Ubuntu 18.04 in dual boot with Endless OS

 I bought Acer Aspire 3 Model A315-21 which came with pre-installed Endless OS. I could install Ubuntu 18.04 after resizing the Endless OS partition. But the grub of Ubuntu did not pick up the entry of Endless OS. I asked question on Ask Ubuntu and was told to add the following menu entry in /etc/grub.d/40_custom

menuentry "Endless" { insmod part_gpt insmod fat set root='hd0,gpt1' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt1 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt1 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt1 1234-abcd else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 1234-abcd fi chainloader /EFI/endless/shim.efi}

I was told to replace two instances of "1234-abcd" by UUID of /dev/sda1 which is EFI partition created by Endless OS. The above menu entry chainloads the grub installed by Endless OS.

After booting there was no chance of selecting the above menu entry since the grub menu was hidden.

I opened /etc/default/grub and changed the following lines:

GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden
GRUB_TIMEOUT=0in

to:

#GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10

I could chainload the grub of Endless OS but it was not booting and I had to disable secure boot.

Interestingly the Endless OS boots with secure boot on if I choose the grub of Endless OS in BIOS

NB: Since Ubuntu 18.04 had bug of grub install I downloaded Daily/Live image of Ubuntu 18.04 in which the bug has been removed.

Installed Peppermint Linux on Lenovo Ideapad S100

I am presently at Bhopal and these people have Lenovo Ideapad S100 with Windows 7. Last time I had tried antiX Linux on USB boot on this machine.

This time I found that they had to reformat the disk and reinstall Windows 7 which was not working well.

When I boot this Laptop on Windows 7 there were auto key presses of space bar for sometime. Afterwards I could use it but space bar did not produce "space". I had to use onscreen keyboard for typing "space".

I decided to try Linux on the machine and since it has only 2 GB RAM I decided to try Peppermint Linux.

I downloaded Peppermint 9 (32 bit), checked md5sum, bought SanDisk from local market and made bootable usb disk using Rufus.

This Laptop is not friendly for USB booting. On Lenovo Laptops pressing F12 is supposed to show boot menu but the Laptop does not have F12 key and suppose to work with Fn+F11 but Fn does not work on BIOS.

I pressed F2 to enter the BIOS Set up but there is no option to bring up the USB boot option above HDD boot, however, the BIOS suggests that you could disable HDD boot option by putting "x" after selecting it and pressing x key.

After disabling HDD boot I could boot from USB. The Space Bar key did not work on Live Peppermint Desktop and I had to install "onboard" to get onscreen keyboard.

Even then I decided to install Peppermint in dual boot with Windows 7.

After install and booting Peppermint Desktop once again I had to install "onboard" and use it for space bar.

After applying all updates, however, I find that the Space Bar key is working.

Mission successful.

Endless OS pre-installed on Acer Aspire 3.

 I bought Acer Aspire 3 Model A315-21 on Amazon during current Great Indian Festival. Regarding OS Amazon stated:

• 
  Operating System: This is an Elinux -based laptop. Requires separate purchase and installation of operating system software (like Windows), not included in the box. Refer to Acer website for drivers

Since it says "Requires separate purchase and installation of operating system software" I thought nothing would be pre-installed and I was ready to install Ubuntu 18.04.

But it came pre-installed with Endless OS and I am very much impressed with the modern Linux Operating System.

See what is says in the QA below:

Why can't I use apt-get, dpkg, dnf, or rpm commands?

Most desktop Linux distributions are oriented towards tech-savvy users and developers, but Endless OS isn't your typical Linux distribution. We have a different target user. We don’t use rpm, apt, or any other packaging system. We use a read-only root file system managed by OSTree with application installed using Flatpak.

You may notice that the apt-get and dpkg commands are installed. This is because Endless OS is based on Debian, and these commands are used while creating Endless OS. Each release is a read-only snapshot, so you can use commands like dpkg -l which do not make changes to the system, but you cannot use commands like apt-get install.

For more information on the open-source software used to build Endless OS, see the Developers page on our website.

Booting daily-live/current cosmic-desktop-amd64.iso from Grub2 and updating it using zsync.

Today I downloaded Ubuntu 1810 Cosmic Cuttlefish Live ISO

    wget -c http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/cosmic-desktop-amd64.iso


 and used it booting from Grub2 menu entry as follows:

    sudo gedit /etc/grub.d/40_custom

and added the following lines:

    menuentry "Cosmic Desktop iso" {
            set isofile="/home/user/cosmic-desktop-amd64.iso"
            loopback loop (hd0,X)$isofile
            linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz.efi boot=casper iso-scan/filename=$isofile noprompt noeject
            initrd (loop)/casper/initrd
    }

then I updated grub to add the menuentry:

    sudo update-grub

I could boot from the ISO selecting Cosmic Desktop iso from menu.

Today I decided to keep the ISO updated and installed zsync and used it to update.

    sudo apt-get install zsync -y
    zsync http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/cosmic-desktop-amd64.iso.zsync
    #################### 100.0% 108.2 kBps DONE  

    reading seed file wily-desktop-amd64.iso: **************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************Read wily-desktop-amd64.iso. Target 100.0% complete.   
    verifying download...checksum matches OK
    used 1257062400 local, fetched 0

Since it is less than 24 hours it says " fetched 0"

If you want to use the method please note that the ISO is on /home folder of the user. Put your username replacing user and X in (hd0,X) as your partition no X.

Enabling tapping on touchpad on Debian Mate Desktop.

I installed Mate Desktop on Debian 9 "Stretch" recently and found that tapping on touchpad did not work and the setting was missing in Mate Control Centre.

After searching I found the solution on Debian Wiki

# mkdir -p /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d
# echo 'Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "libinput touchpad catchall"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "libinput"
        Option "Tapping" "on"
EndSection' > /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf

Outage of Chromecast on June 27 2018

There is a 10:30 PM serial on Zee Marathi (Grahan) which does not have repeat telecast in the day.

We watch it through Zee5 and Chromecast on our TV next day morning.

We could watch it on 27th June in the morning but later on when I tried to use Videostream on Chromecast it did not work.

I tried rebooting, Factory Reset on Chromecast, restarting Wifi but nothing worked.

After searching on internet I came to know that it was Global issue.

Google resolved it and we could use Chromecast on 28th June morning.

Playing Music on Bluetooth Speaker artis BT 15 through SD Card.

As mentioned on previous post I bought artis BT 15 Bluetooth Speaker mainly to use with my mobile phone since its sound output is less.

The Bluetooth Speaker also has micro SD Card slot to play the songs on SD Card without connecting with any phone or Laptop.

