john smith's questions

I have a network card in an Ubuntu machine that will not come up (as in link down, layer 1 problem). The driver is loaded, as shown below:

$ ethtool -i ens8
driver: r8169
version: 6.8.0-35-generic
firmware-version: rtl8168h-2_0.0.2 02/26/15
expansion-rom-version: 
bus-info: 0000:00:08.0
supports-statistics: yes
supports-test: no
supports-eeprom-access: no
supports-register-dump: yes
supports-priv-flags: no

I try to bring the link up and this is is what happens, it just stays down.

$ sudo ip link set ens8 up
$ ip a | grep -A3 ens8
3: ens8: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 9c:53:22:48:71:63 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    altname enp0s8

I check dmesg for and kernel/driver alerts:

$ sudo dmesg -T | grep "ens8\|r8169"
[Wed Jun 12 21:13:19 2024] r8169 0000:00:08.0 eth0: RTL8168h/8111h, 9c:53:22:48:71:63, XID 541, IRQ 29
[Wed Jun 12 21:13:19 2024] r8169 0000:00:08.0 eth0: jumbo features [frames: 9194 bytes, tx checksumming: ko]
[Wed Jun 12 21:13:19 2024] r8169 0000:00:08.0 ens8: renamed from eth0
[Wed Jun 12 21:13:22 2024] Generic FE-GE Realtek PHY r8169-0-40:00: attached PHY driver (mii_bus:phy_addr=r8169-0-40:00, irq=MAC)
[Wed Jun 12 21:13:22 2024] r8169 0000:00:08.0 ens8: No native access to PCI extended config space, falling back to CSI
[Wed Jun 12 21:13:22 2024] r8169 0000:00:08.0 ens8: Link is Down

I see that it says "No native access to PCI extended config space", which google doesn't have a clear answer on. I'm not sure where to go with this and I'm looking for help to resolve this problem.

I have created a basic network profile in network manager to bring specifically ens8 up with a dynamic IP, but when I try activate it, I get the following:

$ nmcli con up PCINIC
Error: Connection activation failed: No suitable device found for this connection (device ens3 not available because profile is not compatible with device (mismatching interface name)).

I have also included this profile (a brief version for simplicity) below as to display the settings I used:

$ nmcli con show PCINIC 
connection.id:                          PCINIC
connection.type:                        802-3-ethernet
connection.interface-name:              ens8
connection.autoconnect:                 yes
connection.autoconnect-priority:        400
ipv4.method:                            auto

Side notes: This is a VM using PCI passthrough for the PCI network card in the host machine. This NIC works if I move it into an Ubuntu 18.04 VM no problem. However after I installed a new VM using Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and removed that NIC from the old VM to the new one, I cannot seem to get this link up. So it's not a fault with the NIC, it's driver related in my opinion.

EDIT: Added some lspci output, as well and manually setting speed duplex:

$ lspci -knn | grep -A 5 00:08
00:08.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8161] (rev 15)
    Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. TP-Link TG-3468 v4.0 Gigabit PCI Express Network Adapter [10ec:8168]
    Kernel driver in use: r8169
    Kernel modules: r8169, r8168

I have also tried manually setting speed and duplex via the following:

$ nmcli con modify PCINIC 802-3-ethernet.auto-negotiate no 802-3-ethernet.speed 1000 802-3-ethernet.duplex full 
$ sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager.service
$ nmcli con up PCINIC
Error: Connection activation failed: No suitable device found for this connection (device ens3 not available because profile is not compatible with device (mismatching interface name)).
$ ip a | grep ens8
3: ens8: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state DOWN group default qlen 1000

Now set it back to auto:

$ nmcli con modify PCINIC 802-3-ethernet.auto-negotiate yes
$ sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager.service 
$ nmcli con up PCINIC
Error: Connection activation failed: No suitable device found for this connection (device ens3 not available because profile is not compatible with device (mismatching interface name)).
$ ip a | grep ens8
3: ens8: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state DOWN group default qlen 1000

To be clear this card works fine in an Ubuntu 18.04 vm I have still on this computer, ruling out the cable and switch connected to the other end.

I'm trying to understand the point of ever explicitly declaring an array in bash. The course I'm doing states that you should create an array by using the command:

$ declare -a ARRAYNAME

I actually never knew about this command because I've never done my arrays like that. As an example, I wrote the script below and then deleted the 1st line of the file. The results were the same. Which begs the question, what's the actual point of ever using this "$ declare -a" statement since my course states that apparently this declare statement must be used (which I proved wrong)?

