Just installed Ubuntu, and I'm lovin' it.

I installed this lovely os last night. The process was slow and painful, mostly because the computer I use is a 1.3ghz celeron with 256mb ram. Terrible, I know. After the installation I logged in and less than 2 minutes later, the system is loaded and ready to go! (compared to 15-20 minutes for windows after logging in) Huge improvement. +1 for Ubuntu

now I have a few questions.

1. how can I change my user account picture?

2.I have a mouse with 3 buttons, the mmb isn't doing anything in Ubuntu. Is there something I need to download? The option for three-mouse buttons isn't in system preferences

3. I installed blender via add/remove programs. But when it opens I get a fuzzy screen and then it crashes. what's wrong?

 

Hi there.

The administrator (root) account is locked out by default in ubuntu for security reasons.

You don't need to be root at all. When you do you can just use the sudo command in terminal which will make you act as root for that single command.


The other two questions i don't know the answer to.

 

In Ubuntu, "administrator" and "root" are two different concepts. A user is an administrator if he belongs to the "admin" group. The way Ubuntu is configured by default, being in the admin group gives a user the right to execute sudo. If the user is not in the admin group, he can't run sudo.

There can be only one root but there may be many administrators on a single machine.

It has been a while since I've done an installation but my recollection is that the first user created is in the admin group by default. I don't remember having to do anything special.

 

What I meant was root was the equivalent to a Admin account on windows.

You are correct the first user is an Admin account.

 

3.) With Ubuntu and Linux in general it is best not to download and install software from the Internet, as you would do in Windows. It is better to use a package manager and download and install programs from the Ubuntu respository. You should have a program in the your Ubuntu install called Synaptic. Check that out and use that to install the software you want, including firefox.

 

ok, I'll try that. but I tried to install following someone elses instructions and now I get an error saying it "failed to execute child process(no such directory)"

they said to type something into the terminal so that you can get to the root folder. and then copy firefox 3.5 into the "lib" folder and make a shortcut to put in the "bin" folder and change the old firefox shortcut to "firefox.old". I cannot find this site again but I do not know how to undo this.

edit: I accidently deleted one of the two firefox links, one was "firefox" and the other "firefox 3.0" what should I do? And with my luck it wasn't in the recycle bin >.< should I delete everything firefox and reinstall?

 

Yes, get rid of all the firefox stuff you downloaded and try to undo any changes you have made(ex: remove any folders, files and links YOU created for firefox). The info you read was probably for people who want to manually install Firefox. Once you have backed out all your changes, start up synaptic and search for firefox and install it through that. This should fix your problems and have Firefox up and running for you.

Hence fourth install/uninstall all the software you want through Synaptic, which uses the Ubuntu official repositories. This will make your install clean and easy and it will really be very painless. This also means that your system will automatically tell you what updates you need to install for the software you have installed. It will make your life very easy.

 

thanks you guys for all the help!

now in addition to the questions above, how can I get compiz to work? I've installed it and check any unwanted/wanted settings. But nothing happens and there is no apply button :/

 

Compiz, might not be a good option. Your machine doesn't sound like it has enough umph, though I don't know what (if there are any) compiz system requirements are, but I've seen it run sluggish on machines faster than yours :-/.

One more suggestion http://ubuntu-tweak.com/downloads that program I noticed is easy to use for newer users, has some things you might want. Either add the source (make sure you do it for your version of ubuntu) or get the .deb package. I wouldn't say I'm a linux guru (far from it) so someone here might have conflicting or better advice?

 

Blender is a 3D rendering program that can also make use of ray tracing, which is a pretty sophisticated and extremely demanding rendering technique. As such, Blender not only requires 3D acceleration (meaning that you need a video driver that enables 3D hardware acceleration), but it also has relatively steep hardware requirements. See here:

http://www.blender.org/features-gallery/requirements/

As you can see, your computer is clearly underequipped to deal with this program. :-/

 

Try running xev in a terminal and then clicking inside the newly spawned window with the middle mouse button. Let us know whether you see any output in the terminal. Make sure not to move the mouse while doing this, because that will also result in output in the terminal.

