Stefan Falk's questions

I have tried to install .desktop files. I'm absolutely baffled that I still cannot simply right-click an open application and say "Add Shortcut". This is simply not working for everything.

However, these are my paths to IntelliJ and WebStorm

/opt/idea-IU-203.6682.168/bin
/opt/WebStorm-203.6682.155/bin

And here are the files I created under /usr/share/applications:

intellij.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Name=IntelliJ
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Exec=/opt/idea-IU-203.6682.168/bin/idea.sh
Icon=/opt/idea-IU-203.6682.168/bin/idea.png
X-Desktop-File-Install-Version=0.24

webstorm.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Name=WebStorm
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Icon=/opt/WebStorm-203.6682.155/bin/webstorm.png
Exec=/opt/WebStorm-203.6682.155/bin/webstorm.sh
X-Desktop-File-Install-Version=0.24

I already tried to run desktop-file-install on them and restarted the machine but the shortcuts are not showing up.

What could be the problem here?

While trying to install CUDA I somehow managed to break my NVIDIA drivers - or maybe it was the dist-upgrade, I don't know.

I have now purged and removed anything NVIDIA-related

sudo apt-get remove --purge '^nvidia-.*'
sudo apt-get autoremove

But as I try to install the NVIDIA-driver I am getting

Error while aplying changes
pk-client-error-quark: Error while installing package: installed nvidia-dkms-418 package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 10 (313)

This is the output after removing everything and following the CUDA instructions. Installing cuda via apt-get wants to install the required NVIDIA driver but fails to do so:

$ sudo apt-get -y install cuda
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
cuda is already the newest version (10.1.243-1).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
7 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Setting up nvidia-dkms-418 (418.87.00-0ubuntu1) ...
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)

A modprobe blacklist file has been created at /etc/modprobe.d to prevent Nouveau
from loading. This can be reverted by deleting the following file:
/etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-graphics-drivers.conf

A new initrd image has also been created. To revert, please regenerate your
initrd by running the following command after deleting the modprobe.d file:
`/usr/sbin/initramfs -u`

*****************************************************************************
*** Reboot your computer and verify that the NVIDIA graphics driver can   ***
*** be loaded.                                                            ***
*****************************************************************************

INFO:Enable nvidia
DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/dell_latitude
DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/put_your_quirks_here
DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/lenovo_thinkpad
Removing old nvidia-418.87.00 DKMS files...

------------------------------
Deleting module version: 418.87.00
completely from the DKMS tree.
------------------------------
Done.
Loading new nvidia-418.87.00 DKMS files...
Building for 5.4.0-21-generic
Building for architecture x86_64
Building initial module for 5.4.0-21-generic
ERROR: Cannot create report: [Errno 17] File exists: '/var/crash/nvidia-kernel-source-418.0.crash'
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 5.4.0-21-generic (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/nvidia/418.87.00/build/make.log for more information.
dpkg: error processing package nvidia-dkms-418 (--configure):
 installed nvidia-dkms-418 package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 10
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of nvidia-driver-418:
 nvidia-driver-418 depends on nvidia-dkms-418 (= 418.87.00-0ubuntu1); however:
  Package nvidia-dkms-418 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package nvidia-driver-418 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of cuda-drivers:
 cuda-drivers depends on nvidia-dkms-418 (>= 418.87.00); however:
  Package nvidia-dkms-418 is not configured yet.
 cuda-drivers depends on nvidia-driver-418 (>= 418.87.00); however:
  Package nvidia-driver-418 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package cuda-drivers (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of cuda-runtime-10-1:
 cuda-runtime-10-1 depends on cuda-drivers (>= 418.87); however:
  Package cuda-drivers is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package cuda-runtime-10-1 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkgNo apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
                                                                                                              No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
     No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                                   No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                                                                                                 No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                                                                                                                                                               No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                          : dependency problems prevent configuration of cuda-demo-suite-10-1:
 cuda-demo-suite-10-1 depends on cuda-runtime-10-1; however:
  Package cuda-runtime-10-1 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package cuda-demo-suite-10-1 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of cuda-10-1:
 cuda-10-1 depends on cuda-runtime-10-1 (>= 10.1.243); however:
  Package cuda-runtime-10-1 is not configured yet.
 cuda-10-1 depends on cuda-demo-suite-10-1 (>= 10.1.243); however:
  Package cuda-demo-suite-10-1 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package cuda-10-1 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of cuda:
 cuda depends on cuda-10-1 (>= 10.1.243); however:
  Package cuda-10-1 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package cuda (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.136ubuntu2) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-21-generic
Errors were encountered while processing:
 nvidia-dkms-418
 nvidia-driver-418
 cuda-drivers
 cuda-runtime-10-1
 cuda-demo-suite-10-1
 cuda-10-1
 cuda
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I found a bug report that looks similar to this but regards a different driver version.

