Ok, ubuntu installed and updated.


Recommended Posts

I got my screen resolution set right and i got all 193 updates to ubuntu. Questions

1. How can i import my bookmarks from firefox(windows) to firefox(ubuntu)? If i can also copy the add ons then thatd be nice, but the bookmarks are a must. I use Stumble upon alot and find cool stuff that i save, ive got hundreds of meticulusly sorted bookmarks, from online fre librarys to MIT opencourseware to cool music sites to lolcat forums to sites about religions.

2. What is a list of the nice apps for linux? PRetty much need Office, Winamp, MSN Messenger, Ventrillo, alchohol 120%, a download manager that will allow me to batch download from rapidshare, WinRAR. Ummm. Trying to think of what else, but i know it will come to me when i need it. Even if its not that EXACT program, a similar one that would function is fine. Also, any other apps that might be useful would be nice to know of as well.

3. Can someone give me a clear cut how-to for installing programs into ubuntu?

4. Desktop customization. Any tips or programs that are helpful? Any cool/neato things that linux comes preloaded with that i can use to spice it up a bit?

5. Thank you very very much in advance for any help given. I'm trying to get away from windows, it makes me angry too much and runs too slow. But the learning curve on linux is so steep that without help ill end up giving up and going back to windows.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How to install programs: Open up your Applications menu, in there, there is an entry "Add/Remove". There, say you want to install AbiWord (Word Processing Program), you simply click the checkbox next to it and click Apply Changes on the bottom of the window. This will install the application.

Also, you can hop into System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager. This is like the Add/Remove, but with many more options. It works the same way. Click on the checkbox and select install, and then Apply Changes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

sorry, this is not the reply you're looking for, but i'm just wondering what version of Ubuntu you're using and whether you have the flash plugins etc installed ok?

I put a version on my pc once and i couldnt install things, i tried all sorts of commands, but i didnt get anywhere!

More info would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Ch33ky

I got my screen resolution set right and i got all 193 updates to ubuntu. Questions

1. How can i import my bookmarks from firefox(windows) to firefox(ubuntu)? If i can also copy the add ons then thatd be nice, but the bookmarks are a must. I use Stumble upon alot and find cool stuff that i save, ive got hundreds of meticulusly sorted bookmarks, from online fre librarys to MIT opencourseware to cool music sites to lolcat forums to sites about religions.

2. What is a list of the nice apps for linux? PRetty much need Office, Winamp, MSN Messenger, Ventrillo, alchohol 120%, a download manager that will allow me to batch download from rapidshare, WinRAR. Ummm. Trying to think of what else, but i know it will come to me when i need it. Even if its not that EXACT program, a similar one that would function is fine. Also, any other apps that might be useful would be nice to know of as well.

3. Can someone give me a clear cut how-to for installing programs into ubuntu?

4. Desktop customization. Any tips or programs that are helpful? Any cool/neato things that linux comes preloaded with that i can use to spice it up a bit?

5. Thank you very very much in advance for any help given. I'm trying to get away from windows, it makes me angry too much and runs too slow. But the learning curve on linux is so steep that without help ill end up giving up and going back to windows.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got my screen resolution set right and i got all 193 updates to ubuntu. Questions

1. How can i import my bookmarks from firefox(windows) to firefox(ubuntu)? If i can also copy the add ons then thatd be nice, but the bookmarks are a must. I use Stumble upon alot and find cool stuff that i save, ive got hundreds of meticulusly sorted bookmarks, from online fre librarys to MIT opencourseware to cool music sites to lolcat forums to sites about religions.

Export the bookmarks from your windows firefox, it should save as bookmarks.html then import them into your ubuntu firefox.

2. What is a list of the nice apps for linux? PRetty much need Office, Winamp, MSN Messenger, Ventrillo, alchohol 120%, a download manager that will allow me to batch download from rapidshare, WinRAR. Ummm. Trying to think of what else, but i know it will come to me when i need it. Even if its not that EXACT program, a similar one that would function is fine. Also, any other apps that might be useful would be nice to know of as well.

  • Office = Open Office, installed by default
  • Winamp = Beep Media Player
  • MSN = Pidgin (installed by default), aMSN
  • Vintrillo = Not sure
  • Alcohol 120% = Depends what you use it for, there are apps to mount ISO's make ISO's etc
  • Download manager = There's not really a whole load of these around I don't think.

3. Can someone give me a clear cut how-to for installing programs into ubuntu?
Synaptic or the add/remove program menu entry. You can also install from source, or get debs from www.getdeb.net

4. Desktop customization. Any tips or programs that are helpful? Any cool/neato things that linux comes preloaded with that i can use to spice it up a bit?
Screenlets, gdesklets, compiz.

