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Cayden

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So I'm pretty new to the whole Linux game. A recent hardware failure prompted me to swtich to Linux from Windows 7 and thus far I have no intention of turning back.

 

So let me begin by saying "hello!" I'm new to the forum and was recommended to visit by a forum friend. I feel having a great place for me to post my Linux question and learn would be here. I'm really loving the Linux experience.

 

So, I know you probably would prefer me to make several threads for all of my issues, but I honestly feel it'd be much more efficient to do it in one thread, tackling each issue once one is completed or we reach a dead end.

Please read the bolded print that is located below this first section.

 

 

First the non-issues, minor issues and questions:

 

1a) How secure is Linux? Is it necessary to have a firewall, anti-spyware engine and anti-virus engine running actively? Am I okay with a scan-once engine (I've downloaded ClamTK)? If I need to, do most anti-virus scanners that are online (such as Trend Micro and Virus Total) work with Linux? Does Linux have a 'safe mode' wherein I can remove harmful files without risk of them executing? Finally, ClamTK likes to report all the files on my old Windows-based Hard Disks as suspicious or harmful, I'm guessing that it does not like Windows files, how can I get ClamTK to ignore false-positives like that?

 

2a) How dependable is LibreOffice's grammar and spell-check? No offence, but I always conisdered MS Office to have an absolute authority on when it was correcting something, and I don't trust whoever developed LibreOffice to make a decent spell-check. Is LibreOffice equal to, better than or worse than OpenOffice?

 

3a)How can I get FireFox to display the sites I want for its 9-block most visited site feature? Similarly: Most of the thumbnails aren't displaying, how can I fix that?

 

4) What's the most important thing I should know as a Linux user? Especially in comparison to Windows 7.

 

5) What is the Linux equivalent of a Blue Screen of Death and how can I diagnose those issues?

 

6) Why can I not modify the attributes of files within my mounted devices (ie hard drives)

 

7) Windows 7 automatically defragments your hard drive. Does Linux do this and is it necessary to manually defrag, or does Linux not have fragmentation issues?

 

8) There's a feature in Windows 7 called the Snipping Tool, this is the second most useful feature for me, is there a Linux equivalent? If not, is it legal to see if I can get the Snipping Tool to work with Wine so I can run it?

 

9) Thunderbird will not download any folder besides the inbox for my outlook.com account, how can I set it up to display some or all of my folders? Similarly: I've never used a client-based e-mail program, is it less secure than a server-sided one?

 

10)The Scroll bar in any window is much too small for me, how can I increase the size of the scroll bar?

 

11) When something crashes and the system asks me to send a report, does the report contain any personal information other than system specifications?

 

12) Does the system autoupdate like Windows 7? Do I need to collect important updates myself?

 

Thank you very much for any answers, or attempts. I understand this is a very long list, but I think it's better than having 12 seperate threads.

 

Now onto the bigger, more pressing issues. If you have limited time to respond or do not feel like reading everything, at least help with one of the below issues as they are far more important.

 

1b) I followed the instructions from this siteand everything goes fine until the last part where it tells me to add the .xml file. I cannot find the file in the file browser, it simply will not display, likely because it is not a picture file. How can I get the script to work? Alternatively: How can I get the effect of this to work? the *BEST* feature of Windows 7 was the desktop gallery!

 

2b) I'm desperately trying to get League of Legends to work in Wine (I installed and run it via PlayOnLinux) however when I play, no textures at all load. Everything that would have a model or texture is black. I've got S3TC enabled. I've got Wine 1.4 I think, and latest POL. see Edit

 

3b)My microphone does not seem to want to function. I use Skype a lot, so to my dismay I had found that I could not make Skype calls as I heard no sound and no one heard me. However during that time, in Mumble, I sounded fine and everywhere else I heard sound fine. I saw that removing pulseaudio and installing something else (I think it was esound or something) only made things worse. Attempting to reinstall pulse didn't fix the problem and now in Skype, my mic isn't picked up at all, just silence. In Mumble and in the Voice Recorder my voice isn't picked up and it sounds like listening to white noise. I used to have two mic ports, however one broke (the front, I use the back). Fiddling with the audio settings with the Terminal (I forgot the name of the command that lets you fiddle with various sound settings, my apologies) returned no results whatsoever.

 

 

Thanks again in advance for any and all help. Again, I know it may be better to sort these into multiple threads, however this would grately slow down the problem solving process. Besides, Google and internal search results will point to this thread anyway.

 

Edit: It has come to my attention that my friend who uses 12.10 in Windows with Virtual Box / Virtualization can run this specific game without issue. Perhaps this will help anyone in trying to diagnose my issue of poor gaming performance and other glitches?

Edited by Cayden
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Hello Cayden

And Welcome to the forums and Linux.

 

I will take a bunch of the easy ones.

 

1a)

Linux is very secure. No software written by humans is perfect, but Linux is secure from the design, not an afterthought.

Firewall is your friend, if you are behind a router you have a (most likely Linux based) firewall already.

The main reason for anti-virus is to insure you do not host or spread malware to your Windows friends.

Linux "safe mode" is to always log in and use your computer as a user and only use root for specific tasks which require it. When you use sudo you are giving the process root powers.

 

2a)

Open Office was all but dead and no development was happening after Oracle bought Sun. So Libre Office was forked and development went forward at a rapid pace. A lot of features which OOo does not have. Grammar and spell check are just OK, but you can improve it by using it and adding vocab to your dictionary.

 

4) What's the most important thing I should know as a Linux user? Especially in comparison to Windows 7.

Linux is not Windows. Windows and Linux accomplish many of the same tasks, they are both operating systems with additional utilities and user applications, but they do them differently. Different is GOOD. Windows .exe files do not work on Linux, don't expect website "click here to download" links to have a Linux option. Also, you did not learn to be an efficient Windows users in a short time, you picked it up bit by bit over a long time. Be patient, there is a lot that is going to be new to you. Ask for help, we're all in this together. No big software company you can fork over your credit card number to for paid support. The Linux community helps themselves and each other.

