The "Linux questions (and other stuff)" thread

[nickdalzell]

for some reason while playing a game (rigs of rods) my machine acted like the filesystem was mounted read-only. game saves wouldn't work. so i exited out and tried to see what was wrong. the machine froze. i held power until it turned off. then rebooted. now i was getting this warning that 'Ubuntu is in low-graphics mode' but nothing would give feedback as there was no mouse and the keyboard wouldn't select options. i could go into alt-F1 and login, type 'startx' and it would work, but only in Unity, not KDE, and lightDM was not working. worse yet, my graphics card was now being reported back to me as 'gallium llvmpipe' instead of 'radeon hd graphics'. i didn't know what had happened. i tried all i could (again, hours of googling) and all i ended up with was an unrecoverably corrupted X install. as i said put me in front of a Linux box and it's going to be dead. it's only a matter of time. i didn't edit anything either this time, i just was using it as i had been for a long time. it had always given me hell with fsck on boot, presumably due to a problem with my chosen filesystem type that must have not played nicely with my hard drive (kubuntu works fine, in contrast) or a corrupted ISO install (but would always work fine when i finally did get X up. i could play FSX, Star Trek Online, and any other game. of course, OMSI bus sim which i was interested in didn't work at all. it is rated 'garbage' in WineHQ and doesn't work in Virtualbox. it just crashes and displays German for 'Divide by Zero'). either way it was not possible to recover it, as first of all i did not even know why it was in low-graphics mode in the first place, nor do i have any means to find out which driver it was using. it was just generically, 'radeon hd graphics'. for a time, it would work just fine if i startx as root, but would not work in my normal user account unless it was in low graphics mode. sadly, none of my games would work under my root account, even if i pointed Wine to use that prefix. it would just crash. tried copying my user's home/.wine folder to root's home/root/.wine folder and tried again pointing Wine to that prefix, still crashed. i suppose it was only possible to run those games under my user account, not root. which meant i was at a dead-end as i could not for the life of me fix my graphics problem. i then tried to disable lightdm as i do prefer a console login anyway, but all that does now is tell me that X couldn't start as there is some fatal error.

I wish there was a method to go into XF86config or some sort of means to do the same autoprobing for hardware that the installer does when you first install the system, but i could not find any such app to do that job. also, Ubuntu seems to have done away with console config of X these days, making the problem even harder to fix.

Moody, if the app/game you want to use isn't in Synaptic or any other repo, you will end up doing things the hard way. and often spend hours trying to make it work in the distro you use. perhaps you can live without certain apps or consider it a worthy trade off. but it's a deal breaker when i can't play games others can just because i'm not running Windows. it always feels like i'm imprisoned in Android or Linux, as the things i want to do i cannot do. and for me, that 'freedom' feels like a cage when you have to accept that this app or this game isn't going to work and either play a watered down copy port of it or worse, 'get used to it'. that's just not acceptable. for now i got XP working for those programs. like it or not, i'm not giving them up.

 

[Speed Daemon]

Um, yeah, because there's no need for a window$ emulator on window$.

 

[nickdalzell]

Here's a new one for y'all. when i go to 'logout' icon in my Kubuntu install, why is 'hibernate' greyed out? this is why i shut the system down as 'standby' always drains the battery resulting in an improper shutdown. my laptop isn't used all the time and i hate to leave it running, plus we're under a tornado watch so i don't want to leave it vulnerable, either. i know hibernating is supported in Win8 which originally came with this machine but it's always been greyed out in Linux

Like most GNU/Linux apps/programs, WINE is an acronym for 'Wine is not an Emulator' (or more officially, Wine Is Not a [windows] Emulator). I later found out that Linux isn't a combination of Linus and Unix as i previously thought, but yet another acronym for 'Linux Is Not UniX'

 

[Speed Daemon]

once you booted the LiveCD, just reinstall Grub to MBR.

