Be Sure Your Adobe Flash Player is Up to Date

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Jeremy Bicha

Hi, just a public service announcement to remind you that if you use Adobe Flash Player, it is important that you keep up-to-date. Fortunately, the Ubuntu repositories already have the latest security update for 10.04, 10.10, 11.04, and the still-in-development 11.10, so you should already be safe but it doesn’t hurt to check Update Manager to make sure that you’ve installed all your updates. (Remember that you need to restart your web browser to use updated plugins.)

However if you use Windows, you’ll need to update manually. Remember that Adobe has two installers for Windows, one for Internet Explorer & one for all the other web browsers. While you’re at it, be sure to update Adobe Reader if you use it as there’s a security update for that too this week. You should also ensure that that you don’t have any versions of Java older than 6 Update 26 installed in Windows either. I use FileHippo.com’s Update Checker to keep up-to-date since Windows Update doesn’t include third-party software.

I strongly recommend that you not use Adobe’s native 64-bit “Square” Flash plugin either on Windows or Linux. Adobe hasn’t bothered to update their preview release since last November and there have been several critical security updates released since then. Although Windows users are most at risk, these vulnerabilities affect Linux too. I realized today that I was still using a PPA build of this 64-bit plugin and therefore was opening myself up for trouble. I replaced it with the ordinary flashplugin-installer that is in the Ubuntu repositories.

If you go to this page on Adobe’s website, you can verify that you have version 10.3.181.26 or later installed. Android should be using 10.3.181.24 or later.

Mozilla has a handy website you can visit to see if your web browser plugins are up-to-date. You don’t have to be using Firefox to use it as it works for most browsers.

If you’d like more technical information about how important this week’s Flash security update is, check out this post.

Posted in Linux, Ubuntu, Windows

Improvements to the Gnome 3 PPA (5 May Edition)

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Jeremy Bicha

Before today Gnome 3 PPA users on Ubuntu were unable to log in to Unity or Ubuntu Classic unless they kept gnome-session at version 2.32. I got this bug fixed. Basically, gnome-session changed the login configuration format. While both the old and new formats work on 2.32, at least in Ubuntu 11.04, with gnome-session 3 only the new format is supported. KDE’s login was unaffected as it uses a different mechanism.

Remaining issues: Unity 2D has not been updated with the new login format so you will still be unable to log in to that version. I’m not sure whether this will be backported to  11.04 or not. I might package this in my own PPA but this isn’t something that I expect the official Gnome 3 PPA to include, as it would be a maintenance headache to keep the PPA version up-to-date with whatever updates Unity 2D puts out. Also, I helped break the Guest login feature as the name for the sessions have changed to use the upstream gnome-fallback naming.

Another bug I fixed this week was that telling gnome-tweak-tool on the File Manager tab to Have file manager draw the desktop didn’t actually work. Now it does. Be aware that actually setting this will cause the file manager to not open when you tell it to from several of the most obvious links in the interface. You can still run nautilus .  from the command line (and yes, the period is important) to work around this bug which will be fixed in the next version of nautilus but it might be a few weeks before that fix reaches the PPA or Oneiric. I still don’t know whether we’ll turn on desktop icons by default; I presume we will as right-clicking to change the desktop background won’t work otherwise.

I also restored the “Home Folder” shortcut to Unity’s Launcher, although since I guess many people weren’t using Nautilus 3 and Unity at the same time, few noticed it was broken.

Since this is my first post about Gnome 3 fixes, I’ll also mention some older fixes I did to get Gnome 3 working better for Ubuntu. I restored the missing “System Settings” link to the Session menu and I fixed the “Sound Preferences” link in the Sound menu. I also fixed a cheese dependency so video effects would work instead of crashing cheese when clicked.

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Posted in Ubuntu

How to Use the Gnome 3 PPA in Ubuntu 11.04

Posted on April 30, 2011 by Jeremy Bicha

Updated: 5 May 2011

How do you use Gnome Shell on Ubuntu 11.04? The simple answer is you don’t. Yes, there is an experimental PPA but it will break your computer.

Why will it break my computer?

The Ubuntu Desktop Team has been very busy getting Ubuntu 11.04 out the door. The transition to Unity in this release is the biggest change in Ubuntu I can remember. The Desktop Team is not really very large and most of the members have other responsibilities and interests. There were many bugs that needed looking after.

At the beginning of the 11.04 Natty release cycle the Ubuntu developers (those that do the work to get a new and improved Ubuntu to you every 6 months) decided to hold off on the transition to Gnome 3. With Unity alone, this release cycle was going to be very busy and transitioning to Gnome 3 is not as simple as just pushing some updated packages. As Gnome 3 had already missed 2 releases and was scheduled to the 3.0 release just a few weeks before Ubuntu 11.04 had to be released, I can understand that decision.

