Re: [ubuntu-uk] New to Ubuntu

[Barry Titterton]

On 13/04/2020 14:32, Peter Callum wrote:
> Hello.
> I am new to this and am having a few problems with what the best way of
> getting assistance is. I keep getting messages from livepatch saying
> that there is a problem. Also need to know if I can register for some
> paid assistance in the UK.
> Any help would be appreciated.
> 
> Kind Regards
> Peter Callum
> Peter Callum 
> 27 Rectory Lane
> Poringland
> Norwich
> Norfolk
> NR14 7ST
> Tel 07722142107
> petercallu...@gmail.com 
> 

Hi Peter,

Welcome to the wonderful world of Linux. :)

The best place for new users to get help is face-to-face with other
Linux users. You are lucky in that you have an active user group in
Norwich; please see here:-
https://www.alug.org.uk/

Another good place is to post your question on the website AskUbuntu.
You have a good chance of getting help from experienced users.
https://askubuntu.com/
The answers may be quite technical so be sure to tell them that you are
a new user. The golden rule is to be polite and patient as they are
volunteers, giving their time for free.

Cheers,
Barry T

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Encrypted Message

[Barry Titterton]

On 01/02/2019 6:09 pm, Paul Sutton wrote:
> Hi All
> 
> Sorry if this is off topic, I was not sure where I could ask about this.
> 
> I am not sure if anyone can help with this directly but perhaps as a
> community it is an opportunity to engage and perhaps recruit people who
> can help with the testing / development process and spread the word on
> Ubuntu, Free Software and GNU / Linux in general.
> 
> For the past few years I have been involved in running the Torbay Tech
> jam in Paignton, Devon.  This simply was a tech event designed to
> inspire people to learn about coding, and a place for like minded people
> to meet up, chat, share and work on projects etc.  This event closed in
> 2018, but fast forward to 2019 and it has been re-launched as the South
> Devon Tech Jam, with a more formal structure and hopefully we can move
> forward in a more positive way.  We will be running this once a month.
> 
> I am not sure how the community in the Uk get involved directly with
> events.  I know there is a need for people to download and test releases
> of Ubuntu, report bugs and problems and help fix them.  This is a lot of
> work,and sometimes complex work but is a very important job.
> 
> One thing I do know is platforms such as Launchpad are both very
> comprehensive but quite complex for beginners so having a good grounding
> in this would probably save developers and others a lot of time trying
> to get the right information out of anyone sending in test results or
> bug reports.
> 
> I just wondered if: -
> 
> Anyone would or does do outreach to small events either from the Ubuntu
> Community or from Canonical ? Engage with people so that people can
> become effective at this job and, perhaps as this will build up
> different skill sets, what sort of career path people are able to get in
> to,  after all having something like Ubuntu Tester / Developer on a CV
> should count for something, to a potential employer and this will
> actually encourage people to get involved, (even if their initial
> motivation is to help)
> 
> As Ubuntu is now more than a desktop / Server OS, but has moved in to
> hosting Snaps,  Containers etc,  would someone be able to give talks on
> that too.
> 
> Granted people can look this information up,  but there is actually
> something effective about face to face engagement, that allows
> conversation and networking between people.  Also if you talk to 10
> people about Launchpad,  there is a chance 1 person won't remember
> everything but between those 10 people they should remember different
> aspects to then help each other later on.
> 
> There are plenty of opportunities to help but also many barriers to
> doing so.  If we can find a way to break down those barriers then we
> should be able to get more people confident enough to get involved.
> 
> I would perhaps hope to also reach out to local organizations who work
> with Young people for example Princes Trust or Young Devon as being
> involved with Free software opens up many opportunities. 
> 
> As we are only just starting up as an event.  I am not looking at
> anything such as the above in the immediate future, but thought I would
> set the ball rolling here, and just ask,  and see what is possible for
> later on.
> 
> On a similar note if anyone living in the area would be interested in
> such talks this could be a good opportunity to not have to travel too far.
> 
> Thank you
> 
> Regards
> 
> Paul Sutton
> 

Hi Paul,

You cover quite a few points in your post but I feel qualified to
respond to only a couple of them:-

I have run stalls to promoting linux at several events in the north
east, with mixed results:-

- It was difficult finding enough volunteers to adequately man the
stall, one person cannot do the job on his/her own especially if the
event lasts two days.
- The general public was found to be mostly completely ignorant of
linux, but the interest shown was surprisingly good.
- Creating the stall required a significant amount of time and money,
which am not able to commit to.
- I was not able to follow up on the events due to a mixture of personal
and family issues.

My local LUG has run occasional events, such as promoting
security/privacy on line, but these are sporadic rather than structured.

Paul, how do you fund and find man power for the Devon event?

Secondly, I also find Launchpad quite intimidating to use. I have had a
couple of bad (hostile) experiences when trying report bugs.

Regards,
Barry T

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Adobe Flash problem

[Barry Titterton]

On 21/08/18 08:27, Paul Sutton wrote:
> 
> 
> On 21/08/18 06:39, Michael wrot
>> Problems watching ITV on 32bit 18.04. Have tried several Adobe flash
>> versions, nothing happens after unpack, Which Adobe flash version for
>> 18.04 please, how do I do it.Tks, Michael D
>>
>>
> 
> Which browser are you using, I think firefox relies on an external
> plugin for flash to work,  however chromium( and i guess chrome)  have
> better internal support.
> 
> Maybe we need to petition some of these sites and ask them to start
> using html5 and dump flash.
> 
> I am not sure on the status, in terms of support of 32 bit flash here
> and if the websites are properly supporting the 32 bit versions.
> 
> Paul
> 

I don't think it is the flash player per se, it is the Adobe flash DRM
that these sites still use that is unsupported (Channel 4 is the same).
As long as Microsoft browsers continue to support this out dated
technology by default these companies will see no reason to change.

Barry T

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[ubuntu-uk] Fwd: [lubuntu-users] 17.10 problem

[Barry Titterton]

FYI.


 Forwarded Message 
Subject:[lubuntu-users] 17.10 problem
Date:   Wed, 20 Dec 2017 11:49:34 +
From:   Ian Bruntlett 
To: lubuntu user list 



Hi,

Saw this on Phoronix:-
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item=Ubuntu-17.10-BIOS-Corrupter

And Canonical has noted it here:-
https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

Basically, 17.10 can possibly corrupt your BIOS firmware on certain
computers. See the above links for more info.

BW,


Ian

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Channel 4 OD U/S

[Barry Titterton]

On 03/12/17 01:10, Mark Lawrence wrote:
> Han anybody ever got this to work using any browser on 17.10?  All I get
> using 64 bit Chrome or Firefox is the old song "All My Life's A Circle".
>  I don't have any problems with BBC iPlayer, the ITV Hub, my5.tv etc.
> It's extremely frustrating as this is the only problem that I've not
> been able to fix myself via google in several months of using Ubuntu,
> which I'm slowly but surely getting the hang of and enjoying.
> 

Hi Mark,

Channel 4 seem to use a particularly strict type of DRM with its Flash
player software; I even had trouble getting it to play on my wife's
Win10 machine. I think the only option at the moment is to use WINE or
PlayOnLinux and install the Windows version of a browser, such as Firefox.

I did find a quote from Channel 4 which commits them to converting their
service to HTML5 in the near future. However they also said that they
were doing this conversion in close partnership with Adobe so it may
still end up as a mess.

Cheers,
BarryT

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[ubuntu-uk] Display issue on slide shows in Impress

[Barry Titterton]

Hi All,

I would like to draw on the collective knowledge of the group to help me
diagnose a problem with slide shows in Impress, and then decide against
which feature or software I should report the bug. The display problem
seems to be getting worse with each release of Ubuntu, but does not
effect all distributions equally.

System:- Lenovo G550 laptop. Intel Core2Duo. nVidia GeForce G210M graphics
16.04.2 Ubuntu Unity.
Libreoffice 5.1.6.2

A few weeks ago my wife created a slide show, and set the slide
transition of every slide to Smooth Fade. She had done this many times
before without problems. When testing the presentation, there was a
white flash at the end of each transition, sometimes full screen, other
times a thick horizontal bar across the full width of the screen.

I tried three different graphics drivers (nouveau, nVidia 304.135 and
340.102) but it had no effect. I then booted the machine into 14.04
Unity from a live DVD (LO 4.2.3.3) and the presentation worked
perfectly. Next I tried 17.04 Unity from live USB, and things got even
worse: the fade transition didn't work at all, it displayed a blocky,
patchy, mixed up mess of a screen as if Impress was trying to display
several different types of transition at the same time. Libreoffice then
crashed after only the first two slides. This behaviour is repeatable.

In order to try and understand what is causing this problem I tested
several different releases and distributions of Ubuntu. I tried each in
three different ways: with the presentation only on the laptop screen;
using my TV to simulate the second screen/projector; and then with the
Presenter Console disabled within Impress settings. The results are
shown below:-

Laptop  TV  No Presenter Console

Unity 14.04 no flashno flashno flash
LO 4.2.3.3

Unity 15.04 no flashflash   no flash
LO 4.4

Unity 16.04 flash   flash   flash
LO 5.1.6.2

Unity 17.04 bad fadebad fadebad fade
LO 5.3.1.2  LO crashLO crashLO crash

Mint 18.1 Cinnamon  no flashflash   no flash
LO 5.1.6.2

Kubuntu 16.04   no flashno flashno flash
LO 5.1.6.2

Kubuntu 17.04   no flashno flashno flash
LO 5.3.1.2

Mate 17.04  bad fadebad fadebad fade
LO 5.3.1.2  LO crashLO crashLO crash

Gnome 16.04 flash   flash   no flash
LO 5.1.6.2

Gnome 17.04 bad fadeno second screen display
LO 5.3.1.2  LO crash

You will notice two things from the above table: Kubuntu was unaffected
with the presentation worked perfectly under all conditions; and
secondly that Ubuntu Gnome was the worst performing of all the set ups:
The laptop screen (primary screen) went blank when I connected the
second screen, and as that screen had all the task bar, icons etc it
made the machine unusable so I had no alternative but to shut it down
using the power button.

I have also tried most of the above on a Dell Studio 15 laptop (Intel
Core2Due, ATI Mobility Radeon HD4530/4570/545v) with very similar
results, except that the second screen worked under Gnome 17.04 but gave
the bad fade+LO crash result. I have also tried a HP desktop (Intel
Core2Duo, Intel G33 x86 graphics) which worked perfectly under all set
ups, but without the second screen option (obviously).

It does not seem to be a Libreoffice bug as it sometimes works and
sometimes doesn't. It may have something to do with Gnome desktop as it
seems to affect only Gnome based distros. I would, therefore, like to
ask the group if they could suggest what is causing the problem, and how
I should report the bug.

I have found bug 78703 but its description isn't exactly the same.

Yours in hope,
Barry T


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Help required filing a bug against Ubuntu Touch

[Barry Titterton]

On 30/08/16 23:04, Tony Pursell wrote:
> Hi Barry
> 
> 
> I have been talking with the dev guys on IRC and they confirmed that I
> was getting the time out bug, same as you. This particular bug is fixed
> in the upstream channel and will be included in the stable channel in
> the next couple of weeks.
> 
> 
> Thanks for telling me that.  It's saved me putting a bug report in,
> 
> Tony
> 
> 
Hi Tony,

Bug #1445630 is the main bug report but there are other reports that are
flagged as duplicates.

Cheers,

Barry T

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Help required filing a bug against Ubuntu Touch

[Barry Titterton]

On 29/08/16 22:56, Tony Pursell wrote:
> Hi Barry
> 
> On 28 August 2016 at 23:08, Barry Titterton <titterton.ba...@gmail.com
> <mailto:titterton.ba...@gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> I think that I have found a bug on Ubuntu Touch to do with accessing
> wifi networks, and need advice on which package to file it against.
> 
> Yesterday (Saturday 27th) I installed UT onto a Nexus 4 16Gb phone. I
> found that I could not connect to my home wifi if I selected the SSID
> off the list of available networks, but it would connect if I used the
> 'Hidden Networks' option and typed in both the SSID and the password.
> 
> Should I file this bug against Network Manager package?
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Barry T
> 
> 
> Go to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Avengers  This is the staring point for
> filing Touch bugs. 
> 
> I think the appropriate place to file a bug is 'System Settings' under
> Apps or maybe 'Network Indicator' under Indicators.  Network Manager
> package is for the desktop.
> 
> One thing that you might be getting is what I have had problems with
> when trying to connect to my brother's WiFi this week.  Here I found
> that if you do not put the password in quickly enough, then it does not
> connect.  The way I got round it was to write the password in Notes,
> then copy it and paste it quickly into the password field.
> 
> Tony
> 
> 
> 
> 
Hi Tony,

I have been talking with the dev guys on IRC and they confirmed that I
was getting the time out bug, same as you. This particular bug is fixed
in the upstream channel and will be included in the stable channel in
the next couple of weeks.

