An Ordinary User’s Adventures In Linux
I helped an elderly friend set up his new PC yesterday. His previous machine, over a decade old, was running Windows XP. I had set up an Ubuntu dual-boot a few years back, and he liked playing the games. But then the Linux boot stopped working--there was a message to the effect “hd0 out of disk”, which sounded like a GRUB problem (“hd0” being a GRUB disk name, not a Linux disk name). I booted up SystemRescueCD, and found that disk space was ample. I did an fsck on the Linux volume, and found no filesystem problems. I ran a badblocks scan, and it reported several bad sectors, though oddly they only seemed to be in the Windows partition (if I interpreted the numbers correctly). Naturally I searched online, but the hits I found for that error message didn’t seem very helpful. Reinstalling GRUB didn’t help, so I concluded there were likely other hardware problems, so time for a new machine. He got an entry-level dual-core AMD box from PBTech--their own house build, in a CoolerMaster case--for well under a grand. Nothing fancy, but good enough for his needs--mainly Web browsing, e-mail, a little bit of word processing, and those games. The PBTech box came without an OS. He could have got Windows 10 for it, but considering he would be facing a learning curve coming from XP regardless, I suggested going 100% Linux for all his daily needs, to see if that would work. He could always spend the $160-odd extra on Windows later if need be. So I set it up with Linux Mint, since that seems to be everybody’s favourite :). He was already using Firefox on Windows, so moving all his Web bookmarks across was easy. The Mint install put an icon for Thunderbird on the desktop by default, so I decided to try that for e-mail. Getting his address book across from Outlook Express was fairly straightforward, once I figured out how to map the exported CSV field names correctly. The mail messages were slightly more fiddly, but I found this extension <https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/> which directly loads Microsoft’s .dbx files, and that seemed to work OK. Then he wanted to play CDs. When we put in an audio CD, it came up with options to run Banshee (media player) or Brasero (disc burner). The Banshee media player wouldn’t play the CD directly, it insisted on ripping it to the hard drive first. This was not really what he wanted. I had a look round, and found KsCD, which will indeed play audio CDs without trying to rip them to audio files first. As far as I know, this is the only GUI Linux app that can do so. So, day 1 ended on a reasonably successful note. He was already noticing how much faster the new machine was. So we’ll see how it goes from here...
On Fri, Oct 28, 2016 at 12:14 PM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo(a)geek-central.gen.nz> wrote:
I helped an elderly friend set up his new PC yesterday. His previous machine, over a decade old, was running Windows XP. I had set up an Ubuntu dual-boot a few years back, and he liked playing the games.
How is he getting on with games on the new Linux box? Might be worth installing Steam. Lots of choice for Linux (many free to play) - including majority of Valve games. Virtual box or running Wine is another option for gaming on Linux (especially for those windows/osx only titles). I've played WoW with Wine in the past. Cheers, William.
On Fri, 28 Oct 2016 14:32:11 +1300, William Mckee wrote:
How is he getting on with games on the new Linux box? Might be worth installing Steam.
He’s not into that level of gaming. “Mahjongg” and “Freecell” are about the sort of thing he likes. So the standard Debian/Ubuntu/Mint game packages are quite sufficient. Day 2: we got the Canon printer going. That, too, was fairly painless. Not that he expects to be doing much printing...
I wrote:
Day 2: we got the Canon printer going. That, too, was fairly painless.
Apropos that particular model (the i560), according to this <https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/details/printers/support-inkjet-printer/i-series/i560-series>, Canon only supports Windows versions up to 7. Score another one for Linux’s superior hardware support. :)
Day 112: the old printer seems to be having print-head trouble, so time to buy a new printer. Of course the folks at the shop had no idea about Linux. Myself I would have recommended an Epson or HP model, since I have first-hand experience with those brands, but he wanted another Canon. Took it home, unpacked it and plugged it in. Saw a message on the screen that Linux Mint had detected a “Canon MG2500-series” printer. Went into the CUPS printer-management screen; selected the newly-added printer, tried printing a test page. It worked. That was it. No need to go hunting for drivers or anything. By the way, the printer, a Pixma MG2560, was $39.99 at Noel Leeming. Replacement ink cartridges (of the “standard” capacity, same as those that came with the printer) would have added up to over $70. Seems like they would really rather you didn’t bother buying the ink, just get a new printer when the ink runs out...
