Running programs

[ryantmer]

I just installed Kubuntu today, and am trying to install a few programs for the other people that use this computer, including specifically Thunderbird and Gaim. I have installed both, and they both appear in the K menu. However, when I try to run either one, they don't actually run. They appear in the taskbar with the hourglass icon next to them for about 10 seconds, then disappear. Any ideas what may cause this?

Late edit: I still don't know what the problem is, but when I type "sudo apt-get install mozilla-thunderbird gaim" in the konsole, it just tells me that they are both the most recent versions. I guess this means they're installed, but they still don't run...

The learning-as-I-go edit: Within the Adept Manager, Thunderbird is installed, but even when I try running "mozilla-thunderbird" from the console, it just pauses for a second, then goes to a new line, no errors or anything. Any ideas?

[penguin.ch]

Re: Running programs

From a console, you may try /usr/bin/mozilla-thunderbird instead - if this is going to work, I would assume that your user's PATH settings are "down the drain".

HTH
Birdy

[ryantmer]

Re: Running programs

That may be it, then, because any program I try to run does the same thing. I have installed one from a tar/gz, one from adept, and one from a .package, all of which installed, but none of which run properly. How would I fix my user path settings?

Oddly enough, I installed Opera from a .deb, though, and it works fine O_o

[penguin.ch]

Re: Running programs

To replace speculation with ignorance, hack echo $PATH into a console and let me / us know what feedback you are going to receive (if any ...).

Birdy (aka littleDrHouse)

[ryantmer]

Re: Running programs

I was actually informed that it is not a path error in #kubuntu, but here it is anyway:
"/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games"

Seems right... :/

Since I posted, I have installed Firefox from the Adept manager, and it works. Thinking maybe this is why it didn't work, I uninstalled TBird, then installed it from Adept (as I had installed it from the tar.gz before), but to no avail. Also, as it turns out, when I run the 'mozilla-thunderbird' command, I am in fact getting an error code 1...

Still confused,
ryantmer

[kubicle]

Re: Running programs

Did '/usr/bin/mozilla-thunderbird' mozilla work?

If you have installed several ways, it's possible that you have several 'mozilla-firebird' files on your computer, and one of them can be in a directory that's before /usr/bin in your path.

To check if another executable is run instead of /usr/bin/mozilla-firefox, try:

which mozilla-thunderbird

It should output what is run when you type 'mozilla-firefox'

[ryantmer]

Re: Running programs

First, when I type "/usr/bin/mozilla-thunderbird", I get "No such file or directory".

And when I do "which mozilla-thunderbird", nothin comes up. I know it is installed, because "apt-get install mozilla-thunderbird" says it is already the newest version. Firefox works, and when I do "which mozilla-firefox", I get /usr/bin/mozilla-firefox". Going by this, the system knows it's installed but can't run it or something? :/

[penguin.ch]

Re: Running programs

Strange ... what about locate thunderbird | grep 'bin' then?

[ryantmer]

Re: Running programs

That comes up with:

/home/ralph/.local/share/Trash/files/thunderbird-1.5.0.9/thunderbird/mozilla-installer-bin
/home/ralph/.local/share/Trash/files/thunderbird-1.5.0.9/thunderbird/thunderbird-bin
/home/ralph/.local/share/Trash/files/thunderbird/mozilla-installer-bin
/home/ralph/.local/share/Trash/files/thunderbird/thunderbird-bin
/opt/thunderbird/mozilla-installer-bin
/opt/thunderbird/thunderbird-bin
/opt/thunderbird/mozilla-thunderbird-bin

O_o?

Edit: Different program/file, but prolly the same problem... I tried to install Alvaro's Messenger from a .package file. I did what the site said to with the permissions and set it to "executable", but it does not run either. Is something blocking my programs from running, maybe?

[penguin.ch]

Re: Running programs

I am sorry - but your "installation" of Thunderbird does not look like as if it were valid (read: useful).

Birdy

Edition: reworded for clarification.

[ryantmer]

Re: Running programs

Eh?

You mean I should reinstall Kubuntu? (not a huge problem, as I haven't put much on here)

Or are you referring to the messenger thing? Because it's not just the messenger thing that doesn't run; it's any program that I try to install, including the Flash setup for FF, TBird, Gaim, XFire through wine, Adobe reader and the driver for my ATI graphics card. All supposedly installed, none work.

[podunk]

Re: Running programs

For whatever reason, thunderbird is not installed.

I'm not a linux hot shot here. I found when I was new it was best to just start over. It sounds like you have multiple problems going on.

I found when I did things in the following order things went pretty good.
Install from the CD.
Do the updates.
Enable the extra repositories, see this page:

http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/sources

after you do this you will need to update again.

ATI cards. *If* you're lucky you will have a card that Kubuntu will work with out of the box. In the Konsole:

glxinfo

This will output a bunch of gibberish - at the top it should say
direct rendering=yes

If it says no - you need to install the ATI drivers, which is a chancy thing. ATI has 5 billion drivers and there is no telling which one will work with your card (ATI will tell you they all do, they speak with forked tongue). Even worse, each driver will have at least 3 howto's none of which even vaguely resembles the others.

If it says
direct rendering=yes
you maybe good to go.

Try

glxgears -printfps

and if you get anything over 700 many games (Linux ones in particular) and movies will play fine. If you want to play Windows games through Wine or install compiz you will need to find other drivers. Good luck and pack a lunch. :-D

My experience - when I installed an ATI driver that didn't work, and tried to uninstall it to try another one it ended up a bork. When one didn't work I just redid the set up completely and started over. When I found the driver that worked for my card I burned it to a CD so I'll always have it.

Once your ATI card is right do everything else.

I'd really suggest that you install everything you can from the repositories rather than downloading scripts and source code. Get a computer setup you can use and enjoy.

Once you reach that point - back it up! Then branch out to the fun stuff. The partimage CD from partimage.org works very well to back up with.

[ryantmer]

Re: Running programs

Yup, I think that's what I'm going to do then (reinstall the OS). As much as this is the easy way out, I think I may have screwed something up pretty badly, so restarting from the beginning may be a good idea. Although first, I'll have to get all my parents' emails backed up :X

(Just to point this out, I am NOT 25 and still living at home [15]... but no offense to those who are, you've got it all figured out )