Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Perd Hapley on May 16, 2009, 01:29:42 AM
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That 64-bit version I burned onto a disk the other day? It works. Sorry if this is a dumb question, but is it faster when installed, versus working from the CD?
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Like most every good thing that falls into my hands, I managed to break it. :laugh: Locked it up, somehow, in the middle of installing Flash Player. I did something I didn't understand (some non-Windowsy function I hadn't seen before), and then when it recovered, it wouldn't install the Flash plug-in.
Better luck to me next time.
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It will be considerably faster when installed.
Had you installed to your hard drive before you borked it?
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No, it's not on the hard drive yet.
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http://www.ghacks.net/2009/05/04/installing-flash-in-ubuntu-904-with-firefox/
That's from a quick google search.
Start again, install to hard drive to see everything working properly. Not much will be lost except time (and 14,879 posts says you have some of that).
I'm not much of a proper geek, but there is almost nothing that I have run into with Ubuntu that a google search won't solve.
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Thanks. I quit tinkering with it because it was about 1 am.
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I'll probably out myself as a geek now - but it is quite a lot of fun. I only started playing with it because I had some time on my hands. That was over 3 years ago, and things like flash were notably harder.
With an up to date Ubuntu (and I can only speak for Ubuntu really) if you have an nVidia card, reasonably widely used wireless adapter etc then it is pretty much plug in and play. The only issue is Ubuntu restricting dvd and mp3 playback by default to avoid licensing issues, but that is easily fixed. Some other Ubuntu based distros enable it, think Mint does.
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Ubuntu does the miracles. My 32-bit Jaunty just arrived in the mail. I put it in the drive on my old Dell GX240, the drive that Windows no longer recognizes. Works fine.
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Running from the CD is slower than a thousand suns. I don't even have the patience for it, and I've had system freeze running off the CD....I think...I generally lose patience and pull the plug.
After you install it, consider enabling the medibuntu repositories and installing the following packages
ubuntu-restricted-extras
flashplugin-nonfree
w64codecs
libdvdread
That should get you a start on playing proprietary media formats. Ubuntu only comes with completely free software, which is how you are able to download it, distribute it, and install it without answering any EULAs.
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I haz installeded it on the old Dell. =)
It wanted to give me a bunch of Bluetooth updates. What Bluetooth has to do with my computer, I don't know.
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I haz Ubuntu too. It runs as a virtual machine in VMware Player. I mainly use it for pulling dow torrents. If Linux had color management and Adobe ported Photoshop to it I would likely switch, but until then oh well.
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Reckon colors aren't much of a concern for me. Except the "red glass" cursor. Likez it.
I'm installing the 64-bit Jaunty on the new Dell at this time.
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Is there any way the dual boot OS decider could give a fellow more time to choose a different operating system? Or change the default OS?
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Is there any way the dual boot OS decider could give a fellow more time to choose a different operating system? Or change the default OS?
Most likely, you must edit the grub.conf file located somewhere I can't recall on the fly.
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By default I think the grub timeout is 10 seconds, which turns into infinity seconds as soon as you press a key. I usually edit the menu.list, but it's to turn it down to a more reasonable 2-3 seconds. To change the timeout, edit /boot/grub/menu.lst . There is a line that will say timeout 10. Change the 10 to whatever you want. You might want to backup the file first if you are paranoid, because it's a pretty important file.
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You might want to backup the any configuration or operating system file first if you are paranoid wise...
A little closer to my POV when it comes to editing system files.
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I'm on my fluxbox machine, so I'm not entirely sure where in the menu the following can be found, but there is a gui tool to edit the necessary file.
startup-manager
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To change the timeout, edit /boot/grub/menu.lst . There is a line that will say timeout 10. Change the 10 to whatever you want.
How, with terminal?
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How, with terminal?
I used a text editor in Ubuntu to do this the last time I played with it. It was a little more difficult than just opening the file since you have to sudo it (run it as an admin) when you open the grub conf file in order for it to let you make changes. I don't remember the exact way to do it as I don't currently have an Ubuntu installation (it doesn't like my SATA chipset and/or drives). I'm sure one of our resident Linux gurus will set you right, though.
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I am mucking about with an older Dell XPS Gen 2 laptop
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpremium1.uploadit.org%2FdocZox%2F%2FXPS.jpg&hash=25b9e03fc7734df1f7bc51a0728c711bb79794c0)
I have it running Ubuntu but i notice all the blue led lights on the machine are always on
and the hardware controls for volume and what not are non functional
I gather Dell has XP based code that runs the bling
I would like to make it into a dual boot set up and nothing aboard at this point has any value to me.
What's the best method for building up a clean XP/Linux laptop?
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My Dells do a disturbing sort of beep-squeal when Ubuntu shuts them down.
