Enable exFAT File System on Ubuntu 19.10

I recently install Ubuntu 19.10 into my laptop for a trial.

One problem immediately after I boot up for the first time is that the system does not able to read my sdcard. I had one 400GB sdcard always inside my laptop's sdcard slot as my storage drive. But Ubuntu has a problem reading this sdcard. Whenever I try to mount the sdcard in the file browser, I will get an error message saying that the filesystem is unknown.

Error Accessing Shared Folder under Ubuntu Client (Virtual Box)

I am running Ubuntu 16.06 client virtually under Windows 7 Virtual Box. As normal to all user running another operating system virtually, I need to access the data on my Windows 7 from my Ubuntu.

[the version of Virtual Box that I am running now is 5.1.6, Ubuntu 16.04, and updated (Oct 2016) Windows 7 Pro SP1]

Under Virtual Box setting, you can easily share the folder on Windows 7 that you wish to access from Ubuntu. Simply go to Devices > Shared Folders > Shared Folders Settings...

From there you can choose the folder on Windows 7 that you wanted to shared to Ubuntu.

Not Able to Trash Files in NTFS Drive in Ubuntu

Under my system setup, Ubuntu is installed on my 120GB ssd, and I have another 1TB NTFS Drive. As I save most of my data in this NTFS Drive, I enabled the Mount at startup setting under Disk setup to allow Ubuntu to automatically mount it on startup.

This work flawlessly, automatically mounted, and I even use the folder under my NTFS drive as the sync folder for my Dropbox. No issue on reading and writing files.

Problem happens whenever I try to delete some files inside this NTFS drive. Initially I thought the problem is cause by the delete key on my computer, but what really happen is that Ubuntu do not allow moving files in NTFS drive to trash. If I use Shift+Delete, the files can be deleted permanently without any problem, just the "move to trash" not working correctly.

A forumer, drs305 from this link here, suggested to add in "uid=1000" to fstab file. What I do is I add it under the Mount Options menu and it is working correctly after a reboot.

Microphone Not Working on Skype

I believe there might be various reason why microphone not working correctly under Skype for Ubuntu. For my case, my laptop is Lenovo Y500 (with dual GT650M), and ubuntu version 14.04 64-bit. From what I read from various forum, the problem happen because Pulseaudio from ubuntu assumed that the laptop comes with stereo mic, but the real case is that some laptop only comes with single mic (forums say that this problem will not happen for laptop with stereo mic, but I am not too sure about this). Somehow both left and right mic will cancel out each other in Pulseaudio causing no sound being received by Pulseaudio.

One way around this, which is working for me is to install PulseAudio Volume Control, and mute one side of the mic volume.

1. Install PulseAudio Volume Control from Ubuntu Software Center. Search for PulseAudio Volume Control and click Install.

2. Set one channel of the mic to 0% and another channel to 50%. Run PulseAudio Volume Control by searching it from Unity Dash. Jump to the 4th tab (Input Devices), click the top right Lock icon to unlock the left and right channel "lock" and turn the volume of one channel to 0%, and another channel to around 50%. The lock Icon on the top right will lock the volume adjustment of the left and right channel together, make sure it is unlocked.

3. Disable Skype to automatically adjust mixer levels. Go to the setting of Skype, under Sound Devices, uncheck the "Allow Skype to automatically adjust my mixer levels". Having this checked will somehow cause the volume to be increase and decrease which will lead to the same volume level for both left and right channel.

Also remember not to adjust the volume of the mic level from sound setting. If you need to edit the level of the mic, you will need to go back to the PulseAudio Volume Control. Adjusting the mic level from Sound setting will also lead to same level for both left and right channel.

4. Verify the functionality of the mic on Skype. Finally, test out the functionality of the mic by running the test call services. 

Running 2 Instance of Dropbox under Ubuntu

Have you ever wanna run 2 instance of Dropbox (2 different account) at the same time, syncing both account's files at the same time? You can find the guide for Windows here. As for Ubuntu, I will try to share the method I found and use.

Dropbox is a powerful software to allow files syncing, and sharing between devices, and users. Me myself owned 2 Dropbox account, one for personal use (sharing files between computer and devices), and another one for my work (sharing files between colleague).

Step 1: Install Dropbox in Ubuntu. There are many ways to do this, but I personally recommend going through Ubuntu Software Center. You can simply open Ubuntu Software Center, search for "dropbox" and click Install. It might take a few minutes, and you should have your Dropbox running.

