I'm not sure I understood what you need.

If what you need is to build a program inside Ubuntu that will be run on Windows, what you need is cross compiling: How to program for Windows in Ubuntu?. I believe you should forget about VB, however, if you're willing to use Linux.
If what you need is to write a program that can be compiled in Windows, what you need is cross platform. You should look for GTK+, Qt or something similar for the GUI. The language is a matter of choice, but I believe C++ would be the natural one, if you're using any of these two libraries.

About the easiest language to learn development in Ubuntu, I don't believe there's an answer to this question. The easiest language for me might not be easiest for you. I would use Python for quick tasks and C++ for more complex applications.


Where is Rhythmbox's playlist information stored?

The global playlists is stored in:

/usr/share/rhythmbox/playlists.xml

Whereas the local playlists is stored in:

~/.local/share/rhythmbox/playlists.xml


How to install netbeans 7.2 on latest ubuntu

Go to netbeans download page

Make sure the platform is linux(x86/x64) on the top-right of page
download any version you want from the ones listed below.
you will end up with a netbeans-7.**.sh  file.

for me,

  filename=netbeans-7.2-ml-linux.sh

it will vary depending on the version you choose.

open terminal, go to the directory where its downloaded
eg: I downloaded into my Downloads folder so,I entered the command

cd ~/Downloads

now execute the .sh file, by entering

sudo bash <filename>


Recovering Firefox's Saved Login Details

That's a Firefox question. Firefox stores passwords and usernames in a strict manner. You cannot just export and import it, it's confidential data.

If you used to save login details, you must've had a Firefox account (Sync). Please make use of that.

Otherwise, this website is of no help to you. There's no text file in some directory of Firefox which stores all your login details.

You might want to post this question in Firefox Support:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products/firefox


LibreOffice Impress: How to align with a reference object?

You can protect an object position (i.e. your reference object).

Right click on the reference object, select Pozition and Size…. Check Position option under "protect" (see the screenshot below); then do the alignment.

PS: It seems LibreOffice takes the relative center of the whole two objects, i.e. the centerline of a surface covering two objects, and then move all of them so that their centers sit on that centerline.


Ubuntu Server 16.04.1 LTS and MongoDB not working

You have two issues to handle:

You haven't configured the security features in your mongodb:

Follow the official steps to doing so here

Disable Transparent Huge Pages (THP):

there are two options here, look at the second answer but if the accepted answer works for you fine:

adding the following to the /etc/rc.local file before the exit 0

if test -f /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/khugepaged/defrag; then
echo 0 > /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/khugepaged/defrag
fi
if test -f /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/defrag; then
  echo never > /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/defrag
fi
if test -f /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled; then
  echo never > /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled
fi

edit /etc/default/grub:

append transparent_hugepage=never to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT then
run update-grub

Sources:

How do I modify "/sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled"

https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/tutorial/transparent-huge-pages/#transparent-huge-pages-thp-settings

https://www.mongodb.com/blog/post/mongodb-security-part-ii-10-mistakes-that-can


Are there plans to provide Ubuntu on more (bq) smartphonses?

As far as I know, from some tweets by BQ itself, they have no plans to release another device with Ubuntu. I still do not know if they will continue selling the Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition after these flash sales. I do not know if the flash sales where a success because there is a kind of silence regarding how many where sold. I tried to get one and it was quiet difficult the first flash sales.

You already will know that Meizu is due to release its MX4 with Ubuntu (in Asia and Europe) and there should be another company involved for America (but still there is no information about who and when).


Kubuntu - Creating Boot and LVM Partitions from scratch

I think the problem I was facing that motivated this question was that the Kubtuntu 18.04 installer did not allow you to create/modify the LVM other than the defaults i.e. if you did not want the LVM on the entire Disk, you had to do it manually. The way I solved this problem was:

Use the Kubtuntu 18.04 USB/DVD and select the option Try (as against choosing Install).
Once you get into this try to use the KDE Partition Manager, or just parted to create the partitions you want

Once Kubuntu loads (i.e. from the USB/DVD) with the option to Try, you have two options: Open the Konsole or use KDE Partition Manager. The discussion below is for the Konsole, but I think it is easier to use the KDE Partition Manager. All of this was done in a VM, hence the disk sizes are much smaller than you would expect for a typical HDD

Get into root

sudo -i

Figure out which disk you are going to instal using:

df -h

Sometimes you have to guess using the disk sizes

Assuming the disk is at /dev/sda, the following is the sequence of commands you can use in parted.

parted /dev/sda

I’m doing MBR here, so for GPT your requirements would be differerent

mklabel msdos

Make the boot partition (The numbers specified are in MB):

mkpart
Partition type?  primary/extended? primary
File system type?  [ext2]? ext2
Start? 1
End? 1000
set 1 boot on

Make the Swap Partition

mkpart
Partition type?  primary/extended? primary
File system type?  [ext2]? linux-swap
Start? 1000
End? 2000
set 2 swap on <- Did not work, and I don’t know why

To observe your results

print free

To create the space for the LVM
Now we need to specify all of the remaining space. If you specify the MB, you leave some space at the end of the device. Hence I used %.

mkpart primary 2000 100%
set 3 lvm on

If you have an SSD, then do an align check

align-check opt 1
align-check opt 2
align-check opt 3

Finally quit parted using

q

Create filesystems on the boot and swap partitions

mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda1
mkswap /dev/sda2

Finally to create the LVM and format the space as ext4

pvcreate /dev/sda3
vgcreate vol_grp /dev/sda3
lvcreate -L 7GB -n root vol_grp
mkfs.ext4 /dev/vol_grp/root

Note: I have not used the entire space of the volume group because I wanted to use the rest of the space to create a snapshot when I have to backup root i.e. /

You can check your work using:

parted -l

Finally, reboot the machine with the Install Medium, and this time choose Install.
Run through the process. When you get to Disk Setup select Manual and then continue.

Here make the following changes:

Typo: Please read kubuntu in the above image as root

Select /dev/mapper/vol_grp/root and hit Change
In the dialog that pops up set:

Use as: Do not use this partition -> Ext4 Journaling file System
Format: Upto you check/uncheck since we have already done the format above
Mount Point -> /

Select /dev/sda1 and hit Change
In the dialog that pops up set:

Use as: Ext2 Filesystem
Format: Upto you
Mount Point -> /boot

Finally at the bottom select
- Device for bootloader installation: /dev/sda1

Now you are set!! Let the Kubuntu installation proceed as usual.

Note: I think it is easier to use the KDE Partition Manager. In my further attempts esp. with disks bigger than the ones above, I have faced alignment issues, and I had no way to fix them. I noticed that KDE Partition Manager automatically handles the alignment for you. If not select the Align option under Advanced.


With currently five OSes installed on my 100GB hard drive, I can confirm that it is indeed possible to have more than a dual-boot.

You'll have to take some space from either Ubuntu or Windows to install kali.

I won't elaborate much, since it's explained well in the kali linux documentation: http://docs.kali.org/installation/dual-boot-kali-with-windows

As a side note, kali will install a new bootloader, which will replace Ubuntu's. While this isn't nessecarily bad, if you want ubuntu's classy purple GRUB, you may want to look up how to use grub-install.

Just a hint: search. There's a lot of documentation out there.


Do an reinstalation of the build-essential package:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall build-essential

This should fix it.


In GNU sed, it is not required to provide an empty suffix when using the -i option to edit a file in-place without backup. However, if you do, it must immediately follow the -i with no intervening white space: otherwise, the '' is interpreted as a sed expression, which in turn causes your actual expression s/pattern/replacement to be interpreted as a filename.

In summary, the options are:

sed -i <other options> <expression> <files>

or

sed -i'' <other options> <expression> <files>


The icons for PDF files are huge! Other than resizing them manually, are there any icon packs that will make them smaller?

Since part of your question was "Why is this?",  I'll answer that part. It's because the icon is a preview of the first page of the actual document and thus, the aspect ratio has to match.

This obviously doesn't answer the most important part of the question,  namely how to change it. So this only answers part of your question.


How can I switch to other icon sets in Unity without using the Gnome Tweak Tool

You have to install gconf-editor.

sudo apt-get install gconf-editor

Then, open gconf-editor and go to desktop/gnome/interface and change the value of
"icon_theme" from ubuntu-mono-dark to Faenza or Faenza-Darker.

How do I use the gconf editor?


Ubuntu 18.04 not emulating windows keystroke configuration correctly when logged into a VM through xrdp

Just in case someone has this problem, below is the terminal command that resolved the  error of VMWare  not acknowledging the 10 key pad:

echo 'xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true' > ~/.vmware/config

The other issue of windows key config was resolved after running this code and restarting the PC. I cant validate whether the above line was what fixed it or not.


Try this :

rm ~/.config/monitors.xml
sudo X -configure && sudo reboot now

Note : It will reboot your machine. Let me know.


You can start Ubuntu in Recovery Mode(Usually the second option in GRUB).

Recovery Mode disables most advanced graphics settings, So everything will look normal and ugly (and safe!) like before.

You can then start CCSM and reset that faulty setting.

One advantage of this over the --recursive-unset method I suggested in the comments is that you can keep all your other Compiz settings intact.

As a precautionary hint, take the dialog which pops up when you start CCSM pretty seriously! CCSM IS quite a dangerous tool.


How do I set up local Joomla sites for web developing?

I would use Name-based Virtual Hosts support in Apache.

First, you need to modify your /etc/hosts file to add some names which resolve to your local loopback interface:

127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost
127.0.1.1       test1
127.0.1.1       test2

Then, in your home directory, you create a directory for your sites, say, sites and a sub-directory for each one:

  sites\
  - test1\
  -- apache_config
  -- www\
  - test2\
  -- apache_config
  -- www\

Each apache_config file would define configuration for each of your virtual hosts:

<VirtualHost *:80>
 ServerName test1
 DocumentRoot /home/username/sites/test1/www
</VirtualHost>

Then you symlink all the configs into /etc/apache2/sites-enabled

ln -s /home/username/sites/test1/www /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/001-test1
ln -s /home/username/sites/test2/www /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/002-test2

Restart Apache.

And that technically should be it - all your sites and their configs are in your home directory, editable by you.

I haven't tested the steps, so it's just a general outline, but that's where I would start. I would avoid placing my work files into /var/www (or using Apache's default virtual host in general), and also I would avoid modifying Apache's main config file (/etc/apache2/apache2.conf) or the default virtual host file (the one in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default).


Is there a way (hack) to enable Screen Lock but NOT to Lock on lid close?

Ok, the information you provided in the comments is enough now.

First, you should install xprintidle (sudo apt-get install xprintidle), because we are going to try and emulate the locking mechanism!

