Tag Archives: Ubuntu

Interesting journey: converting my last home computer from Ubuntu to Debian

This was a satisfying exercise with the right amount of complexity to make it just enough of a challenge to be interesting without being frustrating.

Long time Ubuntu user, first time Debian installer

My hot take: Debian is a good desktop operating system for highly technical people who know how to troubleshoot and fix computer problems, but it may not be the best choice for less technical people looking for a desktop operating system to use instead of Windows or macOS.

How to access your encrypted Linux system from the Ubuntu installer when your system won’t boot

I had to figure out the steps for myself by assembling pieces of it from many different web pages, so I’ve collected them all here for my benefit and yours.

DisplayLink now working for some hardware for Ubuntu 21.04, 21.10 (NVIDIA is a problem)

UPDATE [2021-12-22]: With the the recently released update, 5.5.0-59.118, both Wayland and Xorg work on my PC with an Intel graphics controller, and Wayland doesn’t work on my PC with an NVIDIA controller without the proprietary NVIDIA driver, but Xorg does. I did not test whether Wayland or Xorg works with the proprietary NVIDIA controller,… Read More »

DisplayLink isn’t quite working in Ubuntu 21.04 (Hirsute)

[This article is obsolete, see the update here.] Earlier, I wrote that the current DisplayLink release for Ubuntu was finally compatible with Ubuntu 21.04 (“Hirsute Hippo”). I’ve since learned that I wasn’t entirely correct. It turns out that if you have a DisplayLink hub plugged into your Ubuntu 21.04 box when you boot it up,… Read More »

DisplayLink is now working with Ubuntu 21.04

UPDATE [August 9, 2021]: It turns out DisplayLink doesn’t quite work in 21.04. See this blog posting for the latest on how to work around the remaining issue. Thanks to Peter Boros for pointing out that Canonical and Synaptics have made the fixes necessary to make DisplayLink work with Ubuntu 21.04 without any of the… Read More »

How to undo a broken Ubuntu package update

I am often running prerelease versions of Ubuntu, for three reasons: (a) in general I like to help find with finding bugs in prerelease software that I use and benefit from, to give back to the community; (b) I specifically want to find and report bugs that impact me in Ubuntu prereleases to increase the… Read More »

Update on using DisplayLink with Ubuntu 21.04 (Hirsute Hippo)

UPDATE [August 9, 2021]: It turns out DisplayLink doesn’t quite work in 21.04. See this blog posting for the latest on how to work around the remaining issue. UPDATE [June 3, 2021]: DisplayLink works on Ubuntu 21.04 now without any of my fixes. If you’ve installed my fixes, see this blog posting for uninstall instructions.… Read More »

Using DisplayLink with Ubuntu 21.04 (“Hirsute Hippo”)

HOWTO: Converting an unencrypted Ubuntu root disk to encrypted

The best way to configure Ubuntu for an encrypted root filesystem is to tell the installer to do it when you’re installing the operating system. It’s complicated, and smart people have put a lot of effort into making the installer know how to do it properly. Having said that, if you’re an experienced Linux sysadmin… Read More »