Gnome backgroud log in, not change(after change it) I try to change the login background picture in Gnome (GNOME Shell 3.14.4 - Ubuntu 15.04), doing this Thread: Unable to change GDM Login screen background.

copy the image you want to use into the /usr/share/gnome-shell/theme folder
sudo gedit /usr/share/gnome-shell/theme/gnome-shell.css

Search for the following section

#lockDialogGroup {
background: #2e3436 url(noise-texture.png);
background-repeat: no-repeat;

change the name of the image to your image
set background to repeat or no-repeat

Save the file
logout and your new background is there

My image is a .jpg file, Can be this the problem? , any solution for this?
If you need more information, please let me know.
Thanks.

It should be fine (I think I did use a JPG a while ago), however a few notes:

If you want it to fill the display (unless you are modifying the CSS further), you will need to make the image the same size as the usual display resolution to work properly (unless you want it to tile multiple copies)
If you make copies of the files you have added/modified, this will  make it easier
For 3.16+, its fairly complicated (see here and here:)

  Note: Since GNOME 3.16, GNOME Shell themes are now stored binary
  files (gresource).

  Firstly, you need to extract the existing GNOME Shell theme to a
  folder in your home directory. You can do this using the following
  script (extractgst.sh)

#!/bin/sh

workdir=${HOME}/shell-theme
if [ ! -d ${workdir}/theme ]; then
  mkdir -p ${workdir}/theme
fi
gst=/usr/share/gnome-shell/gnome-shell-theme.gresource

for r in `gresource list $gst`; do
        gresource extract $gst $r >$workdir${r/#\/org\/gnome\/shell/}
done

  Navigate to the created directory. You should find that the theme
  files have been extracted to it. Now copy your preferred background
  image to this directory.

  Next, you need to create a file gnome-shell-theme.gresource.xml in
  the directory with the following content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<gresources>
  <gresource prefix="/org/gnome/shell/theme">
    <file>calendar-arrow-left.svg</file>
    <file>calendar-arrow-right.svg</file>
    <file>calendar-today.svg</file>
    <file>checkbox-focused.svg</file>
    <file>checkbox-off-focused.svg</file>
    <file>checkbox-off.svg</file>
    <file>checkbox.svg</file>
    <file>close-window.svg</file>
    <file>close.svg</file>
    <file>corner-ripple-ltr.png</file>
    <file>corner-ripple-rtl.png</file>
    <file>dash-placeholder.svg</file>
    <file>filter-selected-ltr.svg</file>
    <file>filter-selected-rtl.svg</file>
    <file>gnome-shell.css</file>
    <file>gnome-shell-high-contrast.css</file>
    <file>logged-in-indicator.svg</file>
    <file>filename</file>
    <file>more-results.svg</file>
    <file>no-events.svg</file>
    <file>no-notifications.svg</file>
    <file>noise-texture.png</file>
    <file>page-indicator-active.svg</file>
    <file>page-indicator-inactive.svg</file>
    <file>page-indicator-checked.svg</file>
    <file>page-indicator-hover.svg</file>
    <file>process-working.svg</file>
    <file>running-indicator.svg</file>
    <file>source-button-border.svg</file>
    <file>summary-counter.svg</file>
    <file>toggle-off-us.svg</file>
    <file>toggle-off-intl.svg</file>
    <file>toggle-on-us.svg</file>
    <file>toggle-on-intl.svg</file>
    <file>ws-switch-arrow-up.png</file>
    <file>ws-switch-arrow-down.png</file>
  </gresource>
</gresources>

  Replace filename with the filename of your background image.

  Now, open the gnome-shell.css file in the directory and change the #lockDialogGroup definition as follows:

#lockDialogGroup {
  background: #2e3436 url(filename);
  background-size: [WIDTH]px [HEIGHT]px;
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
}

  Set background-size to the resolution that GDM uses, this might not
  necessarily be the resolution of the image. Again, set filename to be the name of the background image.

  Finally, compile the theme using the following command:

$ glib-compile-resources gnome-shell-theme.gresource.xml

  Then copy the resulting gnome-shell-theme.gresource file to the
  /usr/share/gnome-shell directory.

  Restart GDM - you should find that it is using your preferred
  background image

well frankly speaking, since "noise-texture.png" is in ".png" format, it`s prefered that you use a background with the same format to evade other sys issues.

best guess is try converting your favorate .jpg to a .png ---> peace out ;)


Is it possible to run currently installed Ubuntu from Windows? I have Windows XP and Ubuntu installed on separate partitions.

Is it possible to "boot" my Ubuntu install from within Windows? What I am looking for is something similar to a Virtual Machine, but that will run the copy of Ubuntu already installed on my hard drive. I'd like to be able to dualboot Ubuntu and Windows, but also have the ability to access my Ubuntu install from within Windows without having to reboot.

You can use coLinux  and run your Ubuntu kernel with colinux:

I installed Ubuntu as normal on a separate partition and configured the computer to dualboot between Ubuntu/XP.
I installed coLinux with the Debian with backports image that is available on the coLinux website.
Configured coLinux so it could mount the Ubuntu partition, the trick here is to figure out the correct partition number. The partition number in coLinux seems to be lower that the partition number used when booting the computer with Ubuntu. In my case I had to setup:

<block_device index="1" path="\Device\Harddisk0\Partition5" enabled="true" alias="hda7"/>

Boot coLinux with the Debian with backports image and after boot mount the ubuntu partition in my case /dev/hda7
To make it possible to boot ubuntu inside coLinux you need to turn of some services autostarted at boot, most of them har hardware related in some way and is not supported inside coLinux. You still want to run these services when not running ubuntu inside colinux. I did this by first creating a /etc/inid.d/colinux script according to http://wiki.colinux.org/cgi-bin/DualBootSystem
This script should of course be created in the /etc/init.d directory on the ubuntu partition and not on the "debian with backports" image.
When this script has been created you also need to edit the default.colinux.xml file so it contains a COLINUX=1 boot-parameter, in my case:

<bootparams>root=/dev/hda8 COLINUX=1</bootparams>

This script now makes it possible to turn of some autostarted services when starting inside coLinux but still run these services when dualbooting the computer with ubuntu.
You also has to make sure to run this script at boot time by inserting links in the /etc/rcS.d directory.
The next step is to turn of services by inserting if-statements inside the service scripts in /etc/init.d (on the ubuntu partition).

if [ -f /var/local/colinux ] ; then
exit 0
fi

I had to turn off the following services when booting inside coLinux to make it boot, coLinux crashed during boot when any of these services were running:

/etc/init.d/gdm
/etc/init.d/powernowd
/etc/init.d/hotkey-setup
/etc/init.d/pcmcia
/etc/init.d/vbesave

Create colinux customized versons of some other files, the colinux script in init.d mentioned above makes it possible to have a colinux-version and a non-colinux version of some different files.
In my case I have special versions of the following files:
/etc/fstab (coLinux mounts the ntfs partitions using smbfs instead of ntfs read-only mounting)
/etc/network/interfaces (I didn't get colinux to work using DHCP so it has hardcoded IP numbers instead)
/etc/gdm/gdm.conf (I am not really sure this is used since gdm can't be started at boot, but I have a special version for coLinux with all [servers] disabled. It may be used when using vnc but I am not sure if it is needed)
It is important to remember to edit correct file when setting up these files this way because the normal files will be overwritten with *-colinux or *-non-colinux versions at each boot. It might be possible to setup symbolic links instead of overwriting the files but I have not tested this.
Finally you will have to setup coLinux so it boots using the Ubuntu partition instead of the "debian with backports" image, this is done by setting a boot partition in the default.colinux.xml file, in my case it pointed to /dev/hda8
<bootparams>root=/dev/hda8 COLINUX=1< /bootparams>
It should now be possible to either start Ubuntu by selecting it in the dualboot(grub) menu when booting the computer or by starting XP and startup coLinux. Observe that when running inside coLinux the Ubuntu kernel is actually not used instead the coLinux kernel is used. This is important to think about for example if you need to recompiling kernels and kernel modules.

Finally, don't do the same mistake as I did. As described in this thread, I put XP/coLinux into sleep in hibernate mode and then dualbooted into Ubuntu. My Ubuntu file system got corrupt at next boot of XP and I decided to do a total reinstallation of Ubuntu.

You can follow this, worked for me : http://colinux.wikia.com/wiki/Full_CD-based%28iso%29_distro_install_and_config_steb-by-step_HOWTO_%28based_on_Xubuntu-7.10%29


Steam opengl glx context is not using direct rendering I have a fresh install of Ubuntu 13.10 with the latest Nvidia drivers installed. However, when I run steam I am presented with the following message:

steam opengl glx context is not using direct rendering

I believe this is something to do with not having the correct 32 bit library, however I did install the Nvidia 32 bit libraries when I installed the driver. Running Steam from the terminal I can see that Steam is failing to find the 'swrast' driver which it shouldn't be looking for anyway.

I solved the issue by removing and purging my previous Nvidia driver and upgrading to the latest beta Nvidia Driver 334.16. I also installed a number of 32 bit libraries which were suggested on various websites which might have contributed to the resolution of this problem.


Ubuntu: "Editable Menu Accelerators" (on a per app basis). Where is this option? I keep seeing references to a config option calld Editable Menu Accelerators or Editable Menu Shortcut Keys.
This is exactly what I need, but all the directions I've read about how to find that feature lead me to a dead-end.

I am running with Ubuntu 10.4, and have checked its help file Desktop User Guide.
In Section 8.2.1.4. Interface Preferences it says:

"...the Interface tabbed section in the Appearance preference tool
    to customize the appearance of menus, menubars, and toolbars
    for applications that are part of GNOME."

This Interface tab does not exist in Ubuntu 10.4  (... okay, who moved it?! ..  where is i?)
Is this feature still available?
I assume it does exist, and is now accessible some other way... but how?

PS: To clarify... I want to modify a menu-item accelerator for a specific app (not a system-wide hot-key)

It seems that GNOME decided to remove the interface tab because "basically everything there is a user experience design cop-out.  It only belongs in a tweak UI tool." So now the only way to enable that option is hidden deep in the gconf settings.

Launch gconf-editor from the terminal or the "Run Application" dialog (Alt-F2).

Navigate to desktop>gnome>interface and check can_change_accels

Or just run this line in a terminal:

gconftool --set /desktop/gnome/interface/can_change_accels --type=bool True

Looks like this functionality is now in "Preferences/Keyboard Shortcuts".

For example, I usually pop in there to clear CTRL-ALT-DEL from the "Log out" option (double click on the entry, then press backspace.

Then hit the "Add" button and create a new entry called "Force Quit" which launches "xkill".  Now double click on that and press CTRL-ALT-DEL.

Now whenever you have a window which isn't responding, just hit CTRL-ALT-DEL and click on the offending window.


Flash player keeps crashing in firefox with ubuntu 12.04 I am new to ubuntu and the last few weeks my flash player keeps crashing every time i want to watch a video. it all started when i tries to fix a problem where all of my videos were blue an strange. please help me

I once had similar problems, both with blueish flash videos and flashplayer crashing.