I had one micro SD Card and SD Adapter to mount it on Laptop. After mounting the card it got mounted as read only.

I checked the Adapter and it had a hardware lock switch to write protect it. After putting the switch in unlock position it got mounted as rw.

I copied the Music Folder with its contents from the Laptop on the micro SD Card.

After inserting the card in the slot on Bluetooth Speaker I could play the songs on the Speaker.

Now I don't need any mobile or Laptop to play those songs.

Connecting Bluetooth Speakers for sound output on Ubuntu 16.04

I bought Bluetooth Speker artis BT15 mainly to use with my mobile Coolpad Mega 2.5D since the output volume of the phone for playing Jio TV is very less.

After using with the phone I thought to check it with Laptop although Laptop speakers are good enough.

I could pair and connect the Bluetooth Speaker and it was showing in System_Settings/Sound/Output as "Headset BT15" and I selected it but the Music was still playing through Laptop Speakers.

After searching askubuntu I got the solution:

1. Change #AutoEnable=false to AutoEnable=true in the /etc/bluetooth/main.conf (notice new line is un-commented)
2. Unpair the headset
3. Restart the bluetooth service sudo /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart
4. Pair your headset again and connect it
5. Go to sound settings. From the output device tab you should now see the headset listed along with other output device like internal speakers
6. Choose it as the sound output device.

Installing Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver on Lenovo G50-45

My Lenovo G50-45 has Windows 10 and Ubuntu 16.04, Debian 9 and two more partitions to install whatever Linux I feel like.

I downloaded Ubuntu 18.04 Desktop ISO on 27 April 2018 and tried to install on spare partition. It failed to install Grub with error message 'grub-efi-amd64-signed' package failed to install target/ and also wiped menu entries of Ubuntu 16.04 and Debian making my system unbootable.

I had to boot again on Ubuntu 18.04 Live USB, install and run Boot Repair to get the menu entries back.

Today I installed Ubuntu 18.04 once again with following command:

sudo ubiquity -b

which installed without Grub.

After login in Ubuntu 16.04 I updated grub and got the entries of Ubuntu 18.04 and could boot Ubuntu 18.04.

But for anybody trying to install Ubuntu 18.04 without any other Linux present should use following procedure on AMD machines:
 

1) Boot Ubuntu Live DVD/USB in testing mode and open terminal
2) Run installation process without installing bootloader by:
sudo ubiquity -b
3) Press "Continue testing" after installation is over.
4) Mount newly installed file system into /mnt:
sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
sudo mkdir /mnt/boot/efi
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi
for i in /dev /dev/pts /proc /sys; do sudo mount -B $i /mnt$i; done
(where sda2 is the root partition and sda1 is the efi partition)
5) Load efivars by:
sudo modprobe efivars
6) Reinstall grub-install for a 64bit version
sudo apt-get install --reinstall grub-efi-amd64
sudo grub-install --no-nvram --root-directory=/mnt
7) Change root to /mnt and update grub
sudo chroot /mnt
sudo update-grub
8) Move and rename the installed bootloader
cd /boot/efi/EFI
sudo cp -R ubuntu/* BOOT/
cd BOOT
sudo cp grubx64.efi bootx64.efi
9) Reboot the system.

Combining multiple video files into one video file.

I had four video files which were supposed to be played one after the other. After searching on Internet I learned about using ffmpeg.

I created mylist.txt file in the folder where the video files were kept.
file '3SRB_Stretching.mp4'
file '3SRB_Swiso.mp4'
file '3SRB_Refining_Exercise.mp4'
file '3SRB_Radhe_Krishna.mp4'

Then I opened terminal and typed following command after CD to the folder.
ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i mylist.txt -c copy 3SRB.mp4

I got 3SRB.mp4 file which combined the four files in mylist.txt file.

Using Wayland Display Server on Ubuntu 17.10 and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

After reading on omgubuntu that Wayland will be the default Display Server on Ubuntu 17.10 (under development) I downloaded the Daily ISO of Ubuntu 17.10 and installed on one spare partition.

For those who are not aware Ubuntu has dropped Unity and Gnome will be the Desktop for Ubuntu 17.10. Gnome already has Wayland session.

At login I selected Ubuntu Wayland Session and could login and use the Gnome Desktop without any difficulty.

After testing I connected my Android Phone through Bluetooth and tried to play the Music from JioMusic on Laptop speakers and it worked. But I could not transfer the photographs from the phone.

After searching I found a Bug and workaround. To use the workaround permanently I used the following commands:
sudo systemctl --global enable obex

gnome-session-properties
Add a new entry:
Name: gnome-user-share-obexpush
Command: /usr/lib/gnome-user-share/gnome-user-share-obexpush
Save

Enable the new entry through the command or relogin.


I could transfer the photos to the laptop.


Now I decided to use Wayland on my present OS i.e. Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.
I had already added Gnome Desktop earlier since it is going to be the default Desktop in upcoming versions. I installed gnome-session-wayland logged out and tried to login after selecting Gnome Wayland session but could not login.


Then I discovered that there is a Bug for login through LightDM greeter.
I  switched to GDM3 through:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3

Now I could use Wayland on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS as well by selecting Gnome Wayland session.

I forgot password of Ubuntu 16.04 Desktop.

I forgot Ubuntu 16.04 login on my Lenovo Laptop and wanted to create new password.

In Grub menu I clicked on Advance Options and selected Recovery Mode to boot.

After boot in Recovery Mode I selected Root and pressed enter to get Root Terminal.

Ubuntu Recovery Mode mounts / File System in Read Only mode, therefore I remounted it.
# mount -o remount /

and I could set the password by typing
# passwd username

and after
# reboot

I could login with the new password.

Next Day I remembered the forgotten password and restored it once again.

My Laptop is on IPv6 and fallback IPv4 through Jio Hotspot.

What is IPv6?
IPv6 is short for "Internet Protocol Version 6". IPv6 is the Internet's next-generation protocol, designed to replace the current Internet Protocol, IP Version 4.
In order to communicate over the Internet, computers and other devices must have sender and receiver addresses. These numeric addresses are known as Internet Protocol addresses. As the Internet and the number of people using it grows exponentially, so does the need for IP addresses.
IPv6 allows more users and devices to communicate on the Internet by using bigger numbers to create IP addresses. Under IPv4, every IP address is 32 bits long, which allows 4.3 billion unique addresses. An example IPv4 address is:

172.16.254.1

In comparison, IPv6 addresses are 128 bits, which allow for 
approximately three hundred and forty trillion, trillion unique IP 
addresses. An example IPv6 address is:

2001:db8:ffff:1:201:02ff:fe03:0405

One day Internet Speed was slow on my Mobile and I changed

to APN Protocol IPv4/IPv6 and it improved

But I was getting only IPv4 address on Laptop connected to the

Hotspot. Then I changed Hotspot settings also to IPv4/IPv6.

