The "Linux questions (and other stuff)" thread

[nickdalzell]

what about my last question, about disabling those infuriating prompts for my root password whenever i install or update things, or that infuriatingly annoying 'enter keyring password' that comes up when i launch Chrome?

the 'sudo visudo' trick only applies to the terminal. i never get asked for it there, but it still pops up asking me for it when i want to install from the software center or from any other source

if you really want to know why i have such a hard time with Linux, it's because i'm not meant for it. i can screw and play with it but am generally annoyed with how different it is. i just want to say, download flash and double-click. can't do that. like with Skype. i tried to double-click the Skype Linux file i downloaded from their site. no worky. produced a message saying 'incorrect architecture' and gave up. THAT is what i want disabled. that crappy 'you can't do this' garbage. i don't like an OS protecting me from myself. like Ms. Frizzle, i like taking chances, making mistakes, getting messy

 

[MoodyBlues]

what about my last question, about disabling those infuriating prompts for my root password whenever i install or update things

Your root password or your user password?

or that infuriatingly annoying 'enter keyring password' that comes up when i launch Chrome?

It doesn't do that for me.

the 'sudo visudo' trick only applies to the terminal. i never get asked for it there, but it still pops up asking me for it when i want to install from the software center or from any other source

Well...once again...NOT FOR ME. I really don't know what to say. Whether I'm running something from my main menu, such as Synaptic, or something sudo at a command line, I'm not prompted for my password.

if you really want to know why i have such a hard time with Linux, it's because i'm not meant for it. i can screw and play with it but am generally annoyed with how different it is. i just want to say, download flash and double-click. can't do that. like with Skype.

Did you try installing it via Synaptic? As I said earlier, that's how I did it. And I had no problems. At all.

i tried to double-click the Skype Linux file i downloaded from their site. no worky. produced a message saying 'incorrect architecture' and gave up. THAT is what i want disabled. that crappy 'you can't do this' garbage. i don't like an OS protecting me from myself. like Ms. Frizzle, i like taking chances, making mistakes, getting messy

But if it's telling you that your computer has the wrong architecture for that particular program but you want it to run anyway, it's like your car saying it only takes unleaded but you're determined to force diesel into it without modifying the engine.

Instead of trying to force something that's not meant for your particular architecture, why not find and install the correct version?

 

[palmtree5]

Well...once again...NOT FOR ME. I really don't know what to say. Whether I'm running something from my main menu, such as Synaptic, or something sudo at a command line, I'm not prompted for my password.

That is probably just how you have it configured, mine prompts for a password whenever I do anything with sudo

 

[MoodyBlues]

That is probably just how you have it configured

I know. That's what I was commenting on; here's Nick's quote I replied to:

the 'sudo visudo' trick only applies to the terminal. i never get asked for it there, but it still pops up asking me for it when i want to install from the software center or from any other source

So he and I have both done the same trick...but it works for me [all the time, regardless of using CLI or GUI apps] and not for him.

 

[Dngrsone]

This may be of some help in regard to the sudo password memory/timeout.

 

[nickdalzell]

as for the 'incorrect architecture' error, i had downloaded the ONLY Ubuntu package they had, called 'multiarch' AND i had multiarch support enabled (i'm not that inept). it still refused. the fact i got it going by the -f (force install) hack proved it was a false error. i want that protection gone!

password prompts. ever tried to install something and it asks for the admin password? yea, i kinda want that gone. like with Android, i'm an app addict and install tons.

i basically want it to at least be easy like Windows. if not, i'm wiping and putting ChromeOS back. as i see it feels half put together.

I wish you could be here too. i'll prove it to you. i am not sure how you manage to make everything work 100%. it seems unlikely. all my problems began out of box. the freezes, crashes, now the screensavers that won't disable, the asking for password ONLY for GUI stuff, keyring popups (i swear i'm not making it up!) and the 'iomem size' error. it's too complicated. Let me know if it ever gets easier. i hate taking a half hour to complete a five second task.

i'm also not against the terminal. i just hate being forced to use the damned thing, after hours of searching Google for the hack or script i need, then copying and pasting it, try 'sudo apt-get install [app name]' AGAIN and pray that the third attempt works.

AHHH! why can't i just double click the file, accept the damn EULA and go about my business?!

Hell even Android isn't that hard!