Now, write a script (I've call it screen-locker, notice you don't need to put an extension to your filename):

#!/bin/sh

export DISPLAY=:0.0

if /usr/bin/grep -q close /proc/acpi/button/lid/*/state ; then
  # the lid is closed, so nothing to do
  exit 0
fi

# The lid is open

# the idle time before locking is 60 minutes (60 times 60 times 1000 milliseconds)
lock_time_in_minutes=60

lock_time=$(( ${lock_time_in_minutes} * 60 * 1000 ))

if [ "`/usr/bin/xprintidle`" -ge "$lock_time" ] ; then
  /usr/bin/gnome-screensaver-command -l
fi

Say you save it in a directory called /home/your-username/bin. Make it executable

chmod 755 /home/your-username/bin/screen-locker

now in the terminal run

echo '*/10 * * * * /home/your-username/bin/screen-locker' | crontab

to add this script to your crontab. (With this the script will be executed every 10 minutes.)

Now you can navigate to Brightness & Lock and deactivate the locking because the script will lock your screen if (and only if) the lid is open.

(You can change the 60 to 1 minute for the purpose of a quick test. You wait around 2 minutes with the lid open to see if it locks, then do the same waiting but with the lid closed to see if it does not lock).


Alt + SysRq + r , e , i , s , u , b (busier backwards) if can not even bring up terminal.

More details, and explanation, can be found in the "Magic SysRq Key" Wikipedia article.


How do I implement a change in xorg.conf when I don't have one?

The standard way would be to copy the /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf into /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d and calling it for example 51-mysinaptics.conf (so that it will be read after the standard one) --- then read it and edit accordingly.

In my version, around the start, there is:

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "touchpad catchall"
        Driver "synaptics"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
# This option is recommend on all Linux systems using evdev, but cannot be
# enabled by default. See the following link for details:
# http://who-t.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-ignore-configuration-errors.html
      MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
EndSection

(Notice that someone changed it without changing the comment --- that's the danger of the comments). I would try to add it here and restart X.

The details about startup configuration can be found with man xorg.conf.d; the interesting part here is:

  Additional configuration files are searched for in the following
  direc‐
         tories when the server is started as a normal user:

       /etc/X11/<cmdline>
       /etc/X11/<cmdline>
       /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d
       /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d

and

Finally, configuration files will also be searched for  in  directories
   reserved for system use. These are to separate configuration files from
   the vendor or 3rd party packages from those  of  local  administration.
   These files are found in the following directories:

       /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d
       /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d

Order: It is not  really clear the order of reading/apply configuration; I suppose that higher numbered "scripts" (like /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/51-synaptics-quirks.conf) supersedes lower ones (like /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-evdev.conf), but I am not sure which one will be the selected one between

/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-wacom.conf and
/etc/X11/xorg.conf/50-wacom.conf

or if all the /etc/X11/xorg.conf/ will supersede all the /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/
configurations --- the manual is not clear for me. You are very welcome to edit this part if you have an authoritative answer!


What to do with KEYEXPIRED 1555048520 on updating Google Chrome and Earth repositories?

It's fixed on Google's end now, so you can update normally through apt without workarounds.

(Sorry, can't comment due to <50 reputation.)


open remote (ssh) file locally via comand line (without installing sshfs)

What you can do in your command line workflow is:

Start with gvfs-mount ssh://your-server/
then access files normally with local applications - for example, gedit /run/user/1000/gvfs/sftp:host=your-server/path/to/file.txt


o2 mobile broadband won't connect with a Huawei E173

You need to change some settings in network manager (edit connections):

APN: m-bb.o2.co.uk
phone number: *99#
username: o2bb
password:password

Once you've connected, go to mobilebroadbandaccess.o2.co.uk to register. I found I was disconnected fairly soon after my initial connection, but after reconnecting (either reboot or remove and reinsert the mobile broadband dongle) it seems to work fine.


Can't install packages without installing IBus and removing Ubuntu-desktop

ibus depends on ubuntu-desktop and unity-control-center. Your installation attempt might break it that causes Ubuntu requires to remove ubuntu-desktop and unity-control-center. If you try to remove sudo apt-get remove ibus, it will also tell:

The following packages will be REMOVED
ibus ibus-table ubuntu-desktop unity-control-center unity-control-center-signon

And if you check the dependencies list of ibus, you will see them

$ apt-cache rdepends ibus
ibus
Reverse Depends:
  ibus-mozc
    ibus:i386
  unity-settings-daemon
    ibus:i386
  ubuntu-gnome-desktop
    ibus:i386
  ibus-tegaki
    ibus:i386
  ibus-skk
    ibus:i386
  ibus-rime
    ibus:i386
  ibus-pinyin
    ibus:i386
  indicator-keyboard
  ibus-libthai
    ibus:i386
  ibus-kkc
    ibus:i386
  ibus-input-pad
    ibus:i386
  ibus-cangjie
    ibus:i386
  ibus-array
    ibus:i386
  gnome-control-center
    ibus:i386
  unity-settings-daemon
    ibus:i386
  unity-control-center
    ibus:i386
  unity-control-center
    ibus:i386
  ubuntu-desktop
    ibus:i386
  ibus-hangul
    ibus:i386
  ibus-unikey
    ibus:i386
  ibus-table
    ibus:i386
  ibus-m17n
    ibus:i386
  ibus-dbg
    ibus:i386
  ibus-anthy
    ibus:i386
  ibus-chewing
    ibus:i386
  gnome-settings-daemon
    ibus:i386

Now you have no other choice except removing them and get back then by launching the command to reinstall unity:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

I make sure it will get back normal then.


"package system is broken " after upgrading from Ubuntu 16.10 to 17.04

The problem is with the click package. You most likely have a python3 version of click installed through pip3. You just upgraded to 17.04 and have the click package installed with a version number under the pip or pip3 repository. Pip packages aren't managed by apt, and they take priority when Python's import keyword is invoked. So you need to uninstall the click package and then reinstall it.

Install click again to install the dependencies.

sudo apt-get install --reinstall click

Then remove it with this command.

sudo apt-get autoremove -f click

If that doesn't work, you can try it the hard way,

sudo rm /usr/bin/click

sudo apt-get autoremove -f click

Source:

How to get removed a broken package (in this case "click")?


How to resolve "Unable to locate theme engine" type error in Android SDK manager?

Just run this command:

sudo apt-get install gtk2-engines-pixbuf

from morpoint.com


Graphics driver issue on Asus FX553VD and Kubuntu 17.10

I finally figured out how to get it to work. All problems are with graphics driver. If you wanna it to work with Intel graphics (which consumes less power) then edit grub and add nouveau.modeset=0 to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT section. Update grub, reboot and now everything should work as expected.


Problem with VirtualBox after enabling 'pae' in 10.04 kernel

The issue was solved thanks to the comments to the question... VirtualBox is working again... by uninstalling and re-installing things in the correct sequence..  (I've "answered" in this way, as there was no other specific answer...)


How do I access and enable more icons to be in the system tray?

From Ubuntu 13.04 onwards you have to whitelist the applications if you want to allow access to the system tray.

Firstly install dconf-tools from the software center ( or by clicking here)
Then Press Alt+F2 and enter dconf-editor and run it.

Now navigate to Desktop -> Unity -> Panel.

Now change the value of  systray-whitelist to

"all"

Note that setting this to "all" will likely lead to other bugs, as the old notification area is unmaintained, instead consider adding applications you need individually instead of just enabling everything. You can reset it to the defaults by checking out this question:

How do I set the panel whitelist back to the default?

Do note that the system tray is entirely removed in 13.04 and newer and that older applications that still have not been ported need to be updated:

Why aren't certain indicators showing in Unity?


Trigerring hooks for user-defined events

There are no user-defined events that Juju responds to at this stage.

Yes you would need to write an external script.

Juju does have the ability to run commands in the context of a unit (like a hook).

This is done using the 'run' command from the command line, or if being run from cron on the machines themselves, the command is 'juju-run'.


Vstfpd and many accounts creation: is there a howto?

This is a template to get the ball rolling. It's a perl script that prints out commands so it will not do anything until you decide to hilight the commands and cut/paste it back into the console.

It does the hard work of generating to user accounts, sets passwords and optionally create or not create a homedirectory. The trick is when creating passwords for the adduser command it needs to be in crypt3 format. So if you run this script...

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;

my $SALT="jhgk^djfh*gkdh(jghkdhj786876erg98rhj44";
my $user="student";
my $pass="password";
my $encrypted;
my $studno=1;
my $studentstogenerate=20;

for ($studno;$studno<$studentstogenerate;$studno++) {
 $pass='p'.int(rand(100000000000000));
 $encrypted=crypt($pass, $SALT);
 print "sudo useradd -p '$encrypted'  $user$studno --no-create-home -G ftpgroup # actual pass ($pass)\n";
}

It will generate...

sudo useradd -p 'jhVU3sDajDruY'  student1 --no-create-home -G ftpgroup # actual pass (p67228866189634)
sudo useradd -p 'jhViMGmmQ7d4.'  student2 --no-create-home -G ftpgroup # actual pass (p20494616343373)
sudo useradd -p 'jhMr3VKBG2.ow'  student3 --no-create-home -G ftpgroup # actual pass (p13933001113231)
sudo useradd -p 'jhqPnvxZCcQTg'  student4 --no-create-home -G ftpgroup # actual pass (p45579091049416)
sudo useradd -p 'jhWqVroWUraWk'  student5 --no-create-home -G ftpgroup # actual pass (p35233656259977)
sudo useradd -p 'jhlWOWyt0AKYE'  student6 --no-create-home -G ftpgroup # actual pass (p39944882363487)
sudo useradd -p 'jhJd1AVEU/FE6'  student7 --no-create-home -G ftpgroup # actual pass (p71192849790380)
sudo useradd -p 'jh1I6aDAkq3iA'  student8 --no-create-home -G ftpgroup # actual pass (p41868457411791)

As it uses a random number generator everytime you run it the password will be different.

So in this case student1 has a password of p67228866189634

You can play with this script to generate different output by chnaging the variables. Should be easy enough even if you don't program in perl.

Note: I have added the students to ftpgoup which you might need to change based on the group you used.


Setting to let mouse events pass through GUI application

Compiz once had a plugin called "Ghost" which allowed you to do this, but due to recent changes (including an entire overhaul of the Compiz code), this plugin is no longer developed or supported.

For this reason, it is no longer possible to both have transparent and transient windows using Compiz.


