How to (Quickly) Check What Version of Ubuntu You Have

Applications --> Accessories --> Terminal. In the box type the following command:-

lsb_release -a

Share Mouse and Keyboard with Software

Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).

I'm currently using a KVM switch (and one monitor), but it's nice to know there is a multi-monitor open software solution out there!

"Can't install gnome-desktop-environment, gnome-keyring-manager not installable"

My current version of OS is KDE 8.04 with Xfce installed (I actually run Xfce daily). I got the error

"Can't install gnome-desktop-environment, gnome-keyring-manager not installable"

When trying to install the gnome desktop with either the terminal or Synaptic Package Manager.

Some searching led me to advice to type both of these commands in the terminal (don't type the $, and you may have to type "sudo" before the apt part...)

$ apt-cache show gnome|grep Depends|cut -f2- -d:|tr ',' '\n'|cut -f2 -d' '|grep -v gnome-desktop-environment|xargs sudo apt-get install -y

$ apt-cache show gnome-desktop-environment|grep Depends|cut -f2- -d:|tr ',' '\n'|cut -f2 -d' '|grep -v gnome-keyring-manager|xargs sudo apt-get install -y

Found this in a launchpad support forum (bugtracker). https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/meta-gnome2/+bug/216756

Be warned this may take the better part of an hour to install (the rest of your system should be usable while it installs.)

I ran both of these commands, and yes, it worked. Next time I rebooted, I had the option of a Gnome session, and it seems to be running smoothly so far.

Other links I found had some interesting info, if you want further reading:

Launchpad question

Lock issue I encountered in the meantime (oopsie.) Thought it was a bug until I realized I should listen to actual directions (ARE YOU RUNNING AS ROOT???... i.e. use sudo)

Launchpad bug that actually indicates it's a duplicate of another bug.

The Command Command

man -k list directory

Lists commands and a very brief description of each. Lots of enlightening stuff here.

USB Hard Drive Runs Slow

Came across this in a forum. Hey, I have this problem too!

'I had the odd Linux version mount external FAT32-drives (USB sticks) with some crappy mount parameters that it would have been quicker to write the data on the HD with my own hands - yes, literally.

So if you happen to use Linux..

Try mounting the external FAT drive without the "sync" option, i.e. with

"mount -o async".

But you'll have to remember to umount the external device manually before removing it; sometimes a lot of the writing happens only delayed at the time of umounting - at least it did sometimes with my SuSEs.'

(Thanks to The Voice of Doom on Fark.com)

I Like Toys

I finally got a digital camera. I'm not experienced with them at all on any system, so when it came time to plugging it in to my computer, I wasn't sure of what I was doing.

I plugged the sucker in, and I expected a little USB-type drive would pop up on my desktop, but that did not happen.

Searching for a solution was kind of a pain because lots of ads for my camera kept popping up. Samsung doesn't exactly give directions for linux, either.

A little more searching finally revealed this page.

You have to turn the camera on after you plug it in to the computer. The page also warns to turn it off before unplugging it. By this, I would assume the USB device doesn't draw power from the computer via the USB connection, but it draws power from the camera's batteries.

A green light came on on the camera when connected. The screen momentarily asked me to choose between "computer" and "printer", so I chose... computer. The screen then turned black, but the light stayed on. At this point, a device appeared on my desktop, and I was able to sift through the directories in there like a regular USB flash drive.

Hope that solves a "what now" scenario for some of you camera/linux newbies.

What camera did I pick up? A Samsung S760 at "Wally World". 7.2megapixel, 3x optical zoom, takes SD cards only (not SDHC). Set me back $87 (November 01, 2008). Yes, I got the pink one. I'm generally anti-pink, but in my defense, I think it's less likely to get stolen and less likely to be mistaken for someone else's.

Pretty decent pictures, especially if you stablile the camera well when snapping photos. I used Digital Image Stabilization mode to take a few night shots outside my window. Best sample:


You're looking down Broadway Ave towards Main in Winnipeg, MB. The large white lit-up building is the Hotel Fort Garry.

BSOD on Linux

Yes, you can get the Blue Screen of Death in Linux. Too funny.

xscreensaver

is a package you can find in your repository. It has all sorts of screensavers, including popular OS error screens. Install via Synaptic Package Manager, Adept, or what have you.


Good for confusing the hell out of a roommate, friend, or spouse, though I really don't recommend messing around with the desktop environment settings of a person who you may want to continue relations with.

For a temporary trick, try this Flash trick. The ESC key exits full screen mode in Flash.

tar switches for command line

tar -xzvf /path/to/your/file.tar.gz

xkcd? xfce? No. xzvf.

I'm sorry, that's a really bad nerd joke. I'll bet the nerds didn't even laugh.

Flash player doesn't install in Firefox

Flash wasn't working for me in Firefox. At one point, I had installed several flash players via Symantic or Adept, until learning I should only install flashplayer-nonfree. I removed the other ones, but still no go. I tried downloading the package from Adobe manually, and installing via the command line, but got this error:

Please enter the installation path of the Mozilla, Netscape,
or Opera browser (i.e., /usr/lib/mozilla): /usr/bin/firefox

WARNING: /usr/bin/firefox is not a directory.

Here are the tricks to fix it:

• it seems the Adobe installer wants the actual numbered version of the firefox directory. "whereis firefox" didn't help me in this respect (as suggested on help forums). I ended up using /usr/lib/firefox-3.0.1 Yours might be slightly different. Why Adobe couldn't have indicated this in the installer... I don't know. Twits.
  
• when testing out whether flash works on something like YouTube, make sure you don't have something like the "NoScript" add-on preventing anything you may need. (D'oh!) I had to allow both youtube.com and ytimg.com in NoScript.
  

... that brings up the question whether flash was actually working all along and my NoScript was thwarting all my efforts. Oh, probably.

Distributions, Applications, and Toolkits

Programs that "run better/faster" on specific Desktop Environments

Keep in mind your distribution uses different programming toolkits for their applications, so to minimize the amount of overhead that gets loaded up you may want to make sure your applications are native to what's already running. For this reason, you may want to use Transmission instead of Ktorrent if you're using Xubuntu.

gtk toolkit users:
-----------------------------
Xubuntu
Transmission bittorrent client
Synaptic Package Manager
Gimp (yes, rly)
Firefox

qt toolkit users:
---------------------------
Kubuntu
Ktorrent
Adept Package Manager
qt browsers include Konqueror and Opera. I'm guessing you'll just stick with Firefox anyway!)

You may have seen "apt-get" and assume it refers the Adept Package Manager. It doesn't. APT is an acronym "Advanced Packaging Tool", package management system for Debian-based distributions. Synaptic and Adept are merely front-ends for this tool (i.e. they make it look purty).

Wikipedia articles on pieces of software often mention what toolkit the software uses, either in the first paragraph, or in an infobox on the right.