Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

minor problems after major disaster

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    minor problems after major disaster

    i had a disaster after running the security upgrades a few days ago, which you can read about here -- http://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthr...-hard-disk-woe -- if you're interested.

    i'm now "recovering" from the disaster. i've got most of the computer back to the way i want it, but there are a few details that really bug me, that i still don't know how to fix.

    before the disaster, when i opened a URL from my email client, it immediately switched to the browser, and proceded to open the URL without making any sound. after the disaster, it opens the URL in a new browser window, but it doesn’t immediately switch to it, and sometimes (but not always) it makes a “swishyswishy” sound that i haven’t been able to figure out where it’s coming from, and (naturally) haven’t been able to figure out how to turn it off.

    before my disaster, i had the ability to change my volume by pushing buttons on my keyboard, but since the disaster, my sound system settings are completely wonky, the buttons on the keyboard no longer work, and i can’t figure out how to make them right: instead of having two channels in my “Volume” settings (in the systray), one of which controled the volume for everything, i have three, or four if there’s a youtube video in my browser, and one channel controls the settings for the system bell, another channel controls the volume in amarok, and one channel controls the volume in the youtube video… i believe that, when i’m using something like VLC Media Player, i can show another channel in my mixer.

    there’s one, in particular, that i already find fairly annoying: i have a “K” menu (rather like the “Start” menu in windoesn’t, but not so confusing) in my task bar, which has a “Recently Used” tab... but the fact is the recently used documents part of the tab hasn’t updated since i recovered my data… the recently used applications seems to work as expected, but the recently used documents hasn’t updated at all since i recovered my data.

    i have a “0 B Removable Media” device that appears to be a floppy drive in my "Most Recent Devices" menu, in my task bar, but i don’t have a floppy drive at all… i seem to recall being able to turn drives that i don’t have off in the devices menu, but there’s nothing in System Settings -> Removable Devices that does anything. also, my secondary internal drive, which should mount automatically at boot time, doesn’t actually mount until i click on it, at which point it demands a password before i can access any of its contents.

    my “Dropbox” folder is no longer linked, and i can’t figure out how to re-link it. it was “moved” when it went from /media/home/salamandir/Dropbox to /media/salamandir/home/salamandir/Dropbox as a result of the disaster, and when i finally figured out how to get it back to /media/home/salamandir/Dropbox it still told me that my dropbox folder wasn’t installed in the correct place, and instructed me to reinstall dropbox, but when i did, it didn’t do any good, so i “unlinked” my linux box from my dropbox account, and now i can’t figure out how to re-link it… BUT, for some unknown reason, my “Fremont Philharmonic” dropbox is still working the way i expect it to… which is REALLY weird…
    Last edited by przxqgl; Sep 11, 2013, 10:51 PM.
    ⇑ Hybrid Elephant
    http://www.hybridelephant.com/
    ⇓ The world's finest exotic incense

    #2
    update

    i still haven't found solutions to most of the problems i have listed, but i did get my dropbox problem fixed: after installing, de-installing and reinstalling dropbox and nautilus-dropbox twice without any success, i de-installed and reinstalled dropbox a third time, and it worked...

    still no clue why it didn't work the first two times, and still no clue how to fix the other minor annoyances that are still plaguing my system, but i've got dropbox working again...
    ⇑ Hybrid Elephant
    http://www.hybridelephant.com/
    ⇓ The world's finest exotic incense

    Comment


      #3
      1. "Recently Used":
      Which kde version do you have, IIRC there is a "recently used" bug in 4.11.0 (which should be fixed in the upcoming 4.11.1)

      2. "0 B Removable Media":
      This is likely due to the switch to udisks2 (if you use a recent kde)...although on my saucy (13.10) it only shows this if the machine actually has a floppy drive

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by kubicle View Post
        1. "Recently Used":
        Which kde version do you have, IIRC there is a "recently used" bug in 4.11.0 (which should be fixed in the upcoming 4.11.1)
        i don't know which KDE version i have. how do i tell?

        by the way, i don't think this is because of a bug: the "recently used" list worked up until the "disaster" spoken of previously, and now (after the "disaster" has been solved), it doesn't. i don't think this is because of a bug, i think it's because the upgrade moved the "recently used" directory to somewhere new, and (because of the fact that i replaced my /.kde directory with a pre-upgrade backup) it is now looking in the wrong place for the "recently used files"...