Now I am having both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses on my Laptop.

Bodhi Linux 4.2.0 a light distro based on Ubuntu 16.04

Bodhi Linux 4.2.0 was announced on 31st May 2017 and I  decided to try it compare how light it is compared to Ubuntu 16.04.

I was impressed with the memory used on booting to the Desktop:
~$ free -m
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           1706         160        1185           9         360        1378
Swap:          1023           0        1023

I was also impressed with the memory used with 3 Tabs open on Midori Browser:

~$ free -m

              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available

Mem:           1706         565         704          19         436         960

Swap:          1023           0        1023

Unfortunately Google does not support Midori Browser and the New Post Page refused to open on Blogger.

I installed Chromium Browser from Bodhi AppCenter and using it now with 4 Tabs open:

$ free -m

              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available

Mem:           1706        1008         135          23         561         505

Swap:          1023           0        1023

Although the Blogger New Post page refused to open gmail opens but complains of unsupported Browser but mail  functions work.

I am happy  with Bodhi  Linux 4.2.0 performance.

I could also edit this page on Midori Browser. It works. 

Correct way to watch JioTV and other apps on Jio Network and enjoy free calls.

Jio has been providing 1 GB daily Data and free incoming and outgoing calls to any Network since Sep 2016 to those who had 4G Phones in the name of  Welcome Offer, Happy New Year Offer and  Summer Surprise Offer but I find that many people are not enjoying the offers fully.

Most people have Broadband Connection at home and their phone gets connected to Home Wifi Network when they reach home. Now if they try JioTV it does not work because it necessarily requires Jio Mobile Network. For JioTV to work properly at home you need to disconnect from Home Wifi Network and connect only to Jio Mobile Network.

For receiving and making free calls, if your phone is Volte it works even when you are on Home Wifi Network.

If your phone is only 4G (without Volte) you need to disconnect from Home Wifi Network and connect only to Jio Mobile Network and keep Jio4GVoice app working to receive and make free calls.

Reverification of Mobile nos through Aadhar and locking of Biometrics

I received sms from Idea that I need to get the re-verification through Aadhar Biometric since it is mandatory now. Without giving a second thought I went to neighborhood Idea Customer Care Center and told my Mobile number. They sent an OTP on the number and after getting the OTP began the process of verification through Aadhar Biometric. My finger Biometric did not work after many attempts.

After coming home I recollected that I had locked my Aadhar Biometric through Aadhar Services website.

I went back to the site and unlocked the Biometric but it allowed me only 20 minutes after which it would be automatically locked again. Then I disabled the Biometric lock.

After going back to Idea Customer Care Center I could re-verify my Mobile no through Aadhar Biometric.

I have enabled the Biometric lock once again and I hope to remember to disable it again if I need verification anytime in future.

Ubuntu Desktop Team wants your feedback.

The Ubuntu Desktop team is tasked with transitioning Ubuntu desktop over from Unity to GNOME — and they need your feedback to help them do it.

The above poll is appearing on OMGUbuntu

I am using Ubuntu for more than 12 years now. From next year Ubuntu 18.04LTS Ubuntu is going to shift from Unity Desktop to GNOME.

Presently I am using Ubuntu 16.04LTS and generally use GNOME fall-back session. I was also keen to try GNOME Desktop on Ubuntu 16.04.

I clicked on the Install GNOME shell link on OMGUbuntu page, installed it and logged out of fall-back to GNOME session.

GNOME extensions are installed through Browser but Firefox requires you to enable GNOME integration. For this I followed following page on OMGUbuntu

After integration I went to GNOME Extensions page and installed the following extensions:

• Dash to Dock
• Impatience
• No Top Left Hot Corner
• Alternate Tab

• Applications Menu
• Better Volume Indicator
• TopIcons Plus

 

and participated in the survey. I also installed Caffeine and Open Weather extensions.

 

I am now using GNOME Desktop on Ubuntu 16.04.

Transferring Contacts from Nokia X2-00 to Android Phone

I am helping husband of my sister-in-law to shift from ordinary Nokia phone to Volte smartphone. For buying his preference was Samsung Volte so we bought Samsung Galaxy On7 Pro online. After delivery of the phone and charging the Battery we went to Reliance Digital Express to buy Jio sim. The main problem was to transfer Contacts from Nokia Phone to the new Android Phone.

I got the Model No of Nokia Phone by dialling *#0000# it was Nokia X2-00
Then I searched suitable Nokia Suite for the Model and downloaded Nokia Suite 3.8.54 on Laptop.
I connected the phone to the Laptop through USB Cable and tried to Synchronize Contacts on Nokia Suite but it failed. Then I switched on Bluetooth on the phone and connected through Bluetooth. I could synchronize the Contacts.

I exported all the Contacts to a Folder NokiaX2-00
I opened the Windows Terminal and typed the following command after navigating to NokiaX2-00 folder.
COPY *.VCF combined.VCF

I exported the file combined.VCF to Google Contacts and synchronized on Android Phone.

Fix for JioTV not working.

I am presently at Bhopal and my Jio phone is on roaming. Today JioTV did not work in spite of internet speed of 15 Mbps or more. After googling I got following solution which worked for me.
1. Uninstall and reinstall JioTV app.
2. Go to Settings/Mobile Network/Access Point Names/APN which is Jionet. Edit the following setting.
APN Protocol IPv4
APN roaming protocol IPv4
Bearer LTE
JioTV started working.

Yesterday one old man brought his smart phone Panasonic Eluga Switch. He had Jio sim in slot 1 and Airtel sim in slot 2. After Android System update the Ringtone did not work for sim2.
After struggling for two hours I found interrupts setting in Sound in which calls was disabled. After enabling it the ringtone worked for sim2.

Improvement in Internet Speed on Jio Network at Delhi.

Since I have come back to Delhi on 8th Feb 2017 I  find that Internet Speed has greatly improved at my home. Earlier I could watch videos only during morning upto 7 AM now I could watch them anytime.

One more  good news is the Android version on my Cooldpad Mega 2.5D is upgraded and now the 4GVoLTE phone calls are working fine from Dialer.

The present Data Limit on Jio is  1 GB/day and due to this competition Airtel Broadband has revised the Monthly Data Limit to 30 GB and speed to 16 Mbps at the minimum tariff of Rs 899/month with unlimited free local and STD calls.

