This article describes where I stand on using Microsoft Office in Linux. This time, I tried to explore a little more, so I walk you through what I tried and what didn’t work.
Category: Uncategorized
Jelly Bean Android ROMs
This is more of a public bookmark than anything else. I have been trying several different ROMs, but each on seems slow and laggy. I am not sure if am doing something wrong or if the HD2 is nearing the end of its life.
As always, the best place to find the most recent ROMs is: android.hd2roms.com
Here are the ROMS that I was looking at:
Dell 1320c Laser Printer on Ubuntu 13.04
I have long wanted to get my office’s color printer working, and I think that I finally found it. The printer is a Dell 1320c and to make it a little more challenging, it’s hooked to a LinkSys PSUS4 Print Server so as to make it a network printer. Others are using it from their Windows computers in the office, but this is the first time anyone has tried with a Linux computer.
Here’s what I found…
Amazon Prime Fix Again
We have enjoyed watching many of the Amazon Prime videos in the past. Unfortunately, on the last few machines that I have rebuilt, they wouldn’t play. It just said to upgrade the Flash Player. The usual tricks didn’t work.
Update: I found a different but easier solution for Ubuntu 13.10. See this post.
Thanks to Ask Ubuntu and Aaron, I found the solution. In summary, here are the commands that got the job done:
sudo apt-get install hal sudo mkdir /etc/hal/fdi/preprobe sudo mkdir /etc/hal/fdi/information /usr/sbin/hald --daemon=yes --verbose=yes rm -rf ~/.adobe
Here are the steps…
Cache Tuning for Inodes
I have been struggling with my website’s backups running. Host Gator requires the Inode count to be under a certain level in order for the backups to run. The best part about it is that they have added tools to the CPanel to show the usage and backup status.
After fixing the problem, here’s what my backup status panel looks like:
Also, farther on down the left hand column, Host Gator offers an Inode measurement. Again, after fixing, here’s what mine looks like:
Last time, I messed with the git repositories to clean up some of the inode usage. This time, I looked into the WordPress Caching. I am using a cache plugin called W3 Total Cache. Because it was not configured correctly, it was using up more inodes than it should have.
So, it was time to check on performance again, and I wanted to do a before and after performance measurement.
Ubuntu 13.04 Networking
As I setup my laptop with Ubuntu 13.04, I did several things to configure my networking needs. This article attempts to document my setup.
If you want to see all of my setup, please checkout my Ubuntu 13.04 Install page.
Duplicate Photos
I just restored my pictures directory from my backup onto my new Ubuntu 13.04 installation. It is almost 50G! The sad part is that I know there are many duplicate pictures in the directory for various reasons.
So, I decided to go on a trek to see if I could get rid of the duplicates. Here’s my explore:
Fixing the VPN on Ubuntu 13.04
None my VPNs have worked since I installed Ubuntu 13.04. Something is missing for some reason. I found a couple posts that gave some clues, so I thought I would take notes as I walked through it.
The Symptoms
First, when I try to connect, I got an error message about VPN secrets: “VPN Connection Failed: The VPN connection ‘<connection name>’ failed because there were no valid VPN secrets.”
Then, when I tried to configure it, I got this message: “Could not edit connection: Could not find VPN plugin service for ‘org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.pptp’.”
Troubleshooting
I found someone who did some troubleshooting on the Arch Linux Forums. I thought it would be a good attempt to try to figure out if the same thing was happening to me.
