Re: [PLUG] Thunderbird Changes
On 10/16/23 14:32, Rich Shepard wrote: On Mon, 16 Oct 2023, Dick Steffens wrote: When did the developers decide against DFWAB? (Don't Fix What Ain't Broke) Anyway, back to my opening rant, what is the point of all these changes? Do they fix something? For me they break things. Dick, Back in the 1980s, with DOS, I saw the same thing with many applications: a new verson would remove something useful or add something useless; mostly the latter. I decided that they added stuff because the developers figured out how to do it and decided to add it even if it provided no additional functionality. I think there are still too many software developers whose guiding principal is, "If it ain't broke, break it." Rich Sigh. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Thunderbird Changes
When did the developers decide against DFWAB? (Don't Fix What Ain't Broke) First annoyance: The latest version of Thunderbird (115.3.1) comes with some annoying changes. Several buttons that used to be in a toolbar disappeared. Somehow I tripped over a way to add a button that is for starting a new message on my main machine but have not been able to find it on my laptop. The old button said "Write" and the new button says "New Message". T-Bird on both machines is 115.3.1. The main machine is Xubuntu 22.04, and the laptop is Xubuntu 20.04. I've tried Edit > Settings, and View > Toolbars > Customize..., but have not found what I'm looking for. In the Customize the toolbars page that is a collection of things to add, but nothing related to New Message. Just to see what would happen, I "added" one of the buttons, but it never showed up. And yes, I did click . Any idea where I should be looking? Second annoyance: When I reply to a message, I usually delete a bunch of stuff by holding the shift key down and clicking where I want the beginning of the deletion to occur, and then hit . That used to leave the cursor showing. Now it doesn't. If I start typing, the first character I type does not appear, and all the blank lines above my signature block are deleted. Hitting three times cleans that up, and the cursor is showing after one blank line below the text to which I'm replying. That works, but why is it needed? Anyway, back to my opening rant, what is the point of all these changes? Do they fix something? For me they break things. Grouse, grouse. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Battery Backup Question
On 9/28/23 18:32, wes wrote: On Thu, Sep 28, 2023 at 8:33 AM Dick Steffens wrote: I have three of these models if you have 3 of them, you could swap batteries with a working one and follow the problem to its source. -wes True, but one of them is for my wife's computer, so I can't do that one. The other one is a possibility, but the problem has been resolved with a new battery. Thanks for the thought. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Resolved: Battery Backup Question
On 9/27/23 16:13, Dick Steffens wrote: On 9/27/23 16:10, Bill Barry wrote: Yes, I would definitely take it out of the circuit and test it. There is little else that can go wrong with a UPS. Especially since all the warning signals are working. BIll Probably tomorrow. Thanks for confirming the idea. The old battery was down to 11.something V at the battery place, and their tester said it had an internal resistance in the 40s. The new battery has an internal resistance of 100 something. With the new battery, the UPS starts up normally. I have the feeling that the old battery wasn't that old, but I haven't found the receipt, so it could be over a year. The guy said they use the same battery in their alarm system, and it's expected to last 5 years. I'm going to tape a note to the UPS with today's date and the expectation of 5 years. I'm also going to set it up for my other office computer, since I moved its UPS to the main one. While I'm at it, I'll use my Kill A Watt to see what each device I plug into it is drawing. I'll start a log of these things for future reference. Thanks to all who provided advice. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Battery Backup Question
On 9/27/23 23:43, Keith Lofstrom wrote: On Wed, Sep 27, 2023 at 02:11:03PM -0700, Dick Steffens wrote: The battery has 12.54v. Sounds like my UPS is borked. Any ideas on how to test it? And any recommendations on who makes a good, moderately priced model? At 12.54 volts open circuit, the battery sounds marginal, and may be WAY below spec with a load. I'd take it to an honest battery store for testing. Either the UPS unit or battery could be good or bad ... OR a computer power supply might be slightly wonky; a UPS cannot deliver a huge startup power surge the way a 20 amp wall socket can. An old incandescent light bulb (not LED or fluorescent) makes an "interesting" test load; it draws a startup surge, vaguely similar to the startup surge of a computer power power supply. For my UPS tests, I test multiple 100 watt incandescent bulbs, adding one at a time; a gentler way to learn the limits of the UPS. I use zero incandescent bulbs for lighting, but I keep a box of obsolete filament bulbs for tests like this. Your "800VA" unit produces a maximum of 450 watts. The (sad) reason for touting VA rather than watts is that the voltage and current waveforms can be out of phase with a computer power supply (or electric motor) load. And possibly more wonky than that; A pathological load can overload or damage a UPS, even though the VA and Watts seem small. However ... Before you buy another UPS, purchase a P3 "Kill A Watt" Electricity Usage Monitor, $30 from Amazon, $28 at the Cedar Hills Harbor Freight (NOT Home Despot). That reads watts, VA, power factor, line frequency, even accumulating kilowatt hours. I have more than one P3. I lashed one permanently under my computer bench: two desktop computers, two screens, two KVM switches, and a UPS to "in the darkness bind them". Currently reading 228 watts and 239 VA, more when I run big numeric calculations on multiple cores. Knowledge is power, but so is voltage times current times power factor. Keith L. I got a reply to the email I posted at CyberPower's website. They asked a bunch of questions, most of which I could answer, some of which I could not. UPS exact model name and serial number When did you purchase it? Have you replaced the batteries before? Is there anything between the UPS and the wall outlet? What kind of outlet is the UPS plugged into? Aside from your computer, what other devices are connected? What is the total wattage of these devices? Have you seen any error code on the LCD screen (if available)? Do you hear any beeping sounds? Have you tried plugging it into other wall outlets? Is it plugged into an AC outlet at all times? Then they said, The best way also to know for sure is to check both the batteries and the charger with a True RMS voltmeter. If the unit has a single battery, you will want to see 13.6V on the battery and charger. If the result is less than 12V on the battery and the charger is reading as 13.6V, then replacing the battery most likely will resolve it. If the battery gives close to 13.6V and the charger gives less, then the issue is with the charger and the unit will need to be replaced. That leads me to think it's the battery, although I don't think it's as old as 2-3 years. In any event, I'm going to take it up to the place I got the last one (I have three of these models, so the last one might have been for one of the other ones) and have them test it. I expect I'll end up with a new battery. I do have a "Kill A Watt" meter. I'll need to spend some time measuring each of the things I plug in to the UPS. Does it make sense to put the "Kill A Watt" between the UPS and the wall, or should I do each device separately? Thanks for the continuing education. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Battery Backup Question
On 9/27/23 16:10, Bill Barry wrote: On Wed, Sep 27, 2023 at 5:44 PM Dick Steffens wrote: I would expect the current battery, with 12.54v should have at least started up, so I'm suspicious that it's not the battery. I can take it up to the place I got it, Battery X-Change of Oregon City, and have them test it, which I will probably do tomorrow. -- Regards, Dick Steffens Yes, I would definitely take it out of the circuit and test it. There is little else that can go wrong with a UPS. Especially since all the warning signals are working. BIll Probably tomorrow. Thanks for confirming the idea. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Battery Backup Question
On 9/27/23 15:51, Rich Shepard wrote: On Wed, 27 Sep 2023, Dick Steffens wrote: The battery has 12.54v. Sounds like my UPS is borked. Any ideas on how to test it? And any recommendations on who makes a good, moderately priced model? Dick, Look at <https://www.refurbups.com/>. I bought from them and am highly satisfied with my purchase. Looks interesting. Thanks for the link. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Battery Backup Question
On 9/27/23 15:48, Russell Senior wrote: Are you measuring the battery in-circuit or disconnected from the UPS? Disconnected. The way the batter mounts in the case requires it to be removed in order to get at the + terminal anyway. And that also means removing the - terminal, because it comes off when you pull the battery out. Did you change the load on the UPS? Not at first. Does removing some load from the UPS allow it to work? My last test, after "cleaning" the terminals was with the UPS on the desk with nothing plugged in to it. So no, removing some load had no effect. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Battery Backup Question
On 9/27/23 15:39, Bill Barry wrote: On Wed, Sep 27, 2023 at 5:16 PM Dick Steffens wrote: On 9/27/23 14:12, Russell Senior wrote: I have a UPS in my basement right now, beeping every 14m53s and the battery is fine. The problem is oxide on the connector. Every 3-4 months I ritually disconnect and reconnect the battery terminals a few times to scrape off the oxide layer and it's well again. That is just to say that underlying causes can vary. There may be a manual somewhere that describes troubleshooting steps for your UPS, and describes lights and beeps and what they mean. It did look like there might have been some corrosion on the battery tabs. I applied your technique, and the battery tabs look cleaner. I plugged the unit back into the wall and turned it on. Still has the same problem: green light, then beep-beep followed by no power, which repeats. Right now I'm copying a few things from this machine to my laptop. Then I'll shut down this machine, move the UPS over to the other end of the desk, and plug in the other machine. Then I'll look into whether I need a UPS with more capacity. The one I have is 850. There is a 1500. I'm guessing it's the next level up. Some suppliers still have the 850, but it sounds like it's being retired in favor of the 1500. Time to start researching UPSs again and see who currently makes the best, moderately priced unit. Amazon has the 850 for $117. Best Buy no longer has it. Amazon has the 1500 for $174. Best Buy, $222. Any recommendations for other brands? -- Regards, Dick Steffens Why not get a new battery? I would expect the current battery, with 12.54v should have at least started up, so I'm suspicious that it's not the battery. I can take it up to the place I got it, Battery X-Change of Oregon City, and have them test it, which I will probably do tomorrow. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Battery Backup Question
