Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
Welcome back to another edition of Questions and Answers! In this section, we will endeavour to answer your Ubuntu questions. Be sure to add details of the version of your operating system and your hardware. I will try to remove any personally identifiable strings from questions, but it is best not to include things like serial numbers, UUID’s or IP addresses. If your question does not appear immediately, it is just because there is such a lot, and I do them ‘first-come-first-served’.
I often have to deal with Dell support, and my time zone puts me over to India. I am an HP certified tech, IBM certified tech, Lenovo certified tech, Siemens, etc, but I often get up against that Dell service agent wall. (I will not log a call if there is nothing wrong, my time is more valuable to me). I have also been in the business long enough to have experience. So it is quite a frustration to me when call-centre agents treat you like an end user. “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” To which I reply: “No, as the power supply is broken, this is not possible”. This is usually followed by that fake politeness, “Yes sir, I hear what you are saying, but I am going to need you to reboot it”. I will log a call for a dead hard drive on a server, then get the runaround, where they do not want to do anything until you put the drive back in the server, reboot the server, and give the error code. “But the drive does not spin up, I am telling you what the problem is as I cannot just willy-nilly reboot the server”. Up comes the wall: “but Sir, I cannot be helping you if I do not have that code”… grrrr. But Since India is 3 hours out, I wait until it is 5pm in India before logging the call. That way, I get service from someone elsewhere who is not a robot. Sometimes you need to get a little crafty in IT.
Errata: In FCM#150, I answered Komal incorrectly. This was pointed out by Michael, and indeed, when I updated my Ubuntu I could no longer use .jnlp files either. (This is not the first .jnlp file question we had, so guys take note).
“In issue 150 you had a question regarding jnlp files not working (search for 'N-Able'). I think you will find that support for jnlp was withdrawn from Java. JavaWs and Iced Tea are not included in the V.11 and above.
This is an extract from https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/java-se-support-roadmap.html:
The Web Deployment Technology bundled with the Oracle JRE, consisting of the Java Plugin and Java Web Start has a shorter support lifecycle: only five years of Premier Support. The deployment stack was marked as deprecated, and flagged for removal in Java SE 9 and Java SE 10. Oracle Java SE 11 and later versions do not include the Deployment Stack.”
Q: This question might be beneath your level, but how do I search for a package?
A: Full Circle Magazine is all for the N00bs! We will not leave you hanging. You can use “apt search” or “apt list” eg. ‘apt search nano’ or ‘apt list nano’ - you can also use wildcards.
Q: Hey, my computer is having a problem with the network port. I have been told to update the BIOS to version A17, but how do I know what it is now?
A: Two ways come to mind. One – when booting your computer, pay attention to the first screen that pops up. It will either be at the top or at the bottom, very seldom in the centre or surrounds. Two, open a terminal window and type:
sudo dmidecode -s bios-version
Q: I can’t seem to delete a cron entry off my server that points to pastebin. Obviously, it is reading it from somewhere else and keeps replacing it. I am too much of a newbie to Linux to know where, can you please assist me? I have just started web programming and need my server for a project.
A: Did something not work correctly and you changed permissions to 777? You have malware my friend. You can remove it, but my advice is copy your data off and reinstall. Once a server is compromised and you are new to Linux, finding and shutting all the holes may be a long process for you. You can read up here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1150346/crypto-miner-malware.
Q: So help me. I want to be a programmer, but where should I start. I mean c++ is what everyone uses, right, but I heard Python is easy. But I don’t want to learn something I can’t get a job for. Must I learn Java? What is the fastest?
A: Your reasoning is flawed. Programming is not like cars, it doesn’t matter if you have a Ferrari when the roads you can drive on allow only 40mph. I suggest finding the Harvard CS50 channel on YouTube and learn along that path. Start with ‘scratch’ if you have no idea. Once you can program, and do it well in any language, it should not be hard to transition to another.
Q: How can I debloat Ubuntu and have just what I want ?
A: I do not know about “bloat” but you can uninstall anything you do not like. The other option is to come from the other side and install Ubuntu core and add only the packages you want?.
Q: I tried to install focuswriter on a shared computer, but it won’t install. Every time I try to install it, it says that I don't have authorisation. Is there any other way to do it?
A: As a user, you have your user folder to yourself. You can download the AppImage of Focuswriter in your user profile and run it from there.
Q: I want to use Rambox as a portable app, rather than installing it, as I want it to run off my USB stick so that I can plug it into any of the computers and run it from there.
A: As per my reply above, have you tried downloading the AppImage and running it from your thumb drive?
Q: I went thrift-store bargain hunting and picked up a sony vaio laptop for $5. Everything worked fine with Ubuntu 19.10, but today the wifi is just gone. I can’t enable it at all.
A: The Vaio, iirc, had a hardware switch on the side. Just slide it completely to the “on” position.
Q: Ubuntu is eating too much ram on my laptop. What to do?
