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One week using Kubuntu, and loving it

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    One week using Kubuntu, and loving it

    Hi everyone, this is my first post here at the forum (first of many I believe) and I though it'd be interesting to post on how my first week of Kubuntu Jaunty went.

    Now, notive that I'm a computer scineces student and open source lover, and even before installing Kubuntu on my laptop I used most open source software on my windows installation, and sometimes tried the dual-boot way (didn't work really because all my stuff was at the windows partition, so when I loggen on the other one I felt mostly... bored ^^"

    Anyway! The first thing I had to do was to get the liveCD working, because my laptop has this silly legacy USB support that prevented the liveCD from even starting properly. It took me a couple of hours trying to find where was the problem, but after that I was good to go.
    The instalation went smoothly, I selected the advanced option to make a 25Gb partition for windows afterwards (playing some games on LAN is still a fun thing, and some of them aren't fully supported by wine yet), and so it did. After everything, rebooted and I had a fresh-new installaton o/
    I really loved the feel of the new version of KDE, things are really smooth and even with some efects I cannot see a drop on the general performance. But, of course, I found some problems/things that I didn't like XD
    First, the network manager couldn't connect to my wireless password-protected router. I'm still working on that for now, but I believe I'll just install wicd to make things work.
    Second, Kopete and Konqueror aren't really my thing, seeing that I already used a lot of firefox's plugins and alikes. Right now I'm using Pidgin and Firefox, and they seem very reliable as far as I tested.
    Third, idk if it's a problem only with me, but Amarok2 still feels a little rough on some parts; it keeps skipping the sound when something is using heavily the processor, like when I minimize a window with some effect. I installed VLC and so far it's working good, but I haven't tested it enough.
    Fourth, the greatest problem I had so far; I installed windows on the other small partition for some lan gaming, and the instalation was ok. BUT, after I installed it, I couldn't boot my Kubuntu anymore. Well, since it should be a simple problem I just searched the web for a solution, and everyone said that I should reinstall grub from the liveCD and afterwards put the windows boot entry manually there. But the thing is, somehow I could mount the Kubuntu partition, but when I sent grub commands related to it it just asnwered me with errors. Believe me, I sepnt 2 days trying every single command out there, even thought about installing LiLo and making everything from scratch, but Sunday I had an idea; I booted with a Ubuntu Jaunty liveCD, and using gparted I could switch the 'boot' marking from the windows partition to the Kubuntu one ^^
    After that I still had to put windows at grub, but I probably was using an faulty syntax because when I downloaded the GUI editor for grub (kgrubeditor I guess) it worked flawlessly.

    Today I'll try to fix the network manager somehow, wish me luck o/
    And thanks for reading this whole block of text XD

    #2
    Re: One week using Kubuntu, and loving it

    Hi, thanks for the testimony!

    Yes, I think you are on the right track, wicd should do the trick (I always try network manager first, which looks more like a native application, and if it fails, wicd does it, at least form me)

    Comment


      #3
      Re: One week using Kubuntu, and loving it

      Welcome to Linux and to the Kubuntu Forums. Thank you for posting your installation experience. I am interested in learning about your difficulties with the live CD and USB. Other users may run into the same problem and your experience could help them.

      The thing I found surprising (unless I misunderstood what you did) was that you were able to re-install windoze AFTER installing Linux without destroying your Linux installation. M$ has a bad reputation for ignoring Linux partitions and overwriting them, so the usual advice is to start with a windoze installation; use a windoze partition manager to make blank space for Linux on the hard drive; and only then to install Linux.

      Many people use Konqueror as a file manager only and use Firefox as their web browser. I don't type fast enough to use instant messaging so I have no comment regarding the relative merits of Kopete and Pidgin, but I usually listen to music while I work so I can agree that Amarok2 is still a little rough, (If you find the amplifier frequency settings that they used to have in the previous Amarok, let me know.), but I have not experienced the difficulty you describe of skipping when the computer is under heavy load. Sound processing shouldn't require very many resources. If you can describe the problem in detail, perhaps someone here can help.

