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• How to debug lag using Bluetooth connected mouse and A2DP headset?

  - by gertvdijk

  I own a Logitech M555b mouse (since a week) for use with my HP Elitebook 8570w laptop running Kubuntu 12.04. Works fine right after connecting using the KDE Bluetooth control module. However, after some time (seemingly random), it starts to lag. Movements are being delayed for roughly 500ms for a short period of time. Usually it recovers after some time too, but it can take minutes. All actions are being delayed: movements, click, scrolls. Additionally, the movements can be choppy during these times. A workaround that always works for the same short period of time is to disconnect an re-connect the mouse. This can be done using the same KDE Bluetooth control module. What did I try already? Running this at boot time: echo on > `readlink -f /sys/class/bluetooth/hci0`/../../../power/level To disable any power saving features on the Bluetooth hci0 device. Check the mouse's batteries (it's just a week old, other new batteries: same result) Checking logs and kernel messages about Bluetooth-related entries: none aside the expected messages on connect time. I'm running kernel 3.5.0-13-generic as provided in the xorg-edgers PPA. Booting the regular 3.2 Precise kernel results in the same behaviour. Some other information that may help: It happens when no other Bluetooth connections are active on the machine. Similar symptoms also occur on my Bluetooth stereo (A2DP) headset, but then it's audio lagging and skipping. Swapping Bluetooth profiles as described here then helps. Conclusion: it's not the mouse that's faulty. The headset always worked fine using my now dead Thinkpad T61p with built-in Bluetooth. The bluetooth module in my laptop is connected via USB and shows up as Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0a5c:21e1 Broadcom Corp. I'm mobile and several people around me are using Bluetooth at work (A2DP mostly). It also occurs at home, where my neighbours are probably using Bluetooth as well. It could just be radio interference, but I think Bluetooth connections should just hop to another channel. And, moreover, it just works properly instantly when re-connecting. Therefore I think it's a software driver issue and I'd like to debug it. Is there any way to get more verbose logging on the Bluetooth(-hid) modules?

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• Cannot get Virtualbox to install properly on Ubuntu 12.04

  - by lopac1029

  I cannot get Virtualbox to install properly on my 12.04. I first went with a manual install for the .deb from the old builds section of the Virtualbox page. That .deb opened up the Software Center and installed. Then I got the error coming up of VT-x/AMD-V hardware acceleration is not available on your system. Your 64-bit guest will fail to detect a 64-bit CPU and will not be able to boot. which I can only assume was due to my Ubuntu version being 32-bit (System Details - Overview - OC type: 32-bit, right?) So I followed these instructions to remove the .deb manually, restarted my laptop, and then FOUND the actual Virtualbox install in the Software Center and installed from that (assuming it would give me the correct version I need for my system) So after all that (and then some), I'm still getting the same error when I connect to my new job's project in Virtualbox. Can anyone point me in the right direction of what to do here? This is the first time I've ever worked with Virtualbox, and no one at this company is using Ubuntu, so I'm on my own here. EDIT: Here is the direct info from running the 2 suggested commands Inspiron-1750-brick:~ $lscpu Architecture: i686 CPU op-mode(s): 32-bit, 64-bit Byte Order: Little Endian CPU(s): 2 On-line CPU(s) list: 0,1 Thread(s) per core: 1 Core(s) per socket: 2 Socket(s): 1 Vendor ID: GenuineIntel CPU family: 6 Model: 23 Stepping: 10 CPU MHz: 2100.000 BogoMIPS: 4189.45 L1d cache: 32K L1i cache: 32K L2 cache: 2048K Inspiron-1750-brick:~ $cat /proc/cpuinfo processor : 0 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 23 model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T6500 @ 2.10GHz stepping : 10 microcode : 0xa07 cpu MHz : 1200.000 cache size : 2048 KB physical id : 0 siblings : 2 core id : 0 cpu cores : 2 apicid : 0 initial apicid : 0 fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 13 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 xsave lahf_lm dtherm bogomips : 4189.80 clflush size : 64 cache_alignment : 64 address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual power management: processor : 1 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 23 model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T6500 @ 2.10GHz stepping : 10 microcode : 0xa07 cpu MHz : 1200.000 cache size : 2048 KB physical id : 0 siblings : 2 core id : 1 cpu cores : 2 apicid : 1 initial apicid : 1 fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 13 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 xsave lahf_lm dtherm bogomips : 4189.45 clflush size : 64 cache_alignment : 64 address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual power management:

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• How to install Network Adapter Drivers for Atheros AR8161/8165 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.20) Ubuntu 12.04

  - by Jessica Burnett

  How can I install drivers for 64-bit Atheros AR8161/8165 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.20) for Ubuntu 12.04. I dual boot Windows7/Ubuntu 12.04 drivers work for 64-bit Windows 7. lspic -nn: 00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Ivy Bridge DRAM Controller [8086:0154] (rev 09) 00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Ivy Bridge PCI Express Root Port [8086:0151] (rev 09) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Ivy Bridge Graphics Controller [8086:0166] (rev 09) 00:14.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation Panther Point USB xHCI Host Controller [8086:1e31] (rev 04) 00:16.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation Panther Point MEI Controller #1 [8086:1e3a] (rev 04) 00:1a.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation Panther Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 [8086:1e2d] (rev 04) 00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation Panther Point High Definition Audio Controller [8086:1e20] (rev 04) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Panther Point PCI Express Root Port 1 [8086:1e10] (rev c4) 00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Panther Point PCI Express Root Port 2 [8086:1e12] (rev c4) 00:1c.3 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Panther Point PCI Express Root Port 4 [8086:1e16] (rev c4) 00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation Panther Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 [8086:1e26] (rev 04) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation Panther Point LPC Controller [8086:1e59] (rev 04) 00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation Panther Point 6 port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] [8086:1e03] (rev 04) 00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation Panther Point SMBus Controller [8086:1e22] (rev 04) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:0de9] (rev a1) 02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR8161 Gigabit Ethernet [1969:1091] (rev 08) 03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 2200 [8086:0891] (rev c4) 04:00.0 System peripheral [0880]: JMicron Technology Corp. SD/MMC Host Controller [197b:2392] (rev 30) 04:00.2 SD Host controller [0805]: JMicron Technology Corp. Standard SD Host Controller [197b:2391] (rev 30) 04:00.3 System peripheral [0880]: JMicron Technology Corp. MS Host Controller [197b:2393] (rev 30) 04:00.4 System peripheral [0880]: JMicron Technology Corp. xD Host Controller [197b:2394] (rev 30) sudo lshw -c network *-network UNCLAIMED description: Ethernet controller product: AR8161 Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Atheros Communications Inc. physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0 version: 08 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm pciexpress msi msix bus_master cap_list configuration: latency=0 resources: memory:d3a00000-d3a3ffff ioport:2000(size=128) *-network description: Wireless interface product: Centrino Wireless-N 2200 vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0 logical name: wlan0 version: c4 serial: 9c:4e:36:14:d4:7c width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=3.2.0-23-generic firmware=18.168.6.1 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn resources: irq:45 memory:d3900000-d3901fff I also tried Manually configuring wired connection. Nether wired or wireless connects

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• Team Foundation Server (TFS) Team Build Custom Activity C# Code for Assembly Stamping

