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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, UUIDs, 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.
Repairing IP CCTV cameras, I fell from a wonky ladder and almost lost my life. At the time I was using a kiddie plastic chair to rest the camera on, as the cable was not easily removed and so it did not end up hanging from the cable out of the roof or lying on the floor where it could be stepped on. Now I’ll be up front, I do not do heights. Even after telling my bosses, I was still required to do so. Nature has a weird way of coping in ‘I’ll just flop over like a possum’. My brain does the ‘oh hell no’ -thing and switches off. Now instead of doing the right thing, and compensating me etc., they launched an “investigation”. According to the “investigation” I stood on the kiddie chair and fell off. This is unsafe work practice and I was the guilty party, end of story. The only problem with this: I weigh over 100kg being over 6ft, squatting 275lbs etc, you get the picture. The kiddie chair would not hold 50kg safely. (I’m being generous there.) The point of impact was a second level locker catch, about 1.6m from the floor. If I were to stand on the kiddie chair, my elbow would be level with the catch, meaning I could not fall onto it, only against it. The other problem was if I were to stand on the kiddie chair, I would not be able to reach the dome camera in the corner of the room, behind all the boxes, there is just no way, maybe at a stretch if it was directly above me and I hopped up and down. (There is nowhere to move the boxes to as the storeroom is too small, and filled with too many things.) I was told to accept it to keep my job. What could I do? This is the same with proprietary operating systems, you need to shut up and take it. This is why you and I use Linux? The only problem is, manufacturers still use proprietary firmware and drivers. (Hello Debian firmware repo!) What is to be the answer to this closed source mess? The EU had announced that all phones should have USB-C connectors, not a mish-mash of proprietary ones. Is legislation the answer? Write to us and let us know your thoughts on this one: misc@fullcirclemagazine.org
Q: I have a page full of links I want to copy, but somehow all the forward slashes have been replaced. I tried “inspecting” the source to grab it there, but it is a hot mess. How do do that with Ubuntu? I would use total commander in Windows. Urls are here –> https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~TextLearning/corpusbuilder/corpora/welsh/preliminary/cache/ and I am using Lubuntu 20.04 on my Dell laptop.
A: I am sure the Linux dual pane file managers like Double commander could, but why don’t you copy them as text and use ‘sed’ (Stream EDitor) to replace all the carats? I bet it would be a lot faster. If I replace all my slashes with carats, does that make it Welsh?
Q: Hi Guys, I have 2 PC’s - Dell Optiplex 3020, from our office sale. I set one up with Windows 10 20h2 and one with Ubuntu 20.04. My Libre Office is 7.0.4.2 and both have standard USB Dell keyboards. My ‘.’ - fullstop is a ‘,’ comma on the numpad. Windows forum talk about region settings, and keyboard settings, but mine is pain US keyboard. Windows users talk about Polish keyboard layouts with dot and comma they can choose, not that it helps me. This tells me the problem is related to my computers or keyboards. What do you suggest?
A: There are “Language” settings in LibreOffice. Look under “settings” or “options”. You want the “Decimal separator key”. Tick or untick the box that says “same as locale”.
Q: I recently got an old HP laptop from my Aunt. I have decided on Ubuntu as it is the prettiest. There is just one thing I can’t wrap my head around. I can access my router at 192.168.0.1 when I have a cable plugged in, but I cannot access it with wifi. The local PC guy suggested that I update my drivers, but so far I have been unsuccessful in loading any drivers for my laptop. I have no other issues with the wifi other than it being a bit weak.
A: Let me address the last part first, on the older HP laptops, HP did the skimping thing and there is only one antenna attached to the WiFi card, if you REALLY want to you can attach another. As for the main issue, it is not Ubuntu’s fault, there are usually security settings within the router, that you can set, that prevent someone on WiFI from accessing the software.
Q: It has been a while since I have used Linux and I keep coming back to Ubuntu. I now have the jellyfish and I wanted to ssh into all my Raspberry PI’s. I went looking for PAC manager to find it had sadly died. Before you say anything, I don’t want to muck with w.i.n.e. Is there some way I can have this on Ubuntu? https://www.royalapps.com/ts/mac/features and also not proprietary if it can be helped.
A: I see your card and raise you this one: https://www.asbru-cm.net/
Q: How can I find out which executables need sudo and which ones don’t and is it possible to group them?
A: I am not sure I understand your question, but it is not the executables themselves, rather the permissions you set. You* set a file to be executable or not as well as the owner and group the file is in. You can group any files you like and edit their permissions to make them require sudo or not, eg 777.
