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Linux Distro Noob thread of Linux noobs
- Thread starter Flying_Phoenix
- Start date
If you installed the Microsoft fonts then websites are using it. If a website requests a font that isn't installed on your system it will automatically fallback to the a standard one.
The actual defaults shouldn't have changed, but most websites don't use your default font anyway.
'serif' and 'sans' are just aliases Firefox uses and are defined in Ubuntu's font configuration files.
How do I remove Microsoft fonts from Ubuntu?
It depends, how did you install it? If you used the software center then you can remove them with the software center.
I installed it through the terminal.
GameplayWhore
Member
You probably meant something like
"sudo apt-get install msfonts"
the equivalent removal command would be
"sudo apt-get remove msfonts"
But you might also mean something like
"sudo cp *.ttf /usr/share/fonts"
Or something similarly manual. In that case, you'd have to hunt and peck a bit.
It was the first way. Thank you.
I can't answer the first question, but I really suggest giving Ubuntu a shot. It's really easy to learn, and any newbie can learn the ropes very quickly.
I think there are, I can't think of the name of it though (Kubuntu sounds right, but I'm not sure if it's the right one), either way though, Ubuntu is really easy on resources, so you should be fine.
Also regarding my earlier font question.
So I basically used this guide, and did the command that was suggest.
sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer
For whatever reason though, it won't find the file location now.
GameplayWhore
Member
XFCE and LXDE are the two big lightweight environments. Their equivalent Ubuntu variants are called Xubuntu and Lubuntu. However, I suspect that the only real difference is that there's a different desktop environment installed. You could just install the regular variant and then use the package manager to try out all the different desktop environments.
edit: In pretty much any "GNU/Linux"-based operating system (as well as any BSD-based operating system or, in fact, any desktop-esque operating system not made by Bill or Steve), you can freely change your desktop environment on login, and that in fact is responsible for a great deal of the memory savings you'd get in a "lite" distro.
Ah, so that probably ran some script that manually downloaded the fonts. Wow, what a backwards way to do it.
If you want to get rid of them, one way is to know what their names are then going to the "/usr/share/fonts/truetype" directory (I think that's where it is -- my distro's location is slightly different) and removing the files manually. After they're all removed, you apparently run "fc-cache" (or maybe "sudo fc-cache"; I really never had to do this, so I'm unsure) so that the system rebuilds its font cache.
edit: to remove a font file from the /usr/share/fonts directory tree, you have to either be the root user (which I think Ubuntu incomprehensibly fights you from doing) or use the "sudo" command when removing. Or maybe there's a "root file manager" or "Nautilus god mode" entry somewhere in the administration area of your app menus, that'll do the trick.
There's a folder labeled "msttcorefonts" would that be it?
I got this far
izick@izick-Satellite-L455D:~$ sudo apt-get remove ttf-mscorefonts
[sudo] password for izick:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package ttf-mscorefonts
izick@izick-Satellite-L455D:~$ sudo apt-get remove msttcorefonts
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting 'ttf-mscorefonts-installer' instead of 'msttcorefonts'
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
libnspr4-0d dkms cabextract patch
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
ttf-mscorefonts-installer
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 209 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
Should I hit y(es)?
izick@izick-Satellite-L455D:~$ sudo apt-get remove ttf-mscorefonts
[sudo] password for izick:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package ttf-mscorefonts
izick@izick-Satellite-L455D:~$ sudo apt-get remove msttcorefonts
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting 'ttf-mscorefonts-installer' instead of 'msttcorefonts'
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
libnspr4-0d dkms cabextract patch
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
ttf-mscorefonts-installer
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 209 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
Should I hit y(es)?
GameplayWhore
Member
Oh, snap, that's smart of them to do. Yeah, that sounds completely logical. Just "sudo mv" that directory to somewhere else and run the fc-cache (or "sudo fc-cache", I'm still not sure about that) and see what happens.
Alternately, by the way, it's entirely possible that Ubuntu has some sort of graphical font management program that lets you delete fonts that way.
So yes to the follow up post?
GameplayWhore
Member
Hah, yes to the followup post.