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My Dells do a disturbing sort of beep-squeal when Ubuntu shuts them down.
Just the evil Microsoft daemons howling in agony & frustration that a righteous OS now inhabits the hardware.
Easily rectified by bringing a Roomba or three within Bluetooth range, exorcising the demons from your Dell into them, and sending them over your apartment balcony edge to be smashed on the pavement below.
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How, with terminal?
With the text editor of your choice. I always use nano for this sort of thing, but I think you could use gedit or whatever you want. You will need root permissions to edit the file.
sudo <yourtexteditor> /boot/grub/menu.lst
My Dells do a disturbing sort of beep-squeal when Ubuntu shuts them down.
Try adding running the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
blacklist pcspkr
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Just the evil Microsoft daemons howling in agony & frustration that a righteous OS now inhabits the hardware.
Easily rectified by bringing a Roomba or three within Bluetooth range, exorcising the demons from your Dell into them, and sending them over your apartment balcony edge to be smashed on the pavement below.
Sweet merciful crap that's funny.....
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With the text editor of your choice. I always use nano for this sort of thing, but I think you could use gedit or whatever you want. You will need root permissions to edit the file.
sudo <yourtexteditor> /boot/grub/menu.lst
Try adding running the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
blacklist pcspkr
I've been looking around, trying to figure out how to use the supplied text editor (gedit), but I don't see any "Text Editing for Dummies Who've Never Heard of Text Editing Before" web site.
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I've been looking around, trying to figure out how to use the supplied text editor (gedit), but I don't see any "Text Editing for Dummies Who've Never Heard of Text Editing Before" web site.
Different texteditors work differently. gedit is very much a MS Notebook-like editor. Meaning, gedit & Notepad share many of the same commands and require similar brain power to master.
Of course, real men use emacs as their text editor of choice.
$ sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
gedit how-tos:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/gedit
http://live.gnome.org/Gedit/
http://projects.gnome.org/gedit/
http://www.digipedia.pl/man/gedit.1.html
http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/2007/03/07/how-to-make-the-best-of-ubuntu-text-editor-gedit/
http://www.linfo.org/gedit.html
http://showmedovideos4.com/ShowMeDos/3130000.flv
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Of course, real men use emacs as their text editor of choice.
Pfft. Real men use vi. :P
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Hmpff...
I own a Roomba.
I like it.
Remember to charge it once every week or two.
Remember to take it off the charger, and hit the switch.
Dig it out from under whatever piece of furniture it dies under.
It's in the Garage Full of Stuff.
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OK. Thanks all. I think I've got a fuzzy ball-park idea of what's going on. Managed to edit the number of seconds it waits before booting.
The blacklist pcspkr didn't seem to work, though. I wish it would. When I turn off my speakers, the built-in speaker comes on.
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odd. My Ubuntu Netbook remix is doing it too, but I haven't fixed it since I never shut it off anymore. On my eeePC I also had to blacklist "snd_pcsp"
This thread FWIW
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=947502
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Of course, real men use emacs as their text editor of choice.
Pfft. Real men use vi. :P
Oh, Shiiiiiii. . ... .
*runs for cover*
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Gotta put my vote in for VI. Emacs is awfully bloated for simple text editing.
Chris
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I like ee or pico for terminal-based editing.
kate for programming or quanta if I am doing web stuff
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Kate is a really splendid "modern" text editor for programming. I only wish it had Arduino highlighting.
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Kate is a really splendid "modern" text editor for programming. I only wish it had Arduino highlighting.
You can extend kate's highlighting, you make a special xml file that describes how things should be highlighted, and place it into the right folder for kate to find it, then that format becomes an option on the highlighting menu.
Someone might have written one for arduino already.
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Ubuntu makes the smilies look all garbledy. =( Makes 'em kinda fuzzy.
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Ubuntu makes the smilies look all garbledy. =( Makes 'em kinda fuzzy.
Did you download & install the proprietary driver for your video card?
Also, check your video card settings. Too high a resolution with too low a refresh rate can cause problems, no matter the OS.
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Of course, real men use emacs as their text editor of choice.
Real men use emacs. Tormented orcs use vi. Notepad is a text editor with training wheels.
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OK, I give up. I know I could find info on my video card, if I restarted and booted Windows, but where does one find such information with Ubuntu? System/Admin/Hardware Drivers only tells me that I have no proprietary drivers.
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but where does one find such information with Ubuntu?
"lspci"
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vi is the only way to roll for non-GUI text editing.
Notepad++ works rather well for GUI text editing. I LOVE search/replace with regex capabilities.
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Yeah, OK. I looked up lspci on the Ubuntu help page. It gave me a list of commands, which was useless without knowing how to use them. I tried typing lspci-v in a terminal window. No luck. I tried to look it up in the text editor. No luck.
