Gregory Opera's questions

When I open Software & Updates, I am told that I am using a "manually installed driver" (which is apparently not proprietary):

I'm not too sure why Ubuntu is telling me this, as I explicitly chose to use the latest version of Nvidia's proprietary driver when I "clean" installed Ubuntu on Launch Day... I installed this driver via the "Additional Drivers" tab of "Software & Updates".

Somebody asked a similar question over here, but when I followed the suggestion over there, I am told:

E: Unable to locate package nvidia.*

Here's the output of lspci -k | grep -EA3 'VGA|3D|Display':

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation UHD Graphics (rev 02)
    DeviceName: VGA
    Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. UHD Graphics
    Kernel driver in use: i915
    Kernel modules: i915
--
02:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GP108BM [GeForce MX250] (rev a1)
    DeviceName: Second VGA
    Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. GP108BM [GeForce MX250]
    Kernel driver in use: nvidia
    Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau, nvidia_drm, nvidia

And the output of inxi -SbCGxx can be found over here.

How can I select Nvidia's proprietary driver in the "Additional Drivers" dialog box, to ensure that I am using the current (stable) version of their proprietary driver?

My laptop is the ASUS ZenBook Duo UX481FL, with an Nvidia GeForce MX250 GPU under Ubuntu 20.04 LTS ("Focal Fossa").

Pretty straightforward - can "Snap" packages use the dedicated (NVIDIA) GPU in my laptop?

For example, if I download a game via a "Snap" package (e.g. "SuperTuxKart"), will it use the GPU, or will I need to download the "traditional" package instead?

How can I change the quality (bitrate) settings, when ripping in MPEG-4 Audio (".m4a") via Rhythmbox 3.4.4?

When I try to do so, the quality-selection has a greyed-out box that says "Default settings":

I want to be able to "rip" my CDs at 256kbps, which is the same quality used for the "iTunes Plus" format in Apple's iTunes / Music software...

I am trying to get Ubuntu 20.04 LTS ("Focal Fossa") to automatically switch to the "light" Window Theme at 0600 (6AM) every morning, and the "dark" Window Theme at 1800 (6PM) every night.

The following Terminal command can be used to change to the "light" Window Theme:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme Yaru-light

The following Terminal command can be used to change to the "dark" Window Theme:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme Yaru-dark

But as noted above, I would like to automate this process.

The first suggestion presented to me was via a cron job, however this has repeatedly proved unsuccessful, so another user suggested a more "modern" approach, via Systemd "timers"... Unfortunately, I am unfamiliar with Systemd and the process of creating timers, so I have be learning as I go, without success to date.

At this time, I have six files in my "home" folder:

• dark.service
• dark.timer
• dark.sh
• light.service
• light.timer
• light.sh

The contents of "dark.service" is:

[Unit]
Description=Automatically change the "Window Theme" to "dark" in the evening.

[Service]
ExecStart=/home/gregory/dark.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=dark.sh

The contents of dark.timer is:

[Unit]
Description=Automatically change the "Window Theme" to "dark" in the evening.

[Timer]
OnCalendar=*-*-* 18:00:00
Persistent=true

[Install]
WantedBy=dark.service

The contents of "dark.sh" is:

export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme Yaru-dark

The contents of "light.service" is:

[Unit]
Description=Automatically change the "Window Theme" to "light" in the morning.

[Service]
ExecStart=/home/gregory/light.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=light.sh

The contents of "light.timer" is:

[Unit]
Description=Automatically change the "Window Theme" to "light" in the morning.

[Timer]
OnCalendar=*-*-* 06:00:00
Persistent=true

[Install]
WantedBy=light.service

The contents of "light.sh" is:

export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme Yaru-light

I used "Startup Application Preferences" (gnome-session-properties) to run "light.timer" and "dark.timer" on login.

Based on the advice I have been given elsewhere and what I have read online, I think creating "timers" via Systemd is probably the right approach to achieve what I want (automatic switching between "light" and "dark" Window Themes, based on the time of the day)... I just need a little help getting things working, as Systemd, timers and scripts are a whole new world to me.

