Ask Ubuntu General Room

12:04 AM

Smokey is live in here.

yep, I was just going to post a message about that.

Since I got no obvious objections I have enabled the Smoke Detector bot to post obvious spam and titles containing offensive words. This feature is rather experimental, but it should still be stable. If he starts going crazy please either ping a mod or use a moderator only flag and ask him to be removed from the access lists.

8

I was going to add "[I enabled it] with @Undo's awesome help" but that made the message too long, so here it is instead ;)

Seth

2:07 AM

I don't think this is a duplicate:

18

Q: Explanation of the command to check shellshock

Here is the command I have used to check my bash shell for the Shellshock bug: env x='() { :;}; echo vulnerable' bash -c "echo this is a test" Can anyone please explain the command in details?

Opinions?

I don't think asking how the shell shock test works is the same as asking what it is and how to patch it (FWIW the first canonical question doesn't give a detailed explanation on how it works)

RPi Awesomeness

2:23 AM

Bonjour!

Seth

¡Hola!

RPi Awesomeness

@Seth I'd say leave it. It's got a good answer (20+ upvotes) and I think it's just fine.

Seth

Leave it meaning?

RPi Awesomeness

not a dupe

Seth

Ah, good, because I already reopened it :P

After looking at the canonical shellshock I saw that it doesn't explain the checking code at all so..

RPi Awesomeness

2:27 AM

Yeah, I think it's fine

I mean really, are we going to remove a question w. an answer that has nearly 30 upvotes?

I think that goes against what we are as a network, a Q/A site

@Seth Sweet!

Chan-Ho Suh

2:39 AM

osnews.com/story/27969/Why_did_Microsoft_skip_Windows_9_

Andrew

What ever happen to Menu key on keyboards?

Seth

2:59 AM

you mean the context menu key (i.e. the one that generates a right click?) or another key?

@Chan-HoSuh It is true too, let me get the link.

searchcode.com/?q=startswith%28%22windows%5c+9%22%29

hm, well copy the entire thing.

there we go.

Andrew

3:16 AM

@seth that key in the center

Seth

yep, that's the one I'm talking about.

I have one..

I think most HP machines still do.

Andrew

Why don't they make keyboard with them anymore

It is like a dead key

@Seth The last time I have seen it on a keyboard was when it was mad in the early 2000's. When I was still young like 5 or 6, and was just playing around with the keys to see what they do.

Seth

amazon.com/s/… first four keyboards all have it.

I stopped checking after that.

Andrew

You are right

@Seth why don't they still make keyboard with a Macro key?

Macro key

A Macro key is a key that was featured on various early PC keyboards, and has been removed from most keyboards since. It is typically found on the lower rows of the keyboard, either to the left of the Z key or to the right of the right Ctrl. While most keyboard layouts treat it as a backslash, it has a different scan code, so keyboard layouts or programs use the scan code directly, or they can choose to handle it differently. On many new, top-of-the-line computer mice, there are built-in macro keys. These mice often come with a software specifically designed to fit the needs of that mouse. These...

Seth

according to that article the default action was just a backslash.

Not very useful, so I bet they removed it for space and cost reasons.

Andrew

3:30 AM

@Seth I hate laptop keyboard because they are not ergonomic.

@Seth I want laptops to have keyboard like these amazon.com/dp/B0061ZPE72/?tag=pcpapi-20

No Time

I need to buy stuff to build a computer for edbuntu any suggestions for sites i need to use?

you can ping me if anyone has idears

Seth

3:47 AM

@NoTime pcpartpicker.com comes to mind.

ubuntu.com/certification also comes to mind.

No Time

@Seth thank you, I just am getting overwhelmed trying to pick a computer to build and then look at what is compatible, those should help (having them in one spot).. then newegg?

Seth

I don't really use newegg, so I can't say much about that.

No Time

kinda hard to figure everything out because, it's like by brand of PC (since a lot more people install over a pre-win computer)

I'm working it though

Journeyman Geek

4:05 AM

@NoTime if you don't need a load of power, nuc class systems are nice.

Eliah Kagan

But then, man 8 sync talks about reboot calling sync (presumably when invoked without --force, since with --force I think after performing logging it may just be a wrapper for reboot(2))‌. Which makes me think maybe reboot --force might not ensure cached writes are flushed to disk.

Does anybody know if reboot --force flushes writes to disk? It invokes the reboot system call but I can't tell if that causes them to be flushed to disk. It logs its own operation to /var/log/wtmp, suggesting that it does flush cached writes (otherwise the log wouldn't be reliable).