Q: I have a clean Ubuntu 20.04 install on my Lenovo laptop. I am unable to turn on the Bluetooth. It remains greyed out. I have tried everything I could find on the web, but it stays off.
A: There are a few possibilities; 1. It is turned off in the BIOS, 2. It is turned off with a hardware switch, 3. It was turned off in Windows before you installed Ubuntu. (yes, 3 is not a joke, I have seen it happen) 4. It is an unsupported chipset.
Q: I have a serial port card that we tested with and Ubuntu motherboard. I don’t have UFW running or any firewall set up. I know it works, I just can’t get it working in Ubuntu 20.04 on the PC. Here is the output and dmesg; <image removed> <image removed> <image removed> <image removed>
A: This reads funny, but I may have an idea what you mean. The short answer is that you are not using Ubuntu, you are using ubuntu flavoured WSL, which has windows drivers and shenanigans in between the OS and the card too, that need to be considered.
Q: Hi, is there some way one can restrict student to certain machines at certain times only? My reasoning for this is we have a very limited budget when it comes to our IT and the school is in a rural area, so parental support is not a thing. We have 12 machines that I want to schedule, so that everyone gets a fair turn at a machine. All the machines run the latest version of Emmabuntüs and are locked down via the BIOS to prevent the students from changing anything. The caveat is that the solution has to be free.
A: I have no experience in this field and though I have set up school labs before, the control software has always been proprietary. May I suggest Parental control software? Maybe this: https://techviewleo.com/setup-ctparental-parental-control-software-on-ubuntu/ or this: https://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2021/11/time-limits-for-kids-ubuntu/
Q: I try to use shared drive on Windows to copy files, no domain only workgroup. I follow the tutorial, it says: I run the following command: root@minecraftsvr:/# sudo mount.cifs 192.168.1.101/minecraft /mnt/share user=vijay, -o version=1.0 then I only get error here CIFS: Unknown mount option “version=1.0” but I double checked - Windows server has SMB 1.0/CIFS for sure. A: What happens when you leave off the version part? Q: I have been hesitant to install a “certificate” to use our city’s free wifi, what are the implications of this for me? Will it make a difference if I am using my Ubuntu partition of my Windows partition? My brother in law said I should not, but my wife is pressing me to do so ASAP. She has installed it on her tablet already without talking to me first. I have like only a basic idea of what it is, but I need to explain it to the wife, because she says we have nothing to hide. A: It is a very in-depth topic, too much for a QnA. The operating system will not make a difference as you are compromising the basic chain of trust. I would not, it would mean that you cannot do ANYTHING private on that computer on the internet again, EVER, like banking. I would explain to her, it’s like giving the mailman, the postman, the creepy neighbour all keys to your house and they come in and sniff her underwear whenever they like. (you can go nuclear and say they will come watch her on the loo or something) Q: I spent a lot of time gathering scripts over the last few years and finally set down to make one for my new Ubuntu 22.04 install. It turned out to be a disaster, as most of it failed, and with errors I have not come across before, using those scripts (singularly). I feel like a total newb, and maybe I am, but it just can’t be this difficult? <removed> <removed> See? “Unit service\x0d.service could not be found.“ What worked as a one liner, won’t work as a team. Why is it like this? A: It all comes down to the editing: https://serverfault.com/questions/1094756/run-commands-that-run-in-a-shell-as-a-script This is precisely why I like things like Cudatext and lite-XL that work cross platform. Stay away from windows editors for things you will use on Linux, even WSL. Q: I was trying out: https://linuxhint.com/install_configure_docker_ubuntu/ and I get the following errors; ‘ The following packages have unmet dependencies. docker-desktop : PreDepends: init-system-helpers (>= 1.54~) but 1.51 is to be installed ‘ and ‘E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.’ Can this not go smoother? https://snapcraft.io/docker is available, but only for the home folder of the user. A: Rather use: sudo apt install docker.io I got that advice the first time I installed docker and it simplified things hundred-fold. Q: I have installed a fresh [22.04]. Only issue I have is that my shut down is actually a restart and I can’t figure out a way to shut down my system. People have suggested I use the shutdown command from the command line, but it behaves the same way. Can you help? A: Remove all external devices and if you have a CD/ DVD ROM, disconnect it. 9/10 it is a device causing it. (including keyboards and mice) Once it actually shuts down, it will do so from then onwards, regardless of the device. I don’t know why. I just know it is. I know it becomes more difficult on things like laptops, but make sure SD cards, PCMCIA cards even batteries are removed and try again. Once it shuts down, keep adding the hardware until the culprit is found should the problem persist.