Linux Users general chat thread.

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Kal_El

28-05-2013

Originally Posted by henm2:
“The latest Linux Mint 15 mate and cinnamon editions final stable releases have just become available for download via http://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/linuxmint.com/stable/”

Off work today, so managed to grab it this morning as soon as I could. Just spent an hour or so just playing and tinkering with it. So far, have to say, it seems absolutely fantastic. I've had to run it off a DVD rather than a USB (stupid Samsung laptop!), and yet it's still so fast to get around. Compare that to using Ubuntu or openSUSE Gnome live and it's a world of difference. Sure it's only a live disc and you don't hang around in it for long, but I still feel it's an indication of general system optimisation. If it's fast live, then it'll likely be even faster installed.

I noticed a lovely simple new Windows 7 style boot splash theme. It's just the Mint icon gently animated, but I think that's all it needs. This will look great on any system no matter what graphics drivers you use. Clever Mint.

Cinnamon is getting better all the time. The new integrated settings are much better. You can now install new themes and applets from within the desktop settings, which is much nicer for regular users, and better than extracting files to /usr/share/themes.

I even installed Cairo Dock in the live session to see if it works with the new Cinnamon, and it was absolutely fine. In fact everything feels sturdy and polished. So I'm sold. It's getting installed this week soon as I get the chance.

scooby1970

29-05-2013

Linux Mint 15 Cinnamon Edition installed and it's really special. Loving how "complete" it feels, everything just works, plenty of themes and the awful YouTube bug has been fixed (dots on screen using Chrome).

Mark

Kal_El

02-06-2013

Posted in the the other thread that I managed to get my desktop PC finally set up after six months of house rebuilding and decorating. What a drag, really tough going as we had to live in it while the works were taking place. Over the winter! The only access to Linux has been through my tiny Eee PC 701 with Bodhi Linux on it, and the wife's laptop on occasion. But my desktop is back now!

After a wee hop about I settled on openSUSE Gnome 12.3 (missus is running their KDE edition and it's superb) and updated it straight away to Gnome 3.8 using the stable repo. So far it is tremendous, bar a couple of wee bugs. But I'm sticking with it as I get wee bugs with most any distro and at the end of the day Gnome 3 is awesome.

I did try Mint and oddly felt it a little dated, but this means nowt as I could be running it next week after a change of heart. Ditto Ubuntu. But I do find I often return to Gnome 3, and in all honesty it's been the one DE I've spent the most time with in recent years (barring the last 6 months!), and openSUSE rule it for me. The Fedora equivalent isn't anywhere near as well done.

So yeah, welcome back desktop! I love my Nexus 7 but it's not the same as the desktop.

1saintly

02-06-2013

Originally Posted by Kal_El:
“Posted in the the other thread that I managed to get my desktop PC finally set up after six months of house rebuilding and decorating. What a drag, really tough going as we had to live in it while the works were taking place. Over the winter! The only access to Linux has been through my tiny Eee PC 701 with Bodhi Linux on it, and the wife's laptop on occasion. But my desktop is back now!

After a wee hop about I settled on openSUSE Gnome 12.3 (missus is running their KDE edition and it's superb) and updated it straight away to Gnome 3.8 using the stable repo. So far it is tremendous, bar a couple of wee bugs. But I'm sticking with it as I get wee bugs with most any distro and at the end of the day Gnome 3 is awesome.

I did try Mint and oddly felt it a little dated, but this means nowt as I could be running it next week after a change of heart. Ditto Ubuntu. But I do find I often return to Gnome 3, and in all honesty it's been the one DE I've spent the most time with in recent years (barring the last 6 months!), and openSUSE rule it for me. The Fedora equivalent isn't anywhere near as well done.

So yeah, welcome back desktop! I love my Nexus 7 but it's not the same as the desktop.”

Been there done that, and no its not fun living in a house thats being rebuilt.
you soon forget about the mess and hard work once its complete, hope you took pictures, its something to look back on and remind you never to do it again, thats what i do now when i have a idea to build something or knock walls down

Plus body is getting to old for it all now

Re Mint, tried it again, but it just doesnt like my hardware, locks up as soon as i try some simple custom stuff.

