Ask Ubuntu General Room

Aaron Hall

12:03 AM

found my boot options in lenovo's forums where people were raising hell and lenovo seemed to be ignoring them... forums.lenovo.com/t5/Other-Linux-Discussions/… - updated the grub master file with those options and much is better (even though the kernel is 4.18 instead of 4.20 as they seem to insist is required...)

Eliah Kagan

2:02 AM

Spam.

(Smokey didn't detect it. I posted about it in Charcoal HQ but there aren't a lot of people actively watching there at the moment.)

WinEunuuchs2Unix

@EliahKagan I know you are particular. I flag as spam? I down vote? I vote to close? which is best course of action...

@edwinksl hey long time no see!

Eliah Kagan

Assuming you agree it's spam -- I think it pretty clearly is but you should make your own judgment of course -- you should flag it as spam.

WinEunuuchs2Unix

OK flagged as spam. There should be another option "WORST SPAM I'VE EVER SEEN" but no option for that :). Can I vote to close now or does that dilute the gene pool?

Eliah Kagan

I wouldn't VTC it. It should get deleted before it would be closed... and it should definitely get deleted before it would be closed and then have three 20k users casting delete votes on it. Unlike with questions that qualify for closure for the usual reasons, closing a spam question doesn't really improve the situation much, because the goal of most spam is just to be viewed and (for link spam) clicked, not to be answered.

So I think voting to close it doesn't make any difference. You can save your close votes for where they are more needed.

@WinEunuuchs2Unix Regarding that post, I fear my comment may not have been clear. It's the newer versions of Ubuntu on which the command in your answer doesn't work as written, not the older ones. I tested this on 16.04 and 18.04, both of which are fully supported releases, and the version with -d and without quotes in the here string did not work on 18.04.

WinEunuuchs2Unix

2:17 AM

@EliahKagan Well that's weird. It's odd the cut command would fail going forward :( They must have put gnome team on maintenance :)

Eliah Kagan

I don't find it odd. cut is behaving properly. Prior to bash 4.4, bash had a bug where it performed word splitting on expansions in here strings but its documentation claimed it didn't. Ubuntu 16.04 has bash 4.3.

The specific details of why your command doesn't work are in my comment and the linked page, but basically, lsb_release emits tab-delimited output, which you're (intentionally or not) replacing with a space via undocumented version-specific behavior of bash, and then you're telling cut to look for the space.

WinEunuuchs2Unix

Oh it's tab deliminated output. That is why substring on space wasn't working I needed to use $\t or whatever!

Eliah Kagan

Yeah.

Well, you don't need $'\t' or anything. The cut command defaults to using tabs.

WinEunuuchs2Unix

No I meant I tried bash built in substring ${Var##*\ }" and all kinds of derivatives and gave up.

Eliah Kagan

Oh.

Yeah, I wouldn't use anything like that for this.

If you're looking to accept arbitrary whitespace as a delimiter, you could use: awk '{print $2}'

WinEunuuchs2Unix

2:25 AM

Just ask @steeldriver I'm very "awk-challenged" :) That guy is a Wizzard of Awk.

Eliah Kagan

steeldriver is indeed an awk champion. :)

But if you wanted to use awk for this to treat arbitrary whitespace as a delimiter (which is how awk behaves when -F is not passed) then it's as simple as:

NumOnly="$(awk '{print $2}' <<< "$Var")"

WinEunuuchs2Unix

Thanks, I'll revise the answer with it.

Eliah Kagan

But the approach that's closer to what you're doing -- of using cut but having it use the tab -- is fine:

NumOnly="$(cut -f2 <<< "$Var")"

WinEunuuchs2Unix

well double thanks, I'll use that then :)

Eliah Kagan

Whichever you like. That's the main reason I didn't do an edit myself. I wasn't sure if you preferred to use the specific delimiter lsb_release outputs or to use arbitrary whitespace.

You're welcome! :)

In either case, I recommend quoting the parameter expansion in the here string, since that's unfortunately necessary prior to bash 4.4 if one wants to avoid word splitting, and Ubuntu 16.04 has bash 4.3 (and the question is all about detecting multiple Ubuntu releases reliably).