 

5) What is the Linux equivalent of a Blue Screen of Death and how can I diagnose those issues?

Unless you are a crazy tinkerer, like me and a few others here, you do not need to think about this. At all. Worry about your hardware wearing out from old age. It's much more likely.

 

7) Windows 7 automatically defragments your hard drive. Does Linux do this and is it necessary to manually defrag, or does Linux not have fragmentation issues?

Linux does not put little pieces of files here, there, and everywhere. The native Linux filesystems are very orderly and seldom, if ever, fragment a file.

 

10, 11, 12 are distro specific, and further depend upon what desktop environment or window manager you use.

 

More specific answers to any of your questions are going to require more information from you.

Start with what hardware specs and accessories, what distro, what DE/WM on the distro.

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10, 11, 12 are distro specific, and further depend upon what desktop environment or window manager you use.

 

More specific answers to any of your questions are going to require more information from you.

Start with what hardware specs and accessories, what distro, what DE/WM on the distro.

 

Thank you very kindly for your answers.

All my specs are in my profile as requested upon registration. I'm not sure what you mean by 'accessories' or 'DE/WM' - Desktop Environment/Window Manager? I'm fairly sure it's GNOME/Nautilus, these things I'm still not sure of how to figure out.

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I'm new to the forum and was recommended to visit by a forum friend. I feel having a great place for me to post my Linux question and learn would be here.

 

Hi, Cayden. Welcome to SNF! I'm glad you found your way to BATL, especially since we're a ways off from making a decision about a Linux forum at Sysnative.com. You are so right -- this is a great place for you to learn more about Linux. The Highlanders have many years of Linux experience, with Linux support here for almost 10 years!

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Accessories - What microphone? Is the computer a laptop with a built-in mic? What model and brand?

 

Distro = Ubuntu 12.04 LTS ?

DE = Gnome/Unity ?

 

Nautilus is the native file manager for Gnome.

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Accessories - What microphone? Is the computer a laptop with a built-in mic? What model and brand?

 

Distro = Ubuntu 12.04 LTS ?

DE = Gnome/Unity ?

 

Nautilus is the native file manager for Gnome.

 

A desktop. The microphone is part of a nameless headset, other than the brand 'Headrush' and what possibly is a model number of 2611673.

 

Distro: You're correct.

DE: You're correct.

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Cayden - First off, allow me to welcome you to Bruno's all things Linux. I personally think it's the best group of people that will go out of there way to offer assistance and guidance and make your transition to Linux a fun and exciting.

 

Ameditman did a wonderful job in explaining most of your questions.

 

By installing Ubuntu, MOST things work out of the box. Ubuntu is a great distro to transition too.

 

The subject of gaming in Linux has come up so many times. There are many games that can be played on Linux but the high end games were mostly coded for Windows. Yes, you can run some of these games via wine, but a lot of people that are into gaming, normaly dual boot with Windows 7 so when they want to game, they boot into Windows.

 

I wish you all the best in your transition to Linux. I hope you find yourself enjoying Linux as you learn. Also, Ubuntu has a great forum as well for those specific Ubuntu questions you may have. Most of the time, you can search for your issue and someone else may have already posted about it.

 

In my signature, you will note a link titled "Linux is not Windows" it's a great read and does a great job of explaining the differences between the two operating systems.

 

All the best,

 

Ian

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Hi Cayden, Welcome to SFNL and BATL

 

First I would suggest looking at this site

 

http://www.howtoforg...recise-pangolin

 

I line up some of your questions, hopefully we will get you pointed in the right direction...

 

 

8) There's a feature in Windows 7 called the Snipping Tool, this is the second most useful feature for me, is there a Linux equivalent? If not, is it legal to see if I can get the Snipping Tool to work with Wine so I can run it?

 

(You can try shutter, or search in your ubuntu program manager or synaptic program manager under sreenshots, pretty sure ubuntu lets you search under name of app and by categories.)

 

 

 

12) Does the system autoupdate like Windows 7? Do I need to collect important updates myself?

 

Auto update in that , you should get an ICON in the upper task bar saying you have updates available, then you click on the ICON and floow the directions to download>>

 

1b) I followed the instructions from this siteand everything goes fine until the last part where it tells me to add the .xml file. I cannot find the file in the file browser, it simply will not display, likely because it is not a picture file. How can I get the script to work? Alternatively: How can I get the effect of this to work? the *BEST* feature of Windows 7 was the desktop gallery!

 

It could be.xml is just a hidden file...try

http://www.watchingt...wser.html..then check your source directions again

 

2b) I'm desperately trying to get League of Legends to work in Wine (I installed and run it via PlayOnLinux) however when I play, no textures at all load. Everything that would have a model or texture is black. I've got S3TC enabled. I've got Wine 1.4 I think, and latest POL. see Edit

 

Beside virtual box you may want to look at the ATI drivers

http://www.unixmen.c...iver-in-ubuntu/

 

3b)My microphone does not seem to want to function. I use Skype a lot, so to my dismay I had found that I could not make Skype calls as I heard no sound and no one heard me. However during that time, in Mumble, I sounded fine and everywhere else I heard sound fine. I saw that removing pulseaudio and installing something else (I think it was esound or something) only made things worse. Attempting to reinstall pulse didn't fix the problem and now in Skype, my mic isn't picked up at all, just silence. In Mumble and in the Voice Recorder my voice isn't picked up and it sounds like listening to white noise. I used to have two mic ports, however one broke (the front, I use the back). Fiddling with the audio settings with the Terminal (I forgot the name of the command that lets you fiddle with various sound settings, my apologies) returned no results whatsoever.

