What programs can a user use to make the desktop more pleasant/enhance/better

To tweak Compiz you can install
CompizConfig Settings Manager.
It has many options, some of them
might break your user interface so
be cautious.
Conky is a system monitor that
can display just about anything,
either on your root desktop or in
its own window. Conky has many
built-in objects, as well as the
ability to execute external programs
or scripts (either external or
through built-in lua support). It is
not easy to configure Conky, but you
can download many pre-configured
files. Tech Drive-in featured
some really great Conky themes not
so long ago. OMG! Ubuntu! also
featured some Conky themes.
WebUpd8 created an Ubuntu Themes
PPA with many awesome GNOME
themes.


try reinstalling gnome-shell
and gnome

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gnome

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

hope it may help


Offline available documents from network drive

You can use rsync to keep folders/files synchronized, so make local copy and keep it update. rsync is a command line tool, you can write simple shell script what sync everything you need or use a gui tool, for example: grsync

Setup grsync session and save it, then later add files to it if need something new.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grsync


I've found that the following works for me, as far as using apt from the terminal alone is concerned:

Leave /etc/apt/apt.conf empty, so that apt falls back on the $*_proxy environment variables.
Make sure your environment variables are properly set: For example, you could add in .bashrc:

http_proxy="http://username:password@proxyserver:port"
# And so on for other proxy settings like https_proxy and ftp_proxy

If your username or password contains any special characters, they may need to be URL encoded.
Make sudo use your environment variables and not its own. This is done by editing the /etc/sudoers file. Be careful while doing this! Use only the sudo visudo command to edit the file; any errors may leave you unable to re-enter sudo mode! Add the following:

Defaults env_keep+="http_proxy https_proxy ftp_proxy socks_proxy"

This ensures that sudo retains these variables when executing sudo apt-get install ... etc.

I found this out from Ubuntu's apt-get howto.

Do let me know if it works :)


How do I perform a full reinstallation of pip and pip3?

To completely remove and reinstall pip and pip3 in all currently supported versions of Ubuntu open the terminal and type:

sudo apt purge python-pip python3-pip
sudo apt install python-pip python3-pip
pip uninstall --user pip
pip3 uninstall --user pip3

Removing a package removes all packaged data, but leaves usually           small (modified) user configuration files behind, in case the           remove was an accident. Just issuing an installation request for           the accidentally removed package will restore its function as           before in that case. On the other hand you can get rid of these           leftovers by calling purge even on already removed packages. Note           that this does not affect any data or configuration stored in your           home directory.


I have done this from an application in the Windows 7. It should be in win 8 also.
We can shrink the size. Afterwards "Ubuntu"can be installed with C.D. This C.D can be created by down-loading an Image file(nrg)and running a virtual drive/burning Disc. 'How to create a virtual drive' may be known from Internet.But we should be careful not to lose Windows after the installation of "UBUNTU" by deleting any partition and leaving the space without DOS partition.If space is not there we can delete unwanted files and then shrink.


I've tried it too and the laptop suspends when closing the lid.
This is a confirmed bug at launchpad. Maybe you can find a solution here.


I solved the problem already with this:
Boot hangs for 30 seconds at "Begin: Running /scripts/local-premount"

Boot time is back at 18.62 seconds


Uncompress and pipe the output to script

I found the solution:

gunzip -c myfile.gz | myScript.pl -o myoutfile.txt -i -

it was the - after -i that did the trick.


There is a workaround for that problem:
You have to open the dialogue to choose a folder for your alternative dropbox location - there, in the top left corner, you'll find a button with three dots and a pen on it. Click on that button and type the exact path to the location you want Dropbox to put your Dropbox Folder. (eg. "/home/username/Backup/" for the Dropbox folder being "/home/username/Backup/Dropbox")

See Thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=12328311


In my case Wine did not get effectively uninstalled using the command:

sudo apt-get --purge remove wine

So I did the following (make sure to copy the exact commands):

cd $HOME
rm -r .wine
rm .config/menus/applications-merged/wine*
rm -r .local/share/applications/wine
rm .local/share/desktop-directories/wine*
rm .local/share/icons/????_*.xpm

These commands delete files stored in hard disk that may lock uninstallation of wine. Quite possibly you will get some warnings about rm: remove write-protected regular file here. These can be enforced collectively by using the f option, i.e. rm -f and rm -rf instead of the above... but be the heck careful that you've actually typed the right paths!

After deleting the files run command:

sudo apt-get remove --purge wine

Do the following to correct any installation error.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get autoremove


Go to your home directory and edit .bashrc file. There you can find lines that look similar to this one:

  PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h:\w\$ '

Delete \w and current working directory will dissappear.


I searched and found this, hope this helps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw4n6PL9258

This was uploaded by Ryan D - profile link https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLxlPxUjBipRET4vODsim6Q


Can I dd a larger drive to a smaller one?

Yes, as long as the partitions will fit so do not need to be resized by dd.
i.e. the size of the drive isn't the issue.
(Note that all the below should be done by booting your original installation DVD and using the LiveCD option so the drives in question are not mounted.)
Here is an over-simplified answer, where I either never used gparted to resize the partition, or I did but now have done it again to bring it back down to size.
For instance, if you take a 160 GB drive (/dev/sda) and copy it to a 750 GB drive (/dev/sdb) - which I did to get faster booting on a 7200 rpm drive.  You might be doing this simply for backup.

/dev/sda (160GB boot drive) is plugged into SATA port 0
/dev/sdc DVD drive is in SATA port 1
/dev/sdb (750 GB drive) is plugged into SATA port 2

Start by collecting info
sudo fdisk -l

/dev/sda is your original 160 GB drive with partitions.
Then ideally, it will show that /dev/sdb has no partition table.
If /dev/sdb shows partitions but you want to use it anyway, you can wipe the MBR and partition table from it with the following command:
sudo dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sdb bs=512 count=24

which will wipe the MBR and partition tables guaranteed.
It will appear as if it was a new, blank drive.
Proceed to back up your boot drive to the larger one:
sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb

This will take some time.  I am writing this 3 years after you posted the question and mine takes 8000 seconds (about 2.5 hours) to do the backup.
In my case, I then removed the original boot drive and set it aside as the backup.  That causes my system to boot from the first hard drive it finds, which is the 750 on SATA port 2.
But in your case, you are removing the 750 and setting it aside as the backup, thus setting the stage to answer your question specifically.
THEN LATER -- AND MORE TO THE POINT OF YOUR QUESTION:
Say your boot drive fails, or you decide to replace it with a 160 GB SSD drive like I just did.  I have not used more of the 750 GB drive.  It still contains just the original 160 GB partitions from before
The new SSD is also a 160 GB ($50 on eBay) so it is large enough to hold the partitions.
The original /dev/sdb is still plugged into the same motherboard SATA socket as before, so now I plug the SSD into SATA port 0, and the SSD is now /dev/sda
(/dev/sdc is the LiveCD I am booting from)
Open a terminal window and check things out:
sudo fdisk -l

to verify that the 160 GB (/dev/sda) has no partition table.  If it does,  you can wipe the MBR and partition table from it with the following command:
sudo dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sdb bs=512 count=24

Then proceed with the dd:
dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sda

(It will take the same length of time as before - a couple of hours)
Make sure to do a clean shutdown of the liveCD.
sudo init 0

It will eject the CD then prompt you to press enter so it can flush the remaining buffers.
Remove the 750 which was /dev/sdb.
And voila, it can now boot onto the smaller drive just fine, because the size of the partitions allowed it to fit.

If you do this with a SSD like I just did, put on your seatbelt before booting.
It is so fast you won't even get a full draw from the coffee mug before it is asking for your password.

In my particular case, I opted to leave the 750 HDD in as a secondary drive that I mount by UUID in the fstab under /mnt for backups and data collection.

So there you have it.  An answer from July 2017 using Ubuntu 14.04 Install/LiveCD


Have you tried AutoKey? It can do quite a lot of keyboard interference through abbreviations and hotkeys. It's less focussed on GUI interactions but if the application in question has keyboard shortcuts, it can use them.

sudo apt-get install autokey-gtk


To get to the grub boot menu when autologin is set, just hold one of the Shift keys down after you turn the computer on.  When the grub menu comes up select Ubuntu recovery mode.

Next, when the recovery menu comes up, make sure that it says up the top "filesystem state read/write".  If it does not select "check all file systems" and wait for the check to finish.  The drives should now be mounted read/write.

Next select 'root' - 'Drop to root shell prompt' and when you get the text prompt type

passwd username

where 'username' is your username for which you want to change the password.  You will then need to twice type in a password of at least 8 characters.  If you make a mistake it will not change the password.  Note that you will not get any indication at all of the characters you are typing - the cursor will stay on the same spot.

It is not a good idea to set a password of 0 characters in Linux.  Not only may it completely circumvent the mechanism by which Linux is the most safe and secure operating system, many tools and utilities will not work correctly because they will not accept a null password, as you have found out.

After you've changed the password, you can reboot simply by typing

reboot

on the command line, then wait for Ubuntu to shutdown and restart.


How to install Ubuntu from USB and not delete Windows XP

Manually changing the partitions as part of the installation process is relatively straightforward.  See Manual partitioning  for an example and a number of helpful links including some to video tutorials.


You will need to install an extension, such as Multiple Monitor Panels to be able to configure this.


Right click onto the Desktop, select Configure Desktop, go to Tweaks and uncheck the Show the desktop toolbox radio button.


Edit your /etc/apt/sources.list and make sure that universe is included.  Or open software sources, and make sure of that.

Once done, just press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open Terminal. When it opens, run the command(s) below:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gksu


./configure not found on new installation of ubuntu

Thanks for all your Ideas.

I managed to install it with this tutorial.

1. Get Processor architecture

$ getconf LONG_BIT
64

2. Download package using correct version and CPU Architecture

wget http://nodejs.org/dist/v4.2.4/node-v4.2.4-linux-x64.tar.gz

3. Unpack to `/usr/local  using correct version and CPU Architecture

 sudo tar -C /usr/local --strip-components 1 -xzf node-v4.2.4-linux-x64.tar.gz

Works

  I also tried Install Node.js with Maintained Ubuntu Packages from the same link which didn't work, due to failures inside the bash-script.


Forcing time/date applet to show correct time

I've tried following command and it helps me:

killall indicator-datetime-service

indicator applet seamlessly restart with correct time shown.


Why Ubuntu Appears in control panel list of windows?