 

But I can use it in windows , not good for rendering or anything, but still usable for relatively low poly meshes

 

What is your gpu? If you don't have 3d hardware acceleration Compiz and Blender are simply not gonna work. The fact that you cannot use compiz leads me to think that the system is using hardware rendering at the moment. To change your user picture you have to go in "about me" in preferences. I'm not sure about the "about me" I know that it opens a window where you can enter things like your name and address. It's somewhere in the preferenceS menu.

 

speaking of which, how can I check system specs in ubuntu?

and if I remember right its something like "intel graphics controller", lol it controls nothing I'll tell you that right now. But that doesn't really explain why blender works under windows and not ubuntu.

 

In the terminal type lspci and it will display all the hardware installed on your computer. IF you have an Intel build in VC, I believe they are glitches with the current driver. Look up intel XXX in ubuntu jaunty on google. Change the XXX to the model you have when you find it under the lscpi command.

 

Or you can try installing karmic koala. It's supposed to have a new intel driver.

 

this is what I get in the terminal:

And I googled it
And this page seemed to be the most relevant but it didn't help me any. I don't really know what I'm doing when it comes to drivers

 

The intel drivers are built in to the kernel. If Ubuntu's autodetecter didn't detect it then it's failing hard. Could you please do:

Code:

# gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

and paste the entire text here? (Inside CODE tags, if you will.)

 

9.04 is seriously broken when it comes Intel IGPs...

 

Code:

Blalalala - computer:~$ gedit /etc/x11/xorg.conf

** (gedit:9158: WARNING **: Cannot extract frame (0, 0) from the grid

** (gedit:9158: WARNING **: Cannot extract frame (36, 0) from the grid

** (gedit:9158: WARNING **: Cannot extract frame (72, 0) from the grid

** (gedit:9158: WARNING **: Cannot extract frame (108, 0) from the grid

** (gedit:9158: WARNING **: Cannot extract frame (144, 0) from the grid

** (gedit:9158: WARNING **: Cannot extract frame (180, 0) from the grid

** (gedit:9158: WARNING **: Cannot extract frame (216, 0) from the grid

** (gedit:9158: WARNING **: Cannot extract frame (252, 0) from the grid

Is it possible to copy/paste text from the terminal?
also, I don't know what happened but I'm not getting sound anymore
how can I get cairo dock to load at startup?

sorry to be such a nag

 

Preferences>Sessions and you can add startup programs there.

did gedit load? I'm fairly certain that the x of x11 should be capitalized, for it to work.

 

something did, I believe it was the right window.

as for cairo dock, I press "add" and I have no idea how to find cairo dock under command

 

Please capitilize the x in X11, as ayle mentioned.

Code:

# gedit /etc/[B]X11[/B]/xorg.conf

Linux is case-sensitive, unlike Windows. Don't worry, you'll get the hang of all of this soon enough.

To answer your question though, yes, it is possible to copy/paste from the terminal, but it can be a little unwieldy. A better way is to copy xorg.conf as xorg.conf.txt and post it to the forum as an attachment:

Code:

# cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf ~/Desktop/xorg.conf.txt

There's more than way to crack the egg, as you can see.

 

Dont give up, I been windows free now for 2.5 months. With the help of AllurGroceries, Arch Linux and others I been Windows free. I enjoy this OS so much more then windows. Was just playing Painkiller, and time to get ready to go to sleep. See you all tomorrow.

 

Hi Guys, I have been using linux for a while now, I am a Fedora user though but helped a few guys get compiz working on an Intel chipset and its a nightmare...

I wouldn't even bother as its not really worth the trouble and your machine is just going to run like a dog. When you buy your next machine get any nvidia gaphics as that is Compiz's best friend .

But it is a process getting used to linux, the first time you use it, you are like "this is not working but it use to work in windows" but once you learn how to make things work and spend the time googling and reading linux forums, it becomes a breeze. I can do everything I use to do in windows in linux now, and now I have become so dependent on linux commands that using a windows box is just inefficient

So... don't give up... just spend the time.