        Originally posted by kubicle View Post
        2. "0 B Removable Media":
        This is likely due to the switch to udisks2 (if you use a recent kde)...although on my saucy (13.10) it only shows this if the machine actually has a floppy drive
        once again, it may be because of a switch, but again, because of the fact that i replaced the /.kde directory with a pre-disaster, pre-upgrade backup, it may be looking in the wrong place for a disk that doesn't really exist at all...

        at least that's my impression... 8)
        ⇑ Hybrid Elephant
        http://www.hybridelephant.com/
        ⇓ The world's finest exotic incense

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by przxqgl View Post
          i don't know which KDE version i have. how do i tell?
          running 'kded --version' is one way, all kde applications also show version info in Help>About KDE

          Originally posted by przxqgl View Post
          by the way, i don't think this is because of a bug: the "recently used" list worked up until the "disaster" spoken of previously, and now (after the "disaster" has been solved), it doesn't. i don't think this is because of a bug, i think it's because the upgrade moved the "recently used" directory to somewhere new, and (because of the fact that i replaced my /.kde directory with a pre-upgrade backup) it is now looking in the wrong place for the "recently used files"...
          You can check running 'env | grep KDEHOME || echo $HOME/.kde'. If the output of that points to your current .kde directory, kde should be able to find the Recent documents data location (~/.kde/share/apps/RecentDocuments) no matter if you use a backed up .kde or if $HOME was moved.

          Originally posted by przxqgl View Post
          once again, it may be because of a switch, but again, because of the fact that i replaced the /.kde directory with a pre-disaster, pre-upgrade backup, it may be looking in the wrong place for a disk that doesn't really exist at all...
          If I understood correctly, the fact that "/media/home/salamandir" changed to "/media/salamandir/home/salamandir" is a fairly strong indication of a switch to udisks2 (mounting removable media into /media/$USER/ instead of /media/ is udisks2 default behavior)...you can check which version of udisks is installed by running 'dpkg -l | grep udisk'

          I didn't actually have time to read through the thread of your "disaster" (sorry for that), I just posted possible causes because the symptoms seem to match recent kde bugs/changes. But you can rule out these causes if you don't have kde 4.11 or udisks2 installed.

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by kubicle View Post
            running 'kded --version' is one way, all kde applications also show version info in Help>About KDE
            Code:
            kded --version
            No command 'kded' found, did you mean:
             Command 'kded4' from package 'kdelibs-bin' (main)
             Command 'kde4' from package 'kde-runtime' (main)
             Command 'ksed' from package 'keysafe' (universe)
            kded: command not found
            however, Kontact tells me that i'm running Platform Version 4.11.00

            Originally posted by kubicle View Post
            You can check running 'env | grep KDEHOME || echo $HOME/.kde'. If the output of that points to your current .kde directory, kde should be able to find the Recent documents data location (~/.kde/share/apps/RecentDocuments) no matter if you use a backed up .kde or if $HOME was moved.
            Code:
            env | grep KDEHOME || echo $HOME/.kde
            /home/salamandir/.kde
            well, it points to the pre-upgrade, pre-disaster /.kde directory, which i restored after the disaster... but if ~/.kde/share/apps/RecentDocuments is really the same directory that it gets the "Recent Documents" menu from (which it appears to be), then why is it not updating with the documents that i have used most recently?