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        #4
        Re: One week using Kubuntu, and loving it

        Originally posted by askrieger
        ...The thing I found surprising (unless I misunderstood what you did) was that you were able to re-install windoze AFTER installing Linux without destroying your Linux installation. M$ has a bad reputation for ignoring Linux partitions and overwriting them, so the usual advice is to start with a windoze installation; use a windoze partition manager to make blank space for Linux on the hard drive; and only then to install Linux...
        I have never had Windows overwrite a Linux partition. I have installed Windows at least 5 times in the last 3 weeks (don't ask!), and many more times over the last couple years, on various computers. You do have to reinstall Grub, but that (at least on my machine) is easy.
        Dell Inspiron 1720 Laptop<br />Intel T9300 Core2Duo Processor @ 2.5Ghz<br />4 GB Ram | 1920 X 1200 Resolution<br />2 X 160 GB SATA HD Internal<br />Nvidia GeForce 8600M Graphics Adapter<br />Using Kubuntu 9.10

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          #5
          Re: One week using Kubuntu, and loving it

          I agree, amarok shouldn't skip. It is easier if you open a new thread for that, and give more details (hardware, symptoms, etc). My hunch is that there is another process taking over the cpu (I don't even know what CPU you have, I have a phenom x3 so even if a process takes one core, hey, I still have two to spare )

          Comment


            #6
            Re: One week using Kubuntu, and loving it

            Thanks everyone for the tips ^^

            @lmilano: Yeah, wicd is working flawlessly so far, but it's a shame you can't have a plasmoid for it like the knetworkmanager.
            And about Amarok2, it's running ok since I installed compiz to manage the desktop effects. Maybe it just had a problem with the default effect manager from KDE? My processor is a AMD Turion X2 1600Mhz, so it shouldn't be really a problem there. My guess is that the default effect manager used only software redering for the effects, while compiz uses the video card to render them, but it's just a wild guess ^^"

            @askrieger: It was just as I described; the BIOS have a "USB legacy support" option, I believe to make USB mouses and keyboards behave like PS/2 ones. While it was on, the liveCD would show me the options to use it, install and such, but after I chose them it showed me a black screen with a blinking prompt, but it didn't accept any command. My mainboard is a Clevo M5X0JE, and the BIOS is a Phoenix Technologies, version 2005Q2.
            Indeed I still have to reinstall grub at the MBR, but apart from that it was quite simple, when installing win I just chose to create a partition from the non-formated space.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: One week using Kubuntu, and loving it

              Welcome to Kubuntu!


              It seems you've discovered KNetworkManager, the on again, off again, network connection for KDE4. Knowing the level of expertise of the KDE dev crew I have no doubt that sooner or later they'll get the problems sorted out. Meanwhile, it seems you've found wicd.

              For me, KNM worked great for several months on my laptop, but failed to work at all on my wife's laptop. Then, after an update, it quit working on mine. Once it lost connection I couldn't manually reconnect it without rebooting. That stunk because the ONLY time one should have to reboot Linux is when the kernel is updated.

              While there are MANY fine Linux distros "out there", you've selected what I believe is the FINEST Linux distro/desktop in existence. KDE 4.3.2 is AWESOME!

              And then there is this AWESOME forum. The technical skill displayed here is phenominal (and those folks know who they are! 8))

              "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
              – John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: One week using Kubuntu, and loving it

                Welcome! I agree with GreyGeek that you picked one of the finest, IMHO . Yes, KNM has had issues for a while. At one point they did have a plasmoid that I personally thought worked really well, except for VPN functions (yes, I mean for a Windows VPN Server), but I was able to get around that. They decided to retool it, I think, to make it appear more integral to the system. They have made great progress on the retooling. They'll have it functional again, just hang in there and test it from time to time but still use what you currently have until you feel comfortable with it. As far as GRUB is concerned and depending on which version you are usnig, the below links are some great tools some folk here put together. They really are great pieces of How To. Again, Welcome!


                http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081671.0 -- GRUB

                http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3106368.0 -- GRUB2

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