A: As you have given me very little to go on, I am going to assume you have vanilla Gnome installed. If you have 2GB of memory, the usage may seem a tad high, you can switch to another variant like Kubuntu that will use less.
Q: I was wondering how do I put the new Chrome snap into firejail? I am using Ubuntu 19.10. On an i5 with 8GB of RAM.
A: As far as I know, snap packages are already sandboxed, but I may be wrong. I do not use snaps, and I do not see anything on the internet, maybe one of our readers has the answer?
Q: I really liked the screenshots of this program - https://github.com/eNkru/electron-xiami . My problem is that it is all in Chinese. How can I make this program in English for my Ubuntu 18.04? If I try Google translate on the page, it won’t translate the page, saying that it is already in English.
A: You can try the standard make routine. Nevermind. Try this: https://www.appimagehub.com/p/1323201/ - while I am on the subject.
Q: Guys, I follow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=In9tvv_ge9I for my Xubuntu. It is not working in Xubuntu 18.04. This is a problem for me.
A: I had a look and tested it the way they did it, and can confirm it does not work. A much easier way would be to edit your launcher to read:
env GTK_THEME=Adwaita:dark geany %F
(You can do this as the video suggests, or in your whisker menu launcher, which does not require root permissions.)
Q: How come Ubuntu doesn’t need antivirus?
A: Many will disagree with me, but I reckon it does. Viruses are *usually* written for Windows as it has like 80% of the desktop market. (Not being able to walk into a shop and buying a machine with Linux or getting refunded if you do not want Windows has a lot to do with it). However! Linux malware is becoming more prevalent as most users do not have antivirus software.
Q: My system freezes randomly. Full freeze. I dual-boot with Windows 10. It is a ‘cheap as chips’ laptop, with a Celeron CPU and 2GB of memory. HP, but I can’t find the model number. I use Ubuntu 16.04 still, as my apps don’t run on 18.04. Since it freezes, I can’t even see dmesg output.
A: Freezing can be multiple issues. Try this first: https://askubuntu.com/questions/803640/system-freezes-completely-with-intel-bay-trail
Q: Can my Voyager (XUBUNTU 14.04) run 4k video?
A: If your hardware supports it, yes.
Q: Help me. I did something stupid. I copied all of American horror stories series to my hard drive and it became 100% full. Now I can’t use it. Ubuntu can’t start Gnome.
A: You will have to free us some space. Try this: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/08/5-ways-free-up-space-on-ubuntu
Q: I am booting Ubuntu from my lexar usb drive with high read/write speed. Sometimes it is fast, and sometimes it is slow, on my Lenovo G50. I have persistent space, so I can load drivers. This is my first foray into desktop linux. This fast/slow nonsense is nowhere to be found on Google. Thank you for your time.
A: Some laptops like the G50 series have many USB-2 and only one USB-3 port. The USB-3 port should have a blue interface. See: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/g-series/g50/
Q: Erm. My lubuntu shows my swap file is in 100% use. How do I fix that?
A: Find the problem, use top or htop. Browsers like eating lots of memory. Run the command: free -h - to see if your main memory is full.
Q: Okay, my Ubunto dock is showing only on my laptop display and not my external display. Can I have it on there too? I don’t want to crane my neck all the time between the two screens.
A: Yes, you actually just need to set that in the settings under “dock”.
Q: I don’t use bluetooth at all, but it is on in Ubuntu 18.04, all the time. I have to keep turning it off. If I use the wifi switch, it comes back on with wifi. I just want it to stay off.
A: Turn it off in your BIOS and it will not bother you any more.
Q: Can you help me out? I switched to Ubuntu Studio 19.10 and everything is great. However, I have noticed that since updating, I can’t scrobble any more. I use Clementine and VLC, but neither scrobble. LastFM shows I scrobbled months ago, but I listen almost every day. <removed> is me on LastFM. <image> <image> This is my setup.
A: I have not used Clementine or VLC in years, but I can try to point you in the right direction. Disconnect Clementine on LastFM and get a new api key. Then run your songs through MusicBrainz Picard, and allow it to rename your files. A good rule of thumb is when a thing does not work across multiple applications, it is the thing. Try another application like Banshee / Amarok, and, if it does not work, take a common American song, named correctly, tagged correctly, and play it. If it scrobbles, your file names and tags may need attention. (Things often change in the background, scrobbling may need a better filename than you have there). You can also fire up nethogs in a terminal, and see if your players actually try to contact LastFM.
Q: Is there a better way to display uname -a to show the distribution details? There is no ‘pipe for’ column, but I am a newbie to the terminal.
A: It depends on what you mean and what info you require. Have you considered, lsb_release -crid ?? Otherwise there is inxi, or even neofetch, or screenfetch, to do that for you.
Q: I sort of understand what apt-fast does, but I am not clear on the details. Can you help me?
A: Look here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/52243/what-is-apt-fast-and-should-i-use-it