5. Thank you very very much in advance for any help given. I'm trying to get away from windows, it makes me angry too much and runs too slow. But the learning curve on linux is so steep that without help ill end up giving up and going back to windows.
No problem. :)

There is also LOTS of information here

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Plenty of the applications you need already come with Ubuntu. You get OpenOffice, Pidgin (MSN) and Rhythmbox (Winamp) in your vanilla install. You can use Brasero or Gnomebaker for burning CD's. Also I personally recommend Banshee over Rhythmbox, its just nicer if you ask me.

Assuming you want to use Mp3s etc, you'll need the Ubuntu restricted extras package and probably need to look into Medibuntu for playing DVDs. To install restricted extras open a terminal and enter:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Then input your account password to authorise the installation.

Another great applictation is AptOnCd. After you have got all your software installed you can run AptOnCd and it will create a disc of all the packages you have installed, you can use this to quickly resetup your machine should you need to format. I used it to transfer packages from my desktop to my laptop, it saved me hours. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Flash/java/shockwave ect plugins im not sure on, if they were added in by default with the updates then i got it. So far i have not had to install them. Im trying to take this one step at a time, first thing im dead set on is getting my apps organised and my bookmarks imported. I use my PC as a media center mainly and a gaming box secondly. World of Warcraft, old NES and SNES games, and Portal are about all i play, and even then only once or twice a week.

Accualy, i dont think i have all drivers updated. I just tried to enable desktop effects and it made me dload a driver.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Export the bookmarks from your windows firefox, it should save as bookmarks.html then import them into your ubuntu firefox.

  • Office = Open Office, installed by default
  • Winamp = Beep Media Player
  • MSN = Pidgin (installed by default), aMSN
  • Vintrillo = Not sure
  • Alcohol 120% = Depends what you use it for, there are apps to mount ISO's make ISO's etc
  • Download manager = There's not really a whole load of these around I don't think.

Synaptic or the add/remove program menu entry. You can also install from source, or get debs from www.getdeb.net

Screenlets, gdesklets, compiz.

No problem. :)

There is also LOTS of information here

Thanks, i downloaded a version of BMP, but its a .tar.gx filetype, i extracted the contents to the desktop, but i dont know what to do with it. Theres no setup.exe, its not in the add/remove list, and i cant find it in the package manager. The install.txt talks about using the terminal and command line things. Im capable enough to do it, but i dont know the commands to type in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can copy in your entire .mozilla folder holding your user settings from Windows into your Linux home. Not a Windows guy, but I think that folder would exist under your "Documents and Settings" folder, or whatever it is called these days.

You should already have OpenOffice.org installed. As well as media players, and a messenger like Pidgin (some MSN users may prefer aMSN). Is ventrillo a skype-like thing? Alchohol 120 for mounting iso images? Mounting files like that is native in Linux. If you mean for cd burning, I like k3b.

For installing, fire up your package manager (synaptic) and take it for a spin. Search for "celestia". Click the box to select it for installation. Click "apply" and it will find and install it for you. When installed, give it a quick test-run, it is an awesome space app. (Y)

You might want compiz for desktop eyecandy. I don't like that sort of stuff.

Hope that helps cover some of your mountain of questions all in one post! :p

EDIT:

Thanks, i downloaded a version of BMP, but its a .tar.gx filetype, i extracted the contents to the desktop, but i dont know what to do with it. Theres no setup.exe, its not in the add/remove list, and i cant find it in the package manager. The install.txt talks about using the terminal and command line things. Im capable enough to do it, but i dont know the commands to type in.
Oh lord, please don't do it that way! Use the package manager. It will retrieve everything you need, plus when you update your system, everything you installed via the package manager will be updated as well. (Y)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can copy in your entire .mozilla folder holding your user settings from Windows into your Linux home. Not a Windows guy, but I think that folder would exist under your "Documents and Settings" folder, or whatever it is called these days.

You should already have OpenOffice.org installed. As well as media players, and a messenger like Pidgin (some MSN users may prefer aMSN). Is ventrillo a skype-like thing? Alchohol 120 for mounting iso images? Mounting files like that is native in Linux. If you mean for cd burning, I like k3b.

For installing, fire up your package manager (synaptic) and take it for a spin. Search for "celestia". Click the box to select it for installation. Click "apply" and it will find and install it for you. When installed, give it a quick test-run, it is an awesome space app. (Y)

You might want compiz for desktop eyecandy. I don't like that sort of stuff.