Open the terminal and type:

sudo tasksel

A Package configuration window will open. Select a task by scrolling down or pressing the down arrow key ( ↓ )  and pressing space. This will put an asterisk beside the selected task and mark it for installation. Tasks that are already installed are marked by an asterisk. If you make a mistake, press space again to unselect a selected task. From the Software selection list select a task and use the Tab key to select <Ok> and then press Enter as shown in the below screenshot:

Depending on the size of the group of packages in the selected task, you may need to wait a while for the packages in the selected task to finish installing.


How to enumerate and monitor the assigned keyboard shortcuts at anytime in Ubuntu?

By "system" I figure you mean the user interface. There is no simple answer to your question. Every single event (as they are called in programming lingo) be it a key pressed or a drag-and-drop move has been dealt with programmatically by some piece of code in the program you are currently using.

To learn more you have to read some book on UI frameworks for linux (GTK is used by Gnome, QT is used by KDE). Basically, the UI framework provides a signal/slot mechanism to handle events(signals being fired by events and slots being program code to take appropriate action).


Command line tool to analyze network response etc

Use either tcpdump (a command-line utility) or wireshark (a GUI tool).

Wireshark is somewhat easier to use, it will capture all traffic from your network interface. You'd start a capture with wireshark, then go to your browser and do the transaction you want to do, then back in wireshark you just need to identify an http packet (they're clearly marked as such in the capture), right-click and select "follow tcp stream". This will show you the whole conversation including http headers, which should in turn include the redirects.

Tcpdump in essence does the same: it intercepts network traffic and lets you look at it, but since (AFAIK) it has no knowledge of specific protocols, it's up to you to make sense of the captured traffic.

One other option is for you to install the Live HTTP headers extension for Firefox. When you enable it, it will capture the request as sent by your browser, any responses sent by the server including redirects. It's potentially easier to use than Wireshark but it's limited to showing you headers from the browser.


If you have a standard container under /var/lib/lxc, i.e. /var/lib/lxc/container1, then it suffices to stop the container, make sure lxc is set up on the new node (call it 'desthost') and

rsync -va /var/lib/lxc/container1 desthost:/var/lib/lxc/

(You can't yet migrate a running container;  hopefully that'll work "soon" using criu)


How can I run a software package I installed called 'openscam'?

In a terminal, install the following:

sudo apt-get install libgtkglext1 libc6 bzip2 zlib1g libexpat1 openssl libgtk2.0-0 libglade2-0 freeglut3 sqlite3

Then type openscam in the terminal to open it up.

Source: OpenSCAM Install Guide. Though I've added the package libgtkglext1 because it also needs it.


Can't boot from USB Drive on VirtualBox machine

Here is how I think you can fix your problem.

Download Plop Boot Manager from here onto your computer with VirtualBox installed

Extract the zip file.

Open VirtualBox, select the your Virtual Machine, click on "Settings" (The Yellow Gear).

On the sidebar settings window, click storage. Under "Controller IDE" click the empty disk (or add one if there isn't any). Under attributes click the disk icon and select "Choose a Virtual CD/DVD File..."

Image:

Select to "plpbt.iso" in the files you extracted before.

Save any changes by pressing "OK"

Boot your virtual machine.

Plug in your USB drive

On the menu bar of VirtualBox, click "Device --> "USB Devices" --> your USB drive

Then in Plop boot manager select USB using your arrow keys.

The Virtual machine should now boot the Ubuntu installer from your USB drive if you installed it correctly. You should have installed it on the USB drive following these instructions.

Source: How to Boot a VMware Virtual Machine from a USB Drive


What is the "nationality toggle" and how do I reset it?

Open /etc/default/keyboard for editing:

gedit admin:///etc/default/keyboard

Change the line

XKBOPTIONS="grp:toggle,grp_led:scroll"

to

XKBOPTIONS="grp_led:scroll"

and save.

You also need to remove the grp:toggle option from the desktop settings for your user. The easiest way to do that is to run this command:

gsettings reset org.gnome.desktop.input-sources xkb-options


I had the same problem. Uninstalling the browsers I didn't want to see in the Dash and then reinstalling them solved it. Try removing Firefox and Chromium; Opera should appear in the Dash and stay there even after you reinstall them.


If your grub is not listing both Ubuntu and Windows try using Boot Repair.

If you are unable to access Grub I would take a look at this question about restoring grub.


What is the Ubuntu "built in virus protection"?

"Built-in virus protection" is a simplification of the security features of Ubuntu.

Ubuntu requires applications to be run as super-user to cause any damage. It also includes AppArmor to supplement that.
There is also the safe and secure repository model which gives you access to thousands of applications through the Software Center which are tested by package maintainers.
Since it is free software more people have access to the source code and according to Linus's law: "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow", which means that

  Given a large enough beta-tester and co-developer base, almost every problem will be characterized quickly and the fix will be obvious to someone.

The security exploits are quickly patched up and delivered to you through the Update Manager.


apache2.service is not a native service (ubuntu 16.04)

This is not an error but an information that Ubuntu 16.04 still uses a SysV init style file to start Apache, and systemd just wraps that.

From /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install:

# This script is called by "systemctl enable/disable" when the given unit is a
# SysV init.d script. It needs to call the distribution's mechanism for
# enabling/disabling those, such as chkconfig, update-rc.d, or similar.


Every thing actually looks good but your bluetooth probably only works maybe every third boot.  This is what worked for me

echo "blacklist ath3k" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/ath3k.conf

Then we edit a file to load ath3k later in the boot cycle
gksudo gedit /etc/rc.local and above the line that says exit 0 put sleep 10 and on the line below that put modprobe ath3k save, exit gedit and reboot.

The last 3 lines of the /etc/rc.local file should be

sleep 10

modprobe ath3k

exit 0

That should help with the firmware error as there is a timing issue with xhci_hcd that prevents ath3k from loading the firmware every time

NOTE: Issue is resolved with kernel 3.16.0-32 or newer from Ubuntu without the above changes per comment 12 at bug report and also fixed now in 3.13.0-47 per update log see * Bluetooth: ath3k: workaround the compatibility issue with xHCI
    controller
    - LP: #1400215


Share installed libraries between Debian and Ubuntu

Or is there a better way to do it?

Install all software you use as snaps.
Install all software you use in a partition named /opt/. That is likely to be a source installation (tar.gz).

Those 2 methods of installations can be shared amongst distributions. The last one you will need to add something to PATH or copy a service into the main system.

You can not share /usr/ or /var/ between 2 different installations. You can share /usr/local/ though. 2 distributions can have different versions of libraries, so you may need to install a few libraries on either of those systems. But those few kb you save is not worth the time you are going to spent on this. Plus you are likely to then still break either system.


If you immediately stopped writing to that partition, the file could be recoverable, I have just tested it, though on a small .ogv file (3 MiB).

The trick is to use PhotoRec and in the File Opt there tick .ogg. The .ogg and .ogv files have very similar layouts, so PhotoRec might be able to recover your file (as it did for me).

You of course have to launch the programme from a LiveCD or other partition, otherwise you may overwrite your original file.

Good luck.


Skype problems, "Wrong architecture 'i386' " what is wrong?

Short: You won't be able to run Skype on that machine.

Reason: Your Chromebooks' processor uses the ARM architecture, and I guess you're trying to install Skype for Intel architectures (x86).

Problem: IIRC Microsoft does not build Skype for ARM (except for Android, but that's another story).


The one in your HOME directory should be most authoritative (should be in ~/.config/fontconfig/conf.d/10-symbols.conf).

PragmataPro should be replaced with one font you like that is available/installed on your machine (use fc-list to see the complete list).

The 10-symbols.conf should have some documentation in it, if something is not clear then please open an issue here so that we can improve it.


Exiting from search menu Ubuntu 20.04 via super key not working

Had exactly the same issue. The problem is fixed once I updated the dash-to-panel extension.

GNOME Shell 3.36.4
Dash-to-panel 38


How can i use a Hardware 2FA token within a SNAP app?

Assuming it's a U2F USB device, the snap needs to declare support for the u2f-devices interface. Then you can manually connect it.


Are you trying to dual boot both distros?

Having tinkered with both Debian (Wheezy - 6) and Ubuntu on an old Mac Powerbook G4, I actually would suggest sticking with Debian. If you do wish to try to install Ubuntu, you will need to download the 32 bit ppc disc. Yaboot is used as the bootloader on older ("new world") Macs. It will be installed automatically installed if you try to install the Ubuntu distro.


Reinstalling Ubuntu without the original equipment manufacturer installation

I don't recommend grafting parts of a new Ubuntu installation on top of parts of your existing Ubuntu installation to create a custom installation in this situation. Whatever additional drivers were included in the OEM installation can be installed after you have reinstalled Ubuntu, and that way you can be sure that the drivers will be compatible with your new installation of Ubuntu.

You don't need a custom installation to reinstall Ubuntu. The Ubuntu installer has an option to Erase disk and install Ubuntu that you can simply click instead of doing a more complicated custom installation.

Backup your personal files from your existing Ubuntu installation.
Create an Ubuntu live DVD or USB to use as installation media.

How to burn an ISO image into a DVD on Ubuntu?
What is the proper way of creating USB installation media from Ubuntu iso?

Boot from the Ubuntu live DVD or USB, start the Ubuntu installer, and in the Installation type screen select Erase disk and install Ubuntu.

When the installation is complete, remove the installation media, boot into Ubuntu and search in the Dash for Additional Drivers. Click the Additional Drivers icon to open the Additional Drivers window. Check if there are any additional drivers that are compatible with your computer's hardware and are available to be installed.


There a quicker way between Ubuntu and my android to send files instead of Bluetooth or cable

Try KDE Connect it's installable from Ubuntu software store or command-line apt (and of course the KDE Connect app from Android store).
I just use it for ocassional file transfers but it has loads of other features if you want/need them.


According to your descriptions both clients are connected locally to the same storage, one using the internal harddisk and the other an attaches USB drive. Only one client is active at a time (never both at the same time), so simultaneous write-access should not happen.
I cannot give any guarantees for the following, since I've never tried (and also will not try, at least in the nearer future), but using symbolic links, the following should be possible -- provided the userIDs (of the user on both machines) match.
Assumptions:
Let's call the machine with the "internal disk" local, and the one primarily using the USB disk external. On both machines, your user is willie. On local, your home directory such should be /home/willie, and let's assume the USB drive is mounted at /mnt/usbdrive with willie's external account such being at /mnt/usbdrive/home/willie when looking from local.
Setting it up:

make sure userIDs match: when logged in as "willie", on each machine at a shell prompt enter the command id. Output should start with uid=1000(willie) gid=1000(willie). Make sure uid on local matches uid on external, same for the gid. Otherwise you will certainly run into a permissions problem.
just in case: make a backup on local (on external, it cannot hurt either). You might want to run an export from Evolution, but at least do a cp -R ~/.local/share/evolution/mail/local ~/backup/mail_local while Evolution is shut down (of course, you might want to use a different target).
now remove the local mail on local: rm -rf ~/.local/share/evolution/mail/local
and create a symlink from the USB disk: ln -s /mnt/usbdrive/home/willie/.local/share/evolution/mail/local ~/.local/share/evolution/mail/local

Conclusion:
That should be it. For willie@external, nothing has changed -- so everything should still work as before. For willie@local things might be a little different: local mail now comes from the USB disk (if Evolution accepted the symlink). Provided local mail doesn't use any "external configuration" in ~/.config/evolution/mail, it should work. Hopefully, it uses only the symlinked directory (it certainly does for folder organization, as it saves its folder.db here).
Good luck, and please report back! Though I do not intend to have use for this kind of solution in the near future, others might :)


18.04: USB optical drive not recognized on Gigabyte Z390

There are 17 different Gigabyte AORUS Z390 motherboards; you did not mention which you have.

