moneydance

[windyrij]

Hello folks:
I have just installed Kubuntu 9.04 on an elderly desktop (AMD Duron 850 MHz/512MB/3.5 GB HDD). Previously I had installed Ubuntu 7.10 on the same hardware, and had downloaded and installed Moneydance OK.

Since I find KDE is nearer to Windoze for a beginner, I went for Kubuntu 9.04. Having downloaded Moneydance again (as a tar.gz) to my desktop, I cannot get it to install, having extracted the files to the desktop.

Can anyone tell me where I have gone wrong, or what blindingly obvious point I have missed?

Many thanks, John

[GreyGeek]

Re: moneydance

John,
I would help loads if you supplied the msgs that were displayed when you attempted to install MoneyDance.


BTW, I used to use MoneyDance. Nice package. But, about 5 years ago, I switched to KMyMoney. Great package.

[josefko]

Re: moneydance

Do you have enough disk space to perform the action? Jaunty occupies more than Gutsy and your disk is very small.

[GreyGeek]

Re: moneydance

....
Since I find KDE is nearer to Windoze for a beginner, I went for Kubuntu 9.04. Having downloaded Moneydance again (as a tar.gz) to my desktop, I cannot get it to install, having extracted the files to the desktop.
.....

Before I retired last year, after 40 years of programming, I, too, used KDE because I could configure it to look and behave like XP (and later VISTA). However, a couple months ago I realized that I hadn't used VISTA since I purchased this computer 9 months ago, so I reinstalled Kubuntu and gave it the whole disk.

While it is OK to extract files to the desktop in KDE3.5.x, I wouldn't do it in KDE4. Create a subdirectory under your home account called "downloads" (or something like that) and set that directory to be your destination directory for the download function of the browser you are using. After the download is complete you can extract the application to its own subdirectory UNDER downloads, and from there execute the install instructions.

BTW, ONLY do this for applications you CANNOT find in the repositories, AND, always check the md5sum of the downloaded tar against the value given on the site from which you downloaded the tar from. If they don't match repeat the download two or three times until they do match, or find another download source.

ALSO, AND THIS IS IMPORTANT, after you've run the install instructions on the application DO NOT ERASE the directory the tar created, nor any of its contents. Usually, but not always, there is an "uninstall.sh" (or something similar), or a README or an INSTALL text file which tells you how to install and uninstall. Sometimes the "uninstall.sh" file is located in the final destination directory created by following the installation instructions. It is VERY DIFFICULT to uninstall an application installed from a tar file without the uninstall.sh script.

I know you invested some mony in MoneyDance, but play with KMyMoney2 and see if you like it. It IS in the repository and is actively maintained and improved.

[windyrij]

Re: moneydance

Thanks josefko and greygeek for responding on this one.

I can't recall a message when installing Moneydance on Kubuntu 9.04, apart from "You need to fork" which did not help me much!

I take the point about disk space, so I have fallen back on Ubuntu 7.10. I did as suggested and made a new folder for downloads, under my home directory, and downloaded Moneydance's tar.gz into it. No sign of a checksum as a separate file, or in the tar either. However, it installed ok, and I have managed to get it into the menu.

My other reason for KDE is that it has some email checkers, that let you view mail on the server and delete what you don't want (Mailwasher or PopTray in Windoze). I have yet to find one for Gnome using Synaptic, or from a quick search on the Web. Any ideas?

And greygeek, I also am retired after working around minicomputers and PCs, and as I can't get interested in Soduku, Linux is a better challenge.

Thanks, guys John