Set your XFCE numberlock to default to “on”

XFCE boots by default with the number lock off. For people who are used to other operating systems remembering their number lock settings from a previous session. this can be annoying. If you want your number lock to always default to “on” when you star a session, then follow these directions (taken from this source.)

I xkill-ed the panel

My Firefox keeps crashing for some reason. I’m running version 2 on my Xubuntu Gutsy machine at work, and it will hang for a long time. So I tried using the xkill command to get rid of it. You can run xkill by typing it in a terminal or in the “run program” dialog (hit Alt-F2 to get the “run program” dialog box.) Xkill will turn your mouse cursor into a skull and crossbones. Then you just click on the window that you want to kill. Just make sure the window you want to kill is on top, as you won’t be able to Alt+Tab once xkill is running.

Anyway, the last time it happened, Firefox was so hung up that the entire window disappeared all except for the title bar. When I ran xkill, I wasn’t sure what I should click on, so I tried clicking on the Firefox button that shows up in my task list applet in the panel. Well, that killed the panel.

I wasn’t sure what to do from there. I couldn’t remember how to reboot using the terminal (which I already had open). But I did remember that I could open Firefox again just by running the firefox command in the terminal (you can also run it using Alt+F2). Once I got Firefox back up, I ran a Google search to try to find the command to restart the panel. So here it is, in case you too make the fatal mistake of killing your panel. Hit Alt+F2 to get the run dialog and then the command xfce4-panel. Your panel should pop right back up.

Next time, I’ll be sure to click on the little strip of title bar on my hung Firefox window when I want to xkill it.