Should Ubuntu users be concerned about "Operation Windigo"?

Just reread the question. If you're on an install without SSH or your SSH server is not available online (eg it is blocked by a NAT router, et al), you have nothing to fear from this news. The whole attack requires SSH.
Additionally, if you're not running a webserver (and by extension you're not on an awesome internet connection), it seems unlikely —though, and importantly, not impossible— that Windigo is going to bother you, even if you do have an exposed SSH server.
That's not to say you're free from any risk. There is other malware and there will be even more as time goes on and Ubuntu gains users. It's also stupidly easy to manipulate people. I had a little rant a few years ago: Linux isn't invulnerable. Don't say it is.

Anyway, if you're still reading, I'm going to assume you're running a SSH server on the internet.
The ESET post and PDF writeup on "Operation Windigo" should tell you everything you need in order to tell if you're at risk or are currently infected. They have sample code that can be copied out and run to test your system.
The whole thing is certainly worth a read but this isn't the security apocalypse some might suggest. The primary route by which these servers became infected was human idiocy:

No vulnerabilities were exploited on the Linux servers; only stolen credentials were leveraged. We conclude that password-authentication on servers should be a thing of the past

So for all the fanfare, this is a very basic infection technique. They're either cracking passwords (dictionary-attacks most likely) or they're stealing SSH keys off client computers, backups, etc. I'd like to think it's the first.
There is nothing clever or new about this. Everybody running a SSH server faces those risks and they're really easy to protect against. Just practise basic SSH security and you'll be fine: use password protected keys and not passwords, run sshd on a high port, fail2ban, no root user. If you ignore these basics and run a SSH server where you're allowing root logins with a password, you'll get hacked.
And just because this wasn't an exploit-based infection doesn't mean the next one won't be. Staying up to date with security-release packages is vital. Make it automatic. Making sure your PHP (et al) scripts are updated is vital, subscribe to your authors' RSS feeds.

The significance of Windigo is the sophistication and portability of the rootkit that gets installed on the servers. There is network resilience through dynamic DNS, not static IPs, multiple httpd configurations to maximise success rates, the lack of dependencies in this whole stack that makes it almost certain to run in all scenarios (even on ARM)... and by all accounts the payloads (the spam, and infection kits for client computers) are very effective. 1% success is epic when you're talking about 500K a day.
The "this is happening on Linux so Linux is insecure" inference I can see in some quarters is nonsense. This could happen on any platform and frankly, it already does. What is special here is that this has been pulled together by competent developers. Thankfully the ingress point is pretty much as simple as a burglar finding the spare key under the doormat.

The Too Long; Didn't Read version...
It seems the hacked servers were run by idiots with weak security but don't be complacent. Check to see if your servers are infected and check to see you're not making the same stupid mistakes as the people who are currently infected.


The problem you are facing seems not to rise from Ubuntu One but from your Back-up service, probably Dèja-Dup. You should at least disable it from your start-up applications. Check here how to remove hidden applications at login.


Ubuntu 13.10 installer on SSD boots to black screen with blinking underscore

Startup Disk Creator is a tool for creating an Ubuntu live USB drive. Startup Disk Creator is looking for a USB drive, not an SSD. The correct way to install Ubuntu on an SSD is the same as the correct way to install Ubuntu on any other hard drive. First prepare the installation media from the Ubuntu iso by burning a DVD or making an Ubuntu live USB using a USB flash drive. Then install Ubuntu by booting from the Ubuntu installation media that you have prepared, select your language and click the Install Ubuntu button in the Welcome screen to start the Ubuntu installer.

References
How to burn a DVD
How to create a bootable USB stick
How do I install Ubuntu?


System cannot poweroff when assigning commands' output to variables

First of all, thank you all for helping find the problem, especially to the contribution of dessert:

  Why do you think the shutdown issue has anything to do with the script? That’s actually very unlikely – unmounting the drive mentioned in the first line rather seems to be the problem.
  ~dessert

This kind of behavior seems to be a kind of bug in the NFS packages (nfs-common), so I have been testing how to reproduce this, and a way to avoid it.

To reproduce it I have used the following:

Host

KDE Neon 5.12 x86_64 (based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS) (updated and upgraded to the latest)
openssh-client (version 1:7.2p2-4ubuntu2.4)
nfs-kernel-server (version 1:1.2.8-9ubuntu12.1)
virtualbox-5.2 (version 5.2.12-122591~Ubuntu~xenial) - for virtualizing the guest

Guest

Ubuntu Mini 16.04.4 LTS x86_64 (updated and upgraded to the latest) - neither any interface nor extra package has been installed in this machine
openssh-server (version 1:7.2p2-4ubuntu2.4)
nfs-common (version 1:1.2.8-9ubuntu12.1)

The problem

The problem seems to be related with the NFS mounted folder inside the guest machine. This guest is prepared via /etc/fstab to auto-mount the host's NFS-shared folder.

Let's say:

# Host
/data/shared  davdriver:davdriver  777
       |
       +----  /folder1    davdriver:davdriver  777
       +----  /folder2    davdriver:davdriver  777
       +----  /script.sh  davdriver:davdriver  777  #The script mentioned in the question

# Guest
/data/nfs     davdriver:davdriver  777  #fstab: nofail,auto,noatime,nolock,intr,tcp,actimeo=1800

Everything at this point works perfectly fine.

The problem is, the machine gets somehow stuck while running a script and any poweroff-kind command (poweroff, reboot, ...) inside a NFS-mounted folder.

I have done the following tests:

Test 1: Running poweroff INSIDE the NFS-mounted folder

cd /data/nfs/folder1
poweroff
# OK

Test 2: Running a shared script and poweroff INSIDE the NFS-mounted folder

cd /data/nfs/
./script.sh
poweroff
# GETS STUCK ! (the snapshot in the question)

Test 3: Running a shared script and poweroff OUTSIDE the NFS-mounted folder

cd /data/nfs/
./script.sh
cd /data
poweroff
# OK

Test 4: Running a shared script, unmounting the NFS-mounted folder, and running the poweroff INSIDE the folder used to mount NFS.

cd /data/nfs/
./script.sh
cd /data
umount ./nfs
cd ./nfs
poweroff
# OK

The solution

After running the script, the NFS service seems to be busy with any background process, and only by running the poweroff command outside the NFS-mounted folder seems to help the system unmounting it and allowing it to shutdown.

It is also possible to unmount it first and accessing the root folder that have been mounted, this scenario seems to not affect and the system will also poweroff.


Is there a way to force UFW firewall accept only connections from local network? Better practices?

Hardly, but it depends how your environment is set up. user535733 already gave a nice example.
Better practice - it can be if you like or need strict approach.
You can also look at your Ethernet interface:

ip -c a

Let’s say it is eth0.
So then you can do something like this:

sudo ufw allow in on eth0 proto tcp from 192.168.1.0/29 to any port 1714:1764

You can also check a range of given IP addresses to see if they do fit your needs:

ipcalc 192.168.1.0/29


From Terminal

You have to use the mlabel command.

First type the mount command to find out the device location of you pen drive. Find the line which goes like “/dev/sdc1 on /media/disk …”.
This means the device sdc1 which is my pen drive is mounted on /media/disk.
Next unmount the device.

sudo umount /media/disk
Next use this command.

sudo mlabel -i /dev/sdc1 ::<new_label>

If you get a message like:

Total number of sectors (7831520) not a multiple of sectors per track (63)!
    You can easily ignore the check by running this command:

echo mtools_skip_check=1 >> ~/.mtoolsrc

Try again and it should work.

The name of the USB should have changed. Unplug and Plug the pen drive back in and it will be mounted with the new label name.

The GUI way

For this you need the Gparted software. Install it if you don’t have it already.
Open the software as a super user, and select the pen drive from GParted>Devices>
Unmount the device if it hasn’t been, by right clicking on it.
After unmounting, right click on it and select “Label” and change it to whatever you want it to be. And then Apply it, by clicking the Edit>Apply All Operations.
Your pendrives label should be changed now.

Original Source


VHDL compiler and simulator for Ubuntu 14.04

I am assuming you are looking for a "free" compiler and simulator?
And you are looking to target an FPGA design?

I have had good luck with Xilinx ISE which supports Linux and has a pretty good reference manual so you can run via command line if you prefer.  This includes the ISim simulator which works fairly well, and has all the tools you would need with it.

Xilinx offers the ISE "free" but they basically degrade performance after you reach a specific design size.  There are full open source options available also, take a look at GHDL.

However if you are looking to target a specific device you may want to see what the vendor offers; Xilinx ISE is obviously targed for Xilinx devices, Altera offers a free version of Quartus etc.

If you are willing to put some money into your development there are a host of Linux friendly vendor independent software available, check out Mentor Modelsim or Synopsys.


Run a custom init script always before lightdm.conf

There is no way to enforce the ordering of two upstart jobs that both start on the same event, the filesystem event in this case, according to the upstart cookbook. However, you can modify your firstboot upstart job to run before the filesystem event is emitted instead.

For example, if your script only requires a particular filesystem to be mounted, you can make it depend on just the mounted event for that one filesystem:

start on mounted MOUNTPOINT=/usr

This should cause your firstboot script to run after the filesystem you need is ready but before the filesystem event is emitted. Modify the MOUNTPOINT variable to be the filesystem mountpoint from /etc/fstab that your script will need to do its function.

You can also make your firstboot script execute before lightdm, if that's the dependency you want to express instead, by using the starting event, and make your script use

start on starting lightdm


installing ubuntu 18.04 Lts server with "old" iso without internet

You have two way to do the installation:

Disable the Download updates while installing ubuntu

provide driver and firmware of your wifi adapter during the installation process


Run the following command in a terminal to open ~/.bashrc file:

gedit ~/.bashrc

When .bashrc opens, locate and uncomment force_color_prompt=yes (remove the hash, so it no longer looks like: #force_color_prompt=yes) and change the value of PS1 in something like:

PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@<anything-you-want>\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '

More about: http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/howto-linux-unix-bash-shell-setup-prompt.html


why does files (nautilus) open a new window although there's one already open?

Just place your mouse on the "files" icon then scroll. It maximize your window!


Script to open a website using a terminal automatically, remembering cookies

New answer:

I make text only version of script what you may run in background easily, with help of screen or cron.

  Screen is better option for long running processes. Using screen you
  can simply get the same session running on remote server even after
  logout from ssh.

First start screen: $ screen

Run elinks 'Yoursite'. Manage login or anything else you want to affect cookies. Exit. Run my script in screen.

  Let’s detach your screen session with keyboard shortcut CTRL+a+d or
  ctrl+alt+d. It will return you to command line. Now exit your ssh
  session and again connect system through ssh and execute following
  command to get old screen session running.

