einpoklum's questions

I'm using LXQt in Lubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa.

I want to reduce clutter on my system tray, and specifically, the update manager/notifier icon. I would like it to only be visible when there actually are any updates to be installed, and not just sit there taking up space.

Is this possible?

If not - how do I just remove it? I can't find where to configure what's loaded into the system tray.

I'm using LXQt in Lubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa.

I'd like to get rid of the Livepatch indicator, that's within the system tray that's on my panel (the tray is full of c*** I don't need anyway!)

I looked for answers here:

• How can I remove live patch notification?
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comments/bkndho/how_can_i_remove_the_livepatch_appindicator/
• Two updater icons in Lubuntu 20.04
• Hide livepatch indicator in top panel

but the suggestions did not work, or were not about removing livepatch.

I don't mind disabling it completely, or just removing the icon. And it can be just for my user, or globally.

I'm using Lubunu 20.04 on a Lenovo X201 laptop. Suppose I do the following:

1. Log in (to a GUI desktop session).
2. Connect an external monitor via VGA
3. Used lxrandr to only use the external monitor
4. Physically disconnect the VGA connector

At this point, the laptop's monitor is dark. Now, Lubuntu - as installed - does not recognize Fn+Monitor Switch keys / does not do anything useful with them. So, I switch to another VT with Ctrl+Alt+Fn (say F2).

I now want to use xrandr to have the laptop display come back on when I switch VT's.

1. Is that possible?
2. When I try to make this work - and I'm no xrandr expert - I fail :-(

Specifically, I tried:

xrandr -d :0 --output LVDS-1 --primary

and it does nothing, and

xrandr -d :0 --output LVDS-1 --auto

gets me aBadMatch (invalid parameter attributes) error. But I don't understand what that means exactly.

Related:

• How to enable monitor from terminal?
• Why do xrandr errors "BadMatch", "BadName", "Gamma Failed" happen?

I used Ubuntu Bionic. I have, among others, the following apt sources configured

deb https://mkvtoolnix.download/ubuntu/bionic/ ./
deb-src https://mkvtoolnix.download/ubuntu/bionic/ ./

when I apt-get update, it fails on this repo, telling me:

E: The repository 'https://mkvtoolnix.download/ubuntu/bionic ./ Release' does not have a Release file.
N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.

I browsed around, and found a suggestion to use apt-get update --allow-insecure-repositories, but that just changed the error messages I'm getting and didn't resolve the problem.

Help?

In the new Ubuntu 18.04:

• What's the default GCC version (with which the binaries were built)?
• What GCC versions are available as separate packages (and what minor version is installed if I install GCC 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 respectively)?
• What Clang versions are available as separate packages (and what minor version is installed if I install clang 4 or 5?)

I can't find this in any release notes (and I don't want to have to install just to check.)

I use Lubuntu 17.04 (zesty). I'm somewhat annoyed by how the window scroll bars are super-thin, and I often miss them or take too much time to press them.

Is there a (reasonably simple) way to make them somewhat wider (in the default theme)?

I use (L)ubuntu Zesty. If I call evince myfile.pdf, I get some warnings before the app comes up:

(evince:11529): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:23:18: not a number
(evince:11529): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:23:18: Expected a string.
(evince:11529): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:815:10: not a number
(evince:11529): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:815:24: Using Pango syntax for the font: style property is deprecated; please use CSS syntax
(evince:11529): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:1953:14: not a number
(evince:11529): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:1953:14: Expected a string.
(evince:11529): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: nautilus.css:50:71: Using one color stop with linear-gradient() is deprecated.
(evince:11529): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: nautilus.css:51:71: Using one color stop with linear-gradient() is deprecated.
(evince:11529): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-lubuntu.css:252:14: not a number
(evince:11529): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-lubuntu.css:252:14: Expected a string.
(evince:11529): Gtk-WARNING **: Allocating size to EvSidebar 0x55d3ce38f6a0 without calling gtk_widget_get_preferred_width/height(). How does the code know the size to allocate?

So, with the last error I'm guessing its hopeless since I'm not going to start fiddling with the app's code. But can I tweak the CSS files mentioned so as to avoid the warnings? If so, how? I don't quite understand these warnings.

I'm looking at the login prompt on an Ubuntu 16.04 laptop. I should be seeing - so I've been told - a gear icon in the corner of the highlighted rectangle around the username, which would allow me to change desktop environments, e.g.:

Yet - it's missing. I know I have more than one desktop environment installed (LXDE and Unity). Why is it missing, and how can I get it back? (I have root on this machine but I'm not the one who had set it up.)

