Newbie trying to install 18.04.1 LTS

[Marty0750]

Thanks GreyGeek. I''l print out the link and that should guide me along the way (hopefully).

[Marty0750]

Sure, glad to help!
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1031...ide-windows-10

However, I would make one small but important change. Instead of selecting the default file system, EXT4, I'd scroll the "Use as" " dropdown combo box to Btrfs and select it as the root files system for "/".

AAlso, notice that "freespace" is selected. It represents all the still available space that can be used. You can use the Partition Manager to divide "freespace" into two primary sections: one which is about twice the size of your RAM, and set it as a swap file, and the rest as the partition onto which you will install Kubuntu.
PS: the instructions show Ubuntu, but you can use them for Kubuntu as well.

Thanks GreyGeek that's what I probably need. I will print out the link and plod along and report back as I go.

[Marty0750]

Ok folks, after following the printout of GreyGeek's link I finally got the thing installed! Connect to internet and downloaded Firefox updae. And some how open the TAR.GZ and it updated.

Thank you all for your help. Much of it was beyond me but not lost as it gives me a preview of the tweaks and enhancements poissible later. Eg I may want to increase the Kubuntu partition size and even one day evict W7!

Now that Firefox is up and running I wan to copy over the bookmarks from the othe computer. The bookmarks.json is on a USB but dammed if Firefox can find the USB drive (finds every thing else). Dolphin however does find the USB drive with the file but when I try to copy the file over to Documents so I can access it with FF if fails with a red banner in the Documents panel "Could not write to file".

[GreyGeek]

Follow Teunis's suggestion of creating HTML bookmark files instead of using json files, which are problematic. Save the HTML file and be sure to include a date in the name for future reference. For example, change "bookmarks.html" to "bookmarks_2018_1004.html" and save it to your local account. Then, minimize or close FF and plug in your USB stick. You *should* get a notification in the system tray that indicates an external storage device has been plugged in and you should be given at least two options, one of which is to open the external device using Dolphin. Take that option, right click on the html file in your home account and select "copy". Right mouse on the USB stick directory and select "paste one file".

IF, when you plug in your USB stick, it is not recognized by the system and doesn't give you an option to use Dolphin then either it isn't formatted, or formatted with a filesystem Linux recognizes (which would be rare), or it is corrupted.

IF you had the USB stick plugged in when attempted to navigate to it while using FF's save HTML bookmarks feature and FF can't find it then that suggests that it isn't formatted or is corrupt.

[oshunluvr]

Old 32bit PC and MBR are a PITA.

Bottom line is if you need/want more than four partitions you must make the fourth "Primary" partition an "Extended" partition, then you can add more "Logical" partitions inside the extended partition. Read up on it and partition wisely.

[oshunluvr]

Understood, and like Windows, Ubuntu now creates a pagefile as well which is why I would say you don’t need a swap partition.

This is yet another problem with Ubiquity ( a POS IMO). If you use BTRFS for your install, you MUST create a swap partition during or before installation. Avoid using a swapfile with BTRFS (or any other COW file system) as corruption WILL occur. If you have already installed using BTRFS and a swapfile is in use, disable it. If you need swap, create a swap partition.

[Marty0750]

USB is recognised when put in another slot. All ok FF bookmarks updated now.

Now... (I hope i am no too demanding here. This may need to be shifted to another thread)

Installing software.

So far I downloaded FF and somehow it updated when I opened the *.tar.gz file don't know what I did.

Now there is Stellarium. I assume I got the right one for linux *.tar.gz . (Unfortunately there is no indication on the website if this is 32 or 64 bit!. Unlike windows there is no exe to run. What happens now?

Says it needs Open GL but I run at least an earlier version 0.14 of Stellarium on Windows on this old laptop with no dedicated graphics card.

[jlittle]

Installing software.

So far I downloaded FF and somehow it updated when I opened the *.tar.gz

Hold on, you may be heading off in an undesirable direction. Given the first word of the thread subject, it seems unlikely that downloading .tar.gz files is appropriate for you. Here's a pep talk about a better direction, please disregard if you know this stuff already.

Using a well-supported distro like Kubuntu for most software we use the repositories first. Downloading tarballs is a fourth or fifth resort, after the standard repositories, then PPAs, and git. You get updates, dependency management, and security.

A few months ago I wanted to check out a bright star I'd just seen, so in a konsole I ran

sudo apt install stellarium

(It was Antares, IIRC).

If you don't like the command line, use a package manager like muon or synaptic. "Discover" is supposed to be the way for new users, but it's had a lot of problems... I suggest using sudo apt install muon.

