How safe is upgrading to 12.04 Being new to Ubuntu I try to avoid any install without looking for problems others have experienced. The upgrade to 12.04 seems to have had quite a few users experience problems.  Do these generally get resolved or are they sometimes bugs? Is there an approach that can be used to determine the impact on particular applications, or a list of known problem apps?

Update: Desktop, new with on board graphics. I guess I am just trying to get a handle on how smoothly upgrades are in general with Ubuntu. I am on 11 and shortly after got advised of the upgrade to 12 being available.

I do not think I have any special apps yet, but did install kubuntu too. Although switched back to Ubuntu most of the time. But seeing lots of the problems relate to basics like ethernet connections got a little nervous as I have no idea of the size of userbase and whether the experienced problems are a rarity or common issues. Do such issues feed back to devs and result in a maintenance release if a bug is uncovered for example.

At this point, as long as you are upgrading from 11.X you shouldn't experience any issues. I upgraded from 11.10 and had no issues initially, but after a few reboots I ran into a weird DNS issue. I don't know the exact cause to this date. But I suspect it had something to do with the resolvconf configuration. This was a known bug which has been addressed and is no longer an issue.

I would go for the upgrade to 12.04 LTS, but as always, make sure you have a backup. If your disk isn't too large you can use Partimage. It is extremely easy to use, supports compression, and will only backup the used portion of your partition. In addition to the partimage backup, I would also backup your config files in the /etc/ directory.

I also upgraded from 11.10 to 12.04; uptil now things are working pretty good for me. So, would not be an issue at for you too.


Realtek HD audio drivers can't be installed I am receiving the following error on make install as suggested in the Realtek Audio driver package.
I installed the driver from this website.

The error I am getting is:

/bin/sh: 1: Syntax error: "(" unexpected
/bin/sh: 1: Syntax error: "(" unexpected
/bin/sh: 1: Syntax error: "(" unexpected
/bin/sh: 1: Syntax error: "(" unexpected
/bin/sh: 1: Syntax error: "(" unexpected
/bin/sh: 1: Syntax error: "(" unexpected
if [ -L /usr/include/sound ]; then \
  rm -f /usr/include/sound; \
 ln -sf /home/sachin/Downloads/Rt-Linux-HDaudio-5.18 (2)/alsa-driver-RTv5.18/alsa/include/sound /usr/include/sound; \
 else \
rm -rf /usr/include/sound; \
install -d -m 755 -g root -o root /usr/include/sound; \
for f in include/sound/*.h; do \
    install -m 644 -g root -o root $f /usr/include/sound; \
done \
fi
/bin/sh: 3: Syntax error: "(" unexpected (expecting "fi")
Makefile:188: recipe for target 'install-headers' failed
make: *** [install-headers] Error 2

Please help me resolve it.
Thank you.

You must put sudo before the command you typed as an example
sudo ./configure


Inverted Horizontal scrolling ubuntu 18.04 I recently upgraded from 17.10 to 18.04 and the horizontal scrolling is inverted. Natural scrolling does not affect it in any way, suggestions on how to change it back? (swipe rigth to go left)

I also encountered this issue upon upgrading to 18.04, this was my solution:

Use xinput list to find the device id of your touchpad.

Use xinput list-props yourdeviceid.  This will produce a long list of all the properties you can edit for that device.  We're interested in a property to do with scrolling distance, on my system this is Synaptics Scrolling Distance (283).  It should have two values, on my system (with natural scrolling enabled) these were -115, 115 (vertical distance, horizontal distance).  Note the value in the parentheses, in my case 283, it's how we'll identify the property to change it.

Use xinput set-prop yourdeviceid 283 -115, -115, replacing 283 and the scrolling distance values with whatever is appropriate. (The change is to make both values negative, which gives the desired result of "natural" scrolling.)

Notes:
This setting will not persist across system restarts, which is an issue all on its own.  I use a .xsessionrc file in my home directory to execute the xinput command on startup.
This will probably not work in 17.10, since Wayland does strange things to xinput.

In case this is still an issue, you can also change your setting in: Setting | Devices | Mouse and Touchpad. There the option "natural scrolling" will enable changes in the scrolling behavior.


How do I check virtualbox version from CLI I am writing a Bash script to store the version number of Virtualbox, but cannot succeed.

My Script is:

#!/bin/bash
installed_virtualbox=$(virtualbox --version) # --version this is what I want to change

I tried

virtualbox --version
virtualbox -v
virtualbox -V
virtualbox --Version

all seems to open the virtualbox instead of output.
virtualbox --help gives the version number, but the output is too long to store in variable and use later.

To print or view the current VirtualBox version you should use below command:

vboxmanage --version

which will then print the current version as seen below;

Refer 8.2. Command overview at the official VirtualBox site for more.

To print the version using the script, see below:

#!/bin/bash
echo $(vboxmanage --version)

Hope it helps.

avi@avi-IdeaPad-Z500:~$ virtualbox --help
Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager 4.3.6

So run the below command,

virtualbox --help | awk '/Oracle/{ print $5 }'

Output:

4.3.6

awk '/Oracle/{ print $5 }'

Searches for the line which consists of the word Oracle .If yes then the command picks up the fifth column on that line and redirects it to standard output.If no such word was present on any lines,then it displays nothing.


I see default Ubuntu Desktop changed after two other DE installed This question looks similar but that received no answers.

I installed two DE (enlightenment, pantheon) on Ubuntu. After that I see few differences on my default Desktop Environment.

I see colors of the windows has changed. Possibly, a good side effect is that it has become faster.
Two Terminals appears in the application list.

Even two screenshot application.

Why it has happened? and do I have two applications or it is just customizations of same applications?

Using multiple DE at the same time can cause conflicts... you can read this to understand what I mean...

And the extra applications that you see after installation of the other DEs, they most possibly have come with the DE; a DE usually have some default bundle of programs/applications for various purposes. For example KDE has a bunch of applications installed by default- Ocular for reading Documents, Gwenview for viewing images and so on...


How to open a file manager of the current directory in the terminal? When I work in terminal, sometimes I want to open the current directory in a GUI file manager.
And then to click the items in the window to run the application. How can I do this?

The following works in all desktop environments by using the default file manager:

xdg-open .

You can also open files from the terminal as if you had double clicked them in the file manager:

xdg-open file

You can use, nautilus . and press enter to open the current directory.

To open path specified location try the following.

E.g. If you want to open Music folder under this location:

/media/dulithdecozta/A08A64BB8A648F98/Music/

Then execute the following.

nautilus /media/dulithdecozta/A08A64BB8A648F98/Music/


Trying to connect a Samsung m2020w printer to wireless network I have a Samsung m2020w printer. I have succeeded in downloading the printer drivers and can use the printer with a USB cable. However, I am unable to use the wireless connection. The difficulty is that I can't connect the printer to the wifi network (as this needs to be done via a PC).

I've tried using the installation disk via Wine but at the point that I am asked to temporarily connect the printer to the computer with a USB lead I get the message "The printer is not found" even though I can print pages (proving that the printer is connected).

Any ideas?

You will need a little networking knowhow to get your Samsung setup wirelessly. It doesn t appear the control panel gives you the option of lower case letters. I first wire connected the printer to an open port on the router. When the connection was established I printed out the network settings in order to obtain the printer s wired IP address. I opened up my browser and typed in the IP address (eg. 192.168.1.x) which connected me to the network interface on the Samsung printer. From there I clicked Network > Wireless and was able to find my SSID and enter in my password (which included upper case, lower case, and numbers.) I removed the wired cable from the printer and router and the printer was able to establish a wireles connection.

Source(s):
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111020020118AAsID9Q

I wrote the instructions in ubuntu forums:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2263245


How can I view and edit PowerPoint presentations that don't render correctly? I have Microsoft PowerPoint projects that I can view correctly on Android, OS X and Windows, but on Linux with LibreOffice Impress, they are not rendered correctly. Instead, the letters and objects are outside the screen.

I need PowerPoint for my job. Is there a fix for that or an alternative app for PowerPoint compatibility without bugs?

Actually, it may be font issues. Because of Microsoft's fonts are not included in the Linux OS, system substitute with specific fonts.

But these font may not be in same grid size or font attributes.

Try to install Microsoft fonts with following commands in your terminal.

wget http://httpredir.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/m/msttcorefonts/ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.6_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.6_all.deb

Check your documents again. And you should also check fonts such as Arial, Calibri, etc. in font list.

Try using Google Slides. It's all in the cloud, handles versioning, revision history, auto-saves, and best of all, it's browser based, so you don't have to install the program everywhere you want to use it.

You can edit, download, and convert Microsoft® Office files in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

To edit an Office file, you can either:

Edit the file using Office Compatibility Mode (OCM)
Convert the file to Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides.
Once you've edited a Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides file, you can then save and export it as an Office file to share with others.

(The above text was copied from here)


Why merging images is more slow (consumes more cpu) to view than inserting them into a pdf file? When inserting images into a pdf file (each image in a different page) it is quite easy to browse the images. Why when merging the same images with imagemagick (thus, creating a very large image file) is gets very slow to view the same content? Does JPG compression has something to do with this?

Probably it is because in PDF files, only the contents of the current page are in memory (maybe the last or next page depending on zoom factor). In image viewers, because they assume image files are small, they load all the file into memory, so when a really big image is chosen, maybe that image is fully loaded into memory, thus causing slow processing.


Standard user use software center I have created a user and add him to the standard group. Now he cannot use software center, so I want him to stay in standard group but allow him to user software center. What is the best way to do that.

You can specify commands, that are allowed for a user to be run as super user in /etc/sudoers file. Refer to manpage (man sudoers) for details.


How to list recursive file sizes of files and directories in a directory? How do I list all the files in a directory and their recursive file sizes?

---edit

I want to see the sizes 'rolled up' to the parent directories in the directory listed. I don't want to see the child directories or their contents or sizes.

apt-get install ncdu

It is interactive too so if you want to check on a sub folder just UP, DOWN, and Enter to it.

For listing size of folder contents with less typing (-d is short for --max-depth)

du -hd1


The foreground color changes after `ls` command I change shell's foreground color with echo -ne '\e[1;31m' command but when I execute ls command the foreground color reverts back to the original previous color. This weird behavior doesn't occur when other commands are executed. I am clueless about the cause behind this.

Please write an explanation for this and also suggest the remedy. thanks

I am using UBUNTU 14.10.

