v010dya's questions

I am a tutor in computer programming. As such I do lots of work via online conferencing, my most common way to work is to use Skype for audio and Mikogo for my students to provide me a way to see their screen and for me to click somewhere on it, so they can see where I have clicked. I very explicitly do not want to control anything that is happening on their machine, I wish for them to do all the work rather than me typing code on their machine.

A while ago Mikogo has stopped providing GNU/Linux installation, and I really do not like the idea of "just install it under wine or other emulation software". The point is to be able to have a solution that is the same for all operating systems.

The things that I absolutely require:

• should work under GNU/Linux as a receiver of a session (I am on Xubuntu)
• should be able to start a session on GNU/Linux, Windows, MacOS (unfortunately some people do use the latter two)
• should be able to connect and see the screen without controlling the machine
• should be able to give indication to a specific area of the screen when I click there

Other things like recording sessions, audio conferencing, file transfers, etc. are not required. However, I would prefer free software.

P.S. I have read Best VNC / remote desktop software for assistance But there the user specifically asks to control the other machine, which is exactly opposite of what I want.

I have created a new user, went to user groups and checked 'use audio devices'. However, when i log into that user account i see that no sound can be played.

When i go to audio mixer it says that it is unable to connect to pulse-audio server.

Epiphany saves files without asking. Is there a way to change its settings to make it ask where to save a specific file before actually saving it?

I have a bash script that moves my windows from the left screen to right screen in dual-screen setup. Currently the way it works is cycling through the window ids that are given by xdotool search --onlyvisible --maxdepth 2 --class "" and then moves them to the right by the screen width. It already works... unless the window in question is maximises or minimised.

So what is needed is a way to check the current status of the window. I have found an answer that provides the way to add and remove those bits, but where is the way to check if they are set already?

If it is not possible to do via xdotool, it should be possible to reuse the window id provided by the command mentioned above.

Currently i am using VPN (done by bitmask) to go only the internet. But i would like to set it up so that two applications access the internet directly. Is there a way to do that?

$ sudo ip6tables --list-rules
-P INPUT ACCEPT
-P FORWARD ACCEPT
-P OUTPUT ACCEPT
-N bitmask
-A OUTPUT -j bitmask
-A bitmask -d fe80::/64 -o wlp3s0 -j ACCEPT
-A bitmask -d ff05::c/128 -o wlp3s0 -p udp -m udp --dport 1900 -j RETURN
-A bitmask -d ff02::fb/128 -o wlp3s0 -p udp -m udp --dport 5353 -j RETURN
-A bitmask -p tcp -j REJECT --reject-with icmp6-port-unreachable
-A bitmask -p udp -j REJECT --reject-with icmp6-port-unreachable

$ifconfig
lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>
        loop  txqueuelen 1000  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 303190  bytes 23045786 (23.0 MB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 303190  bytes 23045786 (23.0 MB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

tun0: flags=4305<UP,POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,NOARP,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 10.41.0.18  netmask 255.255.248.0  destination 10.41.0.18
        inet6 fe80::7b5f:9d91:701e:c55  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        inet6 2001:db8:123::1010  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x0<global>
        unspec 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00  txqueuelen 100  (UNSPEC)
        RX packets 2419226  bytes 2916699759 (2.9 GB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 1562458  bytes 208828031 (208.8 MB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 107 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

wlp3s0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.0.147  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.0.255
        inet6 fe80::b43f:cba:ab11:d9a8  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether 24:0a:64:da:d6:eb  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 6908650  bytes 3525833381 (3.5 GB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 7751152  bytes 7915813822 (7.9 GB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

$ iwconfig 
tun0      no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

enp4s0    no wireless extensions.

wlp3s0    IEEE 802.11  ESSID:"ZTE_C5959A"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: FC:2D:5E:C5:95:9A   
          Bit Rate=52 Mb/s   Tx-Power=15 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=47/70  Signal level=-63 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:6  Invalid misc:62   Missed beacon:0

How do I log out of the Google account in Chromium.

After trying out the Google hangouts extension (which I have now uninstalled) I have my name displayed in the upper right side of Chromium windows, which means that I am logged into the Google account in some manner. I wish to log out.

When I press 'Manage people', I don't see any logout option. I do see a way to open another window as a guest, but that's not what I'm looking for. I want to logout of all the current windows and to no longer have my google account associated with the Chromium installation.

I was using LTS for a long time, and when a new monitor was getting connected a dialog would pop up asking me what to do. Now i'm on 17.10, the dialog also comes up when i connect the monitor, but by that time the system already chooses "mirror displays" for me.

I want to either change it to "use first display" or "extend to the right". How can i do that?

I have two drives on my machine, both are internal. However, the second drive keeps showing up as external:

1. There is no trash facility on that drive. Files are deleted right away.
2. In all the file managers there is the 'Dismount' option, which then fails if i try to do that (since the drive's partition is mounted via fstab).

How can i explain to Xubuntu that the drive is actually internal, so that those things will get fixed?

