alfC's questions

After some search, the only reliable way I found to control the fan in my ASUS laptop was to issue this commands (as root):

turn on fans:

echo 0 > /sys/devices/platform/asus-nb-wmi/hwmon/hwmon7/pwm1_enable

turn off (automatic?) fans:

echo 2 > /sys/devices/platform/asus-nb-wmi/hwmon/hwmon7/pwm1_enable

How can I control these from a Gnome shortcut of another fast method? I tried making these path read-write from the user (although the privileges are reset on reboot) but then when I put this commands as commands for Gnome keyboard shortcuts they don't execute at all.

How can I make this run from a shortcut? and additionally (bonus), how can I make it run as root?

I am installing a package called nvhpc from a third party repository.

To do that I use the recommended method that consists on:

$ apt-get update && apt-get install --no-install-recommends -y --quiet ca-certificates
$ echo 'deb [trusted=yes] https://developer.download.nvidia.com/hpc-sdk/ubuntu/amd64 /'
$ apt-get update -y
$ apt-get install --no-install-recommends -y  nvhpc-22-2

It turns out that this tries to install nvhpc-22-3 which is a newer version. (I don't want to install it because, among other things, I don't have space in my virtual machine for both version).

It is also strange that if I install explicitly nvhpc-22-3 (or nvhpc) it install only version 22.3, while if I ask for nvhpc-22-2 it will install both 22.2 and 22.3. (22.3 or 22.2 alone should fit in the disk.)

I think the repository or apt-get is trying to be smart and installing old and new versions. How can I prevent the installation of the newer version? (that is, the package specifically called nvhpc-22-3 or nvhpc)?

Note that I pass the argument --no-install-recommends to prevent things like that, in case that is related.

This is the output for the last command above:

$ apt-get install --no-install-recommends -y  nvhpc-22-2
Reading package lists...
Building dependency tree...
Reading state information...
The following additional packages will be installed:
nvhpc-22-2 nvhpc-22-3 perl ...
...
0 upgraded, 98 newly installed, 0 to remove and 14 not upgraded.
Need to get 5909 MB of archives.
After this operation, 20.5 GB of additional disk space will be used.
...
Selecting previously unselected package nvhpc-22-3.
Preparing to unpack .../94-nvhpc-22-3_22.3_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking nvhpc-22-3 (22.3) ...
Selecting previously unselected package nvhpc-2022.
Preparing to unpack .../95-nvhpc-2022_22.3_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking nvhpc-2022 (22.3) ...
Selecting previously unselected package nvhpc-22-2.
Preparing to unpack .../96-nvhpc-22-2_22.2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking nvhpc-22-2 (22.2) ...

Suppose I have to hard drives in my laptop, one is a (Disk A) classical spinning hard drive (or an old generation SSD) (<1GB/s) and the other one (Disk B) is a super fast NVMem SSD (3GB/s).

I. Suppose that they are not too big to hold everything. What of these options is better for Ubuntu?

1. Install / (system files) in (Disk A) and /home (i.e. userfiles) in (Disk B)?
2. Install / (system files) in (Disk B) and /home (i.e. userfiles) in (Disk A)?

It seems to me that 1) will produce a system that is fast for particular tasks happening in the home directory, but 2) will produce a more responsive system (e.g. booting, loading and running programs, loading libraries).

Is this logic correct?

Are there other combinations I am missing? (e.g. installing /usr in a hard drive different from /).

Suppose, for example and in addition, I do a lot of C++ compilation in this machine. Source files are read from both home and default libraries.

I have a Sony bluetooth headset connected to Ubuntu 20.04. They work very well, bluetooth can reconnect, I can even (mpris) control players from it.

The problem I have is that if I forget to turn the off while connected the headset will run out of battery overnight. I checked and there is nothing I can do from the headset side to automatically turn it off when there is no sound.

However the headset auto-turn off when there is no bluetooth connection. Therefore I think the only good option I have is if Ubuntu would disconnect the bluetooth after a certain period of silence.

Is there such option to auto disconnect a bluetooth audio device when there is no sound?

There is no much configuration I could find for the bluetooth device except this from the Settings window:

Is there a tool to quickly create custom keyboard layouts?

For example to achieve this: https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/86559/1871

Producing Unicode characters in secondary layers, but based on US international (Alt GR-dead keys)

This is mainly to type math in using Unicode, but keeping the default layer to be US international.

Maybe there is one prepared already that is pretty general, if so then how to install it?

This question is not about generating short-cuts in a particular application but to change the system's keyboard layout.

Update 2021: This has not been a problem for a real while. I recently accepted the "update your system" since this is (and was) in some sense the correct answer. Remember to use Solaar if you need to play with the USB Unifying device pairing, not needed for out-of-the-box mice.

I have a Logitech Anywhere MX mouse (wireless), when I connect it to the computer it doesn't work.

The mouse works in other computers with Windows and with Fedora 17 and Fedora 19, but it doesn't work in two different computers with Ubuntu 12.04 and 12.10. Moreover these same computers work with another Microsoft wireless mouse.

So I think the combination of Logitech MX and Ubuntu doesn't play well.