By the way, the printer, a Pixma MG2560, was $39.99 at Noel Leeming. Replacement ink cartridges (of the “standard” capacity, same as those that came with the printer) would have added up to over $70. Seems like they would really rather you didn’t bother buying the ink, just get a new printer when the ink runs out...
Or use 3rd party cartridges, e.g.: https://ink-direct.co.nz/ Disclaimer: not sure whether your printer manufacturer will brick the printer when you use one of those... Works with our Canon though. Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
Day 6: installing Google Earth. During the initial setup of the machine, I put on a package called “googleearth-package”. Then I found out today that it wasn’t Google Earth itself, but it would construct a Debian package from Google’s installer. Going to Google’s download page <https://www.google.com/earth/download/ge/agree.html>, I found there was already a .deb file. So I thought, fine, I don’t need this “googleearth-package”, I can just download that and install it. It put a bunch of files into /opt/google/earth/free, including an ELF executable (/opt/google/earth/free/googleearth-bin) and a wrapper shell script (/opt/google/earth/free/googleearth and /opt/google/earth/free/google-earth, with one being a symlink to the other so either name will work). But when I tried executing the wrapper script, it kept saying that /opt/google/earth/free/googleearth-bin could not be found. Aha, I thought: I’ve come across this before. First step: check that the executable file actually has executable permissions--yes it does. Second step, use the “ldd” command to verify that it can find all the necessary shared libraries. This looked fine, too, once I’d figured out that the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable needed to point to the containing /opt/google/earth/free/ directory (which the wrapper script took care of). So why the “not found” error? Naturally I did a search online. One of the suggestions was to install the lsb-core package. In the process of doing that, I discovered I had some broken package dependencies which I first had to fix up with “apt-get -f install”. And it worked! Google Earth would now launch. Diagnosis: the ELF executable could find all its immediate dependencies, but some of those libraries in turn needed other dependencies that they could not find. (Odd that ldd didn’t report any such issues, though--that command is supposed to behave almost exactly like running the executable.) I was thinking that Google had an improperly built .deb file that did not correctly report that it needed lsb-core installed as well. But maybe it was just those broken dependencies... And maybe it’s the job of the “googleearth-package” package to take care of all these issues for you...
Hi Lawrence,
I found there was already a .deb file. So I thought, fine, I don’t need this “googleearth-package”, I can just download that and install it.
Did you use gdebi to install it? $ apt-cache search gdebi gdebi-core - simple tool to install deb files gdebi - simple tool to view and install deb files - GNOME GUI gdebi-kde - simple tool to install deb files - KDE GUI GDEBI(1) General Commands Manual GDEBI(1) NAME gdebi - Simple tool to install deb files SYNOPSIS gdebi [package.deb]... DESCRIPTION gdebi lets you install local deb packages resolving and installing its dependencies. apt does the same, but only for remote (http, ftp) located packages. It can also resolve build-depends of debian/control files. https://launchpad.net/gdebi https://packages.debian.org/sid/gdebi <https://packages.debian.org/sid/gdebi> cheers, Ian.
On Tue, 1 Nov 2016 09:39:51 +0000, Ian Stewart wrote:
I found there was already a .deb file. So I thought, fine, I don’t need this “googleearth-package”, I can just download that and install it.
Did you use gdebi to install it?
No, just the usual dpkg.
On Fri, 28 Oct 2016 12:14:55 +1300, I wrote:
So I set it up with Linux Mint ...
Day 15: How to make the mouse pointer larger? I found a dialog entitled “Mouse and Tablet” (I think it was) under the Preferences submenu. That had a nice continuous slider that let you set a whole range of different mouse pointer sizes, and choose from a black or white pointer. Just one problem: it didn’t make a difference to Thunderbird or Firefox. In the desktop, and even in the title bars of application windows, the pointer gets larger, but not within the windows of these applications. Thoughts, anyone?
