First Boot: What to Do?

[Guest]

I'm more familiar with GNOME, and as my mom-in-law has SuSE 11.2 installed, I saw her workspace...

1) The Desktop: I don't want any widgets of any kind whatsoever. If I add something to the Desktop, why does it NOT go there?
2) The Clock's Settings: This is a bugger. The date is in DD/MM/YY format... How do I go about changing that? I was messing with the calendar and then I had this hidden option box with all the calendar formats.... plus date and time formats. But after messing with that, it crashed X, rebooted, and then the fonts and whatnot were all different.
3) Installing Packages: Primarily the non-free codecs. The package manager doesn't allow me to install the codecs. Why? I dunno. Is there some program that allows me to install the separate dependencies and such?
4) Changing names: Also a bugger... why can I NOT change my REAL name? It uses my username. Also, how do I go about changing the computer's name?

That's about it for now. Installation: 10.04 via Wubi.

[mhumm2]

Re: First Boot: What to Do?

Hello rjsec4ever;

I'll try to help.

1. in your home directory there is a subdirectory called Desktop. Put your programs and or links there and you'll see them on your desktop.

2. Left click on the clock and you can adjust it's settings.

3. The best package manager IMO is Synaptic. Install that from a terminal and you should be able to do what you want. You could also install them via a terminal if you know the exact package name of course.

4. Take a look around System Settings. Advanced (tab on top) > User Management > here, you can modify your account. I probably don't have to tell you to be careful modifying your account, but I just did.

I think I gave you the answers you need for now. Let me know how it goes.

[The Liquidator]

Re: First Boot: What to Do?

Welcome to the forum

I'll take a stab at 1 and 3.

1. Think of the plasma workspace as a blank canvas and everything else you see on the desktop as a widget. Access desktop settings by right clicking on the desktop. You can operate 2 types of desktop views (activities). You can have folder view where you can have your home directory/ desktop/documents or any number of folders showing on the desktop. Alternatively you can select plain "desktop". It's only in the latter view that you can right-click on an application from within the kmenu and directly send it to the desktop. Also, as a precaution, in case you don't already, I recommend you right click and select "lock widgets" to prevent accidental change.

3. Non-free codecs aren't installed by default, as I suspect you already know, for legal reasons. A how-to is here

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats

As mhumm2 rightly points out, you need a different package manager. Firstly open a terminal (konsole) and update the list of available packages with

sudo apt-get update

then type in your password

Then when updating has finished type

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

That will upgrade all installed packages on your system.

You then have a choice of 2 package managers, synaptic or adept. Most people seem to prefer synaptic, I prefer adept myself but it's a personal choice. To install

sudo apt-get install synaptic adept

If you only want one of them leave the other one out but you lose nothing by looking at both.

Good luck

[oshunluvr]

Re: First Boot: What to Do?

1) The Desktop: I don't want any widgets of any kind whatsoever. If I add something to the Desktop, why does it NOT go there?

1) No widgets = No functionality, but thats your choice. Adding something to the Desktop puts something on the Desktop, but the default display setting is to show the Desktop Activity folder widget. If you want it to act more like XP, right-click on the desktop, then Desktop Activity Settings > Activity > change Type to Folder View and apply, then go to Location (a little further down in the choices) and make sure it Desktop Folder is ticked.

2) Right click on the clock then Adjust Date and Time or Clock Settings

4) System Settings > Advanced > User Management > Modify. You'll need to log out and back in to have the changes take effect.

Since you're a newbie - you might want to try some of the KDE features like desktop widgets before you default back to the old way of doing things. KDE is designed to give you tons of choice and allows you to be creative and make your desktop look and function the way you want it to, rather than some programmers idea of how it should look and act. Gnome is more windows-like in that aspect IMO.