No suprise youre back on Suse and Gnome, you try others but always seem to go back.

Same as me, but Xubuntu Xfce is the one i stick with

1saintly

02-06-2013

http://www.linuxtoday.com/upload/gno...530214508.html

1saintly

08-06-2013

Not my choice of OS, but for those that do use it

http://opensuseadventures.blogspot.c...uby-geeko.html

Kal_El

08-06-2013

Originally Posted by 1saintly:
“Not my choice of OS, but for those that do use it

http://opensuseadventures.blogspot.c...uby-geeko.html”

All 4 of us!

I think this change is so that it can be ported to other distros more easily. Not a programmer, but that's what I gather from the forums.

1saintly

09-06-2013

Thought i would never leave my Xubuntu.

But after running

http://manjaro.org/
http://manjaro.org/about/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHTnYfuN6E0

For a month as main OS, im pleased to say, not that anyone is intrested

But goodbye Xubuntu.
Hello Arch, and its a rolling release

Its default is Xfce, but different versions are available.

Kal_El

09-06-2013

Originally Posted by 1saintly:
“Thought i would never leave my Xubuntu.

But after running

http://manjaro.org/
http://manjaro.org/about/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHTnYfuN6E0

For a month as main OS, im pleased to say, not that anyone is intrested But goodbye Xubuntu.
Hello Arch, and its a rolling release

Its default is Xfce, but different versions are available.”

Imustresistthisimustresistthisimustresistthis!!

Have to say Manjaro looks fantastic, and the fact it's based on Arch is very interesting to me. I was also looking at Antergos Linux the other day, which is also Arch based but uses Gnome 3. It's early days yet for the project, but I'm keeping an eye on it.

The Linux action show did an Arch special last week that has peaked my interest in it. I've always kept away from Arch, fearing it may prove too demanding for me, but with what's happening in the Ubuntu world and the emergence of more user friendly versions of Arch like Manjaro, I may have to reconsider my thoughts on it.

Hmmmm....

1saintly

09-06-2013

Originally Posted by Kal_El:
“Imustresistthisimustresistthisimustresistthis!!

Have to say Manjaro looks fantastic, and the fact it's based on Arch is very interesting to me. I was also looking at Antergos Linux the other day, which is also Arch based but uses Gnome 3. It's early days yet for the project, but I'm keeping an eye on it.

The Linux action show did an Arch special last week that has peaked my interest in it. I've always kept away from Arch, fearing it may prove too demanding for me, but with what's happening in the Ubuntu world and the emergence of more user friendly versions of Arch like Manjaro, I may have to reconsider my thoughts on it.

Hmmmm....”

Originally Posted by Kal_El:
“Imustresistthisimustresistthisimustresistthis!!”

Just do it, you know you want too

Joking aside, it is realy worth a look.
Quite a few easier to use Arch Distros out there.

Kal_El

14-06-2013

Was flipping through the openSUSE gaming repositories the other day, and came across this. I'd never heard of it before, and decided to install it. Very nice indeed! You need your copy of Duke Nukem from the 90's (GoG has it, if you don't), as the program needs the duke3d.grp file. To me the game has hardly dated. Sure graphically, and it's a wee bit clunky nowadays in gameplay, but it's still a surprisingly fun shoot 'em up considering its age.

Shake it baby!

PsychoTherapist

20-06-2013

Gave Linux another go this week. I've tried various distributions over the years, but I never really stuck with it, they never impressed me much.

I wanted to see how straightforward it was to set up Linux as a server (with a view to a potential upgrade away from my current PowerPC Mac server, towards a regular PC), so decided to give Lubuntu a try - something lightweight enough to throw into VMWare, but still with a GUI for ease of use (my servers are never headless, plus I'm more comfortable with a GUI and more productive too).