  - by Bob Hardister

  For the full context and guidance on how to develop and implement a custom activity in Team Build see the Microsoft Visual Studio Rangers Team Foundation Build Customization Guide V.1 at http://vsarbuildguide.codeplex.com/ There are many ways to stamp or set the version number of your assemblies. This approach is based on the build number.   namespace CustomActivities { using System; using System.Activities; using System.IO; using System.Text.RegularExpressions; using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Client; [BuildActivity(HostEnvironmentOption.Agent)] public sealed class VersionAssemblies : CodeActivity { /// <summary> /// AssemblyInfoFileMask /// </summary> [RequiredArgument] public InArgument<string> AssemblyInfoFileMask { get; set; } /// <summary> /// SourcesDirectory /// </summary> [RequiredArgument] public InArgument<string> SourcesDirectory { get; set; } /// <summary> /// BuildNumber /// </summary> [RequiredArgument] public InArgument<string> BuildNumber { get; set; } /// <summary> /// BuildDirectory /// </summary> [RequiredArgument] public InArgument<string> BuildDirectory { get; set; } /// <summary> /// Publishes field values to the build report /// </summary> public OutArgument<string> DiagnosticTextOut { get; set; } // If your activity returns a value, derive from CodeActivity<TResult> and return the value from the Execute method. protected override void Execute(CodeActivityContext context) { // Obtain the runtime value of the input arguments string sourcesDirectory = context.GetValue(this.SourcesDirectory); string assemblyInfoFileMask = context.GetValue(this.AssemblyInfoFileMask); string buildNumber = context.GetValue(this.BuildNumber); string buildDirectory = context.GetValue(this.BuildDirectory); // ** Determine the version number values ** // Note: the format used here is: major.secondary.maintenance.build // ----------------------------------------------------------------- // Obtain the build definition name int nameStart = buildDirectory.LastIndexOf(@"\") + 1; string buildDefinitionName = buildDirectory.Substring(nameStart); // Set the primary.secondary.maintenance values // NOTE: these are hard coded in this example, but could be sourced from a file or parsed from a build definition name that includes them string p = "1"; string s = "5"; string m = "2"; // Initialize the build number string b; string na = "0"; // used for Assembly and Product Version instead of build number (see versioning best practices: **TBD reference) // Set qualifying product version information string productInfo = "RC2"; // Obtain the build increment number from the build number // NOTE: this code assumes the default build definition name format int buildIncrementNumberDelimterIndex = buildNumber.LastIndexOf("."); b = buildNumber.Substring(buildIncrementNumberDelimterIndex + 1); // Convert version to integer values int pVer = Convert.ToInt16(p); int sVer = Convert.ToInt16(s); int mVer = Convert.ToInt16(m); int bNum = Convert.ToInt16(b); int naNum = Convert.ToInt16(na); // ** Get all AssemblyInfo files and stamp them ** // Note: the mapping of AssemblyInfo.cs attributes to assembly display properties are as follows: // - AssemblyVersion = Assembly Version - used for the assembly version (does not change unless p, s or m values are changed) // - AssemblyFileVersion = File Version - used for the file version (changes with every build) // - AssemblyInformationalVersion = Product Version - used for the product version (can include additional version information) // ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Version assemblyVersion = new Version(pVer, sVer, mVer, naNum); Version newAssemblyFileVersion = new Version(pVer, sVer, mVer, bNum); Version productVersion = new Version(pVer, sVer, mVer); // Setup diagnostic fields int numberOfReplacements = 0; string addedAssemblyInformationalAttribute = "No"; // Enumerate over the assemblyInfo version attributes foreach (string attribute in new[] { "AssemblyVersion", "AssemblyFileVersion", "AssemblyInformationalVersion" }) { // Define the regular expression to find in each and every Assemblyinfo.cs files (which is for example 'AssemblyVersion("1.0.0.0")' ) Regex regex = new Regex(attribute + @"\(""\d+\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+""\)"); foreach (string file in Directory.EnumerateFiles(sourcesDirectory, assemblyInfoFileMask, SearchOption.AllDirectories)) { string text = File.ReadAllText(file); // Read the text from the AssemblyInfo file // If the AsemblyInformationalVersion attribute is not in the file, add it as the last line of the file // Note: by default the AssemblyInfo.cs files will not contain the AssemblyInformationalVersion attribute if (!text.Contains("[assembly: AssemblyInformationalVersion(\"")) { string lastLine = Environment.NewLine + "[assembly: AssemblyInformationalVersion(\"1.0.0.0\")]"; text = text + lastLine; addedAssemblyInformationalAttribute = "Yes"; } // Search for the expression Match match = regex.Match(text); if (match.Success) { // Get file attributes FileAttributes fileAttributes = File.GetAttributes(file); // Set file to read only File.SetAttributes(file, fileAttributes & ~FileAttributes.ReadOnly); // Insert AssemblyInformationalVersion attribute into the file text if does not already exist string newText = string.Empty; if (attribute == "AssemblyVersion") { newText = regex.Replace(text, attribute + "(\"" + assemblyVersion + "\")"); numberOfReplacements++; } if (attribute == "AssemblyFileVersion") { newText = regex.Replace(text, attribute + "(\"" + newAssemblyFileVersion + "\")"); numberOfReplacements++; } if (attribute == "AssemblyInformationalVersion") { newText = regex.Replace(text, attribute + "(\"" + productVersion + " " + productInfo + "\")"); numberOfReplacements++; } // Publish diagnostics to build report (diagnostic verbosity only) context.SetValue(this.DiagnosticTextOut, " Added AssemblyInformational Attribute: " + addedAssemblyInformationalAttribute + " Number of replacements: " + numberOfReplacements + " Build number: " + buildNumber + " Build directory: " + buildDirectory + " Build definition name: " + buildDefinitionName + " Assembly version: " + assemblyVersion + " New file version: " + newAssemblyFileVersion + " Product version: " + productVersion + " AssemblyInfo.cs Text Last Stamped: " + newText); // Write the new text in the AssemblyInfo file File.WriteAllText(file, newText); // restore the file's original attributes File.SetAttributes(file, fileAttributes); } } } } } }

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• How to generate xorg.conf? (X -configure segfaults)

  - by Nicolas Raoul

  My video card is working fine, I have no screen problem. I am trying to generate an xorg.conf so I did: [ Logout ] sudo service gdm stop [ Move away xorg.conf.back and xorg.conf.fglrx-0 that were in /etc/X11 ] sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg sudo X -configure But this last command segfaults: X.Org X Server 1.7.6 Release Date: 2010-03-17 X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0 Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.24-27-server i686 Ubuntu Current Operating System: Linux nico 2.6.32-25-generic #44-Ubuntu SMP Fri Sep 17 20:26:08 UTC 2010 i686 Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-25-generic root=UUID=7447ab16-3406-442d-81e5-bb6a2d795205 ro quiet splash Build Date: 21 July 2010 12:47:34PM xorg-server 2:1.7.6-2ubuntu7.3 (For technical support please see http://www.ubuntu.com/support) Current version of pixman: 0.16.4 Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org to make sure that you have the latest version. Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting, (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational, (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown. (==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Fri Oct 15 16:06:11 2010 List of video drivers: i740 ark geode siliconmotion mach64 s3 r128 apm intel neomagic vesa trident chips s3virge fglrx sis savage rendition i128 tseng ztv mga openchrome radeon ati nv v4l vmware cirrus tdfx nouveau sisusb voodoo fbdev (EE) Can't load FireGL DRM library (libfglrxdrm.so). Backtrace: 0: X (xorg_backtrace+0x3b) [0x80e938b] 1: X (0x8048000+0x61c8d) [0x80a9c8d] 2: (vdso) (__kernel_rt_sigreturn+0x0) [0x34d410] 3: X (xf86CallDriverProbe+0x182) [0x80b82d2] 4: X (DoConfigure+0x1c8) [0x816b898] 5: X (InitOutput+0x1da) [0x80b98aa] 6: X (0x8048000+0x1ebbb) [0x8066bbb] 7: /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6 (__libc_start_main+0xe6) [0x467bd6] 8: X (0x8048000+0x1e961) [0x8066961] Segmentation fault at address (nil) Caught signal 11 (Segmentation fault). Server aborting Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support at http://wiki.x.org for help. Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information. ddxSigGiveUp: Closing log Note the line Can't load FireGL DRM library (libfglrxdrm.so) Note: I do have file /usr/lib/fglrx/xorg/modules/linux/libfglrxdrm.so It is strange that it segfaults whereas I can use Gnome with no problem but well... Might be related: I tried to install the driver from ATI's website recently, and from then glxgears crashes at start. How can I generate xorg.conf in those conditions? It might or might not involve solving the segfault problem.

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• CD/DVD drive not mounted when inserted with Disc of any kind