You have installed Ubuntu using WUBI, and that installs it just like a windows application, and that's why you see it in the installed programs under Control Panel.

Now to find the downloaded ISO file, just open file manager, or search depending on the version of windows that you have, and do a search for ubuntu*.iso.  That will find the Ubuntu ISO file that you've downloaded. If you haven't downloaded the file yet, you can download it Here.

Once you locate the file, you can either burn a DVD using Imgburn, or create a bootable USB using Unetbootin or Yumi.


Ubuntu One sync notifications not showing when using Encfs

Make sure you are looking at the encrypted folder path to see the emblems. Ubuntu One doesn't know anything about the decrypted mount, so viewing it won't show any emblems. I don't know if there's any good way to go about making that work, technically, either. It may be something that the gnome-encfs package might need to provide via a Nautilus extension, showing the same emblems on the decrypted files, that are set on the encrypted files, updating automatically.

As for the notifications, you should be getting them, but they will have the names/paths of the encrypted files, which may also be confusing you if you're expecting the decrypted file names. This is also because Ubuntu One doesn't know anything about the decrypted mount point. I don't think there is any way to work around this technically.


Maybe you are talking about docker or a virtual machine client like vmware or virtualbox ?


Which one to install first when dual boot Windows 8.1 and Ubuntu 13.10?

Install windows first

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

' A Windows OS should be installed first, because its bootloader is very particular and the installer tends to overwrite the entire hard drive, wiping out any data stored on it.'


Which DropBox installer do I have to download for use on Lubuntu?

You should use the one for Ubuntu, since Lubuntu actually is Ubuntu, only with a different set of default applications.


Mass tag fixing (large ogg audio collection)

Check lltag

From the man page:
lltag is a command-line tool to automatically set tags of MP3, OGG or FLAC files.

https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/bionic/man1/lltag.1.html


Sorry, I don't have direct answer.

If you are in Unity environment. All the keyboard shortcuts are stored in System setting > keyboard > Shortcuts (tab).

You can find all the custom shortcut in "Custom Shortcuts (tab)".

You can add or edit any shortcut keys here.

To know how to edit shortcut keys, refer the below article:

How to change keyboard shortcuts?


The /etc/bash.bashrc is sourced from /etc/profile if the user's default shell is bash.  The default shell is set in the last field of the /etc/passwd file on that user's line. If another shell is used, like /usr/bin/sh, then the /etc/profile logic says skip the sourcing of the bash.bashrc.
Change the default shell to bash with usermod:
usermod -s /bin/bash USER2


How to securely install things not in /opt so they can update themselves

Follow these steps  so that firefox can update itself :

Open Terminal then,

1) Move or copy the firefox tar file in opt directory by this command :  sudo mv /home/username/Download/Firefox.tar.bz2  /opt/

2) Then extract the firefox tar file there with appropriate command . You can search "how to extract a particular type of file in linux".

3) After extracting a folder named firefox will be created in the "opt" folder. Then type this command to get access to the firefox folder :

cd /opt
sudo chown -R username:groupname firefox/

This way you can directly update firefox without the need of downloading  firefox.tar file from mozilla.org.

Or you can install firefox via same methods in /usr/local/ directory if you do not want to install in /opt directory.

If you have any doubt then ask.


British Indian Ocean Territory time problem

Seeing as British Indian Ocean Territory's timezone is not in Ubuntu, you can try these steps to set it:

Open a Terminal
Run this command:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

Select None of the above.
Select GMT+6.
The time should now be set correctly.

Alternatively,

You can look for a country in the Time & Date map with the same timezone as yours.

Otherwise, you should be able to set your time manually if you can't find the country.

Open Time & Date.
Change "Set the time" to "Manually".
Enter the current time into the appropriate fields.


Unknown Additional Driver: Processor microcode firmware for Intel CPUs for intel-microcode

The microcode data file for Linux contains the latest microcode
definitions for all Intel processors.
Intel releases microcode updates to correct processor behavior as documented in the respective processor specification updates.
While the regular approach to getting this microcode update is via a BIOS upgrade, Intel realizes that this is an administrative hassle.
The Linux Operating System has a mechanism to update the microcode after  booting the OS.
In Ubuntu Vivid Vervet 15.04,ubuntu-drivers-common is a framework to detect hardware-dependent components on user's machine.
Source


Installing ubuntu on Mac Mini using refind: Do I use Logical or Primary for Ubuntu partition?

On a GPT disk (which is what Macs normally use), there's no such thing as a "logical partition"; that's a partition type that's unique to MBR disks. Some Linux partitioning tools, such as GParted and perhaps the Ubuntu installer's partitioning tool, ask you to identify GPT partitions as primary vs. logical, but this question is unnecessary and confusing on a GPT disk. Note, however, that a logical volume management (LVM) configuration uses logical volumes. These have nothing to do with logical partitions. LVM may be used as a layer atop either MBR or GPT.

Every Ubuntu installation requires a root (/) partition. Other partitions (/boot, /home, /tmp, /usr, and so on) are useful or necessary in some situations, but aren't strictly required for most installations. Ubuntu's default partitioning scheme gives most disk space to / and some (typically a bit more than your RAM capacity) to a swap partition (which has no mount point). Personally, I recommend doing it this way:

10-40GiB for /

Use low values if your disk space is low or if you know you want a minimal setup
Use high values if you've got disk space to burn or you know you'll want to install tons of software

A bit more than your RAM for swap
Whatever's left for /home

If you know enough to create additional partitions or use RAID or LVM, you can certainly deviate from this. I don't mean to imply this setup is perfect for all uses; it's just a first-pass recommendation for users who are relatively new to Ubuntu and who want to control partitioning themselves rather than rely on Ubuntu's defaults.


What is needed to use notify-send in a snap?

It looks like we need to add this to the snapcraft.yaml file:

stage-packages:
    - libnotify-bin


problems installing and running software on an old xp machine

The problem was the video card.  Once I changed out the old geForce video card with a new 2Gb geForce GT 610, I was able to install Ubuntu 32 bit fine and both FreeCad and Openscad worked.

Thank you all for helping me figure out how to diagnose this.


What's a recommended alternative to Quickbooks pro?

There are a variety of alternatives to QuickBooks, if you're looking for a web-based option. Or, as Jackson Doak mentioned, there is GnuCash - open source & desktop. It's a pretty robust accounting software and certainly worth exploring, if you prefer a desktop alternative to QuickBooks.

If you're open to web-based options, then have a look at Wave (completely free), Monchilla or Outright (both free/paid options). QuickBooks does have an online version available and there's Xero also.

It will depend on your accounting needs, as much as your chosen platform. I'm a certified advisor and user of QuickBooks, as well as the web-based software options I listed.

Good luck!


Juju - How to add SSH keys to a model after a depoy

juju add-ssh-key [options] <ssh key> ...

Source: docs.


Have Ubuntu 18.04LTS installed, windows boot can't detect hard disk (possible GRUB issue)

To do it easier, if you don't mind to lose your data, you have to install Win10 first, and then do a partition for Ubuntu.
So, delete Ubuntu, install win10, make a partition and then install ubuntu. Tell me if you solve this


How do I find out what these partitions are?

Those could be the default partitions if you told the initial installation of Ubuntu to do its own thing.  Ubuntu 16.04 now defaults to LVM partitioning schemes, so yes, you are probably seeing the sda1 and sda2 as partitions on the physical drive where the /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root is logical to probably the sda2 partition.

One way I like to see all the partitions and it might make more sense, open a terminal window by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T.  Then type in the following command to show the mount points of the drive:  I will give mine as an example.

  lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,MODEL,FSTYPE,MOUNTPOINT

Edit: Here is a VM I set up with LVM configuration:

terrance@ubuntu-LVM-test:~$ lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,MODEL,FSTYPE,MOUNTPOINT
NAME                                      SIZE MODEL          FSTYPE  MOUNTPOINT
sda                                        30G VBOX HARDDISK
├─sda1                                    243M                        /boot
├─sda2                                      1K
└─sda5                                   29.8G
  ├─ubuntu--LVM--test--vg-root (dm-0)    25.8G                        /
  └─ubuntu--LVM--test--vg-swap_1 (dm-1)     4G                        [SWAP]
sr0                                      55.8M CD-ROM         iso9660

You can also use parted with it to check partition types and sizes to match:

terrance@ubuntu-LVM-test:~$ sudo parted -l
[sudo] password for terrance:
Model: ATA VBOX HARDDISK (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 32.2GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  256MB   255MB   primary   ext2         boot
 2      257MB   32.2GB  32.0GB  extended
 5      257MB   32.2GB  32.0GB  logical                lvm

The drive that booted then the LVM was mounted after boot will show the mount point as /boot, then the /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root will show as /.  The home / was mounted in my extended partition there, and the swap was mounted as well in the extended.  My sda2 is the start of my extended partition, then sda5 is my LVM.

sdx is just a designation that they use for physical hard drives, as in sda or sdc, etc.  And sdxN is what they use to specify partitions, like sda1 or sda5.

Hopefully this might help explain a little better about the partitions.


Installed Kali Tools with kaltoolin3 on Ubuntu 20.04 and now Ubuntu will only boot to command line

You have apparently broken your system, as referred to in the github page for katoolin3:

Warning for Ubuntu users
Installing programs from repositories for different operating systems
is generally considered dangerous! Some packages might (and probably
will) break your system. Be careful when installing the tools and
don't blame katoolin3 for any inconveniences. The optimal solution is
to install specific tools from tools.kali.org. It is not recommended
to install all tools.

You could check this by asking what OS you are running (uname -a) but it is likely that your system is now a mix of Ubuntu and Kali, and unfortunately that don't always work in the way that either OS intends.
It is possible that with a some effort, you could get back to a stable Ubuntu 20.04 but the consensus of a search on this site for "remove katoolin tools" generally devolves into "reinstall Ubuntu"


Ubuntu 12.04 freezes during installation

It could be a bad download . . . try downloading the iso again.
It could be a bad burn on the cd or dvd . . . try burning it again at a slower speed.
It could be that you don't have enough system memory. Unlikely on any system newer than 6 or 7 years. You could download an "alternate installation" and try that.
It could be an unsuccessful transfer to a usb drive. I just tried installing 13.04 from a flash drive. The drive would boot a live session, but not install. Odd, I never did figure out why, but I used unetbootin again on a fresh download and it worked.


Tor says that your config is invalid because of the unknown option 'obfs2':

Apr 11 13:26:52.413 [warn] Failed to parse/validate config: Unknown option 'obfs2'. Failing.