$ cat test6
declare -a car_models
car_models=( honda toyota bmw )

for i in "${!car_models[@]}"
do
echo " $i ${car_models[$i]}"
done

I'm pretty confident in Linux now, but this USB stick is complaining of a read only file system, but I wrote to it in Windows 7 a minute ago, and there was no issues. I've tried all the suggestions from other posts, and all the things I can think of.

Here is the dmesg stating write-protection is off:

[ 5563.009330] scsi 11:0:0:0: Direct-Access     SanDisk  Cruzer Edge          1.26 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[ 5563.009676] sd 11:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg5 type 0
[ 5563.011878] sd 11:0:0:0: [sdi] 31266816 512-byte logical blocks: (16.0     GB/14.9 GiB)
[ 5563.013754] sd 11:0:0:0: [sdi] Write Protect is off
[ 5563.013759] sd 11:0:0:0: [sdi] Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
[ 5563.014970] sd 11:0:0:0: [sdi] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA

Here is the problem:

adam@Home:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdi ~/usb
mount: /dev/sdi is write-protected, mounting read-only

I have also formatted the usb with zero's with DD, and tried again:

adam@Home:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdi bs=1k count=2048
2048+0 records in
2048+0 records out
2097152 bytes (2.1 MB, 2.0 MiB) copied, 0.426446 s, 4.9 MB/s

adam@Home:~$ sudo parted /dev/sdi
GNU Parted 3.2
Using /dev/sdi
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) p
Error: /dev/sdi: unrecognised disk label
Model: SanDisk Cruzer Edge (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdi: 16.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: unknown
Disk Flags:
(parted) mklabel msdos
(parted) mkpart primary
File system type?  [ext2]? fat32
Start? 1MiB
End? 100%
(parted) p
Model: SanDisk Cruzer Edge (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdi: 16.0GB
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  16.0GB  16.0GB  primary  fat32        lba

(parted) q
Information: You may need to update /etc/fstab.

adam@Home:~$ lsblk
NAME                MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE   MOUNTPOINT
sda                   8:0    0 698.7G  0 disk
└─md0                 9:0    0   2.7T  0 linear /mnt/raiddrives
sdb                   8:16   0 698.7G  0 disk
└─md0                 9:0    0   2.7T  0 linear /mnt/raiddrives
sdc                   8:32   0 698.7G  0 disk
└─md0                 9:0    0   2.7T  0 linear /mnt/raiddrives
sdd                   8:48   0 698.7G  0 disk
└─md0                 9:0    0   2.7T  0 linear /mnt/raiddrives
sde                   8:64   1   7.6G  0 disk
├─sde1                8:65   1   487M  0 part   /boot
├─sde2                8:66   1     1K  0 part
└─sde5                8:69   1   7.1G  0 part
  ├─Home--vg-root   252:0    0   3.2G  0 lvm    /
  └─Home--vg-swap_1 252:1    0     4G  0 lvm    [SWAP]
sdi                   8:128  1  14.9G  0 disk
└─sdi1                8:129  1  14.9G  0 part

adam@Home:~$ sudo mkfs -t vfat /dev/sdi1
mkfs.fat 3.0.28 (2015-05-16)

adam@Home:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdi ~/usb
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdi,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error

       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail or so.

There is no button the USB to turn write protection on or off.

If you were to use a Ubuntu live USB, and do the commands below. Is this literally just giving you root access to the drive?

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
sudo chroot /mnt

I have some text files that I want to grep a section of code from. The goal I am trying to achieve is to start the view at a certain line & then be able to read anything below it. For example. In the text below, how do I view the text file at the start point of yellow. I want to view the content of "yellow" as well as everything underneath it, regardless of what that content is.

green
blue
cyan
magenta
purple
brown
yellow
red
orange
more orange
more blue
this is enough

During the use of gdisk, there an option to specify the hex code. I want to know what it is and why it's needed, see below. So for example, if I am creating a software RAID on my drive, I assume I need code fd00. But why? What is it, and do I have to use it? Why can I not create my raid array using 8300 (whatever that means)?

