Archive For The “Linux” Category

Fixing Ubuntu 8.10

I suppose you could say I’m a long time Debian/Ubuntu Linux user, but the recent upgrade to 8.10 completely messed up my desktop machine. Sound was broken in Flash. That’s happened before and doing an aptitude install flashplugin-nonfree-extrasound fixed that, but from time to time sound would break and I’d have to killall -9 pulseaudio;pulseaudio [...]

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How to upgrade Ubuntu

I hit the Upgrade button and I presume it’s doing it’s thing. The Ubuntu 8.04 ‘Hardy Heron’ Release Notes have just popped up so it’s time to click the “Upgrade” button again. Tom has some great tips for post install configuration. I’ll be happy if SDLMame, mplayer, UAE and Vice continue to work as normal [...]

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HOWTO: Ubuntu desktop visual effects on Dell D630

The Dell Latitude D630 comes with a number of different video cards but if you use the Intel chipset you may be frustrated when trying to activate the visual effects eye candy of Compiz: Checking either of the lower two options brings up this alert saying, “Desktop effects could not be enabled”. I didn’t bother [...]

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How to umount when the device is busy

It happens all the time doesn’t it? You need to unmount a CD or you want to pack away the external drive but when you try to umount it you get the dreaded “device is busy” message. Wouldn’t it be great if Linux actually told you what was keeping the drive busy? Here we are [...]

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Ubuntu WiFi problems on the Dell D630 laptop

Wireless networking was always a bit patchy for me on my Dell Latitude D630 while running Ubuntu Gutsy version of Linux. It would work fine for ages and then freeze up suddenly, requiring a hard reboot to get things working (Apache would become unkillable, I guess because it was attached to the broken Wireless networking [...]

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The Linux Number Plate

Thanks Mark for pointing me to this eBay auction for the license plate, L1NUX. Current bid is £5,100 and the reserve hasn’t been met yet. I wonder will Alan Cox bid? There are a few days left so take your time and empty out that piggy bank.

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Ubuntu Gutsy on the Dell Latitude D630

I previously documented my problems with Ubuntu and the DVD in the D630 but the upgrade to Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy From Feisty went almost painlessly. All the packages downloaded and installed through the nice GUI front end. I was able to work away while they downloaded and for most of the time during install too, [...]

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Ubuntu Linux on Dell D630: the DVD

Getting the DVD drive working in Ubuntu Feisty on my Dell D630 laptop was one of the tasks that eluded me until a few minutes ago when I went searching again and found the solution. At first I tried this and used the ide-generic driver. Linux recognised the drive, but as the page above says, [...]

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How labels saved my life

Well, they made it easier. Saved might be a little strong. When using a Unix based system you use a file called /etc/fstab to designate all the hard drives and external storage like flash cards and where they will mount or live on your filesystem. It’s not quite like the Windows world where everything has [...]

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Open a new window here in Ubuntu Linux

One of the things I missed a long time ago in Windows completely was the handy “start” command I could type from a command prompt to open a new Windows Explorer window in whatever directory I was in. Can you still do that? Does anyone use Windows from the command prompt any more? I have [...]

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