Just an FYI: Since GRUB requires a lot more space than a 512 byte boot sector can provide, it must have access to the files in the /boot directory. Most Linux distributions also allow GRUB to be installed on the VBR of the Linux boot partition, which comes in handy if Windows overwrites the master boot record. By putting the GRUB 1st stage loader on the VBR, all that needs to be done to boot Linux is to mark the correct partition as active. That's a bit easier than reinstalling GRUB IME because I can use any disk utility to change the active partition.

 

[MoodyBlues]

STFU!! :laugh:

 

[MoodyBlues]

for some reason while playing a game (rigs of rods) my machine acted like the filesystem was mounted read-only. game saves wouldn't work. so i exited out and tried to see what was wrong. the machine froze. i held power until it turned off. then rebooted. now i was getting this warning that 'Ubuntu is in low-graphics mode' but nothing would give feedback as there was no mouse and the keyboard wouldn't select options. i could go into alt-F1 and login, type 'startx' and it would work, but only in Unity, not KDE, and lightDM was not working. worse yet, my graphics card was now being reported back to me as 'gallium llvmpipe' instead of 'radeon hd graphics'. i didn't know what had happened. i tried all i could (again, hours of googling) and all i ended up with was an unrecoverably corrupted X install. as i said put me in front of a Linux box and it's going to be dead. it's only a matter of time. i didn't edit anything either this time, i just was using it as i had been for a long time. it had always given me hell with fsck on boot, presumably due to a problem with my chosen filesystem type that must have not played nicely with my hard drive (kubuntu works fine, in contrast) or a corrupted ISO install (but would always work fine when i finally did get X up. i could play FSX, Star Trek Online, and any other game. of course, OMSI bus sim which i was interested in didn't work at all. it is rated 'garbage' in WineHQ and doesn't work in Virtualbox. it just crashes and displays German for 'Divide by Zero'). either way it was not possible to recover it, as first of all i did not even know why it was in low-graphics mode in the first place, nor do i have any means to find out which driver it was using. it was just generically, 'radeon hd graphics'. for a time, it would work just fine if i startx as root, but would not work in my normal user account unless it was in low graphics mode. sadly, none of my games would work under my root account, even if i pointed Wine to use that prefix. it would just crash. tried copying my user's home/.wine folder to root's home/root/.wine folder and tried again pointing Wine to that prefix, still crashed. i suppose it was only possible to run those games under my user account, not root. which meant i was at a dead-end as i could not for the life of me fix my graphics problem. i then tried to disable lightdm as i do prefer a console login anyway, but all that does now is tell me that X couldn't start as there is some fatal error.

The next time something like this happens, log in with a different user account. Not root--just a regular, normal user. Go ahead and create another user right now if you don't already have one. Make its rights and privileges exactly the same as yours; make sure it's allowed to access all the same devices, networks, whatever, that you can. When something crazy happens, instead of trying it as root try it as this other, regular user. Does it work? If so, there's SOMETHING garbled/mangled/corrupted/screwed up in your $HOME. This is a great way to attack a problem because it'll tell you straight away if the problem ONLY exists for your usual account. Then you can start troubleshooting--either way.

I wish there was a method to go into XF86config or some sort of means to do the same autoprobing for hardware that the installer does when you first install the system, but i could not find any such app to do that job. also, Ubuntu seems to have done away with console config of X these days, making the problem even harder to fix.

I really don't know. I haven't had to do any fiddling with any of that in...10 years? Maybe 15. I can't remember right now, but a long time at any rate.

Moody, if the app/game you want to use isn't in Synaptic or any other repo, you will end up doing things the hard way. and often spend hours trying to make it work in the distro you use.

No, Nick, I won't/don't. I can, and do, install things outside of Synaptic whenever I feel like it or need it, and I simply do not EVER end up with the problems you're talking about.

perhaps you can live without certain apps or consider it a worthy trade off.

For me I think it's more of an out of sight, out of mind issue. I don't KNOW what's out there for window$ and, therefore, I don't care about, or miss, anything!

but it's a deal breaker when i can't play games others can just because i'm not running Windows.