They have one thing in common: The USB-C port requires a special driver to work. They do not provide a Linux driver, only a Windows driver as shown for the AORUS Z390 Pro.

You will need to use one of their USB 3.0 ports instead for that external optical drive.

Selecting hardware before purchase where all features are supported by Ubuntu prevents a lot of heartburn.


Budgie Question: is there a way to display the date with the time?

You need to do a bit of terminal work for this.  Don't worry - its not complicated.

Open your terminal and copy - paste the following:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface clock-show-date true

This will display the date in the format of your region-locale.

To hide the date:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface clock-show-date false


Problems using ibus input method for Pinyin Chinese

Is it similar to Why my ibus input can't type 'que' or 'qve' in Chinese? ?　It solved my problem (deactivating the low frequent character in the dictionary).


Close 'Show Applications' screen via click

There is a GNOME shell extension which does the job to some extent: Hide Overview When Click Overview.

  A Click on an empty space in the overview hide the overview. If you clicked at workspacesPage it minimizes all windows on the current workspace and show desktop. Other pages just hide overview.

But I prefer pressing Super to close the 'Show Applications' screen quickly.


What are the submodule and checkout commands of git for?

I found the solution by myself :)

git submodule (update and init)

  Submodules allow foreign repositories to be embedded within a
  dedicated subdirectory of the source tree, always pointed at a
  particular commit.

  They are not to be confused with remotes, which are meant mainly for
  branches of the same project; submodules are meant for different
  projects you would like to make part of your source tree, while the
  history of the two projects still stays completely independent and you
  cannot modify the contents of the submodule from within the main
  project

git checkout

  Updates files in the working tree to match the version in the index or
  the specified tree. If no paths are given, git checkout will also
  update HEAD to set the specified branch as the current branch.


cryptsetup ubuntu 20.04 no longer asks for my password

I'm experiencing the same problem. This seems to be a bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1894860.
My solution at the moment is when booting.

open the grub menu.
Select Advanced options for Ubuntu.
Select Ubuntu, with Linux 5.4.0-42


Install hang on rebooting (SCSI-disk problem)

Anonymous edit (probably from the OP):

  Problem solved. The installationprocess seems to also install to
  external hd's, and that is what happened. Made two partitions manually
  on one of my internal hd's, and used the pointed the installation to
  those. BUT; I managed to place the bootloader on the same disk, so
  that when I now want to boot into Ubuntu, I have to manually chose
  that hd from the boot-menu in bios... Starting a new topic on that.


Where do my autocompletion colors come from?

According to this, add the following in your .zshrc file:

zstyle ':completion:*' list-colors "${(@s.:.)LS_COLORS}"
autoload -Uz compinit
compinit

About the ls colors, I'm quoting this answer from Unix & Linux:

  ls takes its color settings from the environment variable LS_COLORS. dircolors is merely a convenient way to generate this environment variable. To have this environment variable take effect system-wide, put it in your shell's startup file.

You can read more about dircolors here.


How do I set-constraints on a controller?

You will apply the constraint to a "model" instead of to the old concept of an "environment".

juju set-model-constraints -m [<controllername>:]<model name> tags=controller


Using this command you unloaded the iwlwifi module and then reloaded it with a particular parameter. In this case the module is your wireless card's driver and guessing by the parameter's name you just disabled 802.11n support in the driver. Now try unloading it again and then reloading it without the option :

  sudo modprobe -r iwlwifi && sudo modprobe iwlwifi


How to know whether a package is available for Ubuntu touch?

Given that the currently supported Ubuntu Touch devices are (so far) ARM based systems I'd use the following page to perform such query:

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/trusty/armhf


Your keyboard should work as a keyboard without any additional work. Some of the advanced features, might not work. You will not be able to run the configuration software in linux.
Some built-in functions will still work. The brightness button will work, and you can record on-the-fly macros using the Macro Record (MR) key.

Source


How to export/save Evolution contacts as separate .vcf files?

This can be easily achieved using syncevolution.

Step1:

Install latest version of syncevolution from repo:

sudo add-apt-repository deb http://downloads.syncevolution.org/apt stable main
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install syncevolution-evolution

syncevolution has a --print-items command which shows each contact name & id for a perticular database (evolution contact list; default is Personal)

Step2:

To view all databases(evolution-conatct-list local or online) run this command in terminal:

syncevolution --print-databases

Copy the database name.

Step3:

Now Run following command at teminal-prompt with the database name:

syncevolution --print-items backend=evolution-contacts database=Personal

You can replace Personal with any other contact-list in evolution.

The output would be something like this:

pas-id-5006660000000D81: Tony Stark
pas-id-5017A30900000670: Hockeye
pas-id-51717EFD00000096: Hulk
pas-id-5194ABA900000000: Syncevolution

Step4:

Now export each contact as separate vcf file (pas-id would be names of the files).For Tony stark it would be:

syncevolution --export Tony-Stark.vcf backend=evolution-contacts database=Personal --luids pas-id-5006660000000D81

To export all contacts at the same time run without luids parameter:

syncevolution --export ~/Desktop/allcontacts/ backend=evolution-contacts database=Personal

It will export all contacts in ~/Desktop/allcontacts directory.

I have craete a simple script which exoprt all contacts as file with their names(as firstnames-lastname.vcf).

#!/bin/bash

mkdir ~/Desktop/allcontacts/
cd ~/Desktop/allcontacts/

syncevolution --print-items backend=evolution-contacts database=Personal >database
cat database | while read line
do
 passid=`echo $line | awk -F: '{print $1}'`
 name=`echo $line | awk -F\  '{print $2"-"$NF}'`
 syncevolution --export allcontacts/"$name".vcf backend=evolution-contacts database=Personal --luids "$passid"
done

Save the script in gedit as vcf-export.
Then run:

chmod a+x vcf-export
./vcf-export


The easy answer is "apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool", but that has the downside of pulling in gnome-shell and lots of associated packages.

You can do it on the command line using gsettings. For example:

$ gsettings get org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings hinting
'slight'
$ gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings hinting full
$ gsettings get org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings hinting
'full'

Valid values appear to be "none", "slight", "medium", "full".

You can also configure the antialiasing settings in a similar way.

$ gsettings get org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings antialiasing
'rgba'
$ gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings antialiasing none
$ gsettings get org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings antialiasing
'none'
$ gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings antialiasing grayscale
$ gsettings get org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings antialiasing
'grayscale'


Is it possible to save and load a display configuration?

Install arandr

sudo apt install arandr

It is a graphical application where you can set all your screens in the way you want, apply the settings and afterwards you can save the settings (File -> Save As).

The best thing is that the settings are in fact saved as shell scripts with the  needed xrandr command that applies your configuration. Since they are plain text files you can open them in the favorite text editor to learn the syntax for xrandr or to modify them to your liking. In the end you can assign keyboard shortcuts to these shell scripts (either via arandr or via the general keyboard configuration tool), or you can add them to the menus for easy access.

For example, I have a script initially made with arandr that extends the screen to the right and later modified it manually to also change Broadcast-RGB to Full for some of the monitors I use where the Auto setting does not work properly.

The arandr script looks like this, so as you see it is a single xrandr command, so once you learn how to do it arandr will no longer be needed.

#!/bin/sh
xrandr --output DP-1 --off --output HDMI-1 --set "Broadcast RGB" "Full" --mode 1920x1080 --pos 1920x0 --rotate normal --output eDP-1 --primary --mode 1920x1080 --pos 0x0 --rotate normal --output HDMI-2 --off --output HDMI-1


How to install Kubuntu 18.04 on an external hard disk?

For new installs Ubuntu 18.04 defaults to using a swap file instead of the swap partition used in previous releases. There is no need to create partitions in advance. Select an option in the Installation type screen of the Ubiquity installer, and the Ubiquity installer will guide you through the rest. The Guided options are suitable for installing Ubuntu on an internal hard drive.

The Manual option is suitable for installing Ubuntu on an external hard drive. By choosing the Manual option in the Installation type screen, you can create or resize partitions for yourself, or choose multiple partitions for Kubuntu by following the instructions in the accepted answer to: How to install Ubuntu on a portable external hard drive?. There is no need to create partitions on the external hard in advance, unless you want to use part of the space on the external hard drive as a separate partition for storing data, etc. in which case you need to create unallocated space for installing Kubuntu alongside the partition that will be used for storing data, etc.

Kubuntu (auto) under After partitioning indicates that Kubuntu partitioning will be done automatically.


How do I use virtualbox for Windows 7 installer?

Instead of using windows for testing your site you can use netrenderer to test your site in different ie versions (inc ie8)or you can install Playonlinux By clicking here and then run it from Applications(menu) -> Playonlinux(menu) -> Playonlinux(app) then click install

Then Select Internet and then ie6 or ie7 and follow the on-screen instructions.


Problems dualbooting Ubuntu because of UEFI

It sounds like Windows was installed in EFI mode. (Evidence: You refer to a "BIOS reserved area," by which I believe you mean a BIOS Boot Partition, which is valid only on GPT disks. Since Windows will boot from a GPT disk only in EFI mode, Windows must be installed in EFI mode. This analysis could be incorrect if I'm misinterpreting what you mean by a "BIOS reserved area," though.) A BIOS Boot Partition in Linux means that Linux is booting in BIOS/legacy mode. The two, as you've correctly inferred, are awkward to switch between on most systems.

