Tuesday, November 13, 2012

[SOLVED] Suspend causes reboot on Sony Vaio

I was using a Sony Vaio SR29VN and when I tried to resume from suspension, the laptop would reboot instead of resuming. I understand that this may affect other models, however, I don't have a list.

Luckily it's easy to fix: we need to add acpi_sleep=nonvs kernel option to the grub settings.

Fix

Edit (with root permissions) the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX on the file /etc/default/grub, adding the option acpi_sleep=nonvs.

Fixing Vaio suspend problem

Then run this on the command line:

sudo update-grub2

References

suspend causes reboot

[HOW TO] Install and Integrate Dropbox with Thunar

In this article we'll see how to install Dropbox and Thunar integration in Xubuntu.

Thunar Dropbox plugin running on Xubuntu
Thunar Dropbox plugin running on Xubuntu

I've tested this procedure in Xubuntu 12.04 and Xubuntu 12.10 (32 and 64 bits). It also works for the newer version of Thunar (1.5.2 at the time of this writing).

Install

Choose one of the alternatives and run the corresponding command on a terminal window:

Alternative #1 - Install both Dropbox and Thunar plugin
cd && plat=`uname -m`; if [ $plat != "x86_64" ]; then plat="x86"; deb="i386"; else deb="amd64"; fi; wget -O - "http://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.$plat" | tar xzf - && wget -O dropbox-thunar-plugin.deb http://packages.crunchbang.org/waldorf/pool/main/thunar-dropbox-plugin_0.2.0-1_$deb.deb && sudo dpkg -i dropbox-thunar-plugin.deb && rm dropbox-thunar-plugin.deb && ~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd 
Alternative #2 - Install only the Thunar plugin

Choose this option if you have Dropbox already installed.

cd && plat=`uname -m`; if [ $plat != "x86_64" ]; then deb="i386"; else deb="amd64"; fi; wget -O dropbox-thunar-plugin.deb http://packages.crunchbang.org/waldorf/pool/main/thunar-dropbox-plugin_0.2.0-1_$deb.deb && sudo dpkg -i dropbox-thunar-plugin.deb && rm dropbox-thunar-plugin.deb
Alternative #3 - Install only Dropbox

Choose this option if you which to install Dropbox in Xubuntu but don't care about the Thunar integration.

cd && plat=`uname -m`; if [ $plat != "x86_64" ]; then plat="x86"; fi; wget -O - "http://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.$plat" | tar xzf - && ~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd 

Usage

After installing, Thunar must be restarted (killall Thunar && Thunar) for the plugin to work and Dropbox must be running. Also, you may want to add Dropbox to startup, see this and use /home/YOUR_USER/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd as the command (replace YOUR_USER with your username.

References

How To Install Dropbox In Xubuntu And Get Thunar Integration (Xfce)

Sunday, November 11, 2012

[HOW TO] Remove old kernels in Ubuntu

After running the system for a while the Linux kernel gets updated and the old versions are kept installed, even though that aren't needed any more.

Remove old kernels in Ubuntu

In this article I provide a way to remove automatically any kernel version that is older than the current being used.

By the way, I was able to recover more than 1GB of free disk space by running this.

Remove

Open a terminal window and run:

current=`uname -r` && uninstall="" && for version in `dpkg -l linux-image* | grep ii | awk '{ print $2}'`; do if [[ "$version" < "linux-image-$current" ]]; then uninstall=$uninstall" $version"; fi; done && sudo apt-get purge $uninstall -y && sudo update-grub2

References

Remove Old Kernels in Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric ocelot)

Monday, November 5, 2012

[SOLVED] xfrun4/xfce4-appfinder launches very slowly

xfrun4 is a little Xfce program that allows to run commands, without having to open a terminal window. Since Xfce 4.10 it also works as a application launcher.

It is summoned using Alt+F2, and usually it pops right up, but lately it takes several seconds, sometimes almost a minute, to open.

When trying to run it from the terminal, it prints this error:

(xfrun4:6232): xfce4-appfinder-CRITICAL **: Failed to open window: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.

This bug has been reported and there's a workaround: use the --disable-server option.

Fix

So to fix this we'll replace the command for the Alt+F2 shortcut with "xfrun4 --disable-server". Open a terminal window and run:

xfconf-query -c xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts -p '/commands/custom/<Alt>F2' -s "xfrun4 --disable-server"

References

Bug #1048805 “xfrun4 launches very slowly”

[HOW TO] Install Thunar 1.5.1 in Xubuntu (ppa)

Thunar 1.5.1 has been released and it brings tabs support and fixes many bugs (among them the double volume bug).

Here's how to install it using Xubuntu Developers PPA.

Thunar 1.5.1 running on Xubuntu 12.04
Thunar 1.5.1 running on Xubuntu 12.04

Note for Xubuntu 12.04 users: the Xfce 4.10 PPA is required and adding it will upgrade Xfce 4.8 to 4.10.

Install

Open a terminal window and run (tested in 12.04 and 12.10) :

if [ $(lsb_release -r -s) == "12.04" ]; then sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.10 -y; fi && sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.12 -y && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -y

Finally, log out/log in.

Usage

Thunar can be accessed via Applications Menu > Accessories > File Manager or typing the following command: thunar.

References

Xfce 4.12 packages: Xubuntu Developers Team

Sunday, November 4, 2012

[NEWS] Thunar 1.5.1 adds tabs support

The new development release of Thunar, the Xubuntu's default file manger, adds support for tabs browsing.

Release notes for 1.5.1:

Interesting release for a lot of users since this releases introduces the much-requested tabs in Thunar. Furthermore the new side pane has some important bugs fixed, the tool bar had a cleanup and is much more compact now and there is a permanent delete option. There are also various speed optimizations in thumbnail/icon handling and a number of bugs fixed.

Here's how to install it in Xubuntu: link.

References

ANNOUNCE: thunar 1.5.1 released

Thursday, November 1, 2012

[NEWS] No Alpha releases for Ubuntu 13.04

This information has been rumored and now it's official: there will be no Alpha releases, not even a Release Candidate, for Ubuntu 13.04.

However, according to Ubuntu's Release Schedule, Ubuntu flavors will still get a Alpha 1, Alpha 2, Beta 1 and a Beta 2 releases. This includes Xubuntu.

The Beta will released on March 28, 2013 and the final release is scheduled to April 25, 2013.

References

It’s Official: Ubuntu 13.04 Will Drop Alpha Releases