The download approach is only needed if the software isn't in the repositories, there isn't a PPA, and there isn't a git repository, or the versions from those methods is not good. The most common case for this is unfree software.

As well, a standard Kubuntu install these days includes firefox. I don't understand your downloading it; maybe you had it all along.

[Marty0750]

Hold on, you may be heading off in an undesirable direction. Given the first word of the thread subject, it seems unlikely that downloading .tar.gz files is appropriate for you. Here's a pep talk about a better direction, please disregard if you know this stuff already.

Using a well-supported distro like Kubuntu for most software we use the repositories first. Downloading tarballs is a fourth or fifth resort, after the standard repositories, then PPAs, and git. You get updates, dependency management, and security.

A few months ago I wanted to check out a bright star I'd just seen, so in a konsole I ran

sudo apt install stellarium

(It was Antares, IIRC).

If you don't like the command line, use a package manager like muon or synaptic. "Discover" is supposed to be the way for new users, but it's had a lot of problems... I suggest using sudo apt install muon.

The download approach is only needed if the software isn't in the repositories, there isn't a PPA, and there isn't a git repository, or the versions from those methods is not good. The most common case for this is unfree software.

As well, a standard Kubuntu install these days includes firefox. I don't understand your downloading it; maybe you had it all along.

Pheeeeew. I am beyond the line here. Yes FF is on the system but it requested an update. "Seriously out of date". So I accessed it through Help >.About. Now I find it has updated after all! Yes a restart was in order like in Windows! So that's now fixed. Also found Stellarium in the repository and it neatly installed. So I'm good for now.

But there will be a time to do a manual install. For now I will just play around and learn a bit more first, including the Terminal (console) commands which is rather like old DOS days.

One more thing Antivirus. Search did not find any. Does one come in the repository under some other name?

[Marty0750]

Follow Teunis's suggestion of creating HTML bookmark files instead of using json files, which are problematic. Save the HTML file and be sure to include a date in the name for future reference. For example, change "bookmarks.html" to "bookmarks_2018_1004.html" and save it to your local account. Then, minimize or close FF and plug in your USB stick. You *should* get a notification in the system tray that indicates an external storage device has been plugged in and you should be given at least two options, one of which is to open the external device using Dolphin. Take that option, right click on the html file in your home account and select "copy". Right mouse on the USB stick directory and select "paste one file".

IF, when you plug in your USB stick, it is not recognized by the system and doesn't give you an option to use Dolphin then either it isn't formatted, or formatted with a filesystem Linux recognizes (which would be rare), or it is corrupted.

IF you had the USB stick plugged in when attempted to navigate to it while using FF's save HTML bookmarks feature and FF can't find it then that suggests that it isn't formatted or is corrupt.

It finally found the USB when I inserted it into another port and it was then a simple matter of retrieving the .json file into FF the usual way.

[Marty0750]

Hi again

Think I'm getting on with now with it thanks to all helping out. Just a little q here about icons. When I drag an application from the Applications menu to the desktop it asks whether to Copy application or Create an icon. In Windows one creates an icon with path to application. I suspect in kubuntu if I Copy then the whole application is copied to the desktop, one in Applications and one on the desktop therefore doubling up the space taken up on disk? It that so? I note making an icon the label is italicised.

[GreyGeek]

I only use my desktop to display wallpaper.

Here is a link which discusses desktop icons. Some useful info and suggestions are in the comments section. You should read them all because the author, a developer, answered many questions

https://blogs.kde.org/2018/01/24/and...2-improvements

[Marty0750]

Thank you again GreyGeek.

Last question for this topic. One that I may need redirection to another part of the forum. I touched on this earlier and that is on installing a program manually. I could not find Celestia in the repository. But here it is as a package for Linux. Where can I get directions of installing it?

Martin

PS
I must say now that I have Kubuntu running on the this old Toshiba laptop (2010 vintage) its performance sure beats the pants of the W7 residing as dual boot. Everything happens fast Like when the computer was new! So far, no suffering processor and HD laboriously spinning away for ages trying to load up apps etc. Shows how all those cumulative Windows updates and security downloads overload the poor thing to a creeping slog...!

[GreyGeek]

IF you laptop is an amd64 CPU then this site, which is rather old, supplies:
https://ubuntu.pkgs.org/14.04/ubuntu...3_all.deb.html

If you laptop is a 32bit CPU then this site, also rather old:
https://ubuntu.pkgs.org/14.04/ubuntu...3_all.deb.html

On both pages noticed the other dependencies. Note that both of these programs were written for the 14.04 environnment. Attempting to install them may bork your system. Have you made backups? And stored a copy on a USB stick or external HD?