 

As for skype

https://help.ubuntu....Troubleshooting

 

Hope this helps

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Welcome to the forum. IMO, BSOD, disk fragmentation and virus scanners, are all Windows problems you can rest your mind about in Linux. They just are NOT a concern. And having a "software" firewall, assuming your router has a decent hardware one, is a matter of personal choice.

 

As to running Windows programs using Wine, I *strongly* advise against it. Running high end Windows games in Linux is problematic at best and though Wine has come a long way, it is still a hit and miss proposition getting it to work. IMO, if you can't get a game to work in a "virtual session", using VirtualBox or VMWare, but simply "must have it", the only real solution is to "dual boot".

 

Again, welcome and good luck.

Lew

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securitybreach

First of all, welcome to the forums!!!!!!

 

As far as the questions you inquired about, the other users have pretty much answered all of your concerns but here is a tip for your Thunderbird issue:

 

In order to have Thunderbird show all of your folders, Go to Tools > Account Settings > Server Settings > Advanced.

 

Then make sure that Show only subscribed folders is unchecked.

 

Thanks

 

Excellent comments everyone, great job :thumbup:

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Guest LilBambi

Hi, Cayden. Welcome to SNF! I'm glad you found your way to BATL, especially since we're a ways off from making a decision about a Linux forum at Sysnative.com. You are so right -- this is a great place for you to learn more about Linux. The Highlanders have many years of Linux experience, with Linux support here for almost 10 years!

 

DITTO! Welcome, Cayden! :thumbsup:

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V.T. Eric Layton

So I'm pretty new to the whole Linux game. A recent hardware failure prompted me to swtich to Linux from Windows 7 and thus far I have no intention of turning back.

 

Welcome to Scot's Newsletter Forums - Bruno's All Things Linux. I highly recommend that you read the introductory items you'll find in the Sticky threads here and in the Bruno's Classroom sub-board.

 

So, I know you probably would prefer me to make several threads for all of my issues...

 

Several separate issue threads is usually recommended and preferred not for ease of posting, but for ease of reply and ease of searching later on by others with similar issues. Just so you know for future reference.

 

1a) How secure is Linux?

 

I've run GNU/LInux systems exclusively on my primary production machines for over six years now. I have never, ever had any issues regarding virii, malware, rootkits or any other nasties out there. The vast majority (99.9%) of viruses in the wild are designed to affect MS Windows systems. There are effectively no viruses in the wild which affect GNU/Linux. There have been experimental viruses created to test on Linux, but even those require root permissions to have any affect on a system.

 

The scanners like ClamAV and others are actually scanning your Linux system for MS Windows viruses. The only danger of virus infestation is if your Linux and MS Window systems share date, partition space, or other storage media. Even then, you'd almost have to work to get infected. GNU/Linux is inherently secure as an operating system. Don't stop using common sense, but you can relax somewhat compared to when you use Windows/IE.

 

2a) How dependable is LibreOffice's grammar and spell-check? No offence, but I always conisdered MS Office to have an absolute authority on when it was correcting something, and I don't trust whoever developed LibreOffice to make a decent spell-check. Is LibreOffice equal to, better than or worse than OpenOffice?

 

It works a lot better than whatever spellchecker you used to write the above query. ;) Seriously, I have had no issues with the LibreOffice or OpenOffice spellchecker quality. It's just as good as any other I've used. And personally, I only trust my own knowledge of grammar and punctuation. Software grammar/punctuation tools are no where near as good as what you were taught in school... not yet, anyway.

 

3a)How can I get FireFox to display the sites I want for its 9-block most visited site feature? Similarly: Most of the thumbnails aren't displaying, how can I fix that?

 

Can't help you with this one. I'm not familiar with that feature because I've never used it. I use the "Speed Dial" extension instead --> a screenshot

 

4) What's the most important thing I should know as a Linux user? Especially in comparison to Windows 7.

 

The most important thing I tell new GNU/Linux users is that Linux is NOT Windows. You'll have a pretty steep learning curve with Linux. Don't let it scare you away. It's worth it in the long run.

 

Read this blog article --> https://noctslackv1....urers-backpack/

 

5) What is the Linux equivalent of a Blue Screen of Death and how can I diagnose those issues?

 

In extremely rare situations, you will experience a graphical interface lockup. They are rare. If you experience one, there are ways to escape --> Skinny Elephants

 

Another rare malfunction which only occurs at boot time is called "kernel panic". Personally, I just reset my machine when this happens; reset button or on/off button. Often that's all you can do because you won't have keyboard or mouse available at this stage of the boot, anyway.

 

6) Why can I not modify the attributes of files within my mounted devices (ie hard drives)

 

You may need to explain this a bit more. Usually, if you cannot change a file it's because you don't have permission as a user to make that change. You'll often need to be root or use the sudo command to temporarily gain elevated privileges to make changes to files not belonging to you as a user.

 

7) Windows 7 automatically defragments your hard drive. Does Linux do this and is it necessary to manually defrag, or does Linux not have fragmentation issues?

 

Fragmentation of hard drives is not an issue with GNU/Linux type file systems... ext2, ext3, ext4, Reiserfs, etc. Fragmentation is an affliction mostly affecting MS Windows FAT and NTFS file systems.

 

8) There's a feature in Windows 7 called the Snipping Tool, this is the second most useful feature for me, is there a Linux equivalent? If not, is it legal to see if I can get the Snipping Tool to work with Wine so I can run it?

 

What does this tool actually do? For most Windows apps, you'll easily find 3 or 4 or even more Open Source equivalents for use in Linux.

 

9) Thunderbird will not download any folder besides the inbox for my outlook.com account, how can I set it up to display some or all of my folders? Similarly: I've never used a client-based e-mail program, is it less secure than a server-sided one?

