Peter's questions

I've got my laptop in dual booting, and whenever I boot into Linux (Ubuntu or Linux Mint), there's a decent chance that it will run the file system check (more than the default once every 30 times), and it'll be a definite run if I'm booting after letting the laptop run out of battery. This has happened over two different laptops.

The Windows partition on the other hand, never does anything visibly, so I was wondering:

Is it the case that the file system on my Linux partition (ext2/3) is more fragile than the file system on my windows partition (NTFS)?

Is it the case that Windows checks for errors and solves them in the background?

Is it the case that Windows doesn't check for errors, and Ubuntu is just more vigilant in terms of file system health?

Thanks

I'm trying to run gnome-disk-utility. But I cannot seem to find it.

sudo apt-get install gnome-disk-utility says its already installed, as does the software manager, however running gnome-disk-utility or palimpsest gets me command not found.

I have tried reinstalling it (sudo apt-get install --reinstall, and sudo apt-get remove ... sudo apt-get install), which does no good.

whereis: palimpsest return empty
whereis: gnome-disk-utility returns /usr/share/gnome-disk-utility, a folder which contains nothing but *.ui files

So, what has gone wrong, and how do I fix it?

I tried installing nvidia drivers, but that didn't work, so I reverted to the nouveau ones. Everything is almost back to normal except my cinnamon menu is looking strange (and I can't do things like open the menu with the 'windows' key).

What I have:

What I had before, and what I want:

Opening up cinnamon settings and changing the theme does nothing, I've also tried sudo apt-get install --reinstall cinnamon to no avail.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm running Linux Mint, so I was unsure whether to post this in Ask Ubuntu or the general Unix StackExchange. I ended up posting here because I don't have enough reputation in the Unix StackExchange to post pictures.

My laptop is connected to the internet by ethernet cable, and in Ubuntu I was able to setup a wireless network that my phone could connect to (I think it was Network Settings, Wireless, then there was s Wireless Hotspot button).

In Xubuntu, I go: Network Connections, Wireless Add, set it up as "Ad Hoc" and then "Shared to other computers", but it offers no option of WPA (and my phone's having difficulty connecting to the WEP). Which I think was the security offered in the Ubuntu Ad-hoc network.

How do I get WPA in Xubuntu?

I'm running 12.04 Precise Pangolin, with Gnome 3, and it looks like my computer has some strange ideas when it comes to accented keys.

Without changing any of the settings, the results I get are strange and inconsistent:

AltGr + a = æ
AltGr + e = e
AltGr + u = ↓
AltGr + 2 = ²
AltGr + n = n
AltGr + g = ŋ
AltGr + Shift + e = E
AltGr + Shift + u = ↑
AltGr + [ then e = ë
AltGr + [ then o/i/u/a = nothing
- These are the methods I've tried to use to get umlauted characters
AltGr + 2 = ²
AltGr + Shift + 2 = ⅛
AltGr + Shift + 2 + o = ⅛Ø
AltGr + 2 + o = ²ø

When I follow the instructions here https://help.ubuntu.com/11.04/ubuntu-help/tips-specialchars.html, and I set the compose key to be Right Alt (AltGr, which is the alt key to the right of the space bar) turns into a fully working regular alt key, and I cannot enter any special characters. Changing the "Key to choose third level" has no effect.

I would prefer to have the fully working accented character system, but I'd settle for just being able to get ß and the vowels with umlauts.

Thanks

Since upgrading to Ubuntu 12.04, the disk checker has run approx. half of the times I powered on my laptop. Sometimes I let it complete, but if I'm in a rush I skip it. Some of the times that it runs it comes out fine, some other times it comes up with an error, I ask it to fix, then it says that it can't mount /tmp/.

Anyway, after a disk check like that (which 'fixed' something, but couldn't find /tmp/), the laptop rebooted, and I got the dialog about running in low-graphics mode.

I had a look around the menus, the restoring to default and restoring to backup neither seemed to do anything (I clicked on them and the menu just reappeared), and editing the config file did nothing either.

From there, I went into low graphics mode to find ways to fix this.

The first thing I came across was entering sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop, after hitting Ctrl+Alt+F1. Ctrl+Alt+F1 did nothing for me, but I opened the terminal, entered the command and it ran, saying that there were no packages that needed installing.

(as an aside note, from the first menu that asks whether I'd like to use low-graphics mode, try to fix this, terminal, etc, if I select terminal I don't actually get to the terminal login, just some progress reports about stuff loading).

Next I tried dpkg-reconfigure -phigh -a, which ran for about half an hour, outputting nothing. I rebooted and the problem persisted.

From the would you like to use low-graphics mode menu, I looked at the log files. On the Server (or xserver, can't remember) file, it said

Fatal server error:
Server is already active for display 0
 If this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.X0-lock
 and start again.

So I went, found and deleted /tmp/.X0-lock, (there was also a /tmp/.X1-lock alongside it). That didn't work, but after I rebooted, I found that /tmp/.X0-lock was there again.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: Having looked at Xorg.failsafe.log, I found a lot of lines of:

(EE) FBDEV(0): FBIOPUTCMAP: Invalid argument

I have a Dell Inspiron 1545, according to sysinfo I have:

Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

lspci gives me the same info:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)

I am using the i915 graphics driver.

Possible Duplicate:
What is the keyboard shortcut to minimise a window to launcher in unity?

I upgraded from Ubuntu 11.10 (with Gnome 3.2 I think), to Ubuntu 12.04 with Gnome 3.4.1, and my custom shortcuts have stopped working.

Opening up the All Settings -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts, I can see that my shortcuts are still there.

All of the shortcuts that I didn't change are working, and my shortcuts in the custom section are working (eg Ctrl+Alt+G to open gedit), its just that the shortcuts I had customised before the upgrade no longer work.

Under Launchers, I had changed "Launch Terminal" to Ctrl+Alt+T, and under Navigation I had changed move to workspace above/below to Shift+Ctrl+Up/Down.

Investigating further, it looks like the default shortcuts for these actions work (Ctrl+Alt+Up/ Down moves me up and down workspaces), so I'm guessing that there is some discrepancy between what I am seeing on the Keyboard Settings and what my computer is reading from.

Any help would be appreciated.

I'm not sure of any of the terminology, so I'll have to explain things simply, to make sure you understand what I'm saying.

I'm using Gnome 3, and when I bring the mouse to the bottom right of the screen, a bar pops up, with icons of some things that are running in the background (at the moment, mine has "Update Manager", "Removable Devices", "caffeine-cup").

Is there any way to move these items to the bar at the top of the screen, alongside the icons for volume, network connectivity and universal access (how do I get rid of that btw)?

I recently upgraded from 10.10 to 11.04 then 11.10, and I'd like to revert back to 10.10. I understand that you cannot downgrade a version as easily as you can upgrade, and that I'll probably have to get the boot CD again and reinstall the whole thing.

I know that I can keep most of my files by saving the /home directory, so 2 questions: Once I've gone back to 10.10, can I juts copy my old version of home over the freshly installed one?

Is there a way to keep all of my installed programs, or some sort of way of getting the new install to automatically install them? Will I have to go through the tricky setups of things like TeX all over again?

Thanks