SOLVED::::PLEASE HELP ME!!!!! Newbie with some easy Kubuntu 9.04 questions.

[GilGib]

Re: PLEASE HELP ME!!!!! Newbie with some easy Kubuntu 9.04 questions.

Make sure you have Firefox Java Plugin

[norie]

Re: PLEASE HELP ME!!!!! Newbie with some easy Kubuntu 9.04 questions.

Ok thanks, I actually found a command in the forums on how to install java through the konsole, and it worked!
Now to tackle my azureus/vuze issue.

Thanks again all!!

[GreyGeek]

Re: PLEASE HELP ME!!!!! Newbie with some easy Kubuntu 9.04 questions.

......

I would say you need to decide what you WANT to install, first, and then use synaptic to find it. Image editing? Install gimp. Audio editing? Install Audacity. Like that.

Don't build anything -- building packages is not for noobs.

I emphasized that for one BIG reason. I've read a few msgs on this forum where folks were complaining about problems they were having with Kubuntu. It turns out they were trying to build applications from tar balls. One claims he has to rebuild KDE3.5 from the sources because he "couldn't get KDE4 to work".


You want to BORK your system, or get it infected with a Trojan? Downloading tarballs or rogue deb packages from God only knows where is the BEST way I know of for you to break or infect your system!

I've been programming for 40 years (and just retired a year ago). I've been running Linux for eleven years. I started with RH 5.0. In the late 1990's and earlier downloading and compiling source found in tar balls, rpm, (never used a Debian distro or derivative) or just plain text files was the only way I and others could get many pieces of hardware, and some software, to work. Drivers for NIC's, for example. Also, one got the best performance, or got particular pieces of hardware to work, by reconfiguring the Linux kernel and recompiling it. Compiling the kernel or the drivers or the applications wasn't hard (IF you were a programmer), but it was time consuming on that old hardware, and many times one had to debug the source because it wouldn't compile.

ALL THAT CHANGED when distro makers solved the dependency hell problems that plagued many packaged applications by creating REPOSITORIES and working out the dependencies before the packages were put up on the repository. They were easier to work out because the applications are being edited and compiled to fit on just one distro, in our case Kubuntu. In times past rpm packages found on REDBONE, for example, downloaded by users of MANY different distros that were based on RPMs (Red hat Package Manager).

For the first five years of my Linux use I ran SuSE. It had a rudimentary "repository", the CDROM on which the application was installed from, and some websites. I found that RPMs downloaded from RPMBONE and other sources frequently caused chained dependency failures which locked one into a particular version of a library. Trying to compile or install app "A" revealed that library "B" was missing or of the wrong version. Attempting to compile or install the rpm for "B" gave a dependency failure for library "C". Trying to install "C" you were informed that library "D" was needed. While trying to install "D" you discovered that it required the very version of library "B" which you were trying to replace so that package "A" could be installed. If you tried to replace "A" with a new version you were informed that several other applications depended on the version and you'd have to upgrad them, IF that was possible. Dependency hell.

For the last five years or so most distros (Kubuntu, Mandriva, PCLOS, MEPIS, Ubuntu, Lint, Knoppix, and others) that I am familiar with have had very good repositories. By that I don't mean the numbers of applications available in the repository, but the reliability with which any application can be installed without problems. Rarely, and I do mean rarely, one slips through the cracks and causes trouble. But it is better than 5 nines odds that you will never see a dependency problem using a repository for any of the distros shown in the top 10 or 20 ranking on DistroWatch, unless the application is used by so few or is a niche app, or has a long upgrade cycle and get depreciated by newer libraries required by more popular apps. While some distros have between 5 and 10,000 apps in their distro, Ub/Kubuntu have 25,000+ in their repository. That is why many other distro makers are building off of Kubuntu or Ubuntu.

I say all that to say this. In the last five years I have never had to compile an application or a desktop in order to be able to run it on my chosen distro. That goes for Kubuntu, too. Even though I have been programming for years, I just use my mouse buttons to manipulate Synaptic. So should you, especially if you are new to Linux. It's so much easier and rarely fails. If you have to do anything to install an application besides using KPackageKit or Synaptic you are taking the WRONG PATH. I repeat, IF your steps to install an app include unzipping (de-tarring) an app, cd'ing into its directory, running "./configure", then "make" and then "make install" as root", or any similar steps, you are heading towards a broken Kubuntu installation. Especially if you have to ask about how to do it, or you've tried already but you can't figure out why it went wrong so you post a msg here asking for help. Don't be surprised if no one answers your call for help. You're better off reinstalling Kubuntu and sticking with the repository applications. That way, if you have a problem, knowledable folks here will be able to help you because they know what's on your system (unless you are lying to them just to get help).

When you get a little more experience, AND you are following EXACTLY the advice of knowledgeable helpers on this forum (not other noobs who have barely more experience than you do) then you can open a Konsole and enter an apt-get command. If you want to accelerate your learning process then install a copy of Kubuntu as a guest OS under your live Kubuntu installation using VMWare or QEMU, and play with it so that when you bork it you can do an autopsy on your work and learn from the experience. Then you can reinstall the guest OS and try again on a clean system so that existing problems won't confuse you with extraneous errors caused by failed attempts. When you get good on your guest Linux OS and aren't merely repeating recipes, but understand what you are doing and why, then you are ready to do those things on your live Kubuntu installation.

[NexusHumanis]

Re: PLEASE HELP ME!!!!! Newbie with some easy Kubuntu 9.04 questions.

Ok thanks, I actually found a command in the forums on how to install java through the konsole, and it worked!
Now to tackle my azureus/vuze issue.

Thanks again all!!

>> I don't know much about Azareus/Vuse, but when I started using Kubuntu i quickly found that Ktorrent, the default torrent-client in Kubuntu, works really well. I have not needed to install any other client. On the contrary, I have installed Ktorrent on every non-kde distro I have tried.