How do I install Ubuntu on a USB? I just want to install the operating system on to a USB and boot into that. The try Ubuntu option isn't what I'm looking for. I always would have to install a driver just to get wifi access and I would like to be able to write and create files that won't be gone as soon as I'm done "trying Ubuntu".

You can do a full install to USB just like to internal drive.

It is advisable to first disable your internal drive.

Then boot from a Live DVD or LIve USB.

Plug in your target USB and hit Install.
Proceed as with a normal install.

You can also use Something Else to make your first partition FAT32 or NTFS so you can connect to a Windows computer.
In this case use the second partition for / and the third for swap.

You can install proprietary drivers to this type of disk.

There is a "Startup disk creator" option when running the live cd.

When in the "Try Ubuntu" or live cd environment, press your windows key or click the Unity button in the top left corner of the screen and type "startup". "Startup Disk Creator" is one of the options. You'll need a USB drive with 2GB or more free. It installs from the disc.


How to add a guest account without a password? Sometimes I have friends in my house that want use my computer. How can they use a guest account without typing a password?

Method 1
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo adduser guest
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo passwd -d guest

This will add a user called "guest", then delete her password. You can log in from both the standard getty login prompt and graphical login managers like GDM. This works for me on Ubuntu 10.10.
However, apparently this doesn't work for some people using Ubuntu. Thus:
Method 2

Make a user.

Open /etc/shadow: gksudo gedit /etc/shadow

Find the line that starts with the user you just made. Notice the line has multiple fields separated by colons.

Change the second field to: U6aMy0wojraho. In my case:
 guest:$6$m4CpcgBw$i9XLGaUNToClOJ1X5Grug/COUjlkhoPv1:15048:0:99999:7:::
becomes:
 guest:U6aMy0wojraho:15048:0:99999:7:::

Save the file, log out, and try your new password-less account.

The origin of this method is from the Ubuntu livecd. The default user (ubuntu) requires no login password. If you look at /etc/shadow on the livecd, U6aMy0wojraho is the encrypted form of the magic password used. I explain this to emphasize this is not a general linux solution, but something specifically Ubuntu.

I just found this guide (which dates back to 2010) that uses the guest-session instead of creating a user. A guest-session has a higher security settings by default, doesn't allow access to filesystem files on nautilus and all files are deleted upon logout since they're stored on /tmp.

Here is the content of the above link, a post originally created by @Kainalu:

  Moderators - I don't know where I learned how to do this, and couldn't find it, so I decided to post here. If this is a dupe, or the wrong place for this, please moderate accordingly.

  I learned how to do this on the 'net somewhere. This HowTo will help you create an account on the login screen that will log in the same guest-session seen in the user menu. The advantage of this is that it will be an easily accessible guest account, while not preserving any files or changes on logout, and a higher security model for the account. Confirmed to work on 10.04 - 10.10, but the directions are for 10.10

  Under an existing administrator account, go to the menu entry System --> administration --> Users and Groups
  Click Add. you may need to provide a password at this point. Name your new user anything you would like, except guest. The account cannot be called guest, but visitor does nicely. encryption of the account is not needed. This account will be a "booster" account to guest-session
  On the next screen, enter a password, and make sure that you click the check box "Don't ask for password on login", Click OK to finish
  As an extra precaution, click Advanced settings, when back on the Users and Groups screen, and on the User Privileges tab, uncheck Monitor System Logs.
  Exit the Users and groups menu, and then log out and into your new account
  Once there, make a folder called GuestManager, and in that folder, make a plain text file called Guestmanager.sh, with this code in it :

  Code:

#!/bin/bash

# Launches the guest session
/usr/share/gdm/guest-session/guest-session-launch
# Logs the user when done
/usr/bin/gnome-session-save --logout

  Save that and then right click on it, go to properties, and then go to the permissions tab. On this tab, click "allow executing file as program", and then close that window.
  Open the menu entry System --> Preferences --> Startup Applications, and once there, turn off all the startup applications, and then click add. Fill in the name and comment as GustManager, and for the command, enter /home/visitor/GuestManager/GuestManager.sh, where visitor would be the name you picked for the account in step 2. click add, then close
  Delete all applets and extra toolbars (might want to leave the main gnome menu), and set the background to black or something else bland, and log out. Since this account is just a "booster" none of these toolbars and such will be needed, so removing them saves memory and load time.
  ENJOY!


How do I access my remote Ubuntu server via X-windows from my Mac? I have an Ubuntu server (12.04 LTS) running remotely on a cloud hosting service. I have installed ubuntu-desktop via apt-get:

$ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

It appears to have installed no problem.

I have confirmed that /etc/ssh/ssh_config on the server contains the lines

ForwardAgent yes
ForwardX11 yes
ForwardX11Trusted yes

and that /etc/ssh/sshd_config on the server contains the line:

X11Forwarding yes

I then rebooted the server. It came back up no problem.

Now, starting X11.app on my Mac I am presented with an Xterm.

I connect to my server from this terminal using:

$ ssh -X <myhost>

and I connect to the server, no problem.

At this point I don't know what to do. I have tried

$ sudo startx

but I get a "no screens found" error.

I don't have screens because its a headless cloud server, but I just want to acces it from my Mac through X.

What now?

There are several methods to accomplished that, depending of what you really need to do.

In order to forward remote apps to local X environment, you need to install X11 on your Mac (you can find it at apple support site): http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1605?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

From the X11 app, open the terminal, and then access the remote host with:

    ssh -XC user@host

Then, when logged, simply run the command for the desired app, ex: firefox, nautilus, thunderbird,  whatever...

You can even launch only the system (Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Mint, etc..) Main Menu, and interact with the remote system from there, without the need of a full graphical front-end. On a remote Linux Mint env, i simply run:

    mintmenu&

If you really need it, you can even start the remote graphical environment locally at your Mac's X11, simply running:

    ubuntu-session
    xubuntu-session
    etc... (depends of your remote environment)

Better than any VNC, even better than an X11VNC connection! Secured and compressed connection FTW.

You have the right idea but the wrong syntax :)

startx will not start over an ssh like that because it needs a screen (aka X server to talk to)

try this command to start the desktop gui

sudo service gdm start

this will start the desktop environment.

disconnect.

and try

ssh -X nautilus username@host

note did not test above line

If everything works fine you should see the ubuntu file manager popup. If not you may be missing some librarys or the syntax of the command is wrong (of the top of my head didn't try it).


Is it helpful to make a third disk partition to be able to access to it with both Windows and Ubuntu? I'm new in this. I want to have a dual boot with Windows 10 and Ubuntu 20.04, I know I have to split the disk for installing Ubuntu in one partition without making any changes to my actual Windows, but I want to share files between both OS, so I want to know if it'd be useful to make a third partition to be able to access files in this partition from both OS

There are a few ways to share files between dual-booted Windows and Ubuntu systems.

1.  Use a flash/thumb drive.

Obviously, one way to do this is to plug in a flash drive and just copy the files over to it.  Reboot into your other installation and plug the drive back in.

2. Set up a mutual partition

Like you suggested, you could set up a mutual partition that can be accessed by both systems.  If you don't want to use a flash drive, this is probably the cleanest method.

3. Install Ext4 drivers on Windows

This method only works if you didn't install Ubuntu using LVM (Logical Volume Management).  Most Linux systems use a file system called Ext4.  Normally, Windows can't read this type of file system, but you can install the necessary driver for Windows here.  I've tested this method myself, and it worked perfectly for me.  Be sure to add Ext2Fsd to your Windows startup applications, otherwise you'll have to manually start the program to access your Linux partitions.  This method allows you to have the most storage space allocated to each system.

Which method you use is mainly a matter of preference.  Using a mutual partition is a perfectly viable option, but it would take up disk space that could be allocated to your installed systems.  Using Ext2Fsd allows you to free up that disk space you would have used for your partition, but you would have another set of drivers to manage on your Windows system.

Hope this helps!

Multiple versions of ext4 drivers on Windows, including the latest ext2fsd,  have failed many folks here, including me.  and resulted in severe corruption 1 2 3 4 5.

Instead, I'd suggest a fourth method; just mount the NTFS partition in Linux where the data is, and read and write from Linux with its native NTFS support.

If you're skittish, make a new NTFS partition on your internal drive, and test reading and writing files you copy into it.


Firefox global application menu in Classic Desktop? I am using Natty without unity, but I am a fan of the global menu applet. Unfortunately, it does not work for Firefox 5 (and other programs that draw them themselves).

How can I activate the special globalmenus for the non-unity globalmenu app (or: is it possible)?

make sure you have firefox-globalmenu installed AND disable firefox's new menu that appears folded at the top left corner of firefox's main window.
HERE http://mozcom-cdn.mozilla.net/img/covehead/features/screen-firefoxbutton-linux.png is a screenshot of the menu i'm talking about


How to extract a zip file to a specific folder? I have a zip file that I need to extract into another folder. When I set up extraction to said folder it says "permission denied". I've read here how to log into a terminal as root and superuser but can't find anything to help me.

I need to extract a file from my Downloads directory to /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins.

Please explain how to extract a zip file to the correct folder.

We'll extract to a different folder to be sure that permissions aren't in our way:

Open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T should work).

Now create a temporary folder to extract the file:
mkdir temp_for_zip_extract

Let's now extract the zip file into that folder:
unzip /path/to/file.zip -d temp_for_zip_extract

You should now have the contents of your zip file temp_for_zip_extract and can copy them into the desired folder.
If you can't copy the files to your folder, then check the permissions on your target folder.
The path to the downloads folder depends on what you used to download it to, try ~/Downloads. If you can't find it, then try this in a terminal:
cd ~;  find -name 'filename.zip'

You can also use a file manager, of course. There is Nautilus, Nemo, Thunar and many more, depending on your environment.  Start the file manager and double click on your zip file, just like you would do in Windows.

Your targeted directory is owned by root (/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins), so you cannot write to it as a normal user.

Instead of mucking around with permissions, you can use sudo to unzip as the superuser.

sudo unzip ~/Downloads/whatever.zip -d "/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins"

I suggest you do this to a temporary directory first to ensure the files are what you expect and will not damage/destroy your plex installation:

unzip ~/Downloads/whatever.zip -d /tmp/whatever

then cd /tmp/whatever and verify that contents are what you expect. If so, then go ahead with the sudo command I showed above.


