Author Archives: Richard

Updating Linux Mint 21.1 Beta

A Pipe and a Keyboard Posted on by

I have been using Linux Mint 21.1 Beta since it was released.

Everything ran very smoothly and I certainly had no problems or complaints.

However, the production release of 21.1 came out today. According the the Mint blog, all I had to do was run the Update Manager. That sounded easy enough? But the Update Manager failed to work. It repeatedly hung up on me even after a reboot.

I tried an update to the manager via the terminal. That didn’t work. I tried a few other suggestions that I discovered on the Web. Still no go. I decided the simplest solution was to reinstall 21.1 from the new ISO. I downloaded it and stuck it on a USB key.

Before booting into the key I went to backup my software selection. The Backup Tool didn’t work either. It just didn’t list any software. I resigned myself to a system reload. But before I started I thought I’d test Software Manager. That seemed to work so as a last resort (just for the devilment) I installed Gnome Update Manager. That worked, though it was a different program from the normal! It suggested a load of updates but I just selected Update Manager and Backup Tool. That worked.

In my Administration Menu I now had Software Updater and Software Manager. I tried the latter again.

It worked perfectly this time, as did Backup Tool. I applied all the updates.

It took somewhat less time than a total reload!

Failed to mount Windows share

A Pipe and a Keyboard Posted on by

I run a small network here with several remote drives.

For a while I have been having problems accessing those drives and getting various error messages, the most common being –

Failed to mount Windows share

Sometimes I would connect but I was then told that the target drive “contains no files” (where I knew it did).

This was frustrating as I had to physically move the remote drive and plug it directly into this machine via USB.

Eventually I found the fix. I edited my /etc/samba/smb.conf file and added two lines in the [global] block after the Workgroup entry –

force user = plex
client min protocol = CORE

That seems to have fixed it!

Dell Inspiron 3000 intermittent boot problem

A Pipe and a Keyboard Posted on by

I recently acquired a Dell Inspiron 17 3000.

I was very happy with it and straight away went about installing Linux Mint as a dual boot.

That’s when the problems started.

Windows 10 works perfectly (I use the word in the sense that it did what it was supposed to do albeit very slowly) as did Mint. I had split the main 1Tb disk in two and all was fine except for the boot process.

Switching on from a cold start was generally fine. Mint (my default, of course) ran perfectly. The problem would arise on a reboot. The boot loader would fail and I would either get a blank screen with a GRUB curser – “C:grub>” – or the bootloader showing the two operating systems but neither choice would work and just display an “error: command failed”. A soft reboot (Ctrl+Alt+Del) just brought me the the start of the loop again. A hard reboot (switch off/on) wasn’t much better. Eventually after several soft or hard reboots I would be able to get into either OS.

I tried many things to fix this problem. I had scanned the hard drive from both systems so I knew there were no flaws there. I did a factory restore but that didn’t fix anything. I reloaded Mint. I ran Boot Repair with varying options. I mucked around in the bewildering settings in the Dell Boot Setup. Nothing worked.

I resigned myself to a lot of future frustration but at least I could eventually get into the OS I wanted.

Then I got an email from an old friend in the States – Thanks KirkM – giving a link to the solution.

So, for my own future reference –

sudo cp /etc/grub.d/40_custom /etc/grub.d/06_notpm
sudo bash -c 'echo "rmmod tpm" >> /etc/grub.d/06_notpm'
sudo update-grub

I’m naturally wary of code like this just copied off the Web but frustration got the better of me. I tried it.

It works!

Installing Linux Mint 20

A Pipe and a Keyboard Posted on by

I installed the Beta version of Mint 20 some time ago and updated it over time.

However, for various reasons I decided to do a complete reinstall on a newly formatted partition.

The first thing I noticed was that the Boot Loader screen was different from the Beta version. I had heard that this was the case and was prepared for it. However I liked the Beta screen and decided to run with it even though it is a very trivial matter.

apt install --reinstall -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confmiss" grub2-theme-mint

or if you have a HiDPI screen

apt install --reinstall -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confmiss" grub2-theme-mint-2k

The second slightly more serious problem I had discovered in the Beta version – Shutter is no longer available in the repositories. It’s a screen-grab programme that I had been using for years and would like it back. Fortunately I found an excellent solution over on Linux Uprising –

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linuxuprising/shutter
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install shutter

Enjoy!

To kill or not to kill

A Pipe and a Keyboard Posted on by

I see it’s over 500 days since I posted anything here.

Ouch!

One of the main reasons I haven’t posted is that software of late has become remarkably stable and I just don’t seem to be coming up against problems these days.

I recently set up Matomo Web Analytics on a server. One of the many reasons I did this was to compare traffic over several sites. I run quite a few sites both for myself and for others and wanted to see if there were any sites that could be culled. To my surprise, this site is still getting visits: nothing hectic but it is still active, and is by no means bottom of the pile.

The majority of visits seem to be concerned about the Iomega iConnect which is a piece of kit which has long vanished off the market. It was always very problematic and my one is now gathering dust on a shelf somewhere. Obviously others are still using it and by the sound of it, still having problems.

The majority of other posts are mainly concerned with issues I had found in previous versions of Linux Mint or WordPress. Over time these issues seem to have been resolved, but presumably people are still running older versions of Mint (or WordPress) and are still coming across those problems.

So the question is whether or not to consign this site to history. I originally set it up as a sort of reference notebook for myself which I could refer to if a problem reoccurred. I haven’t used it for that purpose for a very long time.

Or maybe I’ll start posting again?

On second thoughts, I have enough on my plate.