There are several possible solutions. This list is not exhaustive:

Use your firmware's boot manager -- All modern systems offer a built-in boot manager, usually accessed by hitting F8, F10, F12, or some other key at boot time. It pops up and gives you boot options. On most UEFI systems, those options include both BIOS/legacy and UEFI boot options. Thus, you can select your OS by using this feature. Some UEFI implementations, though, provide such a poor built-in boot manager that this isn't a practical option, or it may not work at all.
Install a Linux EFI boot loader -- Ubuntu uses an EFI version of GRUB 2 for this, in the grub-efi package. Installation will be tricky, though; unless you're booted in EFI mode, installation will be incomplete, so you'll need to use an EFI-booted emergency system to do the installation. There are other EFI boot loaders available; see this page of mine for details. (IMHO, GRUB 2 is the worst of them, so alternatives are worth investigating.)
Use rEFInd -- The rEFInd program, which I maintain, is an EFI boot manager that can launch an EFI boot loader or (on many, but not all, UEFI systems) a BIOS-mode boot loader. You can install rEFInd from Windows and then try editing its refind.conf file to add hdbios to its scanfor line. If this works, you'll then get a rEFInd boot menu that shows Windows and a generic option. The generic option will boot your BIOS-mode GRUB. If you installed Ubuntu 12.10 or if you're comfortable compiling your own kernel, you can use rEFInd to boot Linux in EFI mode, too; rEFInd is one of those alternative EFI boot programs noted in the previous option. You'll almost certainly need to adjust the configuration a bit to boot Ubuntu in EFI mode from rEFInd, given your current setup. See rEFInd's documentation page on booting Linux for details.
Reinstall Ubuntu -- You can wipe your Ubuntu installation and re-install it in EFI mode. This is the easiest option to describe, and it may be the easiest to do; but you'll learn the least doing it. It's also not guaranteed to work; EFI-mode installation still has quirks and pitfalls, many of them system-specific.
Revert to BIOS -- You can wipe the hard disk of all data and re-install both OSes in BIOS mode. This is probably more effort than it's worth, and the Windows media you can create from files on your Windows installation may not even support it.


Thanks to DK Bose the problem is solve, and this is what I did..
To fix the slider magnet problem, I installed a tool called "Unity Tweak Tool"

  sudo apt-get install unity-tweak-tool

Launch the app, then choose "Scrolling" from the "System" section, then choose "Legacy" option instead of the "Overlay" option in the "Scrollbars" section.

The second problem was with the "Numix" theme I'm using, the solution was to navigate to "/usr/share/themes/Numix\ Daily/" folder and make a copy of the folder on desktop and do this command:

sudo chmod -R a+rwx ~/Desktop/Numix\ Daily/*

Go inside the folder and open a folder "gtk-3.0", in that folder there's a file "gtk.gresource" and two other important files "gtk.css" and "gtk-dark.css", first extract the actual CSS code from the .gresource file using this command:

touch tempgtk.css
touch tempgtkdark.css
sudo gresource extract gtk.gresource /org/numixproject/gtk/dist/gtk.css >> tempgtk.css
sudo gresource extract gtk.gresource /org/numixproject/gtk/dist/gtk-dark.css >> tempgtkdark.css

Now open these two files "tempgtk.css" and "tempgtkdark.css" and find this line

  GtkRange-trough-border

There's a value for this class, it has to be 0, if it's not 0 then set it to 0 and save.
Now open up "gtk.css" and comment/replace the content of the file with the content of "tempgtk.css", do the same for "gtk-dark.css".
Now copy those two files from the folder on your desktop, and put them back using this command:

sudo rm /usr/share/themes/Numix\ Daily/gtk-3.0/*.css
sudo cp ~/Desktop/Numix\ Daily/gtk-3.0/gtk* /usr/share/themes/Numix\ Daily/gtk-3.0/

Do a reboot or just change the theme to Ambiance and then change back to Numix and it'll work :)


Copy & Paste a file utility for terminal

This bash alias from WebUpD8 might be exactly what you are looking for?


Ubuntu 20.04 has problems to wake up from suspend when swap is turned off

Not for suspend, but for hibernate Linux uses the swap.
You need to have a swap space activated bigger than the actual RAM memory in use.
Suspend keeps the information in memory at the cost of a small part of battery, I've observed 0.5% to 1% of battery per hour suspended.
Hibernate swaps the memory to the swap space and completely powers off the computer, so it uses 0% of battery.
I believe your computer is attempting to hibernate instead of suspend, or after a while being suspended (this can be setup) it attempts to hibernate.


Installing and using universal-ctags instead of exuberant-ctags

It is simple, as in the universal-ctags docs:

git clone https://github.com/universal-ctags/ctags.git
cd ctags
./autogen.sh
./configure
make
sudo make install


Go to https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Samba and look at the install steps. It may be a link, if so follow it. Install Samba for your computer. If you already have Samba, troubleshoot it on the Troubleshoot link.


Steam doesn't start Wayland / AMDGPU / 18.04

Removing the bundled gcc libraries (and some others) seemed to work:

find ~/.steam/root/ \( -name "libgcc_s.so*" -o -name "libstdc++.so*" -o -name "libxcb.so*" -o -name "libgpg-error.so*" \) -print -delete

See here:
    https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/366298942096376703/


I installed Ubuntu 14 and accidently removed Windows 7

Well from the picture you provided there is no NTFS partition. So you may have accidentally deleted the Windows partition. If so, your best bet is it to try some kind of recovery software.

TestDisk is a great utility for recovering lost and damaged partitions.

sudo apt-get install testdisk


Has PCIe related issues with Threadripper resolved?

This isn't really specific to Ubuntu. However, all of those issues you heard of should be fixed in the Linux 4.15 kernel, which is used in Ubuntu 18.04.

Those fixes may not be back-ported to 16.04 yet, however in a few months with the 18.04.1 release, there should also be 16.04.5 which should include the 4.15 kernel, bringing those fixes back onto 16.04.


How to remove naganoadigei.com popup virus

Long time lurker first time poster.

@Elder Geek

Thanks for your response to to @Tarun Mahajan question, malicious or misconfired extensions can cause this behavior but in this case your this is URL/code injection from the ISP.

How do I know?

I am confident that @Tarun Mahajans ISP is BSNL/MTNL in India
Got the redirects while using a live CD
Tested the live CD at home, in the office, at a coffee shop all served by the same ISP
Was unable to replicate results using another ISP ( Airtel )

@Tarun Mahajan can you share your ISPs' name?

naganoadigei.com was registered explicitly to serve malware and redirect users to phishing sites

Updated Date: 2018-05-10
Created Date: 2018-05-10


How do I  configure Ubuntu for a public computer?

You might want to have a look at these two programs: pessulus and sabayon

Especially sabayon is interesting, though it is a bit confusing! It can recreate a predefined session for a user at every startup, this session can then be totally restricted with pessulus. Then you just need to setup auto-login (Through the menu System>Administration>Login Screen) and you're ready to go.


I commented out dns=dnsmasq from /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf and dns now works as it should.


Unmet dependencies when trying to install GIMP

Open the terminal and type:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install aptitude
sudo aptitude install python-minimal python2.7 python-tk python:any python-gtk2
sudo aptitude install -f gimp

Using aptitude instead of apt may offer some automatic solutions for removing conflicting packages.


Hardware clock is on UTC time

If your hardware clock is using UTC time, the system needs to know it! Change the UTC configuration of the clock in the /etc/default/rcS file to yes. The system will presume your clock is UTC and apply offset accordingly. Of course, your clock should also have the correct time. Once this is set, with hwclock --set --date="02/07/2015 10:21:00" (--date should be provided with the local time, even if the hardware clock use UTC) your system should use the correct time. Now you can use ntp daemon, for example to keep your clock on time.


Is the "Simulate clicking by hovering" Ubuntu feature present in some form in Kubuntu?

In KDE, you can use KMouseTool.   If it is not already installed, you  may install it:

sudo apt-get install kmousetool

From KDE documentation site:

  Using KMouseTool is simple: KMouseTool watches as you move the mouse, and when you pause briefly, it clicks.

  KMouseTool's Smart Drag mode allows you to drag the mouse.

  When Smart Drag is enabled, KMouseTool pauses after it clicks down; if you move the mouse, it waits until you stop moving before it clicks up. This way, you can both click and drag the mouse. Smart Drag takes a bit more practice, but becomes natural once you get used to it.


Ubuntu 18.04: Nvidia + Flatpak not working

Short answer: Use the command line interface to install applications, the software center doesn't work.

  It works to find and install flatpaks from the ubuntu software center

The version of gnome-software-plugin-flatpak provided by Ubuntu 18.04 doesn't work properly. For some reason it doesn't install extensions (like codecs, locales, themes or drivers) required by the application.

  Is there any way to make these work with Nvidia?

Yes, the extensions with the NVIDIA driver matching the version of your host driver must be installed. This should have been installed automatically, when you installed the application.

Bug Report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-software/+bug/1809945


Random shut down when laptop is unplugged Ubuntu 18.04

Try to change or disable power saving settings. Setttings -> Power Management.
There is bound to be some hardware component that is reacting not as it should.


Popular application Unetbootin executible file does nothing

Try to install unetbootin from the repository(Universe).Run the below command on terminal to install unetbootin,

sudo apt-get install unetbootin

Run the below command to enable universe repository,

sudo add-apt-repository universe

And don't forget to update the repositories before installing unetbootin.

sudo apt-get update


A start job is running for Hold until boot process finishes up (Xmin Xs/no limit) 19.04

I've got an older Thinkpad T520 and getting the same thing on 19.04.
If I hard restart and then turn off WiFi I can usually get to the sign on panel.


How do I use the Cherokee keyboard layout to type English characters?

I gave you a hint on the bug report, but probably there is an easier way, i.e. booting in recovery mode, getting a root prompt and remounting the system in read/write mode.

The details are explained in answers to this question. You don't actually need to reset the password, but rather edit /etc/default/keyboard. But besides that, the steps in the answers apply.


You should just be able to add the .iso as a drive, or, if VMWare doesn't have that option, write the ISO to a USB and allow booting from that within VMWare. I'm assuming you are calling the .iso file the "OS" file, you can't (easily that is) use Wubi to install within VMWare (unless you want to dual boot within a VM? That seems kind of pointless.)


How can i learn CCNA using Ubuntu instead Windows OSs

GNS3 is a graphical network simulator that allows simulation of
complex networks.
To provide complete and accurate simulations, GNS3 is strongly linked
with:

Dynamips, a Cisco IOS emulator.
Dynagen, a text-based front end for Dynamips.
Qemu, a generic and open source machine emulator and virtualizer.
VirtualBox, a free and powerful virtualization software.

