Top 10 Must Have Apps/Widgets

[capt-zero]

Opened a terminal, sudo apt-get remove ufw; then went to Synaptic and loaded ufw from it's repo's. Went back to terminal, both sudo ufw and kdesudo ufw; same error; not enough args.

[Snowhog]

In the console, type:

ufw --help

[kubicle]

Opened a terminal, sudo apt-get remove ufw; then went to Synaptic and loaded ufw from it's repo's. Went back to terminal, both sudo ufw and kdesudo ufw; same error; not enough args.

ufw is the cli backend, and like the error said it needs more arguments. For example, to enable the firewall (with the default policy) you can run "sudo ufw enable"...you can also add firewall rules from the command line (see 'man ufw' for details). A word of "warning" though, it can be a bit tricky to get a hang of (depending on your comfort level with firewalls and working on the command line). If you are more at ease with a GUI interface you'll want to install the GUI module.

[SteveRiley]

When I take a look at what I originally wrote...

...if you want to run [a host-based firewall], UFW is the Ubuntu-supplied [one]. Kubuntu 10.10 shipped with a KCM to manage UFW via a GUI. Even though this KCM is no longer included in Kubuntu, the developer has kept it updated and you can find it on KDE-Apps.org.

I can see that I was probably being less than fully informative. netfilter is the base-level packet-filtering engine in the Linux kernel. The traditional interface for manipulating netfilter is iptables. Ubuntu provides another tool, the Uncomplicated Firewall (or UFW), as an easier-to-use front-end to iptables.

UFW, alas, is still command-line, so those seeking a GUI will need to do more work. Firestarter is a Gtk program that, according to Ubuntu's firewall wiki, is no longer maintained. Kubuntu Maverick (10.10) shipped with a KCM (KDE Control Module, or Systems Settings Module) that offered a GUI to manage UFW. This package is no longer included in the Kubuntu distribution (I don't know why) but it's still maintained and available. I neglected to mention in my earlier post that the KCM is distributed only as source code, and requries a properly-installed build environment to compile.

Sumski: given how much many of us have come to appreciate the work you're doing with KDE Goodies, might we encourage you to add this to your PPA? Meanwhile, I'll check in with the folks at kubuntu-devel to find out why this KCM was dropped after Maverick.

[Snowhog]

There is still a graphical front end to UFW available in the official repositories: gufw

[SteveRiley]

Hey Steve, few question if you don't mind. How can I purge the foreign language fonts and such? How come you disable the update notifiers?

I noticed that you started a separate thread on things to remove. To keep somewhat on topic, I'll answer this question over there.

How come you use DejaVu-extra and disable the rest?

There are two DejaVu font collections:

steve@x1:~$ [B]dpkg -L ttf-dejavu-core[/B]
[I]<...snip...>[/I]
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSans.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSans-Bold.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSansMono.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSansMono-Bold.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSerif.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSerif-Bold.ttf
[I]<...snip...>[/I]

steve@x1:~$ [B]dpkg -L ttf-dejavu-extra[/B]
[I]<...snip...>[/I]
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSansCondensed-Bold.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSansCondensed-BoldOblique.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSansCondensed-Oblique.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSansCondensed.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSerifCondensed-Bold.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSerifCondensed-BoldItalic.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSerifCondensed-Italic.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSerifCondensed.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSans-BoldOblique.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSans-Oblique.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSansMono-BoldOblique.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSansMono-Oblique.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSerif-BoldItalic.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSerif-Italic.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSans-ExtraLight.ttf
[I]<...snip...>[/I]

IMHO, the condensed versions of DejaVu are the most attractive fonts in the entire collection. The regular ones are too wide. So I install the -extra package, and then (using kdesu systemsettings) I disable all fonts except the condensed versions:

I find that this creates a very visually appealing and consistent desktop.

Is LibAV just a cli tools?

Parts of LibAV -- certain codecs, mostly -- are included with Kubuntu. I like to install the full libav-tools package and also use the "-extra" versions of the various codecs, device handlers, postprocessing filters, scalers, and container/format muxers.

While the filters and codecs are used by many GUI programs, the tools and utilities from LibAV are command line. One of my favorites is using LibAV to record a screen capture:

avconv -f x11grab -s wxga -r 30 -i :0.0 -sameq /tmp/out.mpg

As usual, see man avconv for all the details.

What parts of kdeadmin, kdegraphics and kdeutils are not included?

The list is somewhat extensive, so I'll summarize this way. Check apt-cache depends bold-package-name to see what each one will pull in. When I install them, though, I don't use the meta packages, but instead install each depend/recommend individually.
kdeadmin: all depends
kdegraphics: all depends and recommends except kruler
kdeutils: all depends except kremotecontrol and plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba

Why the switch from dropbox?

