Kaz Wolfe's questions

I recently (re)installed Ubuntu 18.04 on my Razer Blade Pro (2017). My wireless card is performing extremely poorly, and frequently dropping connection. Inspecting dmesg for Atheros messages yields the following (nasty-looking) crash:

[ 6709.200017] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: firmware crashed! (guid 01e29e97-0ee6-4538-8756-764abe49705f)
[ 6709.200048] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: qca6174 hw3.2 target 0x05030000 chip_id 0x00340aff sub 1a56:1535
[ 6709.200056] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: kconfig debug 0 debugfs 1 tracing 1 dfs 0 testmode 0
[ 6709.201666] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: firmware ver WLAN.RM.4.4.1-00079-QCARMSWPZ-1 api 6 features wowlan,ignore-otp crc32 fd869beb
[ 6709.202773] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: board_file api 2 bmi_id N/A crc32 20d869c3
[ 6709.202784] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: htt-ver 3.47 wmi-op 4 htt-op 3 cal otp max-sta 32 raw 0 hwcrypto 1
[ 6709.204809] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: firmware register dump:
[ 6709.204822] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [00]: 0x05030000 0x000015B3 0x009E6FD4 0x00955B31
[ 6709.204830] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [04]: 0x009E6FD4 0x00060730 0x0000001D 0x00473AD4
[ 6709.204838] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [08]: 0x0049C59C 0x0044DEB4 0x004290B0 0x00449AB0
[ 6709.204847] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [12]: 0x00000009 0xFFFFFFFF 0x00952F6C 0x00952F77
[ 6709.204854] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [16]: 0x00952CC4 0x0091080D 0x00000000 0x0091080D
[ 6709.204862] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [20]: 0x409E6FD4 0x0040E818 0x00405820 0x0049C464
[ 6709.204870] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [24]: 0x809E9395 0x0040E878 0x0049C6E8 0xC09E6FD4
[ 6709.204879] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [28]: 0x80932EF9 0x0040EA68 0x0040A054 0x00000009
[ 6709.204887] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [32]: 0x809F8C46 0x0040EA98 0x0041201C 0x00000004
[ 6709.204894] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [36]: 0x80911210 0x0040EAC8 0x00000005 0x004040F4
[ 6709.204902] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [40]: 0x80911154 0x0040EB28 0x00400000 0x00000000
[ 6709.204910] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [44]: 0x8091122D 0x0040EB48 0x00000000 0x00400600
[ 6709.204922] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [48]: 0x40910024 0x0040EB78 0x0040AB98 0x0040AB98
[ 6709.204930] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [52]: 0x00000000 0x0040EB98 0x009BB001 0x00040020
[ 6709.204938] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [56]: 0x809EDA21 0x0040E938 0x00499F10 0x00000000
[ 6709.204944] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: Copy Engine register dump:
[ 6709.204967] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [00]: 0x00034400  14  14   3   3
[ 6709.204990] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [01]: 0x00034800  17  17 510 511
[ 6709.205012] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [02]: 0x00034c00   5   5  68  69
[ 6709.205034] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [03]: 0x00035000  27  27  29  27
[ 6709.205057] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [04]: 0x00035400 131 131 131  67
[ 6709.205079] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [05]: 0x00035800   0   0  64   0
[ 6709.205101] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [06]: 0x00035c00  26  26  24  24
[ 6709.205123] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: [07]: 0x00036000   1   1   1   1
[ 6710.053042] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: Unknown eventid: 118809
[ 6710.056101] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: Unknown eventid: 90118
[ 6710.153420] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: device successfully recovered

There are also the following entries related to the wireless card:

[ 7403.617792] pcieport 0000:00:1c.6: AER: Corrected error received: id=00e6
[ 7403.617797] pcieport 0000:00:1c.6: PCIe Bus Error: severity=Corrected, type=Data Link Layer, id=00e6(Transmitter ID)
[ 7403.617800] pcieport 0000:00:1c.6:   device [8086:a116] error status/mask=00001000/00002000
[ 7403.617802] pcieport 0000:00:1c.6:    [12] Replay Timer Timeout 

The lspci output of the card is as follows:

3c:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 32)
    Subsystem: Bigfoot Networks, Inc. QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 145
    Memory at dc200000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2M]
    Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
    Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/8 Maskable+ 64bit-
    Capabilities: [70] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
    Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
    Capabilities: [148] Virtual Channel
    Capabilities: [168] Device Serial Number 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
    Capabilities: [178] Latency Tolerance Reporting
    Capabilities: [180] L1 PM Substates
    Kernel driver in use: ath10k_pci
    Kernel modules: ath10k_pci

-[0000:00]-+-00.0  Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v6/7th Gen Core Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers
           +- ...
           +-1c.0-[02-3a]--
           +-1c.4-[3b]----00.0  ...
           +-1c.6-[3c]----00.0  Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
           +-1d.0-[3d]----00.0  ...
           +- ...