  $ screen -r

Script follows, I have test it on web mail to test cookies, all work fine, loggeg in once and stay logged in restarts of script.

#!/bin/bash

while :
do
    elinks 'yandex.ru' &
    sleep 50s
    pkill -u "$(id -un)" elinks
    echo  "elinks killed, press ctrl-C to cancel loop. sleep 10s."
    sleep 10s
done

Note: elinks version from repo doesn't support javascript. Current version, if you build your self will support javascript if dependencies met.

Update: I have tested text only browsers links and lynx. First not remember cookies between sessions, second - I was unable to test it fully cause it doesn't allow to submit form may be because of javascript.(web mail was used to test, to see if I stay logged in on second browser run)


Why can Ubuntu Tweak bring icons back, and GConf editor not?

There are many big changes in 11.10. Among them is a new configuration system, called DConf. This replaces GConf, but the transition is not complete among all apps. You may wish to install and explore dconf-editor from the dconf-tools package. It is very similar to gconf-editor, except that many keys have gotten new names. You should be able to figure it out. For instance, if something used to be found in /apps/gnome/something, it may now be found in /org/gnome/something.


Append an output of a command to a txt file and place it in non writable directory?

tee is the command people would usually use. You can pipe to it and it redirects into the file (as well as the console).

ls -l | sudo tee /home/A/a.txt

It also has an append flag (equivalent to >>):

ls -l | sudo tee -a /home/A/a.txt

The alternative is wrapping an entire subshell in your sudo:

sudo bash -c 'ls -l > /home/A/a.txt'

I preference tee mostly because that way you're still running the bulk of the command as the lower user. When you wrap everything in a sudo bash -c '...' construct, the whole thing gets executed as the root user. Redirecting something like whoami into another user's directory could become troublesome.

As I lead with, tee also bounces the output back to STDOUT. This makes chaining commands pretty simple.

For example if you wanted to compile a .less file into CSS (and save it) "minimise" that CSS (and save it) and then compress that minimised copy with gzip to save your server doing it (and save that).

You could use bare commands, using full filenames each time:

lessc less/bootstrap.less > dist/bootstrap.css
cleancss --selectors-merge-mode ie8 dist/bootstrap.css > dist/boostrap.min.css
gzip -qk9 dist/boostrap.min.css

or just pipe it around with tee:

lessc less/bootstrap.less | tee dist/bootstrap.css \
  | cleancss --selectors-merge-mode ie8 | tee dist/boostrap.min.css \
  | gzip -qc9 > dist/boostrap.min.css

That's code I use daily.

It probably is more efficient (you're saving reading from the subsequent files, tee keeps it in memory) but I think more than anything it's objectively prettier code. That's an underrated aspect when you're dealing with this nonsense on a day to day basis.


Apply permissions to NTFS USB drive on Auto-mount

Short version:
If changing the group on the auto-mounted external drive is the only custom thing you need, udev rules are not the correct solution. For this, fstab edits are the way to go. I found this out by trying the Disks UI which gives the option to edit mount options on an HDD partition. After playing around with it, I realized it was just a UI for creating an fstab entry. In particular, for this problem I needed to add gid=<groupId> to the mount options. I also used umask,dmask, and fmask values, as well as uid=<userId>, but I'm unsure which of those were strictly necessary. Here is the full line that the Disks UI helped me write to FSTAB:
LABEL=Interstellar /media/Interstellar auto nosuid,nodev,nofail,x-gvfs-show,umask=001,dmask=007,fmask=117,gid=134,uid=1000,noauto 0 0


how to use second and 3rd partitions in ubuntu

You need to mount the partitions first. The easiest way I know to do this: Open nautilus -> Click on the partition to mount in the left pane (If you don't see the left pane, activate it by using F9 key).
Once the partitions are mounted, you can access them from /media directory. /media is the directory where the mounted devices like usb pendrives, partitions etc. are present as a part of filesystem tree. The partitions are treated just as another directory you create usin mkdir command.
So after mounting the drives, Opne the terminal:

Type
cd /media;
Type ls (to see the mounted partitions)
Use cd command to enter the drives(partitions). Its just another directory for you. Use commands like cp, mv, ls and any other command you would use to manipulate other files normal in directories.
NOTE: If you want to mount the partitions too from command line you can use mount command to mount them
Use something like sudo mkdir /media/drivex; mount /dev/sda[number] /media/drivex; [number]=the partition number you want to access.


Uninstall default scopes in a ubuntu phone

Simply go to the apps-scope and tap for a loong time to that app you would like to uninstall. The Phone will switch automatically to the app-Store showing the corresponding app.


You can try ubuntu booting from DVD or USB(same as SD). To make bootable USB-SD use program unetbootin. It writes CD/DVD image to USB and make it bootable so you can try it live, or install from it.


How do I abort "Configuring Secure Boot" with anbox installation?

I am handling this issue (in Ubuntu 16.04) by commenting out relevant parts in
/var/lib/dpkg/info/shim-signed.postinst and /usr/sbin/dkms but looking for a more permanent way.

My system has secure boot enabled, I have own key, sign updated modules before rebooting. Yet the dpkg part keeps insisting that a new MOK needs to be enrolled in the firmware. For both Virtualbox as well as for Nvidia drivers.


Since the output is to stderr you have to redirect stderr:

java -version 2>path/to/result/file

If you want just the version number:

java -version 2>&1 | head -1 | grep -Eo "[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+_[0-9]+" >path/to/result/file

(the above works at least for Oracle, OpenJDK and IBM versions)


Something like driver package for Dell Vostro 3560?

I can't speak to everything, but my guess, from your message, is that you have not yet installed any of the "additional drivers" that your Vostro needs.  If this is the case and you don't already know how, do this:
 1. Start up the Software Updater.
 2. Click on "Settings". This will display a box with tabs.  The last tab should be called "Additional Drivers". Click that.
 3. At that point, you should see available proprietary drivers for both your ATI graphics card AND you Broadcom network card.  Go ahead and install them.

This should solve the display issues (as it does with my own Vostro 3560 running 13.04).

As to the fingerprint reader: unfortunately, the Validity Sensors, Inc. VFS5011 fingerprint reader that you almost certainly have is not yet supported.  There is some news of a hack here: Finger print driver for Dell Vostro 3460, but it's not really there yet.


700 MHz processor (about Intel Celeron or better)
512 MiB RAM (system memory)
5 GB of hard-drive space (or USB stick, memory card or external drive but see LiveCD for an alternative approach)
VGA capable of 1024x768 screen resolution

Reference: Ubuntu System Requirements


How do I configure Ubuntu Server to access a WPA2 Enterprise WiFi Access Point?

You will end up with multiple wireless profiles; one for home and one (or more) for the Uni.

You do not need sudo su to do this. The wpa-supplicant app that's standard with Ubuntu and lets you connect to any available wireless network in range.

  wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -B -c /path/to/wpa_supplicant.conf

Switch out the wpa_supplicant.conf files based on whether you are at home or the Uni.

http://hostap.epitest.fi/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?p=hostap.git;a=blob_plain;f=wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf illustrates the configuration file options.


550 Action not taken (in reply to end of DATA command))

Have you checked you server against any blacklist? E.g. mxtoolbox

The reason for asking, is that i can't see any client restrictions for your server. Implying that it might have ran as an semi open relay, that will easily get you blacklisted.

To get a bounce after you have transmitted data, is a common way to throttle spam senders. So the error is possible caused by the hyperlink to trig the spam threshold at the receiving server.

Spam thresholds is often a measurement made different from every organization running a service. It exist some golden rules that will make it easier to get content through.

Do not allow spam to leave your domains. If you wanna work it out you
most likely need to make sure you are not serving as an open or
semi-open relay.
Set up dkim and spf records for your domain, and start signing your
outgoing emails.
Start the work getting your domains removed from blacklists.

Feel free to improve, or comment : )


Update interrupted, now can't update Ubuntu 12.04

By using sudo apt-get -f install, it should fix the packages that may be corrupted.

After that, please perform a sudo apt-get update.


iptables-persistent doesn't load rules on boot

The problem is, that iptables-persistent calls iptables-restore during bootup before the network is initialised. Therefore you cannot do dns-lookups at this point.

You either have to use the ip-address instead of a domain name or load the domain-related rules at a later time e.g. via rc.local.


Ramme is an unofficial Instagram desktop app built with Electron, but it is no longer being maintained. instagramport is another unofficial Instagram desktop app built with Electron that can be installed from Ubuntu Software or from the terminal with the following command:

sudo snap install instagramport
sudo snap connect:instagramport:camera :camera

Features:

Supports direct message feature
Lets you upload pictures
Filters, Boomerang and other fancy features are not yet supported.
New message notifications are not supported yet.


"Permission denied" errors whe starting a single node cluster in Hadoop

The errors suggest a permissions problem.

Make sure that the hadoop user has the proper privileges to /usr/local/hadoop.  Try:

sudo chown -R hadoop /usr/local/hadoop/


To list Samba domain groups:

sudo samba-tool group list

If you want to see member users from a Group:

sudo samba-tool group listmembers "Domain Admins"

Reference: https://www.tecmint.com/manage-samba4-active-directory-linux-command-line/


Not able to view GUI screen in Ubuntu after installing in VMware Workstation 7

Got the answer... Installed the package xinit sudo apt-get install xinit and now the Xserver is launching during the boot up process – Dpmishra Sep 14 '11 at 20:20

Answered by OP in comments


How can junk letters be removed from a document with sed?


What is the exact definition for "logging in"

Creating a user account by providing a username, and a password is a part of logging in.  A user account is created only once. You are then logged in.  Next time you log in you will need to use  your username and password to prove that you are the same person.

Logging in allows you to use the system ,networks, and will allow you to use the applications installed.

I hope this answers your question.


I solved the problem. In the Kubuntu installer, there is an option to install proprietary drivers which I always checked when installing. I unchecked that and now Kubuntu is able to boot. I rebooted several times, applied all updates and installed the proprietary Nvidia driver and booting still works.


Enter into the terminal using Ctrl+Alt+F1/F2, login to the terminal, and type cd /home/[userhere]/.
If the home directory exists it should cd into that directory. If it complains about there being no such directory, then you'll have to try and find it elsewhere (try using cd / then dir).


How to synchronize a local folder with a remote?

I'd recommend Unison, which can sync between unix and windows.  It's built on top of the same technology as rsync, but it is a lot easier to set up:

https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/applications/quantal/unison2.27.57-gtk/

http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/

It supports exclude/include lists, remote or local syncs, no-delete mode, and lots of other common options.  It can recover from a partial sync due to bad connection or anything else quite easily.

