codlord's questions

I have a couple of PCs both running 24.04.1 LTS. On one of them when I go to Settings -> System -> Date & Time there is no Automatic Date & Time option. It just shows Date & Time with the ability to manually set the date/time.

When I ran timedatectl on the problem PC I get:

               Local time: Fri 2024-10-04 11:26:30 BST
           Universal time: Fri 2024-10-04 10:26:30 UTC
                 RTC time: Fri 2024-10-04 10:26:30
                Time zone: Europe/London (BST, +0100)
System clock synchronized: no
              NTP service: n/a
          RTC in local TZ: no

And when I run timedatectl set-ntp on I get:

Failed to set ntp: NTP not supported

So I understand why the option is missing in settings (NTP not supported) but I don't understand why it's not supported or what I need to do to fix it.

Can anyone help further?

Recently Ubuntu stopped mounting (or even seeing) one of my hard disks. I assumed the disk had failed so I replaced it only to find it's not actually the disk itself. It seems to be something to do with one of the SATA connectors. But it's not "dead", Ubuntu is seeing the disk but not attaching it.

I wondered if there is anything I can do/try to resolve this?

When I connect a disk successfully I get the following dmesg output:

[1979542.453246] ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
[1979546.737295] ata4: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)
[1979547.449311] ata4: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
[1979547.450138] ACPI BIOS Error (bug): Could not resolve symbol [\_SB.PCI0.SAT0.PRT3._GTF.DSSP], AE_NOT_FOUND (20210730/psargs-330)

[1979547.450147] No Local Variables are initialized for Method [_GTF]

[1979547.450148] No Arguments are initialized for method [_GTF]

[1979547.450150] ACPI Error: Aborting method \_SB.PCI0.SAT0.PRT3._GTF due to previous error (AE_NOT_FOUND) (20210730/psparse-529)
[1979547.450158] ata4.00: ATA-7: WDC WD5000AAKS-65TMA0, 12.01C01, max UDMA/133
[1979547.450372] ata4.00: 976773168 sectors, multi 0: LBA48 NCQ (depth 32), AA
[1979547.451337] ACPI BIOS Error (bug): Could not resolve symbol [\_SB.PCI0.SAT0.PRT3._GTF.DSSP], AE_NOT_FOUND (20210730/psargs-330)

[1979547.451344] No Local Variables are initialized for Method [_GTF]

[1979547.451345] No Arguments are initialized for method [_GTF]

[1979547.451347] ACPI Error: Aborting method \_SB.PCI0.SAT0.PRT3._GTF due to previous error (AE_NOT_FOUND) (20210730/psparse-529)
[1979547.451583] ata4.00: configured for UDMA/133
[1979547.451643] scsi 3:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ATA      WDC WD5000AAKS-6 1C01 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[1979547.451843] sd 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
[1979547.451943] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdd] 976773168 512-byte logical blocks: (500 GB/466 GiB)
[1979547.451987] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdd] Write Protect is off
[1979547.451990] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdd] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[1979547.452045] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdd] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[1979547.472061]  sdd: sdd1
[1979547.497323] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdd] Attached SCSI disk

But when I connect a disk to the 5th SATA connector I get the same up until ata4.00: configured for UDMA/133 but then nothing else:

[1979625.270190] ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
[1979625.450202] ata4: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
[1979625.450983] ACPI BIOS Error (bug): Could not resolve symbol [\_SB.PCI0.SAT0.PRT3._GTF.DSSP], AE_NOT_FOUND (20210730/psargs-330)

[1979625.450992] No Local Variables are initialized for Method [_GTF]

[1979625.450994] No Arguments are initialized for method [_GTF]

[1979625.450995] ACPI Error: Aborting method \_SB.PCI0.SAT0.PRT3._GTF due to previous error (AE_NOT_FOUND) (20210730/psparse-529)
[1979625.452066] ACPI BIOS Error (bug): Could not resolve symbol [\_SB.PCI0.SAT0.PRT3._GTF.DSSP], AE_NOT_FOUND (20210730/psargs-330)