Cheers,

Barry T

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[ubuntu-uk] Help required filing a bug against Ubuntu Touch

[Barry Titterton]

Hi All,

I think that I have found a bug on Ubuntu Touch to do with accessing
wifi networks, and need advice on which package to file it against.

Yesterday (Saturday 27th) I installed UT onto a Nexus 4 16Gb phone. I
found that I could not connect to my home wifi if I selected the SSID
off the list of available networks, but it would connect if I used the
'Hidden Networks' option and typed in both the SSID and the password.

Should I file this bug against Network Manager package?

Cheers,

Barry T

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[ubuntu-uk] Nautilus icon position bug

[Barry Titterton]

Hi,

Has anyone else experienced Bug #1584240 when upgrading from 14.04 to
16.04? If so, please add to the bug report:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/1584240

Cheers,

Barry T

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Messed up upgrade from 14.04 to 16.04

[Barry Titterton]

On 01/08/16 10:00, Michael wrote:
> Alan, Barry, or anybody who can help with an upgrade problem. I f the
> helper need to take over my computer to resolve, I'm happy with that.
> 
> The update14.04-16-04,  was writing updated files when it stopped, a
> restart just defaults to login and login to the terminal command prompt.
> The help option delivers a screen full, I do not know if one of the
> options will help.
> 
> 64bit dual boot with MS Windows 7. I do have a 14.10 32bit disc if that
> might help but am worried about loosing things.
> 
> Any offers of help appreciated. Tks, Michael
> 
> 
> 
Hi Michael,

How long did you leave it in the stalled condition?
What did the terminal say it was doing at the time?

The reason that I ask is that I did an LTS to LTS update (64 bit) last
Friday and it stalled for a very long time while installing one of the
language packages. I left it alone and it eventually came back to life
and completed.
The installation part of the upgrade seemed to take much longer than
previous upgrades. Since the upgrade the machine has been much slower to
shut down, but this is a known bug to do with systemd and networked
printers. Just waiting for the fix to work its way through the update
system.

Cheers,

Barry T
(Yes, I know I'm not the Barry you intended)

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Anyone available to help a brand new user in Derbyshire?

[Barry Titterton]

On 23/07/16 13:10, alan c wrote:
> Sorry I can't help in person, however, just a reminder that under many
> circumstances, the program Teamviewer is free of charge for amateur,
> non business use. I have used it for remote friends, on one occasion
> a friend had moved to France for some years.
> 
> It works well, if sometimes slow on the link.
> 
> In an extreme case:
> If the remote novice had a completely separate spare machine, which
> could be simply wiped etc with no worry of lack data backup etc and
> loss of home internet (if an install somehow got screwed) then it is
> even possible to do a fresh install by remote, via Teamviewer, caviat:
> the remote friend would need to be calm accurate on keyboard, and have
> good systematic use of the parallel phone conversation. Also at
> (least) one key stage, a machine restart etc is needed, also the
> install disk is best used at the remote location etc. With one very
> systematic remote friend I have actually done this, it worked. However
> some friends are nervous and may find difficulty in following an
> instruction confidently.
> 
> Good luck
> 

Hi Alan,

Thanks for the tip about Teamviewer.

My friend is a very nervous novice so I don't want to put too much
pressure on him. I have found another friend who is a tech confident
Windows user and is willing to have a go at helping with the install
(perhaps another convert?).

Cheers,

Barry T

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[ubuntu-uk] Anyone available to help a brand new user in Derbyshire?

[Barry Titterton]

Hi All,

Is there anyone who lives near mid-Derbyshire and could spare an evening
to help a brand new user do their first install? The user in question is
an old friend on mine who has a Vista laptop that he wants to convert to
Linux. He has limited technical skill so would benefit from someone
walking him through his first install. I am not able to help him as I
now live in County Durham which makes it quite a long round trip.
Please PM me if you may be able to help and I will give you more details.

Thank you,

Barry T

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Missing menu in top panel.

[Barry Titterton]

On 13/01/16 20:37, Barry Drake wrote:
> I have reported the missing menus in the top panel as bug #1533826 in
> respect of Audacity.
> 
> Regards,Barry.
> 
Hi Barry,

Have you tried:-

All Settings > Appearance > Behaviour

And changed the menu's setting to appear in the window's title bar
instead, just to see if it has any effect on the bug?

Barry T

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Getting Amazon Prime videos to work

[Barry Titterton]

On 12/08/15 22:09, David King wrote:
 I am having trouble getting Amazon Prime videos to work in Ubuntu.
 It's Ubuntu Studio 14.04 with XFCE desktop.


 David K


Hi David,

I have also had a lot of problems trying to get Amazon Prime to work. My
two Ubuntu machines do not work: I have both a 32 bit and a 64 bit
install of 14.04 LTS with Unity, and they both have the Ubuntu version
of Firefox v.40. Pipelight has also been a failure. The only machine
that plays Amazon Prime streamed video is an elderly Advent laptop which
runs 32 bit Mint 17.2 XFCE with the Mint version of Firefox v.40. The
Amazon Prime problem does seem to be a Ubuntu specific issue.

I hope that this info' is of some help to you.

Barry T
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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Implications Of Secure Boot Lockout

[Barry Titterton]

On 07/04/15 00:12, Daniel Llewellyn wrote:

 
 I think you may be grasping the OMG THE SKY IS FALLING end of the
 stick here. While there is the possibility that some OEMs may take this
 relaxation and lock their hardware down to only allow MS certified
 software, that is not what MS are requiring. The wording is no longer
 require an opt-out and NOT require that there is no opt-out.
 

What Microsoft says in public may not be the same as what they say in
private to the computer manufacturers. If Win10 machines turn up later
this year with no opt-out then MS can blame the manufacturers, while the
manufacturers will not dare to say anything to contradict them.

If anyone feels moved to write to the competition commissioner with
their concerns, they can find the contact details in section 2A of the
following link:-

http://ec.europa.eu/competition/consumers/contacts_en.html

Barry T

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Implications Of Secure Boot Lockout

[Barry Titterton]

On 06/04/15 12:38, Nigel Verity wrote:
 Hi
 
 I have been reading recently that Microsoft are removing the requirement for 
 hardware manufacturers to provide a secure boot off switch, in order to 
 gain Windows 10 accreditation. If this comes to pass it will place Linux 
 distros entirely at the mercy of Microsoft to sign their authentication keys, 
 otherwise they will be shut out from installation on mainstream computers.
 
 Given that Microsoft look like making a lot less money out of the Windows OS 
 itself over the coming years, it seems reasonable to assume that they will 
 seek to maximise whatever revenue they can generate. This points towards 
 eventually shutting out even approved Linux distributions. Presumably Apple 
 can do exactly the same to prevent installation on Macs.
 
 If this comes to pass I have to admit to not having a clear view of where 
 this will leave us. The only possibilities I can see are:
 
 1) Being confined to installing on Chromebooks
 2) Being forced to use more expensive specialist hardware (e.g hardware 
 designed primarily to be a server)
 3) A move to ARM-powered devices
 
 I stress I am not an expert on this so my outlook may be unduly pessimistic, 
 but it would be interesting to get the views of anyone with more insight into 
 the implications.
 
 Could something akin to Wubi be a way around the problem, albeit far from 
 ideal?
 
 I suppose ultimately I am looking for some reassurance that Linux on the 
 desktop is not being forced onto a road to nowhere.
 
 Nige
 
 
I have a vague recollection that Microsoft tried this approach in the
early days of Win8 but the outcry produced the current 'Off Switch'
option. I expect that the EU authorities will take a dim view of this as
well, from the point of anti-competition, in the same way that they
forced Microsoft to offer a choice of web browser.

Barry T

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] SOT - What phone do you use?

[Barry Titterton]

On 06/03/15 09:10, Gordon Burgess-Parker wrote:
 Hi all,
 Just trying to get a straw poll of what phones people use here and
 why...
 
 Cheers
 
 Gordon
 
Hi Gordon,

T-Mobile Vary-Text PAYG. Basic but very good battery life and Blackberry
style physical keyboard which is helpful for old blokes like me. I am
watching the Ubuntu phone with interest, but need to convince She Who
Shall Be Obeyed that I actually need it rather than just want it.

Barry T

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Convergence video

[Barry Titterton]

On 27/02/15 13:08, Alan Pope wrote:
 Hi all,
 
 I thought some might find this video interesting. It was made by the
 Ubuntu Desktop Engineering Manager Will Cooke, to demo some of the
 current convergence ideas we're working on. It might make some things
 make sense that we've been talking about for a few years now. Hope so.
 
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3PUYoa1c9M
 
 For those that can't or won't watch it the video, what's shown is
 Ubuntu Touch based on Unity 8 and Mir on an x86 based tablet. Will
 demonstrated a few standard things like browsing and video playback,
 then switched to 'desktop' mode by attaching a bluetooth mouse. At
 that point the user interface adapts with applications splitting off
 into windowed mode assuming you want to work with it as a laptop. When
 the mouse is detached or switched off it reverts back to touch mode.
 
 It's quite a nice demo as it finally shows off an early version of
 what we're aiming for.
 
 Cheers,
 Al.
 
Hi Al,

Very impressive. I have a question:-

What about keyboard input? Is there an on-screen keyboard, or do you
need to connect a bluetooth keyboard as well?

Regards,

Barry T

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[ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu spotted on BBC

[Barry Titterton]

Hi All,

Just spotted Ubuntu on the BBC Click magazine program. It was in a story
about teaching inmates to code at San Quentin jail in the USA. There is
a brief shot of a monitor that is clearly running Ubuntu Unity. It is
about 15 minutes into the show.

Regards,

Barry T

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[ubuntu-uk] Is the new UK Computing GCSE any better for FOSS?

[Barry Titterton]

Hi All,

Do any members of this list have contact with the UK education system? 
My own sons are well past GCSE education but I am still interested what 
the schools are teaching today as I am actively trying to evangelise 
FOSS in my local area. I am specifically interested in the newly 
introduced Computing GCSE. Is it any better at covering FOSS issues?


I am under the impression that the UK education system has, for the last 
generation, taught the mantra:-


Microsoft = Computers and visa versa

The new GCSE is, in my understanding, supposed to teach a more rounded 
approach to computer science. However a quick look at the BBC Bitesize 
revision aid has the following page:-


http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/z6r86sg/revision/4

...with the graphic at the bottom describing open source software as 
having No guarantees of high quality. Most of us (sarcasm alert) are 
well aware about the high quality experience that one gets from some 
proprietary software so I found this comment to be rather unfair. 
Therefore, returning to my original question, does anyone know if the 
new GCSE course content give FOSS a fair review?


Barry T

PS. The first page of that BBC Bitesize section has a Tell us what you 
think button if anyone else would like to register their feedback as well.


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Keyobard issues in 14.10

[Barry Titterton]

On 17/01/15 13:14, Colin Law wrote:

On 17 January 2015 at 12:42, Gareth France
gareth.fra...@cliftonts.co.uk wrote:

I've been suffering from this since release day but it's driving me nuts so
I have to speak out and see if anyone knows the solution. My machine keeps
defaulting to the American keyboard layout. The icon in the taskbar always
displays UK but the layout is wrong. I have to switch to American and then
back to UK almost every time I boot up to resolve it.

Sounds like this bug, a fixed version of ibus should be in the repos soon.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/trusty/+source/ibus/+bug/1240198

Colin

The Lubuntu distro has been suffering from ibus problems for quite a 
while. It is nice to know that a fix is on the way.


Barry T

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[ubuntu-uk] How old is your computer - the sequel.

[Barry Titterton]

Hi All,

Thank you for all of your replies. I am very impressed by all of the
wonderful veteran machines that are still being used, and I thought that
I was doing well with a 9 year old machine!