 

Only IMAP will download from other than the Inbox of most web-based services. POP3 only downloads what's in the Inbox. See your outlook.com Help for more information on that.

 

10)The Scroll bar in any window is much too small for me, how can I increase the size of the scroll bar?

 

The scroll bar (and many other graphic features) are determined by what windows manager/desktop environment theme you're using. Change to another theme and see if you like it better.

 

11) When something crashes and the system asks me to send a report, does the report contain any personal information other than system specifications?

 

You won't see that in Linux, I don't think.

 

12) Does the system autoupdate like Windows 7? Do I need to collect important updates myself?

 

It depends on which distribution of Linux you're using and how you have your software management set up. For instance, in Slackware Linux, which is my primary OS, I have to manually update; same for Arch Linux, my secondary OS. For Ubuntu and others, there are ways to set up auto-updating.

 

Thank you very much for any answers, or attempts. I understand this is a very long list, but I think it's better than having 12 seperate threads.

 

Actually, it's not, as mentioned above. But no harm, no foul this time. :)

 

Now onto the bigger, more pressing issues. If you have limited time to respond or do not feel like reading everything, at least help with one of the below issues as they are far more important.

 

Please, if someone comes here and takes the time to respond to your queries, at least have the courtesy to read them... as soon as you can. Of course, real life is a priority. We all understand that.

 

1b) I followed the instructions from this site and everything goes fine until the last part where it tells me to add the .xml file. I cannot find the file in the file browser, it simply will not display, likely because it is not a picture file. How can I get the script to work? Alternatively: How can I get the effect of this to work? the *BEST* feature of Windows 7 was the desktop gallery!

 

Sorry, I can't help you with this one. Maybe someone else here can take the time to follow the tutorial at that link and see how to get it to work.

 

2b) I'm desperately trying to get League of Legends to work in Wine (I installed and run it via PlayOnLinux) however when I play, no textures at all load. Everything that would have a model or texture is black. I've got S3TC enabled. I've got Wine 1.4 I think, and latest POL. see Edit

 

I've found that rather than using Windows emulators within Linux to play games and do other strictly Windows things, I just keep a real copy of Windows on my systems. Much easier that way; to me, anyway. Others here prefer virtual computing. I'm sure they'll chime in with some suggestions for you.

 

3b)My microphone does not seem to want to function. I use Skype a lot, so to my dismay I had found that I could not make Skype calls as I heard no sound and no one heard me. However during that time, in Mumble, I sounded fine and everywhere else I heard sound fine. I saw that removing pulseaudio and installing something else (I think it was esound or something) only made things worse. Attempting to reinstall pulse didn't fix the problem and now in Skype, my mic isn't picked up at all, just silence. In Mumble and in the Voice Recorder my voice isn't picked up and it sounds like listening to white noise. I used to have two mic ports, however one broke (the front, I use the back). Fiddling with the audio settings with the Terminal (I forgot the name of the command that lets you fiddle with various sound settings, my apologies) returned no results whatsoever.

 

This is going to require sitdown step by step troubleshooting to resolve. You really need to start separate threads for these major issues. Then we can get details about your hardware configurations, software, distribution used, deskop manager used, etc. and attempt to walk you through a resolution.

 

Thanks again in advance for any and all help. Again, I know it may be better to sort these into multiple threads, however this would grately slow down the problem solving process. Besides, Google and internal search results will point to this thread anyway.

 

As stated above, it's best to separate threads with multiple issues like this because it helps us to help you and it also makes it easier for others with similar problems who may come along later to research and resolve their issues by reading your separate threads.

 

Hope I was of some help to you. Sorry I couldn't help you with your most pressing questions, though. Those issues are much more complicated to answer in a few short sentences. Be patient, though. There are many folks here with varied experience using diverse hardware and software configurations. Someone may be able to assist where I couldn't.

 

Have FUN. That's the most important thing. :yes:

 

Regards,

 

~Eric

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I also bid you welcome, Cayden. I agree with Eric, it would be much more preferable to open a separate thread for each issue. I could add comments to some of your questions, although most have been covered, but the volume is a bit overwhelming. I'll add a few thoughts anyway.

securitybreach mentioned that Ubuntu is good to transition to from Windows when you begin. Most of us have found it's also good to transition from after initially getting familiar with it. It has a 6 month release cycle which can require reinstalling for a new release, and most of us here don't like the Gnome/Unity DE. Many people do like it though so try for a while. There are many desktop environments (DE) to try - fullest-featured are KDE (which I use and love) and Gnome; lighter ones such as Xfce and LXDE are also excellent especially on lower spec machines. There are many others available but those 4 are the most popular. As for alternative distros, Mint and Mepis are highly recommended, both come as live CDs so you can try without installing. I highly recommend Debian as being the most reliable OS out there, but it takes a bit more configuring and learning so probably not ideal for new explorers - see my sig. :D

 

Firewalls - Linux has a built in firewall called netfilter/iptables which works without any input from users. Rest easy it works well.

 

Snipping tool - I think this is a screenshot/clipboard tool. You probably have them installed already, or you can choose one from your package manager. There is also a clipboard tool which remembers a short history of the most recent things you have copied - very useful!

 

Games - most of us who play any Windows games dual-boot with Windows 7 and just reboot for game sessions. While Wine, Play On Linux and the new and promising Linux Steam client can work well, it's still a crapshoot. There are also some excellent native Linux games, see our Game On Linux thread.

 

Defrag - not an issue. Linux will usually run filesystem check (fsck) every 25 boots or so on your root partition and can be set to run on other partitions or manually run. Search for Linux filesystem check to learn more but it's rarely required as the commonly used filesystems are pretty rock solid.

 

Skype - I think this is a common problem, usually related to mute/ volume settings in the software mixer, driver problems or pulse setup. Start a new thread if this persists.

