info about kubuntu 5.10

[infra_red_dude]

i haf been using fedora core 4 since quite sometime. i now wish to switch over to kubuntu 5.10. i'm not that conversant wid the debian variants. tho i've used ubuntu (via the live cd) i'm not that expert on the debian side.

i mainly wanna switch over coz of lower disk usage (i'm a bit low on disk usage). i haf a 2.5gb partition for linux root. fc4 is a huge installation, more than 50% of which i haf never used and will never need. doing a custom installation didn't solve the problem. the install is still huge. my basic needs are: office suite (openoffice preferably), an email client, browser (firefox pref), media player (xmms,mplayer et al), kde (i love eye candy), C libs (for compiling progs). i can install media players,browsers etc. but is openoffice bundled i nkubuntu 5.10? wot are the package contents? i'll be installing it on my laptop compaq presario 2517at (p4 2.8, ati igp 345m, 256ddr,ali 5451 soundcard, ns nic, ti pcmcia, ali IR etc) the hardware support of fc4 is very good. can i expect the same in kubuntu?

please advise.

[vignesh]

Openoffice 2.0 is bundled with Kubuntu 5.10
amarok 1.3.2 -- audio player -- no mp3/wma
kaffeine -- video player but no codecs..

Kubuntu /Ubuntu has a better harware support than FC ...

[infra_red_dude]

oh one more thing, are the kernel sources included wid kubuntu iso installation that came wid digit in the past month?

codecs and xmms (mp3 player) no problem. i'll install them. wot about firefox version?

thanks for the quick reply.

[mehulved]

In Ubuntu 5.10 mp3 support is included with xmms. I guess all debain based systems have mp3 support out of the box. Seen it in Ubuntu, Knoppix, Debian so I guess Kubuntu will have it too. For C libs I guess default install will not install it. You will have to select it manually when installing. Also, rmember to do manual partition cos atleast in Ubuntu they have warned that default installer uses full hard disk. I have found best hardware support with Ubuntu than any other distro I've used. I had downloaded KDE in my Ubuntu, it was performing well.
Defualt browser is FF.
Also, installing extra software is very easy using 'apt-get'. No dependacy problems, all will be handled by apt-get.
I guess kernel sources are included in the cd but am not so sure.
You will get basic and usable system at installation but installing additional software using portage system is very easy uin any debian based system.

[infra_red_dude]

right then i'm proceeding wid kubuntu 5.10 installation right away! thanks for the replies! i will do a manual installation.

ps:oh one more Q, forgot to ask about it. the gcc bundled wid fc4 is blacklisted and has a lot of difficulty compiling programs. wot version of gcc is bundled wid (k)ubuntu? any problems compiling the progs/kernel?

[mehulved]

It isn't only FC4. The problem lies with GCC 4.x. The GCC team has made drastic changes from GCC 3.x to GCC 4.x. So, some softwares do not compile properly with GCC 4.x.
Ubuntu/Kubuntu lets you choose the version you want to install. So go ahead installing version 3.x. Actually, it won't make much difference if you are going to use native deb packages using apt-get or synaptic. It only causes problem if you want to add additional packages from source and compile them. Actually, I never found any problems with CGG 4.0.2 even while installing softwares from source, but just to be on safer side use GCC 3.x

[infra_red_dude]

done, thanks all for the replies! that was pretty quick.

kubuntu, here i come! :)

[vignesh]

Great...One more Kubuntu lover :D

[Vishal Gupta]

I liked Kubuntu bcoz of its nice interface and speed...

Its a good one!

[mehulved]

Ubuntu/Kubuntu is taking great strides ahead. That's good to see.

[chesss]

STAY AWAY FROM KUBUNTU!!! - trust me on this one kubuntu is buggy! Very buggy, there are plenty of stuff thats broken.
However having said that, kubuntu is the distro i use (sometimes), so it can be used once you get a little accustomed to.
A much better way to get kubuntu is : first get ubuntu, then use 'aptitude kde-base' to get kde.

[vignesh]

when I use ubuntu I use both Gnome and Kde....Since I like Gnome as a Desktop environent and kde for its apps...

[mehulved]

Well I dunno if it is a good idea to install KDE on Ubuntu. Cos I had done it. After installing KDE, some programs dependant on KDE, which were running fine earlier started giving problems. And later i couldn't log into KDE and after some time GNOME, too! I could only use Enlightenment. Then I did format it anyway as I wanted to try out Gentoo.