First, just out of curiousity, I wanted to see what process instance and what parameters were being used for Network Manager. Here’s the process:
skp@pecan:~$ ps -ef | grep -i networkmanager root 1157 1 0 Jun02 ? 00:00:05 NetworkManager root 1847 1157 0 Jun02 ? 00:00:00 /sbin/dhclient -d -sf /usr/lib/NetworkManager/nm-dhcp-client.action -pf /run/sendsigs.omit.d/network-manager.dhclient-wlan0.pid -lf /var/lib/NetworkManager/dhclient-a01df2ba-ec6b-4524-bf12-00ca1a01b65b-wlan0.lease -cf /var/lib/NetworkManager/dhclient-wlan0.conf wlan0 nobody 2010 1157 0 Jun02 ? 00:00:01 /usr/sbin/dnsmasq --no-resolv --keep-in-foreground --no-hosts --bind-interfaces --pid-file=/var/run/NetworkManager/dnsmasq.pid --listen-address=127.0.1.1 --conf-file=/var/run/NetworkManager/dnsmasq.conf --cache-size=0 --proxy-dnssec --enable-dbus=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.dnsmasq --conf-dir=/etc/NetworkManager/dnsmasq.d skp 14082 11788 0 08:44 pts/1 00:00:00 grep --color=auto -i networkmanager
Then, I stopped the service with “service network-manager stop”:
skp@pecan:~$ sudo service network-manager stop network-manager stop/waiting skp@pecan:~$ ps -ef | grep -i networkmanager nobody 2010 1 0 Jun02 ? 00:00:01 /usr/sbin/dnsmasq --no-resolv --keep-in-foreground --no-hosts --bind-interfaces --pid-file=/var/run/NetworkManager/dnsmasq.pid --listen-address=127.0.1.1 --conf-file=/var/run/NetworkManager/dnsmasq.conf --cache-size=0 --proxy-dnssec --enable-dbus=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.dnsmasq --conf-dir=/etc/NetworkManager/dnsmasq.d skp 14217 11788 0 08:52 pts/1 00:00:00 grep --color=auto -i networkmanager
Then, I found the UUID of my VPN connection with this command:
skp@pecan:~$ sudo cat /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/<Wireless SID redacted> | grep uuid <em id="__mceDel">uuid=1a31c85c-2808-4bae-8651-2c618f8972e8
Finally, I started Network Manager with debugging enabled like this:
NM_SERIAL_DEBUG=3 NetworkManager --no-daemon 2>&1 | tee /tmp/nmserial.txt
When I try to connect to the VPN, I get this in the debug log:
NetworkManager[14317]: <info> Starting VPN service 'pptp'... NetworkManager[14317]: <info> VPN service 'pptp' started (org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.pptp), PID 15299 NetworkManager[14317]: <info> VPN service 'pptp' appeared; activating connections NetworkManager[14317]: <error> [1370269072.212221] [nm-vpn-connection.c:1374] get_secrets_cb(): Failed to request VPN secrets #2: (6) No agents were available for this request. NetworkManager[14317]: <info> Policy set '<Wireless SID redacted>' (wlan0) as default for IPv4 routing and DNS. NetworkManager[14317]: <info> VPN service 'pptp' disappeared
Reinstalling
I copied the /etc/NetworkManager/VPN directory when I restored my backups. Looking back, I shouldn’t have done that.
So, I decided to see what package those files belong to:
skp@pecan:/etc/NetworkManager/VPN$ dpkg -S /etc/NetworkManager/VPN/nm-pptp-service.name network-manager-pptp: /etc/NetworkManager/VPN/nm-pptp-service.name
To get all of the files, I did this:
skp@pecan:/etc/NetworkManager/VPN$ for f in `ls /etc/NetworkManager/VPN/*`; do dpkg -S $f ; done network-manager-iodine: /etc/NetworkManager/VPN/nm-iodine-service.name network-manager-openconnect: /etc/NetworkManager/VPN/nm-openconnect-service.name network-manager-openvpn: /etc/NetworkManager/VPN/nm-openvpn-service.name network-manager-pptp: /etc/NetworkManager/VPN/nm-pptp-service.name network-manager-strongswan: /etc/NetworkManager/VPN/nm-strongswan-service.name network-manager-vpnc: /etc/NetworkManager/VPN/nm-vpnc-service.name
So, I deleted (or moved) those files and reinstalled the packages:
skp@pecan:/etc/NetworkManager/VPN$ mkdir $HOME/Downloads/VPN skp@pecan:/etc/NetworkManager/VPN$ sudo mv /etc/NetworkManager/VPN/* $HOME/Downloads/VPN/ [sudo] password for skp:</pre> skp@pecan:~$ sudo apt-get install --reinstall network-manager-iodine network-manager-openconnect network-manager-openvpn network-manager-pptp network-manager-strongswan network-manager-vpnc [sudo] password for skp: Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: kde-l10n-engb wine-gecko1.9:i386 Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them. 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 6 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 22.6 kB/120 kB of archives. After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used. Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/main network-manager-pptp amd64 0.9.6.0-0ubuntu2 [22.6 kB] Fetched 22.6 kB in 0s (78.3 kB/s) (Reading database ... 