Undefined Symbol Error when running SDL program I've recently started playing around with SDL, following some tutorials online. I got a basic test program going, and it compiled fine, and it ran fine until recently. Starting about two days ago, trying to run the binary (The same binary, not re-compiled) throws the following error:

./sdltest: symbol lookup error: /usr/local/lib/libSDL-1.2.so.0: undefined symbol: _XGetRequest

I'm fairly confident I didn't install or remove anything since the program stopped working. I'm running 12.10 (Have been since before I got this error, so I'm pretty sure it's not a 12.10 bug), and I've been compiling with the following commands (Extracted from my makefile):

g++ -c -o main.o main.cpp
g++ -c -o CApp.o CApp.cpp
g++ main.o CApp.o -o sdltest -lSDL

Does anybody have any idea what went wrong, and what I might be able to do to fix it?

Still not sure why this was happening with SDL1.2, but I suspect it's probably related to the below:

I removed SDL1.2 and downloaded SDL2 instead. It turns out that a 2012 update to X11 added a dynamic symbol for _XGetRequest, which is what was causing my problem in SDL2. To fix the issue, I downloaded and installed SDL2 from the official Mercurial repository, rather than from the Ubuntu package manager.

you may find this Slackware based response helpful to a similar question. It was solved.

https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/libsdl-1-2-so-0-11-4-from-slackware64-current-undefined-symbol-_xgetrequest-4175456708/


How do I change extension of multiple files recursively from the command line? I have many files with .abc extension and want to change them to .edefg
How to do this from command line ?

I have a root folder with many sub-folders, so the solution should work recursively.

A portable way (which will work on any POSIX compliant system):

find /the/path -depth -name "*.abc" -exec sh -c 'mv "$1" "${1%.abc}.edefg"' _ {} \;

In bash4, you can use globstar to get recursive globs (**):

shopt -s globstar
for file in /the/path/**/*.abc; do
  mv "$file" "${file%.abc}.edefg"
done

The (perl) rename command in Ubuntu can rename files using perl regular expression syntax, which you can combine with globstar or find:

# Using globstar
shopt -s globstar
files=(/the/path/**/*.abc)

# Best to process the files in chunks to avoid exceeding the maximum argument
# length. 100 at a time is probably good enough.
# See http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/095
for ((i = 0; i < ${#files[@]}; i += 100)); do
  rename 's/\.abc$/.edefg/' "${files[@]:i:100}"
done

# Using find:
find /the/path -depth -name "*.abc" -exec rename 's/\.abc$/.edefg/' {} +

Also see http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/030

This is what I did and worked pretty just the way I wanted. I used the mv command. I had multiple .3gp files and I wanted to rename them all to .mp4

Here's a short oneliner for it:

for i in *.3gp; do mv -- "$i" "ren-$i.mp4"; done

Which simply scans through the current directory, picks up all .3gp files, then renames (using the mv) into ren-name_of_file.mp4


"the system is running in low graphics mode" I get this message when I boot my ubuntu I had got into a serious problem while solving my the system is running in low graphics mode using this link.

This guy and I have almost same Nvidia card. Mine is just bit more newer, so when I was on step #13 I completed it and rebooted my computer and my screen resolution got shrinked while my problem has not solved instead I have lost my unity and all can see is a blank screen with only my destop icon and shrunken screen in center. I get unity back when I remove the nvidia-current package

My actual problem was that when I boot Ubuntu I get a screen saying:

  The system is running in low graphics mode. Your screen, graphics card and input device settings could not be detected correctly. You will need to configure these yourself.

and I was able to login after few tries.

It is not related to nvidia drivers. Because by default Ubuntu uses non-nvidia drivers even though you might have nvidia GPUs. I have an  nvidia GPU too.

My Ubuntu used to boot fine until something happened which caused the same issue. After reading posts, reading logs and little bit trial and error, turns out the problem is related to lightdm GUI server.

I dont know solution to the problem but there is a quick work around in 3 steps. This will save you from reinstalling Ubuntu.

Step 1: When the error shows up, hit Ctrl+Alt+F1. This will open the commandline interface. Login as root.
Step 2: Remove a particular X11 config file. This file is not really required.

rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf.failsafe

Somehow the existence of the above X11 configuration file causes the OS to throw that error.
Step 3: Restart lightdm with:

service lightdm restart

This will restart lightdm and voila your desktop is back!

My root partition was full. I logged in remotely from SSH, made some free space and rebooted perfectly.


Keyboard shortcut to move windows between monitors? I remember there used to be a setting under Compiz that set a keyboard shortcut for moving applications between physical (but combined as a single xscreen) screens, similar to moving between logical screens, like Ctrl-Alt-Shift-← / → / ↑ / ↓.

Any way to do this under Unity?

As @jrg mentioned, this is still possible as Unity (Unity 3D, not the low-power 2D version) is largely built using Compiz.

You'll need to install the Compiz Config Settings Manager Yourself though. Precise steps are:-

Install CompizConfig Settings Manager using apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-plugins-extra.
Run it (just type Compiz in the dash and you'll see it).
Click Window Management.
Enable the Put plug-in (select the check-box).
Click on Put.
Configure the shortcut for Put to next Output (click the pencil icon next to the keyboard shortcut for Put to next Output.
Logout and login again for the changes to take effect (from the comments!)

In order to move windows (in case of windows that do not appear "anywhere") and excluding Compiz or other managers, the simple way I've used is this:

press Alt+SPACE (should open the windows menu, even if it's also
not seen)
(pressing M [for Move] does not work for me in Ubuntu 19.04)
press ↓ twice (skipping the first 2 options: Minimize and Maximize/Unmaximize) + Enter
press directional arrows until you see its top-bar on any monitor, and finally press Enter
you should now be able to control it normally...


Use Results of Find Command to Call vi Is there a way that I can pipe the output of this command (assuming there is only one file found) to vi.  I want to find this command, and then call it up in vi.

Thanks.

find . -name 'id.properties'

To edit the files printed by find:

find . -name 'id.properties' -exec vi {} +

In plain English, this finds paths in the current directory (.) and all subdirectories with a base name of id.properties. With these files it runs a vi file1 file2 [...] command (-exec vi {} +). If there are very many files (typically thousands), it might even run more than one vi command, each with a bunch of files, to be able to fit the commands into the maximum command length of your system. To force it to run the command for each file you could use \; instead of +.

To edit the text printed by find:

find . -name 'id.properties' | vi -

This writes the paths (relative to the current directory) of any files found (because by default find has a hidden -print at the end) to its standard output, which is connected (|) to vi's standard input. vi, in turn, reads from standard input (-) and shows that as a file to be edited.

This answer seems most straight forward. For your case it would be:

vim $(find . -name 'id.properties')


Ubuntu 13.10 wont run progecad in wine I'm trying to run Progecad in Wine but it only loads the front screen and then locks up. Also the mouse disappears when over the Progecad window. I've run from command line and get the following info:

M56S-S3:~$ wine "c:\Program Files (x86)\progeSOFT\progeCAD 2009 Smart! ENG\icad.exe"
p11-kit: couldn't load module: /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/pkcs11/p11-kit-trust.so: /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/pkcs11/p11-kit-trust.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
p11-kit: couldn't load module: /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/pkcs11/gnome-keyring-pkcs11.so: /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/pkcs11/gnome-keyring-pkcs11.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
fixme:psdrv:PSDRV_UpdateDevCaps Can't find page
fixme:psdrv:PSDRV_UpdateDevCaps Can't find page
fixme:psdrv:PSDRV_UpdateDevCaps Can't find page
fixme:psdrv:PSDRV_UpdateDevCaps Can't find page
fixme:ole:RemUnknown_QueryInterface No interface for iid {00000019-0000-0000-c000-000000000046}
fixme:ieframe:PersistStreamInit_InitNew (0x3aeaa50)
Killed
M56S-S3:~$ wine --version
wine-1.7.13

Any ideas how to fix this?

Running ubuntu 14 with wine with the latest version and progecad ran and loaded fine.  It even put the icon on the desktop Didm't even go to any special settingd.  Running a Acer 5315


PC keeps stuck at Ubuntu install I am trying to install Ubuntu on an old Toshiba PC (HDD totally formatted) from DVD but install stops after a few minutes and stays stuck. What did I miss ? Partitioning HDD or something else ?

Usually problems that are with installation are a per-version issue. Try either using a different Ubuntu version or try installing it from a USB drive and see if that helps. I am 95% positive this will fix it :)

I had this once and no one could give me an answer, after lots of investigation myself, I found that the install was running out of disk space on the install and did not tell you this, it just hung. I would look in that direction if I were you.

Chris.


Ubuntu 18.04 takes lots of cpu for every copying procedure I have worked with ubuntu 14.04, 16.04 and 18.04 (x64) on my laptop and I had the same problem in each one of them. The problem is copying takes CPU and it takes a lot of it. It doesn't matter the which file, as long as copying to another drive or flash memory or an external HDD, cpu is working a lot. I checked for copying in the same ubuntu on my friend's pc and it was ok.

As you see I found the two processes using the cpu

P.S: I have installed ubuntu 18.04 on an SSD memory and the installed ubuntu for my friend's pc on an HDD.

(This small essay is a variation on my usual reference to the truism "Good, Fast, or Cheap; Choose any two")

Turn the question around. On an otherwise unloaded system, what would you expect to happen? Should the system starve processes or resources like memory or CPU if no other process needs those right now?

An OS has to balance speed and space and do so in a correct manner, and it has to do that for any process that may want access to the same resources. It has to honour notions like "locks" that a process may request so it can do things atomically, and it may be that copying files requires more than a few atomic operations. But it will do its best to coordinate those requests with priority over the lifetime of the OS uptime.

Inspecting processes with top etc. doesn't tell you much about the internals of a process. It gives you a general picture of the overall state a few moments ago, and can help identify some general problems. But it shouldn't be used as a benchmark for processes, especially those that rely a lot on kernel operations.

In general, the scheduler operates within some parameters to balance resource requests and reduce contention (if possible) while optimizing execution. Copying files, especially across filesystems, is special in that there is a lot of coordination to be done across devices and kernel space to make sure things are safe as well. Copying a file is intended to be relatively bomb-proof, so in most cases there are locks and checks and retries that handle all the little things that can go wrong. There are going to be waits while the copy is in a critical section, and the UI has to be updated as well. So the entire system from UI/console to kernel to devices is involved.

I see you have mentioned laptop battery life in a comment (which should have been in the the question). This is a case where the copying operation just doesn't care. Copying files doesn't care about your battery. It is up to the scheduler/OS/kernel to throttle the resources available if the intention is to never spin the CPU high enough to require stepping to a higher power level.

Maybe the Linux kernel isn't good at this, or the Ubuntu free or non-free, properietary battery control devices and widgets aren't working for you. But this is a different issue, and could be seen with any process that needed the same resources as file copies or moves.