[1979625.452073] No Local Variables are initialized for Method [_GTF]

[1979625.452075] No Arguments are initialized for method [_GTF]

[1979625.452077] ACPI Error: Aborting method \_SB.PCI0.SAT0.PRT3._GTF due to previous error (AE_NOT_FOUND) (20210730/psparse-529)
[1979625.452165] ata4.00: configured for UDMA/133

I have Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS with a MSI Z170A motherboard. It has 6 SATA 3 connectors and I have 1 internal HD and 4 hot-swappable SATA caddies all with hard disks.

I recently noticed one of my Ubuntu Laptops had started to run very slow. After doing some searching here for tools to check CPU status and comparing with another PC with the same version I can see the slow laptop is only running at minimum CPU speed.

When I go to Settings -> Power I only see Balanced and Power Saver there is no Performance mode. Other PCs running the same Ubuntu show a Performance mode. Any ideas why it is missing? power-profiles-daemon is installed and running/active.

I installed cpufrequtils and running cpufreq-info I can see all threads are using the governor ondemand but always running at 798 MHz (the CPU minimum=800 Mhz) regardless of the power setting of Balanced or Power Saver:

analyzing CPU 7:
  driver: intel_cpufreq
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 7
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 7
  maximum transition latency: 20.0 us.
  hardware limits: 800 MHz - 3.50 GHz
  available cpufreq governors: conservative, ondemand, userspace, powersave, performance, schedutil
  current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 3.50 GHz.
                  The governor "ondemand" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency is 798 MHz.

Also, When I run sudo cpufreq-set -r -g performance to supposedly set all cores to performance governor, it has no affect on the results above.

The laptop is HP Omen 15-5000na Intel Core i7-4710HQ @ 2.50Ghz x 8 running Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS This laptop has always been running BIOS version F.40 without issues in the past. There is a newer BIOS (F.48 Rev.A) but HP only supply a Windows .exe

EDIT 1:

The echo performance... command suggested below does make a change to the output of cpufreq-info in that it now says The governor "performance" may decide which speed to use but the CPU frequency is still set to the minimum all the time. And the suggested grep shows ondemand for all threads, until the echo performance then it shows performance for all threads.

Results of sudo turbostat --Summary --show Busy%,Bzy_MHz,IRQ,PkgWatt,PkgTmp,RAMWatt,GFXWatt,CorWatt --interval 5:

turbostat version 21.05.04 - Len Brown <[email protected]>
CPUID(0): GenuineIntel 0xd CPUID levels
CPUID(1): family:model:stepping 0x6:3c:3 (6:60:3) microcode 0x28
CPUID(0x80000000): max_extended_levels: 0x80000008
CPUID(1): SSE3 MONITOR - EIST TM2 TSC MSR ACPI-TM HT TM
CPUID(6): APERF, TURBO, DTS, PTM, No-HWP, No-HWPnotify, No-HWPwindow, No-HWPepp, No-HWPpkg, EPB
cpu2: MSR_IA32_MISC_ENABLE: 0x00850089 (TCC EIST MWAIT PREFETCH TURBO)
CPUID(7): No-SGX
cpu2: MSR_MISC_PWR_MGMT: 0x00400000 (ENable-EIST_Coordination DISable-EPB DISable-OOB)
RAPL: 5578 sec. Joule Counter Range, at 47 Watts
cpu2: MSR_PLATFORM_INFO: 0x80838f3011900
8 * 100.0 = 800.0 MHz max efficiency frequency
25 * 100.0 = 2500.0 MHz base frequency
cpu2: MSR_IA32_POWER_CTL: 0x0004005d (C1E auto-promotion: DISabled)
cpu2: MSR_TURBO_RATIO_LIMIT: 0x21212223
33 * 100.0 = 3300.0 MHz max turbo 4 active cores
33 * 100.0 = 3300.0 MHz max turbo 3 active cores
34 * 100.0 = 3400.0 MHz max turbo 2 active cores
35 * 100.0 = 3500.0 MHz max turbo 1 active cores
cpu2: MSR_CONFIG_TDP_NOMINAL: 0x00000019 (base_ratio=25)
cpu2: MSR_CONFIG_TDP_LEVEL_1: 0x00000000 ()
cpu2: MSR_CONFIG_TDP_LEVEL_2: 0x00000000 ()
cpu2: MSR_CONFIG_TDP_CONTROL: 0x80000000 ( lock=1)
cpu2: MSR_TURBO_ACTIVATION_RATIO: 0x00000000 (MAX_NON_TURBO_RATIO=0 lock=0)
cpu2: MSR_PKG_CST_CONFIG_CONTROL: 0x1e008405 (UNdemote-C3, UNdemote-C1, demote-C3, demote-C1, locked, pkg-cstate-limit=5 (pc7s))
/dev/cpu_dma_latency: 2000000000 usec (default)
current_driver: intel_idle
current_governor: menu
current_governor_ro: menu
cpu2: POLL: CPUIDLE CORE POLL IDLE
cpu2: C1: MWAIT 0x00
cpu2: C1E: MWAIT 0x01
cpu2: C3: MWAIT 0x10
cpu2: C6: MWAIT 0x20
cpu2: C7s: MWAIT 0x32
cpu2: cpufreq driver: intel_cpufreq
cpu2: cpufreq governor: performance
cpufreq intel_pstate no_turbo: 0
cpu2: MSR_MISC_FEATURE_CONTROL: 0x00000000 (L2-Prefetch L2-Prefetch-pair L1-Prefetch L1-IP-Prefetch)
cpu0: EPB: 4 (custom)
cpu0: MSR_CORE_PERF_LIMIT_REASONS, 0x3d210001 (Active: PROCHOT, ) (Logged: Transitions, MultiCoreTurbo, PkgPwrL2, PkgPwrL1, Amps, Auto-HWP, PROCHOT, )
cpu0: MSR_GFX_PERF_LIMIT_REASONS, 0x0c010000 (Active: ) (Logged: PROCHOT, PkgPwrL1, PkgPwrL2, )
cpu0: MSR_RING_PERF_LIMIT_REASONS, 0x09010000 (Active: ) (Logged: PROCHOT, Amps, PkgPwrL2, )
cpu0: MSR_RAPL_POWER_UNIT: 0x000a0e03 (0.125000 Watts, 0.000061 Joules, 0.000977 sec.)
cpu0: MSR_PKG_POWER_INFO: 0x00000178 (47 W TDP, RAPL 0 - 0 W, 0.000000 sec.)
cpu0: MSR_PKG_POWER_LIMIT: 0x804281d600dc8178 (locked)
cpu0: PKG Limit #1: ENabled (47.000000 Watts, 28.000000 sec, clamp DISabled)
cpu0: PKG Limit #2: ENabled (58.750000 Watts, 0.002441* sec, clamp DISabled)
cpu0: MSR_PP0_POLICY: 0
cpu0: MSR_PP0_POWER_LIMIT: 0x00000000 (UNlocked)
cpu0: Cores Limit: DISabled (0.000000 Watts, 0.000977 sec, clamp DISabled)
cpu0: MSR_PP1_POLICY: 0
cpu0: MSR_PP1_POWER_LIMIT: 0x00000000 (UNlocked)
cpu0: GFX Limit: DISabled (0.000000 Watts, 0.000977 sec, clamp DISabled)
cpu0: MSR_IA32_TEMPERATURE_TARGET: 0x04641000 (100 C)
cpu0: MSR_IA32_PACKAGE_THERM_STATUS: 0x8827080c (61 C)
cpu0: MSR_IA32_PACKAGE_THERM_INTERRUPT: 0x00000003 (100 C, 100 C)
cpu2: MSR_PKGC3_IRTL: 0x00008842 (valid, 67584 ns)
cpu2: MSR_PKGC6_IRTL: 0x0000886a (valid, 108544 ns)
cpu2: MSR_PKGC7_IRTL: 0x00008891 (valid, 148480 ns)
Busy%   Bzy_MHz IRQ PkgTmp  PkgWatt CorWatt GFXWatt
29.84   800 17045   60  12.01   2.78    0.49
23.35   800 11239   62  11.89   2.54    0.43
33.84   800 18221   61  12.51   3.07    0.72
28.59   800 13540   61  12.39   2.80    0.82
29.03   800 16247   60  12.15   2.85    0.62
18.48   800 12915   58  11.90   1.77    1.44

