Linux-Noob Forums

Day 21

 

At this point, I've realised that pretty much all I need configured is already done, I've got multimedia, cd burning with mp3 capability, remote desktop, ssh, cool gui effects (beryl/avant-dock/gdesklets), so my laptop is performing nicely.

 

I've not had any fatal errors (kernel panics) and all in all the laptop is now setup really nicely !

 

When I have installed other linux distros such as Fedora or Suse, the first few days (or weeks) are usually the most intense, setting up the system the way that I want it (I guess the same is true for windows users too, more or less). But once the dust settles (and it does) you end up with a system that's working the way you want, which leads me to think about the marketing hype mentioned at the beginning of this thread.

 

Ubuntu, is (as far as I'm concerned) perceived by many people to be the answer to their dreams if they are entering the linux world for the first time (eg: windows switchers). Why ?

 

Try typing in 'linux distro' into google and see what it returns,

 

here's a paste of my results

 

Quote:DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.News and feature lists of Linux and BSD distributions.

distrowatch.com/ - 22 maj 2007 - Liknande sidor

Ubuntu - distrowatch.com/ubuntu

openSUSE - distrowatch.com/suse

Fedora - distrowatch.com/fedora

Major Distributions - distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

Fler resultat fr

Day 22

 

Ok, the clock is running and soon the 30 days will be up. If I get time over the next few days, I will install Ubuntu on my sons dual boot gaming machine (currently dual booting XP/SLED10). I'm interested in seeing his reaction to Ubuntu.

 

Meanwhile, I'd like to share the following with you, perhaps it (indirectly) is part of Ubuntu's popularity at least in the beginning ?

Ubuntu & You, Part 1: Trying Today's Most Popular Linux Distribution

 

and I quote:-

 

Quote:The more cynical among us might point to another reason for Ubuntu's overnight success: sheer sex appeal. Either as a consequence of its "humanity toward others" philosophy (as I believe) or as a calculated marketing ploy (as the cynics say), Ubuntu debuted with some backgrounds and wallpapers featuring attractive young people in various states of togetherness and undress. There was even a feature called Ubuntu-calendar, still available but apparently no longer functional, which would update your desktop with a new art photograph each month. That's art photography as in nudity, folks. Needless to say, this penchant set Ubuntu apart and had people talking about it as "LinuXXX" or "the porn distribution."

 

heh :)

 

More updates available

 

9 updates available today ! some vim and smb stuff (see screenshot). I apply them.

 



Installing gftp/wine/FlashFXP

 

I need to ftp some files locally, so I use synaptic to install gftp as it's not present in the default Ubuntu install. It installed quickly and painlessly. However gftp crashes when I try to connect to my ftp server (implicit ssl enabled, and yes I know gftp doesn't do that, but I want the app for native linux ftp'ing). No problem, I'll try flashfxp via wine !.

 

I install wine via Synaptic, and once done I install an 'old' version of flashfxp (FlashFXP_21_Setup-nohelp.exe to be precise) as I know that from version 3.x and up, there were issues with wine.

 

I then install the app in wine via cli

 







 



 

that starts the install, which i click next/next/next to, and it completes. Now to test it.

 

I then launch Flashfxp via cli by doing this

 







 

the important bit above is that I first cd (change directory) into the hidden wine directory, then navigated my way to where the FlashFxp executable was stored, once found, I executed it using wine by







 

It worked !

 

I then configured Flashfxp, and connected to my site, and it worked, implicit SSL no problem at all.

 

:)

Day 23.

More updates

Another Avant dock update ready for me, so I install it.

 

Screenshot of the day

Here's what my Ubuntu desktop looks like on day 23

 

Day 24.

 

More updates available

 

I like to catalog exactly what is/is not happening with my Ubuntu laptop., and today. there's a new update available this time for the 'linux restricted modules common', so I apply it.

 

tonight I will install Ubuntu on my sons' dual boot machine, time willing that is :)

 

Day 25.

 

Migrate Documents and Settings

 

Ok got round to installing ubuntu on my sons computer (p4, 3ghz, 120hdd, 512mb ram, geforce 6800 video card, turtle beach audio card.) During the install, it prompted me for where to install, i chose a forgotten blank 10gb partition, as it was unused,. and ubuntu brought up a migrate documents and settings wizard of sorts, allowing me to copy the data from detected users on the winxp partition, cool, so I went with that.