On Fri, 28 Oct 2016 12:14:55 +1300, I wrote:
I helped an elderly friend set up his new PC yesterday.
Day 35: no sign of Windows withdrawal symptoms as yet. The hard drive on the old machine has been wiped, and I will be taking it to the e-waste recyclers. It’s only a single-core AMD machine, so I don’t think it’s an improvement on what we’re already running at Fairfield, otherwise I’d suggest it for that. I wonder if the recyclers might have anything more modern ... ?
I helped an elderly friend set up his new PC yesterday.
Day 35: no sign of Windows withdrawal symptoms as yet. The hard drive on the old machine has been wiped, and I will be taking it to the e-waste recyclers.
I wonder whether we should turn this into a story for Hamilton Press... :-) Cheers, Peter
On Fri, 28 Oct 2016 12:14:55 +1300, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
Then he wanted to play CDs. ... I had a look round, and found KsCD, which will indeed play audio CDs without trying to rip them to audio files first. As far as I know, this is the only GUI Linux app that can do so.
Day 84: KsCD would only play one track at a time before stopping. Then it gets into a funny state where it won’t skip to the next track without a bit of faffing about. Had a look online, discovered that it hasn’t had much TLC in a long time. After some experimentation on my own machine, I discovered that VLC will also play audio CDs directly without having to rip them first. Set up VLC for him, and was even able to make it the default app that comes up and starts playing when an audio CD is inserted. Just a couple of issues: * For the first few seconds after putting in a disc, playback stutters a little as it seems to be scanning all the tracks to determine their durations. Easy enough to pause playback until this process completes, after which it goes quite smoothly. * Playback order goes by the lexical names it assigns to the tracks, not the actual track order on the disc. Thus, “Track 10.wav” plays before “Track 1.wav”. But he’s not too worried... All in all, the desktop Linux experience seems to be holding up well.
On Thu, 19 Jan 2017 14:41:15 +1300, I wrote:
Set up VLC for him, and was even able to make it the default app that comes up and starts playing when an audio CD is inserted. Just a couple of issues: * For the first few seconds after putting in a disc, playback stutters a little as it seems to be scanning all the tracks to determine their durations. Easy enough to pause playback until this process completes, after which it goes quite smoothly. * Playback order goes by the lexical names it assigns to the tracks, not the actual track order on the disc. Thus, “Track 10.wav” plays before “Track 1.wav”. But he’s not too worried...
Seems the latter irritation, in particular, has become too much to bear. So yesterday I did a further hunt around for alternative audio-CD-playing apps. Found some command-line tools: “cccd”, “cdcd” and “cdtool” (I know, I wasn’t expecting him to type the commands, I was going to wrap them in a double-clickable .desktop file once I was sure they would work). Unfortunately, none of them would do anything: issuing the appropriate play command would simply return without actually starting playback, and no amount of verbose or debug options would show any actual error messages. Then I finally found a GUI-based app called goobox. This plays the tracks in the right order, without trying to rip them. Looks like just the ticket! Only trouble is, Linux Mint refuses to show it in the application menu, or allow it as an option to autolaunch when an audio CD is inserted. So I had to create my own little .desktop file icon for it that he has to manually launch when putting in a CD. I found a file called something like “mimetypes-list” in his user preferences that seemed to be a list of application associations for different media types, and while hand-editing that changed the behaviour so his system now autolaunches Banshee instead of VLC when he inserts a CD (which he then has to dismiss), I couldn’t make it autolaunch goobox instead. Banshee just seems to be the default if there is no custom association. I couldn’t even make it do nothing at all, which would be almost as good. So he always has to first quit the application he doesn’t want, before launching the one he does.
participants (5)
-
Ian Stewart -
Lawrence D'Oliveiro -
Peter Reutemann -
Peter Reutemann -
William Mckee