Firefox/Flash crashing in Ubuntu …

I have been having this issue in Ubuntu for a while. The problem occurs when I play Flash content (ie. YouTube or Google Video) and just as the video is about start playing Firefox crashes. This does not happen each and every time though, but its pretty regular.

So here is how I fixed the issue.

STEP 1: Download the latest Adobe Flash plugin from http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

STEP 2: Open Synaptic Package Manager (System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager) and search for “flash”. In the list find the package called “flashplugin-nonfree” and mark for Complete Removal. Apply the changes and close Synaptic.

STEP 3: Go back to the Adobe Flash plugin you downloaded and install the package. Restart Firefox and your done!

Unhide Volume in AWN …

If you use AWN (avant-window-navigator) you either have already experienced the following, or you are yet to …

When using the Stacks Plugger applet to view mounted volumes, such as flash drives, CD/DVD’s and external Hard Drives, you have to right click on these volumes and select “Unmount Volume” from the right-click menu in order to unmount it. However, right above the “Unmount Volume” option there is another option which is “Hide Volume” and many people will end up at some point mistakingly clicking on that option which makes the volume vanish from AWN but remain mounted. The bothering thing about this is that the next time you plug that same device in it will not show up any more in AWN — VERY annoying!

So here is how to get that undone …

NOTE: You can also accomplish this without the Terminal but its much simpler this way.

STEP 1: Open a Terminal (Gnome: Applications > Accessories > Terminal)
STEP 2: Paste this like into the terminal:

gconftool-2 --recursive-unset /apps/avant-window-navigator/applets

and hit “Enter”.

STEP 3: Close the Terminal and close AWN (Right-click on the corner of the AWN Dock and select “Close”)

STEP 4: Re-open AWN (Gnome: Applications > Accessories > Avant-Window-Navigator)

Done!

Eliminate Two Windows Boot Options …

I have seen this happen on many machines, and the cause can be different, but basically you end up with two entries in the boot.ini file which each call for a Windows boot. So when you boot up your computer you are asked to pick which one you want.

To remove this annoyance you can do the following:

1) Right-click My Computer

2) Click Properties from the right-click menu

3) Click the Advanced tab

4) Click the Startup & Recovery Settings button

5) Here you’ll have a choice to choose your default OS. Usually you don’t need to change it as it will already be on the best one.

6) Most likely, the “time to display list of OS’s” will be checked with a timeout equal to the time your computer waits until it boots without user intervention. UNCHECK that box.

7) Reboot and you should boot directly into Widows without the boot prompt.

Good Luck

Editing Firefox Dictionary in Ubuntu Linux …

The other day I right-clicked on a word in Firefox and selected “Add to Dictionary” by accident. Here is how to rectify the mistake by removing the added entry.

1. Close Firefox
2. Open Nautilus to your Home Folder and click on View > Show Hidden Files
3. Navigate to: .mozilla/firefox/xxxxxx.default
4. Open the file called persdict.dat in the Text Editor and delete the unwanted entries
5. Save and Close the file

DONE!

Flash in Ubuntu …

I get a number of people asking me how to install flash in Ubuntu … there are a few ways but here is what I do …

1. Go to the following link: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

2. Select version to download (you should pick “.deb for Ubuntu 8.04+”)

3. Click the “Agree and install now” button. Your download will begin automatically and you will be asked to “Save” or “Open” the file. Select to Save it to your Desktop (or wherever else you can find it easily)

4. Once the file is completely downloaded it double-click it and follow the prompts to install it.

5. Restart Firefox (or whichever browser/s you are using)

DONE!

Conexant CX20549 (Venice) Sound input working!!!

Here is how I got the sound input working on my Lenovo Thinkpad R61 running Ubuntu Hardy. (A HUGE thanks to c4ppa for the patches and instructions)

Note: This patch seems to have been tested and found to work on Ubuntu Hardy, Intrepid and Jaunty.

STEP 1:
Download the two patches from here:
LINK
(It will suffice to download “patch_conexant.c.patch”
“HD-Audio-Models.txt.patch” is the only info about models)

Download the modified AlsaUpgrade script here:
LINK

STEP 2:
Open a terminal and launch AlsaUpgrade script with option -d (download the packages only):
sudo sh ./AlsaUpgrade-1.0.x-rev-1.16.sh -d
(this may take some time to download depending on the speed of your internet connection. Be patient and wait for it to finish.)

STEP 3:
Apply the patch with the following command:
sudo patch /usr/src/Alsa-1.0.19/alsa-driver-1.0.19/alsa-kernel/pci/hda/patch_conexant.c patch_conexant.c.patch

Next launch AlsaUpgrade script with option -i (compilation and installation of packages):
sudo ./AlsaUpgrade-1.0.x-rev-1.16.sh -i

Find out your subsystem id:
lspci -vnn | grep -A1 Audio
(Note: If you don’t have subsystem id 17aa:20ac you could try placing the line “options snd-hda-intel model=lenovor61i” in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base with the “sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base” command.)