You may recall from my original post that the question was prompted by a
conversation at a local (Windows only) computer training course. I, as
you may expect, talked to the tutor and students about how Linux was
good on older machines. The tutor then mentioned that they had three old
laptops that they no longer used, and that I was welcome to try putting
Linux on them. Two of the computers are old XP machines (Dell Latitude
D505, Pentium M with 1 Gb RAM) that were donated by the local Teesdale
council. The CPUs on these are non-pae so I am using Lubuntu with the
'forcepae' option on install. I have managed to get one working and am
going back after New Year to do the second. The third machine is a much
newer Win 7 Toshiba Satellite Pro (spec unknown), donated by BT, that
never worked properly and was quickly retired to the store cupboard. I
am unsure whether to use Mint 17 with cinnamon on this machine, or full
Ubunutu as Unity may be too much these very inexperienced (and nervous)
students. I don't want to confuse them by doing too much, too quickly.
Does anyone know if these desktop environments will work together if
installed on the same machine as alternatives? I have, in the past,
tried XFCE and LXDE on the same machine and it did not work well.

Regards,

Barry T

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[ubuntu-uk] UK Team Reboot - Advocacy

[Barry Titterton]

Hi All,

IMHO members who wish to engage in advocacy need to go to where the
people are. We, in the UK, are surrounded by a population who are either
ignorant or apathetic to FOSS so, in order to reach out to them, we need
to take a more general approach. I feel that one approach could be by
manning a stall that promotes FOSS at local community fêtes or
festivals. This may well get the name and philosophy known to a wide
cross section of the population.

Last summer I helped to man a stall at an eco festival near to my home.
The presentation of our stall was rather thin as it was a very last
minute decision to attend and we had little time to prepare promotional
material, but we had quite a lot of interest from the visitors to the
festival. I hope to present the stall again this summer but with better
prepared advocacy material. The point that I want to make is that good
quality promotional material: banners, posters etc, are expensive. Would
it be possible for the team to have a set of professional quality
advocacy materials that could be loaned out for these sorts of events?
Although the transport cost for moving bulky objects around the country
would also be quite high as well.

I'm sure that there are members of this mailing list that already do
this kind of thing so what are your thoughts and advice?

Regards,

Barry T

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] How old is your computer - the sequel.

[Barry Titterton]

On 09/12/14 17:22, George DiceGeorge wrote:
 Why doesnt the bootup from CD interrogate the PC
 and give useful advice about what to install
 if the version on the install CD needs a more powerful PC or more RAM etc?
 
 I defected from Xubtuntu to Lubuntu because I thought it would work on
 almost all old PCs,
 but now I'm told it needs PAE CPU
 and may crash inelegantly if the PC's too old for Lubuntu
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension
 
 [george]
 
Hi George,

Several members have recommended ToriOS as a non-PAE capable spin-off
from Ubuntu. I have not used it myself (yet) but it looks promising.

http://torios.org/

All is not lost w.r.t. very old machines.

Regards,

Barry T

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[ubuntu-uk] How old is your computer?

[Barry Titterton]

Hi All,

How old is the oldest computer that you have in regular use?

I was prompted to ask this question by a comment that I over heard while
doing some Linux advocacy at my local community centre. They run
beginners computer courses (Windows only) so I popped along to see if
anyone would be interested in Linux and FOSS. There was a conversation
which included the statement If your machine is 3 to 4 years old it
must be getting worn out, so you need to think about getting a new one.
This got me thinking about my own machines and I realised that my main
desktop PC (Pentium D 3.2GHz), that I use every day, will be 9 years old
in February, and it is still capable of running Ubuntu 14.04 very well.

So how old is your machine?.

Regards,

Barry T

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[ubuntu-uk] Help required to confirm a problem

[Barry Titterton]

Hi,

Can someone on the list please help me by confirming a problem with 
Libreoffice?


I find that documents created using Libreoffice 4 (Ubuntu 14.04) do not 
always display the same when opened using LO 3 (Ubuntu 12.04).
I have created a test document. It is an A4 document, in landscape, with 
two columns. Only the left hand column contains text:-


 https://www.dropbox.com/s/s5spcaa19ob9d10/Test%20document.odt

- Open this in both LO 3 and LO 4, and it looks the same.

- Now change the font to FreeSans, save a copy and open it again in both 
LO 3 and LO 4. On my machines, when viewed using LO 4, it has text only 
in the left hand column, but when viewed using LO 3 the text has 
expanded in to the right hand column as well.


I would appreciate it if someone can confirm whether this behaviour is a 
Libreoffice bug, or is it just something strange about my set up.


Regards,

Barry T

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Constant crashing

[Barry Titterton]

On 30/05/14 07:07, Gareth France wrote:
I recently installed Ubuntu on a friends computer as it was running 
painfully slowly with Windows. It is an older machine and the 
performance is now acceptable. However it appears that it is regularly 
hanging and requiring a forced reboot to cure this. When working on 
their broadband setup yesterday I witnessed this three times in a row, 
gave up and used my laptop instead. I have run the memory check that 
comes with Ubuntu and found no errors. I just wondered if anyone had 
any ideas how to track down the fault. Although slow Windows did not 
crash like this.



Hi Gareth,

Can you please give the model and specifications for your friend's computer?

Barry T

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Youtube web-app freezes computer

[Barry Titterton]

On 27/05/14 02:29, Andrés wrote:

Hi all,
I run the youtube web app, I maximize it, and suddenly I can move the 
mouse and that is about it. Nothing is 'clickable' no rightclick menu, 
no alt+f4 or f2, dash does not show with super key and taping power 
button once normally prompts shutdown menu but not now. I also left it 
to 'think' for more than 30min just in case it did something.


This happens with gnome3 admin and with unity user.

I solved it by uninstalling the app at the moment as all the help I 
could find in the web seem to relate to video freezing.


My question is as follows: the only thing I could do is cold reboot 
(desktop restart button or holding diwn the power button fo 3 seconds) 
is there anything else I could try? This would help to debug next time 
I have time to do so.


--
Enviado desde mi teléfono con K-9 Mail.



Have you tried :-

Alt+SysRq+R
Alt+SysRq+E
Alt+SysRq+I
Alt+SysRq+S
Alt+SysRq+U
Alt+SysRq+B

Regards,
Barry T

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Small graphics issue with Nvidia drivers

[Barry Titterton]

On 31/03/14 17:59, Michael Eacott wrote:

I guess that you asked on http://ubuntuforums.org/index.php


I was planning to try the forums after trying the mailing list users first.


But could this help?
 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2108869highlight=screen+black+lines+text+screen%3A-+Ubuntu+13.10+%26lt%3Bname%26gt%3B+tty1+%26lt%3Bname%26gt%3B+login%3A 



The thread that you reference is typical of many that I have found which 
talk about a partial or total loss of the display. You will see from my 
initial comment that my machine eventually gets to a fully functioning 
desktop display, so it is not directly relevant to my issue. It is the 
delay and strange behaviour on loading that I would like to cure.


Barry

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Small graphics issue with Nvidia drivers

[Barry Titterton]

On 31/03/14 18:00, Liam Proven wrote:

On 31 March 2014 17:11, Barry Titterton titterton.ba...@gmail.com wrote:

Hello,

I have recently converted a desk top machine from XP to Unbuntu but have a
small problem with the graphics during start up.

The machine has a legacy Nvidia graphics card (6800LE). I installed Ubuntu
13.10 as the only OS on the machine. The installer used the Nouveau graphics
driver as the default for the Nvidia card but it gave problems so I used
Software  Updates  Additional Drivers to change to the propriety
nvidia-304-updates driver.

The problem is when I start the machine, after the BIOS text screen, the
screen now goes black with only the following two lines of text on the
screen:-

Ubuntu 13.10 name tty1
name login:

(Where name is the ID of the machine)

I then wait for approx 30 seconds, without touching the keyboard, and the
machine will eventually go to the normal log-in screen. I can then log-in to
Unity as normal, and everything works fine.

So you will see that this pause at the tty1 screen is more of an annoyance
than a problem. It also gives a poor impression to people that I am trying
to convert to Ubuntu. I have tried Google but all of the issues that I have
found refer to a total loss of display rather that this temporary pause
during boot. Can anyone suggest a way of stopping this pause?


Sounds like the kernel is unable to do mode-switching, so you're
seeing some of the startup messages.

In the past, I've got round this by specifying the monitor's actual
resolution - or something close, e.g. right vertical resolution - in
GRUB with `nomodeset` and `vga=792` or whatever.


Hi Liam,

Have tried 'nomodeset' in a temporary way by accessing GRUB during boot, 
but have not set it as a permanent option. It had no noticable effect on 
the boot behaviour. I have not tried 'vga=792'.


Barry

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] [Durham] Small graphics issue with Nvidia drivers

[Barry Titterton]

On 31/03/14 19:55, Martin Ward wrote:

On 31/03/14 17:11, Barry Titterton wrote:


The problem is when I start the machine, after the BIOS text screen, the
screen now goes black with only the following two lines of text on the
screen:-

Ubuntu 13.10 name tty1
name login:

(Where name is the ID of the machine)

I then wait for approx 30 seconds, without touching the keyboard, and
the machine will eventually go to the normal log-in screen. I can then
log-in to Unity as normal, and everything works fine.


It sounds like some operation is timing out: eg detecting hardware,
mounting a drive or something.

The log file (usually /var/log/messages) should tell you where
in the boot process the pause occurred and which operation timed out.


Hi Martin,

Google tells me that Ubuntu stopped using /var/log/messages around about 
11.04, it now dumps everything into syslog. I cannot see anything 
obvious in syslog, but I do not know how to 'read' syslog so I could 
easily be missing something relevant.


Barry

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[ubuntu-uk] Small graphics issue with Nvidia drivers

[Barry Titterton]

Hello,

I have recently converted a desk top machine from XP to Unbuntu but have 
a small problem with the graphics during start up.


The machine has a legacy Nvidia graphics card (6800LE). I installed 
Ubuntu 13.10 as the only OS on the machine. The installer used the 
Nouveau graphics driver as the default for the Nvidia card but it gave 
problems so I used Software  Updates  Additional Drivers to change to 
the propriety nvidia-304-updates driver.


The problem is when I start the machine, after the BIOS text screen, the 
screen now goes black with only the following two lines of text on the 
screen:-


Ubuntu 13.10 name tty1
name login:

(Where name is the ID of the machine)

I then wait for approx 30 seconds, without touching the keyboard, and 
the machine will eventually go to the normal log-in screen. I can then 
log-in to Unity as normal, and everything works fine.


So you will see that this pause at the tty1 screen is more of an 
annoyance than a problem. It also gives a poor impression to people that 
I am trying to convert to Ubuntu. I have tried Google but all of the 
issues that I have found refer to a total loss of display rather that 
this temporary pause during boot. Can anyone suggest a way of stopping 
this pause?


Regards,
Barry T

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Windows free at last!

[Barry Titterton]

On 30/01/14 21:21, Barry Drake wrote:
Microsoft has been forced into supporting ODF and is clearly very 
annoyed by this.  A little humility and listening to ordinary folk 
might have gone a long way.




Humility seems to be in short supply in Redmond; here is a quote about 
ODF standards from a moderator on an official MS support site:-


.odt is the old open standard file format that was used before the 
current Office Open XML standard was implemented. Microsoft began 
adopting the standard in 2003, but in Office 2007 and Office 2008 
adopted the Office Open XML file format as the default format.



Ironically, most forks of OpenOffice do not support the current Office 
Open XML standard format. They cling to the decades old standard and 
refuse to abandon it. However, there is one fork of OpenOffice 
that*does*support the current standard. It is called_*LibreOffice*_ 
http://www.libreoffice.org/download. LibreOffice is the only fork of 
OpenOffice that should be used. Have the person who sent that ancient 
file to you update to the current version of LibreOffice so they can 
make files in standard format. In LibreOffice preferences there is a 
setting that tells LibreOffice to use the Office Open XML file format as 
the default. This setting should be enabled.



Once your correspondent joins the 21st century and gets rid of their 
ancient software, he or she will be able to share files with the _*rest 
of the world*_ 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Open_XML_software#Word_processors. 
Wikipedia misleadingly labels the Office Open XML format a Microsoft 
format. The format is an international standard proposed by Microsoft 
and then adopted by a standards body representing many interests



http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac/forum/macoffice2008-macword/can-word-open-a-odt-file/0b76ee36-a236-4a45-ace4-b145a5b2026f

This is clearly the latest form of FUD for the fight against open 
source. The moderator repeatedly talks of OOXML replacing ODF as the 
international standard. Thankfully someone at the Cabinet Office has 
seen through this.


There is also the point that trying to open an ODT file in MS Office 
prompts a message suggesting that file may be corrupt or contain 
unreadable elements. This cleverly plants the idea in the MS user's mind 
that ODF files are in some way dodgy or of dubious quality. This is 
clever, but dirty, marketing tactics. MS are in business to make 
profits, not to encourage, or co-operate with, the opposition. They are 
not going to give up without a fight.