I suggest you follow the solution offered here, namely the second or third answer from above from the community wiki.

Every single problem I ever had with flash under Ubuntu has been solved that way.

Good luck to you and best regards!

Here is what you can do: (Im assuming you have flash 11)

Download this file : http://www.ziddu.com/download/20225702/libflashplayer.zip.html

Create a folder "plugins" under "/home/YOUR-USER-NAME/.mozilla/firefox/"

Like this:  /home/leopard/.mozilla/firefox/plugins

Extract the zip and copy the downloaded "libflashplayer.so" to "/home/leopard/.mozilla/firefox/plugins"

Open nautilus as Admin. Go to "/usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin". Delete the "libflashplayer.so" there.

Copy the extracted "libflashplayer.so" there.

Restart firefox.


Difference between PGP and GPG What are the main differences between PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) and GPG (GNU Privacy Guard) in relationship with security in Ubuntu and Launchpad?

PGP can refer to two things:

The Pretty Good Privacy software originally written by Phil Zimmermann, and now owned by Symantec.
The formats for keys, encrypted messages and message signatures defined by that software.  These have now been formalised as the OpenPGP standard.

The GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) software is an independent implementation of the OpenPGP standards, so you can use it to exchange encrypted messages with people using other OpenPGP implementations (e.g. Symantec's PGP).

Due to its popularity on Linux systems, it is also fairly common for people to incorrectly use the term "GPG" to refer to the whole OpenPGP cryptography system (e.g.
"GPG keys" or "GPG signatures").  It is usually pretty clear what they mean from the context though.

Gnu Privacy Guard and Pretty Good Privacy -- also referred to as GPG and PGP, respectively -- are data encryption and decryption solutions used for transferring and storing information securely. GPG and PGP are nearly identical, with the major difference between them being how they are licensed to the public.

Read more: The Difference Between GPG and PGP | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_12225332_difference-between-gpg-pgp.html#ixzz26DXDNpJy


Ubuntu Start menu Shutdown/Restart have the same function I am using Ubuntu 13.10. After upgrading and fixing some things the one thing I cannot fix is that the start menu lists Shutdown and Restart and both these buttons just open a menu with shutdown and restart as options. Previously on 13.04 only shutdown was present and it opened the same menu.

It's part of the OS. There's nothing more to it. You are asked to choose between restarting or shutting down once again. However, I think there is an answer around here.


Nvidia Graphics problem: strange artifacts even after install of v.381 Recently i have had the issue of strange artifacts after sleep mode. I ve updated my NVIDIA driver as stated in Strange artifacts along window borders after waking computer from sleep mode and all seem to work out.

I no longer have the issues around the windows but Viber seems to still be affected. The profile pictures and pics inside a chat are still acting weird!

Is there any more i can do or it's just the bug not fully fixed?

Please restart compiz with:

compiz --replace

It worked for me. If it does not work, install the latest Nvidia driver "nvidia-381" which fixes the issue, you may not find it within standard repositories so please add it from a PPA :

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt purge nvidia*

sudo apt install nvidia-381

After this please reboot your computer and check if problem is gone.

I hope it helps.


Wubi for Windows 7 on Sony Vaio is not Working I have installed Ubuntu using Wubi on my Windows 7 machine (Sony Vaio). Everything installed perfectly, but whenever I reboot my system there is no Ubuntu (there is no dual boot menu). I checked my Windows setting and it seems there is only Windows (it could not recognize Ubuntu).

Could anyone help me how to solve this problem.

Please remove Wubi completly from Control-Panel (Add/remove softwares).
Wubi sometimes can cause some problems, and installing with a Disk or a DOK (Disk On Key) is better. (And you have to remove Wubi for installing normally)

Download the ISO file and make a disk or a DOK.
there are guides in the Ubuntu sites for creating both.

If you need to ask something, ask (:


Google Chrome's window becomes invisible / unresponsive I'm using Google Chrome, Version 39 (64-bit), under Kubuntu 14.04.1 LTS (trusty).

Often, the browser's window becomes invisible after returning from standby, or after opening the window after it was minimized (either by clicking on it in the panel or selecting it among open windows with Alt+Tab).

The only thing that helps to make Chrome visible again is to switch to a TTY by Ctrl+Alt+F1-6 and then back to GUI with Ctrl+Alt+F7.

This has been quite annoying. I would greatly appreciate any solutions/workarounds?

UPDATE: I notice that it happens almost every time after standby/lockscreen when Chrome's window has been in the foreground before.

The issue seems to be connected to the compositer feature of KDE4 (or with Desktop Effects). If the Chrome window becomes invisible click Alt + Shift + F12 to switch on compositing and it will become visible instantaneously. I could no longer reproduce this behaviour with compositing on.

I want to tell you to use Firefox as a solution (bad joke) :)

Otherwise

Try this

Open terminal,

sudo apt-get remove --purge google-chrome-stable

after that, re-install one of this version

sudo apt-get install google-chrome-stable

or

sudo apt-get install google-chrome-beta

or

sudo apt-get install google-chrome-unstable

if you want to install via https://www.google.co.in/chrome/browser/ or wget

32bit

wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_current_i386.deb
sudo apt-get -f install

64bit

wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
sudo apt-get -f install

You have many options now probably one of that can solve your problem


Any CA Cert trusted by default on ubuntu? I understand I can copy the CA cert to certain location and run script update-ca-certificate to import CA cert to the system.

But I'm curious is there a list of CAs that are trusted by default on this system?  Just like how it was done in the browser scenarios?

Spend a few minutes to explore I found this question:
Become a trusted Certificate Authority in Ubuntu

and its answer contains what I'm looking for, essentially:

cat /usr/share/doc/ca-certificates/README.Debian

How certificates will be accepted into the ca-certificates package

Get it included into Mozilla's trust store.
File a bug against ca-certificates stating this fact.
....

And I can find the list here:
https://wiki.mozilla.org/CA:IncludedCAs


Combining multiple types of HDDS & SSD Into one recognizable drive So I'm currently running Ubuntuu 14.04 on a desktop that is meant originally as a server tower.  I've put the server thing on the back burnerfor now although I would like to be able to install virtual boxes with dedicated servers on them eventually . Anyway I worked at Apple as a genius for almost 4 years and got the idea there to take the hard drive out of my laptop, put it where the optical drive goes and replace where the hard drive went with an SSD. And doing so, with a bunch of terminal commands I combined the two drives into 1 readable drive and the computer is now MUCH faster.  However with Linux it looks like the combining of hard drives/SSDs is a lot different (and I am new to Linux).  Currently I have a 500 GB HDD drive and a 1 TB HDD as well as a 250GB SSD.  I know with the Mac it automatically optimized what should be dedicated on each drive (as far as bootable partitions vs. storage space etc.) but I'm not show sure how to format/configure it with Linux. Any ideas? Please help!

To answer part of your question. I have a similar setup (Ubuntu 15.04 with a 2 TB HDD and a 250GB SSD). With two drives it's easy, you simply put your root directory / on one and your /home directory on the other.

During installation, choose a custom installation and mount your root directory and swap space on the SSD. I usually dedicate 1-2 times the amount of RAM to the swap space (i.e. 16GB of RAM, 32 GB of swap space).

On the HDD select it as your /home folder mounting point.

BAM! There you have it, your system critical components are now on the SSD with the superior read/write rate, and your user files (Downloads, Documents, Music, Pictures, etc.) are on your inexpensive, large storage platform. Your system should now fully boot astronomically faster. If you ever need to store a database or serve content (i.e. an Apache Web Server), make sure to put it in a system directory like /var so the content can be accessed quickly.

Now the rest of your question. I don't have very much experience in LVM or RAID, but I imagine you could combine your two HDDs into one Logical Volume to contain your /home folder.

Note that my method does not optimize content, it is a manual configuration. By default, system items will be installed on the SSD (minus some user specific configuration files) and your files, scripts, downloads, etc. will be placed in the default directory /home/<user>/.

Happy hacking.

Regards,Lisenby

This is not an perfect answer, but anyway:

Try using "RAID" on all your drives, you're not using RAID or something like "Anti-RAID", however RAID is not suitable for some times, like installing Windows, and maybe the entire Ubuntu except if you use a type called "Software RAID"


Run Bash Script as Root Is there some way I can run a Bash script as root without being prompted for a password every time? I'm attempting to automate the process of starting my LAMPP install, which requires me running a couple of sudo commands to start and stop services. Optimally, I'd like to build this into an executable file, so all I'd have to do is click an icon. ;)

Obviously, I have the password, so that's not an issue. I just want to take my laziness one step farther and not have to enter it every time I start my localhost. After all, that's what programming is all about, right?

You could add the script to your sudoers configuration file:

sudo visudo

Then find the following:

%sudo ALL=(ALL) ALL

add after:

 your_username ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /path/to/your/script

CTRL+X and confirm.

You can open a terminal, then "sudo gnome-terminal", enter the password and just copy, paste the commands to install LAMPP. Or you can write a script, "run.sh" for example, and run "sudo sh run.sh". Hope that helps.


Is amd r7 360 supported by the amdgpu drivers? I am unable to confirm if the r7 360 is supported by the amdgpu driver on Ubuntu 20.04. On the ubuntu wiki ot states R7, but not explicit model numbers. Some r7 are cgn 1st gen and others are cgn second gen.

Proprietary
Here is a list specifically with the R7 360 proprietary drivers:
https://www.amd.com/en/support/previous-drivers/graphics/amd-radeon-r7-series/amd-radeon-r7-300-series/amd-radeon-r7-360
Seeing that the support is there only for 12.04.4 LTS and 14.04.2, I would guess that it's the fglrx Catalyst driver, which is not compatible with modern-day versions of the Xorg Server.
amdgpu-pro
AMD official info about the amdgpu-pro driver:
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-prorad-lin-amdgpupro
I see these in the table:
AMD Radeon™ R7 240/250/250X/260/260X/350

AMD Radeon™ R9 360 Graphics

But I don't see R7 360

Open source radeon
Relying on the open source radeon driver, in my personal experience, is like a box of chocolate; you never know how good support you are getting out of it.
All I can tell from personal experience, that with the AMD FirePro W5130M unfortunately it seems to be useless. Programs crash to an extent that needs reboot, or don't even start with the radeon driver.
But trying out is for free. Maybe it goes better for you.


How can I substitute colons when I rsync on a USB key? I would like to backup my mail directory on a USB key.  However, my IMAP has a strange naming convention that something include a colon (:) character.  Since the USB is in a window format, rsync fail to create those file.  Is there a way to replace the colon character by an underscore when running rsync?  (Or to do the same synchronization with another tool?)

Just a few point that I clarified in the comments :

This is a worst case scenario backup, I would like to be able to read it on a windows machine without installing anything.
I got a lot of data that stay constant.  So I save a lot of time if I have a tool that just copy the newer files.
I am not looking for a rewrite of rsync.  I am looking for a existing tool that can be used out of the box.