 

[MoodyBlues]

as for the 'incorrect architecture' error, i had downloaded the ONLY Ubuntu package they had, called 'multiarch' AND i had multiarch support enabled (i'm not that inept). it still refused. the fact i got it going by the -f (force install) hack proved it was a false error. i want that protection gone!

That's interesting. And, yes, I can see wanting that kind of 'protection' gone.

password prompts. ever tried to install something and it asks for the admin password? yea, i kinda want that gone.

As I said earlier, *I* don't get any password prompts. The 'visudo' trick worked for me, although I didn't do it the way it's commonly explained, i.e., sudo visudo. I su -ed to root, then used vi to edit the sudoers file. Done. No prompts. Ever. Not with GUI apps, not with CLI apps.

like with Android, i'm an app addict and install tons.

Same here.

i basically want it to at least be easy like Windows. if not, i'm wiping and putting ChromeOS back. as i see it feels half put together.

I know it just sounds like I'm saying the same thing over and over again (wait...I am! oh well :laugh, but it *IS* that easy for me. WAY easier than window$ ever was. The stories I could tell about pulling my hair out trying to get that so-called OS to do something I could do in two seconds at a *nix command line. Ugh.

I wish you could be here too. i'll prove it to you.

No, that's not my point. I'd really just like to see, firsthand, what happens and why. It bugs me because you're struggling so much, and I sit here day in and day out, effortlessly using my computers, and I just don't get it. Even that brand new Chromebook--that took me all of 30 minutes to realize I wanted to dump its idea of an OS--was up and running Kubuntu in no time.

i am not sure how you manage to make everything work 100%.

Whoa! Have you read my very long post about the networking issue I'm having on my new CB? Okay, granted, that's pretty much the ONLY problem I've had lately, but still. Besides, don't lose sight of the fact that I've got UNIX in my blood. I'm coming up on three decades of *nix use, and my early days were spent in the guts of the OS. So I inherently know stuff other, newer users wouldn't/couldn't know. It's very possible that when I'm setting something up I tweak something--a configuration file, a permissions issue, etc.--without even consciously thinking about it. It's like when I set up Samba, I just go through the same steps I've been doing forever...although I often leave out a step or two, wonder why it's not working, then say to myself, "Grace, you moron!, you forgot to [edit whatever file] [install whichever component] [etc.]"

it seems unlikely.

But, for the most part, it's true. Barring the occasional weirdness like my current networking problem.

all my problems began out of box. the freezes, crashes, now the screensavers that won't disable, the asking for password ONLY for GUI stuff, keyring popups (i swear i'm not making it up!) and the 'iomem size' error. it's too complicated. Let me know if it ever gets easier. i hate taking a half hour to complete a five second task.

I wish I had something clever to say here. It is easier--much, much easier--for me, but that doesn't help YOU. I can't tell you why it's easy for me. We have the same Chromebook, although mine has the 320GB hard drive and yours doesn't, but that shouldn't matter as far as the issues you're having. My CB hasn't frozen, crashed, had that 'iomem' error, had screensavers that won't disable, etc. Not once. I've had it for what, a week?, and other than continuing to add new stuff [via Synaptic], I'm not DOING anything with it except using it.

Oh, by the way, I stumbled upon a way to get out of that stupid 'OS verification is off' screen faster--just press [ctrl][d]. Okay, that works for ME...YMMV.

i'm also not against the terminal. i just hate being forced to use the damned thing, after hours of searching Google for the hack or script i need, then copying and pasting it, try 'sudo apt-get install [app name]' AGAIN and pray that the third attempt works.

AHHH! why can't i just double click the file, accept the damn EULA and go about my business?!

Hell even Android isn't that hard!

See above. I just don't know...

 

[nickdalzell]

oh it's fine if all i want to do is browse the web, or play Youtube videos, or use Netflix (which oddly enough, works with Chrome's little Netflix webapp even in Ubuntu) and that's it, but i can do that faster in ChromeOS.

see, you've got the advantage. my early days were with CP/M, MS-DOS, TRS-DOS, even a little Apple //e (pop floppy disk in, turn it on, what could be easier?). then Windows 3.0, 3.1, 3.11 WFW, Windows 95, 95 SR1, 98, 98SE, ME (no, just, no), 2K, XP, XP Pro, XP Server, NT 4 Workstation, Server, Vista, 7, 8. so i got more than two decades of Windows, while you got (two?) decades of UNIX. i HATED UNIX. my worst memories were that awful SCO UNIX and its XENIX predecessor from 1978. ironically, it was 2001 when i helped out dad, but his office. stuck in 1978. interior design, computers (i don't know how i dealt with that noisy jet they called a hard disk then) even the elevator music over the speakers (granted it was a medical office but still). UNIX. no.

SCO UNIX. copyright 1969-78 SCO Corporation

login: root
Password: stone

You have mail

#_

that was it. nothing but terminal. all i did was enter codes, medical codes, over and over again. oh, and it crashed often. not sure if it was the noisy hard drive or that awful OS. or running something made in '78 on an i386. it either froze, or lagged, or outright threw me to a console with kernel panic. so perhaps i still get reminded of that system when Linux hiccups for me. or maybe that's why it does. bad memories.

 

[MoodyBlues]

oh it's fine if all i want to do is browse the web, or play Youtube videos, or use Netflix (which oddly enough, works with Chrome's little Netflix webapp even in Ubuntu) and that's it, but i can do that faster in ChromeOS.

It shouldn't be like that.

see, you've got the advantage. my early days were with CP/M, MS-DOS, TRS-DOS, even a little Apple //e (pop floppy disk in, turn it on, what could be easier?). then Windows 3.0, 3.1, 3.11 WFW, Windows 95, 95 SR1, 98, 98SE, ME (no, just, no), 2K, XP, XP Pro, XP Server, NT 4 Workstation, Server, Vista, 7, 8. so i got more than two decades of Windows, while you got (two?) decades of UNIX.

Coming up on three decades. The first time I ever touched *nix was as an end user in 1985 when I was in college; by 1987 I was programming and administering *nix.

i HATED UNIX. my worst memories were that awful SCO UNIX and its XENIX predecessor from 1978.

That's funny! My fondest, happiest, favorite job-related memories are from the job I had where I got the company off their mainframes--and did it with SCO Xenix. My very first *nix was Tandy Xenix. But it was SCO Xenix that I learned everything and did everything on. I loved it.

ironically, it was 2001 when i helped out dad, but his office. stuck in 1978. interior design, computers (i don't know how i dealt with that noisy jet they called a hard disk then) even the elevator music over the speakers (granted it was a medical office but still). UNIX. no.

Just out of curiosity, were they running filePro as their DBMS?

SCO UNIX. copyright 1969-78 SCO Corporation

login: root
Password: stone

You have mail

#_

that was it. nothing but terminal. all i did was enter codes, medical codes, over and over again. oh, and it crashed often. not sure if it was the noisy hard drive or that awful OS.

You're kidding, right? It CRASHED? Often?! The *ONLY* time I've ever had a *nix box crash was circa 1987. I had just custom configured a new server, and very shortly after it was up and running production, I started getting panicked calls from work that 'something is wrong with the computers!' (they all called their terminals computers). I hadn't even unlocked my office door and I could hear the horrible, awful sound of its hard drive crashing...thrashing... (Have I already posted this? It sounds really, recently familiar.) Anyway, I RAN for the power button and shut the thing off. First time I ever didn't bring a *nix system down gracefully. That was also my first experience with SCSI drives. Scuzzy, indeed.

 

[nickdalzell]

it was am old, dying, bearings-failing-on-hard-drive Dell i386/25. with like 8MB RAM. sometimes the hard drive refused to turn on, forcing me to bang the top of its metal case and it would come to life. a worn out SeaGate ST-series stepper motor job. louder than anything. at least it drowned out the muzak.

it was running a system that pre-dated it. problems were bound to happen.

You must have used the 'fun' stuff. ya know, old PdP-8s and tape drives. all i had was dumb terminals followed by this awful 386 that barely managed an 9-hour day without doing something wrong. often when i'd be in the middle of a super long task, like their weekly running of the ledgers

as for a file explorer, never used one. all. i did was login and launch their code system, they only used UNIX because their software had been the same since they first opened in guess what? 1978. they never could update without losing all the history of the previous entries. so they just kept using this dinosaur. i knew how to login, launch the program (i do not remember its name to be honest, i've tried hard to forget) and shut the system down. never knew what made the 'you have mail' come up, it seemed to be nothing but log entries. btw why does the name 'filepro' sound familiar?

when i say 'crash' i often meant freeze. as in the keyboard no longer made anything happen on-screen. frozen. kernel panics were more rare. i think the combo of old computer, bad or going-bad hard drive, and too new a machine running some half-arsed compiled source code = bad.

 

[saptech]

I guess everyone is different, but I prefer to install my software from CLI. With Mageia, fork of Mandriva/Mandrake, in a terminal all I type is "urpmi command name" and off she goes! It just seems to run and install faster then going into the menu's to find Synaptic or whatever GUI one use.

Since this is an RPM system, if a program is not in my repositories, I can google for it and download and then open up my file browser and double click the filename and it starts installing.

I haven't used Chromebook so I'm not sure how things work with it. I can't wait till I get one to try Linux!

 

[palmtree5]

I guess everyone is different, but I prefer to install my software from CLI. With Mageia, fork of Mandriva/Mandrake, in a terminal all I type is "urpmi command name" and off she goes! It just seems to run and install faster then going into the menu's to find Synaptic or whatever GUI one use.

Since this is an RPM system, if a program is not in my repositories, I can google for it and download and then open up my file browser and double click the filename and it starts installing.

I haven't used Chromebook so I'm not sure how things work with it. I can't wait till I get one to try Linux!

Same here, just with yaourt (which simplifies the process of installing AUR packages on Arch)

 

[nickdalzell]

i wish double-clicking was that easy. if Moody can help with turning all that verification/protection stuff off it would likely be that easy. i am sick of OSs protecting me from myself. in other words, i want to make all installs a force install. but basically automate the sudo apt-get install -f switch.

 

[palmtree5]

i wish double-clicking was that easy. if Moody can help with turning all that verification/protection stuff off it would likely be that easy. i am sick of OSs protecting me from myself. in other words, i want to make all installs a force install. but basically automate the sudo apt-get install -f switch.

alias sudo apt-get install='sudo apt-get install -f'

Not gonna guarantee that would work but you could try throwing it in your ~/.bashrc

 

[saptech]

In my opinion, the older distros are actually the easiest to use, once you have it installed & setup.

Debian
Slackware
Arch
Fedora
Mageia

Just to name a few. I think trying Mint or maybe it was Ubuntu I ran across that verification style setup, reminds one of Windows. I don't try all the newer distros that are out anymore, but at one point I did distro hop and wouldn't keep it installed long.

I like to do a minimum install of my distro also, it keeps all the unecessaryjunk from being installed by default and I add only other software that I want or need.

 

[mikedt]

i wish double-clicking was that easy. if Moody can help with turning all that verification/protection stuff off it would likely be that easy. i am sick of OSs protecting me from myself. in other words, i want to make all installs a force install. but basically automate the sudo apt-get install -f switch.

In all the years of using Linux myself, I've never had to do a force install. Most things I just install from the repos, and what I need is generally there, installs and works without problem. In fact I didn't even know the apt-get install -f switch existed. Occasionally I've compiled software from source code and installed them that way. The sudo password verification thing doesn't really bother me, because I'm not actually installing, removing, hacking and tweaking things very often. I'm mostly using it productively and for entertainment purposes.

I installed Mint 13 "Maya", which is an LTS release, late last year when I first bought a new laptop. Apart from changing the KDE software launcher to Lancelot, changing the wallpaper, and installing the software I need, plus removing a few things that I don't use, that's it, I don't think it's been changed or altered since, apart from updates.

I've always used a 32bit version, because the PCs have never had more than 4GB of RAM. So not going to have any compatibility issues with proprietary 32bit software, like there might not be a 64bit version available. If software is open source, this won't be a problem.

I've had to force things in Windows however, stuff like "Run as Administrator" or "Run in XP compatibility mode", for stubborn or older software that won't work properly in later versions.

EDIT:

I just been reading man apt-get. Appears the -f is actually "fix-broken" and not "force". Quote: "...attempt to correct a system with broken dependencies in place." i.e. if the system is configured and working correctly, shouldn't need to use it.

There is a --force-yes switch. "This is a dangerous option that will cause apt to continue without prompting if it is doing something potentially harmful. It should not be used except in very special situations. Using force-yes can potentially destroy your system!"
'i am sick of OSs protecting me from myself.'...think that's the one for you Nick.