Regards,

Barry T
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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu1 under Trusty ....

[Barry Titterton]

On 05/11/13 14:56, Barry Drake wrote:

On 05/11/13 14:25, Dave Morley wrote:
Yes this is correct the nautilus package was remove in Saucy so won't 
be there in Trusty either.


According to the file manager launcher in '/usr/share/applications' 
the launcher is still calling Nautilus both under Saucy and Trusty - 
it uses the command 'nautilus %U'. The problem I mentioned is not 
there in Saucy but appeared in Trusty right at the first testing iso.


Regards,Barry.

This behaviour does show on my laptop that was upgraded to Saucy. The 
ubuntuone-client-gnome package was removed during the upgrade. A bug has 
been raised (#1232053). There is a workaround and a lot of comments 
asking for the functionality to be returned.


Barry T

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Saucy Salamander - [Name]

[Barry Titterton]

On 20/09/13 20:33, Matthew Sturdy wrote:
On 20 September 2013 15:46, Dave Morley davm...@davmor2.co.uk 
mailto:davm...@davmor2.co.uk wrote:


On 20/09/13 19:44, Bruno Girin wrote:

 On 20 September 2013 18:11, SuperEngineer boo...@gmail.com
mailto:boo...@gmail.com
 mailto:boo...@gmail.com mailto:boo...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Fri, 2013-09-20 at 18:01 +0100, Alan Bell wrote:
  Do join us to celebrate the launch of Saucy, and debate
the name
 of the
  next release (Tenacious Turkey? Talented Termite?)
 
  Alan.

 or Tremendous Tarantula even?  ;)


 Trusty Trilobite ;)



Terrifying tyrannosaur



Terrific Terrapin!





Touchy Toucan?

(Make mine a Guinness - one for the oldies reading this list).
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[ubuntu-uk] Curious behaviour during start up and shut down.

[Barry Titterton]

Hi,

My laptop is running a fully up to date 12.04 LTS install. I have 
noticed that for the last few weeks, during both start up and shut down, 
text messages are displayed over the Ubuntu logo screen. The messages 
only appear for a fraction of a second so I have not been able to copy 
them or even read them in any detail, but they seem to be messages that 
you would see in a terminal, such as Stopping all processes. It is not 
causing any problems but it does detract from the 'polish' of the user 
experience, especially when showing Ubuntu to potential new users.

Has anyone else got this behaviour?

Regards,

Barry

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[ubuntu-uk] Locking up when away from home wi-fi

[Barry Titterton]

Hi,

Yesterday my wife was using our Lenovo laptop (fully up to date 12.04 
LTS) at a friend's house, using their wi-fi network. She complained 
that, while trying to create a text document in LibreOffice, the machine 
kept locking up every couple of lines. She had no control of mouse or 
keyboard and her only option was to cycle the power button. This 
happened four times in a row. She also said that the hard drive seemed 
to be working hard, buzzing and clicking, all of the time. The only 
other machine on the network was an Apple desktop, which was switched on 
at the time. Please be aware that both my wife and her friend have very 
little technical knowledge so the above statement is all of the detail 
that I can give.


The laptop has never shown this behaviour before at home or when working 
on the university network, nor when working with our mobile broadband 
USB dongle, and since being brought home it has behaved perfectly on the 
home wi-fi.


Does anyone have any suggestions what might have caused this strange 
behaviour?


Regards,

Barry

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Libre Office Gedit?

[Barry Titterton]

On 25/11/12 10:10, Gareth France wrote:
An amusing fault on my system today. Clicking on the Libre Office Calc 
icon that is pinned to the launcher by default now loads Gedit. 
Locating a spreadsheet file and double clicking loads Calc. This is on 
12.10. Am I alone in this issue and can anyone shed any light?


Thanks

I had something similar a couple of weeks back where the Writer launcher 
started Thunderbird instead. It seems to have fixed itself.


Barry T

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[ubuntu-uk] Help required with a wi-fi networking problem

[Barry Titterton]

Hi,

There is an established bug for WPA Enterprise wi-fi networks:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/wpasupplicant/+bug/969343/+index?comments=all

In the past few days a fix to the wpasupplicant package has been 
proposed that requires the user to enable the precise-proposed 
repository (see comment #109 in the above bug report/discussion). My 
question is:-


If I follow the wiki instructions for enabling the precise-proposed 
repository, what happens to my computer when the fix is released as an 
official update? Will I need to disable the precise-proposed repository? 
The laptop runs ubuntu 12.04.


Background:-
My wife has just started as a mature(!?!) student at St Johns college in 
Durham university. The university network uses the aforementioned WPA 
Enterprise encryption system. All other students on her course use 
either Windows or Macs and they have, with a little struggle,  manged to 
connect to the university network. My wife's ubuntu laptop is the only 
machine that has, so far, failed to establish a connection. I will not 
be able to check if the fix has worked until I go into college tonight.


Are there any other Durham students on the mailing list, or students of 
other academic institutions, that have had this problem with their 
university's wi-fi network?


Cheers,

Barry T
In the frozen north.

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Help required with a wi-fi networking problem

[Barry Titterton]

On 11/10/12 12:57, A wrote:

If you've enabled precise-proposed (or precise-backports etc) then you
get access to some newer, developmental bugfix packages etc
If the fixed wpasupplicant package is then uploaded to the main
'precise' repository, which is enabled by default, then all's well. I
like to keep all the precise-* repos enabled because it gives you access
to fixes and new features that have trickled through from upstream,
without having to jump to the next release(s).

Short answer: i'd keep precise-proposed access enabled.

Happy to help get your wife's connection sorted. I'm at university
myself and new linux users often have to sink or swim with things like
this: take this life jacket ;)



Thanks for the quick reply, and the reassurance.

Have you had similar problems connecting to the wi-fi at your university?

Durham has close links with Microsoft, and the IT department only offers 
help for problems with Microsoft software products. Their support for 
Macs is minimal and grudging, there is no general help for linux except 
for specific help for the high performance computing facility. There is 
a little linux help if you are from another university and trying to 
access the Eduroam system. My request for help sent to the IT Help Desk 
has gone unanswered.
I had hoped to do some gentle linux evangelizing among the unbelievers 
but this rather public problem has got things off to a bad start. I 
shall have to be patient.


Barry T

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Help required with a wi-fi networking problem

[Barry Titterton]

On 11/10/12 14:08, A wrote:

On 11/10/12 13:49, Barry Titterton wrote:

On 11/10/12 12:57, A wrote:

If you've enabled precise-proposed (or precise-backports etc) then you
get access to some newer, developmental bugfix packages etc
If the fixed wpasupplicant package is then uploaded to the main
'precise' repository, which is enabled by default, then all's well. I
like to keep all the precise-* repos enabled because it gives you access
to fixes and new features that have trickled through from upstream,
without having to jump to the next release(s).

Short answer: i'd keep precise-proposed access enabled.

Happy to help get your wife's connection sorted. I'm at university
myself and new linux users often have to sink or swim with things like
this: take this life jacket ;)



Thanks for the quick reply, and the reassurance.

Have you had similar problems connecting to the wi-fi at your university?

Durham has close links with Microsoft, and the IT department only
offers help for problems with Microsoft software products. Their
support for Macs is minimal and grudging, there is no general help for
linux except for specific help for the high performance computing
facility. There is a little linux help if you are from another
university and trying to access the Eduroam system. My request for
help sent to the IT Help Desk has gone unanswered.
I had hoped to do some gentle linux evangelizing among the unbelievers
but this rather public problem has got things off to a bad start. I
shall have to be patient.

Barry T


Well, i did have some problems at first trying to connect to the
wireless network on campus, but then i had a quick look and found
there's a certificate to use and after 5 minutes of messing around, i
figured it out and it works wonderfully.

I know - it's a bit of a mess, the current state of so called 'IT
expertise' - why, just this week my friend went to see the IT department
on campus about recovering some deleted files from linux and they didn't
have a clue. Problem solved after using 'photorec' and 'scalpel'
ourselves. It's seems like the prerequisite for being an 'IT
professional' is knowing how to click a few buttons on microsoft office
- everyone working on IT support should be familiar with at least 1
linux distro, really. The operating systems are free, and if you're
trying to help people for a living, there will be people who use this -
it costs nothing but time to learn a few commands.
They think everyone uses windows and the odd (rich) person uses a mac,
but the linux users are fringe rebels lol I would bet heavily that you
either don't get a reply, or it isn't any use when it arrives. They're
just not clued in: what you need is another linux user from the online
community or nearby.

I think UK universities (can't say what state other country's are in)
need to expand their knowledge on linux because often times the solution
is just 1 tiny command instead of a 2 page list of clicking instructions.

As far as your problem goes, a bug will come to light every now and then
when new code is added or old code is reviewed, and then it gets fixed.
I had a look at your link to the bug on launchpad and it seems to affect
the openssl package as well. Once the packages are in the repositories
and you've got those repos enabled, update and upgrade and try
connecting again. Keep us apprised of the details and we'll have it
sorted in no time - it's usually just a case of messing around with the
configurations (and it only ever gets complicated because IT departments
are NEVER specific enough about the details, whereas e.g. on your own
home network, you call the shots and you have access to specific settings.)

Try not to get discouraged because prevailing over these tiny obstacles
does pay off in the long run.


Success! The fix from precise-proposed worked perfectly. My wife will 
give it a full road test next week.


I got a reply from the Durham uni' IT help desk. It said that they do 
not support linux and suggested using the Win7 settings as a clue. The 
irony being that the Win7 settings do not work for windows machines 
either, an IT savvy student managed to get the windows machines working 
despite the IT department. I shall have to offer my services to the IT 
help desk to write a linux guide for them. I have also made contact with 
the local LUG which should be a much better source for tech help.


I shall also have to put a comment on the bug discussion thread, if I 
can remember my log on details.


Barry T

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[ubuntu-uk] Strange behaviour during LTS upgrade

[Barry Titterton]

Hi All,

Last week I upgraded my laptop from 10.04 to 12.04.1 using the Update
Manager. Several times during the installation phase I had windows pop
up asking me if I wanted to over write a file that had been manually
altered. I know that this is normal behaviour but on two other occasions
I had pop up windows, similar in style to the file over-write questions,
where all of the text in the window was in the form of outline
rectangles, in the same way the system will display a foreign language
script if you do not have the correct font installed. For example:

ٱٱٱ ٱٱٱ

Has anyone else seen this behaviour or do they know why it happened?

The upgrade completed without any problems and the machine has been
working for several days without any issues.

Barry T.


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu on the Vaio S series

[Barry Titterton]

On Mon, 2012-07-02 at 09:20 +0100, Anton Kanishchev wrote:
 If you play your cards right and mention that there is no bs of cto
 models being non refundable (in terms and conditions) before you buy
 they are unlikely to try to play that trick on you.

Hi Anton,

I'm not a lawyer but I'm pretty sure that distance selling laws in the
UK give you the same type of consumer protection as if you bought it
over the counter: If the object is not of merchantable quality i.e.
broken or does not meet the advertised specification, you have to reject
it in writing. You can then send it back for a full refund and the
original seller must also refund your postal costs. I did this recently
with a laptop battery which tests showed was only half the capacity that
the seller was claiming.

Cheers,

Barry T



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[ubuntu-uk] [Fwd: [Derby - LUG] Richard Stallman talk in Leicester]

[Barry Titterton]

For those in striking distance of the East Midlands.

Barry T
---BeginMessage---
Hi all,

One of the Leicester Linux User Group members, Gareth Lapworth now works
at De Montofrd University.

To cut a long story short, he is organising a talk by none other than
Richard Stallman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman

The talk is on Saturday 23rd of June and is open to anyone, and is free
(as in beer).

http://www.fsf.org/events/20120623-leicester

It would be nice if some of you could come up to Leicester to help
support the event, and there should be an opportunity for a beer
afterwards if anyone fancies one.

Gareth's email address is on the fsf page if anyone has any questions.

Cheers,

Clive (tuxit).

___
Sderby mailing list
sde...@mailman.lug.org.uk
https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/sderby
Web site: http://sderbylug.org.uk/
Join us on IRC: irc.lug.org.uk #sderby 
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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Interesting information in The Register that may be useful in evangelism

[Barry Titterton]

 
 Secure Boot doesn't prevent the installation of additional software.
 Everything it does happens before the operating system starts up.
 
 
 s/
 -- 
 Twitter: @sfgreenwood
 TBA are particularly glib
 

Yes, UEFI ensures that only the 'correct' OS starts, but after that, as
I understand it, the OS takes over responsibility for allowing only
trusted software to be installed and run. I gather that Win8 will
default to only allow apps from the Windows store, although this can be
changed if you dig deep enough into the settings, but this will still
only allow trusted digitally signed software. Plenty of opportunity to
influence matters.