  - by Cisco Sán

  I just noticed that if a insert a CD or a DVD of any kind, the Drive will start spinning but it will not show the mounted disc. Before it used to ask me what to do with the media inserted. Now it doesn't even do that. I ran in the terminal this code: eject -n and it displays this: " eject: device is `/dev/sr0'" what can I do to get the functionality back on my drive. also ran this command: sudo mount -o ro,unhide,uid=1000 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom but in return i get this: " mount: mount point /mnt/cdrom does not exist" Running Ubuntu 11.10 HERE IS THE HISTORY UNTIL NOW thanks Waltinator: I ran the 'dmesg' but don't know what I'm looking for. Im a newbie on this. The same thing with the 'ls -rlt /var/log' command. Should I create the directory for the mount? at this point really don't know what to do. – Cisco Sán 7 hours ago Here are 3 lines from my dmesg after I successfully inserted a CD: [ 4804.416018] wlan0: no IPv6 routers present [ 8214.125450] ISdit ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3 [ 8214.136556] ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A The first line is a previous event, my wireless going online. The next 2 lines are a good result. The number in square brackets is "seconds since boot", the rest of the line is usually helpful. And no, you should NOT create the mount point. Let's try to get the automatic mounting to work. – waltinator 7 hours ago ok this are my last 3 lines on the 'dmesg' [ 18.130819] init: plymouth-stop pre-start process (1396) terminated with status 1 [ 28.780011] wlan0: no IPv6 routers present [ 505.632119] CE: hpet increased min_delta_ns to 20113 nsec – Cisco Sán 6 hours ago It looks like your CD/DVD drive is not connected to the data bus, and not causing an interrupt when you insert a platter. – waltinator 6 hours ago Try dmesg | grep -A8 CD-ROM which should show you what the system thought was available when it came up. – waltinator 6 hours ago here is my printout [0.774351] scsi 0:0:0:0: CD-ROM HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GSA-T40N A100 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5 [0.778117] sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 24x/24x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray [0.778122] cdrom: Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20 [0.778282] sr 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0 [0.778340] sr 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 5 [0.780416] Freeing unused kernel memory: 984k freed [0.780732] Write protecting the kernel read-only data: 10240k [0.780986] Freeing unused kernel memory: 20k freed [0.786331] Freeing unused kernel memory: 1400k freed [0.804912] udevd[90]: starting version 173 [0.874178] r8169 Gigabit Ethernet driver 2.3LK-NAPI loaded [0.874208] r8169 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A - GSI 16 (level, low) - IRQ 16 OK, your system sees the drive. Can you open and close the tray with eject and eject -t? Run udevadm monitor while you insert a CD (type ^C when done) and see if you get "change" and "add" messages. – waltinator 6 hours ago ok, "eject" works perfectly "eject -t" does nothing. this is the message for "udevadm monitor": KERNEL[13771.009267] change /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.1/host0/target0:0:0/0:0:0:0/block/sr0 (block) UDEV [13773.878887] change /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.1/host0/target0:0:0/0:0:0 /block/sr0 (block) – Cisco Sán 6 hours ago sudo hwinfo --cdrom (the hwinfo package is installable through Software Center) describes my CD-ROM, try it. – waltinator 4 hours ago My read out from the "sudo hwinfo --cdrom" are the following: hal.1: read hal dataprocess 2753: arguments to dbus_move_error() were incorrect, assertion "(dest) == NULL || !dbus_error_is_set ((dest))" failed in file ../../dbus/dbus-errors.c line 280. This is normally a bug in some application using the D-Bus library. libhal.c 3483 : Error unsubscribing to signals, error=The name org.freedesktop.Hal was not provided by any .service files 22: SCSI 00.0: 10602 CD-ROM (DVD) [Created at block.247] Unique ID: KD9E.JgkxTS4hgl2 Parent ID: 3p2J.gdUMCD83e+E SysFS ID: /class/block/sr0 SysFS BusID: 0:0:0:0 SysFS Device Link: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.1/host0/target0:0:0/0:0:0:0 Hardware Class: cdrom Model: "HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GSA-T40N" Vendor: "HL-DT-ST" Device: "DVD+-RW GSA-T40N" Revision: "A100" Driver: "ata_piix", "sr" Driver Modules: "ata_piix" Device File: /dev/sr0 (/dev/sg0) Device Files: /dev/sr0, /dev/scd0, /dev/disk/by-id/ata-HL-DT-ST_DVD+_-RW_GSA-T40N_K048BJ74257, /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:1f.1-scsi-0:0:0:0, /dev/cdrom, /dev/cdrw, /dev/dvd, /dev/dvdrw Device Number: block 11:0 (char 21:0) Features: DVD Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown Attached to: #17 (IDE interface) Drive Speed: 31 Volume ID: "Movie" Publisher: "INTERVIDEO" Creation date: "20050424162207000" Thanks for the help. To Castro, hope this is what you meant and sorry for the comments..

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• Scripting Part 1

  - by rbishop

  Dynamic Scripting is a large topic, so let me get a couple of things out of the way first. If you aren't familiar with JavaScript, I can suggest CodeAcademy's JavaScript series. There are also many other websites and books that cover JavaScript from every possible angle.The second thing we need to deal with is JavaScript as a programming language versus a JavaScript environment running in a web browser. Many books, tutorials, and websites completely blur these two together but they are in fact completely separate. What does this really mean in relation to DRM? Since DRM isn't a web browser, there are no document, window, history, screen, or location objects. There are no events like mousedown or click. Trying to call alert('hello!') in DRM will just cause an error. Those concepts are all related to an HTML document (web page) and are part of the Browser Object Model or Document Object Model. DRM has its own object model that exposes DRM-related objects. In practice, feel free to use those sorts of tutorials or practice within your browser; Many of the concepts are directly translatable to writing scripts in DRM. Just don't try to call document.getElementById in your property definition!I think learning by example tends to work the best, so let's try getting a list of all the unique property values for a given node and its children. var uniqueValues = {}; var childEnumerator = node.GetChildEnumerator(); while(childEnumerator.MoveNext()) { var propValue = childEnumerator.GetCurrent().PropValue("Custom.testpropstr1"); print(propValue); if(propValue != null && propValue != '' && !uniqueValues[propValue]) uniqueValues[propValue] = true; } var result = ''; for(var value in uniqueValues){ result += "Found value " + value + ","; } return result;  Now lets break this down piece by piece. var uniqueValues = {}; This declares a variable and initializes it as a new empty Object. You could also have written var uniqueValues = new Object(); Why use an object here? JavaScript objects can also function as a list of keys and we'll use that later to store each property value as a key on the object. var childEnumerator = node.GetChildEnumerator(); while(childEnumerator.MoveNext()) { This gets an enumerator for the node's children. The enumerator allows us to loop through the children one by one. If we wanted to get a filtered list of children, we would instead use ChildrenWith(). When we reach the end of the child list, the enumerator will return false for MoveNext() and that will stop the loop. var propValue = childEnumerator.GetCurrent().PropValue("Custom.testpropstr1"); print(propValue); if(propValue != null && propValue != '' && !uniqueValues[propValue]) uniqueValues[propValue] = true; } This gets the node the enumerator is currently pointing at, then calls PropValue() on it to get the value of a property. We then make sure the prop value isn't null or the empty string, then we make sure the value doesn't already exist as a key. Assuming it doesn't we add it as a key with a value (true in this case because it makes checking for an existing value faster when the value exists). A quick word on the print() function. When viewing the prop grid, running an export, or performing normal DRM operations it does nothing. If you have a lot of print() calls with complicated arguments it can slow your script down slightly, but otherwise has no effect. But when using the script editor, all the output of print() will be shown in the Warnings area. This gives you an extremely useful debugging tool to see what exactly a script is doing. var result = ''; for(var value in uniqueValues){ result += "Found value " + value + ","; } return result; Now we build a string by looping through all the keys in uniqueValues and adding that value to our string. The last step is to simply return the result. Hopefully this small example demonstrates some of the core Dynamic Scripting concepts. Next time, we can try checking for node references in other hierarchies to see if they are using duplicate property values.

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• Wireless Broadcom 4313 not working on Ubuntu 12.04

  - by user88568

  It seems a lot of people are having this problem, but none of the posted solutions have worked for me so far. My driver is installed and activated, I have tried removing and re-adding the network, and various other fixes. No networks were picked up on my first boot, the next day wireless worked fine, and since then it does not detect networks, and when I manually try to connect, it repeatedly asks for the password and does not connect. Here's my info: 03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01) Subsystem: Dell Inspiron M5010 / XPS 8300 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17 Memory at f0500000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K] Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3 Capabilities: [58] Vendor Specific Information: Len=78 Capabilities: [48] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+ Capabilities: [d0] Express Endpoint, MSI 00 Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting Capabilities: [13c] Virtual Channel Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number 00-00-a1-ff-ff-f3-70-f1 Capabilities: [16c] Power Budgeting Kernel driver in use: wl Kernel modules: wl, bcma, brcmsmac root@michelle-laptop:/home/michelle# ifconfig eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 70:f1:a1:f3:ba:ab inet6 addr: fe80::72f1:a1ff:fef3:baab/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:29 TX packets:0 errors:30 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B) Interrupt:17 eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr f0:4d:a2:53:83:7a UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B) Interrupt:43 lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1 RX packets:104 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:104 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:8000 (8.0 KB) TX bytes:8000 (8.0 KB) root@michelle-laptop:/home/michelle# lsmod Module Size Used by dm_crypt 22528 0 snd_hda_codec_hdmi 31775 1 snd_hda_codec_realtek 174313 1 snd_hda_intel 32765 5 snd_hda_codec 109562 3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel snd_hwdep 13276 1 snd_hda_codec snd_pcm 80845 4 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec snd_seq_midi 13132 0 snd_rawmidi 25424 1 snd_seq_midi snd_seq_midi_event 14475 1 snd_seq_midi snd_seq 51567 2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event parport_pc 32114 0 ppdev 12849 0 binfmt_misc 17292 1 lib80211_crypt_tkip 17275 0 bnep 17830 2 rfcomm 38139 0 snd_timer 28931 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq snd_seq_device 14172 3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq joydev 17393 0 wl 2646601 0 snd 62064 19 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device soundcore 14635 1 snd btusb 17912 0 bluetooth 158438 11 bnep,rfcomm,btusb uvcvideo 67203 0 videodev 86588 1 uvcvideo snd_page_alloc 14108 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm lib80211 14040 2 lib80211_crypt_tkip,wl intel_ips 17822 0 psmouse 72919 0 serio_raw 13027 0 mei 36570 0 dell_laptop 17767 0 dell_wmi 12601 0 dcdbas 14098 1 dell_laptop sparse_keymap 13658 1 dell_wmi mac_hid 13077 0 lp 17455 0 parport 40930 3 parport_pc,ppdev,lp usbhid 41906 0 hid 77367 1 usbhid wmi 18744 1 dell_wmi i915 414817 3 atl1c 36718 0 drm_kms_helper 45466 1 i915 drm 197692 4 i915,drm_kms_helper i2c_algo_bit 13199 1 i915 video 19068 1 i915 root@michelle-laptop:/home/michelle# iwlist scan lo Interface doesn't support scanning. eth1 Interface doesn't support scanning. eth0 No scan results root@michelle-laptop:/home/michelle# rfkill list 0: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no 1: dell-bluetooth: Bluetooth Soft blocked: yes Hard blocked: no 3: brcmwl-0: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no Obviously I don't know what I'm doing. I'd appreciate any help! Thanks!