 

[argedion]

I like the verification stuff. It makes sure I can and want to install software. It also helps against third party apps being able to install other stuff on their own. A problem Windows allows which leads to needing virus protection\malware protection. I am glad I have trusted repos to go through rather I CLI install or GUI install. Linux is meant to be secure not a insecure let anyone do anything system like Winblows. Either you want security or you want headaches and problems. I'm running OpenSuse and have no issues with my system. I also don't have headaches either

 

[MoodyBlues]

In all the years of using Linux myself, I've never had to do a force install. Most things I just install from the repos, and what I need is generally there, installs and works without problem. In fact I didn't even know the apt-get install -f switch existed. Occasionally I've compiled software from source code and installed them that way. The sudo password verification thing doesn't really bother me, because I'm not actually installing, removing, hacking and tweaking things very often. I'm mostly using it productively and for entertainment purposes.

This ^.

 

[MoodyBlues]

I THINK something that's being missed is that *buntu, as any Linux should, allows for WHATEVER the user wants. So the comments about liking to install from the ground up, not wanting extraneous stuff installed by default, etc., etc., is moot. You can do whatever you want--or don't want--with *buntu. I do.

You can start with a minimal install, such as by using the lightweight Lubuntu, then add whatever you want. Or you can just install a regular *buntu, such as my well-known personal favorite, Kubuntu, and add/subtract/modify whatever you want. I do.

If you want to do everything from a command line, you can.

If you prefer clicking, you can do that instead.

I think I've said before that at this point in my life--after close to 30 years of using *nix, starting in the command line ONLY days--I no longer feel the need to do everything the old-fashioned way. I actually LIKE the convenience and easiness of tools like Synaptic, where I can just search/sort/filter/browse and find what I want, then install them all in one fell swoop with an 'apply' click. The CLI is, and will always be, where my heart and soul are, but it's just no longer NECESSARY for me to do everything there when I have GUI tools that make certain tasks easier. For some things, such as renaming tons of files or batch processing hundreds of photos, you'll definitely find me at my command line, but for other stuff, I just don't care. *shrug*

 

[nickdalzell]

any way to make the password prompts go away? so far they don't show for terminal but i still get them in Software Center.

also, any way to make the apps i choose to install go through the process even if they encounter problems? i want my straight-forward 'double-click file and install' back. Since Linux is meant to do what the user wants, that's what i want. i need help though making that happen.

 

[Dngrsone]

Testdisk is not my friend....

Trying to recover some files I deleted, and tesrdisk managed to fill my /home folder and crashed my system.

I tried it again (once I rescued my OS) by directing it to an empty partition twice the size of the one I am trying to recover, and testdisk filed that one up, still didn't get any of the recently deleted file entries.

Now I have a huge chunk of my /home partition allocated to nothing... and no idea how to recover that space.

 

[nickdalzell]

the weird word-wrap glitch doesn't happen in KDE, go figure.

had to give up on Cinnamon. it kept doing this odd flickering/ghost image retention followed by dead locking up.

a new query. is it possible to make Linux look like Android?

 

[MoodyBlues]

any way to make the password prompts go away? so far they don't show for terminal but i still get them in Software Center.

I don't use Software Center. I didn't even have it installed. But--for you!--I just installed it and, sure enough, once I chose anything in it to install I'd get prompted for my password. Then that old curiosity thing got going. :laugh: And now I've gotten rid of the annoying password prompt. Here's what I did:

. First, as we've already discussed, you need to have tweaked your /etc/sudoers file so its line that originally reads:

%sudo   ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

becomes:

%sudo   ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

. Now edit your menu entry for Ubuntu Software Center; add sudo to the beginning of the line so it looks like this:

sudo /usr/bin/software-center %u

Now, Nick, if this DOESN'T solve the problem for you, I think I'll book a flight to Kentucky (even though I've sworn off flying ever again) so we can hash this out together. It worked like a charm for me.

also, any way to make the apps i choose to install go through the process even if they encounter problems? i want my straight-forward 'double-click file and install' back. Since Linux is meant to do what the user wants, that's what i want. i need help though making that happen.

I have no way of testing this because I simply never see it happen. So I'm afraid I have no ideas for this issue, but perhaps someone else will.

 

[nickdalzell]

how do i edit the software center shortcut when i'm using Cairo dock?


now i need help. how the hell do i edit a menu entry? it's an icon in my Cairo dock. i have no such edit field!

 

[MoodyBlues]

how do i edit the software center shortcut when i'm using Cairo dock?

now i need help. how the hell do i edit a menu entry? it's an icon in my Cairo dock. i have no such edit field!

I have no idea. I haven't even looked at Cairo dock in ages. I'm GUESSING that there's a right-click method, or something, to edit entries. There must be.

How do you ADD entries? Maybe just add a new entry and make sure its contents match up with mine.