I have a laptop that spends some of it's time docked to a monitor and keyboard/mouse. I would like to know how to change some settings depending on if it's connected to the dock or not. Is there a program that can help with this?

Some possible use-cases include:

• Changing size of the taskbar to smaller/bigger
• Changing the behavior of the taskbar to auto-hide
• Changing the font size smaller/bigger
• Changing power settings performance/battery saver
• Enabling/disabling auto brightness
• Enabling/disabling keyboard backlight

These are just a few things I can think of but can provide more.

Something like Android's Tasker but for Linux would be great.

I occasionally need to know the names of programs. I asked here about "Run as Administrator" being added to the context menu (like in Windows), and the response was basically "can't be easily done". an example is if I wish to edit a config file it cannot be done without accessing the terminal. Knowing the name "gedit" is the real name of "text editor" is useful information in this use-case.

I am not afraid of the terminal, but I would never prefer it over a GUI. is there a way to find a program name/install location from right-clicking-details (or something)? So then I could open a terminal and "sudo programname"?

(As an aside, I prefer Linux overall, but every distro I've tried has a strong sense that if you're using the GUI you don't need or deserve admin controls. Program names in the menus are almost always different from their names in the terminal, and many what I would consider normal system settings, like the ability to act as an administrator, find where a program is installed are terminal only.)

This is Ubuntu with all the default stuff

EDIT: I always expect a degree of hostility and talking-down from the desktop Linux community, but the number of people in this thread telling me I am using my own computer that I bought with my own money in a way they don't prefer while ignoring my question is just absurd and frankly should be deeply embarrassing for all of us. I have strongly defended the desktop Linux community for decades, but this experience has left a sour taste in my mouth.

Thank you to the few of you who tried to assist without judgement or assumptions.

EDIT: As usual, it can be easily done.

I found a (lengthy) guide to doing this but it is for gksu which is gone. I have to imagine there's an easy way. I am running Ubuntu. There is no specific use case, it is just a feature I miss from windows.

EDIT: I always expect a degree of hostility and talking-down from the desktop Linux community, but the number of people in this thread telling me I am using my own computer that I bought with my own money in a way they don't prefer while ignoring my question is just absurd and frankly should be deeply embarrassing for all of us. I have strongly defended the desktop Linux community for decades, but this experience has left a sour taste in my mouth.

Thank you to the few of you who tried to assist without judgement or assumptions.

I use Google tasks for my todo list. This GNOME extension is nice and minimal and just what I'm looking for, and it uses todo.txt. Is there an easy way to sync my changes with Google, similar to how the GNOME calendar app does?

EDIT: Endeavor (GNOME "To do") seamlessly integrates with Google Tasks and ostensibly todo.txt but I can't get it to recognize the todo.txt (I'm not sure it would sync todo.txt > Endeavor > Tasks even if it was working, however).

I have a laptop that spends 90% of it's time on a single network, and a server with several shares where I store files, like pictures.

For example I have my fstab configured with this line:

//192.168.224.45/Pictures /home/jediwan/Pictures cifs credentials=/home/jediwan/.smbcredentials,uid=1000,gid=1000,x-systemd.automount 0 0

And it works great as long as I'm on the same network. But if I'm not on my main network the PC struggles to load GNOME and eventually crashes. What do?

EDIT: Adding nofail worked

For those not in the know, this channel does really great SNES and other retro console game reviews. I thought /c/startrek would enjoy this one!

I haven't been able to find one. Using Zorin OS which is GNOME.

I recently switched to Linux (Zorin OS) and I selected "use ZFS and encrypt" during installation. Now before I can log in it asks me "please unlock disk keystore-rpool" and I have to type in the encryption password it before I'm able to get to the login screen.

Is there a way to do this automatically like with Windows or MacOS? Zorin has biometric login which is nice but this defeats the purpose especially because the encryption password is long and tedious to type in.

Also might TPM have anything to do with this?

EDIT: Based on the responses I have to assume some of you guys live in windowless underground bunkers sealed off with concrete because door locks "aren't secure against battering rams". Normal people don't need perfect encryption they just want to add an extra hurdle or two for the crackhead who steals the PC. I assumed Linux had a system similar to what Windows or MacOS has been doing for a decade but I am apparently wrong.

I don't have a lot of space for consoles and cartridges, or money for consoles and cartridges but I do have a decent computer hooked up to a TV. What's the best way to get an authentic experience via emulation? Here's what I have so far:

Retroarch Settings

• HDR enabled (cant tell if it actually helps)
• Run-ahead enabled
• Mega Bezel shaders
• Retrobit saturn controller (having trouble getting configured but has an excellent dpad)

Emulators/cores:

• NES - Mesen
• SNES - bsnes
• Jaguar - Bigpemu (need to configure shaders)
• Megadrive/CD/32X - Picodrive
• PSX - ??? Swanstation?
• Saturn - Beetle Saturn
• N64 - Mupen64plus

Thing I need to work on:

• Tweaking shader settings as the defaults are very dark
• Configuring retrobit controller to work with Steam big Picture (how I launch Retroarch) and retroarch seamlessly
• Possibly finding a Big Box theme that is focused on original artwork and not garbage

Any advice/pointers? My goal is to eventually have a "pick up and play" setup possibly with different 8bitdo/retrobit controllers for each system.