I understand that. If I were in your shoes, well, I don't know what I'd do. On principle alone I won't use window$ or anything else from micro$oft. So I have no idea what I'd do.

it always feels like i'm imprisoned in Android or Linux, as the things i want to do i cannot do. and for me, that 'freedom' feels like a cage when you have to accept that this app or this game isn't going to work and either play a watered down copy port of it or worse, 'get used to it'. that's just not acceptable. for now i got XP working for those programs. like it or not, i'm not giving them up.

I'm as anti-m$ as you'll ever come across--yet I still recognize that if...ugh...IF...something of theirs works better for you than something else, you should use it. I personally wouldn't, but that's me, not you. The greatest thing of all about Linux is that it's all about choice. Choice in operating system, choice in distribution, choice in user interface, skill level, you name it. So if your choice is to NOT use it, that's okay, too.

 

[mikedt]

no belittling here, however i'm still getting over the whole night it took to get some stupid screen saver going. i mean, come on! an underwater screen saver! not a game, a SCREEN SAVER! she got it in an email and she wanted it. double clicked the *.exe

Probably be better if it didn't run. Seriously opening an EXE you received in an email is just asking for trouble. One click and that Windows computer could be pwned. Especially for a novice non-techie user that doesn't know any better than to run strange EXEs.

I sometimes receive EXEs in emails, I don't know what they are, and TBH I'm not really interested in them. Could be malware, could be a trojan, could be anything. It might say "Underwater screensaver or "Justin Bieber screensaver" or something, but next thing you know all your credit card and bank account details are on some hacker's network in Russia or China. Can't run them on my PC anyway, so they just go straight to trash.

She'd have exactly the same thing with Mac OS X as well, or anything that wasn't Windows when trying to open EXEs, e.g. Apple iPad.

 

[mikedt]

I understand that. If I were in your shoes, well, I don't know what I'd do. On principle alone I won't use window$ or anything else from micro$oft. So I have no idea what I'd do.

I'm the same now. I won't use anything Microsoft if I can help it, because I like to be assured that my PCs are not spying on me, and all my private data is not been uploaded to Beijing or wherever.

 

[Dngrsone]

Personally, I like that I can move my entire installation to another computer, often (most times, so far) without having to reinstall my Linux OS.

Seriously, I have a Linux-based firewall that has migrated from a P2 platform to a series of P4s without a hitch.

Meanwhile, Windows has a hissy if I put more memory in my laptop and clone it to a new hard drive.

I don't play many games, and there problems and hitches using wine to run some Windows-based games (Age of Empires come to mind), but then, I have problems trying to run Win XP-based games on Vista, too... so what can I do?

 

[nickdalzell]

i stopped getting all high and mighty about spying online when i realized how redundant it was given how cell phone GPSs and even the connection to the towers itself (and yes, even your wifi at home) gets seen by who-knows-what these days. i once worried about animal control spying on any pet in my home who was chipped (although i am still very much against RFID tagging of humans as well as animals) but since Google and who knows what government entity probably knows my location based on wifi MAC address lookup (go to some website such as speedtest.net it will sometimes identify your home street address or such via WAN IP) it seemed stupid to worry about one form of spying when so many others are out there and cannot be turned off. if one uses their GPS or such *they* know where you are no matter what OS you use.

I won't go back to Windows for normal use as 90% of what i do can be done in Linux (albeit at a slow framerate and not stable). Mom is only sold on Linux because her Win7 got a virus (one of them fake antivirus things) and Linux is pretty immune to that stuff.

Bottom line: crying about Windows spying on you is redundant and moot if you use Google Maps or Google Now. *they* know where you are 24/7. even some new cars transmit your location (OnStar, anyone?). on some forums, people put some little image into their signatures that shows data based on your computer's WAN IP. it says something like 'You're located in Owensboro, Kentucky. you are using LINUX. your IP is xxx.xxx.x.x'

 

[mikedt]

i stopped getting all high and mighty about spying online when i realized how redundant it was given how cell phone GPSs and even the connection to the towers itself (and yes, even your wifi at home) gets seen by who-knows-what these days. i once worried about animal control spying on any pet in my home who was chipped (although i am still very much against RFID tagging of humans as well as animals) but since Google and who knows what government entity probably knows my location based on wifi MAC address lookup (go to some website such as speedtest.net it will sometimes identify your home street address or such via WAN IP) it seemed stupid to worry about one form of spying when so many others are out there and cannot be turned off. if one uses their GPS or such *they* know where you are no matter what OS you use.