[infra_red_dude]

alrite i'm back. need ur help guys. overall i'm satisfied. things i need help at.

me installed wid the default options (just pressed enter at boot screen). this gave me absolutely no choice for custom installation. almost everything was installed. saw that gcc was installed by default. but when i tried to compile xmms got this error: glibc is not installed. please install it first. opened adept and saw that glibc was indeed installed. couldn't find the path to it, tho. none of the programs compile!

mozilla firefox is not there on the cd, neither is it installed. i miss it very much. but then i can probably download and install it. thats not a problem. i removed most of the useless chinese/korean et all fonts and this removed the x-server! i double checked that i hadn't removed it. now i gotta install x-server again. couldn't install any mp3 codec. none compiles.

also hardware detection is flawless! every hardware was perfectly detected (tho i hafnt tested bluetooth and firewire). but the power management is something which needs to be worked on. the fans whirl at full speed all the time, even if the system is idle as if there is 100% cpu usage. the next problem is swap. i've alloted about 530mb swap. but the usage is always 0% no matter how much i load the system!

kubuntu gurus, i need ur help and advice. i'm determined to make kubuntu work for me! i've decided to install kubuntu again after taking the relavent advices.

[mehulved]

Infra no need to complie any things in your system. Do not install or remove anything on your system manually, this causes dependancy problems. I guess bluetooth will be detected properly, mine was.
You need to turn the swap on using the swapon command.
Are you sure firefox wasn't installed, cos Ubuntu packs firefox with it. The packaging and icons seem different.
Anyways, you can install or remove any programs by selecting or deselecting them from synaptic. Or you can use apt-get. Have a look here at how to use apt-get (http://ubuntuguide.org/#extrarepositories) in Ubuntu/Kubuntu.
You can have a look at ubuntu guide (www.ubuntuguide.org) itself for answers on how to use the system, it will be similar for Kubuntu, too.

[vignesh]

go to packages.ubuntu.com/breezy and download packages from there..or use synaptic.

[infra_red_dude]

yeah i'll do that. the gui front end for package management is Adept. also, FF aint installed, neither is present on the cd.

[mehulved]

Ok yeah they use Adept for Kubuntu instead of Synaptic for Ubuntu. So, you can use it to download all the required softwares. If the softwares you need aren't listed there than you can use apt-get. Compiling from the source should be the ast option as debian(and systems based on debians) have a very good repository.

[infra_red_dude]

yeah...but as i told you..the compiler gives error that glibc is not installed even tho it is.

also to get a custom installtion should i use the "expert" option?

[praka123]

Get Ubuntu yaar's.if U want to run kdeapps,apt-get kdelibs and qt.. and run.Ubuntu must be have gnome as DE..
@infra./..:
U can press F1-F10 for valid boot options available while booted with [k]Ubuntu..

[infra_red_dude]

one Q about the package repository, i can install so many packages from adept. it never asked for the source cd. are all the installation files copied on the hdd during install? aint it a wastage of space?

[infra_red_dude]

hey folks, this unofficial guide answers a lot of Qs. kubuntu comes wid less software than ubuntu!

http://kudos.berlios.de/kf/kf1.html#pkgtablestock

[mehulved]

Kubuntu may have lesser software due to bigger size of KDE and its components compared to GNOME.
About package repository, I do think so too but never really bothered to verify that. If it is so, then it is a waste of space. But, I feel that the developers are trying to make it as easy and quick as possible to install extra packages now that they want to penetrate into the corporate market in higher number.
Also, the great news is that from the next release(Dapper Drake?) shipit will be shipping Kubuntu along with Ubuntu for free. And GUI installer. That will be gr8.

[cool_dude_prav]

hey, infra red dude...

just goto adept. file-> manage repositories

there will be a list of repositories avlble, right click them and enable them
now click apply and close
and on the main adept page click on refresh (fetch all)

that is all.. now u will have many new packages like Firefox, thunderbird and XMMS player which will be dowbnloaded over internet.. ;)

hope it helps...

