Category: Troubleshooting

JPG Loading Issue

Unfortunately, this issue is unsolved for me. I found plenty of things that fixed it for other people, so maybe they will help you. If you have an idea of something else to try, please comment.

My laptop will not load jpeg files for some reason. Chrome and Internet browsing works just fine. I can see all images there, but I can’t see jpeg images in Eye of Gnome. The worst is that I can’t see the background. The desktop background is just blue.

Here’s my troubleshooting notes:

Read More

Remmina Package Issue

Just after install, I ran into an issue with Remmina not connecting with remote desktop. Come to find out, one of the previous steps I had taken had uninstalled the remmina-plugin-rdp package. I was able to download it and install it, but it broke apt-get.

Here’s the error message:

sudo apt install remmina remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc remmina-plugin-nx
[sudo] password for skp: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt --fix-broken install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 libgoo-canvas-perl : Depends: libextutils-depends-perl but it is not going to be installed
                      Depends: libextutils-pkgconfig-perl but it is not going to be installed
 remmina : Depends: remmina-common (= 1.2.30+ppa201805311012.rabac8fe.dc846e39~ubuntu18.04.1) but 1.2.30+ppa201805301643.rabac8fe.d627b4d9~ubuntu18.04.1 is to be installed
 remmina-plugin-nx : Depends: nxproxy
 remmina-plugin-secret : Depends: remmina (= 1.2.30+ppa201805301643.rabac8fe.d627b4d9~ubuntu18.04.1)
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt --fix-broken install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

I had previously enabled this repository.
http://ppa.launchpad.net/remmina-ppa-team/remmina-next/ubuntu

That had given me version: 1.2.30.1 (git n/a)

I disabled the repository using the software and updates GUI. Then, I ran these commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt --fix-broken install

Somehow it was enabled again. So, it seems it is fixed even with that repository.

Resources

Troubleshooting Windows Networking

Ok, ok. What’s a Windows article doing on a Linux blog? Well, I wanted to help a friend with a networking issue, and I thought maybe someone else might find it helpful as well. Every Linux user will end out running into Windows at some point anyway either through a remote desktop or virtual machine, so maybe it’s not too far off topic.

If you see something that I missed or a different approach to the problem, please comment below.

Here’s the issue … a friend’s computer connects to the wireless at their house but doesn’t have Internet. Other devices in their house connect, so it leads me to believe that the router is working although it could be an issue with DHCP and the other devices don’t need to renew their IP address. But, the laptop doesn’t work at their friend’s house. That makes me think that the problem is mostly with the laptop itself.

Read More

Fixing CDRecord

I’ve been trying to back up my computer, and I have a virtual machine that is rather large.  I am using a Samsung Blu-Ray burner, and I am having trouble.  Brasero just bombed out at the beginning of the burn.  So, I went back to K3b.  That did the trick mostly, but I ran into issues at the end of every disk.  So, I found a nice article on Ubuntu Forums.

Here are my notes on implementing the fix…

Read More

Can’t Close GMail Tasks Window

I just helped a friend with a “GMail” problem.  He couldn’t close the “tasks” window.  I found that it might be a somewhat common problem — I found a Google Groups post regarding the problem (Google Groups: Help! Can’t close Tasks).

Here’s what it looks like with the task Window open where you can’t see the close button:

GMail Zoomed with Tasks Open

The issue is that the resolution is too small to display the title bar of the tasks.  Therefore, you can’t click the close button.

I read that in some cases it was the screen resolution.  In my case, it was because the window was zoomed in.  That is a feature of the browser rather than GMail itself.  In this case, I am using the Google Chrome browser.  In the view menu, you’ll see the options.

Zoom Options in Google Chrome

The “Zoom In” will make things larger so that you can read things better.  It might distort the page a little, which is what it is doing here.  The “Zoom Out” option shrinks it back so that you can see more on the page.  The “Actual Size” resets things back to normal.

I believe most of the different browsers support this feature.  You will find the option in different places, but I think they use the same keyboard shortcuts.  If you hold the Ctrl key down, the plus ( + ) makes things bigger, and minus ( – ) shrinks it back.  Holding the Ctrl key and pressing zero ( 0 ) resets things back to normal.

