Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Ubuntu

Suspend/Resume slowness

lwf — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 19:33:45 -0800

My Ubuntu laptop is unresponsive within the first 20 seconds after resume from suspend. I think the culprit is Flash (npviewer.bin), since it is shown as using 80%+ of CPU. How can I work around this? One of the things I was considering doing was having a script kill flash before and after suspend, but I'm not sure how.

Any ideas? (other than stop using flash :)

Ubuntu 9.04 on a Dell XPS m1330.

Need help creating a custom Linux LiveCD

jluce50 — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:22:02 -0800

Like a dumbass I took my work laptop off the corporate domain and now I can't log in. Helpdesk can't find the admin password for the machine so it's stuck until I travel to the office and they can re-image it (I'm remote). Until then I'd like to be able to at least boot into Ubuntu (or some such) and browse the web. Okay, so obviously a Linux LiveCD will give me what I want. Here's the rub; I'd like to be able to do this without having to reinstall my Firefox extensions every time I boot up. Being a complete Linux noob isn't helping me here. So here are my questions:

- Can I boot into Ubuntu via a LiveCD, set things up the way I like, and then burn another LiveCD (from within that instance of Ubuntu) that keeps that configuration? Possibly following something like this guide?

- Is there some other method to create a LiveCD that meets my requirements without having to install a Linux distro on my harddrive? I'm all Windows, Both at work and at home.

Dumbed-down instructions are a plus. Thanks!

P.S. Infinite bonus points if you can tell me how to recover the admin password on an encrypted HDD... ;-)

Looking for audio cart software for Ubuntu.

magstheaxe — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:49:45 -0800

Looking for audio cart software for Ubuntu. Bonus points if it imitates Jazler Show! 1.5.1. Some friends and I have been doing a podcast now for a few years, and have been using the usual Windows-compatible freeware for production--Audacity for recording and mixing, and Jazler Show's freeware edition (1.5.1, found here, second from the bottom) for an audio cart.

Our executive producer has had a computer failure and is not in a position to replace it right now, so he's switched to another, older computer. He's installed the latest Ubuntu distro on it, and is overall very pleased...except that Jazler Show isn't compatible with it. He even tried running Jazler Show using an emulator and has had no luck.

We've hunted around to find a suitable replacement software but so far have come up empty. Our producer has been making do with dropping our promos into the show after we record, but really it's a lot easier to have an audio cart to drop in bumpers, promos, etc. as we record.

Can anyone recommend some freeware or inexpensive audio cart software for Linux?

Thanks in advance!

Dual Booting For Dummies

mannequito — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 21:14:17 -0800

Two-part question regarding a potential XP/Ubuntu dual-boot setup: a)Do I still worry about viruses if I'm not accessing the internet from the XP half? b) From reading online it seems that I'll be able to access files from the XP half while in Ubuntu, but will the opposite be true? I've actually never owned a Windows machine so apologies if I seem over paranoid about viruses. I'm just finally considering this in order to be able to record music and use my computer for djing.

And, in case the second question is confusing, what I mean is that as I understand it, anything I put on the computer in Windows will be accessible on the other operating system. But since I would be using Ubuntu for any downloading I'd like to know if that will be readily accessible in XP or if it would require copying it to an external harddrive, booting into Windows, and recopying it?

thanks everyone.

3d CAD drafting on Ubuntu?

Goofyy — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:00:33 -0800

Looking for a 3d CAD drafting program that will run with Ubuntu. A feature I need that is missing on the one 3D drafting program I found (CollabCAD) was the ability to use scripts that are something I can generate with my own software (parsing it out as needed). Other programs lack the third dimension. FreeCAD is very promising, but still lacks 3d drafting ability (which I discovered after laboriously compiling the lastest version). I suppose that something running under Wine is acceptable. Ultimately, I need to get output from the CAD program that will import into POVray or something similar.

I say "drafting", because so many programs seem to work by manipulating solid geometry. I prefer plotting my own lines etc. based on computation. I used to do this in Windows, and had a lovely CAD program I found on a magazine disk. That computer is dead, the disc apparently lost, and I don't do windows anymore.

Linux fun composer for 8 year old?

Sch01ar — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:14:35 -0800

Does anyone know any simple Ubuntu music software for me to have fun composing with my eight year old son? A few years ago there seemed to be lots of simple generative and quasi random music sequencer programmes around (admittedly I'm thinking mac and PC and I've since switched to linux) But now my son is old enough to play and create I can't find anything :(

Browser based ones would be fine, but what I've found seems a bit buggy.