You can run it interactively or as a batch process using cron.


Have you tried going into settings and changing the value for when to look for distro upgrades? by default I think it's set you only look for long term updates, you need to change this to "For Any Version"

So -

Update Manager > Setting > change "Notify Me Of A New Ubuntu Version" to "For All Versions"

How this will help you?


The command chown -R root:root /home/faiz/Downloads will change ownership for all files and folders in Downloads. root is the new owner, so you're no longer allowed to access it.

You can change it back using this command sudo chown -R faiz:faiz ~/Downloads, given that your username is faiz.


My drivers recognize my graphics card, but nvidia settings do not

The answer to this question was the the power cable on the graphics card wasn't plugged in.

It literally will turn on and recognize the device and install drivers, but if you don't plug in the power cable it will not work properly.


How to install comands ./configure, make, install in an offline ubuntu 20.04 server

You stated "I can reach the internet through tethering between my mobile and my laptop" - So you can?
In this case:
Enable main repository in Software & Updates (or by editing /etc/apt/sources.list).
Then run these commands in a terminal:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential
If you don't have internet:
You can download the package on another computer/to an USB drive (e.g. here: https://ubuntu.pkgs.org/20.04/ubuntu-main-armhf/build-essential_12.8ubuntu1_armhf.deb.html). Make sure to choose the right package for your CPU architecure as well as the required packages if you do not have them!
You can then install the package offline using dpkg -i <path/to/file.deb>
Last but not least
I only answered the "offline" part for build-essential. The same way, you can install any package (you only have to find it, download it and run dpkg -i <file>). For configuring your WIFI USB, please ask another question (or browse the answers already given to other questions of this nature). Asking/answering only one certain question at a time keeps askubuntu clean and usable for others.
If you want all your questions to be solved on one page, you may look for a forum and open a thread there (this site is not a forum, but a Question&Answer page, which works a bit differently). That said, best of luck and happy fiddling.


How I prevent hocr2pdf to use a large font from tesseract generated .hocr file?

One possible solution is to request PDF output directly from tesseract. This seems to provide better results for me than going through hocr2pdf.

tesseract "$page" "$base" -l eng pdf

or

tesseract "$page" "$base" -l eng -c tessedit_create_pdf=1


No. Most of the dialogues are limited to just changing the sorts of things they can show although I should point out that some dialogues work in different ways.

Ubuntu uses GTK for most file dialogues so no, you don't get full context menus.

As for "why not" I can only describe how it's built. The dialogue is just a cut-down list of the files. It's not designed to be a full-on interface for files. In Windows each file dialogue is an embedded instance of Explorer.


Samba - only allow users access their folder (and custom dirs)

SOLVED:
Apparently even though the samba users aren't part of the host OS, they are somehow the owners of the the file. A quick ls on the the /home/ directory on the linux host shows that there's 775 permission for everyone.
I did a quick:
chmod *my-samba-base*/home/ 770 *


This entry cannot be removed without crippling the printing experience; it is a consequence of the way the GTK print dialog works. The dialog does not need CUPS to discover IPP printers but manages it by itself with the aid of avahi-daemon. @FedonKadifeli hints at this.
More detail is on this page.


Fixed! Or at least I have a work-around. It looks like a driver issue for the ASpeed AST2500 SoC. It appears that driver support is coming in Linux 5.2.

Edit grub:

sudo vi /etc/default/grub

Add nomodeset to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX, making the full line look like:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="nomodeset"

Update grub:

sudo update-grub

Restart:

sudo shutdown --reboot now


Your laptop is using UEFI, which is needed for Windows 8 to secure boot.

To fix this, leave the boot option to "OS boot Manager" and boot a live-cd/usb and select try Ubuntu. When at the desktop start Boot-Repair and click "Recommended repair". It will give a paste.ubuntu.com/XXXXXX/ url, note that down as we need it the repair doesn't work. Now reboot and you should see the GRUB menu.


computer is locked after upgrade to 15.04

You can change the keyboard layout from the login screen using the button on the top right of the screen.
It's the en_US button on the picture below.
If this doesn't work or it isn't there we will try finding out which layout you are currently using.

There is also a way to change the keyboard layout using a live disk (if you haven't encrypted your hard drive). But lets first try the button on the top right.


Getting warning file permission with root user

Well, your question partly has an answer in the quote:

You are using sudo to gain root permissions, but the way you are using sudo does not adjust the value of $HOME, so pip tries to install into the pip directory of the user who invoked sudo.

This might cause problems if the actual user would want to remove or change the installed modules, therefore the warning.

To avoid the warning and unless you don't have to, use pip without root/sudo or invoke sudo as sudo -H which will set $HOME to the user you are changing to, in this case /root.


technically if it is plugged in and on it is always charging. If you are stating that even unplugged the icon shows charging, that is just a minor glitch in the icon itself. I had that happen on Ubuntu 13.10 i think on my laptop. Didn't cause any issues, but i do think they had a fix for it then if I remember right.


Many/Most Multimedia Keys aren't set up by default to perform any action.  There are many posts that help explain a few different ways to identify and set up commands or scripts to perform when these keys are pressed.
I've found that xbindkeys_config, the GUI for xbindkeys, is one of the easiest ways to bind keys.  To have xbindkeys start with your Desktop Manager, add xbindkeys to your ~/.xinitrc file.  More detailed instructions can be found here.

If these keys aren't showing up as keycodes, you can use udev or evtest to find the scancode, and map it to the correct keycode.  You can create custom hwdb entries for udev to correct this problem.  Map scancodes to keycodes.
The wiki describes creating .hwdb files, and restarting udev:
$ cat /etc/udev/hwdb.d/10-my-modifiers.hwdb

evdev:input:b0003v05AFp8277* # was tested on Kensington Slim Type USB (with old ABI)
 KEYBOARD_KEY_70039=leftalt  # bind capslock to leftalt
 KEYBOARD_KEY_700e2=leftctrl # bind leftalt to leftctrl

evdev:atkbd:dmi:*            # built-in keyboard: match all AT keyboards for now
 KEYBOARD_KEY_3a=leftalt     # bind capslock to leftalt
 KEYBOARD_KEY_38=leftctrl    # bind leftalt to leftctrl

$ sudo systemd-hwdb update

This question, and these details are described in this wonderful answer from Unix & Linux.  These details were very useful for me with a fully programmable keyboard, when I added new HID/scancodes, otherwise they wouldn't be detected properly.
There is also a way to re-query the device for these details, which is easier when it works properly, but I'm at a loss as to where my notes on this topic are located.


Whenever I try to download my Ubuntu 1 files, chrome block me.

Try using another browser? Chrome frequently blocks "bad" stuff, and is normally right (which is why I use it) but it can be wrong.

Or you could transfer them to Google Drive / Skydrive / Dropbox? I received the same email, and they suggest going to mover.io as they offer it for free for Ubuntu 1 at the moment.


Why won't visual effects work with a dual monitor setup

Strange as it looks try to configure the monitor one above the other in the Monitor app, not side by side: ie.

Some low-end graphic cards has a limit on the biggest textures that they can show 2048x2048. If the combined horizontal resolution of both monitors is bigger than 2048 (quite easy with one at 1280xn and the other at 1024) they will not fit on a single texture and Compiz will refuse to work.

But if you put them horizontally they will fit, as usually vertical resolution is not greater than 1024.


Sounds like your PCI-E settings are restricting your GPU's bandwidth. You need to go to your BIOS and select PCI-E 3.0, if your motherboard supports it. If not, you're stuck with 2.5 GT/s.


The empty file name error and other ensuing multiple package management errors may have been the result of using a damaged SD card. If errors like these reoccur you should consider using a different SD card.

Reinstall the package that contains an empty file name (python-dev). Open the terminal and type:

sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/info/python-dev.list
sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt-get install --reinstall python-dev # first 3 commands fixed the python-dev error
sudo rm -f /var/cache/apt/archives/login_1*
sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get update
sudo dpkg -P mc mc-data # remove Midnight Commander

In order to get Midnight Commander working again after you have solved the package management issues you need to reinstall Midnight Commander.

sudo apt-get install mc


IIRC apparently that's not how you were suppose to restart the networking (even though that's how everyone always did it) so they finally broke it to force you to restart it by sudo ifdown eth# && sudo ifup eth#


Any ubuntu tool to edit tag in mp3 files in group

EasyTAG

Actually with EasyTAG you do not need to set (example) the Album name file by file in the same directory.

You can try this:

Open the EasyTAG and navigate to the folder you want.
Select all the files with Ctrl+A.
Write the Album Name.
Click in the checkbox to apply the same Album name to all the selected files.
Save the changes to all the selected files.

id3tool

Another option could be id3tool

  id3tool is a command line utility for easy manipulation of the ID3
  tags present in MPEG Layer 3 audio files.

  id3tool is a fully GPL'd program. Warm-fuzzy's are 100% optional.

To install it.

sudo apt-get install id3tool

You can go to your folder eg:

cd ~/Music/test-2013/

I can list the tags in all the mp3 files with:

id3tool *.mp3

Example:

Filename: 01-track.mp3
Song Title: track1
Artist:     Test-Artist
Album:      Test-Album
Note:
Track:      1
Year:       2013
Genre:      Jazz (0x8)

Filename: 02-track.mp3
Song Title: track2
Artist:     Test-Artist
Album:      Test-Album
Note:       0
Track:      2
Year:       2013
Genre:      Jazz (0x8)

Filename: 03-track.mp3
Song Title: track3
Artist:     Test-Artist
Album:      Test-Album
Note:       0
Track:      3
Year:       2013
Genre:      Jazz (0x8)

I can change the Album Name to all the mp3 files with:

id3tool -a Test-Album-id3tool *.mp3

Now I have:

Filename: 01-track.mp3
Song Title: track1
Artist:     Test-Artist
Album:      Test-Album-id3tool
Note:
Track:      1
Year:       2013
Genre:      Jazz (0x8)

Filename: 02-track.mp3
Song Title: track2
Artist:     Test-Artist
Album:      Test-Album-id3tool
Note:       0
Track:      2
Year:       2013
Genre:      Jazz (0x8)

Filename: 03-track.mp3
Song Title: track3
Artist:     Test-Artist
Album:      Test-Album-id3tool
Note:       0
Track:      3
Year:       2013
Genre:      Jazz (0x8)

NOTE: with the option -a id3tool set the Album Name.

Man Pages id3tool


I had the same problem on Arch some time ago. The problem was the 4.4 kernel. After upgrading to >=4.5 the problem was gone.


