The Linux Questions Thread: a bunch of pitfalls, but technically it's possible

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Linux Questions Thread: a bunch of pitfalls, but technically it's possible

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

Here's one of those niggling little tips that might make a huge difference for some of you. If you, like me, cannot stand the way CTRL+BACKSPACE erases the entire URL in Firefox (or otherwise does not work like it does in Windows), then I have a simple fix:

set layout.word_selection.stop_at_punctuation to true in about :config.

Perhaps this is common knowledge, but I did not see it mentioned so far. Hopefully someone finds this useful.

EDIT: And to make backspace go to the previous page instead of returning to the top of the screen, set browser.backspace_action to 0.

Kobayashi fucked around with this message at 04:32 on Aug 17, 2007

# ¿ Aug 16, 2007 20:33

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 13:32

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

I'm finally back on Linux after a one-year hiatus. I am really impressed by the progress that has been made. So much stuff Just Works these days.

teapot posted:

What exactly did not work? Totem media player is the most bloated most often broken media player that ever was shipped with Linux, this is why people install Xine, GXine, VLC, Mplayer and other well known media players on Linux. Not entirely unlike Windows Media Player. Even taking that into account a lot of problems with it can be solved by resetting its configuration by removing .totem directory under user's home.

Yes, questions abound! Not necessarily to you, teapot, but inspired by your post on the brokenness of Totem.

A) How to replace Totem as the handler for oh so many files? Preferred Applications only sets the Browser, Email Reader, and Terminal settings. For example, MP3s want to open with Totem instead of Rhythmbox (which is actually good enough for me).

B) What to replace it with? VLC? Gnome native is a must. Amarok is nice, but it has to be native because I am a UI fag.

C) Is it possible to play Real streams a la those on c-span.com? I couldn't for the life of me getting Real to work on Ubuntu. I finally had to resort to installing RealPlayer 11-beta on a Windows VM.

D) Can I install Flash in, say, Opera only? On Windows, I wouldn't install Flash at all in Firefox, instead using IETab when I needed to view a Flash page. I did this because Flashblock actually loads the first frame of the movie before blocking. I want Flash to be completely separate from Firefox.

E) Spotlight on Ubunutu? Deskbar + Beagle Extension is just about there! I can launch programs and search, but when I look for an MP3 I want to play I get an error:

Deskbar posted:

Cannot show URL:

'file://file%3A///home/path/to/the/file/I/want/to/play'

I'd say there's something wrong there!

F) Ubuntu is so much fun.

# ¿ Aug 22, 2007 18:25

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

RoundsToZero posted:

I think VLC is GTK+ not Gnome but from a UI fag's point of view there shouldn't be a difference. GXine is also GTK+ but I'm not a fan. Mplayer and xine-ui each use very different toolkits.

I tried VLC while I was trying to get Real video to work and didn't have any major problems with it. Was native enough for me. Ideally I would like to have one multimedia player for all my video+audio needs, but VLC and Rhythmbox would probably be good enough too.

# ¿ Aug 22, 2007 18:33

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

I have what I believe is probably an easy Nautilus question. Somehow, somewhere, I changed the default to list view, sorted by name. The only problem is that by default, the sort is descending instead of ascending, meaning ZZZ is sorted before AAA and so on. I know I must be overlooking something incredibly obvious, but damned if I can't figure it out...

# ¿ Sep 5, 2007 22:14

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

Col posted:

Edit:

A more technical response:

Run gconf-editor from a terminal.
Drill down the menu on the left as follows:

/ -> apps -> nautilus -> list_view -> default_sort_in_reverse_order

That checkbox should do the trick.

Thank goodness for that edit! I was starting to get a create screenshots because I don't have "Arrange items" in my View menu. I don't recall rummaging through gconf settings, but that must have been what I did. In any case, thanks, your advice worked.

# ¿ Sep 5, 2007 22:42

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

Are there any good alternatives to Nautilus on Gnome? For some reason it just rubs me the wrong way. For instance, with spatial disabled and the tree view visible, why doesn't the tree selection update when I navigate deeper into the tree in the right pane? Why do folders in the tree view expand to (Empty) instead of appearing simply as leaf nodes? Why can I set the list view to what equates to 7px (25% zoom), but the tree view uses the "Document" font setting?

