FAQ for Xubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot

November 19, 2011
11.10
Xubuntu at...

1. I can’t hear a sound. How can I get my sound back?

There are many reasons why sound can be lost on a system, most of them if you try to use different audio protocols. The usual way to get sound back is to run sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils restart.

If this doesn’t work you can try running sudo alsa force-unload and sudo alsa force-reload.

Pulseaudio can sometimes cause conflicts with ALSA. If you are sure you don’t need one or the other, you could try purging pulseaudio with sudo apt-get purge pulseaudio.

If you still have problems please join the forums or IRC channels and feel free to ask all the questions you need.

2. I need a program (to do thing) X, how do I install it?

Xubuntu uses the same software sources (package repositories) than the rest of the Ubuntu family, that means you can install any software in Ubuntu in Xubuntu as well. To do this, use one of the following:

Ubuntu Software Center in Applications menu » Ubuntu Software Center
Synaptic Package Manager in Applications menu » System » Synaptic Package Manager
apt-get

3. How do I configure my network connection?

You can configure networking with the Network manager from the main panel or by running it with Alt+F2 and running nm-connection-editor. For PPPoE connections, you should use pppoeconf.

4. Gnome Keyring keeps asking me for the correct password, how do I remove the prompt?

You have to delete ~/.gnome2/keyrings and start over.

5. My window decorations/panels are gone! How do I get them back?

You can restore window decorations by pressing Alt+F2 and running xfwm4. To restore panels, press Alt+F2 and run xfce4-panel.

If the window decorations and/or panels don’t start automatically on login, add the respective commands to your session from Applications Menu » Settings » Settings Manager in Session and Startup on the Application Autostart tab.

In Xfce 4.8 (Xubuntu 11.04 and newer):

Install Alacarte from terminal, sudo apt-get install alacarte --no-install-recommends
Run Alacarte and edit the menu

In Xfce 4.6 (Xubuntu 10.10 and older):

Copy /etc/xdg/menus/xfce-applications.menu to ~/.config/xdg/menus and customize it
You can also create desktop entries in ~/.local/share/applications to override the existing applications (change or hide) or add new ones.

See http://wiki.xfce.org/howto/customize-menu for more information.

7. How can I add custom themes or new themes to Xubuntu

Yes, you can use themes for GTK and install themes directly to ~/.themes or /usr/share/themes. You can obtain more themes from various sites, like xfce-look.org.

8. My mouse pointer/cursor doesn’t change on demand, how do I fix that?

If the cursor doesn’t follow the theme set for 11.04 and above, try chmod +x ~/.Xdefaults. .Xdefaults also must be executable for Xfce 4.8, this is a change from Xfce 4.6.

9. Can I install Compiz on Xubuntu?

Yes, yes you can, but keep in mind that Xubuntu doesn’t package Compiz and does not provide any support for it. You can install Compiz by running sudo apt-get install compiz

Once Compiz is installed you need to replace xfwm with Compiz. Do this by pressing Alt+F2 and running compiz --replace.

Also see “How do I enable Compiz in Xubuntu?” at askubuntu.com. If you still have problems please join the forums or IRC channels and feel free to ask all the questions you need.

My question is not covered here, how can I get more help?

Visit the Help & Support page to learn about the available help resources.