Top bar, dock, desktop icons not responding to clicks

I suspect that you are correct and it's related to the had disk. If the Gnome shell is having trouble accessing data from the drive then it could easily cause the system to become unresponsive over time.
When it happens you could open a shell and run top to check the iowait metric. It's on a line like this:
%Cpu(s):  0.1 us,  0.0 sy,  0.0 ni, 99.8 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
The value in front of wa indicates how much time the CPU is waiting for IO. Unless you're in the process of copying large files it around it should be low. If it's high then that points to the disk.
You could also install the systat package and check with the iostat tool
$ iostat 1 10
This will print disk IO stats every 1 second for 10 seconds. The output will provide metrics for each disk in the system. The first line is an average, you can get just that by running iostat with no args or iostat 1 1
If you want to kick gnome back in to life then you could try pressing ALT + F2 and then r follwed by return. If that doesn't work then killall -HUP gnome-shell should do the trick.


Ubuntu Software Center search only returns magazines

Thanks for your question.

This sounds like the "app-install-data" package is not (correctly?) installed. Could you please install it via "sudo apt-get install --reinstall app-install-data

If that does not help, could you please open a terminal window (e.g. gnome-terminal) and run the command "software-center" there and paste the output messages it generates?


How can I enable the lockscreen on a livecd ubuntu test session?

On Ubuntu 12.04 & above with Unity/GNOME, you can enable locking the screen with the following command:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.lockdown disable-lock-screen false

However without a password it may not even work or be able to login i would recommend adding a user as well first just in case.


You should add these parameters by hand. When you open the xml file of your virtual machine, find the block with interface type tag. Try to add the following

<bandwidth>
  <inbound average='xxx' peak='xxx' burst='xxxx'/>
  <outbound average='xxx' peak='xxx'/>
</bandwidth>

Where xxx is desired speed in kbps (kilobits per second). I think you have a little wrong url, here is the proper one


No option to switch from xorg to Wayland on Ubuntu 17.10 login

That means Wayland is disabled by your hardware and choice of drivers for it. You need to switch to nouveau to get Wayland working.
You might face this issue once you do it: GNOME has grey bar on top and bottom after upgrade from 17.04 to 17.10, how do I fix it to how it's supposed to look?


Overheating Samsung Ultra 5 530U (Fan not spinning at all)

I have been having similar problems (although the fan was actually was spinning). I installed thermald, which caused me more problems as it reduced the CPU to a stand still for 'not-so-high' temperatures.

Finally, manually enabling pstate (which used to be default afaik) with thermald enabled(as explained in the article below) my fan is working as I would expect. Variable speed depending on temperature, and the CPU load is reduced but not to extremes as before.

http://www.webupd8.org/2014/04/prevent-your-laptop-from-overheating.html


Connecting to VirtualBox (Linux Ubuntu 18.04) from OUTSIDE the VM's local network

Your problem is different from most folks' first problem, which is usually connecting within the LAN, or creating a predictable IP address on the LAN to connect to. Since you CAN successfully connect to your server within the LAN, your Ubuntu system is configured properly. Congratulations!

The problem you have seems to connecting to the LAN from outside (WAN). The normal way to do this is to use the port-forwarding feature on the router AND by adjusting the router's firewall to not block your connections. Since you cannot control your router, you cannot do this.

You can look up how to create a reverse-ssh tunnel to get around the router...BUT that kind of workaround may be considered a rude thing to do on somebody else's network, and discovery of the reverse-ssh service may cause sanctions (like getting banned from the LAN). Whether it's rude or not depends upon the culture you are operating within.

TALK to the network owner before doing anything...they might be willing to simply set up port forwarding for you. Do not install a reverse-ssh to bypass their router and firewall without their approval.


Ubuntu 14.04 dns resolution stopped working after minor update

How does your /etc/resolv.conf file look like?

Try this command: sudo echo "nameserver 8.8.8.8" > /etc/resolv.conf

or

Do it manually by open the resolv.conf file and put in the DNS server you'd like use.


The jack and ALSA header files should be provided by packages libjack-dev and libasound2-dev respectively.


Ubuntu Mate (ARM) not installing on Raspberry Pi 3

The Pi 3 uses a completely different SOC (BCM 2837). The build your are running only supports the BCM2835 and BCM2836.

There is a new build that adds support for the Pi 3's SOC. Download it here.


Problem with apt-get update wrong source list from google-chrome

Google has stopped supporting Google Chrome on 32-bit Linux.

Users running a 32bit Linux distribution are advised to stop using Google Chrome because, while it will continue to work, it will no longer receive any updates (including no security fixes).

For 64 Bit systems, you need to run this command in terminal(Ctrl + Alt   + T)

sudo sed -i -e 's/deb http/deb [arch=amd64] http/' "/etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list"

For 32 Bit systems, you need to run this command in terminal(Ctrl + Alt   + T)

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
sudo apt-get remove google-chrome


How can I get Windows Active Directory functionalities in Ubuntu?

Depends on what functionality you talk about.

Samba4 IS AD and it works with Windows nodes as well. You can manage everything using even the standard windows tools part of RSAT ;)

Likewise-open has a commercial version that supports some group policy options that apply to Linux. Kind of removes the 'open' part of the name though...

If you just want shared login or shared profiles you can accomplish this using Samba or even just LDAP + any network filesystem.

For configuration management you can use one of many tools, I personally like Salt (saltstack.org), but Chef/Puppet/Juju are nice too.


iMac - How to make Ubuntu work properly with iMac graphics card

You may try this:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver
It looks like it's supported.


Ubuntu 12.04 and 12.10 fails to boot after usb 1-1.4

Okay I just ran into the same problem on my Z580 with Ubuntu 12.04. It rebooted fine a couple of times and then hung up on the purple screen. I had to force restart it again, and now it only shows a blinking cursor. Choosing the recovery boot option hangs up at the exact same place you described.

After some googling it seems like this is a common problem on Z580's recently, and it appears it has something to do with the UEFI boot. Look at the following two threads. Unfortunately, there is no solid solution yet.

Hope this info will help someone more knowledgeable to come up with a solution.

UPDATE:

I managed to solve this issue by booting into the previous Linux kernel 3.2.0-29-generic(the one that came with the 12.04 install disk). To boot using a previous kernel choose "previous linux versions" from the grub boot menu.I later noticed that the problem indeed occur after a kernel update to 3.2.0-35-generric. So it still doesn't boot into the new kernel and hangs as described in the original question. So there for I believe this has something to do with the new 3.2.0-35- kernel.


Dual booting is simple if you follow the right steps.
Please follow the steps below:

Boot into your Windows operating system.
Search for disk management and select Create and format hard disk partitions
Create a separate partition (unpartitioned space like say 100GB) where you will be installing Ubuntu
Once all this is done, open the link dual booting Ubuntu and Windows together and follow the steps properly.
Once Ubuntu gets installed on your system properly, then proceed with the next operation of setting up the grub menu. It will allow you to choose which OS you wish to boot into every time you start your system.

Setting up Grub menu:

Simply boot into your Windows OS again
Combine Windows + r keys together and type cmd to open command prompt.
In command prompt window, type bcdedit /set "{bootmgr}" path \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi and simply hit Enter key

Once all this is done, you will start getting Grub menu every time you boot your laptop.


Can you Install/ Uninstall ubuntu packages too many times?

Standard Linux distribution packages are just a bunch of files in an archive that get extracted and configured during installation and partly or fully (with configuration files via --purge option) removed during uninstallation. That's why uninstallation is also called removal of packages.

Apart from ususal hard drive wearout and growing package manager log files, which are automatically compressed and deleted after some time (see Linux Log Files and logrotate), nothing happens.

After all it seems only logical, that you can't break much by moving or deleting the same file repeatedly over and over again.

With the arrival of affordable consumer SSDs, delay in data retrieval or crippled performance and throughput caused by suboptimal data placement on platters also has become more trivial than before.

One thing that can break are dependencies, but that can also be fixed.


I can't seem to get anywhere with installing ubuntu on a Windows 7 PC from boot

The most likely issue is how you created the boot disk, and which kernel it uses. This is a problem with trying to create the 'boot disk' on Windows/Mac (ie. not Ubuntu).

Use a USB stick instead, and its much faster.

The cheats method is Ask A Friend. Get someone to create a USB boot stick on their copy of Ubuntu.

Otherwise, look it up. You need a Windows based tool that supports the version of Ubuntu you are trying to install, and a spare 2GB (or 4GB) USB stick.

Don't rely on boot-order, but instead use manually select boot device.

Note: Start by setting BIOS back to the way it was.


N.B. this is not a complete answer, but I'm keeping it here, mainly because there are good comments below.

  Does it actually only print a y\n when requested by apt-get?

Yes.
The right-hand side of pipes work at the same time as the left-hand side is producing output. Further, the left-side won't go to "completion" unless required. For example, the following will create an infinite loop, writing to the terminal until killed.

while true; do echo foo; done

However, the following will print out 10 lines, then exit gracefully.

while true; do echo foo; done | head

Once the head command completes, the left-hand side of the pipe doesn't need to work any more, and the "infinite" loop is no more.


python ModuleNotFoundError : 'CommandNotFound'

Add one more answer, as I also encountered this issue and happened to solve it.
This issue happened when I installed python3.7 from source.

Check /usr/lib/command-not-found file, it is trying to find module CommandNotFound, which is NOT shipped with python3.7 but DOES with Ubuntu under directory /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages.

What we need to do is adding the directory to python import path:

vi .bashrc (or .profile)
add line
export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:/usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages:/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages
Pay attention that you may need to change the /usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages to your own directory.
exit and source .bashrc (or .profile)


Well, because you are running rsync in the verbose mode, you should be able to see in its output where the problem lies. Usually it is a permission denied error.

For example, suppose I want to back up the ~/.gvfs folder:

$ sudo rsync -av /home/arrange/.gvfs /tmp
[sudo] password for arrange:
sending incremental file list
rsync: link_stat "/home/arrange/.gvfs" failed: Permission denied (13)

sent 12 bytes  received 12 bytes  48.00 bytes/sec
total size is 0  speedup is 0.00
rsync error: some files/attrs were not transferred (see previous errors) (code 23) at main.c(1060) [sender=3.0.7]

So my advice is to list through the rsync -av output and look for similar errors.


How to disable the grouping of windows on the launcher?

This is by no means a solution to what is asked but may be helpful

Research shows there are a lot of people asking and wanting this feature that is being asked about.  There is bound to be a working solution.  Searching related questions here on Ask Ubuntu gives reference to gnome environment or others which may give useful building blocks for working it out for Unity.  May be time to accept there is not an easy solution for ungrouping windows in Unity launcher icon.

