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Category Archives: Ubuntu

Ubuntu 12.04 – Dell Vostro 3750 – No Sound When Headphones are Plugged in

Having just installed Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) on my Dell Vostro 3750 I noticed that there was no sound when I plugged in my headphones.

The workaround was to edit /usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-output-headphones.conf. Open the terminal and enter the following command:

sudo nano /usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-output-
headphones.conf

Look for the section called [Element Speaker] and change it so that it looks like this:

[Element Speaker]
switch = on
volume = ignore

Save the changes and then reboot.

After rebooting I found that I needed to remove my headphones and then insert the jack again to get them to work. Once they were working I could remove and insert the headphones jack and the behaviour was as expected.

Source: bugs.launchpad.net

Credit to Ryan (bovorasr) for the workaround.

 
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Posted by on May 26, 2012 in Linux, Ubuntu

 

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Ubuntu / Linux Mint – Installing MediaInfo From PPA

MediaInfo is a handy application for querying media files about their video and audio bitrates and video resolution and so on:

  • General: title, author, director, album, track number, date, duration…
  • Video: codec, aspect, fps, bitrate…
  • Audio: codec, sample rate, channels, language, bitrate…
  • Text: language of subtitle
  • Chapters: number of chapters, list of chapters
  • Video: MKV, OGM, AVI, DivX, WMV, QuickTime, Real, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DVD (VOB)…
    (Codecs: DivXXviD, MSMPEG4, ASP, H.264, AVC…)
  • Audio: OGG, MP3, WAV, RA, AC3, DTS, AAC, M4A, AU, AIFF…
  • Subtitles: SRT, SSA, ASS, SAMI…

Installing MediaInfo on Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic) and later releases is very simple via Personal Package Archive (PPA). Open a Terminal and enter the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:shiki/mediainfo
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mediainfo-gui

Now that MediaInfo is installed you can just drag and drop files into the application to query them.

That’s it!

 
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Posted by on October 20, 2011 in Linux, Linux Mint, Ubuntu

 

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Ubuntu / Linux Mint – User is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.

In my previous post I followed documentation for VirtualBox to get USB working in my Virtual Machines (VM) and issued the following command: sudo usermod -G vboxusers mike. This command resulted in this error message when I subsequently tried to use the sudo command:

mike is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.

I could no longer issue sudo commands – but all was not lost.

I decided to compare the user permissions on my now broken Linux Mint installation to the user permissions on my Ubuntu 11.10 VM that I had just installed (prior to running the command that broke things). I assumed that the settings between the two would be close enough – but given more time I probably have installed Linux Mint in a VM to make the comparison.

On broken Linux Mint system I issued the id username command:

id mike
uid=1000(mike) gid=1000(mike) groups=1000(mike),125(vboxusers)

On my Ubuntu 11.10 VM I got a rather different result:

id mike
uid=1000(mike) gid=1000(mike) groups=1000(mike),4(adm),20(dialout)
,24(cdrom),46(plugdev),116(lpadmin),118(admin),124(sambashare)

These permissions are contained in the file /etc/group and so I used the output from the Ubuntu VM as a guide to fixing permissions in /etc/group on Linux Mint. It should be noted that the Linux Mint and Ubuntu versions of /etc/group are not identical – so pay attention when editing this file.

To edit /etc/group I rebooted and selected the recovery mode option from the grub boot menu. I then chose the option to drop into a root prompt and supplied my user password as credentials.

I then edited /etc/group with nano and appended my username to the entries that I needed to correct.

sudo nano /etc/group

For example, I changed adm:x:4: to adm:x:4:mike. As you can see below the numerical sequence is not the same as for my Ubuntu VM but it is straight-forward enough to see which lines to append with your username.

