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The "Linux questions (and other stuff)" thread

nickdalzell said:
i heard Synaptic can install distros on top or in replacement of another distro, at least, that is implied by Moody who can get Kubuntu 13.04 on a Chromebook when the only supported (officially) distro is ChrUbuntu 12.04 LTS
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I worked no magic on that, Nick. I simply installed U 12.04 via the ChrUbuntu method, then as soon as that was installed I went to Synaptic and installed K 13.04. It was just THERE. I didn't add it, I didn't tweak anything, it was just there.

Have you looked in your Synaptic? And do you have its settings to "Always prefer the highest version"?

Under Settings | Preferences | Distribution | Prefer versions from:, what are your choices? Although I did not fiddle with that at all--I simply did what I always do, set "Always prefer the highest version,"--I'm looking at it now and see both Precise and Raring among its choices. You should, too.
 
GKNByNW said:
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS for the win!
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Yay! Someone using an old[er] version! I still have 9.04 running on one of my computers. :D

I've been reading everyone's comments regarding a growing dislike for Ubuntu and I agree, at least when it comes to the newer versions. I tried Ubuntu 11 & 12 and found them entirely unusable. I'm probably too used to GNOME desktop. The new interfaces were completely non-user-friendly (for me, anyway) and I did give the "new" version of GNOME a try but it was nothing like 10.04.
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As much as I love *buntu, I cannot use Ubuntu. I truly detest that whole Unity desktop thing...and GNOME before that...ugh. But!

When I worked at a PC repair shop, we used Kubuntu 12.04 as a default OS if a customer didn't purchase Windows. It's been a while since I used Kubuntu on my own PC but I *really* liked it. Took some getting used to after running Ubuntu/GNOME for so long, but I found it to be extremely user-friendly. I even installed it on a laptop that I fixed up for my sister.
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I'm the resident Kubuntu pusher around here! :laugh: All my computers run Kubuntu, ranging from the aforementioned 9.04 up to 13.04. I LOVE it! It's so beautiful and so endlessly customizable, and can be set up exactly how *I* want it. Nudge, nudge, give it a try! :D
 
Moody, i know you can install other Ubuntu Distros just by your experience alone. i'm trying to get something NON-Ubuntu related. is it possible to install SuSE, Fedora or something else through Synaptic? the VM method won't work as i'm flat out of storage.

Later i'll take apart the Chomebook and see if it's possible to put a hard disk in there, or at least, more RAM. my YouTube issue seems to crop up when memory dips to 3/4 used up, and only 65MB remaining. my guess is that there is a memory leak in the flash plugin. haven't tested lately as i have just done an apt-get upgrade so i haven't found out if they patched it. will find out later tonight. i'm watching some more Mayday: Air Crash Investigation shows.

If i had a choice, i'd put old Feisty Fawn on there. tried it awhile back (over a year ago) but it wouldn't support my wifi on any machine. i like distros named after deer!
 
Synaptic is a graphical package manager. It doesn't install other distros (at least not that I know of)
 
that isn't the same thing. sure, you can tack on the Kubuntu components but you still have Unity and the rest of the bloat hanging around. Moody not only got rid of it, but she got a higher version, all through Synaptic. I'm going to try that later, i literally have nothing to lose. all my important things on that laptop are on Drive.
 
nickdalzell said:
Moody, i know you can install other Ubuntu Distros just by your experience alone. i'm trying to get something NON-Ubuntu related. is it possible to install SuSE, Fedora or something else through Synaptic? the VM method won't work as i'm flat out of storage.
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I know, Nick. See my earlier replies about my guess that other distros' repositories might not be formatted like *buntu's. My most recent reply only referred to this:
i heard Synaptic can install distros on top or in replacement of another distro, at least, that is implied by Moody who can get Kubuntu 13.04 on a Chromebook when the only supported (officially) distro is ChrUbuntu 12.04 LTS
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nickdalzell said:
palmtree5 said:
Synaptic is a graphical package manager. It doesn't install other distros (at least not that I know of)
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Apparently, it did for Moody...
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No, it didn't. And I think therein lies the problem. You're thinking of *buntu variants as other distributions. They're not. They're simply variants of Ubuntu. Kubuntu is essentially just Ubuntu with KDE as its desktop environment. Lubuntu is essentially a lightweight, stripped down Ubuntu with LXDE as its desktop environment. And so on. Fedora is an unrelated distribution. As are OpenSUSE, Red Hat, Slackware, Chrome, etc.

i'm watching some more Mayday: Air Crash Investigation shows.
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I watch all of those shows! Air Emergency, Air Disasters, Seconds from Disaster, all of 'em. :) They remind me not to break my pledge not to fly ever again!

