Luís de Sousa's questions

Currently I use alacritty as default terminal emulator. On any given day this is the output of update-alternatives:

$ sudo update-alternatives --config x-terminal-emulator
There are 7 choices for the alternative x-terminal-emulator (providing /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator).

  Selection    Path                             Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /usr/bin/alacritty                70        auto mode
  1            /usr/bin/alacritty                70        manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/gnome-terminal.wrapper   40        manual mode
  3            /usr/bin/koi8rxterm               20        manual mode
  4            /usr/bin/lxterm                   30        manual mode
  5            /usr/bin/uxterm                   20        manual mode
  6            /usr/bin/xterm                    20        manual mode
  7            /usr/local/bin/termite            60        manual mode

Press <enter> to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number:

However, every time I run the updates the priorities in this list are automatically modified and alacritty stops being the default programme (and is removed from auto mode):

$ sudo update-alternatives --config x-terminal-emulator
There are 7 choices for the alternative x-terminal-emulator (providing /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator).

 ​Selection    Path                             Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /usr/local/bin/termite            60        auto mode
 ​1            /usr/bin/alacritty                50        manual mode
 ​2            /usr/bin/gnome-terminal.wrapper   40        manual mode
 ​3            /usr/bin/koi8rxterm               20        manual mode
 ​4            /usr/bin/lxterm                   30        manual mode
 ​5            /usr/bin/uxterm                   20        manual mode
 ​6            /usr/bin/xterm                    20        manual mode
 ​7            /usr/local/bin/termite            60        manual mode

Press <enter> to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number:

It is possible to reset alacritty as the default terminal emulator with a command like:

$ sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator x-terminal-emulator /usr/bin/alacritty 70

Until the updates are run and it all gets back to square one. How can I prevent the alternatives priorities from being modified automatically, setting alacritty permanently as the default terminal emulator?

The multi-line edit mode in GEdit is not working on Ubuntu 18.04. It can be activated with the combination Ctrl+Shift+C, but presently it has no consequence. The basic sanity check shows the plug-in to be installed:

$ apt search gedit-plugin-multi-edit
Sorting... Done
Full Text Search... Done
gedit-plugin-multi-edit/bionic,now 3.28.1-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
  Multi Edit plugin for gedit

What could be wrong here? Is there any other way to activate this plug-in?

I have been working with i3 for a while on Ubuntu 18.04. Controlling some of the peripherals has been quite elusive, since the system settings application shows only a few of the settings available in Unity:

The i3 folk claim that this has nothing to do with the DE, but is rather an issue with my system. What do I need to do to have the same settings controls in i3 as I have in Unity?

I am unable to decrypt a number of text files I encrypted with openssl on Ubuntu 16.04. I always get this error message:

$ openssl des3 -d < ~/ISRIC/credentials.txt.des3.old > ~/temp/credentials.txt.old.2
enter des-ede3-cbc decryption password:
bad decrypt
139771261990464:error:06065064:digital envelope routines:EVP_DecryptFinal_ex:bad decrypt:../crypto/evp/evp_enc.c:536:

I am pretty sure the password is correct. What is the problem?

This is one of various DE issues I am struggling with since I upgraded to Ubuntu 18.04. After a couple of days I started feeling some pain in my right wrist. I now realise the mouse speed was reduced in the upgrade and thus I am no longer able to move the pointer from one edge of the screen to another in a single movement. I have tried to tweak mouse speed in the Settings > Mouse & Touchpad dialogue, like I used to do in previous Ubuntu releases:

This however, has no effect. The pointer speed seems to be stuck at the middle, ignoring whatever is displayed in the dialogue.

Is there any other way of changing mouse speed on Ubuntu 18.04?

In previous Ubuntu releases, the user was able to modify the Unity wallpaper in the System Settings programme (Appearance panel). This action no longer has an effect on Ubuntu 18.04.

How can I change the Unity wallpaper in this Ubuntu release?

