I see that Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa was released with Systemd 245, which supports systemd-homed. Has someone already tried using it? Preferably with LUKS? Is it setup during installation or what steps are required?
I'm investigating what I will need on new computers I will set up. For this purpose I installed Ubuntu with the minimal option in a VM. I found that ubuntu-desktop-minimal and ubuntu-desktop are installed. Which brings up the question: How do I install the full desktop and could I revert this action?
Both meta packages are built from ubuntu-meta, so I downloaded it and compared some of the contained files:
--- ubuntu-meta/ubuntu-meta-1.440/desktop-minimal-recommends-amd64
+++ ubuntu-meta/ubuntu-meta-1.440/desktop-recommends-amd64
@@ -1,15 +1,20 @@
acpi-support
+aisleriot
app-install-data-partner
apport-gtk
avahi-autoipd
avahi-daemon
+baobab
bluez
bluez-cups
+branding-ubuntu
brltty
+cheese
cups
cups-bsd
cups-client
cups-filters
+deja-dup
dirmngr
eog
evince
@@ -36,16 +41,21 @@
gir1.2-gmenu-3.0
gnome-accessibility-themes
gnome-bluetooth
+gnome-calendar
gnome-disk-utility
gnome-font-viewer
gnome-getting-started-docs
gnome-initial-setup
gnome-keyring
+gnome-mahjongg
+gnome-mines
gnome-power-manager
gnome-screenshot
gnome-software-plugin-snap
+gnome-sudoku
gnome-system-monitor
gnome-terminal
+gnome-todo
gpg-agent
gsettings-ubuntu-schemas
gvfs-fuse
@@ -61,6 +71,14 @@
libpam-gnome-keyring
libproxy1-plugin-gsettings
libproxy1-plugin-networkmanager
+libreoffice-calc
+libreoffice-gnome
+libreoffice-impress
+libreoffice-math
+libreoffice-ogltrans
+libreoffice-pdfimport
+libreoffice-style-breeze
+libreoffice-writer
libwmf0.2-7-gtk
memtest86+
mousetweaks
@@ -85,14 +103,25 @@
printer-driver-sag-gdi
printer-driver-splix
pulseaudio-module-bluetooth
+remmina
+rhythmbox
seahorse
+shotwell
+simple-scan
snapd
speech-dispatcher
system-config-printer
+thunderbird
+thunderbird-gnome-support
+totem
+transmission-gtk
ubuntu-docs
ubuntu-report
ubuntu-software
ubuntu-wallpapers
+ubuntu-web-launchers
+usb-creator-gtk
+vino
whoopsie
xcursor-themes
xdg-desktop-portal-gtk
I guess this is the list of packages that differs from minimal to full desktop?
I tried sudo apt install --install-recommends ubuntu-desktop but that had no effect.
I'm using Gnome with an international keyboard and I configured it to use fcitx IBus. I also installed Google_Japanese_Input in Windows, where it behaves as expected:
- Alt + Shift switch between languages (IMEs)
- Ctrl + Caps Lock switch to Hiragana
- Alt + Caps Lock if in alphanumeric mode change to Hiragana, then switch to Katakana
- Shift + Caps Lock switch between full-width Hiragana ↔ full-width alphanumeric (romaji)
- Alt + ` (Grave Accent) switch between kana ↔ half-width alphanumeric (romaji)
- Alt + ~ (Tilde) toggle kana/direct input
These keyboard shortcuts do not work in Gnome. I have to select the modes manually from the menu.
I understand that Alt + ` interferes with the application switcher shortcut but I doubt that I'm the only user using Gnome and trying to get it to work like an average user would do on any other platform. If there was a serious issue with the existing keyboard mappings there should at least be some kind of best practice or recommendation how to create a useful mapping instead of everyone starting from scratch rolling her/his own? I'm not convinced by existing answers (1, 2) and I could not find any good resources how a Linux user is supposed to configure and use Mozc (1, 2) efficiently.
So my question I'd like to have a complete answer here is:
- What is the recommended Japanese input method for Ubuntu 18.04 and later? (I assume it is Mozc.)
- Which packages need to be installed?
- How is the input method configured in Gnome? (A Windows user just downloads and installs the Google software for comparison. It just works.)