            Originally posted by kubicle View Post
            If I understood correctly, the fact that "/media/home/salamandir" changed to "/media/salamandir/home/salamandir" is a fairly strong indication of a switch to udisks2 (mounting removable media into /media/$USER/ instead of /media/ is udisks2 default behavior)...you can check which version of udisks is installed by running 'dpkg -l | grep udisk'
            Code:
            dpkg -l | grep  udisk
            ii  libudisks2-0                         2.1.0-4~ubuntu12.04~ppa1                           GObject based library to access udisks2
            ii  udisks                               1.0.4-5ubuntu2.1                                   storage media interface
            ii  udisks2                              2.1.0-4~ubuntu12.04~ppa1                           D-BUS service to access and manipulate storage devices
            um...

            that's interesting, but it doesn't mean anything to me... is it possible that i'm running two different versions of udisk?
            ⇑ Hybrid Elephant
            http://www.hybridelephant.com/
            ⇓ The world's finest exotic incense

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by przxqgl View Post
              Code:
              kded --version
              No command 'kded' found, did you mean:
               Command 'kded4' from package 'kdelibs-bin' (main)
               Command 'kde4' from package 'kde-runtime' (main)
               Command 'ksed' from package 'keysafe' (universe)
              kded: command not found
              Sorry, my bad, I meant kded4 --version


              Originally posted by przxqgl View Post
              however, Kontact tells me that i'm running Platform Version 4.11.00
              Code:
              env | grep KDEHOME || echo $HOME/.kde
              /home/salamandir/.kde
              well, it points to the pre-upgrade, pre-disaster /.kde directory, which i restored after the disaster... but if ~/.kde/share/apps/RecentDocuments is really the same directory that it gets the "Recent Documents" menu from (which it appears to be), then why is it not updating with the documents that i have used most recently?
              The bug (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=323747) in 4.11.0 is that new .desktop files aren't put in the correct directory (missing path component), so you only see the items that were in the directory before installing 4.11.0. You can test by copying one of items in the directory under a different name (keep ".desktop" in the end) this new item should show in the recent documents list.

              Like I mentioned, this bug is marked as fixed in 4.11.1 which should be only days away.

              Originally posted by przxqgl View Post
              Code:
              dpkg -l | grep  udisk
              ii  libudisks2-0                         2.1.0-4~ubuntu12.04~ppa1                           GObject based library to access udisks2
              ii  udisks                               1.0.4-5ubuntu2.1                                   storage media interface
              ii  udisks2                              2.1.0-4~ubuntu12.04~ppa1                           D-BUS service to access and manipulate storage devices
              um...
              that's interesting, but it doesn't mean anything to me... is it possible that i'm running two different versions of udisk?
              You have both installed, but KDE 4.11 should use udisks2. I see you mentioned that your problems started after "security upgrades"? I'm pretty sure you shouldn't get KDE 4.11 through security upgrades on 12.04 (to avoid just this sort of thing), as the latest KDE in the repos for 12.04 is 4.8.5...do you have kubuntu backports ppa enabled?

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by kubicle View Post
                The bug (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=323747) in 4.11.0 is that new .desktop files aren't put in the correct directory (missing path component), so you only see the items that were in the directory before installing 4.11.0. You can test by copying one of items in the directory under a different name (keep ".desktop" in the end) this new item should show in the recent documents list.

                Like I mentioned, this bug is marked as fixed in 4.11.1 which should be only days away.
                that's the case... i tested it, and, sure enough, another file (with the same URI but a new name) ended up in my "Recent Documents" list...

                see? i'm not imagining things! 8)

                Originally posted by kubicle View Post
                You have both installed, but KDE 4.11 should use udisks2. I see you mentioned that your problems started after "security upgrades"? I'm pretty sure you shouldn't get KDE 4.11 through security upgrades on 12.04 (to avoid just this sort of thing), as the latest KDE in the repos for 12.04 is 4.8.5...do you have kubuntu backports ppa enabled?
                ummm...

