Tuesday, 15 November 2011

Explanation of the Linux (Ubuntu) file system


The linux filesystem is simple and intuitive - much more so than that of Windows.  But sometimes those abbreviations are unclear.  Here's an explanation of the folder you should see in the root of your drive ("/"):

/bin – binary applications (most of your executable files)
/boot – files required to boot (such as the kernel, etc)
/dev – your devices (everything from drives to displays)
/etc – just about every configuration file for your system
/home – locally stored user files and folders
/lib – system libraries (similar to Program Files)
/lost+found – lost and found for lost files
/media – mounted (or loaded) devices such as cdroms, digital cameras, etc.
/mnt – mounted file systems
/opt – location for “optionally” installed programs
/proc – dynamic directory including information about and listing of processes
/root – “home” folder for the root user
/sbin – system-only binaries (see /bin)
/sys – contains information about the system
/tmp – temporary files
/usr – applications mainly for regular users
/var – mainly logs, databases, etc.

Note that to the beginner/regular user, most of these folders will remain untouched, with the exception of /home.  The /home directory contains folders for each user, in which _your_ specific documents, photos, video, etc. will be.  This is similar to C:/Documents and Settings/USERNAME/ you see in Windows.

Tuesday, 8 November 2011

How to fix /opt/google/chrome/libgcflashplayer.so crash

I keep getting a /opt/google/chrome/libgcflashplayer.so has crashed error when clicking "fullscreen" on any flash video in Ubuntu.  I'm on Ubuntu natty 11.04 and using Chrome 7.0.517.44 (I know it's old, but I have a number of issues with the newer versions).

Solution?  At least temporarily...

about:plugins

Expand the "Details" box in the upper right-hand corner and you will notice the "Shockwave" plugin has two entries.  I have 10.1 r103 and 11.0 r1.


Disable the older version in location /opt/google/chrome/libgcflashplayer.so.  Flash objects now fullscreen without problem.


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