If there are no decent alternatives, maybe someone can help me fix the sort order. I have LC_COLLATE=C in my .bashrc file, but Nautilus does not respect it. There's a bug report out there, but it was recently marked NOTABUG. If Nautilus DOES respect the locale setting, how the hell do I change it?

# ¿ Sep 12, 2007 09:45

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

teapot posted:

.bashrc has no effect on things not started from interactive bash by the user that .bashrc belongs to. You can configure environment for X sessions by adding your own file to /etc/X11/Xsession.d/ (see other files in there for examples).

Putting in .bashrc gets me halfway home, by fixing everything terminal-related. After poking around in session.d/, I also put the same entry in .gnomerc, which seems to have fixed Nautilus. Is there anything stupid or incorrect about doing that?

I gave Thunar a quick go, and while it gets closer to what I have in mind as the "ideal" filemanager, I don't know how deep down the rabbit hole I want to go to get it to work. I might revisit this some time in the future...

# ¿ Sep 13, 2007 00:53

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

How is /mnt supposed to be used? I have an ancient Dell that I am using as my home fileserver. I put an extra 120 Gb hard drive in there and mounted it to /mnt/store. It has become the catch-all for everything I want to keep: svn repositories, htdocs, MP3 backup, and other assorted crap. I read something somewhere the other day that suggested I shouldn't be using /mnt like this.

A) What should I use /mnt for?

B) What is the best way to store a whole bunch of stuff on a separate HD? I know how to mount directories, but I'm not sure which one I should be using.

# ¿ Sep 19, 2007 22:53

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

The amount of knowledge contained in this thread is amazing.

I have two questions:

1. VirtualBox keeps killing my VM because the image has grown to be 16 Gb. How can I increase the maximum filesize for my system? I run stock Ubuntu Feisty, shipped to me by Dell. I believe that means ext3.

2. I cannot reboot. When I try to reboot, the system hangs after stopping all the running processes. At first I couldn't see what was happening because of that stupid graphical progress bar that obscures what is actually happening in the terminal. I then booted into the recovery console and tried to reboot. The system just sits there after saying "The system will now restart." This is particularly annoying since I do not have a reset button, so I have to hold power for ~7 seconds to turn off my machine. Could this be an ACPI issue? Halt works fine.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2007 21:19

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

teapot posted:

Can you clarify, which OS runs VirtualBox, and which OS is running in the VirtualBox? And where do you keep their corresponding filesystems?

I am running VB on Ubuntu Feisty as configured by Dell. The image in question is Windows XP. I remember when I created the VM that I tried to allocate 40 Gb up front but it kept giving me errors. I instead chose to use a dynamically expanding image. It is in ~/$HOME/.VirtualBox/Machines/Windows XP/Snapshots/{...}.VDI.

I did a little Googling, but didn't get too far.

ulimit -a:

code:

core file size          (blocks, -c) 0
data seg size           (kbytes, -d) unlimited
scheduling priority             (-e) 20
file size               (blocks, -f) unlimited
pending signals                 (-i) unlimited
max locked memory       (kbytes, -l) unlimited
max memory size         (kbytes, -m) unlimited
open files                      (-n) 1024
pipe size            (512 bytes, -p) 8
POSIX message queues     (bytes, -q) unlimited
real-time priority              (-r) 0
stack size              (kbytes, -s) 8192
cpu time               (seconds, -t) unlimited
max user processes              (-u) unlimited
virtual memory          (kbytes, -v) unlimited
file locks                      (-x) unlimited

/etc/fstab:

code:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
# /dev/sda1
UUID=c8ed6c41-e81d-4f10-bc48-ba05dce58c73 /               ext3    defaults,error
s=remount-ro 0       1
# /dev/sda5
UUID=4330a6fa-6335-47c2-a014-fe054db9cb71 none            swap    sw            
  0       0
/dev/scd0       /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto     0       0
UUID=e97fe73d-0b19-4f73-b4d1-b52f2b09e5ec  /boot ext3 defaults 0 0

