Starting from Ubuntu 12.04 we observed different graphics problems with “old” computers. When I say “old” I don’t mean obsolete hardware but PC with not more than three years of usage.
Many problems were especially noticed in systems with dual monitors or involving laptops. In few words, Ubuntu was not able to keep and memorize the correct video settings and it was necessary to set-up monitors configuration almost each time you logged on your OS. If you have the same problem and you are surfing the net to fix this “bug” don’t forget to search for solutions strictly connected to the laptop or graphic card you are really using. In fact in our experience there are more than few solutions possible and what it’s resolving for some hardware could become a real mess for different (but similar) machines.
The risk of damaging Ubuntu graphical interface while you try to fix the laptop – dual monitors problem is high. Or it has been in our experience because after some tests we were just able to use Ubuntu through the old line way in its safe mode boot. In any way, in our experience (IBM Thinkpad T43 and a HP L1950g monitor using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS with MATE as graphical interface) we solved all the matter just using Terminal and typing:
sudo apt-get update
and
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop
We are not able to explain why it works but it really fixed the bug. Probably, in one of the previous update one or more libraries conflicted with Ubuntu 12.04 configuration generating all the mess we fought against during the past months.
So, if you want to test our solution on your PC, do it at your risk, and type:
sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop
or
sudo apt-get install --reinstall xubuntu-desktop
or
sudo apt-get install --reinstall kubuntu-desktop
or
sudo apt-get install --reinstall lubuntu-desktop
If you want to reinstall all (k)ubuntu-desktop dependencies:
sudo apt-cache depends ubuntu-desktop | awk -F ":" '{print $2}' | sed '/^$/d' | xargs sudo apt-get install --reinstall --install-recommends --yes
Don’t forget to choose your favourite k-x-l-u-buntu-desktop when you type all the above code in just one line and !
Good luck!…. and touch wood while you fix this really annoying bug….. 
Are you starving for information or “really new news”? Why don’t you try to use wordpress.com as search engine? This feature, normally not well-known by many people, let you to dig deep into all the blogs hosted on wordpress.com. Just type a keyword and you will be able to find related news into all the posts or comments in just few seconds. Easy to use and reliable for all that people (like me) who still believe in blogs as ideas incubators.
Model B is interesting if you need a cheap PC that is able to run Linux (Debian GNU/Linux, Raspbian OS, Fedora, Arch Linux ARM, RISC OS, FreeBSD, Plan 9). When Model B will be upgraded to 1 GB RAM, we will have one of the most competitive computers for standard office tasks… ASFEE6HEF2PT
If you want to improve your Google searches you can find many useful queries on internet and, if have time, you can also attend a specific Google free course.
But just few people know that there are specific queries available for Gmail.
I found some of them casually when I need to search some specific, old emails into my accounts some days ago. Then I discovered that Google itself published a complete list of all the possible queries accepted by Gmail.
I warmly suggest you to spend some minutes reading and exploring all the queries because they are really useful when you use Gmail in a professional way.
Here, I just want to sum-up some of them that, in my experience, are the most common you can use when you are becoming crazy looking for a specific email you sent or received.
The powerful feature is represented by the possibility to mix the different queries to create super-queries that can intercept the “wanted” email or documents in a less than a second.
Time
after:2010/10/24 before:2011/09/24
Here you are defining the time range and Gmail will show all the emails sent or received between the two specified dates.
From or To
from xyz@zyw.com to:xyz@zyw.com
Where xyz @zyw.com is the email address you are focusing on.
from:tom OR from:Luis from:tom OR from:Luis -meeting
In this case you are looking for an email from Tom or (plus) Luis but it hasn’t to contain (- minus) the word “meeting”.
Bcc or CC
bcc:xyz@zyw.com cc:xyz@zyw.com
Where xyz @zyw are specific email addresses you are looking for.
Filename
filename:invitation filename:(jpg OR jpeg OR png) filename:(doc OR docx OR pdf) filename:invitation(doc OR docx OR pdf)
Subject
subject:meeting
Attachment
has:attachment
Spam
in:spam
And you check into a specific folder. In my case: the Spam folder
Larger or Smaller
larger:25MB smaller:250MB
Some complex query examples:
from:xyz@zyw.com filename:(jpg OR jpeg OR png) to:xyz@zyw.com filename:(doc OR docx OR pdf) from:xyz@zyw.com filename:invitationfrom xyz@zyw.com to:xyz@zyw.com filename:(doc OR docx OR pdf) subject:meeting after:2011/10/24 before:2011/11/24 in:spam subject:meeting
First of all, I wanted to test one of the latest version of Android 4 but I didn’t want to spend money for a new device so I decided to use/sacrifice the Nook Color that I used rarely because I am a Kindle enthusiast.
Secondly I didn’t want to void the Nook warranty or permanently modify its ROM.
Last but not least I never pretended to discover a new way to modify the Nook but just find the most simple and practical tutorial into internet.
After some hours of internet surfing I found some interesting commercial solutions (e.g. n2acards) and a lot of good tutorial posts and my final choice was one by xda-developers.
I bought a class 4, 8 GB micro SD card and I followed the detailed instructions described into the xda-developers post…, but I had some practical problems because I didn’t read carefully all the text.
The xda-developers tutorial is really well done and full of right information but, as for my experience, it is best to focus your attention on some few points/steps.