EDIT 2 / UPDATE / SOLVED:

The answer below regarding PROCHOT flag being set by my hardware was indeed the reason for the CPU throttling. So marked as correct. Many thanks.

As for why the hardware was setting the flag - a bit more information in case it helps others in future as I did the two things below and so far no more PROCHOT. So one of the below things seemed to do the trick I am just not sure which:

(1) I opened up the case to check fans and remove any dust. The two fans were working fine and some dust but not too much. I also sat the laptop on something to sit it higher and hopefully improve airflow underneath as that's where the air intakes are.

(2) My laptop battery had died over a year ago and since then Ubuntu power stats was not even showing a battery was present. But as I use it as a desktop on AC it was not a problem, and no slowdown until recently. However, I had seen some posts where people said that failing/failed battery can sometimes cause PROCHOT so I thought I would actually physically remove the battery from the laptop.

My laptop is no longer suspending. This did not start on upgrade to 22.04, it started more recently and I am trying to debug/diagnose what the cause could be. Can anyone offer suggestions?

It's a HP Omen 15-5000na laptop running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Gnome 42.1 and X11.

Graphics are NV117 (using Nouveau driver NOT nvidia drivers) and onboard Mesa Intel® HD Graphics 4600 (HSW GT2). To my knowledge I don't have any Nvidia drivers or software installed.

The PC does not suspend and immediately wake so I don't think it's suspending then waking due to USB devices. I think it does not suspend at all, it just goes to the lock screen. Nothing coming up in dmesg and the only entries in syslogs between the sleep request and the wake seems to indicate it could be NetworkManager causing the wake but I don't for sure and I don't know why. There are some gnome-shell messages but I don't know if they are relevant:

syslog:

Jun  1 06:20:45 Omen NetworkManager[1292]: <info>  [1654060845.5219] manager: sleep: sleep requested (sleeping: no  enabled: yes)
Jun  1 06:20:45 Omen NetworkManager[1292]: <info>  [1654060845.5227] device (wlo1): state change: unavailable -> unmanaged (reason 'sleeping', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Jun  1 06:20:45 Omen ModemManager[1410]: <info>  [sleep-monitor] system is about to suspend
Jun  1 06:20:45 Omen NetworkManager[1292]: <info>  [1654060845.5239] manager: NetworkManager state is now ASLEEP
Jun  1 06:20:45 Omen gnome-shell[2443]: cr_parser_new_from_buf: assertion 'a_buf && a_len' failed
Jun  1 06:20:45 Omen gnome-shell[2443]: cr_declaration_parse_list_from_buf: assertion 'parser' failed
Jun  1 06:20:45 Omen gnome-shell[2443]: Timelines with detached actors are not supported. <unnamed>[<Gjs_ui_panel_AggregateMenu>:0x55cd1188d630] in animation of duration 150ms but not on stage.
Jun  1 06:20:45 Omen gnome-shell[2443]: cr_parser_new_from_buf: assertion 'a_buf && a_len' failed
Jun  1 06:20:45 Omen gnome-shell[2443]: cr_declaration_parse_list_from_buf: assertion 'parser' failed
Jun  1 06:20:45 Omen gnome-shell[2443]: cr_parser_new_from_buf: assertion 'a_buf && a_len' failed
Jun  1 06:20:45 Omen gnome-shell[2443]: cr_declaration_parse_list_from_buf: assertion 'parser' failed
Jun  1 06:20:45 Omen gsd-media-keys[2625]: Unable to get default sink
Jun  1 06:20:45 Omen gnome-shell[2443]: cr_parser_new_from_buf: assertion 'a_buf && a_len' failed
Jun  1 06:20:45 Omen gnome-shell[2443]: cr_declaration_parse_list_from_buf: assertion 'parser' failed
Jun  1 06:20:50 Omen NetworkManager[1292]: <info>  [1654060850.1132] manager: sleep: wake requested (sleeping: yes  enabled: yes)

