Removing "RC" packages on Debian/Ubuntu

If you do "dpkg -l", sometimes you will get to see a long list of packages with the following details:

• rc  package-name  0.4-3  package-details

Note the "rc" status at the beginning of the package description. Some packages will show up in the "dpkg -l" output even after removing them. The reason behind this is - packages with "rc" status indicate that the packages have been removed but some configuration files for those packages are left on the system.

To remove these packages, do the following:

• sudo dpkg --purge package-name

For a list of packages, run the following:

• dpkg -l | grep ^rc | cut -d ' ' -f3 | xargs sudo dpkg --purge

Keyboard num-keys not working in VirtualBox Ubuntu guest

The solution that works for me is by disabling 'Mouse Keys'.

• Go to System > Preferences > Keyboard.
• In Mouse Keys tab, un-tick 'Pointer can be controlled using keypad'

Debian/Ubuntu: Delay in getting SSH login prompt

On some of my Debian/Ubuntu machines, I get an annoying 10-20 seconds delay in seeing the prompt while trying to login. My first guess was - something wrong in key exchange and it's must be falling back with standard password authentication, as can be seen with ssh -vv babil@servername

But the solution seems to be in disabling DNS resolution for the SSH server. I found the solution here: http://www.unix.com/linux/96010-delay-getting-ssh-login-prompt.html. /etc/ssh/sshd_conf needs a "UseDNS no" line, followed by a "sudo /etc/init.d/ssh restart".
Cheers.

Ubuntu/Debian: Flash not responding to any click

I found the fix here: http://helpforlinux.blogspot.com/2009/11/i-cannot-click-on-flash-in-ubuntu.html

As instructed, perform the following and restart your firefox:

• Hit ALT+F2 and enter
• gksudo gedit /usr/lib/nspluginwrapper/i386/linux/npviewer
• add the following line BEFORE the last line of text
• export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1
• Save.
• Restart any applications using flash

Ubuntu (jaunty/9.04) - Delay in print dialog

We use a 'Konica Minolta c451' printer at work and I have been having this issue since I upgraded to Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty). The bug has been reported here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gtk+2.0/+bug/475845

The temporary recommended solution is to comment out the following in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf:

##Listen /var/run/cups/cups.sock

Ubuntu/Debian :: watching trailers from Apple

apt-get install mplayer mozilla-mplayer

Debian/Ubuntu: highlight and publish source codes

The tool is called - "highlight"

apt-get install highlight
man highlight

Perfect for publishing, integrating source-codes in tex and on websites. I like the following for my codes:

highlight --pretty-symbols --inline-css -I -l _FILE_NAME_ --style $ide -V > tmp; firefox tmp &

In firefox, one can do "View Page Source" and copy&paste.

Debian/Ubuntu: stopping a package from upgrade

• Find package name
  

  dpkg -l | grep "partial-name"
  

• Set package to hold
  

  echo "full-package-name hold" | dpkg --set-selections

• Set package to un-hold
  

  echo "full-package-name install" | dpkg --set-selections

Installing/compiling ns-2.34 on Ubuntu/Debian

I had to install the following dev's to get ns-2.34 "all-in-one" package to work:

apt-get install libx11-dev xorg-dev

Recently stumbled upon another problem compiling otcl. The error message looks like the following:

ld: libotcl.so: hidden symbol `__stack_chk_fail_local' isn't defined

Apparently this an incompatibility between ld and gcc-4.4. The quick fix will be to replace "SHLIB_LD" variable for "Linux*)" targets from "ld -shared" to "${CC} -shared".

Installing Flurry screensaver on Ubuntu/Debian

[1] Download the binary from here (I don't know/care where in ubuntu/debian repository it can be found): http://ubuntu-ky.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6930123

[2.1] Gnome: just copy the files from extracted "Flurry" directory in /usr/. I wrote a little script to make it easier.

