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MS Teams on Ubuntu 20.04

I ran into a problem where Teams was stuck loading. On the few times I could get it to load, it would display an error page telling me to “Try Again” and to try “signing out”, neither of the links would do anything.

I was able to fix it by running:

pkill teams && rm -rf ~/.config/Microsoft/Microsoft\ Teams/Application\ Cache/Cache/*

Teams is kind of a disappointment on Linux. I have to use it, so hopefully that helps someone ( or me again in the future).

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Manjaro Network Connection Woes (Kernel v5)

After I updated my desktop to Linux kernel version 5 when I logging in my network would disconnect/reconnect every 15 seconds or so. I wasn’t able to get on the internet. My ethernet cable was plugged directly into my motherboard and I don’t have wifi capabilities.

The Solution

I added this conf: 

/etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf

With this content:

[connection]
wifi.powersave=0

After a reboot all was well.

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Synergy Stop Job Problem

On Linux I was plagued with a stop job on synergy.service for 90 seconds on every reboot/shutdown. To make it stop faster do this:

sudo systemctl edit --full synergy.service

Then add this line under [Service]

TimeoutSec=6

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Manjaro + Dotnet Core + Rider

I had a bit of trouble getting Rider set up initially to handle my dotnet core projects on Manjaro. Rider wouldn’t open the projects complaining about not being able to find SDKs like razor and web. My first stop was Settings->Build, Execution, Deployment->Toolset and Build. I messed around with those settings to no avail.

Here’s what did work. I added this to ~/.bashrc:

export MSBuildSDKsPath=/opt/dotnet/sdk/$(dotnet --version)/Sdks

I ended up with these settings in Rider:

Pointing to the MSBuild.dll within my dotnet installation seemed to be the kicker, over the one that came with mono. But I also changed my dotnet core executable path to /opt/dotnet/dotnet from /usr/bin/dotnet at the same time. Once I got it working, I didn’t want to mess with it anymore, so here it sits.

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Conky

A reddit post clued me in to Conky, a system monitor that grafts on to your background wallpaper. I played around with a configuration, and I have something that I’m pretty happy with.

To install:

sudo apt-get install conky-all

Here’s my config. You can place this in the file ~/.conkyrc (you’ll have to create it).

use_xft yes
xftfont 123:size=8
xftalpha 0.1
update_interval 1
total_run_times 0

own_window yes
own_window_type conky
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
own_window_colour 000000
own_window_argb_visual yes
own_window_argb_value 0
own_window_class override

double_buffer yes
#minimum_size 250 5
#maximum_width 500
draw_shades no
draw_outline no
draw_borders no
draw_graph_borders no
default_color ffffff
default_shade_color red
default_outline_color green
alignment top_right
gap_x 0
gap_y 0
no_buffers yes
uppercase no
cpu_avg_samples 2
net_avg_samples 1
override_utf8_locale no
use_spacer no


minimum_size 0 0
TEXT
${voffset 1}${offset 12}${font Ubuntu:size=10}${color FF00AA}HD ${offset 9}$color${fs_used /} / ${fs_size /}${offset 30}${color FF00AA}RAM ${offset 9}$color$mem / $memmax${offset 30}${color FF00AA}CPU ${offset 9}$color${cpu cpu0}%

or for lighter backgrounds:

use_xft yes
xftfont 123:size=8
xftalpha 0.1
update_interval 1
total_run_times 0

own_window yes
own_window_type conky
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
own_window_colour 000000
own_window_argb_visual yes
own_window_argb_value 0
own_window_class override

double_buffer yes
#minimum_size 250 5
#maximum_width 500
draw_shades no
draw_outline no
draw_borders no
draw_graph_borders no
default_color 666666
default_shade_color red
default_outline_color green
alignment top_right
gap_x 0
gap_y 0
no_buffers yes
uppercase no
cpu_avg_samples 2
net_avg_samples 1
override_utf8_locale no
use_spacer no


minimum_size 0 0
TEXT
${voffset 1}${offset 12}${font Ubuntu:size=10}${color FF00AA}HD ${offset 9}$color${fs_used /} / ${fs_size /}${offset 30}${color FF00AA}RAM ${offset 9}$color$mem / $memmax${offset 30}${color FF00AA}CPU ${offset 9}$color${cpu cpu0}%
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Synergy 2 Beta Quick Help

Synergy 2 Beta is cool, and a good direction for Synergy to go, but it is a Beta. These are some things I’ve learned along the way to help make things work properly.

On linux, you have to start the synergy service manually. Before I start Synergy, I usually run:

sudo pkill synergy
sudo pkill synergyd
/usr/bin/synergyd &

To check the error log, hit the tilde key.

On windows, restart the service (sometimes several times). I just right click on the taskbar, go to Task Manager, go to Services, find Synergy and restart it.

When all computers see each other, are green, but nothing works – hit F12 on the “server” computer. this forces it to be the server and seems to kick things working.

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Bash Aliases

I don’t like typing “nautilus” to open the folder explorer from the terminal. Mac’s “open” command is shorter and makes sense to me. To get the same command in Ubuntu, we just have to add it to bash aliases.

Open up ~/.bash_aliases to be edited. I usually use nano.

nano ~/.bash_aliases

Add this line

alias open="nautilus"

When using the terminal, to open nautilus in the current folder, you can run this command

open . &


The “&” detaches the process from the terminal and is optional.

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Cursor Jumping to Upper Right Corner – FIX

I had an issue that came about suddenly while working.  Every now and then my cursor would jump to the upper right corner and lock to the taskbar.  I couldn’t find any pattern to explain it.  I tried:

  • activating/deactivating the trackpad
  • swapping my mouse out
  • cleaning my touchscreen
  • rebooting
  • deactivating extensions

The issue persisted.  I noticed that my touchscreen wasn’t responding, so as a last step, I tried temporarily deactivating my touchscreen.  The problem then went away.  After a reboot, my touchscreen worked properly and the cursor no longer jumped.  I have no explanation as to why, but here is how:

xinput --list


That will give you a list of inputs with IDs. The touchscreen entry should be pretty obvious. Mine is ‘Synaptics Large Touch Screen’. Note the ID. It should be a single or two digit number.

xinput disable {#}


(Where {#} is the ID number from the list.

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Gnome 3 Extensions I Like


I’m a chrome user, so this works out really for me. The easiest way to install gnome extensions is through a chrome extension. If you have that, head over to https://extensions.gnome.org/ to get more extensions.

I really like these:

To manage these extensions – turn them on and off, or change options if they have any – use Gnome Tweak Tool. If you don’t have it, get it with this command:

sudo apt install gnome-tweak-tool

 

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Switching to Gnome 3 on Ubuntu

If you are starting fresh, the way to go is to install Ubuntu-Gnome. Ubuntu and Ubuntu-Gnome will be merging anyway. Get that here.

If you are like me – using my ubuntu machine daily and super impatient – you can just install gnome and switch to it from the login screen.

Add PPA’s


sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3-staging

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3

Update


sudo apt update

Go for gnome


sudo apt install gnome gnome-shell

You will be prompted at this point to choose between GDM and LightDM. I chose GDM at first, which I read was fine if Gnome was going to be used solely (sharks don’t look back!). I understood that LightDM is the option to choose if you are going to flip between the two. GDM caused me some graphic driver issues that left me unable to boot. I ended up in recovery and ran the above again, this time choosing LightDM. All good after that.

To get the better looking gnome login screen, run:


sudo update-alternatives --config gdm3.css