TheGeeko61's questions

I am running Ubuntu 21.10/Gnome. I was browsing packages using Synaptic when I discovered libmp3splt. I selected to install it when I got a dialog showing me all the packages (e.g., alsa-base, linux-sound-base, ubuntu-desktop, ubuntu-desktop-minimal, and ubuntu-gnome-desktop) that will be removed in order to install it.

Reading the description of libmp3splt gives me no clue as to WHY these packages will be removed. Until now, I had thought that the package being installed provided alternatives to those being removed. But, removing ubuntu-* concerns me... I don't see how ubuntu-specific packages might also be in an mp3 package.

My question is: Will the removal of so many packages (in order to accommodate installing a single package) cause my system to malfunction?

I am running Ubuntu Studio 21.10 on Kernel Version 5.13.0-2-lowlatency (64-bit);KDE Plasma & Frameworks versions are 5.22.5 and 5.86.0, respectively. Qt is version 5.15.2.

The system is AMD w/ 8 GB RAM.

I don't recall doing anything to tell magnus to pop up and annoy me each time I log in.

It is not in the usual "Startup" system setting dialog.

I'm unaware of other "startup" settings where it may be hiding.Do you know where/what I need to modify to prevent this tool from popping up without being requested.

(Refer to the 2 images at this site: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16BoMd9-6ntILMYJFVSjRnfeB4ITV-3nQ?usp=sharing)

I decided to upgrade from 21.04 to 21.10. I used the update-manager -c method of upgrading. After 12 hours, I checked and it was yet running and, from the messages on my terminal screen, appeared to be without issue.

After another 5 or 6 hours, I thought it was done. That's what is reported on the terminal window in image 2.

However a new window popped up entitled, "Remove obsolete packages?" Also on that window are details about obsolete and to-be-removed packages... but, (as you can see in the first image), there is no UI element to allow me to respond.

The process was on the step just before the "reboot" step. I fear that aborting will render my machine demolished...

Why does the 21.04 -> 21.10 upgrade fail to allow me to respond in order to proceed?

I am bumping into desktop crashes (called login loop by many) on Ubuntu 21.04.

This started happening after an interrupted sudo apt install... session which had run 70 (very low bandwidth) hours before power outage.

Upon power restoration, I reran apt thinking the machine would be very out-of-sorts. Notably, apt proceeded based, I'm guessing, on its cache. It ran for additional time, then gave me a report which listed 9 or 10 failed packages; there were many lines preceding the failed package which seemed to indicate successful installation of the remaining packages.

After a few more invocations of apt to install the failed packages, I was relieved.

Upon rebooting, however, I was met with the desktop crash.

An answer by user10489 to this related question (Recurring problems with Login Loops ubuntu 20.10) was very thorough.

Except for the gnome-specific steps, I examined all the others. None applied.

The problem began after running the completion of apt. I don't recall whether apt prompted me to do so, but I rebooted the machine.

First on my main account... then attempting to login on my backup account (which I always create for cases just like this), leads to the same result.

SYMPTOMS When I press the last key of my password followed by enter, it proceeds as usual... Then the screen turns black, flashes a couple lines of text at top, then returns to login screen and beeps.

Lines flashed on screen:

[  133.715541] netdata[4213]: 2021-08-30 11:50:14: netdata INFO  : MAIN : CONFIG: cannot load cloud config '/var/lib/netdata/cloud.d/cloud.conf'. Running with internal defaults.

[   134.569325] netdata[4213]: 2021-08-30 11:50:15: netdata INFO : MAIN : SIGNAL :  Not enabling reaper

I am able to access the text terminals.

I created a new user... and faced the same fate.

I examined the .xsession-errors resource which consists of 131 lines.

Among the first ten lines:

/etc/X11/Xsession.d/30x11-common_xresources: line 16: has_option: command not found

/etc/X11/Xsession.d/75dbus_dbus-launch: line 9: has_option: command not found

/etc/X11/Xsession.d/90x11-common_ssh-agent: line 9: has_option: command not found

The last 11 lines

dbus-update-activation-environment: setting _=/usr/bin/dbus-update-activation-environment

dbus-update-activation-environment: warning: error sending to systemd: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.InvalidArgs:  Invalid environment assignments

Insecure $ENV{ENV} while running with -T switch at /usr/share/perl5/GnuPG/Interface.pm line 348.

