No operating system is flawless. Ubuntu is no exception. Here you'll find solutions for nine bugs in Ubuntu 8.04 and 9.04 (or in the applications that are part of a default installation of Ubuntu).
Content:
(This is a non-clickable content list. Scroll down for an explanation of the items)
1. Firefox 3 eats occasionally during a few minutes, 100 % of the processor power and causes intense activity on the hard disk. (now largely resolved through the updates, but not entirely). Still not quite solved in 9.04!
2. The screen resolution is not right, after I installed the restricted proprietary driver for my ATI or NVIDIA graphics card.
3. Booting takes a long time: in the beginning, the orange progress bar goes back and forth for a long time. Or the screen remains entirely dark during booting.
4. Hibernate and suspend don't work well: they make my computer malfunction or even enter a coma.
5. File manager (Nautilus) gets stuck after processing many music files.
6. Login Window change doesn't work: System - Administration - Login Window seemingly doesn't respond.
7. Laptop with Intel 945 graphics card: (945GM): can't install (no graphical screen), or the text size in the login window is immense.
8. Make VLC media player function properly.
9. Wireless network card with Ralink RT 2500 chipset: fix speed and connection quality.
1. Firefox 3 eats occasionally during a few minutes, 100 % of the processor power and causes intense activity on the hard disk. (still not quite resolved, not even in 9.04)
This SQLite problem has been largely remedied through the updates (new xulrunner). But not entirely (yet).
Furthermore, the underlying feature in Firefox 3, namely the recognition of attack sites and phishing sites, remains a "heavy" feature. Especially problematic for older and slower computers. Also on brand new computers this may occasionally be annoying or become so after Firefox has been used for some time.
If your computer suffers from this (it probably does), then you can follow these steps to work around it. Temporarily, until Ubuntu provides a fix through the updates.
A. Open Firefox 3 and disable the identification of suspect websites:
Edit - Preferences - Security
Remove these ticks:
- Tell me if the site I'm visiting is a suspected attack site
- Tell me if the site I'm visiting is a suspected forgery
B. Close Firefox 3. If you haven't visited any web pages yet with Firefox 3, then this is enough and you are ready (repeat these steps in every user account). If not, then you will want to remove a large swollen unnecessary file. For this, do the following.
C. Places - Home Folder
Toolbar: View - tick: Show Hidden files
D. Go to:
/home/user_name/.mozilla/firefox/v5173hgzm.default/
(the name of the last folder is just an example, in any case the name ends on .default)
and remove the file urlclassifier3.sqlite and (if present) urlclassifier3.sqlite-journal
E. Open Firefox 3. The problem is now over in this user account. A new urlclassifier3.sqlite file is being created, but the size is limited to 9216 bytes (9 KB).
F. Repeat these steps in each user account.
2. The screen resolution is not right, after I installed the restricted proprietary driver for my ATI or NVIDIA graphics card.
A. Try to set the right screen resolution like this:
Applications - Accessories - Terminal
Type (or copy/paste):
gksudo displayconfig-gtk
Press Enter. Now a configuration tool for your screen(s) appears.
B. Step A doesn't help enough and you have an Nvidia graphics card?
Note: The following applies only to Nvidia graphics cards running on the restricted driver.
System - Administration - Synaptic Package Manager
Search word:
nvidia-settings
tick it and press Apply button
Then:
Applications - Accessories - Terminal
type:
gksudo nvidia-settings
press Enter
Now you can configure your screens properly, with this handy tool from Nvidia.
3. Booting takes a long time: in the beginning, the orange progress bar goes back and forth for a long time. Or the screen remains entirely dark during booting.
That's an annoying phenomenon, which may have a number of causes.
I. In the first place, this might help:
A. Applications - Accessories - Terminal
type (or copy/paste):
gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
press Enter
B. Now search in the text file for the paragraph with the following content:
## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash
Change the last line of this paragraph as follows:
# defoptions=quiet splash clocksource=hpet
Save and close the text file.
C. Now type in the terminal:
sudo update-grub
Press Enter. Please note that your password will remain invisible, not even asterisks, which is normal.
D. Reboot your computer.
II. In the second place it may be so, that the resolution of your screen is wrongly described in the file usplash.conf.
Please note: applying this solution only makes sense if the resolution in usplash.conf is wrong. Is it right or is there no resolution at all in there, don't apply the solution.
This is how you do it:
A. Applications - Accessories - Terminal
Type:
sudo gedit /etc/usplash.conf
press Enter
Your password will remain invisible, that's normal (not even asterisks)
B. Change the values of the xres and yres as follows:
xres=1024
yres=768
Save and close the text file.