Jio has announced that it will charge Rs 303/month for 1 GB/day Data under Prime Subscription from 1st Apr 2017. This is almost 1/3 of what I am paying to Airtel.

Let me see whether Airtel Broadband further reduces Tariff.

Problems with voice calls on Jio 4GVoLTE.

I was using Coolpad Mega 2.5D since Oct 2016 on Jio 4G network. Voice calls used to work through Jio4GVoice app. Since the update dated 27th Jan 2017 of Jio4GVoice app is asking me to use the phone dialer since this is VoLTE phone but it is very difficult to use the phone dialer for making voice calls. It does not connect unless I disable and re-enable the enhanced 4G LTE mode in network settings.

Cashless Transactions since Nov 8 2016

I was already using paytm since Feb 2015 for Mobile Recharge then in Oct 2015 I did online shopping on it. In Jan 2016 I paid first electricity bill on it. During the year 2016 I used freecharge or paytm for payment of electricity bill. Then Mother Dairy introduced paytm on milk booths and I was first customer using paytm on nearby Mother Dairy Booth. I had also used Debit and Credit cards for online transactions and shopping for many years.
In short I was fully ready for cashless transactions when old currency was banned on Nov 8 2016. I happily used paytm or credit card wherever acceptable.
I grabbed UPI ID userid@icici when it was offered by ICICI Bank and ready for UPI Transactions.
I downloaded BHIM android app and got mobileno@upi ID also.
This worked very well for ICICI Bank.
My other Bank Account is in BOB but I was not using Mobile Banking on it since the registered mobile no was on ordinary mobile phone.
I tried *99# service on this phone by got Transaction declined message. I called their 1800223344 no and after waiting for long I could talk to customer care person and he told me to activate mobile banking through their ATM. I did it through Net Banking and got m-pin. After 4 hours I could use *99# system on ordinary mobile phone and could transfer money through it to my ICICI Bank.
I am now looking forward to use BHIM app on my smart phone and *99# on ordinary phone for online and offline shopping instead of paytm.

How to unzip the password protected zip archive.

Today I received TDS Certificate pdf file from IDFC Bank which was inside password protected zip folder.

I could not extract the file on Ubuntu 16.04 and also on Windows 10.

Then I tried unzip command and got the following error:

unsupported compression method 99

After googling the error I learnt that I required latest version of p7zip-full(version 16.02) whereas the available version on Ubuntu 16.04 is 9.20.

I installed the latest version as follows:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonathonf/backports
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install p7zip-full

If you use Windows you can get latest p7zip from this link.

Enjoying Free Internet and Calls on Reliance Jio on brand new Coolpad Mega 2.5D.

I bought Coolpad Mega 2.5D on Amazon, going to get 15% Cashback from Citibank for this purchase and availed Welcome offer of Reliance Jio.

Now enjoying free data and voice calls upto 31st Dec 2016 as per Welcome Offer of Reliance Jio.
All Voice Calls on Reliance Jio Network are VoIP calls consuming Data. But after 31st Dec 2016 the Data consumed for Voice Calls is not going to be charged making the calls as free.
The lowest Tariff for 28 days is going to be Rs 149/- providing 0.3 GB Data, however, this Tariff cannot be availed as first re-charge. First re-charge has to be Rs 499/- for 28 days providing 4 GB. Anyway it is a deal.
Update on 29/10/2016
Since 3 days we are at Bhopal where Jio network is excellent. We watched TV Programs on JioTV and ozee apps and making calls to friends all for free.

Get Color Emoji on Ubuntu 16.04

First click on this link to see whether you see Color Emoji or Black and white.

Install from the ppa

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:eosrei/font
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install fonts-emojione-svginot
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ys/emojione-picker
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install emojione-picker

Restart Firefox Browser and check again on the link and you will see Color Emoji.

😄 😄 😄 😄

Playing Linux Desktop Audio on Chromecast.

I was using Chrome Browser to play Audio & Video from my Linux Desktop to Chromecast through Chrome applications.

I learnt about mkchromecast and installed it on Debian Testing which is my alternative to Ubuntu 16.04.

After installing the .deb package I had to install the dependencies through apt-get install -f install command.

I opened VLC and started playing my favourite music.

I had to run mkchromecast through terminal and it got connected to Chromecast and asked me to open pavucontrol and change the sink to mkchromecast.

Removing old kernels on Ubuntu.

On Linux distributions you get kernel update and the images of old kernels remain on your machine occupying space. I got a kernel update today:

$ uname -r
4.4.0-28-generic

After restart I could see that the image of old kernel was present on the machine:

$ dpkg -l | tail -n +6 | grep -E 'linux-image-[0-9]+' | grep -Fv $(uname -r)
ii  linux-image-4.4.0-24-generic                4.4.0-24.43                                         amd64        Linux kernel image for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP

I removed the old kernel by using following commands one by one:

sudo dpkg --purge linux-signed-image-4.4.0-24-generic
sudo dpkg --purge linux-image-extra-4.4.0-24-generic
sudo dpkg --purge linux-image-4.4.0-24-generic

I removed the kernel headers by using following commands one by one:

sudo dpkg --purge linux-headers-4.4.0-24-generic
sudo dpkg --purge linux-headers-4.4.0-24

Since I remove the previous image on every kernel update I had to remove only 4.4.0-24 but if you are doing it first time you may have many images starting from 4.4.0.21

TintCore Linux on Lenovo G50-45

About 8 years ago I tried TinyCore Linux and developed a couple of tcz files to the project.

Yesterday I downloaded the latest TinyCorePure64-7.1 ISO and made a UEFI bootable USB stick to try it. I could boot to the desktop and connect through wired network (wireless wlan0 was not detected out of the box but that was expected from the Tiny Linux distribution). I installed Opera Browser.

After searching on the Forums, I installed following tcz files:

wireless-4.2.9-tinycore64.tcz

           wireless_tools.tcz

firmware-rtlwifi.tcz

wpa_supplicant-dbus.tcz

wpa_supplicant.tcz

After this wlan0 was detected but I had to make wpa_configure.conf file and connect through following command:

$ sudo wpa_supplicant -iwlan0 -c/opt/wpa_configure.conf &

I have added the above command to /opt/bootlocal.sh to automatically connect on next boot.

Now I can explore this Tiny Linux distribution once again.

Running Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus on my Lenovo G50-45 Laptop.

I had downloaded Ubuntu 16.04 Daily ISO and was periodically updating it using zsync. I updated it this morning to version 20-Apr-2016 22:30 and assuming it that it is going to be the Final version installed it to hard disk replacing Ubuntu 14.04.4 Trusty (which I was not using anyway).

