Adam Monsen's questions

I'm trying to get my Ubuntu desktop to scan directly from a HP color laser jet pro MFP M477fdw all-in-one printer/scanner device. The device is on my home network.

simple-scan (the "Document Scanner" app) starts up and detects the scanner, and the "Scan" button is green. When I click the green "Scan" button, the scanner warms up and appears to be working. The scanner touchscreen says "Scanning to Computer". simple-scan then shows a white page but after half a second pops up a dialog that says "Failed to scan ... Unable to start scan" and the only option is to close that dialog.

scanimage -L detects the scanner.

$ scanimage -L
device `escl:http://10.1.1.80:8080' is a ESCL HP Color LaserJet MFP M477fdw (E0EDEB) flatbed scanner
device `hpaio:/net/hp_color_laserjet_mfp_m477fdw?ip=10.1.1.80&queue=false' is a Hewlett-Packard hp_color_laserjet_mfp_m477fdw all-in-one

Workaround: set up a samba share "network folder". The scanner can connect to over the network to save scanned images.

Printing to the device (over my network) works as expected. Ubuntu auto-detects the device as a printer and auto-configures it.

I don't want to run the hplip GUI if I don't have to. I just really don't like the blue "HP" icon in my system tray.

Software versions:

• 64-bit Ubuntu GNU/Linux Desktop, 20.04.1 LTS
• simple-scan 3.36.3

I recently started using a Nextcloud instance for my calendar events. I am able to sync events so they show up in the GNOME Calendar app, but there are many duplicates. Is there some place where events are cached locally where I can examine them or clean them up?

The events display properly in the Nextcloud Calendar app -- I don't see any duplicates. I only see the duplicates in GNOME Calendar.

I looked in locations mentioned in In what file does gnome-calendar store calendar events? but I didn't see any actual calendar event data, just references to the calendar webdav URIs.

I tried deleting and re-adding my Nextcloud account in the "Online Accounts" settings dialog. I tried disabling and re-enabling Calendar synchronization for my Nextcloud account.

I'm using:

• Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
• Nextcloud 19.0.3 (latest stable)
• GNOME Calendar 3.36.2

My Déjà Dup is missing an option to back up to Nextcloud. This is on 20.04 LTS. I see only three: Google Drive, Network Server, and Local Folder. Is there some way I can add it back?

I do see the Nextcloud option on a different computer running 18.04 LTS.

I noticed both Google Chrome and Chromium show "Managed by your organization" at the bottom of the 3 dots / hamburger menu. This is a personal computer--nothing to do with work. How do I get my browsers "un-managed" / get rid of the policies?

I'm using Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 64-bit Dekstop. Google Chrome 79.0.3945.88-1. Chromium 79.0.3945.79-0.

I tried sudo apt purge google-chrome-stable and re-installed, but the "Managed..." notice and policies are still there.

I've been using Google Music Manager for a while (years?) on Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04 and suddenly today it can't connect. It asks for my login and password, then my password again with a captcha, then an MFA code, then it says "Couldn't connect to Google Play - Check your internet connection and try again" (screenshot below). The "Retry" button has no noticeable effect. I can reach other sites and services on the Internet just fine. I don't have any outbound firewall filters configured.

I tried tips from here and here -- no luck.

Here's a screenshot of the error:

I set up my HP M44fdw scan/fax/print multi function device using hp-setup installed via apt, following these instructions. Printing works as expected.

I'd like to use network scanning, too. I'm using hp-toolbox to kick off simple-scan with the correct hpaio scanner URI. Everything works as expected, except for the five minute wait when I click the green "Scan" button. It pauses showing this:

Any ideas on how to speed up this bit?

I'm using 64-bit Ubuntu 18.04 LTS desktop. It does not repro on a 2nd computer running 64-bit Ubuntu 18.04 LTS desktop that was installed from scratch, so I'm wondering if there's some cache/legacy carryover from a previous version of some program. I tried blowing away ~/.cache/simple-scan/ but that didn't help. I also tried uninstalling and purging hplip, cups, simple-scan, and xsane. I tried temporarily disabling ufw. I deleted all print queues and re-added the one for the HP. No change.

$ hp-diagnose_plugin 

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.17.10)
Diagnose Plugin Utility ver. 1.0

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.

Device Plugin is already installed

I got Ubuntu Core 18 running on a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+. I want the computer to boot and automatically play a video file to HDMI output and loop.

I can log in via SSH and run omxplayer-pi test.mp4 and it plays a video on a TV connected via HDMI.