I recently updated my LXDE from Xenial Xerus to Yakkety Yakk.

After the upgrade, I no longer see the Extraction-related context menu items for compressed files (e.g. rar) in PCManFM. Why is that? How can I bring them back?

I use Lubuntu 16.04. My /etc/defaults/console-setup says:

ACTIVE_CONSOLES="/dev/tty[1-6]"

yet when I Ctrl+Alt+F1, or F2, or F3 etc. - I only see a black screen with the top line saying: "/dev/sda1: clean 123/456 files, 654/321 blocks" - no login prompt. I can switch back with Ctrl+Alt+F7, but, still - why doesn't it work?

I'm using Lubuntu 16.04, dist-upgraded from 15.10, on my laptop. With 15.10 I didn't have any problems with the display, but after the upgrade - I started having them. One problem, which I can sort of work around, is the cursor disappearing; switching VTs (Ctrl+Alt+F1, Ctrl+Alt+F7) brings it back. However, sometimes, and gradually, text begins to disappear. That is, some windows, as well as the task bar, lose the text that's supposed to be rendered on them. The rendering does happen, e.g. icons get rendered - but the text is gone. Right now the best I can do is restart X. But I'm guessing I'm not the only one experiencing this and there's something better I can do.

My hardware is a Lenovo X201 with a Core I5 M540 CPU (Intel graphics i915).

I have an /etc/apt/sources.list.d file with the line

deb https://download.01.org/gfx/ubuntu/16.04/main wily main #Intel Graphics drivers

Now, when I try to apt-get upgrade, I get a message saying:

W: GPG error: https://download.01.org/gfx/ubuntu/16.04/main wily InRelease: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 2CC2A1B90A3B3268

Why is the repository not signed? What can I do about it?

I'm trying to play the audio program available here on my Kubuntu 16.04 (but under LXDE).

Results:

• Mozilla Firefox: It works fine.

• Google Chromium: I get this error message:

  Error loading player: No playable sources found
  

My question is mostly about Chromium. Why am I getting that message and how can I fix it?

I'd like to change the font size used to render the time in LXPanel's digital clock. I see the lxpanel config file has a font setting, but it appears to affect the window bars/button labels; I want something for just the clock.

Can the clock font size be changed? If so, how?

PS - I also tried changing the panel height (from 26 to 32), that did not help.

I run Kubuntu 16.04 (just installed it from the ISO). My computer has on-chip Intel graphics, which is what I use for the display. I also have a GTX 650 Ti Boost card which I DO NOT WANT TO USE for display (just for CUDA work).

• When nVIDIA driver 361.62 or 367.35 (the latest) is installed, Xorg loads to a black screen (but when I run binaries which use CUDA run fine).
• When the nVIDIA driver is not installed, Xorg loads fine; it loads the nouveau modules (even though supposedly I don't need them) - but CUDA apps don't run.

The Xorg error with the nVIDIA driver installed is:

(EE) NOUVEAU(G0): [XvMC] Failed to initialize extension.
...
(EE) Failed to initialize GLX extension (Compatible NVIDIA X driver not found)

If I uninstall the nVIDIA driver, X works properly again (will quote some log messages here soon).

How can I get both X working and CUDA installed (i.e. drivers installed and functioning)?

Due disclosure: I had asked about the same question regarding Debian Stretch on unix.SX, but deleted it since I just switched to Kubuntu.

Update:

So I uninstalled Nouveau completely to explore this further. When I generate an xorg.conf, I get (clipped input-device-related and files lines and sections):

Section "ServerLayout"
       Identifier     "X.org Configured"
       Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
       Screen      1  "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
EndSection

Section "Module"
       Load  "glx"
EndSection

section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "Monitor0"
        VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
        ModelName    "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
       Identifier   "Monitor1"
       VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
       ModelName    "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "Card0"
        Driver      "fbdev"
        BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
       Identifier  "Card1"
       Driver      "fbdev"
       BusID       "PCI:2:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen0"
        Device     "Card0"
        Monitor    "Monitor0"
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     24
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
       Identifier "Screen1"
       Device     "Card1"
       Monitor    "Monitor1"
       SubSection "Display"
               Viewport   0 0
               Depth     24
       EndSubSection
EndSection

(note that PCI 2:0:0 is the nVIDIA card and 0:2:0 is the on-chip graphics.)