Net Beans can be obtained from the following URL:

http://netbeans.org/downloads/


/usr/share/lightdm is where the debian config files are. Lightdmgreeter.conf is the file for the greeter.
there is also lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings available in the repo.

add/change to greeter-hide-users=false in the file /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/01_debian.conf  to get a user list. LightDM automatically rememer last user to log in.

If you don't want to type your password every time, you have to enable autologin.


Broadcom bcm4313 Ubuntu 13.10 connection time out

Please do:

sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo modprobe -rv brcmsmac
sudo modprobe -v wl


Scrollwheel in GNU screen in xfce4-terminal

Thanks so much for this answer, I have scoured the net looking for the solution to "mousewheel scrolls history instead of output window" to no avail, but your pointer to switch from xfce-terminal to lxterminal solves it for me.


As far I see you are using the version 1.0.5 of arduino IDE, I assume that you installed the one in the apt repositories.

You can either try to install one from the snapcraft or the one from arduino's website.

Personally I used the latter one and anything worked like a charm.

Also either the case you can try to loon on Tools->Port if exists a port that is not a /dev/ttyS0 one. Try to play with these options. Finally by searching on dmesg you can find out which port has been located for arduno as well.

Finally an another approach is to unplug your arduino plug it again and type the following command:

dmesg | tail

In order to record the last event as the one that happens when arduino is plugged in to a usb port. The command above will show you the correct port.

For better results you can use the following:

  dmesg | tail -f

And continioulsy plug and unplug the arduino from the usp port till you see any arduino related message. The -f parameter allows to show realtime the new logs.


Inadvertently removing .ssh/authorized_keys , is it a serious mistake?

The ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file contains a list of public keys. It allows everyone who owns a private key matching one of those to connect to this machine and get remote access under this user account (the tilde ~ at the front of the path signifies that this file is under the current user's home directory).

On the server (the machine you want to connect to):

If you deleted this file, nobody will be able to authenticate under this user account using their private keys. Password authentication would still work, unless it was disabled.

You'd have to regenerate the file and add all the public keys to which you want to grant access using the public key authentication method again.

On the client (the machine you want to connect from, i.e. your local machine):

Here you do not need an authorized_keys file, because you do probably not want to authorize any keys and grant them remote access to your local computer. It should be empty or deleted.

On the client, you only need the private key files which are authorized on the server (i.e. which have their corresponding public keys in the authorized_keys file on the server), and optionally an appropriate config and known_hosts file.


which application is needed to read genesis rom files

In README.md , md stands for markdown. I have found a script which can help you to view the mark down files .

import os
import sys

MARKDOWN = 'markdown'
UPSKIRT = 'upskirt'

PROGRAM = MARKDOWN
VERBOSE = True

def main():
    update = False

    if len(sys.argv) < 2:
        print "Usage: {0} <file.markdown> [-u]".format(sys.argv[0])
        sys.exit(1)
    # else
    if '-u' in sys.argv:
        update = True
        sys.argv.remove('-u')
    input_file = sys.argv[1]
    os.system("{program} {input} > /tmp/markdown.html".format(program=PROGRAM, input=input_file))
    if not update:
        os.system("chromium-browser /tmp/markdown.html &")
    if VERBOSE:
        print >>sys.stderr, "# renderer: {0}".format(PROGRAM)

#############################################################################

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

How to use this :

  put it in your ~/bin directory (make sure ~/bin is in your PATH), make
  it executable (chmod u+x ~/bin/markdown.py), and call it as
  “markdown.py README.markdown“. It will open the HTML output in a new
  tab. Adding the “-u” switch (update), the HTML is not opened in the
  browser.

credit goes here:  ubuntuincident.wordpress.com


How do I change directories in the terminal, and know which directory I'm in?

In your session ls displays the content of the current directory (but not hidden files starting with a dot in the filename). You navigate into another directory by typing cd dirname. Here you have to substitude "dirname" by a directory's name you want to change into. Normally you start out with your home directory as current working directory. In your case that is most likely /home/christy. If ls shows you a directory called "Template" you can change into "Template" (=make it your current working directory) by typing (mind the space) the command:

cd Templates

you will change your current working directory to "Templates" or print "No such file or directory", if a dir of that name does not exist in your current direcotry. Typing pwd will always give you the full patch to your current working directory including parents.

You can supply optional arguments to each command. For cd the string "Templates" was such an optional argument. If you type ls -a for instance, the ls command will print out hidden files as well. Or with ls Templates it will print the content of the Tempaltes directory instead of you current working dir's content. Arguments must be separated by at least one space from the command name and from each other. The lack of a space between the two was the reason your command did not work.

Since the space character has a special meaning, you will need to quote or escape it, if it's part of an argument. So if for instance you want to change your current working directory to "Source Files" you need to type one of these commands:

cd Source\ Files
cd "Source Files"

The upper line being "escaped" while the  lower line is "quoted".

If you want to learn more the better guide for you might be: Introduction to Linux (pdf) (html)

Edit:

Okay now, sorry I didn't see your link there. Your post was a bit misleading, now I think I got you:

So you want to install tex-live from the source archive that is linked in the "Getting Started" guide you posted. To do that you must first remove any pre-existing installation of tex-live. You do that by opening a terminal doing this:

christy@ubuntu:~$ pwd
/home/christy # <---- This is the directory you are working in
christy@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get remove texlive-*
[sudo] password for christy:

At this point you have to enter you password and will be rewarded with a few boring messages, that I will omit here. Then you'll have to download the archive named install-tl-unx.tar.gz (you already did that and don't have to download it again, but I show you how to do it none the less just in case):

christy@ubuntu:~$ wget http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/install-tl-unx.tar.gz

--2012-07-09 15:08:23--  http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/install-tl-unx.tar.gz
Resolving mirror.ctan.org... 80.237.159.15
Connecting to mirror.ctan.org|80.237.159.15|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found
# ... some more stuff like this ...
Saving to: `install-tl-unx.tar.gz'

100%[=====================================>] 2,530,831   --.-K/s   in 0.1s

2012-07-09 15:08:23 (17.3 MB/s) - `install-tl-unx.tar.gz' saved [2530831/2530831]

Now that you have downloaded the archive you can unpack it

christy@ubuntu:~$ tar xvf install-tl-unx.tar.gz
install-tl-20120701/
install-tl-20120701/readme-txt.dir/
install-tl-20120701/readme-txt.dir/README.RU-cp1251
# ... bla bla skipping over some more messages like this ...
install-tl-20120701/readme-html.dir/readme.sr.html
install-tl-20120701/readme-html.dir/readme.ru.html
install-tl-20120701/readme-html.dir/readme.de.html

Now that you've unpacked the archive you can change into the directory that was unpacked.

christy@ubunut:~$ ls | grep install-tl-  # <---- with this line you find out the number
install-tl-20120701                      # <---- in this case "20120701"
install-tl-unx.tar.gz                    # <---- if just this is present with no number you did something wrong
christy@ubuntu:~$ cd install-tl-20120701 # <---- enter this number here
christy@ubuntu:~$ pwd
/home/christy/install-tl-20120701/       # <--- this is your new working directory

The number "20120701" is a timestamp saying which version of tex-live you have. This number might be different for you but the command ls | grep install-t1- will tell you what to use instead. If all this worked, you can run the install script from here:

christy@ubuntu:~$ sudo ./install-tl
[sudo] password for jan:
Loading http://ftp.univie.ac.at/packages/tex/systems/texlive/tlnet/tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb
Installing TeX Live 2012 from: http://ftp.univie.ac.at/packages/tex/systems/texlive/tlnet
Platform: x86_64-linux => 'x86_64 with GNU/Linux'
# ... bla bla and so on bla ...
Actions:
  <I> start installation to hard disk
  <H> help
  <Q> quit

Enter command: I
# ... and so on ...

From here on just answer the questions you're asked by the install script and you should be fine.


Software Updater window not displaying, though open in 13.04

I am having the same problem on my system.

Freshly installed Ubuntu 13.04 from scratch, no dual boot, no upgrade from previous version.

AMD video card, ATI Radeon HD 5700 - using ATI's Catalyst Drivers v 12.9

Multiple monitors, 2 1080p screens, one 1280x1024

to get around the issue when there are new updates that it automatically scans for, I right click the icon on the taskbar, quit the software, and then start it again from the unity menu manually and the window will show up.... so it's not that big of a pain there is a workaround....

but I have another Ubuntu 13.04 machine right next to me and that one does show this window.... ( that system was also freshly installed 13.04, but single monitor, AMD Radeon HD 7500, Catalyst 12.9 ).

I've also noticed on the system that isn't showing the window, no matter what virtual desktop I'm on, clicking the icon doesn't switch desktops to where the window would be located, so I imagine that means the window does not even exist ( if it was perhaps out of my viewscreen coordinates... ).  Other windows that are present on other virtual desktops do what I expect when clicking their icon - they switch the virtual desktop to the one with the active window....

What other information could be pertinent to this issue?

maybe related/similar to:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity/+bug/1003950
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/1001067


Can I use a desktop install as a server?

Certainly.  If you look at the packaging the desktop is build on top of the same core as the server.  Any of the packages you can install on the server can be installed on the desktop.

If you choose you can install one or more desktops on top of your server.  Look at the packages ubuntu-desktop, kubuntu-desktop, lubuntu-desktop, etc. These all convert a server install into a desktop install.  If you add them to a desktop install, you get to select which desktop environment you want to work with.

Tools from one desktop environment can be installed and run on another desktop environment.  The dependency mechanism will ensure all the packages required by the tool are installed.


I just received a Lenovo X1 Carbon and installing Ubuntu 12.10 (64bit) then everything works out of the box without any tweaks, except for two minor things:

Finger print reader
Mute button for microphone

Everything else seems to work very well, including the WiFi and SD card reader.  The laptop is amazingly light, runs very quite as it rarely gets that hot and the fan is very quiet on the one occasion it did come on (after several hours of video playback).

I have the i7 version with 8Gb RAM and a 180 Gb SSD.  The laptop is very fast and Ubuntu desktop is incredibly responsive.

I am writing my experiences with this new laptop in detail on my blog: http://jr0cket.co.uk/tags/lenovo/

Thank you.

John.


(this is probably the reason that it is always recommended to take backup before this action)

No, -any- update, upgrade or any change to a system can kill it. So at -any- given point where you want to update, upgrade or make changes to a system you make a backup. Maintaining a system is about doing things with the least amount of risks. The big problem with servers is that others depend on it so messing up is more of a problem then when changing a desktop but even for a desktop the 1st comment needs to be: create a backup or prepare to have to deal with loss of data. If only that you can never predict a power outage.