See the screen shot below with Unity Launcher moved to Bottom using Unity Tweak Tool (which is now available in Software).

Transfer files from Android to Ubuntu 15.10 Lenovo G50-45 Laptop using Bluetooth.

I struggled to use Blue-tooth on my Ubuntu 14.04 Lenovo G50-45 and eagerly waiting for Ubuntu 15.10 which has Linux Kernel 4.2 and proper drivers for using Blue-tooth on this Laptop. As soon as Ubuntu 15.10 Development version Kernel was upgraded to 4.2 I installed it and happily using it. Although the Laptop got connected through Blue-tooth to my Android Phone I had to try various things including  obex-data-server etc. to transfer the files.

On 22nd Oct 2015 final version of Ubuntu 15.10 was available I downloaded the ISO and made a USB stick and decided to connect Android phone to the laptop using Blue-tooth on Live Ubuntu 15.10.

I had to install Bluetooth Manager to transfer files to and from Android Phone to the laptop.

Importing ICICI Bank, other Banks and Android Applicaton Transactions in GnuCash.

I posted about the same topic in 2011. I have decided to maintain the Books of Accounts on my own in the Current Financial Year 2015-16 (since the tryst with Steam Turbine is temporarily suspended and tryst with Linux is on which the readers of this Blog would have noticed anyway looking at frequency of my posts). I installed GnuCash 2.6.6 on Ubuntu through Software Centre couple of days ago and started importing the Bank Account Files. ICICI Bank no longer offers QIF/MSMoney Fomat download as stated in comments on the year 2011 post. No problem for me. I downloaded the Excel File and saved as CSV which was accepted by GnuCash in the option "Import Transactions from CSV".

I imported the transactions from Bank Accounts, Credit Card Accounts and the corresponding debit/credit entry went into Imbalance and only task then was to change the imbalance into the correct account.

I have again become my own CA, thanks to GnuCash.

I also installed GnuCash Application on Android Phone, created Expenses Account, entered the Cash transactions while shopping, exported the transactions in QIF File, imported that File on Desktop Application and the Transactions are entered there. Great going.

Filing Income Tax Return using Java Utility on Ubuntu.

My CA audits my accounts and sends me the XML file of Income Tax Return for uploading it to Income Tax Return e-Filing site. I check the XML file by opening it in the Browser or if I see that a thorough check is necessary I use other tools including Excel Utility for which I need Windows.

This year I decided to use the Java Utility available in Downloads section of e-Filing site. When I opened it typing ./ITR.sh in the Terminal it produced an error. On Googling I found that I need an older version of Java to use it.

I went to Java Oracle site and downloaded the old version jre-8u51-linux-x64.tar.gz and extracted it to /opt/jre (I had to create the directory). Since the latest version of JRE openjdk-8-jre 8u66-b01-5 was installed on my Laptop I removed it and had to use "G Alternatives" to add the path /opt/jre/1.8.0_51/bin/java for Oracle Java.

I could then use the utility by typing ./ITR.sh in the Terminal and open the XML File to view the Income Tax Return.

I made necessary changes in the Return after consulting my CA and could submit it directly through the utility without logging to e-Filing site.

My Karbonn Sparkle V Androidone received Marshmallow 6.0 update

After formatting the SDCard I could move some applications to SDCard.

Upgrading Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 my experience.

Although this is Linux Blog I have decided to write about my upgrade experience from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10.

My LenovoG50-45 came with pre-installed Windows 8.1. I had disabled Automatic Update on Windows 8.1 and use to update once in a while. When MS decided to give free upgrade to Windows 10 I went through the procedure which asked for applying all pending updates to Windows 8.1 to see Get Windows 10 application. When I clicked on the application it asked to wait for my turn. Becoming restless I searched for how to get immediate upgrade and enabled something which did not work. Finally I got permission to download on Get Windows 10 application and started download of about 2.8 GB. After download got finished something happened during preparation to install and it started the download of 2.8 GB once again.

Getting frustrated I decided to re-install Windows 8.1 through one-key recovery. While booting in re-installed Windows 8.1 MS asked whether I was interested in upgrade to Windows 10 and I said yes to it.

Windows 8.1 re-install damaged Grub2 which I corrected using Boot-repair.

After couple of updates to Windows 8.1 (not all) Windows 10 download appeared on Windows update and I finished the download in 6 hrs (I have 1 Mbps connection).

After finishing download it changed to "preparing to install" and I had to wait patiently for this activity since Windows extracts the 2.8 GB file in the background.

Finally it was ready to upgrade after accepting EULA. The upgrade took lot of time and there were three reboots. On the last boot Windows asked several questions and the best one was to go for express install which I declined and chose "Custom".

After booting to the Desktop Windows 10 did not allow to disable automatic updates but I searched in Wi-Fi Settings to declare my connection "metered" which prevented the automatic update.

Fortunately Windows 10 upgrade did not touch grub2 and I could boot to Ubuntu 14.04.3.

From Ubuntu 14.04.3 Grub2 I could not boot Ubuntu 15.10 using systemd and had to use upstart option. I used Boot-repair once again on installed Ubuntu 15.10 to re-install Grub2.

Finally I have Windows 10/Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS/Ubuntu 15.10/android-x86 multi-boot successfully working on my laptop.

Running Android 5.1 lollipop on my Laptop.

Recently I came to know that you are able to run android-x86 on PC and Laptop. I downloaded the stable version of Android 4.4 Kitkat and tried it but it did not boot to GUI and presented Root Terminal. Then I did some debugging and came to know that for the AMD APU with radeon R2 on my Laptop I should try a test build of Android 5.1 Lollipop.

I am now running live session of Android 5.1 on my Laptop and posting this on Chrome Browser. I could not take a screenshot now in this session but I will post it later.

I downloaded a recent test build and could install it on hard disk on ext4 partition and added following menuentry in grub2 to boot it:

 menuentry 'Android-x86 5.1 on sdaX' --class android-x86 {
    set root='(hd0,gptX)'
    linux /android-2015-08-16/kernel root=/dev/ram0 androidboot.hardware=android_x86 quiet SRC=/android-2015-08-16 DATA=/android-2015-08-16/data
    initrd /android-2015-08-16/initrd.img
}

 I could take screenshot by pressing PrtSc key.

Happily running Ubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf on my Lenovo G50-45.

Update on 21/04/2016: Now more happy running Ubuntu 16.04

I purchased Lenovo G50-45 Laptop in December 2014 and installed Ubuntu 14.04 in dual boot with pre-installed Windows 8.1 as per this post.