                okay, i have "LP-PPA-kubuntu-ppa-backports/precise", "precise-backports/multiverse" and "precise-backports/universe" in my repositories... is it one of those, or do i need another one?
                ⇑ Hybrid Elephant
                http://www.hybridelephant.com/
                ⇓ The world's finest exotic incense

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by przxqgl View Post
                  that's the case... i tested it, and, sure enough, another file (with the same URI but a new name) ended up in my "Recent Documents" list...

                  see? i'm not imagining things! 8)
                  Never thought you did


                  Originally posted by przxqgl View Post
                  ummm...

                  okay, i have "LP-PPA-kubuntu-ppa-backports/precise", "precise-backports/multiverse" and "precise-backports/universe" in my repositories... is it one of those, or do i need another one?
                  That's the one you got 4.11.0 from. The good news is that you should get 4.11.1 from there as well fairly soon. The "bad" news is that if you have backports enabled, you don't just get "security upgrades" (which are almost guaranteed not to cause breakage or regressions)...you also get new major versions of KDE which may include new bugs, regressions, or different behavior (I'm not speaking against backports, though, newer versions of kde are generally better than older ones in many ways, but you may get some hickups, such as the bug you're experiencing or the different udisks2 behavior...especially with x.0 releases).

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by kubicle View Post
                    That's the one you got 4.11.0 from. The good news is that you should get 4.11.1 from there as well fairly soon. The "bad" news is that if you have backports enabled, you don't just get "security upgrades" (which are almost guaranteed not to cause breakage or regressions)...you also get new major versions of KDE which may include new bugs, regressions, or different behavior (I'm not speaking against backports, though, newer versions of kde are generally better than older ones in many ways, but you may get some hickups, such as the bug you're experiencing or the different udisks2 behavior...especially with x.0 releases).
                    i enabled kubuntu ppa backports because of a problem i (and, apparently, every other person who uses it) had with amarok about a year ago... and i remember being extremely glad that i had been a part of making kubuntu more accessible to more people by working with the people developing and testing to make it a better product...

                    at this point, i still say that having backports enabled is a better thing than not having them enabled... ;-)

                    but i still wonder why i have things like a "0 B Removable Media" that won't go away, even though i now know what caused it... and that's not to mention the continued strangeness in my audio/volume settings and my browser/email client interactions...
                    ⇑ Hybrid Elephant
                    http://www.hybridelephant.com/
                    ⇓ The world's finest exotic incense

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by przxqgl View Post
                      at this point, i still say that having backports enabled is a better thing than not having them enabled... ;-)
                      I don't disagree...as a general rule the pros heavily outweigh the cons.

                      Originally posted by przxqgl View Post
                      but i still wonder why i have things like a "0 B Removable Media" that won't go away, even though i now know what caused it
                      One probably could tinker with udisks2 configuration to remove it (doesn't make much sense if you don't have a floppy drive, so this might be a bug as well...and might be fixed eventually).

                      Originally posted by przxqgl View Post
                      ... and that's not to mention the continued strangeness in my audio/volume settings and my browser/email client interactions...
                      There are some changes in kmix as well in 4.11...do you mean you don't have "master" volume control anymore, only audio source based volume sliders? (have you checked which micers are available/enabled in it's settings...the settings button in the bottom-right corner of the volume control applet)
                      Last edited by kubicle; Sep 03, 2013, 04:38 AM.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by kubicle View Post
                        One probably could tinker with udisks2 configuration to remove it (doesn't make much sense if you don't have a floppy drive, so this might be a bug as well...and might be fixed eventually).
                        it doesn't really bother me, it's just there, and it never used to be... what bothers me more is that my secondary internal hard disk does not mount automatically (as it did before the disaster), and i have to mount it manually before i can do anything with it... this is a 2G internal drive, which should mount as /dev/sdb at boot...