EDIT- I have tried to remove the escape sequence for white color foreground by setting the alias for ls as:

alias ls='ls --color=auto |sed -r 's/\x1b[37m]//''

But, this has a problem too, the ls outputs all the directory names and filenames with single color ,i.e not with the default colors for all items.This is strange as I have removed just the [37m which is the white foreground but it removes all the colors.

Commands which set colours may finish by sending the sequence ESC [ 0 m to reset the current attributes for the terminal.  The easiest thing for you to do is change your shell prompt to always set the colour back to what you want.

Add to your .bash_profile:

export PS1='\e[1;31m'"$PS1"

UPDATE- As waltinator says executing bash command right after ls command will create child shell which will probably eat up resources , I had to look for another solution. I tried executing echo -ne '\e[1;31m' light after ls command therefore I put it in the bls funciton.

I somehow reached to my own solution to this problem. The suggestions by meuh and waltinator were to look for escape sequences sent by ls command and I even found out those. I tried to remove escape sequence by using sed but due to my inexperience at this I was not able to use it perfectly perhaps.

Later,I noticed that executing bash after ls command reverts the foreground back to the color I wanted.I decided against using bash after ls

Meanwhile , I found a way as :

First of all I put the command echo -ne '\e[0;31m' in a shell script and add the shell script to .bashrc.
Second, I defined a function so that bash would be executed right after ls as :

  bls( ) {

 ls "$@" && echo -ne '\e[1;31m';
 }

I exported the above function as :

export -f bls

So, Now I have to do a bls for listing directories and not changing the foreground color. This didn't actually solve the ls problem but it did find me another way. I just have to type one more letter in bls


How can I share my Internet connection through USB? Is there a way to share an Internet connection from PC (wlan0 interface) with an Android Phone connected through USB (usb0 interface with usb-tethering)?
I guess it's possible with squid, but I don't know anything about squid.
I'm using froyo & Ubuntu 11.04 so please guide me.

Can your phone tether with you Android? If so, you can access the wi-fi from your phone. It should be in the settings, networking/wireless.


How do I get my machine to boot with a Grub: out of disk error? I have over the last week installed four differing versions of Ubuntu, 8.04, 8.10, 9.10 and 10.04, all fail with similar error messages from Grub on booting or rebooting. The message is “Error: out of disk” or similar on the older versions.

This is NOT the standard failure that is solved by deleting a couple of lines from the Grub Config file, as discussed on the Ubuntu Forums and it is not possible to reboot into the installation from the live cd. However the machine does boot the live cd.

My suspicions are that there is an incompatibility between the specific BIOS on my machine and GRUB. The machine is an old AMD based system with a small amount of memory.

The machine is capable of running Ubuntu 8 because it was running a very heavily updated copy before this process started.

At last a solution.

The solution suggested Jacques Botha did not work -- the Live CD ignores the added instruction to align the disk.

However, buried in the base of the launchpad bug trail is a suggestion to use partitioning software to generate the partition and align it manually before doing the installation. So my solution was to boot the Live CD and use gparted to make the partition and set it to be ext3.

This done, I booted from the CD and used text based installation but did not allow it to repartition the disk. Thus it has now installed Ubuntu 10.04 into an ext3 (not ext4) disk system. Thus I am not certain if the problem was ext4 or the disk partitioning but the system is up and running.

A point for the Ubuntu dev team: I think the Live CD has now gotten so heavy that a “lightweight graphical system” or a “textual live boot” is required for older machines and some servers. Even eliminating the eye candy would make such a difference as machines like mine only just run the full eye watering system.


How can I change the owner of sda3 from root to my user to avoid permission problems? I installed Ubuntu, it is my first time on Ubuntu. Before I used Windows.

In this picture sda3 is my "D disk" like Windows. This disk should be for all my files. But the owner of this is root and I have problems when I use code editors like vs code.

I want to change the owner of this partition. How can I achieve that?

You can try to open the terminal app and type

sudo chown -R $USER /dev/sda3

Explanation:

sudo will ask for the root password once to get permission to make these changes;
chown does the change of ownership
-R makes is recursive to all subfolders and files
$USER uses the current user name
the last argument is the path of directory to be changed

Read more about:

How to change permission of a drive in an external hard disk?
http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/trusty/man1/chown.1.html

Alternatively, you can login as root in the GUI and make the changes in the windows you showed us. Welcome to the world of Ubuntu. You may learn to love the CLI (e.g. terminal app) throughout the time!


How to install extundelete on Ubuntu 16.04 I have removed some that are very important for me. They are not just images but text files and some other types of files. Based on my research I think the only way to recover most of them is to use extundelete. However, extundelete is a bit out-dated and cannot install it through apt-get. I am trying to compile the library manually but I keep getting errors for the lacking packages and am not able to find/install those packages easily. Can anyone help me install extundelete?

In Ubuntu 16.04.7 LTS, extundelete is installed successfully.
sudo sh -c 'apt update && apt install extundelete'

Ubuntu says 'v0.2.4-1' is installed.
Please check your distribution version and package update.
ps: please do not install extundelete on same partition which deleted file was in. Boot with other media like live cd. I'm afraid new package list cache, list, extundelete related files may overwrite your deleted files.

I also encountered this problem as you described when I installed extundelete on ubuntu 16.04, like the following:
sudo apt-get install package_name
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package package_name

Later I found that is because the installation manner you chosen is out of date and not suitable for Ubuntu 16.04. Here you may refer to this tutorial Troubleshooting “E: Unable to locate package” Error on Ubuntu. Actually, it is so easy to install extundelete with apt-get on Ubuntu 16.04.
You just need:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install extundelete

Please refer to the website extundelete_0.2.4-1ubuntu1_amd64.deb and get more details. Last but not least, it is necessary to install the utility extundelete before you write data on your computer. Then the extundelete can help you recover your important data.


Can I allocate 'free space' on my harddrive to a partition? During 10.10 installation I deleted a 30GB partition and changed it to a 2GB swap, and then reinstalled Ubuntu over partition two (where 10.04 was). I have a third large partition where most of my files are.

How do I allocate the newly freed up 28GB or so from the first partition and allocate it to the third partition?

You can boot up into a LiveCD and use GParted to expand the third partition. You should make sure to back up your files before this in case something goes wrong, but it should expand the partition properly, and you will have an extra 28GB of space.

Hmm , i think it could be done by using GParted but , it requires to delete both drives , where it will merge become 1 partition and format it .


Ubuntu 14.04 and libdvdcss file I have Ubuntu 14.04 and I can't get it to recognize Libdvdcss2, which is downloaded to the download file.  There I clicked on the bz2 file and it opened to give me a nice neat package that doesn't work.  What do I need to do or try.  Keep in mind I am a newbie.

From help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/PlayingDVDs

By installing the libdvdcss2 package you can play
encrypted DVDs with:

Kaffeine , the Kubuntu video player
MPlayer
xine
Totem-xine
VLC media player
Ogle
XBMC Media Center

12.04 onwards works this way.

Install the libdvdread4 package ( no need to add third party repositories ) via Synaptic or command line: (note: if you have installed *ubuntu-restricted-extras this has already been installed automatically for you)

sudo apt-get install libdvdread4

Then open a terminal window and execute:

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

Rebooting may be necessary.

After this, VLC will automatically use it.

Before you install:

libdvdread4/install-css.sh

you BETTER read that Microsoft EULA you are agreeing to, before you execute the installation. Not to go Richard Stallman on anyone here, but when they are installing a FONT EULA, you have to ask yourself, what else are they installing?

There are other GPL offerings out there, that don't involve you giving your rights away.


What do the nomodeset, quiet and splash kernel parameters mean? What do Kernel command line parameters (also also known as boot options) mean?

When you go to Ubuntu (or better, GRUB) options, you have things like nomodeset, quiet and splash. What do these options mean?

I am also interested in other parameters and would be interested to see descriptions of any kernel parameter (like acpi), but these are not essential.

From this question, about nomodeset:

  The newest kernels have moved the video mode setting into the
  kernel. So all the programming of the hardware specific clock rates
  and registers on the video card happen in the kernel rather than in
  the X driver when the X server starts.. This makes it possible to have
  high resolution nice looking splash (boot) screens and flicker free
  transitions from boot splash to login screen. Unfortunately, on some
  cards this doesn't work properly and you end up with a black screen.
  Adding the nomodeset parameter instructs the kernel to not load video
  drivers and use BIOS modes instead until X is loaded.

From Unix & Linux, on quiet splash:

  The splash (which eventually ends up in your /boot/grub/grub.cfg )
  causes the splash screen to be shown.

  At the same time you want the boot process to be quiet, as otherwise
  all kinds of messages would disrupt that splash screen.

  Although specified in GRUB these are kernel parameters influencing the
  loading of the kernel or its modules, not something that changes GRUB
  behaviour. The significant part from GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT is
  CMDLINE_LINUX

This answer covers acpi, noapic and nolapic:

  In general, such boot parameters are not needed unless there is a
  problem with your BIOS and how it handles these standards, or it just
  might be old enough where these standards were not fully implemented
  properly.

  ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) is a standard for
  handling power management. Older systems may not support ACPI full, so
  sometimes it helps to give the kernel a hint to not use it. "acpi=off"

  APIC (Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller) is a kind of feature
  found on newer systems. The "local" version is called "LAPIC". What
  this controller can do is be set up to generate and handle interrupts,
  a signal the hardware uses to pass messages. Again, some
  implementations of APIC can have problems on older system, and so it
  is useful to disable it. "noapic" and "nolapic".

  Sometimes the APIC is working, but it slows things down by getting in
  the middle of messages being passed around. This can mess with audio
  and video processing, for example. Folks might disable it for that
  reason as well.

Additional parameters can be found here.

Although, only some of them are commonly used/changed in grub configuration, there are far more boot parameters.
For a full list, see the official documentation: The kernel’s command-line parameters


Can Ubuntu run on a Microsoft Surface with Windows RT? My family might be buying a Windows Surface tablet with Windows RT (Nvidia)? I was wondering if I can run Ubuntu or WUBI on it for my homework?

Since on the RT tablet I would say no, since Microsoft requires secure keys in order to boot up it. It would probably on a standard Windows 8 tablet though, since the secure boot is an optional thing for OEM's, unlike the mandatory one for the Surface.