Thanks

Use rdiff-backup instead of plain rsync. It will automatically detect and substitute for characters that aren't supported on the destination disk, and also put them back as they were when you restore to a unix filesystem.  It produces an unpacked directory  that looks just like the origin plus one extra metadata directory.

You could use tar to create an archive. This way you don't have to change the names and can save it to whatever filesystem you want.


How to switch workspace with mouse wheel in GNOME Shell A system like the workspaces in Unity7 had an icon on the dock or something similar that give you the possibility of cycle through virtual desktops with mouse buttons or wheel.

For who is not familiar with Unity7 workspaces and virtual desktops, this is a useful video to understand.

How can I do the same on GNOME Shell (17.10+)?

Place the mouse pointer on Show Applications icon and scroll with the wheel:

Also, because of a bug (or maybe a feature) you can place the pointer in the very right edge of the Dock and then scroll. Maybe it's not very practical but it's an alternative too.

You can use my repository to navigate using Alt+ scroll between workspaces:
https://github.com/bit-willi/gnome-navigation-between-workspaces-using-mouse-shortcut


How to install Adobe Master Collection CS6 in Ubuntu 12.10 I have Dell Inspiron 1545 Laptop with Windows 7 installed on it.Also I have installed Ubuntu 12.10 on a separate drive.I want to install Adobe Master Collection CS6 on Ubuntu 12.10.I tried using wine but what wine does is,it just installs the software & doesn't allow me to use it.While I click on any Adobe product say Adobe Photoshop & hit enter to run it it pops out an error message.

How should I tackle this?Is there any other software apart from virtual Machine Ware or Wine to install & successfully run Adobe Master Collection CS6 in Ubuntu 12.10?

I'm afraid that Wine, and VM might be the way to run Adobe Master Collection CS6 in Ubuntu.

My recomendation would be to use VM, because it will run the application better that Wine.  Wine is still a compatibility layer that may have some problems, and incompatibility.

One other thing you can try is Playonlinux, although it may have the same results as Wine.  You may look at the Wine AppDB, where you can get information on application compatibility with Wine.

You may also look at Creative suite for Linux.

Wine is an excellent way to run Windows programs on Linux although it still cannot run everything 100%, although older versions of Photoshot and such have been known to work properly...

What you could try is VirtualBox which is available in the Software Centre and allows you to install Windows inside a window and runs a perfect Windows environment from which to install and launch your Windows applications...

Be warned that since this is an emulation of Windows it will run slower, as will any running applications, but it is a good alternative to booting to and from Linux/Win just to run specific software and the Guest Additions package for VirtualBox always manages to speed things up like graphics...


/etc/systemd/logind.conf ignored I'm using Ubuntu 18.04, when I'm setting /etc/systemd/logind.conf to have:

HandleLidSwitch=suspend
HandleLidSwitchExternalPower=suspend

It appears to have no effect.

Same happens if I set these to "ignore".

I'm rebooting between attempts.

Why is my /etc/systemd/logind.conf ignored? Do I need to do something to enable it? How can I debug this?

You must disable the Xfce4 energy manager to read the settings of the logind.conf file. Remember to restart the system every time you modify and save the logind.conf file.


How to remove the Mail icon indicator applet? I'm wondering how it's possible to remove the little mail indicator applet in the global menu. I've uninstalled all the programs that use it, like Thunderbird, Empathy, and Gwibber, since I don't use any of them, but the icon is still there.

Any ideas?

You can remove the message indicator by removing the indicator-messages  package by clicking on that link and clicking uninstall. Or by executing the following command in a terminal:

sudo apt-get remove indicator-messages

Then log out and back in.

On Ubuntu 10.10 or earlier versions click with right mouse button on the icon and click on Remove From Panel

On Ubuntu 11.04 (Unity) click with right mouse button on the icon and click on Keep In Launcher
Removing icons on Ubuntu 11.04 Classic works the same as on Ubuntu 10.10


How to share files between two machines in a network with a router? I have a notebook with ubuntu 13.04 and a desktop with Debian 7.1.0 and I want to know how can I share files between the two machines, I'm using a router and the notebook is connected to the wireless network, since the desktop is on eth0. Can someone tell me how to share files betwen the two? Because I know absolutely nothing of networks. Thanks to those who respond.

What do you mean by "sharing"?

If you just want to download a small number of files from one computer to another, you can run python2 -m SimpleHTTPServer 8001 in the directory of the files to be shared on one computer. Then on another computer, use your browser (or other tools like wget) to navigate to the url http://x.x.x.x:8001/ to view/download the files. x.x.x.x is to be replaced by the IP address of the former computer.

If you have a large number of files to copy, I suggest rsync though ssh. But it works well if you have ssh server up and running at least one computer.

If you want more complicated sharing, you may want to try NFS or sshfs.

The easiest way is to just use a flash drive to transfer files.  You could also upload your files to the cloud(eg: Google Drive, Dropbox, Ubuntu One, ect.) and download them on your other computer.


How to recover files truncated by `>`? I had a text file hello.txt which contains about 100 lines.I accidentally deleted all the lines by running echo > hello.txt

Now i want to recover all the 100 lines.Is there any way to recover the lines in that file using terminal commands?

You can not get back the contents. There is no mercy.

But search for backup files. If you are lucky enough there will be a file named hello.txt~ for hello.txt in the same directory. Those files are usually created by text editors like gedit or emacs when you edit a file.

If you have such backup file you can get the contents back (you may get back only a part also). Use the following in the terminal,

mv hello.txt~ hello.txt

It is better to have even a part than losing it completely.

Sorry friend, It's impossible...

You can recover deleted files but you can't recover a file with deleted content..


Can i emulate a CD-ROM through a USB cable to another computer? So I was wondering if anyone out there knew a way to do something like the following
1. Mount ISO/DVD on Host
2. share through a USB connection: Making the client think the USB connection is a native CD-ROM drive.

I know this can be done through a network (Not that I know how to do that) But I will ask that question separately, as to not confuse Google Searches.

Afaik, you need hardware that supports USB OtG at least in "device" mode.

Most Android phones are designed to show their USB port as "mass storage" to a PC (nowadays it is more used with MTP protocol anyway, but the hardware is still there), and you can do what you need with an app called DriveDroid.

Such hardware is able to emulate ethernet (it is used for USB tethering, for example), and other things like a cd, a ethernet modem, and other stuff that is mostly used by 3g-4g usb dongles (modems).
The kernel feature that allows this is called "usb gadget" https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/usb/gadget_configfs.txt

Also look for Gateworks wiki page for "USB_OTG" http://trac.gateworks.com/wiki/USB_OTG

No.  USB is a master/slave protocol therefore you can not connect two masters ( PCs ) together.  This is why the connectors are different.


"Connect to server" option changed in 14.04?? Can't connect using WebDav I am on Ubuntu 14.04.  I would like to connect to my Android phone using WebDav.  I've done this from a Mac, from Windows, and from Kubuntu (using Dolphin -- this also works in Ubuntu using Dolphin) with no problem.  But when I select "Connect to server" I get this dialog box:

New Dialog

But it used to look like this

Old Dialog

Is there any way to get the old dialog back?  I would like to follow the tutorial under davDrive here (www.upubuntu.com/2012/01/some-free-apps-for-managing-your.html) (as it is intuitive and how Kubuntu worked), but I can't do it with the current dialog.

Is there any way to directly connect to a WebDav client inside Nautilus by typing webdav://10.0.1.15:8888/ into the location bar (CTRL-L)?  I get an error message every time: "Sorry, could not display all the contents of “10.0.1.15 (webdav)”: The specified location is not supported."  This too works in Dolphin.

Regarding the second question, the answer is to type "dav://10.0.1.15:8888/" into the location bar and/or the "Connect to Server" dialog box. This is the prefix that Nautilus uses

Try using this one line format:

davs://<user_name>@<server>/<path>:<port>


Can't resize partition during installation I want to dual boot windows 7/ubuntu. I have installed gparted, but I can't make a partion because I can't click on the option to resize. How do I work around this?

Also. Tried putting windows 7 disc in, says cannot resize and can only install by deleting ubuntu off it.

In order to resize your partition you'll need to unmount the disk. Though it's likely that your trying to edit the same partition of the drive you booted from. In order to resize that drive you'll need to boot from an Ubuntu live disk and edit the partition from that.

I would like to suggest you to use Gparted Live CD. It will allow you to resize, copy, and move partitions without data loss.

This tutorial will provide you step by step guide. You can also visit gparted live manual.


Why would one want to allow in an echo protocol (port 7) from host router? I am in the process of replacing an Ubuntu server originally designed by someone else at work. I expect there will be many issues with getting Windows (and really LabVIEW) to interface with all the different shares given the breadth of changes (this is being brought on by the Windows 7 End of Life, so we're concurrently upgrading to Windows 10).

Because of that, I'm copying the system as perfectly as I can to eliminate as many variables for error as possible, but I'm also loath to copy things that I don't understand.

In the old ufw setup, I can see a number of specific allowances for ssh, samba, and MySQL to the various machines that need them. However, there is a single rule allowing port 7/udp from 192.168.1.1. A quick google search informs me this is a port for the Echo Protocol.

That seems harmless enough, but it also seems pointless. Wikipedia suggests that echo was proposed for round trip time calculations, but I fail to see how this could be better than ping, especially if you have to add a ufw exception for it.

Does anyone know of any reason why anyone would specifically allow port 7 to a host router?

EDIT from the response below. Which is technically correct.

Port 7 (both TCP and UDP) is used for the "echo" service.

If this service is available on a computer, UDP port 7 could be used instead of ICMP to perform a "ping"


Flash player won't start after Ubuntu update very new on Linux as well on Ubuntu. I have install in my PC the Ubuntu 11.10 and after a regular Ubuntu update, the Flash player cannot start.

I have uninstall the Flash player several times to tryother versions of the flash but still the flash cannot start in my browsers (I use both Firefox and Chrome).

Note that I install the flash player with browsers closed.

These instructions assume the problem is not caused by a non-Adobe plugin for Flash, which in your case, given what you said, seems like a reasonable assumption.

First, completely remove the flash player by running this command in a Terminal window (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo apt-get purge adobe-flash\* flashplugin\*

Now, you should also remove all user-specific files created by Adobe Flash (and other Adobe software) before, which may be causing the problem:

mv ~/.adobe ~/.adobe.old
mv ~/.macromedia ~/.macromedia.old

Actually, those commands don't remove anything--they just rename the folders so Adobe Flash won't use them anymore. However, you can feel free to remove them afterwards.

Then install Adobe Flash. You can do it in the Software Center or with:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer

You have a 32-bit system so whether you install flashplugin-installer or adobe-flashplugin doesn't matter, but if you had a 64-bit system then it would be better for you to use the adobe-flashplugin package. The flashplugin-installer package only provides the 32-bit version of the plugin. (I'm providing command-line instructions for flashplugin-installer rather than adobe-flashplugin only because you might not have the software source for adobe-flashplugin--the partner repository--enabled.) By the way, some instructions say to install flashplugin-nonfree--that is equivalent to installing flashplugin-installer.