 

Desktop slideshow - KDE comes with one built in which you can choose in settings. Again though, I can't comment on Gnome.

 

Anyway, happy Linuxing! :thumbsup: B)

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Hi Cayden, Welcome to SFNL and BATL

 

First I would suggest looking at this site

 

http://www.howtoforg...recise-pangolin

 

I line up some of your questions, hopefully we will get you pointed in the right direction...

 

 

8) There's a feature in Windows 7 called the Snipping Tool, this is the second most useful feature for me, is there a Linux equivalent? If not, is it legal to see if I can get the Snipping Tool to work with Wine so I can run it?

 

(You can try shutter, or search in your ubuntu program manager or synaptic program manager under sreenshots, pretty sure ubuntu lets you search under name of app and by categories.)

 

 

 

12) Does the system autoupdate like Windows 7? Do I need to collect important updates myself?

 

Auto update in that , you should get an ICON in the upper task bar saying you have updates available, then you click on the ICON and floow the directions to download>>

 

1b) I followed the instructions from this siteand everything goes fine until the last part where it tells me to add the .xml file. I cannot find the file in the file browser, it simply will not display, likely because it is not a picture file. How can I get the script to work? Alternatively: How can I get the effect of this to work? the *BEST* feature of Windows 7 was the desktop gallery!

 

It could be.xml is just a hidden file...try

http://www.watchingt...wser.html..then check your source directions again

 

2b) I'm desperately trying to get League of Legends to work in Wine (I installed and run it via PlayOnLinux) however when I play, no textures at all load. Everything that would have a model or texture is black. I've got S3TC enabled. I've got Wine 1.4 I think, and latest POL. see Edit

 

Beside virtual box you may want to look at the ATI drivers

http://www.unixmen.c...iver-in-ubuntu/

 

3b)My microphone does not seem to want to function. I use Skype a lot, so to my dismay I had found that I could not make Skype calls as I heard no sound and no one heard me. However during that time, in Mumble, I sounded fine and everywhere else I heard sound fine. I saw that removing pulseaudio and installing something else (I think it was esound or something) only made things worse. Attempting to reinstall pulse didn't fix the problem and now in Skype, my mic isn't picked up at all, just silence. In Mumble and in the Voice Recorder my voice isn't picked up and it sounds like listening to white noise. I used to have two mic ports, however one broke (the front, I use the back). Fiddling with the audio settings with the Terminal (I forgot the name of the command that lets you fiddle with various sound settings, my apologies) returned no results whatsoever.

 

As for skype

https://help.ubuntu....Troubleshooting

 

Hope this helps

 

Thank you.

 

Welcome to the forum. IMO, BSOD, disk fragmentation and virus scanners, are all Windows problems you can rest your mind about in Linux. They just are NOT a concern. And having a "software" firewall, assuming your router has a decent hardware one, is a matter of personal choice.

 

As to running Windows programs using Wine, I *strongly* advise against it. Running high end Windows games in Linux is problematic at best and though Wine has come a long way, it is still a hit and miss proposition getting it to work. IMO, if you can't get a game to work in a "virtual session", using VirtualBox or VMWare, but simply "must have it", the only real solution is to "dual boot".

 

Again, welcome and good luck.

Lew

 

I appreciate your tips, Lew.

 

 

First of all, welcome to the forums!!!!!!

 

As far as the questions you inquired about, the other users have pretty much answered all of your concerns but here is a tip for your Thunderbird issue:

 

In order to have Thunderbird show all of your folders, Go to Tools > Account Settings > Server Settings > Advanced.

 

Then make sure that Show only subscribed folders is unchecked.

 

Thanks

 

Excellent comments everyone, great job :thumbup:

 

Unfortunately, your instructions yielded a dead-end. I found no options that match your descriptors.

Thanks anyway.

 

DITTO! Welcome, Cayden! :thumbsup:

Several separate issue threads is usually recommended and preferred not for ease of posting, but for ease of reply and ease of searching later on by others with similar issues. Just so you know for future reference.

 

I disagree. Both internal forum searches and Google searches return results based on tags and the body of the post, not only thread titles. Having a hundred threads is equal to a thread with a hundred pages. The difference is that one is much easier to navigate and has a much clearer flow, plus you can search within the thread.

 

 

2a) How dependable is LibreOffice's grammar and spell-check? No offence, but I always conisdered MS Office to have an absolute authority on when it was correcting something, and I don't trust whoever developed LibreOffice to make a decent spell-check. Is LibreOffice equal to, better than or worse than OpenOffice?

 

It works a lot better than whatever spellchecker you used to write the above query. ;) Seriously, I have had no issues with the LibreOffice or OpenOffice spellchecker quality. It's just as good as any other I've used. And personally, I only trust my own knowledge of grammar and punctuation. Software grammar/punctuation tools are no where near as good as what you were taught in school... not yet, anyway.

 

I'm very unappreciative towards your dry humour and poorly-masked insult. I may not have a degree in writing, but that doesn't mean that I don't try. It also doesn't mean that I should be chastised for imperfect grammar or spelling. English is not my native language either, so it's not easy for me to explain things in the best ways.

I use FireFox's built-in spellchecker, which barely functoins at all.

 

 

3

6) Why can I not modify the attributes of files within my mounted devices (ie hard drives)

 

You may need to explain this a bit more. Usually, if you cannot change a file it's because you don't have permission as a user to make that change. You'll often need to be root or use the sudo command to temporarily gain elevated privileges to make changes to files not belonging to you as a user.

 

I'll create another thread for this and other problems.

 

 

8) There's a feature in Windows 7 called the Snipping Tool, this is the second most useful feature for me, is there a Linux equivalent? If not, is it legal to see if I can get the Snipping Tool to work with Wine so I can run it?

