new to ubuntu, having some problems

[dreamz Veteran]

i know i want something minimal, but then i don't want to waste too much time configuring and fixing things. (i initially started off with arch, but i found that i was spending way too much time trying to get it working properly and not enough time doing my actual work.) that's why i chose the ubuntu minimal installation with kde-minimal on top.

[brentaal]

One thing to keep in mind when doing Ubuntu minimal installs (8.10 onwards) is that apt installs all recommended packages by default. Most people aren't bothered by it, but if you're going for a truly minimal system, that should be turned off.

In case you want to do that, add the following lines to /etc/apt/apt.conf

APT::Install-Recommends "0";

APT::Install-Suggests "0";

[dreamz Veteran]

thanks, brentaal! now, how can i see whether or not the packages i've already installed on my system installed the recommended or suggested packages? can i remove them individually or do i have to reinstall the packages?

some other questions:

1. how can i permanently change the priority for certain processes? i want to bump up the priority for foobar2000.

2. how can i add new hotkeys? i went to the keyboard and mouse config dialog, but it doesn't look like i can add new shortcuts.

3. i went to the system monitor and noticed that i have 135 processes running. which ones can be safely removed and how can i go about doing this?

edit: so it seems apt doesn't always install the suggested or recommended packages. i just checked wine1.2, for example, and some packages (e.g., ttf-liberation, etc.) were recommended, but not actually installed on my system.

[Lechio]

1. You could edit the launcher for foobar and pass a custom flag to it (just a hack, there's probably a better way to do it).

2. In KDE go to System Settings > Input Actions, then create a new global shortcut or mouse gesture.

3. Those processes are running probably because they were initiated at session startup (we are talking about user processes right?). If you could post a list of them would be of help, some are necessary others can be safely disabled if you don't use some features that those provide.

[dreamz Veteran]

great! i was able to add some global shortcuts. thanks again. now, how do i pass a custom flag? is there a switch i could add to the command in my shortcut?

here's the list of processes:

UID		PID  PPID  C STIME TTY		  TIME CMD
root		 1	 0  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 /sbin/init
root		 2	 0  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [kthreadd]
root		 3	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [migration/0]
root		 4	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:07 [ksoftirqd/0]
root		 5	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [watchdog/0] 
root		 9	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [events/0]   
root		11	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [cpuset]	 
root		12	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [khelper]	
root		13	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [netns]	  
root		14	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [async/mgr]  
root		15	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [kintegrityd/0]
root		17	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [kblockd/0]	
root		19	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [kacpid]	   
root		20	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [kacpi_notify] 
root		21	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [kacpi_hotplug]
root		22	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:01 [ata/0]		
root		24	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [ata_aux]	  
root		25	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [ksuspend_usbd]
root		26	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [khubd]		
root		27	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [kseriod]	  
root		28	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [kmmcd]		
root		29	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [bluetooth]	
root		30	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [khungtaskd]   
root		31	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [pdflush]	  
root		32	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [pdflush]	  
root		33	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [kswapd0]	  
root		34	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [aio/0]		
root		36	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [ecryptfs-kthrea]
root		37	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [crypto/0]	   
root		51	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [scsi_eh_0]	  
root		52	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [scsi_eh_1]	  
root		53	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [scsi_eh_2]	  
root		54	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [scsi_eh_3]	  
root		59	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:01 [scsi_eh_4]	  
root		61	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [scsi_eh_5]	  
root		70	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [kstriped]	   
root		71	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [kmpathd/0]	  
root		73	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [kmpath_handlerd]
root		74	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [ksnapd]		 
root		75	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [kondemand/0]	
root		77	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [kconservative/0]
root		79	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [krfcommd]	   
root	   383	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [kjournald2]	 
root	   433	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 upstart-udev-bridge --daemon
root	   451	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 udevd --daemon			  
root	   681	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [kpsmoused]				 
root	   706	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:37 [phy0]					  
root	   717	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [kjournald2]				
root	   718	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [hd-audio0]				 
root	   748	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 dd bs=1 if=/proc/kmsg of=/var/ru
root	   750	 2  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 [hd-audio1]					 
syslog	 771	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 rsyslogd -c4					
102		811	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:02 dbus-daemon --system --fork	 
103		864	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:01 hald --daemon=yes			   
avahi	  873	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 avahi-daemon: running [ubuntu.lo
avahi	  874   873  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 avahi-daemon: chroot helper	 
root	   896	 1  0 10:44 tty4	 00:00:00 /sbin/getty -8 38400 tty4	   
root	   899	 1  0 10:44 tty5	 00:00:00 /sbin/getty -8 38400 tty5	   
root	   905	 1  0 10:44 tty2	 00:00:00 /sbin/getty -8 38400 tty2	   
root	   906	 1  0 10:44 tty3	 00:00:00 /sbin/getty -8 38400 tty3	   
root	   908	 1  0 10:44 tty6	 00:00:00 /sbin/getty -8 38400 tty6	   
root	   914	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 /usr/sbin/bluetoothd --udev	 
root	   916	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 kdm							 
daemon	 924	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 atd							 
root	   925	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 cron							
root	   945	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 /usr/sbin/console-kit-daemon	
root	  1027   864  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 hald-runner					 
root	  1036	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:01 NetworkManager				  
root	  1058	 1  0 10:44 tty1	 00:00:00 /sbin/getty -8 38400 tty1	   
root	  1093  1027  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 /usr/lib/hal/hald-addon-rfkill-k
root	  1095  1027  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 /usr/lib/hal/hald-addon-leds	
root	  1102	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 /sbin/wpa_supplicant -u -s	  
root	  1103   916  3 10:44 tty7	 00:06:02 /usr/bin/X -br -nolisten tcp :0 
root	  1111  1027  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 /usr/lib/hal/hald-addon-generic-
root	  1131  1027  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 hald-addon-input: Listening on /
root	  1135  1027  0 10:44 ?		00:00:02 hald-addon-storage: polling /dev
root	  1136  1027  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 /usr/lib/hal/hald-addon-cpufreq 
103	   1137  1027  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 hald-addon-acpi: listening on ac
root	  1143   916  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 -:0							 
dreamz	1171  1143  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/x-session-manag
dreamz	1201  1171  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 /usr/bin/ssh-agent /usr/bin/dbus
dreamz	1204	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 /usr/bin/dbus-launch --exit-with
dreamz	1205	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:14 /bin/dbus-daemon --fork --print-
dreamz	1246	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 kdeinit4: kdeinit4 Running...   
dreamz	1247  1246  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 kdeinit4: klauncher [kdeinit] --
dreamz	1249	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:14 kdeinit4: kded4 [kdeinit]	   
dreamz	1285	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 kdeinit4: kglobalaccel [kdeinit]
dreamz	1288  1171  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 kwrapper4 ksmserver			 
dreamz	1289  1246  0 10:44 ?		00:00:01 kdeinit4: ksmserver [kdeinit]   
dreamz	1291  1289  3 10:44 ?		00:05:42 kwin							
dreamz	1293	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:41 kdeinit4: plasma-desktop [kdeini
dreamz	1295	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:02 /usr/bin/knotify4			   
dreamz	1298  1246  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 /usr/bin/kwrited				
dreamz	1309	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 kdeinit4: kaccess [kdeinit]	 
dreamz	1320	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 kdeinit4: nepomukserver [kdeinit
dreamz	1322	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:03 kdeinit4: krunner [kdeinit]	 
dreamz	1326  1320  0 10:44 ?		00:00:06 /usr/bin/nepomukservicestub nepo
dreamz	1327	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 kdeinit4: kmix [kdeinit]		
dreamz	1328  1246  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 /usr/bin/python /usr/bin/kbluepl
dreamz	1329	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:02 /usr/bin/knetworkmanager
dreamz	1331  1320  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 /usr/bin/nepomukservicestub nepo
dreamz	1332  1320  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 /usr/bin/nepomukservicestub nepo
dreamz	1333  1320  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 /usr/bin/nepomukservicestub nepo
dreamz	1350	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 kbluetooth
dreamz	1352	 1  0 10:44 ?		00:00:00 /usr/bin/obex-data-server --no-d
root	  1434	 1  0 10:45 ?		00:00:00 dhclient3 -e IF_METRIC=100 -pf /
root	  2368	 2  0 12:35 ?		00:00:00 [migration/1]
root	  2369	 2  0 12:35 ?		00:00:00 [ksoftirqd/1]
root	  2370	 2  0 12:35 ?		00:00:00 [watchdog/1]
root	  2371	 2  0 12:35 ?		00:00:00 [kconservative/1]
root	  2372	 2  0 12:35 ?		00:00:00 [kondemand/1]
root	  2373	 2  0 12:35 ?		00:00:00 [kmpathd/1]
root	  2374	 2  0 12:35 ?		00:00:00 [crypto/1]
root	  2375	 2  0 12:35 ?		00:00:00 [aio/1]
root	  2376	 2  0 12:35 ?		00:00:00 [ata/1]
root	  2377	 2  0 12:35 ?		00:00:00 [kblockd/1]
root	  2378	 2  0 12:35 ?		00:00:00 [kintegrityd/1]
root	  2379	 2  0 12:35 ?		00:00:00 [events/1]
root	  2387   451  0 12:35 ?		00:00:00 udevd --daemon
root	  2388   451  0 12:35 ?		00:00:00 udevd --daemon
root	  2492	 2  0 12:35 ?		00:00:00 [khidpd_046db003]
root	  2498  1036  0 12:35 ?		00:00:00 /sbin/dhclient -d -sf /usr/lib/N
dreamz	3089  1249  3 13:32 ?		00:00:17 /home/dreamz/Applications/Foobar
dreamz	3092	 1  0 13:32 ?		00:00:00 /usr/bin/wineserver
dreamz	3096	 1  0 13:32 ?		00:00:00 C:\windows\system32\services.exe
dreamz	3098  3096  0 13:32 ?		00:00:00 C:\windows\system32\winedevice.e
dreamz	3105	 1  0 13:32 ?		00:00:00 C:\windows\system32\explorer.exe
dreamz	3254  1246  0 13:38 ?		00:00:00 kdeinit4: kio_file [kdeinit] fil
dreamz	3338	 1  5 13:39 ?		00:00:03 /usr/bin/rekonq
dreamz	3342  1246  0 13:39 ?		00:00:00 kdeinit4: kio_http [kdeinit] htt
dreamz	3345  1246  0 13:40 ?		00:00:00 kdeinit4: kio_http [kdeinit] htt
dreamz	3346  1246  0 13:40 ?		00:00:00 kdeinit4: kio_http [kdeinit] htt
dreamz	3350	 1  2 13:40 ?		00:00:00 kdeinit4: konsole [kdeinit]
dreamz	3352  3350  1 13:40 pts/1	00:00:00 /bin/bash
dreamz	3371  3352  0 13:40 pts/1	00:00:00 ps -ef