[infra_red_dude]

yeah. thanks for the info! :) btw, when we use apt-get the package alongwid other packages on which the software depends are downloaded off the net. but where are the installation files saved? i mean, if i need to reload the OS again then will i hafta download all over again or can i copy the downloaded installation files to some backup media?

i installed the os again, this time i did the expert install and chose not to install the package installation files to /var folder. this saved about 400mb of disk space. now if i wanna install a package, i just pop in the installation cd. also there is no custom installation even in expert mode!

i find this distro quite good as almost everything works outta box! the main thing missing is only FF! other than that its a lightweight (compared to FC,suse etc) and excellant distro.

i'm not downloading/installing any software via apt-get now coz i'm on a slow gprs connection now. i'll do it once i get home. btw, i downloaded realplayer 10. hope it'll get installed widout any dependency problems. all in all its a good distro! :)

[planetcall]

Kubuntu has less softwares in the repository? Kubuntu is not a different OS. It is the same as ubuntu but the only difference is the KDE. I converted my ubuntu to kubuntu recently as I always have been an avid KDE lover. I can also install XFCE to call it Xubuntu if you like :P
I do agree Ubuntu is better than fedora etc. I used Synaptic on Gnome and am using the same thing on KDE. apt-get and its gui i.e. Synaptic are cool.

[mehulved]

@planetcall do you have any problems running KDE apps on GNOME in Ubuntu. I had installed KDE as well as enlightenment in Ubuntu. This started giving me problems. Whenever I ran KDE based apps on GNOME, it used to give me error that DCOP_SERVER not running. After a few days I could not even log into KDE and later GNOME too. It used to say that write permission was denied to some file. I even chmod +w the file but thogh the write permission was given still the problem persisted and then I removed Ubuntu.

[infra_red_dude]

nope i didn't say that kubuntu has less apps in its repository. actually there is no specific kubuntu repository!! it uses the ubuntu repository. wot i said was that less number of apps were included in the iso install image.

installed mpg123 and realplayer10gold widout any hassles! also figured out that the packages downloaded thru apt-get are stored in /var/cache/apt-get

i actually reinstalled the os again. dunno how but now the power management features are working fine! :) had installed in expert mode. installed all the clibs, gcc etc. hafnt compiled any prog to test it tho. this time bluetooth worked perfectly to transfer files! :) how do i enable my bluetooth phone (k700i) to be used as a modem for surfing the net thru gprs? i fired up kppp and added modem as /dev/rfcomm0,1,2 but it failed to detect the phone modem. is there any way?

btw, during install it asked for an admin password and a root password. i kept both the same and also created a normal user wid restricted previlage. now when i wanna modify any settings logged in as normal user it asks for admin password. when i give it correctly, it gives me a login error! anyone faced this problem?

i added the normal user to the sodoers list via the visudo command. but now sudo doesn't work! it says parse error in line 0. i removed wot i had appended. but still i get that error! please help.

[infra_red_dude]

i configured gprs connection. almost done. only thing i'm facing problems is that i'm unable to pair the phone and the computer. no matter wot pin i give it doesn't get paired. tried 1234 (thats wot is give in /etc/bluetooth/pin), 00 ,0000...nothing works. has anyone been successful in this?

btw, if anyone wants instructions on setting up a gprs lemme know, i'll be glad to help! :)

[mehulved]

I guess you will have to configure a file in /opt/kde/bluetooth or something similar. In that file you will have to replace kdebluetoothd's pin instead or bluez pin. Do google on it. Or remind me tomorrow. I am feeling too lazy to google today. I had done that and was successfully able to pair up my sister's nokia 3230 wid my debian box.
And yeah there's a thread running here where someone wants to connect to GPRS using his cell.

[mehulved]

Well your other post reminded me.
You need to edit /etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf so that the default pin is kdebluetooth's pin instead of bluez's pin. Once that is done the pin wil work. The pin lies in /usr/lib/kdebluetooth.

[infra_red_dude]

i couldn't get thru it. let me know tomorrow how u did it. my phone (se k700i) aint accepting the pin. if i try to run the script /usr/bin/bluepin it gives me a gtk error saying locale not supported!

yeah i replied to that thread. gave instructions on how to configure gprs. didn't quite wok wid my phone. hope it works wid his phone.

[mehulved]

I am also having that same problem. It creeps up every time you install kdebluetooth framewor kor bluez. I am looking around for the solution again and once I get it I will sirely give it to you too.