Compilation failed in require at /usr/bin/monkeysphere-validation-agent line 22

BEGIN failed--compilation aborted-at /usr/bin/monkeysphere-validation-agent line 22

Use of uninitialized value $line in pattern match (m//) /usr/share/perl5/GnuPG/Interface.pm line 820.

Use of uninitialized value $a in split at /usr/share/perl5/GnuPG/Interface.pm line 834.

Use of uninitialized value $a in split at /usr/share/perl5/GnuPG/Interface.pm line 834.

GnuPG version 1.4 or 2.2+ required at (eval 191) line 55.

Compilation failed in require at /usr/bin/monkeysphere-validation-agent line 22.

BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/bin/monkeysphere-validation-agent line 22.

Nearly all of the remaining 100 lines in .xsession-errors appear to be simple log messages; none have "warning" or "error" but almost all of them relate to dbus.

My instinct is saying there's a problem with the dbus installation. On the other hand, the messages presented on the screen during the attempted logins have netdata indicated.

But I'm in a strange territory. I'm not sure what to try next. Is it dbus, netdata or something altogether different?

(UPDATE: after looking into netdata, man says it's "real-time performance monitoring." So, I highly doubt this is the problem, leaving me with dbus as my only option. It makes sense since system inter-process messaging relies on it.)

Looking in the /var/crash directory yields no help. I reviewed the directory. Tried login. Returned to review the /var/crash and no new file had been created.

A review of previous crash files were only 2 or 3 lines and had to do with autojack. (Which makes me happy to find because I lost sounds a couple weeks ago... Now, I have a lead!)

(Updated 2021-09-08) As I continue investigating, I have found systemctl status reports "degraded." Upon review of the output from sustemctl --all list-units , I see that there are a number (38) of units 'not-found', 5 identified as "masked" and 3 marked as "failed."

I set up my keyboard to have a "compose" key on my Ubuntu 21.04 system. I love the flexibility! When exploring (System Settings-Hardware-Input Devices-Keyboard-Advanced), I discovered the Layout of numeric keypad selection. There are options there like ATM/phone-style, Hexadecimal, Unicode additions, etc.

I am very interested in both the Hexadecimal and the Unicode additions... However, I have not been able to find the layout mapping in order to choose whether to have a new keypad layout or leave it alone.

Where does one find the reference material for this feature?

UPDATE I am reviewing this questin (How to set up a custom keyboard layout?) and its answer. While not exactly the same question, they are related. If I glean a solution while perusing that question, I'll post it here.

I changed my account password (and have autologin engaged, which I believe to be related to my issue), but the keyring password remains the same as my former account password.

I thought that maybe I needed to logout and back on to flush queues... but, that did not work.

So, I thought, do a "Microsoft" and reboot... again, this did not work.

My research has uncovered how to synchronize the accounts using KDE (or Gnome) tools. For example in this article, I see that older versions of Ubuntu had a "System-Preferences" feature to accomplish this.

How do I change my keyring password, after having changed my account password on Ubuntu Studio 20.04?

I am trying to remove an apparently-corrupt package gammu-smsd.service.

When I run sudo apt remove gammu-smsd.service, I get the following result:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package gammu-smsd.service

I got to the point of wanting to remove this package because, while I was doing some cleanup, I was confronted with issues while attempting to install and delete packages that I had selected. Here's the result of upgrading (updating is flawless).

Here's the the result of running sudo apt upgrade.

Reading package lists...
Building dependency tree...
Reading state information...
Calculating upgrade...
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Abort.

I was alerted by the 6th line (in above output) that there was a problem. Once I learned that the culprit was gammu-smsd.service, I ran systemctl status gammu-smsd.service obtaining this result:

● gammu-smsd.service - SMS daemon for Gammu
     Loaded: bad-setting (Reason: Unit gammu-smsd.service has a bad unit file setting.)
     Active: inactive (dead)
       Docs: man:gammu-smsd(1)

Jul 18 20:15:18 LolouilaLawelima systemd[1]: /lib/systemd/system/gammu-smsd.service:9: Neither a valid executable name nor an absolute path: ${CMAKE_INSTALL_FULL_BINDIR}/gammu-smsd

Jul 18 20:15:18 LolouilaLawelima systemd[1]: gammu-smsd.service: Unit configuration has fatal error, unit will not be started.