- How to set up the input method itself?
- How to set up switching of input modes?
- Are there any conflicts with keyboard shortcuts? How to resolve?
- Are there any conflicts with other IMEs or software components (like UIM, IBus)? How to resolve?
- Is there any useful documentation how to use the IME? (Or typical Japanese IME in general.)
- Would be useful to verify that it is working correctly.
- Understanding how the software is supposed to be used by average users. There seem to be a lot of shortcuts and additional functionality to tweak but also to make your experience worse than instead of going with the default where possible.
Update:
After a few reboots I find that fcitx does not work when I set the mode to Hiragana and type in Gedit. Trying to reconstruct the behavior I must have been using Ibus at the time. When I try Ibus it works.
I had reset my keyboard shortcuts on this computer when I moved from Unity to Gnome, thus running the defaults except for the take screenshot key which I have disabled. I previously had setup custom compose keys (1, 2), but I disabled export GTK_IM_MODULE="uim" and export QT_IM_MODULE="uim" in my .profile when moving to Gnome with Wayland due to a bug. Sequences like Compose+.+. and Compose+→+→ do work though.
When running fcitx I get the following output:
$ printenv | grep -i im_module
CLUTTER_IM_MODULE=xim
QT4_IM_MODULE=fcitx
QT_IM_MODULE=fcitx
GTK_IM_MODULE=fcitx
When running ibus I get the following output:
$ printenv | grep -i im_module
CLUTTER_IM_MODULE=xim
QT4_IM_MODULE=xim
QT_IM_MODULE=ibus
GTK_IM_MODULE=ibus
Update 2:
Okay as far as I understand fcitx does not integrate well with Gnome at the moment. I try to go with IBus since I don't want fcitx to interfere with keyboards and configure keyboards in Gnome and fcitx (across several desktops and laptops). While I have no problems using Ctrl + Caps Lock and Alt + Caps Lock in Windows, Mozc on Linux has the Japanese keys in it's mapping and the Alt and Eisu keys don't seem to be supported. There is an entry on the Arch Wiki regarding X tools (I'm not sure about Wayland) and some Japanese users seem to have found their ways, but this is way too much for me right now.
Update 3:
While users on Arch use a custom AUR package I found a simple quilt patch for easy applying and recompiling to the latest version. I hope this can be included in Ubuntu one way or another while the Linux version has no documented way of making the quoted shortcuts work like on other OSes. With this annoyance gone I consider my issue almost solved. Lets see what happens with the bug report or upstream in the mean time.
I have a desktop with a UPS connected to it. In the Gnome menu where I can log off I have another slider below the volume slider which appears to be the brightness slider and it doesn't work nor did I expect it to work. How can I remove this or how can I tell Gnome that, yes my computer has a battery but that doesn't mean it's a laptop or that brightness controls work with these monitors.
I checked all extensions offered for brightness on the Gnome website, looked at Gnome help and checked all I can find in dconf editor under /org/gnome, no luck.
Edit: I found this repository: https://github.com/dffischer/gnome-aggregatemenu-hider I installed waf but but the hider fails to build:
$ ./waf --targets=Brightness configure build
Setting top to : gnome-aggregatemenu-hider
Setting out to : gnome-aggregatemenu-hider/build
'configure' finished successfully (0.004s)
Waf: Entering directory `gnome-aggregatemenu-hider/build'
Waf: Leaving directory `gnome-aggregatemenu-hider/build'
Build failed
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "gnome-aggregatemenu-hider/.waf-2.0.11-d998e576e79d26a553b299ec4e56967b/waflib/Runner.py", line 245, in task_status
return tsk.runnable_status()
File "gnome-aggregatemenu-hider/.waf-2.0.11-d998e576e79d26a553b299ec4e56967b/waflib/Task.py", line 364, in runnable_status
new_sig=self.signature()
File "gnome-aggregatemenu-hider/.waf-2.0.11-d998e576e79d26a553b299ec4e56967b/waflib/Task.py", line 346, in signature
self.sig_vars()
File "./template.py", line 15, in sig_vars
super().sig_vars()
TypeError: super() takes at least 1 argument (0 given)
Although a bit dated, I love Unity for how it lets me use up to 4 separate workspaces with more than one monitor. I sadly noticed this when I updated one of my computers to 17.10 (and now 18.04) and switched to Gnome.
