Dumped Windows 7 and going 100% Linux _only_ now

By javagreen
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Lord Ba'al

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5. GQview. If you want one for viewing two pages next to another, use GQview. You can even set it to right->left for viewing doujinshi :cool:

Typo there :pinch:

I meant: "If you want one for viewing two pages next to another, use Comix."

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Volatile

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1. The best Audio player for linux out there (mp3, ogg, flac) -- Rhythmbox (gnome)

2. The best Video player for linux out there (h.264, mkv, mp4, avi etc. with ac3 audio + dts) -- mplayer

3. Torrent app -- ? (is there a uTorrent for linux?) Transmittion

7. DVD/Image burning app --? (something like Imgburn)

8. Best Linux Web Browser -- Firefox/Chromium

9. Best Desktop Environment/Window Manager -- I REALLY love openbox but in order to talk to the windows/domain world (I use linux at work) gnome makes it easier (nautilus) where I used thunar in OB.

Ubuntu 9.10 is quite nice. I favor Debian-based distros.

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redvamp128

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Thanks Volatile ;)

I'm using Ubuntu 9.04 64bit atm, i'll be needing help later on to upgrade to 9.10 once it's out.

okay before you do an upgrade--

Open up a terminal and type the following-

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Select Yes -- (that way your applications and system will be up to date)

Then type "

update-manager -d

" in the terminal without the quotation marks.

Then open up Update Manger and it should show the new release is available.

Though to note for me an upgrade from Hardy (8.04) to Intrepid (8.10) took about 2 hours (I didn't have a fast internet at the time like I do now.)

That and my system is not exactly top notch.

Machine Specs-

966mhz PIII with 256mb memory - 40gig hard drive with a 2gig swap (leftover from a previous linux install but Ubuntu Still uses it and so does my puppy linux) - also have a 20gig Hard drive also- Geforce4 MX4000.

So with a modern machine that should not take near that long.

Though what I would do is before you upgrade -- Download and Burn the ISO of Karmic (9.10). Just incase it does not perform well after an upgrade --(note not saying that it will not but there is a chance with upgrading- even on Windows)

Also after it finishes check your software sources to make sure that the version change is all the way through. (on the Hardy to Intrepid I had to change the name of one of my added repositories to make it grab the correct distribution) also after it upgrades repeat the - 

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

And you should be on the road to a Happy and Healthy 9.10-

Though after reading some topics--- An upgrade will keep the Ext3 and the Same grub- A fresh install will give you the option of Ext4 and Grub2.

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javagreen

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Thanks redvamp128, very useful tips and advice (Y)

Yeah, I intend to do just that, I'll be downloading the ISO and keeping a CD of Karmic 9.10 x64 handy just in case. Also, I already have my current Jaunty on ext4 so i'm OK in that area I guess. Not sure about Grub though.

Also, I have a 6GB seperate partition for Sawp, but System Monitor forever and always reports it as being 0% in use. I've never seen it being used even 1%. How can I find out if Jaunty is using the swap partition at all, or not? I'm attaching a screenie, note the swap part :

screenshotsystemmonitor.png

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javagreen

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In a terminal type "swapon -s" or "free". 6GB for swap is a waste of space.

The output is :

Used -- 0

Priority -- -1

So it confirms my suspicion, it's using nothing of that 6gb I gave it. What should I do? Is there any util that'll allow me to resize the partitions? I'd like to reclaim 5gb back and leave just 1gb for swap. Or delete the swap partition, then extend my current / ext4 partition by 5 gb and then create a new swap partition in the remaining 1gb.

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bobsta

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Careful what advice you receive from neowin.net. High post count is not synonymous with intelligence.

+1

I would honestly head over to the linux distro's, that you are using, forum.

Neowin guys are top notch for Windows advice, and not bad for linux advice (there are a few people who know what they are talking about) but if you want a forum dedicated to Ubuntu - http://ubuntuforums.org

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bryonhowley

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@Udedenkz : Linux isn't some isolated case in this respect, Windows is the same. If you have a nVidia card then you have to install CoreAVC to enable video accelation with CUDA. And ofcourse, you'll obviously need to install the nVidia driver package.

Then there's MPC with it's DXVA which is so ridiculously picky about the files it'll work with, it isn't even funny.

Bottom line is, you require the same effort on windows to enable _any_ kind of acceleration.

1. CoreAVC is in no way needed for DXVA to work with nVidia cards.

2. It is DXVA that is picky NOT MPC. If the files does not work in MPC with DXVA on it is the file that is encoded badly not MPC!

3. With Windows 7 all you have to do is install MPC HC then enable EVR Custom and you are ready to play DXVA enabled movies. I have no codec packs installed on my system and I can play every video and audio file I have. So were was the effort on enabling acceleration?

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javagreen

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1. CoreAVC is in no way needed for DXVA to work with nVidia cards.

2. It is DXVA that is picky NOT MPC. If the files does not work in MPC with DXVA on it is the file that is encoded badly not MPC!

3. With Windows 7 all you have to do is install MPC HC then enable EVR Custom and you are ready to play DXVA enabled movies. I have no codec packs installed on my system and I can play every video and audio file I have. So were was the effort on enabling acceleration?

Try reading my post carefully before replying.

1. I said CoreAVC is needed to enable acceleration with CUDA. I said nary a word about DXVA in point #1. You fail.

2. That's precisely what I meant when I said "MPC with it's DXVA...which is so ridiculously picky". You fail, again.

3. Refer to points 1 & 2 collectively for reasoning why CUDA was necessary for me to enable acceleration. DXVA refused to work with a bunch of my files, which is why I went the CUDA route too, in addition to MPC. Besides, I don't like being limited to any single player. You fail, yet again.

