What Linux looks like this month

CARLA · Post by **CARLA** » Thu May 13, 2010 8:05 am

Window 7 is excellent if you have all the drivers etc you need before you install. HP has most of their Printer Drive in & 32bit and 64bit now to my knowledge. Are you trying to run 7 on a P4??

VMware ESXi is free if your going virtual nice..!!!

Dixie · Post by **Dixie** » Thu May 13, 2010 8:16 am

CARLA;1309856 wrote: Window 7 is excellent if you have all the drivers etc you need before you install. HP has most of their Printer Drive in & 32bit and 64bit now to my knowledge. Are you trying to run 7 on a P4??

Yes well, perhaps P4 and Windows 7 was not a good idea, but Windows7 works fine and I like it. Unfortunately I do need to use printers, modems, PDF and Pastel, and therein lies the problem.

Post by **spot** » Thu May 13, 2010 8:21 am

Dixie;1309858 wrote: Yes well, perhaps P4 and Windows 7 was not a good idea, but Windows7 works fine and I like it.

The Pentium 4 3.4GHz with 3GB RAM is well within the requirements of Windows 7. I rarely get to touch a computer with that much processing power. Or so much memory, if it comes to that. I'd be quite happy to run Windows 7 on a 2.2GHz 32 bit machine with 2GB.

CARLA · Post by **CARLA** » Thu May 13, 2010 8:37 am

Good luck with that Spot you "wretched heathen" :yh_rotfl gottcha..!!

[QUOTE]The Pentium 4 3.4GHz with 3GB RAM is well within the requirements of Windows 7. I rarely get to touch a computer with that much processing power. Or so much memory, if it comes to that. I'd be quite happy to run Windows 7 on a 2.2GHz 32 bit machine with 2GB.[/QUOTE]

yaaarrrgg · Post by **yaaarrrgg** » Thu May 13, 2010 8:46 am

I'm running Ubuntu 10.04 on a fairly old computer made for Windows XP (about 1.7 GHtz, 512MB RAM) and it's perfectly usable.

It doesn't feel any slower than my new Windows laptop (loaded with Windows bloatware/virus scanner). Though I do have the Linux eye candy effects turned off, as well as other services I don't need,

Post by **spot** » Thu May 13, 2010 8:56 am

CARLA;1309863 wrote: Good luck with that Spot you "wretched heathen" :yh_rotfl gottcha..!!

Oh ye of little faith. I ran the 7 beta for two months last year on less than half that memory with a 2.2GHz processor, it was fine so long as I kept it from thrashing.

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Thu May 13, 2010 9:32 am

spot;1309841 wrote: A note to your son then.

The machine has a valid XP licence, I take it you still have access to the install CD. Sun's VirtualBox will let you install that XP as just another application on the Ubuntu installation (*not* a multiboot environment, it's just another normal window running under Ubuntu). If Wine fails to easily run the bookkeeping then it will definitely run inside the VirtualBox and still give access to the printer. If you find yourself fighting to put the Visual Basic runtimes and (maybe) CAB unpacking under Wine then the VirtualBox + XP is just a couple of hours to install (though you could still wait for days while the security packs dribble in!). All you'll need to install inside it is the required program and current data. You can secure it from the internet by disabling internet access from within the XP window in which case the security packs are immaterial.

While I now have VirtualBox3 running under Ubuntu 10.04 it, unfortunately, cannot find the VMs from the VirtualBox2 setup I had running under Ubuntu 9.10.

I can see more time being spent when I get back from holiday

Royd Fissure · Post by **Royd Fissure** » Fri May 14, 2010 2:51 am

I'm running Fedora Core 13 at the moment, dual-booted with XP because I have the top end office 2007 (got it at student's rates so it was hard to pass). I use XP for my business and academic work and Fedora for my business and academic work and for recreation.

I've tried quite a few distros, started off with FC3 and now I'm back again. Gentoo wouldn't let me play because it said I was too dumb

What I love about Linux - apart from the os itself - is the fact that I can get an app for just about everything I want to do whereas on XP it's a hunt for freeware, shareware or proprietary applications. Yes, I've had dramas with sound and video and I recently put my pc on wireless and KDE hated it so I took it off and just run Gnome and it works fine on wireless. Ubuntu is definitely a good distro though, used it in many manifestations and found it almost flawless.

I love LInux.