"Alt and `" (Button above Tab) switches windows of app as does "Super and  w"  All credit to Jo-Erland Skinstad who answered this Ask Ubuntu question. Depending on the mouse (if any)being used  any keyboard shortcuts can be easily mapped to one button whether it be on mouse or keyboard which would give one click to show open windows and then one more left click to select which would make window switching slightly easier.  To remap keys look here or xboxdrv would be another option- "It  is  also  possible  for xboxdrv to read input data directly from an event device, this allows the use of the configurability of xboxdrv  on regular  PC joysticks, keyboards and mice and thus lets xboxdrv serve a similar purpose as joy2key. See  the  option  --evdev  below  for  more information." as long as hotkey is not part of shortcut. Sure is doable with a little research.

Additionally an Ubuntu Forums user has filed a request for what you ask using Brainstorm.  Other Ask Ubuntu questions mentioning editing or making quicklist menu/icon for application may be possible for an advanced user but can only find working examples for gnome environment and not unity like shown here and they do not use Firefox as a working example.  The Ubuntu Forums question that is referred to can be found here and the Brainstorm request/idea can be found here So go get voting!


Change Gnome terminal (Bash) profile when changing to different user in the same terminal (e.g. root)

You just need to edit .bashrc file for root user and add there whatever you need to have that different profile.

For example, it's usual to set PS1 in .bashrc to provide a different prompt (one that ends with # instead of with $) to let the user know he's in a root terminal. In fact, I think this should be the defaultt behaviour so you should have this different prompt already.


BDD Visualization with IPython and GraphViz

To install GraphViz and make the dot executable available on my shell's path you have to install the Ubuntu package graphviz.

"dot" is a non-interactive program for drawing directed graphs from a textual description and is part of GraphViz. The dot executable is installed as /usr/bin/dot.

The %install_ext thing is the IPython shell. It's available as Ubuntu package python3-ipython. You can start it from the command line using the command

ipython3


How to set the fully qualified domain name in 12.04?

Edit /etc/hostname and add your unqualified hostname:

boson

Edit /etc/hosts:

sudo vi /etc/hosts

Add an entry of your desired hostname by replacing boson.dev.local boson where boson.dev.local is the fully qualified hostname and boson is hostname.

127.0.1.1       boson.dev.local boson

Restart the hostname service:

sudo service hostname restart

Test your configuration by opening a terminal and enter the below commands:

hostname

This should output boson

hostname -f

This should output boson.dev.local

Hope this helps.


Try sendmail -v -i -t < mail.mail

Sendmail expects to read email via standard input.


Copying files to SD card through bash script corrupts data

The problem was not related with the script. When I changed the card reader it started to work properly.

I took into consideration the comment from Videonauth: "Another Idea would be to end the sync command with && which will let the script only continue if the command was successful." Hence this is my final script which is going ta save several seconds of my life:

#!/bin/bash

BOOT=$1
ROOT=$2

if [ -d $BOOT ]
then
    if [ -d $ROOT ]
    then
        cp -v output/boot/boot.bin $BOOT
        sudo cp -rvp output/devroot/* $ROOT
        echo "Sync"
        sync &&
        echo "Eject"
        sudo eject /dev/sdc
        echo "Ready to test"
    else
        echo "Mount root!"
    fi
else
    echo "Mount boot!"
fi


I think,

just delete file $HOME/.xinputrc with the following command

rm -f ~/.xinputrc
sudo init 6

and reboot.

Hope this helps.


Suddenly no sound; aplay mentions xcb_connection_has_error

I recently lost sound on a upgrade. I was able to get my sound to work by running the program "alsamixer" from the command line. My default sound card had changed. I reselected my sound card and checked that the volumes were adequate to get the sound working. You do not say what desktop you are using (gnome3,unity,xfce) so it hard to suggest a graphical method. In gnome3, the gui application found at settings/sound will allow to select your sound card and check your volume levels.


I found the difference.
I had to enable the Ubuntu LTS enablement (also called HWE or Hardware Enablement) stacks.

The 16.04 HWE Stacks will follow a new Rolling Update Model as documented at the following location:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/RollingLTSEnablementStack

apt-get install --install-recommends linux-generic-hwe-16.04


another problem with connecting to wireless

Open a terminal window by either shortcut

  CTRL-ALT-t

or using the dash and typing terminal.  Once the termnal is open use the command

  lspci | grep -i network

which should give you a line of text listing your network card (I'll bet it will have "Broadcom" in the answer.  Once you have that line of text edit your own question and paste that output on it's own line.

I don't have access to a 12.10 box but many wireless problems are solved by using the proprietary drivers.  A good step by step explanation of how to do it can be found at
 http://www.howopensource.com/2012/10/find-additional-drivers-in-ubuntu-12-10/
Once you try that if it still doesn't connect edit the question with that fact.

For a more technical walkthrough of some possible steps something like
http://wiki.freegeek.org/index.php/Wireless_Tips
may be helpful


Is there a way I can partition my HDD without booting into LiveCD/USB?

Technically, the answer is "yes." You can use fdisk to partition in-use MBR disks and gdisk to partition in-use GPT disks. GParted will also let you alter any partition that's not mounted, or create new partitions in unused space, but GParted won't let you alter any partition that's currently mounted (or otherwise in use).

The big caveat to fdisk and gdisk is that neither supports resizing the filesystems that partitions contain, so if you use them to resize your partitions, you run a very high risk of creating problems that will lead to data loss (maybe immediately, or maybe down the road a ways). It is possible to resize an in-use partition, as described in this question and its answers, but this is definitely something to be attempted only by experts. In the vast majority of cases, using a live CD to resize the Ubuntu root (/) partition is the way to go. Sometimes you can get away with simply unmounting a partition (such as a Windows partition) to resize it from your main installation.

As a side note, if you often need to modify in-use partitions, using the Logical Volume Manager (LVM) is the way to go. LVM adds a new layer atop partitions, and therefore adds complexity, which is a big minus; but it creates a great deal of added flexibility when it comes to adjusting filesystem sizes. Depending on filesystem support, you can usually increase the size of a logical volume while it's in use with LVM, with much less risk than would be the case if you were using regular partitions. Ubuntu's LVM support isn't as advanced as it might be, though, and the added layer of complexity means that LVM isn't for everybody. It can also complicate data recovery if things go badly wrong.


I have had problems getting WiFi to work with countless laptops and versions of Ubuntu down the years.
After much time wasted trying to fix this I eventually bought one of these:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TL-WN823N-Wireless-Supports-10-9-10-13/dp/B0088TKTY2
I have never looked back.


So I figured out the solution, I didn't disable secure boot which prevented the drivers from working(?). Anyways I disabled Windows 10 support in the bios form MSI and now the drivers are working.


I have experienced a similar issue where Windows (7) refused to install to an MBR partitioned disk, while another GPT partitioned disk was still attached.

A list of things to try out or look for:

Remove all disks with unsupported partition table types or convert or backup and restore to a supported partition table type.
Boot the installation media the correct way for the desired installation mode or use up to date installation media that support newer UEFI type machines.

Changing the partition table or boot mode requires to reinstall or reconfigure existing bootloaders.

A similar question has been asked on Superuser. This is an issue with Windows, not Ubuntu or any other Linux distribution, the question should have been asked where Windows is on-topic.


As far as I can tell, the upstream maintainers occasionally screw up the dependencies of packages. That may be what happened here. Consider filing a bug on launchpad, and otherwise just wait for it to be fixed. In the meantime, you could try using smplayer, which I personally prefer to vlc.


It seems to me that you forgot to tick apache during the phpmyadmin installation screen. You can check if that is the case by checking for the presence of /etc/apache2/conf.d
/phpmyadmin file.

You can reconfigure phpmyadmin with the following command:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure phpmyadmin

You will see the following screen:

Tick apache (using spacebar), and tab to OK.


How to take screenshot of complete webpages?

On recent versions of Firefox, there is no need for any plugins. This capability is built into the browser.

In Firefox, use Ctrl+Shift+F2 to open the Web Developer Console.
Type :screenshot --fullpage (this will autocomplete, so :s Tab --fullpage will work).

That will save the screenshot as a PNG file to your downloads folder. By default, the filename includes the date and time. You can use a different filename if you wish, simply by passing it in on the CLI: :screenshot --fullpage my_name.png.
This will also work on pop-up windows, but each window will need to be saved individually. I know of no way to combine them into a single screenshot. (You could, of course, do that in GIMP or another image-editing tool later.)


Driver does not compile after kernel upgrade

The supported kernel versions in Ubuntu 14.04 (and its point releases) are 3.13, 3.16, 3.19 and 4.2, they are available in the packages linux-image-generic, linux-image-generic-lts-utopic, linux-image-generic-lts-vivid, and linux-image-generic-lts-wily respectively.


What's the fastest distro to run under VirtualBox?

Unity 2D, Xubuntu and Lubuntu are pretty lightweight, I recommend any of those. Even a KDE desktop minimal installation is fast enough (no effects and other tools).

Also with a bit of patience you can use the Ubuntu minimal CD to make your own desktop without all the bloat and extra unneeded tools.

I had a similar question some time ago, have a look for ideas, on the question itself there is also a link for information on how to get a minimal installation CD

Xubuntu desktop minimal installation


Looking for software that will compress, encrypt, split, and upload data for backups to multiple clouds

The downside to using a bunch of services is that your storage is fragmented, but a benefit in that is if you isolate the types of files you back up with each service, you know exactly where to find them.  The other downside is that you'll have a few apps running processes on your system all at once. For the most part this should work just fine so long as you don't try to alter files at the same time.

The only thing that I could find that comes close is called Duplicati.

  Duplicati is a free backup client that securely stores encrypted,
  incremental, compressed backups on cloud storage services and remote
  file servers. It works with Amazon S3, Windows Live SkyDrive, Google
  Drive (Google Docs), Rackspace Cloud Files or WebDAV, SSH, FTP (and
  many more). Source:Duplicati

For more information, and to download, visit their Website.

Extra reading Five tools to help sync more than one cloud storage service, and How to encrypt your cloud storage for free


As you said in the comments, use Rufus on Windows and it will work like a charm.


Remotely access postgresql database with FDW [solved]

From the point of view of the network, server 2 is the client and server 1 is the server. The operating system of the client reports Connection refused when attempting to connect to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:5432.

Generally that error is not due to a firewall, because firewalls tend to drop packets, which produce Connection timed out.

It's also not due to a postgres host-based authentication failure, as they produce completely different and specific error messages.

A few plausible reasons:

PostgreSQL is indeed not listening on port 5432 on server 1. This can be confirmed with netstat -tlnp | grep 5432 run as root. Note that the configuration parameter is listen_addresses, not listenaddresses.
Also postgres need to be restarted after that change. You may look at the postgres server logs to confirm that it worked or check for the reason why it doesn't.
The network configuration is such that server 1 cannot be reached from server 2 with the xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx address.  The packets are routed somewhere else, on a network interface where 5432 as a TCP port is not bound to a service. For instance if server 1 is virtualized, it is expected that it cannot be reached directly through the address of its host.