On 9/27/23 14:12, Russell Senior wrote: I have a UPS in my basement right now, beeping every 14m53s and the battery is fine. The problem is oxide on the connector. Every 3-4 months I ritually disconnect and reconnect the battery terminals a few times to scrape off the oxide layer and it's well again. That is just to say that underlying causes can vary. There may be a manual somewhere that describes troubleshooting steps for your UPS, and describes lights and beeps and what they mean. It did look like there might have been some corrosion on the battery tabs. I applied your technique, and the battery tabs look cleaner. I plugged the unit back into the wall and turned it on. Still has the same problem: green light, then beep-beep followed by no power, which repeats. Right now I'm copying a few things from this machine to my laptop. Then I'll shut down this machine, move the UPS over to the other end of the desk, and plug in the other machine. Then I'll look into whether I need a UPS with more capacity. The one I have is 850. There is a 1500. I'm guessing it's the next level up. Some suppliers still have the 850, but it sounds like it's being retired in favor of the 1500. Time to start researching UPSs again and see who currently makes the best, moderately priced unit. Amazon has the 850 for $117. Best Buy no longer has it. Amazon has the 1500 for $174. Best Buy, $222. Any recommendations for other brands? -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Battery Backup Question
On 9/27/23 13:44, Keith Lofstrom wrote: On Wed, 27 Sep 2023, Dick Steffens wrote: After the power was restored, when I turned the unit back on, it went through a repeating cycle of beep-beep, shut down, then beep-beep, shut down, and so on. Is it possible that more than the battery may be the problem? On Wed, Sep 27, 2023 at 12:36:49PM -0700, Rich Shepard wrote: Have you opened the case and put a multimeter on the battery(ies) to test the voltage? Intertubes Sez that the Cyberpower 800AVR uses one SP12-7.5 SLA battery, which should produce perhaps 13 to 14 volts disconnected. That Sealed Lead-Acid battery is probably six cells in series, and if one cell has reverse-charged, the voltage will be too low and the battery not chargeable. Batteries are unrepairable black boxes (literally) - though in my case I might attempt to nurse the SLA back to health with a lab power supply and a Dremel tool to unseal the "Sealed". I void warranties for sport - it's the Linux Way. Replacement SLA are easy to find - Interstate All Battery Center has them (some of their stores only have car batteries) and Batteries Plus has them. They can test the old battery, but they might not honestly tell you if it still works (and your 800AVR is borked instead). I'm nursing my ancient UPS units along, until somebody starts selling consumer-grade UPS with LiFePO₄ (Lithium Iron Phosphide) batteries in them. More energy, much lighter, more durable, environmentally cleaner. But in 2023, vehicles and data centers consume most lithium battery production, so consumers are stuck with heavy toxic lead monster UPS. Please recycle, so the SLA ends up in an Asian rather than a North American landfill. (Note: SLA and LiFePO₄ charge/discharge differently) If I had three lifetimes remaining, I would design my own LiFePO₄ UPS. It might be possible to hack an SLA UPS circuit to use a same-size LiFePO₄, but I don't have time for that either. Life is choices, and I choose to end this email now, thank goodness for you. Keith L. Good to know stuff. The battery has 12.54v. Sounds like my UPS is borked. Any ideas on how to test it? And any recommendations on who makes a good, moderately priced model? -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Battery Backup Question
On 9/27/23 12:36, Rich Shepard wrote: On Wed, 27 Sep 2023, Dick Steffens wrote: We had a power outage this morning. My CyberPower 800AVR Battery Backup did not work, meaning that when the power went off, the computer shut down. After the power was restored, when I turned the unit back on, it went through a repeating cycle of beep-beep, shut down, then beep-beep, shut down, and so on. Is it possible that more than the battery may be the problem? Dick, Have you opened the case and put a multimeter on the battery(ies) to test the voltage? 12.54 v -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Battery Backup Question
We had a power outage this morning. My CyberPower 800AVR Battery Backup did not work, meaning that when the power went off, the computer shut down. After the power was restored, when I turned the unit back on, it went through a repeating cycle of beep-beep, shut down, then beep-beep, shut down, and so on. Is it possible that more than the battery may be the problem? -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Issue with HP MFP M148dw
On 9/17/23 16:35, Dick Steffens wrote: I have an issue with my HP printer. Xsane will start, but fails when I try to Acquire preview. I get the error message Failed to start scanner: Invalid argument. It's not at all clear to me what argument is invalid. Is there some way to find this out? One of the things I missed during my install of Xubuntu 22.04 was to install the HPLIP software. I did that this morning, though it was not as simple as most things I install. I finally found a page with steps that worked: https://www.linuxcapable.com/how-to-install-hplip-on-ubuntu-linux/ I can run HPLIP Toolbox and scan with that. When I run XSane, I am presented with three scanner options: (*) HP LaserJet Pro M14 Platen,adf scanner [escl:httpe://192.168.109:443] ( ) Hewlett-Pac HP_LaserJet_Pro_all-in-one [hpaio:/net/HP_LaserJet_Pro_M148-149?ip=192.168.0.109] ( ) eSCL HP LaserJet Pro ip=192.168.0.109 [airscan0:HP LaserJet Pro M148dw(F44804)] Going with the default starts up XSane, but returns the Invalid argument error message when I try to scan something. Selecting the second choice works. I haven't tried the third choice. I have no idea what eSCL is. Scanning works, but after the scan There is an error message that says: Failed to start scanner: Error during device I/O But the scan was successful, and I was able to save the scan to a PDF, so I'm mostly happy. Any ideas why I got that error message? Thanks. Oddly, I just started up XSane again to verify some of what I typed above. Now the first entry is no longer there, and what was the second entry is the default. Weird, but I can live with that. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Issue with HP MFP M148dw
On 9/17/23 16:35, Dick Steffens wrote: I have an issue with my HP printer. Xsane will start, but fails when I try to Acquire preview. I get the error message Failed to start scanner: Invalid argument. It's not at all clear to me what argument is invalid. Is there some way to find this out? Forgot to mention: This worked fine before I upgraded to Xubuntu 22.04. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Issue with HP MFP M148dw
I have an issue with my HP printer. Xsane will start, but fails when I try to Acquire preview. I get the error message Failed to start scanner: Invalid argument. It's not at all clear to me what argument is invalid. Is there some way to find this out? -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Print a brochure or booklet in LibreOffice Writer
On 9/7/23 22:04, Russell Senior wrote: On 9/7/23 11:43, Dick Steffens wrote: 20 years ago I used to use Word Perfect in Win 95, and it was easy to print a booklet. I'm trying to achieve the same results in LibreOffice Writer 7.3.7.2 in Xubuntu 22.04. I have successfully managed to format the pages so that pages 1 and 4 print on one sheet, and 2 and 3 on another. My problem is that duplex printing, which usually works fine, is not working. I'm getting separate sheets. The paper is defined as 11.0 wide by 8.5 high. The pages are formatted as 5.5 wide by 8.5 high, so the end result should be one piece of paper that, when folded, reads like a booklet with page 1 on the front, pages 2 and 3 in the middle, and page 4 on the back. In the print dialog: Under properties of my HP MFP 148dw Duplex [On(Portrait)] and Paper tray [Automatic]. Range and Copies All Pages At the bottom there is a blue circle with a white dot in the middle next to the word Brochure. Clicking on it does not produce a change. I think the problem is the printer, but don't know what to do next. What am I missing? You could try to trick it by putting one sheet of paper in the printer at a time, then manually reload it in the correct orientation to print on the back. That probably will work. That's the way I used to do it with my older printer which didn't have a duplexer. I agree this sounds like a printer problem. HP, so no surprise. NO CYAN! I tried using my 20.04 machine, but same problem. I'll have to see if there's some change I missed and if I can back out of it, or go past it. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Print a brochure or booklet in LibreOffice Writer
20 years ago I used to use Word Perfect in Win 95, and it was easy to print a booklet. I'm trying to achieve the same results in LibreOffice Writer 7.3.7.2 in Xubuntu 22.04. I have successfully managed to format the pages so that pages 1 and 4 print on one sheet, and 2 and 3 on another. My problem is that duplex printing, which usually works fine, is not working. I'm getting separate sheets. The paper is defined as 11.0 wide by 8.5 high. The pages are formatted as 5.5 wide by 8.5 high, so the end result should be one piece of paper that, when folded, reads like a booklet with page 1 on the front, pages 2 and 3 in the middle, and page 4 on the back. In the print dialog: Under properties of my HP MFP 148dw Duplex [On(Portrait)] and Paper tray [Automatic]. Range and Copies All Pages At the bottom there is a blue circle with a white dot in the middle next to the word Brochure. Clicking on it does not produce a change. I think the problem is the printer, but don't know what to do next. What am I missing? -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Absolute vs. Relative sound level?
On 7/23/23 17:07, Russell Senior wrote: If pavucontrol makes it too loud, you can damped the speakers with a small piece of Sugru. ;-) ;-) indeed! -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Absolute vs. Relative sound level?
On 7/23/23 16:49, Tomas Kuchta wrote: - pavucontrol - That looks like it might do what I want. Thanks. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Absolute vs. Relative sound level?
Is there a way to view and change the sound level in Linux? I'm interested in knowing what the hardware setting is for playing sound. I know I can change the level with the + and - keys on my laptop, or also from the program playing the music, but I'd like to know what the system thinks the number is from where I start raising or lowering the level, and I'd like to be able to set the level to a specific point. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Trail Cams?
On 7/13/23 08:00, Rich Shepard wrote: On Thu, 13 Jul 2023, Dick Steffens wrote: Has anyone used this or some other trail cam without an iPhone or Android phone? Dick, I've had several trail cames and now have 2. I don't purchase any that are supposed to communicate wirelessly with a mobile phone or laptop, because where I'd locate a trail cam there are no cell phone towers, and the site is far away from where frequent human presence would alter wildlife patterns. However, I did strap one to a tree in my backyard and captured a coyote in the little community park behind me one night, as well as my resident squirrel strolling on the top rail of the backyard fence day and night. Whether you need wireless access depends on your use. $30 for a Bushnell could be worth buying; check the other specs first. Rich Thanks. I'll see if I can download the user manual. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Trail Cams?