 

This wizard was quite cool, but suffers from lack of thought, when you select more than one user is says 'Create a user to import the selected account into', and if you have selected 5 users like me, it's not clear whether all this info is going into ONE user account or each account separately (that you create). So in the end i highlighted each selected account, and created a new one underneath for copying the info across.

 

One of those accounts was for me (niall) and you have to type username, login name, password. I did that and after the wizard is done., you are brought to the 'who is going to use this computer' page, where I once again had to enter my own account info+password. Seems a bit odd to me, but at least this is a step in the right direction for helping windows users move to linux. Thumbs up.

 



 

After the installation however, firefox didn't have any of the bookmarks, because I make my kids use Firefox in xp, and it seems the ubuntu migration only copies bookmarks from Internet Explorer. Well that's a shame, nice tool otherwise. (note to Ubuntu developers, how about giving the user a choice of what browser to copy the bookmarks from ?).

 

Grub Triple boot

 

In addition to setting his box up, I noted that after the installation was complete and I saw the grub bootloader, it now listed Ubuntu, SLED10 and Winxp, nice, very nice. I tested booting into XP after all was done and it worked fine, I've yet to test SLED10 but I'm hopeful that it too is fine.

 

fsck error

 

However, it wasn't all plain sailing, on the first boot after installation, I got an fsck error saying device /dev/sdb1 (not sure if that was it) hadn't been scanned for errors in 49710 days ! and it scanned and fixed..... then forced a reboot. I've no idea why this happened and i'm pretty sure that whatever it was referring to was definetly not around 49710 days ago... (136.5 years ago ?)

 

I logged in as me, then ran apt-get update, and apt-get upgrade from cli as root (sudo -i if you forget).

 

One other suggestion for Ubuntu developers, if the installation has brought up the 'migrate documents and settings tool' and if there are more than one users created in that tool, wouldn't it be nice to have the XP like gui login where you can choose which user to login rather than having to type username and password ? Yes, I know this is easily configurable within Ubuntu, but my point was to ease the transition from XP to linux.

 

Desktop Effects and Nvidia video drivers.

 

Next I attempted to enable desktop effects, but that failed as root was busy apt-getting. I'll retest that shortly, but what WAS nice was that Ubuntu would install the nvidia 'proprietory' driver for me, if I chose to do so. Nice.

 



 



 

Ok after the nvidia driver., Ubuntu wanted a reboot, I rebooted and then enabled desktop effects, it worked fine, however I note that I cannot set the resolution above 1024x768 which sucks as this is a 21inch monitor capable of 1600x1200@85hz. I'll look into that later.

 

No audio ?

In addition, I'll need to find out where the sound is, as it's totally missing (I believe it was working fine in SLED 10, but will need to boot into Suse to find out.)

 

I'm including a screenshot of my sons ubuntu desktop, with beryl, gdesklets, avant dock installed (gdesklets not in the screenshot) and to do all this took about 70 minutes from start (inserting ubuntu cd) to where I am now.

 

Day 21 - hrmm, ubuntu has hype maybe but the reason for the switch is that the majority of new users are eased into it. it has been given a target that is for new users. the desktop looks sweet.

 

Day 22 - it will be really good to see how he reacts to ubuntu, as a current sled user switching. nice idea! Hehe, ubuntu "calendar" .. ah yes, i remembered that heh. nice to see wine/flashfxp working easy enough.

 

Day 23 - updates and a nice screenshot :)

 

Day 24 - more updates! ;)

 

Day 25 - the migration didn't go too smooth but like you say, a step in the right direction, i believe that is the second time you have said something like that, so another plus to ubuntu? it is easy enough to export the bookmarks from firefox and reimport at the other end, so i agree thats a minor flaw but i suppose it is aimed at migrating windows? anyway. the issue with the 49710 days, sometimes when partitioning is fiddled with (for instance partition magic etc) it can affect linux in this manner, did you repartition (you did say forgotten so maybe not). anyway it did fix itself, so ok. Odd about the audio not being there! :(

 

Oh well .. so far not to shabby.