This is because there is no 'obfs2' client option for tor. The correct syntax would be Bridge [transport] IP:ORPort [fingerprint], so your torrc should look like this:

UseBridges 1
Bridge obfs2 **.***.***.***:*****
Bridge obfs2 ***.**.**.***:****
Bridge obfs2 ***.**.**.**:*****
ClientTransportPlugin obfs2 exec /usr/bin/obfsproxy --managed


"wodim: Permission denied. Cannot open SCSI driver!" how to solve?

It is happening because you are not root. The root account is essential to access system resources. Use

sudo cdrecord -v -eject speed=48 dev=/dev/sg1 /tmp/newcd.iso

to become root. You will be prompted for administrator password and then the process will start.


Libreoffice3.5 applications opening in new icon

I think that I have found a solution, one that works for me at least.

The same thing was happening to my Chromium icon on the launcher. I fixed it by getting rid of the icon, opening the Dash (windows button), searching for chromium, and then dragging the chromium icon from the dash to the launcher.

Do not add it to the launcher by opening the application and then right clicking the icon and selecting lock to launcher. I tried that, and it results in the same double-icon problem as before.


Dosen't my computer has other partitions mounted?

The gparted or disks apps on an Ubuntu LiveUSB allow you to delete partitions. It also allows you to increase existing partition size to use the space of the deleted partitions. However, you can't resize anything on the same drive you booted from (hence the LiveUSB).

Back Up Your Data before doing this!

Do not delete and resize in the same action; tell the app to delete a partition, then tell the app to go ahead and do it, before you resize to regain the newly available space.

Do not move the boot partition, and do not delete the partition where GRUB's data is. Either is a sure way to make your system unbootable.

Here's an article illustrating how to use gparted for this job.


configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables

It looks like you have a non-standard version of the GNU linker ld in your  /usr/local/bin directory (possibly installed from source), and your PATH environment variable is set such that the system finds that version before the 'system' version (which should be at /usr/bin/ld). If you want to build using the standard system versions of the build tools, you will need to adjust your PATH environment variable so that it searches /usr/bin ahead of /usr/local/bin

If you want to permanently fix your PATH variable, you will need to find out where you set it originally - probably in your ~/.bashrc file, but other locations are possible. Alternatively, if you just need a temporary fix for this build, you could try

export PATH="/usr/bin:$PATH"

in the terminal before executing the ./configure

However there are sometimes good reasons why you (or your system admin) may want you to use versions of tools from /usr/local - if so, then you will need to find out why the ld there is apparently not compatible with the rest of the build chain and fix it - if this is a work or school system then contact your system administrator or IT department.


Does Adobe, Firefox, or Canonical maintain flash plugin for Ubuntu?

As Flash is closed-source, Adobe maintains it. Although they now only backport security updates, and have not developed the Linux version beyond 11.2.

For more information on how though to get the latest version of Flash on Linux read Thomas W.'s answer here.


https://ckon.wordpress.com/2015/08/06/put-mysql-functions-back-into-php-7/

PHP7.* Not provide MySQL_* functions.

Solved


How do I know what the latest version of Rhythmbox is?

For Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, I've found only the WebUpd8 Team PPA, which contains the backports for Rhythmbox and it will update RB to the 0.13.1 version, which is 3 versions before the current stable (2.95).
Here is how to update using this PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/rhythmbox
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

To know which version of RB you are using, you can use Synaptic Package Manager
and filter by Rhythmbox or going to Rhythmbox menu, under Help to see if the version is specified.

To know which is the latest version of Rhythmbox, you can go to their official site.


Qt Quick UI templates missing from Qt Creator's New File or Project dialog

First check out that you are starting the Qt Creator version with the Ubuntu SDK plugins enabled.

If that does not solve it for you, you might be running into a known issue: it seems the Qt 5 runtime is not automatically detected by Qt Creator.

If you're affected by this, you will need to tell Qt Creator where the qmake binary file is in order for it to present you with the template wizards.

Fortunately, that's really straightforward:

Start Qt Creator (type ubuntu sdk on the Dash)
Go to Tools → Options
Select the Build & Run section
Select the Qt Versions tab
Click on the Add... button
In the file picker that just appeared navigate to the /usr/bin folder and select the qmake file (it might take awhile to appear), select it, and click on the Open button. If this doesn't load also try the qmake file located in the /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/bin folder.
Click on the OK button. The Qt Versions dialog should now look as the picture below

You should now be all set. Try the Ctrl + N shortcut (or go to File → New File or Project...) to start the new project wizard. The templates should now be in there.


I don't know why your service doesn't work, but I believe the standard way to make changes to /sys at boot is to use sysfsutils, so I'm suggesting that as an alternative approach.

The package may not be installed by default, so first do:

sudo apt install sysfsutils

now edit the file /etc/sysfs.conf, for example:

sudoedit /etc/sysfs.conf

and add these lines to the end of it

class/scsi_host/host1/link_power_management_policy = min_power
class/scsi_host/host2/link_power_management_policy = min_power
class/scsi_host/host0/link_power_management_policy = min_power
class/scsi_host/host5/link_power_management_policy = min_power
class/scsi_host/host3/link_power_management_policy = min_power
class/scsi_host/host4/link_power_management_policy = min_power
module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save = 1
bus/i2c/devices/i2c-0/device/power/control = auto
bus/i2c/devices/i2c-1/device/power/control = auto
bus/i2c/devices/i2c-2/device/power/control = auto
bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1d.0/power/control = auto
bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1f.3/power/control = auto
bus/pci/devices/0000:00:00.0/power/control = auto
bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1f.6/power/control = auto
bus/pci/devices/0000:00:02.0/power/control = auto
bus/pci/devices/0000:00:14.0/power/control = auto
bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1f.4/power/control = auto
bus/pci/devices/0000:00:17.0/power/control = auto
bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1f.2/power/control = auto
bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1c.0/power/control = auto
bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1f.0/power/control = auto
bus/pci/devices/0000:00:16.0/power/control = auto

Save the file and exit, and reboot.

That leaves your ethtool command, which I don't have a solution for, but you might see if systemd will run only that command for you as detailed in this answer by muru.


How do I run apps with options as icons from the dash?

The apps shown in the dash are .desktop files from /usr/share/applications (system wide) and ~/.local/share/applications (one user only).

If you want to modify an existing icon you will need to edit it's .desktop file in those locations. You will need root privileges to be able to modify the system wide icon (/usr/share/applications).

If you want to add a new icon, you will need to make a new .desktop file in either location. The easiest way is to copy the old one and change it's name.


GRUB is ignoring settings in /etc/default/grub - single boot system

As a brute force method, you can create a file called /etc/grub.d/99_short_timeout with the following content:
cat << EOF
set timeout=1
EOF

and call
chmod a+x /etc/grub.d/99_short_timeout
update-grub

afterwards.  This will add set timeout=1 as the last line to grub.cfg.
The reason why I want to have at least one second timeout is that I want to keep the chance to change the GRUB selection. In my case, GRUB refused to skip the selection altogether for good reason: I use Btrfs, and GRUB cannot yet write to Btrfs partitions, so it cannot record a failed boot, and cannot distinguish at boot time whether it should offer me a rescue system.


Why do options sometimes appear grey in the context menu even when they are available?

This is a bug in 12.04 that's been around for  quite awhile & probably will be for some time. (showed up early in Feb.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gtk+3.0/+bug/973491


To do that you must add your script to /etc/init.d/fileName and then type this

sudo update-rc.d fileName defaults.

Don't forget to make file executable using chmod 755 fileName

Sources:

Superuser
Debian-Administration


If this is your first time using ubuntu
Try installing codecs
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

OR install ubuntu-restricted-extras from ubuntu software center
If this doesn't work
Try typing this in terminal
alsamixer

press f6 to select your sound card.
In this application,
make sure to set all channels to high volume levels. Make sure the different speakers (especially 'Front', 'Master', and 'PCM") are NOT muted and NOT set to low volume levels in alsamixer. Move with the left and right keys on your keyboard until the "Master" item is highlighted (in red). If the letters "MM" are displayed under the volume bar, press "M" to unmute. Repeat with the "Master Mono", "Headphone", "PCM", "Front", "Surround", "Center" and "LFE" items. Press Esc when finished.


How to recover deleted files in ubuntu using live usb? [based on filetype]

Before you start:

It's always a good idea to work from a copy of your deleted data, so copy your entire disk before you begin
If you cannot, boot from a Live-USB/DVD before you begin.
If you cannot, know that by each and every single byte you write to your disk right now, one byte of one of your deleted files will be overwritten! (i.e. by installing PhotoRec and TestDisk, some deleted files will be overwritten by  the applications that you're going to install if you continue!).

What are the main differences between TestDisk and PhotoRec?
TestDisk is a lot more efficient than PhotoRec. The problem with TestDisk is that it doesn't always recover all deleted files. If you accidentally reformat a partition, TestDisk can recover thousands of files without missing a single file, but if you deleted a file by sending it to the Trash and then emptying the Trash, TestDisk can't always recover it.
So use TestDisk first, and if you recovered all of the deleted files with TestDisk, then you're done. If you recovered most of the deleted files with TestDisk, you can decide whether you're done or not. If you're not done after running TestDisk, you can try recovering the deleted files using PhotoRec.
PhotoRec can selectively recover files based on their filetype(s), but PhotoRec / TestDisk can't selectively scan an individual directory for lost files unless you had mounted a whole hard drive partition as this directory. In some cases, the filename is stored in the file itself. PhotoRec tries to recover the filename in this case, but most of the time PhotoRec can't recover the filenames.

Recover files based on filetype using PhotoRec

Install TestDisk from the Ubuntu Software Center.
 sudo apt-get install testdisk

Launch PhotoRec.
Open a terminal and launch photorec (as root).
 sudo photorec

Select hard disk.

Select partition type.
If your hard disk has Linux partitions, then select [Intel].

Select filetype option.
Move to [File Opt] and press Enter. Here you can disable all file types by pressing s. Use space to toggle the check button. Select filetype(s) to recover. For Perl you can select pl for Perl script or pm for Perl module.

Select options.
Photorec also has a list of different options. Under normal circumstances you don’t need to modify them.

Select partition.
Move the selector up or down to the partition from which you have removed the file(s). Then select [Search] and press Enter.

Select filesystem type.
If you are using Linux, it's going to be ext2/ext3/ext4, so the default selection is ext2/ext3. Otherwise if you are recovering files from a partition formatted as FAT or NTFS select Other.