Post by **spot** » Fri May 14, 2010 4:54 pm

Bryn Mawr;1309873 wrote: While I now have VirtualBox3 running under Ubuntu 10.04 it, unfortunately, cannot find the VMs from the VirtualBox2 setup I had running under Ubuntu 9.10.

I'm on 3.1.6 and running that Rosetta system so I must have managed to transfer it successfully. I don't recall doing it though.

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Sat May 15, 2010 8:25 am

spot;1310172 wrote: I'm on 3.1.6 and running that Rosetta system so I must have managed to transfer it successfully. I don't recall doing it though.

I'll do some more searching when I get back from holiday - can't see that I've deleted them as I loaded 3.1.6 on the new partition and left the old version as was.

yaaarrrgg · Post by **yaaarrrgg** » Sat May 15, 2010 4:45 pm

Bryn Mawr;1310273 wrote: I'll do some more searching when I get back from holiday - can't see that I've deleted them as I loaded 3.1.6 on the new partition and left the old version as was.

It's been a while since I used virtual box, but AFAIK the virtual machines are just stored as flat files. If you know where they are on the hard drive you should be able to add the virtual drive file to the new version of virtual box. Or something like that ... I haven't tested.

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Sun May 16, 2010 3:31 am

yaaarrrgg;1310328 wrote: It's been a while since I used virtual box, but AFAIK the virtual machines are just stored as flat files. If you know where they are on the hard drive you should be able to add the virtual drive file to the new version of virtual box. Or something like that ... I haven't tested.

With the update I've moved to using an encrypted hard drive for my boot and working partition. The VBox drives will still be on one of the other drives that are outside the logical volume manager. It should, I hope, purely be a case of locating them and pointing the new implementation of VBox in their direction but first I'll have to work out what they were called ....

Time! Too little time

Post by **spot** » Sun May 16, 2010 3:45 am

Bryn Mawr;1310389 wrote: With the update I've moved to using an encrypted hard drive for my boot and working partition. The VBox drives will still be on one of the other drives that are outside the logical volume manager. It should, I hope, purely be a case of locating them and pointing the new implementation of VBox in their direction but first I'll have to work out what they were called ....

Time! Too little time

In your old home directory, in a hidden dot-directory called VirtualBox. Don't point to the old space, copy it to your new home directory. Carefully, without overwriting your new parameter file.

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Sun May 16, 2010 7:43 am

spot;1310391 wrote: In your old home directory, in a hidden dot-directory called VirtualBox. Don't point to the old space, copy it to your new home directory. Carefully, without overwriting your new parameter file.

Ah, many thanks - will do as soon as I get back to the flat.

Dixie · Post by **Dixie** » Wed May 19, 2010 11:35 am

I have managed to install (with the help of my son) Ubuntu 10.04 and so far everything is working just fine. I love having Mahjong on the PC again!

Because the windows package I want to use is so old, I would like to run a virtual machine supporting Windows 98. I see that Virtualbox does not fully support Windows 98. Does anyone one know of a route I can go to do Windows 98 VM on my Ubuntu? Or should I go for Virtualbox and and try to make it work?

yaaarrrgg · Post by **yaaarrrgg** » Wed May 19, 2010 1:03 pm

I thought VMWare supported Win98, but not sure:

VMware Player: Run Windows 7, Chrome OS - Free Download for a Virtual PC

At least they used to support Win98:

http://qvlweb.blogspot.com/2009/02/inst ... r-old.html

VMWare is like VirtualBox, but a different company is behind it.

Post by **spot** » Wed May 19, 2010 1:27 pm

Windows 98 runs fine in VirtualBox. it might refuse to handle 24 or 32 bit color but that's a minor matter and even that's fixable. What did you read that said it couldn't?

Dixie · Post by **Dixie** » Thu May 20, 2010 4:48 am

spot;1311138 wrote: Windows 98 runs fine in VirtualBox. it might refuse to handle 24 or 32 bit color but that's a minor matter and even that's fixable. What did you read that said it couldn't?

Here is the link. Guest_OSes - VirtualBox

But to I have no idea what "Requires VT-x or AMD-V hardware virtualization support. " means.

yaaarrrgg · Post by **yaaarrrgg** » Thu May 20, 2010 7:48 am

Dixie;1311239 wrote: Here is the link. Guest_OSes - VirtualBox

But to I have no idea what "Requires VT-x or AMD-V hardware virtualization support. " means.