Now,

• If I use this configuration with the nVDIAI drivers - blank screen.
• If I comment-out the sections regarding the nVIDIA card (card 1, monitor 1) and change the ServerLayout section - blank screen.
• If I disable the loading of the GLX module(s), which produce errors in the log - blank screen (and it's not clear the module loading is the issue)
• I even went into the /usr/lib/xorg/modules, removing nvidia's libglx.so and/or restoring the non-nvidia libglx.so - still, blank screen.

I do get differet error messages though. With the most extensive subset of the above, I have:

[  1952.022] (==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Wed Aug 10 10:07:20 2016
[  1952.022] (==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
[  1952.022] (==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
[  1952.022] (==) ServerLayout "X.org Configured"
[  1952.022] (**) |-->Screen "Screen0" (0)
[  1952.022] (**) |   |-->Monitor "Monitor0"
[  1952.022] (**) |   |-->Device "Card0"
[  1952.022] (**) |-->Input Device "Mouse0"
[  1952.022] (**) |-->Input Device "Keyboard0"
[  1952.022] (==) Automatically adding devices
[  1952.022] (==) Automatically enabling devices
[  1952.022] (==) Automatically adding GPU devices
...
  1952.024] (II) xfree86: Adding drm device (/dev/dri/card1)
[  1952.024] (II) xfree86: Adding drm device (/dev/dri/card0)
[  1952.026] (--) PCI:*(0:0:2:0) 8086:0162:1565:110f rev 9, Mem @ 0xf7400000/4194304, 0xd0000000/268435456, I/O @ 0x0000f000/64
[  1952.026] (--) PCI: (0:2:0:0) 10de:11c2:19da:1281 rev 161, Mem @ 0xf6000000/16777216, 0xe0000000/134217728, 0xe8000000/33554432, I/O @ 0x0000e000/128, BIOS @ 0x????????/524288
[  1952.026] (II) LoadModule: "glx"
[  1952.026] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions-nvidia-leave-me-alone/libglx.so
[  1952.026] (II) Module glx: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[  1952.026]    compiled for 1.18.3, module version = 1.0.0
[  1952.026]    ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 9.0
[  1952.026] (==) AIGLX enabled
[  1952.026] (II) LoadModule: "fbdev"
[  1952.027] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/fbdev_drv.so
[  1952.027] (II) Module fbdev: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[  1952.027]    compiled for 1.18.1, module version = 0.4.4
[  1952.027]    Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[  1952.027]    ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 20.0
[  1952.027] (II) FBDEV: driver for framebuffer: fbdev
[  1952.033] (II) Loading sub module "fbdevhw"
[  1952.033] (II) LoadModule: "fbdevhw"
[  1952.033] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/libfbdevhw.so
[  1952.033] (II) Module fbdevhw: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[  1952.033]    compiled for 1.18.3, module version = 0.0.2
[  1952.033]    ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 20.0
[  1952.033] (**) FBDEV(0): claimed PCI slot 0@0:2:0
[  1952.033] (II) FBDEV(0): using default device
[  1952.033] (==) FBDEV(0): Depth 24, (==) framebuffer bpp 32
[  1952.033] (==) FBDEV(0): RGB weight 888
[  1952.033] (==) FBDEV(0): Default visual is TrueColor
[  1952.033] (==) FBDEV(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
[  1952.033] (II) FBDEV(0): hardware: inteldrmfb (video memory: 8100kB)
[  1952.033] (II) FBDEV(0): checking modes against framebuffer device...
[  1952.033] (II) FBDEV(0): checking modes against monitor...
[  1952.033] (--) FBDEV(0): Virtual size is 1920x1080 (pitch 1920)
[  1952.033] (**) FBDEV(0):  Built-in mode "current"
[  1952.033] (==) FBDEV(0): DPI set to (96, 96)
[  1952.033] (II) Loading sub module "fb"
[  1952.033] (II) LoadModule: "fb"
[  1952.033] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/libfb.so
[  1952.034] (II) Module fb: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[  1952.034]    compiled for 1.18.3, module version = 1.0.0
[  1952.034]    ABI class: X.Org ANSI C Emulation, version 0.4
[  1952.034] (**) FBDEV(0): using shadow framebuffer
[  1952.034] (II) Loading sub module "shadow"
[  1952.034] (II) LoadModule: "shadow"
[  1952.034] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/libshadow.so
[  1952.034] (II) Module shadow: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[  1952.034]    compiled for 1.18.3, module version = 1.1.0
[  1952.034]    ABI class: X.Org ANSI C Emulation, version 0.4
[  1952.034] (==) Depth 24 pixmap format is 32 bpp
[  1952.079] (==) FBDEV(0): Backing store enabled
[  1952.080] (EE) FBDEV(0): FBIOPUTCMAP: Invalid argument
... repeated many times
[  1952.082] (==) FBDEV(0): DPMS enabled
[  1952.082] (==) RandR enabled
[  1952.087] (II) SELinux: Disabled on system
[  1952.087] (II) AIGLX: Screen 0 is not DRI2 capable
[  1952.087] (EE) AIGLX: reverting to software rendering
[  1952.101] (EE) AIGLX error: dlopen of /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/swrast_dri.so failed (/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/swrast_dri.so: undefined symbol: _glapi_tls_Dispatch)
[  1952.101] (EE) GLX: could not load software renderer
[  1952.101] (II) GLX: no usable GL providers found for screen 0
...
[  2201.199] (II) config/udev: removing GPU device /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.1/0000:02:00.0/drm/card1 /dev/dri/card1
[  2201.199] xf86: remove device 0 /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.1/0000:02:00.0/drm/card1