Select space for analysis.
Select Free if you didn’t write to that partition after removing the particular file, otherwise select Whole.

Select a directory for the recovered files
Select the path where the recovered files will be stored. Then press Y.

Photorec will show how many files it has recovered.
Source: revised from How To Recover Deleted Files in Linux Using Photorec


Booting Ubuntu 13.10 from USB on server with no OS (Dell PowerEdge T110)

I think you should format your USB stick by FAT32.

Maybe this article will helping you.


Gnome 14.10 memory leak, over 5gb of gnome-shell

gnome-shell leaks memory like a colander.

There is a bug reported here (it's for Mint but it's the same problem) and on redhat.

Upstream there are at least 9 bugs reported.

Basically (one developer told me once, I can't find the reference) gnome-shell is completely unable (by design) to control the memory usage of its extensions. Add this to the fact that there is no API documentation for writing them (at least, I could not find it when I wrote mine) and well... leak happens.

In my case, I had to remove a couple of extensions (sensors and weather were the main culprits) that made the shell grows like crazy. Even now, every now and then I have to restart the shell with Alt-F2 and r to get it back to its normal size (and then you have to cope with gnome-terminals going crazy...).

Practical solution:

remove all extensions, look at the memory usage, and add them one by one to find the worst offender(s).
gnome-shell still leaks memory by itself, or you really need some extensions. So I do every now and then (basically every morning, my PC is normally on 24/7):
kill gnome terminals to avoid the bug above (in 14.04-shell 3.10; should be fixed in newer shell), by doing from one of them:

killall gnome-terminal

and reset the shell with Alt-F2 and r

PD: I know, there are others DEs. But I like gnome-shell, call me crazy...


Wrong pinch direction on a FocalTech touchpad

Pinch gesture is not supported in Ubuntu, at least without special setup.

Pressing Ctrl and trying to pinch is actually two-finger scrolling. That results in scaling in browsers.


create a Windows bootable USB stick with Ubuntu

In Non-UEFI machines, we can use GRUB2 to make USB stick bootable.
Then, we can use 'ntldr' command in the GRUB2 to boot Windows from USB.

Enable the boot flag on the target partition of the USB. It can be easily done with the use of the tool called "GParted". It is a GUI tool for drive partitioning .
If the installation image is a ISO file, Mount it and access the files.
Copy the all files to root of USB drive
Install GRUB to USB Drive.

grub-install --target=i386-pc --boot-directory="/media/user/MyUSBDrive/boot" /dev/sdX

Configure GRUB to boot Widows.

Place the following file as "/boot/grub/grub.cfg" in the USB dirve

set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
menuentry 'Install Windows 8' {
 ntldr /bootmgr
}

See complete answer at my blog
Creating a bootable windows USB from Linux


Cloning Ubuntu from a usb key to a partition of internal SSD

You used a command meant to copy entire drive to a single partition. In addition that command is to be used on identical drive of the same size so you get everything copied from one to the other, without needing to manually resize the partitions to use the entire space if larger. It appears you have made the space for the Ubuntu so it should be a reasonably straight forward action to get it done now. Boot your install media in EFI mode or it will never work and try the following in the Terminal program.
sudo mkdir /tmp/old
sudo mkdir /tmp/new
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/nvme01p4
sudo mount /dev/nvme01p4 /tmp/new
sudo mount /dev/sd?? /tmp/old
sudo rsync -avP /tmp/old/* /tmp/new/
sudo mkdir /tmp/new/boot/efi
sudo umount /boot/efi
sudo mount /dev/nvme01p1 /boot/efi

You need to use the drive number and letter of the old install in place of the ??. At this point everything should be copied and installed on the new drive the edits just need to be made for it too be able to boot properly. You need to find the UUIDs for the system to run from the new disk. Here I show you mine.
root@zeus-H370M:~# blkid | grep nvme
/dev/nvme0n1p1: LABEL_FATBOOT="EFI" LABEL="EFI" UUID="67E3-17ED" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI System Partition" PARTUUID="f2d84cb4-e597-4ac4-a2b2-10f0351c8784"
/dev/nvme0n1p2: UUID="553b41c8-8991-4646-a221-46b9b700b213" TYPE="apfs" PARTUUID="a9e442d9-2bef-43f0-8cf1-8d0c6ddce488"

Now the /etc/fstab for those entries.
root@zeus-H370M:~# cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/nvme0n1p2 during installation
UUID=553b41c8-8991-4646-a221-46b9b700b213 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/nvme0n1p1 during installation
UUID=67E3-17ED  /boot/efi       vfat    umask=0077      0       1
/swapfile                                 none            swap    sw              0       0

After you have done this editing.
sudo nano /tmp/new/etc/fstab

Changing to what you get from your blkid command for your values, the /dev/nvme0n1p4 partition for your install is the one needed for the /. Now you could try a chroot to install the boot loader but I think the idea in this posting may be the best to do it. You would unmount your old install drive and do it so it will not interfere with the process. After the repair you should have working install with both listed OSs of Windows and Ubuntu in the GRUB menu.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair


How can I get diffuse to play well with a Python virtualenv?

If the first line of /usr/bin/diffuse looks like:

#!/usr/bin/env python

it will run in Python inside your virtualenv. Most Python applications should set it to:

#!/usr/bin/python

which will run it with the system Python. If this is wrong, it might be a bug either in Diffuse or in its packaging in Debian/Ubuntu.


Installing Python libraries (difflib and pygments)

For pygments-

pip install Pygments

For difflib-

apt-get install npm
npm install difflib


List installed packages sorted by Size in bytes:

dpkg-query -Wf '${Installed-Size}\t${Package}\n' | sort -n

Uninstall packages you don't need:

sudo apt remove <package>

Then see if you can install bleachbit:

sudo apt install bleachbit

Bleachbit can free up a lot of space like temp files, thumbnails, caches, etc.

This will only help temporarily, your drive will fill up again. You might consider getting a bigger hard drive or if you have partitions changing partition sizes (give more to /) or don't use separate partitions for / and /home.


You may be interested in this post. Which is indeed about the requirements of the computer in order to be able to play high definition video without a hassle. Several answers for this question may give you a clue on where to start.

Smooth fullscreen 1080p playback

Additionally, transcoding seems to be the choice for playing/editing these high definition videos. Check the information on the next link, which may help you to see how you can have your beloved memories into good quality videos (even for the net).

How can I maximum compress video files?

There are several questions and answers in this site which may help you to find the best and easiest way to transcode your videos.

Some friends and I are trying to find a way to have the best tools for video playback/edition, which is fully documented in this forum: Israel Remix Team May be you wish to take a look on it.

Good luck!


Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS 32-bit Update Issue with 4.4.0-186-generic

In early August, I reported the problem through kernel.org bugzilla. Yesterday (5 September) I downloaded system updates and today (6 September) I booted with the newly added 4.4.0-189-generic. My network adapter works with this new kernel.


Your latest update looks interesting "Doing a dmesg | grep ehci, gives a 'startup error -19' entry and 'USB bus 1 deregistered'. " - I had a similar issue when adding PCI cards.

I found a couple of issues - I had ran out of IRQs - i.e. I had added too many cards - I pulled all cards that could use multiple IRQs e.g. firewire and these sort of error messages in dmesg stopped.

I also had to turn off USB Legacy Support in the BIOS.

Hope this helps.


How to create softlinks to all files in a directory in a different directory in terminal?

From man ln:

SYNOPSIS
   ln [OPTION]... [-T] TARGET LINK_NAME   (1st form)
   ln [OPTION]... TARGET                  (2nd form)
   ln [OPTION]... TARGET... DIRECTORY     (3rd form)
   ln [OPTION]... -t DIRECTORY TARGET...  (4th form)

DESCRIPTION
In  the 1st form, create a link to TARGET with the name LINK_NAME.  In the 2nd form, create a link to TARGET in the current directory.  In the 3rd and 4th forms, create links to each TARGET in DIRECTORY.  Create hard links by default, symbolic links with --symbolic.

Reading it carefully, you'll see that (assuming that the source folder contains more than one file) you used the 3rd form. Since you didn't specify a directory, the last filename is interpreted as directory.
If you are inside the directory you want to create the symlinks in, you can simply add . (current directory) at the end of the command:
ln -fs ./source/* .


First install htop and iotop:

  sudo apt-get install htop iotop

Then start three terminals, and run each of these commands in each of them:

iotop

This command will show you any process that is writing to the hard drive

htop

This command will show a more colourful alternative to top. Pay special attention to the amount of free memory. If this starts running low, you will probably soon see an increase in disk writes in the iotop-command (above), which in turn may indicate that something is leaking memory...

tail -f /var/log/messages

This command will show system messages. If some program crashes or such, more info may popup here. So when you start noticing system lags, check the output from this command...

Of course, non of the above actually solves your problem, but it might help diagnose it.

Cheers
/N


Did mumble-server package disappear in Ubuntu Server 18.04.1?

You probably missed to enable the Universe repository. It seems the server is still in the official repository, here the page :

  https://packages.ubuntu.com/bionic/mumble-server

If you don't know how enable to Universe repository, you can read the official guide.

  https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu


Missing Security & Privacy after upgrade

Try to installing it for control center

sudo apt-get install activity-log-manager-control-center


Troubleshooting layout switching in Ubuntu Studio 15.04

I need to give credits to @cl-netbox and @Cbhihe for helping me to find the right way. So after disabling IBus language switching thing stopped to work at all, and Settings -> Other -> Keyboard Input Methods menu provided a wrong way to search for layout switching.

The proper place to configure layout with disabled IBus appeared to be in Settings -> Hardware -> Keyboard -> Layout:

After opening the window and switching to Layout tab I had to turn off "Use system defaults" flag and then configure the window:

The list was empty, and adding Russian fixed it. The trick was to select the category to get all keys right, and not one of its children:

Now I can also use Alt+Shift shortcut. The only missing part is language indicator on the panel, which is a subject of another question.


Install only virsh command utility to manage KVM VMs (without GUI)

virsh is provided by the package libvirt-bin. If you type

  virshENTER

on the command line, Ubuntu tells you the package name and how to install it:

sudo apt-get install libvirt-bin python-libvirt

This does not seem to depend on GUI stuff. python-libvirt makes it easy to install KVM guests as opposed to directly editing virsh's XML machine configuration to create them. Refer to man python-libvirt for more info.