GNS3 is an excellent complementary tool to real labs for network
engineers, administrators and people wanting to study for
certifications such as Cisco CCNA, CCNP, CCIP and CCIE as well as
Juniper JNCIA, JNCIS and JNCIE.1

To install just click on the image below:

1Source:GNS3


Actually I think this is a built-in feature.  It's a common thing to need to exclude directories from your search.  Here's how to configure it:

Open the system settings
     Select "Security & Privacy"
          Go to the tab named "Files & Applications"

You should see a box named "Exclude", use the "+" and "-" buttons to update this.  Anything NOT excluded will be used in the search.

Note that you will also need to "Clear Usage Data" from the "Files & Applications" dialog in order to remove previously browsed files and folders from the Dash Search. By default Dash Search will include your historical file usage even if you have explicitly excluded these files.


Unable to get a list of updates: remote lvfs has no cache signature

Update 22-Oct-2020: From the discussions below it seems like this warning pops up for a few people for fwupd versions from 1.3.x, so this issue may not be directly due to whether fwupd is installed via snap or apt. Instead, it may be due a combination of having a 1.3.x+ version of fwupd and using a specific device/vendor.

I believe I found the answer after a bit of trial and error. I seem to have both the snap and apt versions of fwupd installed. Removing the fwupd snap version seems to fix the warning message:
snap remove fwupd

However, I don't believe this warning is causing any problems as it seems to be due to misconfiguration on the firmware vendor side. At worst, this warning means that you won't get firmware updates automatically for the affected devices.
My snap fwupd version number (1.4.2) was newer than apt version number (1.2.10), so I decided to just keep the snap version and ignore the warning message.


For the error with signature:

sudo gpg --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 5A9A06AEF9CB8DB0
sudo gpg --armor --export 5A9A06AEF9CB8DB0 | sudo apt-key add -

Then,

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

and post output if errors do occurr.


it might be a bug in the "bcmwl-kernel-source"-package this helped me out!

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bcmwl/+bug/923809/comments/25


Whats going to happen to former files when installing Ubuntu Desktop?

That depends on what you do during install. If you format a partition the files are gone. On the other hand it is totally possible to format C: and not format D: where D: ends up as "/dev/sda2" partition you can mount.

  do I need to back up what is already on an external HDD?

No. For extra safety I would advice to unplug external media.  When you plug in external hdd's Ubuntu will recognize them and mount them accordingly. Even NTFS. In the rare occasion it does not you can still mount it manually.

A backup of personal files will be sufficient. I would advice to check upfront if you can restore the files.

If you jump into Ubuntu by removing Windows completely feel free but if you set up a dual boot you must shutdown your machine. Do not restart from hibernation or suspend since that will leave Windows in an unclean state (and Ubuntu will inform you about that but will refuse to mount is).


The way to install a file *.tar.gz is first decompress it with tar -zxvf file.tar.gz and then running the binary file or installing with, ./configure; make install.

Octave is in the Ubuntu universe and can be installed with synaptic or apt-get. The package name is "octave".


Copy game files from one installation of Steam to another

I used to do it that way but for some reason it's no longer a reliable method. The good news is Steam has a built in backup/restore feature that works a lot better. You can choose to backup directly to your USB stick.

Click the Steam menu and choose Backup and Restore Games.


Ok, solved it by adding Google DNS nameserver 8.8.8.8 to resolv.conf file located in /etc/. Not sure why I am encountering this DNS issue, I suspect the fault lies with my ISP, which is odd since the error is still isolated to this particular machine.


* * * * * digger /home/digger/webxass

is the correct syntax.


This is working fine in my Ubuntu 18.04.

try to use the command alsamixer.

amixer -D pulse sset Master 100%


Pairing Powerbeats Pro headphones with Ubuntu 19.10

Can you see your headphones when you turn on bluetooth on your laptop? If so, open a terminal and execute

    bluetoothctl

Then use scan on and devices to scan for and show device respectively.

Locate your headphones and then use pair followed by the address of your headphones to pair. After that you should be able to use the gui to connect to your headphones.

Also for reference you could look at: https://www.nielsvandermolen.com/bluetooth-headphones-ubuntu/


Ubuntu 20.4 crashes / freezes whenever there is yet another update

To disable automated downloads of upgradable packages, disable the apt-daily timer:
sudo systemctl disable apt-daily.timer

This will disable the timer so it will not be in effect on next reboot. If you want to stop it immediately, then run a similar command replacing disable by stop. enable will reinstate the timer.
To disable automated upgrades (i.e., installs), disable the apt-daily-upgrade timer:
sudo systemctl disable apt-daily-upgrade.timer

These systemd timers function in a similar way like cron used to do traditionally. They trigger an action, defined by the similarly named service at predefined moments.


curl .gz file and pipe it for decompression

A pipe (represented by the | symbol) sends the standard output of one process to the standard input of another. In your case, you appear to want to use a named file so a pipe is not appropriate - specifically, there is nothing to pipe (hence the gunzip error) because the remote contents are going to a local file. Instead, you'd need to extract the name of the file - for example, from its URL - something like (using bash's built in string manipulation capabilities)

curl -O "$URL" && gunzip -f "${URL##*/}"

If you want to use a pipe, then the way to do it would be something like

curl "$URL" | gunzip -c

(without the -O option) so that curl streams the remote contents to stdout from where it can be piped into gunzip, but then you would need to redirect the gunzip output to overwrite the target uncompressed file as appropriate.


Discord making Ubuntu stutter and internet drops (like in an interval)

From the comments...
Discord and Discord Canary
Discord Canary is alpha level software, which is bad enough, but as you note, it's bombing syslog. Alpha level software should only be run by developers who know how to deal with all of the expected errors. I'd remove Discord Canary and run the normal full release of Discord (if you have to run it at all).
In my opinion, Discord has a number of problems, and I consider it spyware. When you run it, it has code to determine what other applications that you're running... and who's business it that? Certainly not Discord or their developers. Also, if you're running the snap version, it requests permissions to do activity outside of its protective sandbox, which should never happen... and then it REALLY bombs /var/log/syslog and /var/log/auth.log.
I'd first immediately remove Discord Canary, then I'd install the normal "stable" Discord release... not the snap version, but a normal .deb release. See https://discord.com/new/download.
If the "stable" release still has a stuttering problem, try changing vm.swappiness back to 60 and see if that helps... sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=60 (for a temporary change only). If that improves things, to make it permanent...

Set vm.swappiness=60 (based on 16G RAM and 2G SWAP), this way...
sudo -H gedit /etc/sysctl.conf # edit this file
Search for an existing vm.swappiness= entry...
CTRL+f vm.swappiness

If found, edit it to say vm.swappiness=60

If not found, add vm.swappiness=60 at the end of the file

Save your edits and quit gedit
sudo sysctl -p

Update #1:
To update your /swapfile from 2G to 4G...
Note: Incorrect use of the dd command can cause data loss. Suggest copy/paste.
sudo swapoff -a           # turn off swap
sudo rm -i /swapfile      # remove old /swapfile

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1M count=4096

sudo chmod 600 /swapfile  # set proper file protections
sudo mkswap /swapfile     # init /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile     # turn on swap
free -h                   # confirm 16G RAM and 4G swap
reboot                    # reboot and verify operation

Add this line to /etc/fstab...
/swapfile    none    swap    sw      0   0

Update #2:
Updated the Nvidia driver to NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-450.57.run, and that seems to have fixed it.


New Ubuntu 17.10 Settings...Add Printer Failed

It had been a long time since I had set up the other printers, and couldn't remember if a SAMBA client was needed or not, so I did smbclient -L  and it failed with 'not installed'. So I sudo apt install smbclient and repreformed the add printer (along with the 3050 CUPS printer driver in the dropdown), and everything worked!

[not able to click answer checkmark for two days per info]


I recently installed pdfbeads on an Ubuntu 15.04 machine and struggled again with some error messages so just a quick update what is necessary for an installation from a fresh system. Some of those devices are not neccesarry maybe but at with this it should work:

$ sudo apt-get install python2.7 python2.7-dev python-virtualenv libusb-dev\
  libjpeg-dev libtiff-dev libqt4-core rubygems ruby-rmagick libmagickwand-dev\
  ruby-hpricot scantailor djvulibre-bin libffi-dev libjpeg8-dev
$ sudo apt-get install ruby-dev
$ sudo apt-get install imagemagick
$ sudo apt-get install graphicsmagick
$ sudo apt-get install libmagickcore-dev
$ sudo gem install rmagick
$ sudo gem install iconv
$ sudo gem install pdfbeads


To redirect both output and any errors to some_other_file:

php server.php 2>&1 some_other_file

The >& redirects a stream to another file descriptor (in BASH shell):

0 is stdin
1 is stdout
2 is stderr

Or, 2>&1 redirects 2 to 1. And then to watch that output in real time:

tail -f some_other_file

Starting at boot time: you could call the script from /etc/rc.local. Or, a more advanced solution might be to write a script in the /etc/init.d/ directory. See /etc/init.d/README for how to do that.

If you make the PHP file, server.php, executable, you can add a line to the top of the file (aka file magic/shebang/hashbang) to call it this way: server.php instead of php server.php. You could even remove the php extension if for some reason you want to do that. Like this:

#!/usr/bin/php
<?php
    // PHP code here

Upstart is probably the way to go to make sure the service stays running. This method does not involve /etc/rc*. Upstart has five packages, all installed by default:

Upstart init daemon and initctl utility
upstart-logd provides the logd daemon and job definition file for logd service
upstart-compat-sysv provides job definition files for the rc tasks and the reboot, runlevel, shutdown, and telinit tools that provide compatibility with SysVinit
startup-tasks provides job definition files for system startup tasks
system-services provides job definition files for tty services

The learning is very enjoyable and well worth it. Upstart has a website: http://upstart.ubuntu.com/

Other good posts: What's the difference between "Service" and "/etc/init.d/"?


From the main GNOME menu go to, System > Preferences > Appearance, and look under the Fonts tab. Or is that not what you mean?


All ports are closed until they are opened manually by the user? Is it true?

I googled and read some articles stating that all ports are closed
  until they are opened manually by the user. Is it correct?

Depends on what you see as "user". The user usually does not say, "hey please open port X". System services (such as CUPS for printing, UDP/TCP port 631) open a port for listening. Other examples include a HTTP server (TCP port 80), a DNS server (UDP port 53) and SMTP (mail) server (TCP port 25).

So far I have only mentioned ports, but a program must also specify an address to start listening on. It is important to understand that programs can listen locally (IPv4 address 127.0.0.1, IPv6 address ::1) or on an address such that the service becomes accessible by other devices on your nwtwork (using your network address, e.g. 10.0.1.4). There is also a "wildcard address" (0.0.0.0 for IPv4, :: for IPv6) which is also accessible remotely.

Ports are indeed "closed" until a programs starts listening on it.