[Lechio]

Maybe prepend "nice" to the command that is used to launch foobar.

From those processes would only safely terminate kwrited .

[dreamz Veteran]

you're right. the command is: nice [level] [app]

unfortunately, using it seemed to make foobar worse. oh well.

i'm having some trouble with flash again. my browsers aren't aware that the plugin is in my home directory. how can i make them recognize it?

(i know that i can use apt-get. but that seems to use nspluginwrapper, which i don't want.)

[Lechio]

you're right. the command is: nice [level] [app]

unfortunately, using it seemed to make foobar worse. oh well.

A native solution would be a lot better than WINE.

i'm having some trouble with flash again. my browsers aren't aware that the plugin is in my home directory. how can i make them recognize it?

(i know that i can use apt-get. but that seems to use nspluginwrapper, which i don't want.)

I don't think nspluginwrapper is a dependency (don't even have it installed). To have flash working with Konqueror the package that is needed is "konqueror-nsplugins" (should be valid for rekonq too) .

[dreamz Veteran]

i'd love to find a native qt music player. but the ones i've found either don't work or are buggy in certain ways. qmmp and minirok keep reloading the playlist or rescanning the directory on startup, which makes them really slow. amarok doesn't work at all (hangs at 98% when scanning the directory) and is bulky. juk doesn't work (skips past songs without playing them).

foobar2000 loads quickly, scans folders quickly, and is light. i'm open to trying new apps. it's just that the ones i've found haven't worked that well.

as for flash, nspluginwrapper is a dependency: http://packages.ubuntu.com/karmic/flashplugin-installer

and i have konqueror-nsplugins installed.

[Lechio]

i'd love to find a native qt music player. but the ones i've found either don't work or are buggy in certain ways. qmmp and minirok keep reloading the playlist or rescanning the directory on startup, which makes them really slow. amarok doesn't work at all (hangs at 98% when scanning the directory) and is bulky. juk doesn't work (skips past songs without playing them).

foobar2000 loads quickly, scans folders quickly, and is light. i'm open to trying new apps. it's just that the ones i've found haven't worked that well.

You could try Amarok 1.4 if you don't like 2.x, it's discontinued but still available and it's less bulky than 2.x

This is the ppa: https://launchpad.net/~bogdanb/+archive/amarok14

the package name is amarok14 (any previous version of Amarok needs to be removed first). I'm using it and am quite happy with it.

EDIT: Here's how I have Amarok setup:

Minimalistic enough for you? ;)

as for flash, nspluginwrapper is a dependency: http://packages.ubuntu.com/karmic/flashplugin-installer

and i have konqueror-nsplugins installed.