GameplayWhore
Member
Hey, I'm not taking any risks, I warned you all I was a newbie!
This why I was suggesting use "mv" to move the directory elsewhere instead of "rm" to delete it utterly.
Like:
sudo mv /usr/share/fonts/msttcorefonts /tmp/
That'd end you with the directory at "/tmp/msttcorefonts". And if something went horribly wrong after running the fc-cache thing, then you can always move it back.
Well there's no going back now I suppose. Everything seems fine so far at least.
I'm certain that it deleted that MS fonts package so I think I should be okay, right?
GameplayWhore
Member
I would think so. Fonts are handled in a pretty straightforward way in these systems. And you could always use apt or synaptic (that's the name of the pointy-clicky version of apt) to reinstall fonts that were accidentally deleted, so there wasn't any real danger here.
Well, I'd just like to say I appreciate the help, and you putting up with my ineptitude towards Linux!
GameplayWhore
Member
There's this interesting stereotype that people who use nontraditional operating systems are bearded hippie-ish types who get cranky and say things like "RTFM, noob!" when asked questions.
I don't even have a beard yet.
I have to say that the Linux community on here have been very welcoming to me and other newbies, in answering questions and just generally helping out people.
Indeed. For the record Izick, if you download some fonts you want to use (ie. in pure .ttf or similar formats) you can just copy them to the .fonts folder in your Home directory and reboot whatever application needs them. Then remove them manually if you don't want them anymore. The same goes for icon sets (.icons) and most other stuff - the home directory structure is sooo nice in Linux.
Font rendering OTOH is a mayor hassle
Ubuntu has some nice defaults but sometimes things just get weird for me.Edit: Of course if the font is in the repositories it's often best to use apt-get or the Software Centre.
Indeed. For the record Izick, if you download some fonts you want to use (ie. in pure .ttf or similar formats) you can just copy them to the .fonts folder in your Home directory and reboot whatever application needs them. Then remove them manually if you don't want them anymore. The same goes for icon sets (.icons) and most other stuff - the home directory structure is sooo nice in Linux.
Font rendering OTOH is a mayor hassle
Edit: Of course if the font is in the repositories it's often best to use apt-get or the Software Centre.
I'm actually quite happy with Ubuntu's standard set of fonts. I actually wanted to remove the MS fonts because they made everything look...off.
The only reason I downloaded them was because the instructor specifically said to use Times New Roman, but I figure I can type it out on LibreOffice Writer, save it, send it to myself via email, then change the font on a Windows computer before I print it up.
Gotcha, though that's seems a bit of a pain
If you've got a Google account you can probably change the font in Google Docs. Another solution (if you've still got the msttfcorefonts folder somewhere) is to copy the TNR font to .fonts, relaunch Libreoffice and make the changes, then finally just move the font to some backup location when you're done.Gotcha, though that's seems a bit of a pain
I appreciate the advice but don't worry about it at all. I have to do all the stuff anyways, because the only printer I have acess to is hooked up to said Windows computer.
I cloned my Xubuntu install just now and upgraded the clone to 12.04. The upgrade ook about 40 minutes. It's running much better now Canonical have patched the Linux kernel power issues. The only issues I'm having so far is programs are telling me they're crashing all the time when they're obviously not but that's a beta for you.
Just a tip to anyone trying out different distros or checking out beta releases. If you copy everything inside your profile folders for Mozilla and Thunderbird and just paste it inside your new install profile folders everything including seach engines, bookmarks,plugins and settings will be the same as before. You can do this with virtually any program and it's the reason why some people choose to create a seperate home partition. I generally only do this to preserve my mail and and get firefox up and running how I like it in seconds.
Just a tip to anyone trying out different distros or checking out beta releases. If you copy everything inside your profile folders for Mozilla and Thunderbird and just paste it inside your new install profile folders everything including seach engines, bookmarks,plugins and settings will be the same as before. You can do this with virtually any program and it's the reason why some people choose to create a seperate home partition. I generally only do this to preserve my mail and and get firefox up and running how I like it in seconds.
I thought if you made your home folder separate or different mount/partition upgrading you won't lose anything.
