Living with Penguins - Day 4

[TEX4S]

Is anyone else having this problem with apt (or synaptic): Being addicted to it?

Seriously, do I really need cowsay? I've ended up trying way too many apps.

:)

Great! Just what I need - another addiction -- just when I finally got a handle on the public masturbation thing - along comes something else

[redvamp128]

And for that software that is not in the package manager -

You can grab a deb from here (you may need to change distro's though)

http://www.getdeb.net/

So even more for the addiction (this is also where I grabbed Assault Cube)

[TEX4S]

OK - here is another question

Where do I go to completely disable any reference to bluetooth stuff - I see alot of updates for bluetooth - and I dont use it on my desktop

I know its being nitpicky but I have always been that way about computer stuff - if I dont use it I dont want it on there

When I make my custom XP64 install discs - I have it shrunk down to about a 420 mb .iso

Also, since there doesnt seem to be any x64 drivers for my Canon MP610 All-in-1 printer - should I just re-image my laptop with a 32-bit version, or is there a workaround where I can use 32-bit drivers on a 64-bit OS ?

and Thank You to everyone who has offered help on this and other posts pertaining to linux - I know community support is what its all about - but it is appreciated because its been a long time where I am not sure about anything on a computer.

Thanks

oh! and what desktop platform does Xubuntu use ? is it GNOME or KDE, or Xfce ?

[markwolfe Veteran]

Xubuntu uses XFCE

If you are getting updates for bluetooth things, and you don't have bluetooth and/or don't

bluetooth, just remove those packages.

You can probably fire up synaptic, do a search for "bluetooth" and deselect packages it lists that are checked off as installed.

[redvamp128]

TEX4S- should you want to try the other desktops install is simple-

if you are on xubuntu and want to install gnome-

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

then log out choose advanced on the bottom then window manager and select Gnome -- (make sure not to make this the default just for the session) unless you want it to take over.

Same thing to -- should you want to goto KDE

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

Though with that one when it asks keep GDM -

then when you are done with them -- you can either keep them and not use them or completely remove them.

wish I could help you with the printers- I use an Epson and the default cups works it just fine.

[ichi]

Also, since there doesnt seem to be any x64 drivers for my Canon MP610 All-in-1 printer - should I just re-image my laptop with a 32-bit version, or is there a workaround where I can use 32-bit drivers on a 64-bit OS ?

You can try installing the drivers from canon using the --force-architecture option when installing the deb, but looks like it should work just with cups+gutenprint (both installed by default) + libcupsys2.

There's a blog about those Canon printers on linux here.

[TEX4S]

Thank You - I'll check it out.

I rarely ever print - but if I keep linux on these 2 computers - Im sure I'll need it -

UPDATE:

Looks like CUPS and # Canon MP610series Ver.2.80 for the MP610 PPD

are exactly what I need - awesome

Ya know - so far - the help I have received (neowinians) for linux has been a very positive experience.

A year ago when ubuntu starting making some waves with Hardy - I went on the ubuntu forums and that help was a joke.

I am still thinking I might just install the 32-bit version since I only have 4 Gb RAM in my laptop

This laptop is only about 2 years old - but when my new ThinkPad arrives, I think I will keep it just to mess around with for the sake of having linux on a lappy.

The ThinkPad is gonna be pretty tricked-out and I am gonna run XP64 on it then Win7.

Edited May 6, 2009 by TEX4S

[TEX4S]

Also,

What email client do most people use ? Evolution is too plain IMO

What bit torrent client do most people use ? I dont like the one that comes with xubuntu - too plain

[dwhall]

I use evolution for email and transmission for torrents... This is on slackware though...

[markwolfe Veteran]

For email client, I use Thunderbird. It gets my mail. What is too "plain"? What did you expect?

Evolution (an app I cannot stand) includes things like a calendar and such. It might be more along the lines of what you are looking for.

And for bittorrent, I use transmission. I used to use Azureus. There is also frostwire. And a bittorrent CLI app (which I think transmission can also do). I've been wanting to try that, myself, but haven't gotten around to it.

[Growled Member]

Evolution is suppose to be an Outlook replacement. I don't care for it, myself. Kmail use to be pretty decent back in the KDE3 days. I haven't tried it lately. Thunderbird is probably your best choice.