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• Windows in StreamInsight: Hopping vs. Snapshot

  - by Roman Schindlauer

  Three weeks ago, we explained the basic concept of windows in StreamInsight: defining sets of events that serve as arguments for set-based operations, like aggregations. Today, we want to discuss the so-called Hopping Windows and compare them with Snapshot Windows. We will compare these two, because they can serve similar purposes with different behaviors; we will discuss the remaining window type, Count Windows, another time. Hopping (and its syntactic-sugar-sister Tumbling) windows are probably the most straightforward windowing concept in StreamInsight. A hopping window is defined by its length, and the offset from one window to the next. They are aligned with some absolute point on the timeline (which can also be given as a parameter to the window) and create sets of events. The diagram below shows an example of a hopping window with length of 1h and hop size (the offset) of 15 minutes, hence creating overlapping windows:   Two aspects in this diagram are important: Since this window is overlapping, an event can fall into more than one windows. If an (interval) event spans a window boundary, its lifetime will be clipped to the window, before it is passed to the set-based operation. That’s the default and currently only available window input policy. (This should only concern you if you are using a time-sensitive user-defined aggregate or operator.) The set-based operation will be applied to each of these sets, yielding a result. This result is: A single scalar value in case of built-in or user-defined aggregates. A subset of the input payloads, in case of the TopK operator. Arbitrary events, when using a user-defined operator. The timestamps of the result are almost always the ones of the windows. Only the user-defined  operator can create new events with timestamps. (However, even these event lifetimes are subject to the window’s output policy, which is currently always to clip to the window end.) Let’s assume we were calculating the sum over some payload field: var result = from window in source.HoppingWindow( TimeSpan.FromHours(1), TimeSpan.FromMinutes(15), HoppingWindowOutputPolicy.ClipToWindowEnd) select new { avg = window.Avg(e => e.Value) }; Now each window is reflected by one result event:   As you can see, the window definition defines the output frequency. No matter how many or few events we got from the input, this hopping window will produce one result every 15 minutes – except for those windows that do not contain any events at all, because StreamInsight window operations are empty-preserving (more about that another time). The “forced” output for every window can become a performance issue if you have a real-time query with many events in a wide group & apply – let me explain: imagine you have a lot of events that you group by and then aggregate within each group – classical streaming pattern. The hopping window produces a result in each group at exactly the same point in time for all groups, since the window boundaries are aligned with the timeline, not with the event timestamps. This means that the query output will become very bursty, delivering the results of all the groups at the same point in time. This becomes especially obvious if the events are long-lasting, spanning multiple windows each, so that the produced result events do not change their value very often. In such a case, a snapshot window can remedy. Snapshot windows are more difficult to explain than hopping windows: they represent those periods in time, when no event changes occur. In other words, if you mark all event start and and times on your timeline, then you are looking at all snapshot window boundaries:   If your events are never overlapping, the snapshot window will not make much sense. It is commonly used together with timestamp modification, which make it a very powerful tool. Or as Allan Mitchell expressed in in a recent tweet: “I used to look at SnapshotWindow() with disdain. Now she is my mistress, the one I turn to in times of trouble and need”. Let’s look at a simple example: I want to compute the average of some value in my events over the last minute. I don’t want this output be produced at fixed intervals, but at soon as it changes (that’s the true event-driven spirit!). The snapshot window will include all currently active event at each point in time, hence we need to extend our original events’ lifetimes into the future: Applying the Snapshot window on these events, it will appear to be “looking back into the past”: If you look at the result produced in this diagram, you can easily prove that, at each point in time, the current event value represents the average of all original input event within the last minute. Here is the LINQ representation of that query, applying the lifetime extension before the snapshot window: var result = from window in source .AlterEventDuration(e => TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1)) .SnapshotWindow(SnapshotWindowOutputPolicy.Clip) select new { avg = window.Avg(e => e.Value) }; With more complex modifications of the event lifetimes you can achieve many more query patterns. For instance “running totals” by keeping the event start times, but snapping their end times to some fixed time, like the end of the day. Each snapshot then “sees” all events that have happened in the respective time period so far. Regards, The StreamInsight Team

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• Friday Fun: Destroy the Web

  - by Mysticgeek

  Another Friday has arrived and it’s time to screw off on company time. Today we take a look at a unique game Add-on for Firefox called Destroy the Web. Destroy the Web Once you install the Add-on and restart Firefox, you’ll see the Destroy the Web icon on the toolbar. Click on it to destroy whatever webpage you’re on.   The game starts up and gives you a 3 second countdown… Now move the target over different elements of the page to destroy them. You have 30 seconds to destroy the site contents. If you are angry at a particular company or the one you work for, this can give you some fun stress relief by destroying it’s website. After you’ve destroyed as much of the page as possible, you’re given a score. You get different amounts of points for destroying certain elements on the page. Basically destroy as much as possible to get the most points. You can submit your score and check out some of the scoreboard leaders as well.  There are some cool sound effects and arcade sounding background music, so make sure to turn the volume down while playing. Or you can go into the Add-on options and disable it. If you want a unique way to let off some steam before the weekend starts, this is a fun way of doing it. Install Destroy the Web for Firefox Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Friday Fun: Destroy Everything with Indestructo TankWeekend Fun: Easter Egg in Spybot Search & DestroyFriday Fun: BoombotSecure Computing: Create Scheduled Scans With Spybot Search & DestroyFriday Fun: Castle Game Collection TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips HippoRemote Pro 2.2 Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Dual Boot Ubuntu and Windows 7 What is HTML5? Default Programs Editor – One great tool for Setting Defaults Convert BMP, TIFF, PCX to Vector files with RasterVect Free Identify Fonts using WhatFontis.com Windows 7’s WordPad is Actually Good

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• Ubuntu 14.04 : Lost my sound randomly tried a few commands and I think I failed

  - by Marc-Antoine Théberge

  I lost my sound the other day and I tried to delete pulseaudio then reinstall, then I tried to delete it and install alsa, It did not work and I had to reinstall everything; overall bad idea... now I can't have any sound. Should I do a fresh install? I don't know how to boot an usb drive with GRUB... Here's my sysinfo System information report, generated by Sysinfo: 2014-05-28 05:45:58 http://sourceforge.net/projects/gsysinfo SYSTEM INFORMATION Running Ubuntu Linux, the Ubuntu 14.04 (trusty) release. GNOME: 3.8.4 (Ubuntu 2014-03-17) Kernel version: 3.13.0-27-generic (#50-Ubuntu SMP Thu May 15 18:08:16 UTC 2014) GCC: 4.8 (i686-linux-gnu) Xorg: 1.15.1 (16 April 2014 01:40:08PM) (16 April 2014 01:40:08PM) Hostname: mark-laptop Uptime: 0 days 11 h 43 min CPU INFORMATION GenuineIntel, Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N270 @ 1.60GHz Number of CPUs: 2 CPU clock currently at 1333.000 MHz with 512 KB cache Numbering: family(6) model(28) stepping(2) Bogomips: 3192.13 Flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 xtpr pdcm movbe lahf_lm dtherm MEMORY INFORMATION Total memory: 2007 MB Total swap: 1953 MB STORAGE INFORMATION SCSI device - scsi0 Vendor: ATA Model: ST9160310AS HARDWARE INFORMATION MOTHERBOARD Host bridge Intel Corporation Mobile 945GSE Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03) Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 8340 PCI bridge(s) Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 4 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2) (prog-if 01 [Subtractive decode]) Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 4 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2) (prog-if 01 [Subtractive decode]) ISA bridge Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02) Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 830f IDE interface Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7-M Family) SATA Controller [IDE mode] (rev 02) (prog-if 80 [Master]) Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 830f GRAPHIC CARD VGA controller Intel Corporation Mobile 945GSE Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller]) Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 8340 SOUND CARD Multimedia controller Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02) Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 831a NETWORK Ethernet controller Qualcomm Atheros AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 Gigabit or Fast Ethernet (rev b0) Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 8324