Thanks in advance!

S

installing older firefoxes

mannequito — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:54:18 -0800

I need to put an older version (2.x) of Firefox onto my computer. I am using the latest Kubuntu version (Karmic, still in beta for a few more days). How do I do this? I was able to download a tar.gz file of Firefox 2.0.0.20 but, beyond extracting, I can't get anywhere with it.

Is there a repository I can add that still supplies older versions? Or is there a way to get the one I already downloaded installed?

btw, this isn't for preference or anything, just the fact that the Canadian government is outdated and require an older version in order to access a secure site.

sudo apt-get install help!

mannequito — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:01:27 -0800

LinuxFilter : I seem to have lost sudo privileges in Ubuntu. How to fix please? About a month back I picked up an Asus eeepc and installed #!CrunchBang on it, which is a variation on Ubuntu. Sudo worked fine for a couple of weeks, but the other day I went to install something and received this message:

(username) is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.

Usual googling and message-board combing led to this solution
. But attempting to follow it, I enter my password after 'su -' and get a reply stating that the password is incorrect.

SO ... is this a catch-22, or has my password somehow been changed?

Boot Screen is all out of goose.

Cantdosleepy — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:28:17 -0800

Trying to install XP and Ubuntu as dual-boot on a Dell Dimension 3100. The first menu, where I select which operating system to load, is off-centre and starts halfway down the screen. Some of the bottom of the menu appears at the top of the screen. Which means some of the options can't be seen. Help! Example screenshot of the display error (this one during Windows setup)

At the bottom of the operating-system-choice menu screen you can see three different Ubuntu start-up options, but the menu disappears off the bottom before 'XP Home Edition' appears. Through trial and error I've worked out that you have to press the down cursor twice more after the highlighting disappears off the bottom of the screen if you want to select XP. I'm setting this computer up for a not-terribly computer-literate family, though, so that's not really an option.

Any ideas of how to realign this screen?

What should I do about my old computer??

snowjoe — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:40:58 -0800

Windows xp and Ubuntu? PCI video card? Mac Mini? Opinions? I have an old old computer (Pentium 4 CPU 2.4 GHz with 512 MB Ram). My video card went belly up a few weeks ago and I put in an old barebones type of card out of an old computer. I am unhappy with the performance so I bought a card from newegg but I couldn't use it because my expansion slots are only PCI NOT PCI-e. Also my power supply is 300w and newer cards seem to require more power. So my questions are:

1 - Should I try Ubuntu via WUBI? (I need windows for Quicken and a few other things.) Would Ubuntu make me and my old computer happy?

2 - Should I just grin and bear it for a couple of months and buy a new system with Windows 7?

3 - Should I get a Mac Mini?

4 - Should I forget computers entirely?

5 - Is there a good video card that is PCI?

Oh by the way, I can't add more memory because the super old memory is way to expensive. I forget what kind it is but as someone once told me, I lost the memory lottery.

LaTeX + pdf = employment fail?

geos — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 09:30:37 -0800

LaTeX + pdf = employment fail? I am looking for a job and have been using LaTeX to generate my resume and cover-letter. At a recent job interview I was told that they weren't able to print my resume. It looked fine on their computer but when they printed it, it was as if most of the document had been whited-out: a couple of phrases appeared approximately where they should but, most of it was just missing. Are all of the resumes I've emailed screwed up or special unix snowflakes? I have been using texlive on ubunutu to generate a dvi of my resume and cover letter and then dvipdf to create the pdf. The laser printer they were using didn't appear to support postscript, and by clicking on the 'print as image' box in windows I was able to get the resume to print out fine...

Ubuntu dialup internet snafu

ackptui — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 12:52:16 -0800

I am having problems getting a dialup internet connection to work under ubuntu 8.04. I seem to be able to configure the connection OK, but then when I check the box next to it, no connection is made. The modem is external on /dev/ttys0. Anyone have experience with this?

Media PC OS suggestions?

superbird — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:34:14 -0800

What's the best way to configure my PC as an internet television hub? I bought a pretty decent used PC from my work's IT department. It's good enough to run Hulu, etc but it's nothing too fancy. The catch, I've found, is that it comes with Windows 2000 which keeps me from installing anything like Chrome, Boxee, Hulu Desktop, etc. on it.