I have a PC (Asus Transformer 3 Pro T303UA) where I am trying to monitor the temperature of various devices (using conky). But on some boot-ups hwmon5 is the WiFi device and hwmon6 is the CPU but on other boot-ups it's reversed (hwmon5 is the CPU and hwmon6 is the WiFi).

So if I setup monitoring to look at CPU cores hwmon5 temp 2 and hwmon5 temp 3 when hwmon5 is the CPU that works and is correct, but if hwmon5 changes to be the wifi device then there is no temp 2 or temp 3 so the monitoring fails.

Does anyone know why this one PC seems to change it's devices around (none of my other PCs seem to do this) and if I can stop it from happening or get all the temperatures some other way which will always be consistent?

Today hwmon6 is the cpu:

ls -la /sys/class/hwmon/

hwmon0 -> ../../devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0A08:00/ACPI0003:00/power_supply/AC0/hwmon0
hwmon1 -> ../../devices/virtual/thermal/thermal_zone0/hwmon1
hwmon2 -> ../../devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0A08:00/PNP0C0A:00/power_supply/BAT0/hwmon2
hwmon3 -> ../../devices/virtual/thermal/thermal_zone6/hwmon3
hwmon4 -> ../../devices/platform/asus-nb-wmi/hwmon/hwmon4
hwmon5 -> ../../devices/virtual/thermal/thermal_zone8/hwmon5
hwmon6 -> ../../devices/platform/coretemp.0/hwmon/hwmon6

My question is: has anyone successfully got cut/paste working over x2x between two Ubuntu PCs? Is it possible? As I can't find any documentation/examples only a few references in articles saying it should/could/might work.

If it's not possible I would like to know if it's actually possible by other means (Barrier? Synergy?).

I already use x2x to control a Ubuntu 20.10 PC with my main PC's keyboard mouse (also Ubuntu 20.10) and it works great, but no cut/paste.

I read a few articles which say that if you start x2x using an alternative method (this needs some tweaks like xhost and other config to have tcp port 6000 listening) then cut/paste should work but although I can get x2x working with either method I have had no luck getting any sort of cut/paste working.

e.g. forwarding method:

ssh -X remote_machinename_or_ip_address x2x -direction_of_the_remote_display -to :0

and second alternative method:

x2x -to IP_or_hostname:0.0 -direction_of_the_remote_display

Anyone else using Conky with Ubuntu 20.10? Anyone else seeing issues with Conky update_interval since 20.10?

I don't really know if this is an issue with Conky or with Ubuntu but I am trying to debug/solve. I have 3 Ubuntu installations with Conky and previously they would update every second as expected. Since updating to Ubuntu 20.10 they all now exhibit the same behaviour - Conky updating only every 5 or 6 seconds.

I could not find any open or closed issues on Conky github relating to slowdown or the "cpu" variable causing issues so I tried to do a bit of debugging. No errors in the conky log.