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• Media server...serving files...............for a limited time only

  - by Craig

  I’m new to Ubuntu and am seeking help with a media server I have built. I have a couple of HTPCs in my house running XBMC. I wanted to build one for the family room working double duty as a HTPC, and media server to share movies, TV shows, music, etc. on my Windows network. So using some spare old parts I had lying around I decided to go CRAZY and build my first Linux box. I used Ubuntu because it seemed to be the most user friendly variant, especially for people that are new to Linux. I had to do a few things to get the media files shared properly on my network: Made sure my two media drives auto-mount every time I boot the computer by editing the “fstab” file – “sudo nano /etc/fstab” Installed Samba - “sudo apt-get install samba” Set a password for Samba - “sudo smbpasswd –a USERNAME” Edited the Samba configuration file to make sure the computer was in my networks workgroup – “sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf” In the file manager (not sure if that’s the right name for it), I right-clicked my media folders and set the sharing and permissions. The sharing was done without guest access, and permissions were set to; Owner, Group, and Others - Access: Create and Delete Files. Adjusted the Power Management settings to never put the system into sleep mode. I checked to see if I had access to the files from a Windows 7 machine and I did (Woo Hoo!). But when I tried to play any of my video files from the Windows machine (using VLC media player), they would only play for about 2-5 minutes and then they would stop with an error message saying that the file could not be accessed (Booo...). I tried playing some files through XBMC running in Windows and they worked for a bit longer (about 10-15mins), but they also stopped playing. I installed the Linux version of XBMC on the server and played the files locally with no problems. It doesn’t seem to be an issue with the files themselves, it seems to be a sharing problem on my network. So my question to the Ubuntu gurus out there is: Did I miss adding/editing something in the Samba configuration file? Did I use the right method to share my media files (file manager vs. using the terminal)? Is it possible for the computer to still go to sleep without the screen going black (does that even make sense?). Are there any special settings in Ubuntu that I should be using since this computer as a media server (is there a media server mode?...!...?). Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

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• SCHA API for resource group failover / switchover history

  - by krishna.k.murthy

  The Oracle Solaris Cluster framework keeps an internal log of cluster events, including switchover and failover of resource groups. These logs can be useful to Oracle support engineers for diagnosing cluster behavior. However, till now, there was no external interface to access the event history. Oracle Solaris Cluster 4.2 provides a new API option for viewing the recent history of resource group switchovers in a program-parsable format. Oracle Solaris Cluster 4.2 provides a new option tag argument RG_FAILOVER_LOG for the existing API command scha_cluster_get which can be used to list recent failover / switchover events for resource groups. The command usage is as shown below: # scha_cluster_get -O RG_FAILOVER_LOG number_of_days number_of_days : the number of days to be considered for scanning the historical logs. The command returns a list of events in the following format. Each field is separated by a semi-colon [;]: resource_group_name;source_nodes;target_nodes;time_stamp source_nodes: node_names from which resource group is failed over or was switched manually. target_nodes: node_names to which the resource group failed over or was switched manually. There is a corresponding enhancement in the C API function scha_cluster_get() which uses the SCHA_RG_FAILOVER_LOG query tag. In the example below geo-infrastructure (failover resource group), geo-clusterstate (scalable resource group), oracle-rg (failover resource group), asm-dg-rg (scalable resource group) and asm-inst-rg (scalable resource group) are part of Geographic Edition setup. # /usr/cluster/bin/scha_cluster_get -O RG_FAILOVER_LOG 3 geo-infrastructure;schost1c;;Mon Jul 21 15:51:51 2014 geo-clusterstate;schost2c,schost1c;schost2c;Mon Jul 21 15:52:26 2014 oracle-rg;schost1c;;Mon Jul 21 15:54:31 2014 asm-dg-rg;schost2c,schost1c;schost2c;Mon Jul 21 15:54:58 2014 asm-inst-rg;schost2c,schost1c;schost2c;Mon Jul 21 15:56:11 2014 oracle-rg;;schost2c;Mon Jul 21 15:58:51 2014 geo-infrastructure;;schost2c;Mon Jul 21 15:59:19 2014 geo-clusterstate;schost2c;schost2c,schost1c;Mon Jul 21 16:01:51 2014 asm-inst-rg;schost2c;schost2c,schost1c;Mon Jul 21 16:01:10 2014 asm-dg-rg;schost2c;schost2c,schost1c;Mon Jul 21 16:02:10 2014 oracle-rg;schost2c;;Tue Jul 22 16:58:02 2014 oracle-rg;;schost1c;Tue Jul 22 16:59:05 2014 oracle-rg;schost1c;schost1c;Tue Jul 22 17:05:33 2014 Note that in the output some of the entries might have an empty string in the source_nodes. Such entries correspond to events in which the resource group is switched online manually or during a cluster boot-up. Similarly, an empty destination_nodes list indicates an event in which the resource group went offline. - Arpit Gupta, Harish Mallya

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• Recovering an Ubuntu installation - Ubuntu eats itself after 'sudo apt-get install -f'

  - by Tony Martin

  Updater (I assume) put a no entry style alert icon on the panel which informed me that certain package dependencies were not up to snuff. Upgrades were thereafter only partial. The dialogue advised that I sudo apt-get install -f. I did this hoping that app-get would fulfil dependencies and replace corrupted files and watched it systematically remove every component of linux, both the stuff I had installed and the core ubuntu packages. I could only assume at this stage that this was in preparation for a fresh install but, of course, I know better now - if you find yourself with apt-get warning you that you are about to remove several hundred packages and asking you to type an involved confirmation string seek advice before proceeding. I digress. This was a 64 bit install of 12.04. All that is left is grub pointing to a couple of windows recovery partitions on the hard drive. Thankfully the Ext4 partition is reachable from a stick boot. EDIT: I've logged onto the machine with a 64 bit stick and can see the file structure left behind by apt-get after {ahem} fixing. My first instinct was to run install from the stick but it seemed to want to do another install rather than a repair. My question then: is there a way to recover the current installation so that if I reinstall the packages I had they will pick up the original settings? I'm particularly worried about losing email from evolution - the rest I could probably lash back together. As for the use of PPA I'm not sure what you're driving at. I generally use Ubuntu Software Centre to install software, though I have used terminal scripts to add new repositories and software successfully following guidance on various websites. The most recent change I made was a downgrade of Wine in an attempt to install and run excel2007 (a necessity, I think, as I have VBA work to do). The installer had stalled and had to be killed. I wonder if that corrupted whatever database holds a model of the package installation structure. I would also be interested to know how this disaster came about. I see people in the know recommending the sudo apt-get install -f as a fairly innocuous cure in similar circumstances. Thanks for your attention, Tony Martin p.s. Do please forgive the rant aspects of the original post. It's hard to write rationally with a large hole in the pit of your stomach.

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• How migrate my keyring (containing ssh passprases, nautilus remote filesystem, pgp passwords) and network manager connections?

  - by con-f-use

  I changed the disk on my laptop and installed Ubuntu on the new disk. Old disk had 12.04 upgraded to 12.10 on it. Now I want to copy my old keyring with WiFi passwords, ftp passwords for nautilus and ssh key passphrases. I have the whole data from the old disk available (is now a USB disk and I did not delete the old data yet or do anything with it - I could still put it in the laptop and boot from it like nothing happened). On the new disc that is now in my laptop, I have installed 12.10 with the same password, user-id and username as on the old disk. Then I copied a few important config files from the old disk (e.g. ~/.firefox/, ~/.mozilla, ~/.skype and so on, which all worked fine... except for the key ring: The old methods of just copying ~/.gconf/... and ~/.gnome2/keyrings won't work. Did I miss something? 1. Edit: I figure one needs to copy files not located in the users home directory as well. I copied the whole old /home/confus (which is my home directory) to the fresh install to no effect. That whole copy is now reverted to the fresh install's home directory, so my /home/confus is as it was the after fresh install. 2. Edit: The folder /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections seems to be the place for WiFi passwords. Could be that /usr/share/keyrings is important as well for ssh keys - that's the only sensible thing that a search came up with: find /usr/ -name "*keyring* 3. Edit: Still no ssh and ftp passwords from the keyring. What I did: Convert old hard drive to usb drive Put new drive in the laptop and installed fresh version of 12.10 there (same uid, username and passwort) Booted from old hdd via USB and copied its /etc/NetwrokManager/system-connections, ~/.gconf/ and ~/.gnome2/keyrings, ~/.ssh over to the new disk. Confirmed that all keys on the old install work Booted from new disk Result: No passphrase for ssh keys, no ftp passwords in keyring. At least the WiFi passwords are migrated. 4. Edit: Boutny! Ending soon... 5. Edit: Keyring's now in ./local/share/keyrings/. Also interesting .gnupg