##########################################################

#!/bin/bash

tar_file="Flurry.tar"

#extract
rm -rf Flurry
tar xvf "$tar_file"

#copy files
cp -u -v Flurry/usr/lib/xscreensaver/flurry /usr/lib/xscreensaver/
cp -u -v Flurry/usr/share/xscreensaver/config/flurry.xml
/usr/share/xscreensaver/config/
cp -u -v Flurry/usr/share/applications/screensavers/flurry.desktop
/usr/share/applications/screensavers/

##########################################################

[2.2] KDE: copy the files in /usr/ and create "/usr/share/applnk/System/ScreenSavers/flurry.desktop" with the following content. It will put flurry in the KDE screensaver configuration menu and let you set the options:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Exec=flurry
Icon=kscreensaver
Type=Application
TryExec=xscreensaver
Actions=InWindow;Root;Setup;
X-KDE-Category=OpenGL Screen Savers
X-KDE-Type=OpenGL
Name=Flurry (GL)

[Desktop Action Setup]
Exec=kxsconfig flurry
Name=Setup...
Icon=kscreensaver

[Desktop Action InWindow]
Exec=kxsrun flurry -- -window-id %w
Name=Display in Specified Window
NoDisplay=true

[Desktop Action Root]
Exec=kxsrun flurry -- -root
Name=Display in Root Window
NoDisplay=true

Debian/Etch fails to upgrade x11-common ??

When I was trying to upgrade my etch to lenny, x11-common failed to upgrade properly. I was getting the following error message:

Error::
trying to overwrite `/usr/X11R6/bin', which is also in package aaa-base

For somebody who is really as annoyed (to hell) as me, this fixed the (!@#!$%$) problem for me:

Solution::
dpkg -i --force-overwrite /var/cache/apt/archives/x11-common_1%3a7.3+18_all.deb

Swapping eth1/eth0 names

On Debian/Ubuntu, the file to look into is here :

/etc/udev/rules.d/z25_persistent-net.rules

Wondering what happened to epstopdf on Ubuntu/Debian ?

apt-get install texlive-extra-utils

On latest Ubuntu Quantal (12.10) apparently the package for epstopdf is changed to texlive-font-utils. So now you have to do the following: 

apt-get install texlive-font-utils

Sharp fonts in firefox [K/Ubuntu]

apt-get install msttcorefonts
Download this file :: http://www.sharpfonts.com/fontconfig.tbz
sudo tar xjvf /etc/fonts

restart firefox ... open www.google.com ... you'll see the difference for yourself ;)


My firefox fonts settings :

• Default font :: Verdana :: Size=12
  
• Font for :: Western
• Proportional :: Serif :: Size = 12
• Serif :: Verdana
• Sans-Serif :: Verdana
• Monospace :: Terminux :: Size = 12
• Minimum Font Size :: 12
  
  
• Allow pages to chose their own fonts
• Default character encoding :: Western (windows-1252)

Finding out Kubuntu version

lsb_release -a

Prothom-alo on Ubuntu/Debian

apt-get install language-support-fonts-bn ttf-bengali-fonts ttf-indic-fonts-core

now, install the Prothom-alo fonts:

• http://www.prothom-alo.com/fonts/download/bngsalpn.ttf

• http://www.prothom-alo.com/fonts/download/prothoma.ttf

Restart firefox && enjoy ;)

Installing sun-java on Debian/Etch

• remove everything related to "gcj" and "gij" (dpkg -l | grep [gcj|gij])
• make sure "contrib" is there in apt/sources.list
• apt-get update
• apt-get install java-package fakeroot
• download the jre from sun.java.com (jre-6u6-linux-i586)
• ln -s jre-6u6-linux-i586 jre-1_5_0_11-linux-i586.bin
  
• fakeroot make-jpkg jre-6u6-linux-i586
• dpkg -i sun-j2re1.5_1.5.0+update11_i386.deb

(fsck, this is just so unnecessarily painful !!!)

Updating OpenOffice on Etch

• Download from : http://openoffice.bouncer.osuosl.org/?product=OpenOffice.org&os=linuxinteldeb&lang=en-US&version=2.3.1
• tar xzvf filename.tar.gz
• dpkg -i *.deb

Very strange !! clicking the menu entries openoffice wont run !!! Wait, there's one more trick ;-) You gotta make sure no other previous instances of "soffice" or "soffice.bin" was running.

• killall soffice

... and voila, suddenly everything works !!!