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The "Linux questions (and other stuff)" thread

(sigh) Why, oh why do they have to make things difficult?

There is only one file manager that does a decent job of bulk renaming, and that is Thunar.

I am having a hell of a time finding a way to install Thunar in Mint.

I managed to convert one .wma file to .mp3 (yay!), but I have to convert the files one at a time? That's not only silly, its almost criminal...
 
You've lost me, Dngrsone. :confused:

There is only one file manager that does a decent job of bulk renaming, and that is Thunar.
...
I managed to convert one .wma file to .mp3
Click to expand...

So which is it?! Do you want to rename a bunch of files or convert a bunch of files?

but I have to convert the files one at a time? That's not only silly, its almost criminal...
Click to expand...
Um...this is Linux, not window$! :p Linux is the one with the powerful suite of built-in tools that lets the user do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING at a prompt. (Can't speak too much for its GUI tools, as I don't use them for batch processing.) Let us know what you're wanting to do and then we'll figure it out, okay?
 
Meh. I am complaining. I do that, sometimes.

I want to mass-rename some files; last time I did it with Thunar, but it isn't in three repositories I currently have set, nor does synaptic seem to have it.

My next step is to try to install xfce, since Thunar seems to be its default file manager.

Additionally, and only marginally related (since I am trying to get some offer in my music library), I want to convert a few albums' worth of .wma files to .mp3, since I can't seem to find those particular CDs.
 
mikedt said:
Yup it's OLPC. The Sugar interface. I was looking at the status of it recently and thinking about it. The $100 laptop turned out to be a $200 laptop in the end. And now these days we've got the $50 Chinese Android tablet and smart-phone, that's become very popular in emerging markets where the "XO" laptop was originally intended.
Click to expand...

Replying to my own post:-

I've been playing with the Sugar UI on my Linux system for the last couple of days, and it actually took me a while to work out what I was supposed to be doing with it and how things worked. I didn't find it particularly intuitive. Or even how my primary and middle school students could use an XO laptop, compared to using an Android tablet. I'm now using my Linux Mint laptop for few of my younger students, with things like Tux4Kids and the KDEdu, one nine year old Mongolian girl absolutely loves TuxTyping. :)

I believe one of the criticisms of OLPC, was lack of teacher training, materials and resources when the XO laptops were being deployed. And apparently many of them were going unused by the students. I'm a teacher in what's basically an emerging market, where these things might have been intended.

I brought this up in the Linux thread, because OLPC is about a Linux OS laptop.
 
Dngrsone said:
(sigh) Why, oh why do they have to make things difficult?

There is only one file manager that does a decent job of bulk renaming, and that is Thunar.

I am having a hell of a time finding a way to install Thunar in Mint.
Click to expand...

From a terminal...
sudo apt-get install thunar :thumb:

...or you can find it in Synaptic or Software Centre. Thunar is the default file manager for XFCE I believe. Although I never had any problem with file handling and naming in Dolphin, the default KDE file manager.

Dngrsone said:
I managed to convert one .wma file to .mp3 (yay!), but I have to convert the files one at a time? That's not only silly, its almost criminal...
Click to expand...

That's audio format transcoding and not just straight file renaming. I don't believe Windows can do that as standard, not without installing third party software, like say DBpowerAmp. However if the WMA files have DRM, you'll be out of luck. Which is why I call it Digital Restrictions Management, because it's all about restricting what you can do with DRM'd content.

Clementine will do bulk audio format transcoding in Linux, like say WMA to MP3, provided the WMAs don't have DRM. WMA with DRM is very much restricted to Windows Media Player only. Not even Apple Macs can play that.
 
Dngrsone said:
Meh. I am complaining. I do that, sometimes.
Click to expand...
Me too. :)

I want to mass-rename some files; last time I did it with Thunar, but it isn't in three repositories I currently have set, nor does synaptic seem to have it.
Click to expand...
Can you not apt-get install it? I just did on my Chromebook, which is running Kubuntu 13.04. Or what about installing it from the Linux Mint site?

You can also install and explore some renaming utilities, such as gwenrename and krename.