It was a lot of hard work and googling furiously, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly and had everything up and running perfectly within a day or 2 - Mail/Web/FTP/MySQL/PHP5 + extensions. Had to adjust a few PHP scripts, to work properly with PHP 5.3+, but otherwise a breeze. FTP access for uploading to the web server, caused some head scratching, until I figured out I forgot to give my new "web user account" access to the www folder, lol.

Found Webmin to be an absolute godsend, don't know how I've managed to get by without something similar, thus far. It makes it so much easier to configure the whole server via the web browser. Where the built-in modules can't get the task done, the built-in file manager for access to the config files suffices nicely.

The other crucial utility I required, was a decent automated backup system. Back In Time (running as root), provides the best option for me, allowing me to backup the important folders, ie. /etc, /var/www & /var/lib/mysql - and more if necessary. All in all, I was actually quite impressed. Will definitely consider going the PC+Linux route for my next server upgrade.

After being impressed with Lubuntu, I decided to try out Ubuntu, also in VMWare, to test out using Linux as a Desktop. I have to say, I quite like Unity, but I may play about and possibly add a classic applications menu later. The Ubuntu Software Centre is pretty nice, but if wanting to install multiple packages at once, Synpatic remains the winner here for me.

The last time I used Linux, I had Crossover (then-version 8) for running some Windows programs. I looked at this, but then discovered PlayOnLinx - which is just as good for my needs and even better of course - FREE. Much simpler to use, than plain old WINE.

I also encountered the same old annoying frustration, with trying to access Windows Network Shares. Every version of Ubuntu I've ever tried, always struggled with this. So, back to Google and the solution found - editing 2 config files, thus enabling WINS and now all my shares appear instantly and work properly, finally!

I tried Linux Mint also, but didn't like the look of it, a bit primitive. I'm a sucker for eye candy really.

My next project, will be to install Ubuntu on an old PC - Athlon XP 3200+, 1GB RAM, to see if it performs better than Windows 7. If it's too slow, I might stick Lubuntu on it instead.

Kal_El

20-06-2013

The question for Unity for me has never been about liking it or not, but rather whether it works or not. For me it has either varied between not working so great (bit slow and laggy, hampered 3D games/video performance, buggy), to not working at all (won't install, X continually crashing, won't boot to X, deal breaking bugs). This left me with a bit of a dilemma a while ago, as I still like Ubuntu a great deal, but if you can't trust it to work, then you've got to shop around.

I really wish that rather than building their own desktop, they'd gone along with Gnome and worked together. Gnome 3 to me is not only less problematic than Unity, but it's functionally better too. Of course YMMV, other opinions notwithstanding. But they (Ubuntu) have got other plans now, it'll be interesting to see what comes of it all. I find it hard to believe they'll get that market they want though.

gother

20-06-2013

I got linux mint 15 installed for some reason since linux mint 12 i've not had any sound via hdmi. I'm using a ati soundcard no idea which one as is built into the motherboard.

cnbcwatcher

22-06-2013

Right, so I managed to get Ubuntu Linux 10.10 (older version but I thought it might run better on that computer) running on my old Windows XP laptop from 2004. Setup was easy and fairly painless.

Initial impressions:
* Desktop environment looks fairly modern and streamlined. Looks like a mix of Windows and Mac
* Built in applications are ok and would certainly satisfy a user whose computing needs are very basic (i.e. internet browsing, word processing).
* Looks easy enough to use but things are not always obvious

Did have some problems with it though. I couldn't download anything from the Ubuntu Software Centre and the Firefox version is outdated. I downloaded a newer one but it wouldn't play Youtube videos and I couldn't get Chrome to install. I think I might try another distro such as Linux Mint. Ubuntu is ok but compared to the Mac or even Windows 7 it's an absolute pain to get it working properly. On the other hand, the Ubuntu Cola drink I bought a few weeks ago is lovely

I put a can in the fridge!

emptybox

23-06-2013

Originally Posted by cnbcwatcher:
“Right, so I managed to get Ubuntu Linux 10.10 (older version but I thought it might run better on that computer) running on my old Windows XP laptop from 2004. Setup was easy and fairly painless.