  Is it safe to upgrade the ubuntu distribution in a VPS?

Depends. In general it will be safe but your system will be different than someone elses. Maybe you have some exotic software installed that is distribution specific or does no longer have a maintainer and does not work on the new system. Unlikely but it can happen. We used to have a piece of software called doublevision (kind of like a "screen" alternative) that checks on the 3rd digit of the kernel if it is still valid and refuses to run. Payware so upgrading means paying a fee to have it working again  ...

We have 3 servers in a datacenter. 1 is the one we store backups on. 1 is the active one. The 3rd one has identical software and data (mysql replication for instance) as the 2nd one and is the one that is being updated. After the update the 3rd one will become the active one and the 2nd one is updated. As I said above: we try to do update, upgrades with zero risk.


start server inside screen with shell file

-X            Execute <cmd> as a screen command in the specified session.
-x            Attach to a not detached screen. (Multi display mode).

what i did was see the -X flag and made 2 mistakes
the first was to use lowercase x not an uppercase X

the second was that you don't need the -X flag, and you can just use

screen -s minecraft ~/path/to/the/start.sh

and give the command or file as an argument without the flag


Using awk

awk '{for (i=1;i<=NF;i++) sum[i]+=$i;}; END{for (i in sum) print "for column "i" is " sum[i];}' FileA
for column 1 is 8
for column 2 is 11
for column 3 is 7
for column 4 is 5


Try removing ATI drivers - How do I remove ATI video drivers? .

If it doesn't work , then Try this easy method - Reinstall Ubuntu. Definitely not a good solution but a quicker one.It hardly take few mins :)


No such file or directory when chown on newly created directory

The mistake you made is to mix up /media/samsung with ~/media/samsung notice the ~

The ~ sign refers to your home folder location for example /home/$USER/  when you stated ~/media/samsung you were actually typing /home/$USER/media/samsung

You could also use sudo chown paul:paul ./media/samsung the . means from current folder (or something like it) but this will set the ownership for the folder located at /home/$USER/media/samsung.


How do I access localhost:8080 running on Ubuntu from Windows running in Virtualbox?

Windows has its "own" localhost, so you have to "help" it find Ubuntu's one.

In your virtual machine, go to this ip http://10.0.2.2/ and it should work. You can edit windows host file to make localhost point to that ip so you don't have to remember it.

In: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

Add:

10.0.2.2 localhost


Touchpad only works after hard reset. HP laptop Ubuntu 14.04.02

It's not a definitve solution, but it works whenever this happens:

sudo modprobe -r psmouse; sleep 2; sudo modprobe psmouse

This trick works for me I saw it in this answer: Kubuntu 12.04 - Touchpad and keyboard stopped working at random


How to log out if the session applet is missing from the top panel?

Press Alt+F2, type gnome-session-save --logout, then hit enter. If an application is blocking logout, try gnome-session-save --force-logout


Supersede default route to other network interfaces

For your use case (let's take the example of "The laptop is connected most of the time to the camera to watch my dog remotely on wlan0 and connected to the Internet on eth0, but every now and then I'd like to take my laptop into the library to use Google using ẁlan0 as the dog will follow me there anyway and I can watch it in RL") I see two options that will be easier then what you're trying to do:

Disallow automatic connection to the Internet on wlan0.

This will automatically reconnect wlan0 to the camera after a power failure, a hiccup in the connection to the camera, ...

If you want to move to the library, execute a script that: ifdown eth0&&iwconfig wlan0 essid WiFi-Internet and when returning ifup eth0&&iwconfig wlan0 essid WiFi-Camera
Add another wireless card, bond that with the Ethernet card and forget about everything.

Why? Computers don't like "sometimes": they like "always":  #1 is "sometimes" without expense and as you're handling the machine anyway, having a script library.sh and monitoring.sh makes sense (as you're on command-line anyway).  #2 is more expensive, but is the most robust solution of all.

So, not an answer to your question, but 2 solutions to your problem!  ;-)


Ubunbtu 12.10 and Acer Aspire 5315 overheat/fan problem

you should consider installing jupiter

you can select power modes with it, its very easy to control, and I just set it to power on command, you won't notice that your laptop is on, until you start using heavy apps

open terminal and do this.

add the repository

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/jupiter

update

sudo apt-get update

install jupiter

sudo apt-get install jupiter

and to other people reading this and are using an Asus EEPC netbook, install this asswell

sudo apt-get install jupiter-support-eee

Have a nice day :)


Do not set a swap partition on the SD card. If you are running your host on an SSD then you don't need a swap partition, if you want one anyways it should be placed on a medium of equal to or higher speeds to prevent it from slowing down your system.

If you want to run a Windows vm off an sd card you can do so, but I would be wary of poor performance. The card you listed sounds fast, but often times cards don't get the max speed across the entire card. I tried to find the product page for your card and this is the page I found:

http://www.sandisk.com/products/memory-cards/sd/extremeplus/

The first thing I read when visiting the product page was "With read speeds as fast as 80MB/s", which suggests that at times you will experience lower speeds and there is no guarantee that you will ever see the 80MB/s. However this card is intended for use in devices that do several MB/s writes so you may be okay. I would not advise it though. VMs often don't get the full device performance which will amplify any short comings.


Yes, it's possible to do that. All you have to do is find a theme that resembles Windows XP, or customize your own.

For the window background (GTK theme) and the icons (Icon theme), you can search at gnome-look.org for Windows lookalikes, for instance.

You can change the logo for the menu and the panel background. Just right-click them and open their properties. Then use the image you like best for that.

For the window title, you would have to find or create an openbox theme that pleases you. See:

link1
link2
link3

Source


What worked for me is changing term

export TERM=xterm-color

Source: https://github.com/hishamhm/htop/issues/813

However this isn't permanent. I have to constantly run this command, even though i never reboot the server. A permanent solution is welcomed.


burp: The proxy server is refusing connections from another computer

Test this:

Open a terminal,Press Ctrl+Alt+T

Run it:

Install squid:

sudo -i
apt-get update
apt-get install squid3

Configure Squid

sudo -i
nano /etc/squid3/squid.conf

Paste these five lines on file:

auth_param digest program /usr/lib/squid3/digest_pw_auth -c /etc/squid3/passwords
auth_param digest realm proxy
acl authenticated proxy_auth REQUIRED
http_access allow authenticated
http_port 3128

Ctrl + O, save file. Ctrl + X, close nano.

Setting up a users:

sudo -i
htdigest -c /etc/squid3/passwords proxy user01
htdigest  /etc/squid3/passwords proxy user02
htdigest  /etc/squid3/passwords proxy user03

Run Squid:

sudo -i
service squid3 restart

Check who is using a proxy:

sudo -i
tail -f /var/log/squid3/access.log


Skip ahead during playback with keyboard shortcuts

I have a small plugin for that; Rhythmbox Skip Ahead, you are free to improve the source if you want. ATM the skip is hardcoded to 20 seconds and the shortcut is Ctrl-v. Just Extract the tarball and run install.sh, please.

A possible future feature would be to automatically skip the first 20 seconds of certain podcasts, but that's advanced stuff..

Or you can use the pythonconsoleplugin and run the skip_ahead function


Can we apply security updates only to a persistent live system?

Security Updates in persistent live drives

If there is enough free space in the partition for persistence you can apply security updates (and with more free space even all updates, sudo apt full-upgrade).

I tested security updates right now in a fresh persistent live Xubuntu 20.04 LTS system in an SSD with 60 GB. The used size of the partition for persistence increased to 1.7 GiB according to df -h. (See the line for /cow ... /), 1.8 GB according to df -H.

So 'security updates'

is definitely a bad idea in your 4GB drive,
should work in your 8 GB drive,
but I would recommend it only in drives with at least 16 GB.

You might be able to tweak the settings to avoid such huge security updates, but I don't know exactly how to do it, and it would reduce the security.

Workaround 1: Installed system in a USB drive

If security is important for you, I would recommend an installed system, installed like into an internal drive, but into a fast USB 3 drive with at least 16 GB.

See the following links

Step-wise instructions for installed system in a USB drive
Notes about speed (and size)

Workaround 2: Switch to daily iso files of released LTS versions

You can switch to a current daily iso file of a released LTS version (18.04 LTS, 20.04 LTS ...). Before point release #5 there will be daily iso files, and these are rather stable for released LTS versions. So instead of security updates you can simply create new persistent live drives.

You can be almost 100% sure that you can re-use the content of the home directory, and if there are not too big modifications, you can reuse the system part of the whole partition for persistence. Tools for backup are bundled with mkusb, and you can use them for transfer of your persistent data to a new persistent live system.

zsyncing command line and shellscript

This command line:

zsync http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/cdimage/xubuntu/focal/daily-live/current/focal-desktop-amd64.iso.zsync

should work for you with Xubuntu Focal Fossa alias Xubuntu 20.04 LTS.

You might prefer a more general shellscript. It can be used with all desktop flavours and the developing version (now groovy) and the newest LTS version (now focal). It can be a bit tricky to identify the web address for zsyncing to a released LTS version, and the shellscript can help you.

The following shellscript can be run in your main computer is a subdirectory with the name of the flavour of Ubuntu (with lower case), so in your case, when you make it executable an put it in PATH,

cd some-path/xubuntu
getdaily focal

Shellscript:

#!/bin/bash

inversvid="\0033[7m"
resetvid="\0033[0m"

if [ $# -eq 1 ] || [ $# -eq 2 ]
then
 version="$1"
 version="${1%%-*}"
else
 echo "Usage:   $0 <version-nickname>"
 echo "Example: $0 bionic"
 echo "Flavour selected automatically for this directory"
 exit
fi

flavour=$(pwd)
flavour=${flavour##*/}
echo -e "$inversvid    zsyncing $flavour $version ... $resetvid"

if [ "$flavour" == "ubuntu" ]
then
 flavour=
 currpend=pending
else
 flavour="${flavour}/"
 currpend=current
fi

if [ "$flavour" == "ubuntustudio/" ]
then
 desktop=dvd
 daily_dvd=dvd
else
  desktop=desktop
  daily_dvd=daily-live
fi
echo "first try:"
echo zsync http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/"$flavour$daily_dvd"/"$currpend"/"$version"-"$desktop"-amd64.iso.zsync
     zsync http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/"$flavour$daily_dvd"/"$currpend"/"$version"-"$desktop"-amd64.iso.zsync
if [ $? -ne 0 ] && [ "$flavour" != "ubuntustudio/" ]
then
 echo "second try:"
 echo zsync http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/cdimage/"$flavour$version/$daily_dvd"/"$currpend"/"$version"-"$desktop"-amd64.iso.zsync
      zsync http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/cdimage/"$flavour$version/$daily_dvd"/"$currpend"/"$version"-"$desktop"-amd64.iso.zsync
fi

if [ $? -eq 0 ]
then
 if [ $# -eq 1 ]
 then
  ls -l "$version"-"$desktop"-amd64.iso
  <<< "I am ready now" espeak
 fi
else
 <<< "something went wrong" tee /dev/stderr | espeak
fi


How do I distribute a CA certificate using a Debian package?