266755 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to replace network-manager-iodine 0.0.3-1ubuntu2 (using .../network-manager-iodine_0.0.3-1ubuntu2_amd64.deb) ... Unpacking replacement network-manager-iodine ... Preparing to replace network-manager-openconnect 0.9.6.0-0ubuntu2 (using .../network-manager-openconnect_0.9.6.0-0ubuntu2_amd64.deb) ... Unpacking replacement network-manager-openconnect ... Preparing to replace network-manager-openvpn 0.9.6.0-0ubuntu3 (using .../network-manager-openvpn_0.9.6.0-0ubuntu3_amd64.deb) ... Unpacking replacement network-manager-openvpn ... Preparing to replace network-manager-pptp 0.9.6.0-0ubuntu2 (using .../network-manager-pptp_0.9.6.0-0ubuntu2_amd64.deb) ... Unpacking replacement network-manager-pptp ... Preparing to replace network-manager-vpnc 0.9.6.0-0ubuntu2 (using .../network-manager-vpnc_0.9.6.0-0ubuntu2_amd64.deb) ... Unpacking replacement network-manager-vpnc ... Preparing to replace network-manager-strongswan 1.3.0-0ubuntu1 (using .../network-manager-strongswan_1.3.0-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb) ... Unpacking replacement network-manager-strongswan ... Setting up network-manager-iodine (0.0.3-1ubuntu2) ... Setting up network-manager-openconnect (0.9.6.0-0ubuntu2) ... Setting up network-manager-openvpn (0.9.6.0-0ubuntu3) ... Setting up network-manager-pptp (0.9.6.0-0ubuntu2) ... Setting up network-manager-vpnc (0.9.6.0-0ubuntu2) ... Setting up network-manager-strongswan (1.3.0-0ubuntu1) ...
That didn’t seem to do the trick. The VPN directory was still empty and the VPN would not connect.
Completely Removing
So, I used the purge command to completely remove the VPN packages:
sudo apt-get purge network-manager-iodine \ network-manager-openconnect network-manager-openvpn network-manager-pptp network-manager-strongswan network-manager-vpnc
Then, I had to reinstall the packages back:
sudo apt-get install network-manager-iodine network-manager-openconnect \ network-manager-openconnect-gnome network-manager-openvpn \ network-manager-openvpn-gnome network-manager-strongswan \ network-manager-vpnc network-manager-vpnc-gnome
After that it worked!
What Was the Difference?
I compared the files and they were identical. The one thing that I noticed was different was the permissions on the files:
</pre> skp@pecan:~$ ls -l /etc/NetworkManager/VPN/ total 24 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 203 Apr 10 08:06 nm-iodine-service.name -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 252 Apr 10 08:00 nm-openconnect-service.name -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 264 Apr 10 10:13 nm-openvpn-service.name -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 248 Feb 26 04:26 nm-pptp-service.name -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 223 Jun 29 2012 nm-strongswan-service.name -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 248 Apr 10 10:08 nm-vpnc-service.name skp@pecan:~$ ls -l ~/Downloads/VPN total 72 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 203 Apr 10 08:06 nm-iodine-service.name -rw------- 1 root root 252 May 27 17:30 nm-openconnect-service.name -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 264 Apr 10 10:13 nm-openvpn-service.name -rw------- 1 root root 248 May 27 17:30 nm-pptp-service.name -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 223 Jun 29 2012 nm-strongswan-service.name -rw------- 1 root root 248 May 27 17:30 nm-vpnc-service.name
Conclusion
First, when restoring network connections from a backup, only restore the /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections directory. The VPN directory gets installed with the VPN packages.
Second, the fix was to completely remove the packages. I had to use the purge command. The reinstall option didn’t recreate the files that I was missing.
Finally, my problem was the permissions in the /etc/NetworkManager/VPN/* directory.
Resources
Ubuntu 13.04 and the Fight for the Mouse
The mouse is something that should just work. Is it a bad sign when your mouse won’t work at all? You can see my problems with UNetbootIn on my previous post.
Even after I got it installed correctly, I still had trouble with all of my mouse input types. I still haven’t figured out how to get the Touchpad features working (like multi-touch) or the USB to reliably work. If you have any ideas, please comment.
Touchpad
The touchpad works as far as normal mouse features. The pointer moves and the right and left clicks work. The problem is that it isn’t recognized as a touchpad. Therefore, the scrolling and multi-touch features work. In the mouse settings, you’ll notice that all of the touchpad features are gone.