Hope that helps cover some of your mountain of questions all in one post! :p

EDIT:Oh lord, please don't do it that way! Use the package manager. It will retrieve everything you need, plus when you update your system, everything you installed via the package manager will be updated as well. (Y)

Ventrillo is like team speak, alcohol 120 is for mounting and burning images. Checking out celestia now on the package manager, how do i use the package manager to download BMP? Is the packagemanager literally 100% of whats out there for linux? Is there a point to searching the web for programs or is it all already there in the manager?

New question, when linux installs something, to what drive does it go? How can i check my drives free space?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For beep media player, use the search button and type "beep" or "beep media", and you will get something like this for results.

post-36818-1205927298_thumb.png

Click it, and apply, and it will install.

You can also search for things like "dvd" and all sorts of apps that deal with dvds will be displayed. You don't need to know the application name; search will also look through the application description/function.

And, yeah, this is the preferred method of installing apps in Linux. One-stop shopping! :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't use Gnome, but it should have added right into your menu...

If you can't find it, open a terminal and try calling the program by typing the name in (you can use [tab] to auto-complete after typing part of the name). Make sure that the app is installed by running it. Then someone familiar with Gnome can help with the menu part.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't use Gnome, but it should have added right into your menu...

If you can't find it, open a terminal and try calling the program by typing the name in (you can use [tab] to auto-complete after typing part of the name). Make sure that the app is installed by running it. Then someone familiar with Gnome can help with the menu part.

To force the menus to update in Gnome, open a terminal and type:

killall gnome-panel

This will force the panel application to quit and re-load.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Weird. Is there no elegant way that gnome can "refresh" itself, other than killing the panel and letting it respawn?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i forced it to open celstia in the terminal, so the program is there, but its not in the menus. It did give me some BadDevice errors before it opend the program.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i used the package manager to get wine, and it says i have it installed, but its not in the menus and i cant force it from terminal

thanks alot for the help so far, i can understand if you get tired of answering questions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

wine doesn't run by itself (to my knowledge). You run apps through wine. Something like wine minesweeper.exe.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For downloads you can try d4x, Install it from Synaptic or in terminal just type

sudo apt-get install d4x

wget is a very powerful terminal based download manager.

gwget is a front-end for wget, available via Synaptic

to use wine, you pick a windows application and open it with wine (double click). if the application is supported then it would run ;)

How can i check my drives free space?

When you open the file browser, the drives free space is displayed in the status bar.

Also

System>Administration>System Monitor>File Systems

Lists all the mounted partition's information

Weird. Is there no elegant way that gnome can "refresh" itself, other than killing the panel and letting it respawn?
Gnome automatically refresh the menu ... but sometimes it don't work.. Don't know why :s
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The repository doesn't have all the software available for Linux but only the application compiled by the community or developers, if you can't find an application in the official repository try other repositories, find a .deb package for Ubuntu or compile from source.

I suggest you to learn some bash commands, the most important ones are: ls, cd, wget, rm, mkdir, grep, cat, find, cp, mv, less and apt, Debian packaging tool that Ubuntu uses. If you need some other bash help contact me I'll try to help you.

You wrote that celestia doesn't work and that it freezes, run the app from the terminal and post the output.

I recommend not to install the flash through apt or synaptic to the whole system. If you use firefox, just download flash from adobe's site http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flash..._9_linux.tar.gz , unpack the archive and copy the libflashpayer.so in /home/[your_username]/.mozilla/plugins, if the plugins directory doesn't exist just create it. This way you will install flash only for your user and not system-wide.

Through the cli (command line) it's easy to do it:

wget http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flash..._9_linux.tar.gz

mkdir /home/[your_username]/.mozilla/plugins

tar xvzf /home/[your_username]/install_flash_player_9_linux.tar.gz

cp /home/[your_username]/install_flash_player_9_linux/libflashplayer.so /home/[your_username]/.mozilla/plugins

rm -r /home/[your_username]/install_flash_player_9_linux.tar.gz /home/[your_username]/install_flash_player_9_linux

*you can replace /home/[your_username] with a tilde or $HOME which is a environment variable e.g. /home/[your_username]/.mozilla/plugins will be $HOME/.mozilla/plugins or ~/.mozilla/plugins

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^^^ And I will disagree with that opinion, and strongly recommend using the repositories, especially as a new user. Using your package manager will allow you to keep updated, and avoid letting an app or plugin age on your system, potentially leaving you exposed with vulnerabilities that are repaired in newer versions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It depends. I wrote a script that updates adobe flash for me and I don't trust the closed flash player to install it system wide because I had some problems with it in the past. Also you can install gnash from the repository, it doesn't support completely all flash features but most sites will work e.g. youtube.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.