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Interesting information in The Register that may be useful in evangelism

[Barry Titterton]

 
 People still put plastic disks in their computer when they want to be
 entertained? Retro!
 
 Cheers,
 - -- 
 Alan Pope

Retroland is also called the countryside. As you know there are a lot
people outside major urban areas whose broadband doesn't get any faster
than 1Mb. Long live plastic disks!

Barry T


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[ubuntu-uk] Interesting information in The Register that may be useful in evangelism

[Barry Titterton]

It seems that Microsoft will be shipping Win8 without the ability to
play DVDs. They justify it by citing the rise in popularity of streaming
media such as Netflix. Users who really want it will have to pay extra.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/04/windows_media_dvd_playback_dead/

MS tried this in the past, I think it was with MediaPlayer9, but back
then users just shrugged and installed a free option such as VLC. But
now, with Secure Boot, MS can make sure that users do not have another
option. Except for upgrading to Ubuntu of course!

I mentioned this to some of the youngsters that I work with. They were
indignant, but more intent on keeping their old windows systems rather
than trying something new. I shall keep chipping away at their resolve.

Barry


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] My experience with 12.04 upgrade

[Barry Titterton]

 
 The bug mentioned just says that there is no way back if you forget
 the correct key to use.  I don't use rhythmbox so don't know what the
 key is, but presumably someone does.  It is a pity that the bug does
 not mention which key it is.
 
 Colin

Hi Colin,

Yesterday nothing worked, today F11 works to cancel the Party Mode.
Perhaps it needed a re-boot? Anyway I'm happy now.

Barry T


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] My experience with 12.04 upgrade

[Barry Titterton]

 
 I have noticed that the reveal does not happen if the cursor is 
 'gently' taken to the (left) side, it only works for a fairly vigorous 
 'hit'. Even when sensitivity is turned up. There are many times when I 
 am simply not feeling like hurling the cursor around the screen, 
 although I can guess that if I was a dev I might  a lot more :-)
 
 If a bug is registered  give me a heads up I will contribute
 -- 
 alan cocks

Hi Alan,

I have turned the sensitivity up full but it still needs to be pushed
quite hard into the left side to get a reveal. I've also tried it in
Unity 3D with same result. I shall add myself to Neil's bug report
(982954).

Barry T


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Wireless inkjet printer?

[Barry Titterton]

 Any HP Officejet should work. I have a 6500 which pretty much
 autoconfigures both the printer and scanner,
 

Avoid the HP Deskjet F4580 as the wireless isn't very reliable.

Barry T



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[ubuntu-uk] My experience with 12.04 upgrade

[Barry Titterton]

Hi All,

Last weekend I decided to upgrade my spare laptop. It is an elderly
Toshiba Satellite Pro A120 running 32 bit 11.10 and Unity in 2D mode.
The upgrade went smoothly and here are the problems that I have found so
far:-

1. The desktop back ground went plain black. Under 11.10 I had the
default photographs set to change on a regular basis. It was no problem
to select the 12.04 default photo background, however this may be
disconcerting for a novice. May I make an enhancement suggestion that it
would have been nice if the upgrade software could have realised that I
was using the default profile and offered to set up the default
background as part of the upgrade process.

2. The launcher will not 'reveal' if there is an application, such as
Firefox, set to maximum size. The launcher will 'reveal' once all
windows have been minimised or closed. I have a work around for this
problem by setting the launcher to be permanently visible. Is this a bug
or normal behaviour for 2D Unity?

3. Rhythmbox is the default music player for 12.04. It has a feature
called Party Mode, this expands the window to full screen covering all
other windows, menus etc. The problem is that the only way to get out of
this mode is by the power button, or by using a terminal to kill the
process. This is a know bug 785631 which has been confirmed since
September 2011. I'm not impressed that an LTS has been released with
this bug still intact.

I have only had one crash so far but this is one more than I had with
11.10.

Barry T




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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu beginners course in North Tyneside

[Barry Titterton]

 the entire curriculum that is 
 taught within the local authority is Windows-based

 I'm not supposed to favour 
 any particular software product (be it FOSS or otherwise) in my job,

Hi Bea,

I don't want you to think that I am being funny but the two statements
above, lifted from your email, do seem to contradict each other. How can
the local authority stop you from promoting a particular product when
they themselves operate a monopolistic system? It does seem to be two
faced.

Barry T



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[ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu spotted In The Wild

[Barry Titterton]

Last week, while walking through the IT department at work, I spotted a
laptop running Ubuntu (Unity). For one brief, wonderful moment I thought
my employers were investigating a move to a linux based system. However
it turned out that the laptop belonged to an engineer from one of the
software companies that supply my workplace. The engineer told me that
he runs the different versions of Windows that he needs for the various
clients in virtual machines. He also said that Unity had got several
admiring comments from the other IT professionals.

My employer's IT department confirmed that they have no plans to move
away from a Windows based installation. Shame.

Barry


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Hdmi output-- ubuntu

[Barry Titterton]

On Thu, 2012-03-15 at 16:26 +, Liam Proven wrote:

 
 I probably should have mentioned that my machine has an Intel display,
 too. It's the onboard GPU of a Core i3.
 
 -- 
 Liam Proven

Do you get both sound and vision over HDMI with Ubuntu, or just the
vision?

Barry T


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Since my last update

[Barry Titterton]

On Sun, 2012-03-11 at 07:42 +, James Morrissey wrote:
 Ok, that's good to know. It is a bit frustrating if high temperatures
 break the fan...
 
 j
 
 On 10 March 2012 20:00, Neil Greenwood neil.greenwood@gmail.com wrote:
  It is very possible that temperature is the problem. It's not a bug though,
  it's a hardware issue.
 
  Neil.
James,

Your cooling may not be broken, it may be that the heat exchanger matrix
on your CPU is blocked with dust and fluff from your home furnishings. A
quick check would be to use your vacuum clearer to clean the heat
exchanger by sucking 'the wrong way' through the matrix. I regularly
have to clean the matrix on my home desktop PC. My understanding is that
a machine with a hot CPU will reduce the operating frequency of the CPU
to reduce the heat generated. This will impact on the available
performance of the CPU and may be source of the reports of your CPU
using 100% of its available performance to do basic operations, because
its maximum available performance is greatly reduced.

Barry T


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] PDFs in LibreOffice on 11.10

[Barry Titterton]

On Sat, 2011-12-10 at 21:51 +, Mark Fraser wrote:
 On Saturday 10 Dec 2011 12:06:38 Barry Titterton wrote:
 
  I am unable to open or import PDF files in LibreOffice on 11.10. Can
 
  someone else with 11.10 please tell me if they have the same
 problem?
 
  
 
  Last week my wife needed to import three PDF files into a Writer
 
  document as images. Open Office on 10.04 did two files without a
 problem
 
  but struggled with the third.
 
  
 
 Have you tried installing the package libreoffice-pdfimport?
 

Hi Mark,

Thank you, that package did the trick. The PDF wasn't perfect but enough
of it was there for me to edit to get it looking right.

Interestingly I couldn't find the package in the 11.10 Software Centre
so I installed good old Synaptic and got it first time. Another
interesting observation is that, in Open Office in 10.04 the PDF import
package is included by default. Also in Open Office you can import PDF
files direct into Writer by using Insert  File..., this feature does
not work in Libreoffice version of Writer. I thought that Libreoffice
was supposed to be an improve fork of Openoffice, but at the moment it
appears to have some features removed.

Barry T



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Re: [ubuntu-uk] PDFs in LibreOffice on 11.10

[Barry Titterton]

On Sat, 2011-12-10 at 17:15 +, Tony Pursell wrote:
 
 
 On 10 December 2011 12:06, Barry Titterton
 barry.titter...@mail.adsl4less.com wrote:
 I am unable to open or import PDF files in LibreOffice on
 11.10. Can
 someone else with 11.10 please tell me if they have the same
 problem?
 
 
 Hi Barry
 
 As far as I know LibreOffice does not import PDFs, although I did try
 an extension for OpenOffice.org that would import PDFs into Draw, but
 it was a rather poor result.
 
 
 If you can tell me how you are trying to do this in LO or how it
 worked in 11.04 (ie what part of LO, what commands you use, etc), I
 might be able to help you.  However the best way of getting PDFs into
 LO or OOo that I know off is a package called OCRFeeder.  This can
 load a PDF, 'scan' it using OCR technology, then output in .odt
 format.  Between scanning and output you can clean the file up, delete
 unwanted parts, etc.  It is in the Software Centre.  Why not download
 it and give it a try.
 
 Tony
 
 
Hi Tony,

You will see from another reply on the mailing list that there is an
extension for Libreoffice that you can install in 11.10 using Synaptic.
It works by right clicking on the PDF and choosing Open In Draw. You can
then clean up the image and save it in a Writer friendly format. This is
similar to the extension that is standard in Openoffice, although the
Openoffice version allows you to import PDF files directly into Writer
using Insert  File...

I tried the OCRFeeder but the results were worse than the Libreoffice
extension and much slower to generate.

Barry T


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[ubuntu-uk] PDFs in LibreOffice on 11.10

[Barry Titterton]

I am unable to open or import PDF files in LibreOffice on 11.10. Can
someone else with 11.10 please tell me if they have the same problem?

Last week my wife needed to import three PDF files into a Writer
document as images. Open Office on 10.04 did two files without a problem
but struggled with the third. I therefore tried the problem file with
LibreOffice on 11.10 to see if it was any better, but all I got was
several pages full of unicode characters. The web says that LibreOffice
3.4 should be bundled with several extensions, one of which is that
necessary for importing/opening PDF documents. However the extension
manager my installation only has two extensions listed:
1. Script provider for Python 3.3.0
2. Solver or Nonlinear Programming 0.9
The LibreOffice web page for extensions does not even list the PDF
extension.
Can anyone explain why I am having this problem, or have I completely
misunderstood how to use extensions in LibreOffice?

Barry T 


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu - Wrong Direction?

[Barry Titterton]

On Sat, 2011-12-10 at 09:19 +, Colin Law wrote:
 On 10 December 2011 08:12, Barry Titterton
 barry.titter...@mail.adsl4less.com wrote:
  ...
  My Toshiba running 11.10 takes five times longer to shut down compared
  with when it was running 11.04. Start up times are about the same.
 
 If the majority of the delay is caused by logout rather than the
 actual shutdown (try logging out then shutting down to find out) then
 there are two bugs that I know of that you might be hitting.
 
 If you are using Tomboy then you are probably hitting [1] Tomboy
 causing delay on logout or shutdown.  The workaround is to quit Tomboy
 before logging out by clicking on its icon in the top panel and
 selecting Quit.  Just closing the tomboy windows leaves it running in
 the background.
 
 If you are using Unity-2d then there is [2] Long delay on session logout.
 
 If you are using neither of these then it must be something else.  It
 would be useful if you could try and determine what it is that is
 triggering the delay.  Have a look in syslog to see if there is
 anything.  Try logging in and immediately logging out without starting
 any apps (assuming the delay is the logout).
 
 If the delay is during shutdown rather than logout do you have any
 network shares?  If so if you unmount those first or temporarily
 remove them from fstab (and reboot obviously) does it help?
 
 Colin
 
 
 [1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tomboy/+bug/880299
 [2] https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity-2d/+bug/812104
 
Hi Colin,
Thank you for your response. To answer your questions:

1. I do not use Tomboy.
2. I do use Unity 2D on this machine as I found 3D to cause multiple
crashes, both of the desktop and Firefox. With 2D the machine is stable.
I have tried logging out before shut down, as you suggested. The logout
was quite quick but the subsequent shut down was still very slow. During
shut down I have the Ubuntu name on the screen with the five colour
changing dots below. With 11.04 I could count 3 dots to shut down, now
with 11.10 it takes 16 dots. This may not be a very scientific method
but it is a good visual indication of the difference in time taken.
3. I do not mount any network shares.

Barry T


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[ubuntu-uk] 11.10 So far mixed fortunes

[Barry Titterton]

The recent, very extensive, discussion for and against Unity/11.10 has
prompted me to give my experience.

Four weeks ago I upgraded my spare laptop to 11.10 and the experience
has been mixed.

