CC Linux Corner

[nietzsche]

Yeah. Its a linux thread on CC Forums. Yeah, the 34234 zillion linux forums around aren't enough.

I've used linux in the past but never kept it. Always come back to windows, the reason I always come back to windows is because I love the look and responsiveness of its controls.

But I'm gonna try again, I'm downloading Mageia KDE.

I'm going to give it 10GB only because I have a small SSD.

Any linux users around? What distribution are you using? Is Mageia good for me?

DO you use both win and linux or just linux?

[natty dread]

I've been using Ubuntu for a while now. I love it. It's so much better than windows in every imaginable way that it's not even a contest anymore...

I still have xp on the second partition, but I just kind of keep it as a backup os, in case something goes horribly wrong or something... or if I like need to run some program that's not available on linux... but so far everything has worked really smoothly. Ubuntu can read windows file system which is convenient for transfering all the bookmarks, passwords, etc. from windows.

I don't know about Mageia, but if you want help choosing the best distro for you, you could go here:

http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

[nietzsche]

Thanks for the link. I'm currently running Mint Live CD. I've tried installing it a couple of times from the Live Cd but it won't, apparently it doesn't understand the partitions i have here. I'm going to keep trying.

But by far this is the most user friendly linux distribution that i've ever tried. I've tried a few although I admit that only superficially and all in the past, lately only knoppix.

Promising, and that's from a LiveCD!

[maxfaraday]

I got rid of window$

I'm using Ubunut and I can't wait for the next release.

[natty dread]

I'm already using 12.04, it's not bad - a few rough edges but nothing major; the window manager has some slight quirks that hopefully will be fixed in the final release.

[maxfaraday]

I'm already using 12.04, it's not bad - a few rough edges but nothing major; the window manager has some slight quirks that hopefully will be fixed in the final release.

It's a beta, the final verion will be released this week I think.

[natty dread]

Well, today I ran to slight problems, as somehow my display settings got all fucked up - the monitor was stuck to low-res setting and if I tried to change it it went crazy.

So, I tried several things - first I tried resetting compiz & dconf settings, that didn't help. Then I logged out of x and logged in the console, removed and re-installed ubuntu-desktop via apt-get. That didn't help either.

Next, I created a second admin account to see if the problem was system-wide or localized to my account only. The second account worked fine, the resolution was correct. On retrospect, I probably should have done this step first...

Anyway, after some research on google, fiddling with things, etc. I finally pinpointed the problem to a corrupted or otherwise wrong configuration file ~/.config/monitors.xml. I removed it, problem solved.

Oh, and what caused the problems in the first place? I tried to play tux racer... Anyway, this was the first real problem I've ran into with 12.04, and even it didn't take me too long to figure out how to fix. Oh well, the final version should be released soon, hopefully issues like this will be fixed...

But I also learned from this experience: from now on, I'll try out new things on the second account, so if the account settings get screwed up again at least my main account is safe...

[nietzsche]

Finally was able to install Mint. I downloaded the iso 3 times, finally the md5sum was correct and also left the partitions in a more basic state, C for win7, a space of 10gb and at the end my data partition. It went smoothly. Everything is working fine and I'm looking around customizing it.

FOr some reason Firefox feels better than Chromium in Linux, in Windows it's the other way around.

[nietzsche]

I remember working in an office with 3 linux guys, the 3 of them with very different styles, and me and another guy who worked on windows. I've learned quite a lot from the other windows guy, he was like a linux guy but in windows, he could do almost all the linux guys could do, he always had a set of nice apps ready to take challenge from the linux guys. One of the linux guys was the boss, and he was always challenging me to do stuff that linuxes could do in windows.

He once stripped me from my internet access, and gave me a couple of xploits that were hot and I was to write complicated batch files to completely compromise windows systems in the local network. I knew you could do a lot with a set of tools and batch files but didn't remembered perfectly the sintaxis and all. Of course I did it, and after that I got his respect, (it was my first programmer job) I earned that I didn't have to fill a report at the end of each day with my completed tasks of the day, which in those days were bug fixing of an existent system. After that day there were some days that I didn't do anything but chat and read stuff on the internet

Anyway, all this is because I remembered that something these linux guys would say is that linux never crashed, of course it does! well, not linux perhaps but apps crash more often than in windows, it's only that you can go to another tty and kill everything! i just had to kill gnome twice.

[natty dread]

Anyway, all this is because I remembered that something these linux guys would say is that linux never crashed, of course it does! well, not linux perhaps but apps crash more often than in windows, it's only that you can go to another tty and kill everything! i just had to kill gnome twice.

Well, not really, it depends on the application - applications can be stable or unstable on any operating system, it depends on how well they're coded.