It seems the_Seppi and bodhi.zazen are correct: the only clean way to do this is using a maintainer script to do the deed. From /usr/share/doc/ca-certificates/README.Debian:

How to install local CA certificates
------------------------------------------------------------------

                              ...  If you want to prepare a local
package of your certificates, you should depend on ca-certificates,
install the PEM files into /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/ as above
and call 'update-ca-certificates' in the package's postinst, and should
call 'update-ca-certificates --fresh' in the package's postrm.

An example source package for building a local CA certificate package,
using ca-certificates (>= 20130119) (since it uses triggers) can be
found in /usr/share/doc/ca-certificates/examples/ca-certificates-local/.
The README file in the above directory has step-by-step instructions for
building a local CA certificate package.

The example package has a Makefile which directly installs the file to /usr/local/share/ca-certificates.

However, the Debian policy on installing files in /usr/local is to not do so at all (see section 1.2, chapter 9), either by directly or using a maintainer script.

The compromise that I find acceptable is to use the scripts, and place links instead of copying them. This way an end user can still trace where the stuff in /usr/local/ is coming from.

Instead of calling update-ca-certificates with varying arguments, one should add update-ca-certificates-fresh to the triggers list (as noted in the last paragraph quoted above), allowing the certificates to be processed along with any other pending certificate updates:

echo 'activate update-ca-certificates-fresh' >> debian/package-name.triggers


Zesty reached the end of line support for months.
But I have full PulseAudio 11.1 on Zesty, work quite well.
Add Bionic repo to apt sources.list, update and install PulseAudio 11.
PulseAudio 11.1 Zesty
Remove Bionic source from apt source.list
Then, you're good to go


gtk.css - How to add blurry background effect?

I was also wondering this recently, and from what I understand I don't believe that gtkcss supports filters at the minute.

The method I came around was to add a shader effect to a clutter (mutter) actor through a glsl shader.

I managed to get it working to a good blur effect, the example I was working off was a GNOME extension called blyr.

My glsl file and code for my project can be found here, for reference.

And you can call the glsl in code and apply it to the actor with something like

    var shaderEffectVer = new Clutter.ShaderEffect(Clutter.ShaderType.FRAGMENT_SHADER);
    var wallpaper_actor = new GtkClutter.Actor ();

    shaderEffectVer.set_shader_source("shader.glsl"));
    shaderEffectVer.set_uniform_value("dir", 1.0);
    shaderEffectVer.set_uniform_value("width", g_width);
    shaderEffectVer.set_uniform_value("height", g_height);
    shaderEffectVer.set_uniform_value("radius", 10.0);
    shaderEffectVer.set_uniform_value("brightness", 0.98);
    wallpaper_actor.add_effect_with_name("blur",shaderEffectVer);

Hope that helps you


How to install bluetoothd 5.32 for ubuntu

TL;DR The file no longer exists in version 5

There is a PPA with packages for Saucy … Wily
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:vidplace7/bluez5
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bluez

To install from source (Simply skip the steps that you have already performed)
cd
wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/bluetooth/bluez-5.32.tar.xz
tar xf bluez-5.32.tar.xz
cd bluez-5.32
./configure
make

Install with
make install

or better with checkinstall
sudo apt-get install checkinstall
sudo checkinstall


No, this is not possible, as the application menu in the dash is a lens.  However, it's possible to show all installed applications by creating a desktop file containing a link to the application directory.

Create the following file:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Link
Name=Applications
Comment=All installed Ubuntu Applications
URL=file:///user/share/applications/
Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/debian-logo.png

Save it wherever you want it to be with a .desktop extension and double-click it...

You're not going to like the result as it shows all installed applications (including some that are not in the application lens), but that's as close as you'll get to what you asked...


Only seeing the current computer listed in the Sync Between Computers section in Software Center

Software Center issues tend to need a reinstall to be resolved. The best thing to do would be to deal with it until the 17th, when Ubuntu 13.10 comes out. Then, you will want to reinstall anyway. That should fix your problem.


How do I gunzip all files recursively in a target directory?

gunzip has -r option. From man gunzip :

   -r --recursive
          Travel  the directory structure recursively. If any of the
file names specified on the command line are directories, gzip
will descend into the directory and compress all the files it finds
there (or decompress them in  the  case  of gunzip ).

So, if you want to gunzip all compressed files (gunzip can currently decompress files created by gzip, zip, compress, compress -H or pack) inside the directory /foo/bar and all its subdirectories :

gunzip -r /foo/bar

This will handle file names with spaces too.


Whiptail change background color dynamically from magenta?

Internal colour palette of whiptail may be overwritten at compilation by providing a path to a file containing color definitions.

In ubuntu sudo update-alternatives --config newt-palette provides a way of selecting between ubuntu palette and original palette.

The location of this file can be overriden by setting the NEWT_COLORS_FILE to point to an alternative file.

Furthermore both previous overrides can be overriden by setting the NEWT_COLORS environment variable.

The structure of the definitions is:

name=[fg],[bg][;|:|\n|\r|\t]name2=[fg],[bg]]...

name can be:

root                  root fg, bg
border                border fg, bg
window                window fg, bg
shadow                shadow fg, bg
title                 title fg, bg
button                button fg, bg
actbutton             active button fg, bg
checkbox              checkbox fg, bg
actcheckbox           active checkbox fg, bg
entry                 entry box fg, bg
label                 label fg, bg
listbox               listbox fg, bg
actlistbox            active listbox fg, bg
textbox               textbox fg, bg
acttextbox            active textbox fg, bg
helpline              help line
roottext              root text
emptyscale            scale full
fullscale             scale empty
disentry              disabled entry fg, bg
compactbutton         compact button fg, bg
actsellistbox         active & sel listbox
sellistbox            selected listbox

bg and fg can be:

color0  or black
color1  or red
color2  or green
color3  or brown
color4  or blue
color5  or magenta
color6  or cyan
color7  or lightgray
color8  or gray
color9  or brightred
color10 or brightgreen
color11 or yellow
color12 or brightblue
color13 or brightmagenta
color14 or brightcyan
color15 or white

Example displaying a message box with red window background:

#!/bin/sh

NEWT_COLORS='
  window=,red
  border=white,red
  textbox=white,red
  button=black,white
' \
whiptail --msgbox "passwords don't match" 0 0

Appending to ubuntu colors:

#!/bin/bash

readarray -t newtcols < /etc/newt/palette

newtcols_error=(
   window=,red
   border=white,red
   textbox=white,red
   button=black,white
)

NEWT_COLORS="${newtcols[@]} ${newtcols_error[@]}" \
whiptail --msgbox "passwords don't match" 0 0


Best way to remote login on a Ubuntu machine from Ubuntu/Windows and OS X

remmina
Remmina is a remote desktop client written in GTK+, aiming to be useful for system administrators and travellers, who need to work with lots of remote computers in front of either large monitors or tiny netbooks. Remmina supports multiple network protocols in an integrated and consistant user interface. Currently RDP, VNC, NX, XDMCP and SSH are supported.
Remmina is released in separated source packages:
 "remmina", the main GTK+ application
 "remmina-plugins", a set of plugins
 "remmina-gnome", the GNOME desktop applet
 "remmina-xfce", the Xfce panel plugin

Remmina is free and open-source software, released under GNU GPL license.
screenshots : here


Problem with Wi-Fi, Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 not showing wireless connection while connected

The VM Host should show the Wireless connection.
The VM Guest should show an Wired (ethernet) connection.
That's what the VM application does: The Guest cannot see ANY of the real host hardware. The VM application provides an abstraction layer that appears to the guest to be generic hardware with an ethernet connection.
The Guest cannot control the wireless hardware without some exceptional configuration. Controlling the real hardware is the Host's job.


Building and installing "odvr" for Olympus voice recorders

It looks like you need a couple of supporting libraries libsndfile libusb as the github page says

  Libusb and libsndfile, and their associated development headers, are
  required

Try

 sudo apt-get install libsndfile1-dev libusb-dev


make sure that your user is added to the video group:

sudo adduser $USER video


The problem may simply be that the GRE packets are not getting through.

To resolve this issue, make sure the Wifi router or firewall permits GRE protocol 47 (You will want to find and enable a "PPTP passthrough" feature on your router that knows how to handle the GRE packets). In fact both port 1723 and GRE protocol shoyld be opened/enabled to establish VPN connectivity by using PPTP.

Hope it could solve the problem.


Run
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

And add these lines.
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic main universe
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security main universe
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates main universe

Press Ctrl+O to save the file. Press Ctrl+X to quit nano.
Then run:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3-pip

This works


Use your file manager (nautilus, pcmanfm ..) And search for the word network, or put  smb://  in the address bar.

If the address bar is locked use Ctrl+L to unlock it

By default the samba client is already installed on Ubuntu, but if it is not, just install it; in terminal type:

sudo apt-get install samba


The machine you ssh from is typically called the client. The server you connect to is called the server.

You would use the (root) password you use to log into the server.

Note: In general you should try to avoid ssh as root, ssh in as a user and use sudo if at all possible.


Unity 2d support dropped in 12.10,  what now?

According to this article on Phoronix systems without OpenGL acceleration will still be supported using the LLVMpipe driver.

  "Those without OpenGL acceleration on the GPU for running the Unity
  desktop with Compiz will have to deal with the LLVMpipe driver for
  Gallium3D running on your CPU. LLVMpipe is bad for gaming, but good
  enough for a composited desktop experience. LLVMpipe already handles
  the GNOME Shell and with Fedora 17 the GNOME-Shell-On-LLVMpipe is the
  software fall-back method."

Sounds cool.  We'll see how well it works in practice.

References:

http://www.mesa3d.org/llvmpipe.html


System freeze while starting a Vagrant box via VirtualBox on Ubuntu 15.04

I could resolve this issue by updating to VirtualBox 5.0.

I removed my old VirtualBox 4.3, then downloaded 5.0 from here (trusty package).

Then I installed 5.0 and I can finally start a 64 bit VM over the VirtualBox GUI!

Unfortunately current Vagrant 1.7.2 doesn't support VirtualBox 5.0 according to this documentatioin.