The machine is an elderly Toshiba Satellite Pro A120 with 1 Gig Ram. It
had been running 10.04 without problems for several months. the initial
upgrade did not go smoothly as I had the issue, previously reported on
this list, where it kept asking me to put an 11.10 CD in the drive to
enable the upgrade to continue. After the upgrade the machine crashed
back to a text only display three times in two days. The line on the
screen full of text that seemed most interesting was:
Bug: unable to handle kernel paging request at 42de0014.

I assumed that the issues with the upgrade had caused a problem so did a
full install. The machine crashed again two days later. Also Firefox was
crashing to the desktop several times a day. I have now downgraded to
Unity 2D and everything is stable.

My non-techie test subject (the wife) has two things that she dislikes
about Unity:
1. The small vertical scroll device is fiddly, especially when using a
touch pad.
2. The launcher is too quick to jump out when you go to select things in
the top left hand corner of an application, for example the 'Back Arrow'
on Firefox. This, again, is a particular problem when using a touch pad
as it is generally less accurate and over shoots are more likely. There
needs to be a buffer zone between the left hand edge of a 'full screen'
application window and the left hand edge of the display screen.

Barry T


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Lack of support for small business

[Barry Titterton]

On Fri, 2011-11-18 at 23:32 +, Gareth France wrote:
 Recently I decided to do my part by starting up a small business
 selling machines with Ubuntu pre-installed and  offering support. My
 bank have refused to offer me a business account at all 'because it's
 too risky to open an account for a company selling computers',
 apparently there's a high risk I will commit carousel fraud (whatever
 that is). Another bank are getting iffy about it because I'm involved
 in software (installing Ubuntu), I did attempt to explain that any
 company selling hardware is just as involved with software as I.
 
 
 Is it just me or does the British economy not want small businesses to
 succeed?
Gareth,

Oh yes, I have just given up freelancing after fifteen years of battling
the establishment. The government (of any colour) will happily give a
speech saying that they support small business than immediately pass
another piece of oppressive legislation.

I think carousel fraud involves claiming a VAT refund from the British
government for items that you claim to have purchased abroad. By the
time the paperwork has caught up you are long gone with the money. Small
high value items are the favourite subject for this fraud.

Please name and shame the bank involved. The big high street banks are
all rubbish with small business. My own bank, HSBC, told me when I first
started my company the inter account transfers with a private account at
the same branch would be free. But they gradually introduced charges
over the next few years without telling me, which is against the rules.
When I challenged them all they said was Tough. You may want to try
some of the smaller obscure, and even foreign, banks or building
societies. Many building societies have a business arm these days and,
being generally locally based, are more sympathetic to local small
businesses.

Barry T


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Problem when powering off - suspend light flashing

[Barry Titterton]

On Wed, 2011-11-16 at 09:06 +, Colin Law wrote:
 On 15 November 2011 22:09, Steve Fisher xirco...@gmail.com wrote:
  Coming out of standby is a major issue on a lot of machines.  Usually a
  problem with the video drivers (but not always).  What video card do you
  have?  My machine will not come out of standby 90% of the time running FGLRX
  radeon drivers, but does on the open source drivers, works as good as gold
  on the open source version.
 
 I think you have misunderstood the problem, it does not go into
 standby, nor am I asking it to.  I ask for a normal shutdown, which it
 does.  After shutting down the shutdown light flashes *as if* it were
 in standby, but it is not.  The problem is that something (possibly a
 hardware fault) is causing it to think it is in standby when it is
 not.
 
 Colin
 
I had something similar with a desktop after I messed with the ACPI
options. Has your installation/upgrade to 11.10 introduced some ACPI
settings without your knowledge?

Barry T


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Linux Courses/Certification/UK

[Barry Titterton]

On Tue, 2011-10-25 at 16:47 +0100, john beddard wrote:
 On 25/10/11 13:35, MS wrote:Hello Steve,
 
 I would recommend the Ubuntu Professional Course available from Ubuntu's
 own Training Team. Its half the price of the O.U Course and is
 extensive, with something like 16 modules. Its an ideal preparation for
 the more extensive Ubuntu Server Course. Although it requires the
 discipline of self-study.
 
 My own motivation for the doing this is to build an openstreet map
 server, with openstreet map being built on the Ubuntu Server.
 
 Hope this helps,
  John
 

John,

What competence level does the Ubuntu Professional Course start at?

Barry T


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Toshiba Portege P4010 - BIOS Bad Block 3

[Barry Titterton]

On Mon, 2011-10-17 at 17:44 +0100, David Goldsbrough wrote:
 Hi,
 
 Up until Friday I was happily runnng Ubuntu on subject machine.  It
 has never managed to do a restore before, and I have always shutdown
 and re-booted whenever softaware updates requested it.
 
 I have never tried ever to suspend it or hibernate it, due to bad
 attitude on my part as I regard this function as fancy-dan stuff.  I
 also suspected it would never be able to cope on the basis that if
 restart never worked then suspend or hibernate never would either.
 
 On Friday though my wisdom got the better of me and I tried to
 suspend it.  Boy, did it sulk.  It just went dead!  Any attempts to
 re-boot it results in an error message BIOS(Block3) is damaged! (call
 user serviceman.)  Serviceman: Place maintenance disk in drive and
 press any key when ready.
 
 I have spent the weekend on and off researching the net and trying a
 few things.  It would seem that I am unable to access the BIOS at boot
 time.  Pressing F2 is the normal access method but I have tried the
 ESC key and the left-shift key.  The DVD drive is not accessible and
 there is no floppy drive.  I do have a usb read-only floppy drive
 available but I suspect the usb ports are not operable either.
 
 I did see some reference to getting a boot floppy and altering some of
 the bytes with a hex editor which somehow fooled the BIOS and then
 allowed the BIOS to be flashed.  I never pursued this solution as I
 could not think (or did not have the means) of achieving.  I also had
 some doubt whether it would work.  I could find nobody who had
 actually really fully solved the BIOS error.
 
 The machine cost me less than £50 some years ago, but I loved it so
 much!  It was my Ubuntu/linux learning platform.  Is it time for the
 scrap heap?
 
 DaveG
 

Dave,
You have my sympathies. Exactly the same thing happened to me a couple
of years ago when my first Ubuntu laptop, also a second hand Toshiba,
failed. My son shut the lid without shutting it down first. It tried to
hibernate and never worked again! The machine had a floppy drive so I
even tried the official Toshiba BIOS repair floppy image from their web
site, but nothing worked. I think you are looking at a new machine.

Barry T



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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Mobile Broadband dongles?

[Barry Titterton]

On Thu, 2011-10-13 at 16:28 +0100, Gordon wrote:
 Thanks to all who responded - my problem is, when looking at mobile
 broadband deals, there's no technical detail on the dongles (or other
 kit) at all. All they say is compatible with PC (by which I take it
 they mean Windows) or MAC.
 How do I find out what the dongles actually are?
 

You could always pop into your local phone company shop, explain your
problem and ask to have a look at an example of the dongle that you are
interested in. You can then make a note of the manufacturer and part
number that is printed on the label on the back of the device. Google is
then your friend. Shop staff are usually helpful if they think they are
going to get a sale in the future.

Barry T


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Mobile Broadband dongles?

[Barry Titterton]

On Wed, 2011-10-12 at 22:28 +0100, Tony Pursell wrote:
 
 
 On 12 October 2011 20:57, Gordon gbpli...@gmail.com wrote:
 What's the latest on these? Do they all work now in Ubuntu or
 do some not? 
 --
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 https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk
 https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
 
 
 My Huawei dongle from Vodafone works OK.  I think most Huawei models
 work.
 
 Tony

I have a T-Mobile USB 615 dongle, which is a Huawei E173. It does not
work out of the box with 10.04. The dongle has both mobile broadband and
data storage abilities, and ubuntu mounts it as data storage only. I
have managed to get it working with a bit of command line modification.
It does not work with 11.04 either, this time it is mounted as a simple
wireless LAN dongle which automatically connects to my home network just
like the internal wireless card (which I turned off when the dongle is
connected). I haven't bothered trying to get it to work as a 3G mobile
broadband unit as I always use the 10.04 machine when I'm away from
home.

Barry T


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] [marketing] A lesson in marketing - Congo condoms - Ted5 minute video

[Barry Titterton]

On Thu, 2011-09-22 at 22:15 +0100, alan c wrote:
 On 22/09/11 18:06, paul sutton wrote:
  If a friend complains their computer has a virus,  ask what is a
  virus?,and say you use Ubuntu and never have that issue,  offer to dual
  boot their computer or at least boot a live cd and recover that
  essential file, they a) leave happy, b) get a good impression of how
  ubuntu (or any linux) is a good thing,  and c) hopefully ask for it to
  be installed.
 
 The timescales in such a situation can be quite long.
 
 I am in contact with a lot of Windows users at  perpetual novice
 level, and if they know me they seem to regard my knowledge with some
 awe (which is touching because as Ubuntu users go I am on the novice
 side of experienced). However, people -simply-  -do-  -not-  -believe-
 what I say and what others say, about, say  Ubuntu.
 
 I have a friend who I worked with before we both retired some years
 ago. He was/is a mathematician and engineer. He was senior to me in
 technical matters. It took literally *several* years, until his XP
 laptop ground to a halt, before he was prepared to accept my help to
 make a dual boot machine. He now uses only the Ubuntu os. The turning
 point was a conversation, when I (again) (tactfully) mentioned the
 Ubuntu alternative. He suddenly said
  'I HATE' Windows!
 He said he had another friend who was saying the *opposite* to what I
 was saying. That if he could not do Windows, then Linux was NOT for
 him (the 'L' word again) He trusted us both. And had a conflict of
 direction. His existing XP at least was familiar.
 
 So, we live in a situation where only complete desperation will prompt
 users to risk change. Then they need a lot of hand holding because at
 every turn they are faced with a Windows user prompting them to stay
 in the club.
 
 This is more than a monopoly of retail supply, there is a long term
 effect, fed I guess from Microsoft and their very skillful marketing
 people. There is psychology and emotional issues. Part of the effect
 arises from users being and feeling unable to understand or control
 what happens. They get to feel helpless. Things go wrong as they try
 to go through hoops, and they get frightened.  And stay frightened.
 
 They get so un confident that it really takes an exceptional friend
 and exceptional situation to prompt a change.
 
 -- 
 alan cocks
 Ubuntu user
 
I have managed one convert and one potential convert in the last two
weeks by using the try it on an old machine approach.
The first person is a member of a computer club where I help out. He had
an old Acer laptop that originally had Vista on it, and ran so slow that
it was almost unusable. 48 hours after installing 10.04 he sent me an
email saying he was delighted with the revitalised machine and asked for
me to put Ubuntu on his desktop and also on his Win7 net book, which he
says runs too slow.
The second potential convert is a young work colleague who is attempting
his own install of 11.04 this weekend. I will have to wait until Monday
to find out how successful he was.
I hope that they will tell others about their experiences and encourage
them to give Ubuntu a try.
I also have a spare laptop running 11.04 that I offer to loan to people
who express an interest in Ubuntu so that they can try it at full speed
with no perceived risk to their own machines. I find that Windows users
do not fully trust the live CD concept; to them a CD = Install Software.
It helps to get past their initial fears.

Barry T


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] nottingham release party

[Barry Titterton]

On Tue, 2011-09-13 at 19:49 +, smitti...@gmail.com wrote:
 I'd be willing to organise a release party in the nottingham area if there 
 was enough interest?
 
 Any nottingham users out there?
 
 James smith (smittix)
 Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

I'm just across the border in Derbyshire. I will be happy to travel
over. There is also a small but active LUG in Mansfield, some of the
members may be interested.

Barry T



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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Buying a computer suitable for Ubuntu

[Barry Titterton]

On Tue, 2011-08-23 at 13:56 +0100, scoundrel50a wrote:
 Ok, will have a look at the pod entry, but if I dont get that one, like 
 I said, I dont know anything about computers, the last one I chose a 
 couple of months ago, doesnt work with Ubuntu 11.04, and from what I can 
 see isnt going to work with that or anything after.knowing my luck, 
 that will never happen winning a computer...
 
 So the reason I asked is that somebody who knows more, and somebody who 
 can point me in the direction of one that will, or some that will, which 
 will help me not to waste anymore money..just sending me to naked 
 computers doesnt mean anything to me...as I know you do have 
 experiencve with quite a few different models of pc etc
 
 thank you
 

Lenovo generally work well. I am very happy with my G550.
Linux Emporium offer a range of pre-installed laptops. There is a G560-1
for £336 which sounds like a good deal. The service and support from
Linux Emporium is very good as well.

http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk/hardware/hardware-laptops.html

Barry T


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu pre-installed

[Barry Titterton]

On Mon, 2011-08-08 at 18:13 +0100, Barry Drake wrote:
 They tried selling a
 range of equipment with Ubuntu pre-installed, and found that currently,
 they were not up to giving Ubuntu OS support.
 