WinEunuuchs2Unix

2:30 AM

Truth be told I've always used -d argument with cut. I didn't release I could leave it off and it would be smarter than me!

Eliah Kagan

Well, without -d it defaults to a tab.

This is unlike awk, which defaults to arbitrary whitespace when -F is not passed.

WinEunuuchs2Unix

I made it two characters shorter using: NumOnly=$(cut -f2 <<< "$Var")

Eliah Kagan

Looks good. I tested it and it works on 16.04 and 18.04 (with the system-provided bash versions).

Eliah Kagan

2:46 AM

I think my comment was confusing because it reads like I was trying to compare 16.04 to older releases, but really I was trying to compare 16.04 to newer releases. (By "basically only works on 16.04" I meant that 16.04 was the only release with current community support on which the word splitting the command relied on occurs.) I think it would be even more confusing now that the answer is improved. So I've just deleted that comment.

Anyway, in case people are interested (since the comments are gone, and also since my comment didn't really clarify this well in the first place): cut works the same in all releases, defaulting to tabs if -d is not used, but bash used to perform word splitting in here strings.

Ubuntu Questions on U&L

7:14 AM

0

Q: How to share an IPv6 connection to the whole LAN?

My ISP still doesn't support IPv6, and I currently use OpenVpn or OpenConnect VPN to get IPv6 connection. Now that there are a Ubuntu server running VPN client, and a OpenWRT router. Is it possible to share (only) the IPv6 connection from the server to the whole LAN network?

dessert

9:57 AM

"This is NOT a subjective question" Yes it is. "Because I dislike using terminal based text editors," is the absolute definition of subjective. Your problem. Fix your attitude towards command line and there is no longer a problem. Command line is the BEST EVER feature created in any OS (<- also subjective :=) ) — Rinzwind 2 hours ago

some like to see the world burn ;)

Rinzwind

:=)

I am i a foul mood :=)

and it really is the best feature. You can do anything command line. Heck best one: I once used a command line browser to browse AU for a problem I had where I did not have any other systems available to go on-line and the desktop died on me. :D

Ubuntu Questions on U&L

10:14 AM

0

Q: How to set PWM in Uboot overlay for beaglebone black

i am recently working on beagle bone black, now i need to configure the PWM to control the LED brightness.i wish to use P9_14 as pwm output pin I did two way of settings. using /sys/class/pwm , here i used pwmchip1 and exported ,echo 0 > export. i found pwm1:0 , i entered the directory and set ...

linux ubuntu

0

Q: BadMatch and BadWindow in Urban Terror

I get an error whenever I try to launch Urban Terror in Vulkan mode (opengl works fine) . I have googled and found nothing. Here is the error message: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JUWo0WzlXYuPlRvLpLoa-x8IJkshIPP_GUu0ogffGNs/edit?usp=sharing Turning off fullscreen fixes the badwindow bug...

ubuntu vulkan

terdon

@Rinzwind Come on! Sorry to hear you're having a rough day, but don't bring that to the site.

The question is not subjective at all, and your comment was really unnecessary (and was flagged twice as rude).

Rinzwind

yes it is. it is bias and therefor subjective.

And the foul mood arrived after I made that comment cuz of someone here being stupid. Not before :=)

terdon

10:44 AM

@Rinzwind No it isn't. Have another look. The question is basically "what are the dangers in using sudo -H gedit" which isn't subjective at all.

> Can there ever be any problem with using gedit to edit system files or is choice of text editor is purely up to the person's preference? Is there anything that I should keep in mind (like encoding) when editing these files?

Yes, the OP doesn't like text editors, but that's their choice. The question isn't about their choice but about why we tend to suggest CLI editors for this sort of thing.