Here's the line in /etc/fstab:

/dev/mapper/largevg-work    /home/volodya/work  ext4    errors=remount-ro   0   2

and also

$ udisksctl dump |grep '^[^ ]\|Remova'
[...]
/org/freedesktop/UDisks2/drives/MATSHITA_DVD_RAM_UJ8E1_SZD5L67522:
    MediaRemovable:             true
    Removable:                  true
/org/freedesktop/UDisks2/drives/Multiple_Card__Reader_058F63666435:
    MediaRemovable:             true
    Removable:                  true
/org/freedesktop/UDisks2/drives/ST2000LM015_2E8174_ZDZ09HM4:
    MediaRemovable:             false
    Removable:                  false
/org/freedesktop/UDisks2/drives/WDC_WDS250G1B0A_00H9H0_172703800034:
    MediaRemovable:             false
    Removable:                  false

My 'large' drive is showing false, as you can see. But still...

I have a JPEG image inside a PDF file, i know that it is a JPEG, because when i open the file with a hex editor i can see JFIF string present in it. How do i extract it into a separate file.

The particular file that i have only has a single image and it is on the first page.

I know that it is possible to use convert from the Image Magic package to convert the image, but this will mean that a double conversion will take place possibly making an image either worse quality or unnecesserily larger size.

I'm running an LTS version of Xubuntu. I have installed a Sound Recorder and have recorded a test sound. I have restarted the app, to check if this is a permanent recording (and that recording stays, so it is somewhere in the file system).

However, i'm unable to find where Sound Recorder puts the files. I have checked '~/Music/' and looked through the directories for something titled 'SoundRecorder' or 'recorded audio', but nothing is there.

I have read this link, but there it's talking about nautilus, i am using a different file manager (PCManFm), but i want to add an item to all the right-click menus of the directory.

I have done the following:

added a file ~/.local/share/file-manager/actions/mkthumb.desktop with the following context:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Action
Tooltip=Generate all the thumbs on the folder
Name=Generate all the thumbs
MimeTypes=inode/directory
Exec=mkthumb.sh -s %u

this doesn't work (i don't even get the menu).

What am i doing wrong, how do i accomplish this? In the event if it's impossible to do this for both Nautilus and PCManFm, i will ask how to do that for the latter.

I am currently using PCManFM, but I believe that other file managers are the same. When I open up the directory, large files, that are over the specified size limit are not shown as thumbnails, but only as the type-icons. I work on the directory of many large sized PNG files, and what I've noticed, when I open one of them with Gimp, it does something and from then on this file is shown with the thumbnail unless I rename/move that file.

It would be very useful to be able to "nudge" the specific directory to generate the thumbnails regardless of the file size. Is there a way to script whatever it is that Gimp is doing, perhaps using "imagemagic" to generate the thumbnails and place them in the correct place somewhere.

After upgrading to 16.04 my screen no longer locks after I leave the computer running without usage.

What do I need to check to see why this happens?

$ gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.lockdown disable-lock-screen
false
$ gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.screensaver lock-delay
uint32 30

I'm on a current Xubuntu LTS, but this problem has annoyed me for years, and i just didn't say anything about it.

Using notebooks and often using an external monitor to watch films, porn, etc i would like to have an ability to close the lid of the monitor and for the notebook monitor to be just turnt off, and not some sort of sleep/hibernate/turn off action.

Can it be easily done? If so then how?

The printer/scanner worked when i was on the last LTS just fine (almost), but now after i've upgraded it tells me that it is unable to connect to the device.

I have attempted to do what HPPrinterInstallation says and i got the following:

$ gksudo hp-setup

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.16.3)
Printer/Fax Setup Utility ver. 9.0

Copyright (c) 2001-15 HP Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.

warning: Qt/PyQt 4 initialization failed.
error: hp-setup requires GUI support (try running with --qt3). Also, try using interactive (-i) mode.

I have a directory with many pairs of files. Each non-text file has a textual description partner. For example a directory can look like this:

a.jpg
a.jpg.text
b.ogv
b.ogv.text
cd ef.JpG
cd ef.JpG.text

I want to confirm that there are no loose text files (description files of something already deleted). So I've attempted to execute the following:

find . -name '*.text' -exec if [ ! -f `basename -s .text {}` ]; then echo {}; fi \;

However, now I get an error:

bash: syntax error near unexpected token `then'

The goal is to run the Live event, but not from one's webcam, but rather streaming the contents of the desktop. How would i go about doing that under Ubuntu GNU/Linux?

I am interested, what package/software/tool places previews into .local/share/previews? I found just one preview in there, and am interested about where it came from.

I often find myself pasting the same strings into the browser (I have a youtube channel, and at the end of the videos I constantly post the same links: channel URL, website, email, introductory video, etc).

I thought about creating a text file and then adding it to the Unity panel, but unfortunately while I see the way to add the text editor to it, I can't add the text file to be opened with the text editor. I could probably put a script together and add that to the panel, but then it struck me that other people probably had the same time wasting experience, and probably have already found the solution.

In the perfect world I need an application that stores commonly needed strings, when loaded it would right away start on top of other windows and stay as such, it would have buttons for different strings, and they would be placed into the buffer as soon as pressed. This way I would just assign that which I need to those buttons and be very very happy.

If no good solution exists, I will just have to create it myself, I guess. After all my channel is about programming, and I can probably make a wonderful lesson just out of creating such a tool.

I cannot find the answer anywhere. When i have several jobs that are in the background and i list them with jobs i get the following:

[1]   Stopped                 command1
[2]   Stopped                 command2
[3]-  Stopped                 command3
[4]+  Stopped                 command4

The plus sign is always on the last one, and the minus is on the second to last. What do these things mean?