#My amended /etc/group file on Linux Mint
root:x:0:
daemon:x:1:
bin:x:2:
sys:x:3:
adm:x:4:mike
tty:x:5:
disk:x:6:
lp:x:7:
mail:x:8:
news:x:9:
uucp:x:10:
man:x:12:
proxy:x:13:
kmem:x:15:
dialout:x:20:mike
fax:x:21:
voice:x:22:
cdrom:x:24:mike
floppy:x:25:
tape:x:26:
sudo:x:27:
audio:x:29:pulse
dip:x:30:
www-data:x:33:
backup:x:34:
operator:x:37:
list:x:38:
irc:x:39:
src:x:40:
gnats:x:41:
shadow:x:42:
utmp:x:43:
video:x:44:
sasl:x:45:
plugdev:x:46:mike
staff:x:50:
games:x:60:
users:x:100:
nogroup:x:65534:
libuuid:x:101:
crontab:x:102:
syslog:x:103:
fuse:x:104:
messagebus:x:105:
mlocate:x:106:
ssh:x:107:
avahi-autoipd:x:108:
avahi:x:109:
netdev:x:110:
bluetooth:x:111:
lpadmin:x:112:mike
ssl-cert:x:113:
gdm:x:114:
nopasswdlogin:x:115:
pulse:x:116:
pulse-access:x:117:
utempter:x:118:
rtkit:x:119:
admin:x:120:mike
saned:x:121:
sambashare:x:122:mike
mike:x:1000:
couchdb:x:123:
winbindd_priv:x:124:
vboxusers:x:125:mike

All that was left to do was to reboot and the problem was fixed.

 
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Posted by on October 16, 2011 in Linux, Linux Mint, Ubuntu

 

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VirtualBox 4.x – Failed To Access The USB Subsystem

I’ve just installed VirtualBox on my Linux Mint 11 (Katya) laptop and get the following error when I try to edit the settings on my Ubuntu 11.10 virtual machine:

VirtualBox is not currently allowed to access USB devices. You can change this by adding your user to the ‘vboxusers‘ group. Please see user manual for more detailed explanation.

To add your username to the vboxusers group enter the following command in the terminal (where “your-user-name” is your username on the computer):

sudo usermod -a -G vboxusers your-user-name

All that is left to do after this is reboot your computer.

Thanks to Sebastian for his comment regarding the addition of the -a switch to the usermod command.

 
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Posted by on October 14, 2011 in Linux, Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Virtual Machine

 

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Ubuntu Server – Configuring Exim4 to Send Email Via Gmail

I am in the midst of trying to get Kaltura to work on Ubuntu 10.4 but am experiencing an error that is a bit of a show stopper.

The good news is that I needed to configure Exim4 to send email via Gmail – and that is what this post is about.

First install Exim4:

sudo apt-get install exim4

Configure Exim with the following command:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config

Press the down-arrow key to select mail sent by smarthost; received via SMTP or fetchmail then press Tab, followed by Enter:

Enter a system mail name – this might be your company-name.com or a dummy domain name like I used below:

Next we specify an IP address to listen for incoming SMTP connections. This field was already completed for me with the value 127.0.0.1 ; ::1

The next screen was auto-completed with my host-name (which I had previously edited in /etc/hosts). The guide that I followed said to leave this blank but I left it as it was:

I left the Machines to relay for blank:

Select No don’t Hide local mail name in outgoing mail:

Select No to Keep number of DNS-queries minimal (Dial on-Demand):

For Delivery method for local mail choose mbox format in /var/mail/:

For Split configuration into small files select No:

Now we need to make several changes to the configuration to Exim4 in the file etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template:

sudo nano etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template

Find the line .ifdef DCconfig_smarthost DCconfig_satellite and add the following in that section (you can press Ctrl + W to search in nano):

send_via_gmail:
    driver = manualroute
    domains = ! +local_domains
    transport = gmail_smtp
    route_list = * smtp.gmail.com

The guide that I followed said to remove any other smarthost defined with domains = ! +local_domains in /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template but I did not find any.

Next find the comment begin authenticators section and add the following:

gmail_login:
    driver = plaintext
    public_name = LOGIN
    client_send = : yourname@gmail.com : YourGmailPassword

Find the comment transport/30_exim4-config_remote_smtp_smarthost and add the following:

gmail_smtp:
    driver = smtp
    port = 587
    hosts_require_auth = $host_address
    hosts_require_tls = $host_address

Finally comment out the login section of /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template:

#Commented out so that Gmail’s Public_name can equal “LOGIN”
#login:
# driver = plaintext
# public_name = LOGIN
#.ifndef AUTH_CLIENT_ALLOW_NOTLS_PASSWORDS
# Return empty string if not non-TLS AND looking up $host in passwd-file
# yields a non-empty string; fail otherwise.
# client_send = “<; ${if and{\
# {!eq{$tls_cipher}{}}\
# {!eq{PASSWDLINE}{}}\
# }\
# {}fail}\
# ; ${extract{1}{::}{PASSWDLINE}}\
# ; ${sg{PASSWDLINE}{\\N([^:]+:)(.*)\\N}{\\$2}}”
#.else
# Return empty string if looking up $host in passwd-file yields a
# non-empty string; fail otherwise.
# client_send = “<; ${if !eq{PASSWDLINE}{}\
# {}fail}\
# ; ${extract{1}{::}{PASSWDLINE}}\
# ; ${sg{PASSWDLINE}{\\N([^:]+:)(.*)\\N}{\\$2}}”
#.endif
#####################################################
### end auth/30_exim4-config_examples
#####################################################

Press Ctrl + O and then Enter to save and then Ctrl + X to save the file and exit nano.

Update Exim4 with the following command:

Run update-exim4.conf

Restart Exim4:

 /etc/init.d/exim4 restart

Finally test your configuration by sending an email via the command line:

mail user@example.com

Type a Subject and then press Enter.

Type a message and then press Enter.

Type a single . (dot) and then press Enter.

Press Enter again for a blank CC address.

Within a few minutes you should receive an email at the specified email address.

Sources:

http://www.manu-j.com/blog/wordpress-exim4-ubuntu-gmail-smtp/75/

http://basskozz.wordpress.com/2008/12/07/how-to-setup-a-raid5-software-mdadm-array-w-email-notifications-via-gmail-the-easy-way/ 

 
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Posted by on August 6, 2011 in Linux, Ubuntu

 

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Linux Mint – How To Remove The Fortune Cookie Messages From The Terminal

If you want to remove the fortune cookie messages that appear whenever you open a Terminal in Linux Mint, here is how to do it.

Click the Menu and then Terminal (or press Ctrl + Alt + T) to open a Terminal and then enter this command:

gksu gedit /etc/bash.bashrc

Scroll down to the bottom of the file and comment out (or remove) the line /usr/games/fortune:

#/usr/games/fortune

Press the Save button.

Source: Mint forum

 
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Posted by on July 9, 2011 in Linux, Linux Mint, Ubuntu

 

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Linux Mint 9 (Isadora) – Installing Ubuntu One

Installing Ubuntu One to sync files, contacts and Tomboy Notes is quite straight-forward in Linux Mint 9 (which is built on Ubuntu) but there are a couple of caveats.

You can install Ubuntu One by simply typing this into the Terminal:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntuone-client-gnome

The problem however appears when you try to install the plugin (Bindwood) to sync Firefox bookmarks in the Ubuntu One application. Not only does it not work – it also messes up an entry in your /etc/apt/sources.list. This means that you will get an error when you run update manager (and you will have an icon in the taskbar that reminds you of this all the time).

To avoid this problem you can install the Bindwood plugin manually as follows:

sudo apt-get install xul-ext-bindwood

If you need to correct your /etc/apt/sources.list this can be done as follows, In the Terminal type:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Look for the deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ isadora main upstream import universe entry and remove “universe” from the end of it so that it looks like this:

deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ isadora main upstream import

Save the file and close the file editor and then update your repositories again:

sudo apt-get update

Source: bugs.launchpad.net

 
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Posted by on July 9, 2011 in Linux, Linux Mint, Ubuntu

 

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Ubuntu 10.4 / Linux Mint 9 Isadora – Flash Player Is Out Of Date

After using Ubuntu 11.4 (Natty) for a while I’ve decided to install Linux Mint 9 Isadora (which is built on Ubuntu 10.4 (the last Long Term Support release)). In the end Natty and Unity did not seem polished enough to me (so I will revisit Unity with subsequent releases to see how it is progressing).

I did like the almost full-screen browsing experience that Natty delivered as well as the ability to sync files, contacts and Tomboy Notes with Ubuntu One. With this in mind Mint 9 seemed like a good choice – I liked that it only featured one panel at the bottom of the screen and the Mint menu is well thought out. Add to that the fact that things like Flash are already installed and that I can type directly into the Mint menu to search for installed software and I was sold.

I installed Mint 9 on two machines this week and was surprised when one of them reported that Flash was out of date (in both Firefox and Chromium). I checked Update Manager and tried re-installing flashplugin-nonfree to no avail.

