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Linux Distro Noob thread of Linux noobs

zoku88

Member
I use dwb, firefox and chromium. Am I the only one who frequently changes.

I use dwb when I'm in "serious-mode". I think it works better for vim-like bindings than vimperator for firefox does. SSL doesn't always work properly, though.

I use chromium when I'm in "really lazy mode" or need SSL.

I use firefox, otherwise, because I like it's tab management better.

I compile firefox daily from mozilla-central. Pulling and building are in some script in cron.daily somewhere.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
I use dwb, firefox and chromium. Am I the only one who frequently changes.

I use dwb when I'm in "serious-mode". I think it works better for vim-like bindings than vimperator for firefox does. SSL doesn't always work properly, though.

I use chromium when I'm in "really lazy mode" or need SSL.

I use firefox, otherwise, because I like it's tab management better.

Recently I've been switching back and forth between Chromium and Firefox because they both have been alternating shitting the bed on different rapid releases.

I use to be an Opera guy back in they day, but those days have passed for me.
 

zoku88

Member
Recently I've been switching back and forth between Chromium and Firefox because they both have been alternating shitting the bed on different rapid releases.

I use to be an Opera guy back in they day, but those days have passed for me.

Yea, so. I used to have 'make clean' in my build firefox script.

Back when I used mostly FF and slightly used Chromium, there would be times where the builds would... fail. So, I sorta lost my choice to use FF a couple of times XD.

I started using dwb because I saw it on the Arch Linux forums. It's not entirely well-off, yet. Some websites cause the browser to have crazy high CPU usage.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Had a rather lengthy Ubuntu 12.10 update tonight compared to the past week which has been virtually quiet. RC should be hitting in a day or so.

Also I got the FF 16 update in all of my stuff being updates tonight. Not that it means much as FF 16 other than the garbage collection deal is a rather quiet release.
 

thcsquad

Member
Linux has been on fire lately I have to say, everything is just coming together. Gnome shaping up, System 76 becoming more of a player, the Steam beta... 2012 is the year of Linux. :D

Is there any news relating to this? I'd love for it to be true, but I haven't noticed any difference in their position since 2007, when I bought my first laptop from them.
 

zoku88

Member
Had a rather lengthy Ubuntu 12.10 update tonight compared to the past week which has been virtually quiet. RC should be hitting in a day or so.

Also I got the FF 16 update in all of my stuff being updates tonight. Not that it means much as FF 16 other than the garbage collection deal is a rather quiet release.
Honestly, I can't tell the difference between most FF releases.

I think my current version is like 18 alpha or something. I have no idea what's different from that than the release of 16.

EDIT: Just checked. 19a.
 

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
Is there any news relating to this? I'd love for it to be true, but I haven't noticed any difference in their position since 2007, when I bought my first laptop from them.

Nothing concrete, just anecdotal. Seems they're more on the blogs, although that might just be due to the rise of OMGUbuntu.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Honestly, I can't tell the difference between most FF releases.

I think my current version is like 18 alpha or something. I have no idea what's different from that than the release of 16.

EDIT: Just checked. 19a.

You must be on the nightlies.
 

zoku88

Member
You must be on the nightlies.

Lol, I said above that I get the source from mozilla-central and compile them :p

I was just trying to say that it feels like there's little difference between the version numbers.



Anyway, I need some help. When I boot, GRUB2 spits out some error about not being able to find something. Unfortunately for me, the messages disappears too fast for me to read and I get to the boot selection screen. Everything works fine, but having that error bothers me.

Anybody have a clue what it could be looking for (i'm guessing some theme or image file..)? Or of a way I can see the error?
 

itxaka

Defeatist
Anyway, I need some help. When I boot, GRUB2 sp some error about not being able to find something. Unfortunately for me, the messages disappears too fast for me to read and I get to the boot selection screen. Everything works fine, but having that error bothers me.

Anybody have a clue what it could be looking for (i'm guessing some theme or image file..)? Or of a way I can see the error?

Probably there is a locale file missing. Happened to me a week ago.

Can you check if the file /boot/grub2/locale/en.mo exists?

That is counting that your system is in English of course.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Still wish I could get a work around for my wireless mouse and keyboard not working in Grub 2. Not a big deal as I haven't needed to do anything, but just continue on booting up into Ubuntu. Still annoys me though.

PS: Ubuntu 12.10 RC1 should release late today.
 

Massa

Member
Still wish I could get a work around for my wireless mouse and keyboard not working in Grub 2. Not a big deal as I haven't needed to do anything, but just continue on booting up into Ubuntu. Still annoys me though.

PS: Ubuntu 12.10 RC1 should release late today.