 

What does this tool actually do? For most Windows apps, you'll easily find 3 or 4 or even more Open Source equivalents for use in Linux.

 

Essentially it allows me to crop any area of my screen by dragging the mouse, it then allows a tiny bit of editing (adding text and a pen tool) and has options to copy to clipboard or to save as a file.

 

 

3b)My microphone does not seem to want to function. I use Skype a lot, so to my dismay I had found that I could not make Skype calls as I heard no sound and no one heard me. However during that time, in Mumble, I sounded fine and everywhere else I heard sound fine. I saw that removing pulseaudio and installing something else (I think it was esound or something) only made things worse. Attempting to reinstall pulse didn't fix the problem and now in Skype, my mic isn't picked up at all, just silence. In Mumble and in the Voice Recorder my voice isn't picked up and it sounds like listening to white noise. I used to have two mic ports, however one broke (the front, I use the back). Fiddling with the audio settings with the Terminal (I forgot the name of the command that lets you fiddle with various sound settings, my apologies) returned no results whatsoever.

 

This is going to require sitdown step by step troubleshooting to resolve. You really need to start separate threads for these major issues. Then we can get details about your hardware configurations, software, distribution used, deskop manager used, etc. and attempt to walk you through a resolution.

 

I will create another thread for this issue.

 

 

 

~Eric

 

Thank you Eric, my responses are in the GREEN text.

 

 

I also bid you welcome, Cayden. I agree with Eric, it would be much more preferable to open a separate thread for each issue. I could add comments to some of your questions, although most have been covered, but the volume is a bit overwhelming. I'll add a few thoughts anyway.

securitybreach mentioned that Ubuntu is good to transition to from Windows when you begin. Most of us have found it's also good to transition from after initially getting familiar with it. It has a 6 month release cycle which can require reinstalling for a new release, and most of us here don't like the Gnome/Unity DE. Many people do like it though so try for a while. There are many desktop environments (DE) to try - fullest-featured are KDE (which I use and love) and Gnome; lighter ones such as Xfce and LXDE are also excellent especially on lower spec machines. There are many others available but those 4 are the most popular. As for alternative distros, Mint and Mepis are highly recommended, both come as live CDs so you can try without installing. I highly recommend Debian as being the most reliable OS out there, but it takes a bit more configuring and learning so probably not ideal for new explorers - see my sig. :D

 

Firewalls - Linux has a built in firewall called netfilter/iptables which works without any input from users. Rest easy it works well.

 

Snipping tool - I think this is a screenshot/clipboard tool. You probably have them installed already, or you can choose one from your package manager. There is also a clipboard tool which remembers a short history of the most recent things you have copied - very useful!

 

Games - most of us who play any Windows games dual-boot with Windows 7 and just reboot for game sessions. While Wine, Play On Linux and the new and promising Linux Steam client can work well, it's still a crapshoot. There are also some excellent native Linux games, see our Game On Linux thread.

 

Defrag - not an issue. Linux will usually run filesystem check (fsck) every 25 boots or so on your root partition and can be set to run on other partitions or manually run. Search for Linux filesystem check to learn more but it's rarely required as the commonly used filesystems are pretty rock solid.

 

Skype - I think this is a common problem, usually related to mute/ volume settings in the software mixer, driver problems or pulse setup. Start a new thread if this persists.

 

Desktop slideshow - KDE comes with one built in which you can choose in settings. Again though, I can't comment on Gnome.

 

Anyway, happy Linuxing! :thumbsup: B)

Thank you.

 

I'll start some more threads based off of the information given.

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securitybreach

Unfortunately, your instructions yielded a dead-end. I found no options that match your descriptors.

Thanks anyway.

What version of Thunderbird are you running? Did you find the Server Settings under Account Settings?

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Guest LilBambi

So I'm pretty new to the whole Linux game. A recent hardware failure prompted me to swtich to Linux from Windows 7 and thus far I have no intention of turning back.

 

So let me begin by saying "hello!" I'm new to the forum and was recommended to visit by a forum friend. I feel having a great place for me to post my Linux question and learn would be here. I'm really loving the Linux experience.

 

 

Welcome again to SNF, Cayden! I gave a quick welcome earlier without any further comments because I didn't have time to do more at that time. So now that I have some time to put into it...

 

1a) How secure is Linux? Is it necessary to have a firewall, anti-spyware engine and anti-virus engine running actively? Am I okay with a scan-once engine (I've downloaded ClamTK)? If I need to, do most anti-virus scanners that are online (such as Trend Micro and Virus Total) work with Linux? Does Linux have a 'safe mode' wherein I can remove harmful files without risk of them executing? Finally, ClamTK likes to report all the files on my old Windows-based Hard Disks as suspicious or harmful, I'm guessing that it does not like Windows files, how can I get ClamTK to ignore false-positives like that?

 

No operating system if 100% secure unless you pull the plug. ;) Having said that, in general, Linux is very secure. Generally much more secure than Windows and even Mac in most cases.

 

Most computers out there (Windows) are faced with the potential of millions of viruses, worms, trojans, RATs, Rootkits, etc. and even more other program, browser based, and/or browser plugin related malware infections that can be injected via websites.

 

Like any OS, keep it updated.

 

Linux and Mac both are faced with numbers closer to 100s and in many cases double digits or much less than that regarding viruses, worms, trojans, RATS, rootkits.

 

All computers, if a given browser based malware is programmed/scripted to hit your specific OS, can be hit. However, like in Windows, if you use things like:

1. NoScript (Firefox) or NotScripts (Chrome)

2. AdBlock Plus

3. Do Not Track Plus or

4. Ghostery, and maybe even

5. Flash Block

then you should do pretty well in Windows.

I use all but Ghostery in Windows. I use the first three in Linux and Mac - but keep plugins and programs up to date in all OSes.