Loading the card (at boot) shows the following dmesg output:

[   29.432791] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[   29.433628] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: pci irq msi oper_irq_mode 2 irq_mode 0 reset_mode 0
[   29.721996] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/pre-cal-pci-0000:3c:00.0.bin failed with error -2
[   29.722023] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/cal-pci-0000:3c:00.0.bin failed with error -2
[   29.725059] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: qca6174 hw3.2 target 0x05030000 chip_id 0x00340aff sub 1a56:1535
[   29.725061] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: kconfig debug 0 debugfs 1 tracing 1 dfs 0 testmode 0
[   29.725481] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: firmware ver WLAN.RM.4.4.1-00079-QCARMSWPZ-1 api 6 features wowlan,ignore-otp crc32 fd869beb
[   29.791271] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: board_file api 2 bmi_id N/A crc32 20d869c3
[   30.386364] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: Unknown eventid: 118809
[   30.389342] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: Unknown eventid: 90118
[   30.389967] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: htt-ver 3.47 wmi-op 4 htt-op 3 cal otp max-sta 32 raw 0 hwcrypto 1
[   30.471606] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x6c
[   30.471606] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a direct regpair map
[   30.471607] ath: Country alpha2 being used: 00
[   30.471608] ath: Regpair used: 0x6c
[   30.475073] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0 wlp60s0: renamed from wlan0
[   31.698248] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: Unknown eventid: 118809
[   31.701166] ath10k_pci 0000:3c:00.0: Unknown eventid: 90118

Notably, my system does not have hw3.2 under /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174. I have version 1.173.1 of linux-firmware installed, and no proprietary drivers seem to be available for my wireless card. Mandatory AIO script results are available on Pastebin.

After a crash of my wireless card, I can generally restore connectivity by togging WiFi off and then back on in the GNONE menu, but this is annoying to do whenever my wireless crashes (which takes anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours from last crash to happen). This worked fine in 16.04 HWE before I had to uninstall Linux, so I'm not really certain why 18.04 would bring a whole new host of problems, but apparently they exist now.

I'm assuming this is a kernel-related bug (although I have yet to file a report on this), but I would like to know if there are any workarounds present to make my wireless connection last longer than ten minutes and/or stop the PCIe Bus Error messages from cluttering my syslog.

Short of replacing my wireless card, and waiting for an official fix, what can I do to improve wireless performance (and stop the crashes)?

I have two computers, and I need to transfer a (very) large file between them.

Both computers are Thunderbolt 3 compatible, and I have a passive Thunderbolt cable ready to use.

Is there a way I can set up a direct peer-to-peer network between these two devices over this cable? I would rather avoid using adapters to Ethernet so that I can keep the theoretical max speed that Thunderbolt offers.

I've found this post on the kernel mailing list, but I have no idea how to use it, or if it's even available for me to use.

Both computers are running Ubuntu 16.04 with kernel 4.10 installed on them.

Whenever I full-screen certain applications, my entire screen will slowly begin to get covered by a black filter from the top down (see this YouTube video).

Upon any attempt at a screen refresh (for example, moving a mouse cursor or a game drawing a new frame) will cause the black bar to start from the top again. Doing this may also cause flickering and discoloration on the screen.

Certain applications (like Firefox and the terminal) will not exhibit this behavior, but others (like Google Chrome, Discord, and various games) will. No applications exhibit this behavior when running on the Nouveau driver.

Going back to a constantly-redrawing application (like the Unity desktop) will cause the black screen to not advance anymore, but it will also cause some slight flickering that will fade with time.

I am not able to take a screenshot or record it. This suggests to me that this is something lower-level than the X server or my display manager.

This error does not seem to occur on a guest session (or I have not been able to reproduce it there yet), suggesting something related to a bad configuration is at play. However, creating a new account will bring this bug with it.

What is going on? Is this just a driver bug? Is this a configuration error that just needs fixing somehow?

Current List Of Things Tried™ (that didn't work):

• Reset all Unity configs
• Delete NVIDIA settings file and regenerate
• Uninstall/reinstall NVIDIA drivers
• Using older NVIDIA drivers
• Using an alternate display manager (xdm)

Disabling hardware acceleration in Chrome does allow it to function without this issue, but this still doesn't solve the underlying problem - it's not always an option to disable hardware acceleration.