How do I automate this so that it runs on boot?

Once I get the basic automation in place, I'll probably want to write a script to keep trying to play the video if, for example, the omxplayer-pi process dies.

I set up syncthing as a systemd user service on a 16.04 computer. Worked fine. Since I upgraded to 18.04 the service disappears upon reboot.

After rebooting, I see:

$ systemctl --user status syncthing.service 
Unit syncthing.service could not be found.

And syncthing is indeed not running.

Here is ~/.config/systemd/user/syncthing.service (following the example, but note the binary is under my home dir):

[Unit]
Description=Syncthing - Open Source Continuous File Synchronization
Documentation=man:syncthing(1)

[Service]
ExecStart=/home/user/syncthing-prefix/syncthing -no-browser -no-restart -logflags=0
Restart=on-failure
SuccessExitStatus=3 4
RestartForceExitStatus=3 4

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

I then run this:

$ systemctl --user enable syncthing.service
$ systemctl --user start syncthing.service

Following the setup instructions I used to install the user service originally.

After running the above two commands, I see:

$ systemctl --user status syncthing.service
● syncthing.service - Syncthing - Open Source Continuous File Synchronization
  Loaded: loaded (/home/user/.config/systemd/user/syncthing.service; enabled; 
  Active: active (running) since Tue 2018-11-06 15:28:16 PST; 4s ago
    Docs: man:syncthing(1)
Main PID: 4221 (syncthing)
  CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/[email protected]/syncthing.service
          └─4221 /home/user/syncthing-prefix/syncthing -no-b

Nov 06 15:28:18 kind syncthing[4221]: [XXXXX] INFO: Device XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXX
Nov 06 15:28:18 kind syncthing[4221]: [XXXXX] INFO: Device XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXX
Nov 06 15:28:18 kind syncthing[4221]: [XXXXX] INFO: Device XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXX
Nov 06 15:28:18 kind syncthing[4221]: [XXXXX] INFO: GUI and API listening on 127
Nov 06 15:28:18 kind syncthing[4221]: [XXXXX] INFO: Access the GUI via the follo
Nov 06 15:28:18 kind syncthing[4221]: [XXXXX] INFO: Completed initial scan of se
Nov 06 15:28:18 kind syncthing[4221]: [XXXXX] INFO: Completed initial scan of se
Nov 06 15:28:18 kind syncthing[4221]: [XXXXX] INFO: Completed initial scan of se
Nov 06 15:28:19 kind syncthing[4221]: [XXXXX] INFO: Completed initial scan of se
Nov 06 15:28:20 kind syncthing[4221]: [XXXXX] INFO: Completed initial scan of se

as expected. And syncthing then works, as expected, until the next reboot.

Note that I have an encrypted home dir. This was the case when I was using 16.04, too.

I have a laptop and a desktop (lucky me!). Both are 64-bit Intel machines. I upgrade both with apt and they end up with different kernels. Why?

Desktop

$ grep -m1 name /proc/cpuinfo 
model name  : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770 CPU @ 3.40GHz

$ cat /etc/lsb-release 
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=16.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=xenial
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS"

$ uname -a
Linux stu 4.4.0-110-generic #133-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jan 12 18:53:57 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Has 8 cores and 16GiB RAM.

Brought to 16.04 via an upgrade from 14.04.

Laptop

$ grep -m1 name /proc/cpuinfo 
model name  : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6560U CPU @ 2.20GHz

$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=16.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=xenial
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS"

$ uname -a
Linux kind 4.4.0-109-generic #132-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jan 9 19:52:39 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Has 4 cores and 16GiB RAM.

Brought to 16.04 directly--fresh install.

Update command

time (sudo apt update && sudo apt -y full-upgrade) && sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge

I feel like I'm on two branches of an A/B test.

If I cut some HTML from a Pidgin instant messenger window, I can easily paste it verbatim into a new HTML email in Thunderbird. All formatting (fonts, colors, etc) are preserved, so it appears that my Ubuntu 13.10 desktop clipboard must have the HTML source somewhere.

But I'd like to tweak the HTML source.

How can I actually get at the HTML source when it is in the clipboard? I'd like to just throw it into a text file, work on the markup in Vim or whatever, then use this HTML source in a webpage or feed it to Thunderbird's "Insert → HTML".

Hmm, maybe something like PasteImg (mentioned in Getting a graphic on the clipboard to the disk?), but using request_rich_text() instead of request_image()? I wouldn't mind using a small Python script the rare times I want to get HTML source from the clipboard.