Update I: this is the output requested by Joshua Besneatte:

$ pstree -s $(pidof X)|grep gdm
        |-gdm3-+-gdm-session-wor-+-gdm-wayland-ses-+-gnome-session-b-+-gnome-shell-+-Xwayland---14*[{Xwayland}]
        |      |                 |                 `-2*[{gdm-wayland-ses}]
        |      |                 `-2*[{gdm-session-wor}]
        |      |-gdm-session-wor-+-gdm-x-session-+-Xorg---3*[{Xorg}]
        |      |                 |               `-2*[{gdm-x-session}]
        |      |                 `-2*[{gdm-session-wor}]
        |      `-2*[{gdm3}]

Update II: following some discussions on Google+ I tried disabling Wayland. This had no effect, though.

Update III: a similar question was opened in September of 2019. Please mark that other as duplicate, not this one.

Canonical announced yesterday that it will drop Unity 7 from Ubuntu 18.04 onwards, reverting back to the Gnome desktop environment. I know all the larger desktop environments quite well, Gnome, KDE and Xfce; however, Unity is the one I am more comfortable with and on which I I feel more productive.

I would therefore like to know if there any desktop environments forked from Unity 7 that could be installed on Ubuntu. I understand we are still one year away from the shift, but it is never too early to test the alternatives and eventually choose a project to contribute to.

The Ubuntu Wiki presents these instructions to set up scrobbling with Rhythmbox:

Setting up Last.fm Syncing

1. Select Edit > Plugins
2. Select the box for the Last.fm plugin, then click Configure
3. Insert your Last.fm username and password
4. Click Close on the Last.fm Configure and Plugin windows, then use Rhythmbox as normal. The played song information will be uploaded automatically to your Last.fm account.

However, there is no Configuration button in the Rhythmbox version shipped with Ubuntu 16.04:

Preferences only sets up which services to scrobble to:

Where exactly should I register my Last.fm credentials?

After a fresh Ubuntu 16.04 install, the clock and the calendar are showing in a language I can not identify:

In the Language Support dialogue only English is to be found:

And regional settings are tweaked to European English:

How can I change the clock language to English (or something else I understand) ?

I would like to set the default video player from the command line. Taking xvideos as an example, I tried replacing all references to Totem by xvideos in the defaults.list file:

mv /usr/share/applications/defaults.list /usr/share/applications/defaults.list.old.totem
sed 's/Totem/xvideos/' /usr/share/applications/defaults.list.old.totem > /usr/share/applications/defaults.list

The contents of this file now look like:

$ cat /usr/share/applications/defaults.list | grep xvideos
application/vnd.rn-realmedia=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
application/x-extension-m4a=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
application/x-extension-mp4=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
application/x-matroska=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
application/x-shockwave-flash=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/3gpp=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/ac3=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/AMR=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/AMR-WB=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/basic=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/midi=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/mp4=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/mpeg=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/mpegurl=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/prs.sid=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/vnd.rn-realaudio=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-ape=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-gsm=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-it=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-m4a=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-matroska=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-mod=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-ms-asf=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-ms-asx=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-ms-wax=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-ms-wma=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-musepack=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-pn-aiff=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-pn-au=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-pn-realaudio=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-pn-realaudio-plugin=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-pn-wav=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-pn-windows-acm=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-realaudio=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-real-audio=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-sbc=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-speex=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-tta=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-wav=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-wavpack=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
audio/x-xm=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
image/vnd.rn-realpix=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
misc/ultravox=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/3gpp=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/dv=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/fli=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/flv=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/mp2t=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/mp4=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/mp4v-es=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/mpeg=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/msvideo=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/ogg=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/quicktime=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/vivo=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/vnd.divx=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/vnd.rn-realvideo=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/vnd.vivo=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/webm=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/x-anim=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/x-avi=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/x-flc=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/x-fli=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/x-flic=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/x-flv=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/x-m4v=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/x-matroska=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/x-mpeg=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/x-ms-asf=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/x-ms-asx=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/x-msvideo=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/x-ms-wm=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/x-ms-wmv=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/x-ms-wmx=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/x-ms-wvx=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/x-nsv=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/x-ogm+ogg=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/x-theora+ogg=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
video/x-totem-stream=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
x-content/video-dvd=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
x-content/video-vcd=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop
x-content/video-svcd=org.gnome.xvideos.desktop

However, videos are still being opened with Totem by default, say, if I double click on a movie file in the file manager.

