The Command Command

man -k list directory

Lists commands and a very brief description of each. Lots of enlightening stuff here.

Installing and Switching Between Extra Desktops / Window Managers

You don't have to commit to one Desktop style. You can install GNOME, KDE, XFCE (among others), and just switch between them.

• GNOME is the desktop used in Ubuntu.
• KDE is the desktop used in Kubuntu.
• Xfce is the desktop used in Xubuntu.

To switch between the desktops, log out. When you log back in, click the "session" button and select which window manager you want to use. Easy as pie.

To install, you can use Synaptic Package manager, or apt-get (on the command line). However, these methods don't keep track of dependencies, so it's recommended you use aptitude (on the command line) instead:

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install kubuntu-desktop
sudo aptitude install xubuntu-desktop

Link in title as always, or here.

Lost Running Applications / Programs in Toolbar

A while ago, I was adding and removing applications from the panel, and the spacing between them got all screwy. Next thing I know my list of running applications is gone.

Couldn't find it for the life of me. Gave up trying to find an answer, said "screw it", and just started using alt+tab to switch between running programs. Still annoying though.

Incidentally, I discovered if you move your mouse cursor over the title (top) of a window that's open, using mouse's scroll wheel will make you switch between the last two windows.

Anyway...

Happened to be on irc.freenode.net #kubuntu ... and someone there posted a similar problem. To get back your application list in your toolbar / panel:

1. right-click on toolbar in an empty spot
2. click "Add Applet to Panel" (this is where you say AHHHHHH!)
3. click Taskbar and OK.

Import Thunderbird Mail into Kmail

I wanted to import my messages from Thunderbird into Kmail, so I could use Kontact as my entire personal information tool. I could not find a tool anywhere in Kmail / Kontact (or even just right in Kmail) to import mail from another program. After Googling it, I found it should be in Tools -> Import Messages. The odd thing is I didn't have that menu option. Another thing to try is using a tool mozilla2kmail.pl, but that didn't work for me.

Cliff's Notes:

• make sure kmailcvt is installed. Use Synaptic Package Manager to get it.
• then in Kontact/Kmail use File -> Import Messages to import messages from Thunderbird.

Story:
Kmail 1.9.1 using KDE 3.5.2

Found some wonky directions here, but that seemed too complicated.

I looked up the Kmail (via the menus in Kontact/Kmail). The help file seemed to be out of date, web address gets rerouted here.

A bit of a beef I have with the Kontact web site is that they don't give you the current revision of the entire package, nor the current revision of the components of the package. I looked at FAQ of the Kontact page. I didn't see a link to an IRC channel, but I tried out

irc.freenode.net #kontact

The channel does exist, but appears to be a small developer's channel. No one seemed to be awake.

The aforementioned mozilla2kmail.pl script had to be run with

chmod +x mozilla2kmail.pl
sudo ./mozilla2kmail.pl

which gave an error that "./home/kat/Mail is not a directory."
To get help you need to type

./mozilla2kmail.pl --help

which is different than indicated ("mozilla2kmail --help")! This command gives me

"You need to install the perl-doc package to use this program."

I install perl-doc using Synaptic Package Manager, but I still get ". /home/kat/Mail is not a directory." after doing a "sudo ./mozilla2kmail.pl"

Did more searching and came up with the Cliff's Notes solution, which works. The only stickler is that when the import runs, it doesn't make it obvious what it wants you to open. I selected the entire mail folder (/home/kat/.thunderbird/fzcc2crp.default/Mail/) which had two folders in it: a "Local Folder" and a "pop.gmail.com folder." This seems to work.

Installing Microsoft Truetype fonts on Ubuntu

"You can install the MS core fonts by installing the msttcorefonts package. To do this, enable the “Universe” component of the repositories. This is done by default in Feisty. After you do that, use the following command from the command line:

$sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts

This will give you the core fonts, but if there are other TrueType fonts that you want installed, it is as easy as copying the font files to the ~/.fonts/ directory.

After installing new fonts, you will have to log out and log in again to be able to see and use the new fonts. If you want to avoid this, you can regenerate the fonts cache by issuing the following command:"

$sudo fc-cache -fv

Thanks to Carthik's Ubuntu blog.

Frostwire won't shut down, exit or quit

No matter if I closed Frostwire in the menu or the window button (X), it would not shut down. It would stay in my title bar. It did not move to the process bar on the right (unlike Frostwire on Windows).

