Fixing Ubuntu with kernel 5.11

I previously mentioned the kernel 5.11 image was completely unusable. Well, these 2 were definitely missing and I need to install manually:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-5.11.0-36-generic
sudo apt-get install linux-modules-extra-5.11.0-36-generic

The above took care of the networking unavailable issue for me. 

Now to get the display working with proper resolutions (no 640x480 please!)

sudo apt purge nvidia* libnvidia*

This removed my previously manually installed Nvidia display driver and after reboot it shows clearly it uses the X.Org open source driver instead of "Continue using a manually uninstalled driver" 

I hope this becomes stable for another few months. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Credits go to: Nvidia's official website (the post for fixing nvidia-smi >> Failed to initialize NVML: Driver/library version mismatch) 

This seems useful for installing Nvidia driver but I did not need to follow it. 

Ubuntu and GRUB default image

My Manjaro experiment has kinda failed because it would hang from time to time. Well, with Linux you always have workarounds, in this case, use the most "mainstream" distro: Ubuntu. I actually use a less resource intensive variant of Ubuntu called Ubuntu Mate. However, one of the updates must have broken compatibility with some existing drivers (e.g. NVIDIA Driver Version: 390.138) and I ended up always going back to the oldest kernel image which I choose manually from the Boot menu of GRUB. This is the guide to change the default so no more manual intervention is needed! (BTW, I was so worried that the Wifi driver is broken for some reason even in that image. It turns out the Wifi-disabled issue went away after hitting the "hardware" Wifi button on my machine a few times. Whew!)

「闌干」是「欄杆」嗎?

先說一件我出醜的事，話說我為了練字在網上搜尋到一首詩詞，有繁體也有簡體，我自然採用了前者，寫完和朋友分享，朋友說：「你寫的『闌幹』應該是錯字吧！」認真地讀了該詞一下，意思的確是「欄杆」，「闌幹」顯然是從簡體編碼「阑干」轉換過來的。其實另一位朋友已經提過我：由繁轉簡再轉繁是一個lossy operation, 因為繁對簡是many-to-one的關係。

前人詩文似乎喜用「闌干」，不一定用「欄杆」。這是從中華民國教育部重編國語辭典修訂本查證過的：

1. 竹木或金屬條編成的柵欄，常置於陽臺前或通道間。金．王特起〈喜遷鶯．登山臨水〉詞：「千里關塞遠，雁陣不來，猶把闌干倚。」也作「欄干」、「欄杆」。
2. 縱橫散亂的樣子。漢．蔡琰〈胡笳十八拍〉：「豈知重得兮入長安，歎息欲絕兮淚闌干。」清．王鵬運〈浣溪沙．苜蓿闌干滿上林〉詞：「苜蓿闌干滿上林，西風殘秣獨沉吟。」
3. 星光橫斜參差的樣子。唐．劉方平〈月夜〉詩：「更深月色半人家，北斗闌干南斗斜。」宋．陳興義〈早行〉詩：「露侵駝褐曉寒輕，星斗闌干分外明。」

除了第一義和「欄杆」一樣，原來還有其他意思。

CD Ripper for Ubuntu

When was the last time you need to rip tracks from CD? For me, I needed to rip a half-dozen of CDs in the past month. My only computer that still have a builtin CD-ROM drive runs Linux (Ubuntu.) It actually comes with RhythmBox that has the capability to rip (and play, of course) However, its default CD info database is MusicBrainz, which has trouble recognizing quite a few of my CDs. It does have a CDDB plugin (which I am too lazy to figure out how to install) Then I installed RipperX but got an error 22. Finally, I found that fre:ac works! And it came as a ApplImage so I didn't have to install anything. And it rips quicker than RhythmBox anyway. So, we have a winner!