Bi-Mart has a Bushnell trail cam in their latest flier for $30. From the little investigation I've done, it sounds like it wants an iPhone to set it up. I'm wondering if I can access it via Wi-Fi without a "app". I'm just guessing, but I wonder if it can be set up from the camera itself. I can always pull the SIM card do get the images, but if I can find it with my house Wi-Fi would I be able to access the images? Has anyone used this or some other trail cam without an iPhone or Android phone? -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Resolved: Sluggish response
On 6/13/23 14:26, Dick Steffens wrote: ... I'm experiencing longer than expected delays from time to time. I've replaced my hard drive with a Samsung SSD 980 PRO 1TB. The much faster "drive" has solved the delay issues. Thanks to all who offered advice. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Commands that highlight the filename but not the extension
On 6/26/23 21:37, King Beowulf wrote: On 6/26/23 16:13, Dick Steffens wrote: Here's another one that I don't know what to call it. In Xubuntu 20.04, when I create a file with Right-click - file type, I would get a text box where, for example, a new text file would show up with something like "Plain Text" highlighted and .txt not highlighted. I could then just type the name I want the file to have without having to type .txt. That is not what I'm getting with Xubuntu 22.04. The text box has everything highlighted, so I have to remember to add the .txt. Is this a feature, or the loss of a feature? And if it's a feature, how to I set it to act like it did in 20.04? Dick, Linux does not rely or use extensions as heavily as Windows - a legacy of various DOS, whether IBM, MS, CP/M etc. They are not necessary and usage will vary between DEs and DE versios (KDE, Xfce, etc), what program or file manager generates the file, and not the particular Linux distro installed. Syslogs for example historically end in .log for convenience instead of .txt or nothing. Interesting article to learn about Linux file types: https://www.baeldung.com/linux/file-extensions-meaning Yes. Confirms stuff I've known for some years. Being an old fossil myself from the CP/M and [MS,IBM]DOS days, I tend to explicitly give my files the old timey extensions, disregarding whatever the default (unless mandated by the program), so I can easily tell who is what in a file listing. Me, too. In my distro, I've used Xfce for many an age, and it is the unmodified upstream source. Right-click on desktop or in Thunar just presents Create Document -> Empty File -> file name dialog. The created file is always text regardless of extension provided. I'm using Xfce, too, and yes, it does that. TL;DR: Xubuntu may have added or modified the right-click with Thunar custom actions and/or file templates. Look for a $HOME/Templates or /etc/Templates, for example. If you create an empty "new file.txt" in $HOME/Templates, it will show up as a choice in Thunar and Xfce desktop right-click->create document. $HOME/Templates has seven template files in it: OpenDocumentSpreadsheet.ods OpenDocumentText.odt Plain Text.txt Word.doc Word-x.docx xls spreadsheet.xls slx-x spareadsheet.xlsx Right clicking on the desktop gives me the option to create any of those files. What's different is that in 20.04 the extension is not highlighted when I create a new document, but in 22.04 it is. What I want to learn how to do is make 22.04 act the same way as 20.04. Is there an option somewhere to set that feature? Thanks for all your responses. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Commands that highlight the filename but not the extension
Here's another one that I don't know what to call it. In Xubuntu 20.04, when I create a file with Right-click - file type, I would get a text box where, for example, a new text file would show up with something like "Plain Text" highlighted and .txt not highlighted. I could then just type the name I want the file to have without having to type .txt. That is not what I'm getting with Xubuntu 22.04. The text box has everything highlighted, so I have to remember to add the .txt. Is this a feature, or the loss of a feature? And if it's a feature, how to I set it to act like it did in 20.04? -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Thunderbird stuff
On 6/23/23 14:46, Jim Lewinson wrote: 1) I think the sent folder is specified per account, under "Account settings" Thanks. It used to be that if I clicked on the account name I'd see those things. They added a step, which I didn't see before now. 2) I suspect the order depends on the "display name" for the mailbox, which I think you can change. Probably. No need to change them, just a couple of links inside the settings. Thanks for getting me to look further. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Thunderbird issue with where it saves Sent messages
I'm running Xubuntu 22.04, Thunderbird 102.11.0 (64-bit). I copied the profile from my Xubuntu 20.04 machine. When it opened the order I'm used to seeing in the left panel changed. d...@dicksteffens.com is now at the top, followed by two more accounts I have, and then Local Folders is at the bottom. The problem is that when I send a file from d...@dicksteffens.com the copy of that message goes in the Sent folder in Local Folders, not in the d...@dicksteffens.com folder. How can I fix that so the sent message is stored in the Sent folder under d...@dicksteffens.com? -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] RESOLVED: VirtualBox export/import help needed -- Correction
I've been calling the virtual machine VMware. What I use is VirtualBox. Not sure if it really matters, but ... On 6/15/23 14:28, Dick Steffens wrote: On 6/15/23 14:16, Dick Steffens wrote: As part of solving my sluggish machine issue, I'm working on setting up my alternate desktop machine. I have installed VMware on it, and copied some .ova files. However, VMware doesn't like .ova files. It says it wants .ovf. On my other machine I try to export .ovf, but that doesn't seem to be available, only .ova. How can I get the import appliance to recognize the .ova file? Never mind. Most of the instructions I found don't mention double-clicking on the .ova file as a way to start the import process. That works. Sigh. I'll be sure to add this to my install log for the next time. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] RESOLVED: VirtualBox export/import help needed
On 6/15/23 14:16, Dick Steffens wrote: As part of solving my sluggish machine issue, I'm working on setting up my alternate desktop machine. I have installed VMware on it, and copied some .ova files. However, VMware doesn't like .ova files. It says it wants .ovf. On my other machine I try to export .ovf, but that doesn't seem to be available, only .ova. How can I get the import appliance to recognize the .ova file? Never mind. Most of the instructions I found don't mention double-clicking on the .ova file as a way to start the import process. That works. Sigh. I'll be sure to add this to my install log for the next time. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] VirtualBox export/import help needed
As part of solving my sluggish machine issue, I'm working on setting up my alternate desktop machine. I have installed VMware on it, and copied some .ova files. However, VMware doesn't like .ova files. It says it wants .ovf. On my other machine I try to export .ovf, but that doesn't seem to be available, only .ova. How can I get the import appliance to recognize the .ova file? -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Sluggish response
On 6/14/23 07:43, Tomas Kuchta wrote: On Wed, Jun 14, 2023, 01:41 Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: If it is a magnetic media drive that is older the drive could be suffering end stage sector failure where the bad sector table is filled up. I've seen it many times and it always makes the drive get very slow Ted. Bad sectors should be evident in Smart tools. It might be good idea to check it to prove/dis-proof disk issues. -T rsteff@ENU-1:~$ sudo smartctl -H /dev/sdb smartctl 7.1 2019-12-30 r5022 [x86_64-linux-5.4.0-150-generic] (local build) Copyright (C) 2002-19, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION === SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED I've run a few other smartctl options. I don't really know what I should specifically be looking for. One of the results said Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity was never started. Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled. Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed without error or no self-test has ever been run. Is there something I should be running? -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Sluggish response
On 6/13/23 14:30, Russell Senior wrote: Using any swap at all, which you are, implies it's a memory pressure issue. See if you can add more memory. Also, check "top" and sort by memory use. The biggest culprit is VirtualBoxVM, but I need it to run transcription playback software. I haven't found any Linux tools that work with a foot pedal for starting and stopping playback. There used to be one called transcribe, but it disappeared a few years ago. Of course, several others turned up when I just went looking. I'll have to experiment with them and see if they'll do the job. The current program I use on Win7, GearPlayer 4, has been upgraded to the point where it requires Win10. I'm not all that interested in replacing my virtual Win7. PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 2061 rsteff 20 0 4847072 2.1g 2.1g S 15.3 27.4 1960:53 VirtualBoxVM 1656 rsteff 20 0 3587936 468764 91172 S 15.0 5.8 106:08.50 thunderbird 211291 rsteff 20 0 948480 463596 21044 S 0.0 5.8 0:27.43 gnome-software 147367 rsteff 20 0 32.8g 379524 131392 S 1.0 4.7 54:15.38 brave 255269 rsteff 20 0 1130.9g 163716 110792 S 1.3 2.0 0:02.96 brave 255117 rsteff 20 0 1130.9g 152504 109708 S 0.0 1.9 0:46.28 brave 255202 rsteff 20 0 1130.9g 145808 109784 S 0.0 1.8 0:01.47 brave 147401 rsteff 20 0 32.6g 126224 58864 S 1.0 1.6 126:21.29 brave 212269 root 20 0 4302448 113208 12160 S 1.0 1.4 71:43.79 Muse.Service 1344 rsteff 20 0 418448 85380 19460 S 0.0 1.1 3:15.55 xfce4-panel 873 root 20 0 365564 78364 52932 S 6.0 1.0 180:29.09 Xorg 253864 root 20 0 437088 78188 27232 S 0.0 1.0 0:01.38 fwupd 147403 rsteff 20 0 32.4g 76472 47904 S 0.0 1.0 11:04.62 brave 1406 rsteff 20 0 1218504 76340 26152 S 0.0 1.0 6:01.23 Thunar 147448 rsteff 20 0 1130.9g 66212 43440 S 0.0 0.8 0:07.16 brave 255382 rsteff 20 0 1130.9g 66100 50572 S 0.0 0.8 0:00.01 brave 147415 rsteff 20 0 32.4g 40088 23276 S 0.0 0.5 0:52.85 brave 148296 rsteff 20 0 32.6g 39624 26444 S 0.0 0.5 4:54.82 brave Of course, this is a limited list, but there are a lot of brave entries on it. But other than Thunderbird, most of these seem to be small amounts of usage. I'll do some more research on alternatives to GearPlayer. Assuming I find something, I'll need to learn how to share files with my wife's Win7 machine. I know it's possible, but I haven't put the time into it, since I can do it between her machine and my virtual Win7 machine. The other thing is that while it's annoying, I can live with the problem, and life keeps happening. Tomorrow we try to go get strawberries and then have to process them for freezing. And that's way more interesting and important that a sluggish machine. :-) -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Sluggish response