Jul 18 20:56:24 LolouilaLawelima systemd[1]: /lib/systemd/system/gammu-smsd.service:9: Neither a valid executable name nor an absolute path: ${CMAKE_INSTALL_FULL_BINDIR}/gammu-smsd

Jul 18 20:56:24 LolouilaLawelima systemd[1]: gammu-smsd.service: Unit configuration has fatal error, unit will not be started.

Jul 18 20:56:25 LolouilaLawelima systemd[1]: /lib/systemd/system/gammu-smsd.service:9: Neither a valid executable name nor an absolute path: ${CMAKE_INSTALL_FULL_BINDIR}/gammu-smsd

Jul 18 20:56:25 LolouilaLawelima systemd[1]: gammu-smsd.service: Unit configuration has fatal error, unit will not be started.

Jul 18 21:18:31 LolouilaLawelima systemd[1]: /lib/systemd/system/gammu-smsd.service:9: Neither a valid executable name nor an absolute path: ${CMAKE_INSTALL_FULL_BINDIR}/gammu-smsd

Jul 18 21:18:31 LolouilaLawelima systemd[1]: gammu-smsd.service: Unit configuration has fatal error, unit will not be started.

Jul 18 21:18:33 LolouilaLawelima systemd[1]: /lib/systemd/system/gammu-smsd.service:9: Neither a valid executable name nor an absolute path: ${CMAKE_INSTALL_FULL_BINDIR}/gammu-smsd

Jul 18 21:18:33 LolouilaLawelima systemd[1]: gammu-smsd.service: Unit configuration has fatal error, unit will not be started.

How can I remove and/or purge a package that apt cannot find?

Following the suggestion from comments and running sudo apt remove gammu-smsd, I got:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libgammu-i18n libgammu8 libgsmsd8
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  gammu-smsd
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 179 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 
(Reading database ... 737130 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing gammu-smsd (1.41.0-1) ...
Failed to stop gammu-smsd.service: Unit gammu-smsd.service not loaded.
invoke-rc.d: initscript gammu-smsd, action "stop" failed.
dpkg: error processing package gammu-smsd (--remove):
 installed gammu-smsd package pre-removal script subprocess returned error exit status 1
dpkg: too many errors, stopping
Failed to start gammu-smsd.service: Unit gammu-smsd.service has a bad unit file setting.
See system logs and 'systemctl status gammu-smsd.service' fo
r details.
invoke-rc.d: initscript gammu-smsd, action "start" failed.
● gammu-smsd.service - SMS daemon for Gammu
     Loaded: bad-setting (Reason: Unit gammu-smsd.service ha
s a bad unit file setting.)
     Active: inactive (dead)
       Docs: man:gammu-smsd(1)

Jul 18 23:16:57 LolouilaLawelima systemd[1]: /lib/systemd/sy
stem/gammu-smsd.service:9: Neither a valid executable name n
or an absolute path: ${CMAKE_INSTALL_FULL_BINDIR}/gammu-smsd
Jul 18 23:16:57 LolouilaLawelima systemd[1]: gammu-smsd.serv
ice: Unit configuration has fatal error, unit will not be st
arted.
Jul 18 23:16:59 LolouilaLawelima systemd[1]: /lib/systemd/sy
stem/gammu-smsd.service:9: Neither a valid executable name n
or an absolute path: ${CMAKE_INSTALL_FULL_BINDIR}/gammu-smsd
Jul 18 23:16:59 LolouilaLawelima systemd[1]: gammu-smsd.serv
ice: Unit configuration has fatal error, unit will not be st
arted.
Jul 18 23:22:08 LolouilaLawelima systemd[1]: /lib/systemd/sy
stem/gammu-smsd.service:9: Neither a valid executable name n
or an absolute path: ${CMAKE_INSTALL_FULL_BINDIR}/gammu-smsd
Jul 18 23:22:08 LolouilaLawelima systemd[1]: gammu-smsd.serv
ice: Unit configuration has fatal error, unit will not be st
arted.
Jul 18 23:22:11 LolouilaLawelima systemd[1]: /lib/systemd/sy
stem/gammu-smsd.service:9: Neither a valid executable name n
or an absolute path: ${CMAKE_INSTALL_FULL_BINDIR}/gammu-smsd
Jul 18 23:22:11 LolouilaLawelima systemd[1]: gammu-smsd.serv
ice: Unit configuration has fatal error, unit will not be st
arted.
Jul 18 23:22:12 LolouilaLawelima systemd[1]: /lib/systemd/sy
stem/gammu-smsd.service:9: Neither a valid executable name n
or an absolute path: ${CMAKE_INSTALL_FULL_BINDIR}/gammu-smsd
Jul 18 23:22:12 LolouilaLawelima systemd[1]: gammu-smsd.serv
ice: Unit configuration has fatal error, unit will not be st
arted.
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 installed gammu-smsd package post-installation script subpr
ocess returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 gammu-smsd
Processing was halted because there were too many errors.
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