How else can this be achieved?

A long time ago it was possible to set default applications through the command line in the file ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list. But this file is no longer around.

How could I set Okular as the default document reader in Ubuntu 16.04 using the command line?

I have tried to apply dark themes from Ubuntu 14.04 on 16.04 and they do not come out entirely as expected (different colours and such). What native dark themes for Ubuntu 16.04 are out there? I would prefer a theme retaining the default Unity decorations and icons and simply tweaking colours, but other suggestions are welcome.

I recently upgraded one of my systems to 16.04 and one of the many things that stopped working properly is the Eclipse IDE. It is now using about 60% of the CPU, even when the window is minimised, is very slow and some things are even unresponsive.

Following this answer at Stack Exchange I investigated a bit which thread is causing this behaviour:

$ ps -mo 'pid lwp stime time pcpu' -C java
  PID   LWP STIME     TIME %CPU
14475     - 09:55 00:02:05 91.6
    - 14475 09:55 00:00:00  0.0
    - 14476 09:55 00:01:14 54.6

Translating to hexadecimal:

$ printf "0x%x\n" 14476
0x388c

In the logs I found the following regarding this thread:

"main" #1 prio=6 os_prio=0 tid=0x00007f10c000a000 nid=0x388c runnable [0x00007f10c8c62000]
   java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE
    at org.eclipse.swt.internal.gtk.OS._gtk_main_do_event(Native Method)
    at org.eclipse.swt.internal.gtk.OS.gtk_main_do_event(OS.java:9326)
    at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.eventProc(Display.java:1225)
    at org.eclipse.swt.internal.gtk.OS._g_main_context_iteration(Native Method)
    at org.eclipse.swt.internal.gtk.OS.g_main_context_iteration(OS.java:2435)
    at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.readAndDispatch(Display.java:3428)
    at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.swt.PartRenderingEngine$4.run(PartRenderingEngine.java:1127)
    at org.eclipse.core.databinding.observable.Realm.runWithDefault(Realm.java:337)
    at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.swt.PartRenderingEngine.run(PartRenderingEngine.java:1018)
    at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.E4Workbench.createAndRunUI(E4Workbench.java:156)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench$5.run(Workbench.java:694)
    at org.eclipse.core.databinding.observable.Realm.runWithDefault(Realm.java:337)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.createAndRunWorkbench(Workbench.java:606)
    at org.eclipse.ui.PlatformUI.createAndRunWorkbench(PlatformUI.java:150)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ide.application.IDEApplication.start(IDEApplication.java:139)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.app.EclipseAppHandle.run(EclipseAppHandle.java:196)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.runApplication(EclipseAppLauncher.java:134)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.start(EclipseAppLauncher.java:104)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:380)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:235)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:483)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.invokeFramework(Main.java:669)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.basicRun(Main.java:608)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.run(Main.java:1515)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.main(Main.java:1488)

I also tried increasing available memory, but it fixed nothing. The contents of my eclipse.ini file:

-startup
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.3.100.v20150511-1540.jar
--launcher.library
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.gtk.linux.x86_64_1.1.300.v20150602-1417
-product
org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
-showsplash
org.eclipse.platform
--launcher.XXMaxPermSize
512m
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
--launcher.appendVmargs
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.7
-XX:MaxPermSize=256m
-Xms512m
-Xmx1024m

I have a relatively small number of plug-ins installed: TeXlipse, StatET and Papyrus. This same set up with the same JVM (1.8.0_11) runs flawlessly on Ubuntu 14.04

I am looking for a functional CalDAV client for Ubuntu, preferably open source. I was originally looking for one that works on 14.04, and now on 16.04.

Ubuntu 16.04

Following the advice of some commentators below, I gave another try to these programmes on Ubuntu 16.04. There are clear improvements, but it still is not possible to use a CalDAV calendar on Ubuntu.