Then reboot.

STEP 4:
Launch alsamixer from the notification area by double-clicking the volume control icon.

All I had after applying the patched upgrade was:

tab – Playback (Master and PCM)
tab – Recording (Digital)

Make sure Digital is unmuted and slider at least half way up.
PCM can now be pushed all the way up and will not lead to sound distortion.

After this I opened Applications > Sound and Video > Sound Recorder and the mic was working! The mic also works in Skype!

Install the latest VLC in Ubuntu 8.04 ….

With Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) came the latest version of VLC for Linux. This new version had a more sophisticated interface all together and especially made fullscreen video a lot easier to manipulate. If you are running Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) there is no reason why you should not have the latest VLC and here is how to get it.

Goto System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager
Click on Settings > Repositories
Click on the Third-Party Software tab
Click on the Add button
paste this:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/c-korn/ubuntu hardy main

and then click on Add Source and then on Close.

Now click the Reload button and wait for Synaptic to reload the software sources.
Now search for vlc and mark vlc for complete removal. Click the Apply button to apply the changes.

Once VLC has been removed search again for it and this time mark it for installation. Click on the Apply button to apply the changes.

Now you can open VLC how you always do … but now it will be the latest version.

NOTE: It is recommended to remove the software source after installing VLC.

File and Folder Share in Ubuntu Hardy…

I was trying to share my files and folders over the network using Samba, which is what Ubuntu uses, and was getting the following message,

ubuntu ‘net usershare’ returned error 255: net usershare: cannot open usershare directory /var/lib/samba/usershares. Error Permission denied

so here is what I did to make it work.

1. Open a Terminal and type the following in

sudo gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf

What this will do is open the configuration file for Samba with “Root” privileges which means we can edit it.

2. Find the section called “Global Settings”, which for me was the first section, and paste the following line at the end of the section,

usershare owner only = False

Save the file and close it. Now your sharing should work. If not you may need to log out and log back in or reboot.

Also make sure that your User has the permissions to share files and folders over the network.
To make sure of this go to System > Administration > Users and Groups. Then click the “Unlock” button and enter your password. Click on your user and then on Properties and then go to the User Privileges tab and make sure that “Share files with the local network” is ticked.

Firefox, Flash and Ubuntu Hardy…

As you know not too long ago I upgraded my machines to Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex). However just a couple days ago I reverted back to Ubuntu 8.04 on my ThinkPad due to experiencing Kernel Panics and sound distortion. I did attempt to find the cause for the Kernel Panics, and I did find that I was not the only one experiencing this with Intrepid, but the solution was no where in sight.

Hardy was back up and running with all my programs (30+) and all my mail and firefox backups in about 2 hours. Things were already better without the Kernel Panics. There was one thing though which I noticed pretty much right away which was causing me trouble in Hardy. It seemed that when I would have Firefox open and was viewing Flash video content (ie. YouTube) that my sound ont he rest of the system would no longer work. For example if I had a Flash video playing in Firefox and I also opened up a music player like Exaile or Banshee and tried to play an audio file it would not play – also Pidgin sounds would no longer work.

I think I found the solution and it was remarkably simple. All I did was install a package called “libflashsupport”. You can do this via the Synaptic Package Manager or with the Terminal. In the terminal it is a simple command of:

sudo apt-get install libflashsupport

After installing the package you should close and reopen Firefox. Then play a Flash video and try to play music through your media player at the same time.

Ubuntu 8.04 Linux and the Atheros AR242x chipset

Madwifi has put out a super good fix for this device.
Here is how to get it working:

NOTE: Make sure you have disabled the Atheros Chipset driver in the Hardware Manager already and rebooted. (System > Administration > Hardware Drivers)

1. Download this file: CLICK HERE
Once it is downloaded right-click on it and extract it.

2. Make sure you have build-essentials installed. If you are not sure you should open a Terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and enter this command:

sudo apt-get install build-essentials

Also install the linux-headers with this command:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

3. Now turn off all your wireless devices in the Terminal with these commands:

ifconfig ath0 down
ifconfig wifi0 down

If you get a message telling you the device is not found or something, that’s ok.

4. In the Terminal navigate to the folder you extracted from the file you downloaded earlier. Mine was on the Desktop so I entered this in the Terminal to get inside:

cd Desktop/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3875-20081105/

Now do the following to enter the scripts folder:

cd scripts

Now to remove the old modules from the system and its memory:

./madwifi-unload
./find-madwifi-modules.sh $(uname -r)
cd ..

5. Now to compile the new madwifi driver. Simple type make into the Terminal and wait for it to finish.
When its done make sure there were no errors in the output.

Now type in sudo make install to install the driver.

6. And finally load the module with:

sudo modprobe ath_pci

And to make the module load with startup we need to edit a file, so do this in the Terminal:

sudo gedit /etc/modules

Add this line to the end.

ath_pci

Then save and close the file.

If the wireless is not working just reboot your computer.

Your Done!