Some newer CPU chips have built-in features for virtualization. Basically it's just saying if it's an old machine, Win98 might not be fully functional. Depends on the chip/hardware:

x86 virtualization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

x86 virtualization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You can always try installing to see. It will either work or it won't

Dixie · Post by **Dixie** » Mon May 24, 2010 12:02 pm

I now have VirtualBox running smoothly with Windows XP. I just need to make the Windows XP "see" the USB ports so that I can connect a printer as my Bookkeeping package wants to see a printer before it will continue, tsk, tsk

. Is it possible to do that?

Post by **spot** » Mon May 24, 2010 12:25 pm

Before starting that particular virtual machine there are setup options which enable various peripherals. You can either hunt for them or find the relevant section in the documentation. Enable USB Support in Virtualbox stikiflem’s techblog might lead you to the right place.

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Mon May 24, 2010 2:27 pm

spot;1310391 wrote: In your old home directory, in a hidden dot-directory called VirtualBox. Don't point to the old space, copy it to your new home directory. Carefully, without overwriting your new parameter file.

Bryn Mawr;1310425 wrote: Ah, many thanks - will do as soon as I get back to the flat.

Many thanks - found it and it runs fine.

Now I just have to get it up to speed with all the security patches that have come out since I last used it.

Dixie · Post by **Dixie** » Tue Jun 01, 2010 11:43 am

Thank you so much to everyone helping me to migrate to Linux. I have everything working just grand. My printer prints, my modem "modems", the virtual machine is making the programs think it is on Windows.

I am as happy as a pig in mud using Linux. Now to learn how to drive the terminal.

Post by **spot** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 12:04 pm

That's pleasing, I'm glad it all worked out properly.

Pickleball471 · Post by **Pickleball471** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 5:25 pm

Mac is the way to go

Post by **spot** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 5:31 pm

Pickleball471;1313992 wrote: Mac is the way to go

In what sense? I'm not sure the Macintosh still even exists but I'm quite prepared to be told otherwise. Does it have its own architecture or is it merely an operating system now? Will it run on PC platforms?

Tuxr99 · Post by **Tuxr99** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 8:45 pm

Anyone try ubuntu 10.04 yet? It's probably the single best OS I've ever used, and I've tried everything since 1990. Fast, rock solid, and free.

I usually install every version of ubuntu as soon as it comes out, but I may keep this around until next spring when I build a new computer.

yaaarrrgg · Post by **yaaarrrgg** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 9:22 pm

Yes, last weekend, I just installed it on a five year old laptop, that had XP. It's a lot faster now!

I don't know what's wrong with XP, but it slowed down to the point it would thrash with 100% cpu usage. I thought it had a hardware problem it was acting so bad. And it was the Microsoft products driving the load up. Yet was clean on all virus scans. The difference is unbelievable.

I might stick with the LTS for a while now too. It's very polished...

Dixie · Post by **Dixie** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 10:07 pm

I am using Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx my son tells me), and I also am more that happy. I migrated from Windows 7 and what a difference! Everything works and fast!

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 11:57 pm

Tuxr99;1321916 wrote: Anyone try ubuntu 10.04 yet? It's probably the single best OS I've ever used, and I've tried everything since 1990. Fast, rock solid, and free.

I usually install every version of ubuntu as soon as it comes out, but I may keep this around until next spring when I build a new computer.

I've been using it for a couple of months now and like it. Even started experimenting with it running on encrypted disks just to see how it feels.

My best OS of all time is still RiscOS though - now that was slick and way ahead of its time.

Tuxr99 · Post by **Tuxr99** » Wed Jul 14, 2010 7:42 pm

yaaarrrgg;1321917 wrote:

I might stick with the LTS for a while now too. It's very polished...

Yes it is, but you know what? I have been playing around with Mac OSX Leopard, and the similarities to ubuntu are uncanny. From the way the file system is set up, to the home folder, and the panel icons. And if you added the mac theme and docky icons to ubuntu, a casual mac user may not notice they were running ubuntu instead of osx. That being said, I'll stick with ubuntu for it's open nature. I don't need the iLife on my computer to get things done. But, if linux ceased to exist and I had to choose between mac and windows, mac comes closest to linux in terms of how it's set up, and would be my choice. Let's just hope it never comes down to that.

Dixie · Post by **Dixie** » Tue Aug 03, 2010 10:33 pm

I am looking for a driver for a driver for a Konica Minolta Bizhub 210 on Ubuntu 10.04.