In Gnome Shell there is apparently no way to have two monitors, place windows on every monitor and switch to another (virtual) desktop/workspace with different windows or empty space. Instead Gnome pulls the windows of applications on non-primary monitors along as you move from one desktop to another. I looked into a few Gnome Shell extensions but none seem to address this.
Since I will upgrade my LTS desktops in the coming months what options do I have in 18.04 besides sticking with Unity 7?
Edit: I'm using Gnome Shell on my non-LTS Ubuntu computers and I would prefer finding a solution in Gnome Shell to get to know it better. I also use XFCE with GalliumOS, which behaves more like Unity and Gnome 2's pager panel applet, but I'd like a more full fledged and modern desktop environment.
Please let me raise this question here hoping the we will also receive an official answer, even though this a mostly community driven site.
Since Dell now is the second manufacturer after Lenovo (Superfish) just this year to compromise Web security in OEM-Windows installations and both also offer Ubuntu Edition branded computers with OEM installs I think that users trusting the Ubuntu brand deserve an answer that is far better than:
Canonical can not provide those OEM images to the public.
Which is contradictory to the benefits of free software operating systems: Knowing the verifiable and reproducible state of a system and who put the parts of it together.
Answers I'd like to see:
- Is there evidence that the images that Canonical provides to OEMs don't contain modifications to the Ubuntu root certificate store? (Build system, scripts or package list used, hashes and so forth.)
- Are there already established processes that impose and ensure that OEMs offering Ubuntu certified computers never tamper with the contents of the root certificate store? (Also not to pre-install customized browsers or offering packages from their repositories as a bypass or implementing tricky firmware features that tamper with the certificate store.)
Supplemental answers welcome:
- One answer to compare the local root certificate store with corresponding packages from the repositories. (Probably better as a separate Q&A if it doesn't exist already.)
- Optionally answers from users with Ubuntu certified computers – look at the link above – that checked their systems this way. (Please wait a few days until we find appropriate criteria or if this is a good idea at all. We probably organize it as a wiki-style answer for everyone to edit once criteria are set – no big-list answer-style please. Criteria that currently come to my mind: manufacturer, model, release shipped, release currently running.)
To be clear, the problem in both events was that official certificate authority infrastructure was bypassed with very poor security standards in mind which quickly led to abuse of these certificates by other parties.
Related posts on Information Security SE:
I want to know as much as possible about a .deb package before I install it. There is a significant amount of metadata generated during regular package building and I know that there are also signed packages like the ones from the distribution repositories.
This is not the answer I'm looking for. Of course I can open the package with file-roller and find the build date this way, but I want to go beyond that. I think of something comparable to how you check TLS certificates in Firefox.
Key questions:
- When was the package built?
- If possible by whom or where was the package built?
- What are the dependencies? (Link to good answer for completeness.)
- Is the package signed?
- Who or what signed it?
Regarding the last point, I know about .dsc files, though these are usually not offered on 3rd party sites. (May be we should raise awareness here so that this will change in the future.)
You can use google-chrome as an example for 3rd party packages.
It looks like installing Ubuntu to an external harddrive isn't possible with UEFI, where as with MBR there wasn't a big difference between external and internal. Is that true or is it still possible?
Is it even possible to combine both boot methods?
An answer posted here should:
- Avoid to require the user to download and install additional packages or PPAs.
- Be as quick and simple as possbile. (I tried boot-repair and it didn't qualify.)
- Probably provide a script for users who don't have much experience with the terminal.
Similar issues like these have been posted several times to the site:
- A recent release of Ubuntu has been successfully installed on a UEFI-capable machine that came with a preinstalled copy of Windows 8 or later.
- The output of
efibootmgr -vshows that/efi/ubuntu/shimx64.efihas been registered asubuntu. (These new boot entries are usually added with the highest priority. See also Change boot order using efibootmgr) - After rebooting, no OS selection menu (GRUB) was shown and the machine booted directly to Windows.
- The output of
- When accessing the firmware settings menu (formerly called BIOS):
- There is no indication of how to change the boot order for indivual operating systems or there are no operating systems (like
Windows Boot Manager) displayed at all, only devices. - The Secure Boot feature is turned off in firmware settings.
