My adventure in the land of Kubuntu 7.10

[dibl]

Re: My adventure in the land of Kubuntu 7.10

When you are using the Nvidia driver, it's better not to try to adjust the resolution by editing /etc/xorg.conf manually. Instead, do Alt-F2 and enter "kdesu nvidia-settings" without the quote marks, give your password, click the "X Server Display Configuration" menu item, and then use that utility to adjust the resolution. When you have it the way you want it, click the "Save to X Configuration File" button, choose "save" and it will write the correct entries into /etc/xorg.conf.

[cleodux]

Re: My adventure in the land of Kubuntu 7.10

Hi dibl,

I did as you suggested, launch kdesu nvidia-settings, i was able to apply the changes but can't save, amd everytime i restart, the resolution will be back again. I did think something wrong with the xorg.conf >_< i did try reconfigure everything, but lost somewhere. Is there anyway to bring back xorg.conf to default?

[dibl]

Re: My adventure in the land of Kubuntu 7.10

Hmmmm.

OK, humor me for 3 minutes and try again, but this time open the Konsole, and enter

sudo nvidia-settings

and then try again to set your resolution and save the changes. I'm wondering if "kdesu" isn't giving you enough "power" for some reason.

If that doesn't work, there are other ways ...

[cleodux]

Re: My adventure in the land of Kubuntu 7.10

>_<
I tried from konsole, this time after apply and save configuration, there are some line came out on the konsole

sh: pkg-config: not found
sh: pkg-config: not found

Are they represent something? i have not restart yet.

[dibl]

Re: My adventure in the land of Kubuntu 7.10

Just restart the X server with Ctrl-Alt-Backspace. This is not the same as a system reboot, it is just a restart of the GUI part of it. You should see an Nvidia splash screen, and then get your login GUI.

If so, and your desktop looks right, that would indicate the Nvidia driver is functioning correctly.

[cleodux]

Re: My adventure in the land of Kubuntu 7.10

the settings still doesn't change. It was like there is no way to save the config >_<

The very first attempt by me to change the resolution was from

system settings ->computer administration ->monitor & display ->administrator mode, well look like it is still not enough power or the driver corrupted or something like that, the resolution always on 1152 x 768.

Oh and i discover a new problem >_<
I can not turn off the computer. It is always hang on the Kubuntu logo. And one more from existing one but i somehow don't care about it, everytime i close my dolphin browser it pop up an error.

said something like

unable to save bookmarks on bla bla bla...
reported error was: permission denied. This error message will be only shown once. The cause of the error need to be fixed as quickly as possible, which is more likely a full harddrive.

I went to settings ->configure dolphin ->bookmark -> then i don't know what to do >_<

COuld someone help, thank you very much.

[integr8e]

Re: My adventure in the land of Kubuntu 7.10

unable to save bookmarks on bla bla bla...
reported error was: permission denied. This error message will be only shown once. The cause of the error need to be fixed as quickly as possible, which is more likely a full harddrive.

You can fix this by running the command

sudo chown -R [username]:root ~/.kde/share/apps/d3lphin

Replace [username] with your username.

Edit:

the settings still doesn't change. It was like there is no way to save the config >_<

Been there done that . . . would you please copy and paste the results of the command

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Note: You have to enter a capital "X" in "X11"; if you want, just copy and paste the command into a terminal.

[Snowhog]

Re: My adventure in the land of Kubuntu 7.10

You can permanently prevent the problem by not using Dolphin in 'root user' mode. At some point, I'm sure the developers will fix this bug. :P

[cleodux]

Re: My adventure in the land of Kubuntu 7.10

For some reason the resolution changed (after how many attempt) and i can not remember what i did. So the case is closed. Thanks.

About the Dolphin, i tried the code (change the username) but i have only one account, my name and it is root, and i don't intend to create another username to log in just for dolphin, since i always use ext harddisk which i think only root can open or something like that. I guess i can live with the bugs for now.

Now if someone can help me to properly shutdown my desktop, it would be great, so far everytime i attmpt to shutdown, the screen always stuck at log out page (Kubuntu Logo and the bar is stuck or no bar at all) Any possible known bug? or i messed up again?

Also my internet connection somehow become slow and all(after change to Kubuntu), is there any possible reason? it is cable broadband. Everytime i check Performance Monitor, the ram usage hit 900-1g (with 1firefox browser on), i have only 1g or physical ram and it is really devastated me, is there any unnecessary programs that i can canceled?

I know, every time i ask new question, it is become stupid and stupider, bare with me >_<

PS: How to defrag?