What we need is some sort of power stat tool that allows us to dig into the most power-hungry processes, like mobile phones have.

In fact, the system may already be throttling things so the CPU is in a lower power state, and the copies are taking longer as a result. That "90%" is a percentage of the total estimated available "CPU". It isn't a hard or even well-defined value.

(I'm also reminded at the power cost of operations in data centres, and disk seeks of any kind, even when cached in memory, are a huge part of the power cost and source of the waste heat!)


Installing autotools, autoconf on Ubuntu I need to install autotools. When I search on the Internet, there are various method given that use commands like ./configure, for example.
Please guide me on how to install autoconf, autotools, and related packages on my system. A step by step guide would be very helpful.

To install autotools:

sudo apt-get install autotools-dev

To install autoconf

sudo apt-get install autoconf

After installing the packages autoconf, automake and libtool, what I did was reconfigure because the error persisted. Then after reconfiguring I was allowed to compile and install without errors.

$ sudo sh configure --prefix /usr/local
$ sudo make install

The justification of why to use /usr/local and not /usr/local/apache2 I leave you in the next publication


After installing Ubuntu I can't boot Windows 8 anymore I just bought a new laptop (a lenovo ideapad Z500) and it came installed with Windows 8. I wanted to have Ubuntu on it too, therefore I resized the Win8 partition from the control panel and installed Ubuntu on the free space I created.
Ubuntu works perfectly, Windows does not load anymore...
I tried the recommended repair with Boot-Repair but it did not fix, now I get a "Windows boot loader failed to start" on startup and then I get the GRUB screen.
The partition summery created by Boot-Repair is here: http://paste.ubuntu.com/1444837/.
How can I fix this?
Thanks in advance for your help.

Edit: some more info after trying this for yet another. It looks like I'm not the only one having troubles with this, it seems that the whole Lenovo Z series is affected by this. I tried so far:

I've followed this guide: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI
I could not get the Live CD to boot. Tried the same with Live USB, no luck. The CD is not detected as a bootable device, the PC keeps rebooting with the live USB inserted.
I've also tried this guide: http: //www.linuxbsdos.com/2012/11/05/dual-boot-windows-8-and-ubuntu-12-10-on-uefi-hardware/

No luck either, I get the Win 8 boot loader but I get an error message whenever I try to launch ubuntu  UNLESS I accessed the BIOS and altered the boot order, in order to have Ubuntu on top of the list. This way I can access Ubuntu but not Win 8, unless alter the boot order again...

Standard install from CD. After the installation completed I could not get Win 8 to boot anymore. Used boot-repair and I still had could not get Win 8 to boot.

Still looking for an acceptable solution, thanks for your help.

Tried the whole process with Secure Boot and Fast Boot disabled, ran Boot-Repair after installing Ubuntu and now I can get to Windows 8 by choosing "Windows UEFI Recovery" on GRUB. I think, but I'm not sure; that Boot Repair was updated in the meantime.

I guess we both have (just had) the same issue. I am afraid we installed Ubuntu's bootloader over Windows 8's bootloader. Since "Windows hates Linux" and due to "secure boot tech" we got ourselves in a damn trouble. Here's a way to make each bootloader work correctly and separately from the other.

The Windows loader is installed on the first partition (disk 0 partition 1) of your hard disk. What has gone wrong is that we installed Ubuntu's boot loader also over the same partition. The solution is:

You should format that partition (surf the net first) this way both loaders are deleted.
Install Windows 8 normally.
Install Ubuntu and be sure not to install the bootloader on partition 0.

P.S. Deleting partition 0 might get u another problem please do more researches about it.


How do I get the Apple Wireless Keyboard Working in 10.10? So I've gone and bought a Magic Mouse and Apple Wireless Non-Numeric Keyboard.
The magic mouse worked out-of-the-box almost perfectly, except for the forward/back gesture which still isn't functioning, whereas the keyboard didn't.

It has constant trouble with the bluetooth connection. Only the 7, 8 and 9 buttons and volume media keys correspond correctly with the output.
Pressing every single key on keyboard has this output:
789/=456*123-0.+

When I use Blueman the keyboard can be setup and shows up in "Devices" but I get a warning when I click "Setup"; "Device added successfully, but failed to connect" (although removing the keyboard and setting it up as a new device doesn't incur this error).

Using gnome-bluetooth I have encountered no error messages but it connects properly less often than Blueman and I can still only type the aforementioned output.

What am I not doing? Where is this going wrong?

EDIT:
I have read this
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=224673
inside out several times to no avail. It seems these commands don't work for me with the apple peripherals
sudo hidd --search
hcitool scan

Fortunately I have the luxury of a 1TB hard drive, near limitless patience and no job.

I have installed a fresh Ubuntu 10.10 64bit (albeit smaller than mine) and after updating and restarting for the first time, I set up my devices in exactly the same way as I have learnt on my original install
I succeeded once again with the mouse and, to my joy, with the keyboard also. Though I could not seem to find Alt+F2 and had to reconfigure that and several other keyboard shortcuts, the keyboard is working and in a spectacular fashion.

Still, this leaves me with the issue of my original install.
I returned to it with some new found knowledge but failed again.

Perhaps I have a missing dependancy? I did uninstall bluetooth after the initial set up and reinstalled it recently for the pupose of these peripherals.

Maybe it's because I'm running 64bit?

This is still not solved, but easily avoided by not changing too much from the original install.
Just hide stuff or turn it off, don't uninstall too much.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=9842686&postcount=98

  Press fn-F6 twice to disable numlock. To switch numlock off permanently after log-in go to System -> Preferences -> Keyboard -> Layout -> Layout Options -> Miscellaneous compatibility options -> turn on "Default numeric keypad keys"

For those of you still looking... I had this same problem. Here is the solution!

solution for your problem is here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=224673 (probably near last posts where people write about latest model apple keyboards )


What is the sugested way to upgrade 20.04 kernel to v5.6? As I have similar problem as had Vladymir, I wanted to use his solution to upgrade to 5.6 kernel. After little lookup I found that for 20.04 in official repos are 4 oem (?) (signed or unsigned) 5.6 kernel images:
linux-image-5.6.0-1007-oem - Signed kernel image oem
linux-image-5.6.0-1008-oem - Signed kernel image oem
linux-image-5.6.0-1010-oem - Signed kernel image oem
linux-image-5.6.0-1011-oem - Signed kernel image oem

I did not found any 5.6 generic images. I have no idea, how affects me oem and I have no idea what are meaning those numbers before -oem, but I just want to install 5.6 kernel for my desktop? Are those kernels meant to install for general use on desktop? Or what is the proper way to install generic 5.6 kernel?

The kernels you listed can be installed on desktop machines for general use. You can find more information about the Ubuntu OEM kernel on this wiki page. The number before -oem is the build number, the higher the number, the newer the kernel.

You can find the Kernels for Ubuntu in this website, there are many: https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/
Before you start to install a new kernel, it is recommended to backup all of your data.
For example if you want kernel 5.6.10 then you need to download these files:
linux-headers-5.6.10-050610_5.6.10-050610.202005052301_all.deb

linux-headers-5.6.10-050610-generic_5.6.10-050610.202005052301_amd64.deb

linux-image-unsigned-5.6.10-050610-generic_5.6.10-050610.202005052301_amd64.deb

linux-modules-5.6.10-050610-generic_5.6.10-050610.202005052301_amd64.deb

After you downloaded the files, just run:
sudo dpkg -i *
sudo reboot


How do I install VLC extensions? VLC player allows installing extensions, plugins, skins. They have to be copied into a folder: for example, its .lua extensions should be in a folder with the same name. Where is that?

To install extensions (.lua) the needed folder is ~/.local/share/vlc/lua/extensions/ for the current user and /usr/lib/vlc/lua/extensions/ for all users. I found about it here and here.

Once installed, they are to be found under 'View'

(I put them here for illustration, I do not recommend all of them.)

Skins are installed by going to Tools/Preferences(Ctrl-P) - Interface: 'Use custom skin', and select the skin file.

UPDATE

At least for the moment, very few VLSub extensions are really working and are worth trying; and, among these, most are not actively developed, as you can see here: the best is VLSub, probably the best tool around at the present for downloading subtitles - to the point that recent versions of the player have integrated that addon by default (but in VLC 2.2.2 that is outdated and has stopped working: see below).

VLC 2.2. has the capability to search and install extensions within it's settings, under Tools-Plugins and extensions:

Only it doesn't always install the latest version which is needed for the extension to really work, in which case download the script from the developer (for VLSub, here) and install it as indicated in the first part of this answer.

If the addons that come with the player need to be replaced, look for them in /usr/lib/vlc/lua/extensions/.

Sorry,I don't have enough reputation to comment on the previous answers:

1st answer by user47206 & edited by Jorge Castro descries two ways to add add-ons (plugins or extensions) to VLC manually by placing their lua files in a certain directory or automatically via tools menu>plugins and extensions which are still valid ways theoretically but directories mentioned in the answer and the comment by Antonio Petricca are now all not working/ obsolete.
2nd Answer by user1137772 & edited by Nmath shows a new directory /home/[username]/snap/vlc/1700/.local/share/vlc/lua/extensions/ which needs a little tweak now "I'm using VLC version 3.0.12.1 on ubuntu 21.04 from ubuntu software store" to /home/[username]/snap/vlc/2103/.local/share/vlc/ "which contains folders skins2 for vlt file type skins and lua/ for different plugins and extensions of lua file types i.e extensions like VLsub which is preadded by default now, playlist like radiotime also preadded,later it may create other folders inside e.g sd for service discovery like TuneIn or intf for interface like syncplay which you can add the automatic way".
location for luac files library extracted from " preadded VLsub = extension" more information from tools menu>plugins and extensions>active extensions is /snap/vlc/2103/usr/lib/vlc/lua/[folder] see evidence image and evidence image which contains luac files for other preadded add-ons like jamendo and icecast.
By default tools>preferences>"advanced"interface>input / Codecs>disable all lua plugins is checked and unchecking it will disable those preadded "luac" add-ons (like VLsub, jamendo, and icecast) and the "lua" ones I added (like TuneIn Radio, Jump to time, Sampler_PG "which have only a lua file in /home/[username]/snap/vlc/2103/.local/share/vlc/lua/[folder] !").
For me, I added some add-ons automatically and some manually, only extensions appeared in view menu under VLsub ,while service dicovery add-ons added the "automatic way" will appear in playlist left panel and other add-ons e.g. skins, playlist parsers, interface will appear installed only in tools>plugins and extensions :

Skins worked only manually for me from native skin by going to tools>preferences>"simple"preferences>look and feel>check use custom skin and then browse to your vlt file "automatically downloaded skins will not appear here as .local is hidden directory so you'll have to put them into a visible one" click save and restart VLC. After loading a cusom skin an option will appear in right click menu>interface>select skin, From which you can choose a skin from /home/gandalf/snap/vlc/2103/.local/share/vlc/skins2.
Choosing skin2 from tools>preferencec>"advanced"preferences>interface>main interface>skinnable interface "check" caused the player to crash and not be opened anymore except by typing VLC in terminal.
Extensions I added automatically "appeared to" work.
All other add-ons that I added did not work.


