Ubuntu 9.10: Hard Drive Bad Sectors

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.

Ubuntu 9.04: No Sound with Flash Videos

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.

Updated instructions from the adobe website.

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.