I have looked everywhere but cannot find one. Please help?

Post by **spot** » Wed Aug 04, 2010 4:36 am

That printer recognizes both Postscript and PCL, and the scanner's standard TWAIN. If you're currently using CUPS you ought to be able to configure a Postscript/default printer connection to the right port and get it working, and set the scanner to TWAIN-compatible. I'd talk you through it if I had a similar system - maybe Bryn can, he's got the same Ubuntu release on his machine.

Dixie · Post by **Dixie** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 2:23 am

I upgraded to "Maverick Meerkat" this weekend :yh_dance

Post by **spot** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 2:31 am

Dixie;1338151 wrote: I upgraded to "Maverick Meerkat" this weekend :yh_dance

It's looking good, from what I've read. There's a squeamishness about the continuing simplistic partitioning in the articles I've come across since most Ubuntu users will stick with the defaults. Even so, they've created a great product. What we need now is a willingness among the desktop and laptop manufacturers to supply machines without Microsoft licenses, regardless of whether they pre-install anything. It's still an effective monopoly out there.

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 2:42 am

Dixie;1338151 wrote: I upgraded to "Maverick Meerkat" this weekend :yh_dance

Then I'll look forward to installing it.

What do you think? Any big advantages / disadvantages?

Dixie · Post by **Dixie** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 3:01 am

Bryn Mawr;1338158 wrote: Then I'll look forward to installing it.

What do you think? Any big advantages / disadvantages?

I have just started using it now but so far not much different, but I did notice it is a bit faster.

KMyMoney's upgrade, which I got in the process, is way better. The font and graphs are so much sharper.

spot;1338155 wrote: It's looking good, from what I've read. There's a squeamishness about the continuing simplistic partitioning in the articles I've come across since most Ubuntu users will stick with the defaults. Even so, they've created a great product. What we need now is a willingness among the desktop and laptop manufacturers to supply machines without Microsoft licenses, regardless of whether they pre-install anything. It's still an effective monopoly out there.
I so agree with you about the monopoly. It does seem so unfair in a "free market" environment. How on earth do they manage to bully the manufacturers?

I presume it is a fine line Linux is walking on. They want to grow the userbase extensively, but then they will need to be atractive to the users of "lesser" knowledge about computers.

Ahso! · Post by **Ahso!** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 3:59 am

I think Ubuntu is as user friendly as an OS can be. I have an XP box here for the Magic Jack and whatever else it might be useful for but it hardly gets any attention, we hardly remember it exists.

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 3:09 pm

Dixie;1338159 wrote: I have just started using it now but so far not much different, but I did notice it is a bit faster.

KMyMoney's upgrade, which I got in the process, is way better. The font and graphs are so much sharper.

I so agree with you about the monopoly. It does seem so unfair in a "free market" environment. How on earth do they manage to bully the manufacturers?

I presume it is a fine line Linux is walking on. They want to grow the userbase extensively, but then they will need to be atractive to the users of "lesser" knowledge about computers.

Now updated and so far ... no real difference.

Couple of changes icons, slightly faster response but, until I start digging, nothing to comment on.

Oh, one comment - slick upgrade. Clicked on "do it", gave it permission to overwrite a parameter file a while later and let it reboot soon after that.

Dixie · Post by **Dixie** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 9:14 pm

@Bryn. You said it. The upgrade is slick. Ubuntu just does what it should do.

No fancy, useless, eye popping graphics, it plainly does what you tell it and that is all.

No song and dance just because I moved the the mouse pointer.

I am becoming a bigger and bigger fan.

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 11:40 pm

Dixie;1338343 wrote: @Bryn. You said it. The upgrade is slick. Ubuntu just does what it should do.

No fancy, useless, eye popping graphics, it plainly does what you tell it and that is all.

No song and dance just because I moved the the mouse pointer.

I am becoming a bigger and bigger fan.

With Linux I've always been a user rather than a developer / fixer but, even not knowing the inner workings, on those few occasions when I've had a problem it has been easy enough to google a fix and apply it. Definitely a fan.

Ahso! · Post by **Ahso!** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 2:24 pm

I decided to upgrade both the laptop and desktop today, both went flawlessly and within an hour each. Looks so purrdy.

Tuxr99 · Post by **Tuxr99** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 10:32 pm

Dixie;1338343 wrote: @Bryn. You said it. The upgrade is slick. Ubuntu just does what it should do.