So much for the idea that Ubuntu is so much easier to use than Windows. I'm trying to figure out how any move away from GUI back to command prompts is a win for user-friendliness. Or why my computer having the cheek to tell me I don't have permission to access certain files is somehow a good thing.
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Wait, what were you doing again?
oh, and it's "lspci" or "lspci -v" NOT "lspci-v"
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lspci should give you output that looks something like this:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82915G/P/GV/GL/PL/910GL Memory Controller Hub (rev 04)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82915G/P/GV/GL/PL/910GL PCI Express Root Port (rev 04)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82915G/GV/910GL Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 04)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 82915G Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev d3)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FR (ICH6/ICH6R) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FW (ICH6/ICH6W) SATA Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 01)
Which should give you plenty of clues as to what your hardware is.
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it's "lspci" or "lspci -v" NOT "lspci-v"
Yes, you're right. It was simply a matter of "lspci-v" vs. "lspci -v". Thanks.
That sort of command line finicky-ness is not terribly user-friendly.
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That sort of command line finicky-ness is not terribly user-friendly.
No, it's not. The average user shouldn't have to mess around in the command prompt, regardless of the OS. Despite the constant call of Linux evangelists, Linux is far from the end-all, be-all Windows replacement. In many, many, many cases, Linux does not "just work."
Ubuntu, for instance, absolutely does not like my SATA controller/drives. Could I make it work? Sure, after hours of forum searching, googling, and playing with settings and drivers. Or I could try another flavor, but it might not like my sound card, another one might not like my embedded network interface, another might not like my scanner.
The absolute flood of "flavors" and kernel versions often requires that a user compile a program they want to use themselves. The average user, even many advanced users, coming from Mac or PC is not going to be able to do that. In my case, I could, but it's a pain and I really don't want to.
Linux will likely never beat windows or mac for # of installations, unless some unitization occurs. The Linux world is simply too broad right now, and too confusing for the average computer user. Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, SuSE, Mandriva, Knoppix, Slackware, Gentoo.
Linux certainly has its place and it certainly does some things better than MacOS or Windows. Security is superior in Linux, due to its development model, holes in security get patched up pretty quickly.
I enjoy playing around with it occasionally. But it is not PanaceaOS, MessiahOS, or The One OS To Rule Them All. I'm far from a Linux hater, I just get annoyed at the parroted "Use Linux, instead!" every single time someone has a Windows problem. Linux is not one-size-fits-all, it's just another tool in the toolbox.
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No, it's not. The average user shouldn't have to mess around in the command prompt, regardless of the OS. Despite the constant call of Linux evangelists, Linux is far from the end-all, be-all Windows replacement. In many, many, many cases, Linux does not "just work."
I doubt fistful "has to" use the command prompt, he is after all, merely trying to figure out which hardware he has installed.
He probably got the advise from someone over the internet where it is much easier to give a one-line answer than to say something like "Click here, then click on system settings, then click on video hardware, then . . .. "
Oh, and if I had a nickel for every time I read the words "Click start, then run, and type 'cmd' and press enter." on a windows support forum, I could buy you a clue.
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The command prompt issue aside, I stand by my main point: Linux is not the always-better-than-windows solution you evangelize it to be. Windows has its problems, trust me, I know; I fight with Windows Server on a daily basis. But Linux has problems too. Linux is better for you; great, use Linux. Windows is usually better for me; great, I use Windows usually. But I'm not going to say Windows is better for everyone; and in the same vein, Linux is not better for everyone.
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And Macs just suck. :laugh:
I use my computer (and XP) for the following:
1) Internet
2) Games
3) 3D design
4) Word processing
5) 2D design
Linux fails at nearly half of that. I have used Ubuntu before and liked it, but it's not the one for me.
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Apart from Games, what does Linux fail at?
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Apart from Games, what does Linux fail at?
Linux doesn't necessarily "fail" at anything (other than gaming, but that's mostly due to the fact that no one makes games for linux (see above "too many flavors/versions for mainstream popularity" remark)), it's quite good at a lot of stuff. It's different than Windows, it's different from its special cousin MacOS. It does some things better, some things worse; some aspects of the user experience are better, others are worse.
If any of my posts have come across as "Linux is teh sux0r!", then I worded them poorly. Linux is great for lots of people, but so is Windows, and so is MacOS. I have my own preferences and stick with those.
You'll note though that when fistful asked his questions in this thread, no one responded with simply: "http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/)".
Edited to add:
One example of something I feel Linux does worse (again, mostly a result of the "too many versions" thing). If Joe Blow writes a program for linux that I'd like to try, but that is not something easily downloaded say through Ubuntu's little application updater/downloader, it is much, much more complicated than windows or mac.