VLC ":rate=2.0" - Where do I put this in command-line?

Try:

vlc --rate=2.00 -vvv "my video.avi" --sout .......


Blank screen after login after using Testdisk

Solved it. It was because my hard drive was full. I uninstalled something and it's fine now.


Heartbeat ubuntu server 12.04 is not assigning virtual ip?

Well nobody answered me but At Last i found the solution,
I was putting the configuration files in wrong directory its not /etc/heartbeat

Its /etc/ha.d

So three important files should be copied there

/etc/ha.d/ha.c
/etc/ha.d/haresources
/etc/ha.d/authkeys

After doing this way my problem was solved!


unable to create database due access denied

To login into MySQL as root user, you can use:

mysql -u root -p

and then enter your MySQL password.

To login as another user, you will have to create that user first and grant him privileges.

Create the user using - change newuser to the username you want and password to your password of choice.

CREATE USER 'newuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

Sadly, at this point newuser has no permissions to do anything with the databases.
Therefore the first stage is to grant the user the privileges to do 'things'.
To grant all privileges (select, create, delete, update, drop, etc) on all databases and tables, run:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON * . * TO 'newuser'@'localhost';

To grant a specific privilege on a particular database and table, just run:

GRANT [type of privilege] ON [database name].[table name] TO '[username]'@'localhost';

If you ever need to deny or revoke a certain privilege, just run:

REVOKE [type of permission] ON [database name].[table name] FROM '[username]'@'localhost';

Source: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-create-a-new-user-and-grant-permissions-in-mysql


That's a valid repository at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva U in the Bronx, so you must be in either the eastern US or Atlantic Canada.

The Ubuntu website looks at your IP, and picks the likely closest server (which is programmed to be a 'mirror' copy of the master Ubuntu file server) to deliver it to you.

As to the file size, that, too, is typical for the full-blown Ubuntu with the Unity desktop. Other versions (i.e., Lubuntu and Xubuntu) are smaller.


Difficulty dual-booting Ubuntu and Windows 10 with UEFI

Your Ubuntu installation media seems to be improperly configured regarding the bootability.

When you have an already existing Ubuntu installation - recreate your installation media by:

Open built-in Disks tool – click the menu (right top corner) -  select Restore Disk Image.
Choose the Ubuntu iso image - select the USB drive to write it to and start the process.

In case you have to do it from within Windows - open command prompt as administrator.

Create your Ubuntu USB installation media by executing the following commands:

diskpart
list disk
select disk ¹
clean
create partition primary
active
format fs=fat32 quick
assign letter=²
exit

Mount the Ubuntu iso file and copy the content to the USB drive.

Notes:
¹ = select the USB drive
² = choose a free drive letter


How can I remove Empathy, and integrate Pidgin?

The IM system in Ubuntu is called Telepathy. Empathy is a GUI for some aspects of it. But Telepathy is really different from Pidgin. It is designed to be accessed by different applications at the same time, for instance. IE, a contact application would simply make a request for a phone call, and then you'd get a GUI to end the phone call, etc. The contact application would not have to worry about the kind of protocol used, etc. That's Telepathys job.

So you could use Pidgin instead of Empathy, but Pidgin cannot replace it because it's a completely different thing. You'd want to get a plugin to integrate it with the message indicator. I don't know if such a plugin exists, but you could always program it yourself. Both Pidgin and Indicators have good APIs and documentation.

Pidgin could potentially be used as a GUI for Telepathy though.


Why does my touchpad fail on resume from standby?

Remove the following: Xf86-input-multitouch and bcm5974-dkms and hid-apple-dkms. On resume from suspend my touchpad never froze. Leave only driver from install.

Hibernate can be iffy, but standby ok...


Unable to boot Ubuntu 16.04 on MacBook Air

The only way I was able to fix my problem was to reinstall Ubuntu.

What I did was to boot from a Live USB, then I had to overwrite the defective part of the disk with zeros by doing

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda2 count=24 bs=1024

Except I accidentally typed bs=1m instead of bs=1024 so I deleted more data than I intended. If I hadn't done this, maybe I wouldn't have had to reinstall Ubuntu.

Anyway, after the dd command, the installer program worked as intended and Ubuntu installed successfully. I lost all my data, but at least the laptop still works.


Ubuntu upgrade 17.10 to 18.04 moved my MariaDB database to folder /var/lib/mysql-10.2 and downgraded MariaDB from 10.2 to 10.1

as stated above ... [This is more of a How-To-Post]


Unable to install latest NodeJS version on Ubuntu 14.04

The easiest way to install NodeJS is using the official PPA (which contain  the latest version (8.X at the time of this edit).

Open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run :

Remove current NodeJS installation

sudo apt-get purge nodejs*

Install curl

sudo apt-get install curl

Install NodeJS:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

If you absolutely need 0.12 and not 4.1.1 version, run :

Install NodeJS:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_0.12 | sudo bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs


is this line in sudoers file safe to add?

The line you add means:

The user www-data is able to run any commands, only as user srs on all machines without entering password.

It's not unsafe as I see unless the user srs has some special permissions itself.

For example if you have something like:

srs  ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

at the end of your sudoers file, then www-data can run anything as anyone as well as srs.


Check if  /etc/resolv.conf contains a line for a valid DNS nameserver.If not then remove any invalid entry and add the following line.

nameserver 8.8.8.8

Your may add any other valid DNS nameserver instead of 8.8.8.8 which is Google's public DNS server

Then restart resolvconf service

sudo resolvconf -u

If it doesn't work try restarting your system

If there is valid DNS nameserver then the problem might be due windows defender or any other antivirus firewall


Modem CDMA ZTE AC2726 slow/delay detected about 3 minutesin Network Manager

Me too. I'm frustated. It seems that the ubuntu's linux kernel doesn't support ZTE AC2726 modem.

There is a patch for this problem. But I couldn't compile from the source..
http://skyisgrey.org/blog/mengoptimalkan-koneksi-modem-smart-zte-2726.html


First try sudo apt-get update to make sure your trying to fetch the most recent versions of the packages. It's not uncommon for updates to be updated more then a few times, in between the time that you run updates.

Next try sudo apt-get upgrade from the command line. It will give you more details.

If, during either step. you get errors about 404s like the one you posted. It doesn't mean your not connected to the internet, just that the server your tring to download from can't find the file your truing to download. Perhaps it isn't up to date yet (it's still mirroring) or perhaps your out of date.

If the problem continues try opening update-manager going to settings and changing your "Download From" to either "Main Server" or choosing a server from another region. They should all have the same files, but perhaps the AU server is having some turkey day issues.


With in the bios there is a system switch that force overides windows to boot. I had the same problem on two different machines that came 'stock out of the box' with Windows 8, when I purchased them. I do not dual boot I memory wiped, then installed Ubuntu.

None the less, the option you are looking for to boot Ubuntu in the bios is to boot 'Legacy OS'. No longer run the UEFI selection in the BIOS if installation has completed.

This should get you close enough to figure it out.

Good Luck!


External hard drive installation of Ubuntu wipes itself with every restart

Full Install to USB

Full installs are more stable and secure than persistent installs, but not as quick to make. They are better at utilizing disk space as no fixed size casper-rw file or partition is required. They are not very good for use of installing Ubuntu.

Following is a step by step how to install 18.04 on a 16GB flash drive with options for separate Home partition and Windows compatible data partition, installation to a mechanical external hard drive is similar:

Create a live USB or DVD using SDC, UNetbootin, mkusb, etc.
Turn off and unplug the computer. (See note at bottom)
Unplug the power cable from the hard drive or unplug the hard drive from the laptop.
Plug the computer back in.
Insert the flash drive.
Insert the Live USB or Live DVD.
Start the computer, the USB/DVD should boot.
Select language.
Select install Ubuntu.
Select Keyboard layout
Select "Continue".
Select installation type and "Download updates while installing Ubuntu" and Select "Install third-party software ...", (optional).
Select "Continue".
At "Installation type" select "Something else". (Full disk encryption is now working with flash drives).
Select "Continue".
Confirm target device is correct.
Select "New Partition Table".
Click Continue on the drop down.

(Optional FAT32 data partition for use on Windows machine)

Click "Free space" and "+".
Make "Size..." about 2000 MB.
Select "Primary".
Location = "Beginning of this space".
"Use as:" = "FAT32 file system".
"Mount point" =  "/windows".
Select "OK"

(Non Optional Root Partition)

Click "free space" and then "+".
Select "Primary", "Size ..." = 4500 to 6000 MB, "Beginning of this space", Ext4, and Mount point = "/" then OK.

(Optional home partition)

Click "free space" and then "+".
Select "Primary", "New partition size ..." = 1000 to 6000 MB, Beginning of this space, Ext2, and Mount point = "/home" then OK.

(Optional swap space, allows hibernation)

Click "free space" and then "+".
Select "Primary", "New partition size ..." = remaining space, (1000 to 2000 megabytes, or same size as RAM), Beginning of this space and "Use as" = "swap area" then OK.

(Important)

Confirm "Device for boot loader installation" points to the root of the USB drive. Default should be OK if HDD was unplugged.
Click "Install Now".
Select your location.
Select "Continue".
Insert your name, computer name, username, password and select if you want to log in automatically or require a password.cscameron
Select "Continue".
Wait until install is complete.
Turn off computer and plug in the HDD.
Replace the computer's cover.

Note:
You may omit disabling the hard drive if after partitioning you choose to install grub to the root of the USB drive you are installing Ubuntu to, (ie sdb not sdb1). Be cautious, many people have overwritten the HDD MBR as default location for boot loader is sda, any items in the internal drive's grub will be added to the USB's grub.
You may do an update-grub later.


If speakers are not detected in your ubuntu version you can type alsamixer in terminal(ctrl+alt+t) and press enter You can go to headphones section by pressing right arrow Then press "m" to unmute the sound now you can listen sound coming from speakers
Note:You should do this everytime you switch on the computer if your audio devices are not detected


For now, it thinks the Nexus 7 (2013) is a phone (with SIM card), regardless of which model.

That will change soon, with tablet-specific features to be added. Please be patient.


Replace String "Development" with "Staging" or "Production" using SED

You don’t need to escape single quotes inside double quotes, see this answer of mine:

  Enclosing characters in double quotes preserves the literal value of all characters within the quotes, with the exception of $, `, \, and, when history expansion is enabled, !.

