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Posts Tagged ubuntu

Fix Long, Loud Beep / Popping During Kubuntu Shutdown

Feb 8

Posted by brett in linux | No Comments

I’m not sure what exactly causes this problem, but one of my computers running Kubuntu 9.10 has had this problem involving a long system beep during shutdown. Blacklisting the pc speaker didn’t work, nor did relentless searching for answers, until a post on Ubuntu forums finally answered my question.

The fix involves disabling the splash screen:

Edit /etc/default/grub


$ sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Change

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

to

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet"

Update Grub:

$ sudo update-grub

..and reboot!

On the first reboot, you may still hear the beep. Reboot twice before you assume it doesn’t work!

Credit: dimoftheyard

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Multi Touch (Touchpad) in Ubuntu 9.10, Synaptics Driver (How-to)

Dec 9

Posted by brett in linux | 2 Comments

If you have a multi-touch enabled touchpad for your laptop and are using ubuntu, it may not automatically be recognized and enabled.  Here are some directions on how to do that. These directions were compiled from two sources, credited below.

Setting up Synaptics driver

Type in terminal

gksudo gedit /etc/hal/fdi/policy/11-x11-synaptics.fdi

Create and save file with this content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
 <device>
   <match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.touchpad">
       <merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">synaptics</merge>
       <merge key="input.x11_options.SHMConfig" type="string">On</merge>

       <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" type="string">40</merge>
       <merge key="input.x11_options.VertTwoFingerScroll" type="string">1</merge>
       <merge key="input.x11_options.HorizTwoFingerScroll" type="string">1</merge>
       <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton1" type="string">1</merge>
       <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton2" type="string">3</merge>  <!--two finger tap -> middle clieck(3) -->
       <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton3" type="string">2</merge>  <!--three finger tap -> right click(2). almost impossible to click -->
   </match>
 </device>
</deviceinfo>

This allows us to use synclient utility to watch touchpad real-time data in console window.

Now restart X

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

Test with command:

synclient -m 100

And you should see data like this scrolling in the terminal:

129.355  2912 3469  59 1  4  0 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 129.455  2952 3529  59 1  4  1 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 time     x    y   z f  w  l r u d m     multi  gl gm gr gdx gdy
 129.555  3283 3516  60 1  4  1 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 129.656  3928 3517  60 1  4  1 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 129.756  4364 3637  60 1  4  1 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 129.856  4020 3329  49 1  4  0 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 129.956  3634 3122  58 1  4  0 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 130.057  3320 2957  60 1  4  0 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 130.157  2779 3312  61 1  4  0 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 130.257  2557 3739  61 1  4  0 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 130.358  2636 3485  39 1  4  0 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 130.458  2659 3104  60 1  4  0 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0
 130.558  2671 2988  60 1  4  0 0 0 0 0  00000000   0  0  0   0   0

f column tells the number of fingers. w is the touched area width. z is the pressure.

If you put two fingers on touchpad and you see value f=2 then your hardware has multi-touch aware touchpad.

(above directions credit blog.twinapex.fi)

If you get a “Can’t access shared memory” error when you try to run the synclient command above, continue:

Create the file /etc/hal/fdi/policy/shmconfig.fdi
With the contents:
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”ISO-8859-1″?>
<deviceinfo version=”0.2″>
<device>
<match key=”input.x11_driver” string=”synaptics”>
<merge key=”input.x11_options.SHMConfig” type=”string”>True</merge>
</match>
</device>
</deviceinfo>
Enabled shared memory in /etc/fstab by adding the following:
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0

(Credit shared memory directions, zetabill from linuxquestions.org)

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Fix the Tick Sound in Ubuntu 9.10

Dec 4

Posted by brett in linux | 2 Comments

Some power settings were changed in Ubuntu / Kubuntu 9.10 that makes the speaker amp turn off when not in use–it then turns on before playing a sound, creating a (rather annoying) ‘tick’ sound.  To fix this:

Edit the file: /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
Look for the following line of code towards the bottom:

options snd-hda-intel power_save=10 power_save_controller=N

Change that line to:

options snd-hda-intel power_save=0 power_save_controller=N

…and restart! Your problem should be solved.

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Downgrade Grub 2 to Grub Legacy (Ubuntu 9.10)

Nov 23

Posted by brett in linux | 19 Comments

I have experienced a load of problems with GRUB 2 (betas that are included in Ubuntu 9.10–why did they include a beta, anyway?) so I sought a method to downgrade, or revert to GRUB legacy (ver 0.97).  Below are detailed instructions, all found from the following post.  Credit to posters.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1330347

Reverting to GRUB Legacy

If a user chooses to return to GRUB legacy (0.97), these steps will remove GRUB 2 and install GRUB.
The command line produces a cleaner uninstall and reinstallation. While adding and removing the packages can be accomplished with Synaptic, certain steps must be accomplished in a terminal.

  1. Open a terminal: Applications, Accessories, Terminal.
  2. Make backup copies of the main GRUB 2 folders & files. (Optional)
    • sudo cp /etc/default/grub /etc/default/grub.old
    • sudo cp -R /etc/grub.d /etc/grub.d.old
    • sudo cp -R /boot/grub /boot/grub.old
  3. Remove GRUB 2
    • sudo apt-get purge grub2 grub-pc
    • The system will be unbootable until another bootloader is installed.
    • Once the packages are removed, many files will still remain in ‘/boot/grub’
  4. Install GRUB 0.97
    • sudo apt-get install grub
  5. With grub installed, the user must still create the menu.lst and stage1/stage2 files by running the following two commands.
    1. sudo update-grub
      • Generates menu.lst
        • Tab to “Yes” when prompted.
    2. sudo grub-install /dev/sdX
      • Choose the correct device (sda, sdb, etc), normally the one on which Ubuntu is installed.
      • Creates the stage1 & stage2 files in /boot/grub and writes to the MBR.

Run this command to keep it from upgrading automatically:

echo "grub hold" | sudo dpkg --set-selections

  • Reboot

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    Fix Ubuntu / Kubuntu 9.10 Screen Brightness Problem

    Nov 21

    Posted by brett in linux | 15 Comments

    I recently purchased a Lenovo IdeaPad Y450 Laptop, but the screen brightness was not being adjusted when I used the proper key combination (FN+UP/DOWN).  The key combination did show the brightness bar, but did not adjust the actual brightness on the (LED) LCD.  To fix this, edit /etc/default/grub:

    Change:

    GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash”

    to

    GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash nomodeset acpi_backlight=vendor”

    Then run

    sudo update-grub

    And restart!

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