I tried installing Ubuntu last night and found that it ran incredibly slow. Windows 2000 runs really well in comparison. This surprised me.

If you had the same resources and didn't want to spend much (if any) money, what would you do to provide the best setup for an internet tv hub? (basically a hulu center)

I'm interested in every possible crazy idea, not limited to Operating system solutions. Another thing I'm trying to figure out is how to control it from the couch. (this issue is complicated by trying to come up with remote software for iPhone compatible with the OS I have)

Virtual Machine sharing between Ubuntu/Vista dualboot and some general virtual machine / virtual machine software questions.

Javed_Ahamed — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:59:42 -0800

Virtual Machine sharing between Ubuntu/Vista dualboot and some general virtual machine / virtual machine software questions. Greetings,

I currently run a Vista/Ubuntu dualboot and want to make a Windows and a Linux virtual machines to test code/malicious software out on. I however would like the convenience to be able to access either of these virtual machines from whatever physical OS i happen to be booted into at that time, either ubuntu or vista. Is there anyway to achieve this?

I also had some general questions about setting up these virtual machines. If i was to setup a vista or an xp virtual machine, would I need a seperate cd-key for it that is not being used by another computer?

I will require a "save state" feature, so I can configure virtual machines to my liking, then "save" them and play around with them and if something goes wrong revert back to the saved state.

Thanks in advance and if you can recommend any software/ideas on how to make this setup work your help would be greatly appreciated!

(i have been looking into virtualbox so far, ideas on this? would this work?)

Best practice for an upgrade to Jaunty Jackalope?

zenja72 — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:17:14 -0800

I need to help my friend upgrade from Intrepid Ibex to Jaunty Jackalope. I'd appreciate any tips or advice for doing this. What's the best backup tool to use, and how do I restore from the backup if things go wrong? I'm thinking something like Time Machine would be nice, but I can do command line stuff, too. Any other best practice tips for the upgrade itself? Thanks so much in advance.

Help me pimp my new eee pc.

SuperErin — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:58:29 -0800

I just bought an asus eee pc from woot.com (here's the link so you can see the specs.) I need suggestions. I'm planning to install the ubuntu netbook remix. Any thoughts on that?

Any other recommendations for improving the eee? adding memory, programs, peripherals?

I've been using the same notebook since 2003, so i'm excited about my new toy.

Thanks for your help!

How to partition 2 Hd for 2 Os

madeinitaly — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 01:29:14 -0800

I am getting a new computer, and the infinite possibilities on how to partition two hard drives to put two operating systems is keeping me up at night. Hello everybody. This is not a "how to" question, but just a "how would you recommend" one.

I currently have all my data in a 320 Gb FAT32 hard disk. This drive contains all music, videos etc that are accessible from my two operating systems (XP and ubuntu 9.04) who live on the 80Gb hard disk.

I am getting a new system (without OS) and I put a 1Tb hd there. I want to install the 320GB in there as well.

My initial thought would have been to install the two OS (win7 rc and ubuntu 9.04) on two partitions of the 320 Gb and use the 1TB for the data, but I have been told I might miss out on performance, as the new SATA drive should be much faster than my old IDE.

So I was planning on booting the first time with ubuntu live cd and transfering all the data from the 320 Gb to the 1Tb (and format it NTFS or FAT32), then splitting the 320Gb into two partitions, one with W7RC and one with Ubuntu - using all the 1TB for data.

Is this the best way? How else would you partition the Hdds and split the OSs ? Do I need to install W7 in the first physical HD? and which one should it be?

Any suggestion appreciated!

PS: I would just use Ubuntu if I could, but so far no luck with iTunes (which i need for the iPhone), I will try virtualbox but my current system is not powerful enough to do it. And I got a 780g chipset (ATI radeon) for the new one which i heard is supported so-so by Linux. If Win7 is good i might abandon Ubuntu in the future.

Automatic alerts of time spent on computer

LaszloKv — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:57:38 -0800

Does anyone know a way to create alerts in Ubuntu every x number of minutes of how long spent on the computer that day? I think an alert system of how long spent on the computer that day would really help with my time management. I don't know if an application or script would be what I am looking for. I tried the hamster time tracking panel app, but that is less ideal, because I can forget to get it to start tracking.