Further looking at /var/lib/dkms/nvidia/418.87.00/build/make.log:

$ cat /var/lib/dkms/nvidia/418.87.00/build/make.log
DKMS make.log for nvidia-418.87.00 for kernel 5.4.0-21-generic (x86_64)
Sat 04 Apr 2020 11:54:26 AM CEST
make[1]: Entering directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-5.4.0-21-generic'
test -e include/generated/autoconf.h -a -e include/config/auto.conf || (        \
echo >&2;                           \
echo >&2 "  ERROR: Kernel configuration is invalid.";       \
echo >&2 "         include/generated/autoconf.h or include/config/auto.conf are missing.";\
echo >&2 "         Run 'make oldconfig && make prepare' on kernel src to fix it.";  \
echo >&2 ;                          \
/bin/false)
make -f ./scripts/Makefile.build obj=/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/418.87.00/build \
single-build= \
need-builtin=1 need-modorder=1
  ln -sf /var/lib/dkms/nvidia/418.87.00/build/nvidia/nv-kernel.o_binary /var/lib/dkms/nvidia/418.87.00/build/nvidia/nv-kernel.o
  ln -sf /var/lib/dkms/nvidia/418.87.00/build/nvidia-modeset/nv-modeset-kernel.o_binary /var/lib/dkms/nvidia/418.87.00/build/nvidia-modeset/nv-modeset-kernel.o
The Module.symvers file is missing, or does not contain any
symbols exported from the kernel. This could cause the NVIDIA
kernel modules to be built against a configuration that does
not accurately reflect the actual target kernel.
The Module.symvers file check can be disabled by setting the
environment variable IGNORE_MISSING_MODULE_SYMVERS to 1.
make[2]: *** [/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/418.87.00/build/Kbuild:182: module_symvers_sanity_check] Error 1
make[2]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
make[1]: *** [Makefile:1719: /var/lib/dkms/nvidia/418.87.00/build] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-5.4.0-21-generic'
make: *** [Makefile:81: modules] Error 2

How can I fix this?

Update

It works with the latest driver (nvidia-driver-440). However, I need nvidia-driver-418 in order to run CUDA on my machine.

So I am having this remote machine, which is actually just a machine in the local network. I am running a Jupyter Notebook on that machine to which I was always able to access it via URL such as http://192.168.111.242/?token=asdfghjkl

However, lately this is not working for me and what I have to do is user port forwarding in order to make it work:

ssh -f username@name -L PORT:localhost:PORT -N

Otherwise, accessing http://192.168.111.242/?token=asdfghjkl will give me a ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED in my browser.

I don't quite understand why I have to forward the port here.

What could be the reason?

I am unzipping a file with approximately 3 million single text files - the zip-file itself is around 12 GB in size. It's not multi-part - it's just one large zip file btw. I do not have the original data - all I have is the zipped file which means I cannot try to zip the content again (just so you know).

The problem is that as I unzip, at some point, I get

..
file #1207565:  bad zipfile offset (local header sig):  9570252890
file #1207566:  bad zipfile offset (local header sig):  9570254437
file #1207567:  bad zipfile offset (local header sig):  9570255044
file #1207568:  bad zipfile offset (local header sig):  9570256141
file #1207569:  bad zipfile offset (local header sig):  9570256786
file #1207570:  bad zipfile offset (local header sig):  9570257539
..

This does not seem to affect every subfolder or file respectively in the archive but for a lot of them the process seems to fail.

At this point it's hard for me to guess if the packing or the unpacking is the problem

Are there any workarounds I could try on my side?

This is a ridiculous issue. I can remember I was facing the same issue a while ago but I forgot how I was able to fix it.

I had to change my domain password. As I try to access a network location (samba), all I get is

Oops! Something went wrong.
Don't have permission to access the requested location.

But I know I have the permission and I know it's just because I had to change the password and it's just not capable of asking for the new one.

How can I make it forget the password so I can access my data?

