Linux

For the past year I've had a folder in my Trash called 'Archive' that I tried to delete but was never able to. I assumed this was the mail servers fault and ignored it. I recently got ssh access to the mail server so I could filter my emails using procmail. Whilst I was here, why not delete the annoying folder and be rid of it?. The folder wasn't there.

This means it's Thunderbird that's at fault. I tried lots of things - removing referenced to 'Archive' in panacea.dat and on the file system resulted in no joy, the folder kept coming back.

The solution is rather simple and rather hidden.

<ben> does anyone know why Thunderbird/Icedove would refuse to forget a folder?
<ben> it's not on godel and I've deleted the referenced in panacea.dat and the folder on my filesystem
<matt> have you unsubscribed from it in tbird?
<ben> I don't believe i've ever subscribed to a folder
<matt> click on the top of the tree and then 'Manage folder subscriptions'
<matt> it's an 'Advanced feature', apparently
<matt> your removed folder may just go away if you refresh the list
<ben> success! thank you matt 
<matt> np

So, left click on the item just above your Inbox on the left, then pick 'Manage folder subscriptions' from the list that appears in the pane on the right. It's not ordered like your inbox, so you may have to look around to find the one you're after.

I think we've been using SVN for a while now. Git seems to be on the horizon.

Transmitting file data .
Committed revision 20000.

Let me start by saying I really don't like X. I can admire it as a piece of software, but it's about as easy for me to use as it is for a normal person to change the time on a VCR with no manual or remote. It reminds me of how all Linux was a few years ago.

That aside, I've managed to do the simplest of things, change the default refresh rate. It's a major downside that my default Ubuntu install only had 60Hz available from the Screen Resolution options. So, how do we fix this?

It appears that X likes to pick the lowest compatible refresh rate for your monitor. 60Hz is fine on an LCD, but on a CRT is just isn't workable.

To fix this, you will need a text editor, sudo (or root) and a willingness to edit config files.

1. Open a new shell
2. "cd /etc/X11/" followed by "sudo cp xorg.conf xorg-backup.conf" (Incase this all goes badly wrong)
3. "sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf"
4. Ok, we are in nano, a text editor, scroll down to the line "Section "Monitor"".
5. The value we need to change is the VertRefresh. I set mine to " VertRefresh 85-120" but you should be fine with 70-120.
6. Note: If you set a value that your monitor can't display then X will fail to load.
7. Ctrl+X to leave nano, select Yes to save and write to the same filename, xorg.conf
8. You now need to restart X, I do this by restarting GNOME: "sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop" (Not sure how to do this with KDE)
9. If you don't get a login dialog, press ALT+F1. Login and type "sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start"
10. Your monitor should not refresh at the minimum you set in your xorg.conf file.

If this fails, then you will most likely go back to the command prompt. To restore your original xorg.conf, type "sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg-backup.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf" to restore your original settings.

I hope that Gutsy Gibbon deals with this when it's released.

Edit: Ask and you shall receive

Ever since I worked at Catalyst IT I've had an unhealthy interest in Linux, specifically Ubuntu. Now, I'm not going to go into a detailed analysis of Ubuntu, if you want to read one there are 100's on Google.

What I will do is let you know what's easier in Feisty and what isn't. I installed xubuntu because I wanted to use less system resources than Gnome or KDE. I have a Toshiba Portege A100, which is Centrino based, which means Intel graphics and other standardised goodness.

Setup

1. The default install disk didn't like my laptop, I had to use the alternate, which I had no idea existed. (Thanks Vipul)
2. My Hard Drive needed a defrag, which the installer couldn't tell me, I had to take a guess.
3. After those things, xubuntu installed happily.

Beryl

Beryl was more interesting. Install from apt-get was VERY nice. No messing with drivers. However, it doesn't want to start up when I boot the PC, so I added it to the auto-started programs, and it seems to be playing nice.

The configuration menus are nice, and eveything can be turned on and off, which means I can just run the cube, but none of the animation effects for window movement.

Wireless

Restricted Drivers for my wireless card were installed by default, which is a great improvement, but wireless left some things to be desired, mainly gnome-network-manager isn't installed by default, and the network-admin program included with xfce doesn't support WPA. I would love to see this included in the next release.

NTFS

Stable!!! Joy

Standby + Hibernate

Work out of the box, hibernate is a bit slow but it works.

Overall

I definate improvement in many respects. It was easier than I expected it to be, but lack of support for WPA wireless by default is something to be looked at.