I soon found a fix on the Ubuntu Forum though, which cleans up possible conflicting versions of Flash that might be installed and then re-installs flashplugin-nonfree from the repositories:

sudo apt-get purge lightspark
sudo apt-get purge swfdec-mozilla
sudo apt-get purge mozilla-plugin-gnash
sudo apt-get purge adobe-flashplugin
sudo apt-get purge flashplugin-nonfree
sudo apt-get purge flashplugin-installer
rm -f /home/**/.mozilla/plugins/*flash*so
rm -rf /home/**/.wine/dosdevices/c:/windows/system32/Macromed/Flash
sudo rm -f /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins/libflashplayer.so
sudo rm -f /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/flashplugin-alternative.so
/usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins/libflashplayer.so

This glitch aside I am quite impressed with Mint so far – it has a great selection of applications and is quite user friendly too.

 
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Posted by on July 9, 2011 in Linux, Linux Mint, Ubuntu

 

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Installing Nexenta Core Platform 3.0.1 With Nappit on VMware vSphere 4.x

I have been mulling over what exactly the eventual replacement for my Windows Home Server might be one day – and Nexenta is something that I have been pondering for a while.

The Nexenta Core Platform (NCP) is what the commercial (and community) versions of Nexenta (NexentaStor) are built upon.

NCP is based on Ubuntu, with an OpenSolaris kernel. NexentaStor (Community) has a Web Management User Interface (WMUI) and an 18TB limit for storage. NCP has a community developed WMUI called Nappit.

I decided to look at installed NCP and Nappit to get a feel for NCP over NexentaStor Community edition as I have not decided yet on what amount of storage I might want to use Nexenta for. This is because my plan is to use mirroring to provide basic redundancy rather than other forms of RAID. For some storage pools I might use three mirrored drives together rather than two and so I can see this strategy eating into the 18TB limit of NexentaStor Community (although hopefully not too quickly). I guess I don’t want to feel limited with my next storage server.

I am still pondering the pros and cons of virtualizing NCP on VMware vSphere versus running two physical boxes but for now lets look at installing NCP in a vSphere virtual machine.

Note the following keys used during installation:

  • Up and Down arrow keys move the cursor up and down between input fields and check-boxes,
  • Spacebar marks your selection,
  • Tab cycles through the options,
  • Enter confirms your choice and proceeds to the next step.

First download the Nexenta .iso and copy it to your vSphere datastore.

Create a new virtual machine and specify the following Guest Operating System properties – Linux and Ubuntu (64-bit).

I configured 4Gb of RAM with the default LSI Logic Parallel SCSI controller with a 12GB vitrual hard disk.

Finally point the virtual CD-ROM of the virtual machine to the uploaded Nexenta .iso and boot the virtual machine.

Enter a password for root, then press the down arrow key and re-enter your password. Press tab to highlight the OK button and then press Enter.

Login as root (or login as other user, enter su to get root permission).

At this point I tried to install napp-it but discovered that I did not have an IP address. The fix was as follows:

svcadm disable svc:/network/physical:default
svcadm enable svc:/network/physical:nwam

I entered the following command to check that I had an IP address:

ifconfig -a

Now we can install the nappit web interface for Nexenta:

wget -O - www.napp-it.org/nappit | perl
reboot

Open your preferred browser and enter: http://<server-ip>:81 to manage your Nexenta installation.

Sources:

http://www.nexenta.org/boards/1/topics/1118, http://www.nexenta.org/projects/site/wiki/Difference

http://www.nexenta.org/projects/site/wiki/GettingStarted

http://www.nexenta.org/projects/site/wiki/WhyNexenta

http://193.196.158.121/napp-it.pdf

 
 

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Ubuntu Server 10.4 Lucid – Upgrading Feng Office (Community Edition)

It turns out that upgrading Feng Office is actually very simple. I had installed Feng Office Community Edition version 1.7.4 recently and a few days ago found out that version 1.7.5 had been released.

It is advisable to backup your current installation before upgrading.

Log in to Feng Office as Admin and then click the Administration link:

Click the Upgrade button:

Click Start automatic upgrade:

Wait a couple of minutes and then log back in to your new version of Feng Office.

 
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Posted by on June 30, 2011 in Linux, Ubuntu, Ubuntu Server

 

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