Dual Screen Monitor not working after 11.04 upgrade Launchpad bug #794975

I have a nVidia GeForce 8600 GT video card. I'm not using closed source drivers (so I'm using what ever the default ubuntu/linux drivers are). I have 2 monitors plugged in the back of them. Both monitors worked out of the box with no extra settings needed. Today I upgraded to Ubuntu 11.04 and the dual monitors don't work. only one monitor works.

Here's some hardware information

$ sudo lshw -C display
  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: G84 [GeForce 8600 GT]
       vendor: nVidia Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: a1
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
       resources: irq:16 memory:f2000000-f2ffffff memory:e0000000-efffffff memory:f0000000-f1ffffff ioport:1100(size=128)

and

$ lspci -nn | grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation G84 [GeForce 8600 GT] [10de:0402] (rev a1)

and

$ xrandr
xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 240, current 1280 x 1024, maximum 1280 x 1024
default connected 1280x1024+0+0 0mm x 0mm
   1280x1024      50.0*    51.0
   1280x960       52.0
   1152x864       53.0     54.0     55.0     56.0
   1024x768       57.0     58.0     59.0
   960x600        60.0
   960x540        61.0
   840x525        62.0     63.0     64.0     65.0
   832x624        66.0
   800x600        67.0     68.0     69.0     70.0
   720x450        71.0
   700x525        72.0     73.0
   680x384        74.0     75.0
   640x480        76.0     77.0     78.0     79.0     80.0
   512x384        81.0     82.0
   400x300        83.0
   320x240        84.0     85.0

Actually I had it wrong. I was using the closed source drivers. I found out when I greped for nvidia in dmesg. I apt-get removed that package (think it was nvidia-current), and rebooted and everything works now.

Type this in Terminal and see :

sudo xrandr --auto

It probes the monitor for supported refresh rates and resolutions and attempts to auto-configure the graphics card to work with the monitor.


How do I install svn? I am trying to install svn and am running into issues.  The command I am running is sudo apt-get install svn.  When I run this, I get the error "Unable to locate package svn".  Why is this?  How do I fix it?

The package is called subversion  (abbreviated svn). You've to install it by running:

sudo apt-get install subversion

This package contains the svnserve daemon too (not started by default). If you want to host a subversion server over HTTP, you must install apache2 and configure it accordingly.

apt-get is an amazing package manager, but often the names of packages aren't exactly named the way you would expect. (Obviously not the fault of apt-get) for example, downloading java isn't apt-get install java.
as for your issue,  the name of the svn package in apt-get is subversion.

apt-get install subversion

have fun with your subversion needs!


How to stop Steam from installing itself to other users? I installed Steam and I want it to be installed only on my account. Everytime when someone else logs in, Steam tries to update itself to complete the installation for that user. I don't want to do that for every user becouse the update is really big and I have limited HDD space, so is it possible to stop Steam doing that?

When a user logs in, Steam should not automatically open. It's likely that Steam is still set to open in their Startup Applications. Disabling it there should prevent it from starting when a user logs in.


How to install wifi drivers on Mac book air? I have a new Mac book air that I (because of the tiny amount of storage on it) booted it from an HHD.  It is the latest version of Ubuntu and it is working great on the laptop.  The only problem is that I need to install a driver for the wifi card but the laptop doesn't have a ethernet port. Is there a way to download the driver some other way?

It requires some manual activities.
Try this http://pavelmanushin.blogspot.ru/2014/04/ubuntu-12.html


Problems with floating arithmetic in bash I have code in bash:

a=$(cat "tempf.out")

Where tempf.out is smth like this:

-432.4319347412

I want to multyiply it by 2, so, I write:

result=$(expr $a*2)

But I get this:

*232.4319347412

If I try to use bc:

result=$(expr $a*2|bc)

I get:

(standard_in) 1: illegal character: ^M

Please, help to fix it.

If your tempf.out file has DOS-style line endings (CR-LF) then you will need to fix that - either at the file level using dos2unix, tr, or sed for example, e.g.

a=$(sed 's/\r$//' tempf.out)
bc <<< "$a*2"

or by removing it from the $a variable using the shell's parameter substitution capabilities e.g.

a=$(<tempf.out)
bc <<< "${a%^M}*2"

where the ^M is an actual carriage return composed using Ctrl+V Ctrl+M

Thanks a lot for everybody

a=$(sed 's/\r$//' tempf.out)
result=$(expr $a*2 | bc)
echo $result

works for me


Razer naga & ubuntu 12.10 Are there any configurators with profiles for the Razer naga mouse? I've found this link, but I don't know how to install it.

Sadly, other than that, there is no configurator for Razer devices (other than one that is now quite a bit outdated), and according to Razer, they have no plans to port their Synapse to Linux.
As for installing Razercfg, all the instructions are in the README file, but I guess I can summarize it for you:
The following is required in order to install:

Python 2.5 or 2.6 (should be installed by default)
libusb (1.0<)
QT4 Python Bindings (python-qt4 in the Debian/Ubuntu repos)
CMake  (2.4<) (cmake in the Debian/Ubuntu repos)

Extract the archive, then, in terminal, move to the directory you just extracted. Next, type cmake, then make. After that, you will want to switch to root (sudo su) and then type make install.
Again I'll say it: all of this is in the README file that comes with razercfg. It's not terribly difficult to follow the instructions in it, but just in case it is, this guide should be a bit easier to follow.

Thats odd. My mouse seems to switch from the number row to the key pad just fine when I flip the switch. Btw that razer config tool isn't really outdated. Just looks like the dev isn't constantly working on the tool all the time. Sometimes going for a year without an update, but still updating none the less. The last update bing in October last year doesn't seem to old.
I think the only thing that isn't saving form windows is my dpi settings. I haven't been running this config tool for a while. My death adder just stored the setting internally. My naga doesn't seem to do this. Ill get back to this once I try it out.
Razer's new cloud config software kind of sucks if you ask me.


How to install Oracle 11 Release 2 on Ubuntu 15.04? I am new to oracle and database domain and want to install it, I checked some tutorials on the net but I couldn't find one for Ubuntu 15.04.

I downloaded the 2 files (Linux x86-64) from:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/index.html

Here we Go !

1- Download the Oracle 11g R2 Database for Linux:
Oracle 11g R2 .zip for Linux

The Link Contains the List of Oracle 11g r2 Database Releases.

2- Open a Shell Session or Terminal Emulator Window
Ctrl+Alt+t
(Press “Enter” to Execute Commands)

3- Login as SuperUser

sudo su

If Got “User is Not in Sudoers file” then Look at the Solution here.

4- Make Network Configuration

Get hostname:

hostname
Get IP:

/sbin/ifconfig

(You will Find It Under the lo >> inet Section.)

Check if Hostname is Already into the Enabled Hosts File.

cat /etc/hosts

If It’s Not Present then Insert it with:

nano /etc/hosts

Insert:

[myIP] [myHostname]

Example: ‘127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain’

Ctrl+Shift+v to Paste Content into nano

Ctrl+x to Save and Exit from nano Editor

Grant Connection to , Server

xhost +myIP

Example: # xhost +127.0.0.1

5- Install Prerequisite Packages

apt-get update

And

apt-get install alien autoconf automake autotools-dev binutils doxygen \
elfutils expat gawk gcc gcc-multilib g++-multilib libstdc++6:i386 ksh less libtiff4 \
libtiff4-dev lib32z1 libaio1 libaio-dev libc6-dev libc6-dev-i386 libc6-i386 \
libelf-dev libltdl-dev libmotif4 libodbcinstq4-1 libodbcinstq4-1:i386 \
libpthread-stubs0 libpth-dev libstdc++5 lsb-cxx make \
pdksh openssh-server rlwrap rpm sysstat unixodbc unixodbc-dev x11-utils \
zlibc libglapi-mesa:i386 libglu1-mesa:i386 libqt4-opengl:i386 \
libpthread-workqueue0 libpthread-workqueue-dev libzthread-2.3-2 libzthread-dev \
libpthread-stubs0-dev

6- Make Symlinks to Binaries and Libraries

Linking Binaries

ln -s /usr/bin/awk /bin/awk

ln -s /usr/bin/rpm /bin/rpm

ln -s /usr/bin/basename /bin/basename

Linking Libraries

ln -s /usr/lib/x8664-linux-gnu /usr/lib64

cd /lib64

ln -s /lib/x8664-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 .