When you install any Linux Distribution on a new Hardware it works but not 100% and there were following problems:
1. Screen brightness could not be adjusted.
2. Wifi was erratic.
3. Bluetooth did not work.

Screen Brightness worked after installing Realtek Proprietary Driver but it broke on update in April 2015. I removed the Proprietary Driver and upgraded to Kernel 3.16 through Hardware Enablement Stack which installed the Open Source radeon driver and problem 1 was solved.

Wifi problem was solved creating /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8723be file as follows:

 echo "options rtl8723be fwlps=0" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8723be.conf

 For Bluetooth I had to wait till Ubuntu 14.04.3 was launched with Kernel 3.19 and it worked sometimes but not on every boot (I wonder why?) after adding following ppa and the driver:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:hanipouspilot/rtlwifi
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install rtl8723au-bt-dkms rtlwifi-new-dkms linux-firmware

On questioning I came to know that I had to wait for Linux Kernel 4.2 when Realtek drivers are included.

On 9th Sep 2015 I came to know that Linux Kernel 4.2 was included in Ubuntu 15.10 and I downloaded the ISO and tried it on my Laptop as per this post. I updated the ISO for couple of days through zsync and it was booting properly every day.

Yesterday I decided to install Ubuntu 15.10 on my hard drive and found that installer crashed, however, I used the following workaround to run the installer and installed:

sudo -H bash -c 'ubiquity gtk_ui'

I am happy to report that there is no need to add any rtl8723be file for wifi, radeon driver is perfect and Bluetooth is working on installed Wily Werewolf.

Booting daily-live/current wily-desktop-amd64.iso from Grub2 and updating it using zsync.

Yesterday I downloaded Ubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf Live ISO

wget -c http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/wily-desktop-amd64.iso

 and used it booting from Grub2 menu entry as follows:

sudo gedit /etc/grub.d/40_custom

and added the following lines:

menuentry "Wily Desktop iso" {
        set isofile="/home/user/wily-desktop-amd64.iso"
        loopback loop (hd0,X)$isofile
        linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz.efi boot=casper iso-scan/filename=$isofile noprompt noeject
        initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}

then I updated grub to add the menuentry:

sudo update-grub

I could boot from the ISO and found that Wily has Linux Kernel 4.2 which has Blue tooth driver for my Laptop and it worked well.

Today I decided to keep the ISO updated and installed zsync and used it to update.

sudo apt-get install zsync -y
zsync http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/wily-desktop-amd64.iso.zsync
#################### 100.0% 108.2 kBps DONE   

reading seed file wily-desktop-amd64.iso: **************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************Read wily-desktop-amd64.iso. Target 100.0% complete.    
verifying download...checksum matches OK
used 1257062400 local, fetched 0

Since it is less than 24 hours it says " fetched 0"

If you want to use the method please note that the ISO is on /home folder of the user. Put your username replacing user and X in (hd0,X) as your partition no X.

File sharing via Bluetooth between Lenovo G50-45 Ubuntu Laptop and Android device.

I had installed Ubuntu 14.04 on Lenovo G50-45 Laptop as per this post in December 2014 and solved some problems like screen brightness as reported in this post after enabling LTS/HardwareEnablementStack.

This Laptop has Realtek Wireless Network Adoptor which also works as Bluetooth device. Although the Wireless disconnection problem was solved by setting options rtl8723be fwlps=0 in /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8723be.conf file the Bluetooth did not work.

After Ubuntu 14.04.3 update I got Linux Kernel 3.19 and the Bluetooth could be used after installing the driver as follows:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:hanipouspilot/rtlwifi
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install rtl8723au-bt-dkms rtlwifi-new-dkms linux-firmware

I could send file via Bluetooth from the Laptop to Android Device but Android device failed to send the file. This could be corrected after searching for Personal File Sharing on Dash and checking the boxes Receive the files in download folder over Bluetooth and Notify about received files.

Mate Desktop 1.10.2 on Debian Testing.

As written in this post I installed Mate Desktop version 1.8.1 on Debian 8.1 and got hooked to it.

In order to run the latest version I edited the /etc/apt/sources.list file and replaced "jessie" by "stretch". Stretch is the codename of next stable version of Debian which is under testing.

After pointing the sources.list to "stretch" I did apt-get update && upgrade && dist-upgrade.

Debian Stretch with linux kernel 4.1.0 is running fine on Mate Desktop 1.10.2

Ubuntu Phone Emulator on Ubuntu 14.04.3.

When I herd about launch of BQ Aquaris Ubuntu Phone in India and its availability by Aug 2015 end on snapdeal I decided to try the Phone in emulator on Ubuntu 14.04.3 on my Laptop.

Since the emulator was launched in Jan 2015 most of the instructions I got to install the emulator did not work. Finally I installed Ubuntu SDK through PPA as follows:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-sdk-team/ppa

sudo apt update && sudo apt install ubuntu-sdk

Then I installed the emulator through the sdk.

Since running emulator required memory I switched to gnome-fallback session and started the emulator through following command:

ubuntu-emulator run ubuntutouch --scale=0.5 --memory=1024

After waiting for 15 minutes I got the login screen:

I added some applications through Ubuntu Store and could use them.

Running facebook below:

facebook detecting it as Chrome on LG Nexus 5 

Playing H-265 Videos on Ubuntu 14.04.

While installing Ubuntu 14.04 if you check for installation of proprietary codecs  most videos could be played on Videos application but those having H-265 won't play. For playing them you need to install gstreamer1.0-libde265 as follows.
Open a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:strukturag/libde265
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gstreamer1.0-libde265

Enjoy!

Using antiX live usb on Lenovo Ideapad S100.

I am presently at Bhopal and the family has Lenovo Ideapad S100 Netbook with Windows 7. I had made usb stick with latest antiX-15 which I decided to try on this netbook.

On this Netbook pressing F12 on boot is supposed to bring Boot Menu but it did not work (may be because F12 is actually Fn+F11 and Fn key may not be working on boot).

Pressing F2 however brings the BIOS Set up. In BIOS Set up Boot Tag I could see the USB Stick but there is no provision to bring it up and make it first boot device.

But I could disable booting from Hard Disk (first boot device) by putting a "x" by pressing "x" key and save settings.

Then I could boot from USB and  now posting this on Iceweasel (Open Source Firefox) on antiX-15.

This machine has 2 GB RAM and antiX is very fast.

Review of antiX-15 USB persist on UEFI Secure Boot.