 

On the whole, Linux doesn't really need what is referred to as an antivirus software EXCEPT to scan files before sending to Windows friends who might be hurt by the file if it is infected with one of the millions of Windows 'viruses' and that is something that can be done manually.

 

But, I personally am more concerned about RATs and rootkits than viruses and worms in Linux. Still as noted above, there are not that many out there, and there are ways to keep that threat at bay too:

 

Rootkit Hunter

 

Detecting and removing rootkits

 

Others may have some newer ways to handle that. You are more vulnerable to rootkits if you are running servers than desktops. As long as you generally run as a normal user except for specific tasks that need root access, and especially don't run as root and run a browser for surfing the web. Another important thing is just like in Windows; install programs from known good sources.

 

2a) How dependable is LibreOffice's grammar and spell-check? No offence, but I always conisdered MS Office to have an absolute authority on when it was correcting something, and I don't trust whoever developed LibreOffice to make a decent spell-check. Is LibreOffice equal to, better than or worse than OpenOffice?

 

I think it is very good, but not as good as the MS Office one yet, BUT it gets better as you customize it. I definitely use it.

 

3a)How can I get FireFox to display the sites I want for its 9-block most visited site feature? Similarly: Most of the thumbnails aren't displaying, how can I fix that?

 

I think Eric had the best option for that.

 

4) What's the most important thing I should know as a Linux user? Especially in comparison to Windows 7.

 

Don't be afraid to use the command line.

 

5) What is the Linux equivalent of a Blue Screen of Death and how can I diagnose those issues?

 

I have never encountered anything similar to a BSOD in Linux. Having said that, there are times when a program can misbehave on rare occasions that can cause lockups in the GUI or total lock up. It is not often, and you will get to know which ones can do that over time. And you will get to know some of the ways to counter misbehaving programs such as:

 

1. Using Linux performance monitoring tools

2. Learn to use xkill and keyboard shortcuts to get to window terminals if possible or a true terminal to help you kill runaway programs before they lock you up.

 

6) Why can I not modify the attributes of files within my mounted devices (ie hard drives)

 

More info needed on specifics on the types of mounts and how they are mounted.

 

7) Windows 7 automatically defragments your hard drive. Does Linux do this and is it necessary to manually defrag, or does Linux not have fragmentation issues?

 

Defrag not needed in Linux, and the system partition and other partitions (if you haven't turned it off for given partitions) are checked (fsck) every so often (after x number of boots) automatically and it's much faster than chkdsk in Windows. BTW: Creating partitions and formatting are much quicker as well. A welcome thing after Windows!

 

8) There's a feature in Windows 7 called the Snipping Tool, this is the second most useful feature for me, is there a Linux equivalent? If not, is it legal to see if I can get the Snipping Tool to work with Wine so I can run it?

 

I generally just use KSnapshot for snapshots. All the GUIs have equivalents for KSnapshot that are installed by default for many, many years. There is another one that BarryB mentioned, that many have written about and they all call it the best screen capture program for Linux. It's called Shutter.

 

Pleasantly you will find that PDF readers are generally installed by default as well. Some are better than others. Fonts are not as good as in Windows and Mac, but they are getting much better than they used to be.

 

9) Thunderbird will not download any folder besides the inbox for my outlook.com account, how can I set it up to display some or all of my folders? Similarly: I've never used a client-based e-mail program, is it less secure than a server-sided one?

 

Suggest using IMAP instead of POP if you were only using web based email before. Otherwise you will have to move all your emails to the Inbox to download ALL your mail. Then resort it within the email client.

 

Same for Google GMail; use IMAP. If you were using an email client like Outlook before, export to Windows Live Mail first and then snag the folders and import them to Thunderbird.

 

IMAP is more secure anyway.

 

Importing folders into Thunderbird/Migration from other OSes and/or Email Programs

 

Why are you moving to Thunderbird, an email client that apparently may be going away soon? Don't get me wrong, I love Thunderbird! It bothers me that Mozilla has given up on it and for no apparent reason that makes sense to me. I have used Thunderbird since the early days when I lost faith in OE. I have recently moved to PostBox (It's $9.95 and based on Thunderbird. Created by the original authors of Thunderbird. BUT, they have not done a Linux version as yet). So, sure, you can go with Thunderbird, or why not stay with using Outlook.com? Does the website not work well in Linux? Or use another Linux specific email client like Evolution? Or as I say, use Thunderbird till security becomes an issue due to lack of updates, and/or (hopefully) the Linux Community takes Thunderbird under it's wing.

 

10)The Scroll bar in any window is much too small for me, how can I increase the size of the scroll bar?

 

Are you talking about in all programs etc. Here's a page that might help to go back to the old style scrollbars that are apparently driving some folks nutty. ;)

 

11) When something crashes and the system asks me to send a report, does the report contain any personal information other than system specifications?

 

That would depend on what you use your computer for. I generally send it if it's a GUI issue, but not for browser unless I was doing something where I was NOT logged in at the time. If you use your computer for financial stuff or for business where you have other people's stuff on your computer and some of that information could be included in the dump, then just like in Windows, don't submit.

 

12) Does the system autoupdate like Windows 7? Do I need to collect important updates myself?

 

There is usually a notification, but you go and do it via something like Synaptic (GUI), apt-get (commandline) or whatever Ubuntu is using these days. I think they changed from Synaptic in the last couple versions but I don't use Ubuntu. Ah, ok. Yes, it's the Ubuntu Software Center.

 

 

1b) I followed the instructions from this site and everything goes fine until the last part where it tells me to add the .xml file. I cannot find the file in the file browser, it simply will not display, likely because it is not a picture file. How can I get the script to work? Alternatively: How can I get the effect of this to work? the *BEST* feature of Windows 7 was the desktop gallery!

 

As a new user, just trying to learn the ropes of Linux, unless you know the developer and/or can understand all the lines in the script and know it will not bog down your system, or cause lockups, etc. when running multiple programs, etc., would you really want to run someone's script on your desktop OS just to see a list of pictures on your background?

 

To me this would fall under until I know the OS better and under all kinds of circumstances, and am familiar with how to kill things, etc. before adding additional unknown quantities of scripts to the stability of the GUI, I would hold off on this. But that's just me.

 

2b) I'm desperately trying to get League of Legends to work in Wine (I installed and run it via PlayOnLinux) however when I play, no textures at all load. Everything that would have a model or texture is black. I've got S3TC enabled. I've got Wine 1.4 I think, and latest POL. see Edit

 

Maybe wait for Valve native linux version? It should be coming soon. More info here. Another thing is that with some of the high end games, you really need to have more than the standard video drivers for Ubuntu. You would need the driver for nVidia or ATI, or Intel or whatever your card is. Generally nVidia or ATI. I haven't done it yet because my Debian system's hardware isn't up to snuff to play the new high end games. And I don't want the annoyance of having to deal with possibly broken system during upgrades. After you get more familiar with the system, you might want to talk specifically about the nVidia or ATI driver for your system and how to do that and keep it working after upgrades to the system.

 

The other option is to do like your friend and install VirtualBox and run it there till a native Linux version is available. I love VirtualBox. I use it on several computers.

 

3b)My microphone does not seem to want to function. I use Skype a lot, so to my dismay I had found that I could not make Skype calls as I heard no sound and no one heard me. However during that time, in Mumble, I sounded fine and everywhere else I heard sound fine. I saw that removing pulseaudio and installing something else (I think it was esound or something) only made things worse. Attempting to reinstall pulse didn't fix the problem and now in Skype, my mic isn't picked up at all, just silence. In Mumble and in the Voice Recorder my voice isn't picked up and it sounds like listening to white noise. I used to have two mic ports, however one broke (the front, I use the back). Fiddling with the audio settings with the Terminal (I forgot the name of the command that lets you fiddle with various sound settings, my apologies) returned no results whatsoever.

 

Wish our Bruno were still with us! He was a wiz at at getting folks working with audio problems and all kinds of problems. He was amazing. But we do have some great linux users here; many of which were here when Bruno was with us.

 

I have to say that maybe removing pulseaudio may have been a bit of a mistake. Disabling it and installing ALSA might have been a better option. Skype supports pulseaudio and ALSA.

 

Some other thoughts:

 

PulseAudio - Ubuntu Wiki (shows how to install)

 

How to Remove PulsAudio and use ALSA instead

 

Ubuntu and Troubleshooting Skype

 

Hope these answers weren't too redundant and can help some.

 

Again, welcome to SNF, Cayden!

Edited by LilBambi
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Guest LilBambi

As Eric mentioned, for at least for some of the more in-depth issues, like sound, and a few others, it would be good to open threads on each problem. Centering on the specific issue is often much easier for you and us.

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V.T. Eric Layton

I'm very unappreciative towards your dry humour and poorly-masked insult. I may not have a degree in writing, but that doesn't mean that I don't try. It also doesn't mean that I should be chastised for imperfect grammar or spelling. English is not my native language either, so it's not easy for me to explain things in the best ways.

 

It seems that the text-only medium's poor facility for expressing harmless not-meant-to-be-offensive humor failed once again. However, I won't blame the medium so much as myself. I will now step aside from this thread. It seems I've gotten off on the wrong foot with a new member and I don't want to be a hindrance to their further use and enjoyment of this fine board.

 

I use FireFox's built-in spellchecker, which barely functoins at all.

 

A quick note about the above: the board's software has a glitch that requires one to choose the language for the spell checker in Firefox occasionally, usually after deleting cookies from the browser. It's annoying, I must say. RIGHT Click on a blank spot on the text box you're writing in and choose Languages to reset the spell checker.

 

Again, my apologies and best regards,

 

~Eric

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Guest LilBambi

Cayden, please, we all know Eric and it was not meant in a mean way, or as an insult. Eric has a dry wit/sense of humor that most of us find quite endearing. So sorry. You obviously were not aware of that about Eric.

 

Eric always is very helpful to new Linux Explorers. Sometimes we have to step back when anyone posts and think about the different ways in which something can be taken before responding to something. Often it's best to PM and ask what they meant. You know, text is not the easiest communication form, especially between languages. I hope I didn't offend in any way in my responses.

 

Don't forget, it take considerable time to respond to any posting, particularly one with so many items in it. I spent well over an hour (closer to 1.5 hrs) on my response to your posting this morning.

 

Eric is right about the Spellchecker in Firefox. I even did a topic in the Tips and Tricks sub-forum after our upgrade to the new version of the forum software: How to Fix Firefox Spellchecker. Anyone who figures something out in the forum software is welcome to add a topic there with their tutorial about it with our thanks.

Edited by LilBambi
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Of course I don't take being offended too harshly. Oh well.

 

I think it's great that you spent so much time managing my topic. I'll make it easier and separate them into multiple threads as requested.

 

I use all of the software in my system because that's what was bundled with it. Thunderbird is no exception. I want to use a client-sided email program because I'd like instant e-mail notification and other features.

 

I can't run these virtualization options because I'm stuck with Linux.

Edited by Cayden
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securitybreach

I can't run these virtualization options because I'm stuck with Linux.

 

What virtualization are you referring to? If you mean running other OSs as a virtual machine, you should check out VirtualBox. Just search for it in the Ubuntu package manager and install it or follow this howto guide: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/VirtualBox

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My bad, I had thought we were talking about running virtual Linux within a Windows environment - I didn't know Linux supported virtualization.

Linux invented virtualization (just kidding, it was invented by IBM in the 1960s :) ).

Most of the world's internet servers run Linux and a good percentage are nowadays virtual.

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