Docuementation

[Pogo1]

I've been casting around for an update for my netbook currently running 10.04 NBR.

Today I have been running a live USB on Kubuntu 14.04.

Up front I was impressed, the system detected my netbook and used the appropriate screen layout. Most applications maximise when run, making best use of the small screen, just as with NBR running maximiser.

It took a bit of poking around to find the equivalent of the software centre, but I think that I can install most of the programs that I currently use.

But it is very different from NBR and I need quite a bit of guidance to learn how to set this new system up my way. And here I get stuck. There are links to docs.kubuntu.org all over the net. And that site does not exist.

I have found some help, but the documentation seems to refer to a very different version of Kubuntu. It has screen shots that look nothing like my screen, refers to things that do not live on the 'menus' that I get.

I did eventually find an article with images exactly like my desktop, but even this told me to do things that could not be done. The thing to select was not there to be selected.

I read about activities, they seem to be like the Linux workspaces, and there are a couple of widgets that refer to them, but I can't add an Activity. I can add a page. Is that the same thing? There is nothing in the help to say so. I can add an activities widget and get three coloured dots to click, but they don't seem to do anything.

I read of control alt key presses that are supposed to do things, and they don't do them. If it were in the documentation, this might be understandable, but it is on the context menus.

Is there somewhere a complete guide, from first click, to setting up a usable Kubuntu 14.04 desktop?

Pogo.

[woodsmoke]

Hi
Since nobody had replied I thought that I'd at least let you know that people are maybe thinking about it.

I don't know about your particular setup, and have not heard of "pages" but, here is maybe a "test" to see if they are, indeed, "activities".

Is there some kind of "symbol" such as three little coloured dots in the panel and when you click it, a larger panel pops up and shows "desktop and "new activity/new page"? or if you already have a "new activity/new page and have renamed it like...writing"....

is there someplace else in that larger panel that has a button for a "new activity/new page".....maybe! lol.

Again, if you do not see "new activity" is it possibly labled "new page"?

And if you create such a new page can you put a different wallpaper/background on it from the normal activity/page and then change back and forth from one to the other and see the different wallpaper/background(s) ?

If so, then I would consider that prima facia evidence that in your software that the "activity" has been renamed to "page"?

I may be completely wrong and probably am, but just an idea.

wood suggestyouwaitforsomebodysmarterthanme smoke

[Pogo1]

Hi Woodsmoke.

Thanks for your response.

There is nothing like the three little dots in the panel.

The cashew is in the bottom left. Clicking it I get a sort of horizontal menu with Add Widgets, Add Applications, Configure Search and Launch, Lock Page, Shortcut Settings, and Add Page. Search and Launch is the name of the default page. I can (and have) added a new page. I can change the background, but I can't change the name. That choice is not available on Configure page 'menu'.

I'll keep poking., The interface is so sleek, I'm driven to make it work for me. If not, then my next best is Ububtu-GNOME, but that has its own interface niggles (menus that disappear off the bottom of the netbook screen).

Thanks again, I do hope that someone can help me get over this.

Pogo.

[SteveRiley]

The "Netbook Remix" is long gone. The current Netbook workspace type is a modified version of the Search and Launch desktop layout in which windows automatically maximize and menus are exported to the top panel. This interface is rarely used nowadays, so I'm not surprised you're having trouble locating it in the documentation.

What, exactly, are you having trouble figuring out how to do?

[Pogo1]

The "Netbook Remix" is long gone. The current Netbook workspace type is a modified version of the Search and Launch desktop layout in which windows automatically maximize and menus are exported to the top panel. This interface is rarely used nowadays, so I'm not surprised you're having trouble locating it in the documentation.

What, exactly, are you having trouble figuring out how to do?

Thanks for replying, Steve. It seems that I am in a backwater. NBR was abandonned prematurely, but what was there worked very well for me. The Search and Launch Desktop is attractive because it fits on the netbook screen as NBR did, and my netbook suits me perfectly, so a good interface is very welcome.

I will have to wave my arms a bit and hope that you have some familiarity with NBR to explain what I am trying to achieve.

The NBR interface presented a coupled set of black glass panels. A column on the left these held editable categories such as Favourites, Network, Electronics,.. And clicking one of those displayed its contents on the panel on the right. This is not too different from the behaviour of the Search and Launch screen where clicking the Network thing (is that a widget?) displays a set of network related applications.

My difficulty seems to be in the editable bit. I have been able to add and remove items from the Favourites panel (the greyed portion at the top of the screen), and I have found a menu of items to select for the other items displayed on the screen, but I don't know and can't find in the documentation how to edit that menu to show my selection of categories on the screen.

Clicking the cashew gives me an option to add widgets, but the selection seems God-given, and things are not put on the screen like the existing items, but in a small box at the bottom, and some things, such as the analogue clock, mess up the display.