 A manufacturer is legally obliged to give proper support, and this
 applies to Cougar, so I fully understand their reluctance - they just
 don't have Linux aware staff.

Perhaps a job opportunity for a linux user? Anyone who is interested
could could offer their services as either staff or freelance.

I'm only a few miles away in mid Derbyshire so I shall keep them in
mind.

Barry T



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Re: [ubuntu-uk] 30 test drive of Ubuntu: PC world

[Barry Titterton]

On Wed, 2011-06-08 at 09:50 +0100, Andrés Muñiz Piniella wrote:
 Silly me forgot the link!
 http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/229187/30_days_withubuntu_linux.html
 
 30 Days With Ubuntu Linux
 
 By Tony Bradley, PCWorld
 @TheTonyBradley
 
 
 On 6/8/11, Andrés Muñiz Piniella andre...@gmail.com wrote:
  I've been following up 7 days of this guy fighting a change to Ubuntu
  from Windows7.
 
  Sadly he is finding loads of contradictory messages, rants about
  linux, rants about mint, rants about nvidia drivers...
 
  But a very interesting read. Linux foundation is retweeting every
  single blogpost.
 
  --
  Andrés Muñiz-Piniella
 

Has anybody else been following this series? What are your thoughts?

Barry T


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] 30 test drive of Ubuntu: PC world

[Barry Titterton]

On Sun, 2011-07-03 at 10:07 +0100, Barry Titterton wrote:
  
  30 Days With Ubuntu Linux
  
  By Tony Bradley, PCWorld
  @TheTonyBradley
 
 Has anybody else been following this series? What are your thoughts?
 
 Barry T
 
 
My thoughts are that on the whole the series was interesting, however I
was generally disappointed by the reviewer. He intended to spend each
day with a different feature of the OS but he seemed incapable of
spending half an hour on Google to do basic research. He seemed to give
up very easily when things didn't go exactly as he wanted. For example
he condemned GNUCash for the wizard not offering the option to import
Quicken files, it was pointed out by GNUCash users that this option is
available in FileImport. He (or more correctly his wife) also condemned
GIMP for not having an 'Eye Dropper' tool when this icon is clearly
there on the Tools menu box. It was sloppy journalism.

He made no secret that he was a die hard MS fan. This did seem to
blinker him to home truths that self evident to other windows users,
such as Windows does not 'Just Work' as he repeatedly maintained. He
kept mentioning the effort needed to learn a new way of working as being
a problem. Has must have forgotten the culture shock of jumping from
Office 2003 to Office 2010, or WinXP to Win7. I know this first hand as
my employer is doing both changes this year and the negative effect on
productivity for some people is quite marked: one colleague spent 20
minutes trying to find a formatting option in Word2010 that he would
have done in 30 seconds in the previous version of Office. At home my
wife prefers Ubuntu over Win7 precisely because the learning curve is
much smaller when coming from WinXP.

For a technology professional his understanding of the different
concepts was quite poor at times. He repeatedly laboured the short
comings of the default software while completely ignoring the fact that
the Ubuntu ISO file is a master piece of packaging at 650Mb: a Win7
installation disc can be approx 3GB without the office suite, depending
upon version. On the other hand he did give credit where it was due for
features such as security and the software centre.

Overall a good example of the reaction of a windows user who is happy
with what he's got and has no real interest in changing.

Barry T


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] What aren't we doing? What should we be doing?

[Barry Titterton]

On Fri, 2011-06-24 at 10:11 +0100, Alan Pope wrote:
 As a team we do stuff for the Ubuntu. Most of this stuff is based on
 ideas a few people have had within the team. This includes:-
 
 * Support
 * Advocacy
 * Promotion
 * Events
 
 I figured it's time to get some fresh ideas.
 
 So, simple question:-
 
 As a team, what should we be doing within the UK?
 
 What would be really good is to just brainstorm, get a bunch of ideas,
 NOT debate each one into the ground, just come up with ideas, the
 details can follow later.
 
 Here's my starter for 10.
 
 UK Team should seek monetary sponsorship from companies and
 individuals, and invest that sponsorship money in Ubuntu related
 projects and events in the UK
 
 Your turn.
 
 Al.
 

1. Get the Ubuntu name and product known to the general public by having
stalls/displays at any public event: fêtes, fairs etc, not just tech
specific.

2. Have a supply of pre-loaded laptops (recycled or donated) that can be
loaned to people who express an interest, for up to a month at a time.
Follow up with help for the full install. This way people can try in
safety and at full speed compared with a live CD.

Barry T


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Dad's Computer - for want of a better subject

[Barry Titterton]

On Wed, 2011-06-22 at 11:52 +0100, alan c wrote:
 On 22/06/11 09:14, Jon Reynolds wrote:
 
Either way, I wish my Dad would just let me put Ubuntu on there and
 
 Do you intend to support his use of non free software when you 
 obviously feel strongly about it?
 
 If any of my family, or friends want my support for their PCs, it 
 *only* comes if they are using Ubuntu, no way for Windows. Although if 
 they use Windows, that is their choice.
 
 My own life is too short to spend time supporting something I dislike 
 for many reasons.
 
 -- 
 alan cocks
 Ubuntu user
 

I help local Windows users but try to get in a comment like you
wouldn't have had this problem with Ubuntu. I see it as a form of
evangelism.

There is one women whose machine got borked by a virus, who is now
considering giving Ubuntu a try.

Barry T



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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Please help with research ...

[Barry Titterton]

On Thu, 2011-05-05 at 20:58 +0100, Barry Drake wrote:
 On Wed, 2011-05-04 at 23:25 +0100, Barry Titterton wrote:
  Just done a talk for a local computer club. Five of the members took
  discs to try so I will report back if and when I have any feedback.
 
 Please.  That would be really helpful.  Thanks for thinking about us.
 
 Kind regards, Barry.
 -- 
 Barry Drake is a member of the the Ubuntu Advertising team.
 http://ubuntuadverts.org/
 
 
Hi Barry,

Only one of the five has so far had the courage to try their disc
(version 10.10). They are a retired couple that have two computers: a
desktop and a laptop both running Win7. I would class them as having a
beginners level of expertise but are comfortable with their computers.

They had immediate problems as they loaded their disc into their laptop
and expected it to start running straight away, just like any other
software CD. All they saw was the pop-up window asking what they wanted
to do with the disc, the first option being 'install WUBI', so they
panicked and removed the disc. The main problem was that they waited 3
and a half weeks before trying the disc and forgot the verbal
instructions that I gave about having to restart the laptop. The object
lesson from this is to give a leaflet with the CD that has simple
instructions on what to do with the disc.

I visited their home and walked them through getting the disc working.
It should also be noted that they were both unaware of the 'Press F12
For Boot Options' requirement on the laptop. The message only appeared
for a fraction of a second during boot. They both said that without my
help they would have returned the disc unused.

They have said that they liked what they saw of Ubuntu, especially its
simple layout, but they have not been tempted to try a full install.
They did say that they have seen Win7 slow down since its original
install just like the Vista system they had before.

Cheers,

Barry T


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Linux Awareness

[Barry Titterton]

On Mon, 2011-05-23 at 14:07 +0100, Dino T. wrote:
 Hi
 
 A friend and I are brainstorming on a 2 hour presentation to give to
 Universities and Colleges across Liverpool. To increase awareness and
 show students that they can save money using free/open source
 software. This is scheduled for around September 2011.
 
 What do you suggest we cover? Has to be very basic too for beginners
 and if they want to learn more, we'll be providing sheets out to links
 etc.
 
 Dino T.
 
I recently did a Linux Awareness talk for a local computer club. I based
the talk around these points:
What is Linux and Open Source?
What do you get?
What are the advantages?
What are the disadvantages? (You need to be honest).
And because linux take up is poor in the UK I did a round up of who uses
linux around the world to show that it isn't a niche Geek way of
working.
Also students are very keen on Fairtrade so push the FOSS =
Fairtrade/Ethical Computing as well.

Barry


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Race Online 2012 PCs shocker!

[Barry Titterton]

 http://www.raceonline2012.org
 

The main site says that MS are offering a machine through
www.getonlineathome.org that has 1Gb for £95. It makes the Remploy offer
look a bit poor in comparison.

Barry


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Race Online 2012 - Another PC Option

[Barry Titterton]

A few weeks back Tim Dobson posted a link to Access Space in Sheffield.
I dropped in there last Saturday, and they made me very welcome. They
also told me that they will make up a machine from used parts, loaded
with OSS, for nothing. That's right: free software on a free computer.
You have to drive over and collect it of course, but I'm sure you will
get more than 256Mb RAM. They will also teach you how to use it. So if
you know of someone who could use a little help to get started give them
a call.

www.access-space.org

Barry




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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Please help with research ...

[Barry Titterton]

On Mon, 2011-04-11 at 15:47 +0100, Barry Drake wrote:
 Hi there ...  At last night's ubuntu-adverts meeting, I arranged an
 experimental survey for research.  I hope some of you can consider
 helping with it.
 
 First, find one or more willing volunteers from among friends.
 Volunteers  need to be 'Ubuntu Virgins'.  They are computer literate,
 but have no  experience at all of any flavour of Linux.  
 
 Give them a Maverick 10.10  LiveCD and ask them to run it and
 familiarise themselves with Ubuntu.   After a week to ten days, arrange
 to interview them and make out a  report.
 
 There are no specific questions; just ask them how things went, and
 report back on their findings, what problems they found, and what they
 would have liked to do but were unable to find a way of doing it.  Note
 their overall impression and whether they would consider moving to
 Ubuntu.  Please give reasons for or against.  The interview needs to be
 conducted with great sensitivity and a good listening ear.  If all goes
 well, you should hardly need to say anything; just listen!
 
 I have placed an etherpad at: http://openetherpad.org/cZDc393hcW for
 feedback and comments.  Please consider helping with this.  If you are
 in contact with other locos/groups, you might care to forward this to
 them.
 
 Kind regards, Barry.
 -- 
 Barry Drake is a member of the the Ubuntu Advertising team.
 http://ubuntuadverts.org/
 
 
 
Just done a talk for a local computer club. Five of the members took
discs to try so I will report back if and when I have any feedback.

Barry T


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[ubuntu-uk] Android hit by rogue app viruses

[Barry Titterton]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12633923

They sound more like trojans than viruses to my untrained ear.
I expect the same would apply to any linux system if you installed a bad
software package; the malicious code would then be free to do what it
liked. Though it does say towards the end of the article that Google has
closed the vulnerabilities that the code was exploiting.

The article also quoted Trend Micro having a swipe at Open Source saying
that it was a very attractive criminal playground.

Would the experts like to comment on my understanding of this, or on
security in general?

Barry T


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Live usb question

[Barry Titterton]

On Sat, 2011-02-19 at 21:32 +, Jim Price wrote:
 On 19/02/11 15:54, Barry Titterton wrote:

  Can any of the members explain it? Is this normal behaviour for a live
  USB?

Thanks to Rob, Neil and Jim for their answers. Much appreciated.

Barry T


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Click ....

[Barry Titterton]

On Sat, 2011-02-12 at 20:12 +, Barry Drake wrote:
 On Sat, 2011-02-12 at 19:36 +, alan c wrote:
   On 12 February 2011 12:15, Barry Drakebdr...@crosswire.org  wrote:
  
Hi  any of you see 'Click' on BBC news this morning?
 
 It's back on now at : http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m9ry
 -- 
 Barry Drake is a member of the the Ubuntu Advertising team.
 http://ubuntuadverts.org/
 
 
This is the second time in two weeks that Click has mentioned Linux.
Last week they had an article about a computer conference in Brazil, and
they mentioned how popular Linux is in that country. Small steps.

Barry T


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Fwd: [Ossg-announcements] Adoption of Open Source across HM Government – London 22/02/11 and 01/03/11

[Barry Titterton]

On Thu, 2011-02-03 at 20:39 +, Chris Rowson wrote:
 I thought that some of you may might be interested in this.
 
 
 Chris
 

This is very interesting, though some of the statements and rhetorical
questions raised an eyebrow. HMG's track record of software projects is
far from glorious so I hope that we do not get a Birmingham City Council
experience.