That's news to me, nspluginwrapper is not installed on my system and have flash working on every browser:

Edited November 7, 2009 by Lechio

[dreamz Veteran]

that ppa didn't work. i got an error:

W:Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/bogdanb/amarok14/ubuntu/dists/karmic/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz  404  Not Found
, E:Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

also, i tried juk again, and i can see some errors. when i try to play a song, i get this error:

TagLib: MPEG::Header::parse() -- Invalid sample rate.

[Lechio]

that ppa didn't work. i got an error:

W:Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/bogdanb/amarok14/ubuntu/dists/karmic/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz  404  Not Found
, E:Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

This is what you have to add to the /etc/apt/sources.list:

#Amarok 1.x
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/bogdanb/ppa/ubuntu karmic main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/bogdanb/ppa/ubuntu karmic main

Then run this command to get the GPG key:

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 1D7E9DD033E89BA781E32A24B9F1C432AE74AE63

Finally:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get remove amarok
sudo apt-get install amarok14

[dreamz Veteran]

didn't work:

dreamz@ubuntu:~$ sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
dreamz@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 1D7E9DD033E89BA781E32A24B9F1C432AE74AE63
Executing: gpg --ignore-time-conflict --no-options --no-default-keyring --secret-keyring /etc/apt/secring.gpg --trustdb-name /etc/apt/trustdb.gpg --keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 1D7E9DD033E89BA781E32A24B9F1C432AE74AE63
gpg: requesting key AE74AE63 from hkp server keyserver.ubuntu.com
gpg: keyserver timed out
gpg: keyserver receive failed: keyserver error

[Lechio]

Yeah, that happens. Sometimes the Ubuntu keyserver is down. Just try again later. In the meantime you can go ahead and install the package, just ignore the GPG error.

[dreamz Veteran]

i changed the server and grabbed the package. amarok installed just fine. but now when i try to play mp3s, i get an error:

Amarok currently cannot play MP3 files.

when i click 'install mp3 support', nothing happens. which packages do you use to get mp3 support?

[Lechio]

It uses the XINE engine, so:

sudo apt-get install amarok14-engne-xine libxine1-ffmpeg libxine1-misc-plugins libxine1-plugins

should be enough to get mp3 support on Amarok.

[dreamz Veteran]

figured it out. i was missing libxine1-ffmpeg. now it works. thanks again. :)

i will keep testing it, but so far, it seems good.

[markwolfe Veteran]

Wow. I just wanted to jump in and say that I hope I *never* have to do that much work in Linux to get MP3s working! :blink:

[Lechio]

Wow. I just wanted to jump in and say that I hope I *never* have to do that much work in Linux to get MP3s working! :blink:

That's what you get if you want to go minimalistic. One command would install it all and solve everything. Let's see what it takes to get video playback working next... :laugh:

[dreamz Veteran]

amarok 1.4 working. some skipping every now and then. trying to figure out how to keep that from happening.

quick question, lechio. you know how the current song is highlighted in the playlist? how do you change the style for that?

there are good reasons to go minimal. first, you have a lighter and possibly faster system. second, you know exactly what goes into the system, which can simplify troubleshooting. third, you learn a lot; e.g., in these past few days, i've learned a bunch of new commands, how to edit different system files, ppa system, and more.

[Lechio]

Maybe try to change the output plugin in the Engine configuration. Doesn't skip on my system when using Alsa, but try to change to OSS.

That selection bar right? It's kind of easy. Go to "/usr/share/apps/amarok/images" copy all the "currenttrack_bar*" images to your home directory, edit those with GIMP to your liking. Copy them back to "/usr/share/apps/amarok/images". Restart Amarok. Done. :)

EDIT: never payed much attention to that, just made a quick edit now, to make it look flat:

a bit better than the default I guess.

Edited November 7, 2009 by Lechio

[dreamz Veteran]

yeah i prefer that simple look. :)

here's an easy question for you now. how do i change the color of the text in the menu when the menu item isn't selected? i couldn't find the entry in the colors section in the appearance dialog.