Here is a similar question

http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1229uw/question_linux_on_a_windows_surface_tablet/

I'm not sure if this would work but if you

Go to your settings go to "Change PC Settings"
And "Devices"
Then to "Recovery"
And look under "Advanced startup" and you might be able to try and start your surface using a usb with Ubuntu on it


How do I log out of qtile? I installed and launched qtile in ubuntu(mate) but as I do not know how to use it yet, I want to log out. Unfortunately, my computer is set to log in automatically on startup so I am not given the choice after restart. I just need a simple way to log out of the Qtile window manager which I have installed on an Ubuntu Mate machine. I do not even know how to launch terminal in here: ctrl-alt-t doesn't work, super-r will launch my browser but wont launch anything else(including terminal).
I went to some tty or something but then I realized I had forgotten my username so I can't login with just my password.. It is due to having reinstalled the system a million times over a short period of time, creating a different user every time.

Is there any way to log out of Qtile?

To logout: super + control + q

see

https://github.com/qtile/qtile/blob/v0.14.2/libqtile/resources/default_config.py#L62

To launch a terminal use super+r then type gnome-terminal then hit 'Enter' key. Alternatively install xterm sudo apt install xterm, then use the keyboard shortcut super+enter to launch it. See https://github.com/qtile/qtile/blob/v0.14.2/libqtile/resources/default_config.py#L55

You can also configure super+enter to launch gnome-terminal instead of xterm:

# create a config file if you don't have one
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/qtile/qtile/v0.14.2/libqtile/resources/default_config.py --output ~/.config/qtile/config.py --create-dirs

edit ~/.config/qtile/config.py and change xterm to gnome-terminal or your preferred terminal, then restart qtile with super+control+r


Loss of nautilus menu functionality in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS As you'll see from the following image, my copy of nautilus is a little broken.

I've lost access to all menus other than "file", there are black spots on the top corners of the window, and the file/folder icons are much larger than they were previously.

For reference, here as an image of how nautilus used to look (and how I'd like it to look!)

I think this has happened because I recently installed budgie as an alternate desktop. Other possible causes: I recently installed dropbox, and I also recently installed another alternate desktop (xfce4).

Attempted fixes so far (followed by system restart):

Purge Dropbox, Bugie, Xfce and Thunar:

sudo apt-get purge dropbox budgie-desktop xfce4 thunar
sudo apt-get autoremove

Run Unity and Nautilus in separate sessions:

setsid unity
setsid nautilus

Preferred applications > Utilities > File Manager > Nautilus
Reinstall Nautilus:

sudo apt-get --reinstall install nautilus

So far, nothing has worked.

The budgie-remix PPA includes a version of nautilus that does not have the unity patchwork to display menus.

budgie-desktop does not work very well with the older version of Nautilus in the main repository for 16.04.  This issue only affects 16.04 users - 16.10 and later versions use the main repository version of Nautilus.

Given that you have purged budgie-desktop I presume you have finished experimenting.  You will need to purge the PPA as well so that nautilus is downgraded from the GTK+3.18 version in the PPA to the older GTK+3.14 version that is in the main repo.

sudo ppa-purge ppa:budgie-remix/ppa

Try this

dconf reset -f /org/compiz/

then

setsid unity


Why is UMASK set in /etc/login.defs ignored? I have set UMASK 077 in /etc/login.defs and there is no override in ~/.profile or ~/.bashrc.

The umask command still prints 0022 in gnome-terminal, but prints 0007 when I log into tty1. Newly created files get the same permissions as when umask is set to 0022.

Ubuntu version: 16.10

Edit the /etc/login.defs and change these values accordingly:

UMASK 077 - as you earlier did
Change this USERGROUPS_ENAB yes to USERGROUPS_ENAB no

Now log out then log back in. Create a new file and check the default permissions. Hope it helps.


Power off bluetooth: the LED indicator is still ON, is the radio module turned off? I would like to have a Bluetooth adapter powered off at the startup, but at the same time to be able to turn it on when I need it. I have found this advice:
Add
rfkill block bluetooth into
/etc/rc.local before exit 0 command. This delivered the desired result in Gnome (at Dell D630 with Ubuntu 14.04) and now, when I need to turn power On at Bluetooth I just open System Tools->Preferences->Bluetooth and I can Enable it in there easily.

Now I want do the same in KDE (at Dell E6410 Kubuntu 14.04).
 However, if I patch the file as above I am not able to turn Bluetooth On any more during the working session, the icon disappears and even error message is hanging in a proper window until cold power cycle.

and

Nevertheless there is place to (un)tick 'Powered' in tool Configuring Bluetooth -> Configuring Bluetooth Adpaters , please see this screenshot below.
I would like not to have this ticked at the startup. How to do that? I have not found setting which specifies this in any KDE tool, that's why my question is: how to the same what untick 'powered' does but from the command line? Then I could add such a string to, say, /etc/rc.local. The direct answer I did not get yet.

Finally I got a really WORKS FOR ME thing  by doing what is Maco's answer in this RICH THREAD, How can I deactivate Bluetooth on system startup?

To disable the bluetooth driver from loading on startup:

sudo $EDITOR /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

add:

 blacklist btusb

Enabling it later should just be:

sudo modprobe btusb

OKAY, that's what I wanted to do - run it again, on the go, without reset. Unfortunately namely this method is keeping my LED Bluetooth indicator (at physical panel) is turning ON, which confuses me, whether it's powered or not?

BUT the most important question for me is - does this turns off the radio module itself? I would like to have no any radiation from the Bluetooth when it is turned off at startup by any means. If it's doable please point out by what approach.

Thanks.

By any chance did you install ubuntu ( unity first) and then kde from the repo? If you did, unity has a bluetooth service that locks the device and breaks kde's bluedevil. If you want to keep both kde and unity/gnome, I recommend using blueman as your bluetooth manager while in kde, cause bluedevil will not work.
If you want a proper kde desktop, I suggest install a fresh kubuntu otherwise they have some conflicts nowadays.


How can I send a custom desktop notification? I have a custom script and I want to send a desktop notification (the one that appears in the top right corner of the screen) with a custom message. How do I do that?

There are a bunch of other cool features with notify-send

We can run a command and make it display in the notification:

notify-send <title> <`command`>
notify-send Date "`date`"
notify-send Disk "`df / -H`"

We can use icons with the notifications

notify-send -i <icon> <Message>
notify-send -i face-wink "Hello! January"

Really annoying pop up

notify-send  -t 0 "Bringing down the system"

and

notify-send <title> <message>
notify-send "who am i" "I am January"

For more options check here

There is also zenity - universal linux alternative to notify-send.


Ubuntu 12.10 recognizes wireless but no internet connection Can anyone help me with this? I have Ubuntu 12.10 installed and it is even connected to my Wifi but I am unable to go to any web pages in firefox.

edit:

    eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1e:8c:41:5a:fb
      UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
      RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
      TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
      collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
      RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
      Interrupt:18

    lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
      inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
      inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
      UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
      RX packets:286 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
      TX packets:286 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
      collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
      RX bytes:25004 (25.0 KB)  TX bytes:25004 (25.0 KB)

    wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr f0:7d:68:c1:a7:a8
      inet addr:10.0.0.12  Bcast:10.0.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
      inet6 addr: fe80::f27d:68ff:fec1:a7a8/64 Scope:Link
      UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
      RX packets:230 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
      TX packets:283 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
      collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
      RX bytes:27761 (27.7 KB)  TX bytes:28587 (28.5 KB)

    wlan1     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:25:9c:03:5a:b7
      UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
      RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
      TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
      collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
      RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

ping -c5 8.8.8.8

    PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data.
    From 10.0.0.12 icmp_seq=1 Destination Host Unreachable
    From 10.0.0.12 icmp_seq=2 Destination Host Unreachable
    From 10.0.0.12 icmp_seq=3 Destination Host Unreachable
    From 10.0.0.12 icmp_seq=4 Destination Host Unreachable
    From 10.0.0.12 icmp_seq=5 Destination Host Unreachable

    --- 8.8.8.8 ping statistics ---
    5 packets transmitted, 0 received, +5 errors, 100% packet loss, time 3999ms
    pipe 3

iwconfig

    wlan1     IEEE 802.11abgn  ESSID:off/any
              Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=27 dBm
              Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
              Power Management:on

    eth0      no wireless extensions.

    lo        no wireless extensions.

    wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"thepenismighter"
              Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: 00:1D:D6:17:F4:30
              Bit Rate=1 Mb/s   Tx-Power=27 dBm
              Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
              Power Management:off
              Link Quality=45/70  Signal level=-65 dBm
              Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
              Tx excessive retries:17  Invalid misc:6   Missed beacon:0

Try

sudo modprobe -r iwlwifi
sudo modprobe iwlwifi 11n_disable=1


Stuck in an infinite login loop after replacing PATH I replaced PATH in sudo gedit /etc/environment to the usual Linux path /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games. The current /etc/environment only has:

PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games"

Also ran export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/java/jdk1.8.0_111.

After rebooting the system, I am stuck in an infinite login loop.
Help please.

I am showing the output of tail ~/.xsession-errors, ls /sbin/init, type -a init, init, which init

tail ~/.xsession-errors returns

Script for ibus started at run_im.
Script for auto started at run_im.
Script for default started at run_im.
/etc/x11/Xsession.d/99*11-common _start: line 5: exec: init: not found

ls /sbin/init returns /sbin/int

type -a init returns -bash: type: init: not found

init returns

Command 'init' is available in '/sbin/init'
 The command could not be loaded because '/sbin' is not included in the PATH  environment variable.
 This is most likely caused by the lack of administrative privileges associated with your account.
 init: command not found

which init Shell remains quiet and returns the blinking cursor.

The solutions that I have already tried are:

1)  I typed chown hvs:hvs .Xauthority and pressed enter the shell was quiet and returned to the blinking cursor. Went to login screen, still stuck.

2) I entered sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm, then I got this menu to select Default display manager: gdm or lightdm. On selecting lightdm, it returns to the blinking cursor. I rebooted and the only difference is that Ubuntu switched to lightdm from GDM. Did't work either.

3) I also tried resetting my Unity Configuration.

4) I Reinstalled Ubuntu desktop. It didn't work, so I installed Gnome desktop. Didn't work either.

5) Edited ~/.profile in GNU nano to default script:

# ~/.profile: executed by the command interpreter for login shells.
# This file is not read by bash(1), if ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bash_login
# exists
# see /usr/share/doc/bash/examples/startup-files for examples.
# the files are located in the bash-doc package.