Command (? for help): n
Partition number (1-128, default 1): 
First sector (34-5860533134, default = 2048) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: 
Last sector (2048-5860533134, default = 5860533134) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: 
Current type is 'Linux filesystem'
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300): L
0700 Microsoft basic data  0c01 Microsoft reserved    2700 Windows RE          
4100 PowerPC PReP boot     4200 Windows LDM data      4201 Windows LDM metadata
7501 IBM GPFS              7f00 ChromeOS kernel       7f01 ChromeOS root       
7f02 ChromeOS reserved     8200 Linux swap            8300 Linux filesystem    
8301 Linux reserved        8302 Linux /home           8400 Intel Rapid Start   
8e00 Linux LVM             a500 FreeBSD disklabel     a501 FreeBSD boot        
a502 FreeBSD swap          a503 FreeBSD UFS           a504 FreeBSD ZFS         
a505 FreeBSD Vinum/RAID    a580 Midnight BSD data     a581 Midnight BSD boot   
a582 Midnight BSD swap     a583 Midnight BSD UFS      a584 Midnight BSD ZFS    
a585 Midnight BSD Vinum    a800 Apple UFS             a901 NetBSD swap         
a902 NetBSD FFS            a903 NetBSD LFS            a904 NetBSD concatenated 
a905 NetBSD encrypted      a906 NetBSD RAID           ab00 Apple boot          
af00 Apple HFS/HFS+        af01 Apple RAID            af02 Apple RAID offline  
af03 Apple label           af04 AppleTV recovery      af05 Apple Core Storage  
be00 Solaris boot          bf00 Solaris root          bf01 Solaris /usr & Mac Z
bf02 Solaris swap          bf03 Solaris backup        bf04 Solaris /var        
bf05 Solaris /home         bf06 Solaris alternate se  bf07 Solaris Reserved 1  
bf08 Solaris Reserved 2    bf09 Solaris Reserved 3    bf0a Solaris Reserved 4  
bf0b Solaris Reserved 5    c001 HP-UX data            c002 HP-UX service       
ea00 Freedesktop $BOOT     eb00 Haiku BFS             ed00 Sony system partitio
ef00 EFI System            ef01 MBR partition scheme  ef02 BIOS boot partition 
Press the  key to see more codes:  
fb00 VMWare VMFS           fb01 VMWare reserved       fc00 VMWare kcore crash p
fd00 Linux RAID            

I am trying to delete my RAID array and start again because of some annoying error listing my gpt is corrupt. I used gparted to delete all the info off the disks, so they say "unallocated" on each drive. I then try to create an array using the commands below, but it always says "/dev/sdX appears to be part of a raid array". How do I fix it? It is not part of an array, there isn't even a file system on any of the disks!

$ sudo mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=linear --raid-devices=5 /dev/sda /dev/sdb /dev/sdd /dev/sde /dev/sdf
mdadm: /dev/sda appears to be part of a raid array:
level=raid0 devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan  1 01:00:00 1970
mdadm: partition table exists on /dev/sda but will be lost or
   meaningless after creating array
mdadm: /dev/sdb appears to be part of a raid array:
level=raid0 devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan  1 01:00:00 1970
mdadm: partition table exists on /dev/sdb but will be lost or
   meaningless after creating array
mdadm: /dev/sdd appears to be part of a raid array:
level=raid0 devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan  1 01:00:00 1970
mdadm: partition table exists on /dev/sdd but will be lost or
   meaningless after creating array
mdadm: /dev/sde appears to be part of a raid array:
level=raid0 devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan  1 01:00:00 1970
mdadm: partition table exists on /dev/sde but will be lost or
   meaningless after creating array
mdadm: /dev/sdf appears to be part of a raid array:
level=raid0 devices=0 ctime=Thu Jan  1 01:00:00 1970
mdadm: partition table exists on /dev/sdf but will be lost or
   meaningless after creating array

One user suggested it was some superblock problem and asked me to zero the superblock, but the command doesn't work as shown below:

$ sudo mdadm --zero-superblock /dev/sdb
[sudo] password for pc: 
mdadm: Unrecognised md component device - /dev/sdb

I have run into more problems than I can bother to count by changing my UID. I'm so frustrated that I'm just going to format and start all over again. This time, I want my installation to make the first user use, let's say UID 1200. I don't want to install Ubuntu and then create all the problems by changing my UID. I don't know how to fix all those problems & it's the reason why I'm formatting. I certainly am not going to be ever doing that mistake ever again on Ubuntu. I just want Ubuntu to install using a specific UID. How do I do it?

When I do a ls -al, I can see the owner and group of files or folders. However, I recently changed my UID, so how do I find out if all my folders belong to my username and the new uid?

When I do the command below:

sudo apt-get upgrade

At the bottom I get an error saying

W: GPG error: http://download.opensuse.org  Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 8873E7BF70F1BBEA

How do I retrieve this key from the opensuse.org server? If I were to look on their website I won't be able to find the key. There are so many nested directories on the website, and I don't know where to look to find it. I don't even know what application or what update it's even for.