At the time of installing 20.04 from scratch (using a USB drive), all worked with some minor connection glitches... I continued to add additional software and in my mania (! ) inadvertently disabled my wifi connection. As I don't recall all the changes I had made, I'm hoping to track through the logs (where? Which one?) where the point of failure is. My question is : Where can I locate a step-by-step monitoring of the boot process? I'm aware of a boot.log, but it's on my installer USB.

***** Update ***** Here is the result of wireless-info at Ubuntu Pastebin: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/tj4yfWwh8r/

I recently upgraded my system from 19.04 to 19.10. I spent about a day and a half using the new system (19.10)... I added a few software platforms (e.g., Eclipse, Android Studio, etc.)

Now (without knowing what I may have done to create this) once the login screen is presented, I enter a valid username and password... The screen appears normal, with the system going to work (same as before)... Unlike before, I can leave it in that state for an hour with no seeming return..

I can access my TTYs (tty2-tty6)... But I don't know how to troubleshoot...

Can someone get me started, please?

UPDATE (2019-10-22) After changing an entry in grub.cfg (removed the line about background image), I no longer get a login screen. An obvious pause (hang?) happens... From which I can now access TTY 1 - TTY 6 (previously, I could access all BUT TTY1.)

How can I recover?

After waiting several minutes (and believing my machine had stopped) during the 18.04-to-18.10 upgrade process, I hard-booted my machine. Ugh.

Upon restart, the gui fails to display fully... Forcing me to go to tty to attempt continuing the upgrade.

At the commandline, ping fails, letting me know that the network start up had not completed.

My question is: Constrained to a tty, is there a way that I can use a command to get networking active, in hopes that I may continue my upgrade?

More details as I learn them: The upgrade was past the download phase... As the system reports 18.10. It appears to be in a loop... On the GUI screen. It does present a GUI login for my username and password... But, it loops... before I can successfully click my login and enter password, the screen cleats and I see a cursor blinking in top left corner of screen -- no GUI components displaying.

I've successfully logged into TTY.

Ok. I found the boot.log file which indicates (in this order) the following failures: [FAILED] Failed to start CTDB [FAILED] Failed to start LXC network for bridge setup.

And this matches why I'm unable to network...

After reading much about logrotate, journalctl, and boot.log (i.e., my machine is uefi-capable), combined with the previous boot failures, I was able to execute network-manager which connected to my phone via USB (thanks, Kulfy) and I executed apt --fix-broken install.

Wow, I've really done it this time. I've locked myself out of my machine.

In preparing for a Cherokee language course, I added the Cherokee keyboard layout to my options. However, I was unable to generate any Cherokee characters by selecting that input device.

I found an article on the web which instructed me to use the dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration command in a terminal.

Once I did that, I rebooted as instructed. Once I was presented with the login screen, I entered my password as usual only for it to fail.

After failing a few times, I gave my attention to what is usually a mundane exercise (i.e., logging in). While I carefully entered my password, each time, I get the message, "Sorry that didn't work..."

So, I brought up the onscreen keyboard... But the password box displays an asterisk for only the first character of my password.