I read online that ext3 supports 16 Gb - 2 Tb max. file sizes, but from what I can tell (and I really don't know how to interpret what I am looking at), it shouldn't be an issue with my system as configured.

quote:

Very likely it's ACPI, however it's possible that some driver does not exit cleanly (then you most likely will see error messages about it while computer is waiting and is supposed to be rebooting). You can press 'e' in GRUB menu while your normal system is selected, select the kernel line, pres 'e' again, edit the line to remove "splash" and "quiet", press Enter and 'b' to boot in normal mode with kernel messages enabled. You can do the same way to add "acpi=noirq" or even "acpi=off" options to see if it makes reboot work properly.

I shall give this a shot; thanks.

# ¿ Sep 29, 2007 21:05

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

teapot posted:

What errors?

If I try to create a fixed size, 40 Gb image from the Virtual Disk Manager, it says:

code:

Falied to create a hard disk image '$HOME/.VirtualBox/VDI/NewHardDisk1.vdi' (VERR_FILE_TOO_BIG).

Result Code: 
0x80004005
Component: 
VirtualDiskImage
Interface: 
IVirtualDiskImage {a8265b5a-0d20-4a46-a02f-65693a4e8239}

When I start the VM, I get this error after a while:

code:

Host system reported that the file size limit has been exceeded.
VM execution is suspended. You need to move the file to a filesystem
which allows bigger files.

Error ID: 
DevATA_FILETOOBIG
Severity: 
Warning

# ¿ Sep 30, 2007 03:53

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

teapot posted:

Check if you have 1K block size on your filesystem where you are trying to create the image by running "tune2fs -l /dev/sda1" as root and looking for "Block size:" line. If it shows 1024, you need to create a ext3 filesystem with a larger block size ("-j -b 2048" or "-j -b 4096" options to mke2fs when creating it) to store an image that large. I recommend to test this on a separate drive before doing any changes on your original root filesystem, and you will need a backup drive to do that anyway.

1K blocks confirmed. I have a spare 120 Gb drive. I think I will use that instead of mucking around with my root filesystem.

On another note, is there anything you don't know about Linux, teapot?

# ¿ Sep 30, 2007 07:44

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

Quick rsync question. I've already uploaded dozens of gigabytes to my Dreamhost account using rsync:

code:

rsync -av --stats --progress ...

I've changed my directory structure around a bit and I'd like rsync to remove files from the destination that do not exist locally. I'm thinking --delete will do what I need, but I wanted to make sure I'm not overlooking something.

Also, when I originally uploaded the data (a process that took WEEKS), I didn't use --archive. If the connection dropped, and oh did it drop, rsync took hours and hours to regenerate the list and figure out where it left off. I notice now that when I use -a instead of my custom witch's brew of flags things go much faster. Is this to be expected, or am I just imagining it?

EDIT: Ok so I am an idiot and didn't notice the man page had verbose descriptions for all the options. Whoops.

Kobayashi fucked around with this message at 05:35 on Oct 17, 2007

# ¿ Oct 17, 2007 05:15

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

A year or so ago I reformatted Windows but I never bothered to install Flash when prompted. Eventually I grew to love the web without Flash. For the few sites that I absolutely needed Flash (ie YouTube), I used IETab to load the site in Internet Explorer. Does anyone know of any kind of any techniques I could use to replicate this set up?

I want to divorce Flash from Firefox as much as possible. The obvious answer is, of course, to use Flashblock, but I found it to be lacking. First, when I did use Flashblock, I noticed that I often so the first frame of a Flash movie before it was blocked. I don't want that to happen. Second, I don't like the way Flashblock's windows would show up all over the place, often breaking the page layout. When Flash isn't installed at all, things "feel" much cleaner. Plus I've gotten used to the yellow bar at the top that lets me know I might be missing something interesting.