I simplified my conky config to show JUST the time with seconds and that works fine (Conky updates every second). So I slowly started adding things to the config until I found that if I have any cpu variable line in my config I get the slow Conky update every 5 or 6 seconds. So for example: ${hwmon 1 temp 1} and/or ${top cpu 1} works fine but add this: ${cpu cpu3} And I get the slow updates.

BUT if I remove the lua_load line in my config then all values (including the CPU values) show correctly and at the correct update_interval, so it seems to be some combination of LUA and the cpu variable.

SUMMARY: No lua_load (just text values including cpu variables) = works ok. lua_load but no cpu variables = works ok. lua_load with cpu variables = slow updates.

Information

OS: Ubuntu 20.10, Gnome 3.38.1 X11 5.8.0-25-generic #26-Ubuntu SMP Thu Oct 15 10:30:38 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Conky: I am just using the supplied package version which is currently 1.11.6

$ conky -V
conky 1.11.6 compiled 2020-08-17 for Linux x86_64

Compiled in features:

System config file: /etc/conky/conky.conf
Package library path: /usr/lib/conky


 General:
  * math
  * hddtemp
  * portmon
  * IPv6
  * IRC
  * Curl
  * RSS
  * ICal
  * iconv
  * Weather (METAR)
  * wireless
  * support for IBM/Lenovo notebooks
  * nvidia
  * builtin default configuration
  * old configuration syntax
  * Imlib2
  * OSS mixer support
  * apcupsd
  * iostats
  * ncurses
  * Internationalization support
  * PulseAudio

 Lua bindings:
  * Cairo
  * Imlib2
  * RSVG
 X11:
  * Xdamage extension
  * Xinerama extension (virtual display)
  * Xshape extension (click through)
  * XDBE (double buffer extension)
  * Xft
  * ARGB visual
  * Own window

 Music detection:
  * Audacious
  * CMUS
  * MPD
  * MOC
  * XMMS2

 Default values:
  * Netdevice: eno1
  * Local configfile: $HOME/.conkyrc
  * Localedir: /usr/share/locale
  * Maximum netdevices: 256
  * Maximum text size: 16384
  * Size text buffer: 256

EXAMPLE CONFIG: Note: If I comment out any of the $cpu variable lines it updates every second as expected. With one or more $cpu variable lines I get the slow update every 5 or 6 seconds.

conky.config = {
    alignment               = 'top_right',
    background              = false,
    border_inner_margin         = 0,
    border_outer_margin         = 0,
    border_width            = 0,
    color0              = '772953', 
    color1              = 'EBE1E1',
    cpu_avg_samples             = 2,
    default_color           = 'gray',
    default_outline_color       = 'green',
    default_shade_color         = 'red',
    diskio_avg_samples          = 2,
    double_buffer           = true,
    draw_borders            = false,
    draw_graph_borders          = false,
    draw_outline            = false,
    draw_shades             = false,
    extra_newline           = false,
    font                = 'Play:normal:size=7',
    format_human_readable       = true,
    gap_x               = 30,
    gap_y               = 150,
    lua_load                = '/home/me/Documents/Files/scripts/conky/rings.lua',
    lua_draw_hook_pre           = 'conky_main',
    maximum_width           = 520,
    minimum_width           = 520,
    net_avg_samples             = 2,
    no_buffers              = true,
    out_to_console          = false,
    out_to_stderr           = false,
    extra_newline           = false,
    own_window              = true,
    own_window_argb_visual      = true,
    own_window_class            = 'Conky',
    own_window_type             = 'desktop',
    own_window_transparent      = true,
    own_window_argb_visual      = true,
    override_utf8_locale        = true,
    stippled_borders            = 0,
    temperature_unit            = 'celsius',
    text_buffer_size            = 2048,
    update_interval             = 1.0,
    uppercase               = false,
    use_spacer              = 'none',
    use_xft                 = true,
    show_graph_scale            = false,
    show_graph_range            = false,
    xftalpha                = 0.9,
};

