Installing tor and vidalia

Vidalia runs on most platforms supported by Qt 4.1 or later, including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux or other Unix variants using the X11 window system.
Prepare your system
sudo apt-get install libevent
Now you need to get the latest tor source code from here
wget http://www.torproject.org/dist/tor-0.2.0.22-rc.tar.gz
tar zxvf tor-0.2.0.22-rc.tar.gz
cd tor-0.2.0.22-rc
./configure
make
sudo make install
Install Vidalia GUI
You need to edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file
sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
add the following lines
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/adnarim/ubuntu gutsy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/adnarim/ubuntu gutsy main
Save and exit the file
Update the source list
sudo apt-get update
Install vidalia
sudo apt-get install vidalia
Once installed press alt F2 and open the run prompt and type in “vidalia” without the quotes, this will start tor, vidalia and you can configure tor/vidalia by right clicking on the tray applet and click on settings, right there you can view all the nodes and choose what to connect to, see node uptimes, os’s and locations with a graphical map.
For web browsing in firefox I prefer using an extention named FoxyProxy it works well with firefox and swiftfox, you can grab this extention directly from here
If you prefer stronger anonymity & protection I strongly Suggest Torbutton for firefox you can download from here
Install the addon and go through the Tor wizard and it will set you up for you and you can view which tor nodes you connect through actively via vidalia
Speed Tweaks for tor
Lets get to editing our torrc so we can improve the speed!
gedit ~/.vidalia/torrc
Paste this at the beginning of the torrc:
# Set the Tor Circuit Build time to find faster tor servers, increments of seconds
CircuitBuildTimeout 2
# connections while Tor is not in use.
KeepalivePeriod 60
# Force Tor to consider whether to build a new circuit every NUM seconds.
NewCircuitPeriod 15
# Set How many entry guards we should we keep at a time
NumEntryGuards 8

Assign Custom Shortcut Keys on Ubuntu Linux

Ubuntu includes a very limited shortcut key configuration utility which doesn’t allow you to assign hotkeys to your own applications or scripts. To get around this limitation, we can use the built-in gconf-editor utility to assign them ourselves.
First you’ll want to load up gconf-editor by typing it into the Alt+F2 Run dialog.

Once in the application, navigate to the following key. If you are familiar with regedit on Windows, this is very similar.

apps \ metacity \ keybinding_commands

You’ll notice a bunch of values on the right. These are the available commands that you can create for assigning to shortcut keys in the next step.
Double-click on command_1 and enter in the full path to your script or executable that you are trying to run. (Note that you can use the which command from the shell to find the path most of the time)

Now navigate to the key “global_keybindings”, which is directly above the one we were on.

Here you will want to select run_command_1. Enter in the shortcut key in plain text. For instance, for Alt+T, you’ll do T. You could use T or T, or whatever you want to assign to the key.
You can also create custom commands in the keybinding_commands and assign them in the global_keybindings if you want. Just remember that the keybindings will start with run_(name of command).


2nd way(better way)

Go to System->Preferences->Keyboard shortcuts
There if you find in the list , fine...........otherwise click add and add your custom shortcut and application.

List of shortcuts in ubuntu

Alt-Ctrl-L Locks the screen.
Alt-F1 opens the Applications menu, then use the arrow keys to navigate the submenus.
Alt-F2 opens the Run Application dialog box.
Alt-F3 opens the Deskbar Applet (F3 opens the search bar at the bottom of the window).
Alt-F4 closes the current window.
Alt-F5 unmaximizes the current window (if it’s maximized, of course).
Alt-F7, followed by arrow keys or mouse movement, adjusts the current window’s position.
Alt-F8 resizes the current window.
Alt-F9 minimizes the current window.
Alt-F10 maximizes the current window.
Alt-spacebar opens the window menu.
Alt-Tab moves between open windows.
Ctrl-Alt-Tab moves between open panels on the desktop.
Ctrl-W closes the current window.
Ctrl-Q closes the current application.
Here are some keyboard shortcuts for working in the Terminal window:
Ctrl-C kills the current process.
Ctrl-Z sends the current process to the background.
Ctrl-D logs you out.
Ctrl-R finds the last command matching the entered letters.
Tab followed by entered letters lists the available commands beginning with those letters.
Ctrl-U deletes the current line.
Ctrl-K deletes from the cursor right.
Ctrl-W deletes the word before the cursor.
Ctrl-L clears the terminal output.
Shift-Insert pastes the contents of the clipboard.
Alt-F moves forward one word.
Alt-B moves backward one word.