I tried to shut down the service using the terminal/konsole:

ps -e | grep frostwire

No luck. But if you do

ps -e

you notice something. Ah, that's right, Frostwire uses JRE and looks like "Java", so that must be it.

kill ProcessIdOfTheJavaThingy

Does not kill the process. Nothing happens. (Replace ProcessIdOfTheJavaThingy with the number beside the program you want to kill). For fun, I tried:

sudo kill ProcessIdOfTheJavaThingy

That doesn't work either. Well, I guess I'll actually Google it or something.

This is not a bug (though that may be a matter of opinion...); it's a feature. Frostwire will not shutdown if there are items still waiting to finish. To fix this lovely feature, go into the Frostwire menus:

Tools
Options
System Tray (on the left)
Select Shutdown Immediately

Well, that was easy.

*****

UPDATE: easily kill a process that has a window - use a weird combination of both graphical and command line to kill a window! In your terminal, type

xkill

and then the system will prompt you to click on the window you want to kill. Great method for those of you who don't want to remember ps options and pipes.

Or... kill a process by name (say... "amarok") using pkill.

pkill amarok

Great link here about that.

How to Manually Force a Program to Close

Yes, programs in Linux can crash.

If you need to force a program to close, but are wondering what the heck Kubuntu folks use instead of Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-DEL), try using the terminal instead.

(I suspect there is a GUI like Task Manager kicking around somewhere that you can install, but that would require installing it or finding it. You already have a terminal).

What you need to do is find the Process ID of the program that is running, and then kill that process. First: open a Konsole window. In the window, type

ps -e | grep NameOfProgramYouWantToKill

or

ps aux | grep NameOfProgramYouWantToKill

Sometimes the name of the program not obvious or not what you expect it to be. In that case, you can just do

ps -e

or

ps aux

and scroll through the list to find it. Once you find it, you'll notice a number beside it, on the left. Type:

kill number

And hopefully you've shut the right program down. The program should disappear from the taskbar. As always, if you are consistently starting to experience problems with hanging programs, you should try rebooting the computer. If you still experience problems, Google for bugs or an update or patch for the software.

Getting International and Accented Characters in Kubuntu/Linux

I've been practicing my French again. One of my local friends grew up in Québec virtually all his life, and one of my local friends is studying French in Québec for a year. When I chat to them, I like to type the French words as they're meant to be written, which includes the accents.

Anyway, I had fun finding where to switch my keyboard so I could use the layout. In Windows, you do it by switching to an American English International Keyboard layout (Control Panel -> Regional and Language Settings, I believe... not in Control Panel -> Keyboard like you'd expect).

I found where to change it. There are lots of options. In addition to the language settings, there are variants in the language settings (dvorak, international...)

In Kubuntu with KDE, I found it in:

System Settings -> Regional & Accessibility -> Keyboard Layout

For reference:

Ubuntu U.S. International Characters Chart

I'm a Canadian with a normal American keyboard (Microsoft RT2300). I've added several keyboard layouts in the list as I want to mess around to see which one I'm the most comfortable with. I seem to be using U.S. English layout with the variant "international".

You can set up other options by using the tabs in the top (Switching Options Tab with "Show indicator for single layout" checked gives you the list in your taskbar so you can easily switch back and forth between keyboard layouts.

The only difference I notice from Windows is the cedilla. The comma key does NOT give the cedilla. You have to use the RIGHT ALT key, and then type comma. This gives you "ç"

Sometimes no audio in Firefox pages with Flash

After having my system up and running for a while, I noticed that if I use Amarok and then open Firefox, videos in YouTube would have no sound. I figured this was just a wonky Kubuntu feature until I decided to actually research the problem.

This problem was solved if I would reboot the system and open Firefox and watch videos first (before playing music). The problem still was recurring, though.

Apparently this is more than an ALSA sound driver fight between Firefox and Amarok. It's actually a bug (see link).

How to fix your Firefox audio: open a terminal/console, and type

cd /tmp
mkdir /tmp/.esd
ln -s /tmp/.esd-1000/socket /tmp/.esd/socket

CD and DVD Drive Hanging

On rare occassion, my CD or DVD drive will hang. The disc will show up on the desktop, but I can not eject it by right clicking. When this is the case, pressing the physical button on the drive often doesn't work either.

(I'm actually writing this post long after the fact... I think I did this to get it solved: )

In /etc/fstab, edit the line that looks like this:

/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,ro 0 0

to this:

/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,user,ro 0 0

Also try:

chmod 777 /bin/mount /bin/umount

DVD movies won't run ("encrypted")

I couldn't run a regular movie DVD in my drive. Apparently it's because they are "encrypted". I was using Kaffiene media player. Here's what I did to fix it.

