Michael Durrant's questions

Within a few minutes of trying out the emulator it seems to freeze my desktop (running Ubuntu 20.04). After this happened I noticed however that desktop apps such as browsers playing clips were still working. Even my caps lock key made a sound (although it did not change the keyboard light indicator).

At first, I thought this was likely due to hardware and hax and the like. I wasn't able to change this in the bios but eventually I learned to just try a couple of devices that allowed software emulator, such as the Nexus 6.

However even with this, the 'freezes' continued. As I noirmally use a KVM devioce to share keyboard and mouse and screen between my pcs, I then tried plugging in a different keyboard directly into the specific desktop I am using (i.e. not thru the KVM switch) and it worked! For a while... but then it also froze. Then I continued on, using a small mobile keyboard device that includes a small track pad and so far this has kept working.

My suspicion so far is that, given I am using an Android Emulator, somehow the emulator is 'stealing focus' or grabbing control or something like like for my keyboard / mouse.

The same happened with my mouse, initially stopped working through the KVM switch setup that I have. Then a direct USB plugin wireless mouse worked even though the KVM connected one had stopped working. Then this second mouse stopped working and I was down the the small keyboard approach which has a little trackpad that kept working.

Question: How to stop the emulator taking my keyboard and mouse focus effectively freezing my existing external devices.

Note: The issue is about my desktop keyboard, NOT the emulator keyboard, i.e. when it freezes my whole desktop in not accessible through its keyboard and mouse.

I want to change the appearance (size, shape and color) of the mouse pointer.

What options are available for me?

It seems to have stopped working for me on 16.04, updated to latest versions.

I can open and save a file with a name but then the gedit menu open recent doesn't show it or any other ones I have opened or edited. Just has Reopen Closed Tab in gray.

Interestingly... the 'open' button does present my recent files, something I haven't seen before today

Running $/usr/bin/gedit works does bring up gedit (still with the issue), although this way I do get the following warning

(gedit:17233): Gtk-WARNING **:  
Theme parsing error: gtk.css:1:25: Missing name of pseudo-class

I get errors for all these commands when I try to use vim (though vim then works):

autocmd BufWritePre *.rb :%s/\s\+$//e
set filetype off
filetype plugin on
filetype indent on
syntax on " Turn on syntax highlighting
match ExtraWhitespace /\s\+$/
autocmd BufWinEnter * match ExtraWhitespace /\s\+$/
autocmd InsertEnter * match ExtraWhitespace /\s\+\%#\@<!$/
autocmd InsertLeave * match ExtraWhitespace /\s\+$/
autocmd BufWinLeave * call clearmatches()
let mapleader = ","
set foldmethod=indent   "fold based on indent
set foldnestmax=10      "deepest fold is 10 levels
set nofoldenable        "dont fold by default
set foldlevel=1         "what I use
let loaded_matchparen = 1 " MDD Turn off matching bracket " Ubuntu14 filetype plugin indent on    " required

If I comment these lines out in my .vimrc I don't get any errors.

But I suspect I may have now 'lost' those settings.

Is there a different form for them or something in vim in Ubuntu 13?

Errors:

Three categories:

• Sorry, the command is not available in this version
• Option not supported
• Unknown option

Details:

$ vi .vimrc
Error detected while processing /home/durrantm/.vimrc:
line   20:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: autocmd BufWritePre *.rb :%s/\s\+$//e
line   24:
E519: Option not supported: filetype 
line   25:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: filetype plugin on
line   26:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: filetype indent on
line   27:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: syntax on " Turn on syntax highlighting
line   37:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: match ExtraWhitespace /\s\+$/
line   38:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: autocmd BufWinEnter * match ExtraWhitespace /\s\+$/
line   39:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: autocmd InsertEnter * match ExtraWhitespace /\s\+\%#\@
<!$/
line   40:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: autocmd InsertLeave * match ExtraWhitespace /\s\+$/
line   41:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: autocmd BufWinLeave * call clearmatches()
line   48:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: let mapleader = ","
line   52:
E518: Unknown option: foldmethod=indent
line   53:
E518: Unknown option: foldnestmax=10
line   54:
E518: Unknown option: nofoldenable
line   55:
E518: Unknown option: foldlevel=1
line   57:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: let loaded_matchparen = 1 " MDD Turn off matching brac
ket highlighting.
line   58:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: filetype plugin indent on

in a system popup window on startup. Anyway to avoid this?

fwiw I authenticate ok with my pw.

I think this may have started after my recent upgrade from Ubuntu 12 -> 13

For example, to see which keys switch between multiple terminal windows.

I'm trying to use the keyboard more and the mouse less.

If I have multiple windows open I can use alt-tab to switch between them.

By default it starts to select the 'next' application window but I found that if I hold it down for 2 seconds it will stay on the terminal window and allow me to switch between terminal windows. This is what I'm looking for.

Is there a way to be able to switch between windows - either through the multi-pane approach above or by cycling through the windows - without using the above approach with the 2 second delay.

It would be great if there was a way to do something like ctrl-tab or shiftalttab

I am not looking for split-window or tab windows or tmux pane solutions. I already use these and this is a separate issue that I like to know if there is any options to address this need.

Keyboard manager settings shows the below but doesn't seem to help me.

Also keyboard shortcuts shows:

but alt-f6 doesn't work

Shmmax, Shmall, I just can't win ;)

I've tried changing around my /etc/sysctl.d/30-postgresql-shm.conf file a fair bit uncommenting and changing the kernel.shmmax and kernel.shmall a bit but it didn't seem to help.

#/etc/sysctl.d/30-postgresql-shm.conf 
# Shared memory settings for PostgreSQL

# Note that if another program uses shared memory as well, you will have to
# coordinate the size settings between the two.