I'm running Xubuntu 20.04. I'm experiencing longer than expected delays from time to time. Generally, within any application, things are fine. I don't have any issues with delays in programs like LibreOffice Writer. It's mostly when starting an application. Sometimes it's when copying or moving a file from one directory to another. The most recent example is I had just finished editing an .m4a recording with Audacity. I exported it as a .mp3 file. My default is to save files to the desktop and them move them to the directory where I want them to live. It took nearly a minute to move the 4.3 MB .mp3 file from the desktop to another directory. I plan to keep the original file, but I couldn't move it until the process of moving the .mp3 file completed. Then I could move the .m4a file. It is also 4.3 MB, and also took nearly a minute to move. Another example is how long it takes some applications to load. I recall starting up LibreOffice Writer in just a couple seconds. Now it takes closer to 30 seconds. Top doesn't give me any useful clues as to whether something is hogging all the processing power. The processor is an Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-4130 CPU @ 3.40GHz. free -h tells me rsteff@ENU-1:~$ free -h total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 7.6Gi 4.6Gi 169Mi 756Mi 2.9Gi 2.0Gi Swap: 2.0Gi 857Mi 1.2Gi rsteff@ENU-1:~$ While I do have a number of applications running, I've always had a similar number running and response in them used to be pretty quick. What else can I do to try to figure out what's slowing things down? Thanks. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Set Brave-Browser's default download directory
On 4/23/23 10:02, Rich Shepard wrote: I installed the Brave-browser on my Lenovo ThinkPad T430. When I downloaded some files it didn't ask me where to put them but created a Download directory in ~/. I don't use a Download directory. Looking at all Brave settings I don't see where to specify either 'ask me' or ~/. Suggestions? Rich Click on the "hamburger" icon, second row, right side, and select "Settings". Drag the list on the left down to "Downloads". That will let you pick a place to save things by default. Otherwise, right click on what you want to save, and you should have the option to pick someplace other than the default. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Resolved: Virtual Machine Sound Quit
On 4/18/23 12:01, Dick Steffens wrote: On 4/18/23 11:41, Dick Steffens wrote: I can't get sound out of my virtual machine (VirtualBox 6.1) on my Xubuntu 20.04 machine. Sound works for the rest of the machine, but not from the virtual machine. In the VirtualBox Manager/Settings/Audio there is a check box in a section labeled Extended Features. That box says Enable Audio Output. It was unchecked. I checked it, and sound works again. No idea how it got unchecked. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Virtual Machine Sound Quit
On 4/18/23 11:41, Dick Steffens wrote: I can't get sound out of my virtual machine (VirtualBox 6.1) on my Xubuntu 20.04 machine. Sound works for the rest of the machine, but not from the virtual machine. I was messing around with sound settings on the regular machine the other day. At that time I ran a mixer that had controls (vertical bars). I thought it was alsamixer, but when I run that from a terminal those controls are not present. Running alsamixer on my other machine gives me those controls. What did I do to mess up alsamixer on my main machine? I discovered where the controls went. I had to select the sound card as "1 HDA Intel PCH" instead of ". (default)" Not sure why, but now I have the controls visible again. However, that didn't reveal anything muted that would prevent my virtual machine's sound from playing. I did restart the virtual machine, running Win7, but that didn't help either. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Virtual Machine Sound Quit
I can't get sound out of my virtual machine (VirtualBox 6.1) on my Xubuntu 20.04 machine. Sound works for the rest of the machine, but not from the virtual machine. I was messing around with sound settings on the regular machine the other day. At that time I ran a mixer that had controls (vertical bars). I thought it was alsamixer, but when I run that from a terminal those controls are not present. Running alsamixer on my other machine gives me those controls. What did I do to mess up alsamixer on my main machine? -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Audio in?
On 4/17/23 12:13, Rich Shepard wrote: On Mon, 17 Apr 2023, Dick Steffens wrote: I can now record. Quality is not ideal, but the original source is also not idea. But at least I have something I can work with. Dick, Perhaps ChatGPT can improve the quality? Rich Chuckle. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Audio in?
On 4/17/23 06:07, Rich Shepard wrote: You don't want the microphone input. Here's an explanation of the differences between microphone and line-in: <https://producerhive.com/ask-the-hive/line-in-vs-mic-in/>. HTH, Rich Very informative. Mostly a reminder to me of things I used to know, but haven't paid attention to for a long time. Thanks! -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Audio in?
On 4/16/23 21:34, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: Here's my solution to that: https://www.ebay.com/itm/274405540451 https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/penguin-usb-20-external-stereo-sound-adapter-gnu-linux-tpe-usbsound Looks interesting. I'll have a closer look at it. I'm also considering a tape player that creates .mp3 files. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Audio in?
On 4/16/23 19:40, wes wrote: I would suggest you try to turn the volume control on the boombox to the lowest you can go while still being able to pick up the signal on the desktop. -wes That fixed the overdrive problem. I can now record. Quality is not ideal, but the original source is also not idea. But at least I have something I can work with. Thanks! -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Audio in?
On 4/16/23 16:05, Dick Steffens wrote: First I tried the jack on the front that is not the headphone jack. I think it's a mic in jack, but don't know for sure. Then I tried the red ring jack on the back. I've switched to the blue ring jack. Still no results in Audacity. In Audacity I have four options on the tab with a microphone icon: HDA Intel PCH: ALC887-VD Analog(hw:1,0) HDA Intel PCH: ALC887-VD Alt Analog(hw:1,2) pulse default All I get is a graph with a straight line at 0.0, in other words, no signal recorded. Sometimes it turns out that having multiple machines is helpful. I moved my recording process to my other desktop machine. I can record now. I get an actual graph in Audacity. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like what I'm used to. Plus, there's a lot of noise. Instead of the usual graph, I get a very wide blue bar with some graphing visible on it. As I said, it's noisy, but the graph doesn't give me a convenient way to sample the noise to remove it. I have the headphone out of the boom box plugged in to the line-in on the back of the computer. While it works better than on the front mic jack, it's still not ideal. I'm not sure if there's some way I can fuss with the boom box to clean things up, but that will be for another day. When I finish fussing I will still try to figure out why my primary machine doesn't connect the way it should. Anyway, thanks, Rich, for your recommendation about using the line-in. I should have done that from the beginning, and I know better. Sigh. Time for dinner. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Audio in?
On 4/16/23 15:50, Rich Shepard wrote: On Sun, 16 Apr 2023, Dick Steffens wrote: I have an old boom box and some audio tapes. I'm trying to run the headphone out of the boom box into the computer. I've tried the mic input on the front, and the back of my desktop, but none of my recording software finds the sound. I'm using Audacity. I also tried Audio Recorder with the same results. Please apply the appropriate clue stick to let me record some audio from an external source. Dick, Are you using the audio chip on the motherboard with a mini-phone jack that has a blue ring? It might be the system isn't seeing the external imput. The mic input has a red ring surrounding it and the boom box output is different from a microphone output. Try the blue mini-phone jack on the system's rear panel. Regards, Rich First I tried the jack on the front that is not the headphone jack. I think it's a mic in jack, but don't know for sure. Then I tried the red ring jack on the back. I've switched to the blue ring jack. Still no results in Audacity. In Audacity I have four options on the tab with a microphone icon: HDA Intel PCH: ALC887-VD Analog(hw:1,0) HDA Intel PCH: ALC887-VD Alt Analog(hw:1,2) pulse default All I get is a graph with a straight line at 0.0, in other words, no signal recorded. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Audio in?