                        Originally posted by kubicle View Post
                        There are some changes in kmix as well in 4.11...do you mean you don't have "master" volume control anymore, only audio source based volume sliders? (have you checked which micers are available/enabled in it's settings...the settings button in the bottom-right corner of the volume control applet)
                        this is something else that has been bizarre ever since i bought the computer, and nobody else has been able to figure it out, either. the manifestation of it that i am talking about now is just the latest manifestation of it.

                        as far as i know, i have "built-in" audio, in that i don't have an additional sound card, but my "sound card" is actually on the mother board. as far as i have been able to determine, this shows up as "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo" on my KDE Mixer Playback Devices. for some unknown reason, i also have "RS7880 HDMI Audio [Raedon (HD) 3000 Series] Digital Stereo (HDMI)" which is on, by default, every time i reboot, but doesn't appear to make any difference if i disable it, despite the fact that, if it is disabled, the "Volume" icon in my systray indicates that the volume is as low as possible.

                        i don't know exactly what i did the last time it was an issue, but basically what it came down to was that i got the volume controls on my keyboard to operate the "Master Volume" for the entire computer, and now there doesn't even appear to be a "Master Volume" control any longer. each different device that makes sound has its own, separate volume control, and i can adjust one without affecting any of the others. i suppose this could be considered an advancement by some, but i want one control for everything, and i want to be able to controll it from my keyboard.
                        ⇑ Hybrid Elephant
                        http://www.hybridelephant.com/
                        ⇓ The world's finest exotic incense

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by przxqgl View Post
                          what bothers me more is that my secondary internal hard disk does not mount automatically (as it did before the disaster), and i have to mount it manually before i can do anything with it... this is a 2G internal drive, which should mount as /dev/sdb at boot...
                          This we can probably get fixed. Was this drive previously mounted at boot through an /etc/fstab entry or through KDE's automounter? (for internal harddisks, I'd recommend using /etc/fstab...if you didn't use it before).

                          To get started on the /etc/fstab entry you'd need to mount it at boot, could you answer the following:
                          1. run 'cat /etc/fstab' and post the output here (obscure username/password entries for possible network mounts if they are defined in /etc/fstab), so we can take a look if an entry is already there.
                          2. run 'sudo blkid' and post the output here, identify the partitions you want mounted at boot (this will give the UUID and filesystem type for the partitions)
                          3. Specify where you wish to mount it (examples: /media/internal, /home/data, /home/<username>/backup etc.)
                          4. If it uses non posix filesystems (like ntfs or fat) which ownerships/permissions you want for it (not needed for posix filesystems, like ext4, btrfs, xfs etc.).

                          Comment


                            #14
                            by the way, the "Most Recently Used Documents" is now working the way i want it to... i got a whole bunch of upgrades the other day, and KDE4.11.1 was one of them...

                            Originally posted by kubicle View Post
                            This we can probably get fixed. Was this drive previously mounted at boot through an /etc/fstab entry or through KDE's automounter? (for internal harddisks, I'd recommend using /etc/fstab...if you didn't use it before).
                            i don't know, but i don't remember doing anything with the KDE automounter -- for that matter, i'm not even sure what the KDE automounter is... is it something in the "System Settings"?