No fancy, useless, eye popping graphics, it plainly does what you tell it and that is all.

No song and dance just because I moved the the mouse pointer.

I am becoming a bigger and bigger fan.

I've been using ubuntu exclusively for 3 1/2 years now, and have no plans anytime soon to start using anything else. Sure, I try out other distros on spare drives I have, but for my day to day tasks, nothing beats ubuntu. The install of 10.04 I'm on now has been running flawlessly since mid April. I want for nothing when it comes to my computer, but that's how it should be, right?

I ran 10.10 in Vbox for a bit and decided it wasn't worth wiping out 10.04. Perhaps with 11.04 I will think about reinstalling when there are more new features. But hey, good luck to all you Mav users.

yaaarrrgg · Post by **yaaarrrgg** » Mon Oct 18, 2010 9:58 am

I haven't upgraded my Ubuntu machines yet ...

I've been working with "Puppy Linux" last couple of weeks. It's good for extremely low end machines, like something designed for windows 95. I have it running it fine on a 100 Mhtz machine. I found a great derivation of it called HanSamBen that's preloaded with learning software and games for kids (gcompris, tuxpaint, ...). It's got all the icons on the desktop too, so it's easy for kids to start them. Last week I installed it on a computer for a preschool. They liked it so much, they wanted me to to wipe out all their Windows 95/XP computers and run linux on all of them. I've been installing Linux all weekend.

Tuxr99 · Post by **Tuxr99** » Tue Dec 14, 2010 11:31 pm

yaaarrrgg;1339370 wrote: They liked it so much, they wanted me to to wipe out all their Windows 95/XP computers and run linux on all of them. I've been installing Linux all weekend.

Cool story. How did it go? Btw, I like puppy too on older hardware. If you get a chance and the hardware isn't too old, check out Ultimate Edition Lite. It's based on Lubuntu, but with a few changes. Runs great on my buddy's 5 yr old PC.

yaaarrrgg · Post by **yaaarrrgg** » Wed Dec 15, 2010 10:24 am

Tuxr99;1346773 wrote: Cool story. How did it go? Btw, I like puppy too on older hardware. If you get a chance and the hardware isn't too old, check out Ultimate Edition Lite. It's based on Lubuntu, but with a few changes. Runs great on my buddy's 5 yr old PC.

Thanks for the tip... I'll check it out.

So far, the puppy computers have been running great. The only real quirk with puppy, is I found I needed to add something like this to the startup script rc.local

rm -rf /tmp/bootcnt.txt

Since the kids tend to do hard-power-offs on the machines, and that will allow it to come back up with fewer complaints.

I just bought a copy of StarFall (free online at Starfall.com) and am running it under Wine. They don't have internet connections, so just installed the stand-alone version.

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Mon Jan 03, 2011 4:12 pm

Finally, Adobe have released a new Flash Player, Square, for 64-bit Ubuntu systems.

There's a very useful install script at :-

-: an everyday story of country folk :- Â» New 64-bit Flash Installer for Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

Now to watch all those videos I missed out on in the threads round here

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Mon Jan 03, 2011 4:12 pm

Finally, Adobe have released a new Flash Player, Square, for 64-bit Ubuntu systems.

There's a very useful install script at :-

-: an everyday story of country folk :- Â» New 64-bit Flash Installer for Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

Now to watch all those videos I missed out on in the threads round here

Tuxr99 · Post by **Tuxr99** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 11:48 pm

Bryn Mawr;1349470 wrote: Finally, Adobe have released a new Flash Player, Square, for 64-bit Ubuntu systems.

There's a very useful install script at :-

-: an everyday story of country folk :- Â» New 64-bit Flash Installer for Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

Now to watch all those videos I missed out on in the threads round here

No scripts needed. Just put the libflashplayer.so file into /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins. If you use chrome also, no need to reinstall flash for it as it uses the same directory. Flash for opera would go into /usr/lib64/opera/plugins

But yeah, square is working great for me.

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Tue Jan 11, 2011 5:09 pm

Tuxr99;1350301 wrote: No scripts needed. Just put the libflashplayer.so file into /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins. If you use chrome also, no need to reinstall flash for it as it uses the same directory. Flash for opera would go into /usr/lib64/opera/plugins

But yeah, square is working great for me.

Sadly, my PC died the day after I installed it

Luckily, it was a duff PSU rather than the software

Two new power supplies later, I'm on-line again :-6