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• Stop trying to be perfect

  - by Kyle Burns

  Yes, Bob is my uncle too.  I also think the points in the Manifesto for Software Craftsmanship (manifesto.softwarecraftsmanship.org) are all great.  What amazes me is that tend to confuse the term “well crafted” with “perfect”.  I'm about to say something that will make Quality Assurance managers and many development types as well until you think about it as a craftsman – “Stop trying to be perfect”. Now let me explain what I mean.  Building software, as with building almost anything, often involves a series of trade-offs where either one undesired characteristic is accepted as necessary to achieve another desired one (or maybe stave off one that is even less desirable) or a desirable characteristic is sacrificed for the same reasons.  This implies that perfection itself is unattainable.  What is attainable is “sufficient” and I think that this really goes to the heart both of what people are trying to do with Agile and with the craftsmanship movement.  Simply put, sufficient software drives the greatest business value.   I've been in many meetings where “how can we keep anything from ever going wrong” has become the thing that holds us in analysis paralysis.  I've also been the guy trying way too hard to perfect some function to make sure that every edge case is accounted for.  Somewhere in there, something a drill instructor said while I was in boot camp occurred to me.  In response to being asked a question by another recruit having to do with some edge case (I can barely remember the context), he said “What if grasshoppers had machine guns?  Would the birds still **** with them?”  It sounds funny, but there's a lot of wisdom in those words.   “Sufficient” is different for every situation and it’s important to understand what sufficient means in the context of the work you’re doing.  If I’m writing a timesheet application (and please shoot me if I am), I’m going to have a much higher tolerance for imperfection than if you’re writing software to control life support systems on spacecraft.  I’m also likely to have less need for high volume performance than if you’re writing software to control stock trading transactions.   I’d encourage anyone who has read this far to instead of trying to be perfect, try to create software that is sufficient in every way.  If you’re working to make a component that is sufficient “better”, ask yourself if there is any component left that is not yet sufficient.  If the answer is “yes” you’re working on the wrong thing and need to adjust.  If the answer is “no”, why aren’t you shipping and delivering business value?

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• Myths about Coding Craftsmanship part 2

  - by tom

  Myth 3: The source of all bad code is inept developers and stupid people When you review code is this what you assume?  Shame on you.  You are probably making assumptions in your code if you are assuming so much already.  Bad code can be the result of any number of causes including but not limited to using dated techniques (like boxing when generics are available), not following standards (“look how he does the spacing between arguments!” or “did he really just name that variable ‘bln_Hello_Cats’?”), being redundant, using properties, methods, or objects in a novel way (like switching on button.Text between “Hello World” and “Hello World “ //clever use of space character… sigh), not following the SOLID principals, hacking around assumptions made in earlier iterations / hacking in features that should be worked into the overall design.  The first two issues, while annoying are pretty easy to spot and can be fixed so easily.  If your coding team is made up of experienced professionals who are passionate about staying current then these shouldn’t be happening.  If you work with a variety of skills, backgrounds, and experience then there will be some of this stuff going on.  If you have an opportunity to mentor such a developer who is receptive to constructive criticism don’t be a jerk; help them and the codebase will improve.  A little patience can improve the codebase, your work environment, and even your perspective. The novelty and redundancy I have encountered has often been the use of creativity when language knowledge was perceived as unavailable or too time consuming.  When developers learn on the job you get a lot of this.  Rather than going to MSDN developers will use what they know.  Depending on the constraints of their assignment hacking together what they know may seem quite practical.  This was not stupid though I often wonder how much time is actually “saved” by hacking.  These issues are often harder to untangle if we ever do.  They can also grow out of control as we write hack after hack to make it work and get back to some development that is satisfying. Hacking upon an existing hack is what I call “feeding the monster”.  Code monsters are anti-patterns and hacks gone wild.  The reason code monsters continue to get bigger is that they keep growing in scope, touching more and more of the application.  This is not the result of dumb developers. It is probably the result of avoiding design, not taking the time to understand the problems or anticipate or communicate the vision of the product.  If our developers don’t understand the purpose of a feature or product how do we expect potential customers to do so? Forethought and organization are often what is missing from bad code.  Developers who do not use the SOLID principals should be encouraged to learn these principals and be given guidance on how to apply them.  The time “saved” by giving hackers room to hack will be made up for and then some. Not as technical debt but as shoddy work that if not replaced will be struggled with again and again.  Bad code is not the result of dumb developers (usually) it is the result of trying to do too much without the proper resources and neglecting the right thing that needs doing with the first thoughtless thing that comes into our heads. Object oriented code is all about relationships between objects.  Coders who believe their coworkers are all fools tend to write objects that are difficult to work with, not eager to explain themselves, and perform erratically and irrationally.  If you constantly find you are surrounded by idiots you may want to ask yourself if you are being unreasonable, if you are being closed minded, of if you have chosen the right profession.  Opening your mind up to the idea that you probably work with rational, well-intentioned people will probably make you a better coder and it might even make you less grumpy.  If you are surrounded by jerks who do not engage in the exchange of ideas who do not care about their customers or the durability of the code you are building together then I suggest you find a new place to work.  Myth 4: Customers don’t care about “beautiful” code Craftsmanship is customer focused because it means that the job was done right, the product will withstand the abuse, modifications, and scrutiny of our customers.  Users can appreciate a predictable timeline for a release, a product delivered on time and on budget, a feature set that does not interfere with the task(s) it is supporting, quick turnarounds on exception messages, self healing issues, and less issues.  These are all hindered by skimping on craftsmanship.  When we write data access and when we write reusable code.   What do you think?  Does bad code come primarily from low IQ individuals?  Do customers care about beautiful code?

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• 12.04 boots fine, with graphical splash screen, but then Monitor "out of range"

  - by Jim Bednar

  I see dozens of posts from people whose monitors are saying "out of range" under Ubuntu; seems like there are some serious problems in Ubuntu with autodetection of monitor capabilities. :-( But none of the many, many suggestions I found have solved my problem, and right now I can't use anything graphical on this machine! History: I installed Ubuntu 12.04 on my HP Proliant Microserver N40L, which worked reasonably at the default resolution across several reboots. At some point I noticed that the proprietary video driver was not in use, and tried to install one to get better window-drawing speeds, but it failed with some sort of error, and I gave up on that. A few weeks later when I next rebooted, it showed the usual BIOS screen and various boot loading screens (including GRUB), and then the usual purple Ubuntu splash screen with the dots showing that things were loading, but when it finished booting the monitor went black and eventually showed "Out of range" (with no other information). Given that there were several weeks between reboots (it's a server, after all), I've no idea if it was some system update, trying to install the proprietary drivers, or something else that caused the problem. Anyway, the system has booted fine, as I can do Ctrl-Alt-F1 to get a text prompt and can log in there. But Ctrl-Alt-F7 goes back to the out of range error. Some posters said to try Ctrl-Alt-- (minus) to cycle through resolutions until one works, but that didn't have any visible effect. Many, many others said it was a grub problem, which seems unlikely given that grub's screen looks fine, but I tried editing /etc/default/grub to set a particular resolution (trying many of them) and running update-grub, with no apparent effect. Rebooting into failsafe mode works the same as regular mode. Replacing xorg.conf with xorg.conf.failsafe works the same too. I'm at my wits' end! Isn't there anything I can do to convince Ubuntu to choose a mode that the monitor supports? E.g. the one that it is using for the splash screen? I don't need great resolution on this machine, just anything that works!!!!! Help!!!!!! Please!!!!