I don't trust them anymore. Don't misunderstand: I'm certainly not sour on the cloud; matter of fact, I remain convinced that cloud security is not a oxymoron. Dropbox has simply fscked up too many times. My trust goes only so far.

I really like OwnCloud. But currently there's a problem with their Linux client: each time it checks to see whether a file has been updated, it drops some PHP garbage on the server. Thousands of little files measurably affect the server's performance. Although, I see now that this has been fixed, according to the bug report. Time to test, it appears.

How do you like Calligra so far?

I'm happy with it. I've realized that all the bells-and-whistles-plus-plus in Microsoft Office are superfluous to my requirements. I like Calligra's right-side toolbox orientation, which our dear Woodsmoke has written about before.

[SteveRiley]

Meanwhile, I'll check in with the folks at kubuntu-devel to find out why this KCM was dropped after Maverick.

Update: according to ScottK, the original maintainer of the KCM had dropped out of Kubuntu development. And my read through the comments on KDE-Apps indicates that perhaps there was an attempt to update it, followed by another stall. Thus, Snowhog's suggestion of gufw appears to be the way to go.

[capt-zero]

Okay, gentlemen. I appreciate all of your input. I made a large misunderstanding of just what it was that Steve was referring to and then, as is my wont, hopped right into it without the tools or knowledge to make proper use of it. I think I'll tackle this problem tomorrow and see if I can make it work. I apologize for having hijacked this thread for my issues, instead of it's original intended subject.

thanx,
capt-zero

[sumski]

Sumski: given how much many of us have come to appreciate the work you're doing with KDE Goodies, might we encourage you to add this to your PPA? Meanwhile, I'll check in with the folks at kubuntu-devel to find out why this KCM was dropped after Maverick.

Count me in

[dequire]

Just an observation about communication: It's amazing that a simple question can arise whereby so much good information, learning can arise from just asking a simple question. I was going to type several messages back about getting the thread back on topic as it seemed at the time to me to be somewhat derailed. I stand corrected and am glad that I did not rush to react, as is so common via the Internets these days.

[kubicle]

Update: according to ScottK, the original maintainer of the KCM had dropped out of Kubuntu development. And my read through the comments on KDE-Apps indicates that perhaps there was an attempt to update it, followed by another stall. Thus, Snowhog's suggestion of gufw appears to be the way to go.

Last I checked, gufw was rather limited compared to the kcm, but if it works better you are probably right (does gufw work?).

The kcm has worked well for me previously, but you are right...it seems dysfunctional at the moment (I recall there have been some changes to ufw this cycle and if the kcm is currently unmaintained that could explain it). I'll take a quick look at it to see if it's something simple.

[kubicle]

I'll take a quick look at it to see if it's something simple.

Looks like in my case the problems with the kcm resulted from missing the ufw python modules (package "python-ufw") although I don't recall removing them at any point (have the python modules been split from ufw package recently?).

After installing the modules (before the kcm helper was complaining about missing ufw modules) the kcm seems to be working like it used to (and as advertised)

[K-Project]

For the firewall discussion, I usually just sudo ufw status then sudo ufw enable and then sudo ufw default deny. No need to add the GUI for it, but I suppose it is useful if you need to use stuff like bittorrent and whatnot. I've always been a bit wary of bittorrent and never used it, so I just have the firewall ON. Silly I suppose.

[kubicle]

For the firewall discussion, I usually just sudo ufw status then sudo ufw enable and then sudo ufw default deny. No need to add the GUI for it, but I suppose it is useful if you need to use stuff like bittorrent and whatnot. I've always been a bit wary of bittorrent and never used it, so I just have the firewall ON. Silly I suppose.

That's fine if you only need basic deny incoming firewall (although the default incoming policy is deny so 'sudo ufw default deny' is somewhat redundant).

However, the default firewall won't do if you want to run servers on your host (file and printer sharing and ssh connections, for example, are not uncommon on linux machines...and services like these are usually the reason why people set up a firewall in the first place...a firewall is of relatively little use if you don't have any services listening for outside connections).

Of course you don't need a GUI module to set up your firewall (you can do that on the cli), the GUI module just makes rule handling easier...and the profiles are handy if you need to allow some traffic occasionally, or need different rules for workplace/open wlan hotspots etc.

[K-Project]

That's fine if you only need basic deny incoming firewall (although the default incoming policy is deny so 'sudo ufw default deny' is somewhat redundant).

However, the default firewall won't do if you want to run servers on your host (file and printer sharing and ssh connections, for example, are not uncommon on linux machines). Of course you don't need a GUI module to set up your firewall (you can do that on the cli), the GUI module just makes rule handling easier...and the profiles are handy if you need to allow some traffic occasionally, or need different rules for workplace/open wlan hotspots etc.

Of course. I am from the olden days, when you just threw up a firewall and felt better. So many variables nowadays of course.