I sometimes would like to have my cursor appear as crosshair lines going across the full screen (one vertical line, one horizontal line). I need it because I often look at statistical plots and would like to be able to quickly read an approximate value for a given point.
Is there a simple way of achieving this?
My current system: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, with Unity.
There are many ways to mount an SMB share in Ubuntu. For example:
as root, you can use mount.cifs:
mount -t cifs -o user=username //servername/sharename/ /mnt
you can use smbnetfs as described here
However, I would like to use gvfs. When logging in using ssh. I tried the following without a success:
dbus-launch bash
gvfs-mount smb://servername/sharename/
This works... kind of. When I run
gvfs-mount -l
I get the following:
Mount(0): sharename on servername -> smb://servername/sharename/
Type: GDaemonMount
So, the mount seems to work. However, there is no file system mount point, whereas when I mount it using Nautilus, I get a mountpoint in /run/user/1000/gvfs/, which I can then access using command line.
What should I do to get a mount point with gvfs which I can access with the command line?
I have noticed that ever since upgrade to 14.04, when working with R, resizing a window triggers thousands of redrawing requests. This is able to kill off my session completely if the redrawing takes much time, as is the case with many complex statistical plots.
Is it possible to resize windows in current Unity using a wireframe only?
I have a custom xkb symbols file which looks as follows:
// modify the basic German layout to have polish characters
default partial alphanumeric_keys
xkb_symbols "basic" {
include "de(basic)"
name[Group1]="Germany - with polish characters";
key <AD03> { [ e, E, eogonek, Eogonek ] };
key <AD09> { [ o, O, oacute, Oacute ] };
key <AC01> { [ a, A, aogonek, Aogonek ] };
key <AC02> { [ s, S, sacute, Sacute ] };
key <AD06> { [ z, Z, zabovedot, Zabovedot ] };
key <AB02> { [ x, X, zacute, Zacute ] };
key <AB03> { [ c, C, cacute, Cacute ] };
key <AB06> { [ n, N, nacute, Nacute ] };
};
The name of the file is depl. I copy the file to /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols and it works with setxkbmap depl.
However, I also tried to add the respective menu entries in the "Text Entry" customization. I have modified the file /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.xml and added the following section:
<layout>
<configItem>
<name>depl</name>
<shortDescription>depl</shortDescription>
<description>German (with Polish characters)</description>
<languageList>
<iso639Id>ger</iso639Id>
</languageList>
</configItem>
</layout>
I have then reconfigured the xkb data with sudo dpkg-reconfigure xkb-data.
It works in as much as that the new layout appears as a viable option in the Text Entry dialog, it can be added to the list of dialogs and is visible in the application indicator:
However, it does not work, the new symbols are not loaded. No errors are reported in /var/log/Xorg.0.log.
I never used window decorations to maximize / minimize windows, but keyboard and mouse/keyboard shortcuts for all operations.
In the good olde days, you could just disable and tweak the window decorations plugin from Compiz settings manager. In 14.04, this is not possible.
How can one get rid of the top window bar with the close / minimize / maximize buttons?
In older Ubuntu releases, you were able to access the SMB shares mounted with Nautilus by going into the ~/.gvfs/ directory. I found it very convenient, since I like to use Nautilus to mount the shares, but do all disk operations (copy, mv, find etc.) using command line.
I now have Ubuntu 13.04, and even though I can mount the share and use it with Nautilus (which I never use), I am unable to find the actual mount point. Is it still somewhere? Or has it been abandoned? Can I get it back?
I know that I can mount the shares using CIFS and /etc/fstab, but I'd rather use the user space. That way, when I install a new system or transfer my home to another machine, my preferences (including credentials) stay in my home directory and I don't need to worry about updating fstab.
Also, I do not want to mount it manually with sudo (with sudo mount -t cifs ...). Yes, I could create an alias or a script, but then I would have to either type my password every time or store my password in a credentials file. And type the sudo password. And then each time I encounter a new share, I'd need to remember how to create a credentials file. So yes, I might end up with this solution, but I would rather not change my current habits, if it is possible.
Furthermore, there is the matter of other users for which I often provide a simple command-line solution. In 13.04, this is no longer possible (for example, because the users to whom I provide the solution are not allowed to sudo mount on their machines).
In any case, I'm curious as to what happened to gvfs and why I can't see the mounted directories.
I just realized that I would like a bookmark indicator -- not a menu, but a stretch of buttons on the indicator taskbar on the top of the Ubuntu desktop that can directly be clicked to call a particular web site in the default browser. Has anyone stumbled across a thing like this? I'm using 12.04 and 13.04 on my computers.
I am looking for an e-mail client for Ubuntu 10.04-12.04 which would look like Gmail and would replace my current Thunderbird configuration. I have no problems with the efficiency or reliability of Thunderbird, but I am used to the Gmail interface and the interface of Thunderbird doesn't suit my taste even after forcing myself to learn, use and configure it for several weeks. Unfortunately, I can no longer use Gmail for corporate e-mails.
I would like to have:
I would have no problem with a TB plugin that just modifies the interface, if you know of one.
For my four year old son I need a text editor. He has an old laptop (with Ubuntu, no internet connection) and loves to type. We need the following:
Is there anything like this around? Or do I have to write one myself?
