ubuntu category archive

HOWTO: Remote Desktop with VNC in Ubuntu Edgy/Feisty

Updated, 4 May 2007: Warren helpfully pointed out in the comments a possible fix for the problem with the latest vnc4server. It worked for me in Edgy, and I hope it works with these instructions for Feisty Fawn also.

See below for info about the -extension XFIXES option, and for another necessary setting in 7.04/Feisty if you want to use multiple logins for a single user. Also see the related entry for this bug at Launchpad.net.

Last year I set up VNC Server in Fedora Core 5 (see below), and the instructions I followed had the added bonus of giving me resumable sessions, so that the remote session continues between client sessions. There is a long thread …

Don’t remove the ‘super’ from sudo, like I did in Ubuntu

There’s a fine line between empowerment and impotence in Unix. Is that why it sounds like eunuchs?

I accidentally revoked my power to run the sudo command. Yeah, it was a dumb thing to do. With godlike power comes great responsibility, and there I was like some half-wit sticking a fork in an electrical outlet. I realize the need to be careful as root in Unix systems, and in the case of Ubuntu when running sudo, but still: oops.

Maybe I was lured to incaution by the rapid typing of commands while trying to get something working, in this case: TrueCrypt. I had set the SUID bit on it with sudo chmod u+s /usr/bin/truecrypt so that a regular user could run the program, but I was concerned about security issues.

I find that in …

Ubuntu/Xubuntu Live CDs

I mentioned that I tried running Xubuntu GNU/Linux from a CD (a Live CD, I guess you call this kind of thing). I had been seeing these CDs of the various Ubuntu systems and the exhortation to try them without having to install anything. I was skeptical about how well that would work.

Well, it worked great. I wasn’t even sure if my old machine would boot from a CD, but it started up with no problems. (And with plenty of screen resolutions to choose from, which was nice after my earlier travails.) I didn’t do much other than verify Firefox could get to the Internet and that OO.o Calc …