7- Add Groups and User

groupadd -g 502 oinstall

groupadd -g 503 dba

groupadd -g 504 oper

groupadd -g 505 asmadmin

useradd -u 502 -g oinstall -G dba,asmadmin,oper -s /bin/bash -m oracle

passwd oracle

Take Note of the oracle User Pass :)

8- Make Target Directories

mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/

chown -R oracle:oinstall /u01

chmod -R 775 /u01

9- Parameters Configuration SetUp

Edit /etc/sysctl.conf file.

nano /etc/sysctl.conf

Then hit Ctrl+x to Save and Exit from nano Editor

Add or amend the following lines

#### Oracle 11g Kernel Parameters ####
fs.suid_dumpable = 1
fs.aio-max-nr = 1048576
fs.file-max = 6815744
kernel.shmall = 2097152
kernel.shmmax = 536870912
kernel.shmmni = 4096
# semaphores: semmsl, semmns, semopm, semmni
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 9000 65500
net.core.rmem_default=4194304
net.core.rmem_max=4194304
net.core.wmem_default=262144
net.core.wmem_max=1048586

Edit /etc/security/limits.conf file.

nano /etc/security/limits.conf

Add the following lines

#### oracle User Settings 4 Oracle 11g ####
oracle       soft  nproc  2047
oracle       hard  nproc  16384
oracle       soft  nofile 1024
oracle       hard  nofile 65536
oracle       soft  stack  10240

Load the New Kernel Parameters.

sysctl -p

10- Unzip, Set Ownership and Relocate database

On Desktop Double-Click on Archive to Extract:

Or from Command Line:

cd /home/[myUser]/Downloads

unzip linux_11gR2_database_1of2.zip

unzip linux_11gR2_database_2of2.zip

Then Set Ownership:

chown -R oracle:oinstall database

mv database /tmp

11- Set Env. Variables & Paths for oracle’s User

Login as Oracle

su oracle

Edit .bashrc file

nano ~/.bashrc

Append:

# Oracle Settings
TMP=/tmp; export TMP
TMPDIR=$TMP; export TMPDIR
ORACLE_HOSTNAME=[HOSTNAME]; export ORACLE_HOSTNAME
ORACLE_UNQNAME=DB11G; export ORACLE_UNQNAME
ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle; export ORACLE_BASE
ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1; export ORACLE_HOME
ORACLE_SID=[DBSID]; export ORACLE_SID
PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH; export PATH
PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH; export PATH
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib:/lib:/usr/lib:/usr/lib64; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
CLASSPATH=$ORACLE_HOME/jlib:$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/jlib; export CLASSPATH

Replace [HOSTNAME] with IP and [DBSID] with SID Name

In this Example Respectively:

HOSTNAME = 127.0.0.1
DBSID = SID

Load New .bashrc Settings

source ~/.bashrc

12- Install the Oracle 11g Software

cd /tmp/database

./runInstaller

If Got Display Not Set Look:

GetOracle 12c DB Troubleshooting.

On the first screen Just Leave eMail Blank and Un-Check the Demand of Security Update Support then Click on Next

Then Confirm on Warning and Follow.

On “Select Installation Option” Select “Install database software only” and Click on Next

On Step 3 Leave Default “Single instance database installation” and Click on Next

On Step 4 Select your Language and Click on Next

On Step 5 Leave Default Enterprise Edition and Click on Next

On “Installation Location” Set All As Here Below and Click on Next

Oracle Base: /u01/app/oracle
Software Location: /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1

These are the Same Settings Inserted into the .bash_profile File…

On “Create Inventory” if you Setup the Path on .bash_profile Like Here Leave Default and Click on Next

On “Operating System Groups” if you Setup the Path on .bash_profile Like Here Leave Default and Click on **Next

On “Prerequisite Checks” you will Get Easily a “Warning Message” about some Missing Requirements

Just Check: “Ignore All” and Follow Up with Installation…

Check Ignore All and Follow…

On the “Summary” Click on “Save Response File” to Take Note of Settings and then Click on Finish

The Installation Product Procedure should Start…

13- Execute Scripts

Right Before the End of Process a Pop-Up Window will Show the Path to Two Configuration Scripts you Need to Execute on Terminal !

Next Oracle Should Confirm you of the Successful Installation Achivement.

After you Should Access the “Enterprise Manager” on Browser by the URL shown on the Latest Screen.

On a Localhost for Example you Should Access the Enterprise Manager by the Address:

https://127.0.0.1:1158/em

And you can Login with:
User Name: SYS

Password: oracleDatabasePassword

From the Drop-down below Select >> Connect as SYSDBA

You Should be Able to Access the Database by the Enterprise Manager!

(The Source Source)


How to prevent Firefox updates per app version (preferences outside of profile folder)? Firefox on Ubuntu 14.04 just updated to v 47, and it broke some of the stuff I was working on. That is however no biggie, I thought, because I can just download the previous version, and work with it, I thought. So, I do something like this:

wget https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/46.0.1/linux-i686/en-US/firefox-46.0.1.tar.bz2
tar xjvf firefox-46.0.1.tar.bz2
mv firefox firefox-46.0.1
./firefox-46.0.1/firefox # to run

So far so good, but unfortunately, as soon as I click Alt / Help / About Firefox, the damn thing starts updating:

... and it doesn't even ask me, which I find extremely disrespectful.

The problem here is that at startup, even this version uses the "Default User" profile that my normal system Firefox uses. Now I could set up a separate profile folder just for this Firefox, but then I have to manage more things - which I don't find worth the effort, since all I want to do anyways, is just to stop the updates.

So, I looked up a bit:

Stop automatic updates. | Firefox Support Forum | Mozilla Support (2014)

  You can set these prefs in about:config to disable automatic updating:
  app.update.auto - false
  app.update.enabled - false
  app.update.silent - false
  ....
  You can create a new file in a text editor ... called user.js ...  Place this file in your Profile Folder.
  // turn off application updates:
  user_pref("app.update.enabled", false);

This would be OK, if I wanted to use a separate Profile directory, but as I said, I don't (and I don't want to mess with my "Default User" profile either). Then I found this:

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/applications/145630-firefox-where-does-user-js-go.html (2009)

  <firefox_installation_dir>/defaults/profile

Ok, so this is something outside of a Profile folder, and in the application directory, this I could use, but does it still work? Currently I have this:

$ find firefox-46.0.1/ -name '*.js'
firefox-46.0.1/defaults/pref/channel-prefs.js
$ cat firefox-46.0.1/defaults/pref/channel-prefs.js
/* This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
 * License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
 * file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/. */

pref("app.update.channel", "release");

Well, I thought, if this file is read, then I can just add the preferences to stop updates here?

$ cat >> firefox-46.0.1/defaults/pref/channel-prefs.js << 'EOF'
> pref("app.update.auto", false);
> pref("app.update.enabled", false);
> pref("app.update.silent", false);
> EOF

Re-run Firefox, as soon as I see Help/About, it starts updating again :(

Tried also adding these to a separate user.js file in the same directory:

$ cat >> firefox-46.0.1/defaults/pref/user.js << 'EOF'
> pref("app.update.auto", false);
> pref("app.update.enabled", false);
> pref("app.update.silent", false);
> EOF

... but still no dice - again Firefox starts updating immediately once I see Help/About; and even about:config indicates that these preferences have not changed from their defaults.

So, is there a way to stop the updates of this "extern" version of Firefox on "application" level (i.e. in its application folder), such that is still uses the "Default User" profile otherwise user by the main Firefox version?

Ok, here is a workaround, until a proper answer arrives; the concept is:

Create a folder for a "specific" profile inside the application folder
Create a bash script that will run firefox from the application folder, with the "specific" profile created earlier (in 46, both firefox and firefox-bin files are binary)
Once this "specific" profile folder is initialized, create a user.js inside with the required preferences

Here is all of that in a bash script:

wget https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/46.0.1/linux-i686/en-US/firefox-46.0.1.tar.bz2
tar xjvf firefox-46.0.1.tar.bz2
mv firefox firefox-46.0.1

# create a new, "specific" profile folder
mkdir firefox-46.0.1/profile-46

# create a new bash script to run firefox:
cat > firefox-46.0.1/firefox46.sh <<'EOF'
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# set -x
# SCRIPT_DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )" # nowork 4 symlink
SCRIPT_DIR="$(dirname "$(readlink -f "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")")"
cd ${SCRIPT_DIR} # just in case
# -no-remote implies --new-instance.
exec "${PWD}/firefox" -profile "${PWD}/profile-46" -new-instance
EOF

# make bash script executable:
chmod +x firefox-46.0.1/firefox46.sh

# run once, just to init the profile-46 directory, then exit manually:
./firefox-46.0.1/firefox46.sh

# create user.js to override; firefox-46.0.1/profile-46/prefs.js should not be edited manually
# (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Preferences/A_brief_guide_to_Mozilla_preferences)
# (http://practical-admin.com/blog/firefox-customization-file/)
cat > firefox-46.0.1/profile-46/user.js << 'EOF'
pref("app.update.auto", false);
pref("app.update.enabled", false);
pref("app.update.silent", false);
EOF

# finally, symlink to /usr/bin:
sudo ln -s $PWD/firefox-46.0.1/firefox46.sh /usr/bin/firefox46

Now, whenever I start firefox46 from the terminal, Firefox 46 starts with the right profile, and does not want to update anymore, which is what I wanted...

You can simply delete Updater executable in the firefox folder. No more updates. Ever.


Gave up waiting for root device on Ubuntu I've just installed Ubuntu 12.10 to dual boot with Windows 8, but every time I choose Ubuntu from grub menu, it always get stuck at this error and won't boot:

Gave up waiting for root device. Common problems:
 - Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
   - Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
   - Check root= (did the system wait for the right device?)
 - Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev)
ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/920903aa-762f-40d2-8126-87f4b0e6f975 does not exist. Dropping to a shell!

BusyBox v1.19.3 (Ubuntu 1:1.10.3-7ubuntu1.1) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a lost of built-in commands.
(initramfs)

I tried with boot-repair, but it doesn't help, here is the log generated it.

I had the very same problem. Thing is that I had the laptop off for long time and when I switched it on it showed the same message. Apparently some configurations changed (most likely to a default setting) with the machine off for long time.

I solved it following this link here on Stack Exchange:

"initramfs" error on boot ONLY on Dell XPS 13 (boots fine on other computer)

Solution is:

Reboot.
Press F12 and go to the BIOS settings.
System Configurations → SATA Operations
Change RAID to AHCI

I just randomly started typing stuff... try:

(initramfs) blkid
(initramfs) blockdev --rereadpt /dev/sda
(initramfs) blkid
(initramfs) exit

This at least gets you to the desktop where you can begin trouble shooting your problem which is probably due to a proprietary driver or something


Ubuntu won't shutdown A bit of background first. I use my ubuntu computer as a media center and backup server, running Ubuntu 12.04. It's scheduled to shutdown at 1am everyday.

My problem is that the computer does not shutdown. It attempts to as scheduled sudo shutdown -h now, but then the computer stays on after halting. It also does this when I type it into command line or use the gui. The last thing it says is

Will now halt

[ 945.791650] Power Down

The screen stays on and the computer doesn't stop, I have to use reset button or hold power button. I have already appended acpi=force to the grub config with no avail.

Thanks for any help..

This worked for me:

  For me, the solution was to upgrade the kernel. I used 4.5.3 on Ubuntu 15.10 (anything greater than this will crash the OS after login) And 4.7 RC3 works on Ubuntu 16.04.

Taken from SirAhaz's answer on Ubuntu 14.04 stuck on shutdown


New kernel causes log in issues I have recently become interested in the Linux kernel and wanted to compile it from source and run it on my system (16.04). I followed the instructions on

https://kernelnewbies.org/OutreachyfirstpatchSetup

and I was able to compile the kernel using the default config in Ubuntu. I also updated GRUB and restarted my system. Everyhting went fine until I came to the login screen and tried to log in. The system accepts my password but then immediately crashes and I am once again presented with the log in screen. I restarted my system and booted into the old kernel (4.8.0-58-generic).