What's in the clipboard may actually be "rich text".

The Python script from this answer outputs

Current clipboard offers formats: ('TIMESTAMP', 'TARGETS', 'MULTIPLE',
'SAVE_TARGETS', 'COMPOUND_TEXT', 'STRING', 'TEXT', 'UTF8_STRING', 'text/html',
'text/plain')

Turns out my Pidgin logs are in HTML, so that's one way to get at this HTML source, bypassing the clipboard entirely. I'm still interested in the answer to the original question (how to retrieve HTML from the clipboard).

When I print a particular PDF from Ubuntu 12.10, I see many garbled characters. I tried printing the same PDF from Mac OS X and it worked. Any ideas of what I should look into to fix this?

Here's the PDF: https://www.yousendit.com/download/WFJWOGNYQzNmVFlYRHRVag (SHA-1 checksum is 955496e5d8aea341422a61e83bf2c8867d92cebf ).

It was compiled from this very simple LaTeX file:

\documentclass[12pt,english]{letter}
\usepackage[margin=.75in]{geometry}
\usepackage{babel}

\begin{document}
\address{sender \\ address line 1 \\ address line 2}
\letter{recipient \\ address line 1 \\ address line 2}
\signature{My Full Name}
\opening{Dear Recipient,}
Here's a letter for you.
\closing{Sincerely,}
\end{document}

Using this command:

pdflatex test.tex

Here's page 1:

Here's page 2:

I got the same result from two different Ubuntu 12.10 computers printing to two different printers.

Here's a little more debugging info:

$ pdflatex --version
pdfTeX 3.1415926-2.4-1.40.13 (TeX Live 2012/Debian)  
kpathsea version 6.1.0  
Copyright 2012 Peter Breitenlohner (eTeX)/Han The Thanh (pdfTeX).  
There is NO warranty.  Redistribution of this software is  
covered by the terms of both the pdfTeX copyright and  
the Lesser GNU General Public License.  
For more information about these matters, see the file  
named COPYING and the pdfTeX source.  
Primary author of pdfTeX: Peter Breitenlohner (eTeX)/Han The Thanh (pdfTeX).
Compiled with libpng 1.2.49; using libpng 1.2.49  
Compiled with zlib 1.2.7; using zlib 1.2.7  
Compiled with poppler version 0.20.4  

Here's the .log file:

This is pdfTeX, Version 3.1415926-2.4-1.40.13 (TeX Live 2012/Debian) (format=pdflatex 2013.1.9)  3 JUN 2013 20:33
entering extended mode
 restricted \write18 enabled.
 %&-line parsing enabled.
**test.tex
(./test.tex
LaTeX2e <2011/06/27>
Babel <v3.8m> and hyphenation patterns for english, dumylang, nohyphenation, lo
aded.
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/letter.cls
Document Class: letter 1999/04/29 v1.2z Standard LaTeX document class
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/size12.clo
File: size12.clo 2007/10/19 v1.4h Standard LaTeX file (size option)
)
\longindentation=\dimen102
\indentedwidth=\dimen103
\labelcount=\count79
)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/geometry/geometry.sty
Package: geometry 2010/09/12 v5.6 Page Geometry

(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics/keyval.sty
Package: keyval 1999/03/16 v1.13 key=value parser (DPC)
\KV@toks@=\toks14
)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/ifpdf.sty
Package: ifpdf 2011/01/30 v2.3 Provides the ifpdf switch (HO)
Package ifpdf Info: pdfTeX in PDF mode is detected.
)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/ifvtex.sty
Package: ifvtex 2010/03/01 v1.5 Detect VTeX and its facilities (HO)
Package ifvtex Info: VTeX not detected.
)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/ifxetex/ifxetex.sty
Package: ifxetex 2010/09/12 v0.6 Provides ifxetex conditional
)
\Gm@cnth=\count80
\Gm@cntv=\count81
\c@Gm@tempcnt=\count82
\Gm@bindingoffset=\dimen104
\Gm@wd@mp=\dimen105
\Gm@odd@mp=\dimen106
\Gm@even@mp=\dimen107
\Gm@layoutwidth=\dimen108
\Gm@layoutheight=\dimen109
\Gm@layouthoffset=\dimen110
\Gm@layoutvoffset=\dimen111
\Gm@dimlist=\toks15
)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/babel/babel.sty
Package: babel 2008/07/08 v3.8m The Babel package

(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/babel/english.ldf
Language: english 2005/03/30 v3.3o English support from the babel system

(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/babel/babel.def
File: babel.def 2008/07/08 v3.8m Babel common definitions
\babel@savecnt=\count83
\U@D=\dimen112
)
\l@british = a dialect from \language\l@english 
\l@UKenglish = a dialect from \language\l@english 
\l@canadian = a dialect from \language\l@american 
\l@australian = a dialect from \language\l@british 
\l@newzealand = a dialect from \language\l@british 
)) (./test.aux)
\openout1 = `test.aux'.

LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for OML/cmm/m/it on input line 5.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 5.
LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for T1/cmr/m/n on input line 5.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 5.
LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for OT1/cmr/m/n on input line 5.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 5.
LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for OMS/cmsy/m/n on input line 5.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 5.
LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for OMX/cmex/m/n on input line 5.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 5.
LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for U/cmr/m/n on input line 5.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 5.

*geometry* driver: auto-detecting
*geometry* detected driver: pdftex
*geometry* verbose mode - [ preamble ] result:
* driver: pdftex
* paper: <default>
* layout: <same size as paper>
* layoutoffset:(h,v)=(0.0pt,0.0pt)
* modes: 
* h-part:(L,W,R)=(54.2025pt, 505.89pt, 54.2025pt)
* v-part:(T,H,B)=(54.2025pt, 686.56499pt, 54.2025pt)
* \paperwidth=614.295pt
* \paperheight=794.96999pt
* \textwidth=505.89pt
* \textheight=686.56499pt
* \oddsidemargin=-18.06749pt
* \evensidemargin=-18.06749pt
* \topmargin=-75.06749pt
* \headheight=12.0pt
* \headsep=45.0pt
* \topskip=12.0pt
* \footskip=25.0pt
* \marginparwidth=90.0pt
* \marginparsep=11.0pt
* \columnsep=10.0pt
* \skip\footins=10.0pt plus 2.0pt minus 4.0pt
* \hoffset=0.0pt
* \voffset=0.0pt
* \mag=1000
* \@twocolumnfalse
* \@twosidefalse
* \@mparswitchfalse
* \@reversemarginfalse
* (1in=72.27pt=25.4mm, 1cm=28.453pt)

LaTeX Font Info:    External font `cmex10' loaded for size
(Font)              <12> on input line 9.
LaTeX Font Info:    External font `cmex10' loaded for size
(Font)              <8> on input line 9.
LaTeX Font Info:    External font `cmex10' loaded for size
(Font)              <6> on input line 9.
[1

{/var/lib/texmf/fonts/map/pdftex/updmap/pdftex.map}] (./test.aux) ) 
Here is how much of TeX's memory you used:
 995 strings out of 495059
 13062 string characters out of 3182031
 68184 words of memory out of 3000000
 4226 multiletter control sequences out of 15000+200000
 6376 words of font info for 23 fonts, out of 3000000 for 9000
 14 hyphenation exceptions out of 8191
 25i,6n,32p,170b,104s stack positions out of 5000i,500n,10000p,200000b,50000s
</usr/share/
texlive/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/public/amsfonts/cm/cmr12.pfb>
Output written on test.pdf (1 page, 14134 bytes).
PDF statistics:
 12 PDF objects out of 1000 (max. 8388607)
 7 compressed objects within 1 object stream
 0 named destinations out of 1000 (max. 500000)
 1 words of extra memory for PDF output out of 10000 (max. 10000000)

Here's info on printer #1...

• Make and Model: Brother MFC-8840D BR-Script3
• Device URI: ipp://192.168.1.9:631/printers/Brother (it is connected via USB to an Ubuntu 12.04.2 machine, and I print to it over the network)

Printer #2 (more info in a few hours)...

• Make and Model: TBD
• Device URI: TBD

I've got some some home movies that look great, but my video camera doesn't have one of those fancy new stabilizers. Is there extant end-user software (preferably FLOSS) I could use to removing the shaking?

I'm using pandoc to author slides. I'd like to see how the beamer PDF output looks, but I'm getting an error:

$ pandoc -t beamer talk.txt -o talk.pdf
pandoc: Unknown writer: beamer

Any ideas?

On my EC2 server, when I do sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade, I see:

The following packages have been kept back:
  linux-ec2 linux-image-ec2 linux-image-virtual linux-virtual

Should I go ahead and do sudo apt-get install linux-ec2 linux-image-ec2 linux-image-virtual linux-virtual to force these packages to be upgraded?