On 30th June 2015 new version of antiX called antiX-15 (Killah P) was released. I was impressed with the announcement "Want to run live on a box with UEFI bootloader? antiX can do this", and immediately wanted to test this.

I downloaded antiX-15-V_64-full.iso from souceforge. The announcement recommended Unetbbotin to make live usb but unfortunately Unetbootin crashed while selecting the iso file. I used dd command to copy the iso to usb but it allowed me to boot only in Legacy mode of BIOS.

I posted on antiX Forum and was advised to mount the iso and simply copy the contents (same like what I recommend for Ubuntu 14.04 for UEFI)

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/iso
sudo mount -o loop,ro  antiX-15-V_64-full.iso /mnt/iso
cp -a /mnt/iso/. /media/USB_mount_point/

 After selecting boot from usb in BIOS Boot Menu I could boot into antiX default Desktop with secure boot on since antiX has Microsoft signed kernel image.

Then I wanted to make the usb persistent. I used the cheat-code "persist=root!,home" in grub boot line but was getting blank screen.

I created the rootfs and homefs files and placed them in /antiX folder on usb even then it did not work:

dd if=/dev/zero of=rootfs bs=1M count=0 seek=1024
mkfs.ext4 -q -m 0 -O ^has_journal -F rootfs
dd if=/dev/zero of=homefs bs=1M count=0 seek=1024
mkfs.ext4 -q -m 0 -O ^has_journal -F homefs 

After struggling for a day I was told to change "gfxpayload=text" to "gfxpayload=keep" in grub.cfg and it worked.

Enjoying old Desktop days with Mate DE 1.8.1 on Debian 8.1

I recently installed Debian 8.1 in triple/quadruple boot with Windows8.1/Ubuntu14.04.2/Ubuntu15.04 on my Lenovo G50-45 Laptop.

Initially I installed LXDE Desktop but yesterday added Mate Desktop and now enjoying good old days of Gnome 2.

How to make back-light Brightness Fn keys work on LXDE.

Back-light Brightness is set on my Laptop by Fn+F11 (down) and Fn+F12 (up) keys. These keys worked on Ubuntu Unity Desktop but not on LXDE Desktop.

I tried xbacklight command but it did not work. Then after googling I discovered that xbacklight does not work on radeon driver.

Then I tried how it works on Ubuntu Unity Desktop and found that following command was executed by USER=root

/usr/lib/unity-settings-daemon/usd-backlight-helper --set-brightness 24

Since the command to be executed required root privileges I created two bash shell files on my desktop:File ~/home/Desktop/Brightness1

#! /bin/bash
# script to set the initial brightness on login
[ "$UID" -eq 0 ] || exec gksu bash "$0" "$@"
/usr/lib/unity-settings-daemon/usd-backlight-helper --set-brightness 12

File ~/home/Desktop/Brightness2

#! /bin/bash
# script to set the initial brightness on login
[ "$UID" -eq 0 ] || exec gksu bash "$0" "$@"
/usr/lib/unity-settings-daemon/usd-backlight-helper --set-brightness 24

I made the files executable and tested them. The script asked for sudo password and set the required brightness.

Then I inserted following Keycodes in ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml

<!-- Keybindings for LCD Backlight -->    <keybind key="XF86MonBrightnessDown">        # decrease screen brightness      <action name="Execute"><command>/home/user/Desktop/Brightness1</command></action>    </keybind>    <keybind key="XF86MonBrightnessUp">        # increase screen brightness      <action name="Execute"><command>/home/user/Desktop/Brightness2</command></action>    </keybind>

and it works by pressing Fn+F11 and Fn+F12 i.e. it asks for sudo password and sets the required brightness. 

How to run Debian with secure boot on.

I am having Lenovo G50-45 Laptop which had Windows 8.1 pre installed and I have installed Ubuntu 14.04 and 15.04 in triple boot with secure boot on.

Today I installed Debian 8.1 on another partition. For installing Debian I had to disable secure boot. After installation if I was booting Debian through its Boot Loader I had to disable the secure boot.

Later on I enabled secure boot and using Ubuntu 15.04 and updated the kernel. After update the grub got updated and it picked up the entry of Debian.

Now I could boot Debian through Ubuntu's Boot Loader without disabling secure boot.

NB: For those who are not familiar with UEFI. Each operating system has its own Boot Loader with entries of other operating systems in the Grub Menu.

Chromixium OS -- Chromebox plus Ubuntu.

I was always fascinated with any OS from Google or something like that. I had tried gOS Desktop in 2007 and Chromium OS on pendrive in 2009.

Google then launched Chrome OS only on Chromeboxes and they have significant market share today.

One developer has combined Ubuntu with Openbox, LXPanel and Google Applications to develops what he calls Chromixium OS.

I downloaded the Chromixium 64 Bit RC ISO, copied it to USB, added casper-rw file and persistent boot parameter in /boot/grub/grub.cfg before "quiet splash" in the menu entry and running it now on my Lenovo G50-45 Laptop. The OS has beautiful Desktop:

How to recover lost Grub Menu and Edit Menu entries.

Yesterday I installed Ubuntu 15.04 on USB stick and selected grub install on the USB to keep the Grub on Hard Disk intact. Even then I lost the Grub Menu on the Hard Disk and had to use the grub on the USB to boot into Ubuntu 14.04.2 installed on the hard disk.

For recovering Grub of menu I had to install Boot Repair through the ppa. After running Recommended Repair through Boot Repair I got the Grub Menu on the hard disk but with many unnecessary entries.

For removing the unwanted entries on Grub Menu I installed Grub Customizer and used it to remove the entries.

Boot Repair and Grub Customizer are excellent tools.

UEFI Bootable full install of Ubuntu 15.04 on 32 GB USB stick.

Yesterday I posted about Live persistent UEFI Bootable USB stick of Ubuntu 15.04. I could upgrade some packages, save wifi settings and documents and they were available on reboot but when I upgraded linux kernel I could not reboot on using persistent kernel boot parameter and even without this parameter.

Since the 32 GB USB stick could take full install I made full install of Ubuntu 15.04 on the stick with installing bootloader on the stick. The bootloader also picked the Windows 8.1 and Ubuntu 14.04.2 installations on the hard disk.

I think the days of persistent live linux on USB stick are over and full install is the way forward.

Live persistent UEFI Bootable USB stick of Ubuntu 15.04.

I had purchased one 32 GB USB stick to back up Windows 8.1 installation on my Lenovo G50-45 Laptop before installing Ubuntu 14.04 in dual boot. Since the dual boot is working well and Windows recovery partition already exists on the Laptop I decided to have Live persistent Ubuntu 15.04 on the stick.

