Newbie trying to install 18.04.1 LTS

[GreyGeek]

I read somewhere that using probability theory and the printable characters on a normal English typewriter, including the space bar but not the control characters, there is a maximum limit on the number of books that can be written using the 80 character per line, 40 lines per page, both sides, format. Ergo, the team of monkeys have a limit to their job!

[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".

[Teunis]

First of, I'm not sure why you can't copy the file, probably lacking rights.

Using a/the json file(s) is not a solid way to copy bookmarks.

Have look at what Mozilla suggests:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/export-firefox-bookmarks-to-backup-or-transfer

======
As far as I can see no-one explained the reason for a separate / and /home partition.
/ holds the operating system and most software applications.
/home holds your data files plus in hidden files and folders the configurations for most applications.
(While in Dolphin press Alt+. and these hidden files and folders will show up)

If you get tired of the operating system or it has a fatal problem it is very easy to reinstall on the / partition (includes reformatting) without affecting what is already on the /home partition (don't reformat!!!).
Tonight I was in such a situation, I could no longer boot and I didn't want to spend more time finding an elegant solution, it took me only about an hour to do a fresh install.

[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.

[Teunis]

Virtually all common software can be found in the repositories.
If it is not, then first see if there is a ppa that you can add to your list of repositories, a typical example is the one for firefox-plasma and thunderbird-plasma by the plasmazillla team.
https://launchpad.net/~plasmazilla/+...buntu/releases
They are versions of Thunderbird and Firefox that have been enhanced with the plasma way of handling downloads (the KDE filepicker)

Even some closed source applications offer a ppa, for example Teamviewer and SpiderOak (a safer Dropbox).
I bought a licence for SoftMaker Office and it too has a repository, very handy.

When you type the word virus in the search bar of muon you will get several hits, clamav is one of the established anti-virus products for Linux but outside of the standard repositories there are a few more.

They all have in common they don't help to protect your Linux computer but instead help you to protect Windows users who use your Linux machine to receive mail.
Because I doubt you are planning to run a mail server there is no need for anti-virus, just common sense regarding what you click on and sites you visit.

One of the main reasons I use Linux is it's contrary to Windows robust by design.

[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