Have you tried adding "GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT=console" to your /etc/default/grub and then running "update-grub"?
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Have you tried adding "GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT=console" to your /etc/default/grub and then running "update-grub"?

I haven't but I can try that. I figured I was going to wait for Ubuntu 12.10 to hit 1st and hope that maybe it got fixed in an update since I was running beta software.
 

zoku88

Member
Probably there is a locale file missing. Happened to me a week ago.

Can you check if the file /boot/grub2/locale/en.mo exists?

That is counting that your system is in English of course.

Ah, thanks. I will check when I get home.

@Brettison. Does your M+KB work in BIOS/UEFI?
 

zoku88

Member
I decided to switch to a pure systemd system yesterday.

My kernel+userspace boot time is now 2.6s (according to systemd-analyze blame, NetworkManager takes the most time, which I guess makes sense.)

EDIT: Added bonus, my machine can actually enter sleep/hibernate and actually be able to come out now. I wonder how systemd handles sleep differently.
 

zoku88

Member
Are you guys using Linux as your main OS or with Windows/Mac?

I use Linux mostly. I boot into Windows every once in a while. The last time was for watching Doctor Who on Amazon, since apparently it needs a newer flash version that what is available :-/
 

MC RaZaR

Neo Member
I'll be getting a laptop with Windows 8 and dual boot. I want to play around with Windows 8, but have Linux Mint as my primary OS.
 
Ok, this is it for me, I don't fucking care if you can disable it.

It looks like Canonical has followed the trend settled by both Microsoft and Apple of making an OS suited to their own needs instead of suited to the user needs. If they are going to follow this path with Ubuntu, they can be sure it's not going to be with my support. Which are the best user-friendly alternatives?

Linux Mint is pretty sexy.
 

Hieberrr

Member
Hmm... I had Ubuntu 12.04 installed when it first came out and used it pretty often for a month or two, but then I realized that I REALLY needed Office 2010, Illustrator/PS, and Google Talk.

On a daily basis, I would rather use Ubuntu, but the mail application sucks ass (it won't run in the background), music app is more of a library music app, and I can't minimize windows by clicking the unity bar icons. Have better apps come along? Has the windows thing been fixed? I have a huge urge to come back.
 

zoku88

Member
Hmm... I had Ubuntu 12.04 installed when it first came out and used it pretty often for a month or two, but then I realized that I REALLY needed Office 2010, Illustrator/PS, and Google Talk.

On a daily basis, I would rather use Ubuntu, but the mail application sucks ass (it won't run in the background), music app is more of a library music app, and I can't minimize windows by clicking the unity bar icons. Have better apps come along? Has the windows thing been fixed? I have a huge urge to come back.
for Google Talk, I just use pidgin or empathy. Though, you might mean the actual client rather than the protocol. But yea, no office or Adobe stuff.

What do you mean, mail application doesn't run in the background? I'm not too picky, so I just use thunderbird.

There are tons of music apps. I believe Amarok is still popular. There's banshee (i guess, itunes ripoff.) I use clementine.

No clue about the unity specific stuff, since I don't use Ubuntu.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Hmm... I had Ubuntu 12.04 installed when it first came out and used it pretty often for a month or two, but then I realized that I REALLY needed Office 2010, Illustrator/PS, and Google Talk.

On a daily basis, I would rather use Ubuntu, but the mail application sucks ass (it won't run in the background), music app is more of a library music app, and I can't minimize windows by clicking the unity bar icons. Have better apps come along? Has the windows thing been fixed? I have a huge urge to come back.

Uh google talk has always been there.

Your fucked if you NEED Adobe stuff other than running through wine though. I don't so I'm good with GIMP for what little editing I do.

Also there is a spotify for Linux client so that basically takes care of my music needs. That's all I ever use in Windows whenever I boot over anyways.

There is Thunderbird for Linux so you could try that if you NEED a mail client. Honestly I just use web based gmail like I assume most people do here unless they are at work.

Office is a tricky beast. There are web based versions of Office as well as Google Docs or you could try Open Office. That or you can run Office through Wine rather well. I just use the web versions of things for my home use anyways.

IMO sounds like you should stick to Windows even though I don't think the situation is as bad as you described.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Have you tried adding "GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT=console" to your /etc/default/grub and then running "update-grub"?

So how should I go about doing this? Just open the file in gedit? Do I need to put that line in a certain spot? Then what? sudo update-grub in the terminal?

Will I have to do this each time grub updates?
 

leroidys

Member
Hey so every time I install Ubuntu (I have to use it for school) my windows install starts becoming corrupt. What the fuck ubuntu?
 