In particular:
– you have to create a bootable micro SD card using these commands on Terminal:
sudo fdisk -l
(in this way you will discover the right address of your SD card, in my case was “sdc”. Pay attention! If you choose the wrong address you risk to wipe your hard disk)
sudo dd if=generic-sdcard-v1.3-CM7-9-10-larger-Rev5.img of=/dev/sdc
where generic-sdcard-v1.3-CM7-9-10-larger-Rev5.img is the the image file you find in the xda-developers webpage and sdc the right address of your SD card
– when you download the three necessary “software”, be sure to choose the right one for the CM you have chosen. I mean: if you choose to install CM 9 you need gapps-ics but, if you prefer CM 10, gapps-jb is the right software for you. If you don’t use the proper file, you will have this type of “error message” when you boot your new Android:
Unfortunately, Google services framework has stopped
Unfortunately, Setup Wizard has stopped
Adding the zip files suggested on the xda-developers guide you are now ready to test the Android 4 on your Nook. During the first boot up the Linux software on the SD card will inflate the proper files creating all the right folders and compiling the libraries. To complete this step you will need about 8/10 minutes and, at the end, the Nook will automatically shut down.
In my case I installed CM 10 and during my first boot-up, after I completed the installation, I was not able to use the Android Keyboard and I read this error message on the screen:
Unfortunately, Android keyboard (AOSP) has stopped
Luckily, I was not the first user to have this kind of problem and I read the right tip into another xda-developer blog. I had to come back at the beginning of the Tutorial and change the gapps zip file to an older version, more precisely the 2012-10-11. After this, the new installation the Android 4 run properly on the Nook Color.
For my experience, the Android 4 on the Nook Color is slowest than I supposed but it is not so slow to force me to come back to an older Android version. When I installed a couple of free apps, Startup Manager and Memory Booster, the speed improved and Android was more fluid.
The 2012 is ending and Yahoo has recently decided to update its services. I don’t actually like Yahoo new graphics and the GUI but this is really marginal.
The real problem with this Yahoo services upgrade is represented by many users who were not able to find the Notepad service previously offered into the Yahoo email.
The worst thing is that some of them had saved “confidential” information into the notes. I prefer not to say much about this point but…, please,… 2013 is coming and none can till think to “save” unencrypted confidential information in an online services like Yahoo Notepad…
To solve the mystery of disappeared Yahoo Notepad you can stop searching into the email menus and go directly to http://notepad.mail.yahoo.com where, using the same old (sic…) Yahoo mail password, you will be able to rescue all the notesa you previously have saved there.
Happy New Year!
Christmas time! And you want to buy some presents… ebay could represent a good option to save some money but it needs a lot of time because you want to be sure you are bidding at the right price to the best (used or not) item.
The web is full of websites which help you to discover and follow items on ebay but, in the real world, from the moment you find something to the end of a winning auction many days pass and often you have not time to follow and properly bid for your “catches”.
The software I use and recommend for ebay auctions is AuctionSieve. This software is written in Java and consequently it is multiplatform. In the Download Page you can always find the right version for the OS you are using.
On Linux, download AuctionSieve, extract the file and save it to (e.g.) Home. Open the folder you created and give the permission to execute as program to auctionsieve.jar (right button on the mouse –> Properties –> Permission –> Allow executing file as program”). Then open it with (in my case) -OpenJKD Java 6 Runtime-.
AuctionSieve is intuitive but you have to “play” with it for a couple of hours before dominating all its features. You can save your searches, focus on just one category, filter items using “catch” or “trash” words options, create personal watchlists and evaluate the price of a particular item using the “Price History” tab. If you repeat a specific search you did in the past, you can decide to automatically exclude all the items you have already seen before and you will spare more time examining the results. Moreover, when you begin a “New Sieve”, you can also import the same search criteria you created and selected during a previous search you did.
Let me suggest you to read the AuctionSieve Tour page before using it. In this way you will skip all the most common mistakes that beginners usually make.
In my experience Firestarter is a effective firewall and, on Linux, it starts automatically every time we boot up Ubuntu. But, when I decided to use a VPN tunnel through openvpn, I had some connection problems. In fact I was able to initialize my VPN services but, after a while, all the internet connections were mysteriously shut down.
The “problem” was Firestarter which cut off the connection as forbidden considering my inbound/outbound Policy.
To solve this matter you have to open a tunnel on Firestarter to allow VPN working:
1- open the configuration file my VPN provider gives to its users (generally its a text file containing all the configuration info used, in my case, by openvpn) and I searched for the IP address of the default starting connection used to authenticate the VPN services (e.g. 177.458.563.25). Save somewhere or memorize this VPN IP address.
2- open a Terminal and type:
sudo nautilus
3- using nautilus go to File System (it’s before home folder) and open etc–>firestarter and open the file user-pre using Gedit (or your preferred text editor)
4- the user-pre file is usually empty so don’t panic and write these lines into it:
iptables -A INPUT -j ACCEPT -s xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -p esp iptables -A INPUT -j ACCEPT -s xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -p udp -m multiport -sports isakmp,10000 iptables -A INPUT -j ACCEPT -i tun+ iptables -A OUTPUT -j ACCEPT -d xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -p esp iptables -A OUTPUT -j ACCEPT -d xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -p udp -m multiport -dports isakmp,10000 iptables -A OUTPUT -j ACCEPT -o tun+
Now you have to substitute the xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx with the VPN IP address you have found at step 1 (in my example was 177.458.563.25).
5- Save the user-pre file and close Gedit and Nautilus
6- open a new Terminal and restart Firestarter typing:
sudo /etc/init.d/firestarter restart
That’all! Now your VPN works on your Linux computer and Firestarter has accepted a new Routed IP Tunnel into its allowed policies configuration.
Computer Borders 