How to configure two Epson scanners on my PC (18.04)

Found the required information in source package files:
/etc/imagescan/imagescan.conf:
{
...
[devices]
net.udi    = esci:networkscan://192.168.0.208:1865
net.vendor = Epson
net.model  = WF-3725
net.name   = Epson WF-3725 Wlan
net2.udi    = esci:networkscan://192.168.0.209:1865
net2.vendor = Epson
net2.model  = BX635FWD
net2.name   = Epson BX 635 FWD Wlan
}


VirtualBox still appears installed and active after running "sudo apt-get remove virtualbox"

In comments you mentioned that you "installed VB by downloading from website" therefore you installed it using a .deb package and Ubuntu Software (the default "app store").
Now, to uninstall, just search it at Ubuntu Software and proceed accordingly or, in Terminal:

sudo dpkg --remove packagename

where "packagename" is the exact name of the file you downloaded from their website.


Ubuntu by default uses File Roller, which supports the following formats:

7-Zip Compressed File (.7z)
WinAce Compressed File (.ace)
ALZip Compressed File (.alz)
AIX Small Indexed Archive (.ar)
ARJ Compressed Archive (.arj)
Cabinet File (.cab)
UNIX CPIO Archive (.cpio)
Debian Linux Package (.deb) read-only
ISO-9660 CD Disc Image (.iso) read-only
Java Archive (.jar)
Java Enterprise archive (.ear)
Java Web Archive (.war)
LHA Archive (.lzh, .lha)
WinRAR Compressed Archive (.rar)
RAR Archived Comic Book (.cbr)
RPM Linux Package (.rpm) read-only
Stuffit Archives (.bin, .sit)
Tar Archives:
    uncompressed (.tar)
    compressed with:
        gzip (.tar.gz , .tgz)
        bzip (.tar.bz , .tbz)
        bzip2 (.tar.bz2 , .tbz2)
        compress (.tar.Z , .taz)
        lzip (.tar.lz , .tlz)
        lzop (.tar.lzo , .tzo)
        7zip (.tar.7z)
        xz (.tar.xz)
ZIP Archive (.zip)
ZIP Archived Comic Book (.cbz)
ZOO Compressed Archive File (.zoo)
Single files compressed with gzip, bzip, bzip2, compress, lzip, lzop, rzip, xz.

Keep in mind, that this is just graphical front-end, so you still need to install unrar for .rar support;

The unrar package is hosted on the Multiverse repository, so first you'll need to enable the Multiverse repository in Software & Updates;

Then you can install the package either by using Software Centre or by opening Terminal and running sudo apt-get install unrar.


Is it Safe to Change the Name of a .desktop File in /usr/share/applications?

It is technically 'safe' to modify files in /usr/share/applications, but files under /usr (with the exception of those under /usr/local), should be left under the control of system management commands, such as apt install.

The clean solution is to copy the desktop file (for instance gedit.desktop or gnome-terminal.desktop) to either /usr/local/share/applications or ~/.local/share/applications, and make your desired changes in the resulting file.

Desktop files put in /usr/local/share/applications override those in /usr/share/applications and are system-wide.  Files in ~/.local/share/applications in turn override the system-wide file for a single user.


New to ubuntu. Wifi dongle not recognized

I don't know why I didn't think of it before, I don't know why it's not the first thing recommended when searching how to download wifi drivers sans-internet.

I'm using my phone as a wifi-tether. I can follow the instructions from previous forum posts easily enough now. I don't have any specific questions at the moment, so may as well close the thread.

Thank you for you time.


"No space left on device" while installing packages

This is from the log

...No space left on device No apport report written because the error
message indicates a disk full error...

So check your disk space by

df -h

Or open file explorer (nautilus) to check.
Empty your trash, delete unused files and run update and install -f again.

Check the number of free inodes by

df -i


My answer comes from this blog post: http://www.evilcodingmonkey.com/2014/01/23/ubuntu-activate-multi-touch-on-elantech/

First. download this archive (from Ubuntu's bug reporting page): https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1166442/+attachment/3941591/+files/psmouse-elantech-x551c.tar.gz

Open a terminal, and follow these steps (after step 4, you will have no mouse at all):

cd ~/Downloads
sudo dkms ldtarball psmouse-elantech-x551c.tar.gz
sudo dkms install -m psmouse -v elantech-x551c</p>
sudo rmmod psmouse
sudo modprobe psmouse

Several users confirm their Elantech touchpad now has right-click and scrolling working. I hope it helps!


How can I disable ubuntuone-client from running everytime I login?

Alternatively if you prefer not having everything listed under Startup Application, disable Ubuntu One at login:

echo "Hidden=true" | sudo tee -a /etc/xdg/autostart/ubuntuone-launch.desktop

Show Ubuntu One in Startup Applications:

sudo sed -i "s/NoDisplay=true/NoDisplay=false/g" /etc/xdg/autostart/ubuntuone-launch.desktop

You can use the second command I posted to replace MorganSBailey's command and not effect all startup entries


Slow graphics on i7-8700k UHD 630 ubuntu 16.04.3

Thanks to @Puneet from the screen rendering of 17.10 with intel i5-8400 is really slow

Ubuntu 17.10 is currently shipping kernel version 4.13. But the graphics driver for 8th generation coffee lake processors are merged in kernel mainline for version 4.15. (source)
Currently you can install 4.15 kernel Ubuntu builds to fix the graphics issue.
Download these debian packages
mkdir -p ~/linux_4.15 && cd ~/linux_4.15

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/daily/2018-01-01/linux-headers-4.15.0-999-generic_4.15.0-999.201801010200_amd64.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/daily/2018-01-01/linux-headers-4.15.0-999_4.15.0-999.201801010200_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/daily/2018-01-01/linux-image-4.15.0-999-generic_4.15.0-999.201801010200_amd64.deb

dpkg -i *.deb

sudo update-grub

sudo reboot

It actually works fine for me with Ubuntu 16.04 too.


Error connecting to Ubuntu Server via FTP

You need to install vsftpd on the server using the command sudo apt-get install vsftpd You may also have to reboot the VM/Server.


How to Edit a write protected read only file

Installed by snap i.e. a file contained in /snap/<snapname>/<revision>/ somewhere? Snaps are squashfs images, which by definition are read-only. No amount of permissions will change that, I'm afraid.


What exactly is meant by "Eliminate dead keys"?

There are keys like the hat (^) or other French accents. These only take effect after pressing another regular key on your keyboard. One could say they simply modify the second key pressed. Those keys are called "dead keys" and are a special variety of the "modifier keys". They are dead in the sense that nothing happens when you press them by themselves. Until you press another key (or press them a second time), you will not see any change.

Example for the French "accent circonflexe" (aka. hat or circumflex ^) on a regular layout with dead keys:

^  -->  results in nothing

^ & a -->  results in --> â

^ & ^ --> results in --> ^

^ & ^ & a --> results in --> ^a

"Eliminate dead keys" causes those so called "diacritic marks" to appear on the first keypress (not modifying the character typed after that).

Same example with "Eliminate dead keys" layout:

^  -->  results in --> ^

^ & a --> results in --> ^a

^ & ^ --> results in --> ^^

^ & ^ & a --> results in --> ^^a

The main purpose of dead keys is to enable you to type seldom used characters easily without taking up too much space on the keyboard. On my keyboard I would type a Norwegian (Norse) å with the combination ° & a.


Swap file hard disk it appears to have holes

To Enable Hibernation in 20.04 Using a Swapfile:
I used this method yesterday to increase my swapfile size and enable hibernation, (optional). Last paragraph is how I search for holes.
Increase swapfile size to match RAM size up to 8GB.

Check the swap that is in use:
sudo swapon -s

If swap partition(s) are found:
sudo swapoff -a
sudo nano -Bw /etc/fstab

Add # before the UUID of the swap partition(s):
# UUID=XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX   none   swap    sw     0       0

Add a line for the swapfile, if one does not exist:
swapfile   none    swap     sw      0       0

Create the swapfile:
sudo fallocate -l XG /swapfile*

where X is swapfile's size in GB:
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo chmod 0600 /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile

Reboot:
sudo reboot

Add resume location and offset to grub.cfg:

Edit /etc/default/grub:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash resume=UUID=XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX resume_offset=XXXXX"

Use UUID from root.

Use offset from:
sudo filefrag -v /swapfile |grep " 0:"| awk '{print $4}'

Update GRUB:
sudo update-grub

Test hibernation:
sudo systemctl hibernate

A hibernate button can be added using GNOME extensions.
Note that there is a slight possibility of getting holes in a swapfile when creating it with fallocate. /var/log/syslog can be searched for the phrase swapon: swapfile has holes to ensure there will be no data loss.


That's correct, even if it tells "--file-to-restore", you can enter any file or folder path (without the "/" sign at the beginning of it, for example "temp/logs") at "foldername" and any "destination folder" (with the "/"sign at the beginning of it, for example "/temp/logs") to the command.

Sample: I want to restore my /temp/logs which is backed-up 3 days ago into the same folder:

duplicity -t 3D --file-to-restore temp/logs file:///backup/location /temp/logs

Sample2: I want to restore my file /temp/logs/app-error.log which is backed-up 3 days ago into the same folder:

duplicity -t 3D --file-to-restore temp/logs/app-error.log file:///backup/location /temp/logs/app-error.log

Note that you have to give a full destination path for the file.

Sample3: My backup stays at an ftp server=my.ftp.server with user=root at the location=my_backup, the same scenario with #1:

duplicity -t 3D --file-to-restore temp/logs sftp://root@my.ftp.server/my_backup /temp/logs


How to boot into Windows Boot Manager from GRUB?

Turn secure boot off, and Windows should boot through grub.  This is bug # 1091464.  See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1091464
You can add yourself to the "this bug affects 87 people" by clicking on the yellow button after the question.

To continue to use secure boot, either use Rod Smith's suggestion below for a different bootloader, or simply use the EFI menu (some function key at power-up) to select Windows directly, skipping grub.


How do I setup OpenVPN so I can securely use the internet from an unsecured hotspot?

I have the exact question a few months ago, but additionally, I wanted to have an IPv6 connection if possible. You might be interested in my questions on Serverfault:

How do I configure OpenVPN for accessing the internet with one NIC?
How can I setup OpenVPN with IPv4 and IPv6 using a tap device?

I had only one NIC ("network interface") on my server for use. In my setup, NetworkManager was not sufficient because I need to run a custom script to support IPv6. For simplicity however, I will use NetworkManager here and omit the IPv6 support.

First, just make a decision on the authentication method. I'll be using the safer certificate method which works like SSL: during the handshake a common secret is chosen which will be used for the session. The other methods are a shared key; a username and password.

