Flash plugin on the fritz? Find out what Firefox is doing with about:plugins

Firefox uses plugin helpers. If two or more are capable of handling the same types of files, it will supposedly use the one which is newer. But changing the datestamp doesn't change the preference. Under Ubuntu 8.10, Fedora 10, Ubuntu 9.04, Firefox tries to use the free software libswfdecmozilla.so in preference to Adobe's libflashplayer.so.

Workaround:
install the official adobe flashplayer. This may require unpacking and copying in the libflashplayer.so file. I am currently using 10.0 r22; Some newer versions seem to inject advertisements directly into the video stream, which is extremely annoying.

type "locate libswfdecmozilla.so" . Move or rename the file.

No sound; Alsa-driver is still broken in Ubuntu 9.04 for HP w/IDT 92HD71B7 chipset

1) Alsa driver doesn't work for ATI RS780 / IDT chip found in my laptop. I believe this chip is common to recent HP DV4, DV5, DV7 models. Affects Ubuntu 8.10, Fedora 10, Ubuntu 9.04 (both LiveCD & upgrade from 8.10)

Workaround:
Go to alsaproject, download alsa-driver & alsa-kmirror. Compile alsa-kmirror first. I used git checkout to pull the source, followed by ./gitconfigure and make install.

Recompile alsa-driver every time the kernel is changed.

IDT supposedly has Linux drivers, but will not provide them to end-users. HP doesn't support Linux on their laptops.

Since alsaproject has fixed this, this is an Ubuntu and Fedora bug.


2) After compiling, mute & volume "smart keys" don't work. Martin Owen pointed out that the keys are actually working, they just aren't doing the right thing. System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts gives us a gui. XF86AudioMute causes a "Volume Mute" action. Too bad the gui is undocumented.
This is also an Ubuntu and Fedora bug, or upstream. Workaround: Systems > Preferences > Sound. Change Default Mixer Tracks to Playback: simultaneous output to HDA ATI SB - STAC ...

Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope x64 fglrx is FAIL on HP Radeon HD 3200

Friday overnight I upgraded from Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibix to the brand-new 9.04. Upon reboot, the window manager started but failed with a scrambled screen.

Workaround: after hours of poking around....
1) Select recovery mode from grub (or add single to the init line).
2) Select boot to command prompt with network support (netroot??)
3) Enter the root password
4) apt-get remove xorg-driver-fglrx
5) Reboot
6) Select recovery mode again
7) Select option to fix xwindows (have to scroll down the selections I believe)
8) Select option to boot to command w/network support, again.
9) startx to start the windows manager.

This is a bug. I need to follow up with Canonical.

QTparted has been removed from Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

There is Gparted & the new, unfortunately named "partitionmanager". And command-line parted. And don't forget gpart - used for guessing partitions when partition table is hosed.

One of the best, most reliable distributions for fiddling with with partitions has been knoppix. Haven't tried it in about 4-5 mos.

Gparted relies on libparted and underlying file system utilities to do the work. So, if you don't have everything installed, and are running a livecd, you may be out of luck.

QTparted had more stuff built-in. So, there was a tighter integration. Since they worked in different ways, sometimes one would work where the other refused or crashed. But it is apparently unmaintained and Ubuntu just deprecated it.

Wow, it's been 10 months since I posted last

Is anybody reading this? What would you like to hear about?