C. Then type in the terminal:
sudo update-initramfs -u
press Enter
Note: This is a drastic operation, for the completion of which your computer needs some time and a lot of effort. Please wait patiently until it's completely finished and DO NOT close the terminal prematurely! Otherwise your entire system will be spoiled an you'll have to reinstall Ubuntu.
D. Reboot your computer.
4. Hibernate and suspend don't work well: they make my computer malfunction or even enter a coma.
This still happens with some hardware, and unfortunately .... there is no solution yet. Therefore it's better to turn off these two modes, if they don't work on your computer:
Applications - Accessories - Terminal
type:
gconf-editor
go to: apps - gnome power manager - general and remove the ticks at: can_hibernate and can_suspend
Note: this is a user preference: repeat this in each user account.
5. File manager (Nautilus) gets stuck after processing many music files
This bug may be repaired in version 8.04. But to be on the safe side, you may want to switch off the fairly useless feature that causes it.
For this, disable the sound preview in the file manager (Nautilus). As follows:
Places - Home Folder
Nautilus toolbar: Edit - Preferences - Preview
Sound Files: Preview sound files: Never
6. Login Window change doesn't work: System - Administration - Login Window seemingly doesn't respond.
A flaw in gdmsetup (System - Administration - Login Window): the first time you want to change the login window, this sends the processor to 100 % and it takes a long time before the login window changer appears. The change screen will appear eventually, but it takes very long. Just wait.
This happens only the first time. The next time you want to change the login window, the change screen will appear quickly, as it should.
7. Laptop with Intel 945 graphics card: (945GM): can't install (no graphic screen), or the text in the login window is immense.
There is an error in xorg (git, to be precise), making the standard Intel driver xserver-xorg-video-intel not work properly with the Intel 945 chipset. This Intel 945GM is in many laptops. Installing Ubuntu with the normal Desktop CD is usually impossible on these laptops.
Upstream developers from Intel have released a fix, but it's not in Ubuntu yet. Hopefully it will be in 8.04.1 (which is 8.04 with an integrated Service Pack 1, to be released on July 10).
What you can try in the meantime is installing Ubuntu with the use of the Alternate Desktop CD (which does not feature a LiveCD function). You can download it here.
You have to tick a box for this, right under the green lettered "Start Download".
Then take the following steps.
A. Immediately after the installation you do not just boot normally, but you boot in the Recovery Mode (second option in the Grub menu). If necessary, make the Grub menu visible by pressing the Esc key several times when the BIOS screen appears.
B. You end up with a limited screen which gives you a few options to choose from. Choose the terminal window.
C. Remove the intel driver as follows.
Type:
apt-get remove xserver-xorg-video-intel
press Enter.
This will cause Ubuntu to fall back automatically on the other Intel driver that's installed by default: xserver-xorg-video-i810. The i810 does not suffer from the git bug.
D. Type:
reboot
press Enter.
E. Now reboot normally. The problem should be over.
8. Make VLC media player function properly
VLC media player sometimes doesn't function properly on the new sound system Pulse Audio. Let it function on the old audio system ALSA:
a. Start VLC media player
b. panel:
Settings - Preferences... - Audio - Output modules
c. Tick: Advanced options (in the lower right corner)
d. Audio output module: change it into "ALSA audio output".
e. Click "Save" and close VLC.
9. Wireless network card with Ralink RT2500 chipset: fix speed and connection quality.
An irritating bug that's not fixed yet: some wireless network cards with Ralink RT 2500 chipsets underperform heavily, both in speed and in connection quality. For the time being this is a workaround:
a. Applications - Accessories - Terminal
Type (or even better: use copy/paste):
sudo iwconfig wlan0 rate 11M
Press Enter. Your password will remain entirely invisible, not even asterisks will show, that's normal.
You will probably have to repeat this every time that you boot your computer. Make use of the terminal memory: pressing the upper arrow key will make the previous command appear.
b. But it's much easier to have this terminal command executed automatically when you boot up your computer. This is how you do that:
Applications - Accessories - TerminalType (or even better: use copy/paste):
gksudo gedit /etc/rc.local
Now the text file rc.local opens itself. Add this line, just above the line exit 0:
iwconfig wlan0 rate 11M
(Note: this time, there's no sudo in the command!)
The file should look like this now:
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing.
iwconfig wlan0 rate 11M
exit 0
Save, close and reboot your computer.
c. No success? Then try the Windows driver in a Linux coating, using ndiswrapper:
ubuntutip.googlepages.com/nointernetconnection
(1g)