Tag Archives: ubuntu

Changing the default file manager away from Nautilus

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Nautilus is opening the desktop, making the experience miserable under i3 when all you’re trying to do is ‘view files in directory’.

XFCE’s Thunar is lightweight, and it doesn’t try to create a desktop window.

To get apps such as Chrome to handle “open directory” commands using Thunar, teach xdg-mime about it:

$ sudo apt-get install thunar
$ xdg-mime query default inode/directory
nautilus.desktop
$ xdg-mime default Thunar.desktop inode/directory  # yep, Thunar's desktop file is titlecased on Debian-derived systems
$ xdg-mime query default inode/directory
Thunar.desktop
$ xdg-open .
...thunar opens...

This is sort-of a follow-up to my previous post on this topic. See also, Debian’s article about usage of MIME types.

Vidalia crashing on Ubuntu 14.04 due to incorrect AppArmor profile

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This has been going unfixed for years now.

For me, the fix involved adding the following into /etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.vidalia.

/usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/ r,
/usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/** r,

Then, I reloaded AppArmor /etc/init.d/apparmor reload and the contraption worked. If you get asked about your Tor control password, restart tor /etc/init.d/tor restart.

Ubuntu 13.10 live CD: Blank screen with EFI

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Ubuntu 13.10 fails to start X11 on a Macbook Pro with retina display, and it fails to start X11 on VirtualBox when EFI mode is turned on. Even the failover mode fails. This has been tried with 64-bit version of Ubuntu 13.10. Machines: a 2013 Macbook Pro; and a virtual VirtualBox 4.3.6 machine configured for Ubuntu (64-bit) OS, with EFI turned on.

Ubuntu’s failover configuration tries to use vesa module, which is not available when running under native EFI or UEFI mode.

Let’s fix this by using fbdev module.

  1. Hit ctrl+alt+f1 to switch to console.
  2. Type sudo -i to become root.
  3. Now let’s fix the relevant files:
    cd /etc/X11/
    sed 's/Driver.*"vesa"/Driver "fbdev"/' xorg.conf.failsafe > xorg.conf
  1. Restart X11 et al: service lightdm restart
  2. If necessary, switch to the VT dedicated to X11: hit ctrl+alt+f7

Note that the screen will stay blank for a while longer; give the system some time to proceed.

Good luck!

Getting GNU/Linux to reboot properly on unibody Macbook from late 2009 (Macbook 6,1)

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To get a GNU/Linux to reboot properly and not hang in the final step, you need to pass another parameter to the kernel. You need to pass reboot=pci to Linux.

Currently, Debian and Debian-derivatives such as Ubuntu tend to use Grub2 as the bootloader, by default. You need to:

  • edit the /etc/default/grub configuration file, as root, and using your favorite editor
  • find line that looks similar to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=””
  • if it contained anything inside quotes, don’t delete those commands!
  • into the quotes, add reboot=pci but do not delete existing text
  • back in command line, run update-grub as root user

It should now work flawlessly!

Image: unplgdd.com

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Enabling Ctrl+Alt+Backspace in X11

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Your X.org misbehaves? You don’t like what’s done in Ubuntu? To forcibly restart Xorg, you have two options:

In /etc/init.d/xorg.conf:

Section “ServerFlags”
Option “DontZap” “false”
EndSection

or use RightAlt+PrintScreen+K.

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Backspace on Firefox on Ubuntu and Iceweasel on Debian

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A friend pointed this out to me:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.backspace_action

In short, if you’re a GNU/Linux user of Firefox (e.g. Firefox on Ubuntu and Iceweasel on Debian) you may want to get backspace to actually go back one page, like many browsers do (did?):

  1. In addressbar, type about:config
  2. If asked, confirm you want to change settings
  3. In search, type browser.backspace_action
  4. Set the value of browser.backspace_action to 0 (that is zero, not letter O) Zero is Windows default and makes pressing backspace go back in history; One is old Linux default and scrolls page up; Two is new Linux default and, like any other integer, simply unmaps the backspace key.

Now, enjoy pressing backspace to go back!

Image source

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