Ubuntu

Boot Stuff

• Dual booting should not be a pain anymore.  At least when I redid my laptop on 7/14/2024.  There wasn't an automatic way for Windows to boot from grub; there is now.  I see "Windows Boot Manager"; it also says what drive it is on.  In the past, I've done all the steps below.  Now you have to edit the grub defaults and the update-grub command.

  • sudo nano -w /etc/default/grub

  • uncomment (remove #) from:  GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

  • change GRUB_TIMEOUT=5 (or another value to your tastes)

  • change GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu (or another value to your tastes)

  • then create a custom boot entry file for grub:

    • determine the UUID for the EFI partition of your Windows installation; this is helpful when Windows and Linux are on different drives.

    • nano -w /etc/grub.d/40_custom

    • add in the following:

menuentry 'Windows 11' {

    search --fs-uuid --no-floppy --set=root <UUID>

    chainloader (${root})/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi

}

• • sudo update-grub (the output won't show the Windows 11 entry, but rebooting should display it)

  • if you have issues booting Windows 11, check that its boot process did not get messed up. To fix issues, go here for Fixing Boot Issues under Windows.

• Change boot splash in Ubuntu(s):

  • sudo apt install plymouth-theme*

  • sudo update-alternatives --config default.plymouth

DKMS Modules

• Auto-rebuild all dkms modules via command line:

  • ls /var/lib/initramfs-tools | sudo xargs -n1 /usr/lib/dkms/dkms_autoinstaller start

Printing

Kubuntu is very different from many other flavors.  I switched my Kubuntu machine to elementary OS and noticed that I no longer had "print to pdf".  The follow command added it:

• sudo apt install printer-driver-cups-pdf

If you have an older Ubuntu flavor, try:

• sudo apt-get install cups-pdf

Miscellaneous

• Debian / Ubuntu display manager found in /etc/X11/default-display-manager

• Problems with lag / slow / freezes while copying large files:

  • Change how swap file is utilized: sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=10

  • Change your IO scheduler, which can be done per device:  echo "bfq" | sudo tee /sys/block/sda/queue/scheduler

• Python in 22.04 LTS is installed weirdly to me.  The command python gives an error "No such file or directory".  The version of Python installed is version 3.  To have python work with version 3 you need to install: sudo apt install python-is-python3