In Rhythmbox 3.4.4 - which is included with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS ("Focal Fossa") - there is the option to "rip" music in MPEG-4 Audio (".m4a") format... Underneath said option, there is a big ol' button that says:

Install additional software required to use this format

But clicking this button doesn't do anything, at all.

I did choose to install Ubuntu Restricted Extras when I did my "clean" install of Ubuntu 20.04 LTS ("Focal Fossa"), but just in case something went wrong, I re-installed it via Terminal.

Someone also suggested that I check that gstreamer1.0-libav and libgstreamer-plugins-good1.0-0 are installed - they both were.

After checking that the above were installed, I restarted my computer and removed / re-installed Rhythmbox - No change (i.e. Rhythmbox still has the same message under MPEG-4 Audio).

This issue affects both my laptop and my tablet.

Any ideas why this is?

Has anyone found a way to automatically switch between "light" and "dark" modes yet, with regards to the "Window Theme" in Ubuntu's settings (Settings → Appearance → Window Theme → Light / Standard / Dark)?

Digging into the settings every morning or evening is a real pain. It'd be great to be able to automatically switch to "dark" mode at sunset, and automatically switch to "light" mode at sunrise.

Is there an easy way to give (regular) Ubuntu the slick green / black color scheme used in Linux Mint's operating systems, whilst keeping all the "regular" Ubuntu stuff (GNOME, the Dock, etc...)?

Surely there is a Terminal command out there somewhere that could achieve this?

I don't want to change to Linux Mint though. I'm not a fan of the Microsoft-style user interface and I don't trust the security of Linux Mint, so I just want the color scheme System-wide, if possible.

Ever since I did a "clean" install of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS ("Xenial Xerus") on my son's Lenovo G50-45, he cannot start (the new) Ubuntu Software...

We launch the program from the Dash, the "Ubuntu Software" icon appears on the Launcher, then disappears; "gnome-software" is usually shown in System Monitor, however this sometimes disappears after a bit.

How do I fix this issue, so that my Son may actually use Ubuntu Software?

When I enter:

gnome-software

Nothing happens. The cursor simply moves to the next line, there are no error messages, nothing appears to be happening (even after waiting for a bit), "Ubuntu Software" is not shown in System Monitor and no new Terminal prompt is shown.

The same also applies when I enter:

sudo gnome-software

I wasn't expecting "sudo" to make a difference, but I figured there's no harm in trying.

I've already tried, just in case there were any bugs which were addressed in an update:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Which made no difference after a restart.

I also did this with the following commands, restarting in-between each one.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

I also tried updating using the following commands, which made no difference.

sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt full-upgrade

Again, I restarted between each attempt.

I have even tried re-installing the Software Center, however this makes no difference.

sudo apt-get --purge remove gnome-software
sudo apt-get install gnome-software

Interestingly, when Ubuntu Software re-installs, it's listed in the Dash as just "Software" with what appears to be the GNOME/generic (unbranded) icon.

For clarification, when I try to launch (the now re-installed) GNOME Software, it does exactly the same thing as was happening in the first place (except with the new logo, this time around)... The same is also true if I try to launch (the now re-installed) GNOME Software using Terminal.

When I enter:

gksudo software-center

I get the Enter your password to do administrative tasks prompt pop-up, but then nothing... Just a brand new prompt (i.e. just like when you first open Terminal).

To be sure, I went through all the steps above again, with a restart in-between purging Software Center and re-installing it.

Also, when I entered:

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

It opens a Terminal-based sources list, but there is no reference to "cairo" or "gusty" (?), only a dozen or so Xenial sources over 54 lines (including spaces)... As I said, this was a "clean" install and courtesy of this Software Center issue, we haven't been able to install anything else.

When I enter:

dpkg -l | grep gnome-software

I get:

ii  gnome-software                              3.20.1+git20160617.1.0440874.ubuntu-xenial-0ubuntu1~16.04.1 amd64        Software Center for GNOME
ii  gnome-software-common                       3.20.1+git20160617.1.0440874.ubuntu-xenial-0ubuntu1~16.04.1 all          Software Center for GNOME (common files)

The output of:

strace -e trace=open gnome-software

Can be found here.

The output of:

gnome-software --verbose >~/gnome-software.log 2>&1

Can be found here.