also, here's what happened when i installed the flash plugin:

dreamz@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer
Reading package lists... Done							  
Building dependency tree								   
Reading state information... Done						  
The following extra packages will be installed:			
  ia32-libs lib32asound2 lib32bz2-1.0 lib32gcc1 lib32ncurses5 lib32stdc++6
  lib32v4l-0 lib32z1 libatk1.0-0 libc6-i386 libgtk2.0-0 libgtk2.0-common  
  libv4l-0 nspluginwrapper												
Suggested packages:													   
  firefox xulrunner-1.9 firefox-3.0 msttcorefonts ttf-xfree86-nonfree xfs 
  lib32asound2-plugins librsvg2-common gvfs							   
Recommended packages:													 
  libasound2-plugins libatk1.0-data libgtk2.0-bin						 
The following NEW packages will be installed:							 
  flashplugin-installer ia32-libs lib32asound2 lib32bz2-1.0 lib32gcc1	 
  lib32ncurses5 lib32stdc++6 lib32v4l-0 lib32z1 libatk1.0-0 libc6-i386	
  libgtk2.0-0 libgtk2.0-common libv4l-0 nspluginwrapper				   
0 upgraded, 15 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.		   
Need to get 37.4MB of archives.										   
After this operation, 173MB of additional disk space will be used.		
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y										  
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main libc6-i386 2.10.1-0ubuntu15 [3,671kB]																			
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main lib32gcc1 1:4.4.1-4ubuntu8 [55.1kB]																			  
Get:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main lib32z1 1:1.2.3.3.dfsg-13ubuntu3 [77.4kB]																		
Get:4 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main lib32stdc++6 4.4.1-4ubuntu8 [347kB]																			  
Get:5 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main lib32asound2 1.0.20-3ubuntu6 [330kB]																			 
Get:6 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main lib32bz2-1.0 1.0.5-3 [40.0kB]   
Get:7 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main lib32ncurses5 5.7+20090803-2ubuntu2 [186kB]																	  
Get:8 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main libv4l-0 0.6.0-1 [95.1kB]		
Get:9 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main lib32v4l-0 0.6.0-1 [73.7kB]	 
Get:10 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/universe ia32-libs 2.7ubuntu17 [29.2MB]																			  
Get:11 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main libatk1.0-0 1.28.0-0ubuntu1 [56.6kB]																			
Get:12 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main libgtk2.0-common 2.18.3-1 [480kB]																			   
Get:13 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main libgtk2.0-0 2.18.3-1 [2,552kB]  
Get:14 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/multiverse nspluginwrapper 1.2.2-0ubuntu6 [198kB]																	
Get:15 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/multiverse flashplugin-installer 10.0.32.18ubuntu1 [19.5kB]														  
Fetched 37.4MB in 6min 21s (98.1kB/s)										   
Preconfiguring packages ...													 
Selecting previously deselected package libc6-i386.							 
(Reading database ... 65280 files and directories currently installed.)		 
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plugin dirs: :/var/lib/flashplugin-installer/  
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Downloading...										  
--2009-11-07 22:13:29--  http://archive.canonical.com/pool/partner/a/adobe-flashplugin/adobe-flashplugin_10.0.32.18.orig.tar.gz								 
Resolving archive.canonical.com... 91.189.90.142								
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HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK								  
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2009-11-07 22:14:17 (82.6 KB/s) - `./adobe-flashplugin_10.0.32.18.orig.tar.gz' saved [4023856/4023856]

Download done.
Flash Plugin installed.

i'm pretty sure i can get it to work without all that. there must be a way to point konqueror to the flash directory of my choosing.

[Lechio]

Menu text color for Amarok right?

Change from this:

to something like this:

Amarok 1.4 is a KDE3 application, you can see just that by pressing Help > About KDE in the Amarok main window.

KDE3 and KDE4 applications currently use the same configuration file (~/.kde/share/config/kdeglobals) to know what widget style to use. Widget styles from KDE4 are not compatible with those from KDE3, for that reason KDE3 applications cannot use styles made for KDE4 applications. Some time ago there was a "transition period", where KDE4 apps would use the "~/.kde4" directory to read from and write their configuration, this would allow to run KDE3 and KDE4 applications side by side without having one affect the other, this isn't true anymore. Right now I don't think it's possible to change a KDE3 application look, at least without doing major hacking to the configuration. That wasn't an easy question... :)

For the flash part all I can say is it didn't install all of those packages on my system, and flash is working on all Web browsers (including rekonq). In Konqueror go to Settings > Configure Konqueror... > Plugins and check if the flash installation directory is listed there, add it if it isn't then press "Scan for Plugins".

[dreamz Veteran]

sorry, i meant normal menus. so let's say i open an application, e.g., konqueror. and click on 'help' in the menu bar. i mean the text in the menu that pops up.

the 'scan for plugins' button doesn't work for some reason.

[Lechio]

Oh then that's simple. System Settings > Appearance > Colors is where to configure that. Works here:

Is that what you mean? Doesn't it work for you?