Evolution

The most important hindrances to its usage on Ubuntu 14.04 have been fixed:

1. It now shows in the Lens.
2. It can be started with the "dummy" e-mail account.

Evolution comes with a good Help package that explains in detail the configuration of a CalDAV calendar. Although easy to set up, the CalDAV connection fails repeatedly and the calendar contents are never displayed. Naturally, it is neither possible to create new events. An error message is displayed that does not help much:

Unable to connect to 'Calendar': Cannot open calendar: Unexpected HTTP status code 405 returned (Not Allowed) for URI: https://[email protected]/

Other programmes connect to the server with the exact same credentials, no clue why Evolution fails.

KOrganiser

Its problems have been fixed and now functions almost entirely. It is able to register my CalDAV account, fetch all my calendars and synchronise regularly. It even allows me to use my public SSH key instead of requiring my password.

However, Korganiser is programmed to work exclusively in the UTC time zone. I happen to live elsewhere, therefore all its functionality becomes useless when a new event created for 10h00 appears in all other devices at a different time...

Once more: are there any other functional alternatives to use and synchronise a CalDAV calendar on Ubuntu?

Previous tries on Ubuntu 14.04

These are the programmes from the Software Centre I tried so far, none of which functions on Ubuntu 14.04:

• Evolution - it does not show in the Lens after being installed:

  

• KOrganiser - displays an error message; the menus remain active but produce no results.

  

• Calendar - displays a cryptic error message and exits.

  

What other clients exist out there?

I have recently joined an institution that uses Skype for Business as telephony solution. This is a commercial product from Microsoft that was never released for desktop Linux (and probably never will).

There is a Linux clone called Wync that is able to connect to the same telephony network, but this is just another commercial solution.

There is a plug-in for Pidgin called SIPE that is supposed to integrate with the Skype for Business network, but it seems nonoperational on Ubuntu 14.04. Once the plug-in is activated Pidgin keeps regurgitating error messages that render it useless.

What other free options are there to connect to this telephony network from Ubuntu?

Since a few months, on one of the desktop Ubuntu 14.04 systems I use, CPU has regularly been going up to 80-100% for no apparent reason. htop would usually attribute responsability to file system processes, such as nemo or ntfs. To get CPU back down I would kill these process, which in some cases would lead to loss of access to the file system and a consequent restart.

Days ago I noticed that whenever this situation happened another process was always present also using high CPU: mediascanner-service-2.0. Some research lead me to this thread at the Forum that simply advised its removal. So I did.

The end result has been unexpectedly positive: not only are the high CPU load episodes gone, the system is altogether much faster. The speed up of the Lens is dramatic: finding an application like Calc now takes 2 seconds at most when previously it took some 20 seconds. Finding a file takes now some 5 seconds, whereas before it took in the order of 30 seconds. Heavy programmes like Eclipse are starting up faster and workspaces are more fluid. There seems to be also an overall reduction in the frequency of disk access.

What is exactly this mediascanner2.0 package? Is it part of Unity 7 or a dependency that gets installed a posteriori? Is it possible to prevent its installation?

Update: following Seth's suggestion it is possible to track this package down to indicator-session:

$ sudo aptitude why mediascanner2.0
i   indicator-session         Recommends indicator-applet (>= 0.2) | indicator-renderer
i A unity8                    Provides   indicator-renderer                            
i A unity8                    Recommends unity-scope-mediascanner2                     
pi  unity-scope-mediascanner2 Depends    mediascanner2.0                               

Apparently, mediascanner2.0 (and the Unity 8 shell) are part of the base 14.04 system. Left to answer is the exact function of this rogue package.

Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)

The VirtualBox Linux kernel driver (vboxdrv) is either not loaded or there is a permission problem with /dev/vboxdrv. Please reinstall the kernel module by executing

'/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup'

as root. If it is available in your distribution, you should install the DKMS package first. This package keeps track of Linux kernel changes and recompiles the vboxdrv kernel module if necessary.

This is a familiar message to everyone that uses Virtual Box. This "bug" has been popping up every few months at least since 11.10. I got it today for the first time on 14.04 and unfortunately the classical solution of re-installing virtualbox-dkms is not having any effect:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic build-essential dkms
sudo apt-get remove virtualbox-dkms
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-dkms

What could be the reason for this old fix to fail?

