Well, latest PCLinuxOs distro installed as a dual-boot, absolutely no issues with the wifi, starting to configure it to suit what I want. Am happy (so far)

The wifi issue must have been a Ubuntu one, so that won't get installed again anywhere.

Now it's time to start learning again since it's been a heck of a long time since I really did any DOS type things.......

Thanks for trying anyway, guys

I have recently "converted" to Linux having had my computer trashed by a very virrulent virus late last year.

Everything appeared ok until a recent potentially catastrophic problem with a full root partition, which prevented me logging on with little or no warning. Having managed to solve the proble without knowing how I have to say that my experience is now rather jaded.

From an aviation perspective the obvious issue is there being very little available by way of aviation applications written for Linux. About the only one I can think of is Notam Plot. In terms of flight planning software NavBox will just about run under Wine, but nothing else will, especially Skydemon, which has to be the most advanced VFR planning software currently available.

Generally, achieving the same functionality as Windows 7 has been a chore. For example, getting the right version of Java to run Afpex took days. Open Office, whilst good, still has some bugs which cause problems and several times I have reverted to Windows to edit stuff.

So, whilst I like not having to constantly fend off virus attacks I find myself on the point of junking Linux on my dual boot laptop and returning to the Windows 7 fold.

oh...."rm -rf /" .... :cool:

Does that not assume you know where the big files are and that you are prepared to loose them??

Justiciar,

I suspect my leg pulling attempt may not have been detected by your radar....

Doing rm -r / would certainly result in a "catastrophic problem with a root partition" ... :cool:

The penny has dropped. I should not meddle with things I don't understand and good job my lap top is at home and not in front of me:\

Any ideas on how to actually solve the problem when you cannot get more than the terminal?

Midnight Commander (mc) is an invaluable command line tool - a clone of Norton Commander, the DOS based file manager. You can use it to display directory sizes, select & delete or move multiple files, edit files, etc.

Apologies if I've missed something, what was the problem, I was under the impression you had solved it?

well yes, but I don't know how or why :confused:

The root directory was full meaning that you can only get into the system via the terminal (what you actually get is a mesage saying that Gnome power manager is not installed correctly and you cannot then log into the desk top but can only get to the terminal using Ctrl-Alt-F1). There is no warning of this critical state approaching.

The key seems to be to free up space on the root directory by either moving or deleting files, but this did not seem to work. In the end I recall using a command which automatically gives a % increase in the size of the root directory but I cannot now trace what that was for future reference. So the key questions are: how do you stop this happening in the future and if it does happen what is a quick solution to the problem? (a trawl of the internet offers no clear solution).

This mirrors the experience of most non-geek attempted converts to Linux, and illustrates some of the reasons why the OS has never made a dent in the desktop market.

Besides, anything that could faithfully emulate the Windows environment would also be vulnerable to Windows viruses, so if you need to run applications that are available only for Windows, then actually running Windows itself is the obvious solution.

Yup,

For me, there isn't a suitable Linux application which does the same as AutoRoute - so I have an XP virtual machine so I can run AutoRoute when I need to - without having to leave my Linux desktop.

Justiciar

You'll be delighted to know that you're not alone. Getting the partition sizes right a priori is something which few people get right every time once the system's been in use for a while, even in a commercial environment. Luckily, there are ways to get out of jail if things go TU, as you found out - du -k|sort -g, then rm that big download from r*dtube :)

I suggest that you keep gparted.and the system rescue cd in your toolbag. You're able to boot from these and resize if you need to. If you Giggle "linux disk space monitor script startup" you'll find a wealth of scripts to warn you if your space is running out.

Linux isn't for everyone - even not, as I suspect, Mrs SO. But as I have to fix the confounded thing when it breaks, she's crossing over to the dark side this weekend. Then I'll install Linux.

