Firefox on my Dad’s machine always wants to print to 300 DPI by default. He can manually change it, but it’s annoying. Other browsers pick up the printer default of 600 DPI and are happy, but not Firefox. He posted a bug on Launchpad for it and then afterwards I found a fix for it upstream in Mozilla’s Bugzilla.
It’s as simple as:
As user, open a shell and enter:
lpoptions -o Resolution=600dpi
This will add a default resolution to ~/.cups/lpoptions
My ~/.cups/lpoptions contains:
Default IP4200 Resolution=600dpi
So anyone who has the same issue, here’s the work around.
I fix the problems which arise with every Ubuntu release (and in between) for a friend at work whom I’ve put onto Linux. This upgrade to Lucid has meant a number of issues *yawn* but the most annoying was that plugging in his Huawei E220 USB 3G modem was only sometimes detected (every other time it’s just a USB CD and USB memory stick). It was working perfectly on Karmic and on Jaunty (with some hackery) before that.
The solution was rather simple in the end, just load both usbserial and option kernel modules on boot (add to /etc/modules). The kernel will then switch from CD-ROM and detect ttyUSB modem correctly. If you’re having problems with your device not working, try this.
-c
The major derivatives of Ubuntu are well known, but what about the others? Just because they aren’t as popular doesn’t mean they don’t have something to offer! We introduce five of the least known, yet simply outstanding distributions.
While I’m not convinced that Google is our friend, this latest move from Canonical is interesting.
Microsoft has been paying companies to move their sites from Google to Bing and the Mozilla’s director of community development, Aza Dotzler, recommends that users switch Firefox’s default search engine from Google to Bing.
Now, Canonical has struck a revenue deal with Yahoo! and will change the default search engine away from Google (for new installs).
Canonical has negotiated a revenue sharing deal with Yahoo! and this revenue will help Canonical to provide developers and resources to continue the open development of Ubuntu and the Ubuntu Platform.
Yes, Google currently has the largest share of web marketing, but if more and more companies start switching to alternatives like Yahoo! and Bing, then things could change dramatically.
While I’m still up, I might as well tell you about my latest article, “Proprietary Software and Linux: Good, Bad or Somewhere in Between?”.
This comes on the heels of Canonical asking users to vote on which software (such as Adobe Photoshop and Apple’s iTunes) they would like to see made available through Ubuntu.
At work most of our computers run Ubuntu (well, they used to) and the upgrade to Karmic has not been fun. Mike’s machine broke X, Evolution on Justin’s machine segfaults whenever he tried to create a new email and it also booted his old 2.6.28 kernel instead of the new 2.6.31 version. AC’s computer lost all his desktop icons in GNOME, the subtitling editing program he uses broke and needed a re-install, the screensaver also locks up his machine… and so on.
On top of all that, a non-technical user which I put onto Ubuntu tried to upgrade at home and it failed too. Also, my boss tried to upgrade his home computer to Karmic for the second time, but it aborted during the process.
This is all about 6 weeks after the initial release.. *sigh*
The guys over at “Make Use Of” have released a new free PDF book for Ubuntu. After a quick inspection it looks pretty good, with reasonable explanations about components of Linux.
According to Ubuntu X.Org expert Bryce Harrington, the number of X.org related bugs in Karmic “literally went off the chart.”
In my recent article on Ubuntu, I made two suggestions to improve the overall experience of for users.
My main suggestion was to delay update-manager from prompting an upgrade until initial major issues were fixed. I copped a lot of flack (read hate mail) for my suggestions. Personally, I believe that someone had to say it – it’s been the elephant in the room for a long time.
Now however, I feel somewhat vindicated as Bryce agrees with me:
One suggestion that I think might be good would be for releases like Karmic where we feel it is a bit more ambitious technologically, to make update-manager hold off on recommending users upgrade for a few weeks. This would give time for SRUs to make their way through the system for critical issues people run into. In fact, this might even be a good idea for the LTS. Anyway, just wanted to toss out this as an idea.
Yes! I totally agree 
Looks like there’s a proposal for Ubuntu to get its very own online music store, in time for Lucid next year. It would be tied directly into the desktop with applications like Banshee and Rhythmbox providing a web front-end for users to purchase music.
That’s quite an interesting suggestion and I wonder if it will come off. No doubt the store will be closed source and proprietary, as we’ve come to expect from Canonical.
Still, if they offer Music in lossless formats, I’d buy them. I have never bought any music online because it’s all lossy MP3, which I detest. For me, CDs remain the best way to get high-quality music on my PC. That would definitely change if I could buy FLAC albums somewhere..
I have written a new article to follow up my previous (admittedly strongly worded) article on Ubuntu, with the two suggestions posted on my blog recently. I have no delusions that it will make any difference what-so-ever, but hopefully it’ll get people thinking about the issue anyway..
-c
