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’.
The company I worked for as an FSE, they used to issue us with cans of compressed air, cans of compressed spray alcohol, and cans of “freeze” (a spray that cools components down to troubleshoot hardware/heat errors). This would be standard “tools” for the job. Arriving ‘on prem’ you would clean the customer computer as a courtesy, and you would use the compressed air to clean the fans and slits, and use the spray alcohol to clean hard-to-reach places. (This is one way you can distinguish a real FSE and one from a company who employs the cheapest labour.) I had a customer that would always look over your shoulder when you did things. Oil used to come in a bottle with a needle point, and I would keep mine in two plastic bags as it would inevitably leak, and leave it in the car. It was about then, that oil started coming in spray bottles too. Usually it was branded the same as the car variant, like ‘Spanjaard’. As it took only a few seconds to do, we would blow out a keyboard with the compressed air as well, as a sort of problem prevention. Now imagine my surprise, being called out to a site and finding the keyboard swimming in oil. It turns out, the ‘shoulder fly’ had decided that he could do what we did and save them money. (only there was no money to be saved as the client’s company had a fixed service level agreement with my company). However, he had taken a can of compressed oil instead of air. On the plus side, that keyboard was the smoothest operator in the building. By all means, steal with our eyes, but when you do, pay attention!
Q: Spotify does not open on Ubuntu Studio 20.04. I just get a blank popup, and nothing else. What can I do? Can anybody help me?
A: You may need to raise this question on the Spotify forums. I don’t use Spotify, but I can help you troubleshoot. Try installing Spotify using a SNAP/FLATPAK/APPIMAGE format, and see if you have the same issue. If not, you may just be missing something like Java. See what the dependencies are and install those.
Q: My friend Dave said I should choose one Desktop Environment and stick to it. What are your opinions on the matter? Does it even still matter?
A: Since you want my opinion, to me it matters, since I customize my DE. If you don’t, there is still something to be said for sticking to one. When you customize themes, etc, KDE or QT apps do not look the same / react the same to Gnome themes, and vice-versa. Also, some applications basically install all of KDE in the background in your Gnome / XFCE environment. Given these days with powerful processors and lots of disk space, it is not a huge problem, it still takes overhead. However, if these things do not matter to you, go right ahead.
Q: I have a new 4K TV that I connect my Ubuntu Laptop to. My issue is this. If I connect the TV via HDMI while the laptop and the TV are both on, I get no sound through the TV. This is not the case with my Windows laptop. If I restart the laptop or the TV, the sound comes through the TV speakers. Now I don’t want to have to restart every time I want to output my class to the TV. Can’t I set it to auto – like windows?
A: Linux is about choice. Instead of assuming you want sound through your TV, Linux lets you choose if you want it through your TV, or Soundbar, or surround speakers. You do not need to restart, you simply open your sound settings and choose the output device.
Q: My laptop is a hand me down from my uncle. I installed Ubuntu Budgie on it as it only has 4MB of memory. The screen is also old technology, going up to 1366 x 768 only. Problem is that the window header is outside my screen area and I can’t get to it to resize my window and I can’t get to cancel and OK buttons at the bottom as they are out of the screen too.
A: I will assume that you meant 4GB of memory. To move a window that is larger than your viewing port, simply hold down the ‘ALT’ key and drag it up or down with your mouse.
Q: How can I get a nice sidebar like Ubuntu Gnome in Voyager which is based on Ubuntu? Excuse for my bad English.
A: There are multiple ways. You could install a dock, like plank, and move it to the side. If you are using the Gnome version of Voyager, you could try the dash-to-dock extension. If you are using the XFCE version, you can simply add a panel; type “panel” into your start menu.
Q: I started a new job. Must learn Ubuntu. How can I learn Ubuntu in 48 hours?
A: If you have a Linux background, I suppose it is possible. But do not be fooled by these courses that can teach you Ubuntu in 48 hrs. Bank on 48 days rather.
Q: What is a good reverse proxy for Ubuntu? It is for a school with limited internet. We are semi-Rural and need to save on bandwidth. We have a lot of disk space at the moment going unused. I am only a standard teacher ‘volunteered’ by my HOD into the IT role.