Server

1. Prepare

First, install the openvpn server. This is as easy as sudo apt-get install openvpn. The difficult part is configuring it. The configuration is present in /etc/openvpn.

2. Configure authentication

The server needs certificates for identifying itself and its clients. These certificate are retrieved from a CA (Common Authority). The creation of the certificates and related private keys can be done on any machine, it does not have to be done on the server. If you're really paranoid, you should do it on a machine which is not connected to a network, and use a memory stick for transferring the certificates.

Create a CA and certificates for the server

This step has to be done once unless your CA's private key got compromised. In that case, valid certificates can be created which will be accepted by the server, resulting in a security breach.

The official documentation suggests to do the administration in /etc/openvpn. I am not a big fan of running everything as root, so I will put it in a different directory.

Create the administration directory and copy the files in it by running:

mkdir ~/openvpn-admin
cd ~/openvpn-admin
cp -r /usr/share/doc/openvpn/examples/easy-rsa/2.0/ ./easy-rsa
cd easy-rsa

Edit defaults in vars as needed, for example setting KEY_SIZE=2048 because you are paranoid.
Load the variables and create the key directory by running:

. vars

If you get an error that No ... openssl.cnf file could be found
Further invocations will fail, run ln -s openssl-1.0.0.cnf openssl.cnf, then . vars again.
If this is your first time using this CA, prepare the keys environment. Do not run this command if you want to maintain your previously created CA. Doing so will require you to deploy a new ca.crt.

./clean-all

Create the CA by executing ./build-ca. You can fill any details in you want, but note that this information will be visible in log files when the clients connects to the server. This will create the files ca.key and ca.crt in the subfolder keys. Keep the ca.key file secret in all circumstances. Failure to do so will allow anyone with the key to connect to your server.
If you have a previous certificate that is lost or expired, you need to revoke the old one first with ./revoke-full server. Otherwise you get a database error.
Create the certificate for the server by running:

./build-key-server server

When being asked for a password, leave it empty unless you are willing to enter the password each time the server starts (not recommended). Confirm on signing the certificate and committing it. Two new files will appear in the directory keys: server.key and server.crt.

DH and use prepare for tls-auth

Generate Diffie-Hellman parameters using:

./build-dh

Per hardening tips, use tls-auth. For that, generate the shared-secret key using:

openvpn --genkey --secret ta.key

The resulting file (ta.key) must be distributed to clients as well, but you should not put it in public.

Create certificates for clients

For each client, these steps should be repeated:

Enter the directory in which you created your CA and server certificate:

cd ~/openvpn-admin/easy-rsa

If you've skipped the CA creation step because you've already one, you need to load the variables first:

. vars

If you are creating new certificates because the old ones are lost or expired, you need to revoke the old one first with ./revoke-full you. Otherwise you get a database error.
Create the clients certificate you.key and its corresponding certificate you.crt:

./build-key you

The CommonName should be unique. Leave the password empty if you're using KDE as it's not supported yet as of 10.10. As with the server certificate generation, confirm signing the cert and committing the changes.

3. Setup the OpenVPN service

By default, OpenVPN runs as root when accepting connections. Not a good idea if the service is reachable from the evil Internet.

Create the a dedicated user for OpenVPN, say openvpn:

sudo useradd openvpn

Copy the files server.key, server.crt, ca.crt and dh1024.pem (or dh2048.pem if you've changed key size) from the keys directory into /etc/openvpn. A permission of 400 (read-only for owner) is fine.

sudo cp ~/openvpn-admin/easy-rsa/keys/{server.key,server.crt,ca.crt,dh*.pem} /etc/openvpn
sudo chmod 400 /etc/openvpn/{server.key,server.crt,ca.crt}

Copy the file ta.key as well:

sudo cp ~/openvpn-admin/easy-rsa/ta.key /etc/openvpn
sudo chmod 400 /etc/openvpn/ta.key

Create the file /etc/openvpn/server.conf and put the next lines into it:

proto udp
dev tap
ca ca.crt
cert server.crt
key server.key
dh dh1024.pem
server 10.8.0.0 255.255.255.0
push "redirect-gateway def1"
ifconfig-pool-persist ipp.txt
keepalive 10 120
tls-auth ta.key 0
# Compress data to save bandwidth
comp-lzo
user openvpn
group openvpn
persist-key
persist-tun
# Logs are useful for debugging
log-append openvpn-log
verb 3
mute 10

Set the appropriate permissions on it, it does not need to be secret, but I prefer not leaking configuration details so:

sudo chmod 640 /etc/openvpn/server.conf

4. Finishing the server

If you've created the certificates on the server, it's a good idea to encrypt it or move it off the server. In any case, do not lose the ca.key and server.key. In the first case others will be able to connect to your server. In the latter, a MITM is possible.

Client

Besides the server IP address, the server administrator should hand over the following files:

ca.crt: for verifying the certificates
server.crt: for verifying the server and communicating with it
ta.key: for hardening the security
you.crt: to identify yourself with the server
you.key: it's like your password, file permissions should be 400 (read-only for owner)

1. Installation

Install OpenVPN and the NetworkManager plugin (suitable for KDE and Gnome):

sudo apt-get install openvpn network-manager-openvpn

network-manager-openvpn is in the universe repository.

2. Configuration

In the control panel, use the following details:

Gateway: the server IP address
Type: "Certificates (TLS)" (Gnome) or "X.509 Certificate" (KDE)
CA Certificate: path to ca.crt
User Certificate: path to you.crt
Private Key: path to you.key

At Advanced:

Gateway port: Automatic (1194) (does not need to be changed)
Use LZO data compression: enabled
Use TCP connection: disabled
Use TAP device: enabled
Cipher: default
HMAC authentication: default
Use TLS-authentication: enabled
Specify the Key File path to ta.key and set "Key Direction" to 1.
(todo - checking it out) the server pushes the default gateway so all traffic goes over the VPN connection. The last time I checked, the network-manager-openvpn plugin did not do it.

If you cannot get NetworkManager working or do not want to use it, put the files (ca.crt, ...) in /etc/openvpn and create the file /etc/openvpn/client.conf file:

client
dev tap
proto udp
# replace 1.2.3.4 by your server IP
remote 1.2.3.4 1194
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
persist-key
persist-tun
ca ca.crt
cert you.crt
key you.key
ns-cert-type server
tls-auth ta.key 1
comp-lzo
user nobody
group nogroup
verb 3
mute 20

If you do not want to enable this VPN on boot time, edit /etc/default/openvpn and uncomment the next line by removing the #:

#AUTOSTART="none"

To start this connection, run:

sudo /etc/init.d/openvpn start client

client should be renamed if your configuration file is not named client.conf. Example: if you've named your configuration file safe.conf, you need to run sudo /etc/init.d/openvpn start safe.

To stop OpenVPN, you have to run:

sudo /etc/init.d/openvpn stop


Ubuntu Touch - Calender App not showing sync icon on the M10 tablet

I had the same issue when I got my pro 5. What it was is that I had added my gmail calander account when I was setting up my emails. However I had not allowed the calander app permission to mu online account. So I went into the accounts and clicked add online calender. This brought up the allow permission question for the account I had set up. I clicked OK and the sync started automatically. Then the sync icon was there.

Hope this helps.


Difference among "whereis " , "locate " and "find"command

From GNU findutils help page

  The find program searches a directory tree to find a file or group of
  files. It traverses the directory tree and reports all occurrences of
  a file matching the user's specifications. The find program includes
  very powerful searching capability.

  The locate program scans one or more databases of filenames and
  displays any matches. This can be used as a very fast find command if
  the file was present during the last file name database update.

So find is what you use when you want to search by particular criteria and also manipulate files. It has many more options than locate so allows far more fine-grained control of results. It is slow because it performs the requested test(s) on every file to see if it matches.

locate is used to scan the whole system quickly for something - you might use this when you have no idea where something is, or when you want to find all related files scattered across various unknown places. It's fast because it uses a binary database to index the system. To get new files to show up, first run sudo updatedb (the database it updated once per day by cron

the whereis command simply returns the location of the executables, the man pages and the sources of a program (see man whereis)


If you have Python installed, there's a really simple http server that you can run in a directory and then access the files from another computer (http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/tech-tip-really-simple-http-server-python)

cd yourdirectory/
python -m SimpleHTTPServer

and then you can access that directory and its files (plus recursion) by going to that comptuer's ip address elsewhere on the network.  Keep in mind this is un-encrypted so someone else could snoop your traffic if they were on your local network.


How to increase the allocated disk space for the /home directory?

Follow these steps to increase your /home partition.

Create a Ubuntu Live USB and boot from it.
Go to Gparted and turn off your swap partition. (Rightclick-->swap off)

Rightclick on swap partition-- > "Resize/Move"--> Move it to the Rightmost area.
Right click on home partition (/dev/sda6) --> "Resize/Move" --> Increase its size by dragging it.
Apply changes.

Now you need to Correct the UUID entries in the fstab file.

(If you move your /boot partition)

Chroot to your original / partition and reinstall grub:

Execute the following commands in sequence.

sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt
sudo mount /dev/sda8 /mnt/boot
for i in /dev /dev/pts /proc /sys /run; do sudo mount -B $i /mnt$i; done

sudo chroot /mnt

grub-install /dev/sda
update-grub
exit

Update the UUID entries in fstab file as given below:

Open another terminal and execute :

sudo blkid

Open one more terminal and execute :

sudo gedit /mnt/etc/fstab

Replace the UUID entries of sda6 & sda7 (& sda8 if you move the boot partition too) with those of the output given from the blkid command.

Reboot.


PhpMyAdmin problem after upgrade Ubuntu Server 16.04 to 18.04.1

It turns out after the upgrade i had both libapache2-mod-php and libapache2-mod-php7.2 installed on the system. Removed both and reinstalled libapache2-mod-php7.2.


Open terminal window and execute Python script on startup

This one should work:

gnome-terminal -e "python3 /path/to/script.py"


You could create a directory under / like so:
sudo mkdir /new_local

Then bind the /local directory to it like so:
sudo mount --bind /local /new_local

This way all the space and contents of /local will be accessible under /new_local

If however your goal is to extend the storage space on /tmp using the available space on /local then please follow the two steps below:
First, create a directory under /local like so:
sudo mkdir /local/new_tmp

Then, bind it to /tmp like so:
sudo mount --bind /local/new_tmp /tmp

This way all the available free space under /local will be given to /tmp


The idea is applicable. I just did some tests but couldn't make it work because of quotes. Maybe someone can make this work?
Listener:
nc -lvp 7777 -e '/usr/bin/bash -c "bash 2>&1"'

But you can do it manually. From the already open shell you start another shell with stderr redirection.
So after you establish a connection and have a shell you run the following.
bash 2>&1

It opens another shell but this time stderr redirected to stdout.