[megamanXplosion]

A year ago when ubuntu starting making some waves with Hardy - I went on the ubuntu forums and that help was a joke.

I remember that experience. Half of the people who responded didn't even read my question. Half of the people who did read my question didn't even attempt to answer it. Half of the people who did attempt to answer it were speaking a whole lot of techno-babble that made no sense whatsoever except to the people who wouldn't be there asking for help in the first place. I was very thankful for the very few people who sought to answer my question without techno-babble. While there are many good and helpful people on those forums, it is over-run by idiots who pretend to be intelligent and knowledgeable and by idiots who don't pretend.

[dwhall]

Yes some people can be jackasses. I remember back in the day when you could tell someone didn't even attempt to search out the answer to a question and "RTFM" actually meant to go friggin read up lazy boy.... Nowdays, it seems to mean "I don't know the answer but I want to sound smarter than I really am" But I am sure quite a few of the people you run into don't mean to sound like jackasses, they are just sick of people who jump into forums expecting answers to all their questions without doing any research of their own. For the most part, me included, people don't mind helping those who try to help themselves. I remember spending weeks searching high and low trying to get my modem to work with redhat 5. Finally I ran across a guy who had the same issue and posted a solution to my problem. During that time I had the elites constantly telling me to basically kiss off so I know exactly how it feels. I would hope that things are much better for those new to linux desktops but that might be expecting miracles eh? lol

[TEX4S]

I remember that experience. Half of the people who responded didn't even read my question. Half of the people who did read my question didn't even attempt to answer it. Half of the people who did attempt to answer it were speaking a whole lot of techno-babble that made no sense whatsoever except to the people who wouldn't be there asking for help in the first place. I was very thankful for the very few people who sought to answer my question without techno-babble. While there are many good and helpful people on those forums, it is over-run by idiots who pretend to be intelligent and knowledgeable and by idiots who don't pretend.

:yes:

Yes some people can be jackasses. I remember back in the day when you could tell someone didn't even attempt to search out the answer to a question and "RTFM" actually meant to go friggin read up lazy boy.... Nowdays, it seems to mean "I don't know the answer but I want to sound smarter than I really am" But I am ...

I am glad there are people who went through that as well - and it wasnt just me being overly-sensitive.

A way I would describe my past attempts at getting nix help was like - when youre in school - and the prof uses a word you dont know what it means - then you ask what the word means and you dont understand a single word in the definition he gives you -- yeah - thanks for nothing.

OK, back on topic:

I decided to install the i386 version of xubuntu on my laptop - I have already wiped out the partition and the swap partition which had the x64 xubuntu on it.

So when I begin installation, the 1st partition-type question, is how do I want to install ?

1.) Side by side the existing Windows partition (thats the one I want)

2.) Use entire disk (I want to keep the XP image, so thats no good)

3.) Manual method, blah blah blah

Now when I select the top option to install side by side - it never asks me about partition size.

When I select manual - I can use a slider on the "bar" GUI - but not sure if thats the best way.

What I am wondering is: do I need a swap partition ? Is there a preferred file-type for Linux (Reisner(?), Ext2, Ext3, journaled, whatever) ?

I didnt have to deal with this on my desktop becuase I have 2 Velociraptors as my boot drives, 1 contains XP64, and the other now linux

[ichi]

If you don't go manual the installer will take over the available free (unpartitioned) space. The GUI (manual) is perfectly OK if you have some specific requirements about partition sizes (and if you know what you are doing, as it allows you to wipe other partitions or resize them, which should be safe but not as in "no need to backup just in case").

Depending on your RAM you might not be swapping ever, but it doesn't hurt to set up a ~500MB partition just in case.

Regarding the filesystem, I'd go with ext4.

[megamanXplosion]

I remember choosing the automatic side-by-side option and noticing that it didn't tell me what it would do. I backed away from that option, as you apparently did. It's probably very easy, but I found it a bit intimidating being left in a fog of ignorance.

When I installed Ubuntu (and later Fedora), I edited the partition table manually. Resize the Windows partition to 50% of its original size. Then, create an Ext4 partition that uses all of the free space except, say, 500MB. Use the remaining space for your Swap partition. As Ichi said, your system might never swap at all (my system has never swapped more than a megabyte and it only has 768MB of RAM), but it's good to have a partition for swapping just in case.

