Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Ratae]

Cooeee, watcha guys, long time no see!

So...I've recently loaded ubuntu 9.04 on to a derelict old dell lappy that I have.I've been trying to get my head around it, and although I've been getting some good advice from guys on Nob's site, it's always good to read what others have to say about things.

The more I play around with it (ubuntu I mean... ) the more impressed I'm becoming.So much in fact,that I'm thinking of of trying to load it on a partition on another dell lappy!
I still have the disc which I made, am I correct in thinking, that if I boot this other machine with this disc,It will give me an option for partitioning the hdd of the host machine?

[roseway]

Yes it will. You'll probably have to choose 'custom partitioning' or something like that during the early stages of the installation, but then you'll get the options to create and delete partitions and so on. If the machine already has Windows on it, and you want to keep this, then it very likely occupies the whole disk. The way to deal with this is to defrag the windows partition first, then the Ubuntu installer will give you the option to shrink the Windows partition to make space for Linux.

[Ratae]

Thanks for that,I think I'll take a crack at it when I can find time!

[tickmike]

Hi .

Remember to back up any windows stuff first unless you are feeling brave and going to make 'Linux' only machine.
I have only one 'Dual boot' machine now, (linux and XP ) but have never booted into that for more that a year. 
I do have on my Linux machines 'virtual computers' ( virtualBox ) where you can install any other OS you want, and I have for my daughter to do her homework a virtual XP with word, excel. powerpoint etc. on it.

Michael.

[Ratae]

Sorted Mike.I have everything backed up on my main machine, also an external portable h/d, so I'm well covered!

Anyhow, I've now successfully installed ubuntu on a separate partition of my spare lappy.The 60 gig drive is shared with 40 gigs for xp,the rest for ubuntu.

This of course, leaves the dilapidated machine with half the keys missing, free for further experiments!

Thanks guys!  :clap2:

[roseway]

Have fun

[Ratae]

  Well...everything went pear shaped rather quickly!

There is hardly any sound at all! I had this problem with the other machine, I somehow managed to get the sound working on that one.I've used Synaptic to install all of the same packages as I did then, but obviously something has gone wrong!
The instructions that I've followed are fairly simple,the only part that I don't understand,is the bit that reads..."Check in the System/Admin/Users and Groups that  your users and root are enabled as members of the following groups:
pulse
pulse-access
pulse-rt

What's that mean....and how can I tell if they are 'enabled'?   

[roseway]

I'm afraid that I don't use Ubuntu, and so I don't know how it handles groups. What the instruction is saying is that there is a configuration utility for users and groups, and you need to run this and make sure that the normal user (you) is a member of those groups mentioned.

[Ratae]

Ok Eric...more by luck than judgement I've managed to 'sort it!'. In System/Preferences/Sound. Under the devices tab and in the box for 'Default Mixer Tracks', there are several options.Naturally I had enabled the wrong option! 

I shall now employ my usual tactics when I've made a ricket..."mistakes have been made...others will be blamed!" 

thanks for your help!

[roseway]

You could always claim that what you did was within the rules

[UncleUB]

You could always claim that what you did was within the rules

 

Why not, 646 already have.........

[Ratae]

Anyway..and while I'm on a roll...another questtion!

This command line thingy in linux, where it's pasted/typed into 'Terminal'! I have tried this function a couple of times, but I can't figure out what I need to 'click on', once I've typed the command! 

I'm guessing that it's so blindingly obvious, that even Stevie Wonder could see it..but MOI! 

[tickmike]

Press 'Enter' key on keyboard .

[Ratae]

Press 'Enter' key on keyboard .

Dammit....I swear, I tried that and nothing happened!

I'm missing something that should be obvious!

[Ratae]

Back again....in 'Applications/Add/Remove' I noticed this........Wine Microsoft Windows Compatibility Layer
Wine is a compatibility layer for running Windows applications on Linux. Applications are run at full speed without the need of cpu emulation. Wine does not require Microsoft Windows, however it can use native system dll files in place of its own if they are available.
This package includes a program loader for running unmodified Windows executables as well as the Wine project's free version of the Windows API for running programs ported from Windows.

Canonical does not provide updates for Wine Microsoft Windows Compatibility Layer. Some updates may be provided by the Ubuntu community.

Does this application actually run things like WMP etc. In my XP machine, I have a Ballistics reticle program which I'd love to be able to run on this Linux partition! Is this likely to be possible using this 'Wine' application?

Another question...I've set VLC as my default media player, but I'm having problems changing things in the interface as the 'preferences' button don't seem to work! So, I have downloaded another skin and saved it in a folder in 'Documents'
These are the instruction for putting the new skin on VLC

    * "On Linux/Unix: ~/.share/vlc/skins2

Then open your VLC settings and change your interface from native to skins. You can choose your desired skin already there or change it when you are in the skins mode by rightclicking somewhere on the skin and going to Interface>Choose Skin.
VLC needs to be restarted to change to skins mode."

I haven't a clue what ~/.share/vlc/skins2 is or means!