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• Ubuntu won't connect to wired network

  - by djeikyb

  I'm running 10.04, upgraded from 9.10, maybe, but probably not upgraded from 9.04. I have two wifi routers. Zeus is connected to the dsl modem. Hermes uses a wds bridge with Zeus to extend the network. My desktop (Daedalus) is ethernetted to Hermes. My laptop (Clyde) is wifi, switching to Hermes or Zeus as needed. Occasionally, as in whenever I transfer a large file from desktop to laptop, the wds bridge will die. Fixing it means restarting both routers, though it seems Hermes should boot first. This is ridiculous, and eventually I'll get around to asking you guys to help me stop it from happening. More importantly is that my desktop requires a reboot to get back on the network. WTF. ifconfig shows my nic has no ip. /etc/init.d/networking restart doesn't do anything, not even give me a lousy ip. dhcpcd eth1 grants me an ip address, but doesn't help with internet access. route -n shows what looks like my normal routing table, but pinging google.com informs me it's an unknown host. jake@daedalus:~$ route -n Kernel IP routing table Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface 10.1.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth1 169.254.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth1 0.0.0.0 10.1.1.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth1 It may be worth noting that I can ping both Zeus (10.1.1.1) and Hermes (10.1.1.4) and my laptop (10.1.1.55). Much obliged for any help. Rebooting is, well, trivial in this instance. But it's stupid. I switched to linux because I like the idea that if one part breaks, you fix it instead of reboot reboot reboot. I've left my poor desktop in disarray, confining myself to my little netbook. My desktop is broken, awaiting magical commands from you brilliant folk. (and yes, i know clyde the netbook should be named icarus. it was its original name. ironically the ssd burned out, and i felt it wasn't right when it came to reinstalling)

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• HDMI sound gone, can't figure out how to turn it back on

  - by Oli

  I have had an Acer Revo box as a media centre for a while. I recently installed Ubuntu Server (10.10) on it and polished it up with nodm (one of the most simple ways to launch an X session) and installed boxee. It's been working fine for over a month. It's just running ALSA. I've had problems with PulseAudio/Boxee/HDMI before so I wanted to keep it simple. And that worked. It pushed both PCM and digital (AAC and various Dolby codecs) over HDMI perfectly. But I restarted it the other day after mucking around with some nfs configuration and now there isn't any sound. The hardware is an ION chipset. Nvidia 9400M graphics with Nvidia MCP79/7A audio. One thing I have noticed is there doesn't appear to be any sign of a IEC958 device. A traditional fix in the past for fresh installs has been to load alsamixer, find the IEC device and toggle its mute but I can't. I'm certain this used to represent the HDMI output. It just doesn't seem to exist any more unless I run sudo alsa-utils restart while boxee is running, when I see it in an error message: * Shutting down ALSA... [ OK ] * Setting up ALSA... * warning: 'alsactl restore' failed with error message 'alsactl: set_control:1388: Cannot write control '2:0:0:IEC958 Playback Default:0' : Operation not permitted'... ...done. When nodm (and thus boxee) aren't running, I don't see this error but alsamixer still doesn't show the IEC channel. aplay -l gives: card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: ALC662 rev1 Analog [ALC662 rev1 Analog] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0] Subdevices: 0/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 Its section in lshw reads: *-multimedia description: Audio device product: MCP79 High Definition Audio vendor: nVidia Corporation physical id: 8 bus info: pci@0000:00:08.0 version: b1 width: 32 bits clock: 66MHz capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list configuration: driver=HDA Intel latency=0 maxlatency=5 mingnt=2 resources: irq:22 memory:fae78000-fae7bfff I was running on the stock PAE kernel but now it's running on 2.6.37.1. I upgraded to see if that fixed things; it didn't. I'm considering a reinstall but I hate doing that because a) there's a bit of custom configuration in getting X and Boxee to start on boot and b) I don't know what the problem is. If I reinstall this time, I'll end up doing that every time the sound breaks. I love Ubuntu but I don't want to install it once a month. Is there any way to forcibly reset all alsa settings and restart from scratch (without doing a reinstall)? Any other tips? If you need more information, just ask.

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• Unable to Mount an external hard drive (NTFS)

  - by Mediterran81

  Ubuntu 11.10. When I plug my external Drive Western Digital MyPassport (500Go NTFS) I named WD. I get the following error: Unable to mount WD Error mounting: mount exited with exit code 1: helper failed with: mount: according to mtab, /dev/sdb1 is already mounted on /media/WD mount failed I have no problem with the internal NTFS partitions that auto-mounts on startup (ntfs-config does that). If I plug the WD before I boot Ubuntu, upon login, it's recognized and I can access without no problem. But if I remove it using (Safely remove) and then replug it, I get the error above. Here is my fstab: # /etc/fstab: static file system information. # # <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass> proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0 #Entry for /dev/sda5 : UUID=24540d0f-5803-493c-ace9-e3b3c0cedb26 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1 #Entry for /dev/sda3 : UUID=E4C43F7EC43F51D2 /media/OS ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 0 #Entry for /dev/sda2 : UUID=6A0070F10070C61B /media/RECOVERY ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 0 #Entry for /dev/sdb1 : UUID=EA6854D268549F5F /media/WD ntfs-3g defaults,nosuid,nodev,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 0 #Entry for /dev/sda6 : UUID=ed077c52-c50e-406c-9120-9cb6f86ec204 none swap sw 0 0 Here is my mtab /dev/sda5 / ext4 rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0 0 0 proc /proc proc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0 sysfs /sys sysfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0 fusectl /sys/fs/fuse/connections fusectl rw 0 0 none /sys/kernel/debug debugfs rw 0 0 none /sys/kernel/security securityfs rw 0 0 udev /dev devtmpfs rw,mode=0755 0 0 devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620 0 0 tmpfs /run tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,size=10%,mode=0755 0 0 none /run/lock tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=5242880 0 0 none /run/shm tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev 0 0 /dev/sda3 /media/OS fuseblk rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096 0 0 /dev/sda2 /media/RECOVERY fuseblk rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096 0 0 /dev/sdb1 /media/WD fuseblk rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096 0 0 binfmt_misc /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc binfmt_misc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0 gvfs-fuse-daemon /home/hanine/.gvfs fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon rw,nosuid,nodev,user=hanine 0 0 Appearently it cannot be mounted because upon login, it finds that it is already mounted. Some sort of conflict. Does anyone have a clue on how to solve this. Thanks.

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• Live CD has black screen HP DV6

  - by Shaun Killingbeck

  Attempting to install/try ubuntu (11.10, 12.04) on my new laptop, using a liveCD (and tried USB). I get the purple screen (with the man/keyboard at the bottom) and after that the screen flashes bright white before going black. Ubuntu continues to load in the background, with login sound etc but the screen is off. I have tried as many different solutions as I could find including: using nomodestep, xforcevesa, i915.modeset=0, and also now i915.modeset=1 in boot options (seperately): varying consequences, but either I end up at a blinking cursor with no prompt, a command line (startx fails: no screen found), or the original blank screen again Tried booting from VirtualBox - it crashes at the same place the screen would go blank when using a CD/USB tried 11.04: I don't have this problem BUT when trying to install, I get a ubi-partman error 141 (possibly down to the three partitions that came on my laptop... not sure why HP needed there own separate partition for HP Tools...) Model: HP Pavillion DV6 6B08SA Processor: AMD Quad-Core A6-3410MX APU with Radeon HD 6545G2 Dual Graphics (1.6 GHZ 4 MB L2 cache ) Chipset: AMD RS880M Any help would be greatly appreciated. I just want to be able to partition the drive and install Ubuntu. I'm assuming the issue is graphics card related, although I have no confirmation of that. Update: Tried the ?orkarounds on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/BlankScreen - set gfxpayload=text changed nothing, removing splash did nothing and setting vesafb.nonsense=1 did nothing either. I'd like to be able to collect some log information somehow, but I can't get to a command line from the liveCD. tried using the latest 12.04 beta, same issue tried nomodeset without splash or quiet. get the following (tail of) output before it freezes on that screen: * Starting configure network device security [OK] * Starting configure network device [OK] [ 25.720899] ieee80211 phy0: w1_ops_config: change monitor mode: false (implement) [ 25.720923] ieee80211 phy0: w1_ops_config: change power-save mode: false (implement) * Starting restore sound card(s') mixer state(s) [fail] [ 25.721849] ieee80211 phy0: w1_ops_bss_info_changed: qos enabled: false (implement) * Stopping save kernel messages [OK] * Starting bluetooth [OK] * PulseAudio configured for per-user sessions saned disabled; edit /etc/default/saned [ 25.988016] hci_cmd_timer: hci0 command tx timeout [ 26.207225] bad LUN (0:1) [ 26.223735] bad target number (1:0) [ 26.252111] bad target number (2:0) [ 26.272170] bad target number (3:0) [ 26.300154] bad target number (4:0) [ 26.328162] bad target number (5:0) [ 26.344180] bad target number (6:0) [ 26.368142] bad target number (7:0) * Checking battery state... [OK] * Stopping System V runlevel capability [OK] Does this give any indication of the problem? the false (implement) messages also reappear when I press the power button to ask it to shutdown, followed by a [fail] status for killing remaining processes.