I have an old boom box and some audio tapes. I'm trying to run the headphone out of the boom box into the computer. I've tried the mic input on the front, and the back of my desktop, but none of my recording software finds the sound. I'm using Audacity. I also tried Audio Recorder with the same results. Please apply the appropriate clue stick to let me record some audio from an external source. Thanks. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Thumbnails Missing
On 3/27/23 13:23, John Jason Jordan wrote: On Mon, 27 Mar 2023 09:00:01 -0700 Dick Steffens dijo: Normally, image files on my desktop, or some Thunar windows, display a thumbnail of that image. Now, I get an icon with the letters GIF or JPG instead. I can fix the problem by restarting the machine, but shouldn't there be a way to fix it without restarting? It's not true for all directories, but other than the fact that the ones where a thumbnail is displayed are very old directories, I can't explain why. Occasionally I use Thunar, but I prefer PCManFM. There are others as well. Try a different one and see what happens; maybe it'll give you a clue. Thanks. I'll give it a try. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Thumbnails Missing
On 3/27/23 13:40, King Beowulf wrote: On 3/27/23 11:05, Dick Steffens wrote: In Xfce you can try deleting $HOME/.thumbnails and then running $ xfdesktop --reload Nothing changed. It could be that the .thumbnails is getting too big, too many stale thumbnails. .thumbnails is empty. Also check your Thunar settings: Edit -> Preferences -> Display -> Show Thumbnails. Set for Local Files Only. I did a restart and the problem is fixed. Dick, (You must be using a graphical login. Restarting xfdesktop doesn't restart X or reboot here.) Yes. Graphical login. Interesting...This implies another utility is getting "lost" Thunar uses external packages to generate thumbnails - tumbler and/or ffmpegthumbnailer. Since it runs as a daemon, it doesn't always reload/rescan. Try: $ update-mime-database /usr/share/mime $ thunar -q this will refresh mime database (happens on reboot) and quit thunar background processes. When restarted, it should generate thumbnails. I'll save this email for when it happens again, and give that a try. Also, I previously forgot to mention also $HOME/.cache/thumbnails/* Might be a good idea to clear that out and start fresh. You can also try to refresh your Xfce DE and WM. YMMV! $ xfce4-panel -r && xfwm4 --replace Have fun! -Ed Thanks. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Thumbnails Missing
On 3/27/23 09:16, Rich Shepard wrote: On Mon, 27 Mar 2023, Dick Steffens wrote: Any ideas how to do this without restarting the machine? Dick, Have you tried killing X, then restarting it? Every now and then the cut-and-paste functions fail between applications when X is running. I learned that killing X and restarting it fixed the problem. It doesn't occur frequently so I haven't bothered trying to learn why cut-and-paste fails, I just restart Xfce. Regards, Rich I tried xfdesktop --reload It involved a logout, which is what I was trying to avoid. No damage, but also did not solve the problem. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Thumbnails Missing
On 3/27/23 10:54, Dick Steffens wrote: On 3/27/23 10:44, King Beowulf wrote: On 3/27/23 09:00, Dick Steffens wrote: Normally, image files on my desktop, or some Thunar windows, display a thumbnail of that image. Now, I get an icon with the letters GIF or JPG instead. I can fix the problem by restarting the machine, but shouldn't there be a way to fix it without restarting? It's not true for all directories, but other than the fact that the ones where a thumbnail is displayed are very old directories, I can't explain why. I've tried searching for solutions with DDG. Most of them aren't for Xubuntu 20.04 or Xfce, but many also say to fix it, restart the machine, which is what I'm trying to avoid. Any ideas how to do this without restarting the machine? In Xfce you can try deleting $HOME/.thumbnails and then running $ xfdesktop --reload Nothing changed. It could be that the .thumbnails is getting too big, too many stale thumbnails. .thumbnails is empty. Also check your Thunar settings: Edit -> Preferences -> Display -> Show Thumbnails. Set for Local Files Only. I did a restart and the problem is fixed. The problem doesn't come up too often, and I can live without seeing the thumbnails for a while, so I'll get along with having to restart for now. But that doesn't seem to me to be the Linux way, so some day I'd like to learn if there is a way to fix it that I can get at without a restart. Thanks to you and Rich for your ideas. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Thumbnails Missing
On 3/27/23 10:44, King Beowulf wrote: On 3/27/23 09:00, Dick Steffens wrote: Normally, image files on my desktop, or some Thunar windows, display a thumbnail of that image. Now, I get an icon with the letters GIF or JPG instead. I can fix the problem by restarting the machine, but shouldn't there be a way to fix it without restarting? It's not true for all directories, but other than the fact that the ones where a thumbnail is displayed are very old directories, I can't explain why. I've tried searching for solutions with DDG. Most of them aren't for Xubuntu 20.04 or Xfce, but many also say to fix it, restart the machine, which is what I'm trying to avoid. Any ideas how to do this without restarting the machine? In Xfce you can try deleting $HOME/.thumbnails and then running $ xfdesktop --reload It could be that the .thumbnails is getting too big, too many stale thumbnails. Also check your Thunar settings: Edit -> Preferences -> Display -> Show Thumbnails. -Ed I tried xfdesktop --reload Nothing changed. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Thumbnails Missing
Normally, image files on my desktop, or some Thunar windows, display a thumbnail of that image. Now, I get an icon with the letters GIF or JPG instead. I can fix the problem by restarting the machine, but shouldn't there be a way to fix it without restarting? It's not true for all directories, but other than the fact that the ones where a thumbnail is displayed are very old directories, I can't explain why. I've tried searching for solutions with DDG. Most of them aren't for Xubuntu 20.04 or Xfce, but many also say to fix it, restart the machine, which is what I'm trying to avoid. Any ideas how to do this without restarting the machine? Thanks. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] List-Id: Portland Linux/Unix Group
On 3/5/23 05:41, Rich Shepard wrote: On Sat, 4 Mar 2023, Russell Senior wrote: Wes set the list hostname back to pdxlinux.org (from the temporary lists.pdxlinux.org) which should make your old mail filters happy. My thanks again to Wes, Russell, and Michael for the time and effort they spent restoring the mail lists. Rich +1! -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Alternative Meeting Locations
Have "we" looked into holding in-person meetings at one of the area libraries? Some of them have or are planning spaces suitable for meetings. https://multcolib.org/about/building-libraries-together -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] can no longer right click on address in thunderbird
On 1/15/23 12:44, Galen Seitz wrote: Speaking of regressions, another change that I am fighting is a missing context(?) menu in thunderbird. When using thunderbird, I have a Folders pane on the left, a messages pane on top, a message content pane on the bottom, and in the middle there is a narrow pane that contains a limited form of the headers for the selected message. IIRC, I used to be able to right click on an address in this pane. This would bring up a menu containing multiple items, among them a "compose new message to" and a "copy email address". Does anyone know how to restore this functionality? I'm running Thunderbird 102.6.0. must be a recent change. I still have the context menu in the messages pane in version 102.4.2. It has the menu to which you are referring. The "middle" pane has From, To, Subject and buttons Reply, Reply List, Forward, Archive, Junk, Delete, and More. The limited form of headers is in the messages pane. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] JACK and PulseAudio
On 1/10/23 13:24, Bill Barry wrote: On Tue, Jan 10, 2023 at 3:10 PM Dick Steffens wrote: On 1/10/23 12:21, Bill Barry wrote: On Tue, Jan 10, 2023 at 2:03 PM Dick Steffens wrote: I'm trying to run two programs that need JACK, MuseScore and GrandOrgue. I start JACK with QjackCtl. When I click "Start" I get an error message telling me "D-BUS: JACK server could not be started." Searching for that error message sent me to: https://jackaudio.org/faq/pulseaudio_and_jack.html where I'm told to change a setting in QJackctl. It says there's a field labeled "Server path". I find no such field, nor anything that looks like it could be it. Any idea where I should look next? -- Regards, Dick Steffens How about QJackCtl -help ? Bill rsteff@ENU-1:~$ qjackctl -help Warning: no translation found for 'en_US' locale: /usr/share/qjackctl/translations/qjackctl_en_US.qm Cannot connect to server socket err = No such file or directory Cannot connect to server request channel jack server is not running or cannot be started JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock Running qjackctl -help produces the above, but it does start the gui application. -- Regards, Dick Steffens I don't really know, but you could try this https://askubuntu.com/questions/250508/unable-to-start-jack-server-service-is-available-org-jackaudio-service-aka-ja Bill I had a look and conclude that this will require more time than I have at the moment. Thanks for your help. If I ever get it figured out I'll try to remember to post the solution. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] JACK and PulseAudio
On 1/10/23 12:21, Bill Barry wrote: On Tue, Jan 10, 2023 at 2:03 PM Dick Steffens wrote: I'm trying to run two programs that need JACK, MuseScore and GrandOrgue. I start JACK with QjackCtl. When I click "Start" I get an error message telling me "D-BUS: JACK server could not be started." Searching for that error message sent me to: https://jackaudio.org/faq/pulseaudio_and_jack.html where I'm told to change a setting in QJackctl. It says there's a field labeled "Server path". I find no such field, nor anything that looks like it could be it. Any idea where I should look next? -- Regards, Dick Steffens How about QJackCtl -help ? Bill rsteff@ENU-1:~$ qjackctl -help Warning: no translation found for 'en_US' locale: /usr/share/qjackctl/translations/qjackctl_en_US.qm Cannot connect to server socket err = No such file or directory Cannot connect to server request channel jack server is not running or cannot be started JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock Running qjackctl -help produces the above, but it does start the gui application. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] JACK and PulseAudio
I'm trying to run two programs that need JACK, MuseScore and GrandOrgue. I start JACK with QjackCtl. When I click "Start" I get an error message telling me "D-BUS: JACK server could not be started." Searching for that error message sent me to: https://jackaudio.org/faq/pulseaudio_and_jack.html where I'm told to change a setting in QJackctl. It says there's a field labeled "Server path". I find no such field, nor anything that looks like it could be it. Any idea where I should look next? -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Adding an AppImage to a panel in Xubuntu
On 1/5/23 11:23, Jason Barnett wrote: I'm lazy and use a lot of appimages, so I use Appimagelauncher. https://github.com/TheAssassin/AppImageLauncher Use this to launch the appimage the first time then it gets moved to a common folder (~/Applications by default) and is added to the launcher. I have been happy with it for the year or so that I have been using it. Jason Thanks. I'll look into it. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Resolved: Adding an AppImage to a panel in Xubuntu
On 1/4/23 14:00, Ben Koenig wrote: For reference, here's the document that defines what you can put in those launchers: https://specifications.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/desktop-entry-spec-latest.html#exec-variables Looks like you either need to specify an absolute path, or make sure the app is in a folder specified by $PATH. Most DE's and even some window managers implement XDG so this is distro agnostic. -Ben Thanks! -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Resolved: Adding an AppImage to a panel in Xubuntu
On 1/4/23 12:22, Ben Koenig wrote: The XDG launchers used in most Desktop environments don't have the ability to use shell expansion ($ variables or ~). So you need to specify the full path. Most GUI tools to create a launcher will have a file selecter that you can use, and you might notice that after selecting your file it inputs the full path. You *might* be able to set a "working directory" in the launcher, and then just specify the name of the file you want to execute. There might be variables available per the XDG specification, but I can't remember what they are. I'm pretty sure there is a syntax to specify the user. That worked. I put /home/rsteff in front of the rest of the string. Also I was able to choose the working directory in the Launcher widget by clicking on a file folder icon. After that, I was able to click on the file folder icon next to the command selector and it took the .appimage file for OpenShot in that directory. Thanks! -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Adding an AppImage to a panel in Xubuntu
On 1/4/23 12:01, Tomas Kuchta wrote: Try $HOME/ Instead of ~/ Thanks, but similar error message: Failed to execute command "$HOME/appimage/OpenShot-v3.0.0-x86_64.AppImage". Failed to execute child process "$HOME/appimage/OpenShot-v3.0.0-x86_64.AppImage" (No such file or directory) Just to make sure I'm not mistyping: rsteff@ENU-1:~/appimage$ ls OpenShot-v3.0.0-x86_64.AppImage Text in the Launcher: OpenShot-v3.0.0-x86_64.AppImage (I did mistype the error message in my first post. The Launcher has the filename correct.) -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Adding an AppImage to a panel in Xubuntu
I am using OpenShot, which is distributed as an AppImage. To run it I have to double click on it's icon in whatever directory I stash it. I'd rather have an icon on the panel I have at the bottom of my screen that has several icons for starting my most frequently used programs. I did some DDG searching and found an instruction to put it in a Launcher, which can be added to the panel. Unfortunately, assigning the program to the Launcher doesn't work. I get the error message: Failed to execute command "~/appimage/OpenShot-v.0.0-x86_64.AppImage". Failed to execute child process "~/appimage/OpenShot-v.0.0-x86_64.AppImage" (No such file or directory) Can someone offer a clue stick as to what I'm missing? Thanks. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] MuseScore and GrandOrgue?