[integr8e]

Re: My adventure in the land of Kubuntu 7.10

I know, every time i ask new question, it is become stupid and stupider, bare with me >_<

Please don't say stuff like that, you're NOT stupid, you just don't know everything about Kubuntu (nobody does, nor can they ).

You really shouldn't login as root, you can easily devastate your system that way (not to mention the security risk - there's a reason we use 'sudo'); seeing as Dolphin can't save to it's config file, I'm guessing you're not running as root, just using the username "root". Changing your username and the permissions of Dolphin's config should fix your problem (Kubuntu probably can't differentiate between "root" and "root", know what I mean?)

About your shutdown issue, when you get to the shutdown splash, press Alt+F1 to exit quiet mode; then, see where it hangs and post the problem.

You may have a slow internet connection because Kubuntu ships with IPv6 enabled by default (some internet providers only support IPv4). I've found some simple HOWTO's on disabling IPv6 in Kubuntu:
- How-To: Disable IPV6 to speed up internet - Ubuntu forums
- How to load websites faster in Konqueror
- How to load websites faster in Firefox

The method by which you would defrag your hard drive depends on what filesystem you're using. There's an application called "defrag" in the repos that supposedly allows you to defrag ext2 partitions (I never had much luck with it when I used ext3 - the successor of ext2); if you're using XFS, you can defrag it by installing the xfsdump package and running the command "sudo xfs_fsr". Other than those, I don't know of any other method to defrag your hard drive (note: Kubuntu uses ext3 by default).

Edit: You can find a good comparison on different filesystems here, just look for "Linux" entries in the far-right column.

[cleodux]

Re: My adventure in the land of Kubuntu 7.10

Hi integr8e,

Thank you for the reply. I don't know what file system i use, i think it should be default which mean ext3, i don't have partitions on my hd, I download a lot, so i need to defrag my hd at least once or two months. You said you have not much luck with it? >_< is it failed or crash? is the application is GUI friendly? like i can see how many % is the fragmentation or just do some analysis?

About the shut down problem, i tried to press alt+f1 when the screen went to splash mode(i am guessing when kubuntu logo shown and a bar is reading or something like that) and it go to a black screen with some writing KDE is shutting down(wait or is it KDE is already running T_T) and there are more words follow, but suddenly the screen goes back to splash screen again, and hang(the bar is not reading/moving anymore)

There was once when i am shutting down, i went to a toilet break and do some stuff when i get back on my screen, it is not splash screen but it is the black screen with words(i think the name is shell command prompt/konsole) and i cannot type anything, so i forced shut down it(press the button >_<)

Oh i also clicked the links that you gave above, and read the pro/con about disabling IPv6, although most of them are pro. But in the end i have only disabling Ipv6 on Firefox browser, although i doubt it has any effect or not, i have not restart too, but i can notice how sometime just to go to this particular website always time out, and when i refresh 1 or 2 times, it shows finally.

And about the root username, I tried creating a username root, but the system not allowed me to >_<. In the end i create another username, and succsesfully log in, but my desktop environment is back to default, and when i check the performance monitor, the system took almost the same amount of ram like when i log in as root, and now that i think about it, i read some comparison somewhere in the forum, that Kubuntu system use approx 600mb of ram idling >_< where Ubuntu is around 200++mb.

Plus Firefox(220mb) and Konversation(220mb) guess what.. it is 1g >_<, i am so shock how Konservation took so much ram.

[integr8e]

Re: My adventure in the land of Kubuntu 7.10

I've done some more research into defragging ext3 and other FS's (filesystems), and found the defrag utility is only for use with ext2 filesystems (the predecessor to ext3); in order to use it with ext3 partitions, you have to temporarily convert the partition to ext2, defrag it, and restore it to ext3 (which is beyond my knowledge at the moment). This approach, though, has some potentially severe consequences: it may destroy some of your data :P

There's good news, however, as the Wikipedia article on ext3 filesystems reports: "Modern Linux filesystem(s) keep fragmentation at a minimum by keeping all blocks in a file close together, even if they can't be stored in consecutive sectors. Some filesystems, like ext3, effectively allocate the free block that is nearest to other blocks in a file. Therefore it is not necessary to worry about fragmentation in a Linux system."