Update: In the comments user bain makes reference to an old thread that apparently reports to the same problem. While the error message is similar, on Ubuntu 14.04 this issue seems to have a different nature, unrelated to the virtualbox-dkms package. For instance, on Ubuntu 14.04 the virtualbox package is up to date:

$ sudo apt-cache policy virtualbox
virtualbox:
  Installed: 4.3.10-dfsg-1
  Candidate: 4.3.10-dfsg-1
  Version table:
 *** 4.3.10-dfsg-1 0
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/multiverse amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

I have recently upgraded to Ubuntu 14.04 on a Lenovo T420 laptop (Corei7-2620M CPU @ 2.70GHz × 4 + Sandybridge Mobile). The battery is now over 2 years old, but under Ubuntu 12.04 it still lasted between 4 and 5 hours. Now with Ubuntu 14.04 it lasts little over one hour.

What can I do about this issue? Install drivers? Optimise the power management somehow?

Update I: Regarding the graphics card:

$ lspci | grep -i --color 'vga'
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)

Update II: Below is a sample output from PowerTop. I do not see anything strange, although I never used this programme before. Any insight is welcome.

           Usage       Events/s    Category       Description
        2419 rpm                   Device         Laptop fan
         8.1 ms/s     216.8        Timer          hrtimer_wakeup
        42.5 ms/s     111.7        Process        /usr/lib/firefox/firefox
       100.0%                      Device         Audio codec hwC0D1: Conexant
       100.0%                      Device         Audio codec hwC0D0: Conexant
         6.5 ms/s      73.0        Process        /opt/ibm/lotus/notes/framework/../notes /authenticate
         3.8 ms/s      76.7        Interrupt      PS/2 Touchpad / Keyboard / Mouse
         1.0 ms/s      64.1        kWork          od_dbs_timer
        15.8 ms/s      27.9        Process        compiz
         7.7 ms/s      32.0        Process        gnome-terminal
       214.0 µs/s      26.4        kWork          disk_events_workfn
        24.5 ms/s      26.7        Process        /usr/lib/firefox/plugin-container /usr/lib/flashplugin-installer/libflashplayer.so -greomni /usr/lib/firefox/omni.ja -appomni /
        17.9 ms/s      28.3        Process        /usr/bin/X -core :0 -seat seat0 -auth /var/run/lightdm/root/:0 -nolisten tcp vt7 -novtswitch
         5.3 ms/s      31.4        Process        /usr/bin/java -Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.6 -XX:MaxPermSize=256m -Xms40m -Xmx512m -jar /usr/share/eclipse.kepler//plugins/org.
         1.2 ms/s      32.7        Process        /home/desousa/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p290/bin/ruby script/rails s
         1.5 ms/s      18.7        Timer          tick_sched_timer
       372.4 µs/s      16.3        Process        [rcu_sched]
         3.4 ms/s      12.8        Process        transmission-gtk /home/desousa/Desktop/foo.torrent
         1.2 ms/s      11.0        Interrupt      [42]
       464.6 µs/s       7.7        Process        /usr/lib/firefox/plugin-container /opt/google/talkplugin/libnpgoogletalk.so -greomni /usr/lib/firefox/omni.ja -appomni /usr/lib
         1.8 ms/s      10.2        Process        /opt/ibm/lotus/notes/framework/rcp/eclipse/plugins/com.ibm.rcp.base_6.2.3.20110915-1350/linux/x86/notes2 --launcher.suppressErr
       492.4 µs/s       9.8        Process        [irq/44-iwlwifi]
         1.2 ms/s       8.4        Interrupt      [0] HI_SOFTIRQ
       100.4 µs/s       7.6        Timer          ehci_hrtimer_func
       498.1 µs/s       7.0        Process        /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java -Djava.util.logging.config.file=/usr/share/tomcat7/conf/logging.properties -Djava.util.log
         0.9 ms/s       6.1        Process        diodon
       130.8 µs/s       6.4        kWork          ieee80211_iface_work
        38.7 µs/s       6.4        kWork          gen6_force_wake_work
        76.9 µs/s       6.1        kWork          intel_unpin_work_fn
       342.9 µs/s       5.6        Process        /usr/sbin/mysqld
         0.7 ms/s       5.4        Interrupt      [3] net_rx(softirq)
        90.6 µs/s       5.5        Interrupt      [44] iwlwifi
         3.1 ms/s       2.9        Process        gedit
       186.7 µs/s       4.1        Process        syndaemon -i 1.0 -t -K -R
       179.0 µs/s       4.2        Process        /opt/google/talkplugin/GoogleTalkPlugin
       238.6 µs/s       4.1        Process        /opt/ibm/lotus/notes/taskldr /opt/ibm/lotus/notes/taskldr