I need a simple markup that would allow me to include chunks of code and images, and be able to produce .doc (or .rtf) and .pdf documents. A bit (or maybe a lot) like the StackExchange markup, but with conversion to PDF and Word documents. I am producing a lot of documentation for the statistical analyses I am doing, and this documentation is then passed on to scientists who work predominantly with Word. Requirements:
I am considering writing a few LaTeX based Perl scripts for myself, but maybe there is software like that already out there?
I have installed Cinnamon and Muffin and I love them. Finally, I have a working expo! However, I would like to remove all window decorations: I resize and move the windows with alt-mouse, and close them with alt-f4; I have absolutely no need for a title bar. However, I can't seem to find a similar setting for Cinnamon.
Is it possible to get rid of all window decorations in Cinnamon?
I wonder is it possible to capture the state of the machine without actually hibernating? The goal would be to make a "backup state", so if the system crashes, one could boot directly to a session with all the windows opened, all the tabs in the browser restored etc.
I think it might not be doable -- saving a snapshot of the memory, then changing the data on the hard drive, and then again restoring the snapshot would result in broken file descriptors etc. For example, a process opened a file before the snapshot was taken, and when the snapshot was restored, the file is no longer existing.
But maybe there is an ingenious way of solving that?
Some systems use udev / pmount to automatically mount thumbdrives. How is that solved in Ubuntu (specifically, Ubuntu 12.04)? Apparently, neither the pmount package nor the corresponding udev rules are present, yet Ubuntu mounts the inserted USB drives automatically. How does that happen?
I would like to use a script to find out the username - of the user who is currently on the physical console (who has command of the keyboard, mouse and graphical display)?
I do not just want to know who runs X (as the current console can be switched to another terminal and another user).
To clarify:
Commands like w, who etc. show who is logged at which terminal. This is simple. I would like to know, however, who owns currently the physical console (display, keyboard etc.). For example, if two users run displays :0 and :1, and I can switch between the displays with ctrl+alt+7 and ctrl+alt+8, I would like to know which user currently has the connection between his or her display and the actual, physical screen.
One more clarification:
I am not interested in knowing my own username. I have a script, running as another user or root, that needs to know who uses the physical display. There can be several X sessions running by different users, some of them virtualized, some of them connected to a remote X server, but I am only interested in the one that is actually displaying output on the monitor.
Yet another clarification:
Whatever the command is, the output must be different after pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1 (switching to another virtual console).
Ubuntu 12.04.1 with all updates installed. Laptop Lenovo Thinkpad X230 with Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6205.
WiFi sometimes becomes extremely slow. Often this occurs when I wake the system from suspend and connect to a different network. I find no obvious clues in system logs. /etc/init.d/network-manager restart doesn't help, but a reboot does. How can I go on with debugging this issue? In specific, which parts of the system should I try to restart (without a complete reboot)?
I know of problems with Intel WiFi (see for example this question and the instructions here), but if that was the problem, I would expect the WiFi to be slow at all times, and not just sometimes. Also, I have a gut feeling that it might be a DNS issue (for example, getting a page from a known server is faster than accessing a new server), but I don't know how to tackle it.
Update: despite numerous updates in the meanwhile, I still observe this behavior. It happens always when I access my WiFi router at home after returning from work; when I reboot my laptop, the connection speed is good again.
EDIT: I have found the problem! While at work, I use a Cisco-compatible VPN client to connect to intranet (without it, I only have Internet access); package vpnc. The problem appears if and only if I turn on VPN at work, put the computer to sleep, and wake it at home. The vpnc client does not run any longer, but apparently some configuration still lingers (I will dive into that over the next weeks). When at home and I run another vpn connection, and then disconnect with vpnc-disconnect, my problem disappears. The 11n_disable option has no influence on this behavior.
I thank both contributors with an upvote, but -- sorry -- not with the bounty. However, the bounty is still to have for the person who will either explain to me what is happening or give me a guide how to debug the vpnc problem.
I have a custom script and I want to send a desktop notification (the one that appears in the top right corner of the screen) with a custom message. How do I do that?
My GUI does not work. I can only see a text terminal. I would like to send my logs to paste.ubuntu.com but I don't know how. Without a graphical interface, I am lost.
Is there any way to submit a file to pastebin without needing any GUI?
Bookmarks added to Nautilus using Ctrl + D do not appear under "bookmarks" in the Nautilus windows -- but they can well be seen in the Bookmarks menu entry:
I tried to restart Nautilus and log out / log in, but the problem persists. Is this a bug, or a feature?
Thinkpads (e.g. X230 that I'm using) have both a trackpoint and a touchpad. The touchpad is disabled when typing.
However, when I'm using the trackpoint, I often touch the touchpad as well, and generate mouse clicks I'd like to avoid. Does anyone have an idea how disable mouse-clicks on touchpad when trackpoint is in use?
EDIT: also, can someone explain how the option of disabling touchpad when typing works? What is being done behind the scenes? Is it an xinput configuration command, and if yes, which one?
EDIT2: clarification; manually disabling Touchpad (even with a shortcut) is not the issue here. This should work just like the option "disable touchpad when typing", since I use Touchpad and Trackpoint interchangeably (most frequently, I use Touchpad for scrolling and Trackpoint for moving the cursor).