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, 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.
I love how government departments have all these so-called “anonymous” reporting and whistle blowers posters up. The websites and intranets are peppered with these, but it never gets used, as everyone knows it is neither anonymous nor is there any real whistle blower protection, unless you are connected. Working with these people you realise they know that on an instinctive level too. They have security training and seminars, but the only reason the staff go is to get a day off and for the food and gifts. It was whilst I was waiting for my contact the one day and someone came to report some security concern. The response was wide eyes, an angry expression and the reporter was told to “keep to their own lane” and not interfere with other department’s domains. IT security is everyone’s domain, but if you are in a government job, you know you get paid too much to be there, and can get away with doing the bare minimum, as you cannot really be dismissed. (Here anyway) Why risk it to report something and actually stand a chance to lose your job? It was not the first place or time I had heard that expression, when reporting something, but the scorn the person received will stay with me until the end! We as home users don’t have to worry about that sort of thing, but be safe in 2024 none-the less. Lock your safety gates (recently, someone had their laptop stolen off a table 6ft away from the gate!) and lock your computer when you go away from it. I know of someone who got quite the shock when the kid authorized a whole bunch of Fortnight game purchases because the parents laptop was unlocked. Security, like charity, starts at home.
Q: Having issues here. I tried using youtube videos for installing mysql server on Ubuntu 22.04, but there is a difference and I’m not sure how to handle it. Also there are 2 packages, mysql-server and mysql-server-8.0, so what is what?
A: You need to tell me what that difference is, I cannot guess? If you are unsure about packages, do this: apt-cache search mysql-server -all the entries will have descriptions. Metapakages are usually packages that refer to other packages, in your case mysql-server refers to mysql-server-8.0.
Q: I’m running Ubuntu 23.04 in Virtualbox inside Ubuntu 22.04. I keep getting strange things happening when I change display resolution in the VM, the base OS browser will suddenly be too big for the screen, for instance or the VM display just goes black and I have to push ESC. I have never come across this before, do you have any insights?
A: There could be a few things. My first check would be Vulkan, boot into an X11 session and see if it still happens. Also check that somehow you did not give too little or too much memory to the VM display, in the settings. My last checkpoint would be fractional scaling, that is still somewhat broken in 2023. Then finally, I’d check the fans and vents of your display card or CPU or laptop, they could be clogged with dust and heat and IC’s are not friends.
Q: I read an article, which in turn led me down a rabbit hole. https://www.sikich.com/insight/ahhh-my-mouse-and-keyboard-were-hacked/ I have a Logitech controller and mouse, and I have looked on StackExchange, https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/266231/how-can-i-find-out-if-a-wireless-keyboard-is-encrypted-secure I can’t find any info on how to check this in Linux though. This has me worried and also curious. Is there a bash or Zsh command I can use to check?
A: As far as I know, there is no way to check via the command line. Luckily you have Logitech components, so I can tell you about solaar. ( https://launchpad.net/~solaar-unifying/+archive/ubuntu/stable ) There used to be a small i for info button on the application, one could click and it would tell you if your comms was encrypted or not. More I cannot tell you.
Q: I have some old SD cards from my camera, mostly 8Gb. I have decided to re-purpose them into boot disks for different *buntu distros, starting with Kubuntu. I have been testing them on the family’s old laptops. They are not THAT old, the oldest being an i3 with 2Gb of memory my daughter used at college. The results are hit and miss as most will not even boot to Kubuntu. Can you tell me what I should change here?
A: Firstly, not all laptops can boot off SD cards, you may need to update the BIOS for this to happen, and also set it as a boot device in the BIOS. Secondly, some old laptops cannot boot off a UEFI image. Thirdly, have you verified your download and also verified the written SD card?
Q: Can I install Ubuntu on a Synology NAS and use it as a media PC?
A: I would guess you probably can, but how you would go about it, I cannot say. Best bet is to ask on the Synology forums.
Q: I am very new to Ubuntu WSL. I’m currently studying a course via Pakt and I’m running into issues. The error I can’t get rid of is; “Permission denied Cannot stat file”. I’m using sudo as the course suggested, but it does not seem to be enough. How can I get full root?
A: OK, WSL is not Ubuntu proper, but let’s run with it. Windows and Linux work differently. In Linux I can have my cake and eat it too, by this I mean I can be editing a text file and I can delete it from the file system while editing. Windows does not work this way, it locks files you are using. It sounds like you have Windows locking a file. Close EVERYTHING using that file and try your file operation again. If not, reboot and before doing anything, perform your file operation.
Q: Here’s the rub, the instructions are for Windows, but I use Ubuntu. They say to use Pycharm community edition and in the Pycharm terminal at the bottom, I should type pip install cryptography. This just does not work in Ubuntu and I am too shallow to know why, can you help me out?
A: The terminal used in IDE’s is usually very basic, (I have no experience with PyCharm) you can try in your default terminal and you can also try “pip3 install” instead of pip install. That said, as far as I know, the cryptography module is installed in Ubuntu. (I just tested on mine, and it is there.)
Q: I have vanilla ubuntu 23.10 installed on my system. In the settings I have selected dark theme in the appearance menu but some applications are still appearing in the light theme, like the store. I have rebooted, reinstalled, even tried it in virtualbox, but it is always the same.
A: Snaps do not adhere to system themes, they are self contained packages, with their own window and icon and mouse themes.
Q: I'm trying to code with C using VS Code on Ubuntu, but it always takes so long to load. My system is a bit older, but it serves me fine, I just want to speed up the coding environment. Everything else works as I expect and I don’t really have other issues.
A: VS Code is large and then an electron app on top of that if memory serves. You could try preload. It may take a while to get you sorted as it needs to learn your patterns. On the other hand, why not try something lighter, like code::blocks?
Q: I’m trying to use the extract here function, on a compressed file, filled with other compressed files. It is a ZIP file with RAR files inside. I have downloaded it multiple times, but when I extract, it only extracts the first file. I am using XFCE on Victoria, but the official version, I did not add a DE.
A: Victoria sounds like Linux Mint codenames, are you sure it is Ubuntu? I can recall seeing something similar before, but it had to do with the correct compression utilities not being installed. I suggest installing rar and unrar and p7zip (not unrar-free) and any other compression utility you may be using. Reboot and try again. If all else fails, try a different utility, like engrampa and see if it works in that.
Q: I’m semi-new to Ubuntu, and I have the following question. I'm sort of tired of “ubuntu focal Release' does not have a Release file” Is there a command to check this BEFORE you install a PPA? Coz then I have to go in and remove it again, and I have to reload the apt update again. It’s just I feel like this could be handled better.
A: The simplest way I can help you here is to tell you to Google the name of your desired PPA, then in Launchpad, there is a list at the bottom, listing all the supported versions, by codename. For instance, I Google “boot-repair launchpad” and at the bottom I see “package in lunar” and “package in Jammy” for instance. On that note, don’t just install PPA’s by copy/paste before looking at Launchpad!!