Initial impressions:
* Desktop environment looks fairly modern and streamlined. Looks like a mix of Windows and Mac
* Built in applications are ok and would certainly satisfy a user whose computing needs are very basic (i.e. internet browsing, word processing).
* Looks easy enough to use but things are not always obvious

Did have some problems with it though. I couldn't download anything from the Ubuntu Software Centre and the Firefox version is outdated. I downloaded a newer one but it wouldn't play Youtube videos and I couldn't get Chrome to install. I think I might try another distro such as Linux Mint. Ubuntu is ok but compared to the Mac or even Windows 7 it's an absolute pain to get it working properly. On the other hand, the Ubuntu Cola drink I bought a few weeks ago is lovely I put a can in the fridge!”

I perhaps wouldn't have put an older version of a distro on, as the software that comes with it is bound to be out of date.

Best to put the latest version on, but perhaps with a lighter desktop environment.
For instance put on Xubuntu 13.04. http://xubuntu.org/
(or install the XFCE desktop from Synaptic package manager within Ubuntu - xfce4)

Not sure why you couldn't get Ubuntu Software Centre to work, or couldn't install Chromium?
But I think Synaptic was still installed by default in 10.10, and you should be able to install Chromium from there.

archiver

23-06-2013

Originally Posted by gother:
“I got linux mint 15 installed for some reason since linux mint 12 i've not had any sound via hdmi. I'm using a ati soundcard no idea which one as is built into the motherboard.”

There was a kernel bug recently which affected the snd_hda driver amongst other things. I'm on 3.8.0-25-lowlatency at the moment and it's fine, but around -15 to -20 or so it showed up as a bug in the dmesg output like:

Code:

[    3.181905] kvm: disabled by bios
[    3.777469] BUG: unable to handle kernel paging request at ffff880210613fe0
[    3.777600] IP: [<ffffffffa0ac7820>] patch_generic_hdmi+0xe0/0x550 [snd_hda_codec_hdmi]
[    3.777704] PGD 1c0e063 PUD deffe067 PMD 2118a0063 PTE 8000000210613161
[    3.777912] Oops: 0003 [#1] SMP 
[    3.778041] Modules linked in: snd_hda_codec_hdmi coretemp kvm ghash_clmulni_intel(F) aesni_intel(F) aes_x86_64(F) xts(F) lrw(F) gf128mul(F) ablk_helper(F) cryptd(F) eeepc_wmi joydev(F) asus_wmi sparse_keymap ppdev(F) snd_hda_intel(+) snd_hdsp snd_hda_codec snd_hwdep(F) snd_pcm(F) snd_seq_midi(F) snd_seq_midi_event(F) snd_rawmidi(F) snd_page_alloc(F) snd_seq(F) parport_pc(F) snd_seq_device(F) snd_timer(F) mac_hid video(F) snd(F) wmi nvidia(POF) microcode(F) lpc_ich psmouse(F) serio_raw(F) soundcore(F) lp(F) parport(F) mei hid_generic r8169 usbhid hid
[    3.780003] CPU 1 
[    3.780046] Pid: 431, comm: modprobe Tainted: PF          O 3.8.0-19-generic #30-Ubuntu System manufacturer System Product Name/P8B75-V
[    3.780154] RIP: 0010:[<ffffffffa0ac7820>]  [<ffffffffa0ac7820>] patch_generic_hdmi+0xe0/0x550 [snd_hda_codec_hdmi]
[    3.780269] RSP: 0018:ffff88020eac1ac0  EFLAGS: 00010283
[    3.780320] RAX: 0000000000000008 RBX: 0000000000000004 RCX: 0000000000000004
[    3.780382] RDX: ffff880210613fd8 RSI: ffff880210613fe0 RDI: ffff88021072c420
[    3.780447] RBP: ffff88020eac1af8 R08: 0000000000000001 R09: 0000000000000002
[    3.780509] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffff88021072c000
[    3.780565] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000004 R15: ffff880210614000
[    3.780622] FS:  00007fc97d189740(0000) GS:ffff88021dc80000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[    3.780729] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[    3.780806] CR2: ffff880210613fe0 CR3: 000000020e50e000 CR4: 00000000000407e0
[    3.780888] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
[    3.780972] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000ffff0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
[    3.781057] Process modprobe (pid: 431, threadinfo ffff88020eac0000, task ffff88020e0845c0)
[    3.781164] Stack:
[    3.781235]  00000000ffffffff ffffffffa0ac0004 ffffffffa0ac9510 0000000000000000
[    3.781501]  ffff88021072c000 00000000ffffffff ffffffffa0acb000 ffff88020eac1b58
[    3.781753]  ffffffffa0a52186 2d6164682d646e73 64692d6365646f63 313030656430313a
[    3.782006] Call Trace:
[    3.782076]  [<ffffffffa0ac0004>] ? dec128+0x10c/0x818 [aes_x86_64]
[    3.782158]  [<ffffffffa0a52186>] snd_hda_codec_configure+0x146/0x440 [snd_hda_codec]
[    3.782274]  [<ffffffffa0a762f0>] azx_probe_continue+0x3a0/0x4f0 [snd_hda_intel]
[    3.782393]  [<ffffffffa0a748b0>] ? azx_attach_pcm_stream+0x1e0/0x1e0 [snd_hda_intel]
[    3.782505]  [<ffffffffa0a75cb0>] ? azx_halt+0x30/0x30 [snd_hda_intel]
[    3.782590]  [<ffffffffa0a746d0>] ? azx_pcm_trigger+0x580/0x580 [snd_hda_intel]
[    3.782695]  [<ffffffffa0a75810>] ? azx_runtime_suspend+0x30/0x30 [snd_hda_intel]
[    3.782801]  [<ffffffffa0a72670>] ? azx_pcm_free+0x50/0x50 [snd_hda_intel]
[    3.782884]  [<ffffffffa0a7679a>] azx_probe+0x35a/0x940 [snd_hda_intel]
[    3.782966]  [<ffffffff8137b4cb>] local_pci_probe+0x4b/0x80
[    3.783053]  [<ffffffff8137b7f1>] pci_device_probe+0x111/0x120
[    3.783137]  [<ffffffff81455717>] driver_probe_device+0x77/0x230
[    3.783222]  [<ffffffff8145597b>] __driver_attach+0xab/0xb0
[    3.783304]  [<ffffffff814558d0>] ? driver_probe_device+0x230/0x230
[    3.783388]  [<ffffffff81453a2d>] bus_for_each_dev+0x5d/0xa0
[    3.783470]  [<ffffffff8145521e>] driver_attach+0x1e/0x20
[    3.783556]  [<ffffffff81454df0>] bus_add_driver+0x190/0x280
[    3.783638]  [<ffffffffa0a92000>] ? 0xffffffffa0a91fff
[    3.783714]  [<ffffffff81456047>] driver_register+0x77/0x170
[    3.783796]  [<ffffffffa0a92000>] ? 0xffffffffa0a91fff
[    3.783875]  [<ffffffff8137a6bc>] __pci_register_driver+0x4c/0x50
[    3.783955]  [<ffffffffa0a9201e>] azx_driver_init+0x1e/0x1000 [snd_hda_intel]
[    3.784042]  [<ffffffff8100215a>] do_one_initcall+0x12a/0x180
[    3.784124]  [<ffffffff810bff17>] load_module+0x10c7/0x1520
[    3.784205]  [<ffffffff810bb880>] ? unset_module_init_ro_nx+0x80/0x80
[    3.784289]  [<ffffffff810c0435>] sys_init_module+0xc5/0xf0
[    3.784372]  [<ffffffff816d37dd>] system_call_fastpath+0x1a/0x1f
[    3.784454] Code: 0f 1f 00 4d 8b bc 24 c0 00 00 00 25 00 e0 00 00 c1 e8 0c 83 c8 01 49 63 17 83 c0 01 83 f8 10 48 8d 14 92 49 8d 14 d7 48 8d 72 08 <66> 89 5a 08 c7 46 08 02 00 00 00 0f 86 5b 02 00 00 48 8d 4e 18 
[    3.787215] RIP  [<ffffffffa0ac7820>] patch_generic_hdmi+0xe0/0x550 [snd_hda_codec_hdmi]
[    3.787362]  RSP <ffff88020eac1ac0>
[    3.787438] CR2: ffff880210613fe0
[    3.787514] ---[ end trace 2942599af1f9b0f0 ]---