Barry


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] ubuntu-uk Digest, Vol 69, Issue 59

[Barry Titterton]

On Wed, 2011-01-26 at 21:06 +, bod...@googlemail.com wrote:
 On the subject of crapware, my boss decided to try ubuntu on his new dell 
 latitude laptop running win7, he installed it by himself, and came to me the 
 next day when it was broken. Turns out dell wrote a dock-like application for 
 win7, which they preinstalled and it cripples grub everytime it loads.
 
 That was the end of his Linux adventure
 
 Bodsda

Does anyone else find this something of a coincidence after Dell
suddenly stopped shipping Ubuntu pre-loaded? Or have I got carried away
with my conspiracy theories?

Barry



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Re: [ubuntu-uk] netbook wifi traffic disconnects all

[Barry Titterton]

On Tue, 2011-01-18 at 23:11 +, Bill Cumming wrote:



 I've a Netgear DG834gt Router with custom firmware,
 
 It does the same! With me It's a problem with the way the router
 handles ports, 
 It only happens when i'm downloading many torrents, causes the routers
 wireless not respond.
 
 My router stands vertically with a 4inch gap all around it in a room
 with no central heating on (it's around 16c in the room) so don't
 think it's not an over heating problem.
 
 It sounds more like a problem with the drivers of the wireless, Can't
 remember where I read it but there's something about the number of
 ports the router can open and the speed the connections are recycled
 causes the drivers to effectively crash if it happens too quickly.
 
 As I said, it only happens with me If I'm downloading multiple
 torrents and they all try to open more than 256 ports each..
 
 -- 
 Regards
 
 Bill Cumming
 
 Twitter: @s0l_uk
 Skype: s0litaire
 eMail: b...@s0l.co.uk

I have also had a problem recently with my DG834GT, which suddenly
started dropping connections. I traced this to the channel that I was
using. The router defaults to channel 6. I changed to channel 11 and the
problem went away. I think that one of my neighbours must have bought a
wireless device such as a base station telephone which was swamping the
signal for channel 6. It is worth a try as it is simple to change and
will not cost you a penny.

Barry


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] buying a laptop?

[Barry Titterton]

On Mon, 2011-01-17 at 09:53 +, Barry Drake wrote:

 I've heard very good reports about them, but looking at their website, I
 thought they were a tad expensive.  Is their stuff higher spec than your
 average Computer World items?
 
 Regards,  Barry Drake.

I went to them because they were recommended by several members on this
mailing list, and was not disappointed. They sell IBM/Lenovo machines
which have a reputation for reliability, and the parent company is known
to be friendly to Linux. I believe the machines arrive at LE without
Ubuntu so they have to be unpacked, software installed, tested, and
repacked. This will cost money so I was prepared to pay a little more.
Also as a relatively new user at the time I needed the the guarantee
that everything had been fully tested and would work without problems,
as it has for the last thirteen months despite everything my family has
thrown at it. Finally the after sales support has been excellent, and
you know that you are dealing with Linux enthusiasts.

Barry Titterton


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] buying a laptop?

[Barry Titterton]

On Sun, 2011-01-16 at 17:39 +, George Tripp wrote:
 Up to now I've put Ubuntu on ancient PCs I already had. Currently I'm 
 thinking 
 about getting a laptop but don't want to spend my hard earned cash find I've 
 bought something that can't run the operating system I wish to.
 
 Looked at a couple of companies which will sell machines without any op 
 system. 
 Pcspecialists: apparently there's a problem that the touchhpad doesn't work 
 with 
 ubuntu
 Novatech: don't know if their hardware is compatible with ubuntu or not
 
 Looked round PC World a few machines there look reasonable spec/price but 
 don't 
 appear on the Ubuntu-certified hardware list.
 
 What do other people do? Any advice?
 
George,

I have a Lenovo G550 which I bought pre-installed (64bit version) from
the Linux Emporium in Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham. They are very
friendly and helpful. The machine itself has worked flawlessly for the
last 13 months.

Barry


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Government spending cuts should affect us!

[Barry Titterton]

On Sun, 2011-01-09 at 17:44 +, Barry Drake wrote:
 I've just posted the below to my MP.  How's about if we all do something like 
 that?  Takes five minutes or less ...
 
 Hi Vernon   There are millions of pounds to be save on IT by all our 
 government departments.  
 Take a quick look at any of the following.  Is our present government looking 
 into this?  If not,
 why not.
 
 1) Specsavers upgrades to Linux:
 http://www.computerworlduk.com/in-depth/outsourcing/2001/specsavers-cio-explains-his-vision/
 
 2) Gendarmerie Nationale upgrades to Ubuntu:
 http://blog.canonical.com/?p=6 
 http://www.canonical.com/about-canonical/resources/case-studies/french-national-police-force-saves-%E2%82%AC2-million-year-ubuntu
 
 
 3) GOSH - Great Ormond Street upgrades:
 http://www.canonical.com/about-canonical/resources/case-studies
 
 Thanks.  Barry Drake

Done. I will let you know what reply, if any, I get from my MP
(Conservative).

Barry Titterton



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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Is grandr the best way to use digital projector?

[Barry Titterton]

On Sun, 2010-10-31 at 11:51 +, Alan Bell wrote:

 install the openoffice.org-presenter-console package
 
 The Presenter Console for Impress is a feature that aids a presenter
 during a
 slide show. It provides information on a second screen, that typically
 is not
 visible to the audience. This includes
 
   * a view to the currently displayed slide (for when the presenter
 faces the
 audience and can not see the primary screen)
   * a preview of the next slide or next effect
   * the notes of the current slide
   * the current time and/or the elapsed time
   * navigation buttons for going to the previous/next slide
 
 -- 
 Alan Bell

I used this add-on for the first time last night, and it worked
beautifully.

It was also my first time doing as presentation using Ubuntu. I was tech
support for my wife who was doing a talk to a small group of women.
Everything work perfectly.

Barry



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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Support - Where are we in the real world

[Barry Titterton]

I live in Belper, Derbyshire, but am inexperienced so need help rather
than give it.

There is a LUG in Mansfield, Notts, that meets occasionally at a
member's home, there is also a South Derbyshire LUG that meets once in a
blue moon.

Barry



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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Upgrade woes

[Barry Titterton]

On Tue, 2010-10-12 at 12:51 +, Glen Mehn wrote:
 Please please please file against update-manager.
 
 Rob: you can try this:
 Boot from usb stick or live cd
 Mount your filesystems in their correct places, so that your old / is at 
 /mounts/oldroot
 Open a terminal
 Type 'chroot /mounts/oldroot'
 Run 'dpkg --configure -a'
 Run 'grub-install' (shouldn't be necessary, but can't hurt)
 
 Exit the chroot
 Unmount 
 Reboot without the cd
 
 Best of luck!
 Glen Mehn
 e: glen.m...@oba.co.uk t: @gmehn skype: glenmehn 
 
Glen,

I finally found the time to try and fix this machine but I could not get
this to work when running from a LTS live CD: when running dpkg
virtually every line in the terminal had permission denied, then the
process gave up with the message too many errors.

Can you please give me exact, Linux for Idiots instructions for every
step of the operation as I am obviously not doing something right.


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[ubuntu-uk] Upgrade woes

[Barry Titterton]

I have just tried to upgrade my sickly install of 10.04 to 10.10. The
install process failed just after half way when it threw up a window
which appeared to be asking me what I wanted to do with my modified
version of GRUB2. This window was positioned behind the progress window,
and I could only see the top quarter of the window, which contained a
drop down list of options of what to do with my current version of GRUB.
The bottom three quarters of the window were hidden so I could not
select any 'Accept' button. I was unable to move either window to one
side, nor shrink either window. The install stopped at this point and my
only option was to press the power button. My computer is now dead. I
shall have to download the ISO and try a fresh install.

Please note that I had added boot options to GRUB in an effort to solve
my reliability problems in 10.04.

Has anyone else seen this problem? I do not know if this is a bug that
needs filing, or another symptom of my faulty install of 10.04.

Barry


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Upgrade woes

[Barry Titterton]

On Tue, 2010-10-12 at 14:11 +0100, Liam Proven wrote:

 Um... I have to ask. You do know about how to switch between windows
 with Alt-Tab and Alt-Shift-Tab, don't you? And that you can drag any
 window from any point (not just the title bar) if you hold down the
 Alt key as you drag, so you can reposition a window even if it doesn't
 have a title bar or it is entirely covered?
 
 -- 
 Liam Proven • Info  profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven
 Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lpro...@gmail.com
 Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884 • Fax: + 44 870-9151419
 AIM/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven • MSN: lpro...@hotmail.com • ICQ: 73187508
 

I could see enough of the offending window to select it but it would not
move, either sideways or to the top of the pile.

Barry


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Diagnostics tools

[Barry Titterton]

On Mon, 2010-10-04 at 16:32 +0100, pmgazz wrote:

 One of mine's making a noise like an idling black cab

This is definitely the fan motor bearings. I had one go just like that
last year. The motor gets stuck in a resonance mode before it gets up to
full speed, hence the noise and poor cooling performance. A well judged
shock can help the motor to drive through the resonance zone and get to
full speed but things will only get worse over time.

Barry


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] unable to install 10.04.1

[Barry Titterton]

On Sat, 2010-10-02 at 16:17 +0100, Norman Silverstone wrote:
 I have just finished trying to install 10.04.1 onto an old desktop
 computer belonging to a friend of mine and failed to do so. The
 installation started OK and then the red and white dots froze and the
 Caps Lock and Scroll Lock lights on the keyboard kept flashing on and
 off. I am confident that the CD is OK because it has worked on another
 of my machines. Not wanting to let my friend go away Ubuntu less I
 installed 9.10 with no problems.
 
 I wonder why 10.04.1 would not install?
 
 Norman
 
 
10.04 does appear to have significant stability issues on some machines,
please see this (very long) thread on the forum:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1478787page=110

The freezes can happen during installation or at any time during normal
operation. Some users have found turning off the ACPI power management
function, either in the BIOS or using boot options, helps, but this
action may give you other problems such as the shut down command not
working properly. The instability problems go away if you revert to an
earlier version of the kernel, i.e. pre 2.6.32, as you have already
found by using 9.10.

Barry


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] recommend a small form factor pc

[Barry Titterton]

On Mon, 2010-09-20 at 21:05 +0100, Jacob Mansfield wrote:
 any suggestions for a cheep laptop

Are you looking for something to Tweet on?







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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Pasting home directory into new and version upgrade installs?

[Barry Titterton]

On Sat, 2010-09-18 at 02:00 +0100, Liam Proven wrote:

 Get them onto the LTS release *now* and then you can safely leave 'em
 there 'til 2012. *Don't* put them onto 9.10, it's already obsolescent.

On the other hand 9.10 on my laptop is rock solid while LTS on my
desktop is flaky with random freezes. This is widespread problem as
shown below.
(https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/585765)
I would favour using the most stable version for their particular
hardware rather than automatically going for the latest and the greatest
and risk ending up with dissatisfied users.


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Northern Installfest

[Barry Titterton]

On Wed, 2010-09-01 at 21:52 +0100, Daniel Case wrote:
 Hi there fellow's!
 
 
 In tonight's meeting I brought up the possibility of having an
 installfest up in the north for those of us who cannot get all the way
 down to London. I was thinking Leeds or Manchester might be a good
 place to have it unless you guys would rather have it somewhere else?
 
 
 How many of you would be able to attend?
 
 
 Daniel

Leeds is best for me as it is approx an hour's drive straight up the M1.

Barry


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] An interesting approach to advocacy videos

[Barry Titterton]

On Sun, 2010-08-29 at 13:34 +0100, Kris Douglas wrote:
 On 29 August 2010 11:17, Mary Mooney memoo...@gmail.com wrote:
  I haven't seen it before.  It was great.
 
  A well-developed sense of humour is the pole that adds balance to your
  steps as you walk the tightrope of life.
  William Arthur Ward
 
  Q:What's tiny and yellow and very, very, dangerous?
  A:A canary with the super-user password.
 
 
  On 29 August 2010 10:30, Martin Jernberg cs_bit...@msn.com wrote:
 
  seen it before, its awesome :D
 
  Hello,
  I though you many enjoy the following video as much as I did.
 
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX8yrOAjfKM
 
 That was amazing...
 
 -- 
 Regards, Kris Douglas.
  T. 0845 004 2066 | M. 07728574285
 

What themes would you all suggest to update this to The Matrix Runs On
Win7?

I would suggest This version of Kung-Fu is no longer compatible with
the Matrix, please purchase the latest version.


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