Since it doesn't work in either Firefox or Chrome, clearing user-specific browser files is probably unnecessary. However, if the above method does not work, you should see if the problem occurs in the guest account (or any other user account--you could even create a new account to test). If the problem did turn out to be user-account-specific, then you'd want to clear browser-specific files to see if that would solve the problem.

The best way to fix this problem is to download the latest google chrome browser, that's it.

Now my flash player is working properly.


How do I shut down without the confirmation prompt? Are you sure you want to close all
  programs and shut down the computer?

When I click shut down I want to shut down! :) This message bugs me. How to avoid this message?

11.04 and previous versions of ubuntu

Alt + F2 and enter this: gconf-editor
apps > indicator-session
select suppress_logout_restart_shutdown

OR

Alt + F2 and enter this:

gconftool-2 --type bool --set /apps/indicator-session/suppress_logout_restart_shutdown true

To re-enable confirmation, replace the keyword true with false

Easy Pease.

Right click application menus.

Edit Menu.

GOTO - System Tools.

Click on "tick box" for the configuration editor.

Bingo.

Exit.

Applications, System Tools. configuration editor. // Apps - Indicator Session. Click the tick boxes to see exactly what they do and then untick them... and use this one.

/apps/indicator-session/suppress_logout_restart_shutdown

Suppress the dialog to confirm logout, restart and shutdown action.  Whether or not to show confirmation dialogs for logout, restart and shutdown actions.


Mouse cursor sometimes is some pixel over its real position I'm on 14.04 / Unity.

I can't say how to replicate or which are contingent conditions, but sometimes my mouse coursor is some pixel upper than its real position, so if I click on an object, probably I'm clicking on something that is some pixel down.

This issue go away by itself, I can't say how, after a few clicks.

It seems it happens with specific applications, such as Firefox and Thunderbird...

I need suggestions about how to investigate.

It's a bug as reported here. Hope to solve: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compiz/+bug/1306550

How about writing a simple program that logs your mouse position and click position at the same time and compares them, so you could log your findings into a file.

Maybe it's just a visual glitch caused by your monitor settings or a faulty HDMI/DVI/VGA cable so check that by ressetting your monitor settings (on the monitor) and in your driver to default.

If it's a system wide problem this might work. If it's a app wide (Firefox / Thunderbird) problem, probably the best way is to get into contact with mozilla itself for further investigation.


Preview files in Ubuntu 15.10 In the Ubuntu desktop guide it is advertised that in Ubuntu 15.10 it is possible to see a preview of files and folders by pressing the space bar (just like in Mac OS X).

https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubuntu-help/files-preview.html

I just installed Ubuntu 15.10 but I cannot preview any of my files. Do I have to enable this option, and if yes how can I do that?

I believe you have to install a previewer. Take a look here http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2015/01/enable-nautilus-file-preview-ubuntu-14-10-14-04/


UBUNTU 13 and installation I was trying to give a shot to Ubuntu instead of Windows. But i dont want to completely remove windows.

What i have done

Downloaded latest ubuntu 13 image file (.iso)
Created a new partition ( i want to install on it )
First i thought that i can use a blank CD to write the files to make it bootable, but i realised that the size is more than 700MB and need to use DVD
So i dont have CD or USB , i used unetbootin to install ubuntu ( infact i cant see all my harddrives listed only C is available, then i choosed C )
i formatted the new partition and installed it on ( actually i thought that the installer is user friendly , but in fact its really hard when we compared to windows )
I installed everything and it displayed,everything is OK, please restart to start using UBUNTU.
i restarted, but i couldnt see the boot option there and there is only two items 1) windows 7, 2) unetbootin

Do i need to do something more to get it work ?

Please help me.

Updates

I said i cant see all harddrive listed, its not in the ubuntu installer and its in unetbootin window. ( i have C,D,E(new one for ubuntu) ) but unetbootin only showed C.
I removed unetbootin from windows and now i cant see the second option in booting (only windows 7 is listed and its automatically loading win7)

If you have installed Ubuntu on a new partition and you are able to boot in windows successfully. Follow these steps for a new installation (as you are new to Ubuntu, this will make every thing easy for you).

  You don't need to create any partition for Ubuntu installation. So,
  if you already have created one just delete that partition and merge
  it with your windows c:/ partition to make it big for Ubuntu.
  Now just extract/mount .ISO of Ubuntu downloaded and copy 'wubi.exe'
  file to a folder on any drive you want.
  Also place the .ISO image file in the same folder as it is without
  extracting. Double click 'wubi.exe' file.
  Next, allocate some space for Ubuntu installation (~18 GB will be
  automatically by default allocated). Better if you allocate same
  memory you have parteted earlier for Ubuntu installation.
  Enter 'Password' and click 'Next'.
  When it asks to 'reboot', just reboot and when system restarts you
  will see Ubuntu installing. Just follow the steps and you are done.
  Now whenever you boot to your computer, you will see 'Ubuntu' and
  'windows', choose what you want to boot.

It will work same as dual boot only difference is it will use windows boot loader to boot from.

It is also easy to uninstall Ubuntu if you don't like it and want to.
Just uninstall as same as how you uninstall programs from windows. Just uninstall 'wubi' and 'Ubuntu' from windows.
Thats all.


Reinstall Ubuntu keeping my data intact I have recently upgraded my desktop OS from Ubuntu 12.04 to 12.10 (complete re-install). Before the switch I made a list of all programs installed on my Ubuntu 12.04.

sudo dpkg --get-selections > file

After that I re-installed Ubuntu 12.10 and when all was done I performed the following command:

sudo dpkg --set-selections < file
sudo apt-get dselect-upgrade

Here is when the problems start: I get several warnings like this when performing the commands above:

dpkg: warning: package not in database at line xxx

and many of the programs are not installed. I don't know what the line means.

I have searched the web, and it seems that I'm not the only one suffering from this. I have not find any solution that worked for me.

Any ideas what is causing this?

You have not only a list of installed programs, but every single package that was on your computer. Some of the packages are not in the repository any more, since they are replaced. You should be able to ignore these errors.

Hi and thanks for your inputs!
The problem is that I receive warnings on every software/package on the list and nothing is installed. every thing could not be obsolete?

Now lets be honest, I made my computer "crash" when tying different things! In a attempt to avoid warnings I thought that if I stripped my file created with  sudo dpkg --get-selections > fileand only kept the lines for software I wanted to install like eclipse, back-in-time and so on, I would get my software installed. My thought was that things excluded from the list would be kept untouched as it is on my laptop. What seems to happen when I executed the commandssudo dpkg --set-selections < fileand sudo apt-get dselect-upgrade is that the things on the list was installed and everything else was removed. It seems that this was not a good idea ;-)

Not to worry, I reinstalled Ubuntu and used Ubuntu Software center to install all the software I needed. It seems that this is the safest way for a newbie like me. However wouldn't it be great if there was a smooth way of getting the same set of software installed after you reinstalled Ubuntu? A small gui for creating a list from software instaled on your current Linux distro and upload it to Ubuntuone/drobbox and after reinstall the gui woul retrieve the software from the list stored in the cloud.

Regards
Magnus
`


Are there any free/open source alternatives to Adobe After Effects? I've been a illustrator and graphic designer for a number of years and now I'm looking to go more into motion graphics and visual effects. Is there anything that is open source/free (not a demo, education version or trial) that is as complex and feature-rich as Adobe After Effects but for Linux? I've tried Cinlerra, kdenlive, openshot and Blender and whilst they are good at video editing (and 3d modelling in Blender's case) they fall short in effects and compositing features.

I've also tried Ramen, but the project recently closed and the last update was quite buggy.

Also, CineFX/Jahshaka doesn't work and hasn't been updated in many many years, so don't mention it ;-)

Try Blender.  It's a free, open source content creation suite that has an impressive number of features:

Two built-in rendering engines, Blender Internal (fast) and Cycles (realistic), along with other experimental engines such as Freestyle
A game engine
The Bullet physics engine, which can be integrated with the above
A text editor
An image editor
A non-linear editor that works with both audio and video
Tight integration with the open-source, highly popular Python programming language:

Python syntax highlighting in the text editor
An interactive Python prompt
A Python-scriptable interface accelerated with OpenGL
Extension with Python plugins
Python integration in the game engine

Motion tracking
Collada import/export
Compositing
A node editor for Blender highly flexible Cycles rendering engine
CUDA/OpenCL-based GPU rendering for Nvidia cards
Fluid, cloth, smoke, and fire physics simulations

And much, much more.  Not to mention a rapid release cycle (~2 months), a large amount of high-quality documentation (both free and paid; see Blender Cookie), a large, vibrant community, a Blender SE proposal on Area51 currently in the commit stage and four successful Creative-Commons-licensed movie projects.

How does this apply to you?  Using the aforementioned motion tracking feature allows you to utilize Blender's power to generate some pretty good special effects (not quite on par with After Effects - it is primarily a 3D modeling application, after all).  As Blender's motion tracking algorithms get improved and the visual effects get more realistic, using Blender as a replacement for After Effects should become an easier and easier switch to make.

You can also try Fusion free software from blackmagicdesign.com. The hardware necessary to work with it has to be upgraded up to 8GB (minimum) of RAM, Core i7 CPU and a good video card.


Command not found when executing node.js n package on sudo I'm trying to update my version of node to the latest stable.

Using this resource I was able to:

sudo npm install n -g

But when I try

sudo npm n stable

I get:

sudo: n: command not found

If I run n stable, the command is present:

n stable
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/usr/local/n’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/usr/local/n’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/usr/local/n’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/usr/local/n’: Permission denied

     install : node-v0.12.2
       mkdir : /usr/local/n/versions/node/0.12.2
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/usr/local/n’: Permission denied

  Error: sudo required

I have found solution which worked for me:

sudo -E env "PATH=$PATH" n stable

Found it here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/29400598/861615

I encountered the same problem, this is how you can solve it:

Get npm config prefix

npm config get prefix
// get -> ${myhome}/.npm-global

Add the following lines in .zshrc

# Specify `n` to put the version of `node` in the `.n` directory.
export N_PREFIX=${myhome}/.npm-global/.n

# Make `nman` command work
export PATH=${myhome}/.npm-global/bin:$PATH

# Add this line to use `node -v` command
export PATH=${myhome}/.npm-global/.n/bin:$PATH

Reference: GitHub - tj/n: Node version management

  Editor's note: This answer was originally written in Chinese and has been translated and edited using online tools. To see the original answer, refer Revision #1


Ubuntu Latest Stable Version I want to use Ubuntu as a Desktop.Currently i am using 14.04 as a desktop.
What is the latest stable version which should i use that is free from Vulnerability so that we can move forward.