Hieberrr

Member
for Google Talk, I just use pidgin or empathy. Though, you might mean the actual client rather than the protocol. But yea, no office or Adobe stuff.

What do you mean, mail application doesn't run in the background? I'm not too picky, so I just use thunderbird.

There are tons of music apps. I believe Amarok is still popular. There's banshee (i guess, itunes ripoff.) I use clementine.

No clue about the unity specific stuff, since I don't use Ubuntu.

Yeah, sorry I mean't Thunderbird. I want Thunderbird to launch in the background at start up or just run in the background without having me to launch it. It's a pain in the ass for me to always have it minimized instead of just running in the background.

In terms of music apps, I'm just looking for something simple like Winamp, which will just launch a song when I click it instead of adding it to my "library". ={
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Hey so every time I install Ubuntu (I have to use it for school) my windows install starts becoming corrupt. What the fuck ubuntu?

How are you installing it? Are you overriting the MBR or fucking with your Windows partition? Have you tried installing it via Wubi or tried using one of the USB creators?
 

Hieberrr

Member
Uh google talk has always been there.

Your fucked if you NEED Adobe stuff other than running through wine though. I don't so I'm good with GIMP for what little editing I do.

Also there is a spotify for Linux client so that basically takes care of my music needs. That's all I ever use in Windows whenever I boot over anyways.

There is Thunderbird for Linux so you could try that if you NEED a mail client. Honestly I just use web based gmail like I assume most people do here unless they are at work.

Office is a tricky beast. There are web based versions of Office as well as Google Docs or you could try Open Office. That or you can run Office through Wine rather well. I just use the web versions of things for my home use anyways.

IMO sounds like you should stick to Windows even though I don't think the situation is as bad as you described.

Yeah, my internship requires me to use adobe stuff pretty heavily. I work at home and in the office (with my own laptop; both run Windows), so I absolutely need it.

I really need something that will notify me of a new email instantly. With Google Talk on Windows, I get notifications instantly as it is always running. That's my way of not running Chrome all the time
KuGsj.gif
.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Yeah, my internship requires me to use adobe stuff pretty heavily. I work at home and in the office (with my own laptop; both run Windows), so I absolutely need it.

I really need something that will notify me of a new email instantly. With Google Talk on Windows, I get notifications instantly as it is always running. That's my way of not running Chrome all the time
KuGsj.gif
.

There are some notification apps you can easily install that work with Gmail! Check out say Gmail Watcher, and it'll integrate with the messenging menu and notify you!

Also Google Mail is supported as a web app in Ubuntu 12.10!
 

Hieberrr

Member
There are some notification apps you can easily install that work with Gmail! Check out say Gmail Watcher, and it'll integrate with the messenging menu and notify you!

Also Google Mail is supported as a web app in Ubuntu 12.10!

:O

Speaking of 12.10: Is the Amazon thing gonna be there indefinitely?
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
:O

Speaking of 12.10: Is the Amazon thing gonna be there indefinitely?

It's toggleable meaning yes it's going to be there, and yes you can just turn it off. No it's not what everyone wants to here aka Canonical backpedals and pulls it out. Yes it's a quick fix though by just switching it off.
 

Hieberrr

Member
It's toggleable meaning yes it's going to be there, and yes you can just turn it off. No it's not what everyone wants to here aka Canonical backpedals and pulls it out. Yes it's a quick fix though by just switching it off.

Awesome :D
I guess I'll wait a few more days for 12.10
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Awesome :D
I guess I'll wait a few more days for 12.10

I plan on working on my |OT| for 12.10 sometime this weekend in between watching football and hanging with my friends/gf. I hope to have it up sometime early next week aka before the release date. Look for more info in there. :p
 
re: 12.10. Not to be a spoilsport, but I'm staying on 12.04 until the next LTS! Why upgrade?

Are you guys using Linux as your main OS or with Windows/Mac?
Main OS.

Haven't booted into Windows (except at work. I have a windows 7 VM inside a Xubuntu host at work) in... probably 3 years.
 

Massa

Member
I use Linux mostly. I boot into Windows every once in a while. The last time was for watching Doctor Who on Amazon, since apparently it needs a newer flash version that what is available :-/

The latest version of Flash is available for Linux but it only works with Google Chrome. In fact, it's distributed exclusively with Google Chrome. If you use Chromium it also works, but you have to install it manually (see chromium-pepper-flash in the AUR if you use Arch).

So how should I go about doing this? Just open the file in gedit? Do I need to put that line in a certain spot? Then what? sudo update-grub in the terminal?

Will I have to do this each time grub updates?

