Help Desk Geek – Help Desk Tips For IT Pros

Modern computers are very configurable.  There are control panels for monitor settings (screen orientation and resolution), control panels for wi-fi, control panels for Bluetooth, and for laptops you’ll find control panels for power management.  It’s nice to have those settings at your fingertips, but unfortunately, the more you add to your panel, the more crowded and inefficient it gets.  Thankfully, Linux users have a nifty solution called Jupiter, and it lets users access all of those settings, from a single toolbar icon.

To start using Jupiter, we’ll need to add a specific PPA (personal package archive); this PPA lets us not only install the software we need, but if we use our system’s package management tools, it will keep Jupiter up-to-date as well.  So first we’ll open a Terminal.

Once the Terminal is open, we’ll add the PPA by typing sudo apt-add-repository ppa:webupd8team/jupiter

Now, we’ll update the PPA (and all of our available software repositories) by typing sudo apt-get update, and then sudo apt-get install jupiter will install Jupiter, as well as any other software it requires to run that isn’t currently installed.

Note: if you have an Asus EeePC laptop, and need Super Hybrid Engine support, typing sudo apt-get install jupiter-support-eee will do the trick.

Jupiter runs as an Indicator applet, which means the entire Indicator framework will need to be installed.  If it isn’t already on your system, installing Jupiter should add it as well.

Once you reboot your computer (or type jupiter-run from the Terminal or Run prompt, you will notice a new icon in your Indicator area.

From here, there are many things you can configure, assuming you have the correct hardware on your computer.  For instance, although Jupiter can control your Bluetooth module, if you don’t have one, the settings won’t appear.

You can control your laptop’s power settings, for better performance or better battery life.

You also have a menu from which you can control difference devices.  Below you’ll see settings for WiFi, but Bluetooth would appear here if you have the hardware installed.

Jupiter also allows you to control your screen in a couple different ways.  First, you can control your monitor’s resolution.

You also can change its orientation.

And, if you have an external monitor connected to your computer, you can control it as well.  You can choose to only use the laptop’s monitor, the external monitor, or both.

At the moment, Jupiter is managing to balance a very fine line.  It offers a lot of features and is really easy to use.  The danger with an application like Jupiter is that it may become too spread-out in its features.  Since it can control my Bluetooth, why not my printer?  Or my scanner?  Or my keyboard?  Why can’t it also be used to change my background wallpaper, themes and icon sets?  This isn’t something it’s designed for, but the “everything-including-the-kitchen-sink” mentality is something that could easily drive this program to feature bloat.  Thankfully, it’s not anywhere near that at the moment.

What we do have is a program that manages a couple devices as well as some power settings.  It’s very simple to use, doesn’t take up a lot of room or RAM (although for some people it may be important to note that Jupiter is built using Mono, although we won’t judge in this article), and it looks good.  What could be better?