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• Shrink NTFS Windows 7 Partition with GParted

  - by user15961

  I am running a dual-boot system with Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.10. Initially I allocated about 20GB for my Ubuntu partition; however, I quickly ran out of that space and am now looking to expand my partition. Currently my NTFS partition (450GB) has about 130GB of free space. I tried using GParted to shrink the partition but encountered the following error. I booted into windows so I could run chkdsk but the countdown freezes at 1 upon reboot. I tried multiple methods to resolve that issue but nothing seems to work. Finally I gave up, and now I just want to know what is the best way for me to force GParted to shrink the partition regardless of the errors. I don't really have anything important and I don't mind risking the data. I just don't want to wipe the entire NTFS partition because I don't have a Windows install CD and might require Windows later on for some programs. I tried using sudo ntfsresize but that spews out the same error as GParted... Any ideas? Check and repair file system (ntfs) on /dev/sda2 00:00:09 ( ERROR ) calibrate /dev/sda2 00:00:00 ( SUCCESS ) path: /dev/sda2 start: 36944325 end: 976771119 size: 939826795 (448.14 GiB) check file system on /dev/sda2 for errors and (if possible) fix them 00:00:09 ( ERROR ) ntfsresize -P -i -f -v /dev/sda2 ntfsresize v2.0.0 (libntfs 10:0:0) Device name : /dev/sda2 NTFS volume version: 3.1 Cluster size : 4096 bytes Current volume size: 481191318016 bytes (481192 MB) Current device size: 481191319040 bytes (481192 MB) Checking for bad sectors ... Checking filesystem consistency ... Cluster 63468 is referenced multiple times! Cluster 63469 is referenced multiple times! Cluster 63465 is referenced multiple times! Cluster 63466 is referenced multiple times! Cluster 63467 is referenced multiple times! Cluster 165621 is referenced multiple times! Cluster 165622 is referenced multiple times! Cluster 165623 is referenced multiple times! Cluster 165624 is referenced multiple times! ERROR: Filesystem check failed! ERROR: 9 clusters are referenced multiply times. NTFS is inconsistent. Run chkdsk /f on Windows then reboot it TWICE! The usage of the /f parameter is very IMPORTANT! No modification was and will be made to NTFS by this software until it gets repaired.

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• Various issues linked to my CD drive, when it has a disc in it

  - by Voyagerfan5761

  When I go to the Desktop and click on a media icon (for my flash drive, a CD, whatever it is), the following problems occur, in this approximate sequence: Nautilus will close if it's open. the desktop icons disappear my Window List shows a button that says "Starting File Manager" the icons reappear the button in Window List disappears Because of this problem, I can no longer drag and drop media, nor can I right-click to perform actions such as "Eject" and "Safely Remove Drive". The same symptoms occur if I click a media icon (that is also present on the desktop) in Nautilus' Computer view, though notably not if I click in the places list on the left. I have confirmed that this problem happens only if there is a CD in the drive (Matshita UJDA360). Also, inserting a disc into the CD drive appears to kill all running programs and restart Nautilus (or X; I'm not sure). Applications like Brasero and Rhythmbox will not start while there is a disc in the drive. Removing the disc doesn't result in the list of media updating; it must be forced to update by clicking on one of the desktop icons and going through one of the above-described cycles. It doesn't seem to matter what type of disc is in the drive. This has happened with CD-RWs I burned years ago using Roxio on Windows XP, the Ubuntu disc I installed from (burned with InfraRecorder Portable under Windows XP), and the retail game disc for Star Trek Armada II. The first indication of a problem was Brasero dying when I tried to insert a disc for erasure and rewriting. Since then, I've drafted several different questions on various issues, finally combining them into this one when I realized that having a CD in the drive was the common link. Could this be a simple driver issue? If Ubuntu is dynamically detecting my hardware on boot, can I specify drivers for devices that I know will be a problem if the default files are used? I'm beginning to think that my laptop, an old Dell Inspiron 2650, is just too old or proprietary-driver-hungry (or something, maybe RAM-starved) for Ubuntu and Windows XP to play nicely alongside each other. Or maybe I just need to carefully take my wall-wart machine to a coffee shop for an afternoon so I can download updates and such from the Internet, as I lack a home connection.

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• Subterranean IL: The ThreadLocal type

  - by Simon Cooper

  I came across ThreadLocal<T> while I was researching ConcurrentBag. To look at it, it doesn't really make much sense. What's all those extra Cn classes doing in there? Why is there a GenericHolder<T,U,V,W> class? What's going on? However, digging deeper, it's a rather ingenious solution to a tricky problem. Thread statics Declaring that a variable is thread static, that is, values assigned and read from the field is specific to the thread doing the reading, is quite easy in .NET: [ThreadStatic] private static string s_ThreadStaticField; ThreadStaticAttribute is not a pseudo-custom attribute; it is compiled as a normal attribute, but the CLR has in-built magic, activated by that attribute, to redirect accesses to the field based on the executing thread's identity. TheadStaticAttribute provides a simple solution when you want to use a single field as thread-static. What if you want to create an arbitary number of thread static variables at runtime? Thread-static fields can only be declared, and are fixed, at compile time. Prior to .NET 4, you only had one solution - thread local data slots. This is a lesser-known function of Thread that has existed since .NET 1.1: LocalDataStoreSlot threadSlot = Thread.AllocateNamedDataSlot("slot1"); string value = "foo"; Thread.SetData(threadSlot, value); string gettedValue = (string)Thread.GetData(threadSlot); Each instance of LocalStoreDataSlot mediates access to a single slot, and each slot acts like a separate thread-static field. As you can see, using thread data slots is quite cumbersome. You need to keep track of LocalDataStoreSlot objects, it's not obvious how instances of LocalDataStoreSlot correspond to individual thread-static variables, and it's not type safe. It's also relatively slow and complicated; the internal implementation consists of a whole series of classes hanging off a single thread-static field in Thread itself, using various arrays, lists, and locks for synchronization. ThreadLocal<T> is far simpler and easier to use. ThreadLocal ThreadLocal provides an abstraction around thread-static fields that allows it to be used just like any other class; it can be used as a replacement for a thread-static field, it can be used in a List<ThreadLocal<T>>, you can create as many as you need at runtime. So what does it do? It can't just have an instance-specific thread-static field, because thread-static fields have to be declared as static, and so shared between all instances of the declaring type. There's something else going on here. The values stored in instances of ThreadLocal<T> are stored in instantiations of the GenericHolder<T,U,V,W> class, which contains a single ThreadStatic field (s_value) to store the actual value. This class is then instantiated with various combinations of the Cn types for generic arguments. In .NET, each separate instantiation of a generic type has its own static state. For example, GenericHolder<int,C0,C1,C2> has a completely separate s_value field to GenericHolder<int,C1,C14,C1>. This feature is (ab)used by ThreadLocal to emulate instance thread-static fields. Every time an instance of ThreadLocal is constructed, it is assigned a unique number from the static s_currentTypeId field using Interlocked.Increment, in the FindNextTypeIndex method. The hexadecimal representation of that number then defines the specific Cn types that instantiates the GenericHolder class. That instantiation is therefore 'owned' by that instance of ThreadLocal. This gives each instance of ThreadLocal its own ThreadStatic field through a specific unique instantiation of the GenericHolder class. Although GenericHolder has four type variables, the first one is always instantiated to the type stored in the ThreadLocal<T>. This gives three free type variables, each of which can be instantiated to one of 16 types (C0 to C15). This puts an upper limit of 4096 (163) on the number of ThreadLocal<T> instances that can be created for each value of T. That is, there can be a maximum of 4096 instances of ThreadLocal<string>, and separately a maximum of 4096 instances of ThreadLocal<object>, etc. However, there is an upper limit of 16384 enforced on the total number of ThreadLocal instances in the AppDomain. This is to stop too much memory being used by thousands of instantiations of GenericHolder<T,U,V,W>, as once a type is loaded into an AppDomain it cannot be unloaded, and will continue to sit there taking up memory until the AppDomain is unloaded. The total number of ThreadLocal instances created is tracked by the ThreadLocalGlobalCounter class. So what happens when either limit is reached? Firstly, to try and stop this limit being reached, it recycles GenericHolder type indexes of ThreadLocal instances that get disposed using the s_availableIndices concurrent stack. This allows GenericHolder instantiations of disposed ThreadLocal instances to be re-used. But if there aren't any available instantiations, then ThreadLocal falls back on a standard thread local slot using TLSHolder. This makes it very important to dispose of your ThreadLocal instances if you'll be using lots of them, so the type instantiations can be recycled. The previous way of creating arbitary thread-static variables, thread data slots, was slow, clunky, and hard to use. In comparison, ThreadLocal can be used just like any other type, and each instance appears from the outside to be a non-static thread-static variable. It does this by using the CLR type system to assign each instance of ThreadLocal its own instantiated type containing a thread-static field, and so delegating a lot of the bookkeeping that thread data slots had to do to the CLR type system itself! That's a very clever use of the CLR type system.

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