QnA
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 are many waiting, and I do them, first-come-first-served.
I have a verbal filler when my brain goes off on a squirrel session. I will say the word “like” you know, like when some people go “uhm…” I understand that, and the uhms don’t bother me. I watched a tutorial and this chap had a phrase instead of a word. He kept saying, without further ado, then proceeded with more ado. Since he had a bit of an accent, I will assume he has no idea what “without further ado” means. He would end a video saying, without further ado, let’s start with x, then the video ends and in the video that followed, his ‘tick’ would fire a minute in and every time I’d sit up straight, like an idiot, thinking we would be getting to the meat and potatoes now, just to be strung along even more. As a non-native English speaker, I can sympathise, but dammit, Jim, this is a class! When someone says, without further ado, the music better start playing! It hits that same spot for me as when people close a ticket with, well, it doesn’t happen on the developer machines. I recently had an issue with a piece of open-source software, and decided to let the developers know. However, when I got to Github and found the project, there were already multiple people over the last two years with the same problem and every time it is closed with, well it does not happen on the dev machines, so we cannot replicate it and the ticket is closed… Without further ado, let’s get to the questions.
Q: We seem to be headed backwards, I just installed Xubuntu, then Mint, then Lite, just to find that my boot time on an NVME drive is slower than on spinning rust from 10yrs ago. Precise Pangolin on an old Clevo Quad-core boots somewhere around 20-25s and on my Octa-core over a minute? What is happening to Ubuntu? How can I make Ubuntu great again? <removed>
Il semble que nous régressions. Je viens d'installer Xubuntu, puis Mint, puis Lite, et je constate que le temps de démarrage sur un disque NVME est plus lent que sur un disque dur d'il y a 10 ans. Precise Pangolin démarre en 20-25 secondes sur un vieux “Clevo Quad-core” (NDT = “note du traducteur” : 4 cœurs) , et en plus d'une minute sur mon “Octa-core” (NDT : 8 coeurs ) ? Qu'arrive-t-il à Ubuntu ? Comment puis-je redonner à Ubuntu son efficacité ? <supprimé>
A: Lol, you would have to take into account slow UEFI vs BIOS. Also check the slot your NVME is plugged into; it may be a SATA slot, meaning it has the same speed as SATA drives on throughput. The first commands you will need will be: systemd-analyze , systemd-analyze blame , systemd-analyze critical-chain , service - -status-all , cat /etc/fstab . If you do not use LVM, as seen from the last command, you can stop that - but do it first, in case you mess up your system. Code: sudo systemctl mask lvm2-monitor.service . I suggest looking at stopping smbd , nmbd , nw wait, (sudo systemctl disable NetworkManager-wait-online.service) , zfs, postfix. This is a per-user-case (specific to you). Install preload and give your laptop a fixed IP, instead of DHCP on your network. If you do not use IPv6, disable it. You can also just not load Plymouth and shave off a few seconds there too.
R : MDR, il faut prendre en compte le fait que l'UEFI est plus lent que le BIOS. Vérifiez également sur quel port est branché votre NVME ; il peut s'agir d'un port SATA, ce qui signifie qu'il a la même vitesse de transfert que les disques SATA. Les premières commandes à utiliser sont : systemd-analyze, systemd-analyze blame, systemd-analyze critical-chain, service –status-all, cat /etc/fstab. Si vous n'utilisez pas LVM, ce qui est indiqué par la dernière commande, vous pouvez l'arrêter, mais faites-le avant, au cas où vous créeriez des problèmes sur votre système. Commande: sudo systemctl mask lvm2-monitor.service. Je propose d'envisager d'arrêter smbd, nmbd, nw wait, (sudo systemctl disable NetworkManager-wait-online.service), zfs, postfix. Il s’agit d’un cas particulier à chaque utilisateur (qui vous est spécifique). Installez le préchargement et attribuez à votre ordinateur portable une adresse IP fixe, au lieu du DHCP. Si vous n'utilisez pas IPv6, désactivez-le. Vous pouvez également ne pas charger Plymouth et gagner quelques secondes.
Q: On Xubuntu I want to run Redshift for night work. I can install it, but when I click on info on it, it’s all just 0.00. I tried setting it with -O and it works for a second, then not. My sight is bad, so I need to be near the screen and I am bombarded by light. When I close it, it says something about Geoclue2 and Wayland that I don’t understand.
Q : Sur Xubuntu, je souhaite utiliser Redshift pour le travail de nuit. Je peux l'installer, mais lorsque je clique sur « infos », il n’affiche que 0,00. J'ai essayé de le configurer avec -O et cela ne fonctionne qu’une seconde, puis plus rien. Ma vue est mauvaise, aussi je dois rester près de l'écran et je suis bombardé de lumière. Lorsque je ferme l'application, il affiche un message concernant Geoclue2 et Wayland que je ne comprends pas.
A: My suggestion is keybindings, set up three new ones, one for evening, one for night, and one for day. You can play around with the values (test it out in your terminal first), but I will suggest, redshift -m randr -P -O 5300 for evening, redshift -m randr -P -O 3500 for night, and redshift -m randr -P -x for day or reset. This should work regardless of other factors, but obviously there will be no smooth transition.