Enable login to Linux machine using picture password

currently I think there is no official application but you can do it from google package https://code.google.com/p/pam-face-authentication/wiki/WikiInstallationFromSource

Installation:
open your terminal and type as

sudo apt-get install build-essential cmake qt4-qmake libqt4-dev libx11-dev libcv-dev libcvaux-dev libhighgui-dev libpam0g-dev checkinstall

cd /tmp && wget http://pam-face-authentication.googlecode.com/files/pam-face-authentication-0.3.tar.gz
tar zxf pam-face-authentication-0.3.tar.gz && cd pam-face-authentication-*
mkdir build && cd build
cmake -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr ..
make
sudo checkinstall --pkgname=pam-authentication-face-auth

Check the above link for more information about installation and configuration .


take changes in file sshd_config file without server reboot

Simply restart the sshd service:
sudo service sshd restart

or:
sudo /etc/init.d/sshd restart

Just in case you are restarting remotely, the configuration should be checked first to make sure it will not fail to start:
sudo sshd -t


Creating a Mac-bootable USB stick (with Lubuntu installer) using Lubuntu

I was under the mistaken impression that a USB stick required some kind of special treatment to become bootable on Mac hardware.

I actually solved this by preparing the USB stick in the same way as I would've done for an ordinary Linux machine.

I fetched the relevant ISO, and wrote it the a USB using dd, like so:

dd if=lubuntu-16.04.3-desktop-i386.iso of=/dev/sdd bs=4M && sync

After rebooting I held down the Alt key (just like you're supposed to for a Mac) to reach the boot menu, and then selected the USB stick.

Thereafter the machine booted from the USB stick.


If you feel comfortable with vim, I suggest VimOutliner.


How can I manually copy over files like LXDE and other apps?

Download, burn and install Lubuntu from an alternate install disk. You will find all the information needed here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu/Alternate_ISO


How to create option to insert time stamp?

GNOME keyboard shortcuts should work.

Here's why what you tried didn't work: Your keyboard shortcut runs the date command, but does nothing with the output (which just gets discarded). You should pipe it to xclip, as date | xclip to copy it to the X selection (not clipboard). Then you can paste it into your document by middle-clicking. If you want to be able to use Ctrl-V, instead use date | xclip -selection c to copy it to the actual clipboard.

Another alternative is to use xdotool to type the date directly into your document. Assign to your shortcut

xdotool type "$(date)"

Then, when you press the shortcut key, it will calculate the current date and type the characters it into your document.

For ISO 8601 format, use xdotool type "$(date --rfc-3339=s)".

If it doesn't work: Because these are shell commands (as opposed to executables), you might have to pass the command to bash when specifying them in your shortcut. Your command would then be:

bash -c 'xdotool type "$(date --rfc-3339=s)"'


Try holding down the Option key while powering on the computer. This should enable you to boot OS X, from which you can re-install rEFIt (or install rEFInd instead, if you care to upgrade, since rEFIt is no longer being maintained).


2 linux partitions, how to force one's grub menu to win?

If I well understood you, you don't want Kubuntu to install GRUB. You may uninstall GRUB on Kubuntu:

sudo apt-get remove grub-pc


This looks like a temporary file related to the "clean free disk space" option.  The last time this was reported was two years ago, so it does not happen frequently.  Also, it seems harmless (I am pretty sure the file does not exist now).

If you would like to help identify the issue so it can be fixed, please see https://bugs.launchpad.net/bleachbit/+bug/952055 . Please see the there questions in post #3.

If it is not reproducible, that would be good to know too.


Can you return 0 when stopping an upstart service which is already stopped?

I had the same issue with tomcat and chef, use this:

  /sbin/status tomcat_7 | grep -q "stop/waiting" || /sbin/stop tomcat_7

For start:

  /sbin/status tomcat_7 | grep -q "start/running" || /sbin/start
  tomcat_7


Boot screen doesnt show ubuntu purple screen again

You just see kernel starting messages, it's ok. But if you don't want to see them, first open your terminal and enter:

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

This will open the text editor, search for a line looking like this:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="....."

If there isn't any quiet splash where I write ....., add quiet splash between those quotes. There may be other options, don't delete them, you may corrupt your bootloader.

Them close the text editor and enter

sudo update-grub

Restart the computer too see the effects and done.


installing Tinycore to compact flash: grub not found

I've solved it uninstalling grub2 and reinstalling grub, grub-common and grub-pc with the help of synaptic.
Everything goes fine now :)

I just used synaptics: Marked the options "grub-common","grub-pc" and "grub-pc-bin" and installed them.(This seems to substitute grub2 with grub-legacy).

Then I could continue with the tutorial with no problem, and I managed to have tinycore installed in my compact flash.


Clementine cannot access music on a NAS share - true or false?

You could mount the NAS instead of using Samba (which I assume you do):

Install cifs: sudo apt-get install cifs-utils.
Create a directory to mount the NAS, e.g. sudo mkdir /mnt/mynasdrive
Mount the drive to the location: sudo mount //hostname/drive -o username=<username>,password=<password>,rw,nounix,iocharset=utf8,file_mode=0644,dir_mode=0755 /mnt/mynasdrive. Replace <username> and <password> by the corresponding access data or leave the whole username and password section (everyting between -o and rw) away, if the drive is accessed anonymously.
Now you should be able to access the drive at /mnt/mynasdrive, so Clementine should be able to do so, too.
To unmount it again, simply run sudo umount /dev/mynasdrive.

Source: http://knowledgelayer.softlayer.com/procedure/mount-nas-storage-linux
The linked site also explains how to add the drive to the fstab, so it can be mounted on boot, but I think this would exceed an answer to this question.


Crash on shutdown when using second monitor

I was finally able to fix the problem. Apparently with the dual monitor setup the boot screen itself caused the crash it seems. The only thing I did was turn off the splash screens in grub, and it now finally works well!


Italicized text disappears in Firefox & Thunderbird

For another data point:

I have had what seems to be a similar "disappearing text" issue in Thunderbird for the past week or two. I've never seen it before that time. To replicate:

Start Thunderbird 45.2.0 and create new message.
Select some text.
Click the "italic" icon OR hit Ctrl-I
The selected text disappears (as does the space between the preceding and following words -- in other words, there is no large blank space; the text and space it previously took up both disappear).
Note: Hit Ctrl-Z (Undo) and the text reappears.

Workaround: Use slashes or asterisks around the word to give emphasis.

My Thunderbird plugins are:

Exchange EWS Provider
Lightning

I'm running Ubuntu Gnome 16.04 on a 2013-vintage 13" MacBook Air. It does have a couple of custom key bindings (to enable the ~ key, a known oddity of Linux on MacBook) but is otherwise pretty stock.

I have not been able to replicate this problem in Firefox.


What's the default 14.04 /etc/default/grub file contents?

There is still an answer possible to the part of the question "Teaching to fish...":

  ... could use to find the answer myself without having to do a 14.04 reinstall just to find out?

I did a search for /etc/default/grub on http://packages.ubuntu.com/#search_contents:

  Sorry, your search gave no results

Stripped the first /etc, so the second source package name search is for /default/grub. The results give a hit:

  /usr/share/grub/default/grub    grub2-common

Do I have this file still on my Ubuntu machine?

$ sudo ls /usr/share/grub/default/grub
/usr/share/grub/default/grub

or, for example:

$ sudo [ -f /usr/share/grub/default/grub ] && echo Found || echo Not\ found
Found

As a matter of fact, it is there.

And what are its contents?

$ sudo cat /usr/share/grub/default/grub
# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
# For full documentation of the options in this file, see:
#   info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

# Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
# This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
# the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
#GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL=console

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"

# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"

As you might have spotted there is one more obvious different line compared to the output from Rinzwind's answer:

#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0


Ubuntu 16.04 installation help on lenovo y510p

I assume you've already partitioned your drive, if not use the Windows Disk Manage tool (found by typing 'partition' in Start menu) or diskpart in command prompt. Info on how to create a partition here. (My preference is 40-60gb for a moderate use Ubuntu installation)

  do i need to disable UEFI

In your case do not disable UEFI because your Windows installation is installed as UEFI. If you boot Ubuntu in BIOS/Legacy, it will most likely not recognize your Windows installation and overwrite it. You want your OS's boot modes to match.

  secure boot or not

Current Ubuntu versions support Secure Boot, but it's not tested on all pre-built PC's. In the unlikely case that you encounter errors, you can disable it in the laptop UEFI with F2 or F11 immediately upon restarting. You can also go into the UEFI by clicking the restart button in the Start Menu while holding shift. Then go to Troubleshoot/Advanced Options/Startup Settings (may also be called UEFI Firmware Settings) .

As for installing Ubuntu, (assuming you're using a Live USB) change your boot order in the UEFI so that USB drive/media comes before your hard drive and boot manager. After that, boot onto the USB and follow the Ubuntu installer with the Install alongside Windows Boot Manager option.

Note: I've encountered this issue on a few laptops, if the Live USB Ubuntu doesn't boot into UEFI mode you may need to try different USB ports on your laptop as some ports may only support BIOS booting and others allow UEFI.

For more info on Ubuntu and UEFI.


How to search the file content in a directory for a certain pattern then return (redirect) the filename to another file?

You could use

sudo egrep -rl '(10\.17\.1|130\.236\.189)' /etc > newfile

Notes

You need sudo to see some files here.
-l print only filenames, not the matching lines
-r recursive search. Remove if you only want to check files in the top level
\. match literal .; without escaping, . matches any character.
a|b match a or b. The parentheses are superfluous in this example because there is nothing else in the regex. 'foo|bar' matches foo or bar just as well as '(foo|bar)'. But I included them because I think it's good practice: the parentheses define the area to start/stop alternating, for example 'foo bar|baz' matches foo bar or baz, whereas 'foo (bar|baz)' matches foo bar or foo baz.


Print pdf to another pdf file from command line

You can easily do that with the cat command
Using the > option on the command line, like this:
cat source.pdf > destination.pdf

More information: man cat


Local sites are opening slowly in Chrome

First your processor with 1.5Ghz frequency for sure could not leads to smooth performance.
Else:

Delete your chrome history including cookies and all cached saved data.

Then, in ur browser change localhost:port to 127.0.0.1:port

Finally disable Compression in the IIS panel and apply it.


What are the important xml files? (Accidentally moved all xml files)

You can always create another user. No matter how messed up your home directory, you should then be able to log in as that user. Then copy the new user's .xml files to your own home folder. Some settings may be gone, but in any case your system will start up properly.


Ubuntu installer doesn't detect my other OS

Most likely it is seeing the HDD before the SSD. I had this issue a few versions ago and I don't know whether the installer has changed since then, but back then I simply unplugged my other drive so only the drive I wanted to install to showed up.

More easily, just change the drive boot priority in your BIOS.