So, in this case, hitting Ctrl + 0 fixes it so we can see the close button:

GMail fixed

Here are some of the other browsers’ documentation for zooming:

Time to Clean Up: Out of Space for New Kernels

This past update, I started getting a new error.  My /boot mount was full.  The problem was that I had 6 or 7 previous kernels still in the mount taking up space.

Boot Mount Full Message

I was able to fix it with a command written by Linerd.  He did a very nice job explaining it, so I would recommend that you follow through and read his post.

To make a long story short, I first ran the trial command:


dpkg -l linux-* | awk '/^ii/{ print $2}' | grep -v -e `uname -r | cut -f1,2 -d"-"` | grep -e [0-9] | xargs sudo apt-get --dry-run remove

Then, I ran the full command (without the –dry-run):


dpkg -l linux-* | awk '/^ii/{ print $2}' | grep -v -e `uname -r | cut -f1,2 -d"-"` | grep -e [0-9] | xargs sudo apt-get -y purge

Now, I am good to go!  Thanks Linerd.

Resources

Fixing Super Tux Kart

Super Tux Kart is a fun game that my son and I have gotten into.  It has recently improved quite a lot, and we have enjoyed playing it.

But, just recently, I found that it crashes a lot.  It’s not predicable, it will either freeze the X display or it will just close in the middle of a race.

So, I decided to do a quick Google search to see if there was a solution out.  I can’t find the article now, but something suggested that maybe it was a bug that was already fixed.  I found I had version 0.7, and version 0.8 was available.

On the download page, it suggested a repository.  So, I installed this repository:

sudo add-apt-repository http://ppa.launchpad.net/stk/dev/ubuntu

To get it to install, I ran the regular apt-get update…

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

After that, I had the 0.8 version.  In addition, the crashes seem to have gone away, so far.

Troubleshooting: Firewall Blocked Printing in Fedora 15

I had trouble printing from my laptop to the printer on my Ubuntu server. It took me a bit to figure it out, but I finally figured out that it was the Firewall.

When I looked in the Printer properties, I saw the message:

Stopped – /usr/lib/cups/backend/ipp failed

To troubleshoot, I ran “system-config-printer” on my server (I ran it through ssh so I didn’t have to walk into the other room). Then, I unchecked “enabled” on the printer so I didn’t waste any paper.

Then, I tried to print from gedit. It wouldn’t work at first.

Next, I opened “Firewall Configuration”. You can launch it from the command line with “system-config-firewall”. On the toolbar, click “Disable” and “Apply”. Then, I tried to print again. For me, I was able to print with no problem.

If that is the same for you, try checking these two options:

  • Network Printing Client
  • Network Printing Server

Printing Services in Firewall Configuration

For me, these two options were already checked. I had removed and re-added the printer, and somewhere along the way it asked if I wanted to open the printing ports in the firewall. That’s what made me check the firewall in the first place. Well, I found a post that suggested that it configures the firewall but doesn’t apply the changes. Sure enough, when I re-enabled the firewall and hit apply, I was able to print from gedit!

Resources

LogMeIn Hamachi on Fedora 15

The time has come to get my LogMeIn VPN working again. The learning curve was not near as steep as this time (I didn’t loose any hair!), but I did still have a few issues.

First, I downloaded the RPM from Logmein’s website: logmein-hamachi-2.0.1.15-1.x86_64.rpm

When I went to use the VPN, I got this message:

Hamachi does not seem to be running. 
Run '/etc/init.d/logmein-hamachi start' to start daemon. 

That seemed like an easy fix, but it wouldn’t start. I got this error message when I tried to start the service:

/etc/init.d/logmein-hamachi: line 28: /lib/lsb/init-functions: No such file or directory 

To fix it, I found a bug reference that suggested I should install a package like redhat-lsb-4.0-6.fc15. You should be able to do it with this command:

su -c "yum install redhat-lsb"

After installing that, the VPN service started fine:

su -c "/etc/init.d/logmein-hamachi start"
Starting LogMeIn Hamachi VPN tunneling engine logmein-hamac[  OK  ] 

One thing I did notice is that the service doesn’t automatically start like it did when I was using it on Ubuntu. I don’t know why, but this is actually what I want anyway. I can just start the service when I want to use it with:

su -c "/etc/init.d/logmein-hamachi start"