I got this error message:

$ vagrant status
No usable default provider could be found for your system.

Vagrant relies on interactions with 3rd party systems, known as
"providers", to provide Vagrant with resources to run development
environments. Examples are VirtualBox, VMware, Hyper-V.

The easiest solution to this message is to install VirtualBox, which
is available for free on all major platforms.

If you believe you already have a provider available, make sure it
is properly installed and configured. You can see more details about
why a particular provider isn't working by forcing usage with
`vagrant up --provider=PROVIDER`, which should give you a more specific
error message for that particular provider.

Vagrant has already a fix for that but you need to wait for the next release.

Until then you can follow this instructions to patch it. It's really easy, you just need to edit/create few files in /opt/vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.7.2/plugins/providers/virtualbox/

All credits go to the google vagrant group.


I know my root password, so where do i type it to open this file?

I wouldn't start a file browser instance with gksu to open a file.  I would use:

gksudo gedit /the/full/path/to/the/file

Or any other text editor it's easy to copy paste multi-page text from for that matter.


Try downloading the key separately and then add it:

sudo wget http://debian.koha-community.org/koha/gpg.asc

After that, execute:

sudo apt-key add gpg.asc

Hope it works.


incorrect mouse pointer in ubuntu 14.04?

Known (old) bug. See "Wrong mouse-coordinates in the window after minimize/maximize of after return from fullscreen". There are also several workaround suggestions in the comments:

"switch to ohter desktop and come back (CTRL+SHITF+arrow)"
"enable "switch between minimized windows" in Unity Tweak Tool"
"minimize and maximize again for the problem to go away."
etc.


1) Go to ‘Virtual Machine’ in menu and press ‘Install VMware Tools’ option. This will mount the ISO file to CD drive as ‘VMware Tools’.

2) Extract the tar.gz file to local folder.

3) Open terminal (  Application –> Accessories –> Terminal) and go to the extracted folder in above step.

4) Once you locate the vmware-install.pl script

THIS problem may be related to yours.


Ubuntu conected at VGA port adds a red tint to HDMI ports

Please:

copy C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color\sRGB Color Space Profile.icm to a USB stick,
rename it to .icc
boot Ubuntu
go to system settings in the top right corner of your screen
go to device colour profiles (the rainbow flower)
If you have a device that looks like a screen, open it
click "add profile"
take "other profile"
navigate to the USB stick
click on sRGB Color Space Profile.icm
click "Import"

Obrigado!


How do I allow a non-default user to use serial device ttyUSB0?

As you've noticed, the /dev/ttyUSB0 device has the group of dialout. All you need to do is add the second user to the dialout group:

sudo adduser second_user dialout

second_user will need to log out & log back in again for this to take effect.


How do I setup a tunnel piercing scenario on my Ubuntu client to access the internet through my own server including port knocking on it?

IP Tunneling could be achieved by a PPTP VPN. DNS by BIND and if you want to use Iodine, by using a second VPS. Port knocking is then used to secure the setup. All of these topics are well documented:
Port knocking:
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-configure-port-knocking-using-only-iptables-on-an-ubuntu-vps
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-port-knocking-to-hide-your-ssh-daemon-from-attackers-on-ubuntu
I'd recommend only setting up the daemon on a port knock for additional security.

PPTP VPN:
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-setup-your-own-vpn-with-pptp
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tags/vpn?type=tutorials
https://github.com/viljoviitanen/setup-simple-pptp-vpn

Iodine:
http://benjaminkerensa.com/2012/05/25/tunneling-ipv4-traffic-over-dns-on-ubuntu-12-04
http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/hardy/man8/iodine.8.html
http://dev.kryo.se/iodine/wiki/HowtoSetup
http://clevarme.blogspot.com/2011/07/dns-tunneling.html


Is it possible to rpm and yum package manager in Ubuntu

Will installing it mean that I will be able to install .rpm apps from Fedora repos??

No. I believe these package are in the repository for serving other purposes. For rpm it is required by alien package for converting . And for yum I believe that's included for working in a chroot environment as hinted by this launchpad answer.

And there will lots of issues if you try to use a rpm repository in Ubuntu. You need a working rpm based system to use a rpm repository. Ubuntu is based on Debian and uses debian packages. Trying to install even a simplest dirdiff rpm  throws errors complaining lacking of most basic libc.so.6 library. It's also not recognizing /bin/sh and ldconfig, although those are available in the system.

Here is the output of the trial

rpm: RPM should not be used directly install RPM packages, use Alien instead!
rpm: However assuming you know what you are doing...
warning: Downloads/dirdiff-2.1-163.6.x86_64.rpm: Header V3 RSA/SHA256 Signature, key ID 3dbdc284: NOKEY
error: Failed dependencies:
    /bin/sh is needed by dirdiff-2.1-163.6.x86_64
    /sbin/ldconfig is needed by dirdiff-2.1-163.6.x86_64
    libc.so.6()(64bit) is needed by dirdiff-2.1-163.6.x86_64
    libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.2.5)(64bit) is needed by dirdiff-2.1-163.6.x86_64
    libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.3.4)(64bit) is needed by dirdiff-2.1-163.6.x86_64
    libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4)(64bit) is needed by dirdiff-2.1-163.6.x86_64
    tcl is needed by dirdiff-2.1-163.6.x86_64
    tk is needed by dirdiff-2.1-163.6.x86_64

This indicates that, A whole system should be built based on rpm packages, otherwise it's not possible to just install rpm. However, you can install rpm packages by first converting those into debian packages.

Check these question

How do I install and manage RPMs?
This answer of the question When would yum be of use to an Ubuntu user? about Yums purpose in Ubuntu repository


Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa freezing after logging in as user

For a temporary/permanent fix, edit /etc/default/grub.
sudo -H gedit /etc/default/grub
Find:
"quiet splash"

Change it to:
"quiet splash pci=noaer"

sudo update-grub
reboot
Recheck for problem.


16.04 LTS: Installed Upstart by mistake, how do I get rid of it?

Try a comprehensive removal with:

sudo apt-get purge upstart

That should help with its complete removal


Text partially disappearing in many applications after unlocking on Xubuntu

Your first problem got fixed just a few days ago with a new version of package xserver-xorg-video-intel. See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/1568604

But this fix made the 2nd problem worse. The missing text issue got much more frequent after this. I couldn't find a bug report for this yet.


Is it good practice to remove my mac's hard drive before installing ubuntu?

An install (UEFI) to an external disk with the Ubuntu installer will put grub on the first EFI partition (ESP) it finds (the internal disk's).  This simply writes the grub files into a new directory, /EFI/ubuntu, and overwrites /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi, so grub boots if selected from the nvram or from the device.  Bug 1173457
Problems:
1)The host wont boot without the external disk (some grub files are on that disk).
2)The external disk wont boot when selected as a boot device (It's ESP was left empty).
Those two problems are easy to fix, copy the internal ESP to the external ESP, and it's boot should work (no changes at all to any files). Boot the external first in order, and grub should run, offering you the choice of Ubuntu or Windows.  You can optionally delete the nvram entry and the ubuntu directory, and rename the backup bootx64.efi back to the bootx64.efi.

It is reported that removing (temporarily) the ESP (and boot?) flag on the internal ESP will also allow the Ubuntu installer to correctly use the external disk's ESP.  Then replace the internal flag, and you should be able to boot the external device without having touched the internal disk.

If it is easy to unplug the disk, that also works, but effort depends upon how hard/easy the disassembly is.


Can't open file to disable splash screen

Because you are trying to disable the splash screen, use the standard command line text editor for Ubuntu:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Make your changes and update the Grub config

sudo update-grub


Try doing this (Its a dirty work around as you shouldn't give 777 permissions lightly)

sudo chmod -R 777 /path/to/share

Here is an article from the Ubuntu website explaining different file/folder permissions


How do I fix Desktop that freezes straight after boot?

I just wanted to say that I have figured out the problem and it has been fixed! I have a realtek RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter (rev 01).

I downloaded the Linux driver from their website and extracted the file then ran this commands:

sudo su

I navigate with cd to the uncompressed folder and ran:

sudo apt-get install build-essential
make
make install
reboot

And it worked--there have been no more lockups!


Don't bother to run Ubuntu live CD. It's not difficult to repair GRUB from the rescue mode.

Command: ls

It will list all your drives and partitions, like:

(hd0) (hd0,msdos2) (hd0,msdos1)

If you don't know your Ubuntu boot partition, check them one by one:

ls (hd0,msdos2)/
ls (hd0,msdos1)/

When you hit the right one, you'll get a line mentioning lost+found, more importantly boot, and so on.
Assuming (hd0,msdos2) is the right partition:

set prefix=(hd0,2)/boot/grub
set root=(hd0,2)
insmod normal
normal

Now you'll be able to boot into Ubuntu. Once you do, execute the following commands:

sudo update-grub
sudo grub-install /dev/sda


Ubuntu 18.04 - Resolution is stuck at 640x480, can't change it

Solved, according to this thread: Graphics and resolution problems (Nvidia) in Ubuntu 18.04 after update

Summary: purged nvidia-390 and installed nvidia-340.


elementary-xfce is actually packaged in the xubuntu-icon-theme package in Ubuntu. This icon theme is used by default in Xubuntu. To apply it in 14.04, do the following.

Click on the Applications menu.
Click on the Settings icon.
Go to Appearance.
Select the Icons tab.
Choose any of the elementary-xfce variants. The icon theme will be applied immediately.


iptables is blocking only some connections to port 80

Your example log entry is for a TCP packet with the reset flag asserted.

For TCP connections, Linux tends to use a "half-duplex" close sequence where either side of the session can initiate connection termination via a single 2 way FIN-ACK handshake (which puts the connection into the CLOSE_WAIT state), instead of a full 4 way FIN-ACK handshake.

It is likely, and very common, that your side thinks a previous TCP session has been closed and has forgotten about it. Then 82.101.237.77 tried to reset the connection, which ended up as "iptables_INPUT_denied".

Summary: There is nothing wrong.


How do I make the system to recognize my dvd and cd drives

You need the Medibuntu repository Ubuntu 11.10. Medibuntu (Multimedia, Entertainment & Distractions In Ubuntu) is a repository of packages that cannot be included into the Ubuntu distribution for legal reasons, copyright, license and patents (e.g.  advanced DVD playback support, multimedia codecs etc.)