Just open the file with a text editor and add that line, doesn't matter where. I usually add stuff to the bottom.

Grub is a bit of a special case in that it's configuration file lives in /boot/grub/grub.cfg, but it's not supposed to be edited manually. So instead we add the options we want to /etc/default/grub and then the "update-grub" utility will write your settings to the right file in /boot. You only need to run that program once after changing /etc/default/grub.

update-grub is a Debian specific script, in other distributions you'd use "grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg" (or "grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg" in Fedora). It's the same thing.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Going to try this now. I'll post back with results.

I'm still confused on what this line will actually do to help detect my m/kb.

EDIT: It says the GRUB file is read only, and I don't have the premission to change to read/write?

EDIT: NVM opened it via sudo using the terminal worked.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Okay so that didn't work. I mean it worked in that I added the line and grub updated, but still no keyboard detected in the grub menu upon reboot. Thanks for trying though. :/
 

Massa

Member
I just noticed I made a mistake in my posts, sorry. :(

It should've been GRUB_TERMINAL or GRUB_TERMINAL_INPUT. The Grub documentation explains it, the "console" settings uses the BIOS/EFI console so it should fix your problem.

You can edit the file again, change the line you added from GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT to GRUB_TERMINAL and then run update-grub again. That should hopefully work!
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
I just noticed I made a mistake in my posts, sorry. :(

It should've been GRUB_TERMINAL or GRUB_TERMINAL_INPUT. The Grub documentation explains it, the "console" settings uses the BIOS/EFI console so it should fix your problem.

You can edit the file again, change the line you added from GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT to GRUB_TERMINAL and then run update-grub again. That should hopefully work!

Well no dice. I mean it worked in that it used my default bios settings, but my keyboard still won't work. It just hung at the grub screen, and I had to plug in my back up wired keyboard.

I know my keyboard works in the bios though because I can hit delete and it'll pull up the bios settings which I can change around such as switching boot device order.

Oh well it's no biggie. I'll figure it out someday or just get a newer mobo with a newer bios/uefi that might fix it.
 

CorrisD

badchoiceboobies
So I've picked up an old computer from my mums, she decided that she didn't like using this old thing generally and got herself a new Windows 7 one.

Anyway, it is a Dell Dimension 2000 IIRC, Pentium 4 3GHz, 512MB Ram, Radeon X300. It really does run like an old man, the last few days I have just been using it as a file holder as it contains two HDDs with a total of about 400GB.

I would usually just take the HDD's out and stick them in an enclosure and just use the space, but I would quite like to use it on the side of my Macbook that I have OS X/Windows on, whether that is for browser or using as some sort of temporary network storage between devices around the house, I also don't trust Windows XP as far as I can throw it which isn't far considering how heavy this thing is.

I have a basic knowledge of Ubuntu but no real knowledge using commands but I also don't want it to run like ass, so the question is where do I go from here to get it working as a simple computer for browsing and network storage while not running like ass? lol.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Step by Step Instructions...

Step 1) Find a working computer + a usb flash drive

Step 2) Download the Linux Live USB Creator

Step 3) Load up said program and follow the easy steps. I'd recommend chosing Xubuntu which is a an XFCE version of Ubuntu which sould be lighter weight than regular Ubuntu

Step 4) Boot the USB Drive and run through the OS Install

Step 5) Boot into the OS and use away as Firefox should be installed already. You also could install Chrome/chromium if you'd rather use that.
 

leroidys

Member
How are you installing it? Are you overriting the MBR or fucking with your Windows partition? Have you tried installing it via Wubi or tried using one of the USB creators?

I just installed it with Wubi this last time. Then when I went back to 7, none of my windows services or any of my programs would work.
 

zoku88

Member
The latest version of Flash is available for Linux but it only works with Google Chrome. In fact, it's distributed exclusively with Google Chrome. If you use Chromium it also works, but you have to install it manually (see chromium-pepper-flash in the AUR if you use Arch).

Actually, during that time, I did try using google-chrome at that time. I just got a black screen and pretty much said 'screw it'.

Didn't feel like figuring out what was wrong with Flash :-/

Thanks for the AUR name, though.


Kinda sucks that it's chrome(ium)-only though. Though, it feels like Adobe kinda sucks when it comes to Linux...
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
I just installed it with Wubi this last time. Then when I went back to 7, none of my windows services or any of my programs would work.

I'm not as big of a fan as Wubi as I use to be. It's a great idea in theory, but there always seems to be issues.

I always just partition or use separate harddrives and install that way via a usb creation tool. I currently dual boot Ubuntu and Windows 8 (though I haven't booted into Windows in almost a month).
 
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