Technical Support

Objective

To get a hands-on experience on Ubuntu installation on a UEFI hybrid system.

Devices

• 120 GB SSD disk: /dev/sda
• 1 TB HDD disk: /dev/sdb
• 8 GB USB key: /dev/sdc

Stage 0: precautions

• Ensure that your machine has enough power.
• Disable Secure Boot in M$ Windows
• Disable Quick Boot in boot menu

Stage 1: Make your live USB key

I tried Xubuntu’s built-in disk writing tool to create a live USB key from the official ISO file. Like my Xubuntu 18.04 installation on Fujitsu LH532 , the installer crashed during the installation. After submitting the generated report to Launchpad, I found out that the cause for this crash: the integrity test for my live USB key had failed.

It’s FOSS’s after-installation guide #11 recommends TLP. However, this package stopped my laptop from shutting down and logging in. I resorted to remove it through TTY.

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Rationale

Why?

My Fujitsu LH532 has been serving me well as my production machine for almost six years.

The keyboard was quite dirty: it’s full of hair and dandruff. I had to clean it for personal hygiene.

pdfunite is fairly easy to use.

pdfunite PDF-sourcefile1..PDF-sourcefilen PDF-destfile

Another way is to use QPDF. I’ve learnt to add --empty from @qpdf/qpdf:#12.

qpdf --empty --pages *.pdf -- out.pdf

Problem

One can use xrandr to adjust screen brightness. However, the factor (default to 1.0) is relative to the current brightness. How to enable the brightness adjust keys / on the keyboard under Xubuntu 18.04?

Solution

Toz’s post on Ubuntu Forum works like a charm. The default value for GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX is an empty string. Changing it to acpi_backlight=vendor and updating the GRUB has solved the problem since the next boot.

I correctly set up the system configuration file manager GNU Stow and the version control system (VCS) Git on my Fujitsu Lifebook so that the former can automatically install system configuration files like modules, whereas the later can track the code in those files.

What I mean for correctly is that in the ssh folder of the remote dotfiles repo, there is neither SSH key files nor entries representing SSH keys in the gitignore file. You may view Jan Uhlik’s dotfiles on GitLab as an example.

Rationale

My Linux Mint 18.3 installed on Clevo N240GU was a long-term support (LTS) version. Although the official page didn’t recommend an upgrade for its own sake, I still performed it as a result of my conversation with a technician in a computer store. He thought that the display problem in the current version would be fixed in this upgraded version.

The old version of Linux Mint couldn’t detect the onboard Intel graphics card. Therefore, sensors reported a higher CPU temperature and the display resolution couldn’t be correctly configured.

Problem

Two months ago, the Win* 10 installed on my old laptop crashed with blue screen on startup. Two weeks ago, I created a Xubuntu 18.04 LTS 64-bit Live USB and set up the dualboot. However, the fan was still giving out consideralbe noise and heat under Xubuntu 18.04 (installed in /dev/sda7).

Many end users’ reaction

They’ll simply buy a new PC. This had given rise to industrial parks in Guiyu (貴嶼), one of the world’s largest e-waste village. I’m so shocked to see that Hong Kong appears on the top of the linked article.

Easy Linux tips project recommends users to enable their firewall. However, this blocks all incoming traffic by default. If one wants to test the site on mobile devices, one will need to add a few rules to UFW.

$ sudo ufw allow ssh
$ sudo ufw allow http
$ sudo ufw allow https
$ sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
$ sudo ufw allow 1313/tcp comment "hugo server"

I learnt the last line from 竹内電設.

You may skip to the acutal setup.

Background

After using Win 7 & 10 for six years on my Fujitsu LH532 , Windows 10 often falls into blue screen. Sometimes, it won’t even start up.

Give Xubuntu a try

Hoping to give a second life to my old , I’ve decided to try this popular lightweight distro.

Initial partition setup

I followed the instructions from Danatela’s question, including the optional setup of separate /var and /tmp partition.