Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
Q How do I get rid of the annoying Grub boot choice screen in the latest Ubuntu 14.04 and make it directly go to the logon screen?
A There's a good reason to keep the Grub screen: if you install a new kernel, and it doesn't work on your system, Grub lets you boot with an older kernel.
If you think Grub is slowing things down, just press Enter.
Q When I print from Firefox, the background images do not appear.
A (Thanks to Barry in the Yahoo UbuntuLinux group) Press Ctrl-P, select the Options tab, click on “Print Background Images”.
Q I'm currently working on Ubuntu installed on a flash drive, through the tryubuntu option. However, every time I reboot, the files which I've saved don't come back.
A (Thanks to sudodus in the Ubuntu Forums) You can make a persistent USB boot drive with the 'Startup Disk Creator' (alias usb-creator) or with Unetbootin. These programs offer the option to create a storage space for persistence, where you can save updates, new programs, tweaks, documents, pictures, etc.
If you are creating the USB boot drive from Windows, try Pendrivelinux.
Q In Ubuntu 14.04, I use a journal program called Lifeograph which I installed from the Software Center. It appeared in my apps list and I was easily able to add it to my dock. Trying the same thing using the latest Mint Debian with Cinnamon desktop, I install the app from their version of software center, but cannot find it on my system.
A It showed up under Accessories for me. The quickest way to find files is by using the Locate command, but new files probably won't appear.
Q I am always running into some Pulse Audio quirk like muting when starting up Audacity. Can I not just uninstall Pulseaudio and use Alsamixer? If so, how would I go about doing this? Are there any issues I should be aware of?
A (Thanks to Temujin in the Ubuntu Forums) It's technically possible, but you're probably better off starting with a distro that doesn't use it by default. (Eg. Lubuntu).
Q Does anyone know of any reasonably cheap 7“ tablets that come with ubuntu preinstalled?
A Ubuntu Touch has been slow to gain a foothold. Just this month, Dell announced a tablet running Ubuntu for $450. (Each Dell country manager picks what products will be available in his or her country, so you might not have access to it.) I have not seen any previous announcement of a tablet with Ubuntu Touch, but it's not something I monitor.
You can install Ubuntu Touch on a Nexus 7, which runs about $250. The cheaper tablets probably don't meet the minimum specs for Ubuntu Touch. (Eg. Toshiba Excite 7-inch, $100.)
For lowest cost, go with a netbook.
Q I have got Windows7 running in Virtualbox on Ubuntu 14.04 solely so I don't have to keep changing drives for iTunes. Do I need to look at getting internet security?
A Yes, install Microsoft Security Essentials and keep it up to date.
Top new questions at Askubuntu
* A batch lyric fetcher and store in music files? http://goo.gl/PUOA8Q
* Why do commented lines in a linux configuration file sometimes work? http://goo.gl/ThOAit
* Where should I put my script so that I can run it by a direct command? http://goo.gl/JrrQu4
* Run last command with all the letters transformed to lowercase? http://goo.gl/kDNQLf
* How can I ensure a service is disabled on boot? http://goo.gl/9pRcbW
* How to find the creation time of a file? http://goo.gl/EI7cr6
* CPU Temperature unit? http://goo.gl/OCLso5
* What's the difference if I use Windows 7 as a Standard User vs if I use Ubuntu? http://goo.gl/mVbAKd
* Renaming hundreds of files at once for proper sorting? http://goo.gl/zSB20j
Tips and Techniques
Recycling computers
My office has replaced numerous old computers running Windows XP, with shiny new computers. What to do with the old machines?
The first priority is to ensure no data is lost, so we install Macrium Reflect on the old computers, and create an “image” of each old computer's hard drive. This goes onto an external drive, then is copied onto the user's new computer, which has a much larger drive. We also have a central system with copies of all the images. When the external drive fills up, we don't delete files, we replace it.
We're very nervous about confidential files being recovered from the old hard drives, so we boot Darik's Boot and Nuke from a CD, and run it to completely erase the old hard drive.
Now we can install Linux. One choice is 32-bit Linux Mint 17 with Mate. These are old machines, after all.
Finally, we can give the computers away. In Toronto, we have a FreeGeek project which will be delighted to get fully functional computers. All done!