[infra_red_dude]

well i edited the hcid.conf file and placed the kbluepin as pin_helper. now i can pair my phone wid my lappy. sometimes while pairing it doesn't ask for pin in my lappy but my phone askes for pin. i manually run the kbluepin and give a pin and the same in the phone.

this way i can pair the two. no probs pairing them but i can't use the dialup feature. i can select the modem and it is detected fine but when i try to dial it says "modem error. modem is locked"...i think i need to research more in this field to get around this problem.

@tech ur future: where are u getting stuck?

[mehulved]

I did replace the pin_helper in hcid conf but still I get the message to replace the pin and that message gets stuck as soon as its executed so I can't cancel it either and I have to kill the process which exits my kdebluetoothd too.
Reguading your problem on using bluetooth phone as modem, you can check out the links I've posted in the other thread. That might help you. Hopefully that helps.

[infra_red_dude]

yeah i'm looking into that and wot do u mean by "replace the pin?" does the kblueapp freeze?

[mehulved]

I mean the I edited the pin entry as /usr/lib/kbluepin that's where it lies on Knoppix. Still whenever I start kbluetoothd, it pops up a message to replace the pin. And that message freezes up as soon as it pops up. You can do nothing but kill it.

[planetcall]

@planetcall do you have any problems running KDE apps on GNOME in Ubuntu. I had installed KDE as well as enlightenment in Ubuntu. This started giving me problems. Whenever I ran KDE based apps on GNOME, it used to give me error that DCOP_SERVER not running. After a few days I could not even log into KDE and later GNOME too. It used to say that write permission was denied to some file. I even chmod +w the file but thogh the write permission was given still the problem persisted and then I removed Ubuntu.

Yes, I have been playing with GDM and KDM for a while. The insane game finally broke Gnome. I cant use it anymore and am not a Linux guru. I could have fixed this problem but I dont want to delve into it right now. KDE works fine for me. I did use some KDE apps on Gnome without any problem before switching over.

[mehulved]

planetcall that's good enough that your KDE is running becasue on my system both GOME and KDE broke. And do make a back up of any important files u got in case anything goes wrong with KDE,too like it happened to me.

[cool_dude_prav]

Kubuntu has less softwares in the repository? Kubuntu is not a different OS. It is the same as ubuntu but the only difference is the KDE. I converted my ubuntu to kubuntu recently as I always have been an avid KDE lover. I can also install XFCE to call it Xubuntu if you like :P
I do agree Ubuntu is better than fedora etc. I used Synaptic on Gnome and am using the same thing on KDE. apt-get and its gui i.e. Synaptic are cool.

Hmm XUbuntu is an ongoing project and will be released either along with or soon after Drapper release!!!
More details : https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Xubuntu

Cheers!!!

[planetcall]

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Xubuntu]Xfce4[/url] has been supported in Ubuntu's universe by the MOTUXfce team since Hoary and Breezy. For Dapper we want to go one step further and make Xubuntu a sibling of Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Edubuntu by having install and live CD images generated for it. We haven't decided on a release date, but it should be as close as possible to Dapper's and should use the latest stable Xfce 4.X code (hopefully 4.4 will be released by then)

Xubuntu is already available. It is not a different distro. It is same ubuntu base with xfce on top of it. Same goes with kubuntu(Kde on top) and ubuntu(Gnome on top). Xubuntu will be released separately (ubuntu preconfigured with xfce dekstop) with the dapper. If someone wants to use Xubuntu then install ubuntu/kubuntu and then install xfce4 desktop from the repository.

Cheers!! Another reason to use Ubuntu!!

[infra_red_dude]

hows xfce? i heard its quite light on the system.

[eddie]

Every DE is good for someone or other. Yes XFCE is quite light but obviously it doesn't have all the bells-whistles. People even like minimalistic WMs. Even ratpoison suffices for a few but that doesn't mean it will work for you as well. You can only know whether it is good for you, after you've tried it.

[Satissh S]

Here is a XFCE screenie, that i'am using in my LFS,
Here (http://img86.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenie8dn.jpg)
XFCE "the cholestrol free DE" :)
On the right you see mozilla, and on the left it's Xine - compilation.

[infra_red_dude]

hey the interface is very much polished!