Thus, these work:

sed -i "s/: 'development'/: 'staging'/g" index.php
sed -i "s|: 'development'|: 'staging'|g" index.php
sed -i 's|: '\''development'\''|: '\''staging'\''|g' index.php


How do I access microk8s externally exposed service ip over network?

After noting that the following two methodologies worked:

Access via portforward (navigate to localhost:8080 in browser with below command)

kubectl port-forward *podname-here* 8080:8080

NodePort (navigating to browser at k8s-master-ip:31799)

I isolated the issue to the IP range I had allocated to metallb. The problem was that I had allocated an IP range to metallb (10.0.2.1-10.0.2.200) that was outside of the subnet mask configured in my consumer router (Apple Airport Extreme). Once I changed the IP range to one within the subnet allowed by the router (10.0.1.100-10.0.1.150), navigation to the service IP worked as expected.


There is no fixed place for the journal, each filesystem stores it in a different place.

If you are expecting it to be a regular file, then your are mistaken, it's more like a part of the filesystem structure like the inode table. The funny point is that ext3/4 treats it exactly like a regular file. It is usually found in the inode number 8, but  this is a kernel parameter that can be changed at compile time.

If you want to get technical, this article by Carlo Wood, written in March 2008, is a great read about the ext3 structure.

If you don't mind put journal in a place with words like partition table, inode or block and don't worry about it:


Try again after installing :

sudo apt-get install zlib nsis-common fossology-agents zlib1g eglibc glibc-doc


Fist of all please make like @heynnema  mentioned a filesystmcheck.

sudo dpkg -P grub-legacy-ec2

when the command  is not working.

sudo mv /etc/kernel/postrm.d/x-grub-legacy-ec2 $HOME

in both cases run afterwards

sudo dpkg --configure -a


Reloading unity restores the password input on the login screen for me (Ubuntu 14.04 with a Nvidia GPU).

Switch to an alternate terminal using Ctrl+Alt+F1.
Reload unity with:

nohup unity --replace &

Switch back to your graphical terminal using Ctrl+Alt+F7. You may have to wait several seconds if you see a black screen.

Unity sort of works after this but you can at least save your work in progress:

The compiz grid plugin seems to think multiple monitors are now a single monitor.
The global menu bar no longer works.
Menus in window title bars no longer work (if enabled).
Custom global keyboard shortcuts don't work.


Let's start with clean settings.

Reset MATE keyboard settings

dconf reset -f /org/mate/desktop/peripherals/keyboard/

Reset global system keyboard settings, fill /etc/default/keyboard with the following contents:

# KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION FILE

# Consult the keyboard(5) manual page.

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="us"
XKBVARIANT=""
XKBOPTIONS=""

BACKSPACE="guess"

and apply this settings into initramfs image with sudo update-initramfs -u -k all.
Launch Language Support (or gnome-language-selector) and ensure that you have installed English, Greek and Japanese languages; also ensure that Keyboard input system is set to IBus.
Launch IBus Preferences (or ibus-setup) and add languages here and set up layout switching shortcut for them, logout and login back (or reboot).

Note: I have set Alt+Shift here, but it does not switch language. Alternative shortcut such as Super+Space switches the language.


how to separate installed packages based on their installation type?

The ones that were installed using APT/DPKG or any package manager can be listed easily. The installed from sources, tarballs, summary anything installed manually without a package maintainer is more tricky. You would need a list of all possible files and the software that installed it and such list is either too big and possibly unmaintained. So the answer is no, there's no way to list the package that were installed manually from sources unless they use some sort of package manager.


Where is the "Starred" directory in the Nautilus sidebar stored

Files in certain locations such as ~/Documents can be starred by right-clicking on them in Nautilus and choosing to star them.

The ability to star files requires you to have "Search" (which uses Tracker) active. "Search" is enabled via the Settings icon in your launcher (and not from Nautilus):

Then you can star or unstar files in Nautilus:

And by clicking on the star icon, you can list starred files:

However, it appears that only a limited set of files or folders can be starred by default.

How to add folders so that they can be tracked and starred:

In the image below, in Settings > Search clicking on the little ⚙ (gear) icon opens a new window titled "Search Locations" to allow you to add additional folders. Click on the + icon to get a list of folders you can include.

I found a reboot helpful in getting those new folders to be registered properly.

And here is an image showing various folders and files I've added and starred.

~/.config folder is starred
a folder, SubDesktop1, within ~/Desktop is starred
a file, dconf1.txt, within ~/Desktop/SubDesktop1 is starred as can be seen from the Properties window.
for me, it appears that a reboot is needed when a "non-standard" folder is to be starred (and tracked).

If I make any changes to the list of starred files, the only file to change on my system is ~/.local/share/tracker/data/tracker-store.journal. While there maybe a way to query that journal, I don't know how.

(~/.config/dconf/user also changes but I've dumped the contents of dconf/user before and after starring/unstarring files and there were no changes related to starring/unstarring files.)

You can check out tracker-related files in your home folder using locate ~/*tracker* but, as I pointed out above, the only file related to starring is ~/.local/share/tracker/data/tracker-store.journal.

dkb: ~ $ locate ~/*tracker*
/home/dkb/.cache/tracker
/home/dkb/.cache/tracker/db-locale.txt
/home/dkb/.cache/tracker/db-version.txt
/home/dkb/.cache/tracker/first-index.txt
/home/dkb/.cache/tracker/last-crawl.txt
/home/dkb/.cache/tracker/locale-for-miner-apps.txt
/home/dkb/.cache/tracker/meta.db
/home/dkb/.cache/tracker/meta.db-shm
/home/dkb/.cache/tracker/meta.db-wal
/home/dkb/.cache/tracker/ontologies.gvdb
/home/dkb/.cache/tracker/parser-version.txt
/home/dkb/.local/share/tracker
/home/dkb/.local/share/tracker/data
/home/dkb/.local/share/tracker/data/.meta.isrunning
/home/dkb/.local/share/tracker/data/tracker-store.journal
/home/dkb/.local/share/tracker/data/tracker-store.ontology.journal


Can't access Ubuntu's shared folders from Windows 7

Have you installed Samba? sudo apt-get install samba

If so, then you need to set a Samba password: sudo smbpasswd -a USERNAME. This command will generate a prompt for a password (substitute USERNAME with your username).

Set a folder to share mkdir /home/USERNAME/sharedfolder

Make a backup copy of your smb.conf file: sudo cp /etc/samba/smb.conf ~

Open your smb.conf file: gksu gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf

Add this to the very end of the file:

[sharedfolder]
path = /home/USERNAME/sharedfolder
available = yes
valid users = USERNAME
read only = no
browsable = yes
public = yes
writable = yes

There should be NO spaces between the lines, and there should be a single space both before and after each of the equal signs. Save and exit gedit.

Restart Samba sudo restart smbd

Use this command to check your smb.conf file for syntax errors: sudo testparm

You now should be able to share from your Windows 7 machine.

Edit:

I understand your trying to access your Ubuntu share from Windows 7 and that you want to do so with a GUI interface.

  but when I try to access them (from Windows) it asks for a username and password. No matter what I enter, it won't let me in. How do I configure this to share normally?

To do so you must set up a Samba user/password on your Linux machine as I described above. I could recommend a GUI program for Ubuntu to do this, but frankly it's much more complicated and confusing to do it that way. The program is gadmin-samba and it's in the Ubuntu repository. Caution! you can totally bork your config if you misuse this program.
Please let us know what steps you've now taken, and which errors you have encountered. Thanks!


Ubuntu Server doesn't come with a graphical environment. If you want to install one, you can install one with one of these commands depending of the flavour that you want (I ordered them by own criteria for a server, being the first the one with less resources use)

sudo apt-get install lubuntu-desktop
sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop


Not able to resolve localhost, but 127.0.0.1

Need to know what "visit" means, please - are you referring to typing http://localhost into the address bar in a browser?  If so, which browser?  Are you typing the http:// part in, or only typing localhost?

Also, please post output from the following:

ping -c 1 127.0.0.1 ; ping -c localhost ; host localhost


What is 0 and 0 in hw:0,0 mean? and how can I get those value?

The first 0 is the card, and the second 0 is the device, as listed in the output of arecord -l:

card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: CX20585 Analog [CX20585 Analog]


Why does alias in /etc/bash.bashrc not apply to sudo?

sudo will ignore any aliased commands from .bashrc.

You can work around this by creating an alias for sudo too --> alias sudo='sudo '

You need the space after sudo, since man tells us:

If the last character of the alias value is a blank, then the next command word following the alias is also checked for alias expansion.


You are forgetting to supply a mandatory argument.

 Usage: eui_install.py [ZIPFILE]

means you have to include a name of a zipfile. The command is:

python eui_install.py zipfile

where zipfile is a file name you need to supply (probably the mod you want to edit looking at the script).

  The files in the designated folder still have names with uppercase. What am I doing wrong?

Those files are what you need to add to the command (ie. 2nd argument is 1 zipped file).


How can I anchor a component to the top of the toolbar?

When the toolbar is locked and opened, the contents of the MainView are automatically anchored to the top of the toolbar. However, there is a bug in the SDK which causes a 2gu margin above the toolbar. I fix it by adding the following to MainView:

states: [
    State {
        when: showToolbar

        PropertyChanges {
            target: taskViewPage.parent
            anchors.bottomMargin: -root.toolbar.triggerSize
        }
    }
]


Probably the execution flag is not true on this java script.
Try executing sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/java and see if the permission is back.

If that solved the issue, do the same for /usr/bin/javac.


Correct way is to run ddrescue:

If you have new empty drive with size greater or equal to failing one:

sudo ddrescue /dev/sd_source /dev/sd_backup ~/log_file --try-again --force --verbose

If you have mounted partition of new drive with enough disk space:

sudo ddrescue /dev/sd_source /media/user/backup/backup.raw ~/log_file --try-again --force --verbose

And then you can work with copy in any way (for example mount it and save data). Do not touch original (failing) disk anymore before you are completely assured that copy works normally.


I get a "serious errors while checking the disk drives for /boot" error while booting

The message says some errors were found on the filesystem which fsck is afraid to fix automatically, so you need to do it manually. To do this, press M when it prompts you - this will drop you into a emergency root console. From there you'll be able to run

fsck /dev/sda1

where /dev/sda1 is the name of your /boot partition. You can see the list of partitions by doing fdisk -l.

Alternatively, you can try fsck -A to check all partitions but I suppose it'll only work if the root partition is already mounted so fsck can access /etc/fstab.

