[SOLVED] VLC could not decode the format "hevc"

Problem

VLC shows the following error when opening H.265/HEVC files:

VLC could not decode the format "hevc"

Solution

We need to install the package vlc-plugin-libde265. Open a terminal window and run:

sudo apt-get install vlc-plugin-libde265 -y

References

How to install H.265 / HEVC codec on Ubuntu Linux?

[SOLVED] Can't login into Twitter on Firefox

Problem

When trying to log in into a Twitter account using the Firefox web browser, the page refreshes after hitting the login button but our status remains as logged off.

Solution

Remove all Twitter cookies. Here's how:

1. Open Firefox preferences.

   

2. Open the Privacy tab and click on "remove individual cookies"

   

3. Search for twitter, select all Twitter cookies (using shift) and hit Remove Selected

   

4. Voilá! You should be able to login into your Twitter account now.

[SOLVED] Firefox opens blank pages intead of URL

Problem

When trying to open an URL with Firefox (eg. via File Manager of Mail Reader), Firefox opens a blank page or your homepage (if it's set to something other than blank) instead of the URL.

This situation has been reported and confirmed as a bug (bug #1427144 on launchpad).

Solution

It seems that the problem is in the file /usr/share/xfce4/helpers/firefox.desktop, and replacing the last line fixes it.

Fix

You can fix it manually (1) or just run the command (2) that creates a backup and automatically replaces the broken line.

1. Manual: Open /usr/share/xfce4/helpers/firefox.desktop with your favorite text editor and root permissions (eg. sudo mousepad /usr/share/xfce4/helpers/firefox.desktop). Then replace the following line:

   X-XFCE-CommandsWithParameter=%B -remote "openURL(%s)";%B %s;

   With this one:

   X-XFCE-CommandsWithParameter=%B %s;%B %s;

2. Automatic: Open a terminal window and run:

   cd /usr/share/xfce4/helpers/ && sudo cp firefox.desktop firefox.desktop.bak && sudo sed -i 's/-remote "openURL(%s)"/%s/' firefox.desktop
   

References

firefox open blank pages when called from exo-open

[TIP] Convert jpeg to PDF

In this article we'll learn how to create a PDF file from a bunch of jpeg images (it can be adapted for other image types as well).

Install

First we need to install the imagemagick package, so open a terminal window and run:

sudo apt-get install imagemagick -y

Convert

Then change the current directory to where the images are located and use this command to convert to PDF:

convert *.jpeg output.pdf

Change output.pdf to whatever name you like/need.

[NEWS] Xubuntu 14.10 Released!

Xubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn has been released.

No big news to report, but here's some changes/highlights:

• New Xfce Power Manager plugin is added to the panel
• Items in the newly themed alt-tab dialog can now be clicked with the mouse
• pkexec instead of gksu
• XChat removed and Inxi added to default installed applications.

Get it here. You can download the new Xubuntu via Torrent or HTTP. If possible choose Torrent to not overload the servers.

References

Xubuntu 14.10 released! | Xubuntu.org

[SOLVED] Thunar Error Setting Permissions

Problem

When copying or moving files to a NTFS partition an annoying error message about setting permissions is shown. The files are still copied/moved.

Solution

This can be easily fixed by adding uid=1000 to your mounting options in /etc/fstab.

1. Open fstab with root permissions: sudo mousepad /etc/fstab (replace mousepad with the command for your favorite text editor).
2. Find the line corresponding to your NTFS partition (see example bellow for help).
3. Add uid=1000 after umask=007, use commas (again see example).

Example

How it looks by default:

# /media/Data was on /dev/sdb6 during installation
UUID=702907667255DAFB /media/Data     ntfs    defaults,umask=007,gid=46 0       0

After adding uid=1000:

# /media/Data was on /dev/sdb6 during installation
UUID=702907667255DAFB /media/Data     ntfs    defaults umask=007,uid=1000,gid=46 0       0

[SOLVED] Thunar Slow Startup

Problem

Thunar takes several seconds to open when it's run for the first time on the session.

Solution

Open a terminal window and run this command:

sudo sed -i 's/AutoMount=true/AutoMount=false/' /usr/share/gvfs/mounts/network.mount

References

[SOLVED] Thunar slow to start under xfce 4.10