Ubuntu 14.10 is the latest stable Ubuntu version you can use . Scroll down to the page for download link

14.10 is the latest. http://www.ubuntu.com/download is the download page.
Though, I would recommend update-manager to upgrade to the next version keeping the current in the same place.
more instructions here.

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/upgrade

Today is the release date for the latest and the greatest release is later tonight according to the release schedule given below.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/VividVervet/ReleaseSchedule


Unity or Unity2D, which will be fastest on a high spec computer? I have a decent laptop. i7 quad 2.8, 8gb ram, and Nvidia nvs3100m.

I wonder which of unity 3d and 2d that would be fastest on my system. Sure its hard to tell.

And the question I'm seeking answer for is the following.

2d has no 3d effects, bing.
but does the 2d desktop execute more work on the CPU rather on the GPU which the 3D desktop.

All i want is a snappy desktop, i would love to have a mode, like no effects in the unity 3d. In windows you can choose "no effects" which makes everything look terrible but it still an improvement in speed.

So would unity 2d clutter the cpu more then unity 3d?

Unity2D will.

Its lighter on resources.
Even tough Unity3D uses 3D acceleration for the effects, all the rest is CPU intensive, meaning there is nothing that the 3D symbolizes that actually uses your card to process except the effects. Opening applications, opening the launcher and the Dash are still CPU processed.

In the end, if your graphics card supports it, both are very snappy, but if you are worried about the effect of the looks each option brings Unity2D will be faster and you will not notice the effects of the composed desktop in your media applications (ie: movie watching, online videos, 3D games, etc).

It is very tricky to answer your question when you have the most powerful laptop on a market. In my experience, I would say it would not make a difference for both 2D and 3D Unity. However, you will miss out accessibility features from Unity 2D.

The specs you got will do very fine with the processing tasks and effects in any environment. I have dual core Pentium and 4 GB of RAM and I have 3D and it still does fine job. I would recommend 3D for sure.


How to display disk usage by file type? Basically I'm wondering where all my disk space is being eaten up on my drive and I would like to be able to analyze by file type

For example, I'd like to use the Terminal to see how much space is being used by the .psd files on my drive.

Is there a way to do such a thing?

Try this:

find . -iname '*.psd' -print0 | du -ch --files0-from=-

find . -iname '*.psd' finds all files that end with an extension of psd
-print0 prints the file names followed by a null character instead of a newline
| du -ch --files0-from=- takes the file names from find and computes the disk usage. The options tell du to:

compute the disk usage of file names separated by a null character from stdin (--files0-from=-),
print sizes in a human readable format (-h), and
print a total in the end (-c).

Change .psd to whatever file type you want to find the disk usage for.

Yeah, you can. The syntax for searching files in terminal is:

Syntax   :   find foldername -iname '.filetype' -size size

Example  :   find $HOME -iname '*.mp3' -size +1M

For your scenario it has to be like

find $HOME -iname '*.psd' -size +0M

For more information see official document here.


What's the best practice for setting up Steam on a second hard disk? as above. On the top of my head, I'm thinking of either mounting the second hard disk directly to ~/.steam so that game files are written to the second hard disk, or mounting it to /media/games and then creating ~/.steam as a symlink to /media/games.

Which is better?

I can't figure out the pros and cons of either approach, so would appreciate  some guidance. Thanks!

Steam supports external library folders that allow you to setup game install folders on multiple drives, and then when you install a game you can choose which Steam Library Folder to install it to. With this functionality you don't need to use any magic to accomplish what you want.

I have a 1TB SSD drive dedicated to steam games. I do the following:

Mount the drive at /home/$USER/Games using /etc/fstab
Symlink ~/.steam to /home/$USER/Games

This works well if you are only wanting to use it with Steam otherwise its probably not the best setup.

If I were to want to install non steam games I would probably make a /home/$USER/Games/Steam dir and symlink ~/.steam to that. Then you could add /home/$USER/Games/GOG and /home/$USER/Games/src etc. as required.


Sync applications/settings between desktop and laptop Rather than having to set up all the applications I use on my laptop I'd rather be able to push some button that will get the laptop to install all the stuff that's installed on my desktop.

If it could do appearance settings and stuff too that'd be cool but it's not necessary.

Is this at all possible? Or will it be more trouble than it's worth and be better just to do manually?

I'm running 64 bit on my desktop and will probably run the 32 bit netbook remix on the laptop if that will further complicate things.

You can use Oneconf which uses Ubuntu One to sync your installed applications. Once installed (the package name is oneconf), it is used from Sowtware center's File menu.

If you were on the same architecture (64-bit) It would be easy. If your laptop Is fairly modern, It will probably run 64-bit.

To copy your applications (that have been recently installed), press alt-F2 on the desktop and type in

  gksu nautilus

Now browse to the file system (/) and copy everything in the /var/cache/apt/archives folder to a thumb drive.

Now take that to the notebook (Only if it is the same architecture) Open synaptic PM (on the administration menu) and when it is done, Close the dialog, then go File -> Add downloaded packages. browse to your thumb drive and select the folder containing the cache. Once Synaptic has finished looking at the files, Click apply on the top menu. That will install all of the same applications as the desktop. As for installing them as you get them on your desktop, I believe there is a mod for software center that syncs the package list like Ubuntu One, and allows the other to mirror it. But right now I can't find it.


How to rotate one monitor and keep Compiz? I was able to rotate one out of two monitors while using the latest nVidia driver (290.10 for Linux-x86_64), but the guide calls for using Xinerama which according to some is not compatible with Compiz. True enough, after restarting the rotation works (even in the login screen), but I can't start compiz anymore:

$ compiz --replace --display :0.0 --sm-disable &
compiz (core) - Fatal: No composite extension
Launching fallback window manager
Xlib:  extension "RANDR" missing on display ":0.0".

Is there any way to have all of the following:

Compiz effects
One rotated monitor
Drag windows between monitors

Try xrandr. There is my rotate script for EeePC with external monitor

#!/bin/bash
# usage:
# ./rotate VGA1 right
s=${1:-'LVDS1'}
r=${2:-'left'}
echo $s;

# see `xrandr` for output modes for all screens
case $s in
'LVDS1')
  m='1024x600' #default resolution of EeePC 1005ha
;;
'VGA1')
  m='1024x768' #best resolution for LG FLATRON 795FT Plus which plugged to EeePC
;;
esac

case `xrandr | grep $s | sed 's/^\(.*\+0 \)\(.*\) (.*/\2/g'` in
'left')
  echo 'returning from left to the normal state on screen '$s' with the '$m' mode'
  xrandr --output $s --mode $m --rotate normal
;;
'right')
  echo 'returning from right to the normal state on screen '$s' with the '$m' mode'
  xrandr --output $s --mode $m --rotate normal
;;
*)
  echo 'rotating to the '$r' on screen '$s' with the '$m' mode'
  xrandr --output $s --mode $m --rotate $r
;;
esac

I found this article which does not include turning Xinerama on (Xinerama = bad from my experience!)

http://tuxtweaks.com/2010/05/ubuntu-enable-rotation-nvidia/

it needs to be adjusted for 2 screens tho. Hope it helps.


Where is utouch in ubuntu 12.10? I have recently upgraded to ubuntu 12.10 and utouch seems to be removed from my system and I am not able to reinstall it through apt-get. Where can I find it?

The utouch package has been renamed to GEIS, in upstream. So to install it, you should look for the geis package.

I guess that this isssue from touchegg will explain the situation a bit...


Listen to pulseaudio rtp stream using VLC I want to listen to Pulseaudio's RTP multicast stream using VLC, but it's not working out.

First, I try to determine where it's playing:

tcpdump -n net 192.0.0.0/8 -c 10

Which gives me

listening on eth0, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 65535 bytes
13:38:07.637528 IP 192.168.1.3.53918 > 224.0.0.56.46504: UDP, length 1292
13:38:07.645170 IP 192.168.1.3.53918 > 224.0.0.56.46504: UDP, length 1292
13:38:07.651897 IP 192.168.1.3.53918 > 224.0.0.56.46504: UDP, length 1292
13:38:07.662192 IP 192.168.1.3.53918 > 224.0.0.56.46504: UDP, length 1292
13:38:07.662207 IP 192.168.1.3.53918 > 224.0.0.56.46504: UDP, length 1292
13:38:07.669482 IP 192.168.1.3.53918 > 224.0.0.56.46504: UDP, length 1292

So then I try to play just about every possible combination:

vlc rtp://@192.168.1.3
vlc rtp://@224.0.0.56
vlc rtp://@224.0.0.56.46504

But it just does nothing. VLC doesn't give any error messages, it seems as if it's playing, but I get no sound.


Thunderbird Can not connect to smtp.googlemail.com I am using Thunderbird ( currently 16.0.2)  for a long time in Ubuntu .
it works perfectly .
But in two weeks , I got a notification: gmail account exceeded command or bandwidth limits , and I can not send email as well as receiving email using Thunderbird and iPhone.

I didn't use Mail client ( thunderbird and iphone) for 1 day after that.
And Now , I can read email but can not sending email.

The message could not be sent because the connection to SMTP server smtp.googlemail.com timed out. Try again or contact your network administrator.

I try to telnet smtp.googlemail.com port 465 but no luck., port 587 is ok.
I change the the SMTP server to port 587. But I still can not send email.

It show : connected to smtp.googlemail.com , but still show that window , and never send the email.

Any idea ?
Thank you very much.

Go to this link after logging into your webmail. and try logging on thunderbird again. i think it should work.

I had a similar issue. Thunderbird would receive, but when I tried to send it would time out and not connect to the smtp server. A friend had jacked with the Norton settings and had it set to scan outgoing e-mails. I changed the setting to only scan incoming and it resolved the issue.


Map Ctrl and Alt to mouse thumb buttons I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 and have a multi-button Microsoft mouse. I would like to map the Ctrl and Alt modifier keys to the left and right thumb buttons of my mouse, respectively, so I can Ctrl + click and Alt-click without touching the keyboard.
My thumb buttons are buttons 8 and 9.

I tried the solution in How do I configure a mouse thumb button?
which explained how to map a double click to a thumb button - this worked for the double-click but I couldn't figure out how to modify the solution for Ctrl and Alt

I also tried How to map Ctrl/Shift to thumb buttons of Mouse?
which used xdotools and xbindkeys. I modified the script to this:

~/.xbindkeysrc:

"xdotool keydown alt"
        b:9
"xdotool keyup alt"
        release + alt + b:9
"xdotool keydown ctrl"
        b:8
"xdotool keyup ctrl"
        release + control + b:8

Which ALMOST works. It simulates a Ctrl-key press when I click the left thumb button, but I can't actually hold the button and click at the same time - holding the thumb button seems to prevent it from listening to other input until it is released.

