Upgrade to 13.04 Crashes on Blueman, or Bug #1016942

Setting up blueman (1.23-1) ...
reload: Unknown instance: 
invoke-rc.d: initscript dbus, action "reload" failed.
dpkg: error processing blueman (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 blueman

So I was upgrading my machine a few days ago after neglecting dist-upgrades for a while and realized that there was a new release out, 13.04 to be exact. I was running on Lubuntu 12.04 and enjoying it, but I was willing to take the plunge. My first mistake was I had left my system set for long term releases, so when I ran

$ sudo do-release-upgrade

my response was simply

Checking for a new ubuntu release  

No new release found  

after checking my /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades and finding that it had Prompt=lts all I had to do was change Prompt=lts to Prompt=normal and all was well.

For awhile.

During my update, I may or may not have pressed "ctrl-c" to break out of what I thought was a text editor, but was really something else that sent my break command to my release upgrade in progress. I had to reboot to come back to life. When I did, I was thankfully greeted with a login prompt, but no networking. I followed the commands from the previous post to get back on my feet, and then ran into this new issue. Upgrade crashes on blueman. So I run

$ sudo apt-get remove blueman

and

$ sudo dpkg --configure -a

$ sudo apt-get install -f

until I have everything installed and configured besides blueman and lubuntu-desktop . From here I was racking my head for days, until I came upon a nice little IRC log here. I had been going through the bug logs here and found the same error earlier, but nothing new. The IRC log recommended quite a few options, but the only one that did anything for me (and the only one I even tried for that matter) was

$ sudo service dbus restart

and then it worked like a charm! Whoever it was in that IRC chat, thanks!

Enabling Networking from Terminal in Lubuntu 12.04

I was running a "sudo do-release-upgrade" on my Lubuntu 12.01 laptop when durring a series of unfortunate events, I broke it. It rebooted and I was able to login, but no X session. Here is what I did to come back. I typed:

1. sudo ifconfig eth0 up (in order to logically enable the interface)
2. sudo ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.4 (to set the ip since dhcp wasn't working)
3. sudo ifup eth0 (this should have turned dhcp on for eth0)
4. vi dns.txt
5. enter "nameserver 4.2.2.2" and save and quit
6. cat dns.txt | sudo resolvconf -a eth0
7. And you should be live!

Lenovo G555: Blank Screen On Boot

My uncle recently provided me with a Lenovo G555 that had what sounded like an overheating issue. Computer turned itself off, waited a few hours, and it would come back to life. We told him the basics about laptop care (don't leave laptop on soft surfaces, if necessary you can turn it upside down to allow airflow, that kind of thing.) When it got to us, it had been dead 3 days with no signs of coming back. For those of you who don't know how this ends, it isn't coming back. You would press the power button, and the fan would spin up, hard drive and cd/dvd drive would make noise, the power and charging light would even come on. But nothing (not even a lit black screen) would come up on the LCD, the HDD and Wifi light wouldn't light up, and the keyboard presses didn't seem to do anything at all.

To ensure it wasn't anything else, we:
-Pulled out the battery, ran it on AC power
-Plugged it into an external monitor
-Pulled out the hard-drive
-Put in a bootable DVD
-Pulled out the RAM and installed each on its own

and finally examined the motherboard for any telling signs. And that there were.

From first sight there wasn't anything wrong.

Then I noticed some red looking stuff on the chip on the upper left hand corner (I had cleaned it before I took these pictures)

As you can see here, post rubbing alcohol, pre-screwdriver, something seems to have shorted here beside this capacitor.

Blurry picture post-screwdriver.

Capacitor after scraping off gunk with Flathead screwdriver

 Even after the cleaning there was no joy with this laptop, but from what I do know, some capacitors have a
shelf life, and if one has gone, others may as well without the fun show we see here (as well as they may be on the opposite side of the board) This laptop is fully dead. And at that point there's only one thing you can do: Check his pockets for loose change.

UPDATE 9/9/13:
After some research I found that a common issue with this computer is overheating that leads to warping of the motherboard and therefore the disconnection of the graphics chip. How did I find this? Lots of this laptop on Ebay with the same problem attributed to said problem as well as repair videos teaching re-flowing on this laptop. Just saying.

UPDATE 1/8/14
After thinking this one through a little more, I have decided that this is most likely an issue of overheating. Although there is what looks like a dead capacitor (if you didn't see it before, it was the middle black and silver square just to the left of the "large" black chip in the last photo. With all of the overheating symptoms that this computer problem started with, it seems more likely that the graphics chip is having issues than that one capacitor on the board dying. That being the case, when I get a chance, I plan to get a large toaster oven and follow the directions here to see if I can't fix this one. If I do, successfully or not, I will post my findings here. For more information on reflowing and this type of issue, look up the similar issue of the Xbox 360 RRoD (red ring of death). Many people will recommend terrible fixes including overheating the machine on purpose (bad idea, most things on the board don't like controlled heat.) and putting it in your oven after stripping it down (also bad idea, solder fumes are toxic, and you will want to cook food in there!), but there are good solutions, such as using a heat controlled hot air gun, using an electric skillet (that you won't use for food ever) or the toaster oven idea. Keep in mind that this is technically very difficult process and these methods are only given because your machine is ALREADY dead. You have very little to lose -- if you mess up, it's still dead. You could have it done professionally, but that would likely cost more than a new laptop or Xbox.

Logitech Quickcam STX Linux Driver

For anyone like me who is searching for the linux drivers for this webcam, look no further. There were at least 2 depreciated projects I went through before I got here, but lo and behold, this camera is supported out of box. Granted, that doesn't mean that it works with skype (it has been giving me trouble in both Lubuntu 12.04 and Windows XP), but you should be able to open VLC (not cheese, at least for me) and have it open right up from File > Open Capture Device, and then choosing /dev/video0. Hope that helps out both you and me for a later date. If someone got it working in Skype, let me know!