• I also tried forcing the use of the "intel" driver. This works when the nVIDIA drivers are not installed, but it's the same old blank screen when they are.

I have a problem which is similar, but may not the same, as in several other questions asked here. The closest seems to be:

Can't get nVidia drivers working with 16.04, logs out right after login

Here's my scenario:

• Kubuntu 16.04 64-bit, freshly installed.
• Desktop machine with an on-board (on-chip) Intel display, and a discrete nVIDIA GTX 650 Ti - not used for display, just for computation.
• Installing nVIDIA driver version either 361.62 or 367.35 (both with same result)
• No 'Optimus', whatever that is.

Well, the driver installation works (but it begins with a complaint about a preinstall script failing); and on reboot, the nVIDIA driver(s) appears with lsmod. Also, CUDA code runs successfully so no problem there.

However... when booting the VT in which X is supposed to show me a login screen is blank. The machine doesn't hang (I can work on other VTs), nor does X crash. The errors I get in /var/log/Xorg.0.log are:

[    15.618] (EE) NOUVEAU(G0): [XvMC] Failed to initialize extension.
[    15.642] (EE) Failed to initialize GLX extension (Compatible NVIDIA X driver not found)

If I uninstall the nVIDIA driver, X works properly again (will quote some log messages here soon).

The solution for the similar question does not work for me. So my question is:

How can I have the nVIDIA drivers installed and the X server work, considering the fact that I do not use the nVIDIA card for display at all?

Obviously, a solution which prevents X from "noticing" the nVIDIA card would work well for me.

FYI - I'm also having a variant of this problem on Debian Stretch, so a non-Ubuntu-specific solution would be swell if you have one.

I use LXDE (as part of Lubuntu 15.04). When I press Win, I get the 'Start menu', which has a 'Run' entry. I would like to press r and have that entry selected... but r currently does nothing. How can I set that as an accelerator key for the Run entry?

I would like my he-IL/en-US Keyboard layoutas in Lubuntu 15.04 to behave like it does in MS Windows, with respect to Hebrew. That probably means a lot of things, not all of which I'm aware of, but at the very least:

• Same behavior in virtual terminals and in X sessions
• Ctrl+Shift switches direction <-- (yes I know this one is hard and maybe out-of-scope. I still need it to work.)
• Alt+Shift switches keyboard layout
• Caps Lock in Hebrew layout gives me capital English letters instead of Hebrew letters - but I still get the non-letter characters of the Hebrew layout! i.e. it doesn't act like a layout switch.
• Applications accept Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V and other similar English-letter shortcuts also when I'm in Hebrew layout.
• Win+Space doesn't switch layouts (actually I don't really mind all that much)
• In Hebrew layout, punctuation is available with Caps Lock and Shift + number keys.
• No using the Scroll Lock indicator led for indication which layout is in effect!

I downloaded Eclipse Juno CDT and am using it with Kubuntu 14.04 . Unfortunately, it keeps crashing on every other action I take... for example, if I try to load the Editor options - crash. I can't see a relevant log file, and there are no relevant entries in the Error Log View the UI gives you.

Why could this be happenning? What can I do about it?

I'm trying to install Kubuntu 12.04 from the DVD, and I want the text-mode installer. I don't see how I can get to it from the boot menu. What should I enter as the boot options? Or should I start the installer from the command-line after boot?

Notes:

• In the F4 modes menu, I only see the 'normal mode'.
• I know I can achieve this with the alternate boot CD. But I want this on the DVD, with all the packages the DVD has (e.g. for installations with no Internet access).