Does anyone know how I can make my mouse thumb button actually work as a modifier key, so I can use thumb button + click instead of Ctrl + click?

i found a working solution here. it uses Easystroke (sudo apt install easystroke). kudos to @stuartr from ubuntuforums!

though there was one issue - re-mapped mouse click sporadically fired an original ('back' in my case) event. to avoid this, mouse button can be remapped to some unused number with xinput set-button-map (sudo apt install xinput).
to re-map on every login i've created (exacutable) $HOME/.config/autostart/mouse-buttons.sh with this content:

$ cat .config/autostart/mouse-buttons.sh
#!/usr/bin/env bash

mi_mouse_id=$(xinput | grep 'GTech MI wireless mouse.*pointer' | sed 's/.*\tid=\([0-9]*\)\t.*/\1/')
xinput set-button-map $mi_mouse_id 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 20 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
$

this maps mouse button 8 to button 20. hopefully button 20 has no meaning. at least it has absolutely no effect for me.
now it's time to re-map button 20 to Ctrl:

Preferences tab: additional buttons -> add -> radio button 'Instant Gestures' -> click the mouse button of choice in the grey area (for me a 'back, thumb button' became '(Instantly) Button 20')
Preferences tab: Select 'Autostart Easystroke'
Actions tab: Add Action
 Name: anything you like (e.g. 'Mouse 20 -> Ctrl')
 Type: 'Ignore'
 Details: click it once to change 'Ignore' to 'Key combination...'. then press Ctrl + a. 'a' doesn't matter and is ignored. 'Key Combination' will be replaced with 'Ctr'
With the new action selected/highlighted -> click 'Record Stroke' -> press the mouse button you're wanting to use again (this came up with '20 -> 20' in the Stroke column for me)
Now pressing and holding my mouse button brings up a dinky 'Ctr' on the screen and acts like the button is being held for as long as the mouse button is

Instead of using xdotool, if you prefer a functional GUI-based solution, you can download the Easystrokes app from the Ubuntu software center.  You can easily map keyboard keys and shortcuts to mouse buttons and even mouse gestures.


How to know if the running platform is Ubuntu or CentOS with help of a Bash script? I know the commands to check the name of the Linux machine running on my machine. For example:

Ubuntu

cat /etc/version

CentOS

cat /etc/issue

How do I get the output from the terminal and compare to see if it is UBUNTU or CENTOS and perform the following commands?

apt-get install updates

or

yum update

Ubuntu 14.04

cat /etc/issue

Unfortunately, there is no surefire, simple way of getting the distribution name. Most major distros are moving towards a system where they use /etc/os-release to store this information. Most modern distributions also include the lsb_release tools but these are not always installed by default. So, here are some approaches you can use:

Use /etc/os-release

awk -F= '/^NAME/{print $2}' /etc/os-release

Use the lsb_release tools if available

lsb_release -d | awk -F"\t" '{print $2}'

Use a more complex script that should work for the great majority of distros:

# Determine OS platform
UNAME=$(uname | tr "[:upper:]" "[:lower:]")
# If Linux, try to determine specific distribution
if [ "$UNAME" == "linux" ]; then
    # If available, use LSB to identify distribution
    if [ -f /etc/lsb-release -o -d /etc/lsb-release.d ]; then
        export DISTRO=$(lsb_release -i | cut -d: -f2 | sed s/'^\t'//)
    # Otherwise, use release info file
    else
        export DISTRO=$(ls -d /etc/[A-Za-z]*[_-][rv]e[lr]* | grep -v "lsb" | cut -d'/' -f3 | cut -d'-' -f1 | cut -d'_' -f1)
    fi
fi
# For everything else (or if above failed), just use generic identifier
[ "$DISTRO" == "" ] && export DISTRO=$UNAME
unset UNAME

Parse the version info of gcc if installed:

CentOS 5.x

$ gcc --version
gcc (GCC) 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-54)
Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

CentOS 6.x

$ gcc --version
gcc (GCC) 4.4.7 20120313 (Red Hat 4.4.7-3)
Copyright (C) 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Ubuntu 12.04

$ gcc --version
gcc (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.3-1ubuntu5) 4.6.3
Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Ubuntu 14.04

$ gcc --version
gcc (Ubuntu 4.8.2-19ubuntu1) 4.8.2
Copyright (C) 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

This has basically been directly copied from @slm's great answer to my question here.

Awk  is supported on almost every nix system so this should be enough so we not have to care about all tools.
#!/bin/bash

DISTRO="$(awk -F= '/^NAME/{print tolower($2)}' /etc/os-release|awk 'gsub(/[" ]/,x) + 1')"

[[ "${DISTRO}" = "gentoo" || "${DISTRO}" = "ubuntu" ]] && \
awk 'BEGIN{print "'${DISTRO}'"}' || \
awk 'BEGIN{print "Unknown distro..."}'

Perl
#!/usr/bin/perl
use Linux::Distribution qw(distribution_name);
if(my $distro = distribution_name) { print "Distro: $distro\n"; } else { print "Unkown distro...n\n";}


Ubuntu limiting the internet bandwith Recently we have noticed that a few computers at work that use Ubuntu are having their internet speed limited.
We tried every troubleshooting method we could think of (more or less in this order):
- Restarted the affected computers,
- Changed the cables (including using a cable that provides the correct internet speed on other computers),
- Changed the switch settings for the affected computers,
- Changed the port in which the computer is connected to the switch,
- Changed most Ubuntu network settings

The only thing that changed the speed was using our office phone as a switch (connection became ISP -> Switch -> Phone -> Computer).

It's important to note that this issue affects just some of the computer running Ubuntu in the office. If the computer is running Windows it isn't affected.
Also important to note that only the download speed is affected, upload speeds are normal in all machines.

All connections are cabled. All machines running Ubuntu 19.04.

Attached to this post is a screenshot of an affected Ubuntu machine and another of a non-affected one, both taken almost at the same time with both machines running Chrome on Ubuntu 19.04.

Affected machine speed test

Normal machine speed test:

From my knowledge, this might be a problem with 19.04, I haven't encountered this problem on xubuntu 18.04 or Ubuntu 18.04. If you're using 19.04 as a normal computer and not a test station, or something like that, I highly suggest using 18.04, as 19.04 is not considered a stable build while 18.04 is LTS (Long Term Support). Unfortunately if this doesn't work, I'm not too sure what to do.


Trying to install Ubuntu 11.10 on an old PC does not load Ubuntu I'm not new in Ubuntu, but I'm trying to install Ubuntu on another computer (my sister's PC), but when I configure BIOS to load from optical drive, it never loads.

Actually, Windows loads!

Some old motherboards have a nasty habit of loading the first ready disk they see even if you tell it to boot from the CD drive.

Try to press the Pause/Break button during POST (its the first screen you see before the OS actually starts loading) inserting the CD in to the drive and press enter only when the drive's LED stops blinking.

Other than that I can only imagine 3 things: BIOS still not properly configured, defective CD drive or something went wrong when you burned the CD with Ubuntu into it.

You can also check your BIOS and see if you have a Boot from USB drive option and create a bootable USB pen with Ubuntu in it, for that follow the instruction in point number 2 (Burn your CD or create a bootable USB stick) in the Ubuntu download page.

It's KMS  issue. Newer ubuntu searching for perfect graphics driver on load. Disable it

1. In ubuntu installation menu(Try ubuntu, install ubuntu ..) press F6
2. select nomodeset( a "x" will show when select)
3. Now select install ubuntu or try ubuntu without install


How to control fan speed? How can I control the computer's fan speed?

On Windows there is a wonderful program called SpeedFan.

Note before starting:
This functionality depends on both your hardware and software. If your hardware doesn't support fan speed controls, or doesn't show them to the OS, it is very likely that you could not use this solution. If it does, but the software (aka kernel) doesn't know how to control it, you are without luck.

Install the lm-sensors and fancontrol packages.

Configure lm-sensors as follows:

In terminal type sudo sensors-detect and answer YES to all YES/no questions.
(Potentially, this can damage your system or cause system crash. For a lot of systems, it is safe. There is no guarantee that this process will not damage your system permanently, I just think that chance of such critical failure is really really low. Saving all your work for eventual crashes/freezes/restarts before handling system configuration is always good idea. If you feel unsure, read the comments and try to search a web and get some high-level overview before YES-ing everything, maybe being selective with your YES-es will still be enough)

At the end of sensors-detect, a list of modules that need to be loaded will be displayed. Type "yes" to have sensors-detect insert those modules into /etc/modules, or edit /etc/modules yourself.

Run sudo service kmod start  This will read the changes you made to /etc/modules in step 3, and insert the new modules into the kernel.

Note: If you're running Ubuntu 12.04 or lower, this 3rd step command should be replaced by sudo service module-init-tools restart

Configure fancontrol

In terminal type sudo pwmconfig . This script will stop each fan for 5 seconds to find out which fans can be controlled by which PWM handle. After script loops through all fans, you can configure which fan corresponds to which temperature.
You will have to specify what sensors to use. This is a bit tricky. If you have just one fan, make sure to use a temperature sensor for your core to base the fancontrol speed on.
Run through the prompts and save the changes to the default location.
Make adjustments to fine-tune /etc/fancontrol and use sudo service fancontrol restart to apply your changes. (In my case I set interval to 2 seconds.)

Set up fancontrol service

Run sudo service fancontrol start. This will also make the fancontrol service run automatically at system startup.

In my case /etc/fancontrol for CPU I used:
Settings for hwmon0/device/pwm2:
(Depends on hwmon0/device/temp2_input)
(Controls hwmon0/device/fan2_input)
  INTERVAL=2
  MINTEMP=40
  MAXTEMP=60
  MINSTART=150
  MINSTOP=0
  MINPWM=0
  MAXPWM=255

and on a different system it is:
  INTERVAL=10
  DEVPATH=hwmon1=devices/platform/coretemp.0 hwmon2=devices/platform/nct6775.2608
  DEVNAME=hwmon1=coretemp hwmon2=nct6779
  FCTEMPS=hwmon2/pwm2=hwmon1/temp2_input
  FCFANS=hwmon2/pwm2=hwmon2/fan2_input
  MINTEMP=hwmon2/pwm2=49
  MAXTEMP=hwmon2/pwm2=83
  MINSTART=hwmon2/pwm2=150
  MINSTOP=hwmon2/pwm2=15
  MINPWM=hwmon2/pwm2=14
  MAXPWM=hwmon2/pwm2=255

here is some useful info on the settings and what they really do

The script I run every few seconds to keep my Dell server cool and quiet. Update the get_temp for your hardware.
#!/bin/env python3

import os
import json

MIN_FAN = 5
MAX_FAN = 100

MIN_TEMP = 50 # fans at min at this temp
MAX_TEMP = 80 # fans at max at this temp

TEMP_POW = 3 # decrease for cooler server, increase for quiter

def get_temp():
    sensors = json.loads(os.popen('/usr/bin/sensors -j').read())
    temp0 = sensors["coretemp-isa-0000"]["Package id 0"]["temp1_input"]
    temp1 = sensors["coretemp-isa-0001"]["Package id 1"]["temp1_input"]
    return max(temp0, temp1)

def determine_fan_level(temp):
    x = min(1, max(0, (temp - MIN_TEMP) / (MAX_TEMP - MIN_TEMP)))
    return int(min(MAX_FAN, max(MIN_FAN, pow(x, TEMP_POW)*(MAX_FAN-MIN_FAN) + MIN_FAN)))

def set_fan(fan_level):
    # manual fan control
    os.system("ipmitool raw 0x30 0x30 0x01 0x00")
    # set fan level
    cmd = "ipmitool raw 0x30 0x30 0x02 0xff " + hex(fan_level)
    os.system(cmd)

temp = get_temp()
fan = determine_fan_level(temp)
print("temp", temp, "fan", fan)
set_fan(fan)


Run .jars Without java -jar Invocation I often run Java .jar files, but in order to do so, I must invoke it with the command java -jar myJar.jar.  Simply making the .jar executable will not allow it to be run, since it is not fully compiled.  The .jar must also be in my current directory to do so.