Better yet, how about renaming your files from a command line? :D If you want to go that route, post some info about what you have and what you want, and off we'll go!

Additionally, and only marginally related (since I am trying to get some offer in my music library), I want to convert a few albums' worth of .wma files to .mp3, since I can't seem to find those particular CDs.
Click to expand...
I've never converted wma to mp3, but after a quick look around, I think ffmpeg will do the trick. There's some info about it, and some other stuff, here.
 
mikedt said:
However if the WMA files have DRM, you'll be out of luck. Which is why I call it Digital Restrictions Management, because it's all about restricting what you can do with DRM'd content.
Click to expand...

Please. I can transcode DRM'd content with speaker out jack, a line-in jack, a speaker cable, and windows sound recorder. :thrasher: :p
 
Joelgp83 said:
Please. I can transcode DRM'd content with speaker out jack, a line-in jack, a speaker cable, and windows sound recorder. :thrasher: :p
Click to expand...

Which is what's known as the analog hole. :p However that is time consuming as it has to be done in real time, and one song at a time most likely. Which it is legal for personal listening AFAIK but IANAL. :) I'm sure the RIAA would love to be able to close the analog hole though.

The other method is to burn audio CDs of the DRM'd songs, and rip them in the desired format. Provided the DRM allows the burning of audio CDs. And this is what Apple actually suggested for their DRM'd iTunes Store music.
 
Code: 
~ $ sudo apt-get install thunar
[sudo] password for dngrsone: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package thunar is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package 'thunar' has no installation candidate

I am running Mint 15 Cinnamon with KDE-full running on top of that.

Apparently, Thunar is invisible to my machine.

Code: 
~ $ sudo apt-get install mint-meta-xfce
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 mint-meta-xfce : Depends: gtk2-engines-xfce but it is not installable
                  Depends: thunar but it is not installable
                  Depends: thunar-archive-plugin but it is not installable
                  Depends: thunar-media-tags-plugin but it is not installable
                  Depends: thunar-volman but it is not installable
                  Depends: xfce4-appfinder but it is not installable
                  Depends: xfce4-mixer but it is not installable
                  Depends: xfce4-panel but it is not installable
                  Depends: xfce4-places-plugin but it is not installable
                  Depends: xfce4-session but it is not going to be installed
                  Depends: xfce4-settings but it is not installable
                  Depends: xfconf but it is not installable
                  Depends: xfdesktop4 but it is not installable
                  Depends: xfce4-screenshooter but it is not installable
                  Depends: xfwm4 but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
argh.gif
 
If this is going to be a one shot deal then I'd recommend the first thing that came to my mind - a find loop as shown in Moody's last link above with ffmpeg.

You'd be done by now.

Unless you want Thunar just because you do.
 
Dngrsone said:
Code: 
~ $ sudo apt-get install thunar
[sudo] password for dngrsone: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package thunar is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package 'thunar' has no installation candidate
I am running Mint 15 Cinnamon with KDE-full running on top of that.

Apparently, Thunar is invisible to my machine.

Code: 
~ $ sudo apt-get install mint-meta-xfce
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 mint-meta-xfce : Depends: gtk2-engines-xfce but it is not installable
                  Depends: thunar but it is not installable
                  Depends: thunar-archive-plugin but it is not installable
                  Depends: thunar-media-tags-plugin but it is not installable
                  Depends: thunar-volman but it is not installable
                  Depends: xfce4-appfinder but it is not installable
                  Depends: xfce4-mixer but it is not installable
                  Depends: xfce4-panel but it is not installable
                  Depends: xfce4-places-plugin but it is not installable
                  Depends: xfce4-session but it is not going to be installed
                  Depends: xfce4-settings but it is not installable
                  Depends: xfconf but it is not installable
                  Depends: xfdesktop4 but it is not installable
                  Depends: xfce4-screenshooter but it is not installable
                  Depends: xfwm4 but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
argh.gif
Click to expand...