# the default umask is set in /etc/profile; for setting the umask
# for ssh logins, install and configure the libpam-umask package.
#umask 022

# if running bash
if [ -n "$BASH_VERSION" ]; then
   # include .bashrc if it exists
   if [ -f "$HOME/.bashrc" ]; then
      . "$HOME/.bashrc"
   fi
fi

# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
    PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
fi

6) made a new user account. No use.

Haven't tried the GRUB menu and the rescue mode to mount the filesystem in rw mode then edit that file

Anyone got any other solution?

you should edit /etc/environment to following
PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/java/jdk1.8.0_111
no export.
Just use ctrl alt f1 go to log-in command. use /usr/bin/sudo nano /etc/environment and edit it.
then reboot you should be able to login


Can't login to my account, I know the password I use Xubuntu 14.04 64 bit. I was watching a movie, the desktop froze (as usual duh!), I logged out using a terminal, and couldn't log in to my account after that, I'm using a terminal.

I type my password, it seems to log in, then it logs me out again! I saw many questions like mine, they had brilliant answers:

logging in using tty! great idea, except that even in tty, I get the same error wrong password thing, there is no way to run anything that requires sudo!
Go to grub and do stuff! Great idea! except that I have hidden grub, it was annoying. Editing it requires sudo. Holding Shift shows loading grub but after that, it continues booting to xubuntu, as if I'm not pressing anything
Using live CD? I don't know about that, didn't try it, anyway I don't have the live CD, I gave it away and deleted the ISO, I have other CDs though, Debian, mint, arch and crunchbang.

Update

I had boot repair disk, I used that to repair grub, then went to ubuntu recovery mode and

mount -rw -o remount /
passwd myaccount

I entered my password but I still have the same problem, I have another account myacount2 I can't login to that either, I can only login to  guest

Update 2

I managed to fix myaccount2 which is my backup account by reseting the password, but I can't fix the main account, the problem could not be fix by simply resetting the password.

Update 3 I am now able to login to my account through tty, I also created myaccount3 with sudo privileges, I removed lightm and installed GDM, didn't fix it, reinstalled fglrx, didn't fix it, startx didn't work.

Update 4 I can confirm that it is xfce error, because I installed e17 and it's working now

You can login to the account through the tty, but when you try to do a graphical login, you get logged out and returned to the login prompt. You can do a successful graphical login with other accounts. This suggests a problem with a config file in your home directory, possibly your session file.

Try logging in to the account through the terminal and do:

 mv ~/.config/xfce4{,.bak}

This will move your XFCE config  to a temporary  location. Now try logging in again.

If that does not fix the issue, there is another option that will fix any login problem caused by a misbehaving home directory. Login again at the terminal and do:

mkdir ~/bak
mv ~/.* ~/* ~/bak

Try logging in again. It should now work (we know this should work, because you can already successfully login as another user - all we are doing here is resetting your home directory to a fresh user state).

Now take your files and config in the ~/bak directory and mv anything that you want in your home directory back there. Try to login. It's a process of trial and error - eventually you will find the script or config file that broke the login. Once you have identified the file causing the problem, you can remove that file, and restore all of your other files from ~/bak.

I have a little bit similar problem, i use ubuntu 12.04 LTS 32bit if my linux prompt me to upgrade to ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS i start that upgrade, in 50% of completion my notebook turn off like a crash and after hour i start linux and then i try to login and display flash 1x like a logging in and then i am back on login screen and guest session do that too


Will GNOME3 offer a panel interface or just the Shell? I recently read about next Linux Mint release using GNOME3 but without the shell. Does it mean the panel interface will be revisited? If so, is it possible to build it for testing?

gnome-panel still exists and is still maintained as far as I know. It's still going to be popular for distributions and people that don't want or need the newer shells right now. I can't see this changing in the immediate future, at least until one of the newcomers has proven themselves significantly "better".

Using it is mostly just configuration and most distributions will offer you the choice between options on log-in. That's certainly the case in Ubuntu; you're offered a "classic" desktop which should be panels as usual.

Gnome3 does away with the panels and replaces them with gnome-shell.  You can see screen shots of it at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1603874


Can I get a virus by using "sudo apt-get install"? I would like to make sure it's safe to download software using sudo apt-get install. Are the packages scanned somewhere? Are all packages downloaded using this command virus free?

If there is no guarantee that they are not virus free, after installing a package that contains virus, would the attacker be fully able to control my machine? Is there any way I can check all the packages that were installed on my computer by me? (not by the system automatically. I would like to filter them to see all the packages that were installed by me manually, not by the system.)

apt on a default Ubuntu system will be very unlikely to get viruses. However, it doesn't mean it isn't possible:

Malicious PPA
One of the features of APT is the ability for admins to add Personal Package Archives (PPAs) or other software sources to the APT cache. These third-party APT sources are not necessarily trusted, and may carry viruses. However, it would take an intentional action of the machine's admin to add one of these infected sources, making it rather hard for one to add itself.
Hacked Repository
In theory, a software repository may be hacked by a malicious party, causing downloaded .deb files to potentially carry malicious payloads. However, official software repositories are very carefully watched and security for these repositories is pretty tight. A hacker would be hard-pressed to take down one of the official Ubuntu software sources, but third-party software sources (see above) may be compromised a lot easier.
Active MITM/Network Attacks
If a network is compromised higher up (by, say, your ISP), it is possible to get a virus from official software sources. However, an attack of this caliber would require an extreme amount of effort and the ability to Man-In-The-Middle many sites, including GPG key distribution servers and the official repos.
Poorly Written/Malicious Code
Vulnerabilities do exist in open source, peer-reviewed, and maintained code. While these things aren't technically considered "viruses" by definition, certain exploits hidden or never revealed in the code could allow a malicious attacker to place a virus on or pwn your system. One example of this type of issue would be Heartbleed from OpenSSL, or the much-more-recent Dirty CoW. Note that programs from the universe or multiverse repos are potential threats of this caliber, as explained here.

apt (due to its importance on Linux systems) is pretty heavily guarded against almost all of these types of attacks on both the client and server side. While they are possible, an admin who knows what they're doing and knows how to read error logs will be able to prevent any of these attacks from taking place.

Additionally, apt also enforces signature verification to ensure that the files downloaded are legitimate (and are downloaded correctly), making it even harder to sneak malware through apt, as these digital signatures cannot be faked.

As for responding to a malware infection incident, the absolute easiest path is to burn the system to the ground and start again from a recent (and known-clean) backup. Due to the nature of Linux, it can be very easy for malware to manifest itself so deep in the system that it can never be found or extracted. However, packages like clamav and rkhunter can be used to scan a system for infections.

depends on what your sudo permissions are.  root access?  all bets are off - you are ipso facto placing your trust in the apt-get ecosystem which may or may not be secure.  I think its a terrible idea but I do it all the time because it's the only choice. If you're running a sensitive installation where security is at a premium then running sudo on anthing you do not entirely controll is probably insane.  if you're just a regular schmoe then you're probably ok.


How can I add items to Xfce root menu? I'd like to add some items to my Xfce "root menu", see picture for location:

Searching the web gave a couple of possibilities (different XML files etc), but it appears that Xubuntu has customized it quite a bit. Maybe I just overlooked the settings? I also tried LXmenueditor, which does not access the root menus.

Where is the location of the configs for Xubuntu? Would it be possible to get stock-Xfce right click-on-desktop functionality without breaking anything? By that I mean: right click on desktop and have the Xfce menu instead of going through Xubuntu's submenu to access it.

Thanks for your time!

versions 11.04 - 13.10

As the picture shows - "test" is a root menu which has been added.
To do this will require a couple of folders to be created:
mkdir -p ~/.config/menus
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/applications

Next copy the standard menu template file into the local menus folder
cp /etc/xdg/xdg-xubuntu/menus/* ~/.config/menus

Note - the stock XFCE menu could also be used - I prefer this menu so I've used it in my example:
cp /etc/xdg/menus/* ~/.config/menus

Now create our test menu - its in .desktop file-format
leafpad ~/.local/share/applications/test.desktop

copy and paste the following:
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=test
Comment=
Icon=acroread
Exec=acroread
Path=
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=false
Categories=X-Xfce-Toplevel;

The important bit is the last line - it must have X-Xfce-Toplevel as a category
Edit our custom menu:
leafpad ~/.config/menus/xfce-applications.menu

Add a new entry as shown:

Finally - lets use the custom menu file:
Right click Start and choose properties:

Choose the custom menu option and navigate and select the custom menu file ~/.config/menus/xfce-applications.menu

right click on destkop and have the XFCE menu instead of going thru
  Xubuntu's submenu to access it.

From Settings Manager - Desktop - Menus tab - enable the show on right click there.

Not sure about menu editing.


New to ubuntu and want to install vlc I do not know why Ubuntu Software Center does not download VLC for me. when i click on VLC player it displays a pop-up and says

**Package Dependencies can not be resolved**
"This error could be caused by required additional software packages which are
 missing or not installable. Furthermore there could be a conflict between
 software packages which are not allowed to be installed at the same time."

try out sudo apt-get install vlc. Using apt-get can be more reliable than the software center sometimes

Try doing a fresh install of vlc. sudo apt-get remove vlc. Then sudo apt-get install vlc.


Diff'ing different versions of the same debian package Is there any way to get source diffs between a locally-installed package and its updated one?
This will be useful to check exactly which parts have been fixed, changed or added.

For example, say you have the linux-libc-dev package installed on your system and

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

shows

The following packages will be upgraded:
  linux-libc-dev

but you want to check, before upgrading it, the exact changes that have been made compared to your local version of the same package.

How can we do it?

Afaik the only way to do this is to get the source and make the diff's your self. You can get the actual source used for compiling the packages with apt-get. fx:

apt-get source gwibber=2.30.2-0ubuntu3 gwibber=2.30.0.1-0ubuntu1
diff -rupN gwibber-2.30.0.1/ gwibber-2.30.2/

This will print out all differences between all files in a standard patch format.

May not be the "exact" changes, but apt-listchanges lists the changelog entries for the changes that have been made since the installed version.

It works by adding a step after you finish downloading the new packages, but before the installation starts, where it shows you the changelog entry for each package about to be upgraded.  You can then continue or cancel. You can install it with

sudo apt-get install apt-listchanges

then set it up with

sudo dpkg-reconfigure apt-listchanges


Ubuntu 14.04 - vlc starts extremely slow I have a big issue with VLC player.. I love this player I do not want to use any other - but !!

when I try to open a movie I have to wait about 10-30 sec before it starts. It is extremely annoying when I always HAVE TO wait...