It all means nothing to me, but hopefully it means something to one of you guys.

The output of:

which gnome-software

is:

/usr/bin/gnome-software

and the output of:

ls -l /usr/bin/gnome-software

is:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 639568 Jun 21 15:57 /usr/bin/gnome-software

--

The output of:

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Can be found here.

The output of:

ls -lR /etc/apt/ | grep -v '~'

Can be found here.

Does Ubuntu (Touch) support Unicode 9 (with all the fancy new "emojis" discussed here) and if not, what version of Unicode does it support?

As you can see below, OTA-12 for Ubuntu (Touch) has a lot of colorful "emojis":

But I'm having trouble working out what version of Unicode is supported.

These "emojis" seem to work when sent to other people (using Android), but when I copy-and-paste codes for Unicode 9-specific "emojis", everyone sees the square-box thing... Suggesting that Unicode 9 is not yet supported by Ubuntu (Touch) OTA-12 or Android "M".

So I've just performed a "clean" install of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS ("Xenial Xerus") on my son's Lenovo G50-45 to Ubuntu and as you can see here, I had problems in the past with Wi-Fi disappearing... Previously, I was able to solve this problem and this was the same thing I have tried under Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, however this time round, that solution did not work.

Any ideas?

Update 1: I have tried a "clean" install in both "UEFI mode" (with Secure Boot disabled via the UEFI setup), and also a second "clean" install with "Legacy Mode" enabled... The ethernet cable was connected both times between multiple restarts (i.e. the laptop had Internet access), however this laptop still has no Wi-Fi.

Update 2: Having performed a "clean" install, dkms status now shows nothing... With (using an ethernet cable) or without Internet access, nothing is shown except a new Terminal prompt (This is after I had to install dkms using sudo apt-get install dkms ).

Update 3: sudo lshw -C network displays:

  *-network               
       description: Network controller
       product: QCA6164 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
       vendor: Qualcomm Atheros
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: 20
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
       configuration: driver=ath10k_pci latency=0
       resources: irq:37 memory:f0800000-f09fffff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: enp2s0
       version: 10
       serial: 50:7b:9d:45:9b:62
       size: 1Gbit/s
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=full firmware=rtl8168g-3_0.0.1 04/23/13 ip=10.0.0.22 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=MII speed=1Gbit/s
       resources: irq:33 ioport:2000(size=256) memory:f0c04000-f0c04fff memory:f0c00000-f0c03fff

If I'm not mistaken, this means that Ubuntu 16.04 LTS can "see" the (integrated) wireless card... It just can't use it.

My son received a new laptop this past christmas, primarily for usage at his new school... And now that he has his own laptop, he's stoked to have Steam installed.

But the wife wants me to remove Steam, because the laptop is primarily for school usage... I'd rather not do that, if I don't have to.

Is there a way I can restrict or otherwise limit access to Steam? Perhaps a password on Steam itself, or set times during which it can be run?

Ideally, it has to be something pretty simple to use because my work often keeps me away from home (and computers, and telecommunications and...) for long periods of time and whilst my wife is not as comfortable around computers as I am, easier to use is far, far better.

Surely there's something out there that can achieve this task?

Previously, I was able to read from and write to my 128GB Micro SDXC storage card, which is always removed from my computer correctly (i.e. using the "eject" option)... It is also removed from my cell phone correctly, because I switch my cell phone off before I remove the storage card.

Now however, when I try to mount my storage card in Ubuntu, I am told:

Unable to access "Phablet"

Error mounting /dev/sdc1 at /media/gregoryopera/Phablet: Command-line `mount -t "exfat" -o "uhelper=udisks2,nodev,nosuid,uid=1003,gid=1003,iocharset=utf8,namecase=0,errors=remount-ro,umask=0077" "/dev/sdc1" "/media/gregoryopera/Phablet"' exited with non-zero exit status 32: mount: unknown filesystem type 'exfat'

Nothing on my storage card has changed (i.e. it is the same format it has always been) and aside from the usual day-to-day updates, nothing on my computer has changed either...

Any assistance would be great.