[planetcall]

that looks good. But Satish..keep the size of files smaller.

[infra_red_dude]

btw, anyone got bluetooth successfully working under any linux distro (i mean all the features, not just file transfer)

[mehulved]

So infra what you stuck on now?
I can't seem to get past that stupid error on gentoo. I might install Ubuuntu again for few days so i can try out what you want. Not sure of GPRS as my sis may have disabled it.

[Satissh S]

@planet , Infra: What distro do guys use? (K,X)ubuntu?
XFCE is extremely fast on my system coz i compiled it with some strict optimisations.
Also the XFCE installer itself compiles and installs XFCE and it does not copy the binaries. You'll get a very-fast DE.

@mehul: How did you post that b4 me? :roll: :lol:
What are you using now? What's DA problem?

[mehulved]

I have installed Knoppix on my hard drive while I get my gentoo documentation printed out. Will install gentoo then.
My problem is wid kdebluetooth. I replaced the pin_helper entry in hcid.conf to /usr/lib/kbluepin. But, the warning still pops up and the warning freezes up so I cannot do anything about it. i have to kill kbluetoothd to kill the warning too. So, I cannot use bluetooth at all.
BTW infra and planet are using Kubuntu. And howz ur LFS going along? What happened to MPlayer?

[Satissh S]

Fine no probs,
1. Configured Alsa.
2. Replaced 2.4 kernel wid 2.6.12
3. Installed Grub
4. Installed XFCE
5. Installed a few MM Players n Realplayer n Acroread (damn) :(.
6. Mozilla configured and working.
7. Will be Installing FF, thunderbird, X-chat, Sunbird today night :)
Now the biggest prob is how do i burn CD's n DVD's? Configured everything without kde and now what to do for k3b? :roll:

[mehulved]

You can install K3B without KDE, I have seen that on Ubuntu and it works fine. But, then if you install KDE on Ubuntu everything breaks. So, choose wisely or you can try out arson it is quite good too. Though not K3B. K3B simply rocks.

[eddie]

You can install K3B without KDENo you can not.

I have seen that on Ubuntu and it works fine.That is what is wrong with binary distros. They don't tell you what all they install on your system without your knowledge. Especially things like synaptic, urpmi, yast etc. Probably devil invented them...
Anyways you should check the requirements of K3B
http://k3b.plainblack.com/requirements
See the top two requirements? You might not need full fledged KDE but you definitely need base libraries and that is a huge compile.

[Satissh S]

Any good CD, and DVD writers for X.
I smell xcdroast, but it doesn't write dvd's as well. NeroLinux Sucks, bigtime.

[eddie]

2. Replaced 2.4 kernel wid 2.6.12Any particular reason to use such an old Kernel on a new install? :?

[mehulved]

Yup I know about those requirements. And I know it is not a good idea either. Anyway how about arson?

[Satissh S]

Nothin in particular, but i had 2.4 kernel sources in one of my old cd's available, so wanted to try it out, b4 d/l a 2.6 kernel.

[eddie]

Any good CD, and DVD writers for X.
I smell xcdroast, but it doesn't write dvd's as well. NeroLinux Sucks, bigtime.I don't think you have much choice there. Anything better then both of them at writing DVDs would be a GUI for DVD+RW-tools which means either K3B or Nautilus-CD-Burner. Then there is GnomeBaker as well. In short...KDE or Gnome but you don't have any of them. So choices are very limited for you.

Anyway how about arson?
A KDE application, does not write DVDs and is dead to say the least (if not buried). Last release was in 2003. I don't think he is looking for something like that.

[Satissh S]

Smells like no on the fly burning. Nyways a good practice wud be mkisofs and cdrecord. :roll:

[mehulved]

If you aren't installing any DE's then you better go with them. They're your best bet now. Let's see if we can stumble upon something else.

[praka123]

@Sateesh: Cdw is an ncurses based frontend for cdrecord and mkisofs.dont know whether it will be able to burn DVDs..

http://cdw.linuxforge.hu/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

there is also cdrtoaster (cdrbq)- Tcl/Tk front-end for burning cdrom.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cdrtoaster/

Hope You will find this helpful and Best of LUX for ur LFS endeavour. :)

[infra_red_dude]

yeah rite, nothing beats k3b....thats one of the reason why i stick to kde.