Do you know what could caused this delay?

Tried several solutions found in forums but none really worked for me. but most of them affirmed its effectivity. You can try these if you want:

Tools > Show settings: ALL > Input / Codecs > Access modules > File > Subdirectory behavior > NONE
Tools > Show settings: ALL > Playlist > UNCHECK: Use media library
Uninstall Microsoft Silverlight

You can try one by one see which one works. None really worked for me EXCEPT - Installing an OLDER version - Like 2.0.5. It now only takes a second to pull up. :)

Hope this helps!


How do I create a desktop wallpaper slideshow? How do  I create a desktop wallpaper slideshow with my own set of images?

With the images coming from a pictures folder, or pre-selected
With the images displayed in order, or randomly
With the images changing every few minutes, or after random periods of time

If you use it to manage your photos and like it easy I recommend to use Shotwell, which should be installed by default.

Open it:

Select the photos you want to be set as background slideshow:

Open File → Set as Desktop Slideshow or press Ctrl+B:

Adjust time settings:

Done.

try slidewall as well, it has clock displayed..


Cannot run Unity on an Asus X53SJ I've recently bought a new laptop (ASUS X53SJ) with these specs:

CPU: i5-2410M @ 2.3GHz
RAM: 4GB
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M (512MB)

When I first booted into Ubuntu I got a message saying that Unity is not supported. So I believe, I am using gnome. The results of this command /usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p:

Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Error: unable to create the OpenGL context

What is wrong with it?

Also gnome version 2 is currently installed. Am I able to use gnome version 3?

You are using Ubuntu Classic (Gnome 2). This is standard as is the message that your hardware does not support Unity. This message is misleading. Your hardware is powerful enough for Unity when you have the proprietary driver installed. The message should say that you will need to activate the proprietary driver to use Unity.

The intention is to replace proprietary drivers with an open source driver. When that project is finished, then that message will mean what it says. Until then .....

Install the proprietary driver using the Additional Drivers utility:

How can I activate Unity?

You will get a message saying driver activated but not in use. Ignore this message. It is also faulty. The driver is in use.

Re-start and at login click on your user name and select Ubuntu from the menu on the bottom panel. That will run the Unity GUI.

Gnome 3 will be in 11.10. It is already in the Alpha versions. I am testing it. So, I know.

In order to use gnome 3 you will have to either:

use the gnatty ubuntu remaster (search ubuntu forums for it) - stable enough for me but, since it is only supported by one man is probably not the safest choice.
use the not-even-in-beta-yet development version of 11.10 which is surprisingly stable for a development release but is still not ready yet - obviously - to be used if you don't want to spend time fixing it.
wait for October and the official release of 11.10 (or at least September when it will be stable enough), which is probably the best idea.
use the gnome-shell testing ppa if you don't care about unity. This one isn't stable yet either.

As for the error you get above, I got the same one today
I don't know which one of these fixed it, but I did both of these:

Reinstall unity and nvidia-current
Force unity to start by changing the file at /etc/environment (gksudo gedit /etc/environment) by adding this"UNITY_FORCE_START=1 at its end


How to enable natural scrolling in Ubuntu 18.04.1 with Unity I'm still in the process of evaluating Unity vs Gnome on Ubuntu 18.04.1

In Unity I noticed that there is no setting for natural scrolling.

In the dconf-editor natural scrolling is set to on.

But it is not scrolling traditionally - how to fix this?

Linked post explains how to set another property of touchpad, so for clarity I'll write it down here:

# First find number of your touchpad device
xinput list

# then get list of its properties and get number of "Natural Scrolling Enabled"
xinput list-props device_number

# finally set the property to 1 (true)
xinput set-prop device_number prop_number 1

Install Synaptics TouchPad driver for X.Org server:
sudo apt install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics-hwe-18.04

and re-login.


Why can't I install Oracle Java 6? I'm trying to install a Java 6 JRE on Ubuntu 16.04.

As I have done many times before, I did:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install oracle-java6-installer

... which gave me this error:

 Downloading Oracle Java 6...
--2016-11-10 08:51:35--  http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/6u45-b06/jdk-6u45-linux-x64.bin
Resolving download.oracle.com (download.oracle.com)... 146.57.254.26, 146.57.254.43
Connecting to download.oracle.com (download.oracle.com)|146.57.254.26|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Moved Temporarily
Location: https://edelivery.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/6u45-b06/jdk-6u45-linux-x64.bin [following]
--2016-11-10 08:51:35--  https://edelivery.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/6u45-b06/jdk-6u45-linux-x64.bin
Resolving edelivery.oracle.com (edelivery.oracle.com)... 23.209.61.60, 2600:1418:3:1a2::2d3e, 2600:1418:3:18b::2d3e
Connecting to edelivery.oracle.com (edelivery.oracle.com)|23.209.61.60|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Moved Temporarily
Location: https://www.oracle.com/splash/edelivery/index.html [following]
--2016-11-10 08:51:35--  https://www.oracle.com/splash/edelivery/index.html
Resolving www.oracle.com (www.oracle.com)... 23.209.61.60, 2600:1418:3:1a2::2d3e, 2600:1418:3:18b::2d3e
Connecting to www.oracle.com (www.oracle.com)|23.209.61.60|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 503 Service Unavailable
2016-11-10 08:51:35 ERROR 503: Service Unavailable.

download failed

Does anyone know if Oracle's Java 6 is gone forever?

I guess for now I'm going to go to the openjdk source but maybe someone knows of a workaround for the Oracle Java?

Yes, it's gone forever unless you have a support contract with Oracle.

Java 6 is no longer provided to the general public by Oracle because it reached end-of-life way back in February 2013, so you can't download it from Oracle unless you have a support contract with Oracle, which allows you to manually download it (after logging in) until December 2018.

I'd recommend using Java 8 or later. It still gets security updates, and it will compile and run Java 6 programs just fine. If you need to compile something so that it will run on a Java 6 JVM, you just need to add -target 1.6 to your javac line.

You can't download any java archive, not only 6. This issue occurs all around the world (starts today). It seems like the Oracle site problem.
UK, USA, Europe, Russia - users from different countries confirm the problem.
You can install Open JDK instead.
Similar issue from USA.
And one more from Italy.


Panoramtech ads on Firefox (ShowIP extension) Since yesterday Noscript - the extension for Firefox, blocks a request to "panoramtech.net".
After some researches, it seems that Panoramtech is a malware.
How could my Linux system catch it?
What should I do for safely and definitively remove it from my Kubuntu 14.04?

Answered by OP:

The ShowIP extension is the bad guy, and it is calling the malware page.

  A new version was pushed out yesterday, v2.5, and it injects a request into every page load to a site thats seems to be well known for malware. I highly recommend disabling it or rolling back to v2.4 if you need it.

For me on Chrome, it was Dailymotion Video downloader with an ID of fjbeholgeggnndklobjgccindfdgbnld. It has since been removed from the store.


PHP5-FPM (PHP 5.5) won't install - can't install libsystemd-daemon0 My server is down because I don't know how to fix this. I'm on Ubuntu 12.04 I use this PHP5 repository: http://ppa.launchpad.net/ondrej/php5/ubuntu precise main

I've never had a problem until today. A few hours ago, I did an apt-get upgrade and everything went fine until it reached the PHP5-FPM portion:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 php5-fpm : Depends: libsystemd-daemon0 (>= 31) but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

I tried to install libsystemd-daemon0 but I get a notice that it has no installation candidate. Can someone tell me how to fix this without me pulling what's left of my hair out?

From this moment, the solution should very easy, just do:

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

Since it seems that adding another PPAs is too complicated, I have merged all necessary packages into the main repository, so this should not happen anymore.

Edit: JFTR the php5-fpm no longer depends on any systemd component, so it can be installed without the hassle of pulling libsystemd-daemon0.

Tedders solution works perfectly.

There's one detail, however, for those who had a working Geo IP PHPFPM support and it broke with the update.

To restore GeoIP functionality:

pecl install geoip

Then cd to /etc/php5/fpm/conf.d and add a 20-geoip.ini file with this content:

; configuration for php geoip module
extension=geoip.so

The upgrade also (re)sets to zero some settings that are useful for PHPFPM high availability:

emergency_restart_threshold = 5
emergency_restart_interval = 2
process_control_timeout = 2


How do I replace content of XML file by using shell scripting sed command? I have a config.xml file which shows:

<userid>myUserId</userid>
<password>myPass</password>

How can I replace myUserId and myPass by using sed?


How to use Redshift without the geoclue2 provider? Redshift seems to use the geoclue-2.0 package to get the location specification automatically upon its launch.

This usually works. However, whenever I don't have an active internet connection from the start, Redshift is unable to get my location and returns the error Unable to get location from provider.

For the case of a missing internet connection, how can I make Redshift use a custom location setting and not make it try to use geoclue?

You can provide your location (in terms of decimal degrees) to redshift using the -l switch, and it no longer needs geoclue.

In my case, I searched for "MY_CITY latitude longitude", entered dateandtime.info page, found the latitude and longitude of my city in decimal degrees, and provided them to redshift as indicated in the help and man page, namely redshift -l LAT:LON.

As an example, for New York, your can run redshift -l 40.71427:-74.00597.

You can use my free bash patch using a jq workaround on GutHub.


Gnome 3 not displaying thumbnails? I'm running 12.04 LTS and I can't seem to see any thumbnails for pictures, videos, anything. I have checked my preferences "Show Thumbnails, Always, files under 10MB, Local Only" which makes sense but still, no thumbails.

I was having problems with Unity 3D and my nvidia card and I entered a force_unity_start code somewhere. Now I got gnome 3 working (turns out i just had to turn zoom off) I'm still having this problem.

please advise if you need any more information to help me with this!

I fixed this issue by fixing the permissions on

~/.cache/thumbnails

That is sudo chmod 777 -R .cache/thumbnails

Hope that helps

Had the same problem with Ubuntu 13.10 - Gnome3.
Solved it deleting whole folder thumbnails in /.cache and remaking it.

1) Disable preview in nautilus by opening home folder, Edit-> Preferences-> Preview.

2) sudo rm ~/.cache/thumbnails

3) Empty trash can

4) sudo mkdir ~/.cache/thumbnails

5) Reboot

6) Enable preview, again home folder, Edit-> Preferences-> Preview.