                            Originally posted by kubicle View Post
                            To get started on the /etc/fstab entry you'd need to mount it at boot, could you answer the following:
                            1. run 'cat /etc/fstab' and post the output here (obscure username/password entries for possible network mounts if they are defined in /etc/fstab), so we can take a look if an entry is already there.
                            Code:
                            cat /etc/fstab
                            # /etc/fstab: static file system information.
                            #
                            # Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
                            # device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
                            # that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
                            #
                            # <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
                            proc            /proc           proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid 0       0
                            # / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
                            UUID=670b42b0-3dc9-45c9-9c4d-7ef62e5b4644 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
                            # swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
                            UUID=a75adf45-2457-4ef8-a2b2-3e25a9446574 none            swap    sw              0       0
                            /dev/fd0        /media/floppy0  auto    rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0
                            Originally posted by kubicle View Post
                            2. run 'sudo blkid' and post the output here,
                            Code:
                            sudo blkid
                            [sudo] password for salamandir: 
                            /dev/sda1: UUID="670b42b0-3dc9-45c9-9c4d-7ef62e5b4644" TYPE="ext4" 
                            /dev/sda5: UUID="a75adf45-2457-4ef8-a2b2-3e25a9446574" TYPE="swap" 
                            /dev/sdb1: UUID="21868c77-7fcc-457f-ac3f-a8c99f264ca3" TYPE="ext3" 
                            /dev/sdc2: LABEL="backup" UUID="ca2fc87b-3585-432f-8811-54af6438f2ce" TYPE="ext4" 
                            /dev/sdc3: LABEL="home" UUID="22f4cce2-d326-48f8-9314-cf0d27ea5f32" TYPE="ext4" 
                            /dev/sdd1: LABEL="BERZNEEK" UUID="1D30-DBAC" TYPE="vfat" 
                            /dev/sde1: LABEL="FUMTOO" UUID="3993-83E1" TYPE="vfat"
                            Originally posted by kubicle View Post
                            identify the partitions you want mounted at boot (this will give the UUID and filesystem type for the partitions)
                            all of them... i'd also like it if the second internal disk was NOT named "21868c77-7fcc-457f-ac3f-a8c99f264ca3" but as long as it mounts at boot, it doesn't really matter...

                            Originally posted by kubicle View Post
                            3. Specify where you wish to mount it (examples: /media/internal, /home/data, /home/<username>/backup etc.)
                            where i'd like it to mount is at /media/21868c77-7fcc-457f-ac3f-a8c99f264ca3... or at /media/<disk name that isn't 21868c77-7fcc-457f-ac3f-a8c99f264ca3> would actually be better...

                            Originally posted by kubicle View Post
                            4. If it uses non posix filesystems (like ntfs or fat) which ownerships/permissions you want for it (not needed for posix filesystems, like ext4, btrfs, xfs etc.).
                            actually, the disk uses ext3... does that make a difference?
                            Last edited by przxqgl; Sep 09, 2013, 11:14 AM.
                            ⇑ Hybrid Elephant
                            http://www.hybridelephant.com/
                            ⇓ The world's finest exotic incense

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by przxqgl View Post
                              all of them...
                              We'll tackle the internal disk first (I take it the rest are external disks? are they mounted automatically when you plug them in?)

                              Originally posted by przxqgl View Post
                              i'd also like it if the second internal disk was NOT named "21868c77-7fcc-457f-ac3f-a8c99f264ca3" but as long as it mounts at boot, it doesn't really matter...
                              You can give it a LABEL, but that's not necessary to mount it as /media/<drivename>

                              Originally posted by przxqgl View Post
                              where i'd like it to mount is at /media/21868c77-7fcc-457f-ac3f-a8c99f264ca3... or at /media/<disk name that isn't 21868c77-7fcc-457f-ac3f-a8c99f264ca3> would actually be better...
                              We'll do that then:
                              1. create the mountpoint directory:
                              Code:
                              sudo mkdir /media/drivename
                              (replace "drivename" with the name you want)
                              2. Open up /etc/fstab for editing as root:
                              Code:
                              kdesudo kate /etc/fstab
                              3. Add the line:
                              UUID=21868c77-7fcc-457f-ac3f-a8c99f264ca3 /media/drivename ext3 defaults 0 2
                              (again, replace "drivename" with the name you gave in step 1)

                              4. Save and close and you should be done, the drive should be mounted next time you boot as /media/drivename

                              Originally posted by przxqgl View Post
                              actually, the disk uses ext3... does that make a difference?
                              ext3 is POSIX, so you can change the ownership/permissions normally when it's mounted

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X