Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Install Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS next to Windows 8 (dual-boot)

System:  HP Envy dv7 7390eb laptop with Windows 8 pre-installed (UEFI)
Problem: Install Ubuntu 14.04.1 alongside Windows and make dual-boot work

Caution: I am not an expert, I only share what worked for me on my particulat laptop and configuration. This is also very summary, you may have to investigate further if you're not familiar with certain aspects (like changing Boot order sequence in your BIOS etc).

Solution:

  • in BIOS, disable Secure Boot (sorry, can't give details here, Google is your friend)
  • From within Windows, create an empty partition for Ubuntu (not formatted): Control Center -> change partitions
  • download Boot Repair CD and install on a live USB (I used LinuxLive USB Creator but there are other options), you will need it afterwards
  • Start Ubuntu 14.04.1 Live USB, choose "Try without installing"
  • Launch "Install Ubuntu" and choose "Something else"
  • For a partition scheme, I followed the instructions on this page:
    • one of min. 20 Gb (I took 75Gb), ext4, primary partition, "/"
    • one of twice your RAM, swap
    • the rest as logical partition, ext4, "/home"
  • continue installation as usual
  • when I rebooted, Windows booted as if Ubuntu did not exist, so:
    • reboot with Boot Repair Live USB (you may have to enter BIOS by pressing the Esc key just after firing up your laptop and then choose F10 in order to change boot sequence)
    • choose Advanced options, leave all options as they are, only difference is to tick (activate) "Secure Boot" in one of the tabs
    • follow instructions (if you have a BE Azerty keyboard like me, you'll have difficulties in finding the right keys because Boot Repair is in Qwerty: for " type %; * is 8; - is ) and / is =).
    • on reboot everything should be in order
If you upgrade Windows to 8.1, you will have to do the Boot Repair thing again.


Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Inkscape and the Alt key in Unity (Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS)

System: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS
Problem: Unity "steals" the Alt-key so that it doesn't function as it should in Inkscape.

Solution:

  • install dconf-tools
  • launch it
  • go to org -> gnome -> desktop -> wm -> preferences
  • set "mouse-button-modifier" to "<Super>" (without the quotation marks).
    DO NOT SET IT TO "none" or leave the field empty, or you won't be able to left-click normally anymore anywhere in Unity (I know because I made the mistake, had to log out and log in to Xfce to correct it, Unity was totally messed up).
(With thanks to this post but take caution not to set the value to "none"!)

Monday, July 28, 2014

[SOLVED] Brightness control broken on Ubuntu

OS: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Hardware:  HP Envy dv7 7390eb laptop
Problem: brightness control broken on kernel upgrade from "precise" to "trusty"

Explanation:

I received a notification in Update Manager that my "current Hardware Enablement Stack (HWE) is going out of support" so I did the proposed upgrade.

I had some problems with dependencies which I solved according to these instructions:

"Command:
amd64:
apt-get install -V libglapi-mesa-lts-trusty libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-trusty xserver-xorg-lts-trusty xserver-xorg-input-all-lts-trusty xserver-xorg-video-all-lts-trusty libgl1-mesa-dri-lts-trusty x11-xserver-utils-lts-trusty libglapi-mesa-lts-trusty:i386 libgl1-mesa-dri-lts-trusty:i386 libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-trusty:i386 libgles2-mesa-lts-trusty libglapi-mesa-lts-trusty mesa-vdpau-drivers-lts-trusty
i386:
apt-get install -V libglapi-mesa-lts-trusty libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-trusty xserver-xorg-lts-trusty xserver-xorg-input-all-lts-trusty xserver-xorg-video-all-lts-trusty libgl1-mesa-dri-lts-trusty x11-xserver-utils-lts-trusty mesa-vdpau-drivers-lts-trusty libgles2-mesa-lts-trusty libglapi-mesa-lts-trusty"
found in the comments on this bug report.

Everything seemed to be OK after reboot, apart from the fact that the brightness control on my HP Envy dv7 laptop was broken. The function keys for brightness did move the brightness slider that appears on screen, but brightness itself was not affected and stayed at 100%.

After testing some different workarounds that didn't work, I found a solution on this blog post (I copy it here for completeness):

"Open terminal ( Ctrl+Alt+T ) and type:
sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
You will find this line in the new opened window:
Change it to:
Save and close the window and type this in the terminal:
sudo update-grub
This will update your grub and while rebooting your PC, it will set an extra parameter on the grub menu during boot."

Happy Ubuntuing!