This is Linux Mint 15 KDE edition, Cinnamon not installed.
Code: 
mike@mike-Ideapad-S110:~ > sudo apt-get install thunar
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  exo-utils libexo-1-0 libexo-common libexo-helpers libthunarx-2-0
  libxfce4ui-1-0 libxfce4util-common libxfce4util6 libxfconf-0-2 thunar-data
  xfce-keyboard-shortcuts xfconf
Suggested packages:
  thunar-archive-plugin thunar-media-tags-plugin
Recommended packages:
  libxfce4util-bin xfce4-panel thunar-volman tumbler
The following NEW packages will be installed
  exo-utils libexo-1-0 libexo-common libexo-helpers libthunarx-2-0
  libxfce4ui-1-0 libxfce4util-common libxfce4util6 libxfconf-0-2 thunar
  thunar-data xfce-keyboard-shortcuts xfconf
0 upgraded, 13 newly installed, 0 to remove and 6 not upgraded.
Need to get 2,710 kB of archives.
After this operation, 11.0 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
Code: 
mike@mike-Ideapad-S110:~ > sudo apt-get install mint-meta-xfce
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  add-apt-key exo-utils gtk2-engines-xfce inxi libexo-1-0 libexo-common
  libexo-helpers libgarcon-1-0 libgarcon-common libgnome-bluetooth11
  libkeybinder0 libnm-gtk-common libnm-gtk0 libtagc0 libthunarx-2-0
  libunique-1.0-0 libxfce4ui-1-0 libxfce4util-common libxfce4util6
  libxfconf-0-2 mint-artwork-xfce mint-backgrounds-xfce mint-meta-core
  mint-stylish-addon network-manager-gnome network-manager-pptp-gnome p7zip
  policykit-1-gnome pppoe thunar thunar-archive-plugin thunar-data
  thunar-media-tags-plugin thunar-volman xfce-keyboard-shortcuts
  xfce4-appfinder xfce4-mixer xfce4-panel xfce4-places-plugin
  xfce4-screenshooter xfce4-session xfce4-settings xfconf xfdesktop4
  xfdesktop4-data xfwm4
Suggested packages:
  irssi xchat konversation quassel network-manager-openconnect-gnome
  network-manager-openvpn-gnome network-manager-vpnc-gnome p7zip-full xfce4
  xfwm4-themes
Recommended packages:
  hddtemp libxfce4util-bin gnome-keyring gnome-bluetooth tumbler xscreensaver
  xfce4-volumed
The following NEW packages will be installed
  add-apt-key exo-utils gtk2-engines-xfce inxi libexo-1-0 libexo-common
  libexo-helpers libgarcon-1-0 libgarcon-common libgnome-bluetooth11
  libkeybinder0 libnm-gtk-common libnm-gtk0 libtagc0 libthunarx-2-0
  libunique-1.0-0 libxfce4ui-1-0 libxfce4util-common libxfce4util6
  libxfconf-0-2 mint-artwork-xfce mint-backgrounds-xfce mint-meta-core
  mint-meta-xfce mint-stylish-addon network-manager-gnome
  network-manager-pptp-gnome p7zip policykit-1-gnome pppoe thunar
  thunar-archive-plugin thunar-data thunar-media-tags-plugin thunar-volman
  xfce-keyboard-shortcuts xfce4-appfinder xfce4-mixer xfce4-panel
  xfce4-places-plugin xfce4-screenshooter xfce4-session xfce4-settings xfconf
  xfdesktop4 xfdesktop4-data xfwm4
0 upgraded, 47 newly installed, 0 to remove and 6 not upgraded.
Need to get 24.9 MB of archives.
After this operation, 54.1 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
I didn't download and install Thunar or XFCE, because I don't require them. But it all looks OK to me.

A repo problem?
What repos are you using? I'm using default Ubuntu ones, not changed them....ubuntu.com/ubuntu etc.
 
Well, Thunar has some good stuff going for it when it comes to dealing with media files-- auto rename based on tags and such...

I tried fixing the dependencies through aptitude (I know, not supposed to mix aptitude and apt, but it was worth a try), and the last thing I did before coming in to work was to open the Software Sources manager and do a repair and clear cache.

