Ubuntu How Do I: A Linux Q&A

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User Questions

Q: Get system info such as processor speed etc

A: Goto "Ubuntu Software Center" and install: hardinfo (System Profiler and Benchmark) "System Monitor" on some systems has a tab that says "System" before the Processes, Resources, and File System tab. On my system there was no System tab so I had to install hardinfo.

Q: How to check for bad sectors on system from GUI

A: Goto "Disks" which is the program name you type into the Ubuntu search. Just type "disks." Once the Disks utility opens you should select your hard drive from the left pane. In the upper right corner of the interface is a gear icon that says "More actions" click that and choose SMART Data & Self-Tests (a feature available for any modern S.M.A.R.T. enabled IDE/SATA drive). This works with a drive having that technology and Ubuntu having it enabled. The "Overall Assessment will denote the number of bad sectors. Click "Start Self-test" to refresh. An Extended test may take about 10 minutes for a drive around 80-120gb.

To more thoroughly check for bad sectors and even mark them as bad you can drop to console. You can perfrom a read-only test while the fs is mounted. 

$ sudo badblocks -v /dev/sda1

To mark the bad blocks so that Ubuntu doesnt use them...

write the location of the bad sectors into a file. 

$ sudo badblocks /dev/sda > /home/user/badblocks

Feed the file into the FSCK command to mark these bad sectors as "unusable" sectors. 

$ sudo fsck -l badblocks /dev/sda

Q: How to easily mount windows network shares on demand

A: An easy way to to go to Muon (add software) and install Smb4K. It is a versatile network discovery utility.

Q: Change desktop screen resolution in KDE Plasma 5?

A: Goto KMenu -> Settings -> System Settings and under "Hardware" choose "Display and Monitor" select "Display Configuration" which is an icon on the left. In the right pane, which looks very plain you will see a box labeled VGA with 3 small icons: back arrows, a star, and a box with green arrows pointing inwards. Click that third icon with the green arrows.

Q: How do I print to a PDF document from something like Libra Office?

Option 1: LibreOffice specific

A: LibreOffice has an option to Export to PDF built in. This solution is specific to this software. 

File -> Export as PDF

This is the best way to create a PDF from a composition document. LibreOffice / OpenOffice will create a 100% native PDF file.

Option 2: cups-pdf

A: Install and activate cups-pdf service. Here are the commands: 

sudo apt-get install cups-pdf

Now when you choose to print from software you will see a PDF option. A PDF of the printed page will then be available under your home directory, in a sub-directory named PDF. /home/user/PDF

On a typical installation it is common for cups-pdf to already be installed. This creates a virtual PDF printer. To select cups-pdf as the default printer go to System Settings -> Hardware -> Printers

This method is not recommended when using LibreOffice or OpenOffice because the cups-pdf driver fails to create a fully native PDF document. A paragraph of text might have some characters represented as text and other characters as images. Characters in words are not always spaced correctly. The rendering quality is not as good as it should be. The process is disappointingly glitchy. Use this method for software that doesn't have a built-in PDF export feature.

Option 3: kdeprint

A: You can substitute kprinter for lpr. This opens the KDE-print dialog, which includes an option to produce PDF. Works on Unity, Gnome, or KDE. In version 3.4.3 of KDE-print there is a printer drop down which allows selection of the printer to use. Select the printer labeled "Print to File (PDF)."

Option 4: print to Postscript and convert with ps2pdf

A: Choose to print to a file from the "Postscript/default" printer. Once the ps file is created, you can run ps2pdf to convert the Postscript file to PDF format.

Q: How do I choose a graphic animated screensaver?

A: Screensavers were removed in Ubuntu 11.10. Ubuntu 12.04 has no screensavers, instead, the screen simply goes black when the system is idle for the set amount of time. You can ditch this screen blanking and install screensavers if you prefer the eye candy. 

sudo apt-get remove gnome-screensaver

Install XScreenSaver and some additional screensaver packages with the following command: 

sudo apt-get install xscreensaver xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl-extra

Get started by launching the Startup Applications utility from the Dash. Add a startup program with the following command. The name and comment here can be anything you like: 

xscreensaver -nosplash

Q: How do I get the file manager to show the path?

A: Ubuntu 14.4 still uses Nautilus as the file manager, which is labeled simply as "Files" in the UI. When in Files you simply can press the forward slash key to view the path entry, however, this does not show the current path. Press CONTROL-L to show the path text entry with the current path visible.

Q: Disable "Search your computer and online resources"

A: The icon in launcher "Search your computer and online resources" is actually called "Dash." To turn off the online search feature: System Settings-> Security & Privacy-> Search TAB. See "When searching in the Dash: Include online search results" and click to turn off.

Furthermore, on the Dash go to the second menu from the bottom left-> Applications lens. On the Filter Results go to Sources and deselect Software Center.

To bring the search box press Super Key.

Q: Create a link (shortcut) on the desktop

A: Simply dragging from Dash to the desktop does not work. Unity is designed so that you add frequently used application links onto the launcher. The launcher at the left side of the screen allows you to access common software and switch between then when multitasking. Applications you launch will appear on the launcher while running. To permanently attach an application to the launcher, right-click its launcher icon and select Lock to Launcher.

Open Nautilus and navigate to /usr/share/applications. Now right-click on the application you want to make a link point to and select "copy." Click on your desktop and select paste. You may have to right click and under permissions set it to execute, depending on permissions factors.

  • /usr/share/applications

Q: How do I Hide & Unhide the Unity Launcher in Ubuntu 14.04?

A: Launcher automatically hide: click the system menu in the upper-right corner of the screen on the top panel. Select "System Settings" from the drop-down menu.

Move the mouse to the left of the screen to reveal Launcher. Press the Super Key to reveal Launcher. Press and hold down Super Key to reveal launcher, and also show a list of all Unity Keyboard Shortcuts.

From virtualbox or from a VNC client you cannot unhide Launcher by moving the mouse to the left of the screen. Alt-F1 will unhide the Launcher and put it in keyboard navigation mode. However, you can still use the mouse to select icons that are visible in the Launcher. You can also use the up and down arrow keys to traverse the Launcher. The downside is that you can't navigate down to any hidden icons with the mouse. credit to: Christopher Townsend

Related

External Resources

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