[TEX4S]

If you don't go manual the installer will take over the available free (unpartitioned) space. The GUI (manual) is perfectly OK if you have some specific requirements about partition sizes (and if you know what you are doing, as it allows you to wipe other partitions or resize them, which should be safe but not as in "no need to backup just in case").

Depending on your RAM you might not be swapping ever, but it doesn't hurt to set up a ~500MB partition just in case.

Regarding the filesystem, I'd go with ext4.

I remember choosing the automatic side-by-side option and noticing that it didn't tell me what it would do. I backed away from that option, as you apparently did. It's probably very easy, but I found it a bit intimidating being left in a fog of ignorance.

When I installed Ubuntu (and later Fedora), I edited the partition table manually. Resize the Windows partition to 50% of its original size. Then, create an Ext4 partition that uses all of the free space except, say, 500MB. Use the remaining space for your Swap partition. As Ichi said, your system might never swap at all (my system has never swapped more than a megabyte and it only has 768MB of RAM), but it's good to have a partition for swapping just in case.

OK Thanks guys - mega - I felt the exact same as you - since it didnt tell me what it was going to do - I didnt like it.

I created 2 partitions (aside from the XP partition) in GParted -

I chose Ext4, but made the swap partition 2 Gb (I didnt know what it needed) - my laptop has 4 GB RAM - I guess I'll leave it as is.

I installed a network printer and added some stuff I wanted via Synaptics, havent done anything in terminal ....yet.

I installed WINE - but not sure of what it will be needed for - or what its good for/not good for. I understand its a Windows Emulator - but to what extent ? If you guys would rather I google for the answers, I understand - but I much prefer the quick answers I receive in here as opposed to reading 2-3 pages of crap to get my answer.

Also installed OpenOffice - I havent used it yet though - because I needed to update my resume and decided to boot over to XP and use MS Word just to be safe since its so important.

Can someone recommend a good .pdf editor ? in Windows I use Foxit Pro, or Acrobat Pro (and now Office 2007 SP2) but not sure what to use in linux.

Thanks again - man I am a huge hypocrite (since bashing linux for so long) as I am really beginning to like linux - I spent 95% of my time today in it as opposed to XP :D

Edited May 8, 2009 by TEX4S

[Growled Member]

I installed WINE - but not sure of what it will be needed for - or what its good for/not good for. I understand its a Windows Emulator - but to what extent ? If you guys would rather I google for the answers, I understand - but I much prefer the quick answers I receive in here as opposed to reading 2-3 pages of crap to get my answer.

The simpler the program the better it will run in wine, usually. Also, usually programs a couple of versions old. I've ran Photoshop CS3 for a while but it was slow. My mainstay is PS 7 anyway and wine runs it perfectly. I also play Bejeweled Twist and Peggle perfectly. I've found wine to be a funny creature. One app it runs fine and then another takes a tons of tweaks to get going. Still, it's an amazing piece of software.

[TEX4S]

I dont see where I can add/change themes - I am still using Xfce - Also, I was wanting to use some kind of app dock (like RocketDock, or something) so I was looking at the OS-X theme - but it seems to be buggy (the one on gnome-look.org)

Any recommendations ?

I was going to simply read the author's install instructions, but I thought there was a Theme Manager where you would click on a "add theme" button then select the one you want ... I remember something like that in ubuntu about 6 months ago (Hardy Heron maybe ?)

or, if someone can suggest a good app dock and nice looking icon pkg...

I dont need to install any kind of file decompression app do I ? It appears to open zip files natively (.tar)

Thx

[yxz]

well there is 7zip for linux p7zip

[brentaal]

I dont see where I can add/change themes - I am still using Xfce - Also, I was wanting to use some kind of app dock (like RocketDock, or something) so I was looking at the OS-X theme - but it seems to be buggy (the one on gnome-look.org)

If my memory serves me right, GTK themes inside the XFCE desktop environment are changed by right clicking, then going to the Settings menu and then User interface. The window border settings can be found in the sub-menu Window Manager.

If you're looking for some minimalistic XFCE themes then you should look at this guy's devART gallery located here.

I'm not sure about the dock, but I've seen a lot of people use Avant Window Navigator.

I was going to simply read the author's install instructions, but I thought there was a Theme Manager where you would click on a "add theme" button then select the one you want ... I remember something like that in ubuntu about 6 months ago (Hardy Heron maybe ?)