Update

I have followed the guides in the comments and it doesn't work. I moved my lists file, and created a new one when using apt-get update. I now have 15 PPA files, and 16 security files. After removing some of the other GPG keys, I now have even MORE errors when updating.

I want to encrypt a USB stick, and be able to decrypt it on Windows as well as Ubuntu. How do I do this & what programs do I need to use?

I'm using dd to copy an image onto a USB. But what does dd stand for?

I understand its use, but not what the name dd actually means, or is an acronym for.
It doesn't even say in the man page.

I need to check the current version of VLC I have running, however I don't know where it is installed (can't see it in /etc or /bin).

If I do vlc in a terminal then the application starts, but is there a way to do like a pwd vlc command where it shows me the actual path of where the vlc app is being called from?

I want to see if the actual file name contains the software version since I can't find the version within the software itself.

I have a statement asking me to explain why this is different from another post. It is different because this is a 2 part question, where I am trying to understand the install package location (which is the same as the other link), however I also wanted to know how to check the VLC version, hence the title (and why this question is different).

I am experimenting with Samba. I have a RAID drive mounted on /mnt/raiddrives, and I want to share it on my network giving everyone full access to it. The Ubuntu guide says to do something like below in the smb.conf file:

[share]
    comment = Ubuntu File Server Share
    path = /srv/samba/share
    browsable = yes
    guest ok = yes
    read only = no
    create mask = 0755

However, assuming the permissions are being set with the create mask value, the 0755 means nothing to me. Searching on the web just brings up hundreds of people using different numbers with no clear explanation of what the numbers mean. So can someone tell me what the numbers mean and how I can figure out what number I want to use please?

I am formatting my hard drive using the "disks" utility. I selected my 3TB hard drive and chose the option not to partition it, but do a complete full erase (i.e. not the quick-erase option). It reckons that it will take 14 hours to complete. Can someone explain why it takes this long? In Windows it use to take about 5 seconds, but I have a feeling that it must not have truly formatted it or something.

I want to understand why and what the below command does. People seem to just pluck the nvidia-[number] out of thin air, and I can't find any reference or documentation on where they seem to have magically got the number from. Could someone spare the time to explain what the number is, and how to find/use the command that I need to use for a graphics card in the future?

sudo apt-get install nvidia-331

I'm trying to understand what the PPA is and why some people use the command below for their Nvidia drivers to work:

ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa

I haven't found anyone who can clearly explain why you would need this package for an Nvidia driver, what it does, or how it works. All the posts on various forums just tend to say to put the command in without giving any reasons of why. So can someone please do me the honour of explaining it?

Can someone explain to me how to make my Nvidia settings stick when I change the Nvidia settings to use 120hz? After a reboot the setting is lost and I have to manually go and change it to 120hz every time.

I am trying to understand how to see the total size of my hard drive & how much is left. It was recommended on various searches to use the command below

 df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev            7.8G     0  7.8G   0% /dev
tmpfs           1.6G  9.6M  1.6G   1% /run
/dev/sda1       219G   29G  180G  14% /
tmpfs           7.8G   18M  7.8G   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs           7.8G     0  7.8G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
cgmfs           100K     0  100K   0% /run/cgmanager/fs
tmpfs           1.6G   64K  1.6G   1% /run/user/1000

However I don't understand any of these directories. I mean what are they, are these all directories or partitions or what? And why do they appear under "mounted on"? How does that bit work. I assume the /dev/sda1 is my solid state drive? So now if I install applications, which one of these directories does my software get installed into? I assume it just gets installs in the / directory (I haven't even got a clue what the / directory is). Can someone explain what the other directories are and what they are used for?

I am trying to launch teamspeak from an icon in the launcher. I followed this guide How to add a shell script to launcher as shortcut . The launcher works fine. My gripe is that it still opens a shell. When I try and open the other applications on the launcher, it does not open any terminals. I can't understand why. How do I stop the shell opening, or have I just implemented it wrong?

Separate to the main issue, where can I find icon's that I can use on the launcher side panel? And does it matter what size they are, or does Linux scale the image to size when you drag it onto the launcher?

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Terminal=true
Name=unmount-mount
Icon=/usr/bin/TeamSpeak3-Client-linux_amd64/Dakirby309-Simply-Styled-TeamSpeak.i‌​co
Exec=/usr/bin/TeamSpeak3-Client-linux_amd64/ts3client_runscript.sh