A: Well, I am ancient, I only came in by boat with Noah. Thus I have only used SQUID. But, I hear good things about NGINX and Varnish. You can head on over to howtoforge.com and they should give you step-by-step instructions on how to set it up. Also see: https://varnish-cache.org/intro/index.html#intro. Remember to make a virtual machine and practise in there first, before deploying to a live server.
Q: Hey buddy, other than df in the terminal, how can I get info on all my drives in the gui?
A: You can try the built-in disks application or Gparted.
Q: Is there a version of anti-boss key for Linux? Thanks in advance.
A: Not that I know of, there is a similar addon for Firefox. You could just create your own. Open another TTY and run something like hollywood terminal in it. When the Boss pops in, press ctrl+alt+fxx where xx is the TTY you are running hollywood terminal in.
Q: Oso040, [11.10.20 04:28] Help me. Ubuntu Focal taking so long to start up. Much slower than 18.04.
A: Open a terminal and type ‘systemd-analyse blame’ to see what is up. Then try systemd-analyze critical-chain to see how it connects. Things like boot managers or fancy plymouth, etc, can cause delays when you upgrade.
Q: I have recently moved to Ubuntu after almost all my life on Windows. I have a lot of wmv videos I need to convert to newer mp4. They are mostly small training videos that I can’t lose more detail on. Also my music won’t play in Ubuntu, not a big deal as I still have all my CD’s. What do I do in this case?
A: The “.wmv” videos are easy, they can convert with handbrake, a nice GUI program, just be sure to use “lossless” compression. Or you could dive in with FFMPEG - ffmpeg -i inputfile.wmv outputfile.mp4 - The music is another kettle of fish. Windows media player would encrypt all the music you ripped to work on only that machine in media player. Scummy, I know, but that’s Windows for you. Luckily for you the Linux ripper is very fast.
Q: Good day. I have a Logitech multimedia keyboard and the multimedia keys don’t work in Xubuntu 20.04. I have no idea how to set them. Can you assist me?
A: I can; go to keyboard, application settings, click add, then add your keys in this format: exo-open –launch MailReader and name it appropriately, XF86Mail. The same with the rest. XF86WWW would be: exo-open –launch WebBrowser, and so on for XF86Music, etc, etc.
Q: What would be your advice when planning an upgrade from 18.04 to 20.04?
A: Backup! Make a backup you can restore to your hard drive in case anything goes wrong.
Q: Greyb3ar, [17.09.20 10:13] [In reply to EriktheUnready] I have gotten used to netbeans, but it is not FOSS software. Sometimes there is no way around it, or do you know a way?
A: There is OpenBeans….
Q: When I am at home, I can SSH into my server without an issue. I tried from work, but I cannot. I tried from the Mug n Bean, and I cannot from there either. What am I doing wrong?
A: You have given me very little to go on, but I would start by checking your port-forwarding settings on your router. Are you sure the port is open?
Q: All these chrome updates and issues are just not worth it anymore. It overheats my system, eats all the memory, etc. Now I use Firefox, but I prefer Chrome. Just point me in the right direction china?
A: Give Slimjet a try?
Q: How to move my firefox bookmarks n stuff to my new ‘puter? Caveat – I don’t want to upload my data to firefox sync or any of the online services. I want to export it to a USB drive instead.
A: When you copy the mozilla folder you do – but your passwords will be encrypted, so you need to open the passwords and take pictures with your cell phone or screenshot tool. It may not be the best way, but it avoids anyone else having your data.
Q: My problem on Xubuntu on my Lenovo laptop is that Fn + PgDn (SysReq) brings up the screenshot tool, like I pressed PrtSc. How do I fix this?
A: I would think it was a keyboard setting, but you gave me very little information. I am stumped, maybe one of our readers can help? Answers to: misc@fullcirclemagazine.org
Q: How can I record a video of my desktop on Ubuntu 18.04 that I can talk over and upload it to youtube so that I can show someone something I did? None of the programs I used on Windows have Ubuntu versions. What would you recommend for someone like me?
A: OBS (or OBS studio). Grab it from your software centre and record. It is so easy even children use it. If you feel lost, spend 30 min playing with the options and you should be golden.