Now that I'm using a VPN 24/7, I've been looking to enhance my privacy further and discovered the phenomenon called "VPN leaks"... Further investigation has revealed that my computer does in fact, leak the DNS.

But the question is, how do I fix it?

I found this article about DNS leaks and Ubuntu.

Which indicates that I can fix DNS leaks by entering:

echo "#disable ipv6″ | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo "net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1″ | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo "net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6 = 1″ | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo "net.ipv6.conf.lo.disable_ipv6 = 1″ | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf

But this is a pretty old article - will this still apply to Ubuntu 14.04 LTS or newer? Is this the same for all ISPs and/or VPN services?

I also found a support article from TorGuard themselves.

But it doesn't elaborate as to what DNS address I should be entering, nor whether I need to do this every time I start/stop my VPN or whether this changes if I change the country I'm currently using with my VPN...

Any assistance would be appreciated.

I am using Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and "TorGuard Lite", which I believe is their supplied/branded/maintained version of OpenVPN...

--

Update:

TorGuard technical support got back to me, and they said I need to enter two particular IP addresses (I have them in an e-mail, not mentioned here), as per this guide...

I entered them as: {IP address},{space}{IP address}

I restarted my computer, but it still looks like I've got DNS leaks... DNSLeakTest.com doesn't work (in Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome) - it just says "test in progress" - and the others have mixed results...

• IPLeak.net: Indicates Telstra (my ISP) IP addresses;
• DNSLeak.com: Appears to indicate I'm using foreign IP addresses - different ones to the Telstra (my ISP) ones listed above;
• Perfect Privacy's DNS leak test lists both Telstra (my ISP) AND the same foreign IP information indicated by DNSLeak.com (WTF?).

The results were the same for both Chrome and Firefox.

Is there a way in which I can have Ubuntu display a warning when not connected to the Internet via a VPN (for example, a pop-up notification)?

I am aware that there are ways to force Ubuntu to block all traffic unless connected via a VPN... But what about if all I want is a warning?

Surely there has to be a way to do this?

Quite simply, how do I setup, configure and use the Sony DUALSHOCK 4 controller with Ubuntu 14.10 ("Utopic Unicorn")?

I remember the Linux kernel was updated a while back to add native support... Does this mean I should be able to simply pair it by bluetooth (from the notification area) and off I go?

Or is there more to it than this?

I tried to follow these instructions: https://askubuntu.com/a/450091/230107

But when I type sudo pip install ds4drv, I am told sudo: pip: command not found.

According to "Details" (System Settings-->Details), my Sony VAIO VPC-CB15F is using only my integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 graphics card (it says the graphics are "Intel Sandybridge Mobile"), however the "Additional Drivers" screen (System Settings-->Software & Updates-->Additional Drivers) seems to imply that I am using my AMD Radeon HD 6630M...

Yes, I have that stupid switchable graphics setup (never again, it's NVIDIA or nothing next time!).

Anyway, the "Additional Drivers" screen (System Settings-->Software & Updates-->Additional Drivers) says that I using "X.Org X Server - AMD/ATI display driver wrapper from xserver-xorg-video-ati (open source, tested)", however I see no way to change between the two graphics cards, use only my Radeon HD 6630M (which would be preferable anyway, if it works without issue) or identify which graphics card I am currently using...

If anyone can give me help getting my Radeon HD 6630M working exclusively or getting the switchable crap setup again (I just did a "clean" install of Ubuntu 14.10), I'd be most appreciative...

How do I convert a Waveform Audio File (".wav") to the Free Lossless Audio Codec (".flac")? In addition, how do I convert Free Lossless Audio Codec (".flac") files to Ogg Vorbis (".ogg") files, for use on mobile devices?

The requirement to convert WAV files to the FLAC is only for a single file and I don't anticipate that I will need to do this again anytime soon (I honestly don't even remember the last time I used a WAV file!), but the requirement to convert FLAC files to OGG will be an ongoing requirement (usually for a folder-at-a-time), as I rip my CDs into the FLAC for playback on "powerful" devices with "decent" speakers/audio output (the Sony PlayStation 3, the computer, etc...) and use OGG exclusively on my mobile devices (my smartphone, my tablet, etc...).