What I am asking is is there any way to make it so that I can run a .jar by simply invoking it with myJar, provided it is in somewhere defined by $PATH?  Is there any way to specify that it must be run with the Java interpreter?

I am using the Oracle JDK.

echo '#!/usr/bin/java -jar' > my-command

cat myJar.jar >> my-command

chmod +x my-command

./my-command

This answers your question (for a particular jar). If you make your own jars, it's easy to do the above using exec-maven plugin. If it's not your own jars, you could write a bash script to automate the above for multiple files.


Better driver for synaptics touchpads Ubuntu is said to have a 'generic driver' - does this mean it is missing features? There are a few features I miss from my touchpad under windows. I will list some of them here:

1.) Circular scrolling: continuous scroll for BOTH vertical and horizontal scrolling that KEEPS moving only up or only down with any given direction or rotation of the finger (not the thing where if you were scrolling down and continuing the stroke with a rotation that it scrolls up when your finger starts moving up, or down when your finger starts moving down)

2.) The ability to have one finger on the bottom of the touchpad (making contact) for clicking and another on the upper part for general movements

3.) Windows' added precision option

Please note that I have tried manipulating gsynaptics-device-settings and I have attempted to modify the xorg.conf (and screwed a bunch of stuff up on the way).

Is there any way to gain some of these features back? Or will I have to disobey Synaptics' user agreement and try to reverse engineer the driver they have for Linux (and most likely lose hair and spend a lot of time crying, ultimately leading to failure)?

In Synaptics' terminology, "generic driver" means "a driver made by Synaptics that has not been customized by an equipment manufacturer."

The xf86-input-synaptics driver is not generic, it's Free Software. It was created by many volunteers and paid employees of open source companies like Red Hat and Canonical. As far as I know, Synaptics never contributed anything to it, code or otherwise. It is actually superior to the proprietary driver in several ways, but you'd have to do some reading and tinker with some settings to gain an understanding of what it can do. That's generally true of most Free Software.

Synaptics, Inc. actually does make a proprietary Linux driver with all the features you mentioned, but it's strictly available to equipment manufacturers for preinstallation on new machines that ship with Linux already installed. You can't find that driver online. Can't even buy it -- license restrictions. That's UN-Free software.

The circular scrolling feature you're talking about is called ChiralMotion(TM). I know, it's awesome, I love it too. Really missing it. Unfortunately, it's patented.

There is a "Circular Scrolling" feature in the open source driver, but it works differently. The circling movement must be centered to the touchpad. Not quite as intuitive, IMHO. Less efficient. It also currently doesn't support horizontal scrolling.

Well, I wanted that feature back too, so I'm working on some improvements:

http://galundin.github.io/circular-scrolling-improved/

No reverse engineering, this is very different from the patented algorithm, even though its behavior is very similar. I'm in the process of hacking this functionality into the open source driver. That's what Free Software is all about. We have the power to make it better.

So regarding 1.) hang in there, I'm working on it.

Based on what you described in 2.) that sounds like you're talking about a Buttonless TouchPad (aka ClickPad). That mode is enabled with the ClickPad option, and SoftButtonAreas to define the boundaries. You can read all about those options and how to configure them here.

Regarding 3.) "added precision," I think you mean Pointing Enhancements > Slow Motion, which reduces sensitivity while a modifier key is held down (shift or control). That exact feature isn't in the xf86 driver, but it does provide dynamic control of pointer sensitivity in response to finger pressure, which is arguably more intuitive. Type man synaptics in a terminal and look for PressureMotion. That option has several settings to let you fine-tune its behavior. You can change those settings on the fly with the synclient command before you put them into the config file.

BTW, GSynaptics is deprecated. Its successor is GPointingDeviceSettings. But there are still many options it doesn't show.

What I did was reload the repositories in my package manager.  That made three new versions of the touchpad driver appear.  I then installed one of the new Synaptics driver packages, and then restarted my computer.  If you can't find what you need on the Main server, you should try downloading from the United States Server.

Here's what I did:

Open your Synaptics Package Manager and type in your administrative password.  If you don't have the Synaptics Package Manager, get it.  It's cool!
When the package manager window appears, click "Reload" in the toolbar.
If that doesn't work, you should review your repository information by selecting "Repositories" from the Settings menu, and make adjustments there.
"Mark" the packages you want installed (Synaptic touchpad, etc.) by clicking the checkboxes next to their names and then clicking "mark for installation" from the submenu.
Click "Apply" from the toolbar.

Thomas Mahoney


Can't upgrade due to low disk space on /boot I try to do do-release-upgrade
but then I get:

  Not enough free disk space

  The upgrade has aborted. The upgrade needs a total of 25.7 M free
  space on disk '/boot'. Please free at least an additional 25.7 M of
  disk space on '/boot'. Empty your trash and remove temporary packages
  of former installations using 'sudo apt-get clean'.

Output of df:

                    237251272 214797108  10402504  96% /
udev                    488120         4    488116   1% /dev
tmpfs                   198676       668    198008   1% /run
none                      5120         0      5120   0% /run/lock
none                    496684         0    496684   0% /run/shm
/dev/sda1               233191    225867         0 100% /boot

How come there is no space left on boot? Here's the output of ls -as /boot:

total 221839
    4 .
    4 ..
  645 abi-2.6.32-34-generic-pae
  698 abi-2.6.35-30-generic-pae
  727 abi-2.6.38-12-generic-pae
  727 abi-3.0.0-12-generic-pae
  727 abi-3.0.0-13-generic-pae
  727 abi-3.0.0-14-generic-pae
  727 abi-3.0.0-15-generic-pae
  727 abi-3.0.0-16-generic-pae
  727 abi-3.0.0-17-generic-pae
  727 abi-3.0.0-19-generic-pae
  761 abi-3.0.0-20-generic-pae
  115 config-2.6.32-34-generic-pae
  128 config-2.6.35-30-generic-pae
  136 config-2.6.38-12-generic-pae
  140 config-3.0.0-12-generic-pae
  140 config-3.0.0-13-generic-pae
  140 config-3.0.0-14-generic-pae
  140 config-3.0.0-15-generic-pae
  140 config-3.0.0-16-generic-pae
  140 config-3.0.0-17-generic-pae
  140 config-3.0.0-19-generic-pae
  140 config-3.0.0-20-generic-pae
    5 grub
10773 initrd.img-2.6.32-34-generic-pae
13619 initrd.img-2.6.35-30-generic-pae
15365 initrd.img-2.6.38-12-generic-pae
16481 initrd.img-3.0.0-12-generic-pae
16487 initrd.img-3.0.0-13-generic-pae
16501 initrd.img-3.0.0-14-generic-pae
16476 initrd.img-3.0.0-15-generic-pae
16481 initrd.img-3.0.0-16-generic-pae
16478 initrd.img-3.0.0-17-generic-pae
   12 lost+found
  174 memtest86+.bin
  176 memtest86+_multiboot.bin
 1700 System.map-2.6.32-34-generic-pae
 1841 System.map-2.6.35-30-generic-pae
 2115 System.map-2.6.38-12-generic-pae
 2141 System.map-3.0.0-12-generic-pae
 2141 System.map-3.0.0-13-generic-pae
 2143 System.map-3.0.0-14-generic-pae
 2146 System.map-3.0.0-15-generic-pae
 2147 System.map-3.0.0-16-generic-pae
 2147 System.map-3.0.0-17-generic-pae
 2148 System.map-3.0.0-19-generic-pae
 2149 System.map-3.0.0-20-generic-pae
    2 vmcoreinfo-2.6.32-34-generic-pae
    2 vmcoreinfo-2.6.35-30-generic-pae
    2 vmcoreinfo-2.6.38-12-generic-pae
    2 vmcoreinfo-3.0.0-12-generic-pae
    2 vmcoreinfo-3.0.0-13-generic-pae
    2 vmcoreinfo-3.0.0-14-generic-pae
    2 vmcoreinfo-3.0.0-15-generic-pae
    2 vmcoreinfo-3.0.0-16-generic-pae
    2 vmcoreinfo-3.0.0-17-generic-pae
    2 vmcoreinfo-3.0.0-19-generic-pae
    2 vmcoreinfo-3.0.0-20-generic-pae
 4092 vmlinuz-2.6.32-34-generic-pae
 4347 vmlinuz-2.6.35-30-generic-pae
 4567 vmlinuz-2.6.38-12-generic-pae
 4675 vmlinuz-3.0.0-12-generic-pae
 4676 vmlinuz-3.0.0-13-generic-pae
 4681 vmlinuz-3.0.0-14-generic-pae
 4698 vmlinuz-3.0.0-15-generic-pae
 4700 vmlinuz-3.0.0-16-generic-pae
 4700 vmlinuz-3.0.0-17-generic-pae
 4703 vmlinuz-3.0.0-19-generic-pae
 4705 vmlinuz-3.0.0-20-generic-pae

Output of uname -a:

 Linux kitsch 3.0.0-17-generic-pae #30-Ubuntu SMP Thu Mar 8 17:53:35 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

Your /boot partition is filled with old kernels. It does that sometimes, not sure why it is never fixed. You can easily remove the old kernels if you know which packages they came in.

First check uname -a to check your current version.

Then run the following command:

dpkg -l 'linux-*' | sed '/^ii/!d;/'"$(uname -r | sed "s/\(.*\)-\([^0-9]\+\)/\1/")"'/d;s/^[^ ]* [^ ]* \([^ ]*\).*/\1/;/[0-9]/!d'

This command will list all packages that you no longer need. I don't like removing them automatically, I like to be in control when it comes to removing kernels. So for every package listed do the following:

sudo apt-get -y purge some-kernel-package

Intermezzo

This intermezzo describes in more detail how the commands work and tries to fix an issue with linux-libc-dev:amd64. Most users can skip this paragraph.

dpkg -l 'linux-*' list all packages that have a name starting with 'linux-'
sed '/^ii/!d; remove all lines that do *not* start withii`
uname -r | sed "s/\(.*\)-\([^0-9]\+\)/\1/" find the current running kernel version
/'"$(uname -r | sed "s/\(.*\)-\([^0-9]\+\)/\1/")"'/d Remove all lines, except the ones containing the current running kernel version number
s/^[^ ]* [^ ]* \([^ ]*\).*/\1/ For each line list only the package name
/[0-9]/!d Remove lines that do not contain numbers.