It'll probably ask you a few questions - I usually just agree with what it proposes. Also, there's 'a' option which will fix things automatically but the man file suggests to use it with caution. So, ultimately, fsck -Aa should fix all errors on all partitions without asking any questions.

After you're finished, exit the shell with Ctrl-D and the machine will reboot.


Your cellphone video camera. Seriously. It's not physically possible for linux to record a log after the "Unmounting local filesystems" message. And for some reason, Ubuntu Oneiric never records any of the shutdown messages, even errors warnings and "[fail]s", at least not anywhere I can find them using sudo grep.

If you have the plymouth splash screen on shutdown that hides the console messages with the Ubuntu logo and progress dots, then hit ESC to see what's going on behind the curtains... and record it with your video camera for playback later.


Cannot connect to windows8 using nautilus/smb

Okay here's things to check.

On your Windows PC

Check that File and Print services is checked in protocols on your network interface you expect other computers to connect on. I know this screen is from Win7 but the dialog is the same in Win8

Sharing and Connect,

This section is basically lifted from here put the relevant info here incase Microsoft decide to pull the page.
Windows 8 asks you when you first join a network if you want to enable sharing for that network.

To turn sharing and connect on or off.

View a list of available networks by swiping in from the right edge of the screen, tapping Settings (or if you're using a mouse, pointing to the upper-right corner of the screen, moving the mouse pointer down, and then clicking Settings), and then tapping or clicking the network icon (Wireless network icon or Wired network icon).
Press and hold or right-click the network you're connected to, then tap or click Turn sharing on or off.

Network Discovery,

Windows 8 can let turn sharing on but discovery off.
Network discovery is a setting that affects whether your computer can see (find) other computers and devices on the network and whether other computers on the network can see your computer. It's one of several settings that are turned on when you turn on network sharing. You can turn network discovery on or off independently of network sharing,

Firewalls
Check your windows firewall and 3rd party firewalls that SMB is allowed through.  I think Windows 8 will take care of the Windows firewall by doing steps 2 and 3 but doesn't hurt to check.


How to count number of files in a directory but not recursively

ls -F |grep -v / | wc -l

ls -F list all files and append indicator (one of */=>@|) to
entries
grep -v / keep all de strings that do not contain a
slash
wc -l count lines


Connecting to internet over wifi or tether, DHCP does not set DNS

From the fact that your system connects at work via wired and wireless shows that your system works, and that the system at work is configured correctly. The failure of home wireless and "tethering hotspot" means that your home wireless router (and whatever you connect to with your phone) are not configured to share DNS information when you connect. You can fix this problem by accessing your home router configuration, and finding DHCP settings. You could use wireshark on Linux to monitor packets both as you connect at work, and fail to connect at home.


Unable to mount the CD/DVD image on VirtualBox

The error you get is likely because the Guest Additions CD image is already mounted.

To see all mounted drives open a terminal in the guest to issue mount. This will give you (among others) a line similar to this:

/dev/sr0 on /media/takkat/VBOXADDITIONS_4.2.12_849801 type iso9660 (ro,nosuid,nodev,uid=1000,gid=1000,iocharset=utf8,mode=0400,dmode=0500,uhelper=udisks2)

In the Unity Launcher you will see a CD-ROM icon. To unmount the CD right click on this icon and select "Eject".

We can not unmount the Guest Additions CD from the command line when mounted with the help of then Virtual Box Manager. Please select "Devices -> CD/DVD Devices -> Remove disk from virtual drive" and choose "Force unmount" to remove the CD iso.

To install guest additions we will have to load the CD again from Virtual Box Manager and select the Icon from the Unity Launcher.

See also the following questions which also has a command line method for installing guest additions:

How do I install Guest Additions in a VirtualBox VM?


My data vanished after copying to E drive

The problem is with hibernating Windows. If you start Windows it reads filetable of partition (your drive E:). Then when you let Windows hibernate, it has this filetable in memory and writes the memory to hiberfile. When you open Ubuntu, add files and then wake up Windows, it loads into memory the state before hibernate from hiberfile along with old filetable without these files. On Windows shutdown, filetable is rewritten by old one, so the files appear missing.

Do not write anything on that partition/drive and try some recovery software to get files back.


Bazaar is a version control system, like git or svn. It used by developers to help collaborate on a project. If your using bzr to download a program it means your getting source code which you will need to compile.
Yes there is a gui in the software centre but I think the command line would be simpler.

What is the program you are trying to get and what's the bzr branch called?

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revision_control


How do I disable the new invisible border feature (ruins Compiz' Grid plugin)?

It's part of the theme.

Look into /usr/share/themes/Ambiance/metacity-1/metacity-theme-1.xml and change the padding properties to zero (or remove them), e.g:

<frame_style ...>
    ...
    <padding left="7" right="7" bottom="7"/>
</frame_style>

--- Update ---

There's now also a bug report to follow. The bug has been fixed, if you still see this, I'd report a new bug (unless it's happening with windows that can only be resized in fixed sized steps like gnome-terminal).


Start/kill pulseaudio with toggle button

How to toggle pulseaudio on/off

1. Disable Pulseaudio from automatically restarting when killed

Add autospawn = no to ~/.pulse/client.conf, if such file/folder doesn't exist, create it yourself via GUI or do it all at once:

mkdir ~/.pulse && echo 'autospawn = no' > ~/.pulse/client.conf

2. Create a script to toggle pulseaudio status

Open a text editor (e.g. gedit), copy/paste the following, and save it somewhere under your $HOME.

#!/bin/bash

PULSE_STATUS=$(pulseaudio -v --check 2>&1)

if [[ $PULSE_STATUS == *"PID"* ]]; then

   pulseaudio --kill

else
   pulseaudio --start
fi

3. Create a .desktop to run the script

Open a text editor (e.g. gedit), copy/paste the following, and save it as Toggle-Pulseaudio.desktop somewhere under your $HOME (e.g. ~/Desktop, if you want to double click it to toggle pulseaudio).

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Toggle-Pulseaudio
Comment=Toggle Pulseaudio on and off
Exec=/path/to/script
Icon=/usr/share/icons/HighContrast/256x256/status/audio-volume-medium.png
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Utility;Application;

Once saved, right click on it and go to Properties > Permissions and tick Allow executing file as  a program. If you want to have in on your Launcher/Dash, simply drag with your mouse the .desktop the the Launcher.

Now you can toggle pulseaudio on and off from your desktop and from Dash.


Ubuntu 18.04 dual boot keeps failing to boot

This may or may not be your problem, but it's worth checking. I had a dual boot Ubuntu and Windows problem that no one could solve but I worked out from days of reading things on and off...

You cannot boot from an MBR formatted drive into an operating system that is on a GPT formatted drive.

Without going through the technical details; the simple answer is to avoid this situation any way you can.

For example, large drives (over 2TB) will certainly be GPT formatted, and it will make sense to make a partition there and install an operating system on it, because it probably has the most room.

But if you have an older computer setup with a hodge-podge of drives installed (like me) it's likely the older drives are still formatted as MBR, since this what Windows will default to (Windows 7 at least - I can't speak for Windows 10)

So when you go to do a dual boot set up - everything will appear fine, and Ubuntu's dual boot set up will not warn you about this.  (Windows avoids this situation completely by way of just not supporting dual boot in its setup...)

But then when you reboot, the GPT drive is not yet available at the point the computer boots from the MBR, and so the boot info points to a location on a GPT drive that doesn't exist yet, and the computer just doesn't even boot - you get a GRUB error about not finding a partition.

THE SOLUTION IS: use Windows Disk Management, or Linux Gparted to identify which drives are MBR and which drives are GPT.  Make use of the available space on the GPT drive by moving files from an MBR drive onto that GPT drive, to make room for your Linux operating system partition.  Then you can install Linux to that MBR drive and you will avoid that problem completely.

(I know I skipped over how to determine if a drive is MBR or GPT but let me know if you need it and I'll update my answer.)


Force startx to run X in a specific resolution and refresh Rate

Before saying anything, I should recommend you backup xorg.conf file using the command

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf_backup

Next, to make any changes it is recommended to stop Xorg (which will bring you to a text-only screen) using the command

sudo /etc/init.d/lightdm stop

(Hopefully you are running Ubuntu 12.04 or 11.10. If not, just substitute lightdm for gdm or kdm if running kde). After that, you can edit your configuration file via

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

From there, look for the Subsection Display, then navigate down to modes where you will type in your custom resolution with the refresh rate. Then save it, and restart X.

If none of that worked, and I completely screwed your xorg over, you can restore the backup (thank god for backups) using the command

sudo /etc/X11/xorg.conf_backup /etc/X11/xorg.conf


ap-hotspot is pretty outdated as the developer has stopped working on it for quite some time now. I suggest using create_ap as an alternative. To install, type the following in terminal.

git clone https://github.com/oblique/create_ap
cd create_ap
make install

Complete details on installation and use is found here.


Read the official manual.

You can launch openvpn in the next manner:

# openvpn --config config.file --http-proxy 127.0.0.1 3128

However, http-proxy doesn't support UDP, probably, you can do this only with TCP vpn.

But there is --socks-proxy option for openvpn, you can use socks5 instead of http-proxy, socks5 do both UDP and TCP.


How can I use public-key encryption for luks?

Public key encryption is really only useful if you want to have other people encrypt messages to you, and you don't want to go to the trouble of secretly giving them your secret encryption key. So you post your public key for the world to see and encrypt messages to you, that only you can read.

It would be of no benefit to you personally encrypting your files on your own computer. It could be assumed that public key encryption is less secure than conventional encryption (like AES, Blowfish, Camellia...) since you're handing out part of the encryption information (the public part). Though in practice they are both effectively "unbreakable" in any human lifetime.

And you may not know how the public-key encryption program PGP/GPG actually works, it conventionally encrypts messages, and then encrypts the conventional key using public key encryption.

Here's a quote from some older (but still valid) PGPi documentation explaining it, and a bit about why someone may think one method is more secure than the other, if they're only comparing key sizes:

    PGP combines some of the best features of both conventional and public key cryptography. PGP is a hybrid cryptosystem. When a user encrypts plaintext with PGP, PGP first compresses the plaintext. Data compression saves modem transmission time and disk space and, more importantly, strengthens cryptographic security. Most cryptanalysis techniques exploit patterns found in the plaintext to crack the cipher. Compression reduces these patterns in the plaintext, thereby greatly enhancing resistance to cryptanalysis. (Files that are too short to compress or which don't compress well aren't compressed.)