SO

Ubuntu 11 unstable
 

Earlier this week, my system decided to install Ubuntu 11 over the previously stable Ubuntu 10. It all seemed to go smoothly at the time but now I find that the system just freezes at random intervals and requires a hard reset to recover it. It has frozen at any time from partway through drawing the initial desktop to several hours of work later. This morning it froze just as it was trying to connect to our wireless network and it messed up the key.

I have not fetched/installed any new utilities and the previously installed stuff still works.

I have prompted it to check for updates every day just in case there was some "correction" issued. Today a few files updated and I have not seen any improvement.

I am not a Unix/Linux/Ubuntu user as such, so any help in a "use words of few sylables, slowly" way would be much appreciated.

Thanks for your interest,

Rans6....

Running 11.10 without any problems....

It doesn't take long to do a clean re-instal.

Unlike windows it recognises all hardware and prompts for additional drivers. It virtually works straight out of the box.

Windows not only recognises the hardware, it automatically goes and finds all the drivers for you. :E

I run XP, Windows 7, Android and Linux on various devices around the house.

you are more than welcome to slag off Linux, but it works, and its free....

Who slagged off Linux? I didn't, I merely pointed out that windows gets it's own drivers. :)

Rans6, is it 11.04 or 11.10? Do you know what video chipset you have? My guess is a flaky video driver.

Ubuntu 11.10
 

On this release, we seem to have lost the ability to micromanage the fonts - I find this a pain on my Asus - This could be a factor in your misery - OK I'm being a moaner here, but I did use the font management facilities on my notebook.

CAT III

I am on Ub 11.10 32bit. I don't know what the graphics chipset is, it was a fairly cheap graphics card when I built the system nearly 2 years ago. I don't do anything with intensive/high speed graphics and don't need anything expensive here.

I will try to find out which chipset it is tomorrow.

Can I interrogate the system to find this or must I have the hardware in bits?

Sometimes, just before it crashes/locks up, the sound goes off the rails, it may die by doing "the needle stuck....the needle stuck....." or it may just stop abruptly. Either way a hard reset is needed to clear it.

The hardware is very capable (Core I7 and 6 GB of ram at 2.8 GHz) and ran 10.something faultlessly for about a year. Would it not keep the installed drivers which were doing a good job.

Thanks for all,

Rans6Andrew

You can get an ointment for that... ;)

SD

In a terminal window execute the following command:

lspci |grep VGA

Drivers aren't retained across versions.

the system reports

nVidia Corporation GT215 [GeForce GT 240] (rev A2)

hope that helps,

Rans6....

I installed a new video driver (yesterday) and some of my problems have gone away. The system has not crashed since but it has ground to an impossibly slow crawl just once. It took 3 mins to slide the mouse pointer across the screen and a further 5 mins to open the system monitor. A couple of mins later it showed everything normal, just gnome and firefox using up to 8% of cpu, everything else sleeping. Still only 9% memory, no swapping, no network activity.......

It was like the clocks had all been changed from GHz to KHz!. A hard reset cleared it and everything seems OK now.

I have noticed that if you leave a Youtube tab open in firefox the network traffic ramps up until it consumes all of our broadband. You have to kill all of the firefox windows to stop it. Anyone know what is happening when this happens?

Rans6....

Sorry, been out of action for a few days. Google didn't turn up any specific issues with your video card for me.

The single case of sluggishness sounds a lot like your RAM was maxed out. Not what you'd be expecting in 6GB under normal use.

I'm not using 11.10 but I know a few people who are & haven't heard any screams of outrage with Youtube & FF yet. I'd try another browser & see if you get the same thing happening.

It may not be specific to the Linux version. Herewith a brief digression and a cautionary tale:

Last week I left a tab open on my XP /Firefox box - monitoring one of the Prague webcams at the time. Visitors called - hospitality took priority.

When I next checked about 3 hours later, nearly 20% of my monthly quota had gone in that exercise. ( I am a miserable sod and usually get by with 5Gb a month - but this was a real shock :{ )

I use the nifty little Net Usage Item for FF, but it doesn't help if you don't monitor ....:=

Back to the specific Linux issue now ....

f_o_r

could any of you Linux Gurus answer a couple of (OK, 3 then!) questions for me?