R : Je suggère de configurer trois nouveaux raccourcis clavier : un pour le soir, un pour la nuit et un pour la journée. Vous pouvez expérimenter avec différentes valeurs (testez-les d'abord dans votre terminal), mais je suggérerais : redshift -m randr -P -O 5300 pour le soir, redshift -m randr -P -O 3500 pour la nuit et redshift -m randr -P -x pour la journée ou pour réinitialiser. Cela devrait fonctionner indépendamment des autres facteurs, mais évidemment il n’y aura pas de transition en douceur.
Q: Is there any way I can make my Appimages work in Xubuntu 24.04? When I launch them on my old 20.04 box, they open immediately, but on 24.04 they just close. The weird part is that devilutionx-linux-x86_64 Appimage still launches, but none of the others do. So I’m not sure what the issue could be. I have ruled out bad backups as they launch from the external drive on 20.04. What I find on Google says I need to disable the apparmor profile. I tried that and now my notebook won’t properly lock and unlock when I close the lid, so I have to reinstall. The reinstall is not a huge issue, but it takes me 2 days to get where I want to be customizing and installing software.
A: You can try running your AppImages without the sandbox; first try from the terminal, with - - no-sandbox, like so: myappimage.AppImage –no-sandbox (two dashes, no space). If that works, you can create a launcher for your AppImage that includes the full command. Rather leave AppArmor profiles alone, if you are not sure what you are doing. Maybe also look at AppImage manager to vet your AppImages for you.
Q: I am new to ricing Ubuntu and I broke my system. The tutorial and scripts are from here https://www.pling.com/p/2092096. I just wanted a more sane or normal XFCE look. The tutorial said to back up your XFCE4 folder in your “.config” folder and restore that to reverse changes, but it did not work. Can you help me get my system back please?
A: My suggestion is to fire up Xubuntu live in a VM, with shared folders enabled, then copy the folders you messed up to that shared folder. I usually make it my Templates folder, as it is never used by me. Then copy the pristine files out of the Templates folder into the correct places in the host system.
Q: I tried WSL and it is amazing! I then took the next step and resized my partition and set up dual-boot. It’s rather cool too; just one thing, this week I noticed that the networking on the windows side is poor to say the least. It never had an issue while running WSL. I’m seriously considering going back to Windows 10, as I heard Ubuntu and Windows 10 gel well. How is Ubuntu influencing my windows 11 to be slow?
A: Honestly, I’m 99.9% sure it is *not caused by Ubuntu. (There is always room for error). You can try the following in order, from an admin command prompt: arp -D , nbtstat -R , net stop dnscache , net start dnscache , ipconfig /flushdns , nbtstat -RR . That is six commands, you will need to run, one after the other, don’t type the commas.
Q: I have a gnome extension set up, reminder alarm clock. It does a countdown and dings at the end with a custom message. Though it is great, it is not 100% what I want. I would like something like a grandfather clock, that dings every hour. It does not have to be Gnome specific as I have KDE too, but I’d prefer desktop neutral, if it makes any sense? Preferably one I can load a sound file into that it won’t irritate me.
A: Honestly I have no idea, I was thinking orage, but I’m not really familiar with what you want. If any of our readers out there has any suggestions, please send it to misc@fullcirclemagazie.org as it has piqued my interest now too, and I’d like to hear your suggestions!!!
Q: I’m a massive fan of LXDE; I loved it when Lubuntu used it. Now, I don’t use Lubuntu for just that reason, but my LXLE install is getting on and I was thinking of getting Mint as I think they have abandoned the project. My first question, now that I have downloaded Mint, is how do I work Etcher? This process is confusing and I can’t seem to get it to run, never mind burn Mint to my USB stick. I feel irritated and frustrated at how difficult it has become to install an OS. Just give me a DVD and be done. Who even has time to do all this nonsense? Do people even use it?
A: I admit, I also liked LXLE, just it being so snappy. You sound like that Youtuber, SAMTIME, who is trolling Linux users, so I’m not sure if I’m being trolled right now, but if I’m not, I’ll run through it quickly. If you download Balena Etcher as an AppImage (skip the other options), you can set the permissions to execute and then run it. Then you simply choose your drive and image and you “burn” your installer USB. You can still burn the image to DVD if you want, it does not have to be to USB. I can do a tutorial in the magazine with pictures, as it is really not that difficult.
Q: If a software is available only in the Flatpak, is there a way to convert it to make it the Snap or the AppImage?
A: Honestly, I don’t know, but why not petition the creator of the software to package it differently for you or find out if it has a github page and build it yourself?
Q: After updates, I see all these locales being updated – that I don’t need or use. How do I get rid of them? Oh yes: Ubuntu 24.04, i9, 64GB memory, 1TB SSD.
A: You could try: gksu geany /etc/locale.gen (feel free to substitute sudo for gksu if your flavour does not have it and geany with whatever editor you like). You could also try: sudo dpkg-reconfigure localepurge (if that is not installed, install it and it will run once installed). That should run in the terminal.