Alexey's questions

I have the following Ethernet to USB-C adapter:

$ lsusb | grep Ethernet
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0b95:1790 ASIX Electronics Corp. AX88179 Gigabit Ethernet

When plugged into the USB-C port, it may work or not, depending on the machine. In all cases, in dmesg I get:

[23552.344134] ax88179_178a 2-1:2.1 eth1: Failed to read reg index 0x0000: -32

I am wondering if I have the correct driver installed. I've seen that axge seems to be the correct driver, but it does not show up in lsmod.

What is the correct driver to use for AX88179, how to check if it is installed, and how to install it otherwise?

I created a startup USB drive with Startup Disk Creator from 18.04.1 image and successfully used it to install Ubuntu. Then I decided to inspect it with GPT fdisk, and gdisk reported "invalid main GPT header" and other issues:

§ sudo gdisk /dev/sdc
[sudo] password for alexey: 
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.3

Caution: invalid main GPT header, but valid backup; regenerating main header
from backup!

Caution! After loading partitions, the CRC doesn't check out!
Warning! Main partition table CRC mismatch! Loaded backup partition table
instead of main partition table!

Warning! One or more CRCs don't match. You should repair the disk!

Partition table scan:
  MBR: MBR only
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: damaged

Found valid MBR and corrupt GPT. Which do you want to use? (Using the
GPT MAY permit recovery of GPT data.)
 1 - MBR
 2 - GPT
 3 - Create blank GPT

Your answer: ^C

Is this expected? Is this a bug in "Startup Disk Creator" or something else? Is it safe to install Ubuntu from a drive where "CRCs don't match"?

After upgrading from 17.10 to 18.04, I started experiencing a strange graphics issue: text and background in scrollable parts of some windows were getting "scrambled". I performed a fresh installation of Ubuntu 18.04.1 when it became available (formatting the system partitions), but this did not resolve the problem.

However, I cannot reproduce this problem in a fresh account, even if I copy over my entire dconf configuration! I also tried resetting the dconf configuration in the affected account and disabling (all) GNOME Shell extensions, but it did not help.

The problem appears usually when I try to scroll the text in a scrollable area or resize the window. Maybe other parts of windows are also affected. Sometimes the problem appears immediately on opening a window.

When I scroll a scrollable area or resize the whole window, text and background get scrambled by overlapping on themselves. Sometimes black or transparent areas appear. GNOME Calculator 3.28.2 and gitg 3.26 windows are strongly affected. With GNOME Calculator the issue it the easiest to reproduce -- it suffices to launch it.

Which system or user settings could cause such problem?

I am attaching pictures which show the problem.

I have Intel HD Graphics 520 (Skylake GT2).

By the way, 3D gaming works fine.

Things I tried that did not help:

1. sudo apt install xserver-xorg-video-intel,

2. sudo update-initramfs -u.

3. Reinstall Ubuntu 18.04.1 completely.

4. dconf reset -f / and disable GNOME Shell extensions.

I would like to find the version number of Adobe Flash currently installed on my Ubuntu system. Adobe's web site says the latest version for Linux is 26.0.0.131, but if I execute

apt show adobe-flashplugin

I get

Package: adobe-flashplugin
Version: 1:20170616.1-0ubuntu0.17.04.1
[...]

but nothing like 26.0.0.131.

How can I see which Flash version I have installed?

After a fresh installation of Ubuntu GNOME 16.04.1 and after installing all updates, upgrading to 16.04.2, I have a strange issue with Bluetooth.

If I turn Bluetooth on, it reports in Bluetooth pane of GNOME Settings:

Visible as "Bastien's computer" and available for Bluetooth file transfers.

Who is Bastien?

Bastien, if you read this, could you please comment and explain why Bluetooth thinks that my computer is yours?

Moreover, my Bluetooth does not see any other Bluetooth, and is not seen by any other Bluetooth.

This issue has been reported before, without a satisfactory explanation:

• Ubuntu 16.04 bluetooth adapter doesn't search

• https://forum.manjaro.org/t/bluetooth-issue-visible-as-bastiens-computer/4994

I have connected to my Gmail account with Evolution once just to download my email. I didn't save my Gmail account password in Gnome Keyring and do not plan to for the moment. Since then Gnome Calendar, and sometimes Evolution, keep asking me every half an hour or so for my Gmail account password. How can I explain to them that I am not going to give them my Gmail accout password (at least for now)?

I know that I can somehow erase all traces of my Gmail account from Evolution, but this is not a solution for me because I want to keep the downloaded Gmail messages and to be able to download new ones from time to time.

According to Ubuntu's community documentation,

[...] in a UEFI-mode installation, Ubuntu will not ask you where to install the boot loader. If it does, or if it complains about the lack of a BIOS Boot Partition, you've probably accidentally booted in BIOS/CSM/legacy mode.

However, when I tried installing Ubuntu Gnome 16.04 in the UEFI mode, it asked me to select a disk or a partition for the boot loader. I chose the /boot partition. I do not know if it really installed some "boot loader" to that partition, but it also created /EFI/ubuntu folder on the EFI system partition, and Ubuntu shows up in the UEFI boot menu. When I load Ubuntu, it mounts EFI system partition as /boot/EFI.