I read somewhere that it's fixed in 3.9, but as I say, my current one is fine.

uname -r
will tell you the current kernel version and
dmesg | egrep 'BUG:'
may tell you if you're affected, although it may have only showed up because I have some debugging stuff enabled.

1saintly

23-06-2013

Copy and paste..

Code:

lspci -v | grep -A7 -i "audio"

into the terminal box, press enter and see what or if it tells you any info, it will aslo tell you if the sound card has been recognised by Linux.

Kal_El

23-06-2013

Yes there's a bug in the default kernel provided from what I gather. It hasn't affected me, but if you update the kernel you should be fine. Easy to do, just open the Update Manager, then Edit/Preferences, and tick the boxes to get all updates up to level 5. Then when you run the Software Manager again (not the Update Manager) the newer kernel will be available to grab. You can then, after you've installed it, choose to revert back to your original settings if you wish so that you don't get bothered with other kernel updates that come down the pipe. Mint by default doesn't trouble the user with these. You can also remove completely the older kernel should you wish. Post back for help.

Some people have suggested adding extra repositories and things like that, but there's no need.

This version of Ubuntu is long past its end of life. I'd really recommend picking a newer version. You'll not get new software working properly on it without a struggle, as you've found.

Kal_El

23-06-2013

In other news, I decided to install Mint 15 Cinnamon over the weekend, erasing openSUSE Gnome. I was very happy with the previous, but one or two bugs made it hard to continue, especially bugs that seize up the system. I tend to run a mile from that sort of thing, as anyone should.

Anyway Mint 15 is really gorgeous as many have said. Nice to be back on Cinnamon, nice to have some control over things again. One or two little bugs, nothing major, we'll see how we go.

Mint is still a lovely, friendly OS.

gother

23-06-2013

Thanks for that guys i gotta re-install linux as silly me accidentally installed windows 8 on the linux partition doh! Will reinstall linux mint 15 later

Kal_El

23-06-2013

Originally Posted by Kal_El:
“Yes there's a bug in the default kernel provided from what I gather. It hasn't affected me, but if you update the kernel you should be fine. Easy to do, just open the Update Manager, then Edit/Preferences, and tick the boxes to get all updates up to level 5. Then when you run the Update Manager* again the newer kernel will be available to grab. You can then, after you've installed it, choose to revert back to your original settings if you wish so that you don't get bothered with other kernel updates that come down the pipe. Mint by default doesn't trouble the user with these. You can also remove completely the older kernel should you wish. Post back for help.

Some people have suggested adding extra repositories and things like that, but there's no need.”

*edited for wrongness

1saintly

23-06-2013

3.10 kernel is out in about a week

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...tem&px=MTM3MDQ

Got some sound driver updates
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...tem&px=MTM2NDQ

gother

29-06-2013

Originally Posted by Kal_El:
“*edited for wrongness”

Sadly didn't work i think AMD doesn't like linux i'm going to give Manjaro a try and see if i have any luck. Not holding my breath though lol.
I'm also going to email AMD see if they can help in some way.

The sound comes on if i connect speakers but no sound at all via hdmi cable.
The cable is fine as windows 7 gives sound through it perfectly.

PsychoTherapist

29-06-2013

Tried several distributions recently, to try and coax an older system into operating, but they all struggled with the installed AGP Radeon HD card.

On other tests on my VM, came across an old niggling annoyance I had about Linux - how to auto mount a 2nd HDD, preferably via a GUI tool and not editing fstab. PySDM was useless, all greyed out. Gonna have to play around a bit more.

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