Newbie question about 8.04.1 on a Core 2 Duo laptop

[Tramontana]

Background: I use SUSE 10.3 on my main PC and I recently bought a new ASUS 64-bit laptop running Windows Vista. The experience was so bad I have to get Linux onto it even if it means losing half the features. SUSE installed but didn't seem comfortable - to start with it couldn't recognise the widescreen format - so I looked up ubuntu about which I'd been hearing a lot. As a KDE user I chose kbuntu.

The system installs fine and it's all very pretty, but I'm confused about what to do next; particularly how to connect to the internet. There's no hardware configuration tool I can find to set up wireless (it reports support for Atheros but there's nowhere to search for networks); do I have to cable to my router then download stuff? And I was only asked for a single user name and password but I seem to have to give that password to become root. What happened to my normal user password? Sorry this is so basic but I can't find a simple guide to tell me what to do.

[dibl]

Re: Newbie question about 8.04.1 on a Core 2 Duo laptop

I don't run wireless with Kubuntu, but I do on my Asus Eee PC with sidux, and I recall setting that up (for several days ....).

Here's official guidance for your Atheros madwifi setup:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...Driver/Madwifi

here's what I used for my Eee PC madwifi driver installation:

http://wiki.eeeuser.com/ubuntu#wireless

and here's how I configured WPA with wpasupplicant:

http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/HowTo/Wifi

Even though they say "Eee PC" they should be generally applicable to your laptop too.





I would definitely advise cabling to your router for the initial setups -- you gotta have Internet access to the package repositories to get what you need. Kubuntu should sense the ethernet connection and hook up automagically. Once the madwifi driver is installed and working correctly, you can discontinue the wired connection. Don't forget that kernel upgrades often break the proprietary driver modules, and they have to be reinstalled on the new kernel.

[Tramontana]

Re: Newbie question about 8.04.1 on a Core 2 Duo laptop

Many thanks dibl for the advice. At least I'm now online. Next problem is how to do things as root. In the manual for Login Manager, for example, it talks about an Administrator Mode button, but I can't find one. The whole tool is greyed out. The help talks about a right-click Actions menu but I have yet to see one appear. Why am I being denied access to my own computer? This kind of nannying is too reminiscent of Vista, something I was trying to escape from.

I'm used to flavours of Linux such as SUSE and Fedora, where there's a separate root account set up during install. I'll accept the ubuntu philosophy if I can figure out how to do things the help says are possible but which don't seem to actually be, such as the above.

[Tramontana]

Re: Newbie question about 8.04.1 on a Core 2 Duo laptop

I just found the answer myself at

https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/31632

Admin Mode isn't yet integrated into KDE4, it seems.

[Fintan]

Re: Newbie question about 8.04.1 on a Core 2 Duo laptop

First off welcome to the party

Brave man to go all the way with kde4 on his first kubuntu

Anyway, yes the HH (8.04) version of kde4.1 does not yet have the admin mode functionality.

So you have to do one of two things:
either run them from the terminal with the full path:

kdesudo /usr/lib/kde4/bin/systemsettings

or use the alt+f2 (run command) either way you will have to give your user password and it will run with root permisions.

Using the run command interface can be sluggisch at times and sometimes you will need to run the same command twice for it to "ckilck". You can do this by simply pressing the up arrow key on your keyboard.

On thing:
Giving your password in the terminal will not "print" any symbols, don't worry just type your password and press enter and your off.

I have a list of all my kdesudo stull on a desktop notes widget:

kdesudo /usr/lib/kde4/bin/kate
kdesudo /usr/lib/kde4/bin/konqueror
kdesudo /usr/lib/kde4/bin/dolphin
kdesudo /usr/lib/kde4/bin/systemsettings

for easy access.
I hope the above helps and have a look at some of the kde4 related stuff on this forum.

Enjoy

Edit:

Here a few forum threads that deal with kde4 (there are plenty more):
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3094578.0

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3095130.0

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3096433.0

[Tramontana]

Re: Newbie question about 8.04.1 on a Core 2 Duo laptop

Thank you for the welcome. I don't like the sound of that "brave man" bit; sounds like I'm tottering about on the bleeding edge. I'd be more than happy with KDE3; should I have picked the standard version to download? Unfortunately I'm in a backwater in rural Italy with no ADSL; my only internet access is through a cellphone at dialup speeds (or less), so downloading means going out and begging time at friends' houses down on the coast where they're in the 21st century.

The system configuration tools seem very sparse. I can't find a user manager, for example. Are all these provided on the KDE3 version? If so, perhaps I should abandon KDE4 now before it gets too much of a headache. Advice would be most welcome.

[Fintan]

Re: Newbie question about 8.04.1 on a Core 2 Duo laptop

You are welcome and yes kde4.1 is a bit bleeding edge.

Having said that I use it 98% of the time.

You can easily get kde3.5.9 by doing this in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

This will install kde3.5.9 next to your kde4.1 installation and you can choose which desktop you want from the sessions manager at log in.
So you get the best of both worlds.

Doing this has one small hiccup.
You will have some apps in both versions. KDE3 and KDE4. But you can easily arrange them with kmenu editor (right click on the kmenu button on your panel)

You will need the help of your friends in the 21st century as this will download and install about 100 packages.

While you are at it install kcontrol as well as this has much more configuration modules than system settings alone.

sudo apt-get install kcontrol

You can run it with:
alt+F2->kcontrol or add it to your kmenu with kmenueditor->new item-->name: kcontrol->command: kcontrol.

But you will get the kdesudo functions back without having to resort to typing the full path and have a very stable system to work with should your kde4.1 become to "bleeding edge"

You may have to check if all the packages you need are installed as well. Like multimedia stuff (amarok, mplayer, vlc, kaffein, etc. and medibuntu (for media codecs):
http://www.medibuntu.org/

and kubuntu-restricted-extras:

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-restricted-extras

Qoute:

Commonly used restricted packages
This package depends on some commonly used packages in the Kubuntu
multiverse repository.

Installing this package will pull in support for MP3 playback and decoding,
Java runtime environment, Flash plugin, DVD playback, and LAME (to create
compressed audio files).

Please note that packages from multiverse are restricted by copyright
or legal issues in some countries. See
http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/licensing
for more information.

Let us know how it goes