There is an option to add Applications. Selecting this opens Muon Discover where I can install applications, but they don't turn up on the desktop, or anywhere useful that I can find.

I tried a different way around, thinking that the opening page might be locked to a default selection, I found that I could add a page and hoped to populate it with my selection of applications, but that was not possible.

There seems to me to be three different things that refer to the same idea, an Activity, a Page, and a Workspace, but the documentation I have found refers to each wihout noting any similarity. So I don't know if adding an Activity is the same as adding a Page, and in any case doing either does not get me anywhere useful.

So, if I could replace say the Education widget with one called Electronics, with an electronicky looking image, and have that display my circuit editor, layout editor calclator and so on when I clicked it, that would be a start.

Does that make any sense?

Pogo.

[rjj]

Hi Pogo,

You're using the netbook desktop. A good choice for a netbook. If you want to change that got to System Settings, Workspace Behavior, Workspace and you can choose Desktop. I like the netbook better.

If you right click on the screen you can Confiugure Search and Run. There you can change the Menu. You can choose the categories, for instance Acccessories, which gives you easier access to Kate, or System which gives you easier access to Muon (Discover).

If you know the name of the application you want to start, you can type it in the search bar.

Fort some reason, not all the hotkeys works out of the box. You can change that in system settings.

The first thing I do, whenever I reinstall Kubuntu, is to add a normal programlauncher to the tasskbar, the small grey bar at the top of the screen.
Rightclick on the taskbar, click Panel Options and choose add widgets. Then you can choose a Program launcher. That one gives you always access to al your installed programs

I'm not sure, I am using the right English terms, I'm living in another language.

Success with Trusty. It works well on my netbook, allthough a little bit heavy.

rjj

[Pogo1]

Hi Pogo,

You're using the netbook desktop. A good choice for a netbook. If you want to change that got to System Settings, Workspace Behavior, Workspace and you can choose Desktop. I like the netbook better.

I really like my netbook. It suits me and my life very well. I keep hearing that it is out of date or unsupported and wonder why. It is nearly perfect, and the deficiencies seem to be because it was abandoned before it was finished.

If you right click on the screen you can Confiugure Search and Run. There you can change the Menu. You can choose the categories, for instance Acccessories, which gives you easier access to Kate, or System which gives you easier access to Muon (Discover).

Yeah, been there, done that. It's a lucky dip. I can only have what is already in the bag.

[quote]

If you know the name of the application you want to start, you can type it in the search bar.

[quote]

Yeah, and if I guessed names for a thousand years I would never have guessed Muon Discover for the name of a software installer.

Fort some reason, not all the hotkeys works out of the box. You can change that in system settings.

Sometimes, for some hotkeys.

The first thing I do, whenever I reinstall Kubuntu, is to add a normal programlauncher to the tasskbar, the small grey bar at the top of the screen.
Rightclick on the taskbar, click Panel Options and choose add widgets. Then you can choose a Program launcher. That one gives you always access to al your installed programs

That's a good idea. I had put one on the desktop (Add widgets), but found that editing what it would offer put me back in the same position.

I'm not sure, I am using the right English terms, I'm living in another language.

Well, I'd never have guessed your native language. Your English is certainly better than my non-English. Thank you.

Success with Trusty. It works well on my netbook, allthough a little bit heavy.

rjj

A little heavy but very functional I could work with. What I find though is difficult and confusing.

I think that I am heading back towards Lubuntu (because it also uses LXDE and so fits properly on the netbook screen), probably with Cairo-Dock or something similar to ease the interface customisation.

Thanks heaps for your advice. I am encouraged to keep trying because I can see that it works well in a (limited) set of cases. If it was just a bit more friendly about being extended...

Pogo.

[SteveRiley]

I'll hazard a guess and suggest that the Search and Run layout isn't used all that much. I briefly played around with it and couldn't find any obvious way to change the groupings that appear in the lower window. They seem almost, but not quite, the same as the groupings in the standard Kickoff menu on the normal desktop layout.

Have you tried operating your netbook with the desktop layout instead? You might find this usable.

[Pogo1]

I'll hazard a guess and suggest that the Search and Run layout isn't used all that much. I briefly played around with it and couldn't find any obvious way to change the groupings that appear in the lower window. They seem almost, but not quite, the same as the groupings in the standard Kickoff menu on the normal desktop layout.

Have you tried operating your netbook with the desktop layout instead? You might find this usable.

I had a bit of a poke a it Steve, but as the Search and Launch was most like what I wanted, I've concentrated on that. I can put a launcher on the desktop, and populate it with Applications, but that is pretty much like any other distro, and not really what I wanted.

I think that I will stop banging my head against that particular wall, and see what can be done with a different flavour.

Thanks everyone for your input.

Pogo.