Resize Desktop icons and widgets in kubuntu 16.04 LTS

Found the solution...

With Plasma 5.5.5 the menu appears after a long left-click (instead of hovering with the mouse in Plasma 5.4.2). (found here)

... question to myself: Why were there no results during my search before I posted.


For me terminating the running nautilus process and restarting it worked.

ps awx | grep nautilus

I found the process id and then terminated it with

sudo kill -TERM <id>


Yes, you have an option to do this:

Boot an Ubuntu Live DVD.
Select Try Ubuntu.
Now, when you are in live environment, open GParted and look for the partitions you are trying to backup, i.e., /dev/sda1 or /dev/sda2
Next, open three terminals:

a. In one of them write this command, do not press Enter now. Keep it open after typing the command:

sudo ps aux | grep dd | awk '/root/ {print $2" "$11}'

This command will give you the PID of the dd process used later on.

After you run this command at a later time, you will get a name that would say only dd and a number infront of that, you have to take note of that number then.

b. In the second terminal write this command, do not press Enter now. Keep it open after typing the command:

watch -n 1 kill -USR1 THE NUMBER FROM STEP 4.a

This command will show you the progress of the dd process in the third terminal.

c. In the third terminal, type the following, and run it:

After running this command, immediatly run the command from 4.a first and then the command from 4.b.

sudo dd bs=4M if=/dev/sdXY of=/path/to/your/backup-directory/anyfilename.iso

Here, /dev/sdXY is the partition you want to backup.

This command will actually execute the dd command.

Now, keep tab on the terminal from 4.c and wait for the command to finish.

Backup completes on the completion of the command. Now, you can do whatever you want. Cheers!


Use a PPA with a Password while still using Apt-cacher-ng?

You can bypass apt-cacher-ng for certain hosts by using lines like the following in /etc/apt/apt.conf or the configuration file in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/

Acquire::HTTP::Proxy::archive.example.org "DIRECT";


Can I install ubuntu 14.04 32-bit on an older desktop with 1gb RAM?

Xubuntu 14.04.1 LTS 64bit is fast and works like a charm with only 1GB RAM memory installed. As for the 32bit version of Xubuntu 14.04.1, you should have no problems with that one.

For a fancy desktop and look, you can install KDE Plasma Desktop, after you're done with installing Xubuntu, and also finished peforming all required upgrades. Plasma Desktop is a lite and very cool alternative to the Unity desktop. And you'll be able to boot into both the XFCE session and also the KDE session (plasma desktop session).


How to see full cron log (Not of just 1 day or less)?

Another alternative is

sudo zgrep CRON /var/log/syslog*

zgrep uncompresses files if needed. Options same as for grep.


Rather than running the commands on login, it would usually be better practice to configure the kernel modules at boot time via files in the /etc/modprobe.d directory.

The names of the files are arbitrary (although they should have a .conf suffix) but it is a good idea to make them relate to the module in an obvious way e.g.

create a file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-iwldvm.conf containing the line

blacklist iwldvm

create a file /etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf containing the line

options iwlwifi bt_coex_active=0

The iwlwifi.conf file may exist already (if you have configured other options previously) - if so just append the new option rather than creating a new file. The changes will take effect when you reboot.


Type the command sudo df -Th and check out for "vfat" in the Type column of the output.
If "vfat" exists, your pen drive is detected and you should check it on Nautilus file manager.
If it doesn't exists, maybe your pen drive doesn't compatible with Linux.


What is changelog.Debian.gz file during packaging?

Seems that the build wasn't clean, or you included more options that weren't by default. The changelog.Debian.gz is a gzip compressed list of the change made to the source package done by the Debian maintainer. You can either delete/prevent the generation of the file, or add the path to debian/source/include-binaries:

$ cat debian/source/include-binaries
[...]
/usr/share/doc/remotedevicecontroller/changelog.Debian.gz
[...]


`apt-get upgrade` stalls with zombie `dpkg` - what to do?

I saw the same stalling behaviour of apt-get (used synaptic) and saw the zombie dpkg process. I had the "detail" window open and saw some other bug notices related to the same problem which indicate that the open "detail" window is the cause. I killed the apt-list (or similar) process, closed the "detail" window in synaptic and the upgrade ran to completion.


Download JDK 5

Create directory for JDK:

sudo mkdir /usr/lib/jvm/java5

Extract archive in a new folder:

sudo tar xf java5.tar.gz -C /usr/lib/jvm/java5

Now run:

sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/java" "java" "/usr/lib/jvm/java5/jdk1.5.0/bin/java" 1
sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/javac" "javac" "/usr/lib/jvm/java5/jdk1.5.0/bin/javac" 1
sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/javaws" "javaws" "/usr/lib/jvm/java5/jdk1.5.0/bin/javaws" 1

Correct the file ownership and the permissions of the executables:

sudo chmod a+x /usr/bin/java
sudo chmod a+x /usr/bin/javac
sudo chmod a+x /usr/bin/javaws
sudo chown -R root:root /usr/lib/jvm/java5/jdk1.5.0

Check if it successful:

java -version


WiFi card hard blocked on Medion Akoya E6214

According to page 57 of the manual Wireless LAN is an optional feature. This function allows you to create a wireless network link with an access point or directly with another wireless-enabled PC. Using the key combination FnF7 you can enable or disable the wireless LAN function. A corresponding LED will light. Clearly this will not work if the optional feature isn't installed in your system. The wifi card is typically found under a panel on the underside of the laptop and if installed will look similar to this:

When rfkill list reports that a card is hard blocked and the card exists, this has in my experience meant that the switch controlling the wifi card is off and needs to be toggled.

Sometimes the function keys on your keyboard could be locked by the F lock key. As a result, you can't use function keys. Check if there was any key like F Lock or F Mode key on your keyboard. If there is one key like that, press that key and then check if the Fn keys could work. Where the Fn is on your keyboard can be found in the manual linked above.


I might be late, but for future visitors it might be helpful:

Although I have Intel graphics, this did the trick for me.
Install CompizConfig Settings Manager (available in the Software Center). Open it and click on the OpenGL button, under the "General" section. Then untick "Sync to VBlank".

Hope it helps!


Copy-Paste from Firefox 88.0.1 not working properly on Ubuntu 21.04 (Hirsute Hippo)

Ubuntu 21.04 uses Wayland by default, try to log out and make sure you are login using the Xorg/Xserver.


3D Slicer installation fails? It does not run as if it does not exist

1- you need download 3DSlicer from web: http://download.slicer.org/ for linux 64bit (stable is recomended)

2- you need uncompress this file in your Desktop for example.

3- Open a terminal and tip:
   Desktop/Slicer-4.3.1-linux-amd64/Slicer

changin "4.3.1....." for the name of your folder uncompresed.

Now you will see a 3DSlicer runing!

Best


Wrong Install Ubuntu 16.04 single-boot Mac

The Boot Manager on an iMac is call the Startup Manager. This resides on in the firmware on the logic board. The erasing your SSD has no effect the firmware. You can access the Startup Manager by holding down the option on startup. This startup manager only recognizes certain operating system configurations, such as:

Properly installed OS X and macOs operating systems.
Properly installed BIOS booting operating systems such a Windows.
Operating systems with a bootable bootx64.efi file stored in the EFI/boot folders of a FAT formatted EFI partition.

Note: Other operating system configurations can also be booted on iMacs, but not from the Startup Manager.

Your model was built before Apple created the ability to download OS X/macOS from the internet. Therefore, you can not use the internet to directly download and install OS X or macOS on your model iMac.

Use the installation DVD that came with your iMac
Buy a Snow Leopard DVD. Once Snow Leopard is installed and upgraded to 10.6.8, you can download newer versions of OS X/macOS from the internet.
Find another Mac where you can create a bootable USB installer. See: How to create a bootable installer for macOS. The newest version of macOS that you can install is El Capitan (10.11.x).


Have you allowed the file to be executed? Try to go to properties and find a checkbox with allow executable, check it. Try executing. This is the graphical way.
For terminal, just drag and drop in a terminal window and add ./ before it (for example: ./install.sh).


How to install gnome desktop in ubuntu 17.04?

If you already have an existing Ubuntu installation with another or no desktop environment, open a terminal and enter the following:

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell ubuntu-gnome-desktop


Displaylink driver do not work after kernel upgrade

I had the same issue with ubuntu_18.04, kernel 5.4.0 and displaylink driver 5.2
after updating to displaylink driver 5.3.1 it started working again.
apparently 5.3.1 is also for ubuntu 18.04 although not mentioned in the overview page.


Ubuntu Core is an new rendition of Ubuntu that is geared for the Internet of Things. You should begin by reviewing the documentation on what all it entails here. This will serve as a good starting point and help explain how to develop C application snaps and consume them within the system.


I want help to modify a script to recognize both Firefox and Firefox (Private Browsing)

Just use a glob (nitpick, but == takes globs not regular expressions) that allows strings after Firefox:

#!/bin/bash

xgg="$(xdotool getactivewindow getwindowname)"
if [[ "$xgg" = *"Mozilla Firefox"* ]]
then
    xdotool mousemove --sync 18 54 click 1
    sleep 0.2
    xdotool mousemove --sync 134 85 click 1
    sleep 0.2
    xdotool mousemove --sync 1365 85 click 1
    sleep 0.2
    xdotool mousemove --sync 683 384
fi

Alternatively, since you're using [[ anyway, you can use the regex match:

#!/bin/bash

xgg="$(xdotool getactivewindow getwindowname)"
if [[ "$xgg" =~ "Mozilla Firefox" ]]
then
    xdotool mousemove --sync 18 54 click 1
    sleep 0.2
    xdotool mousemove --sync 134 85 click 1
    sleep 0.2
    xdotool mousemove --sync 1365 85 click 1
    sleep 0.2
    xdotool mousemove --sync 683 384
fi


WARNING: this is only for users that have releases higher than 14.04

1.Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T).

2.Type in:

sudo su
echo 'deb http://cz.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu saucy main universe' >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/extra.list
apt-get update

Then install the package with:apt-get install libtiff4.

After that you won't need the saucy updates anymore. Disable it with:

mv /etc/apt/sources.list.d/extra.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/extra.list.backup
apt-get update
exit

That all!


OS X - like trackpad gestures with TouchEgg - rebuilding unity

There is also Ginn, which according to the ubuntu wiki is compatible with unity.

This article from August 2014 compares the three options: Ginn, xSwipe, and TouchEgg. Things might have changed since then. I haven't had the chance to test any of them yet.


This should do it:

ssh <user@server> -t 'cd <path to directory on remote server>; "$SHELL" -l'

In your case:

ssh user229472@server.name -t 'cd folder; "$SHELL" -l'


To delete a file ,permissions on files have no importance.To delete a file you should have proper permission (write permission) on directory that is housing it.