If possible, I'd rather avoid resetting a profile or switching back to open-source drivers. These are both last-resorts in my mind and I still won't know why this happened, meaning I can't report a bug or avoid accidentally triggering it on my new profile if I go down that route.

Operating System: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Kernel: 4.10.0-36-generic, 4.11.0-14-generic
Graphics Card: Nvidia GTX 1080 (Not Optimus)
GC Driver: NVIDIA 387.12, repro with 384.90 and 381.22

Canonical offers livepatching for its kernel, where every home user can get three licenses.

However, I'd like to know how I can de-register a machine from my license. If I get rid of a computer, I'd rather not lose one of my three licenses.

Is there a formalized procedure to deactivate a machine's license and transfer it to a new machine?

Whenever I try to run fwupdmgr on my system (either as root or a regular user), I receive the following error message:

Error calling StartServiceByName for org.freedesktop.fwupd: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.TimedOut: Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.fwupd': timed out

This problem just seemed to develop out of nowhere, and is causing some significant worry as it's preventing me from grabbing some security updates for my computer's BIOS.

I am running Ubuntu 16.04 with fwupd version 0.7.0-0ubuntu4.3 installed on my system. I am also aware of this question, but it is currently unanswered and my system does not have fwupd running at startup.

What is going on, and how can I fix it?

My computer is hosting an application on port 1234 that should never be accessible from anything but my machine. However, my Docker container (which is running Apache) should be able to access this. Similarly, my Docker container is hosting a number of resources on various ports that should similarly be only accessible from my computer. Now, this is further complicated by the fact that my system uses a bridge for that specific network:

NETWORK ID          NAME                DRIVER              SCOPE
4d4b5e752963        bridge              bridge              local               
c387eb42698a        project_default     bridge              local               
6818c0eb94bf        host                host                local               
f7e4ed6c05a2        none                null                local  

This bridge (annoyingly) always has a randomly generated ID that changes each time I restart my Docker Compose setup:

br-c387eb42698a Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 02:42:29:95:fd:2c  
          inet addr:172.18.0.1  Bcast:0.0.0.0  Mask:255.255.0.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::42:29ff:fe95:fd2c/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:405753 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:530699 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:85147217 (85.1 MB)  TX bytes:75260996 (75.2 MB)

In short, I need the following:

• Any host on br-c387eb42698a (or whatever the network name is) to access port 1234 on my local machine (conveniently 172.18.0.1)
• My machine to be able to access any port on any host on that subnet. (default)
• The world to never be able to access any port from the subnet or port 1234.

Ideally, a solution here would work in an IP-agnostic way such that it does not depend on the bridge being on the 172.18.0.0/24 subnet, nor would it break or allow data leaks if I'm connected to a network that happens to contain the 172.18.0.0/24 subnet.

The easiest thing I can think of would be to use the interface name and set up UFW rules around that, but I can't really do that as my interface is constantly changing.

How can I do this? While I'd prefer to do this in pure ufw (or iptables if necessary), I'm open to solutions that entail configuring Docker to always assign a persistent ID (or even custom name?) to the bridge interface.

I have two monitors on my system, a 4k monitor (built-in) and a 1080p monitor (external). Obviously, this causes some issues with scaling due to the fact that windows often have weird sizes and are just in general weird.

I've been able to resolve this issue (partially) by setting my 4k monitor to downscale to 1080p (using 1x scaling), but it reverts to 4k when I unplug my other monitor. Usually, this would be awesome, but it doesn't change my scaling factor to my preferred 2x.

Is there a way I can configure my system to drop my builtin display to 1080p @ 1x scaling when I have my external monitor connected, and re-increase it to 4k @ 2x scaling when there's no other monitor plugged in?

To explain the underlying issue better (in case this is interpreted as an X/Y problem -- which it is), setting my laptop monitor to 4k @ 2x scaling makes things look good on it, but any window I open on it and drag to my 1080p monitor is double-size. For example, the Unity control center is about as big as my 1080p screen in this setup. This is obviously really bad, forcing this half-solution.

If there's a way I can keep my other monitor at 4k @ 2x scaling while keeping windows normal sized, I'd definitely appreciate a solution like that a lot more, but I think this is an X/GTK restriction, forcing the workaround I'm currently using. I've asked this question here if anyone wants to take a grab at that.

I have a Dell laptop that has an assigned service tag on it. However, this sticker is in an inconvenient place (on the bottom of the laptop), and I'm too lazy to unplug everything and turn it over to read the service tag.

Is there a way I can get the service tag from the Terminal or similar?

