Translations by atany

<acronym>FAT16</acronym> and <acronym>FAT32</acronym>: these are Microsoft Windows filesystems found on older computers. If you would like to share data between two computers, the <emphasis><acronym>FAT32</acronym></emphasis> format is a good choice.

When you connect a removable storage device to your computer, it must be <emphasis>mounted</emphasis> by the operating system so that you are able to access the files on the device.

To find out how to mount and unmount storage devices, see <ulink type="help" url="ghelp:user-guide#gosnautilus-460">Using Removable Media</ulink>

When you copy files to a storage device, they are not always written to the device immediately. Instead, they are often stored in a queue so that they can all be transferred across to the device at the same time (for reasons of efficiency). If you disconnect the device before all of the files have been transferred, then you could lose the files. To prevent this, you must always <emphasis>unmount</emphasis> a storage device before disconnecting it.

This section contains information for people using Ubuntu on a laptop computer.

Press <menuchoice><guimenu>System</guimenu><guimenuitem>Preferences</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Screensaver</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.

Change the <guilabel>Screensaver theme</guilabel> to <guilabel>Blank screen</guilabel>. This will simply display a blank screen as a screensaver.

Touchpads

Most laptop computers come with a touchpad, which is used to control the mouse pointer. There are many ways of changing the way that the touchpad behaves; the most basic touchpad settings can be configured in the following way.

Press <menuchoice><guimenu>System</guimenu><guimenuitem>Preferences</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Mouse</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.

Select the <guilabel>Touchpad</guilabel> tab.

Here you can change the touchpad settings to your liking. Changes should take effect immediately.

Some touchpads may be detected as normal mouse devices, even though they are actually touchpads. In this case, the <guilabel>Touchpad</guilabel> tab will not be available in the mouse preferences.

See the <ulink url="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticsTouchpad">community support pages</ulink> for more information on touchpads.

Finding laptop testing reports

Many laptops are regularly tested by the Ubuntu community to ensure that various features work correctly. The results of these tests are available for you to read, and may offer insight into any problems you might be experiencing with your laptop.

See the Laptop Testing <ulink url="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam">community support pages</ulink> for a full listing of available laptop tests.

You can participate in laptop testing yourself by contacting the <ulink url="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam">Laptop Testing Team</ulink>.

Suspending and hibernating your computer

In order to save power, you can put your computer into one of a number of power-saving modes when you are not using it:

<emphasis role="strong">Suspending</emphasis> a computer is like putting the computer to sleep. The computer will still be turned on and all of your work will be left open, but it will use much less power. You can wake the computer by pressing a key or clicking the mouse.

<emphasis role="strong">Hibernating</emphasis> is turning the computer off completely while saving the current state of the computer (such as keeping all of your open documents). When you turn the computer back on after hibernating, all of your work should be restored as it was before hibernation. No power is used when the computer is hibernating.

<emphasis role="strong">Shutting down</emphasis> is turning the computer off completely, without saving the current state of the computer. No power is used when the computer is shut down.

<emphasis role="strong">Resuming</emphasis> is bringing the computer out of a power saving mode and back into normal operation. You can resume the computer from being suspended by pressing a keyboard button or by clicking the mouse. You can resume from being hibernated by pressing the power button on your computer.

You can manually put your computer into a power-saving mode by pressing the <application>User Switcher</application> in the top right hand corner of the screen and then pressing the appropriate button.

Some computers may have problems going into certain power saving modes. The best way of checking if your computer can handle a power-saving mode is to try to switch to that mode and see if it behaves as you expected. Always make sure you save important documents before suspending or hibernating.

My computer does not suspend or hibernate correctly

Some computers are unable to suspend or hibernate correctly with Ubuntu. If this is the case for your computer, you may notice some of the following symptoms:

The computer does not turn off after you click to hibernate it.

When you turn the computer on after hibernating it, your previously open programs are not restored.

The computer will not wake up after you have suspended it.

Certain programs or hardware devices stop working correctly after resuming from hibernation or waking-up from being suspended.

If your hardware does not work properly after suspending or hibernating your computer, restart your computer and it should return to normal. If a program does not work properly, try closing the program and then starting it again.

Make sure that you save all of your open documents before testing for suspend and hibernate problems.

Why do I get a strange pattern on the screen when I hibernate my computer?

Your screen may show a black and white pattern just after you click to hibernate your computer. This is usually nothing to worry about and is just how the graphics cards of some computers respond to the initial stages of the hibernation process.