The sudo netstat -tulpn command can be used to show listening TCP/UDP programs. On a default Ubuntu desktop installation, this shows:

Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State       PID/Program name
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:53            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      2254/dnsmasq
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:631           0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      1346/cupsd
tcp6       0      0 ::1:631                 :::*                    LISTEN      1346/cupsd
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:59296           0.0.0.0:*                           1152/avahi-daemon:
udp        0      0 127.0.0.1:53            0.0.0.0:*                           2254/dnsmasq
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:68              0.0.0.0:*                           1684/dhclient
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:5353            0.0.0.0:*                           1152/avahi-daemon:
udp6       0      0 :::5353                 :::*                                1152/avahi-daemon:
udp6       0      0 :::53537                :::*                                1152/avahi-daemon:

Here, you can see that avahi-daemon is accessible over the network on UDP ports 59296, 5353 and 53537. The latter two are standard for avahi-daemon, the first is a random address that is probably communicated using the other two ports. This daemon is used for "network discovery" and allows you to do things like "file sharing". There is also a DHCP client listening globally on port UDP 68.

Some services only listen locally and are not accessible over the network. These are the DNS cache service dnsmasq (UDP port 53) and the printer service CUPS (TCP 631).

  And what do you mean by "listening on a port" and "a port is established" in simple terms?

There is no notion of an "established port", only an "established connection". A port that is open for listening is backed up by a program which is interested in data flowing in that port. These ports are typically static, HTTP runs on TCP port 80, DNS on UDP port 53. These standards allow other network devices to find your service quickly.

A TCP connection is established when both network devices agree that they want to talk to each other.


Can't load Windows without plugging in the external drive

It sounds like grub is installed on the internal drive and needs it's files on the external drive to work. You need to do two things, first install grub to the master boot record of the external drive - so that when you boot that drive you can choose to load ubuntu or windows. Second you need to boot the windows disc and repair the master boot record for the internal drive so that it automatically boots windows when the external drive is disconnected.

The first part I can help you with :

Boot your Ubuntu system, open a terminal, then use the following commands to install grub to the external drive :

sudo grub-install /dev/sdX
sudo update-grub

Replacing sdX with the actual drive, which will probably be sdb, but use disk utility to double check if you are unsure.

Then you need to repair the master boot record of the internal drive to load windows automatically, boot your windows disc and it should be straight forward, but somebody else or google will help with that.

:o)


I had a similar problem on 12.04, and this is what i did:

sudo apt-get install mono-complete

and then

mono /path/to/file.exe

that's it!


Unable to update Ubuntu 12.04: Authentication required

Try:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

in the terminal
Let me know if that gives you any errors or if it works?


This sounds very similar to this question; unfortunately I have not found an answer, but it may be worth checking out; I'd hate to have you go through the same diagnostic steps only to find out the same result.


I resolved the problem like this:
First, I edited this file: /etc/network/interfaces with my valid data (I do not want to show them here)
Second, I edited this file: /etc/resolv.conf where I added my servername and its address.
Third, I edited this file: /etc/hosts where I added my IP address and my machine's name.
Finally, I run this command: sudo service network - interface start / stop / restart INTERFACE = eth0


"Media change: please insert the disk..." when I run "sudo apt-get install make" on Ubuntu on VirtualBox

You should check your /etc/apt/sources.list – maybe the disk is still listed as a repository there.


A git-gui dying because of "bad pad value"

I found the answer: The reason was bogus DPI, using

xrandr --dpi 96

fixed it.


How to transfer music from zip archive to Banshee

It stops playing because the songs are in a temporary folder when you open the zip in Banshee, once the zip is closed the temp folder is gone and the songs no longer "exist".


Is it safer to install two OSes on different hard drives or just different partitions?

In general, they should leave each other alone. If you do the install correctly (Windows first, then Linux, as a rule, because Linux is more 'considerate'). As far as I am aware, there is no additional risk involved in sharing a drive.

Having said that, here are some gotchas to watch out for.

Windows will not be able to see the contents of your Linux drive or partition, unless you install additional software. ext4fsd works for me.
Shared storage partitions. If there is a partition which both OSes can see natively, meaning FAT32 or NTFS, then there can be issues with data loss. If Windows goes into hibernation, and another OS makes changes to the shared partition, Windows will tend to undo the changes when it is resumed. I recommend either external storage, or disabling hibernation on Windows, or both.
UEFI. This is new with Windows 8. There are two types of firmware interface, BIOS (older) and UEFI (newer). Both operating systems need to be installed using the same one. You can find a much more in-depth explanation here.


How to find exact program name of installed program using terminal?

results from query contain "earth"

apt-cache policy *earth*

results from query start with "earth"f

apt-cache policy earth*

results from query end with "earth"

apt-cache policy *earth

you can generate a list of program names this way:

apt search earth

you cannot use an asterisk before the string:

apt search *earth   //This will not work.

you can use an asterisk afterward, but it appears to be redundant:

apt search earth*   //generates the same results as "apt search earth"

apt search will return packages that are both installed and not installed

apt-cache policy will return all of the same, but will tell you whether or not it is installed.

Huge shout out to @Terrance


Possible side effects of changing shell from zsh to bash

Answer from the Stack Overflow (switching from zsh to bash):

  You can just use exec to replace your current shell with a new shell:

  Switch to bash:

exec bash

  Switch to zsh:

exec zsh

  This won't affect new terminal windows or anything, but it's
  convenient.


How do I write to the screen outside normal window boundaries?

Gromit

Gromit allows you to make annotations to your screen:
Homepage

Install with sudo apt-get install gromit


Error in booting through USB having full install (not live USB)

You have plenty of room on the 16G stick for Ubuntu desktop.  The server version doesn't even come with X, let alone a desktop, so think about what you want.  grub probably got confused about the devices, and wrote the /etc/grub/grub.cfg file with wrong devices -- typically they are one device too high, e.g. sdb instead of sda, hd2 instead of hd1 etc.  but maybe hd0 is right for your case, and hd1 is being used.  You can edit the grub.cfg file from the live session, or if you get to a grub prompt, use the tab completion feature to track down what disk is used (the UUIDs where used are OK).  For example, at the grub prompt, type
ls (hd    then TAB to see what disks are available (assume hd0 and hd1). Choose 0 so you get ls (hd0)/ TAB   and use tab again to see what's on the root of the disk.  If you see ubuntu directories, hd0 is your device (or sda if that's used anywhere).  If you see Windows files, use the other disk.  Eventually you should be able to find the right path to the grub.cfg file, and pull it in with the "configfile (hd0)/boot/grub/grub.cfg.
Now you should have a grub menu, and instructions on screen to edit (type e, fix the disk references, then thpe ctrl-X or F10 to boot.  After the first successful boot, run

sudo update_grub

to fix the disks.
  After getting boot to work, you can work on improving the performance, basically moving things into memory.  C.S.Cameron has some forum posts and questions on this topic.  Or just use the guest account, which is in ram.


Adding x-scheme-handler without a popup in firefox

You should consider adding a RDF schema in your ~/.mozilla/firefox/PROFILE/mimeTypes.rdf file, such as:

<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:scheme:foo"
               NC:value="foo">
               <NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:scheme:handler:foo"/>
</RDF:Description>

Or, if this doesn't work:

<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:handler:foo"
   NC:alwaysAsk="false"
   NC:useSystemDefault="true"
   NC:saveToDisk="false">
   <NC:externalApplication RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:foo"/>
</RDF:Description>


Does Ubuntu update its root certificate authority list automatically?

Root CA certificates live in the package ca-certificates. It is very rarely updated. Updating this package does not require a reboot. Note that Firefox uses its own certificate store.


Audio card shows up in lspci but not in aplay, 18.04

The bug referred to in the alsa-base.conf file is about 12 years old and, obviously, is now ineffective. Documentation on snd_cmipci is very hard to find and is also, typically, old.

As an experiment, I suggest that you remove the offending line:

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

Change this line:

options snd-cmipci mpu_port=0x330 fm_port=0x388

To comment it out; that is, make it ineffective, like this:

#options snd-cmipci mpu_port=0x330 fm_port=0x388

Save (Ctrl+o followed by Enter) and exit (Ctrl+x) the text editor. Reboot.

Any improvement?


Automount ext4 partition with user permission/ownership (fstab?)

There are no uid options for ext[234].  If you want to change the permissions of the files, you have to use chown/chmod.

sudo chown -R myname.myname /media/data/


Cannot find /dev/sdX in grub, thus cannot exit

You are not loadin the initrd.

First check wich partition has the OS installed, the X a number of course thst also resembles the device /dev/sdaX.

With

ls (hd0,gptX)/

find the one with the linux folder's structure

bin
boot
dev
etc
home
initrd.img <== this file
initrd.img.old
lib
lib32
lib64
libx32
lost+found
media
mnt
opt
proc
root
run
sbin
srv
sys
tmp
usr
var
vmlinuz
vmlinuz.old

As you can see there's a file called initrd.img.

So the command would be:

set root=(hd0,gptX)
linux /vmlinuz root=/dev/sdX
initrd /initrd.img
boot


How can I make sure one Upstart service starts before other non-Upstart (System V) service?

This appears to be "mission impossible".

A workaround is - stop the auto start of the other (System V) service and then start/stop it from your own Upstart service (in pre-start and post-stop)


laptop monitor screen having edges around it

If you use Unity, search for 'Monitors', and if Gnome2, System->Preferences->Monitors, and try to reset the resolution of your display. The highest available resolution is usually the right one.


How to synchronize hidden (dot) files in owncloud/nextcloud

There is an option to allow hidden files in ownCloud client. Simply edit the configuration file: ~/.local/share/data/ownCloud and set:

0\Folders\ownCloud\ignoreHiddenFiles=false

There is also a common list of files to exclude: /etc/owncloud-client/sync-exclude.lst; which includes temporary files, htaccess, locks, etc.

These can also be set from the GUI: General > Edit Ignored Files


gThumb Browser and Viewer should have black background, how to do?

Paolo Bacchilega from gThumb Mailing list helped me on this:

open

dconf-editor

browse to org -> gnome -> gthumb -> image-viewer and check the black-background option.


Install latest libboost and libraries in Ubuntu 18.04?

Unzip the source:

./bootstrap.sh --prefix=/usr && ./b2 stage threading=multi link=shared

Now, as the root user:

./b2 install threading=multi link=shared && ln -svf detail/sha1.hpp /usr/include/boost/uuid/sha1.hpp

Instructions can be found from here.


Create .Xresources in home and add the line.