I tried a couple of quick searches, and I didn’t find anything new. So, I just followed the same instructions that I used on 12.10. I used this download link. Then, I extracted and installed with…
sudo tar -xf ~/Downloads/psmouse-alps-dst-0.4.tar -C /usr/src/ sudo bash /usr/src/psmouse-alps-dst-0.4/install.sh
Unfortunately, the build failed with this message in the middle of it:
cleaning build area.... make KERNELRELEASE=3.8.0-22-generic -C /lib/modules/3.8.0-22-generic/build M=/var/lib/dkms/psmouse/alps-dst-0.4/build/src psmouse.ko....(bad exit status: 2) Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/share/apport/package-hooks/dkms_packages.py", line 22, in <module> import apport ImportError: No module named apport Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 3.8.0-22-generic (x86_64) Consult /var/lib/dkms/psmouse/alps-dst-0.4/build/make.log for more information. Build failed
I tried installing the linux-source package. That didn’t fix the error at all, so I tried installing the python-apport package. That one fixed one of the errors, but it still didn’t completely compile.
Next, I found the driver on Git Hub: psmouse-alps. I downloaded the zip file from the front page, and I extracted it to the /usr/src directory:
sudo unzip psmouse-alps-master.zip -d /usr/src/ cd /usr/src/psmouse-alps-master/ sudo dkms add . sudo modprobe -r psmouse sudo dkms build -m psmouse -v custom-1.2 --all sudo dkms autoinstall --force sudo modprobe psmouse
I got closer, but the autoinstall wouldn’t work. It couldn’t find the directory. So, I took the install script from the other directory and updated it to this:
DLKM=alps-master KERN=$(uname -r) echo "MAIN: Driver source files by Dave Turvene. Install script by garyF." echo "MAIN: Install script updated by Stephen Phillips." echo "MAIN: Removing previous versions of psmouse-alps-dst..." sudo dkms remove psmouse/$DLKM --all echo "MAIN: Building current driver from source files..." sudo dkms build psmouse/$DLKM if [[ $? == 0 ]]; then echo "MAIN: Installing the driver" sudo dkms install psmouse/$DLKM sudo rmmod -v psmouse sudo modprobe -v psmouse echo "MAIN: Done installing. Go to System Settings > Mouse and Touchpad to configure :-)" else printf "Build failed\n" cat /var/lib/dkms/psmouse/$DLKM/build/make.log fi
I found this error message:
/usr/src/linux-headers-3.8.0-22-generic/arch/x86/Makefile:103: CONFIG_X86_X32 enabled but no binutils support
Update: I finally fixed it.
Bluetooth Mouse
My first attempt didn’t work on my bluetooth mouse. My second attempt ended up working with no problem.
I went to the bluetooth icon by the clock and clicked Bluetooth settings. I made sure that it was on. I don’t think that the visible was necessary, but I turned it on just in case. Then, I hit the bluetooth button on the bottom of my mouse. The power light flash green and red to show it was broadcasting.
On the settings dialog, I hit the plus sign to add a device.
The first time I tried, it wouldn’t find any devices. I gave up. Several updates and reboots later, I tried again, and this time, my mouse was in the list:
I selected the device and clicked Continue. It was that simple:
USB Mouse
In previous versions, my USB mouse had stopped working. I did some research and found a few bugs, but I never found a solution. This time it worked at first, but after a minute or two, it just stopped working. It seems to be hit or miss for some reason.
Here’s the dmesg output:
[12571.959955] usb 3-3: new full-speed USB device number 2 using xhci_hcd [12571.978603] usb 3-3: New USB device found, idVendor=046d, idProduct=c52f [12571.978610] usb 3-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0 [12571.978614] usb 3-3: Product: USB Receiver [12571.978617] usb 3-3: Manufacturer: Logitech [12572.024103] input: Logitech USB Receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-3/3-3:1.0/input/input14 [12572.024384] hid-generic 0003:046D:C52F.0002: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.11 Mouse [Logitech USB Receiver] on usb-0000:00:14.0-3/input0 [12572.026241] input: Logitech USB Receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-3/3-3:1.1/input/input15 [12572.026434] hid-generic 0003:046D:C52F.0003: input,hiddev0,hidraw2: USB HID v1.11 Device [Logitech USB Receiver] on usb-0000:00:14.0-3/input1 [12572.026479] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid [12572.026483] usbhid: USB HID core driver
I’ll have to research this more later.
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:
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.
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:
Here are some of the other browsers’ documentation for zooming: