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Post by Ratae on Mar 6, 2013 19:33:11 GMT
Anyway....I finally decided that I wanted to remove the XP partition from my netbook and use the whole disc drive for the Ubuntu partition. I somehow didn't think that this would be as easy as it sounds....and that's how it turned out! So...I logged into Kitz's gaffe and asked advice from the main man there for Linux....Eric (Roseway) who is a top bloke. He reckoned that usually it's best to save your files, and just reformat he whole thing with Ubuntu. Naturally...yer boy was having none of, it and decided to do it the hard way. Anyway, much to my surprise, and without having a sodding clue what I was doing, I had a 'partial' success. I downloaded a program called 'GParted' which I used to delete the XP partition, but that left an empty 60gb partition which I couldn't use. So, I then found another program who's name I've forgotten to 'Mount' and shrink the useless partion. Actually, I should have packed it in there 'cos the program did say that it was only for use by 'advanced' Linux users! Anyway...the UI looked like the launch codes for an Apollo space program but yer boy, not to be deterred ploughed on! Without any idea of wtf I was clicking on...I had some success with that oo, inasmuch as I managed to both mount and shrink the partition. But.......things were not as I wanted when at boot up. I decided that Eric was right in the first place! So...I did the necessary and everything looked good....until it came to the 'W/less' I remembered that this was a problem when I first tried Ubuntu, but I was damned if I could remember what I did to sort it. Just couldn't get the damned thing to see any w/less networks. After pissing abut for an hour, it finally came back to me. Yup...I connected with it wired, checked I could get on-line ok. Then opened the 'Update manager' and ran it. 512 updates were found and downloaded and installed (took ages).. Rebooted the machine and clicked the w/less icon. Found nearly every w/less network in Leicester....yer boy is back cooking on gas! The moral to this story! ....... Listen to good advice from the expert..............and TAKE IT!
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Post by Ratae on Mar 8, 2013 13:56:28 GMT
Well that turned out to be a load of old bollox innit? Kipling once wrote.... "If you can face triumph and disaster, and treat both of those imposters just the same, then you're name's not Ratarse"
(Well ok, he didn't write that, but I'll bet that he would have if he'd known me!) Anyway...after all of that bother, and after getting my little Nettie back running on rails, for some inexplicable reason, I decided to upgrade Ubuntu from 10.04..... to 12.04. Yep...even after reading about all of the uproar in the Ubuntu forums about that new 'Unity' desktop.....I still went ahead and did it! Well, all of those negative comments about 'Unity' were understatements, it's like W8 on steroids! What a load of crap! What was easy,straight forward and quick to find with 'Gnome' is just the opposite with 'Unity' ... I just couldn't be arsed with it anymore! So, I was left with a choice twixt Windows XP or another Linux distro, but as I rather like Linux, and the Nettie specs ain't good enough for W7, I decided to fish around for another distro, preferably one that had the good sense to use similar to the Gnome desktop environment! I've settled on Linux Mint 14(Nadia) I downloaded the iso file for it, and burned a disc with CDBurner XP. Rebooted Nettie with disc in ext drive and away she fired. The installation ran on rails and was rather impressive. I chose the option to install over Ubuntu using the whole of the 160gb hdd. The disc 'walks' you through the whole process while a graphical interface shows you what Mint is like. Anyway....it installed perfectly and much to my surprise, auto turned the w/less on and found all of the local w/less networks. Another surprise was what comes preloaded....Flash/VLC/FF and a few other things that I had to install on Ubuntu. Anyway, 'cos it's the Gnome like KDE desktop, I can find my way round the 'tweaks' that I like. Done a few already but I've put it down for now and left it installing updates. 'So far so good' ............. I'll keep all of you Linux maniacs poster on how it goes.
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Post by Craig72 on Mar 8, 2013 14:35:50 GMT
Hi Dave. I was going to get Unbuntu to do a dual boot on my Win7 lappy, but after reading your post, think I'll give Mint a go. Craig.
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Post by Ratae on Mar 8, 2013 19:36:44 GMT
Hi Dave. I was going to get Unbuntu to do a dual boot on my Win7 lappy, but after reading your post, think I'll give Mint a go. Craig. Craig... there's nothing at all wrong with Ubuntu...apart from the new version which has changed the whole interface. Lucid Lynx (v10.04) is still a good distro. However....at the moment this Mint one is looking very good!
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Post by Ratae on Mar 9, 2013 18:06:15 GMT
Whoops!...It seems I've given you some duff info about this! I've only just realised that this distro's desktop comes in four flavours. KDE/Mate/Cinnamon and KDFE are the four....I think! Anyway.... I had just assumed that I had installed the one with KDE, but I have now discovered that it's the 'Mate' desktop. Never mind....'cos it's very very good. I have also made Chromium the default browser...mainly 'cos I'm only using this machine for t'internet!
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Post by nob on Mar 9, 2013 22:03:15 GMT
If I had an old Lappy id give it a go, I could pass a few hours messing with Linux.
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Post by Ratae on Mar 9, 2013 23:54:55 GMT
If I had an old Lappy id give it a go, I could pass a few hours messing with Linux. Yea Nob...it is interesting. I'd rather like to see what it's like on a high spec machine,'cos it's certainly decent on this little netbook! But.... I reckon that you'd spend more than a "few hours" messing with it ...'cos it does get addictive. Don't get me wrong, it isn't ever gonna replace windows, 'cos sometimes, it's easy to get the impression that it's designed purely for puter geeks. I reckon that you tho' would get your head around it with no trouble. With all of the different distros, someone (and many do) could spend every available minute trying out things. I understand that Stephen Fry is a huge fan of Linux, and a bit of an expert too!
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Post by Ratae on Mar 10, 2013 1:13:38 GMT
My desktop....at the moment!
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petekins
Senior Member
Early retirement ain't all it's cracked up to be!
Posts: 428
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Post by petekins on Mar 10, 2013 10:38:02 GMT
Wow..... Does it wash clothes as well?? if not what's that icon bottom left? a washing machine? tumble dryer?? :-)
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Post by Ratae on Mar 10, 2013 13:14:49 GMT
Wow..... Does it wash clothes as well?? if not what's that icon bottom left? a washing machine? tumble dryer?? :-) Close Pete...it's actually a 'Machine Tumble', the one on the far right is where Smudger lives!
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Post by Ratae on Mar 11, 2013 14:36:10 GMT
So....once again down to completely unnecessary tinkering............I once again screwed it up!!!! Yep, completely my own fault. I discovered that 'Cinnamon' flavour desktop in the Linux repositories, clicked on it expecting it to install alongside the 'Mate' one that came on the disc. It didn't...it deleted the 'Mate' one and everything went boobs up! Should have realised really. Anyway....I reinstalled the whole shooting match from scratch and I'm looking good again Hmmmmm....won't be making that mistake again!
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Post by nob on Mar 11, 2013 14:45:55 GMT
I does look a lot of bother is it really worth it Dave?
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Post by Ratae on Mar 11, 2013 21:04:43 GMT
I does look a lot of bother is it really worth it Dave? Nob....it's always a "bother" when you screw summat up when you do summat that didn't need doing. As for "is it worth it"....well it is, 'cos the alternative was to chuck the puter in the bin....after all,it's no sodding good without an o/s on it! But....here's my new set-up. My Macbook type desktop. The 'Chromium' way. And the 'Firefox' way
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Post by nob on Mar 11, 2013 21:57:05 GMT
Dave, Whats that Bleachbit and the others, some I recognise.
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Post by Ratae on Mar 11, 2013 22:32:28 GMT
Dave, Whats that Bleachbit and the others, some I recognise. Bleachbit is the Linux equivalent of 'Ccleaner' .... but it ain't. Actually I'm thinking of deleting it 'cos it isn't really necessary. I only installed it out of curiosity! Abiword is similar to Wordpad, and is rather good. Terminal is the Command function...it is very important in Linux, and it's a bit of a nightmare to get used to! Synaptic is the Linux repository program.....a sort of FileHippo thingy. Torrent is actually called Transmission.... and is like UTorrent. (whatever that is) I guess that you know t'others. Give Linux a go Nob.....you know that you want to!
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