  Xft.dpi: [DPI value]

$ xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources

for 4k display 230 dpi works fine


LaTeX Error: File `kpfonts.sty' not found

According to Ubuntu Packges this file is in a package called texlive-fonts-extra.
To  install this package use the command:

sudo apt-get install texlive-fonts-extra


If you have "ASSIST" key on your laptop you need to use that button to power your laptop instead of POWER button. Power off your laptop then click assist button for 1-2 seconds. Your laptop will power on and bring a list of UEFI options for you. Select boot from usb/optical drive to boot the Ubuntu media with UEFI support.


This worked for me with a similar problem (might not work if you don't have a Synaptic touchpad).

Open terminal (Press CtrlAltT)
Type synclient TouchpadOff=0 and press enter. This should reactivate the Touchpad.

If you just need to turn off your computer without a mouse, just open terminal (CtrlAltT) and type:

sudo poweroff

For a restart type:

sudo reboot


Nautilus window opens after device usb connection

GUI
Bring up a terminal window, then install dconf-editor package.
sudo apt-get install dconf-editor && dconf-editor

Navigate to org > gnome > desktop > media-handling, uncheck automount-open option on the key list.

Command line
No need to install anything, simply run following command.
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.media-handling automount-open false


Privacy issue when waking up suspended machine

This seems to be present in a lot of distros. This is a workaround I'm using for Cinnamon on Debian, but it should be possible to do something similar with other distro/window manager combinations:

Use dconf-editor to change the button-suspend action at org>cinnamon>settings-daemon>plugins>power to 'nothing' (you could also amend lid-close-ac-action and lid-close-bettery-action as well if you're using a laptop).
Save the following script to a convenient location:

#!/bin/bash
cinnamon-screensaver-command -l
systemctl suspend

Use the System Settings app to create a custom keybinding for the sleep key that points to the script.

After this it behaves as it should. You can see the lock screen pop up briefly before it goes to sleep, which is reassuring.


Expanding environment variables in Nautilus

I did not found a way to pass the Environment variables to Nautilus.

  Here is the answer "How to update  a bookmark dynamically?"

In Ubuntu 12.04 Nautilus stores bookmarks in ~/.gtk-bookmarks in the following format

file:///home/username/Documents
....
file:///path/to/0214/260214

You can use a small bash function to change the last line to

file:///path/to/0214/270214

It will change the bookmark dynamically. Here is the script

updt_sand_box(){
if [ -d /path/to/"$(date +%m%y)"/"$(date +%d%m%y)" ]; then
    sed -i "s#$(date --date yesterday "+%d%m%y")#$(date +%d%m%y)#" ~/.gtk-bookmarks
else
    zenity --info --text="/path/to/$(date +%m%y)/$(date +%d%m%y) does not exist"
fi
}

Put the above function in ~/.bashrc and source it,

. ~/.bashrc

To updte the sandbox bookmark enter in your terminal

updt_sand_box

You can use the above script in various way. You can create a cronjob (use proper DISPLY variable) or put it in ~/.bashrc or anywhere so that it can be run.

Most probably Newer Ubuntu stores bookmarks in ~/.config/gtk-3.0/bookmarks, you need to modify the script accordingly.

Replace ~/.gtk-bookmarks with ~/.config/gtk-3.0/bookmarks in the above script.


Why does Ubuntu freeze during reboot (14.04 LTS)?

Alright, so after a bit of fiddling around, I think I've found a solution. The problem, from my understanding, is that the kernel might not know what to do when it is asked to reboot on certain hardware. We can fix this.

Right, so first, get yourself grub customizer. Once you have it, open it, go to general settings, and under kernel parameters there is a line that should say quiet splash.

Now, once you have found that line, you have to edit it so it says quiet splash reboot=pci. After you have done that, you have to go to the terminal and update the grub file by writing sudo update-grub. Once that is done, shut down your pc and start it up again.

And you're done! Note that the reboot process is a little slow.

But wait, what if it doesn't work? Never fear. You might have to change the "=pci" to something else. Below is a list of commands you can try. However, from my understanding, 90% of all the issues can be fixed with either "=pci", "=bios", or "=acpi".

warm =  Don’t set the cold reboot flag

cold = Set the cold reboot flag

bios = Reboot by jumping through the BIOS (only for X86_32)

smp = Reboot by executing reset on BSP or other CPU (only for X86_32)

triple = Force a triple fault (init)

kbd = Use the keyboard controller. cold reset (default)

acpi = Use the RESET_REG in the FADT

efi = Use efi reset_system runtime service

pci = Use the so-called “PCI reset register”, CF9

force = Avoid anything that could hang.

List was copied from this site

Hopefully that can help someone.


QML app with C++ plugin (cmake) subdirectory

You just need to learn the CMake language. It is the language of the CMakeListes.txt files that are all over the project.

This language specifies how to build the project. And this language is independent from the QtCreator IDE that we are using. So, you can do builds without QtCreator and create CMakeListes.txt manually where you wish.

Back to the problem:

You can use 'add_subdirectory' and write CMakeListes.txt for each subdirectory and append file names to QML_JS_FILES variable in each CMakeListes.txt.

But you can also do as the guys who develop core application do: for example in ubuntu-terminal-app (source code is on https://launchpad.net), they use a recursive include in app/CMakeListes.txt:

file(GLOB_RECURSE QML_JS_FILES *.qml *.js)

instead of non-recursive:

file(GLOB QML_JS_FILES *.qml *.js)

update:
Yes, generally, GLOBs are not recommended, but they are already in the project templates to simulate some kind of 'automatic' behavior.


If you want use Chinese input on ubuntu:

In Language Support > Install/RemoveLanguages add Chinese
Install ibus framework

sudo apt-get install ibus ibus-clutter ibus-gtk ibus-gtk3 ibus-qt4

Start ibus framework

sudo im-config -s ibus

Install ibus-pinyin

sudo apt-get install ibus-pinyin

Configure

Settings > Region & Language > Input Source

Click + and click Chinese and click Chinese(pinyin)
Restart, Done!


how do I replace and update intel i910 chipset driver in ubuntu-9.04

A ppa with the newest drivers can be found here.

Add it with sudo apt-add-repository ppa:glasen/intel-driver and after that do sudo apt-get update and a sudo apt-get upgrade install the xserver-xorg-video-intel using the command sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel.

Those are the most recent Intel drivers, it should work in 9.04 the same way it works on 10.04.


What is the power consumption difference between GUI and Shell?

Short answer: NO, simply switching to virtual terminal (VT) won't save you power.

Long answer: It depends.

The power consumption of your PC depends on some factors:

What power management techniques does your hardware possess?
What power management techniques does your OS/kernel possess? Can it use and use correctly the possibilities present in your hardware?
How much time are the hardwares (CPU, HDD, wifi, etc.) are in use on your system: If the load is small, then the OS/hardware can use their power saving techniques to reduce power consumption.

It is clear that switching to CLI will change nothing in regards to the first two points. Okay, that is in theory not 100% true, because if the kernel switches the graphics driver (from proprietary to FOSS) when you switch to VT, then the power saving techniques available to the kernel can be different. But this case is largely theoretical, because the open-source drivers have worse power management capabilities than the proprietary ones, and if you are using proprietary drivers you are advised by the manufacturer to turn off driver switching because the proprietary drivers don't handle that well.

So all is decided in the third point. If the load is smaller on your PC when you use the VT than when you use the GUI, then you are saving power (if the OS/hardware support it). But this is only because of YOU using less demanding programs, less features, not because of the switch to VT. You can put a high load on your computer even in VT, you can stress all your hardware there also (even the VGA can be stressed there too with some computation). And on the opposite, you can put minimal load on your PC in a GUI session also.

So to sum up, it is all decided on the programs you use on your PC, and how you use them, not on the switching to VT.


You can find a deb version of Loiq (the same program, in qt) here.

There's no 64-bit version, but you can install the 32-bit in any system, even ubuntu 64. Just download the package and:

sudo dpkg -i loiq*.deb


Lost window borders in Firefox while loading a local html file

Open a terminal and install compizconfig-settings-manager

 sudo apt-get install  compizconfig-settings-manager

Then open it by going to Menu → System tools → Preferences in Gnome-classic.
Click on the Preference button on the left side (bottom)
In the Profile section, there is a button named Reset to defaults. Click on that button. Wait.... and then Logout from the session
Login again to see the result

Note: If the resetting get frozen, Try to Logout from the session forcefully, by using Ctrl-Alt-Del keyboard shortcut.


Software Updater turns inactive (grey in color) while configuring grub-pc

I can't confirm that it is safe to kill the job, but if it stays frozen, then you won't have much of a choice.

With some basic googling this seems to be a decently common issue, with a LP issue filed back on the 21st of May, 2015 against Software Updater for this exact issue.

It hasn't seen much activity, so it seems like it may be a fairly niche/one-off bug, but you can try killing the update manager and running sudo apt-get install libgtk2-perl and then running sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade.

It shouldn't break things, but since I've never actually had this happen, nor would I be able to test it, I can't be entirely sure. However, we'll be more than happy to help if things do break.


Increase number of workspace with shortcuts on Ubuntu 18.04

First, you will need to increase the number of static workspaces. You can do that on the "Workspaces" tab in GNOME Tweaks (not installed by default). You can also use the terminal to change that configuration:

gsettings set org.gnome.mutter dynamic-workspaces false
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences num-workspaces 6

These commands disable dynamic workspaces, and set the number of workspaces to 6.
You then can set hotkeys to switch to any workspace including workspaces higher than four, using dconf-editor, or, much more convenient in this case, using the terminal.

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-to-workspace-5 "['<Super>5']"
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-workspace-5 "['<Super><Shift>5']"

These two comments will set up Super+5 to move to workspace 5, and Super+Shift+5 to move a window to workspace 5. Replace workspace-5 by workspace-6 and higher to set for higher


Is there a tool for benchmarking scrolling speed of browser?

Open a new tab in your Firefox browser and type about:config.
type mousewheel.min_line_scroll_amount in the search bar.
Change the value from 5 to 60.


Installed Unity 2D on 11.04, not showing in the login screen?

Try installing Unity 2D:

How do I install and switch to the Unity 2D desktop?


DNS problem: How can I receive mail through google mail?

Shot in the dark here, but if the server is behind a firewall, did you forward the necessary POP ports? Otherwise did you try using a different connection. Ping your addresses to make sure you're receiving back... Hope I helped.


UbuntuOne contact synching for Thunderbird?

Michael is correct. Thunderbird doesn't integrate with CouchDB (yet :) so the only way to get it to sync with the Ubuntu One cloud is through our mobile phone contacts sync service since Funambol (our technology partner) has developed an add-on for that application. They also have add-ons for MS Outlook and the Mac Address Book applications.

Currently their add-on does not support Thunderbird 3 (so jumpnett is correct) but they're working on supporting that version of the application.

Thanks!