Ubuntu Questions on U&L

11:13 AM

0

Q: the easiest way to see a grid of many workspaces on the large screen

I have Mint/ubuntu and screen of 4K. is an extension to turn on 4 workspaces to be visible at once? alternatively any tool, which supports grid layout for ubuntu For example: windows are pinned/locked and prohibited to be zoomed-in more than 1/4 of display size (or similar). The main goal is to...

ubuntu gnu-screen display display-settings

dessert

@Rinzwind But still, you use a GUI browser if you can, don’t you? I inflict the preference of CLI tools on myself and try to substitute more and more GUI tools in both my work and personal usage, e.g. vim instead of Kate, pdflatex instead of LibreOffice, next being mutt instead of Thunderbird, but that is just my personal delusion. May everybody use their computer the way they want.

WinEunuuchs2Unix

@Rinzwind @dessert @terdon It's not that I don't like learning command line, after all I've spent years now learning bash / shell. It's just that a GUI editor has zero learning curve for most people whereas text based editor slows new users down (Ctrl+O, Ctrl+W, Ctrl+X), etc. In the GUI it's almost universal for Ctrl+F to find or you can use drop down menus, etc. etc. I understand why someone doesn't like CLI editors.

Rinzwind

You was not here when Canonical decided to redo the desktop and move all the buttons out of sight? @WinEunuuchs2Unix Like gedit now is not the gedit it used to be.

@dessert hmmm I make a distinction between the 2 users I am: admin or user. as an admin I would prefere CLI over GUI.

also ... I tend to use cloud instances :X everything these is CLI :X

@terdon that part made me vote to close it as a dupe though.

0

Q: Applications that work without X on Ubuntu

I'm looking for applications that work without X, on Ubuntu. I have w3m, which allows me to browse the web from the terminal or on a session without X, but I can't listen to music (other than music from my computer, with Cmus) or watch YouTube videos, for example. So if anyone knows any applicati...

command-line xorg

lol ^

WinEunuuchs2Unix

@Rinzwind I'm using about 5 gedit plug-ins. 80 character gutter, bracket highlighting, line highlighting, syntax highlighting, etc. Plus I have sgedit defined which takes user gedit preferences and recreates them for root for same environment including dark color setting, tab stops, convert tabs to spaces, etc.

Rinzwind

That's not a "zero learning curve" though ;-)

syntax highlighting is a curve in itself :-D

WinEunuuchs2Unix

11:27 AM

very true my friend, I put them in years after I started zero learning curve gedit.

Rinzwind

You can have a cookie :)

terdon

@Rinzwind that I could understand. But there was no opinion involved at all.

WinEunuuchs2Unix

11:54 AM

Let's just call it "preference" and move onto Windows Bashing again :)

Rinzwind

@WinEunuuchs2Unix that's no fun anymore :-P

Fabby

@Rinzwind That's always fun!

cc @WinEunuuchs2Unix

OK... Work calling!

Bye!

Rinzwind

:D

terdon

12:11 PM

3

For those who haven't seen it.

Joshua Besneatte

3:06 PM

hi everyone :) I had a flagged some posts as off topic because they were about compiling software which I thought made them off topic (not Ubuntu specific)... can someone guide me to some info on what makes a post OFF topic?

dessert

@JoshuaBesneatte askubuntu.com/help/on-topic

and askubuntu.com/help/dont-ask

Joshua Besneatte

@dessert perfect thanks! I have flagged numerous posts as off topic and they have almost always been approved... however I had 3 rejected in the last couple days... for example, this question askubuntu.com/questions/1162483/… is about compiling a module for a kernel.... seems not ubuntu specific to me... however, it could fall under that "3rd party application" designation...

another example.... askubuntu.com/questions/1162487/… ... is that question on or off topic?

Rinzwind

I would have flagged them too to be honest. besides that: the tags... 2 are wrong

@JoshuaBesneatte on topic. it is about using wine in ubuntu. again: I would have asked that on wine forums myself.

dessert

@JoshuaBesneatte note that “Ubuntu specific” is not a requirement, it’s rather “Ubuntu-related” and “Using and administering official Ubuntu flavors” in general, which is a wide scope on purpose

Kulfy

@JoshuaBesneatte That's unclear I guess.

Joshua Besneatte

3:15 PM

I love helping out on this site... I don't want to do things wrong

Rinzwind

we can discuss about on and off topic all day :=) and not get to a perfect answer.

thing is: I stopped flagging unless 100% sure.