What's a good simple and cheap media or file server setup?

wastelands — Fri, 29 May 2009 08:15:38 -0800

Advice for a server newb who needs help getting started with a simple media/backup/torrent server? I've got a 438 GB movie collection an on external 500 GB USB hard drive right now, so I need to upgrade. I was thinking of buying two 1 TB external drives and using rsync for a poor man's RAID 1 setup. But for good drives plus shipping, that's nearly $250, and I thought, why not just setup a real file server? And maybe get a Bit Torrent thingy going too, so I could turn off my main computer at night and keep transfers going? Heck, I'd probably come up with other useful things for the server to do too.

But I don't know where to start. For hardware, looking at, say, a Dell Inspiron 530 ($379), it's too powerful and too expensive for what I'd use it for.

And for the OS... Windows Home Server? Ubuntu? I don't know what'd be easiest.

Ideas? Thanks!

Global Proxy in Ubuntu with SOCKS and ssh

SpiffyRob — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:53:42 -0800

Global SOCKS5 Proxy in Ubuntu? (Or, MacOS/Widnows:Proxifier :: Linux:???) I’m a recent Ubuntu adoptee, and have enjoyed solving the issues that come up in the switching as much as the OS itself, but this one seems to have me stymied. Basically, I’m looking for a way to set things up such that every single network connection goes through an SSL tunnel.

A basic bit of background: In either Mac OS or Windows, I’ve accomplished this exact thing by doing the following:

1. I have a remote server configured to be used as a SOCKS5 proxy.
2. I use the following command to direct all traffic sent to localhost:1080(127.0.0.1) on to my remote server:
ssh –ND 1080 user@server.com –p 80

Where –N is used to show no confirmation after I enter the password, -D directs all traffic to 1080, and –p makes the ssh connection over port 80. (One of the few ports unblocked by my home ISP.)

3. Once that is connected, I use proxifier to direct all network traffic to localhost:1080.

This works perfectly for both setups. The thing I like best about it is that it directs *all* network traffic through Proxifier, and I can exempt things as needed. This is much, much simpler than configuring individual applications, and is invaluable for applications that don’t support SOCKS5 out of the box.

SO! The question: Does an alternative to proxifier exist for Linux? Some googling reveals that this same question has been asked, but in the rare instance that it’s been answered, the answerer didn’t seem to grok what proxifier did. The one thing that I’ve found, GSTM seems like it should do the trick, but I’ve yet to have any success.

Please note: While I will certainly entertain alternate methods to what I’m doing, they would need to follow two criteria:
1. I can do it without touching my remote server’s configuration. (Don’t want to mess up the already-working solutions I have for Windows/Mac.)
2. It must allow for stuff that doesn’t support SOCKS5 natively to run through a proxy.

Thanks in advance!

Ubuntu dual boot problem

plumberonkarst — Sun, 10 May 2009 17:23:03 -0800

.I have been using Ubuntu and XP in a dual boot configuration but suddenly XP does not show up under the "other operating system" in the boot menu.Nothing happens when I do enter "other operating system" While going pure Linux would be great-I am not at that point yet and I have external hard drives that Linux will not mount. Help!!

How can I triple-boot OS X, Windows XP and Ubuntu on my Macbook?

ilumos — Sat, 02 May 2009 07:38:54 -0800

How can I triple-boot OS X, Windows XP and Ubuntu on my Macbook? I already have OS X and Windows XP running great with bootcamp, how can I add Ubuntu to my arsenal without fudging the bootloader?

File Browser with tags

sidr — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:19:33 -0800

So I have this growing movie collection. What I want is a file browser that lets me tag each movie (either my own tags, or metadata from the files). Basically something like labels in Gmail or tags in Flickr/Delicious etc. Ubuntu here. I've heard of Gnome Meta-Tracker, is there anything else that will help organize my collection?

eeePC? Not just for meee

tdreyer — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:05:11 -0800

I'm installing Ubuntu 9.04 remix on a friend's eeePC and I'm looking for suggestions on cool and useful programs for netbooks (or not) to install beyond the defaults that come with Ubuntu.

RAID 5 on the motherboard?

xmutex — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:52:00 -0800

RAID 5 on the (Gigabyte) motherboard in Ubuntu Server? I'm putting together a home file server that will run Ubuntu server, and I want RAID 5. It looks like Gigabyte motherboard does 6xSATA RAID 5. A PCI-e controller would cost much more than this option. Any ideas if A) RAID 5 on the motherboard is useful/viable, and B) if this particular Gigabyte motherboard would work well in Ubuntu (or CentOS)- and if not, any recommendations.

Thanks!