A few Gnome 3 packages were allowed in if they were judged not to be too disruptive (we have a new Help viewer and new Desktop Help and there are other examples). An example of how things could break is that mousetweaks 3 was shipped in 11.04 but it does not work right with Gnome Control Center 2.32 so I believe mousetweaks will have to be downgraded.

How will it break my computer?

  • You will not be able to log in to Unity 2D until the required gnome-session support is enabled in Unity 2D.
  • For me, gnome-power-manager is broken, meaning I don’t get notifications of my battery status. I have had my computer spontaneously turn off because it had been accidentally unplugged for 2 hours, causing me to lose work.
  • The new GDM login screen looks nice but it has various issues on Ubuntu.
  • GDM 3 will mess up your $PATH and possibly your locale settings. This means you can’t run games normally.
  • The System Log Viewer won’t actually display system logs.
  • Your theme will be broken; in other words, your Ubuntu will look uglier.
  • You will not be able to use the new overlay scrollbars.
  • By default, you will not have icons on your desktop. You can change this, but the file manager won’t work right. You can still run nautilus .  from the command line (and yes, the period is important) to work around this bug which will be fixed in the next version of nautilus.
  • If you’re one of the few who don’t use Ubuntu’s default black screen as your “screensaver”, be aware that Gnome 3 does not really support other screensavers.

Please tell me how to break my computer

If you want to break your computer, simply install the gnome3-team PPA. If you can’t figure out how to do that, this PPA is not for you.

Apt-pinning is a good way to use some software from a repository without using other software. The Ubuntu wiki uses the example of the Mozilla daily repo where you may want bleeding edge versions of Firefox but not Thunderbird. Even with apt-pinning or blacklisting, there are some bugs and interface problems which are unavoidable if you use this PPA.

To enable an improved Gnome 3 experience, the Desktop Team provides a version of network-manager that does not launch the normal nm-applet you will need if you want to use wifi on Unity easily without logging in to Gnome Shell first. To blacklist the PPA version, create a new file:

sudo nano /etc/apt/preferences.d/network-manager-gnome

and put this in it:
Package: network-manager-gnome
Pin: release o=LP-PPA-gnome3-team-gnome3
Pin-Priority: -10

Now you should be able to do a full upgrade. Install gnome-shell, gnome-fallback-session, and gnome-tweak-tool. You’ll need gnome-tweak-tool to set your icon theme back to something normal. Personally, I recommend setting your GTK+ theme to  Adwaita and your  icon-theme to ubuntu-mono-light (on the Interface tab).  To show icons on your desktop, switch to the File Manager tab and switch on Have file manager draw the desktop. Reboot.

I want my computer unbroken

I can’t really provide support for those who install this PPA. It may have lasting effects which are not easily fixed.

Nevertheless, this is a simple description of how you do it. From a command line:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge
sudo ppa-purge ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3

It will ask you for confirmation. Choose Yes. You may need to reinstall ubuntu-desktop afterwards. I talked to one individual today who had trouble with the login screen.

In Conclusion

Now that Ubuntu 11.04 has been released, developers will be hard at work to get Gnome 3 ready for 11.10. Some of that work may trickle down into the PPA but it is generally a bad idea to attempt to replace a large portion of the Desktop with a beta PPA so you will probably just have to wait for 11.10.

Some view this as a big conspiracy that Ubuntu is trying to kill Gnome or Gnome Shell. This is not true but some people will always assume the worst about individuals who make different decisions than they would have. Ubuntu 11.10 will ship with an even better Unity and Unity 2D powered by Gnome 3. Gnome Shell and Gnome Fallback (currently named gnome-session-fallback in the Debian/Ubuntu repositories, but is basically just a newer version of Gnome Panel) will be an easy install from the default repositories and fully supported. I expect there will be an unofficial Live Gnome Shell Ubuntu CD then also but I don’t think the Ubuntu developers see much interest in making that an official flavor for a variety of reasons.

I will try to update my blog if I receive any additional tips.

I am a Ubuntu volunteer who has submitted some patches to Ubuntu & the Gnome 3 experience in Ubuntu. I also am part of the Ubuntu Documentation Team.

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Posted in Ubuntu

Fuzzy Picture of Ubuntu Software Center Reviews

Posted on May 12, 2010 by Jeremy Bicha — Leave a comment

Ratings (stars) and reviews might be in Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat released in October depending on how things go. Here’s a picture of a demonstration of current code.