Update III: I did another test, running the laptop until the battery was completely drained. There are two important differences in battery management from 12.04:

• Whereas with 12.04 the screen would be dimmed after 30 seconds of inaction, with 14.04 the screen is always left with the same brightness. There are even moments when the fan speeds up when I am not typing, this never happened with 12.04.

• Although I have set the laptop to suspend after 10 minutes inactive on battery, it never suspends. Once the 10 minutes are past Ubuntu simply shows the log on screen; it does not dim the screen either.

Update IV: I run the updates yesterday and the battery is being discharged even faster, now it is gone in less that an hour. Below is the output of powertop minutes after unplugging.

The battery reports a discharge rate of 32.8 W
The estimated remaining time is 0 hours, 56 minutes

Summary: 722.8 wakeups/second,  149.5 GPU ops/seconds, 0.0 VFS ops/sec and 23.3% CPU use

Power est.              Usage       Events/s    Category       Description
  5.55 W     63.2%                      Device         Display backlight
 90.2 mW    162.0 ms/s     220.6        Process        /usr/lib/firefox/firefox
 70.7 mW     31.0 µs/s      26.3        Process        postgres: wal writer process
 21.0 mW    306.3 µs/s      30.0        Process        [irq/44-iwlwifi]
 19.6 mW      8.6 ms/s      63.0        Process        compiz
 7.63 mW      1.7 ms/s      24.5        Process        /opt/ibm/lotus/notes/notes /authenticate
 6.43 mW      2.2 pkts/s                Device         Network interface: wlan0 (iwlwifi)
 1.35 mW    188.5 µs/s       2.3        Process        diodon
 997 µW      77.2 µs/s       2.6        Process        syndaemon -i 1.0 -t -K -R
 798 µW       4.2 ms/s      19.3        Process        /usr/bin/java -Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.6 -XX:MaxPermSize=256m -Xms40m -Xmx512m -jar /usr/share/eclipse.kepler//plugins/org.
 499 µW     394.4 µs/s       1.1        Process        gnome-terminal
 299 µW       2.3 ms/s       7.0        Process        mono /usr/lib/tomboy/Tomboy.exe --search
    0 mW      3.9 µs/s      0.15        Process        sametime_idlemon 20 10
    0 mW     13.7 ms/s       5.1        Process        /usr/bin/X -core :0 -seat seat0 -auth /var/run/lightdm/root/:0 -nolisten tcp vt7 -novtswitch
    0 mW     12.6 ms/s      17.7        Process        /usr/lib/firefox/plugin-container /usr/lib/flashplugin-installer/libflashplayer.so -greomni /usr/lib/firefox/omni.ja -appomni /
    0 mW      6.1 ms/s     163.9        Timer          hrtimer_wakeup
    0 mW      2.7 ms/s      25.6        Interrupt      [42] i915
    0 mW      2.5 ms/s      14.4        Timer          tick_sched_timer
    0 mW      2.0 ms/s      19.2        Process        rhythmbox
    0 mW      1.9 ms/s       7.5        Process        /usr/bin/pulseaudio --start --log-target=syslog
    0 mW      1.3 ms/s      63.2        kWork          od_dbs_timer
    0 mW      1.3 ms/s      0.00        Timer          delayed_work_timer_fn
    0 mW      0.9 ms/s      0.05        kWork          acpi_os_execute_deferred
    0 mW      0.8 ms/s      0.00        Interrupt      [1] timer(softirq)
    0 mW      0.7 ms/s      53.4        kWork          disk_events_workfn
    0 mW    629.9 µs/s       0.8        Process        chromium-browser --enable-pinch
    0 mW    561.9 µs/s      19.5        Process        /home/desousa/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p290/bin/ruby script/rails s
    0 mW    508.1 µs/s      0.10        Process        powertop
    0 mW    496.9 µs/s       5.3        Process        /opt/ibm/lotus/notes/framework/rcp/eclipse/plugins/com.ibm.rcp.base_6.2.3.20110915-1350/linux/x86/notes2 --launcher.suppressErr
    0 mW    468.2 µs/s       0.8        Interrupt      [7] sched(softirq)
    0 mW    281.6 µs/s       4.1        Interrupt      [4] block(softirq)
    0 mW    276.5 µs/s       3.1        kWork          iwl_bg_run_time_calib_work
    0 mW    260.5 µs/s      0.00        Interrupt      PS/2 Touchpad / Keyboard / Mouse
    0 mW    200.0 µs/s      15.6        kWork          intel_unpin_work_fn
    0 mW    173.5 µs/s       4.6        Process        /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java -Djava.util.logging.config.file=/usr/share/tomcat7/conf/logging.properties -Djava.util.log
    0 mW    160.9 µs/s      0.00        Process        [kworker/u16:0]
    0 mW    160.3 µs/s      0.25        Process        pool
    0 mW    159.0 µs/s      0.00        Interrupt      [9] RCU(softirq)
    0 mW    147.4 µs/s       4.0        Process        /usr/sbin/mysqld
    0 mW    144.9 µs/s       0.4        Interrupt      [9] acpi
    0 mW    131.4 µs/s      10.3        Interrupt      [44] iwlwifi
    0 mW    129.5 µs/s       2.0        Process        /usr/lib/firefox/plugin-container /opt/google/talkplugin/libnpgoogletalk.so -greomni /usr/lib/firefox/omni.ja -appomni /usr/lib
    0 mW    128.7 µs/s       4.7        kWork          ieee80211_iface_work
    0 mW    118.9 µs/s      0.00        Interrupt      [40] SATA controller

