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 worked for a small IT company once and we sold the whole shebang to a user, from power cord to printer, and every peripheral in-between. The user wanted a laptop, with all the conveniences of a desktop. This meant extra PSU, so one could sit on the desk at all times, wireless keyboard and mouse, and an extra screen, etc. etc. I had to mount the router under the desk and square away all the cables. However, the user would complain about Microsoft Word “going crazy”. We had the laptop in and all the techs played with it, but found no faults. Obviously we installed the office package again and sent it on its merry way. Two weeks later, the user was there again, same issue. This continued three or four times, before the user started getting pissy with my boss. The last time she ripped out everything, cables and all, and dumped it on the workbench. We had a great time with the laptop, it was a rather fancy one – playing games, etc. Not one issue could be identified, so we reloaded the laptop, and after the user had tested it at the office until she was satisfied, I installed it all back at her home. A few days later we got the call. My boss sent me to her house, as I was the senior technician, and while I was there, the machine behaved. I just arrived back at the office when she called to say it is faulty again. I went back and… Nothing. I was not until the next time one of the juniors went, the issue got sorted. He took the approach of having several cups of coffee and rusks there, while he watched her work. (I suppose skirting work is not always bad). He was on site for two and a half hours, before the problem re-emerged. He noticed she had a cat (which was not around when I was there), and the said feline would pop its butt on the wireless keyboard. After all the verbal abuse we were put through, not the client, nor the boss said anything. Sometimes you just have to admit that you were wrong or say sorry. So here is a bottom-of-my-heart apology, if I ever steered any of you wrong.
Q: I took the plunge and upgraded to 2024. Unlike windows, things seem faster! I have one issue though, with my gnome extensions – It installs fine, but doesn't seem to appear in GNOME Tweaks on Ubuntu?
A: Versions, friend, versions. The versions of your extensions may need to update or only work on earlier versions of Gnome. However, the question would be better directed at the author of the extension.
Q: Hey. I have created an Ubuntu 22.04 and an Ubuntu 24.04 vm in Virtualbox. There is a catch, they both have the same IP, but my network is set to DHCP. Is this like a default in Ubuntu? Is that not a security risk?
A: DHCP works like this, it gives an IP to a MAC address. As both your network cards are the default virtual network card, they will both have the same IP address as the MAC address is the same. (Remember the goal of Virtual Machines was to have everything the same, so it would work the same, everywhere). Virtualbox has an option to change the MAC address for you, or you can do it if you like, just remember to do it while it is shut down (the short version).
Q: I have a black box i5 with 16GB RAM and Nvidia GT730 on Ubuntu 18.04. I want to upgrade to 24.04, but I have read the support for older cards is crap. It is not even that good on 18.04, as a lot of my games lag. Should I stick to older proprietary drivers or newer nouveau drivers? I try to read up on this but I’m not technical. I’m not too well off, so I can’t buy a specialist Ubuntu Computer.
A: What I like to tell people is that you need to think of Nvidia’s cards like a volume knob. The 20 being louder than 10 and 30 being louder than 20. However, anything below 50 is made to game on low-to-medium. It is not your diver or Ubuntu’s fault that the games lag. My suggestion is to save up and get a card that is above 50. That said, the generation also matters, we went from 7-series to 8, to 9, to 10, before jumping to 20, 30 and 40. Save up a bit and aim for as high a generation that you can afford.
Q: Hi! I have a Dell OptiPlex 5060, 8th Gen i5, 8GB, 256GB, W10P, SFF, running Ubuntu 22.04, linked with a CAT6 cable to my Huawei LTE 300Mb/s router. My connection is always 100. How come?
A: Hi, first question 100 what? **Edit - So your machine has a 1 gigabit port (1000Mb), I looked it up, but it looks like your router only has 100Mb ports from what I understand. The 300Mb/s is for the wireless. It does not matter if you use CAT5 or CAT6 cabling here. What matters is that both ends are the same, you cannot speed up your Honda 50cc delivery bike to race a Yamaha R1, (without major changes), but the R1 can slow down to match the 50cc’s top speed. Hope that makes sense.
Q: Man, help me. I have Ubuntu 24.04 on my Lenovo mini, and Baseus USB-C hub. I'm trying to run 2x Asus 24-inch screens on it, but Ubuntu only sees one. How can I fix this?
A: That is very little information, but I’ll tell you what I know. Screens do not daisy-chain on USB-C, (you would need thunderbolt), so if you are adding both to the hub, you will see only one display. I suggest getting a USB-C to HDMI cable, and plug it directly into the laptop, and you can then plug your other screen into the USB-C hub via HDMI cable. This configuration should work. If you want more, you need to tell me more.
Q: I have a problem dua- booting with Windows 11 and Ubuntu. I installed Windows first, then Ubuntu, like you are supposed to. I go out of Ubuntu, into Windows 11, and when I go back to Ubuntu, I get the “Try or install Ubuntu”, but I installed it. So is everything gone now?
A: OK, the short version is your BIOS/UEFI is pointing to the wrong boot device for Ubuntu; make sure you have removed your SD/USB drive that you installed from. Secondly, some BIOS/UEFI cache the last boot location. If so, you would need to select a different boot and try to boot there, then set it back to the way it was and it should now cache the correct one.
Q: I have bought a new SSD for my ageing laptop. I cloned my drive and popped it in. It booted perfectly. One snag though, I can’t get my dual-boot Windows 10 to boot. I have repeated the process carefully 4x now, and I get the same result.
A: I’d say that means the problem is Windows? So why are we talking about it on an Ubuntu channel? Remember, Windows uses hardware UUIDs to prevent piracy, etc.
Q: My laptop is rather low spec, and I use it only to watch videos on long trips lately. NGL with 24.04, I get lots of mini-freezes. Is there a way to make the playback smoother, like it was before?
A: You did not tell me what player you were using. Straight up Mplayer is probably the lightest, then maybe SMPlayer (usability skin for Mplayer). If you are using something heavier, look at the amount of passes you are making in post-processing quality. This usually chokes with integrated graphics.
Q: I am running Virtualbox with Ubuntu inside of Ubuntu. Though I don’t use it, I get an error on the right saying: Can’t enumerate USB devices Why not?
A: Literally click on that and it will expand and tell you that you need to add the vboxusers group to your account. See: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2480323
Q: I managed to get a display model HP with an Nvidia 1650 display card with Windows 10 for cheap. I immediately deleted Windows and installed Ubuntu. The problem is, when I go to drivers, it is empty. I’d like to play some games, if possible. If I check, it is using the igp display. It is like the Nvidia card does not exist.
A: Did the dealer not give you the incorrect model? With laptops, there is always one that has the same name and looks, but minus the dedicated card. Install inxi and run:
inxi -b
If it is there, you can try installing:
sudo apt install nvidia-common
and then reboot and try the drive application again.
Q: Is there a notepad++ I can use on Ubuntu? I’m learning programming and I would like to stick to what they are showing us.
A: I swear we have had this question before, but you can use notepadQQ or Notepad Next. I even think notepad++ now works on Ubuntu, thanks to Snaps.
Q: How can I get more terminal themes, the ones that come with Ubuntu are few and ugly.
A: Here you go, my good man! https://gogh-co.github.io/Gogh/ You do know you can make your own, right?