Now I wonder, is it possible for me got get the system running properly under the new kernel? If not, how can I uninstall the new kernel and change GRUB so that it defaults to 4.8.0-58-generic?

In uninstalling the new kernel you can simply

sudo apt-get remove <linux-image>

Or you can use synaptic package manager search for linux-image. A list of images will appear then you can delete the desired kernel.


Can't boot from CD - Ubuntu 14.04 I'm tired of ubuntu now and and switching back to windows. Im gonna use the OS-Uninstaller but the problem is I can't boot from my ubuntu cd. When I installed ubuntu im quite sure I pressed F11 to choose boot from cd. Now I tried all F buttons and it just boots normal or gets to a black screen with a bunch of white text and then boots normal.

Here is my motherboard:

Handle 0x0002, DMI type 2, 15 bytes
Base Board Information
Manufacturer: MSI
Product Name: 870A-G46 (MS-7599)
Version: 4.0
Serial Number: To be filled by O.E.M.
Asset Tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Features:
    Board is a hosting board
    Board is replaceable
Location In Chassis: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Chassis Handle: 0x0003
Type: Motherboard
Contained Object Handles: 0

Any ideas on how I can boot from cd?

are you Confidence your cd is bootable iso ? you can download ubuntu iso from http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ and then (in windows ) right click on iso file and choose burn disk image waiting for burn complete and verify disk
for verify :
insert disk and wait for run autoplay if you see a window like show install ubuntu this mean your disk is bootable the you can install ubuntu after restart and boot from disk


brightness not working on 13.04 upgrade on dell xps 13 ultrabook Just upgraded from 12.10 to 13.04 on Dell xps13 ultrabook and the display is very dim and cannot be changed using f'n keys or from system settings.
This ultrabook uses Intel's ivybridge mobile.

UPDATE:
With the intention of reloading 12.04 I had to change the boot params to boot from usb stick.
So:

secure boot: disabled
load legacy rom option: enabled
boot list option: UEFI
UEFI boot:

Must have not quite got params right since it booted from the ssd drive BUT this time display was normal and could up/down brightness?
So need to investigate this more by playing with boot params but haven't time or patience now.

I had the same issue on my XP13 (2013 w/ Ivy bridge).  With the "load legacy rom" option disabled, the brightness wave very low (even lower than it can normally go?) and was not adjustable.

I can confirm that re-enabling the legacy rom option restores brightness control on my system.  I did have a number of other fixes applied (such as https://askubuntu.com/questions/286343/screen-brightness-very-dim-on-a-dell-xps-13-2013 and http://www.webupd8.org/2012/08/fix-dell-xps-13-backlight-brightness.html and http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2139456), but none of them worked until I re-enabled this option.

This is on what I believe to be an EFI booted system (GPT partition table, /sys/firmware/efi exists, etc).

I had this issue this morning after doing a fresh install of 13.04.  I couldn't figure it out, but it did resolve itself a few hours after.  The only real major change I made was installing the 32-bit libraries.  So give that a shot.

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs


Trouble installing Ubuntu 12.04 on Mac PowerPC G5 Disclaimer: I know very little about doing anything on a computer other than regular updates and downloading music software. This is my first OS replacement, so I may be a little frustrating to some.

I'm very new to Ubuntu and not entirely sure if what I'm doing is even possible on my G5, but I can't really seem to find a straight answer on any of the forums I've come across. I was given a PowerPC G5.

Specs:

Model Name: Power Mac G5
   Model Identifier:  PowerMac11,2
    Processor Name:   PowerPC G5 (1.0)
   Processor Speed:   2 GHz
   Number of CPUs:    2
   L2 Cache (per CPU):    1 MB
   Memory:    8 GB
   Bus Speed: 1 GHz
   Boot ROM Version:  5.2.7f1
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 LE
Running OS X 10.5.8

I've tried installing Ubuntu 12.04 alternate PowerPC and 12.04 desktop powerpc and the farthest I ever get in either of them is the black yaboot screen. It prompts me to press "Enter" and when I do it flashes to a white screen with black writing and then nothing... except my computer sounds like it's about to explode....

Things I've done to fix it based on somewhat similar problems on other forums:

Make sure the DVI cable is in the primary port.
Try to see if my GPU is supported. (couldn't find a straight answer)
Typed in different commands to try to change the video to "nomodeset". (don't know if I was even doing this right)

Thanks for your replies. I just tried 14.04 32-bit and 64-bit and the same with 16.04 and neither of them worked.. Restarted my computer, held down "c" and nothing for both. It's like the superdrive isn't able to read the disc?? Are there steps that im missing? Is it worth the hassle?

Ok so I finally got Ubuntu 16.04 installed on my computer. I had to do a NetBoot and download the GUI from the terminal. Now I'm running into the issue where as soon as I log in all I see is just the normal wallpaper and no apps or menus or anything.

did you try to install it as a main Operating system on the specific computer?

download ubuntu 14.04 and try again to install it!
what device did you use to install ubuntu?


Changing program privileges I installed a codec under the root user in my Ubuntu 10.04 installation. As you guessed, I can't play a movie using the codec under my normal user account. How do i rectify the problem?

From your user account, try sudo apt-get purge w32codecs then sudo apt-get install w32codecs .

you can try installing again with you currently user use "sudo aptitude -y install non-free-codecs"


No buttons on top panel appearing I've noticed that since 16.04 update some of programs has lost their buttons on the top panel. Some examples:

Gnu Image Manipulation Program(GIMP)
XChat-GNOME

It would be great to find out reason aswell as solution to this.

This is a known bug in 16.04 which has no ultimate fix till now. But this command can solve the problem temporarily:

initctl restart unity-panel-service

Have you used tweak-tool to change your theme?  Try resetting to a default theme.  I noticed the same issue, along with the fact that some windows (like gedit) couldn't be resized.  As soon as I changed my GTK+ theme back to Adwaita (default) everything worked right.  Do note, I run Gnome 3, so your mileage may vary.


Why is it bad to log in as root? I've often come across posts on forums or other websites where you see people joking in such a manner about running/logging in as root as if it's something awful and everyone ought to know about it. However, there isn't much that a search reveals on the matter.

It may be widely known to Linux experts, but I really don't know why. I remember always running as root when I first tried Linux years ago (Redhat and Mandrake) and don't remember running into any problems because of that.

There are actually some distros that have a bright red background with alert signs all over it as wallpaper for the root user (SuSe?). I still use the "Administrator" account for regular use on my Windows installation and haven't ever run into any problems there either.

It defeats the security model that's been in place for years. Applications are meant to be run with non-administrative security (or as mere mortals) so you have to elevate their privileges to modify the underlying system. For example, you wouldn't want that recent crash of Rhythmbox to wipe out your entire /usr directory due to a bug. Or that vulnerability that was just posted in ProFTPD to allow an attacker to gain a ROOT shell.

It's just good practice on any operating system to run your applications on a user level and leave administrative tasks to the root user, and only on a per-need basis.

Ultimately there is no harm in running as root. It's just a bunch of paranoid people who think that re-installing an OS is impossible. The "Someone might compromise a program.." argument, so what? if they do that then they already could keylog your password, or just display a root password request anyway and have you give them the password. Blow away your system because you select everything in / and delete? oh well, get out the installer and re-install. It takes less than 20 minutes, grab a coffee and chill. Root is fine, I've been running root as long as I can remember and you know what it does? It makes installing packages less of a headache. You don't have to enter root password every 5 minutes like you normally have to. You don't run into problems trying to save/edit system config files because they're root permissions only. It's just so much easier and better to run as root.


Cannot find downloaded file(mp4) I have downloaded a video file from youtube via command line (youtube-dl) but couln't find it and when I again tried to download the same file the terminal says the file is already downloaded but after rigorous searching of the file in every folder I was unsuccessful.I have only one partition. My O.S is Ubuntu13.10.

By default the videos should be downloaded into the current working directory.

If you're not sure where you are, just run nautilus . from the command line where you are and that should open up a file browser. Or you can run pwd to get the path.

There's quite a good recent answer pointing out how to change the default location for youtube-dl which might help you in the future.

check in your home directory for the downloaded file


How do I enable automatic updates? Update Manager is constantly offering me updates (e.g. security fixes, updates from PPAs).

How can I tell my Ubuntu installation to automatically download and install updates whenever they become available?

Although it is not wrong or dangerous (see comments to this answer), using apt-get upgrade -y is not the best way to achieve this.

unattended-upgrades is one of the best practices of having automatic updates, especially for headless machines or servers!

You can set up unattended-upgrades pretty easily by typing this in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install unattended-upgrades
sudo dpkg-reconfigure unattended-upgrades

From the description:

 This package can download and install security upgrades automatically
 and unattended, taking care to only install packages from the
 configured APT source, and checking for dpkg prompts about
 configuration file changes.

I use apticron to get informed by mail if an update needs to be done.

In your case, I would use cron-apt or unattended-upgrades to do the job of automagically updating your machines.


ntp.conf error. unexpected T_String, expecting T_EOC Having a problem with my NTP server. It is an Ubuntu 14.04 VM. It seems to hang after a day or so of running. When it's up, it's working fine. I'm seeing these errors in syslog:

ntpd[901]: syntax error in /etc/ntp.conf line 37, column 19
ntpd[901]: line 38 column 19 syntax error, unexpected T_String, expecting T_EOC

I though maybe it was a config issue, so I navigated to line 32 column 19 which was just the subnet mask entry. That makes no sense. So I searched the web, in which I found a bug report on it, suggesting to rename /etc/ntp.conf.rpmnew to /etc/ntp.conf. Only problem is the file is already named ntp.conf. So dead end there. I'm a bit stumped. Any help would be very appreciated.

Here is the ntp.conf file.

#/etc/ntp.conf, configuration for ntpd; see ntp.conf(5) for help
driftfile /var/lib/ntp/ntp.drift
#Enable this if you want statistics to be logged.
statsdir /var/log/ntpstats/

statistics loopstats peerstats clockstats
filegen loopstats file loopstats type day enable
filegen peerstats file peerstats type day enable
filegen clockstats file clockstats type day enable

#Specify one or more NTP servers.

   server 0.us.pool.ntp.org
   server 1.us.pool.ntp.org
   server 2.us.pool.ntp.org
   server 3.us.pool.ntp.org

restrict 10.x.0.0 255.255.0.0 nomodify notrap
restrict 10.x.0.0 255.255.0.0 nomodify notrap
restrict 10.x.0.0 255.255.0.0 nomodify notrap
restrict 10.x.0.0 255.255.0.0 nomodify notrap
restrict 10.x.0.0 255.255.0.0 nomodify notrap
restrict 10.x.0.0 255.255.0.0 nomodify notrap
restrict 10.x.0.0 255.255.0.0 nomodify notrap
restrict 10.x.0.0 255.255.0.0 nomodify notrap

#Local users may interrogate the ntp server more closely.
restrict 127.0.0.1
restrict ::1

#If you want to provide time to your local subnet, change the next line.
#(Again, the address is an example only.)
broadcast 10.x.x.x

I've ran into the same error while setting up an NTP client on my Windows workstation.