- There is no indication of how to change the boot order for indivual operating systems or there are no operating systems (like
- Ubuntu was installed by booting the live media in UEFI mode, not by running the WUBI-Installer in Windows.
- The Windows installation itself was not modified, replaced or erased.
- The drive contains a GPT partition table.
- Windows Diskmanagement shows that at least the following 3 partitions exist on the disk:
- EFI System Partition
- Windows partition
- an unreadable RAW partition that could be the Ubuntu installation
- You tried removing the
\EFI\BOOT\directory entirely, before(!) backing it up.
This usually indicates an issue with the default bootloader or bootprocess being somewhat hardcoded to boot Windows. In most cases this can easily be fixed by replacing \EFI\BOOT\BOOTx64.EFI with another file that also allows for booting other operating systems.
New computers that ship with Windows 8 also come with a different partition table than before.
This along with the move to UEFI causes confusion, as users are unaware of the newer partition table and are trying to install operating systems in legacy style on these computers and vice versa.
(Non-UEFI installs can be done but need a special partition. UEFI installs on MBR partitioned disks also seem to be possible.)
Your situation or what you need to get a working Internet connection with a mobile broadband USB dongle:
- You have the USB dongle, of course.
- You have a 3G, 4G or whatever SIM card with a data plan and also the SIMs PIN an PUK. Preferably the SIM card is not blocked, so you just need to enter the PIN when asked for.
My best and honest advice
Try to avoid the whole usb-modeswitch trouble by buying a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot. It saves you valuable time.
Hello frequent AU users. The reason why I am asking this question:
There are a lot of questions about mobile broadband USB dongles here at AskUbuntu, you can find them by browsing the referenced tags below. Unfortunately users still seem to be lost – not knowing what to ask and where to start – also valuable answers are seemingly hard to discover. So let me start with this simple question and try to iron out this issue.
The 14.04 release notes contain the following sentence:
X32 ABI support (64-bit mode with 32-bit pointers) was also introduced.
I think this deserves a bit more explanation. When you use a search engine to find out more about "x32 ABI", you may find a Wikipedia article at best, but mostly Phoronix and Slashdot, which don't seem to be very useful.
I'd like to see some insightful answers on:
- How or what of x32 ABI is currently implemented in 14.04?
- Is it enabled by default in 14.04 64-Bit or are there any additional steps needed to setup x32 ABI?
- What components or what software can use x32 ABI?
- Are there actual benefits on a machine/installation running x32 ABI?
- How is the memory consumption in comparison with default 32-Bit and 64-Bit installations?
Ideally the x32 ABI should have brought the best of both worlds together: Most of the speed improvements of x86-64 and lower memory consumption for users on older 64-Bit capable hardware that didn't have a lot of RAM.
Edit 2020-08-25: I recently noticed when running Ubuntu on a Chromebook through Chrome OS Linux App Beta (a special VM in Chrome OS that runs LXD which by default runs Debian but it can run Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch Linux and others) that it has a /libx32 folder. May be this question needs to be reviewed/revised or asked again. I will think about that.
How can I play music on my speakers while I use my headset for video chat applications like Skype?
Shouldn't this be possible via this PulseAudio sound server that Ubuntu uses?
This question is similar to the answer of Dual-boot Ubuntu 12.10 on UEFI along Windows 8 (GRUB - error: can't find command drivemap), but Windows 8 is installed on a legacy partitioned drive.
What steps need to be performed to make the installation boot in UEFI mode without converting to GPT or using DISM?
I know that it is generally not recommended to mix UEFI and legacy booting, but it can be handy in some setups.
I have an aptX-capable headset and I want to use it to play music with the highest possible audio quality the headset can technically provide in Ubuntu. How can I do that?
While A2DP supports a lot of codecs optionally and is extensible to support other manufacturer-defined codecs. AptX does not only boast to provide better audio quality than the competition, but also advertises to reduce delay to have lip sync audio when watching videos.
Here are my questions:
- How can I make aptX-capable Bluetooth equipment use this codec in Ubuntu?
- What solutions are available?
- How can I check and verify an established connection for the codec it uses?
