After I upgraded my desktop to Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala), I received an error message from Palimpsest that my hard drive has bad sectors and that I should backup and replace it. I noticed on ubuntuforums that other users were reporting similar messages. It has also been reported as a bug on launchpad.

I have System Mechanic 6 installed on my Windows XP partition. I ran the hard drive repair tool on both partitions and it did not mention anything about bad sectors or needing to replace the hard drive.

I have a Seagate hard drive and I installed Seatools. I ran the diagnostic tests and my hard drive passed.

Before upgrading to Ubuntu 9.04, you should know that users are reporting that they are unable to hear sound while watching flash video. And it has been reported as a bug on launchpad.

After I upgraded to jaunty jackalope, I tried to watch a video on youtube but there was no audio. When I played an mp3 file I could hear it okay.

I tried to follow a ubuntu geek tutorial to fix the problem but it did not work for me. You have to install about a dozen packages in the synaptic manager and change sound settings.

Possible Solution

1. Uninstall flash through Applications> Add/Remove. I removed Macromedia Flash plugin.

Now you will manually install Flash. The following is based on an article from howtogeek.

2. Download Flash Player directly from Adobe’s website. Choose .tar.gz for Linux.

3. After the file downloads, right click it and Extract Here.

4. Open the folder named install_flash_player_10_linux. Go to Edit> Preferences. Under the Behavior tab, select Ask Each Time under the Executuble Text File heading. Then Close.

5. Make sure Firefox is closed and double click on flashplayer-installer. Choose Run in Terminal.

6. Follow the instructions in the terminal window. Installation is complete.

When you go to this flash player page, it should show that the latest version 10,0,22,87 is installed.

Now I can hear audio while playing flash videos. I hope it works for you.

I wanted a folder that requires a password to view its contents so that important documents could be secured and private.

In Ubuntu 8.10, there is a new feature called Encrypted Private Directory which is similar to what I wanted. It creates a new folder called Private under the Home directory. But it’s not very private because the folder is always visible. Accessing the folder is complicated because you have to mount it in the terminal window. If you try to access it through the file browser, you are told “THIS DIRECTORY HAS BEEN UNMOUNTED TO PROTECT YOUR DATA — Run mount.ecryptfs_private to mount again.”

One alternative is Crypt Manager which will encrypt a folder and then require a password to access it. Be sure to read the comments because some people had trouble installing the program and encrypting folders.

I decided to use Crypt Keeper which can be installed from Applications> Add/Remove Programs. After installation, go to Applications> System Tools> Crypt Keeper. A yellow lock will display in your taskbar.

By left clicking the lock icon and choosing New Encrypted Folder you can create a folder that will be password protected. Just be sure to click Forward to move to the next step.

Crypt Keeper does not run at start up. The protected folder is not visible in the file browser until you run Crypt Keeper, select the folder and enter the password.

I used Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) while waiting for 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) to be released. According to Ubuntu Documentation, you should not skip versions when upgrading. Instead you should upgrade sequentially. For me that meant upgrading from 7.10 to 8.04LTS and then 8.10.

Trying out 8.10

Before upgrading I downloaded the 8.10 iso file so I could boot up from the live CD and test it out. After downloading the file, I made sure it was intact. A md5sum file check will display a hash, a string of alphanumberic characters. If the downloaded file’s hash matches the hash Ubuntu provides, the file is intact. You can check the hash on Ubuntu’s website. Then I burned the live CD.

Upgrading to 8.04LTS

I upgraded to 8.04LTS through the Update Manager (System> Admininstration> Update Manager). Because 8.04 is a Long Term Release and 8.10 is not, Ubuntu 8.04 is not configured by default to show a way to upgrade to 8.10. Ubuntu Documentation has a step by step guide to show normal releases (like 8.10) in 8.04 LTS. Go to System> Administration> Software Sources. Click on the Updates tab. Under the heading Release Upgrades choose Normal releases.

Tip: Disable Power Management. While I was downloading the update, Ubuntu would put my computer to sleep which paused the download until I woke it up. System> Preferences> Power Management. Put computer to sleep when inactive: Never.

Ubuntu 8.10

Ubuntu remembered most of my settings. I had to change the screen resolution. It remembered my Firefox bookmarks. Applications I installed in 7.10 were still there. One thing I noticed is that Firefox is more stable. Before sometimes it would crash if I had a flash video playing and I closed the tab.

Tip: Firefox 3 has a zoom capability that can make images appear pixelated and low resolution. To fix this, in Firefox go to View> Zoom and select Zoom Text Only.