The real question--I think--is whether the reboot system call tries to flush cached writes to disk. (Its manpage doesn't seem to say.)

No Time

@JourneymanGeek I am getting a bunch of parts to build with kid for his b-day

Eliah Kagan

The reason I'm looking for this info is, I want to know if I should do (and recommend others do) something special after booting with init=/bin/dash (or similar), remounting / readwrite, and making changes. Is Ctrl+Alt+Delete adequate? reboot -f? (Plain reboot, as well as init 6, will not work when init is a shell instead of a real init daemon.) Should / be manually remounted back to readonly before rebooting, in this scenario?

Journeyman Geek

@NoTime ahh.

No Time

@JourneymanGeek so I have to find something that will look kinda cool, be sturdy, and run edbuntu, and possibly dual boot for Win 7

since you know I'm evil

Journeyman Geek

4:13 AM

Eheh. I run two windows boxen

No Time

Im at 785 so far on a build.. I know I don't need to spend that much

or I could just buy something

I need to figure out what I need to zap

Journeyman Geek

That sounds alright actually. What's your build look like?

No Time

like do I need an uber processor.. or will it be ok for a kid to just have a low end

Journeyman Geek

Hm.brb

No Time

i started over :/ it was i3, with 16 GB RAM on a Gigabit mobo, 125$ case, hdd, optical combo, some extra compound, a keyboard mouse

Seth

4:20 AM

does Launchpad not build an amd64 version of a package if the architecture is set to all in debian/control?

No Time

im actually building a computer with onboards..

@Seth unsure bro

Journeyman Geek

@NoTime go with 8, and you can probably go a little cheaper on the case. Forget cooling paste on a non OC rig.

No Time

@JourneymanGeek I am going super lean now I dropped about 300$ off price so far.. Ill send a link once I am done.. trying to figure out what a 9 yo would actually need :)

geez 12k for a 1.6TB SSD

@JourneymanGeek how much over on wattage should I go do you think?

for psu

For anyone who wants to see.. and see if I paid enough attention

pcpartpicker.com/p/BpJCCJ

Journeyman Geek

4:58 AM

@NoTime: that PSU seems overkill by a lot

a 300w psu should cover it with legroom to spare

why the pcie network card?

also, double the ram if you can, 4gb is a bit on the low end for a modern box imo

otherwise, decent first build

Eliah Kagan

@Seth I'm not 100% sure, but I think Launchpad builds just an _all.deb for architecture-independent packages. For example, fetching package details (i.e., expanding any of the version entries) for bash-completion in Ubuntu reveals bash-completion_2.1-4_all.deb (or similar, with a different version number) as the only .deb file.

And it seems to work the same for PPAs: for example, bash-completion as provided by launchpad.net/~minos-archive/+archive/ubuntu/main/+packages.

Seth

@EliahKagan yes, it looks like you are correct. I guess it just appears as i386 in the build queue.

Eliah Kagan

5:13 AM

@Seth Yes, I think that's it. Expanding launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bash-completion for Trusty (and older) lists just i386 under builds, but it's still an _all.deb. I see the same thing for launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bikeshed in all releases.

Seth

Cool, thanks :)

@jokerdino There you go. I've tested it in 2 VMs and on 2 physical machines (including my own) and it seems to work fine. Right now it only supports trusty, but hopefully by the time you read this it will have built for precise (if I did that right..).

and with that I'm off for bed.

Pandya

5:36 AM

I am going to start bounty on this. Is it ok?

@EliahKagan I want to create chat-room for close voters. Is it helpful or meaning less? (if yes then which type preferred public or gallery?)

Journeyman Geek

@Pandya: that's what the review queue replaced

Pandya

@JourneymanGeek I not fully understand what you are talking for. can you explain

Journeyman Geek

@Pandya: there used to be chatrooms for organising closevotes

BUT they're redundant now since you can use the review queue

Eliah Kagan

@Pandya It seems like a good idea to me. We used to have one (the "Regulators" room); now we don't. I wasn't around when it stopped being used, so I don't know what the reasons were. I think hbdgaf has suggested this.

@JourneymanGeek We have 50 close votes per day, and 20 close reviews (some of which will usually not result in close votes being cast). Of course we often come upon questions that need closure, outside of review. But as long as there's a big backlog in the queue, I think it makes sense to have other organized ways of looking at questions that might merit closure.

Journeyman Geek

5:51 AM

ahh

true

Eliah Kagan

On the other hand, 10k users do have another way: the close votes tab of the 10k moderation tools.