• Run Adept (Package Manager)
• Enable Universe AND Multiverse repositories in your list
• Do a search and install of a package named libdvdread
• Then, search and install package libdvdcss
• Run Kaffeine and enjoy your DVDs

If your unsure how to do all this. You should probably start by reading this:
followed by this:
Then this:

Kopete problems

Well, hold on.

We've got some problems with Kopete.

1. The settings are a little squirrely. It's a little mental workout to find the settings you need to change. Sounds don't automatically seem to be set up. (They are, but you just have to activate them in the right spot.)
   
2. Apparently there is no logging of conversations. Wait, no, there are, if you have a Kopete extension installed. Well it is installed, but I still can't find where my conversations logs are kept. All I want to do is see what some guy said to me the other day. Where do I find that?
   
3. Despite my installing Firefox and setting it as my default browser, links sent in a chat window in Kopete get sent to Konqueror.

The Kubuntu Live CD and install

I stuck the CD in. It took a couple minutes for it to all mount and load up. And it worked.

You could imagine how ecstatic I was to use a desktop that had more than 16-bit colour again.

Audio worked, I was able to use Kopete (instant messenger) right away. Firefox wasn't automatically installed, but Konqueror (file/web browser) allowed me to view most html.

The system ran pretty well considering it was using the CD and a partial hard drive mount.

Well, I'm already here. If I actually install the thing, I can put Firefox on and permanently tweak some things.

The install goes well. The only thing that took a while was the formatting of my 250GB drive. I didn't partition it.

By the way, it saw all 250GB.

And... it works.

Why Kubuntu?

The archaic version of Red Hat I had tried left me with a sour taste in my mouth. Whether that was Red Hat's fault or mine is somewhat debatable. Last time around, I asked all my supremely nerdy friends what they liked, and they came up with that.

Bad idea. By the way, don't ask a group of male nerds what they do for fun.

Time for a quote from Edmonton band Three Dead Trolls In A Baggie.

From the song Every OS Sucks:

Now there's lih-nux or lie-nux,
I don't know how you say it,
or how you install it, or use it, or play it,
or where you download it, or what programs run,
but lih-nux, or lie-nux, don't look like much fun.

However you say it, it's getting great press,
though how it survives is anyone's guess,
If you ask me, it's a great big mess,
for elitist, nerdy shmucks.

"It's free!" they say, if you can get it to run,
the Geeks say, "Hey, that's half the fun!"
Yeah, but I got a girlfriend, and things to get done,
the Linux OS SUCKS.
(I'm sorry to say it, but it does.)

Exactly my experience (except for the girlfriend thing, because I'm a straight chick).

As I did my research online, time and time again Kubuntu popped up. Easy to use, graphical interface, comes with great software packages. There's even a Live CD.

Live CD = try it out before you commit. Excellent.

Initially I felt moderate shame about being a computer nerd ("professional" to some) and choosing the easy cutesy Linux. Then I remembered my last experience and the fact I don't need to prove my manliness. I felt much better.

Besides, all the nasty innards will still be there for me to play with. I can use command line if I really really want to.

Kubuntu it was.

In the beginning...

This is primarily a Linux blog used to keep track of and share my experiences using Kubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake. I'll be writing this for both the less-nerdly and more-nerdly types, so you'll see both technical and non-technical terminology. This is an experiment for me, and I hope any hiccups I encounter may help you too.

I'm a Computer Scientist. Any of you know what that actually means know that it doesn't necessarily mean that I know how to put together a system or know how to set up servers. That being said, I can figure out most stuff given time, and have gained some knowledge of such things on my own.

I actually tried putting Red Hat Godknowswhatversion on an old box several years ago, but that ended badly. Though I had programming experience, everything had to be learned again (what do you mean I have to compile something just so my fricken' mouse will work????). The experience was not intuitive and I was used to doing things the Windows way. After spending weeks on the system, I gave up. I only had so much spare time.

I had been toying around with the idea of going to Linux again since about January 2006. From what I heard, Linux had matured; so had its applications and add-ons.

After some research, I decided to use Kubuntu. Kubuntu is based on Ubuntu, but with a KDE desktop in stead of GNOME (meaning: it looks different and acts a little differently). After getting over my fear of royally messing up my only computer at home, I took the plunge.