As for the operating system itself, the Linux kernel is really damn stable and secure - you'd be hard pressed to manage to mess it up. It's the different desktop environments that aren't strictly part of the "core" of linux that may or may not be unstable.

Generally speaking though, linux has far less problems than any windows system...

[nietzsche]

When I click something in linux it takes like .1 sec or a bit more to go there, in windows it's imperceptible.

Do you know why is that? My laptop is not that old. I've had that problem when I've tried linux in the past, to be honest that's the main reason I keep going back to windows.

I think it has to do with the gtk, but not really sure.


What would I have to do to avoid that delay? shut down some aestethic features?

[natty dread]

When I click something in linux it takes like .1 sec or a bit more to go there, in windows it's imperceptible.

Do you know why is that? My laptop is not that old. I've had that problem when I've tried linux in the past, to be honest that's the main reason I keep going back to windows.

I think it has to do with the gtk, but not really sure.


What would I have to do to avoid that delay? shut down some aestethic features?

Weird, in my experience linux has always been tons faster than windows.

I can't really tell what's the problem, I do know it could be a lot of things... especially with a laptop. My advice is to go to the forums of your linux distro (or any generic linux forum) and look for a help or troubleshooting section, then describe the problem there... there are probably people who know more about this stuff than anyone here.

Also, you could try installing another desktop environment like KDE or xcfe and seeing if the problem persists... you don't have to remove your current one, as you can just select which desktop to use at login.

[maxfaraday]

So natty have you tried the LTS?

I have it but I'd like to read feedback from as many people as possible before I install it.

[natty dread]

I am currently using 12.04, and I haven't ran into any bigger problems with it, even though I started using it while it was still in beta...

The window manager (Compiz) had some slight bugs, crashed occasionally, but should be mostly fixed now... and even if the window manager crashes it's mostly an annoyance, you can start it up right away again.

[nietzsche]

I'm using Cinnamon, very pretty I must admit it. I'd still like it to be a bit faster.


I'd like to play with a theme with transparency.. I will later.

I have no idea what LTS is.

[maxfaraday]

I'm using Cinnamon, very pretty I must admit it. I'd still like it to be a bit faster.


I'd like to play with a theme with transparency.. I will later.

I have no idea what LTS is.

Long Term Support.

These are the releases of Ubuntu that will be updated for 5 years.

[nietzsche]

I'm getting very comfortable in Cinnamon.

I need to be able to run IE here tho, I have to access a CCTV DVR and the plugin only works in IE.

Any ideas? Virtual Box seem's too much for it...

[nietzsche]

Just found something similar to foobar.. Quod Libet, it's cool, I hate iTunes like players

[natty dread]

I'm getting very comfortable in Cinnamon.

I need to be able to run IE here tho, I have to access a CCTV DVR and the plugin only works in IE.

Any ideas? Virtual Box seem's too much for it...

Are you sure you can't find a similar plugin for firefox?

If not, then all I can say is to run IE in Wine and hope for the best.

[nietzsche]

that's the one, any ideas?

[natty dread]

I don't really know what that is or does, so I've no idea if there is one for firefox. But you can always try running IE & the plugin on Wine, it's basically a windows emulator for linux - from what I hear it's a bit of a crapshoot - most things work just fine on it, some don't at all...

[nietzsche]

I don't really know what that is or does, so I've no idea if there is one for firefox. But you can always try running IE & the plugin on Wine, it's basically a windows emulator for linux - from what I hear it's a bit of a crapshoot - most things work just fine on it, some don't at all...

i've been reading a bit and those who have tried to run it thru vmware can't, they get no video, only audio. i really doubt there is a ff or chrome plugin so i'm screwed, i will play with wine tomorrow.

[nietzsche]

wow

i just found https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... laponefajn

nah, couldn't make it work... i managed to get the login screen but the the login always failed.

wine is my last option i guess.

[nietzsche]

So I fucked up my X conf file last night.

I wanted to play a movie on the projector and installed the nvidia X server settings app, then made some changes, on the display sections, I should've made one by one when it asked for reboot but I was lazy and kept modifying it.

A whole mess.

So I tried rebooting, killing X, then modifying xorg.conf (I don't remember much about this, even though in the pass I have dealt with it), removed the projector screen sections 2 or 3 don't remember, nothing.

I know there's a command that automatically reconfigures the conf file, I just don't remember which.

I would appreaciate any advice, I know I can find this online but it's sunday the forums are closed.

[natty dread]

Ok... I don't know much about X but, which conf file did you edit? Do you have multiple .conf files on your system or is it all in one file?

Also, possibly the command you're looking for:

Xorg -configure

Also, maybe this will help - you were running Mint right?

http://forums.techarena.in/operating-sy ... 390096.htm