I'd like to point out, while this may look like a sponsored post, it is not. In my opinion FLAC and Opus should be the gold standard, but to my knowledge devices with support for these codecs aren't available right now.
Many questions here ask for how to get a certain MTP enabled device (a phone, tablet or media player) working, assuming that the device is somehow supported by current FOSS software. But what to do if it is not?
Problem: The device is not detected by mtp-detect
Connecting the MTP capable device to the computer and running mtp-detect from the mtp-tools package in terminal returns:
No raw devices found.
Having live media that can boot both ways can be a problem when installing Ubuntu onto currently available Windows 8 computers.
In other words the key advantage to creating UEFI-only bootable USB live media is: You know that it definitely booted and installed via UEFI.
Since Valve has already been doing UEFI-only booting USB installers with their Debian-based Steam OS and UNetbootin — the top voted alternative to Ubuntu's Startup Disk Creator — isn't UEFI compatible and therefore misleading, I think we should have a separate topic for creating UEFI-only bootable USB live media.
I installed 7-Zip from Software Center, but where is the GUI application?
Original question asked by a user:
ich habe 7Zip aus dem Softwarecentrum installiert, finde aber kein Symbol zum öffnen des Programmes. Kann hier jemand helfen?
I know that since 12.04, we need to add a policykit rule to enable hibernation (see question How to enable hibernation? and the Official Documentation).
I can successfully bring my laptop into hibernation mode with sudo pm-hibernate or sudo s2disk, so the rule is in place and works, but the hibernation entry is still missing in the menu.
I can tell from looking through the source of the indicator-session package (but not understanding the whole code) that there is still a hibernation menu entry in the code and it should be displayed when the system is capable of hibernating. Please calm down if you're enraged by this. This is very unlikely to be a conspiracy, but rather a bug/regression on a deeper level, which can happen when you move code around or replace it.
Question: What needs to be done in 13.10 to properly tell indicator-session that the system can hibernate?
Possible duplicate: Hibernation still not available - No activity, because saucy was in development at that time, so out of scope for AskUbuntu.
Related bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/indicator-session/+bug/1232814
I just read that in certain situations you should also protect access to your GRUB2 menu by setting a password and may be refining acces by adding --unrestricted or --users as arguments to menuentries und submenus.
I read the corresponding pages in the Ubuntu Community Documentation and the Arch Wiki. So, I created /etc/grub.d/01_security, stored usernames and passwords in there, made the file executable and ran update-grub. This is working as intended, every action in the menu prompts for username and password, but I also want to modify the automatically generated entries to either restrict them to certain users (via --users) or make them available for everyone, but not editable by everyone (via --unrestricted).
I was able to find the proper lines in 10_linux and edit them accordingly, however I'd love to see an easier solution. Perhaps an option like GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true" or GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true in /etc/default/grub for easy (re)configuration (for linux and os-prober generated entries).
Here's a diff from my 13.10 installation:
$ diff /etc/grub.d/10_linux /etc/grub.d/10_linux_bak
123c123
< echo "menuentry '$(echo "$title" | grub_quote)' ${CLASS} --unrestriced \$menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-$version-$type-$boot_device_id' {" | sed "s/^$
---
> echo "menuentry '$(echo "$title" | grub_quote)' ${CLASS} \$menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-$version-$type-$boot_device_id' {" | sed "s/^/$submenu_inde$
125c125
< echo "menuentry '$(echo "$os" | grub_quote)' ${CLASS} --unrestricted \$menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-simple-$boot_device_id' {" | sed "s/^/$submenu_$
---
> echo "menuentry '$(echo "$os" | grub_quote)' ${CLASS} \$menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-simple-$boot_device_id' {" | sed "s/^/$submenu_indentation/"
323c323
< echo "submenu --unrestricted '$(gettext_printf "Advanced options for %s" "${OS}" | grub_quote)' \$menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-advanced-$boot_device_$
---
> echo "submenu '$(gettext_printf "Advanced options for %s" "${OS}" | grub_quote)' \$menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-advanced-$boot_device_id' {"
tl;dr: I'd love the see a simple solution for GRUB2 entries that cannot be modified without a password or are limited to certain users. (Yes, GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true" is active.)