Tag-Archive for ◊ Ubuntu ◊

SpringSource Tool Suite Buttons
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 | Author:

After installing SpringSource Tool Suite 2.3.0 on Ubuntu 9.10, various IDE buttons were not working. The fix is to set the right value for GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS before running it, e.g. have a file in /usr/bin that looks something like:

#!/bin/sh
export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1
/usr/lib/springsource/sts-2.3.0.RELEASE/STS

That’s it for now.

Category: Spring, Ubuntu  | Tags: , , , ,  | Leave a Comment
Ubuntu 9.10 Firefox 3.5 fonts
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 | Author:

After upgrading to 9.10, the fonts in Firefox were too big and blurry. I fixed it as follows:

cd /etc/fonts/conf.d
sudo mv 10-hinting-slight.conf 10-hinting-slight.conf.original
sudo ln -s /etc/fonts/conf.available/10-hinting-medium.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/.
sudo ln -s /etc/fonts/conf.available/10-sub-pixel-rgb.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/.
sudo dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig

Restart Firefox.

Thanks to Carlo Hamalainen for providing the fix.

Category: Ubuntu  | Tags: , , , ,  | Leave a Comment
Ubuntu 9.10: Disable “shut down after 60 seconds”
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 | Author:

In 9.04, Ubuntu introduced the ridiculous default of waiting 60 seconds after you clicked on “shut down” before actually doing it. Presumably in case you changed your mind. Yeah, really useful.
Upgrading to 9.10 re-introduced this “feature”, but it’s now even less obvious how to turn it off. Here’s how:

  1. Press Alt-F2
  2. In the Run Application window, type the following then click on Run:
    gconf-editor
  3. In the Configuration Editor window, go to Apps/indicator-session, check the suppress_logout_restart_shutdown checkbox, then close the window.

Nice.

Category: Ubuntu  | Tags: , ,  | Leave a Comment
Ubuntu 9.10 mounts cannot yet be mounted
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 | Author:

I just upgraded from Ubuntu 9.04 to Ubuntu 9.10.
On day 1, startup worked just fine. But that was because I went to make a cup of tea while it was starting up.
On day 2, I got this message during startup:

One or more of the mounts listed in /etc/fstab cannnot yet be mounted:
/: waiting for /dev/disk/by-uuid-...(lots of letters and numbers here)
/tmp: waiting for (null)
/boot: waiting for /dev/disk/by-uuid-...(lots of letters and numbers here)
/data: waiting for /dev/disk/by-uuid-...(lots of letters and numbers here)
/windows: waiting for /dev/disk/by-uuid-...(lots of letters and numbers here)
Press ESC to go into a recovery shell

It was because I hadn’t made a cup of tea!
Seriously though, It’s not an error message, just a horribly worded message implying that ESC should be pressed, which it shouldn’t. Just by doing nothing and waiting (e.g. by going and making a cup of tea), Ubuntu eventually starts up completely OK.
Please Ubuntu, change this! My friend saw the message and now sees Ubuntu as less credible.

I’ll be posting more on Ubuntu 9.10, mostly whinges and fixes to problems, which is grossly unfair. I’m sure there are loads of great improvements too…

Category: Ubuntu  | Tags: , , , , ,  | Leave a Comment
BBC iPlayer: live streaming audio on Firefox on Ubuntu
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 | Author:

Archive radio programmes were working but live radio wasn’t on Firefox 3.08 on Ubuntu 8.10. I fixed it as follows:

Close Firefox.
Remove the following packages:

  • totem-gstreamer
  • totem-mozilla

Install the following packages

  • mozilla-mplayer
  • totem-xine

Restart Firefox.

Category: Ubuntu  | Tags: , , , , ,  | Leave a Comment
Ubuntu update system path
Monday, April 13th, 2009 | Author:

> sudo vi /etc/bash.bashrc

In the file, add or update:
PATH=$PATH:/opt/real/RealPlayer

To start using the new path:
> bash -login

Category: Ubuntu  | Tags: ,  | Leave a Comment
Using a SyncMaster 215TW external monitor with Radeon Mobility UI under Ubuntu
Monday, April 13th, 2009 | Author:

I am now able, in a limited way, to use my external Samsung SyncMaster 215TW with Ubuntu 8.10 running on laptop, using ATI Radeon Mobility UI.

To activate the external monitor:

  • Turn on the external monitor.
  • System / Preferences / Screen Resolution.
  • First time only: Check ‘Show Displays in Panel’.  This means you can just click on the panel icon in future instead of using System / Preferences / Screen Resolution.
  • First time only: Uncheck ‘Mirror Screens’ if it is checked
  • Click on Samsung 21″, and set Resolution to the maximum 1680 x 1050.  Setting a lower resolution causes the external monitor to display only a warning message.
  • IMPORTANT: Click on Laptop 15″, and set Resolution to Off.
  • Click on Apply.

To switch back to the laptop screen, do the reverse.  This may be important if your next use of the laptop is going to be without the monitor.

If at any point, you end up with no display on either laptop or monitor, restart in recovery mode and execute:
> rm ~/.config/monitors.xml

Category: Ubuntu  | Tags: , , , , , ,  | Leave a Comment
Connecting Zen Sleek to Amarok on Ubuntu
Sunday, April 12th, 2009 | Author:

After installing all the required libraries (libnjb, etc), amarok would not recognise my Creative Zen Sleek MP3 player.

Gnomad2 would connect to it, but only if started with “sudo gnomad2″.

But, I found the issue – user privileges. Here’s how I got it working:

  • System / Administration / Users and Groups
  • Unlock if necessary
  • Select user
  • Properties / User Privileges
  • Check the “Use audio devices” box.  For some reason, this is unchecked by default

Amarok now connects, and gnomad does not need sudo, though I don’t need to use gnomad any more.

Category: Ubuntu  | Tags: , , , , , ,  | Leave a Comment
Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex installation
Friday, April 10th, 2009 | Author:

I have just installed Ubuntu 8.10 on my old Compaq nx9005 laptop.

I started by attempting to upgrade from Hardy Heron.  The result of this was that X no longer worked, so I did a complete re-install. About time, as I’d been doing upgrades since Dapper.  I thought the pain of loads of reconfiguration would be worth it.

Things that work in Intrepid that did not work in Hardy:

  • Compiz desktop effects.  These have never worked on this laptop before, so this was very unexpected and exciting!
  • Connecting to my external monitor, a Samsung SyncMaster 215TW.  Switching between laptop screen and external monitor is still a bit fiddly, but it’s better than no external monitor at all.

Things that do not work in Intrepid that did work in Hardy:

  • Connecting to a Creative Zen Sleek MP3 player using Amarok.
  • BBC iPlayer is very choppy in Ibex.

I’ll be returning to the outstanding problems, and hopefully fixing them, in future posts.

Category: Ubuntu  | Tags: , , , ,  | Leave a Comment