These are some various linux/unix problems I've encountered over the years, but which I was not able to find a solution for online. Hopefully this will save you the trouble I had.
by Vidar Holen Homepage
Problem:Network interface (or anything else on the pci bus) says "SIOCSIFFLAGS: Resource temporarily unavailable"
Cause: No IRQ assigned to the device, check /proc/pci (irq says 0)
Solution: Enter the bios setup (F1 or Del on boot), disable the option 'Plug n Play OS'. Reason: This will make your bios set up IRQs for you.
Problem:USB mouse using /dev/psaux, the ps/2 mouse device.
Cause: Bios usb legacy support in action, probably because Linux didn't probe for USB devices (which causes the bios to release control of them).
Solution: Compile the kernel with USB support, Input Core and USB HID. Reason: Duh.
Problem:USB mouse still doesn't work on /dev/input/mice, but /dev/psaux, even when USB support is compiled in.
Cause: Legacy USB support again. You might not have compiled in support for your USB chipset (the UHCI parts in USB support).
Solution: Compile UHCI. If not working, try the alternate drivers. Reason: Duh.
Problem:Accidentally cat'ing a binary file causes the all the characters you type next to show up as odd symbols.
Cause:The binary file contained a 016 (so, Shift Out) character.
Solution:Print a 017 (Shift In) character. You can use echo -ne "\\017" to do this. Even better, make it a shell script called 'fix' for easy access.
Reason:Shift Out is canceled by a Shift In.
Problem:You scanned an ext3 file system with fsck.ext2/e2fsck, and now you can't boot. Cause:fsck.ext2 deleted the journaling inode, essentially making it an ext2 fs.
Solution:Either use tune2fs -j device to add the journal node again, or use [c]fdisk to set the partition type to ext2 instead of ext3.
Reason:tune2fs -j will fix the fs back to ext3 journaling mode, cfdisk will have the system use it as unjournaled ext2.
Problem:Some program (especially older ones like RealPlayer, and other multimedia tools/players) hangs when loading, or give a message like "Can't open audio device /dev/dsp: Resource temporarily unavailable." or "No Sound"
Cause:Trying to open /dev/dsp (the sound device), but it's busy already taken so the program waits or fails.
Solution:Kill whatever might be hogging it, like artsd. You can find the specific PID using fuser /dev/dsp.
Reason:The app will now have exclusive sound access, and will load without waiting for the device to be free.
Problem:Lilo doesn't boot your new kernel, giving you odd boot signature messages.
Cause:It can't find the 0xAA55 byte at the end of the boot sector, probably because you didn't run 'lilo' after updating lilo.conf or replacing the kernel file.
Solution:Run lilo. Get a rescue floppy if needed. Reason:Lilo will now store the correct abs disk location for the kernels.
Problem:The localhost loopback address 127.0.0.1 doesn't work, and so some servers stop functioning and you can only connect to yourself through your lan address.
Cause:The lo interface might not be configured right.
Solution:Run "ifconfig lo up 127.0.0.1"
Reason:The loopback interface should now be up and configured with the standard loopback address.
Problem:CUPS printer claim to be ready, but is turned off when you start a job, and deletes the job when you start the printer.
Cause:You've upset the manual gods. Solution:Curse, read the manual, delete all the cups files, read the manual, download and compile cups, read the manual, try again.
Reason:The manual gods will be happy with your sacrifice and will allow you to print (worked for me atleast :)
Problem:When using the disk kupdated hogs the cpu, making the system slow to a crawl. The mouse stops responding for several seconds at a time. Serial comm gives errors like "/dev/ttyS0: 1 input overrun(s)".
Cause:Slow IDE throughput due to unsupported chipset. Run 'hdparm -t /dev/hda' to make sure (it will be really low, around 2-6mb/s) Solution:Compile a kernel that supports your IDE chipset (just enable them all).
Reason:
Problem:Konqueror doesn't show gif images.