Any advice would be appreciated.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2007 08:23

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

teapot posted:

Umm... uninstall Flash... Or

code:

sudo rm /etc/alternatives/mozilla-flashplugin

To enable it again

code:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so /etc/alternatives/mozilla-flashplugin

You know, that's actually good enough. I have another browser I can that I can use if I need Flash. Only problem is, I removed the symlink but Firefox still loads the Flash player. It shows up in about :plugins, but I can't find any way to disable it in about :config or the addons dialog. I wanted Flash installed, just not in Firefox.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2007 18:48

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

teapot posted:

Sorry, did not notice that firefox uses its own link.

To disable:
code:
sudo rm /etc/alternatives/firefox-flashplugin
To re-enable:
code:
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so /etc/alternatives/firefox-flashplugin

Thanks for another great tip, teapot.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2007 02:06

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

I want to run a few VMs, so I upgraded to 4Gb of RAM. Ubuntu, however, is only showing 3Gb. I'm getting conflicting information from Google: I need to recompile my kernel, its a known bug, it doesn't matter, etc. Can someone tell me what the story is? Will Ubuntu use all 4Gb? Do I need to recompile the kernel?

# ¿ Nov 13, 2007 01:14

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

covener posted:

Debian ships separate kernel packages for kernels built with large (4gb+) memory support, maybe ubuntu does the same; the packages are suffixed with -bigmem in debian.

Not all kernels are configured this way because there is a performance hit for the additional indirection.

Hmm. The linux-server meta package installs a large memory kernel; however, there is a bug with that configuration. The linux-restricted-modules-2.6.22-14-server package is missing (See bug #153011 on Launchpad). I need the restricted modules manager for my Nvidia graphics card, or else I'm stuck with 800x600. When I try to follow the workaround provided in the comments, I get compile errors. Plus, I don't think I want to re-compile kernel modules every time there is an update. If I'm going to do that, I'd rather compile whatever I need for high memory support instead. Do I have any other options here?

# ¿ Nov 13, 2007 04:38

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

I'm trying to hook my cable box up to my computer and I can't quite get the sound figured out. The video out on the cable box goes directly into my monitor. For the audio, I'm running the component out through a 1/8" Y-cable and into the line in on my computer. From there, I'm not sure how to control the sound.

In Gnome (on Gutsy), I can only hear the TV sound when I go to System > Preferences > Sound > Sound Capture > Test. As long as the test is running, I hear the sound. When it isn't running, sound is muted. The Volume Control applet settings only work when I'm running a sound test. When the test isn't running, it doesn't matter whether the line-in channels are muted or not, I get nothing.

So I suppose my question would be: can I listen to the TV audio without running the capture test? If so, how?

Kobayashi fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Nov 19, 2007

# ¿ Nov 19, 2007 03:00

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

teapot posted:

If you connected it correctly, you have TV sound at your Line In input. There are two controls -- recording and output mixer. Details differ on different cards, however usually to hear what is immediately on your Line In input you don't have to enable recording from it but have to unmute it, set its level to nonzero, and may have to separately enable output from Line In. You may have to run mixer and go to preferences menu to enable missing controls.

It took forever to find, but the option I was looking for was the "analog loopback" option. When enabled, I hear line-in; when disabled, I do not. Pretty obvious, in retrospect.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2007 07:29

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

Running Gutsy, I've noticed that the screensaver, when the screen is locked, has an extra option: "leave message." Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Where do these messages go? How would I check them?

EDIT: Also, by playing around with the power options, I managed to disable my keyboard's shut down button and remap it to lock the screen, which is nice.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2007 23:43

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

Crush posted:

It's for people to leave you a message, when you unlock your desktop, they should just pop up.

I figured, but they don't. They just disappear into the ether.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2007 00:11

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

Rargh I'm frustrated. I finally bought my own XBOX and am trying to run the audio through my computer speakers. I bought an RCA to stereo-mini converter and am running that into the line-in jack on the of my computer. Only whoa nelly it's waaaay too loud. Even with the gain(?) turned all the way down to zero, and my speakers nearly off it's too loud.

I've spent about an hour Googling this, but I don't understand sound processing or ALSA well enough to know what I should be looking for. I hope someone can tell me what my options are to lower the volume.