Done.

Worked for me.

k.


virt-manager can't connect to xen When I try to connect to my XEN domain with virtmanager on Ubuntu 14.04 I just get the following error:

Unable to connect to libvirt.

internal error: libxenlight state driver is not active

Verify that:
 - A Xen host kernel was booted
 - The Xen service has been started

Libvirt URI is: xen:///

Traceback (most recent call last):   File "/usr/share/virt-manager/virtManager/connection.py", line 1027, in
_open_thread
    self.vmm = self._try_open()   File "/usr/share/virt-manager/virtManager/connection.py", line 1009, in
_try_open
    flags)   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/libvirt.py", line 105, in openAuth
    if ret is None:raise libvirtError('virConnectOpenAuth() failed') libvirtError: internal error: libxenlight state driver is not active

Mm. The same bug hit me and my own suggestion did not work. I already had the latest version.

Try this:

Start Nautilus as root in terminal:

sudo -H nautilus

Find and copy the file /etc/xen/xend-config.sxp to /etc/xen/xend-config.sxp.backup:

sudo cp /etc/xen/xend-config.sxp /etc/xen/xend-config.sxp.backup

Open the file /etc/xen/xend-config.sxp with gedit or nano:

sudo -H gedit /etc/xen/xend-config.sxp

Find and uncomment the following lines:

xend-unix-server no, and change it to xend-unix-server yes
xend-unix-path /var/lib/xend/xend-socket, and change it to xend-unix-path /var/lib/xend/xend-socket

Save the edited file and exit gedit or nano.
Restart libvirt-bin, xen and xendomains services:

sudo service libvirt-bin restart
sudo service xen restart
sudo service xendomains restart

I did the same and virt-manager connected.

The above instructions are largely based on a review by Gizmo Chicken on virt-manager on Ubuntu's Software Centre.

This issue shows up here:
http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-devel/2012-12/msg01867.html

And is maybe related to the issue here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/virt-manager/+bug/915954

try updating virt-manager.

ubuntuupdates.org


How to put task switcher on only one monitor (xfce) I would like to put task switcher only on first monitor, not on all. I use configuration where second monitor (VGA) is on the right of first one (LVDS). Task switcher ivoked by alt-tab is on both screen.

Applications > System Tools > Preferences > Displays and untick Mirror Displays. After that you can drag and drop displays on that window to the left or right.


Encrypted Lock Screens? I really like the disk encryption to secure my funds, but my problem is I practically never have my computer off. I live a very busy life and shutting it down totally every night is entirely impractical, so at most I typically suspend/lock it. I have my suspicions that this lock screen does very little against an attacker that might have the computer in their hands. Am I right? Is having disk encryption pointless if I never turn off my computer? Is there any software that can enable lock-screen encryption?

I thought the same thing, which is how I found your question.

But then I realized, programs cannot really keep running if all the data (including their own code) is suddenly encrypted. And data might be in RAM anyway if programs are running.

So the only way to encrypt things is if all programs stop running, which doesn't happen when locking.

I'm pretty sure it is pointless to have disk encryption if you never turn the computer off. I could be wrong though.

But if you never turn it off, it will never boot to the screen that unencrypts your hard drive. So it is pretty much always unencrypted.

Do you have a /home partition that is encrypted? If so, if someone were to steal it, they would not have access to all the files in your user account, so therefore, if it requires your user password, it would be safe.

So in short, if just your hard disk is encrypted, yes it is pointless. If you have a separate /home partition, you should be ok if that is encrypted because they cannot access those files.


How do I install Ubuntu? I would like to see a full how-to guide on how to install Ubuntu.

First, you will need to download the current version of Ubuntu at  Download Ubuntu Desktop. Select your architecture (32-bit vs 64-bit), and click the big orange button. If your computer has at least 2GB of RAM, select the 64-bit version of Ubuntu. If you are unsure of the flavor you need, select 32-bit as it will run even if you have a 64-bit processor. You may also download any distro release, such as Kubuntu or Xubuntu or Other Flavours.
Next, you will be downloading a large .iso file, about 800MB-1.6GB. It can take up to a few hours, depending on your connection speed. Let the file download. Then, you will be burning it onto a DVD or LiveUSB. The Ubuntu 14.04 .iso file is too large to fit on a CD, so you will need to either burn it to a DVD or else make an Ubuntu live USB using a flash drive that has at least 2GB. (links are for Windows, if you are switching from another operating system check the "Easy ways to switch to Ubuntu" section on the download page.)
If you are using Windows 7 or higher, you may double-click this file (assuming you don't have another program associated with it). Otherwise, install ImgBurn (sadly, not open source). You may also may be able to right-click and select 'Burn to Disk'.:

More instructions can be found here or here if you need them
You now should have burned your disk. If you open the disk using your file manager, there should be a bunch of files like wubi.exe, autorun.inf, pics, and pool, among others. If you have just one file on the disk with the same name as your ISO, make sure you are using a disk burning utility. Do not just drag and drop the ISO file. It will not work.
Now, put the disc back in your optical drive, and reboot your computer. On a PC, you should have a key like Delete, F2, F10 or another key that will get you to your boot sequence menu. You can enter your BIOS menu by pressing one of these keys as soon as the motherboard splash screen appears when the computer is booting. Otherwise consult the manual for your computer or BIOS and look for something similar to boot from external media or choose a startup disk (⌥ or Alt on Macs) to find the key that is needed. Follow the screen prompts to boot from the optical drive your new disc is in.
Assuming you are not booting UEFI, press Shift once you get a purple screen with a picture at the bottom. Select your language with the arrow keys and Enter. Now, you should be confronted with a menu. You may try Ubuntu without installing, or you may install it. If you want to try it, choose "Try Ubuntu without installing", try it, double-click the Install Ubuntu icon on the desktop, and continue with this guide. Note that this test version is slower because it is running from a CD/DVD/USB, not your hard disk. Some versions of Ubuntu will give a graphical menu for this step.

Now, you will be confronted with a checklist. You may safely disregard the second option 'Install this third-party software', though Adobe Flash Player and some proprietary video codecs may not work, unless you enter the commands at the end of this guide.

Now it is time to partition your hard disk. If you want to avoid losing data or dual boot, this step is crucial. If you want to just clear out whatever is already on your hard disk, and use all of the space for Ubuntu, select that option, and skip to step 10. If you want to dual boot and trust the Ubuntu installer (not recommended), select the option to install side-by-side, and skip to step 10. If you want to manually set up dual boot, select the choice for advanced partitioning and proceed to the next step.

Find your current Windows partition. It should be the first or second under sda, and its type should be NTFS. Click it once, and click Edit to invoke the partition settings dialog. Reduce the size by at least 40,000 MB, or more if you have extra free space on your old installation. If you have a separate Documents partition, you may resize that instead. Then click in the free space you have created and click Add, setting the type to Swap area, and giving about 1.5-2 times your RAM (Note that the input box takes sizes in MB, not GB.) You will now have swap space. Click in the remaining free space and add an ext4 partition with the default size (maximum possible recommended), and the mount point as /. You may also want to do a /home partition, which is where all your user files in Ubuntu will go. If you make a mistake anytime during this, click Revert.

For more detailed instructions (and with screenshots) on this step, read How to use manual partitioning during installation?
We are now ready to install! Click 'Install Now', and allow the partitioning tool in the Ubuntu installer to write changes. Now you should be prompted to select a time zone. The Ubuntu installer wisely tries to guess your time zone, assuming you have a functioning internet connection.

You will now be confronted with a choice of languages again. Select your language, and on the next step, select your keymap (keyboard layout). If you are unsure, click on the button to detect your keyboard layout.

On the next screen, you may set your username, display name, and password. Pick a strong password. A strong password can contain lowercase alphabetic, uppercase alphabetic, numeric and other printable characters. Although your username must be all lowercase, your display name is what is displayed in the login menu and may contain capital letters and spaces in it.

If you dual boot with Windows, you will be faced with an option to migrate documents. Pick the users and folders you want to migrate.

Now you may sit back with no trepidation, until faced with the prompt stating the installation is complete.

If you installed on a UEFI system you may want to run the following commands before booting into your new installation:

sudo su;
efi="/target/boot/efi/EFI"; \
if [[ -e "${efi}/boot" ]]; then \
  echo "Backup:"; \
  mv -v "${efi}/boot/" "${efi}/boot-bak-$(lsb_release -cs)"; \
fi; \
echo "Copy:"; \
cp -va "${efi}/ubuntu" "${efi}/boot"; \
arch="$(ls -1 {efi}/ubuntu/shim*.efi)"; \
arch="${arch#*shim}"; \
arch="${arch%.efi}"; \
cp -v "${efi}/boot/shim${arch}.efi" "${efi}/boot/boot${arch}.efi";

This will copy Ubuntu's boot files to the default bootloader location and backup any previously existing files. By doing this you save yourself from headaches caused by non-standards compliant behavior of some UEFI firmwares found on VirtualBox as well as some older HP, Toshiba, Sony and other devices. Related bug report.
If you changed the drives' boot order in the BIOS during step #5 in order for the system to boot from the Live DVD / USB (or the system was configured already to boot from the DVD / USB drive) and click "Restart now", the system will reboot into the Live DVD / USB and not into your fresh installation. Remember to either roll back the changes you made in the BIOS or remove the medium (according to whether you want your current boot order configuration to stick or not) before booting again.

After you finish all these steps, connect to the internet, open the terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run these commands:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

This will update the packages on your system and install codecs for proprietary files with restricted copyright (MP3, AVI, MPEG, Microsoft fonts) and Adobe Flash Player.

Enjoy Ubuntu!

Download Ubuntu's ISO file at https://ubuntu.com/download

or for a supported flavour with a different Desktop Environment, download from https://ubuntu.com/download/flavours

Next, check for download errors per https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-how-to-verify-ubuntu .

Make a LiveUSB following these instructions on

another Linux PC
a Windows PC, or
a MacOS X machine.