# Maximum size of shared memory segment in bytes
#kernel.shmmax = 33554432  # Original
#kernel.shmmax = 41943040  # Tried this (bigger)
kernel.shmmax = 943040  # and this (smaller)

# Maximum total size of shared memory in pages (normally 4096 bytes)
#kernel.shmall = 2097152  # Tried with and without this commented out

Then (the error):

$ sudo /etc/init.d/postgresql start
* Starting PostgreSQL 9.2 database server    
* The PostgreSQL server failed to start. Please check the log output:
2013-04-27 16:21:33 EDT FATAL:  could not create shared memory segment: Invalid argument
2013-04-27 16:21:33 EDT DETAIL:  Failed system call was shmget(key=5432001, size=30490624, 03600).
2013-04-27 16:21:33 EDT HINT:  
This error usually means that PostgreSQL's request for a shared memory segment  exceeded your kernel's SHMMAX parameter.  
You can either reduce the request size or reconfigure the kernel with larger SHMMAX.  
To reduce the request size (currently 30490624 bytes), reduce PostgreSQL's shared memory usage, 
perhaps by reducing shared_buffers or max_connections.
If the request size is already small, it's possible that it is less than your kernel's SHMMIN parameter,  
in which case raising the request size or reconfiguring SHMMIN is called for.
The PostgreSQL documentation contains more information about shared memory configuration.

Note: How would I 'raise the request size' as that is the only thing I haven't tried that was listed.

From my .vimrc, getting:

line   16:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: filetype on
line   17:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: filetype plugin on
line   18:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: filetype indent on
line   21:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: syntax on
line   45:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: match ExtraWhitespace /\s\+$/
line   46:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: autocmd BufWinEnter * match ExtraWhitespace /\s\+$/
line   47:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: autocmd InsertEnter * match ExtraWhitespace /\s\+\%#\@<!$/
line   48:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: autocmd InsertLeave * match ExtraWhitespace /\s\+$/
line   49:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: autocmd BufWinLeave * call clearmatches()

I can remove the lines, but I would rather know what I am really missing or need upgrading that is causing this as this file worked for me before.

Didn't use to happen. Now happens with any upload of csv data, regardless of content (and it isn't Chinese!).

I checked

cat /etc/default/locale
LANG="en_US.UTF-8"

My language settings are all English

When I use the print screen key - PrtSc - I get the option of where to save. That works fine.

However when I shift-ctrl-PrtSc I hear the picture being 'taken' but I don't get a chance to specify the location.

I have checked the following locations and they do NOT have the screenshot:

My Desktop
My Documents
My home directory

I could swear I've always been able to do Alt+Print Screen to get 'just that window' but right now I am getting my entire desktop.

Any idea why this would be or what I can do to get my ability to do small window screen shots?

I've tried a lot of combination with the Ctrl, Alt, Shift and Print Screen keys, but no luck, nothing happens in response. One option: Shift+Ctrl+Print Screen lets me do a selection using a cross hair to size out the screen capture but I don't know where this gets saved. I'm not being given the choice and it's not in Desktop or Pictures.

I use an external keyboard, but I've tried using the laptop's own keyboard and no difference.

I am running Ubuntu 12.04 and the laptop is a Samsung Ultrabook 900

Update: I rebooted and it "fixed" it - for now. However this is not the first time I've seen this so I'm still curious as to why it happens, what I can do to fix w/o reboot and if other share the same problem.

2014 Update:

• Print Screen - print desktop
• AltPrint Screen - print window
• CtrlPrint Screen - select and print area

all seem to be working fine now.

My colleagues have lots of Microsoft spreadsheet documents. I am using LibreOffice 3.5.4.2.

Without changing / converting / renaming / touching the documents at all, is there a way I can open (and hopefully also make changes to) these documents?

Right now it seems I can't open doc's of that type using LibreOffice Calc.

I am in a corporate environment where I am the only Linux user and asking for a company change in procedures is not very practical.

From trying to do bundle I get:

$ gem install bundler
Fetching: bundler-1.2.0.gem (100%)
ERROR:  While executing gem ... (Errno::EACCES)
    Permission denied - /var/lib/gems

In Ubuntu 11 I just dragged the folder there. This seems to be not possible on my new Samsung ultrabook with Ubuntu 12.04

I've tried Ctrl+D and using the top menu but nothing happens and no error messages, just nothing.

How can I add a bookmark?

Just installed guake - terminal emulator.

How can I get to preferences to customize it?

I don't seem to have any if the normal menu's available.

I searched everything on their help site to no avail.

I use Ubuntu 11 (now Ubuntu 16 in 2016)

Dropbox gives me an error that mentions echo tee 100000 but then it disappears. How to fix or remove msg?

Currently it is:

michael@Castle2012-Ubuntu-laptop01:~/Dropnot/webs/rails_v3/linker/spec/controllers$

Outside of renaming my machine and directory structure...

How could I make it be something more like:

michael:controllers$

How can I minimize/hide all my windows quickly, same as moving mouse to lower right in Windows XP?

• I don't want a command-line option.
• Ideally, I want to move the mouse to trigger it, or perhaps click the mouse.
• I can't use a trackpad/touchpad solution since I use an external mouse.

I want to cp a file to another directory but that directory doesn't exist yet.

So I would do:

mkdir /new_place
cp the_file /new_place

Can I do this in one?
I imagine something like cp the_file -m /new_place if "m" stood for "make dir's that don't exist"

Would this be a chance to use scp, rsync or another copying utility?

What is a good partitioning tool for Ubuntu 10.X as an alternative to GPARTED? I haven't been able to find one that is easy to use. A commercial product is OK if necessary for ease of use.