Joshua Besneatte

I guess it would fall under the category "subjective" :)

@Rinzwind good call.. I am going with your 100% rule from now on :)

Eliah Kagan

I think that second question is unclear. I voted to close it as such.

Rinzwind

mind that I also edit things out of q's if I can get away with it ;-)
so if I see "mint" and believe it is Ubuntu specific, I nuke the mint

Eliah Kagan

As for the one about compiling a kernel module, I don't see anything off-topic about that.

Joshua Besneatte

3:20 PM

@EliahKagan giving it more thought... I see how the kernel module definitely is ON topic...

Eliah Kagan

I don't know that this really addresses the most of the specific questions you're wondering about... but it is not required that questions be specific to Ubuntu. Very little is specific to Ubuntu.

Rinzwind

using software in ubuntu makes it on topic (and i paraphrase Oli here)

Joshua Besneatte

good point... how about this one askubuntu.com/questions/1162460/… this seems to be specific to the xmacro program... and is very general

terdon

@JoshuaBesneatte Don't think "specific" to Ubuntu. There's essentially nothing that is specific to Ubuntu. Basically, it boils down to: if you're doing your thing on an Ubuntu system and need help doing it, then you can ask here.

Rinzwind

see my prev. post @JoshuaBesneatte ;)

Joshua Besneatte

3:23 PM

so just because it's being used on an Ubuntu machine, it is ON topic?

dessert

yes!!!

Rinzwind

yes. BUT mind that bugs are off topic if the answer is not a solution to the bug

if there is a fix that can be the answer otherwise the bug needs to be reported

Joshua Besneatte

@terdon @Rinzwind @dessert @EliahKagan PERFECT! THANKS! You guys rock... I think I totally get it now :)

Rinzwind

what did terdon add to this? >:)

Joshua Besneatte

"Don't think "specific" to Ubuntu. There's essentially nothing that is specific to Ubuntu."

dessert

3:25 PM

and just because it’s not used on an Ubuntu machine makes it off-topic, no matter whether it may function the very same on Ubuntu

Eliah Kagan

Well, he wrote the top-voted answer to the meta question I linked to. :)

Rinzwind

but he simply repeated eliah >:)

lol

Eliah Kagan

But I was linking to...

:)

Rinzwind

fine fine include terdon :=)

@terdon have a cookie :D

Joshua Besneatte

there's a lot of messages here... just wanted to thank EVERYONE for your inputs :)

dessert

3:26 PM

haha, you’re welcome!

terdon

@Rinzwind class, style and elegance. As usual.

(and yes, I may have answered before reading to the end of the transcript)

Joshua Besneatte

I clearly need to spend more time in here :D

Eliah Kagan

@JoshuaBesneatte To look at it a little more closely, I think that if it would be not misleading to describe what's being asked about as using software on Ubuntu, then it's on-topic--or at least not off-topic for being "not about Ubuntu." I think that's a reasonable way to put it. You might want to ask on Ask Ubuntu Meta (but I suggest searching there first if you haven't, because a number of issues relating to this have been discussed).

The reason I'm putting it that way is that I think this addresses cases like, "How do I put a footer on every page except the first in LibreOffice Writer" (on-topic) vs. "How do I write real-sounding dialogue between my the captain and first mate of a late 17th century buccaneer vessel in the short story I'm writing in LibreOffice Writer?" (off-topic)

3

Joshua Besneatte

@EliahKagan - Interesting... in the on-topic example (which seems off topic to me)... perhaps a comment saying, "Have you tried asking this at the LibreOffice forums?" or just do nothing?

Rinzwind

ah but "how do I create something in blender" I would close >:) That person should find a blender q+a :X

@JoshuaBesneatte I do that all the time :X at least 5 today alone

Eliah Kagan

3:34 PM

@JoshuaBesneatte I definitely think it's okay to suggest other resources when there's reason to believe they could be helpful. But questions about how to use programs in Ubuntu, including programs like Firefox or LibreOffice, are generally on-topic.