Although, I do recommend buying your next pc to the availability of drivers in linux, ie, don't get anything with a broadcom wifi card or non ati or nvidia graphics

 

Last time I checked 8.10 works perfectly with intel graphics.

 

I actually have not used windows since I downloaded Ubuntu. Hurray! however there are a few bummers, like no blender (won't work on Ubuntu but it will in windows) and no compiz. (I was really looking forward to it)

And I'm hoping someday to get a Studio 1555 with the ati 4570 I think it was. I hope to get no issues with it

(since I can't get compiz to work, is there any other way to get shadows under windows?)

edit: I retyped the command hopefully correctly. But no window came up, no text, and the cpu and hard drive are being used for no apparent reason. what's going on?

 

Yeah. Even my broadcom wireless card works in Linux.

 

Do you mind downgrading to 8.10 Intrepid Ibex?

 

hehe I have compiz disabled due to some bugs you can get while playing games. I play everyday thats why I just leave it off.

 

How much of a downgrade is it? and will compiz work, even just a little? how do I downgrade?

 

Well, beside some minors interface differences it pretty much the same thing. And compiz and blender should work. I just checked Ubuntu's website and the only versions they have are 9.04 and 8.04. You can download the 8.04 without fear.

 

well I did manage to find 8.10 by googling "download ubuntu 8.10" and this page came up.

How should I go about installing 8.10? Is it possible to write over my current ubuntu partition?

 

Yes, you can either delete the swap and ubuntu partitions. Or in the installer select manual partitioning, set the ubuntu partition as root "/" and check the format box for that partition and proceed with the installation.

 

gah. I burned the disc using infra recorder but I can't do anything with the disk. the computer just freezes up until I eject it, whether I'm in an os and its reading the disk or I just restarted the computer and I get options to boot from cd or to install.

 

Use unetbootin. It allows you to create live flash drives. You will need a drive of at least 1gb. But it saves plastic.

 

ok, do I have to erase anything already on the drive?

when I click the linux version unetbootin file nothing happens :/

edit: I virus scanned using avast and I got this.(attachment) Is it anything I should worry about?

'nother edit: will this work instead of installing 8.10?

 

Yup, that should work. Good find!

 

aww, it didn't work, when running the final command it says "couldn't find package" for the driver

edit: I found the driver from here, in a .deb package. I have it on my desktop and by double clicking it says I already have a newer driver and won't let me install. How can I get around this?

 

^ You can use the CLI to resolve this (apt-cache search packagename), or you can use Synaptic to search and filter for the already installed package that you want to get rid of. You can then install the .deb package you have on your desktop.

 

what will happen when I uninstall the graphics driver? will the GUI go away or anything?

 

No, not until you reboot or restart X server.

 

ok, so I...

1. uninstall current driver
2. install the other driver
3. ???

 

3. Reboot or restart X server (ctrl+alt+backspace, I think)

 

you don't have to uninstall it. The new one should replace it automatically. Then you reboot and pray that it worked.

 

Some tips for Intel GMA

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1130582&highlight=jaunty+intel+driver

 

umm, yea, the driver I had in a .deb on my desktop will not install. It says there is something conflicting the installation even though I already uninstalled the intel 2:2.6.3-0ubuntu9.3 (full name just in case) driver.

^ in the xorg.conf, should the options already be there? or are they to be typed? also in part "A"/step 2 I downloaded "fixmtrr.sh" to the desktop and the command wouldn't work. I tried moving the file to the correct folder but I was given a denied error message.

 

What about following the official ubuntu method?

 

what is the official ubuntu method?

 

Start from scratch. Re-boot, select protected mode, and run xfix option. This will restore the default lowest driver you can use. Vesa or Intel.

Then open a terminal and type:

sudo apt-get instal xserver-xorg-video-intel


That's the default for Intel 8xx and 9xx series GMA. If that doesn't work, your GPU is older.

Then follow the steps in the link I gave above for the safe method.