Is there a decent GUI for building Flash movies in Ubuntu? An easy-to-use API would be fine, too. I did find Ming (API for creating .swf files) and am going to check that out.

Will running both fail2ban and ufw cause problems? I noticed that fail2ban modifies iptables rules, but ufw already has a ton of iptables rules defined... so I'm not sure if fail2ban will mess these up.

I just bought a new laptop. I like to connect it to an external monitor, and configure the displays such that the laptop screen is off, and the external monitor is set to max resolution.

When I do make this change in the displays/monitors configuration, both displays go dark. After the "keep settings?" timeout expires, only the mouse cursor is visible.

The laptop is a http://zareason.com/shop/Strata-Pro-13.html. It has Intel GMA 4500MHD integrated video.

I'm using Ubuntu 11.04 (natty). This problem repros in Unity and GNOME Shell. Repros with both VGA and HDMI outputs. Does not repro in Ubuntu 10.04.2, so it makes me suspect some kernel problem in Ubuntu 11.04.

Update (Mon Jun 20 02:19:33 UTC 2011):

• Kernel is 2.6.38-8-generic-pae (32-bit). Problem also repros on non-PAE 32-bit kernel.
• lsmod shows the "i915" driver is loaded and "video" is using it, so I'm guessing the video driver in use is "i915".
• I filed a bug in launchpad, too: https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity/+bug/799609

I just happened to notice that dpkg --print-avail PACKAGE (same as dpkg -p PACKAGE) is failing on my Ubuntu 10.04.2 server. Should I be concerned?

For example:

$ dpkg -p a2ps
Package `a2ps' is not available.

But:

$ dpkg -l a2ps
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Cfg-files/Unpacked/Failed-cfg/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name            Version         Description
+++-===============-===============-==============================================
ii  a2ps            1:4.14-1        GNU a2ps - 'Anything to PostScript' converter

Also, apt-cache show a2ps, recommended in the dpkg manual for "Users of APT-based frontends" (like me), does work.

Based on these bugs, I'm guessing it doesn't matter that dpkg -p PACKAGE fails:

• http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=43573
• http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=137128

Is there an easier way to upload files in Web browser (HTML) file upload forms other than noting/cutting a file location and typing/pasting that location into a Browse... dialog? I've heard drag and drop upload is on the way, but looks like eBay isn't using it yet.

My Dad was frustrated trying to import a photo off his digital camera and upload it to eBay. He had the import part figured out (GNOME/F-Spot does a pretty good job with that), but was stuck because he didn't know how to browse to the photo.

In my older F-Spot (on Ubuntu 10.04), when you right click on a photo there's a "Copy Photo Location" option. This copies the full path of the file into the clipboard, and I can easily use this for browser file upload forms. Apparently this was changed in his newer F-Spot (on Ubuntu 10.10)... now it's just "Copy Photo". I don't know what "Copy Photo" does, but it doesn't put the full photo file path in the clipboard.

I came up with a many-step process so he could do this on his own. Anyone know a better way? This is just crazy:

1. Import photo to F-Spot.
2. Double-click on photo.
3. Copy/remember photo filename (something like DSCN0471.JPG).
4. Click "Places" in the panel on the top of the desktop.
5. Choose "Search for Files...".
6. Paste or type in the filename next to "Name contains:".
7. Click "Find".
8. If the file is found, note the Folder listed (if not, try searching again). You may leave the "Search for Files" window open.
9. When visiting the site where you will upload the photo, you'll be prompted to upload a file. The file upload "form" will include buttons such as "Browse..." and "Upload".
10. First click "Browse...".
11. Browse to the photo in the Folder listed in step 8. Click "Open" to choose that file. The window will close and you will return to the file upload form.
12. Click Upload.
13. Done!

My LCD monitor won't enter power save mode.

I've gone into System → Preferences → Screensaver, clicked Power Management, then set Put display to sleep when inactive for: to 10 minutes (for both On AC Power and On Battery Power), but the monitor still doesn't enter power save mode, even after an hour.

Anyone have ideas on what to try?

I'm using Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS 64-bit desktop on a Dell Latitude E6400 laptop.

Update Sun Jan 16 01:02:45 PST 2011:

I forgot to mention the laptop is docked, and the monitor is connected via DVI cable to the dock. I haven't tried waiting for power save mode using a VGA cable or no dock.