The dmesg log entry looks like this:

[  578.845838] usb 3-2: Product: USB Receiver
[  578.845841] usb 3-2: Manufacturer: Logitech
[  578.851625] logitech-djreceiver 0003:046D:C52B.0009: hiddev0,hidraw0: USB HID v1.11 Device [Logitech USB Receiver] on usb-0000:00:14.0-2/input2
[  578.851899] logitech-djreceiver 0003:046D:C52B.0009: logi_dj_probe:logi_dj_recv_query_paired_devices error:-32
[  578.854518] logitech-djreceiver: probe of 0003:046D:C52B.0009 failed with error -32

Instead of the expected (taken from Fedora):

[154344.634520] usb 2-1.2: Manufacturer: Logitech
[154344.647935] logitech-djreceiver 0003:046D:C52B.000D:
hiddev0,hidraw0: USB HID v1.11 Device [Logitech USB Receiver] on
usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.2/input2
[154344.653788] input: Logitech Unifying Device. Wireless PID:1017 as
/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/2-1.2:1.2/0003:046D:C52B.000D/input/input21
[154344.654192] logitech-djdevice 0003:046D:C52B.000E: input,hidraw1:
USB HID v1.11 Mouse [Logitech Unifying Device. Wireless PID:1017] on
usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.2:1

UPDATE: I would say that at this point, solaar is the way to go. So I accepted a previous answer suggesting this.

I have a Dell Inspiron 17r, after a fresh install of 12.10, the subwoofer seems to be not utilized. No sound comes from it and in the Sound Control Panel the settings appear grayed out (see screenshot). How can I activate the subwoofer?

I tried adding the line

options snd-hda-intel model=dell

in the file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf and

enable-lfe-remixing = yes
default-sample-channels = 3

in the file /etc/pulse/daemon.conf, but still doesn't work.

EDIT: related question: Subwoofer doesn't work on Dell Inspiron 17R after upgrade to 13.10

I have a Windows application (Kidspiration 3 Starter), that when running under wine 1.4 in Ubuntu 12.04 shows a completely distorted color palette that makes the interface unusable. See screenshot.

What is usually the way to correct this? Is there a particular wine library that I should switch to native?

Other details: wineHQ list Kidspiration 2.1 as "garbage", however version 3 installation and program works, except for the colors.

I recently found out that Nautilus (Ubuntu 12.04 at least) can show thumbnails of files of non-image formats, for example (data grapher) grace files (.agr) shows a small version of the graph contained in its data. Obviously, there some library or script that is processing the file, making the image, and allowing nautilus to show a small version of it.

This made me think that in principle any file that potentially can be processed into an image can serve as a Nautilus thumbnail.

For example, a .tex file (which can be converted to .pdf) or a gnuplot script can be displayed as a thumbnail when possible.

In the case of .tex file, the correspoding .pdf can be created by the command pdflatex file.tex.

The question is, how can I tell Nautilus to create a thumbnail for an arbitrary format and how do I specify the commands to do so within Nautilus?

Update 2014,

I still didn't manage to preview anything with the answer posted, I created this script in /usr/bin/tex-thumbnailer:

pdflatex $1
convert -density 300 ${1%.*}.pdf -resize 25% $2

and a file /usr/share/thumbnailers/tex.thumbnailer:

[Thumbnailer Entry]
TryExec=tex-thumbnailer
Exec=tex-thumbnailer %u %o
MimeType=text/x-tex;

I can't make nautilus to generate/show the preview even for simple TeX files. I don't know what I am doing wrong.

It turns out that apparently Adobe has disabled movie playback in newer versions (9.4 and up) of Acrobat Reader in Linux.

Where can I find deb packages of older versions?

The idea is to overwrite the currently installed version (9.5.1) in Ubuntu 12.04. There are some launchpad repositories, with, for example, acroread-9.3.3-1lucid1.deb but the file shows as "(deleted)".

Is it at all possible to broadcast the usual audio output to an iPhone or similar device? So sort of audio server (Desktop) to client (iPhone).

more details: Ubuntu 10.04/11.04 or 11.10, iPhone 3S or 4. It is my understanding that the sound system shipped in Ubuntu can be used as a sound server. The idea would be for the sound system to stream to a remote audio client, for example sitting in a different computer or an iPhone, that computer/iPhone could be connected to a audio amplifier in a different location than the computer where sound/music is played from. The streaming is of course by means of a local (wireless) network. (Although via bluetooth can be a solution also)

I have my files in a separate partition that is not mounted to /home, but only linked to it. How do I manage to be able to use the gnome trash in those files?

For example:

partion 2: mounted on /data, with a folder /data/myname

partion 1: mounted on /, with its own /home and /home/myname, inside it /home/myname/Desktop and /home/myname/Documents link to /data/myname/Desktop and /data/myname/Document respectively. Suppose I have a file /data/myname/Document/example.txt.

When I use nautilus, and try to delete /home/myname/Document/example.txt, Nautilus say it can't use the trash. It took me a while to figure out it is because example.txt is in a different filesystem. I don't know can another trash directory be defined in that partition so that gnome can use it?

I could have partion 2 mounted as /home with almost simular results --I did that for a long time--, but each time I change the Linux/Ubuntu installation, many configuration files in my home become broken. But in summary this new scheme doesn't allow me to use gnome trash now.

What is a current replacement of gnome-open command (generic open of files based on the type)?

Before:

gnome-open mydoc.pdf  # opened PDF in default application

Now:

gnome-open
The program 'gnome-open' is currently not installed.  You can install
it by typing: sudo apt-get install libgnome2-0

I have a typical local installation of mediawiki in Ubuntu 10.04. And I am going to do a fresh install of Ubuntu 11.04. How can I quickly backup the wiki content and afterwards restore it back?

All sites I found mention the sqldump command to dump the database but I am not sure how I will restore it back.