Once you make a LiveUSB, install it following these steps https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-install-ubuntu-desktop


Logitech ConferenceCam Connect Freezes Ubuntu Complete novice here. Haven't used ubuntu in years.
I have a Logitec ConferenceCam Connect. Works fine on Window and Chrome OS. As soon as I plug it into Ubuntu the system freezes and becomes unresponsive. As soon as I unplug it all becomes fine again. Tested on fresh installs of Mate 18.04 and Ubuntu 20.04 after performing all updates.
No idea where to start to fix this.
Edit: It seems to have something to do with the audio. I can switch the video component of the camera/mic/speaker combo off but even so after about 30sec the system freezes. And it is picked up as an external sound card.
Edit: System log at time of error:
3
Aug 11 11:02:09 barry-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 1623.488198] usb 2-1.2.1: USB disconnect, device number 44
Aug 11 11:02:09 barry-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 1623.490070] usb 2-1.2: clear tt 1 (02c0) error -71
Aug 11 11:02:09 barry-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 1623.494118] usb 2-1.2.1: 1:1: usb_set_interface failed (-71)
Aug 11 11:02:09 barry-System-Product-Name pulseaudio[1713]: [pulseaudio] udev-util.c: Failed to get card object.
Aug 11 11:02:09 barry-System-Product-Name pulseaudio[1713]: [pulseaudio] module-alsa-card.c: Failed to find a working profile.
Aug 11 11:02:09 barry-System-Product-Name upowerd[1208]: unhandled action 'unbind' on /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/2-1.2.1/2-1.2.1:1.2
Aug 11 11:02:09 barry-System-Product-Name pulseaudio[1713]: [pulseaudio] module.c: Failed to load module "module-alsa-card" (argument: "device_id="1" name="usb-Logitech_ConferenceCam_Connect_0X450X090XCB0X15-00" card_name="alsa_card.usb-Logitech_ConferenceCam_Connect_0X450X090XCB0X15-00" namereg_fail=false tsched=yes fixed_latency_range=no ignore_dB=no deferred_volume=yes use_ucm=yes card_properties="module-udev-detect.discovered=1""): initialization failed.
Aug 11 11:02:09 barry-System-Product-Name upowerd[1208]: unhandled action 'unbind' on /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/2-1.2.1/2-1.2.1:1.0
Aug 11 11:02:09 barry-System-Product-Name acpid: input device has been disconnected, fd 15
Aug 11 11:02:09 barry-System-Product-Name upowerd[1208]: unhandled action 'unbind' on /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/2-1.2.1/2-1.2.1:1.1
Aug 11 11:02:09 barry-System-Product-Name acpid: input device has been disconnected, fd 16
Aug 11 11:02:09 barry-System-Product-Name kernel: [ 1623.627156] usb 2-1.2.2: USB disconnect, device number 45
Aug 11 11:02:09 barry-System-Product-Name upowerd[1208]: unhandled action 'unbind' on /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/2-1.2.1/2-1.2.1:1.3/0003:046D:084C.0018
Aug 11 11:02:09 barry-System-Product-Name upowerd[1208]: unhandled action 'unbind' on /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/2-1.2.1/2-1.2.1:1.3
Aug 11 11:02:10 barry-System-Product-Name upowerd[1208]: unhandled action 'unbind' on /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/2-1.2.1
Aug 11 11:02:10 barry-System-Product-Name upowerd[1208]: unhandled action 'unbind' on /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/2-1.2.2/2-1.2.2:1.1
Aug 11 11:02:10 barry-System-Product-Name upowerd[1208]: unhandled action 'unbind' on /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/2-1.2.2/2-1.2.2:1.0
Aug 11 11:02:10 barry-System-Product-Name upowerd[1208]: unhandled action 'unbind' on /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/2-1.2:1.0
Aug 11 11:02:10 barry-System-Product-Name upowerd[1208]: unhandled action 'unbind' on /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/2-1.2.2/2-1.2.2:1.2/0003:046D:084B.0019
Aug 11 11:02:10 barry-System-Product-Name upowerd[1208]: unhandled action 'unbind' on /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/2-1.2.2/2-1.2.2:1.2
Aug 11 11:02:10 barry-System-Product-Name upowerd[1208]: unhandled action 'unbind' on /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/2-1.2.2
Aug 11 11:02:10 barry-System-Product-Name upowerd[1208]: unhandled action 'unbind' on /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.2

You can install Ubuntu 16.04. That made my setup work.


I cannot re-install Ubuntu 15.04 alongside windows 8.1 This question may seem repeated but I have other more issues.
I installed 8.1 in my dell 5537 and dual booted it with ubuntu 14.04..I worked well..I installed with alongside windows option..It took 30gb(as I selected the space) space from my logical drive which was last drive...I have four partitions c:,D:,E:,F:(or local drives). Now I deleted the ubuntu from disk management(as there was some problem in ubuntu and i could not fix it).I fixed the windows MBR with live CD. I now want to dual boot ubuntu 15.04 again..I have changed boot mode to UEFI(with secure mode disabled) I get grub to install ubuntu. I clicked install ubuntu. Now i get the Message of

"force UEFI installation?...this machine's firm ware has started the installer in UEFI modebut it looks like there may exist operating systems already installed using "BIOS compatibility mode"...If you wish to install in UEFI mode and dont care about keeping the ability to boot one of the existing system,you have the option to force that here......".

Now if i force UEFI i cannot see any of my partitions of windows and see my whole disk as 500gb disk(as /dev/sda  ntfs) and no option of new partition table or other disk...It will erase my whole disk.....I have already shrinked volume from C: and divided that space into 3 part (one primary and active ,two logical).

I use mostly windows and don't want to lose any data from any disk and volumes..
I am not familiar with linux much...So please help with detailed steps...

First, you need to be aware that there are two methods of booting most modern computers:

BIOS/CSM/legacy mode -- This mode is what was used on most computers prior to about 2011. It uses either an old-style BIOS firmware or BIOS emulation ("CSM" or "legacy") on a more modern firmware. It's usually paired with an MBR partition table. Note that on a modern computer, BIOS/CSM/legacy mode is the non-native boot mode; using it is like using WINE to run Windows programs in Linux.
EFI/UEFI mode -- Modern firmware uses the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) or its 2.x variant, UEFI. UEFI-mode booting is completely different from BIOS-mode booting and almost always uses a GUID Partition Table (GPT). Unfortunately, there's a lot of misinformation and bad advice about EFI-mode booting, which is making the transition from BIOS to EFI harder than it should be.

I strongly recommend you read up on these subjects. The Wikipedia articles referenced above are a start, although they're a bit dry and divorced from practical concerns. Three others you might read are:

My EFI Boot Loaders for Linux page, which covers (of course) EFI boot loader software.
My Linux on UEFI page, which gives more practical advice on installing Linux on EFI/UEFI systems.
Adam Williamson's UEFI boot: how does that actually work, then? blog post, which describes EFI/UEFI theory and how that impacts Linux.

It sounds like you've converted from an EFI/GPT setup to a BIOS/MBR setup, but you did so with a tool that does an incomplete GPT-to-MBR conversion. Thus, you're not really using your EFI/UEFI firmware as such, so the preceding references may seem of only peripheral interest -- but your firmware is an EFI, not a BIOS, and this fact means that you're dealing with EFI issues even when you boot in BIOS/CSM/legacy mode. If I'm right, the fix to your specific problem is to use FixParts (part of the gdisk package in Ubuntu) to remove the stray GPT data. See here for more information:

Unable to recognize and create partitions for Ubuntu Installation on Dell Inspiron 15R 5520

You can use the Wubi Method Of Installation like this.

Open the downloaded ISO file.
Run Wubi.exe.
Select the relevant options on the Ubuntu Installer Window that open.
Select "Reboot Now" and Click Finish.

For more details visit this link.


MacBook Pro 9.2, trying to single install Ubuntu. Encountering problems after restart Just in case you are wondering, I am asking this from "try Ubuntu without installing".

This is where I'm at:

I have a MacBook Pro 9.2 (according to terminal).

I have completely got rid of Mac OS X (Personal files backed up on Ubuntu One).

I have done an install of Ubuntu 12.04 from a DVD that I mounted the .iso file onto.

After advice from another post, I made a point of partitioning the 500GB Hard Drive as follows:

dev/sda1: fat32         Size - 953Mb.      Used: 3.94Mb. Flags: boot
dev/sda2: linux-swap    Size - 7.45Gb.     Used: --      Flags: --
dev/sda3: ext4          Size - 37.25Gb.    Used: 3.81Gb  Flags: --
dev/sda4: ext4          Size - 420.13Gb.   Used: 6.80Gb  Flags: --

When doing the partitioning I intended to make sda4 a /home thing.

Also it recommended creating a EFI boot thing. This I believe to be sda1.

So I completed the installation, and no issues/errors were presented.

At the end of it, the system told me to restart. So I pressed "Restart Now" (only option).

Subsequently it told me to remove the installation media and hit enter, I obliged.

It then restarted, and I got a white screen (typical of an OS X boot up).

After a while it came up with a blinking file logo, indicating that it has not found the Operating System???

Anyone got any clues?

Thanks :)

I see that your problem is that the 'boot' flag is linked to an FAT file system. Since you are planning only ubuntu in your system you should link the boot drive to an ext4 file system. In other words, the booting drive should be from an ext partition. Trust this helps.


Which graphic driver should I install? When I give in this command to find out which graphic card is present in my laptop working on Ubuntu 12.10:

lspci | grep VGA

I get the following result:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Caicos [Radeon HD 6400M/7400M Series]

From the following link I read that there is something called integrated graphic card and a "discrete" one;

How to manage graphics cards?
Please correct me if my logical consequences are not right

I assume that I have to install a driver for the discrete graphic driver. I have been trying to install a graphic driver for many times but I didn't manage it at all.

I've seen that many people have problems installing a working graphic driver and I did read many questions and followed many many suggestions but the results were merely the same;
You could read at booting when I tried to install the propriatery AMD graphic driver - as example from the Software Center :

The disk drive for /dev/mapper/cryptswap1 is not ready yet or not present

Can someone give me a hint to install the correct propriatery graphic driver for my graphic card?

I wound install proprientary ATI radeon dirver if I were You. You should search for driver or additional drivers in the settings.

Normally the descrite card is automatically used when the integrated one is not enough.

As for the integrated -- You have Intel card and You probably have the Intel drivers for it installed already.


libc6 : Depends: libc-bin (= 2.15-0ubuntu10) but 2.15-0ubuntu10.5 is installed Problem

So I having this problem after upgrading from Ubuntu server 8.04->10.04->12.04.