I won't go back to Windows for normal use as 90% of what i do can be done in Linux (albeit at a slow framerate and not stable). Mom is only sold on Linux because her Win7 got a virus (one of them fake antivirus things) and Linux is pretty immune to that stuff.

Was it an EXE that came in an email, masquerading as a screensaver?

Bottom line: crying about Windows spying on you is redundant and moot if you use Google Maps or Google Now. *they* know where you are 24/7. even some new cars transmit your location (OnStar, anyone?). on some forums, people put some little image into their signatures that shows data based on your computer's WAN IP. it says something like 'You're located in Owensboro, Kentucky. you are using LINUX. your IP is xxx.xxx.x.x'

I'm actually talking about government back-doors into Microsoft software. Microsoft gives full co-operation the Chinese communist government, to ensure they have total access to everything that's done with Microsoft software. All proprietary software companies in China have to do it, it's the law here. That's why "Don't be evil." Google hasn't been doing very well here, because they won't do that.

You see I don't particularly wish find myself been arrested just because I wrote something about Tiananmen Square '89 in Skype or MS Word. And I don't particularly wish to see any of my friends been arrested either because of Microsoft. Finding yourself in trouble in China is not good. Which is completely different to them just knowing my street address or what devices I'm using. As I said, I like to be able to trust the software on my PCs not to be spying on me.

I don't mind them knowing:-
Your IP Address is x.x.x.x
Country: (CN) China
Region: Nei Mongol
City: Xilin Gol
ISP Name:Innermongoliaxilinguolemengzhong
OS: Linux Mint 13
But I do NOT want them knowing everything that I type on the keyboard or store on the HDD.

I've found Windows to be rather busy with background data activities. I don't know what it's doing and what it's phoning phone. It's a blackbox to me. With Linux Mint, if I'm not actually doing anything, there is no background data activity going on. Also with that background Windows data activity if I'm using a metered 3G connection, that's costing me real $$$.

 

[saptech]

Well, I thought the government got track of you once you are given a Social Security number...they may not know exactly where one is at the moment but it wouldn't take long before they know!

 

[mikedt]

Here's a thing I found Microsoft to be very restrictive about, and not letting me do my own things with PCs. A few months ago I tried to print out a UK

 

[Speed Daemon]

Probably be better if it didn't run. Seriously opening an EXE you received in an email is just asking for trouble. One click and that Windows computer could be pwned. Especially for a novice non-techie user that doesn't know any better than to run strange EXEs.

Hear, hear! :congrats:

Yes, Linux makes it harder to get a computer virus. That's a Good Thing.

 

[saptech]

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][FONT=Arial,Helvetica]There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed his desire to become a great writer. When asked to define "great" he said, "I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level. Stuff that will make them scream, cry, and howl in pain and anger!"[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,Helvetica]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]He now works for Microsoft, writing error messages.[/FONT]
[/FONT]

 

[MoodyBlues]

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][FONT=Arial,Helvetica]There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed his desire to become a great writer. When asked to define "great" he said, "I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level. Stuff that will make them scream, cry, and howl in pain and anger!"[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,Helvetica]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]He now works for Microsoft, writing error messages.[/FONT]
[/FONT]

You know, the punchline could just as well be written:

He now works for Microsoft, writing software.

:laugh:

 

[Speed Daemon]

It's this unique pattern of dots that Windows detects and stops the image been printed. I'm sure it's the same with Mac OS X as well.

Speaking of unique dot patterns:

Seeing Yellow

https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-display-tracking-dots

Printer dots raise privacy concerns - USATODAY.com

Printer steganography - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It goes far beyond Microsoft.