@reap3r, bobsta : Haha :D Ok I guess I should head to the ubuntu forums and look over there.

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Lechio

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The output is :

Used -- 0

Priority -- -1

So it confirms my suspicion, it's using nothing of that 6gb I gave it. What should I do? Is there any util that'll allow me to resize the partitions? I'd like to reclaim 5gb back and leave just 1gb for swap. Or delete the swap partition, then extend my current / ext4 partition by 5 gb and then create a new swap partition in the remaining 1gb.

It's possible to resize ext4 without any issue, resizing it is the same process as resizing an ext3 partition. As you are working with the root partition, boot with a live CD, like Gparted, and resize from there. 1 - 2 GB should be enough. How much system memory do you have?

Careful what advice you receive from neowin.net. High post count is not synonymous with intelligence.

Try Conky.

If you have any corrections to add to any post please do so. Otherwise stop launching suspicion over the good folks that try to help people in this section.

Why use conky? How is that related to what was asked? Makes no sense.

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.bin

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I'm going to only give you three (3) recommendations;

Window Manager = Xfce (Yes, I said it)

Messengers = "emesene" (I recommend using the svn version if your repository's claim to have missing dependencies)

Web Browser = Opera loves Ubuntu, and is very fast.

Good luck.

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javagreen

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It's possible to resize ext4 without any issue, resizing it is the same process as resizing an ext3 partition. As you are working with the root partition, boot with a live CD, like Gparted, and resize from there. 1 - 2 GB should be enough. How much system memory do you have?

Interesting, i'll give that a shot when I get back home later -- I have 4GB DDR2. I'm thinking of leaving just 1gb for swap, should be enough probably.

Thanks (Y)

@binary2k : Thanks man.. I have installed XFCE but i'm yet to play around with it. Gotta check out Emesene too!

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Syanide

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Emesene is really awesome is you're using just MSN as a protocol. Make sure to install the latest version, 1.5, there's a lot of improvements. Here's Jaunty installation procedure, since it's not in ubuntu's repositories, you need to add a custom ppa. Click.

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Zapadlo

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+1

I would honestly head over to the linux distro's, that you are using, forum.

Neowin guys are top notch for Windows advice, and not bad for linux advice (there are a few people who know what they are talking about) but if you want a forum dedicated to Ubuntu - http://ubuntuforums.org

Have you personally used that forum much? It is rather notorious for being very unhelpful. I would stick with neowin over ubuntuforum.

P.S. The topic name makes me uncomfortable, attracts too many potential trolls.

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bobsta

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Have you personally used that forum much? It is rather notorious for being very unhelpful. I would stick with neowin over ubuntuforum.

P.S. The topic name makes me uncomfortable, attracts too many potential trolls.

Yep I have personally used, It may not be as strictly moderaterated as these forums but it still has very good info. I find it comes up ALOT when I google a problem.

I.e. for this problem - I got referred to https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq from Ubuntu forums after a Google Search.

To begin, it's worth mentioning that computers have changed a lot since swap was first used:

At first, swap was needed to extend real memory capacity. Users would utilize swap so that available memory would be the addition of both RAM space and swap space.

Nowadays, RAM is often big enough that computers may not require swap.

From the UbuntuFAQ.

Even though it says this it still says :

How much swap do I need?

If you have n MB of RAM, you need between n and 2*n MB of swap.

If you have a large enough disk, use 2*n MB swap.

The FAQ also states that a SWAP file is no slower than a swap partition, (new to me too!) personally I am going to LiveCD into ubuntu and use the partition manager to delete the SWAP partition and create a SWAP file on disk.

This is what I would recommend.

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Lord Ba'al

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Interesting, i'll give that a shot when I get back home later -- I have 4GB DDR2. I'm thinking of leaving just 1gb for swap, should be enough probably.

1GB should be more than enough with 4GB.

I have 8GB ram (ddr2 - avoiding that overpriced ddr3 crap) and a swap partition of only half a GB, which is fine as well as it's never used.

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javagreen

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Update :

I installed GParted and using it I was able to resize my swap partition to just under 1 GB. However, I wasn't able to resize the ext4 / partition -- so I just created a new ext4 partition with the reclaimed 5 GB :D

Strangely though, after applying it Ubuntu refused to allow me to write anything on it saying that I ain't the owner (it showed root as owner). I googled a bit and found the solution on the Ubuntu forums : I simply had to run "gksudo nautilus" to run Nautilus as root, and from there I changed the owner of that partition from root to me, and after a reboot, all was dandy :D

There's a tiny problem with this resized SWAP partition though, despite me setting it as "Active" via GParted, it becomes inactive after each reboot. I then have to manually right click that swap partition and click "Swapon" upon which it enables the partition for that session. How do I mark it permanently active? Attaching a screenie below :

screenshotdevsdcgparted.png

Edited by javagreen
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+devHead Subscriber²

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There are literally tons of Linux enthusiast sites out there with recommendations for software. Since you're using Ubuntu, you may just want to check what packages you can install from the built-in package installer. I know Gimp is available for Linux, and it's a great Image Editor.

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ichi

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There's a tiny problem with this resized SWAP partition though, despite me setting it as "Active" via GParted, it becomes inactive after each reboot. I then have to manually right click that swap partition and click "Swapon" upon which it enables the partition for that session. How do I mark it permanently active? Attaching a screenie below :

Add a line to /etc/fstab:

/dev/sdc5 none swap sw

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