Yep that's right you can do this, but from my experience I've had apps misbehave with notifications from the panel, and I've also had issues with file permissions. Each to their own, but I prefer to have the OS rewrite the home folder each time and just transfer my mail and internet settings.
FYI the "Liberation" fonts released by Red Hat and part of a default Ubuntu install (as far as I know) are supposed to be metric-compatible with their equivalent Microsoft fonts specifically for the situation you just ran into: your document wouldn't lose any formatting moving from Liberation Sans to Arial, or Liberation Serif to Times New Roman. So in the future you can just use these fonts when creating documents under Linux and mostly assume things won't break in terms of formatting when you open them under Windows and change the font to their Microsoft counterparts.
Okay I made a live USB using zorin. Everything works but my wifi. How can I fix this? I don't have ethernet access but it looks like in system options I have something that says windows wireless drivers and when hovered over says nsdiswrapper driver installation. When clicked brings up a pane where I can install new driver and asks for a file.
What do I do? If I could get ethernet access would updating fix this?
What do I do? If I could get ethernet access would updating fix this?
I don't really know how the ndiswrapper setup is working these days but what it does is wrap the Windows wireless driver to work under Linux. If the settings panel is able to download the Windows driver by itself things should be pretty easy, but you can put the driver in a USB stick and load it from there as well.
Are you using Ubuntu? If so try to search for the name of your wireless card on their help website, there should be some easy to follow instructions there specific to your card.
Okay, that's good to know.
Aside: I have to say I'm really dissapointed with f.lux for Ubuntu. It's been very buggy, and it solely works correctly on its own. Does anyone else here use it? Any tips?
EDIT: I've also been thinking about trying out GNOME or My Unity. How easy are these to install, and if I don't like them, can I just uninstall, and will everything just return to normal?
GameplayWhore
Member
When you install a Desktop Environment or a Window Manager in Linux, it should appear as an option in your login screen every day. So you can freely change which one you use every day.
Unless Ubuntu is different from regular Linux in this regard.
So everything should be fine if I install it, don't like it, and uninstall it? Could it mess stuff up?
I use Redshift instead.
Oh wow, so much better. Thank you!
EDIT: So if I want to uninstall f.lux, should I just
It depends. If you install desktop/window managers from Ubuntu's repositories you should be 100% safe. If you use customized packages from 3rd party repositories then you may or may not be safe, depends on the quality of the packages and what they actually do.
That depends on the program you used to write the ISO image to a USB stick.
I used Universal-USB-Installer-1.8.8.4
I was just going to download GNOME from the software center, so that's what you meant when you said it should be safe, right?
EDIT:
Okay so I uninstalled fluxgui and installed Redshift, but for some reason whenever I use the application, it just starts blinking the screen dimmer, than regular, then dimmer, then regular, on and off until it just stops and then will flicker every once in a while. What's wrong?
GameplayWhore
Member
Based on Massa's answer (I refrained from answering because I didn't know if Ubuntu did anything weird compared to most Linuces), you may do exactly that.
Open question: Does Ubuntu support Ctrl-Alt-Backspace, or did they disable that feature? It's pretty much the most useful thing in the world when you're in a bind, but some distros seem intent on making it hard to recover from freezes. :|
edit: For the new folk, in most distros, historically, if something bad happens, and your desktop is frozen, and you can't click on anything, then hitting Ctrl-Alt-Backspace on the keyboard instantly drops you out of your session and back to the login screen. Ctrl-Alt-Escape, another useful key combo, brings up a crosshair or an X or a skull and then next thing you click on is forced closed. That's another favourite, as it's a ton faster than calling up a process manager window.
Yes, but you must enable it.
Also, I fixed Redshift by uninstalling it, reinstalling f.lux quitting flux, uninstalling flux and reinstalling Redshift. The transition is smooth, and no flickering!
Having a separate home partition is good for reinstalls or upgrades of the same distribution.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WirelessTroubleShootingGuide
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So apparently, Chrome dominated the charts on Tom's Web Browser Grand Prix
Tried googling and even ubuntu IRC =(