Maybe that will help, I don't know.
 
can Synaptic install non-Buntu distros or is it just limited to *buntu distros only? my problem is mostly revolving around *Buntu and i'd like a non-Buntu based distro again. not that it will help with the SSD issue. even Puppy had issues with booting and running off SD cards in the past
 
is it possible to add-apt repository from say, Vector, SuSE or some other distro? right now i'm worried about compatibility, and i heard that the ChromeBook BIOS doesn't support init.rd images and am stuck wondering what will boot after the ChromeOS kernel. i've searched and all the Chromebook Linux how-to's involve Ubuntu. i don't *want* ubuntu

Worse comes to worse, i'm blowing Linux off and putting ChromeOS back until they can get more options for Linux. having only ONE distro that overheats the machine is not acceptable. Besides, everything i do as of yet with my Chromebook is able to be done in ChromeOS with far less headaches.
 
nickdalzell said:
is it possible to add-apt repository from say, Vector, SuSE or some other distro?
Click to expand...
Good question. I really don't know. But I'm guessing that other distributions' repositories may not be compatible with Ubuntu's. Does anyone know for sure about doing this?

Worse comes to worse, i'm blowing Linux off and putting ChromeOS back until they can get more options for Linux.
Click to expand...
ChromeOS is Linux. ;)
 
that is true, which makes me curious why so many are so anti-ChromeOS and pro-Ubuntu lately.

here's another mystery. why are so many Linux geeks so anti-OS X? isn't it built off of UNIX? or another one, why so many Linux geeks hate UNIX? seems hypocritical since neither are Microsoft, and all of them are so like each other.

As for my repo question, i meant is it possible to in Synaptic to install any non-Buntu distros like Vector or SuSE through it, which would involve adding that distro's repo. or is it limited to *Buntu only?
 
nickdalzell said:
that is true, which makes me curious why so many are so anti-ChromeOS and pro-Ubuntu lately.
Click to expand...
I can't speak for anyone but myself, and I'd hardly call myself anti-ChromeOS (in the way I'm anti-micro$oft), but I simply didn't like the limitations of COS. For the whole 30 minutes I used it, that is. :) And I've been pro-*buntu since I started using it way back when, because I LIKE it.

here's another mystery. why are so many Linux geeks so anti-OS X? isn't it built off of UNIX?
Click to expand...
Again, not speaking for anyone but myself, my only reason for being "anti-OS X" (and I've actually never even thought of myself that way, because I truly have no feelings about it one way or the other!), would simply be that--for me--it wouldn't work because of its proprietary nature. As I found with Google's idea of *nix, 30 minutes was all i could take before realizing it was too limiting/limited for me.

or another one, why so many Linux geeks hate UNIX? seems hypocritical since neither are Microsoft, and all of them are so like each other.
Click to expand...
I have no idea. I don't know any Linux geeks who hate UNIX. Quite the contrary, actually. :confused:

I have nothing but fond memories of--and gratitude for--UNIX, as my life would be completely different had it not been part of it.

As for my repo question, i meant is it possible to in Synaptic to install any non-Buntu distros like Vector or SuSE through it, which would involve adding that distro's repo. or is it limited to *Buntu only?
Click to expand...
Right, and I guessed that other distros' repos might not work with *buntu, but I don't actually know. I'd never given any thought to this before, but all the repositories would have to follow the same structure and contain the same file types in order to work. Could be an interesting experiment!
 
I would imagine the different repos would cause problems. Different packaging strategies leave most unavailable for other distros
 
is there any means of getting another distro onto a Chromebook? all i can find is how to get ChrUbuntu 12.04 on the thing. i have not as of yet found a single how-to involving SuSE or Fedora or Vector for that matter.

UNetbootin methods wouldn't work because 1) the internal card reader isn't supported by the Chromebook BIOS as a boot device and 2) init.rd images are not supported by Chromebook BIOSs. the only way the ChrUbuntu distro works is by using ChromeOS's actual kernel so the BIOS sees it as ChromeOS in dev mode, not as init.rd. UNetbootin images likely use init.rd or vmlinuz, not supported by the Chromebook BIOS.
 
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