How to reduce the number of errors to zero in the HPLIP's hp-check output for debugging purposes?

To reduce the number of errors to zero we need:

Enable Source Code repositories in Software & Updates (software-properties-gtk)
Install build-dependencies and packages:

sudo apt-get build-dep hplip
sudo apt-get install build-essential libtool libtool-bin libcups2-dev cups-bsd cups-client avahi-utils gtk2-engines-pixbuf xsane

Some additional packages are also required:

For Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and 19.10 -

sudo apt-get install python3-pyqt4 python3-dbus.mainloop.qt python3-notify2

For Ubuntu 20.04 LTS -

sudo apt-get install libcups2 python3-pyqt5 gtk2-engines-pixbuf python3-notify2 python3-dbus.mainloop.pyqt5

(but really this is not enough, so I have reported bug 1881401)

Run hp-check again and see

No errors or warnings.

message.

And then we can check other possible problems of HPLIP for example with hp-doctor (it contains output of hp-check and other tests).


10.04 LTS next release after 2.6.32-57-server

The next kernel will be 2.6.32-58.120 and will soon be in -proposed.

Once proposed, the testing week will begin and if no regresssions are found after this week it'll be released.

So in approximately 10 days.

Visit https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/kernel-sru-workflow for further details about the different SRU tasks.


Disable hot edge to fire Auto-hide Ubuntu Dock

I figured it out in terminal execute:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock autohide false

Additional notes:

get current setting:

gsettings get org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock autohide

revert to default:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock autohide true

there is also an option to install "gsettings" GUI application:

sudo apt install dconf-editor

and select above (and many more) option by using GUI.


Disable dragging on eGalax touchscreen on Ubuntu 14.04

OK, found the solution:
You need the Linux eGalax driver from here ....
http://www.eeti.com.tw/drivers_Linux.html
After you unzip this download, look in the Programming Guide in the /Guide directory. It contains lengthy instructions. I did not follow them all, but note that my PC only has a single point touchscreen. What I did, which worked:
Run sudo sh setup.sh as indicated at section 3.1.

then reboot

Hope you succeed as well.


How can I use custom wallpapers for the login screen?

When you copy the picture to /usr/share/backgrounds you also need to change the permissions - read-write for owner and read-only for others.

This can be accomplished by running the following command in a terminal:

sudo chmod 644 filename


open .gtk-bookmarks (in your home directory) and add a URI to that file like:

file:///home/user/file.txt To-dos
file:///home/user/anotherfile.txt Meetings

It will add a shortcut to your places/bookmarks menu and call them 'To-dos' and 'Meetings' respectively.


How can I make smaller pop-ups on Lubuntu?

Depending on the OS version, one may have to to replace the existing Lubuntu notify pop-up with the XFCE equivalent:
XFCE Popup

Lubuntu Popup

It has a simple config GUI (xfce4-notifyd-config) - by default the notification size is smaller - similar to the Unity pop-ups.

Since all the desktop popups work with the same underlying libnotify - using the XFCE variant in Lubuntu is fully compatible.
to install
Install the XFCE Notify Pop-up if you don't see it in your list of installed software (dpkg --get-selections | grep "xfce4-notify"):
sudo apt-get install xfce4-notifyd

11.10 users
It doesn't work with notify-osd if you have this also installed:
sudo apt-get remove notify-osd

Logout and login for the changes to take effect.
12.04 users
You need to remove notification-daemon as described using this Q&A:

How can I make xfce4-volumed keep giving notifications in Lubuntu?

12.10 users

Notification-daemon have been replaced for xfce4-notifyd on the default installation

In other words, it's the default. You don't have to install or uninstall anything and the notifications are already smaller. But you can still do useful things such as choose

where the pop-ups appear
the duration pop-ups stay visible
their theme and
opacity

Just press Alt+F2 to bring up the Run window (or click Run in the main menu), type xfce4-notifyd-config, and hit enter to get the GUI and make your choice.
Alternatively, if you want to use the mouse, you'll have to do a bit of extra work to get xfce4-notifyd-config to appear as an option in Main Menu, Preferences:

copy over /usr/share/applications/xfce4-notifyd-config.desktop to ~/.local/share/applications
open the copied file with Nano (or any other text editor)
navigate to near the end of the file and look for the line OnlyShowIn=XFCE
edit that line to read OnlyShowIn=XFCE;LXDE
save the changes

You should now see Notifications in Main Menu, Preferences. Clicking on that will bring up the GUI (that could be also accessed by typing xfce4-notifyd-config in a terminal or in the dialog box obtained by pressing Alt+F2).


microsoft office not properly working in wine

Probably not.

Wine is a lot different from virtualizing. From this link and the links to the specific programs, I'd say that 2007 shouldn't give you too many problems. What problems others have had is listed under the specific versions of each program.


How to install Angrybirds in Ubuntu 14.10 with Wine?

There are two ways to accomplish this:

Play it online from your browser (on angrybird.com for example) or via the chrome store.
Buy and download the Windows game here and install via wine as stated here


How can I use PulseAudio virtual audio streams to play music over Skype?

After many hours of tinkering I finally achieved it!

I created two Null Outputs and created two loopbacks for the first and one loopback for the second.

pactl load-module module-null-sink sink_name=Virtual1
pactl load-module module-null-sink sink_name=Virtual2
pactl load-module module-loopback sink=Virtual1
pactl load-module module-loopback sink=Virtual1
pactl load-module module-loopback sink=Virtual2

Next I opened PulseAudio Volume Control (pavucontrol)

These are my settings. I typed them in the order they appear. Numbers go from up to down.

Recording tab:

Applications:

All applications should input from your headset/microphone.
Except the application(s) you want to send the audio to should be set to one of the following. If you ONLY want to send the audio: Monitor of Null Output 1. It will be the first "Null Output" in the list. If you want to send both the audio and your voice: Monitor of Null Output 2. It will be the second "Null Output" in the list.

Virtual Streams:

Loopback to Null Output (1): Your headset/microphone
Loopback to your headset/microphone: Null Output 1. It will be the first "Null Output" in the list.
Loopback to Null Output: Null Output 1. It will be the first "Null Output" in the list.

Playback tab:

Applications:

All applications should output to your headset/speaker.
Except the application(s) you want to record/send through Skype/stream should be set to Null Output 1. It will be the first "Null Output" in the list.

Virtual streams:

Loopback of your headset: Null Output 2. It will be the second "Null Output" in the list.
Loopback of Monitor of Null Output (1): Your headset.
Loopback of Monitor of Null Output (2): Null Output 2. It will be the second "Null Output" in the list.


How to resume terminal functionality after issuing the "suspend" command?

From your link:

  until it receives a SIGCONT signal.

So that would be kill -SIGCONT {pid}

killall -CONT bash would resume all.
kill -18 {pid} would be the same.
and so is kill -s CONT {pid}

According to this list it should be control-z but you need to use control-z to stop the process:

18 - SIGCONT - Resume process, ctrl-Z (2nd)
19 - SIGSTOP - Pause the process / free command line, ctrl-Z (1st)

You need the {pid} of the shell session running in the terminal

And there is also job control commands:

fg, bg

The fg command switches a job running in the background into the foreground.
The bg command restarts a suspended job, and runs it in the background.
If no job number is specified, then the fg or bg command acts
upon the currently running job.


I just ran into this same problem. I disabled the second interface on my MAAS server and I'm attempting an openstack-install now. Once the second interface was gone, I had no issues using my cisco as default route rather than the MAAS server.


Redirecting serial ports with multiple instances of socat

After much searching I found some examples here at the Homeseer website.

From what I have learned you can add the & to the end of the socat command and it will run the socat in the background. I believe it is the way Ubuntu evaluates commands using the && ; and &.

Here are the 2 commands that are currently redirecting 2 virtual pty ports to different IP address and running in the background successfully.

sudo socat PTY,link=/dev/ttyV00,mode=777,echo=0,ignoreeof,b115200,raw TCP:192.168.0.16:9100 &

sudo socat PTY,link=/dev/ttyV01,mode=777,echo=0,ignoreeof,b115200,raw TCP:192.168.0.85:5002 &


How can I set up that the menu bar on the left is always shown?

Install CCSM (CompizConfig Settings Manager) from the Software Center. Open it and find the Unity plugin. There's a section in the Unity settings called Hide Launcher which is set to "Dodge Windows" by default. You can set it to "Never"


Found it! @muclux was on the right track. In this system I have 3 HDs. One for the OS, one for my shares, and one that is a lazy back-up. I run rsync commands every hour to sync over from the shares. However, when I run rsync I just use the /media/backup_hd mount point. Somehow my actual drive was unmounted and so the rsync command tried to copy my files to the directory which is just a part of the root hard drive. I do not know how it was umounted but when I pulled the OS drive and put it into another system that is where I found all the junk.

My problem now is the OS will not boot. I think I corrupted my OS drive somehow. Not sure how, but it just blinks. I bet I wrecked GRUB somehow. Anyway, this problem is solved. I will look up how to run rsync to the drive not the mount point or something to avoid this in the future. Wild really. Thanks to everyone who read through this.


Anyway to still have Google Play Store on Ubuntu?

Sorry, none that I am aware of - while Ubuntu and Android both use Linux kernels, they are separate operating systems entirely, and software for one will not generally run on the other.


WiFi is connected but internet not working?

Possible solution (I have the same laptop):

sudo rmmod iwldvm
sudo modprobe iwlwifi 11n_disable=1
sudo modprobe iwldvm

Now, this only worked for me. I don't actually know what this code does, so use at your own risk.


VLC Player does not display bold subtitles/font (regardless which font is selected)

I have solved the problem.

Open the Tools menu and click on Preferences or press Ctrl + P to open it.
Now, take a look at the corner on the bottom left. Set Show settings from Stimple to All.
Scroll down to Video -> Subtitles / OSD and select Text renderer.
Check Force bold and click Save.
Restart VLC and everything should just work fine.


How to make the toolbar go back to default?

To reset your gnome panels to "factory default" delete (or better move to have a backup) the settings folder

To delete enter a terminal an type rm -r ~/.gconf/apps/panel

If you log out and back in it should be ok again...


After booting into recovery mode, you must remember to re-mount the root filesystem as read-write, otherwise changing the password will have no effect. Follow the instructions here to reset your password: https://www.liberiangeek.net/2014/10/change-forgotten-password-ubuntu-14-04-servers/


Need help installing a wifi driver for Ubuntu 16.04

Your adapter is not supported by the kernel because you installed 16.04, but not 16.04.3 on new hardware.

You can upgrade the kernel by

sudo apt install linux-generic-hwe-16.04

You need to be connected to the internet to get the new kernel.


pptpd in 16.04: can't establish the connection

It's not Ubuntu 16.04 - even if you had a slightly newer kernel set in 14.04 it would do this. See workaround here which involves turning on nf_conntrack_pptp kernel module.