Initial Command

apt-get install -f

dpkg: warning: files list file for package `tcpd' missing, assuming package has no files currently installed.
dpkg: warning: files list file for package `python-pkg-resources' missing, assuming package has no files currently installed.
.... Many many more of these warnings
dpkg: warning: files list file for package `libxml-libxml-perl' missing, assuming no files currently installed.

(Reading database ... 1126 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libc6 2.15-0ubuntu10 (using .../libc6_2.15-0ubuntu10.5_i386.deb) ...

A copy of the C library was found in an unexpected directory:
  '/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc-2.15.so'
It is not safe to upgrade the C library in this situation;
please remove that copy of the C library or get it out of
'/lib/i386-linux-gnu' and try again.

dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.15-0ubuntu10.5_i386.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess new pre-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.15-0ubuntu10.5_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Things I have tried

I have tried moving the libc-2.15.so but this creates an error:
apt-get: error while loading shared libraries: libc.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
apt-get --purge remove libc6 this will not work as libc6 is needed by the system
sudo apt-get install --reinstall libc6=2.15-0ubuntu10.5 libc6-dev=2.15-0ubuntu10.5 just guess work but this didn't work either.

Anyway, as you can see I'm stuck, I can not upgrade any of my packages...

My sources list is take from here https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/sample/sources.list

Run :

sudo dpkg -r libc6

sudo rm /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.15-0ubuntu10.5_i386.deb

If above are successful or not, run :

gksudo gedit /var/lib/dpkg/status

In the resulting gedit, remove the whole section starts with :

Package : libc6

then run an update. If this not resolves, You need to format.

You can do it as follow! It will turn your setup into Debian Experimental which contains packages in the alpha stage of development. It may also damage your system it in the process. To quote the Debian FAQ:

  This directory contains packages and tools which are still being developed, and are still in the alpha testing stage. Users shouldn't be using packages from here, because they can be dangerous and harmful even for the most experienced people.

add this to sources.list:

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian experimental main

Next, run:

apt-get update && apt-get install libc6

Then, remove or comment out this line from the sources.list file:

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian experimental main

Lastly, update your package caches again.

apt-get update

And after this you will able to use libc6 >= 2.17


Looking for a linux equivalent to Trans Lucy Trans Lucy for the Mac, allows you to watch video in a semi transparent window, superimposed on top of your other windows.

You can continue to work, as all clicks on the area covered by Trans Lucy pass directly to the window below - as if the window wasn't there.

Does anyone know of an equivalent for Linux?

Just realize that this is not enabled by default in Unity. So, install compizconfig-settings-manager:

apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Run it by search for program ccsm. Then enable the "Opacity, Brightness, and Saturation" settings. Now you can control the opacity of any windows by Alt+Mouse_Scroll.

For Gnome You may also take a look at Devil's pie. The possibilities are quite numerous.


old classic gnome on ubuntu 15.10 I'm coming back to linux. When I was using it before it was old good looking familiar gnome time. I'm trying to get this great useful look back on my new system - ubuntu 15.10. I'm installed classic gnome, but it's still not this one gnome which I remember. I'm not able to edit panels (I tired all possible combination alt, ctrl, windows key and mouse clicking). I tried installation of indicator-applet-appmenu, -session and it doesn't help ether. Is there any way to come back to old great look?
If that's not possible then which desktop environment is the best for me if I want have panel with active application (like in windows), and with shortcuts to applications/action (but not the big one like in unity) which I choose, and information about system utilization?

I read How to customize the gnome classic panel that where I found info about alt windows keys combination but it's not working in any of them

You want the mate desktop, it is designed to emulate the old gnome 2 desktop, you can use these commands to add it to your current 15.10 install

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/ppa
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/utopic-mate
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mate-desktop-environment-core

Now log out and click the cog icon and choose mate

Alternitivly, there is an official mate based version of Ubuntu here

Correcting the previous post, follow the following commands, press Ctrl + Alt + T:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnome-session-flashback
sudo apt-get upgrade


ubuntu 20.04 can " zfs-auto-snapshot" v.s. zsys The package zfs-auto-snapshot is not installed by default.
zsys is a minimally documented/incomplete snapshot management, which is the default. In particular it is unclear how and when snapshots are deleted.

Can I use the well documented zfs-auto-snapshot alongside  zsys. I like zsys boot and scrub functions. I am looking at zfs-auto-snapshot because it it a more transparent package. Are they conflicting packages? can I also use zfs-auto-snapshot to manage zsys snapshots (since I do not know exactly what it is doing).

IMO you would be best off uninstalling zsys and zfs-auto-snapshot and using sanoid instead. It is very mature, reasonably well documented, and "just works".


How do I undo those partitions I made for dual booting? So I attempted to dual boot ubuntu 14.04 and windows 8.1 on my new laptop (aorus x3 plus v3) and it REALLY ruined it. Essentialy broke my new £2000 laptop. I followed this guide (because for some reason ubuntu wouldn't detect windows 8.1, I now realise this may be because I didn't disable secure boot) http://www.everydaylinuxuser.com/2014/05/install-ubuntu-1404-alongside-windows.html?m=1

So partitioning my hard drive reduced my storage capacity greatly. In the first partitioning step in the tutorial I roughly gave half my storage capacity to each OS (I have dual 256Gb ssds). Then in that last step where you partition the free space in the 'other options' I gave the same as in the tutorial, and my RAM was 16Gb so I doubled it and took it away for the switch space. So on and so forth, but when I finally clicked install ubuntu it came up with a weird error. It was just a message box labelled ???? with the contents as ???? ????. I clicked close and it took me back to the list of installation options. I tried other options again but I couldn't find those partitions I had created or the free space I had created it with.
So I got sick of it and just went for deleting the other OS, but when I select my timezone that same crazy error comes up and won't let me continue. Sadly, this is AFTER windows was deleted, so now my laptop now has no OS, and a REALLY screwed up hard drive.
By the way, I am an ubuntu user, but this is the first time I have tried to dual boot.

If someone can actually help me unscrew this then I will be really surprised but any advice is appreciated. (P.s: unlike in the tutorial above, I created an Ubuntu USB on my other computer that runs ubuntu with the disk creator in 14.04)

There is some missing information in your question that makes it ambiguous.

1) IF the version of windows is OEM (as in the windows disk is made by dell or hp or whatever) than Install Windows first (one the whole disk)- then use windows dskmgr to shrink the filesystem / partition down -  create empty/unused space and make the ufi/uefi partition just a little bit larger - not sure what the max is, it is easy to look up tho - Then install Ubuntu in the unused space and put the ubuntu ufi/uefi file in the same partition as the windows one. The installer will automatically setup your mount points and swap space in the empty space you designated.

2) IF the version of windows is NOT an OEM (as in you have a genuine micr0$0ft disk) than you can and should use ubuntu/gparted to setup your partitions - (windows system partition / ubuntu system partition / UFI/UEFI boot partition / shared free space partition / win space part / ubuntu space part) as an idea - really however you want it. - necessary partitions tho is win part - ubuntu part - ufi/uefi part. - the installers will make their own mount points and swap spaces within the space you designated for each system.

I understand that you have gone through with the install already - however if you want to start over the above should give you a better jumping off point.

Once both systems are installed GRUB2 needs to be able to manage the UFI/UEFI primarily (NOT Windows) - Anytime micr0$0ft updates my laptop (dual booted with Ubuntu studio 14.04 and win 8.1) and corrupts my grub I use this tool -

http://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair/home/Home/

I just created a bootable USB with the image and keep it in my collection - Honestly, I just run the "recommended repair" and follow the steps - sometimes a couple times - and it does the trick

hope this helps!!

Bleach it clean

Simplest way to start again... boot your USB stick, open a terminal, and

Work out which drive is the main drive
Wipe it with zeroes (you only need to do a few seconds worth to wipe the partition table)

sudo fdisk -l <-- Look at the output of this to find the disk that matches the HD

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=<the disk> bs=32M

What this does

sudo elevates the privileges to root because you need that to write to raw disk devices
dd was originally "dupe disk" but it's just a very powerful raw copy utility
/dev/zero is a special file on Linux that is just an infinite pool of zeroes - here we're using as the if or input file
Replace <the disk> with the right device identifier, e.g. /dev/sda

Beware - the dd command is powerful and can write to raw disk devices when running as root. This means you can wipe any drive connected to the machine - including the USB thumb you're using as a boot disk. Check the output of fdisk very carefully to make sure which disk you want to wipe.


Error "System is booting up. See pam_nologin(8)" This morning, I see this error message showed in lightdm login interface, and cannot enter password.

So I went to TTY1 and saw:

[**   ] A start job is running for monitor and control system power state (2min 45s / 3min 1s)

after waiting, it FAILED.

I went to TTY2, also can not enter password after typing my username.

Does anyone know why this happened? Possible Bug?

Restarting the machine, I can get the recovery console.

I just did a hard restart. Turn your computer off, unplug all accessories (cords, exterior cooling fan, joysticks, etc.), take yor battery out, hold power button down for 60 secs, put the battery back in, and restart the computer.

Worked for me. Good luck.


How can I put the top panel on the bottom of screen? I would like to put the top panel on the bottom of the screen like it is in Gnome. Is this possible?

as far as i'm aware, it isn't currently possible, short of editing the source code (and my guess is that a lot of things probably assume it is at the top at the moment, so you'd probably have to edit more than just a couple of lines)

i'd like to be proven wrong on this though

Right click on it > Properties. Under General tab, change the Orientation to Bottom.


How can I rename many files at once? I need to rename a bunch of files in order to fix their sort order, therefore I need to be able to do a sort of "find and replace" so I can replace chunks of the filenames at a time.

What tools should I use? I prefer GUI but a command line tool recommendation would also be fine.

There are a few but I recommend gprename
 which is a good compromise between usability and functionality.

Other tools are: rename, krename
, pyrenamer
, cuteRenamer, ...

The cross-platform file manager Double Commander (released under GNU GPL 2 license) includes a fairly powerful "Multi Rename Tool":

I used to use the very powerful Bulk Rename Utility for Windows under WINE, but the Double Commander tool gets me most of the way there.


Who is behind nvidia.ko? Were the files nvidia.ko and nvidia-uvm.ko loaded by the Ubuntu update or were they made by the NVidia corporation?

Explanation of question:
    Consider 2 files that I installed -
       (1) nvidia.ko
       (2) nvidia-uvm.ko
    Tell me who created these files, the Linux OS or the nVidia Corp.

The files were generated upon installing the nVidia proprietary drivers.