Anybody musicians using MuseScore with GrandOrgue and JACK? I have all three installed on my Xubuntu 20.04 machine. I've been trying to follow the instructions at: https://musescore.org/en/node/270844#Introduction As often happens, the instructions are similar to, but not exactly what I find in my software. And I don't get the expected results. So, hopefully one or more of you are musicians and can point me toward better documentation. Thanks. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Resolved: Xubuntu 20.04 Install Issue
On 9/21/22 09:06, bri...@pounceofcats.com wrote: I'm taking a poll. i've had nothing but trouble with nouveau drivers, starting with boot time parameters to disable it so my computer would boot. BUT, that's because laptop. So i've had to install the nvidia drivers. I'm just curious as to what others have experienced with the nouveau drivers vs using the nvidia drivers (i'm using Mint). For a number of years I had nVidia cards in my desktop computers. At some point I realized that the Intel hardware was good enough and pulled the nVidia cards and switched (of course) to the nouveau drivers. But, during that time, I did not have a problem with the nVidia drivers. This laptop is the first machine I've had with built-in nVidia hardware. The nouveau drivers are working fine. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Resolved: Xubuntu 20.04 Install Issue
On 9/13/22 16:35, Dick Steffens wrote: I am trying to install Xubuntu 20.04 on a Lenovo Ideapad 330. The base install worked fine. It asked me if I wanted to install updates. I said yes. It proceeded to do that for a lot of minutes (I was reading news on another computer, so I don't know exactly how long). At some point the screen went blank. I waited for another long bit of minutes and tried moving the mouse, thinking it might be a screen saver issue, but with no results. I can see the mouse pointer, but get no response to clicks. I powered down and back up. The screen shows the Lenovo splash image, then the xubuntu logo with the arc chasing around in a circle, then the list of journal recovery stuff, then a blank screen with the clock in the upper right hand corner, and then a blank screen with the mouse pointer. Any ideas on where to start to look to solve this one? I had a recollection that the nVidia drivers might be the problem. I found instructions for removing then and going to the Nouveau drivers at: https://www.addictivetips.com/ubuntu-linux-tips/disable-remove-nvidia-drivers-on-ubuntu/ That site is aimed at standard Ubuntu, but by following the command line instructions, with the exception of the one that wants ubuntu-desktop installed, and substituting xubuntu-desktop, the removal worked. The nouveau drivers were present, and a reboot brought up the normal xubuntu screen. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Typing accented characters in text files
On 9/15/22 15:01, Rich Shepard wrote: My locale is set to LANG=en_US.UTF-8. I write primarily in text-based applications such as emacs and alpine, and I want to learn how to enter accented characters so I can type, for example, Résumé rather than Resume. My web searches have not been productive, probably because I'm not using the appropriate search terms. If there's a document I can read and use as a reference please point me to it. Rich Is diacritical mark the search term you need? Or acute accent? -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Xubuntu 20.04 Install Issue
I am trying to install Xubuntu 20.04 on a Lenovo Ideapad 330. The base install worked fine. It asked me if I wanted to install updates. I said yes. It proceeded to do that for a lot of minutes (I was reading news on another computer, so I don't know exactly how long). At some point the screen went blank. I waited for another long bit of minutes and tried moving the mouse, thinking it might be a screen saver issue, but with no results. I can see the mouse pointer, but get no response to clicks. I powered down and back up. The screen shows the Lenovo splash image, then the xubuntu logo with the arc chasing around in a circle, then the list of journal recovery stuff, then a blank screen with the clock in the upper right hand corner, and then a blank screen with the mouse pointer. Any ideas on where to start to look to solve this one? -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Brave web browser: sidebar
On 7/5/22 15:08, Rich Shepard wrote: Installed is brave-1.23.71. I want to use the sidebar which should be available from Settings -> Appearance. But it's not there. A web page example shows it between Show Bookmarks and Use wide address bar. Here it's not found anywhere. Is this a version issue or something else? On Xubuntu 20.04, my Brave version is Version 1.40.107 Chromium: 103.0.5060.53 (Official Build) (64-bit) The Appearance page looks like this: Brave colors Theme Classic Sow home button New Tab Page (x) New Tab Page ( ) Enter custom web address Show Sidebar Disabled ... To the right of Show Sidebar is a drop down box with Never Always Mouseover -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Resolved: T-bird change?
On 6/29/22 18:14, Rich Shepard wrote: On Wed, 29 Jun 2022, Dick Steffens wrote: It used to be, when I was looking at T-bird and scrolled over an email focus the email would scroll. Now I have to click to move the focus to that email before it will scroll. Did T-bird change something, or do I have an oddity on my installation? Xubuntu 20.04 Dick, It's an Xfce4 thing: Settings -> Window manager -> Focus tab. Rich That was it. I changed the setting from "Click to focus" to "Focus follows mouse" and I get what I was expecting. Not sure how that got changed, but I'm happy now. Thanks. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] T-bird change?
On 6/29/22 17:58, Ben Koenig wrote: --- Original Message --- On Wednesday, June 29th, 2022 at 5:19 PM, Dick Steffens wrote: On 6/29/22 11:30, Bruce Kilpatrick wrote: On 6/29/22 10:02 AM, Dick Steffens wrote: It used to be, when I was looking at T-bird and scrolled over an email focus the email would scroll. Now I have to click to move the focus to that email before it will scroll. Did T-bird change something, or do I have an oddity on my installation? Xubuntu 20.04 T-bird 91.9.1 (64-bit) That function still works here...running PopOs and the current T-Bird Thanks for your observation. I'm guessing it will go away someday when another upgrade fixes it. Meanwhile, I'll just live with it. -- Regards, Dick Steffens Do you have this issue with other applications? For example, if you have Thunderbird focused are you able to scroll in firefox or libreoffice? -Ben I can move the mouse to Brave and scroll and it works fine. Moving back to T-bird still doesn't, but Rich has the answer in my next reply. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] T-bird change?
On 6/29/22 11:30, Bruce Kilpatrick wrote: On 6/29/22 10:02 AM, Dick Steffens wrote: It used to be, when I was looking at T-bird and scrolled over an email focus the email would scroll. Now I have to click to move the focus to that email before it will scroll. Did T-bird change something, or do I have an oddity on my installation? Xubuntu 20.04 T-bird 91.9.1 (64-bit) That function still works here...running PopOs and the current T-Bird Thanks for your observation. I'm guessing it will go away someday when another upgrade fixes it. Meanwhile, I'll just live with it. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] T-bird change?