Cause:No gif support in QT Solution:Edit $QTDIR/src/kernel/qgif.h, define QT_BUILTIN_GIF_READER as 1 (tiny file, plenty of comments). configure with -qt-gif. No need to recompile konqueror.
Reason:The QT library now supports gif, and konqueror can use it.
Problem:GTK apps like gimp and xchat suddenly got disgusting fonts.
Cause:Something changed the settings, possibly an install of another gtk version.
Solution:Make a ~/.gtkrc file: style "user-font"
{
font="-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-14-*-*-*-c-*-iso8859-1"
}
widget_class "*" style "user-font"
Replace the font if that doesn't suit you. Reason:A new default font is now set, instead of the ugly previous one.
Problem:Konqueror is slow when browsing FTP sites.
Cause:The icon preview feature occupies the connection, forcing a relogin when changing directories.
Solution:Uncheck 'ftp' in the KDE Control Center under Previews in File Manager. Reason:Konqueror will now use the connection it made for browsing, rather than showing icon previews.
Problem:When starting Half-Life in Wine, a message comes up saying "Could not open MCI file for playback: 279: Cannot use 'all' as the device name with the specified command" Cause:Dunno. Solution:Run as "wine hl.exe -- -console"
Reason:No clue.
Problem:Half-Life in Wine has no sound.
Cause:DirectSound errors?
Solution:Try setting voice_enable "0" in config.cfg Reason:No clue, but it worked for me.
Problem:When running Half-Life in Wine, pressing Tab causes the screen to go black (but displays "Half-Life" in the left corners).
Cause:Locked up Alt key perhaps
Solution:Click somewhere, then click the top left corner. Press Escape then Resume Game. Then hit Alt.
Reason:I guess the game didn't get the alt-release keycode.
Problem:Sendmail ignores aliases in /etc/mail/aliases, even after sighups.
Cause:Sendmail reads from a database, not that file.
Solution:Use the -bi option (or even better, run newaliases).
Reason:It'll update the database (/etc/mail/aliases.db).
Problem:KMail's menu bar is missing.
Cause:I dunno, messing with styles and themes possibly.
Solution:Set MenuBar=Disabled in ~/.kde/share/config/kmailrc to, yes, Enabled.
Reason:I didn't see any way of turning it through the gui, so I did it manually.
Problem:Mounting of NFS shares is slow, taking exactly five minutes.
Cause:Not quite sure.
Solution:Install Portmap on both client and server. Reason:I don't know.
Problem:Apache's mod_proxy won't allow CONNECTs on vhosts.
Cause:I think the manual lies. Mod_proxy doesn't seem to like vhosts.
Solution:Make it server wide.
Reason:Cow.
Problem:Can't figure out how to whitelist sites using Apache proxies (but can blacklist with ProxyBlock) Cause:Not pondering long enough. Solution:
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from all
Reason:That's just the way it is.
Problem:nvtv only gives black/white output (on an old TV using an s-video to scart converter). Cause:Cheap converter Solution:Set the Connector to Convert.
Reason:Quoth the faq, "You have a SVideo (S-VHS) to Composite connector that uses only the luminance (Y) line of the SVideo connection."
Problem:Quick access to the konqueror options for changing browser identification and enabling/disabling Java/plugins/javascript not present in the Tools menu.
Cause:These are additional plugins not present in all default installs.
Solution:Install konq-plugins in debian, or the kde addons module from the source tree. Reason:Duh.
Problem:Can't make KDE display an html web page as desktop background wallpaper. (Redundant wording for google's pleasure)
Solution:kwebdesktop
Problem:Neverwinter Nights crashes [on debian], giving only "Error" as a message. Cause:Running in 16bit mode.
Solution:Run X in 24bit mode.
Reason:I don't know, gdb indicates a libGLU issue.
Problem:Irssi or anything else just hangs, and Ctrl+Q doesn't fix it. And you're using screen. Cause:Screen has an [ES]TX feature too. Perhaps you managed to trigger it.