It turns out, there was a typo in the 'server 127.127.20.1 ...' line, but not specifically in the column that the error referenced.

In my case, the typo was in the word minpoll, which I'd written as minipoll.
(server 127.127.20.1 minpoll 4 prefer)


How do I dissolve all subfolders Is there a command line one-liner to move all the contents of all the direct subfolders of a folder to the folder itself and deleting the subfolders (which are now empty)? I.e., eliminate a level in the folder hierarchy?

To be absolutely clear, the deeper subfolder structure should be preserved.

I've run into this a couple of times now, and I was a little disappointed this doesn't seem to be a feature of Dolphin, nor something other people are struggling with.

I suspect this may have to be split in two, moving the contents of the subfolders, and deleting the subfolders. However, this may have the undesired side-effect of deleting empty second-level sub-folders.

Actually not a real one-liner:

find . -mindepth 2 -maxdepth 2 -print -exec mv --backup=numbered -t . '{}' + \
&& find . -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -empty -delete

First find everything in the subfolder with exact depth 2 and move it to .. Then find and delete all empty folders in the current directory.

if you have files/folders with the same name they will be renamed with original_filename.~n~ (n meaning 1, 2, 3 ...).
Note that will delete all empty subfolders.

Update:

I'm not happy with the solution above. Too many caveats and problems. For example when --backup=numbered renames the parent folder of your folder you want to move ...

mkdir -p test/test
mv test/test . --backup=numbered
mv: cannot move 'test/test' to './test': No such file or directory

Better use a temporary directory to avoid problems. The temp dir should be on the same file system to avoid the need to copy the files.

tmpdir=$(mktemp -d)
find . -mindepth 2 -maxdepth 2 -print -exec mv -b -t $tmpdir '{}' +
find . -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -empty -delete
mv -b $tmpdir/* .
rm $tmpdir

mv */* . && rmdir *

Move everything in subdirectories into the current directories. rmdir won't delete directories unless they're empty so the second part only deletes empty directories.


I want to send audio via bluetooth to an android phone - kubuntu 14.04 There are a number of items that I found during the search, like:
Ubuntu how can I send my audio output, to the mobile which is connected using bluetooth?

There is an answer with +100, stating that Android lacks the A2DP capabilty. As far as I can make out, in the meantime there is an applet by the name of SoundAbout that is supposed to do just that.
I installed it, paired the devices.

And what I get is like the image in
https://cjenkins.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/use-a-wireless-bluetooth-speaker-on-ubuntu-12-04/
, except it says A2DP source (Receive Audio)

I have installed blueman, and I get quite a lot, but no other output device ever pops up in pavucontrol. Therefore, everything is and remains quiet. pulseaudio-module-bluetooth is installed.

How can I get to make the sound system see the device?

Thanks in advance!

I think you misunderstood what SoundAbout is - its not an A2DP profile for your android bluetooth stack - its an audio router that allows you to configure how audio generated in the android device is routed, very similar to what pulseaudio does (possibly it uses pulseaudio?).

What you want is not possible with stock android, because the Bluetooth stack on Android does not support the A2DP sink profile. See this question for further explenation on that and how to create an application that enables bluetooth A2DP sink.

You might get ahead more by replacing the default Android bluetooth stack with the bluez stack used on modern Linux distribution, though it does require replacing the kernel which you can only do if you have a rooted or customized device. see here for details.

Have you made your device's Bluetooth visible. In your Android Phone go to

Settings --> Bluetooth --> Make Visible

If you have already did this, try to reboot your computer and your phone and try again.


How do I route my internet through a SSH tunnel? Old Q How do I setup an OpenVPN server without root privileges?

Is there a way to setup an OpenVPN server without root privileges? E.g. with configuration files in my home directory? If yes, how do I set it up?

I'm trying to SSH into a system and set up an OpenVPN server over there for personal use.

EDIT

Since it's apparent that OpenVPN needs root privileges, I am changing the question to routing my internet using SSH which I can easily set up.

sshuttle is a transparent proxy server that forwards over a SSH connection and sets up a proxy by running Python scripts on the remote server. sshuttle can be run under the following conditions:

client machine or router is Linux-based, FreeBSD or Mac OS
administrative privileges on client
access to remote network via SSH
no administrator privileges on remote network
availability of Python on remote server

Install sshuttle  from the Software Center or the Terminal:

sudo apt-get install sshuttle

The basic command for running sshuttle with routing all traffic is:

sshuttle -r username@sshserver:port 0/0

Upon the execution of the command, a sudo password prompt will appear and subsequently the password to SSH account. No other details will appear except for a short message and return to shell upon failure. For more status messages, run sshuttle in verbose mode with the -v flag.

In this example all internet traffic except DNS is routed through the VPN. -r flag denotes the remote hostname and optional username and port that follows in the above example. 0/0 is short for 0.0.0.0/0 that represents the subnets to route over the VPN. The usage of 0/0 routes all the traffic except DNS requests to the remote server. DNS tunelling is possible with the usage of -H flag.

Please read the man page (man sshuttle) for the details of options and modes under which sshuttle can run. For information about the concept and more examples, refer to the project page.

If you only want to tunnel your systems TCP traffic i recommend to use a programm called tun2socks.
If you also want to tunnel UDP traffic you have to install udpgw on your server.

Here is an tutorial how to install and use this programms: http://board.nwrk.biz/viewtopic.php?id=3


How to install a Logitech webcam? I'm having problems with installing a webcam:

Archive:  /media/LWS_2_0/Setup.exe
[/media/LWS_2_0/Setup.exe]
  End-of-central-directory signature not found.  Either this file is not
  the last disk(s) of this archive.
zipinfo:  cannot find zipfile directory in one of /media/LWS_2_0/Setup.exe or
          /media/LWS_2_0/Setup.exe.zip, and cannot find /media/LWS_2_0/Setup.exe.ZIP, period.

How do I solve this?

Are you trying to install the webcam on Ubuntu?

Have you tried plugging it in and just trying to use it?

Ubuntu contains lots of drivers out of the box. For most hardware you don't need to get things from the manufacturer's disks or website.

Try using an application like cheese to see if the camera works.

It should detect your webcam under /dev/video0 ?

The error you entered above is because you clicked on the .EXE, but under Ubuntu you need to start an .EXE with Wine

Example

wine /media/LWS_2_0/Setup.exe

Regards,

Ilias el Matani


Why does LibreOffice Calc paste a cell as a graphic? I have a formula in a cell without additional formatting:

=IF(D2>0,F2/(D2),"")

When I copied this formula from the first cell down through a range, it was converted to a graphic repeating the results of the first cell over and over.

I was able to test further, and found that I could copy a single cell and paste to the next lower cell, and it worked fine; the second paste to the next lower cell got turned into a graphic again.

Any idea what is happening?

Because you are experiencing a bug. You did not tell, but you are using Ubuntu 19.10 or later. The Gnome developpers recoded clipboard functionality in a more recent version of window manager mutter, and as a result, the clipboard is a little broken right now. One of the more visible side effects is what you see now in Calc, but also in other occasions, you will experience that sometimes some older entry than the one you see are pasted. You will, like myself, blame it on yourself, but no, it is a current issue. I hope it will be corrected anytime soon. Currently, also Ubuntu 20.04 is plagued.

Workaround:

Use the Wayland display server instead of Xorg (but that has other issues). The issue of mutter is only with xorg.
Alternatively, be very careful with copy/paste and double check. Systematically pressing Ctrl+c twice will in most cases be fine.

See the Ubuntu bug report here.

I did some more research, and found a relevant question on libreoffice.org that suggests a copy manager may be to blame. My first thought was that I wasn't running one, since I didn't see any related logos and I'm not running Mutter (the compositor for Ubuntu 19 - I'm running Ubuntu 16).

However, since I've run copy managers in the past, I did a double-check:

$ ps auwx| grep copy
emd       7741  0.0  0.4 2913064 59788 ?       Sl   Apr04   0:46 /usr/bin/copyq
emd       8058  0.0  0.1 416384 14652 ?        Sl   Apr04   0:20
/usr/bin/copyq monitor /home/emd/.config/copyq/.copyq_m
emd      25726  0.0  0.0  20504   932 pts/7    S+   11:36   0:00 grep copy

So this shows me that the copy manager copyq was running. I killed it:

$ pkill copyq

Now things are working better - except now if I copy a formula that resolves to a number, it pastes the result (number) into the next cell not the formula as it does otherwise.

Not a good sign when I run into bugs almost immediately upon the first time using this software in a long time - how many new users bail out instead of going to all the trouble that I have?


Acrobat XI Pro like pdf reader How do I install a PDF reader like "acrobat XI pro" which lets me highlight text, has text recognition and lets me combine and convert PDF from and to other formats?

I run kubuntu and the KDE dedktop, and use Okular. It is a Qt4 app that has those capabilities.  I believe its more capable for markup than Evince. You can install it even if you use the default Ibuntu desktop.

Another option with the features you're looking for is PDF Studio by Qoppa. It's not free, but a lot more reasonable than what I recall paying for Acrobat years ago. The standard version is under $100 and the pro version is only a bit more. Check it out at www.qoppa.com/pdfstudio, I've been using the Pro version for a couple of years and really like it.


How to start Teamviewer or any program before login Teamviewer is a remote desktop application, it doesn't have to be this one, I'd be interested to know the following for any remote desktop application like VNC or RDP.

I added a "Startup script" to run Teamviewer automatically but it only runs when I log in.

Is there a way to run such a program before any log in, so that the login can be done remotely?

Many thanks!

Teamviewer version 8 (which just came out) has the option to run as daemon which makes it start automatically when Ubuntu is booting (see the 'Special note for our Linux users' on the Teamviewer site.