conky.text = [[
${font Play:normal:size=7}${voffset 16}${color1}${goto 120}${freq_g cpu0} Ghz${alignr 330}${hwmon 1 temp 1} °C
#
#${font Play:normal:size=7}${voffset 0}${goto 120}${color1}CPU 1 ${alignr 330}${color1}${cpu cpu0}%
#${font Play:normal:size=7}${voffset 2}${goto 120}${color1}CPU 2${alignr 330}${color1}${cpu cpu1}%
#${font Play:normal:size=7}${voffset 2}${goto 120}${color1}CPU 3${alignr 330}${color1}${cpu cpu2}%
${font Play:normal:size=7}${voffset 2}${goto 120}${color1}CPU 4${alignr 330}${color1}${cpu cpu3}%
${goto 50}${voffset 16}${font Play:normal:size=7}${color1}${top name 1}${alignr 306}${top cpu 1}%
${goto 50}${font Play:normal:size=7}${color1}${top name 2}${alignr 306}${top cpu 2}%
${goto 50}${font Play:normal:size=7}${color1}${top name 3}${alignr 306}${top cpu 3}%
${font Michroma:size=10}${color0}${goto 80}${voffset 4}CPU

${time %I}:${time %M}:${time %S}

]];

I want to do the following (if it's possible):

Have 1 browser (say Firefox) as normal - all traffic uses my VPN. Have another browser (say Chrome) where all traffic bypasses the VPN.

I have already setup a PC with a VPN using OpenVPN and I understand how to add static routes so that access to specific IP addresses will bypass the VPN.

I thought what I want to do may be possible by setting up a (Squid) proxy server which routes all traffic outside of the VPN, and then configure the Chrome browser to use that proxy server. Unless there is a better/easier way?

But I do not know how to accomplish this and configure Squid/routes despite doing a lot of reading and experimenting (I am not a network expert), nor have I been able to find any resource to tell me how (or if it's possible).

Any help or links to information appreciated.

Previously my Firefox on Ubuntu would open PDF documents in the built-in Firefox PDF viewer fine. I noticed recently that this behaviour had changed and now when I click on a PDF it tries to do a download. This is same web site, same PDF as worked before.

I am not sure if this is a Firefox issue or a Ubuntu issue or a bit of both. Anyone else have this issue?

I am currently running Firefox 77.0.1 on Ubuntu 20.04 and I have this same bug/behaviour on two different PCs.

I have only seen very (years) old posts on this subject, nothing recently. I have already tried:

• Changing the Firefox PDF setting from "Open in Firefox" to "Use system default application" which DOES do the expected behaviour (opens in Envince) but changing the setting back does NOT open in Firefox.
• Checking firefox pdfjs.disabled setting (it's false).
• Disabling all add-ons.
• Looked for answers on Mozilla site such as here

I have two monitors connected to my laptop, one via DisplayPort and one via HDMI. My speakers are connected to my DisplayPort monitor and normally all works fine with audio output device set to "HDMI/DisplayPort 3 - Built-in Audio" and sound coming out of my speakers.

When working as expected my audio output devices (both in settings and pulseaudio volume control) are:

• HDMI/DisplayPort 3 - Built-in Audio (SELECTED)
• HDMI/DisplayPort - Built-in Audio
• Headphones - Built-in Audio

BUT sometimes (not always) when waking from suspend my DisplayPort output is missing and I get no sound so the devices shown are just these:

• HDMI/DisplayPort - Built-in Audio
• Headphones - Built-in Audio

Is there any way to reset/restart the sound system or have it re-scan for output devices? Any way to go about debugging this issue next time it happens? I have not found any way of solving this so far.

Also, possibly related to the problem above, even if not missing a device, the system often reverts to one of the other output devices on a reboot or wake, it won't always be set to the output I previously chose.

• Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (although this was happening on previous versions).
• Gnome 3.36.1
• X11 windowing
• Nouveau drivers on Intel HD graphics

Any help or advice appreciated, thanks.