Linux Troubleshooting

A common problem with Linux distros is the issue of  accessing Windows file shares and shared printers.  While CUPS works well in most cases, Windows 10 clients hosting a shared printer can create issues.  A new utility from Google can help with sharing printers.   As an alternative to using the Linux utilities  Google Cloud Print with CUPS can let your Linux, Android, and IOS devices print to Windows printers.  Unfortunately these are not the only issues a new Linux user may run into.  If you are patient and follow directions carefully it's all good.   See my links below to get these things done.

Fixes for Common Linux Post Install Problems

When Trying to Accessing Windows Shares on a Workgroup From Linux

Regarding network shares, you need to be sure Samba (SMB) is installed and running, and for Windows home networks, you have to modify the smb.conf file and add one line to it.

Installing/Using Linux CUPS to access a Windows shared printer

While you have printer configuration utilities in most Linux distros in the settings menu, you have to have cups (Common UNIX Printing System) running first.   I noticed that in Kali 2017.1 cups was not completely installed and I had to install the Synaptic Package Manager first to get the cups packages sorted out.

Using Google Cloud Print


 An alternative to using the Linux utilities is to use Google Cloud Print with CUPS.  If you set this up you also can print from android and IOS devices!  Note: Be sure the device you are configuring to print is connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the printer when setting this up:

1.  Setting Up Google Cloud Printing (Windows side)

2.  Setting up Linux to Use Google Cloud Printing

Accessing a Mac Printer from Windows

So Do I Need an Antivirus Program for my Linux PC?

Dual Boot Windows and Linux

IMPORTANT WARNING: NEVER ATTEMPT TO INSTALL ANOTHER OPERATING SYSTEM ALONGSIDE WINDOWS WITHOUT FIRST BACKING UP YOUR WINDOWS IMAGE USING AN IMAGE BACKUP UTILITY FIRST.  (Tips on using Windows Image backup are in my page on PC Troubleshooting).

Check a Downloaded file for Errors using MD5 Hash

Terminal Commands for Fixing Package Dependency Problems

Sometimes installing packages that aren't normally in the distro creates issues when updating.  I have found that running the following commands in a root terminal (or preface each command with sudo) sometimes cleans things up and fixes dependency issues.  (use at own risk)

sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get update

sudo dpkg --configure -a --force-all

Another command that can fix broken dependencies is

apt --fix-broken install

When Software Installs Fail with No Internet Connection Error

execute the following commands in terminal:

sudo mv /var/lib/apt/lists /var/lib/apt/lists.old
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/apt/lists/partial
sudo apt-get update 

When a Linux apt-get update fails

If you get "Failed to fetch http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/dists/stable/Release..."
It is because Google changed Chrome updated and no longer supports 32 bit version

See this post and update your Google Chrome sources list

If you Get 404 (failed to fetch) errors updating Older Kali Linux

See this post and update your sources.list file

If you haven't updated Kali in awhile you may need to do the following

If you get a "no public key" error

If you then get a "dirmngr does not exist" error--you must install it

Once you install dirmngr, you can then update your public key, and then you can run both apt-get update and then apt-get upgrade...

If after the update Gnome Terminal stops working follow these steps

Linux Server Tips


No comments:

Post a Comment

What do you think? (Comments are moderated and spam will be removed)

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)