I am trying to install libboost-all-dev but I am getting

$ sudo apt-get install libboost-all-dev
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 libboost-all-dev : Depends: libboost-date-time-dev but it is not going to be installed
                    Depends: libboost-filesystem-dev but it is not going to be installed
                    Depends: libboost-iostreams-dev but it is not going to be installed
                    Depends: libboost-log-dev but it is not going to be installed
                    Depends: libboost-system-dev but it is not going to be installed
                    Depends: libboost-thread-dev but it is not going to be installed
                    Depends: libboost-wave-dev but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

I've already tried to set the -f flag

sudo apt-get -f install libboost-all-dev 

without success. I have no idea what the problem is here.

I am having two hard drives. My target is to install Ubuntu and Windows on the SSD but as I try to install Ubuntu on the partition which I created for it I am getting

grub-install /dev/sda failed

sdb is my SSD which has one partition for Windows and one for Ubuntu. sdb5 is where I want to install Ubuntu, sdb6 is the Reserved BIOS boot area and I selected sda, which is just a 1TB hard drive with data, as target for the bootloader.

I am not sure what the problem is here. Do I need another partition on sda for the bootloader? How can I fix this issue?

If I run

sudo apt-get install tomcat8 

I am getting:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
  libtcnative-1 tomcat8-admin tomcat8-docs tomcat8-examples tomcat8-user
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  tomcat8
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 161 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/41,9 kB of archives.
After this operation, 306 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously unselected package tomcat8.
(Reading database ... 403872 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../tomcat8_8.0.32-1ubuntu1.2_all.deb ...
Unpacking tomcat8 (8.0.32-1ubuntu1.2) ...
Processing triggers for systemd (229-4ubuntu10) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-19) ...
Setting up tomcat8 (8.0.32-1ubuntu1.2) ...
Job for tomcat8.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See "systemctl status tomcat8.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.
invoke-rc.d: initscript tomcat8, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error processing package tomcat8 (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 tomcat8
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

No idea what the problem is - any ideas?

I have installed IntelliJ and the Scala SDK using the installation wizard provided by IntelliJ. I selected the latest version 2.11.8 but were not able to run it in the terminal.

After that I ran

sudo apt-get install scala

and now which is apparently version 2.9.2

scala -version
Scala code runner version 2.9.2 -- Copyright 2002-2011, LAMP/EPFL

My question is how I can manage to have only one version of scala which is used by IntelliJ and all other users on my system.

I am using the Eclipse Plug-in TeXlipse and would like to know how I can install LaTeX packages automatically.

It is quite annoying to download and install a packages, build the document to wait for the next missing package, install that and repeat that process until pdfLaTeX is happy.

I am using

nautilus -w --browser /home

for a shortcut command on my system. The thing is that nautilus does not get the focus after it started. Can I extend this command such that the window pops up on top of all other open windows with focus?

I've downloaded the latest Eclipse LUNA. The problem is that as I start it, it is not showing up. The title bar just says "Eclipse" but does not show any menu list buttons.

Eclipse started but is not displayed. I've been following these instructions.

Any idea what could be wrong?

Trying to install PyCuda I followed these instructions as I ran into that problem but unfortunately I am still getting the error:

c++ -pthread -shared -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-z,relro -fno-strict-aliasing -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O2 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g -fstack-protector --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -Wformat -Werror=format-security build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/src/cpp/cuda.o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/src/cpp/bitlog.o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/src/wrapper/wrap_cudadrv.o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/src/wrapper/mempool.o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/src/wrapper/wrap_curand.o -L/usr/local/cuda/lib -L/usr/local/cuda/lib64 -lboost_python-mt-py27 -lboost_thread-mt -lcuda -lcurand -o build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/pycuda/_driver.so
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lboost_python-mt-py27
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lboost_thread-mt
/usr/bin/ld: skipping incompatible /usr/local/cuda/lib/libcurand.so when searching for -lcurand
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
error: command 'c++' failed with exit status 1
make: *** [install] Error 1

I found the linking file libboost_python-mt in /usr/lib/ but it seems referencing /usr/lib/libboost_python-mt-py26 which does not exist. Though /usr/lib/libboost_python-mt-py27 does ..

Can anybody help me here?

I have two devices for sound output:

Always when I plug in my headphones or external speakers - for whatever reason - the Digital Output gets selected which means in this case that I have no sound at all.

How can I keep the from system switching the device?

I want to install SFML (a free multimedia C++ API) on my Ubuntu system, which basically isn't a problem. But I wanted to know where I should store the files.

I can see, that Ubuntu stores my C++ Standard libraries in /usr/include/c++ and so on.. My problem is, that I don't know where I am supposed to leave the libraries or is there no place which should be used for this and I can move the files wherever I want?

All I am looking for is just some kind of a way "how to do it right" but I can't find an answer. I want my libraries to stay organized.