 

[mikedt]

Speaking of unique dot patterns:

Seeing Yellow

https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-display-tracking-dots

Printer dots raise privacy concerns - USATODAY.com

Printer steganography - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It goes far beyond Microsoft.

That's like a modern day equivalent of the old Soviet thing, where the secret police would keep a register of all the typewriters and their owners. So any dissident and/or illegal typed documents could be traced back to the typewriter's owner.

It would be interesting to know if this is implemented at the proprietary driver level or it's done within the printer itself. If it's the former, using open source Linux drivers there wouldn't be any tracking dots.

 

[nickdalzell]

Doesn't Bill Gates run Ubuntu now?

 

[MoodyBlues]

Mom keeps begging me to reinstall Windows until i can get her machine to do what she wants it to do (she just HAD to have this underwater fish screensaver that ONLY ran in Windows!).

I didn't even remember that I still had the screensaver I mentioned installed, but I did. So I took some shots of it [running windowed] to give you an idea what it looks like.

Again, this is a native Linux screensaver, not one made for window$ and forced to run under Linux.

 

[nickdalzell]

that is the one i got on there after spending hours of futile efforts trying to make the one she originally wanted run in Wine. it's much more basic than the one she wanted to use but it works natively.

BTW got my system back up, reinstalled and it works much better, got Rigs of Rods going, but still need to get FSX and STO going again. since the data was still accessible, i managed to copy it pretty easily.

 

[Speed Daemon]

That's like a modern day equivalent of the old Soviet thing, where the secret police would keep a register of all the typewriters and their owners. So any dissident and/or illegal typed documents could be traced back to the typewriter's owner.

That's one extreme!

IIRC the FBI and other large law enforcement agencies kept large inventories of every typewriter that they could get their hands on, and compared samples to quickly (at least for back then) determine the make and model of a typewriter. Allegedly because no two typewriters were exactly alike, they had experts who could match a typed page to one specific typewriter, and have it stand up in court. That's why you'd see ransom notes and such made with letters cut from newspapers.

It would be interesting to know if this is implemented at the proprietary driver level or it's done within the printer itself. If it's the former, using open source Linux drivers there wouldn't be any tracking dots.

IIRC it was built into the printer's ROM, and tied to its serial number. I think one of the articles mentioned dates and other data being included though. That would probably come from the driver.

My color printer isn't on the EFF list, and I use the generic Ghostscript drivers instead of the proprietary HP ones. I guess I'm in good shape.

 

[MoodyBlues]

Doesn't Bill Gates run Ubuntu now?

I've long suspected that Gate$ secretly runs Linux as his real operating system, but, of course, I've had no way to prove it. It makes sense though! Just think, he must get as sick of all the crashes, viruses, and other crap that go hand in hand with using window$ as anyone else. :laugh:

 

[MoodyBlues]

IIRC the FBI and other large law enforcement agencies kept large inventories of every typewriter that they could get their hands on, and compared samples to quickly (at least for back then) determine the make and model of a typewriter. Allegedly because no two typewriters were exactly alike, they had experts who could match a typed page to one specific typewriter, and have it stand up in court. That's why you'd see ransom notes and such made with letters cut from newspapers.

I guess I always assumed that was a ploy to avoid having one's handwriting identified.

IIRC it was built into the printer's ROM, and tied to its serial number. I think one of the articles mentioned dates and other data being included though. That would probably come from the driver.

My color printer isn't on the EFF list, and I use the generic Ghostscript drivers instead of the proprietary HP ones. I guess I'm in good shape.

I have an HP all-in-one printer, and I use the HP drivers. I guess I should do some experimenting with US currency to see what happens.

 

[Speed Daemon]

I guess I always assumed that was a ploy to avoid having one's handwriting identified.

That too, but back in the day they could track a typed page back to the typewriter that made it, which is pretty cool...at least to a mystery junkie.

I have an HP all-in-one printer, and I use the HP drivers. I guess I should do some experimenting with US currency to see what happens.

Give it a shot! It's 100% legal as long as you enlarge or reduce the size of the copies.