For reference, I know my chipset keywords are "HDA Intel" and STAC9227. I know I have ALSA 1.0.15. I'm running Hardy. In the Gnome volume control applet, I have Input Source 1 set to Line. From there, I have to check the "analog loopback" switch option to get any volume at all. Then I can "control" the volume with Capture 1. What I mean by control is I can either have deafeningly loud, or so loud that it's basically static. The volume slider is only tolerable when it is at the bottom.

I've read lots of problems about people not having any microphone/line-in volume at all with this chipset, so I'm hoping I actually have that problem and ticking the "analog loopback" switch is a stupid idea that's masking the real issue. Or maybe there's a way to use amixer to map capture to something that can be controlled by the master volume control? Or hell, maybe I need to buy some kind of adapter to temper the power the XBOX is spitting out?

# ¿ Aug 16, 2008 06:10

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

My Dell 2407WFP monitor comes with an integrated SD/MMC card reader that I would like to use with Ubuntu 9.04. It doesn't seem to work, though.

If I watch /var/log/syslog, I see that the reader is being recognized when I plug it in:

code:

Jun 29 00:05:51 nixon kernel: [624798.860070] usb 1-5: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 16
Jun 29 00:05:51 nixon kernel: [624798.994683] usb 1-5: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Jun 29 00:05:51 nixon kernel: [624798.995020] hub 1-5:1.0: USB hub found
Jun 29 00:05:51 nixon kernel: [624798.995104] hub 1-5:1.0: 2 ports detected
Jun 29 00:05:52 nixon kernel: [624799.268137] usb 1-5.1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 17
Jun 29 00:05:52 nixon kernel: [624799.365053] usb 1-5.1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Jun 29 00:05:52 nixon kernel: [624799.365170] hub 1-5.1:1.0: USB hub found
Jun 29 00:05:52 nixon kernel: [624799.365413] hub 1-5.1:1.0: 4 ports detected
Jun 29 00:05:52 nixon chipcardd[3225]: devicemanager.c: 3373: Changes in hardware list

I don't know what to do to make it work, though. Some Googling seems to indicate something about kernel support for SCSI LUNs. Kernel needs to CONFIG_SCSI_MULTI_LUN option set. I don't know what any of this means. I guess I have to recompile my kernel now? Can someone help me out here?

# ¿ Jun 29, 2009 08:12

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

I'm running OS X, but asking in here because I figured there's more command line expertise in here. I use Node a lot. Sometimes, a script will crash in an annoying way, such that I have to hunt down the process ID and manually kill it. I would like to automate this process. Here's what I do now:

code:

$ ps | grep node
  3535 ttys000    0:00.00 grep node
  3536 ttys000    0:00.00 node /Users/me/something/else
  3537 ttys000    0:00.00 node /Users/me/project/the/one/I/want/to/kill
$ kill 3537

What I'd like to do is run a command that terminates any node processes that match the current wording directory. My terminal skills aren't good enough to figure out how to 1) pick out the matching processes from the list and then 2) extract the PIDs to pipe to kill. Anyone have any suggestions?

# ¿ Jan 13, 2015 22:37

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

Docjowles posted:

You want pkill -f. In your case, something like this should do the trick:
code:
pkill -f `pwd`
Just be careful, because it does a substring match. So "pkill -f /Users/me/" in your example would kill BOTH node processes. But if you're very deep in a directory tree that should be safe. Or you could look for some other unique way to identify the commandline of the offending process. You can add "-I" (capital i) to the commandline to make it prompt you before it kills something.

You can use "pgrep" the same way to search for processes but not kill them.

Just what I was looking for, thanks.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2015 23:15

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

This isn't so much of a Linux question as an SSH question. I was recently updating my dotfiles when I realized that my SSH keys all use "clever" passphrases from my pre-password manager days. I was thinking of generating new keys. My question is, if I use a 30-character random passphrase generated by my password manager, is it OK to store my private key on something like Dropbox? I assume the passphrase means that my private key is useless without the passphrase?

# ¿ Mar 29, 2015 17:10

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 13:32

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

Thanks, didn't know about the "-p" option, that saved a lot of time.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2015 22:10

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Linux Questions Thread: a bunch of pitfalls, but technically it's possible