1) how do I make any application open in "less than full screen", ie so that it does not cover the task bar/launcher bar?

2) how do I make the volume of all sounds come up at the setting it was when the machine is shut down? I find that sounds always launch virtually muted. I want system sounds low and stuff that plays (Youtube, on line radio etc) with soundtrack medium volume.

3) how can I open more than one folder to allow "click and drag" file moving. It doesn't let me have more than one "home folder" (Icon in the launcher bar) operating at a time.

the system is Ubuntu 11.10.

Thanks,

Rans6.....

Real Linux Gurus don't need a GUI.... :p

when I can type as fast as I can click I won't use a GUI either!

Rans6...

Rans6, with regards to Q3:

You can get four if you click rapidly enough. I thought you said you were a demon clicker ;)

Slightly more sensibly, once you have a file viewer window open right click on the "Home" icon on the left & click "Open in New Window".

You can also press F3 to give a split window view - panes you can independently change directories in. More useful IMHO.

Not sure about the others - I'm not a regular Ubuntu user & really don't like Unity :yuk:

I tried Ubuntu. Until a round of updates corrupted my install. I then abandoned Ubuntu.

Can't say I've had that sort of problem with Linux. No OS is immune.

Indeed, I know that. But it is an indication of very poor QA testing if that sort of thing happens on a cleanly installed OS.

Have never had that issue on Windows, Mac, Redhat Linux, SuSE Linux or OpenBSD.

The point is, I reckon Ubuntu are too busy feature chasing to concentrate on getting a decent OS.

Does anyone know if it the size of an application window (Firefox, Libre Office, Adobe etc) on opening is determined by the application or by the GUI? Referring to Ubuntu 11.10.

I have tried to find it in the Firefox preferences without success. Where else should I look?

Rans6...

The application is responsible for remembering the size and state of the window and restoring it at startup. The window manager (e.g. GNOME) is responsible for the position.

Never used em' myself, but have seen reports of others having luck working around the "problem" by using CCSM (CompizConfig Settings Manager) and/or Devil's Pie.

I have been playing with "live" Linux CDs for some long time now, but never quite had the nerve to commit to installing a Linux distro. Until now. My aging VAIO laptop, complete with WinXP, was showing signs of age, i.e. slow, occasional freezes, etc. A more than idle moment recently at Sydney International Airport led to the purchase of a copy of "Ubuntu User" magazine, with Ubuntu/Kubuntu 11.10 on a double-sided DVD. On arrival back in the now grey and damp UK I gave it a go in "live" mode and was totally impressed. Having backed up what few files I wanted to keep onto a memory stick, I did the install thing, overwriting XP (Yeehah). Installation was fairly painless - the only sticking point was that it refused to continue to completion until I entered a user name and password, despite selecting the log-in without password option. No big deal. It found my wireless router immediately, ditto my ancient Epson printer. The only thing I haven't managed yet is to persuade it to see my desk-top PC (Windows Vista), and vice versa. Again, no big deal. My lappy is now fast and far far less cluttered. So for anyone debating the wisdom of going down this road, it ain't as daunting as you might think.

You need an account name & password so you can administer the system - helps prevent you doing something silly & the nasties having free reign.

What he said. Sudo is your friend.

Using XP printer from Linux Mint
 

I want to use the Brother HL-2140 l.ser printer on my XP PC from Linux Mint. The printer is set for sharing and I can use it from a different XP PC.

I add the printer to Mint using the screen dialog. When I submit a test page from LibreOffice Writer it "prints" a dozen or two dozen blank pages but never the text I wrote. I have changed from the postscript (recommended) driver to another. Only one page "prints", but it is blank.

I also tried printing from "gedit" with the same results.

Please offer suggestion(s).

seacue

Edited 2011 11 27 00:00 Z to add:

A Giggle search revealed lots of problems with printing from Mint over Ethernet to a Windows PC. None I found addressed a case like mine.

s.