I attempted to use the direct Unicode input method (ctrl-shift-Uxxxx) but the Cherokee keyboard has no "U" key.

Can anyone please help me troubleshoot this?

There is a package (python-pygame) for Python2 available from the universe repository. However, I want to work through the tutorial in the Invent with Python book. Going through SPM (Synaptic), I cannot find a pygame resource for Python3.

Also, I looked on the Pygame website and it is not clear if Pygame is available for Python3 (though the book indicates that it is).

Can someone help me with my dilemma?

On Ubuntu 11.10, using gnome-tweak-tool (3.2.0-0ubuntu1), I have great difficulty finding specific extensions. The ordering seems random.

I have looked and looked.. but I do not see any ordering options.

Is there a way to change the ordering to be alphabetic? Or by provider, perhaps?

I had asked another question which is related. I know that I can invoke lg (looking glass) via the gnome-shell "run application" window (by pressing Alt+F2). What I'd like to know is how to do this from a command line?

For example, if I wanted to pop up the looking glass from a shell script, how would I do it?

(my other question)

On Ubuntu 11.10, using GNOME Shell, I find myself using the "Looking Glass" JavaScript Console very much. I know how to assign desktop shortcuts in general; but, this seems a little unusual.

Instead of typing Alt+F2lgEnter, I'd like to assign a shortcut key to perform this. However, shortcuts normally require a command file and there's the rub. I am unaware of a command file for the looking glass tool.

How can I set a keyboard shortcut to perform the Alt+F2lgEnter keystrokes?

Clarification: Instead of pressing a 4-key sequence, I want to use a 1-key shortcut to invoke lg.

I have added additional search providers (e.g., AskUbuntu, Wolfram, YouTube) in the /usr/share/gnome-shell/search_providers directory. These work great. However, the order in which they appear on the Activities Overview is not logical.

Is it possible to change the order in which search providers are displayed?

Bonus: How do I make one the default?

When I use the packaging tool, it "reminds" me to use autoremove to remove packages which are no longer needed. But when I review the list, I see packages which I wish to keep.

$ sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
gnome-tweak-tool is already the newest version.
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  ekiga libopal3.10.2 gnome-backgrounds gtali glchess gnome-games cheese gdebi
  gnobots2 gnome-icon-theme-extras libcheese-gtk20 libcheese1 gdebi-core
  libcapi20-3 gnibbles gnuchess-book libpt2.10.2 libcluttergesture-0.0.2-0
  gnotski gir1.2-gucharmap-2.90 libclutter-imcontext-0.1-0 libspandsp2
  cheese-common sound-juicer iagno glines libmx-1.0-2 libfolks-eds25
  gnome-contacts gedit-plugins liferea gnotravex gnect quadrapassel
  liferea-data gnuchess gnome-video-effects
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

For example, in the above list, gnuchess and gnuchess-book are identified. I don't wish for them to be removed.

QUESTION: Are these metapackages that I need not fight (with apt) to defend from removal? Will I lose the ability to play glchess?

NB. I used gnome-tweak-tool as an example in the commandline, knowing that it was already installed. This is irrelevant to my question.

I am on Ubuntu 11.10. I hope to be able to replace gnome-screensaver with xscreensaver. I have read instructions on many sites that one simply uninstalls gnome-screensaver and then installs xscreensaver.

However, when I request removing gnome-screensaver, the system wants to remove much more than just the gnome-screensaver.

TheGeeko61> sudo apt-get remove gnome-screensaver
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  gnome gnome-core gnome-screensaver
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 3 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 483 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n
Abort.

(Surely they cannot collectively add up to only 483 kB.) Must I really remove gnome and gnome-core?

I am visually impaired and have difficulty with the current settings (9x15 and 9x15bold) which my script is specifying. I would like to enlarge the fonts; how do I determine which values are possible for the fn and fb options?

In other words, I know that xterm is invoked like this: xterm -fn 9x15 -fb 9x15bold ...

I would like to increase the font size, but do not know how to determine what options are available nor how to (perhaps) increase the options available.

Both Advanced Settings (gnome-tweak-tool) and Ubuntu Tweak refer to "Window theme" and "GTK theme". What are the nuances between these two settings? Where can I find a discussion of this?