It used to be, when I was looking at T-bird and scrolled over an email focus the email would scroll. Now I have to click to move the focus to that email before it will scroll. Did T-bird change something, or do I have an oddity on my installation? Xubuntu 20.04 T-bird 91.9.1 (64-bit) -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] open source, multi-player card games
On 6/19/22 14:23, Daniel Ortiz wrote: http://fivehundred.sourceforge.net Is the software helpful? Looks promising to help me understand how to program a card game. Thanks. On Sat, Jun 18, 2022 at 11:03 AM Dick Steffens wrote: I have friends around the country, some of whom I have visited in person maybe once a year. But long distance road trips are out for this year, and maybe longer. Can anyone recommend open source card games? The one I'm interested in as a start is 500. Ideally, it would be hosted on my website. Alternatively, we would be able to use something like Zoom. The idea is to "get together" without being in the same room. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] open source, multi-player card games
I have friends around the country, some of whom I have visited in person maybe once a year. But long distance road trips are out for this year, and maybe longer. Can anyone recommend open source card games? The one I'm interested in as a start is 500. Ideally, it would be hosted on my website. Alternatively, we would be able to use something like Zoom. The idea is to "get together" without being in the same room. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Thunderbird Login Issue
On 6/11/22 11:35, Bill Barry wrote: On Sat, Jun 11, 2022 at 1:23 PM Dick Steffens wrote: Grouse, grouse. Google is always trying to be "helpful." I logged in to Google Mail via a browser, found where to turn on two factor authentication, and turned it on. I still can't log in from Thunderbird. I tried shutting down T-Bird and starting it back up, but that didn't help. I logged back in to Google Mail where it tells me two factor authentication is turned on. Sigh. Fortunately, I don't use gmail too often, and I can always check it in a browser, but it's annoying. Thanks for letting me know about their requirement. -- Regards, Dick Steffens Go to this page. https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833 Follow the instructions for "Create & use App Passwords" create an App password and use it in Thunderbird instead of the password you are currently using. When you create the password it is displayed with as 4 sets of 4 characters separated by spaces. Do not use the spaces when you enter it in Thunderbird. Bill Just did it. I'm logged in. I did a copy and paste, so I didn't notice that it didn't use the spaces. That worked. Thanks. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Thunderbird Login Issue
On 6/11/22 10:19, Bill Barry wrote: On Sat, Jun 11, 2022 at 10:45 AM Dick Steffens wrote: When I try to log in to my Gmail account via Thunderbird I get the message: Sending of password for user [my account name]@gmail.com did not succeed. Mail server pop.googlemail.com responded: Username and password not accepted. If I try to log in via a browser, the password works. My other email accounts work fine in Thunderbird. Any idea what gives? -- Regards, Dick Steffens This has to do with a change that Google made to Gmail. On May 30 or thereabouts they made it so that "insecure apps" can't access Gmail using the regular Gmail login name and password. I know this affects Microsoft Outlook and I am assuming from your description that it affects Thunderbird. In order to fix the issue you have to enable two factor authentication on your Google account. Then instead of your regular password you will have to use an App Password. There are more details about how to do this here https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6010255?hl=en Grouse, grouse. Google is always trying to be "helpful." I logged in to Google Mail via a browser, found where to turn on two factor authentication, and turned it on. I still can't log in from Thunderbird. I tried shutting down T-Bird and starting it back up, but that didn't help. I logged back in to Google Mail where it tells me two factor authentication is turned on. Sigh. Fortunately, I don't use gmail too often, and I can always check it in a browser, but it's annoying. Thanks for letting me know about their requirement. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Thunderbird Login Issue
When I try to log in to my Gmail account via Thunderbird I get the message: Sending of password for user [my account name]@gmail.com did not succeed. Mail server pop.googlemail.com responded: Username and password not accepted. If I try to log in via a browser, the password works. My other email accounts work fine in Thunderbird. Any idea what gives? -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Resolved: Libre Office Calc merge and center cells broken
On 5/25/22 15:41, King Beowulf wrote: On 5/24/22 17:00, Dick Steffens wrote: Is anyone else having trouble with merge and center cells in Libre Office Calc, Version: 6.4.7.2? <...> I pulled up Libreoffice, verions 7.3.0.3, here to check. It's not a feature I use too often. It seems to work fine as I played around with it. Might be my newer version, or Did Edit > Track Changes > Record get turned on? It did. I turned it off. Seems to work fine now. Thanks for the tip. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Libre Office Calc merge and center cells broken
On 5/25/22 05:21, Rich Shepard wrote: On Tue, 24 May 2022, Dick Steffens wrote: Is anyone else having trouble with merge and center cells in Libre Office Calc, Version: 6.4.7.2? Dick, The LO mail list (or web forum) might help. I'd also check the Calc pages online. Rich I tried the Calc pages, but I get too much irrelevant stuff, plus lots of foreign language stuff. I just send my question to us...@global.libreoffice.org. I'll see what I get there. Thanks. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Libre Office Calc merge and center cells broken
Is anyone else having trouble with merge and center cells in Libre Office Calc, Version: 6.4.7.2? It's worked correctly for years, but recently quite working. On the toolbar there is an icon that used to cause the contents of a selected group of cells to merge and center. That icon is grayed out. There is an option in Format > Cells > Alignment, Text Alignment, Horizontal Center, Vertical, Middle. But the vertical option only allows "Default". This is not a critical issue, but it is annoying. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Dual booting Windows/Linux on relatively recent hardware
Another +1 On 4/29/22 13:04, Robert Citek wrote: +1 On Fri, Apr 29, 2022 at 1:21 PM Russell Senior wrote: *MY ANSWER* for example: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-setup-windows-10-virtual-machine-linux You may be better off running windows inside a virtual machine on Linux. It is quicker and easier to start when needed and it becomes a vehicle for exposing people to Linux and transitioning people off of Windows. As for your specific question, I have no idea. On Fri, Apr 29, 2022 at 7:26 AM Richard Owlett wrote: I have not used Windows since WinXP and Debian Stretch were current. A couple I know (Retired Pastor and his wife) have a Windows computer with a years long history of problems. As part of my support for their missionary work, I intend to replace the hardware with a refurbished laptop. It must run Windows as that is what they know and some software provided by the missions agency is designed for Windows. It *will* dual boot Linux to make my life simpler and allow testing some ideas that should eventually make their life simpler. *MY QUESTION* What should I be reading to install Debian along side Windows that will likely have UEFI and possibly Secure Boot? The last time I dual booted Linux/Windows it was on a legacy BIOS system. TIA -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Resolved - Finally: Resolved: Getting preferred browser to work in Xubuntu 20.04
This takes a bunch of steps to get it to work. From: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1246986 In Firefox: (1) In a new tab, type or paste*about:config*in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful or accepting the risk. (2) In the search box above the list, type or paste*SHELL*and pause while the list is filtered (3) Double-click the*browser.shell.checkDefaultBrowser*preference to switch the value from true to false Someone mentioned having to change something in Thunderbird, too. From: https://www.lifewire.com/change-the-default-browser-in-thunderbird-2532751 Go to*Edit*>*Preferences*>*Advanced*>*Config Editor*. Enter*network.protocol-handler.warn-external.http*in the search field. * Set values to*True*for*network.protocol-handler.warn-external.http*and*network.protocol-handler.warn-external.https*. * Go to*Preferences*>*Attachments*. In the*Content Type*column, go to*http*and*https*and select the preferred web browser. And, of course, the instructions are for a different version of Thunderbird. However, the concepts are valid, and the things needing changing can be found in the Config Editor..., the button for which is at the bottom of the Edit > Preferences page. This version of Thunderbird doesn't have the Advanced step. Once in the Config Editor the settings to change are as shown above. Somewhere I found where Firefox was set, and deleted that setting. Then I tried going to a link from an email and was presented with a box to choose the browser I want to use. Brave was there and I selected it. A bunch of digging, most of which was figuring out what to search for, but I think I've finally fixed this problem. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] HP Scanner issue
On 4/2/22 08:10, Dick Steffens wrote: On 4/1/22 23:10, wes wrote: On Fri, Apr 1, 2022 at 10:36 PM Dick Steffens wrote: ~/Downloads/HPLIP 3.22.2$ hplip-3.22.2.run hplip-3.22.2.run: command not found What gives? How can the file be there and not be found? try ./hplip-3.22.2.run or ~/Downloads/HPLIP 3.22.2/hplip-3.22.2.run by default, linux does not look in the current directory when you tell it to launch a program. -wes I forgot about the ./. I thought of it last night after getting into bed. I'm running it now, and it seems to be working. More details when it's done. Thanks for the clue stick. Clue stick effective. I can now scan with my M148dw. Thanks! -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] HP Scanner issue
On 4/1/22 23:10, wes wrote: On Fri, Apr 1, 2022 at 10:36 PM Dick Steffens wrote: ~/Downloads/HPLIP 3.22.2$ hplip-3.22.2.run hplip-3.22.2.run: command not found What gives? How can the file be there and not be found? try ./hplip-3.22.2.run or ~/Downloads/HPLIP 3.22.2/hplip-3.22.2.run by default, linux does not look in the current directory when you tell it to launch a program. -wes I forgot about the ./. I thought of it last night after getting into bed. I'm running it now, and it seems to be working. More details when it's done. Thanks for the clue stick. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] HP Scanner issue
On 4/1/22 21:14, Dick Steffens wrote: On 4/1/22 21:11, Denis Heidtmann wrote: I do not understand the error messages, but I have has issues with an HP all-in-one. I found that I could go to the device through its IP address and launch the scanner from there. Not so convenient, but it worked. That sounds promising. Where can I find details on how to do that? Somewhere I saw an instruction to run hp-check. It generated, among other things, a list of missing required dependencies. It's a long-ish list: Missing Required Dependencies - error: 'libcups2' package is missing/incompatible error: 'libdbus-1-dev' package is missing/incompatible error: 'libjpeg-dev' package is missing/incompatible error: 'libcups2-dev' package is missing/incompatible error: 'cups-bsd' package is missing/incompatible error: 'cups-client' package is missing/incompatible error: 'libcupsimage2-dev' package is missing/incompatible error: 'libusb-1.0.0-dev' package is missing/incompatible error: 'libusb-0.1-4' package is missing/incompatible error: 'libsane-dev' package is missing/incompatible error: 'libsnmp-dev' package is missing/incompatible error: 'snmp-mibs-downloader' package is missing/incompatible error: 'openssl' package is missing/incompatible error: 'python3-pyqt4' package is missing/incompatible error: 'gtk2-engines-pixbuf' package is missing/incompatible error: 'python3-dev' package is missing/incompatible error: 'libtool' package is missing/incompatible error: 'libtool-bin' package is missing/incompatible Thinking I may have missed something when I installed it earlier, I went looking for "How to Install the Latest HPLIP Driver in Ubuntu 20.04 [Fix Dependency Issue]". I followed the directions to download the latest version of hplip.run, choosing hplip-3.22.2.run. I set it to executable and tried to run it from the command line: ~/Downloads/HPLIP 3.22.2$ hplip-3.22.2.run hplip-3.22.2.run: command not found What gives? How can the file be there and not be found? -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] HP Scanner issue