    PGP then creates a session key, which is a one-time-only secret key. This key is a random number generated from the random movements of your mouse and the keystrokes you type. This session key works with a very secure, fast conventional encryption algorithm to encrypt the plaintext; the result is ciphertext. Once the data is encrypted, the session key is then encrypted to the recipient's public key. This public key-encrypted session key is transmitted along with the ciphertext to the recipient.

    ...

    The combination of the two encryption methods combines the convenience of public key encryption with the speed of conventional encryption. Conventional encryption is about 1,000 times faster than public key encryption. Public key encryption in turn provides a solution to key distribution and data transmission issues. Used together, performance and key distribution are improved without any sacrifice in security.

    ...

    However, public key size and conventional cryptography's secret key size are totally unrelated. A conventional 80-bit key has the equivalent strength of a 1024-bit public key. A conventional 128-bit key is equivalent to a 3000-bit public key. Again, the bigger the key, the more secure, but the algorithms used for each type of cryptography are very different and thus comparison is like that of apples to oranges.

If you wanted to use some method involving GPG to use your public key to encrypt the passphrase or keyfile to your LUKS container, you could do that if you wanted. But then if your GPG private key were ever compromised or lost, so too would your LUKS container.

And you can choose a different cipher with cryptsetup, it would use the cipher to encrypt all the data. See man cryptsetup for info like:

   --cipher, -c <cipher-spec>
          Set the cipher specification string.

And under a default Ubuntu at least these ciphers should be supported:

loop-AES: aes, Key 256 bits
plain: aes-cbc-essiv:sha256, Key: 256 bits
LUKS1: aes-xts-plain64, Key: 256 bits


Ubuntu 16.04 LTS is taking forever to boot

I gave up. I had to no more time to keep searching for a solution so I reinstalled the system from scratch.
I wish I could fix that but I was wasting too much time and work can't wait some times.
It works fine now.


I am not sure why that option is not available but if you can choose "somaething else" you can partition your disk yourself and allocate the amount of disk you want to the Ubuntu installation.

Alternatively, when you boot up from live usb, you can run a tool called "gparted" which is included in the live image to shrink the partition with Windows to the volume you want and then what is left can be used for installing Ubuntu.

Just make sure then carefully where to install the bootloader.

I have done this a couple of times myself but I suggest that you wait for others to come along and hopefully provide you with more detailed step by step instruction if you are not sure about what to do.

In the meantime you can read more here:
How to use manual partitioning during installation?

You can have look as well at https://help.ubuntu.com/ and search in the searchbox for what you are looking for.

Good luck!


OK, let me try to decipher a bit.

You installed Ubuntu 13.10 by erasing your entire computer and installing from an Ubuntu disc.

After the installation, when the computer was booting up, you were prompted for a password.

Question 1: Is this the first time you were prompted for a password or has this always happened when you turned the computer on

Question 2: Did you select the 'encrypt your home directory' option during installation?

After you entered the pasword (which I'm assuming you used your keyboard to do) you entered Ubuntu and discovered your keyboard was not working.

Question 3: Do you have a wireless keyboard?

During your search (which was to attempt to fix your keyboard) you discovered a post relating to initramfs.

Question 4: What made you believe this post was relevant to your keyboard?

initramfs is used for several purposes, but most commonly it is for booting your OS from a RAM disk. I don't think this applies to your situation, so we're going to skip the rest of that paragraph.

So your goal is to have a clean working copy of Ubuntu. Good news, that's not terribly difficult since you're OK with wiping your computer. My first suggestion however is to switch to a simple keyboard if you have one. No wireless, USB preferably, without any fancy gaming buttons or screens. If you don't have one of these available we can try other options, but nearly all simple USB keyboards work out-of-the-box. (To be honest, nearly all keyboards work out-of-the-box, but for the sake of simplicity lets try to reduce variables).


Question about QGIS Server installation on Ubuntu 14.04

It's easy,

Surely after running sudo apt-get update you've got an error telling you you lack the public key for the QGIS repository. For installing the appropriate key take note of the last 8 characters of the missing key and use them in the following two commands, instead DD45F6C3.

I've just installed QGIS this morning (2014 Dec. 15th) and DD45F6C3 was the key I was missing.

gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv DD45F6C3
gpg --export --armor DD45F6C3 | sudo apt-key add -

After this, you can successfuly do sudo apt-get update and install QGIS.


Running ubuntu from a usb stick, cant install anything

Generally installing anything from a Live USB won't work as well as a proper install since you are installing everything within memory unless you have created a persistence file on the USB device as well...  In terminal type:

sudo apt-get install synaptic

...and then use synaptic package manager to enable and reload repositories and then try installing crossover again if there's enough memory...  Failing that install Ubuntu onto your borked HD and try from there.


Installing Ubuntu 20.04 NOT alongside Ubuntu 16.04

I suggest that you start by unplugging /dev/sdb. That way there is no risk that you will touch it during the installation.
After that it is straightforward to install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS into /dev/sda. Reboot and check that it works.
Next shutdown and connect /dev/sdb.
Boot into /dev/sda and from there run

sudo update-grub

It should identify the operating system in /dev/sdb and add a grub menuentry for it.
When you no longer want the old operating system you can remove it (by erasing it or unplugging the drive). Then run

sudo update-grub

and the menuentry for it will be removed.


I want remove extension from download video

Searching Ubuntu's packages would find the rename utility, it's man page has this as it's first example:

For example, to rename all files matching "*.bak" to strip the extension, you might say
rename 's/\.bak$//' *.bak


A start job is running for wait for network to be configured. Ubuntu server 17.10

Don't mask or disable the systemd service.

Edit /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml and add optional: true to any devices that may not always be available.

sudo netplan apply


Seemingly locked in console after CTRL+ALT+F1 --- How to quit?

Press Ctrl+Alt+F7 to return to the Desktop.


If you are running Wireshark on the server which you are sending the UDP packet to, and not seeing the packet, then the packet never arrived at the server in the first place, as Doug Smythies said in comments.

Since this appears to be the case, you will need to do some investigation.  It is possible the Router is not creating the packet and sending it correctly.  It is also possible your firewall rules at the router are blocking the packets.  It is also possible the packets are just not being created the way you think they are.  You should start by trying to direct actual UDP packets at the server, such as DNS queries directed at the server instead of an actual DNS server.

Unfortunately, though, without further information on the infrastructure and setup on BOTH ends of the network (your router/LAN, and your server, specifically what kind of server, if there's a firewall between the server and the internet, or whether it's an EC2 or such), we can't say more about what could be the problem.


Reccomended upgrade for Ram Ubuntu 12.04

You can check out the details of your computer's memory through terminal by running

sudo dmidecode -t memory

One of the things this will show you is the maximum amount of RAM your computer supports. It also tells you which type you're using now, which is something to keep in mind. For more information on that, here's the Wikipedia page on DDR SDRAM. Important to know is that different types are "neither forward nor backward compatible with any earlier type of random access memory (RAM) due to different signaling voltages, timings, and other factors".


Software launch from terminal always points to the old version

There are two answers because these are two different problems:

First you have to remove the installation in /usr/local. Per default this folder has a higher priority in the PATH definition. I guess you are talking about qpdfview.

If you still have the source folder of the application execute

sudo make uninstall

in this folder.
If not ... remove the files

sudo rm /usr/local/bin/qpdfview
sudo rm /usr/local/lib/mime/packages/qpdfview
sudo rm /usr/local/lib/qpdfview/libqpdfview_pdf.so
sudo rm /usr/local/share/applications/qpdfview.desktop
sudo rm /usr/local/share/doc/qpdfview/changelog.Debian.gz
sudo rm /usr/local/share/doc/qpdfview/copyright
sudo rm /usr/local/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/qpdfview.svg
sudo rm /usr/local/share/man/man1/qpdfview.1.gz
sudo rm /usr/local/share/menu/qpdfview
sudo rm /usr/local/share/qpdfview/help.html
sudo rm /usr/local/share/qpdfview/qpdfview.xpm

and next time use sudo checkinstall to create and install a DEB package instead of sudo make install ;)

The message

  An old version is available in your normal software channels. Only install this file if you trust the origin.

appears when you added a PPA and the standard Ubuntu repositories also provides a version for this package.


cc1plus is the actual c++ compiler. If it's missing, chances are you need to install the g++ package.
sudo apt install g++

alternatively, you may install a bunch of compilation tools with
sudo apt install build-essential

Also, to compile a file, run
g++ file.cc

not
cpp file.cc

cpp is the C Preprocessor, not the c++ compiler frontend.


You need open the file as root:

Open the terminal CTRL + ALT + T.

sudo nano /etc/hosts (You need enter your user password)

after, it will open the file to edit, use CTRL + X to close and save the file.

Good luck!


I apt-get purged kwalletmanager and now my computer freezes and I can't open anything!

Boot to recovery mode, following these instructions

You can reinstall the kubuntu-desktop package to restore KDE, Kwallet is part of the desktop package, you should not remove it, there will of been a warning in you terminal when you purged it, telling you what it would remove with it.

In a terminal run

sudo apt-get install --reinstall kubuntu-desktop


On Lubuntu I'd suggest right-clicking the application on the lxpanel and click Maximize and expect it to re-draw the window and have it thus fit the dimensions of your monitor so everything is visible.
On modern Lubuntu (using LXQt) there is also a move feature that allows you to move the window, but that wasn't available in bionic / LXDE
If that fails, I'd suggest a Lubuntu shortcut, ie. you could also try Super+arrow etc to move windows as per Lubuntu shortcuts, which for LXDE can currently be seen at
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu/Keyboard

Please note:
The wiki page will be moved (thus link will fail) when Lubuntu 18.04 LTS reaches EOL at the end of this month ; it's expected you'll need to replace Lubuntu in the link/url with LXDE.
The modern Lubuntu shortcut page can be found at https://manual.lubuntu.me/stable/F/keyboard_shortcuts.html but not all Lubuntu/LXQt and Lubuntu/LXDE shortcuts are identical


Should I use nvidia graphic card to watch movie?

If it has hardware decoding, try using it. I do not personally have that card, so I can't give you specifics. I would check if there are any "additional drivers". It is unlikely that watching too many movies will hurt your laptop, but if it has you worried find an application that can display your cpu temp. If the fans are all cranked up and you crash when while doing something cpu intensive, that would be a sign it is over heating.

My desktop gtx660 runs saucy and tahr excellent. It has opengl and lots of supported hardware decoding. So yes, use a recent nvidia card if you can.