The Chronicles of Ubuntu

Linux, Touchpad, Elantech

2010-04-28T21:38:00.004-05:00

Since I got my new Dell Mini 10 a few months ago, my touchpad was recognized as a Logitech Wheel Mouse instead of the Elantech touchpad that it really is. As a result, I was not able to change any touchpad related settings (such as tab-to-click).

This all changed yesterday when Florian Ragwitz wrote patches on this bug report and ALLurGroceries helped be figure out how to apply them on this Ubuntu forum thread. Florian's first round of patches fixed this problem for everyone but me. However, a hack was able to fix the problem for me as well. I expect Florian will soon write a proper patch. It seems likely that these patches will land in Linux kernel version 2.6.34, otherwise they will surely make 2.6.35.

Karmic, Video, Blue

2010-01-19T21:01:00.005-06:00

When watching videos in Karmic, everything that should have been yellow was blue. To fix this problem, open the Totem Movie Player (Applications -> Sound & Video -> Movie Player), then change the Hue setting to match the Brightness, Contrast, and Saturation settings. These settings can be found in Edit -> Preferences -> Display.

(I found the solution to this problem from this Ubuntu forum thread.)

Karmic, VPN, ItsHidden.com

2009-12-04T21:40:00.007-06:00

To use the VPN service provided by ItsHidden.com in Karmic, complete the following steps (one thing changed since Jaunty):

Install the PPTP plug-in for Network Manager
$ sudo apt-get install network-manager-pptp
Restart Network Manager
$ sudo service network-manager restart
Create the VPN connection
In the "Advanced..." settings, enable "Use Point-to-Point encryption (MPPE)"

The one change is minor. Instead of the command "sudo /etc/init.d/NetworkManager restart" in step 2, it is now "sudo service network-manager restart". Both commands seem to work, but the new command is the preferred method.

(I had a previous post about getting ItsHidden.com to work in Jaunty.)

Karmic, Java

2009-12-04T21:13:00.002-06:00

To install Java in Karmic, execute the following command:

$ sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts

When you have to accept the licence agreements, use the "Tab" key to cycle through the options and the "Enter" key select an option.

(I got this answer from here.)

Gnome, Panel, Moving Panel

2009-10-26T10:37:00.007-05:00

To move a Gnome panel, you can use the menu option: right-click panel -> Properties -> Orientation. The "Orientation" drop-down has four options, one for each side of the screen: Top, Bottom, Left, Right. However, there is no menu option to move a panel to a second monitor. To accomplish this, hold down alt and drag the panel to the desired location.

I added a Ubuntu Brainstorm idea about this issue and added a possible solution. Go and vote for your favorite solution or add your own:

Jaunty, VPN, ItsHidden.com

2009-07-28T01:03:00.015-05:00

UPDATE: Improved directions for Karmic!

To use the VPN service provided by ItsHidden.com in Jaunty, complete the following steps (that were partially found in this Ubuntu forum thread):

Install the PPTP plug-in for Network Manager
$ sudo apt-get install network-manager-pptp
Restart Network Manager
$ sudo /etc/init.d/NetworkManager restart
Create the VPN connection
In the "Advanced..." settings, enable "Use Point-to-Point encryption (MPPE)"

This most difficult part of this process was figuring out about the need to install the necessary plug-in and restart the Network Manager. Cast your vote on Ubuntu Brainstorm to raise awareness about this issue:

Jaunty, Firefox, Notifications

2009-05-26T10:11:00.002-05:00

To get the new notification system in Jaunty, install the Firefox plugin called FirefoxNotify.

Jaunty, Firefox, Flash

2009-05-26T00:36:00.002-05:00

After upgrading from 8.10 Intrepid to 9.04 Jaunty, flash no longer worked in Firefox. I found the following workaround on this Ubuntu forum thread:


$ sudo apt-get remove flashplugin-* --purge
$ sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

I am not sure why "reinstalling" the flash plugin does the trick, but I knew that just doing a --reinstall or the above commands without the --purge did not work for me.