That's the difference between Gnome and XFCE. In Gnome you can simply click Install while in the Themes tab and then select a .tar.gz theme/icon theme to get it installed. Users of XFCE have to take the manual approach, that is - extract the themes (be it icon, gtk, etc.) and then copy-paste them to ~/.icons and ~/.themes respectively. (inside your Home directory)

or, if someone can suggest a good app dock and nice looking icon pkg...

I've always been a huge fan of the following two icon themes.

GNOME-colors & Meliae

I dont need to install any kind of file decompression app do I ? It appears to open zip files natively (.tar)

The default archiver should handle most things by default, but not all. As yxz suggested, you should install the package p7zip from the repositories so you can handle .7zip files, and the unrar package to open .rar files. Both of those will simply add support to your current archiving manager.

[ichi]

I installed WINE - but not sure of what it will be needed for - or what its good for/not good for. I understand its a Windows Emulator - but to what extent ? If you guys would rather I google for the answers, I understand - but I much prefer the quick answers I receive in here as opposed to reading 2-3 pages of crap to get my answer.

Also installed OpenOffice - I havent used it yet though - because I needed to update my resume and decided to boot over to XP and use MS Word just to be safe since its so important.

As Growled said it depends on the application: some run great, others don't run at all, and the rest is somewhere in the middle.

In your case, if after using OpenOffice you decided that for some reason it doesn't suit you, Office2003 runs great on wine (I've heard 2007 runs too but requires some tweaking, I only got word 2007 to work).

[markwolfe Veteran]

...

In your case, if after using OpenOffice you decided that for some reason it doesn't suit you, Office2003 runs great on wine (I've heard 2007 runs too but requires some tweaking, I only got word 2007 to work).

I found OpenOffice to be a bit too bulky for my preferences, and prefer the apps Abiword and Gnumeric as my documents and spreadsheet apps.

Those might be worth looking into, if being light and speedy is something you are interested in.

[Growled Member]

How compatable are Abiword and Gnumeric with MS Office? The main reason I use OO is because it is so compatable.

[megamanXplosion]

I installed WINE - but not sure of what it will be needed for - or what its good for/not good for. I understand its a Windows Emulator - but to what extent ? If you guys would rather I google for the answers, I understand - but I much prefer the quick answers I receive in here as opposed to reading 2-3 pages of crap to get my answer.

Wine is good at letting you install and run software made for Windows. Based on what I've read, Final Fantasy XI, World of Warcraft 3, and Adobe Photoshop 7 work great with it. I've also read that Photoshop CS2 and CS3 run with it too, though not as well as Photoshop 7. It supports far more than those programs, of course. If you need to do something in Linux, try to find a software package made for Linux first, because you are more likely to find a Free Software package. Only if you can't find a suitable package should you consider installing and running the Windows software.

Also installed OpenOffice - I havent used it yet though - because I needed to update my resume and decided to boot over to XP and use MS Word just to be safe since its so important.

Can someone recommend a good .pdf editor ? in Windows I use Foxit Pro, or Acrobat Pro (and now Office 2007 SP2) but not sure what to use in linux.

OpenOffice Writer isn't very flexible in how it lets you format documents, but it can export documents to PDF files. If you don't need anything fancy, OpenOffice should work. There might be more flexible publishing software available, but I wouldn't know what it is, since I don't work with PDF files. Open the Add/Remove Software program and search for "PDF" or "publish" or something along those lines and check out the software it finds.

Thanks again - man I am a huge hypocrite (since bashing linux for so long) as I am really beginning to like linux - I spent 95% of my time today in it as opposed to XP :D

There is no hypocricy in changing one's mind. Before I used Linux regularly, I bashed it too. Since January 31st, I have been using Linux exclusively. In fact, I removed Windows from my computer over a month ago.

While I am pleased with Linux now, it does lack some useful software. The StyleWriter software for Windows is a good example. It scans your document and highlights jargon, complex words, passive verbs, sexist writing, wordy phrases, and more. On Windows, making an easy read involves some hard writing. On Linux, easy reading makes for damn hard writing because there isn't a good replacement for Stylewriter. I've been learning how to program in Python lately, because I want to make a Free Software replacement for StyleWriter. If I do succeed in making that, I will have eliminated one of my last big gripes about Linux.