(For the benefit of users who don't have 10k rep on any SE sites: It displays lists of questions that have accrued close votes. It doesn't give any extra power in voting to close a question, but it's handy for finding questions that could use a close vote. And some that really shouldn't get closed ...but unlike the review, it provides no special way to "demote" such questions out of the listing.)

The Data Explorer can also be used to find questions that might need close votes. (And it doesn't require high rep.) I'm not sure if that particular query still yields close-worthy questions, though. It seems to include questions that got close votes in the past but didn't get closed... including ones that were rightly not closed.

Pandya

@EliahKagan yes I see that room is frozen. Now Can that room be unfrozen? What should I do (create room)? Is there any moderator opinion/help about this topic possible?

Eliah Kagan

@Pandya We should maybe find out if there were any reasons, besides the improved review queue, for activity in the room having stopped. And maybe see how much interest there is. Meta?

Or we could just ask again in chat sometime when lots more people are around.

Pandya

@EliahKagan ok

Pandya

6:28 AM

What is difference between this and this questions?

i.e "held broken packages" and "have unmet dependencies" are not equal?

Ubuntu Questions on U&L

7:33 AM

0

Q: Start menu position Linux Mint Petra

After I have right at the bottom panel->Add panel, then added the start menu button, the button now is located at the right corner of the panel, besides the month calendar. I want it to be where it always has been, at the left side of the panel. If I "move" the start menu to the left, I cant se...

linux ubuntu linux-mint

blade19899

7:48 AM

3 questions in one: askubuntu.com/q/531689/36315

fossfreedom

edit and comment I would suggest

blade19899

@fossfreedom Need coffee. I thought i already commented xD

To coffee i go

fossfreedom

me - cuppa tea in hand :)

blade19899

8:02 AM

@fossfreedom Cuppa cappuccino.

DuckDuckGo is awesome:

duckduckgo.com/Cappuccino

Kris Groove

10:28 AM

hello all

Kris Groove

10:45 AM

can some help me with that: pastebin.com/WFQVT35s ??

blade19899

10:56 AM

Forgot how entertaining the Q's on StackExchange could be:

26

Q: How do I drug a population in the most efficient way?

I want a whole city to be on drugs secretly, so they don´t know they are drugged by their government. The city is about 2 billion people and roughly structured like a Makropole from the Warhammer 40k universe. This means: Many levels 4 classes (Lower, higher, worker, and government class) L...

city-design

Ask Ubuntu Meta

1:24 PM

0

Q: how to acces my profile on Ask Ubuntu if I've forgotten my OpenID?

Probably it's not the right place to ask this question, but maybe at least somebody would help me where should I ask it. When I was creating my profile on askubuntu.com I've chosen the option of logging with myOpenID. I didn't have it already, so I've created one that time, on askubuntu login pa...

support login

Ubuntu Questions on U&L

0

Q: Converting NTFS to Ext3

I recently partitioned a new drive in windows to NTFS. I want to make it ext3 so that I can transfer a WUBI Ubuntu installation onto it. I don't care about the data on this partition. Is there a simple way to do this in either ubuntu or windows 7?

ubuntu partition ext3

Mateo

1:51 PM

woo, let's see if this works in wine!

@KrisGroove is that my sql failing to start? what are we looking at, what are you trying to get working, from which instructions.

Avinash Raj

Yehhhh, i reached 50 k(global reps)..

Mateo

2:36 PM

hrm, it runs, but only wants a xbox controller :(

Ubuntu Questions on U&L

0

Q: How to run a script in multiple instances ? ( Ubuntu server )

How can I run a script in multiple instances in Ubuntu server? For example, I have a long running script named scanner.sh placed in /usr/bin/, which I wish to run the script in 10 parallel instances. How can I start the parallel tasks (and pass different flags / options / parameters to them)? ...

bash ubuntu shell-script

Lucio

2:58 PM

I love a warming morning, so bring the fire!

@AvinashRaj hey dude, who did you pay to get so many Ks on SO?!

Avinash Raj

Hi @Luci

Lucio

Luci O.O

Avinash Raj

nick name..

Luci :-)

Ubuntu Questions on U&L

0

Q: Disabling auto-login in Ubuntu with command line

Suppose auto-login to a session is active in Ubuntu. So there will not be an opertunity to select a session (e.g gnome, unity, kde, etc). But if the evvironment is corrupted there is no way to escape except command line. Is there a command to disable auto-login.