I am semi-competent with Terminal and am not "scared" to use it as some people understandably are (in fact for many things, I prefer it)... But with regards to this particular task, I would prefer to use something with a graphical interface where possible.

When I try to convert a video - specifically, a Video Object (".vob") file - to MPEG-4, WinFF which I assume is a frontend for ffmpeg and avconv, but it tells me:

`Unknown encoder 'libvo_aacenc'`

The full text from Terminal is:

avconv version 9.13-6:9.13-0ubuntu0.14.04.1, Copyright (c) 2000-2014 the Libav developers
built on May  9 2014 13:34:03 with gcc 4.8 (Ubuntu 4.8.2-19ubuntu1)
[mpeg @ 0x1924160] max_analyze_duration reached
Input #0, mpeg, from '/media/gregoryopera/Movies/Get a Horse!.vob':
 Duration: 00:00:04.37, start: 0.221156, bitrate: 631225 kb/s
Stream #0.0[0x1e0]: Video: mpeg2video (Main), yuv420p, 720x576 [PAR 64:45 DAR 16:9], 9800 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 50 tbc
Stream #0.1[0x20]: Subtitle: dvdsub
Stream #0.2[0x21]: Subtitle: dvdsub
Stream #0.3[0x22]: Subtitle: dvdsub
Stream #0.4[0x23]: Subtitle: dvdsub
Stream #0.5[0x24]: Subtitle: dvdsub
Stream #0.6[0x25]: Subtitle: dvdsub
Stream #0.7[0x26]: Subtitle: dvdsub
Stream #0.8[0x27]: Subtitle: dvdsub
Stream #0.9[0x28]: Subtitle: dvdsub
Stream #0.10[0x29]: Subtitle: dvdsub
Stream #0.11[0x2a]: Subtitle: dvdsub
Stream #0.12[0x2b]: Subtitle: dvdsub
Stream #0.13[0x80]: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1, fltp, 384 kb/s
Stream #0.14[0x81]: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 192 kb/s
Stream #0.15[0x82]: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1, fltp, 384 kb/s
Stream #0.16[0x83]: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1, fltp, 384 kb/s
Stream #0.17[0x84]: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1, fltp, 384 kb/s
Unknown encoder 'libvo_aacenc'
Press Enter to Continue*

When I press "Enter", Terminal closes and my conversion is canceled.

And before anyone says it - I did find the other answer relating to this same question here on Ask Ubuntu... However that guy compiled it from scratch, which I do not want to do (for a start, I wouldn't know where to begin!)...

Under Microsoft Windows 8, our Sony VAIO Tap 20 (a touch-screen desktop computer) automatically displays an on-screen keyboard if one touches a text field on-screen or there is otherwise no keyboard available (for example, the included bluetooth keyboard is switched-off or flat)... There is also a (notification area/system tray-based) option to display or hide the on-screen keyboard on-demand.

Does such functionality exist under Ubuntu 14.04 LTS ("Trusty Tahr")?

My understanding is that Ubuntu 14.04 LTS ("Trusty Tahr") is supposed to be a mostly smartphone/tablet-focused upgrade... But for the life of me, I cannot find functionality that replicates that of Windows 8 (as described above)!

I've finally convinced the wife to let me single-boot Ubuntu on our VAIO Tap 20, but the included bluetooth keyboard smashes through batteries like they're going out of fashion, so until we can buy a corded keyboard, we need a solution (preferably built-in) that replicates the functionality found under Windows 8...

--

Never mind - all one needs to do after @Rmano 's solution is log-out and log back in... I should also note that this was already installed under Ubuntu 14.04 LTS ("Trusty Tahr").

So I'm trying to apply a boatload of updates and upgrades via Ubuntu's built-in update system... But it tells me the updates/upgrades can't be completed because it requires the installation of "untrusted" packages.

For the most part, my software has been installed via the Ubuntu Software Center... But there are a few odds and ends that I have installed separately...

The thing is, even the "Ubuntu base" updates (which as I understand it, as from Ubuntu themselves) are considered "untrusted" when I try to install them individually!

I've had a play around in the relevant settings, but no matter what I click, Ubuntu simply does not want to apply these updates/upgrades!

What am I doing wrong?