Solution:Ctrl-A Q
Reason:Makes screen write stuff again.
Problem:The Cisco vpnclient says "Could not attach to driver. Is kernel module loaded?", and yes, the module's loaded.
Cause:Nowhere to route packets.
Solution:Check that your nic is listed in ifconfig (if it's not and it's usb, try [re]loading usb-ohci or ohci-hcd). And up it with dhcpcd or something.
Reason:Now it can connect.
Problem:atitvout says "VBE call failed", esp on Radeon Mobility 7500 (M7 LW). Cause:Something about the card not detecting tv-out by itself.
Solution:Turn the box off. Plug in TV-out. Boot. Start X, and put it in 640x480 (or 800x600). atitvout auto pal; atitvout -f t Reason:The card will sense the TV and allow you to turn on tv output.
Problem:DVD playing using mplayer and TV-out sucks. With mplayer -vo xv, only the top half of the image is shown. With x11 it only occupies a small area, and with -zoom it runs crap slow and the interlacing is just awful.
Cause:Dunno Solution:Set X to 640x480, mplayer -noframedrop -vo x11 -fs file
Reason:Dunno, but it looks really great.
Problem:UXterm doesn't show bold fonts (or xterm with wideChars (-wc))
Solution:Set a wideFont ala "xterm*VT100*wideFont: -efont-biwidth-medium-r-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"
Problem:Compiling irssi says "/bin/sh: 0: not found" (OpenBSD).
Solution:Does your locale exist? Try unsetting all the LC_* variables, configure and make again.
Problem:IMAP (imaps) hangs in kmail.
Cause:kdelibs built without SSL, the imaps kioslave is built but just hangs. Solution:Recompile with ssl.
Problem:Gentoo says "* error scanning /etc" whenever emerge does something. Cause:'find /etc' said modules.conf was there, but wasn't there. An xfs corruption, obviously. Solution:I booted from a rescue cd and did xfs_repair. Everything worked smoothly after that.
Problem:(ok, so this isn't linux) On Solaris on a sun-ray thin client, xlocks locks the screen when you pull out the smart card and I want to change or disable this.
Solution:Kill your existing utaction process, and/or start a new one with the desired action in -d. (/opt/SUNWut/lib/utaction -d command). Also note the -e if you want the action to only run once.
Problem:(Solaris again) While compiling OpenGL applications using GLU on solaris, linking failes with Undefined symbol: __1cG__CrunKpure_error6F_v_ __1cG__CrunMex_rethrow_q6F_v_ c::c(N6, (int0_t)) c::c(N6, (int0_t)), ld: fatal: Symbol referencing errors. No output written to fluffy Cause:GLU requires libCrun which in turn requires libstdc++.
Solution:Link with both these libs, -lCrun -lstdc++
Problem:Cinelerra just hangs with a blank window titled "x".
Solution:Try it in another wm. Or for Ion, use a FloatWS.
Problem:Getting accelerated X-video output on a UniChrome Pro CN700 on Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) on an EPIA EN12000EG for TV-out playback.
Solution:As of 2007-05-11, OpenChrome supports the CN700 in svn (but not in the stable release). Get and compile the driver (requires automake1.9, not the fancy new stuff), replace via_drv.so in /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers with the OpenChrome one. Optionally load the 'drm' and 'via' kernel modules. Then configure X to use the 'via' driver. Here's my xorg.conf, for a widescreen PAL TV. Hope you have an easier time than I did.
Problem:irrecord fails on lirc 0.8.2, with kernel 2.6.22.1. It when a button is pressed, it exits immediately but claims "irrecord: no data for 10 secs, aborting, irrecord: gap not found, can't continue"
Solution:lirc 0.8.2 doesn't support this kernel (it's probably fixed in the latest version by the time you read this). Downgrade to 2.6.20 and it works like a charm.