Either it's straight source code or it's in a distribution package or binary that doesn't easily play well with my particular flavor of Linux; either way, I've either got to learn how to compile a program to binary in linux (a hill too steep for most users), or in the latter case spend time on forums figuring out how to get distribution package X to work on Linux flavor Y.
In Windows, I just download it and run/install it. This isn't a fault of the Linux OS itself, it's more due to the fact there is no "Linux." There's Ubuntu Linux, Gentoo Linux, SuSE Linux, etc.
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The 3D design bit. Not that it's incapable, but the software I use (though not impossible to adapt) is, to date, still incompatible. Games are what I use it for most of the time, too, so that nitpick's got a little more weight behind it.
It's just that with XP, if something doesn't work, I can click a couple of times and it'll be fine.
With Linux, I have to search the internet finding out if anyone's had that problem (they haven't). I have to register on a forum I'll use once, post my question, and wait a month for someone to reply, usually a nonsensical spam reply involving plankton. After bumping the thread a couple more weeks, someone will post a reply with a bunch of code or a link to another forum that I can't follow until (get this) I register with the second forum, too. Since it's not the exact same problem, I'll post a reply saying "what if instead of X, it's XY?" at which point I get a smattering of more code that is looks nothing like what was suggested earlier.
And that's if the Internet connection isn't the problem I'm trying to fix.
Forgot to add another one: 6) Music. If my entire music library (thousands of songs) is in .mp3 or .wma or something like that, it's more than a little annoying to convert it all to Ogg V.
Long story short: After 18 years, Linux is still little more than a tinkerer's-only platform.
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Long story short: After 18 years, Linux is still little more than a tinkerer's-only platform.
On the server? No, not at all. We have several production boxes running Linux. My personal server is running linux. It's hardly a system for tinkering.
On the desktop? Maybe. I ran it as my only desktop (no dual boot for me) for a couple years long before friendly distros like Ubuntu came out. Sure, there was plenty of tinkering to set it up, but once I got it configured like I wanted, I used it just like any other desktop.
I mainly use Linux on the server side these days. Windows does just fine on the desktop and I somehow manage to avoid all the problems that people swear happen to all Windows systems.
Chris
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I mainly use Linux on the server side these days. Windows does just fine on the desktop and I somehow manage to avoid all the problems that people swear happen to all Windows systems.
Chris
That's pretty much the best way to do it, in my opinion. Use unix/linux for your server and windows and/or mac for your desktop. Let each do what they do best.
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Why in the world would you convert your mp3 or other music file formats to ogg?
I have no problem playing media on linux boxes using one of a number of very versatile players, mplayer & vlc being the most common. Heck, I don't think I have ever played an ogg file on a linux box.
1) Internet
2) Games
3) 3D design
4) Word processing
5) 2D design
#2 is about the only one linux lacks suitable coverage.
As for a tinkerer's toy, that is rubbish. All the heavy engineering number crunching at my company is done on linux boxes and has been trending that way for years.
Here is a little data I collected for an MBA project. The transition time for my business unit was 2000-2002. I then projected to 2004. My 2004 projection turned out to be pessimistic for penguin-lovers, as the reality by then was "buh-bye" to all but one proprietary *ix box and no more growth in Windows OS boxes.
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Now, now, let's think on the things which unite the two operating systems. For example, they both look better if you set them to a green color scheme.
Somehow, I influenced my XP on this computer to give me single-click-ism on the mouse. I don't remember how I managed to do that. It was easy enough with the Win 2000 machine, but the option seemed to be missing in XP. Wish I could figure out how to do that with Ubuntu. =(
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Open up a window like your home folder, go to Edit --> Preferences --> Behavior --> then fill in "single click".
I didn't know you could enable this single-click behavior in windows. By the way, single-click-to-do-most-things is the default behavior in KDE.
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Thanks, got it. It did take me about five minutes of mucking about with the home folder in gedit, before I finally opened it from Places, then I was on the right track. =)
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Have you got all this sorted fisty?
I'm the first to admit that it can be a nightmare. I had to use a knoppix livecd to get usb2.0 speeds to transfer media to an external hard drive. I have no idea how long usb 2.0 support on this computer has been broken. Apparently the next kernel update will fix it.
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It ain't sorted yet. Right now, Ubuntu works better for web browsing. For some reason, Firefox is unusually slow on this machine, when I run it in XP.
I just paid hard cash for Word 2007, and I actually like it quite a bit, so I'm using XP for that sort of thing. I ditched the ribbon, and spent about an hour finding the dozen or so buttons I actually need, and put them in the tool bar at the top. Liking ditching the Save button, and installing a Save As button, instead. Once I found the option for text boundaries, it was all good. I find it very helpful to know where the margins are.
So, yeah, it looks and works a little more like Open Office now. =)