Rinzwind

ask.libreoffice.org/en/questions

:=)

Joshua Besneatte

OK, makes sense (well a little more sense anyway :)

Rinzwind

ok next category: baba >:) @terdon explain that one to @JoshuaBesneatte :D

starts running as it is 17:30 :=)

Joshua Besneatte

it still seems to me though that "how do I add footer in L.O." is off topic as it's L.O. specific, but "I can add footer in L.O. in windows, but it doesn't work in Ubuntu" would be on topic.... IDK

Eliah Kagan

Where it gets tricky is programming questions where it's sometimes hard to tell if the question is asking about Ubuntu (on-topic), or about using development tools on Ubuntu (on-topic), or asking something about general programming (which we tend pretty strongly to consider off-topic).

That's my motivation for the pirate-story example. I think if they're asking how to use the tool to write the story, it's on-topic, but if they're asking about the general art of fiction writing, that's not. I think in practice we treat programming questions in a similar way. I think. That my opinion, though. This is definitely not a policy statement.

Zanna

3:37 PM

@EliahKagan XD

terdon

@JoshuaBesneatte Neither of those would be off topic because both are about using a specific tool on Ubuntu. @EliahKagan's other example was a question about writing, not using, LibreOffice and that's what made it off topic.

Also, don't worry about getting flags declined. It is bound to happen when you cast many flags.

Joshua Besneatte

my flagger got cut off... when will it grow back?

Eliah Kagan

Do you just mean you ran out of flags for the day? Or something else?

Joshua Besneatte

@terdon I get the gist now... I didn't realize the scope of this board was so broad... and on the flags I couldn't flag a dupe because of the 3 off topic rejects I got in the last 7 days...

@EliahKagan I couldn't flag a dupe because of the 3 off topic rejects I got in the last 7 days...

Eliah Kagan

Ah.

Joshua Besneatte

3:46 PM

now that I understand, I would retract them if I could... oh well, live and learn :D smarter every day

Zanna

3:58 PM

:)

dessert

4:26 PM

Yes, “Smarter Every Day” from “A Shell In The Pit”!

ashellinthepit.bandcamp.com/album/smarter-every-day

Ubuntu Questions on U&L

4:52 PM

0

Q: Bypass root password in linux live boot customized Ubuntu (School Laptop)

I have a laptop on which i have Ubuntu running. This Ubuntu is on live boot and it is customized by the school. Whenever I turn on my laptop, it automatically logs me in as user TIPS. This user doesn't have root perms. Is there any way I can bypass that, or get the root password somehow?? It make...

linux ubuntu root

Ubuntu Questions on U&L

5:12 PM

0

Q: Ubuntu 16.04 VPS security

I'd ordered a VPS with Ubuntu 16.04/64-bit LTS server edition with some ports opened, which are essential to my application. recently the VPS was delivered to me, so I accessed the VPS using ssh and changed the ssh password. now my question is: how can I make sure that the ubuntu 16.04 instal...

ubuntu security

aderchox

Hi, please take a look at this: askubuntu.com/questions/1162727/…

dessert

5:56 PM

@aderchox nice, one upvote :)

Ubuntu Questions on U&L

6:12 PM

0

Q: Do inode values have any affect on performance?

I recently saved 7 files to two separate directories (I will call A and B). Out of curiosity I used Ubuntu's ls -i command and found files in each directory had consecutive inodes. I then noticed that I had mistakenly saved one of these files in A while it should have been saved in B and moved it...

ubuntu filesystems inode

aderchox

@dessert :) \0

Fabby

8:47 PM

@Kulfy done

Ubuntu Questions on U&L

10:50 PM

1

Q: I decided to test lightdm and suddenly got a lot of new software that I dont want in my dash...How to remove them?

I installed lightdm to take a look,but I didnt like it...so just removed.But now I have a lot of new stuff(apps) on my gnome dash that I dont want,like "clipter","users and groups","xarchiver",etc,etc...how can I remove all of that,please?? I'm in pop_os(ubuntu based)

ubuntu gnome lightdm

WinEunuuchs2Unix

@Fabby I hit my 200 point rep cap limit at lunch time and I'm just groaning at every lost upvote since then :( Now I know how @Rinzwind must feel but never speaks about :P

Transcript for

Ask Ubuntu General Room