To fix Frederick Nord's issue I think the command can be amended as follows:

dpkg -l 'linux-*' | sed '/^ii/!d;/'"$(uname -r | sed "s/\(.*\)-\([^0-9]\+\)/\1/")"'/d;s/^[^ ]* [^ ]* \([^ ]*\).*/\1/;/[0-9]/!d;/^linux-\(headers\|image\)/!d'

It basically adds an extra filter:

/^linux-(headers\|image)/!d Delete all lines that do not start with linux-headers or linux-image

/Intermezzo

Where some-kernel-package can be replaced with one of the packages listed. Just beware that you don't remove the kernel packages that are in current use (as listed by the uname -a) eg. sudo apt-get purge -y linux-headers-3.0.0-12 etc.

It can be automated further using the xargs command, but I don't like that. It is a personal thing. However, here's the command to do so:

dpkg -l 'linux-*' | sed '/^ii/!d;/'"$(uname -r | sed "s/\(.*\)-\([^0-9]\+\)/\1/")"'/d;s/^[^ ]* [^ ]* \([^ ]*\).*/\1/;/[0-9]/!d' | xargs sudo apt-get -y purge

This is what my /boot looks like, one spare kernel (2.6.38-11) just in case and 3.2.0-24 being current:

$ ls -l /boot
total 59388
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   730545 Sep 13  2011 abi-2.6.38-11-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   791023 Apr 25 13:51 abi-3.2.0-24-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   130326 Sep 13  2011 config-2.6.38-11-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   140341 Apr 25 13:51 config-3.2.0-24-generic
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root     5120 May 27 17:46 grub
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 20883146 Oct  1  2011 initrd.img-2.6.38-11-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 22474219 May  5 09:04 initrd.img-3.2.0-24-generic
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root    12288 Apr 16  2009 lost+found
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   176764 Nov 27 11:00 memtest86+.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   178944 Nov 27 11:00 memtest86+_multiboot.bin
-rw------- 1 root root  2656297 Sep 13  2011 System.map-2.6.38-11-generic
-rw------- 1 root root  2884358 Apr 25 13:51 System.map-3.2.0-24-generic
-rw------- 1 root root     1369 Sep 13  2011 vmcoreinfo-2.6.38-11-generic
-rw------- 1 root root  4526784 Sep 13  2011 vmlinuz-2.6.38-11-generic
-rw------- 1 root root  4965776 Apr 25 13:51 vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic

And file system usage:

$ df -h /boot
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted
/dev/sda5  228M  63M  154M  29% /boot

You can easily handle kernels via synaptic package manager.
But first you should know the currently used kernel-release name. You can find this out by running uname -r in terminal prompt:
linux@linux-desktop:~$ uname -r
4.4.0-75-generic

So at least this version you should keep untouched.
Open synaptic and start filling in quick filter placeholder as shown below:

Now you can select all packages which you wish to delete and do:
Mark for complete removal > Apply
I would suggest to keep at least a latest current kernel package and one previous kernel. For instance in this case you can safely get rid of linux-image-4.4.0-66-generic and linux-image-extra-4.4.0-66-generic, but it would be good to keep 4.4.0-72  and of course 4.4.0-75.


Why does do-release-upgrade try to upgrade my system to 15.10, and how to I make it upgrade to 16.04? I'm currently using Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, and I decided it was a good time to update to the latest version. However, if I run

sudo do-release-upgrade

The program starts downloading Wily Werewolf (15.10) packages. How can I force Ubuntu to download Xenial Xerus?

Before doing the sudo do-release-upgrade -d, make sure that your /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades file ends in Prompt=lts.  This will enable the upgrade tool to fetch the next LTS release (16.04) instead of just the next release (15.10).

You will be able to have your 14.04 LTS version identified ad upgradable to the 16.04 LTS version when the first 'Point Release' for 16.04.1 is available - currently scheduled for July 21, 2016. Announced release schedule

If your desire is to test your current hardware and software compatibility with Xenial you can make a live session of Xenial for testing.
Make a persistent USB instance.


How to login from terminal using launchpad.net credentials? I will share an example with you so that you can understand it better:

I am an authenticated user of launchpad.net. Now I want to login with my launchpad credentials to access this site's data.

I am able to do this as a public user and can login anonymously using

launchpad = Launchpad.login_anonymously('just testing', 'production', cachedir, version="devel")
people = launchpad.people
swati = people.getByEmail(email="xxx.yyy@zzz.com")
print swati.display_name

But I am not able to use the login_with() method of the API to login directly with my launchpad credentials and access its data.

Please share any commands you might have in mind for this.

As explained in the documentation, you can use the login_with() method to do so:

launchpad = Launchpad.login_with('id-of-your-program', 'production', credentials_file='./credentials', version='devel')

When you'll do something with the launchpad object that triggers a request to Launchpad, a Web browser page will pop up, asking you to log-in to Launchpad and/or to confirm you want to give access to your Launchpad account to this program.

The credentials will be stored in file credentials.

Hope this helps.


LibreOffice Writer problem with format All of a sudden my LibreOffice Writer started acting up. My main question now is how to restore the appearance of a document I wrote a year ago that now has a first page whose appearance is unacceptable. I want it to be in the regular 8 1/2 x 11 page format, which is how it was originally. Now the print is big, bold, and italicized (I don't want this and didn't choose this.) and I can't even read the words on the right-hand side of the page. It kind of looks like it's in landscape mode, but I'm not sure.

I've tried using the Help tools but don't know what I'm doing. I've clicked on various things and nothing helps. I don't know how to move the side "borders". I tried to copy the whole thing so that I could maybe deal with it fresh on another page, but I can't even copy it - despite trying various things.

I haven't had Ubuntu for a year yet, but haven't had any seemingly insurmountable problems until now. I realize my description may not be helpful, but I hope somebody can work with me on this.

The open document format has changed quite much over the years and the document that you are trying to open might be written in an older format. Another page here explains the same problem. I am sorry but I do not know how to fix this.


How to remove things from the desktop without deleting them or unpinning them from launcher? I have added some apps and programs to the desktop (since I'll be using them often), but then I found that I can actually pin my favorite programs to the launcher.  So, now I don't want anything on the desktop to keep it neat and tidy.  Unfortunately, when I tried moving the icons to the "trash" I deleted the actual programs/apps (so I undid my action).  How can I solve this on Ubuntu 17.04?  Thanks a lot.

Here's what I got from ls -a ~/Desktop:

org.gnome.Calendar.desktop
..                             org.kde.kolourpaint.desktop
dell-driver-installer.desktop  photocollage.desktop
eog.desktop                    simple-scan.desktop
gallery-app.desktop            sol.desktop
gnome-mahjongg.desktop         system-config-printer.desktop
org.gnome.Calculator.desktop   unity-activity-log-manager-panel.desktop

That are all simple link files, you can safely remove them without affecting the installed programs.

So simply delete them and you still be able to access the programs by pressing Super/windows key.

To remove them you can right-click on them and choose delete which sends them to the trashcan or you can use the terminal for that:

  WARNING: This will remove all other files on your desktop, not just links!  BE VERY CAREFUL when you run this command, and do not run this command unless you want to permanently remove all files as well as links from your Desktop and the Desktop folder.

# this following command removes all icons from the desktop
# so make sure that is what you want to do (this is not reversible)!
rm ~/Desktop/*

or if you want only to remove a single file:

rm ~/Desktop/<file-name>.desktop

You can always recreate those files by dragging the applications from the dash back to the desktop which will create a new icon or as you did pin them from the dash to your dock.


Is it possible to copy U1 files between two PCs locally when an Ubuntu user account is recreated? I have 2 Ubuntu 11.04 PCs (desktop and laptop), both synced via U1. Recently I completely rebuilt the user account (completely deleted the home directory) on one of the two (the desktop), and now I have to resync. Problem is that the PC is on a slow connection and I have difficulties resyncing the 14gb of data. Of course I have the opportunity of moving it to a place where the connection is faster, but it's not comfortable, and it will take some time. Since the laptop is in sync with the account I was wondering if stopping the service and copying the files + some database (which files is the question) could let me avoid resyncing everything.....

Yes, simply copy all of your laptop's files to an external flash/hard drive, then mount it on your desktop and transfer the data over that way. It is much faster, but then I'm not sure whether you would have such a drive handy.


Slow installation of applications in Ubuntu Software Center? I have installed Ubuntu 11.04 desktop and I am in the process of learning. I want to install some applications from the Ubuntu Software Center, but the installation process is quite long and slow. With the Ubuntu Software Center, I can only install and download one application for a time. So I want to ask is there a way to speed up the process of installing software through the Ubuntu Software Center, like a multi-tasking program?

Welcome to the Ubuntu Community!.

The installation times depends on several factors:

Download Speed
Size of Packages
PC Hardware
Etc.

You can only install 1 package at the time, because that's how APT was created.

Lubuntu Software Center
Maybe you would like to install lubuntu software center. It's the lightweight ubuntu software center, and it is much more simple too.
To install it:

Slow but graphical Ubuntu Software Center way:
click here

Fast but terminal way:
You'll have to type or copy-paste:
 sudo apt-get install lubuntu-software-center


How do I enable desktop visual effects? I have lenovo g460 with VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GT218 [GeForce 310M] (rev a2) grapics card

I have install the driver using gksudo jockey-gtk command, but when I change the visual effects to extra its give me 'Desktop effects could not be enabled'. I am new to Ubuntu.

First go to console (ALT+F2 then type gnome-terminal). Inside the console type nvidia and press the TAB button. If you have the nvidia drivers correctly install there should appear several nvidia files (Like nvidia-settings, nvidia-xconfig, etc..)

Type nvidia-xconfig so it edits the xorg.conf file with the nvidia configs. Reboot the PC.

If you can not still have special effects then do the following:
nvidia-current

Install mesa-utils (sudo aptitude install mesa-utils or sudo apt-get install mesa-utils)
Type glxinfo | grep "direct rendering". If a NO appears then there is some problem with your nvidia installs. If a YES appears then typing compiz --replace after pressing ALT+F2 should give you the 3D effects.
If the NO appeared just try to reinstall the drivers with sudo aptitude reinstall
nvidia-current
Lastly type dmesg | grep "nvidia" in console to see if there is an output regarding nvidia. Normally the output will say how to fix it.

you may want to try my solution:

add "compiz --replace" to your "startup applications" menu.

I did, and it works.


ubuntu upgrade from 14 LTS to 15.04 Can I upgrade from 14 LTS to 15 without formatting ubuntu 14.

I currently have Win 7 and 14 LTS as dual boot. I don't want to mess things up cuz of the grub menu.

Use the following command
sudo apt-get install update-manager-core

sudo do-release-upgrade

or try this

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/upgrade