Step 2: Create Shell Script to start multiple instance of Dropbox. You do not need to continue with the Dropbox configuration, or if you already have a Dropbox setup and running, just "quit" it. Create a .sh file, and store it somewhere. (I found this method from this page here, the original code provided do not work on ubuntu 14.04, and I edit some part of it)

The content of the .sh file:

#!/bin/bash

dropboxes=".dropbox-1 .dropbox-2"

for dropbox in $dropboxes

do

    HOME="/home/$USER"

    if ! [ -d "$HOME/$dropbox" ]

    then

        mkdir "$HOME/$dropbox" 2> /dev/null

        ln -s "$HOME/.Xauthority" "$HOME/$dropbox/" 2> /dev/null

    fi

    HOME="$HOME/$dropbox"

    /var/lib/dropbox/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd 2> /dev/null &

done

Step 3: Add the .sh file to be executed automatically on startup. You can go to your Startup Application list, and you should find a Dropbox in the list by default. Edit it and replace the command with the execution of your .sh file. For example I store my .sh file under "/mnt/Data/Software/ubuntu/SH/" folder, and the name of the .sh file is "dropbox.sh"

So, my edited Startup Application Command:

Step 4: Reboot and setup both Dropbox instance. Upon reboot, if everything is in order, you will have 2 instance of Dropbox setup running. I have no Idea how to know which are which, I just simply insert my first account to the 1st one that pop out. After setting up both account, you should have 2 dropbox syncing at the background.

So far both account is syncing properly, no crash, no issue. The only downside of this method is there is no way to know which icon is for which account, the way to overcome this is to store both "Dropbox" folder at 2 known places. To access the folder simply use file explorer to browse to the directory for each account. 

Also take note that, there is no way to edit the name of the main syncing folder. It has to be always "Dropbox", and this will prevent putting both account's folder on the same folder. 

Create Shortcut to Turn Off Monitor

Normally I do not turn off my laptop, I will just close its lids, or suspend/sleep it. Sometimes, when I have some process running in my laptop, I wish I just turn off the monitor and leave it running.

After some googling, I found this. Someone suggest to use the command:

sh -c "sleep 1 && xset dpms force off"

I tried execute it under terminal, and it works. To be able to make it controllable by a combination key on keyboard, I created a shortcut for it under Application Shortcuts editor.

Then I use Super+O as the combination key to turn off the screen. 

The turn off will take 1 second after the key is being press to prevent the keypress to reactivate the screen.

Install Driver for D-Link DWA-171

I recently purchased D-Link DWA-171 USB WiFi dongle, more info here.

It is a mini size USB WiFi dongle that support dual band and comes with IEEE 802.11ac. I tried it on my Windows maching, it is working great, I can easily get the driver provided on its product page. But it does not work out of the box in my Ubuntu.

I previously found this page here, where it provide the driver for ubuntu, I downloaded, and try to make and install, but the make itself doesn't successfully complete. It shows 2 errors on the summary of the make.

After more searches, I found this discussion here, where people also discussing on how to install the driver for DWA-171, until I found this comment.

Text version for the code:

sudo apt-get install git
git clone https://github.com/abperiasamy/rtl8812AU_8821AU_linux.git
cd rtl8812AU_8821AU_linux
make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe 8812au

I followed it and now it successfully installed. I guess the difference between the method above and the method of downloading the driver from its wikidevi page is the 2nd method actually using the latest version of its driver, and the its wikidevi page might still carrying its older version of driver.

Update 161005

The original method above seems not works for 5GHz network. To support 5GHz network, please use the updated command:

sudo apt-get install git
git clone https://github.com/gnab/rtl8812au
cd rtl8812au
make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe 8812au

Install .bundle file on Ubuntu

1. Open terminal
2. Navigate to the folder that contains the installer (.bundle) file using cd command
   example: cd /media/Data/Software
3. Start the installer by using sudo sh command
   sudo sh VMware-Player-6.0.1-1379776.x86_64.bundle
4. It should pop out an installer window, and the installation process should continue there.

Enable Automount Harddisk on Startup

1. Open Terminal, (you can use Ctrl + Alt + T shortcut to start terminal in ubuntu)
2. Create a backup for fstab file, just in case
   sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.old
3. Get UUID for the partition for automount
   sudo blkid
4. Open fstab file for editing
   sudo gedit /etc/fstab
5. Add in the following line to the file, and save it
   UUID=<uuid> <pathtomount> <file system> uid=<userid>,gid=<groupid>,umask=0022,sync,auto,rw 0 0
6. Restart and check if the partition is automounted

Examples for the <> variables:
<uuid>=3087106951D2FA7E (get this variable from step 3)
<pathtomount>=/media/Data/
<file system>=ntfs-3g (for an NTFS partition)
<userid>=1000
<groupid>=1000

Make Empathy Internet Messaging to Run on Startup

To enable Empathy Internet Messaging to automatically run on startup, we will need to add the run command to the Startup Applications. Press the Superkey and search for "startup applications".

Under Startup Applications, add a new startup programs. Under Name, put "Empathy", Command put "empathy -h" and you can put anything under Comment, or leave it blank. Take note that the "-h" at the command is to hide the Empathy on startup, you can remove the "-h" if you want to show the Empathy windows on startup.

Click Add and that's it. Have fun!