[Ubuntu] Install Microsoft fonts

Most of the world uses Microsoft Windows and Office, therefore it might be sometimes necessary to generate documents using Microsoft fonts, which of course are only available on Windows.

For Ubuntu, the ttf-mscorefonts-installer package contains SOME of those fonts, simply install it and you can start using them AFTER regenerating the font cache with fc-cache

[Linux] Bind special key press to ALSA control action

If using ALSA, it's possible to bind special keyboard keys to action controls with a few configuration lines.

First of all, to find the available action controls, run in a terminal: amixer scontrols

Then, find the key event we need to bind to the desired action, and add it as an event,action pair in a new configuration file under /etc/acpi/events for example:

event=button/mute MUTE 00000080 00000000 K
action=/usr/bin/amixer sset 'Master',0 toggle

which in this case for my lapotop binds the mute button to the mute action. It is also possible to execute a script instead, for example:

event=ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001009
action=/etc/acpi/undock.sh

which runs some actions when the laptop is undocked.

[Linux] Find which event is generated on special keypress

To determine which ACPI event is generated when a special key is pressed, simply open a terminal and run: acpi_listen

Then press any special key (media keys and such, normal keys won't generate an event) and you will see the output eg:

button/volumedown VOLDN 00000080 00000000 K
button/mute MUTE 00000080 00000000 K
button/volumeup VOLUP 00000080 00000000 K

[Ubuntu] Boot USB after error mmx64.efi not found

UEFI, great leap into the future and also great pain.

There is a funny error that can happen after creating a UEFI bootable USB to install a linux distro for example. If the installation is not completed immediately and the system is restarted, some files are left in some area of the EFI partition (I guess) and subsequent attempts to boot the exact same device will fail with an error:

Failed to open \EFI\BOOT\mmx64.efi - Not Found
Failed to load image \EFI\BOOT\mmx64.efi: Not Found
Failed to start MokManager: Not Fond
Something has gone seriously wrong: import_mok_state() failed

The easiest fix, is to simply browse the USB drive and go into the efi/boot folder, then copy the grubx64.efi file and rename it to mmx64.efi

The next boot will work again as intended. Magic of the machines