Be sure to also check out the follow-up to this article, My Hard Drive Is Clicking Again So I’m Stopping It Cold When Ubuntu Boots. So you’ve switched to Ubuntu (or one of the derivative projects like Kubuntu or Xubuntu) and now you keep hearing a strange clicking noise coming from your computer every five or ten seconds. Maybe you’ve even figured out that it’s coming from your hard drive. It’s possible you’re even savvy enough to recognize that the sound is the heads parking. What’s the problem? Well, that has been discussed ad nauseam around the Internet and won’t be discussed here, but it’s an issue where hard drive manufacturers set the default power management settings too aggressively and the Ubuntu folks had the audacity (hint: sarcasm at work) to assume the drive manufacturers knew what they were doing. So on to fixing the problem. If you’re running 7.10 then make sure you’re up to date. The folks at Ubuntu have simply taken the step to disable sending the hard drive into these heightened states of power management, thus preventing the issue. If you’re running an earlier version then you need to use the hdparm command to turn off the power management on the drive as follows: ?View Code BASHhdparm -B 255 /dev/sda Be aware that some computer BIOSes won’t handle 255, the maximum value they handle is 254, which doesn’t truly disable APM but will effectively disable it. Reducing or disabling APM on the drive will negatively affect your battery life on a laptop, but can extend the life of your hard disk by months or possibly years. Unfortunately the above solution will need to be reapplied on every reboot, resume, and any other time the computer BIOS resets the parameters. Since it appears that different laptops will do this at different times I’m going to leave it to you to figure out how best to implement your permanent solution.
Running Ubuntu Server 7.10 in VMWare Server
After installing Ubuntu 7.10 server in a VMWare Server virtual machine on any non-PAE compliant machine (lots of laptops, anyone?) you’ll reboot and be greeted with this wonderful error message: ?View Code BASHPANIC: CPU too old for this kernel. There is a solution in launchpad.net (here) ?View Code BASHThe current workaround for this: 1. Boot the server from the CD, choose to ‘Rescue a broken system’. 2. Get a shell in your installed system. 3. If /boot contains the generic kernel, then it’s the CD’s /boot; unmount it and mount it to get your server’s /boot in there. 4. aptitude install linux-generic 5. Reboot and choose the generic kernel in GRUB.
Kubuntu: Making Windows Open Where You Want Them
If you’re like me you run two monitors most of the time. I personally use nVidia’s TwinView since it allows me to add and remove desktops without restarting X. This setup works great for me, and on every distro I’ve ever used I had no issues with which monitor new windows would open on. Except for Kubuntu. See, I want new windows to open on the monitor where the mouse pointer is. That’s where my focus is, and so that’s where the new window I just requested should come up. By default that’s how KDE behaves. The Kubuntu folks messed with this and their new windows open on the monitor with the active window (if there is one). To correct this simply open the “System Settings” applet, click “Window Behavior” in the “Look & Feel” section, then check the “Active mouse screen” checkbox.
Firefox: The Spelling Dictionary and How to Correct Mistakenly Added Words
So I’m typing away here and I mistakenly typed in “rediculous”. Firefox’s lovely spell checker caught it, I moused over to get the correction. Instead of clicking the correct spelling I accidentally clicked “Add to dictionary”. Now what? Seems the fix is easier than I expected. Simply open the persdict.dat file under your profile directory (in *bunutu it’s ~/.mozilla/firefox/something.default) and remove the offending word. Or, add more to it. Better yet, back up this file and move it to your next computer, saving yourself the time and hassle of re-adding those words.
Disabling Your PC Speaker in Ubuntu
Like most people, I find that the PC speaker makes it’s incredibly rude noises at exactly the wrong times. You can make it be quiet for the time being by typing in the following at the command prompt: ?View Code BASHsudo modprobe -r pcspkr You can stop it forever by simply blacklisting the module. Edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and add this line: ?View Code BASHblacklist pcspkr
Using WPA2 in FreeBSD
Using WPA2 wireless encryption in FreeBSD is actually very simple. The package that supports this is wpa_supplicant and it’s located in ports/security. Install it via your favorite method, packages or ports, and then create a wpa_supplicant.conf file in /etc as follows: ?View Code BASHctrl_interface_group=0 eapol_version=1 ap_scan=1 fast_reauth=1 network={ ssid="YourNetSSID" key_mgmt=WPA-PSK psk="YourSharedKey" } Finally tell your rc.conf file to use the new configuration: ?View Code BASHifconfig_iwi0="WPA DHCP"
