Finding Ubuntu release information

Using the command

lsb_release -a

I can find out the specific release of Ubuntu that I’m running.

On my machine currently I see the following output:

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:    Ubuntu
Description:     Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
Release:     10.04
Codename:   lucid

Getting partition UUID

Prior to adding an entry in /etc/fstab I wanted to know the UUID of the partition that I was going to mount. The command

ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid

provided that information.

eToken, VirtualBox 3.0 and Ubuntu 9.10

To access my (USB connected) eToken under Windows XP, this is what I had to do:

1. Added myself to the vboxusers group (logged out and logged back in)
2. Verified that I was a member of vboxusers using the following command:
   groups my_user_id
3. In the VirtualBox Settings page, selected USB and create a USB filter for the eToken (which showed up grayed out since Ubuntu was seeing it).
4. Use VBoxManage list usbhost to see the list of USB devices that VirtualBox could see along with their status. The status for eToken said Available.

802.1x Certificates under Karmic Koala (9.10)

We use 802.1x certificates to authenticate ourselves on the wireless network at work. I couldn’t configure my system to use a (valid) 802.1x certificate using the applet that is installed by default after installing Ubuntu 9.10 on my Dell Latitude D600. After trying various things and reading a lot of posts on this topic, I decided to uninstall NetworkManager and install wicd instead. That got it working within a few minutes.

Ubuntu 9.04 on an iMac G5

Using the 9.04 PPC Desktop CD didn’t work for me. The screen remained black, the fans whirred and I had to use the power button to shut down the computer. I then tried the 9.04 Server CD which worked fine for the command line only server install. Since I wanted the Ubuntu Desktop, I then used apt-get install ubuntu-desktop to try and add the desktop to the system. That didn’t work either. I ended up with the same symptoms as my Desktop attempt. So, finally, I tried the Ubuntu 9.04 Mac (PowerPC) and IBM-PPC (POWER5) alternate install CD which worked like a charm. Here are the steps I took:

1. Booted with the alternate install CD (held down C after I heard the Mac sound shortly after power up)
2. At the boot: prompt typed in install video=ofonly

That’s it. I went through the familiar install process at the end of which I had an Ubuntu Desktop (that I’m currently using to create this blog).

APC UPS

Install the necessary packages

sudo apt-get install apcupsd

Follow the directions at Hari Prasad Nadig’s blog

Troubleshooting Sound

For some strange reason neither Rhythmbox nor Banshee would play any music. I followed the instructions here to remove and reinstall the sound components (linux-sound-base, alsa-base, alsa-utils). If you decide to go that route, please read the comments in VERY IMPORTANT NOTE about reinstalling gdm and ubuntu-desktop which are sometimes removed when linux-sound-base packages are removed.

Java

JDK Installation:

Install Java 5: sudo apt-get install sun-java5-jdk

Install Java 6: sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk

Configuration

List JVMs installed: sudo update-java-alternatives -l

Set default JVM to be used: sudo update-java-alternatives -s java-1.5.0-sun

Note: the name comes from the previous (list) command

Or you can alternatively, skip the list and set steps above and do it interactively by

sudo update-alternatives --config java

(you’ll be shown a list and asked to pick a number corresponding to the JVM you want to set as default)

To set the JRE order: sudo -b gedit /etc/jvm

Samba on Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron)

I used these instructions from the Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) How-To to share some files on an Ubuntu server and access them on my Windows XP Tablet PC.

Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) How-To

I refer to the Ubutnu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) How-To guide for a few common tasks that I undertook on my Ubuntu 8.04 system.