I created 2 GB Fat32 partition, 4 GB ext4 partition with label casper-rw and another 4 GB ext4 home-rw partition on the USB stick. Then I used start up disk creator to put Ubuntu 15.04 on Fat32 partition.

After booting I found that persistence did not work on UEFI machines since there was a bug in live usb creator. The work around was to edit the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file and put "persistent" before "quiet splash" in the menuentry.

Now my wifi settings and documents are avaiable on reboot.

I will try updating the system later on. Upgrades to packages like Firefox worked but when I upgraded the linux kernel I could not boot with or even without persistent boot parameter.

Today I made full install of Ubuntu 15.04 on the USB stick.

My Karbonn Sparkle V Androidone received Lollipop 5.1.1 update.

We bought Google Chromecast.

After buying latest Android Phones and Tabs the next step was to buy Google Chromecast to connect theses devices to TV for media streaming but it required Wifi at home and our Landline phone and MTNL Broadband was in safe custody since 2010 when we went to Jharsuguda. I was not wiling to spend for Landline Phone and we experimented with Mobile Operators taking advantage of Mobile number portability. Finally we sattled for Idea after trying Reliance CDMA and Airtel. For internet Reliance GSM Data was working in the Tab.

For Broadband also I am experimenting with Tikona Brodband which is Wireless till the terrace of our flat where a CPE is installed from where it is wired to the Wifi router installed at suitable location in the home.

The Chromecast is plugged in the HDMI port of the TV and gets power either through USB port of the TV or mains. The Android Phone is used for Setting up the Chromecast to connect to the Wifi Router. After setting up the Cromecast is directly connected to the Wifi Router like other Android Devices and Laptops.

Now suppose you want to watch the Youtube video on your TV you first open the Video on the Phone/Tab or Crome Browser on the Laptop and connect the device to the Chromecast. After connecting the Youtube video directly plays on the TV.

You can also play the local media on your Android devices on the TV. For Laptop you can do it through Chrome Browser and its add-on extensions.

New Terminal Commands learnt.

Recently I learned some new Terminal commands. Following is the output of these command on my Lenovo G50-45 Laptop.

$ lspci -nnk | grep -i vga -A3 | grep 'in use'
    Kernel driver in use: radeon

 $ /usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p
OpenGL vendor string:   X.Org
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on AMD MULLINS
OpenGL version string:  3.0 Mesa 10.3.2

Not software rendered:    yes
Not blacklisted:          yes
GLX fbconfig:             yes
GLX texture from pixmap:  yes
GL npot or rect textures: yes
GL vertex program:        yes
GL fragment program:      yes
GL vertex buffer object:  yes
GL framebuffer object:    yes
GL version is 1.4+:       yes

Unity 3D supported:       yes

 $ cat /etc/lsb-release; uname -a
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=14.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=trusty
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS"
Linux Lenovo-G50-45 3.16.0-37-generic #49~14.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Thu Apr 30 10:52:28 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 net
01:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8723BE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter [10ec:b723]
    Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:b736]
    Kernel driver in use: rtl8723be
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 10)
    Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:3812]
    Kernel driver in use: r8169

I knew the following command but now the second one to be used.

$ sudo fdisk -l

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xecf87c27

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1   976773167   488386583+  ee  GPT
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.

$ sudo gdisk -l /dev/sda
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.8

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/sda: 976773168 sectors, 465.8 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): D8108174-FF68-4388-A994-3799AE5B6B2D
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 976773134
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 2029 sectors (1014.5 KiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048         2050047   1000.0 MiB  2700  Basic data partition
   2         2050048         2582527   260.0 MiB   EF00  EFI system partition
   3         2582528         4630527   1000.0 MiB  FFFF  Basic data partition
   4         4630528         4892671   128.0 MiB   0C01  Microsoft reserved part
   5         4892672       104552447   47.5 GiB    0700  Basic data partition
   6       104552448       733698047   300.0 GiB   0700  Basic data partition
   7       898043904       950472703   25.0 GiB    0700  Basic data partition
   8       950472704       976773119   12.5 GiB    2700  Basic data partition
   9       733698048       895946751   77.4 GiB    8300 
  10       895946752       898043903   1024.0 MiB  8200

How to make UEFI Bootable Ubuntu 15.04 USB stick on Windows 8.1?

Since many years we download the Ubuntu ISO and use the installed Ubuntu to make a Start up Disk from the ISO to install on the same or other machines. The Start up disk is a UEFI Bootable USB stick.

Today I faced a question on Ubuntuforums about how to make UEFI Bootable Ubuntu 15.04 USB stick on Windows 8.1. I am doing it now on My Lenovo G50-45 Laptop on Windows 8.1. I have the Ubuntu 15.04 ISO on the drive. I have downloaded and installed md5 Calculator Application from Windows Store. I have checked the md5sum of the ISO and it is same as in this file.

I have downloaded 7-Zip 9.38 .msi file from here.
I have a 2 GB USB stick formatted in FAT32 in the USB slot.
I have extracted the ISO on the USB stick using 7-Zip.
I right click on Start Button and select Disk Management and find that the USB drive is Healthy (Active, Primary Partition)
I right click on Start Button, select Power Options/Choose what the power button does and uncheck Fastboot (if exixts)
I reboot holding the shift key.
On reboot I select use a device and EFI USB device and get options on Grub Menu to run Ubuntu without install.

Ubuntu 14.04 on Lenovo Laptop G50-45 with Kernel 3.16.

As written on this post I installed Ubuntu 14.04 LTS in dual boot with Windows 8.1 in December 2014.

The proprietary driver fglrx worked fine till I updated it to newer version on  12th April 2015. After the update I could not login and had to remove fglrx driver and come back to radeon.

Today I installed Kernel 3.16 (original kernel 3.13) through LTS Enablement Stack with following command:

sudo apt-get install --install-recommends linux-generic-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-lts-utopic libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-utopic libegl1-mesa-drivers-lts-utopic

 The open source driver radeon is working perfectly on Kernel 3.16

This Laptop has Realtek Wireless Network Adapter and its driver rtl8723be was causing disconnections and required reboot to connect again. This is solved by following command:

echo "options rtl8723be fwlps=0" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8723be.conf

Now Ubuntu 14.04 is working perfectly on this Laptop.

My Android one phone got Android Lollipop 5.1 update.

I bought Karbonn Sparkle Android one installed with Android Kitkat version 4.4.4 recently. Yesterday it got Android version 5.1 update which is called Lollipop.
If you click on Settings/About_phone/Android_version_5.1 number of times it opens Lollipop game (Screenshot below)