You can't trust everything you read on Wikipedia, but this seems to be the general idea implied about the ext3 FS, so, you shouldn't really have to worry about ext3 defragmentation

The only modern Linux FS I know of that provides a defragmentation utility is XFS (which I happily use). It, too, effectively handles fragmentation, but allows the administrator to run "xfs_fsr" (ExtendedFileSystem_FileSystemReorganizer; i.e. defragger) to defrag all remaining scragglers

About your shutdown issue, I'm thinking GRUB (your bootloader) controls both your bootup and shutdown sequences. Reinstalling it may fix your problem. Open Konsole and try the following (you can copy and paste the commands if you want):

- delete GRUB with the following command:

sudo rm -rf /boot/grub/*

- reinstall GRUB:

sudo grub-install hd0; sudo update-grub

- reboot your computer:

sudo reboot

Let me know if that fixes your problem (Note: Please don't reboot if you receive any errors with the above. Post them here and we'll help you work them out first - your boot/shutdown issues can really become complicated if you do. Been there, done that ).

I'm not sure about Kubuntu using 600mb of RAM idling, unless the majority of that is being used for caching. I'm looking at my current RAM usage with KSysGuard (KMenu -> System -> KSysGuard), and about 560 megs is being used for applications, with Firefox running. Most of the remaining used memory is being utilized for caching; thus, applications can load and run quicker since they can temporarily store/remove their needed data in your memory's cache. My sister's computer is an old AMD Duron 1500 machine (that's 1.5 GHz) with only 384 megs of installed pc133 memory, and it runs Kubuntu + Firefox fine. I definitely believe the statistics about Firefox because it has become something of a memory hog (a known issue); I don't know about Konversation, however, because I'm not a big fan of IM's. Do you know where you found the statistics?

[cleodux]

Re: My adventure in the land of Kubuntu 7.10

I can not remember where i read that, but i think in Ubuntu forum, i googled system resource or ram use from kubuntu or something like that, and random click on the links.

I had deleted grub and install again, it said the menu list or file is not exist so it generate a new one for me, reboot, the problem still persist. Actually there is no error, it just the computer refuse to shut down (last time my computer auto restart when you shut down, but i think the problem is on hardware)

And about defrag, hopefully it really do something like that. cause it is always sucks when your system slow down because of fragmentation.

I play sacred (with wine) and it is kinda cool lol. Playing a win game on Kubuntu. But i still have no idea how to install Hamachi, Install the exe on wine, it said error on network driver. Install ghamachi also have error (can't log in >_<)

[integr8e]

Re: My adventure in the land of Kubuntu 7.10

I don't think you'll be able to run Hamachi with Wine :P You would have to install Window$ in a virtual machine and run it from there, another :P, but not much of a problem if you have the system resources; we can definitely help you do that if that's the direction you'd like to go

I don't think you are going to run into any problems with fragmentation; I haven't been around long enough to know first hand, but there are many Linux users who've been around for a while who have never experienced any problems with fragmentation on the ext3 filesystem. If fragmentation was problematic for ext3, somebody would have developed an ext3 defrag tool by now

Anyway, I'm having some issues of my own: I finally managed to convince my Mom to allow me to install Kubuntu alongside XP on her computer, only, her Soundblaster Audigy card doesn't want to make any noise That will probably be my project for tonight; keep us posted on your progress.

[cleodux]

Re: My adventure in the land of Kubuntu 7.10

Epp... it has been awhile since i post in this forum =D

I am kind of like... used to it with the can't "shut down properly" problem, since i never shut down my desktop!! but recently i kubuntu or KDE i don't know which one, always hang when either, plug in an external hd(with power or usb portable), and plug out/in CRT's cable (occasionally i am using CRT to watch movie/video from my laptop)

So i think basically with plug in/out to the CPU can cause the system to hang, so i will just manually restart. Other then that i have no problem running Kubuntu so far.

I get it with Hamachi >_<, also there are lots of win applications that you can't play with wine too.

This is sort of no connection with Kubuntu, i have an ext hd which i think the file system had been corrupted (thanks to XP) and now it is can only recognizable as a RAW file systems, any idea to recover the files?(try most of recovery data software, but all can't read the hd) well at least let me format it >_< (i find out ext hds are more vulnerable than int hds) I heard Knoppix OS can read and recover RAW file systems, i am downloading it now.

Oh and then, dolphin always crashed whenever i want to use the "show hidden files" option, is it the same bug with ~ don't use dolphin as root. I can view them with konqueror though. I kind of used to it with all the bugs and crashes well as long as it run i am quite content, i am not that Obsessive Compulsive Disorder to have a flawless system running on my computer.

In fact maybe the bugs are fixed but i never know about it. And to my next open question: do i need to always run apt-get update and installer? my adept-manager is full with so many packages to the point i don't know what is which and which is what >_< but it is kind of exciting to read what they are use for and tempted to install it although i know i don't need it and most in fact all of them only occupy a very small size in the hd.

@integr8e
I hope you have already fixed the sound card problem