeresis, Adiaeresis] };
• add other desired characters as well; if you don't know their code (e.g. "adiaeresis"), just look for them in that language's layout
• save & close
• in the Terminal type sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration and follow the on-screen instructions
• then type sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup and follow the on-screen instructions
• close all programs and reboot: sudo reboot
• after logging in go again to Menu -> Keyboard Layout ->  Layout, remove the previously set layout and add your default one; now, following the above example, you should be able to get an "ä" by AltGr+A and an "Ä" by SHIFT+AltGr+A

[SOLVED] Share folders between Linux Mint computers

If you want to share a folder on a Mint machine, and to access it both from Windows and from Linux computer, you have to follow these simple steps:

INSTALLATION (on every Linux machine):

• open a Terminal (CTRL+ALT+T)
• install Samba:  sudo apt-get install samba
• create a login to access shared folders:  sudo smbpasswd -a <whateverYouWant>  and insert a password for it when asked

FOLDER SHARING (on every Linux machine you want to share some folder of)

• make a backup of the Samba configuration file on your home folder:  sudo cp /etc/samba/smb.conf ~
• edit the configuration file:  sudo gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf
• for every folder you want to share, append something like this at the very end of the file:
  [nameOfSharedFolder]
  path = /path/to/shared/folder
  available = yes
  valid users = theUserYouCreatedInTheStepAbove
  read only = no
  browsable=yes
  public = yes
  eventually changing the values on the right-hand side of the = sign, and the name in the square brackets.
• if you want to share the folder with another linux machine, add this line just after the line starting with "workgroup = ...": name resolve order = bcast host lmhosts wins
• save and close the text editor
• restart Samba:  sudo service smbd restart
• check that there are no errors:  sudo testparm

Wait some minutes and then everything should work. If you have other questions just post a comment, I'll answer as soon as possible.