COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Stanley]

Couldn't sleep for wondering how it would load. All is well except for one thing that was happening before I upgraded. When I turn the system on it goes to the front page of the setup American Megatrends) and I have to tell it to exit and not save any changes before I get the normal start up screen. I can manage it but I wondered if anyone knew why it was doing it.
Otherwise all seems as normal/

[Tizer]

American Megatrends is related to the computer's BIOS and is nothing to do with Ubuntu. I guess it's meant to check all is well before booting the OS. Google shows lots of folk asking how to get rid of it and others saying you can't. It's above my pay grade and Pluggy or Panbiker will understand it much better than me. It's normal for a screen to flash up a brand name at boot but that usually disappears quickly and the boot process continues.

[Stanley]

I've always known it was there.... The first FM that Doc made had a fault and I used to have to go into the BIOS settings via the setup menu every morning to correct the faults. Normally it just sits there until you hit the F1key on startup which of course I never did but now it chips in of its own volition and needs to be cancelled. No sweat but I just wondered if anyone had had the same problem.
[Ubuntu is just fine.... All that fuss about nothing. How long will we run it Peter before we move on to V22?]

[Tizer]

Two years before it runs out. An advantage of us upgrading to 20 even though 22 is available is that 20 has been around for 2 years already and there has been plenty of time for any faults to be sorted. An LTS version is launched every 2 years and lasts for 4 years. So upgrading every 2 years keeps us in the Goldilocks zone.

[Big Kev]

I've always known it was there.... The first FM that Doc made had a fault and I used to have to go into the BIOS settings via the setup menu every morning to correct the faults. Normally it just sits there until you hit the F1key on startup which of course I never did but now it chips in of its own volition and needs to be cancelled. No sweat but I just wondered if anyone had had the same problem.
[Ubuntu is just fine.... All that fuss about nothing. How long will we run it Peter before we move on to V22?]

Not aware of the issue with P's laptop. I would suspect it's the Boot Order (or Boot Sequence) in the BIOS settings. Was the upgrade done from a CD or online?

[Pluggy]

Thanks Stephen, I take it for Baked read backed.
One question, do you mean everything or just data. If I have to back up everything include a section on how to do that because I have no idea....

Just your data will do, Full backups on Linux (or indeed any operating system) are more pain than enough in my experience

[Pluggy]

With all this talk about BIOS (UEFI on modern machines) unless you know exactly what you're doing and are feeling very lucky don't be tempted to upgrade it........ here be dragons. Unlike the operating system which is dead easy in comparison.

I probably won't upgrade to Ubuntu 22.04 on this computer. Version 20.04 will give support for a couple of years yet

[Big Kev]

With all this talk about BIOS (UEFI on modern machines) unless you know exactly what you're doing and are feeling very lucky don't be tempted to upgrade it........ here be dragons. Unlike the operating system which is dead easy in comparison.

Probably best

[Stanley]

I wouldn't dream of messing with the setup BIOS, just wondering why it has suddenly (before the upgrade) started intruding on start up in the morning. No big problem, all you have to do is exit without making any changes. I can live with that.
A nice thought came to me, Janet would have been as pleased as punch because I managed the upgrade myself. (It was online Kev.)

[Tizer]

Talking of ladies called Janet, Mrs Tiz is on Ubuntu 20.04 as of an hour ago. No problems so far!

Stanley, re: I wouldn't dream of messing with the setup BIOS, just wondering why it has suddenly (before the upgrade) started intruding on start up in the morning. No big problem, all you have to do is exit without making any changes. I can live with that.
You haven't forgotten a disk in the DVD drive or a USB in one of the sockets from some previous activity by any chance? I suppose it's remotely possible that it would make the BIOS think you were offering two alternative boots?

[Big Kev]

Just a thought, is the date/time correct on the 'American Megatrends' splashscreen when you first boot up the machine?

[Pluggy]

Since my last post a couple of things have transpired. My laptop with the broken hinge I was talking about replacing - it has completely given up the ghost. When I try to turn it on it lamely flashes a code using the caps lock light. Looking it up it translates as either call your supplier for service or Memory fault depending on which website you believe. I think its cooked.......