Normally, such programs are started through scripts in /etc/init.d/, to which links point from /etc/rcX.d/ directories. However, I bet that somewhere in Teamviewer manuals there is a description how to add a teamviewer service for good :)


dpkg: error: dpkg status database is locked by another process I just wondered if somebody could tell me what this means:

E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.
reidsr@ubuntu:~$ sudo dpkg --configure -a
dpkg: error: dpkg status database is locked by another process
reidsr@ubuntu:~$

How do I run sudo dpkg --configure -a  manually?

First run:

lsof /var/lib/dpkg/lock

Then make sure that process isn't running:

ps cax | grep PID

If it is running:

kill PID
#wait
kill -9 PID

Make sure process is done:

ps cax | grep PID

Then remove the lock file:

sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/lock

Let dpkg fix itself:

sudo dpkg --configure -a

You should be fine afterwards :)

This can happen if the upgrade process was interrupted (like you're connection was lost). You can try using screen as root (sudo su) to get back into the session.

screen -r


How does run option in geany text editor work? I have seen the run option (F5) in the Geany text editor. If I run an HTML file it opens a browser and in case of php code it will show all the html content on the terminal. I was wondering what exactly is this run option supposed to do.

Geany documentation explains how this operations work and how to customize them.

http://www.geany.org/manual/current/#build-menu

Just wondering ? So far as I know, it is normal for someone who is writing a computer program, he want to run it.

Geany is very good. We can write a scrip, e.g. python, then run it. And it will run just like a normal IDE like Netbean do. It even will show the result in GUI when we run python with wxPython. Of cource, Python and wxPython must be installed first.

It also able to show output of PHP and/or HTML scrips directely in a Browser, so far as I know, Firefox. Of cource, a Geany project should be set first to do that. Again, web browser, PHP anda MySql must be ready first.

To directly output a PHP scrip in a Browser, e.g. Firefox. Do as follows :

Open a Geany project, then : Project -> Propesties -> Build. There are 3 group option to edit : PHP Command, Independent Command and Execute Command. Thera are 2 columns in Execute Command group.

Look at the bottom of the window (Click here)

Fill the second column with :

firefox "http://localhost/your_project_folder/%f"

And the third column, fill with your document root of your project e.g., /var/www/html/your_project_folder.


Where is the information about custom launchers in Unity panel? Possible Duplicate:
  How can I edit/create new launcher items in Unity by hand?

I have recently pinned my "custom" application to the Unity launcher bar. I'd like to tweak it a bit, add a description and maybe and icon for easier alt-tab recognition. However, I was not able to find where is the launcher bar information stored.

I have followed some older guides and looked to ~/.local/share/applications but nothing correspoding to my launcher is there. How (where) can I find that file(s) describing my launchers?

There is a unity documentation project, which does claim to have written some info. They don't seem to have done a good job of presenting this documentation to users though. Don't have time to search at the moment...


Error: "Failed to open \EFI\BOOT\grubx64.efi..." (Dual-Booting) Today after I installed Ubuntu 16.04 via USB on my pre-installed Windows 8 machine, I was required to restart my computer. After doing so I wasn't offered to select an OS, so after searching the internet, I came across Boot-Repair which I ran using the Try Ubuntu option in my Ubuntu installation USB.
Following the boot repair I got a message saying,

If your computer directly reboots into Windows, try to change the boot order in your BIOS. If your BIOS does not allow to change the boot order, change the default boot entry of your Windows bootloader. For example, you can boot into Windows then type the following in an admin command prompt:
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi

After I rebooted my PC, I am receiving the following error message for about 3 seconds, after which it boots automatically into Windows 8, without letting me access Ubuntu.
Error received while booting after manufacturer's logo, before grub:
Failed to open \EFI\BOOT\grubx64.efi - Not Found
Failed to load image \EFI\BOOT\grubx64.efi: Not Found
start_image() returned Not Found

So I tried the other solution of typing that command in the cmd, to which my surprise, worked, and I am now prompted a window (grub) to choose my OS each time I turn on my PC, but unfortunately, I still receive an error each time, that lasts about 3s, after which I can choose my OS (both are working just fine) and work normally.
Do you have any suggestions to get rid of the error message each time I boot my PC?

Finally managed to solve it.

For the rest, open the terminal

$ sudo bash
$ cd /boot/efi/EFI
$ sudo cp -p ubuntu/grubx64.efi Boot
$ sudo touch ubuntu/grubx64.efi.gbr

After that, I stopped seeing the error message and grub showed up normally (it did before, too, just after seeing that error message for 3s).

Don't try these present above. These are hard and may not work. I also ran into same problem so what I did was took a live USB of Ubuntu and pressed try Ubuntu. Then I went to terminal . There you press this following command .Internet is needed here.

First command: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair && sudo apt update

Second command : sudo apt-get install boot-repair && boot-repair

Then an app will be there. In that you press recommended fix. Then it will fix the grub and reinstall it .here too Internet is must. Then reboot and enjoy dualbooting.


How do I run a script at start up? I have a script in a folder:

/path/to/my/script.sh

I need this script to run every time the system starts (even if no one logs in to the system). What do I need to do in order to make this happen?

You will need root privileges for any the following. To get root, open a terminal and run the command
sudo -i

and the command prompt will change to '#' indicating that the terminal session has root privileges.
Alternative #1: Add commands to /etc/rc.local
vi /etc/rc.local

with content like the following:
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel
/path/to/my/script.sh || exit 1   # Added by me
exit 0

Alternative #2: Add an Upstart job (for systems older than 15.04) (not recommended)
Create /etc/init/myjob.conf
vi /etc/init/myjob.conf

with content like the following
description     "my job"
start on startup
task
exec /path/to/my/script.sh

Official statement from upstart website ->  "Project is in maintaince mode only. No new features are being developed and the general advice would be to move over to another minimal init system or systemd."
Alternative #3: Add an init script (obsolete)
Create a new script in /etc/init.d/myscript.
vi /etc/init.d/myscript

(Obviously it doesn't have to be called "myscript".)  In this script, do whatever you want to do. Perhaps just run the script you mentioned.
#!/bin/sh
/path/to/my/script.sh

Make it executable.
chmod ugo+x /etc/init.d/myscript

Configure the init system to run this script at startup.
update-rc.d myscript defaults

In your home, you have a file named .bashrc. This file is executed at the opening of your session.

Just put something like this at the end of the file:

sh /path/to/your/script.sh

EDIT: sorry, i didn't answer your question because my solution is executed when a user is logged in...

To execute something before the login, you can try rcconf or rc-file: http://www.debianadmin.com/manage-linux-init-or-startup-scripts.html


Installing Java Automatically (With Silent Option) I'm trying to install Java through apt-get.

I found this PPA of Java Installers, however, when I add the repository, update and then issue the apt-get install -y command, the installer for java takes over and it pops up a configuration option.

I'm hoping to be able to install it without any intervention or pressing of keyboards since I am creating build and deploy scripts for my EC2 instances which will automatically install all of the tagged packages that it needs.

Is there any other options?

If OpenJDK/OpenJRE works fine for you, I recommend using that package instead as suggested by @SAM. However, some software really requires Oracle's JDK/JRE. This answer is how to silence the license question with the Oracle package from the PPA.

First, let's recognize the question asked is a feature of the package, created by the developer.

oracle-java7-installer (7u7-0~webupd8~4) maverick; urgency=medium

  * removed cookie file use or else the PPA stays disabled
  * request the user to accept the Oracle license before installation
 -- Alin Andrei <webupd8@gmail.com>   Tue, 04 Sep 2012 14:18:29 +0200

As @Nate indicated in his answer, there should be a silent option. And there is. Do this before installing it:

$ echo debconf shared/accepted-oracle-license-v1-1 select true | \
  sudo debconf-set-selections
$ echo debconf shared/accepted-oracle-license-v1-1 seen true | \
  sudo debconf-set-selections

This sets the value of the debconf key to true, but also marks it as seen by the user. Now this question should not appear!

How did I find this?

In the source of the package, I tracked this down in the oracle-java7-installer.preinst file:

license=oracle-license-v1-1

# snip

db_get shared/accepted-$license
if [ "$RET" = "true" ]; then
    echo "$license license has already been accepted" >&2
    exit 0
fi

Apparantly, it uses debconf's value for the key shared/accepted-oracle-license-v1-1 to check whether the user has already accepted the license. If it is, the script will exit gracefully and allow the installation to continue without asking you the question. We should now just tell debconf you already accept the Oracle Licence 1.1.

Please refer to the manpage of debconf-set-selections on more details, but this is the example for your issue and works similar for other packages. What other keys do you have on your system in debconf's database? Install debconf-utils and do

$ sudo debconf-get-selections

Then grep for more keys you need to set in your automated installation. This is way more flexible than using -y with apt-get as it gives you the opportunity to set other than default settings on installation times.

This is an excerpt from the Dockerfile I've used to successfully build a Debian based docker image:

(Reference)

RUN apt-get update \
    && apt-get upgrade \
    && apt-get install -y gnupg

RUN echo "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/webupd8team/java/ubuntu xenial main" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/webupd8team-java.list
RUN echo "deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/webupd8team/java/ubuntu xenial main" | tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/webupd8team-java.list
RUN apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys EEA14886
RUN apt-get update
RUN echo "oracle-java8-installer shared/accepted-oracle-license-v1-1 select true" | sudo debconf-set-selections
RUN apt-get install -y oracle-java8-installer \
    && apt-get clean \
    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* \
    && R CMD javareconf


Dropbox doesn't leave "Connecting..." state After installing Dropbox in 12.10 it doesn't connect properly. All files get synced without any problems, but in the drop down menu (icon in the top bar) it keeps showing "Connecting" for 3 days now... In 12.04 it shows account stats etc..

Any way to solve this?

I dont know if there is any way to actually solve this right now, but I have the same problem. You could help about with clicking on the "this bug affects me too".
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus-dropbox/+bug/1069113

For a little workaround you can check the status of your dropbox by using this from the terminal:

dropbox status

Well, I tried this and it worked for me. I hope it will be the same with you:

Try this:

cd /media
sudo mkdir data
sudo chown <youruser> data

Where youruser is, obviously, different than root.

Now type this:

sudo blkid | grep UUID

You will be able to identify UUID and TYPE of your filesystem where dropbox folder is stored.

Copy the choosen pair somewhere. Now edit fstab sudo gedit /etc/fstab

and append at the end of the file something like this:

UUID=yourUUID   /media/data yourTYPE    defaults    0   0

Ok. Now, last step:

dropbox stop

Check if is really stopped. If it isn't, kill it (You can use ps and kill commands).

Delete configuration:

rm -rf ~/.dropbox

and restart dropbox

dropbox start

It will be start syncing files from the internet.