I have a service (some-service) on my system that I'd like to allow members of group managers to control (start, stop, restart). I would also allow these users to use PolicyKit instead of sudo for various reasons.

However, Ubuntu 16.04 does not (yet) have PolicyKit version 0.106, meaning the rules system present in that version does not exist, meaning I need to use PKLA files as documented here.

How would I write these rules on PolicyKit 0.105 and only allow managers to only control some-service?

With Christmas around the corner, I'd like to make my system's prompt (for every user) a bit more festive and cheery.

Namely, I'd like to attach a Happy Holidays! (or similar) message post-login for every user on the system (on terminal login, SSH or locally). I'd assume this is a simple echo command, but I'm not sure where the appropriate place to put this command is in such a way that it would affect everyone. For obvious reasons, I'd rather not modify everyone's .bashrc. So, where is that?

I am currently running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, and I'm running into an extremely annoying problem with my wireless setup. Occasionally (and seemingly, randomly), my ping will begin to skyrocket and get out of hand:

PING 10.0.2.1 (10.0.2.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 10.0.2.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=367 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.2.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=8.48 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.2.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=971 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.2.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=1.11 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.2.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=91.6 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.2.1: icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=482 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.2.1: icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=1.15 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.2.1: icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=131 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.2.1: icmp_seq=9 ttl=64 time=92.6 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.2.1: icmp_seq=10 ttl=64 time=2.72 ms

--- 10.0.2.1 ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 received, 0% packet loss, time 9005ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1.116/215.207/971.833/297.328 ms

I've also seen cases where my ping to my router is in the upwards of the 4000ms range:

--- 10.0.2.1 ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 received, 0% packet loss, time 9031ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1425.396/3721.331/5352.349/1087.015 ms, pipe 5

Other pings seem to just drop packets entirely:

--- 10.0.2.1 ping statistics ---
60 packets transmitted, 48 received, 20% packet loss, time 71043ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.544/2206.796/7108.406/2372.068 ms, pipe 8

Otherwise, the system functions completely normally. How can I fix or at least reduce this excessive latency?

lshw output is as follows:

*-network
     description: Wireless interface
     product: BCM4352 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
     vendor: Broadcom Corporation
     physical id: 0
     bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
     logical name: wlan0
     version: 03
     serial: [REDACTED]
     width: 64 bits
     clock: 33MHz
     capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
     configuration: broadcast=yes driver=wl0 driverversion=6.30.223.248 (r487574) ip=10.0.2.71 latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abg
     resources: irq:19 memory:f7a00000-f7a07fff memory:f7800000-f79fffff

The Broadcom STA driver is installed and is running. This is happening to no other devices on the network.

uname -a returns:

Linux ArcticWolf 4.4.0-57-generic #78-Ubuntu SMP Fri Dec 9 23:50:32 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I have the latest (known) drivers installed:

Package: bcmwl-kernel-source
Version: 6.30.223.248+bdcom-0ubuntu8
Priority: optional
Section: restricted/admin
Source: bcmwl
Origin: Ubuntu
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <[email protected]>
Original-Maintainer: Alberto Milone <[email protected]>
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
Installed-Size: 8,013 kB
Depends: dkms, linux-libc-dev, libc6-dev

iwconfig output at any given time:

wlan0     IEEE 802.11abg  ESSID:"[redacted]"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: [REDACTED]   
          Bit Rate=144 Mb/s   Tx-Power=200 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=51/70  Signal level=-59 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

I can occasionally "jar" the network back to normal by disconnecting and reconnecting the wireless connection, but it always goes back to normal after a few minutes of operating normally.

There are no other wireless routers or devices nearby that may cause interference on my WiFi channel. The router firmware is up-to-date and I have tried rebooting it numerous times now.

The router is on Channel 1 (and is the only device on the channel), and WPA2-AES is being used. Distance makes no difference.

This is not a router or interference issue, as other devices on my network work perfectly and exhibit none of the same symptoms.

This happens (so far) on all networks I've tested with, suggesting that this is actually an issue with my system and not my router. This situation happens in both noisy and quiet radio areas, further suggesting that it has nothing to do with interference.

I have a live USB made with the standard Ubuntu disk image creator for 16.04 LTS. In the current state, I can boot to this disk, but it still requires the original USB to run properly at all times.

Attempting to pull the drive and use the system generates a large amount of I/O errors, further suggesting that the USB drive is actually needed for things not already loaded into RAM (For example, Firefox worked without the USB, but I used it once before already. apt, on the other hand, did not.)

Is there a way to copy the entire Ubuntu live disk to RAM, so I can remove the drive and free up a USB slot for other things?