I've ordered myself a replacement. Meanwhile I fired up my old desktop which is seldom used these days. It was still on Ubuntu 18.04 so I just upgraded it. Its the same way Tizer contacted me about for Stanleys. I had an initial failure due to some unsigned repositories for some software I'd installed long ago and forgotton about . Googling the problem gave me the answer. And then after removing the offending repository entries it went straight through. And here I am on my old desktop now running Ubuntu 20.04 Very little different.

[Pluggy]

Regarding Stanleys problem, it could be the Bios Battery that has expired. They generally giveb out after a period of between 4 and 8 years . A ubiquitous CR2032 cell clipped into a holder on the motherboard.

[Big Kev]

Regarding Stanleys problem, it could be the Bios Battery that has expired. They generally giveb out after a period of between 4 and 8 years . A ubiquitous CR2032 cell clipped into a holder on the motherboard.

That's where I was going with the BIOS date/time

[Pluggy]

Regarding Stanleys problem, it could be the Bios Battery that has expired. They generally giveb out after a period of between 4 and 8 years . A ubiquitous CR2032 cell clipped into a holder on the motherboard.

That's where I was going with the BIOS date/time

It was your post that gave me the final clue, but I didn't pick up you were on the battery. I'll call it your win.. Back in the old days a dead battery would stop the computer working at all when the bios held the finer points of the hard drive configuration as well as the system time. With an internet connection, a modern computer just gets the time from there. And the hard drive keeps its own settings.

[Big Kev]

Glad we're on the same page. I was just after clues with the date/time before booting into the OS
A simple fix if it is the battery; I've probably got one here too.

[Stanley]

The battery fix rings a bell. Any chance of having a look for me if you're in town Kev? Doing things like that stretches the resources a bit too much these days. Otherwise OK, I can live with it. I'll check the BIOS time tomorrow.

[Big Kev]

The battery fix rings a bell. Any chance of having a look for me if you're in town Kev? Doing things like that stretches the resources a bit too much these days. Otherwise OK, I can live with it. I'll check the BIOS time tomorrow.

Of course

[Tizer]

Stanley and Pluggy, after my 20.04 install there was an extra icon for my Home folder on the Desktop labelled with my username. When opened, the content appears identical to what I get by clicking on the File Manager icon in the screen's side bar. I prefer my Home folder to be in the side bar because applications when opened in full screen mode hide the one on the Desktop.

Googling I found other people had the same extra folder. An AskUbuntu web page gave me the simple solution to remove the one on the desktop. Press the windows key to get the search box and type extensions. This brings up the extensions window. Click the gear wheel icon next to `Desktop icons'. Then turn off `Show the personal folder on the desktop'. Job done.

Stanley, the Extensions window is one of many in the Tweaks menu which can be found, as above, by typing tweaks in the search box. This has ways of altering many such things as font sizes, appearance, mouse & keyboard actions etc.

[Stanley]

The way mine shows is that it gives me a duplicate icon marked data which is a mirror of 'files'. I shall leave it alone, it doesn't bother me.
What did bother me was that when it was kind enough to give me the latest version of Shotwell it didn't tip me off that I had to tell the programme which external editor to use. It has taken me over two hours to find that out, thank god for Google! I am now back in the groove....



Title is seeing double.....

[Big Kev]

Word on social media is that Barlick Aldi has had to close as they have 'IT issues'. Apparently staff are unable to log into the tills.

[Stanley]

Our lives depend on the computers working these days!

[Pluggy]

Having a dead laptop and awaiting its replacement has pushed me back to using my old desktop. God I miss this thing, a screen I can see with loads of detail with much higher resolution. Makes me wonder why I bothered ordering a new laptop....

Because the laptop fits my hospital type bed table which is a boon when youre stuck in a wheelchair. Ah well, theres no cure for it, just got to make the best of it.

[Stanley]

That's why I have always stuck to my big screen and the box under the table....

[Tripps]

They drive you mad computers.

I just resurected an ASUS Eee PC netbook, which I bought for next to nowt on Gumtree, and has been on a shelf for a long time.
I can't get into it as it asks for apassword. No idea. . .

I'm fairly sure I've used it once and normally write passwords down - but no trace. It's beautifully made and has Ubuntu as the operating system.

Ah well. . . .