Posted in Ubuntu

Does the Gulf Daily News Plagiarize?

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Jeremy Bicha — Leave a comment

On Tuesday, I read a sad story about a rather unpleasant work environment among the Navy’s working dog unit in Bahrain in 2005-2006. This eventually led to the expulsion of a Sailor under the US military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. (The story was significant enough for me to mention it on Twitter.)

I was therefore surprised to read almost the same story in Thursday’s issue of the Gulf Daily News, a major English newspaper here in Bahrain. I was not surprised that GDN is publishing news that mentions Bahrain, but that they took an Associated Press story and published it using their own byline. I’m not completely sure about the rules of journalistic plagiarism but I think that changing word order and occasional word choice is not sufficient differentiation to publish without citing the source.

Original AP story

GDN story

Example:

AP: But within a month of his arrival in Bahrain in 2005 to join the handlers and their dogs in seeking out hidden explosives, Rocha said he found an abusive atmosphere in which he was hazed repeatedly, even though he never spoke of his sexual orientation.

“What made my rite of passage different is that I refused to have sex with prostitutes,” Rocha said. “In doing so, I gave them reason enough for them to think I was gay and they took it upon themselves to punish me for it for two years.”

GDN: However, within a month of his arrival in Bahrain in 2005, he claimed that he found an abusive atmosphere in which he was repeatedly bullied, even though he had never actually spoken of his sexual orientation.

“What made my rite of passage different is that I refused to have sex with prostitutes,” said Mr Rocha. “In doing so, I gave them enough reason to think I was gay and they took it upon themselves to punish me for it for two years.”

Upon careful inspection, I did find the following “unique research.”:

GDN: A Naval Support Activity Bahrain spokesman yesterday told the GDN that officials were aware of the situation and the case was under review.

“All we’d like to add is that these incidents do not reflect who we are as a navy,” he said.

Everything else was sourced from the AP article. At a minimum, I believe the article should have a line like “AP contributed to this report” as in this Jerusalem Post article. Now that the article has been published, GDN needs to re-look at how it handles bylines and sourcing to prevent these types of incidents in the future.

A US CONGRESSMAN has intervened in the case of a homosexual sailor allegedly abused for two years by fellow servicemen while serving in Bahrain.

Joseph Rocha, 23, left the navy in 2007 after telling his commander he was gay, in violation of the US Navy’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy.

He subsequently claimed to have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder from the constant bullying he reportedly received while serving at the Naval Base in Juffair, where he worked as a military dog handler.

Following an internal navy investigation, which found dozens of examples of “hazing” and sexual harassment against many sailors between 2005 and 2006, Democratic Representative Joe Sestak has requested further information on the probe’s findings, according to media reports.

A copy of the probe has already been released under the Freedom of Information Act, but the investigator’s recommendations were subsequently blocked out.

“Without a question, it heightens and makes more salient this issue,” said Congressman Sestak, who previously served as an Admiral in the US Navy.

In a letter to Navy Secretary Raymond Mabus, Congressman Sestak also demanded an explanation as to why the head of the military working dog unit at the time Chief Petty Officer Michael Toussaint had been promoted to senior chief.
Posted in Bahrain

Top 7 Things to Improve the Network at Work

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Jeremy Bicha — Leave a comment

After my first blog post, I thought maybe I should offer “constructive solutions” instead of just being critical, so here’s 7 suggestions to improve the work network:

1. Create a standard desktop image with Internet Explorer 8. Deploy to computers gradually depending on response. Since the network administrators refuse to deploy Mozilla Firefox because of security issues, it doesn’t make sense to use Internet Explorer 6 when versions 7 and 8 are more secure. For instance, the newer versions have built-in malware, phishing, and cross-site scripting protection which will never appear in Internet Explorer 6.

2. Create a list of all official websites that don’t work properly with IE7 or IE8. Apply pressure to get these websites modernized. Supposedly, we continue to use an eight-year-old web browser because certain internal websites were created poorly and no one wants to fix them. Well, we need to know which websites these are so that we can track whether the issues are being fixed and whether it affects very many users.

3. Research a plan to give us more space in our inboxes. After posting this week, I talked to a friend of mine who pointed out that it is more challenging than simply buying a 1.5TB hard drive off the shelf as a RAID5 setup (duplication across multiple hard drives in case one fails) and backups are used. I still believe that the costs are minimal compared to the time wasted in trying to decide which attachments are important enough to keep and the knowledge loss (in a place where turnover is excessively high) when important documents are basically forced to be deleted.