If i had a choice, i'd put old Feisty Fawn on there. tried it awhile back (over a year ago) but it wouldn't support my wifi on any machine. i like distros named after deer!
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Ah, yes, Feisty Fawn. :)
 
nickdalzell said:
oh, so i'd be stuck in the same boat i was in before by not being able to install some apps. no thanks. one reason i am trying a non-Ubuntu approach is because of their crappy philosophy. i had a hell of a time installing Skype, which was a FREE app, because of them.
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It's not only crappy philosophy. There's law and intellectual property issues as well, e.g. the DMCA in the United States. Where you can be thrown in jail just for distributing an open source DVD player, e.g. one that than skip the FBI warnings or uses LibDVDCSS, because it breaks DRM. It maybe unlawful and copyright infringement to re-distribute Skype, not without the express permission of Micro$oft. Skype is not free as in open source, it's only free of cost, the ol' free speech vs free beer thing, i.e. Gratis versus libre.

Skype business EULA.
4.4 Restrictions. You have no right to and shall not (and shall ensure that Your Administrators and Business Users shall not): (a) copy or modify the Skype Software, except to the extent expressly permitted by applicable law; (b) transfer, sublicense, lease, lend, rent or otherwise distribute the Skype Software.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libdvdcss
"Many GNU/Linux distributions do not contain libdvdcss (for example Debian, Fedora, SUSE Linux, and Ubuntu) due to fears of running afoul of DMCA-style laws," i.e. they don't wish to run the risks of being slapped with a $2,000,000 fine and/or 20 years in a federal prison.
 
Dngrsone said:
Roku is Linux-based, and they can play Netflix. So, there is a way to do it... as far as I know, though, no one has hacked the relevant parts out of a Roku to find a way around the problem for the rest of us.
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More than likely that's proprietary software supplied by Neftlix for the Roku player. There's a Netflix Android app, which is also Linux based of course.

Dngrsone said:
There used to be a wine-based hack to run Netflix in Ubuntu, but I don't know if the repository works anymore.
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Might have involved making Internet Explorer work on Wine or something.
 
Here it is, the guts of an Acer C7 Chromebook. There IS a hard disk slot, for what appears to be an SATA hard disk, albeit occupied by the SSD currently. My question is, if I remove the SSD and replace it with a hard drive, how would I get ChromeOS back, and replace it with Linux again? With an actual hard disk, I'd be able to boot Vector Linux with a VM and space would no longer be an issue.

 
How would that work when there's no means of restoring said clone onto the Chromebook after the fact? The media card reader isn't supported as a boot device due the limitations of the Chromebook BIOS. Like booting a Linux hard disk in another machine, cloning it via another computer would likely write the hardware configuration of the other computer onto the image, which of course, would not boot on the Chromebook. I hope the recovery image is stored somewhere else so all I have to do is pop hard disk in, turn it on, hit space to restore OS verification, and done!

EDIT: it does, apparently, accept the additional 2GB DDR3 RAM Memory upgrade I just placed into it though. Linux now says it has a total of 4GB over the previous 2GB
 
No, what I am saying is use a cloning tool to copy, bit for bit, the contents of the SSD to the new drive. To do this, you would need a machine with at least two SATA ports.

Because you are cloning the entire SSD, the machine should see the new drive as a legitimate part of the system; it just magically has more capacity than it used to.
 
Well i found one method to get VectorLinux 6 back. i broke out the old Dell D610 and installed it, and now it's nice to be back in a REAL Linux again, with root logins, terminal logins out of box, and an actual properly working package manager. sometime in the future i'll figure out how to make a real hard disk work in my Chromebook so i can use a VM to run Vector. Vector remains to this day my fav distro.

Crouton runs ChrUbuntu in a VM, meaning slower and less reliable. i'd prefer a real linux running natively if possible. if i could only get Vector to install on the Chromebook like it did the Dell. Vector is so, well, EASY. maybe it's that i'm sort of a power user of Linux and perhaps Ubuntu is too dumbed down and protective to allow me to do things i like to do. but i can do Vector config in my sleep

EDIT: oh, Vector responds to the brightness control hotkeys. so wonderful.

Some screencaps:





 
So nice to have Vector back. got the latest Firefox in there, flash player, Mad Mike's Radio in VLC, everything WORKS. had some fun in the terminal and got Mutt to sync with my Gmail account. i dunno, i just love the more 'traditional' approach to Linux than Ubuntu's noob approach.

HOWEVER, still got the overheat bug. it appears to be distro non-specific. even the Dell gets VERY hot running YouTube. CPU usage skyrockets. it seems when RAM dips below 65MB remaining this happens. only, it hasn't officially overheated as it continued playing and didn't freeze, but Linux's application of Flash Player appears to be buggy in the latest builds. not sure why though.
 
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