Is this an installer bug? If not, how does it agree with the documentation that I quoted?

P.S. This is one of a few anomalies I encountered in trying to set up a multi-boot system, I included more details in my another question.

I tried installing Ubuntu 16.04 and Linux Mint 18 on separate partitions of a hard drive, with two other partitions to be mounted as /boot (one for each). The idea was to have the two systems completely independent and to select between them through the laptop's UEFI boot menu. I was also hoping to be able to make each boot loader see the other one. In the future I planned to add yet another distribution.

The first thing that seems to be out of order is that the installers of both Ubuntu and Mint asked me where to install the boot loaders, despite that Ubuntu's community documentation says:

Note that in a UEFI-mode installation, Ubuntu will not ask you where to install the boot loader. If it does, or if it complains about the lack of a BIOS Boot Partition, you've probably accidentally booted in BIOS/CSM/legacy mode.

(I am pretty sure that I was booted in UEFI-mode: "Launch CSM" was disabled in UEFI setup, and at the end the installed systems were mounting EFI system partition under /boot/efi.)

As I had to choose where to install the boot loaders, I selected them to be installed to respective /boot partitions.

After installing Ubuntu, it showed up in UEFI boot menu. Inspecting the ESP (EFI system partition), I found that a directory /EFI/ubuntu was created. With help of efibootmgr, I determined that the startup file for Ubuntu was \EFI\UBUNTU\SHIMX64.EFI. (In fact, the first time I tried installing Ubuntu, I selected "do not use this partition" for ESP, but it was used nonetheless.)

Afterwards I installed Mint, and what happened was that "ubuntu" item in UEFI boot menu started launching Mint's GRUB instead of Ubuntu's GRUB, and I found no way to start Ubuntu anymore. It turned out that Mint had overwritten the /EFI/ubuntu directory on ESP with its own files.

My main problem is still ahead.

I have figured out that if I reinstall Mint's GRUB with the following command

sudo grub-install --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=linux-mint

it will create a EFI/linux-mint directory with its startup "kernels." Here is the contents of this directory after the above operation:

$ sudo ls -l /boot/efi/EFI/linux-mint
total 3546
-rwx------ 1 root root     121 juil. 28 22:05 grub.cfg
-rwx------ 1 root root 1067896 juil. 28 22:05 grubx64.efi
-rwx------ 1 root root 1271672 juil. 28 22:05 MokManager.efi
-rwx------ 1 root root 1289424 juil. 28 22:05 shimx64.efi

Through UEFI setup, I added "linux-mint" boot option pointing to /EFI/linux-mint/shimx64.efi, and it worked. (I regret now not having removed /EFI/ubuntu directory first for a cleaner experiment).

I reinstalled Ubuntu, and it recreated its /EFI/ubuntu:

$ sudo ls -l /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu
total 3610
drwx------ 2 root root    1024 juil. 28 22:23 fw
-rwx------ 1 root root   64352 juil. 28 22:23 fwupx64.efi
-rwx------ 1 root root     121 juil. 28 22:25 grub.cfg
-rwx------ 1 root root 1067896 juil. 28 22:25 grubx64.efi
-rwx------ 1 root root 1271672 juil. 28 22:25 MokManager.efi
-rwx------ 1 root root 1289424 juil. 28 22:25 shimx64.efi

In UEFI boot menu, "ubuntu" entry appeared automatically together with the "manually" created before "linux-mint". The "ubuntu" entry launched Ubuntu's GRUB, as expected. I inspected the UEFI boot menu with efibootmgr -v and checked that "ubuntu" was pointing to \EFI\UBUNTU\SHIMX64.EFI and "linux-mint" was pointing to \EFI\LINUX-MINT\SHIMX64.EFI:

$ sudo efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0001
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0003,0000,0005
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager  HD(1,GPT,e430ad60-82d4-4bbf-93df-dc0690541c64,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI)WINDOWS.........x...B.C.D.O.B.J.E.C.T.=.{.9.d.e.a.8.6.2.c.-.5.c.d.d.-.4.e.7.0.-.a.c.c.1.-.f.3.2.b.3.4.4.d.4.7.9.5.}...1................
Boot0001* ubuntu    HD(1,GPT,e430ad60-82d4-4bbf-93df-dc0690541c64,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\UBUNTU\SHIMX64.EFI)
Boot0003* linux-mint    HD(1,GPT,e430ad60-82d4-4bbf-93df-dc0690541c64,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\LINUX-MINT\SHIMX64.EFI)
Boot0005* Hard Drive    BBS(HD,,0x0)..GO..NO........o.H.G.S.T. .H.T.S.5.4.1.0.1.0.A.7.E.6.3.0....................A...........................>..Gd-.;.A..MQ..L. . . . . . .0.S.0.0.1.0.S.S.T.H.3.1.F.Y........BO..NO........o.H.F.S.1.2.8.G.3.9.M.N.C.-.2.3.0.0.A....................A...........................>..Gd-.;.A..MQ..L.I.E.9.5.0.N.7.5.1.2.7.0.9.0.5.I. .P. . ........BO

I selected "linux-mint" from UEFI boot menu, and it launched Ubuntu's GRUB. Please help me.