On December 4, 2007 Adobe released version 9,0,115,0 of Flash Player. Ubuntu users who try to update to the newest version may get a md5sum mismatch error because the installer was updated but its file name was not changed. (MD5sum verifies file integrity by comparing the hashes of the original file and downloaded file. A hash is an alphanumeric string.)

This is the error message displayed in the terminal window.

Download done.
md5sum mismatch install_flash_player_9_linux.tar.gz
The Flash plugin is NOT installed.

Solutions:

1. Manually install Flash through adobe.com.

2. Or install an unofficial package with instructions from tombuntu.

3. Ubuntu documentation recommends enabling proposed updates which will install a fixed version of flash player. Go to System> Administration> Software Sources. Select the Updates tab, and enable Pre-released Updates (gusty-proposed). If this doesn’t work, Launchpad has further instructions.

Update: February 6, 2008

Today there was a recommended update to fix the md5 error.

Before I installed the update, I ran Adobe’s Flash version test which showed version 9,0,48,0.

I installed the update and went back to the version test to see if I successfully upgraded to 9,0,115,0. But I received a message, “Click here to download plugin.” I assumed that Flash was uninstalled and tried to install it in Firefox.

But I got another error saying that Flash was already installed.

I restarted Firefox and Ubuntu but Flash would still not work. So I decided to manually install Flash. Fortunately, I found an article at howtogeek which details how to install Flash manually.

1. Download Flash Player directly from Adobe’s website. Choose Option 1: .tar.gz.

2. After the file downloads, right click it and Extract Here.

3. Open the folder named install_flash_player_9_linux. Go to Edit> Preferences. Under the Behavior tab, select Ask Each Time under the Executuble Text File heading. Then Close.

4. Make sure Firefox is closed and double click on flashplayer-installer. Choose Run in Terminal.

5. Follow the instructions in the terminal window. (You have to press Enter twice and then type y for yes.) Installation is complete.

6. The flash version test should now display 9,0,115,o.

After using screenlets, I have found that they aren’t very useful. I would have some running on the desktop but I rarely look at them. Also some screenlets would not start up with Ubuntu even though I selected Automatically Start on Login.

To uninstall screenlets through Synaptic Package Manager, go to System> Administration> Synaptic Package Manager. Search for “screenlets”. Select it, right click, and choose Mark for Complete Removal. (This option also removes configuration files associated with screenlets.) Then select Apply.

Go to Settings> Repositories> Third Party Software tab. Select deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/gilir/ubuntu gutsy main universe. Then click on Remove and Close. Screenlets are now uninstalled.

Screenlets.org provides an alternative method for uninstalling screenlets.

To make text more legible for LCD monitors in Ubuntu, go to System> Preferences> Appearance. Click on the Fonts tab and select the Details button. Choose Subpixel (LCDs) under Smoothing and select Slight under Hinting. There is also a how-to video by pcmech.

Below is comparison between font settings: best shapes, subpixel smoothing/full hinting, and subpixel smoothing/slight hinting. Best shapes looks a bit jagged. Subpixel/full is more smooth and subpixel/slight has slightly bolder letters.

A music video using Ubuntu’s desktop effects. (The cool stuff happens about 50 seconds in.) This would make a good ad for ubuntu just like that ipod touch commercial.

Watching youtube or tv shows online, you have to look at a small video or there are distractions like ads.

Ubuntu has an accessibility feature called Enhanced Zoom Desktop. It was designed for visually impaired users but like closed captioning, it’s useful to anyone.

First, make sure it is enabled by going to System> Preferences> Appearance> Visual Effects. Select Preferences and then enable Enhanced Zoom Desktop under the Accessibility category.

To use Ubuntu’s zoom, press and hold the windows start button (between ctrl and alt) and move your mouse’s scroll wheel up to zoom in and down to zoom out. You can move the zoomed in area with your mouse.

Normal View

Zoomed In

I have an intellimouse which has side buttons to go back and forward in an internet browser. But in Ubuntu they don’t work as expected.

I looked online to see if there was a way to make the buttons work. There’s a how-to at sernaonubuntu and at ubuntu’s documentation. It seems complicated, you have to backup and modify xorg.conf, and then play around with settings to get it right.

I wish you could just configure it under System> Preferences> Mouse. Under the Buttons tab there could be settings to assign actions to the side buttons and the scroll button. That would be easier.

As a workaround I installed a Firefox plugin called all in one gestures. It allows you to go back and forward with mouse gestures. To go back to the previous page, press and hold the right mouse button and move the mouse to the left (like a swipe to the left). To go forward, you hold the right button and swipe right. It’s just as quick as using the side buttons.