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.

psh 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

[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 in Ubuntu/Kubuntu.
You can have a look at ubuntu guide 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
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.