So, I'm being stuck with a very peculiar spambot: cron.

Every day, I'm presented with the following e-mail:

/etc/cron.daily/apt:
FATAL -> Failed to fork.

What would be causing this error? My /etc/cron.daily/apt is the same that comes with the default installation, so it's obviously something else.

I'm not concerned about cron sending me mails (as it gives me a lot of useful issues/data). I just want to solve the problem at hand.

So, long story short, I have some, er, sensitive data that I'd like to protect from people trying to snoop around. Let's say it's in a folder on my desktop called My Secrets.

However, I'd like to retain some sort of method to destroy this data to make it unrecoverable, in such a way that it is impossible to recover and that there is no proof that this data even existed in the first place.

I'd like to be able to preserve my Ubuntu installation and any/all non-sensitive data, so a complete nuke (sadly) isn't an option.

How can I achieve this in Ubuntu?

Ideally, I'd also like to be able to trigger this deletion at the drop of a pin, from which point there is no stopping the (at the very least partial) destruction of my data. I'm also willing to use a solution that requires setup (for, say, any future data that needs storage).

I am doing a dd on two identical drives with this command:

 dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb bs=4096

Both hard drives are the exact same model number, and both have 1TB of storage space. /dev/sda uses a blocksize of 4096. /dev/sda is a local drive and /dev/sdb is a remote caddy. I might be able to use the following protocols:

• USB2.0 HighSpeed (Currently the plan)
• Gigabit Over-The-Network clone (Really do not want to even try this)
• USB3.0 (If I find my other drive caddy)
• eSATA (If I find/buy a cable)
• SATA (If I find/buy a cable, gotta love laptop CD drives)

Is there a way to run this drive copy that takes less that 96 hours? I am open to using tools other than dd.

I need to clone the following partitions (including UUIDs)

• Fat32 EFI Partition (*)
• NTFS Windows Partition (*)
• HFS+ OSX Partition
• EXT4 Ubuntu Partition (*)
• Swap Partition (*)

* Supported by Clonezilla

I have tried Clonezilla (and it was MUCH faster), but it does not support HFS+ smart copying, which I need. Maybe the newest version supports this?

When I made my first clone, I did all of the partitions except HFS+ and it went very quickly. (No more than 3 hours total)

I already know that init is the magical program that is needed for booting your computer and managing runlevels, but what is it's real purpose?

Why do we even need init in the first place? Why can't the bootloader tell Upstart what programs to run and not run?

This question in (late) response to my What would happen if init was deleted? question.

Just a theoretical question...

But what would happen if init (in /sbin/init) would be removed?

I have a ton of files, all named stuff like 1.jpg, 2.jpg, 3.jpg, and so on up to 1439.jpg, however, I have a problem with one of my projects and alphabetizing. It will usually go in the order 1.jpg, 10.jpg, 11.jpg and so on.

What I need is some way to name the files so they are in the format such as 00001.jpg all the way up to 01439.jpg.

How would I be able to do this quickly and efficiently?

I've always used TAR and ZIP for compression, but recently I have heard about the *.Z compression algorithm. This brought up a question for me:

With all of these compression systems, which one is best for general use and compression?

Running a few tests, I have discovered that tar, as I discovered, does NOT really compress (unless explicitly specified). Meaning, what is it good for compared to other compression methods?

I am already aware that ZIP is the most widely-used compression system, but should I use it instead of *.Z, *.7z, .tar, or .tar.<insert ending here>?

Post Summary:

1. Should I use *.tar, *.Z, *.7z, .tar, or .tar.<insert ending here> for the best compression?
2. If plain *.tar doesn't compress, why do we use it?

EDIT: Not all algorithms allow storing of Linux permissions (from what I learned). Which do, and is there some sort of hack (or script) I could use to store permissions?

Well, a picture is work 1k words:

Looks bad, huh?

I am using the 331-updates latest 331.67 drivers from NVidia's website on a Dell Latitude e6400. Everything else is up-to-date. This only happens when I resume from sleep, or I switch to a VT and back. It also doesn't ALWAYS happen, which I find odd. Graphics Card: Nvidia Quadro NVS160M

UPDATE AFTER TESTING: This problem only exists with KDE (specifically QT). I can go into Unity or Mint or any non QT-based GUI and it works perfectly with no resume errors.

UPDATE: This only happens when I use KWin (and KDE). I have upgraded to 14.04 and the problem is not occurring as frequently. Also, sometimes this effect doesn't happen, but instead the top menu bar simply goes out of focus with the rest of the screen goes blank.