On 4/1/22 21:11, Denis Heidtmann wrote: I do not understand the error messages, but I have has issues with an HP all-in-one. I found that I could go to the device through its IP address and launch the scanner from there. Not so convenient, but it worked. That sounds promising. Where can I find details on how to do that? -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] HP Scanner issue
I have an HP MFP M148dw all-in-one printer/scanner. The printer works fine, but the scanner doesn't. It used to on an earlier version of xubuntu. When I try scanning I get the following error message: scanimage -L device `hpaio:/net/hp_laserjet_pro_m148-m149?ip=192.168.0.109=false' is a Hewlett-Packard hp_laserjet_pro_m148-m149 all-in-one Web searches haven't helped me figure out how to resolve this. Any ideas where to start? -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Resolved: Getting preferred browser to work in Xubuntu 20.04
On 3/31/22 16:49, Dick Steffens wrote: On 3/31/22 16:46, Rich Shepard wrote: On Thu, 31 Mar 2022, Dick Steffens wrote: This is one of those things that was not bothersome enough to dig into at the time, and that has "fixed itself" after a reboot. At some point yesterday image icons on the desktop stopped showing a thumbnail of the image, and just had either GIF or JPG in a simple icon. This morning I rebooted, and the thumbnails reappeared. And links in email started opening in Brave instead of in Firefox. This reboot was not brought on by any upgrade, but just my hunch that the thumbnails might come back if I rebooted. Sigh. Dick, I'm glad a reboot fixed it but thought that logging out and back in would do the trick. After all, setting a browser as the default should be up to the browser and not the system. But, guess that's not the case. I didn't think to try logging out and back in. If it ever happens again, I'll try to remember to try that. It did happen again, and logging out and back in didn't help. But the default browser remains Firefox. I looked at the Firefox (hamburger)-Settings page. Pretty much at the top is a check box for "Always check to see if Firefox is your default browser". Not only is it checked, but it can't be unchecked. Anybody know why that is? -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Resolved: Getting preferred browser to work in Xubuntu 20.04
On 3/31/22 16:46, Rich Shepard wrote: On Thu, 31 Mar 2022, Dick Steffens wrote: This is one of those things that was not bothersome enough to dig into at the time, and that has "fixed itself" after a reboot. At some point yesterday image icons on the desktop stopped showing a thumbnail of the image, and just had either GIF or JPG in a simple icon. This morning I rebooted, and the thumbnails reappeared. And links in email started opening in Brave instead of in Firefox. This reboot was not brought on by any upgrade, but just my hunch that the thumbnails might come back if I rebooted. Sigh. Dick, I'm glad a reboot fixed it but thought that logging out and back in would do the trick. After all, setting a browser as the default should be up to the browser and not the system. But, guess that's not the case. I didn't think to try logging out and back in. If it ever happens again, I'll try to remember to try that. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Resolved: Getting preferred browser to work in Xubuntu 20.04
On 3/16/22 14:57, Dick Steffens wrote: On 3/16/22 14:45, Rich Shepard wrote: On Wed, 16 Mar 2022, Dick Steffens wrote: Yes, but it won't let me change it, nor let me uncheck the "check to see if Firefox is the default browser." Dick, If you open the Brave browser and go to preferences it should ask you if you want to make it the default. They all want to be the default so the option should be there, somewhere. :-) Rich Yep. Brave says it's my default browser, too, with no way to change it. This is one of those things that was not bothersome enough to dig into at the time, and that has "fixed itself" after a reboot. At some point yesterday image icons on the desktop stopped showing a thumbnail of the image, and just had either GIF or JPG in a simple icon. This morning I rebooted, and the thumbnails reappeared. And links in email started opening in Brave instead of in Firefox. This reboot was not brought on by any upgrade, but just my hunch that the thumbnails might come back if I rebooted. Sigh. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Getting preferred browser to work in Xubuntu 20.04
On 3/16/22 14:45, Rich Shepard wrote: On Wed, 16 Mar 2022, Dick Steffens wrote: Yes, but it won't let me change it, nor let me uncheck the "check to see if Firefox is the default browser." Dick, If you open the Brave browser and go to preferences it should ask you if you want to make it the default. They all want to be the default so the option should be there, somewhere. :-) Rich Yep. Brave says it's my default browser, too, with no way to change it. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Getting preferred browser to work in Xubuntu 20.04
On 3/16/22 14:36, Rich Shepard wrote: On Wed, 16 Mar 2022, Dick Steffens wrote: I started using Brave as my browser in Xubuntu 20.04. Most of the time it just works. However, when I click on a link in an email, it opens in Firefox. I went to the Preferred Applications control and it shows Brave as the preferred web browser. Is there another place to change the preference? Dick, In Firefox preferences is it set as the default browser? Yes, but it won't let me change it, nor let me uncheck the "check to see if Firefox is the default browser." -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Getting preferred browser to work in Xubuntu 20.04
I started using Brave as my browser in Xubuntu 20.04. Most of the time it just works. However, when I click on a link in an email, it opens in Firefox. I went to the Preferred Applications control and it shows Brave as the preferred web browser. Is there another place to change the preference? -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Resolved: Linux and Windows VPN?
On 3/15/22 21:59, King Beowulf wrote: On 3/15/22 09:55, Dick Steffens wrote: On 3/15/22 00:47, Tony Schlemmer wrote: I use NordVPN and it runs under Ubuntu, iPhone, Windows 7/10, Android and ChromeBook. I have only used Windows 7 and 10 only. I know there is Windows 11 but I have used it as of yet. Under Ubuntu is uses OpenVPN. I like on Ubuntu since it more configurable compared to iPhone, Windows and ChromeBook. May also run under Mac OS but I have no experience with a Mac. After hearing all the responses and thinking about it more, my wife decided not to pursue a VPN at this time. Thanks for all the ideas. late to the party, again... I'm a fan of https://protonvpn.com/ and also of protonmail. It has multi-platform native apps - including mobile devices. Keep this one in mind should you wish to revisit. -Ed Thanks! -- Regards, Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Linux and Windows VPN?
On 3/15/22 05:54, Rich Shepard wrote: On Mon, 14 Mar 2022, John Jason Jordan wrote: I should add that browsers report your location to web sites. Most locate me in Hillsboro, a couple in Tigard. None anywhere east of the Willamette River. Home Depot has me in Seattle. That is odd. I'm "located" in West Linn, which I assume is where Comcast has a collection point for cables in the area. Home Depot has me at their Oregon City store, but that's because I set it to be there. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Resolved: Linux and Windows VPN?
On 3/15/22 00:47, Tony Schlemmer wrote: I use NordVPN and it runs under Ubuntu, iPhone, Windows 7/10, Android and ChromeBook. I have only used Windows 7 and 10 only. I know there is Windows 11 but I have used it as of yet. Under Ubuntu is uses OpenVPN. I like on Ubuntu since it more configurable compared to iPhone, Windows and ChromeBook. May also run under Mac OS but I have no experience with a Mac. After hearing all the responses and thinking about it more, my wife decided not to pursue a VPN at this time. Thanks for all the ideas. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Linux and Windows VPN?
My wife is interested in VPNs, but she runs Win7. Is there a VPN that runs on both Win7 and Linux (Ubuntu based)? Is it worth the effort? -- Regards, Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Resolved: Odd VirtualBox startup error
On 3/8/22 22:03, Dick Steffens wrote:
I have two computers with VirtualBox installed. One, ENU-1, runs
Xubuntu 20.04 and the other, ENU-2, runs Linux Mint 20.2 Uma \n \l. I
have Win2k and Win7 on both of them. A problem has arisen. On ENU-2
the two virtual machines start up fine. on ENU-1 I get this error
message:
VirtualBox - Error
Details:
Failed to open a session for the virtual machine *Win2k*.
The virtual machine *'Win2k'* has terminated unexpectedly during
startup with exit code 1 (0x1).
Result Code: NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component: MachineWrap
Interface: IMachine {85632c68-b5bb-4316-a900-5eb28d3413df}
<...>
Any idea where to go next in solving this issue?
I thought about reinstalling VirtualBox and looked back at my notes to
see how I installed it back in 2020. I had used Synaptic, so that's
where I went first. Synaptic told me that virtualbox-dkms required
updating (or upgrading -- don't recall which it was). I ran that. Once
it finished I launched VirtualBox and successfully ran my two virtual
machines.
--
Regards,
Dick Steffens
[PLUG] Odd VirtualBox startup error
I have two computers with VirtualBox installed. One, ENU-1, runs Xubuntu
20.04 and the other, ENU-2, runs Linux Mint 20.2 Uma \n \l. I have Win2k
and Win7 on both of them. A problem has arisen. On ENU-2 the two virtual
machines start up fine. on ENU-1 I get this error message:
VirtualBox - Error
Details:
Failed to open a session for the virtual machine *Win2k*.
The virtual machine *'Win2k'* has terminated unexpectedly during startup
with exit code 1 (0x1).
Result Code:NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component: MachineWrap
Interface: IMachine {85632c68-b5bb-4316-a900-5eb28d3413df}
A second error window shows:
RTR3InitEx failed with rc=-1912 (rc=-1912)
The VirtualBox kernel modules do not match this version of VirtualBox.
The installation of VirtualBox was apparently not successful. Executing
'modprobe vboxdrv' may correct this. Make sure that you are not mixing
builds of VirtualBox from different sources. where:
supR3HardenedMainInitRuntime what: 4 VERR_VM_DRIVER_VERSION_MISMATCH
(-1912) - The installed support driver doesn't match the version of the
user.
Earlier in the day I had the same problem on both machines. I swapped
boxes so that I can use ENU-1 as my primary machine, which means I shut
both of them down. When I started them back up, I was able to start both
virtual winders machines on ENU-2, but neither on ENU-1.
For Win7 the first message says:
Failed to open a session for the virtual machine *Win7Home*.
The virtual machine *'Win7Home'* has terminated unexpectedly during
startup with exit code 1 (0x1).
Result Code:NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component: MachineWrap
Interface: IMachine {85632c68-b5bb-4316-a900-5eb28d3413df}
The second message is the same for both virtual machines.
My Internet searching has not proved useful.
Looking at VBox.log (and VBox.log1, 2, and 3) there are 2145 lines, most
of which are Greek to me. The last four lines in each log are:
0:01:53.092033 GIM: HyperV: Resetting MMIO2 regions and MSRs
00:01:53.092033 Changing the VM state from 'DESTROYING' to 'TERMINATED'
00:01:53.102499 Console: Machine state changed to 'PoweredOff'
00:01:53.102757 GUI: Request to close Runtime UI because VM is powered
off already.
00:01:53.102768 GUI: Passing request to close Runtime UI from
machine-logic to UI session.
Running modprobe vboxdrv, as recommended in one of the error messages
produce no noticeable change.
Any idea where to go next in solving this issue?
--
Regards,
Dick Steffens
Re: [PLUG] Brave Browser?
On 2/15/22 09:13, Michael Ewan wrote: I use it both at home and at work (to avoid tracking plugins). I like that it has ad blocking out of the box, and most desirable security features on by default. I've started using it this afternoon, and so far I like it. I'm getting used to some differences, but they are not major. I am used to being able to set that when I right-click to open in a new tab, the browser switches to the tab. There doesn't seem to be a way to set that. There is the ability to achieve that with holding down the control and shift keys. I'm also used to being able to move the "Home" button to the right side of the screen, but I'm getting used to that, too. My next thing to figure out is if there is a convenient way to switch my user agent so I can log in to Comcast. It looks like it's possible, but I'll need to have a block of time to figure it out. Thanks to all for your experiences. -- Regards, Dick Steffens