To add Medibuntu repository, run the full command below at once:

sudo wget --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list && sudo apt-get --quiet update && sudo apt-get --yes --quiet --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get --quiet update

You can also run an additional command to add support for viewing Medibuntu packages in Ubuntu Software Center and bug reporting for crashes, if any.

sudo apt-get install app-install-data-medibuntu apport-hooks-medibuntu


Copying packages to other versions

Assuming you are on Launchpad:

Click from 'Personal package archives' on the ppa you want to edit.
Click subsequently on 'View package details' (right of 'Overview of published packages')

On the upper righ, you will see 'Copy packages', click that one, and you will see check-boxes appear next to the packages.

Click the one you want to copy over to other versions, then below the list of packages, choose the targeted 'Destination series' (Ubuntu version), and choose 'Copy existing binaries'.

Then push the button Copy packages

That's it. Now the ppa is available on the Ubuntu version you copied it to (actually it might take a minute or 20).

N.B.

1. Same version of software works on multiple versions

This only works if, as you indicated, the very same version works on different versions of Ubuntu. Else you need to rebuild a specific version.

If only dependencies versions differ, you can probably create a multi-version -version by including different versions in your control file with a "|" e.g.:

Depends: python3,
    python3-gi,
    gir1.2-budgie-1.0 | gir1.2-budgie-desktop-1.0,

2. EOL

As @doug already mentioned in a comment, 16.10 is eol, and Launchpad does not allow copying packages to 16.10 anymore.


How to drag and drop files to a places applet. (Like trash can)

The following script will act according to your desciption. I believe this is not the best approach for this situation, but there is not an applet with the functionality described by you that I know of.

Create a file in your home folder with the following content:

#!/bin/sh

ubuntuone_loc="/home/user/Ubuntu One/"

if [ $# -eq 0 ] ;
then
  nautilus "$ubuntuone_loc"
else
  (
    i=0
    for file in "$@" ;
    do
      echo $(($i * 100 / $#))
      i=$(($i+1))
      cp "$file" "$ubuntuone_loc"
    done
    echo 100
  )|zenity --progress --title="Copy files progress" --text="Copying $# files to $ubuntuone_loc..." --auto-close &

  RUNNING=0
  while [ $RUNNING -eq 0 ]
  do
    if [ -z "$(pidof zenity)" ]
    then
      kill $(pidof cp)
      RUNNING=1
    fi
  done

fi

Make sure you replace "/home/user/Ubuntu One" with your ubuntu one folder. Now create a new custom launcher, and fill in "sh /path/to/the/created/file". The new launcher should work with clicking and drag and drop.

I hope this works for you. A custom Ubuntu One applet with this sort of behaviour would be nice.


Expected a dual boot system with Windows Vista, but it only boots Ubuntu

Install startupmanager, an application to help configure the boot up menu.

Open up the Software Center and Search for "Startup Manager" or "startupmanager" and click install.
Once it has installed run it by clicking on the ubuntu logo on the top left of the screen and searching for Startup Manager.

There should be a section that says "Timeout: in seconds". Choose a period of time that you want to see the boot menu for. (You can also select an operating system to boot into by default).

Close the application (it will make you wait as it cleans up). Restart your computer. This time you should see a list of options that will stay for the period of time you choose earlier. If you choose a short period of time, just press the up or down arrow keys to cancel the automatic boot and make it wait for your choice.

Look for the option that should say something like "Windows Vista Loader on ...." and select it and press enter. This should boot you into your windows partition :)


Want LibreOffice instead of OpenOffice, accidentally installed both

check in software and updates in the administration panel and deactivate the ppa for instance. Then install libre office drom the Ubuntu Software Center.

Or in terminal:

apt-get update
sudo apt-get -f install
sudo apt-get purge openoffice.org-*
sudo apt-get purge libreoffice*
sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:libreoffice/ppa
apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libreoffice*

when you now want rather relay onto that ppa for a newer version of libroffice you can add it again.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa
apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade


Broken audio after installing Realtek HD drivers

The page you linked to says:

  much of the information on this page is outdated

Realtek's page says:

  Audio drivers available for download from the Realtek website ... may not offer the customizations made by your system/motherboard manufacturer.

These warnings are there for a reason.

The audio drivers are part of the kernel, so the easiest way to get newer drivers is to install a newer kernel.


At this point, as long as you are upgrading from 11.X you shouldn't experience any issues. I upgraded from 11.10 and had no issues initially, but after a few reboots I ran into a weird DNS issue. I don't know the exact cause to this date. But I suspect it had something to do with the resolvconf configuration. This was a known bug which has been addressed and is no longer an issue.

I would go for the upgrade to 12.04 LTS, but as always, make sure you have a backup. If your disk isn't too large you can use Partimage. It is extremely easy to use, supports compression, and will only backup the used portion of your partition. In addition to the partimage backup, I would also backup your config files in the /etc/ directory.


Add the following lines to your /home/username/.bashrc file:

export LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8


Partitions not showing on windows neither in ubuntu

Windows can't see the Ubuntu partition because Ubuntu's file system type is ext4. In the file manager Computer is the / partition and the swap and /boot is not for you to see. If you really need to see them, then install gparted.


Since the system is equipped with 2 GB of RAM only, you should use a 32-bit operating system which is not supported any more.
A 64-bit system will use approximately 600-700 MB of memory, leaving approximately 1.3 GB available for the user. If this is enough for you, go ahead and try a light flavour, like Lubuntu or Xubuntu for example. Maybe you'd like to add some more memory before you install a 64-bit system though.


Howto skip over cpio archive when multiple cpio archives are concatenated

As hinted here dracut's skipcpio does the trick: skipcpio.
I can then use it like this:

skipcpio /boot/initrd.img-4.12.0-rc6-custom > initrd.img-4.12.0-rc6-custom.real
zcat initrd.img-4.12.0-rc6-custom.real | cpio --extract

skipcpio skips over the first (noncompressed) ASCII cpio block and prints the rest. If two firmware blobs are prepended this has to be run two times.


Can scan with simple scanner in Epson Stylus 525WD

You need to install the drivers from the Epson website.

Install either iscan_2.29.1-5~usb0.1.ltdl7_i386.deb or iscan_2.29.1-5~usb0.1.ltdl7_amd64.deb depending on the architecture you are using as well as iscan-data_1.22.0-1_all.deb.

If "Simple Scan" still can't find the scanner install XSane.


Graphics Problem with cedarview and log-in screen

Couldn't wait so I tried out stuff and finally solved my problem. I eventually just reinstalled ubuntu and this time, I'm not activating cedarview.

Okay, so add this on the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line

nomodeset acpi_backlight=vendor

And this, after GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX

acpi_osi=Linux

Update grub.

After this, I only get a black screen (with the backlight on) after waking from suspend. Note that only the screen is black, but the system has woken up and is working so it is possible to just blindly log in, open terminal and command to reboot or poweroff.
So my next fix was to check if this works and if my system resumes after that. Ran terminal and typed sudo pm-suspend --quirk-vbemode-restore. It did not, and so I tried this out:

sudo pm-suspend -quirk-vbemode-restore

and my system came back just as I had left it. To use this option, run (i know I have gma3600 but it works anyway):

 gksudo gedit /etc/pm/config.d/gma500

then add this code:

ADD_PARAMETERS='-quirk-vbemode-restore'

Suspend now works normally for me.


What's a good fullscreen launcher for the Gnome2 desktop?

gnome-do is a great tool, but like you said not quite what you're looking for? The only other things like you describe that I have seen are applets/plugins for docks such as Avant Window Navigator and Cairo Dock.


Unable to login to ubuntu; how to understand xsession-errors

Try this: At the login screen press ctrl - alt - F2. This will get you to a console interface. Login and try to continue the install with:

sudo apt-get install -f


Add new hard drive to mirror existing LVM drive with raid1

If anyone is still reading this older question, note that raid1 is now built-in to lvm2.  To mirror an existing lv on a new drive using lvm2:

install the new drive and create lvm2 partition(s) (at least the same size as your existing drive's lvm partition(s), or those you want to mirror in any case) (use parted /dev/newdrive or use sfdisk -d /dev/sda | sfdisk /dev/sdb assuming sdb is your new drive)
initialise new partition(s) as lvm2 pv(s) (pvcreate /dev/newpartition)
extend your existing lvm2 vg(s) to the new partition(s) (vgextend /dev/myvg /dev/newpartition) and then first check and confirm that the number of extents on the new drive is the same or more (pvdisplay) Free PE on new drive should be more than Total PE of the old drive.
for each lv that you want to mirror on the new partition:

lvconvert -m1 /dev/myvg/existinglv /dev/newpartition

(ie, convert my existing (linear) lv to a raid1 mirrored lv with 1 additional mirror leg, and allocate the new PEs required for the mirror leg on the given new pv/partition)
note that you will need some additional space on the existing and new lv, because lvm2 raid1 mirror segments (the default) store their logs on the same pv/segment as the mirror leg (you will need an additional 1 PE per mirror leg on both the existing and new pv).

If you get an error like 1 extents needed, but only 0 available then it might indicate a problem creating the log, and you might need to create some free space on the existing pv, possibly by shrinking the relevant lv to allow room (lvreduce).  If you do this, you might need to resize the underlying filesystem beforehand (resize2fs)).


The Administrator in the table is marked by a + to indicate that the person who is currently accessing the database is an administrator of the database, not an non-admin user.


Dell XPS 13: won't boot with newest kernel (cannot enter encryption password for ctyptsetup)

This has been reported in Ubuntu's bug tracking system, and is affecting multiple users, including Dell XPS 13 owners. Let's hope it gets fixed soon.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cryptsetup/+bug/1500751


Gnome Shell does all that. It always has exactly one empty workspace (so if you add a window to it, a new empty workspace is created). Note that this is the default - you can configure a static workspace listing via gnome-tweak-tool. I am able to drag full screen windows around in the Overview mode - this helps me start games in one workspace and drag them elsewhere.


Device menu does not show up on my Virtual Windows10

In Virtual Box >= 5.2 we can fine tune the appearance of a virtual machine. This includes hiding and showing the top bar where the devices menu resides.

To enable the user interface settings right click anywhere in the machine's settings to show the drop down menu where we can tick to show the user interface settings:

Then we can change the appearance on the newly available user interface dialog. Click on any item from File, Machine,...,Help to enable or disable the corresponding entry or click on the dropdown menu there to customise entries. Tick next to the mini tool bar to enable it as a whole:

Note on the menu bar. We may have accidentally removed it with an option appearing on right click on that menu bar. It then will be gone and can not be clicked again until we restore it as shown above.

From the Settings... menu entry we can control the entries displayed in a same way as from the user interface settings above.


It's bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1169761

The kernel team introduced this by picking and choosing patches. The generic 3.8 kernel doesn't have it, and Ubuntu 13.04 kernels older than a mid-April are also ok.

I'm sure this is getting a lot of attention since it affects so many.