Upgrade Ubuntu 12.04 to 12.10

Change the 'Update Manager' settings to notify you of any new Ubuntu versions (source).

Sound systems in Ubuntu

May have to fiddle with all of these to make sound work correctly:

• pulseaudio
• alsamixer
• sound settings
• skype sound devices

When Thunderbird's calendar broke

Events weren't displayed properly in Thunderbird email client and its Lightning calendar plugin, for two weeks. There were complaints.

To fix it, manually download a previous version of Thunderbird (24.0) and its associated old version of Lightning (2.6).

(Missing step here regarding how to have Synaptic recognise an old version of Thunderbird. Disabling upgrade in Synaptic may not be necessary if Thunderbird is run outside of any package manager)

Then fix them both so they don't upgrade automatically:

• Use Synaptic package manager to find Thunderbird, the click the 'Package' menu and select 'Lock Version'.
• For Lightning, go to Add-ons, Extensions, right-click Lightning and 'Show more information', then switch off 'Automatic Updates'.

After a while, the developers will probably fix it. After that happens, you can unlock the packages and upgrade again.

It's times like this that make me appreciate Microsoft Outlook :(

Pop-up notifications on linux

Alternatives:

• notify-send hello # works, but disappears too fast, and can easily be missed
• growl # advanced, haven't figured out how to use it
• knotify # apt-get install kde-baseapps-bin
• zenity # zenity --warning --text "meeting is now"

Hook one of these into your calendar application.

Or for IRC, using pidgin, try one of:

• Pidgin GNTP
• Growl plugin

Or write your own pidgin plugin like I did, to use a notification system of your choice:

• github - pidgin plugin

Working with RPMs

Use -q to query:

    rpm -qi package_name # display info about the specified package

    rpm -ql package_name # list all the files in the specified package

    rpm -qa # list all installed packages

Add -p if you're querying an RPM file, omit it if you're querying an installed package.

How to view .msg files on Ubuntu

wget http://www.matijs.net/software/msgconv/msgconvert.pl
sudo apt-get install libemail-outlook-message-perl
sudo apt-get install libemail-localdelivery-perl
perl msgconvert.pl YourMessage.msg

Thanks to this software

How to install CPAN Perl modules on Ubuntu using apt-get package manager

script:

PACKAGE=$(echo "$1" | perl -e '$x=<>; chomp($x); $x=~s/::/-/g; $x=lc($x); print "lib$x-perl"')
sudo apt-get install $PACKAGE

Thanks

Configuring Ubuntu

After upgrading from Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) to 12.04.2 (Precise Pangolin), I couldn't make my original account log in to gnome. So I had to copy over all the settings to a new user account. Also, a number of things are different in Ubuntu 12.

• To bypass Unity, select 'Ubuntu classic' window manager at login screen
• In Synaptic package manager, find overlay-scrollbar and uninstall it, then reboot
• There is no top-level settings menu like 11.04, instead look under the Applications menu
• Gedit: Set tab width to 4, insert spaces instead of tabs, and use automatic indentation
• Nautilus: Edit | Preferences | Views (tab) | View new folders using: List View
• Increase terminal buffer to 'unlimited'
• Copy over SSH keys:
• cp -rp ~olduser/.ssh ~newuser/
• Install chromium, copy settings from chrome:
• sudo cp -Rp ~olduser/.config/google-chrome/ ~newuser/.config/chromium/
• Install Thunderbird 24 + Lightning calendar plugin, copy user profile across
• mv ~newuser/.thunderbird/axhtibx7.default{,.backup}
• sudo cp -Rp ~olduser/.thunderbird/sw5u8ylf.default ~newuser/.thunderbird/axhtibx7.default
• The 'Accept' button is missing for some event invites
• "This message contains an event that this version of lightning cannot process"
• This is a bug (reported and fixed via developer's patch)
• Sort by 'Received' and 'Threaded' to get threads ordered by last received message
• Install Firefox, copy user profile:
• mv ~/newuser/.mozilla/firefox/ce3ut43x.default{,.backup}
• cp -rp ~oluser/.mozilla/firefox/ra129tce.default/ ~/newuser/.mozilla/firefox/ce3ut43x.default
• Install Pidgin for IRC, copy config across:
• cp -rp ~olduser/.purple/ ~newuser/
• Error, Pidgin crashes with "SIGSEGV in pthread_mutex_lock()"
• So, re-set up pidgin for all networks
• Disable smileys as they intefere with pasted code:
• Tools | Preferences | Themes | Smiley Theme | None
• Install VirtualBox, go to "Machine | Add", and browse to your VM on disk
• Install Skype 4.0.0.8, because 4.2.x crashes on incoming calls:
• Type Ctrl-O to reach the options screen to set the proxy in 4.2.x (source)
• Disable 'contact online' and 'contact offline' notifications because of this
• Skype has no sound, in fact Ubuntu has no sound:
• killall pulseaudio (source, source)
• restart Skype (may need to "kill -9 skype")
• To find the exact version of Ubuntu I'm running:
• This only shows 12.04: Applications | System Tools | System Settings | Details
• This command tells you the exact version (12.04.3):
• lsb_release -a
• Configure multiple workspaces:
• Right-click in the bottom-right-hand corner and edit preferences (source)
• Still can't actually switch workspaces though without the screen freezing up.
• Hold Ctrl-Alt-Del for 5 seconds to get back.
• Fix Alt-tab:
• sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager
• Scroll to bottom, check 'Static application switcher' (source)
• Fix the date display:
• Use dconf-editor | com | canonical | indicator | appmenu | datetime (source)
• I get "Ubuntu internal error" sometimes, that never happened under 11.04.
• Beware of cancelling a logout. An application preventing the logout may eventually crash or close, and the logout will happen at that point without further warning.
• Problem: Sound comes out of both the laptop speakers and the headphones at the same time.
• Problem: Workspaces don't work properly. Cannot right-click on window's title to send it to a new workspace. Clicking on a new workspace in the bottom right doesn't work.
• Problem: The top and bottom taskbars are visible even when the screen is locked, when using multiple monitors (bug report).

Can't push to github

The problem:

Git asks you for your password, when it should just accept your SSH key.

$ git push origin master
Password for 'https://github@github.com': 


The solution:

1) First, read the github documentation to ensure your SSH keys are set up correctly

2) Then add this to your ~/.ssh/config:

Host github github.com
Hostname github.com
User git
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github/id_rsa

3) Finally, clone using ssh instead of https:

git clone https://github.com/username/project-name.git # wrong

git clone git@github.com:username/project-name.git # right

4) Push should now work as expected

Thanks stackoverflow