Update V: I used the information provided by powertop to make a few calculations:

• At the discharge rate reported, the battery right now has about 32 Wh of capacity;
• The battery is advertised with a capacity close to 100 Wh when new, lasting up to 15 hours;
• With Ubuntu 12.04 the battery was lasting about 4.5 hours, about 1/3 of 15 hours, squaring exactly with a loss of 2/3 of capacity;
• Thus, with Ubuntu 12.04 the average discharge rate must have been around 7 W.

An increase of power consumption from 7 W to 32 W is nothing short of catastrophic. Whatever is causing this must be far more serious than just some guzzler application or a misconfigured package.

Update VI: I am writing this from a live 14.04 session loaded from a USB key. Power consumption seems to be somewhat lower than with the HDD system (80% - 90%), which can be explained by a reduced number of services and applications running. Still, battery lifetime is far lower than what it was with Ubuntu 12.04.

Update VII: the abnormally high discharge rates are back, apparently after an upgrade to linux-headers-generic around the 15th of July. This is now reported as a bug at launchpad.

Any hints on how to bring back battery lifetime would be much appreciated.

I am using the zonColor DarkNight theme on Ubuntu 13.10 and am quite pleased with it. I would like to have a similar theme for Ubuntu 14.04 but so far I could not find a single dark theme available. Is it possible to port a theme from Ubuntu 13.10 to 14.04? Or must I wait for zonColor (or whomever) to release new themes for Ubuntu 14.04?

I have the following packages installed:

• gedit
• gedit-common
• gedit-plugins

In Ubuntu 12.04 with these packages installed all that was needed was to activate the terminal plugin and the press Ctrl+F9 to show the bottom panel. This isn't the case with Ubuntu 13.10 (Gedit 3.8.3) and I can't figure out how to do it.