Unable to migrate guest: Unsafe migration: Migration may lead to data corruption if disks use cache != none

As error says, you should have cache mode == none. You can make use of the virt-manager to do this.

Connect to the kvm guests from virt-manager.
Open the guest (the virtual machine you want to migrate) window. go to "show virtual hardware details" > IDE DISK * > Expand the Advanced options > Expand performance options > set the cache mode to none > Click on apply.
You may need to restart you virtual machine in order to migrate.
After rebooting your virtual machine.. you can migrate the vm to destination host normally.


The installation with the live CD is pretty demanding for an old computer. How much ram memory do you have?
I would also suggest you to try lubuntu, as low weight version of ubuntu.


how can i bridge my LAN port to batman-adv?

This works:
http://freifunk.in-kiel.de/wiki/Eigenen_Rechner_in_das_Freifunk-Netz

main commands:

  ifconfig bat0 up promisc

...

  ifconfig eth0 up promisc

  brctl addbr br-freifunk
  brctl addif br-freifunk bat0
  brctl addif br-freifunk eth0

...

  dhclient br-freifunk

and to stop it:

  brctl delif br-freifunk bat0
  brctl delif br-freifunk eth0
  brctl delbr br-freifunk

  ifconfig br-freifunk down
  ifconfig bat0 down -promisc
  ifconfig eth0 down -promisc

  batctl if del $IFACE


How do I change the color for directories with ls in the console?

To change your directory colors, open up your ~/.bashrc file with your editor

nano ~/.bashrc

and make the following entry at the end of the file:

LS_COLORS=$LS_COLORS:'di=0;35:' ; export LS_COLORS

Some nice color choices (in this case 0;35 it is purple) are:

Blue = 34
Green = 32
Light Green = 1;32
Cyan = 36
Red = 31
Purple = 35
Brown = 33
Yellow = 1;33
Bold White = 1;37
Light Grey = 0;37
Black = 30
Dark Grey= 1;30

The first number is the style (1=bold), followed by a semicolon, and then the actual number of the color, possible styles (effects) are:

0   = default colour
1   = bold
4   = underlined
5   = flashing text (disabled on some terminals)
7   = reverse field (exchange foreground and background color)
8   = concealed (invisible)

The possible backgrounds:

40  = black background
41  = red background
42  = green background
43  = orange background
44  = blue background
45  = purple background
46  = cyan background
47  = grey background
100 = dark grey background
101 = light red background
102 = light green background
103 = yellow background
104 = light blue background
105 = light purple background
106 = turquoise background
107 = white background

All possible colors:

30  = black
31  = red
32  = green
33  = orange
34  = blue
35  = purple
36  = cyan
37  = grey
90  = dark grey
91  = light red
92  = light green
93  = yellow
94  = light blue
95  = light purple
96  = turquoise
97  = white

These can even be combined, so that a parameter like:

di=1;4;31;42

in your LS_COLORS variable would make directories appear in bold underlined red text with a green background!

To test all these colors and styles in your terminal, you can use one of:

for i in 00{2..8} {0{3,4,9},10}{0..7}
do echo -e "$i \e[0;${i}mSubdermatoglyphic text\e[00m  \e[1;${i}mSubdermatoglyphic text\e[00m"
done

for i in 00{2..8} {0{3,4,9},10}{0..7}
do for j in 0 1
   do echo -e "$j;$i \e[$j;${i}mSubdermatoglyphic text\e[00m"
   done
done

You can also change other kinds of files when using the ls command by defining each kind with:

bd = (BLOCK, BLK)   Block device (buffered) special file
cd = (CHAR, CHR)    Character device (unbuffered) special file
di = (DIR)  Directory
do = (DOOR) [Door][1]
ex = (EXEC) Executable file (ie. has 'x' set in permissions)
fi = (FILE) Normal file
ln = (SYMLINK, LINK, LNK)   Symbolic link. If you set this to ‘target’ instead of a numerical value, the color is as for the file pointed to.
mi = (MISSING)  Non-existent file pointed to by a symbolic link (visible when you type ls -l)
no = (NORMAL, NORM) Normal (non-filename) text. Global default, although everything should be something
or = (ORPHAN)   Symbolic link pointing to an orphaned non-existent file
ow = (OTHER_WRITABLE)   Directory that is other-writable (o+w) and not sticky
pi = (FIFO, PIPE)   Named pipe (fifo file)
sg = (SETGID)   File that is setgid (g+s)
so = (SOCK) Socket file
st = (STICKY)   Directory with the sticky bit set (+t) and not other-writable
su = (SETUID)   File that is setuid (u+s)
tw = (STICKY_OTHER_WRITABLE)    Directory that is sticky and other-writable (+t,o+w)
*.extension =   Every file using this extension e.g. *.rpm = files with the ending .rpm

A more complete list is available at Bigsoft - Configuring LS_COLORS.

On some distributions, you might also want to change the background color for ow "(OTHER_WRITABLE) whose default is non-readable" for example to non-bold blue text on green background.

You could use for instance LS_COLORS="$LS_COLORS:di=1;33" at the end of your .bashrc file, to get a nice readable bold orange text on black background.

After you alter your .bashrc file, to put the changes in effect you will have to restart your shell or run source ~/.bashrc.

Note: You can combine more commands with a colon, for example

LS_COLORS=$LS_COLORS:'di=1;33:ln=36' ; export LS_COLORS; ls

Source:

COLORS Lscolors - Linux StepByStep
Geek Gumbo - Changing the Directory Color in Bash


Can i just install ubuntu on a HP DV2000 and everything will work?

The answer relies on you.Better run the live system and check everything works or not.Up on booting,you can select either to try Ubuntu or to install it.Try it first from the live media and decide yourself,is it make any better to you or not.All the best and enjoy Ubuntu.

Download from here.

Installation instructions are here.


In order:

Yes, as the R packages are well maintained, and you get the CRAN builds of R so you are not even lagging behind.
I like Emacs. (Also see dozens of posts at StackOverflow and other StackExchange sites  on editor choice.)
I like Emacs with ESS. (Dito for R editor choices.)
I like Emacs with AucTex.

All snickering aside, many R Core members use the same combination of Emacs + ESS + AucTex.

Also, while learning Emacs is surely a good thing in the long run, there are many decent editors in Ubuntu that can be used for R, LaTeX and C++.  Some folks seem to like Geany; I am sure you can find something suitable too.


Yet another laptop wifi problem, script log included

First of all, welcome to AskUbuntu. Your excellent question includes detail and is very helpful. Please keep up the good work.

Computer was sent to maintenance, wasn't turning on, technicians fixed
it by saying it was something like "charge inverter" in the
motherboard.

In your wireless script, we see that the wireless device scans and sees only one or two networks. We also see that the strongest has a signal strength of 20/100. To make and keep a strong connection, I’d expect to see at least 50/100. My current connection is:
GBR5   Infra  149   405 Mbit/s  84      ▂▄▆█  WPA2

In other words, my signal strength is 84/100.
My suspicion is that, in repairing the motherboard, as the technician reassembled the laptop, that one or both of the antenna connectors were not firmly reconnected.
Please see the gray and black connectors here: https://callnerds.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/wireless-adapter-1024x722.jpg
I recommend that you ask the repair technician to double-check his work.


Lenovo X120e only boots into windows after dual boot installation

you can use easyBCD software to dual boot,please follow this guide

http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Ubuntu

Most of the times it will work,sometimes this may not work.In that case you can follow this article
http://www.iceflatline.com/2009/09/how-to-dual-boot-windows-7-and-linux-using-bcdedit/
the second method is somewhat complex but it works for sure i used both methods.


Ubuntu 20.04 running thinkorswim from applications list

Try it without 'xdg-open'
Like this:
Name=ThinkorSwim
Exec=/home/dunnetahl/thinkorswim/thinkorswim
Terminal=false
Icon=/home/dunnetahl/thinkorswim/thinkorswim.ico
Type=Application
Comment=ToS Workstation


Unpinned Docky/Plank icon from Docky/Plank docks and can't pin it on again

In version 0.11.1 the solutions listed here no longer work because Plank has migrated to GSettings for storing its settings - at a long last. I've been nagging Rico to do that since forever.

To enable/disable the plank icon in 0.11.1 and later, open dconf-editor (if it's not installed, run sudo apt-get install dconf-editor) and navigate to net.launchpad.plank.docks.dock1. You will see a list of settings for the dock in there, including a show-dock-item checkbox. Check it to show the plank item in dock.


My recommendation for installing kubuntu is to simply install all the kubuntu stuff, and delete all the ubuntu specific stuff with sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop kdeplasma-addons and sudo apt-get remove ubuntu-desktop. I'll update this in a few minutes once I know how to change the lockscreen to match, but that should get you pretty close.


How to install tracegraph into ubuntu 20.04 LTS

It is still possible by executing the following commands:
sudo apt-get install libc6:i386 libxext6:i386 libxt6:i386
cd ~/Downloads
wget -c http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/g/glibc/multiarch-support_2.27-3ubuntu1.4_amd64.deb
sudo apt-get install -y ./multiarch-support_2.27-3ubuntu1.4_amd64.deb
wget -c http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/libx/libxp/libxp6_1.0.2-2_i386.deb
sudo apt-get install -y ./libxp6_1.0.2-2_i386.deb

wget -c https://lahore.comsats.edu.pk/research/groups/CNRC/tracegraph202linux.tar.gz
tar -zxvf tracegraph202linux.tar.gz
cd tracegraph202
wget -c https://lahore.comsats.edu.pk/research/groups/CNRC/mglinstaller.gz
gunzip mglinstaller.gz
chmod +x mglinstaller
./mglinstaller

Then add the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable to your ~/.bashrc file by
echo "export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/$USER/Downloads/tracegraph202/bin/glnx86" >> ~/.bashrc

then
source ~/.bashrc
./trgraph

This will give the following output:

$ ./trgraph Copyright (c) 2001-2005 by Jaroslaw Malek All rights
reserved. Author contact: wido@o2.pl

Using and copying any version of Trace graph program and its
documentation is allowed only for non-commercial purposes provided
that the above copyright  notice and this permission appear in all
copies and any materials related to Trace graph. Commercial use
requires a permission from Jaroslaw Malek. Trace graph cannot be
distributed, sold,  copied or modified without Jaroslaw Malek's
permission. Trace graph is provided with no warranty. Jaroslaw Malek
is not responsible  for any events and results caused by using Trace

and graphical window of the application.

Note: binary distribution was found on https://lahore.comsats.edu.pk/research/groups/CNRC/QuickLinks.aspx and then adapted.


Why `sudo apt-get install XXXX` sometimes request confirmation, others not?

It will usually ask you if there are suggested or recommended packages that depend on the software you are attempting to install,
It might also depend on the size of the program or security of the repository you are downloading from.