4. Increase RAM to 1GB  or 1.5GB at least. The cost is negligble. If there were 1000 computers, the hardware cost shouldn’t be more than $15 x 1000 or $15,000. That’s like a month or two’s salary for the expensive contractors.

5. Figure out why network access is so much slower now that it was a year or so ago. It’s probably because the network is being used more with bigger documents but the network slowdowns need to be reduced. Too often, Windows Explorer or Microsoft Word will become unresponsive because the network has frozen. I presume there’s some way to distribute servers so that the network is more reliable.

6. Deploy a true web-based user-friendly helpdesk system. Statistics from banks indicate that the most expensive transactions are, in order, in-person, phone, email, web. I tried submitting a help desk request this week via the email option (which is not as useful as it sounds since everyone on the alias gets the email) and was told I needed to call the helpdesk. The only approved way to get any thing fixed is to call up the helpdesk (who, by the way, are not allowed to give you their personal phone number if you need to follow-up.) Here‘s one example of how expensive this system can be.

7. Long-term: Begin work on a Linux standard desktop image. If one of the network guys ever does read this blog post, he’ll probably think I’ve gone over the deep end by now, but there are some interesting benefits to Linux. There is no reason to pay the manufacturer to upgrade or to install your desktop image on additional computers. There are basically no viruses for Linux. OpenOffice.org is free and can do what a lot of individuals need out of their word processing suite. It is even possible to install Microsoft Office 2007 in Linux with Wine.  If Linux is configured to mount home directories as noexec, meaning it is impossible for users to run any programs they try to download off the Internet (because seriously, I can’t believe that so many network administrators are not aware how easy it is to download Firefox and install it to My Documents folder without admin privileges. This isn’t an issue in Linux since Firefox is installed by default and unapproved applications can be easily blocked.) Finally, with Linux, you can get better performance on minimal hardware…Ubuntu for instance uses less CPU & RAM than Vista.

Posted in Linux, Work

The “Modern” Work Computer

Posted on September 21, 2009 by Jeremy Bicha — Leave a comment

I believe the IT setup at work is stupid.

My work computer runs Windows XP with Microsoft Office 2003.  That setup’s not necessarily a bad idea but it gets worse. (I just hope that when they do upgrade, they’re smart enough to skip Vista as Windows 7 has all the advantages of Vista with a couple years of bug fixes, fine tuning and feature enhancements.)

The only approved web browser is Internet Explorer 6. It would be one thing if they had a plan in place for when to upgrade, but there is none. No other web browser other than Internet Explorer will ever be considered unless a dramatic policy from STRATCOM would come down. The fact that either Internet Explorer 7 or 8 are more secure and would improve productivity are ignored.  I guess it was a good thing after all that Microsoft bundled Internet Explorer & Windows Media Player inseparably into their operating system or we would have been left with no way to access websites or play audio.

The computers only have 512 MB of RAM (with part of that reserved for integrated graphics). Too bad that’s barely enough RAM to run a normal office workload of Internet Explorer, Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint. Just hope you don’t also have a PDF you need to open. Skimping the $10-20 for more memory means increased computer crashes.

Speaking of mail, our inbox size is limited to 100MB. If people would stick to plain text, that would be plenty, but I get far more massive PowerPoint presentations and PDFs than I do at home. I got to thinking how much money it would cost to upgrade our email storage. If I bought a 1TB hard drive from the store on base for less than $150, I could significantly increase the storage space.  100MB = 1/10 GB = 1/10,000 TB.  1/10,000 of $150.00 is a penny and a half. They spend more on toilet paper in a month than it would cost to permanently double my inbox size.  Obviously there are some bandwidth and load issues to consider but those bandwidth problems are coming anyway. They could outsource some of this pain & suffering to Google for $50/person fully supported and we’d all get 25GB (250 times the size of the 100MB inbox) inboxes and the ability to check our mail and edit documents from anywhere, increasing productivity and possibly reducing costs but no decision maker in the US Government is seriously considering that idea. The 99.9% uptime guarantee is about 8 hours of downtime in a year which is less than what we currently have. (And people could continue to use the Microsoft Outlook interface we’ve paid for if they like.) My thinking is especially foolish since they won’t even allow us to access Gmail from any official military computer ever. We have unique security issues they say.

All in all our setup is pretty modern compared to 2001 when Windows XP was first released, but it’s not that great as we enter 2010. The real problem is that there is no one in Bahrain I can discuss these concerns with as the decisions are made by a nameless agent back in the United States. Not that they would care.

Posted in Work

Jeremy Bicha

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