User:Skierpage

From KDE UserBase Wiki

I've followed the project for a while, running KDE-Windows under Windows XP (it's amazing that it works at all, that it works pretty well is astounding!)

April 2009 I went and installed Kubuntu on a spare partition. Lots of struggle.

Early notes at

Notes on Amarok at

Setup

I've maintained a dual-boot environment, so I mount my C: drive: 

/dev/sda1 on /media/WindowsCdrive type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096)

Notes on Kubuntu installation

Boot from CD

  • Should be a warning that test disk will require a reboot

Install from CD

  • The Kubuntu logo screen should say what it's doing.
    "Now loading enough of the Kubuntu operating system and programs to provide you a graphic installer. (Nothing is yet being installed on your disks"
  • Install progress bar got about 70% of the way then got some screen flickers and then over 30 seconds with a blank gray screen.

In the installer

Release Notes and web

Running Konqueror to read the release notes is amazing!

  • Clicking Release Notes takes me to http://www.kubuntu.org/news. But this has nothing about 9.04 release notes!! It has a news item on 9.04, but that's it.
  • The news item ends with
    What's New?
 Kubuntu 9.04 includes an upgraded desktop containing many bug fixes, new configuration options, as well as many new and updated applications. Below are some highlights.
 some white space
 Kubuntu Jaunty KDE 3 Remix Release Candidate

There's no indication that the item is truncated or that there's more info if I click the heading.

  • In https://wiki.kubuntu.org/ , the [Titles] and [Text] buttons at the top right for search look funny, with rounded buttons over rectangles with lines. And if the tip of the cursor is on the button text, the button doesn't highlight and is inactive; the button only highlights if the cursor tip is in the top 1/3 of the button,

Back to installer

  • The full-screen "Where are you" is impressive. But when I click in the San Francisco Bay Area, it keeps selecting the timezone to the right of it! It seems to be picking the nearest city it knows about (Boise), rather than selecting that timezone. Quite confusing. If you're going to keep this approach, it should highlight the nearest cities as you hover, or always select the nearest city in the same timezone. I can only select my timezone if I click far away near Vancouver or Los Angeles!!
  • I chose my Keyboard Layout and clicked [Forward]. A small dialog about filesystems briefly flashed and [Back] and [Forward] disabled. Then nothing. My cursor is not spinning, and the page 3 is active, I can type into the test typing box. What happened??! After more than 50 seconds of this no feedback, it advanced to Step 4.
  • In Step 4 I chose partition manually. A small Scanning partitions window appeared for several seconds (didn't it already display this earlier?) That box had a (?) symbol on it with a "Help" tooltip, but it is completely useless, in this dialog and the next "Edit Partition" there's no

Partitioning

I want to keep my first partition for Windows. I had already set aside a 27GB D: partition for Ubuntu. Automatic partitioning wanted to use the entire disk for Ubuntu!

  • there needs to be an intermediate "guided partitioning"

So I chose manual partitioning, but that dumps me into choosing file systems and stuff. I read up about home and swap and dual-booting before going into the installer, but I really need help here. Like the _Release Notes_ link at the start of install, there should be a link to a some help here.

I clicked my second partition and the 'Edit Partition' dialog popped up (with another useless (?) help cursor button). I chose "Use as ext4", Format the partition check, Mount point /

  • "Use as" is the wrong label, it doesn't match the table column "Type" on the main page; the label should be something like "File system type"
  • Having a separate checkmark for format doesn't make sense if I choose a different file system type. If it's NTFS and I set it to ext4, surely the partition needs to be formatted sooner or later.
  • I would expect a form item "Use as" to let me choose what is going on the partition, e.g. "Use as main Linux area ('/' or root)", "use as home area (/home directories), etc." That's a lot friendlier than the label "Mount point"


  • When I clicked [OK] there was a pause and a cursor and then scanning drives appeared, and then the main window showed "Type" ext4. Had the program formatted the partition yet? It could be clearer.
  • I couldn't figure out how to create logical partitions inside my D: partition. Adjusting the size gave me a scary warning about making immediate changes; are these destructive or not?!

Thankfully user "Firefishe" helped me out, I wound up with 

/dev/sda divided into...
  /dev/sda1  ntfs  83.8 GB hopefully untouched
  /dev/sda2 ext3 / Format? checked Size 20003 MB Used 495MB
  /dev/sda3 ext4 /home Format? checked Size 7994 MB Used Unknown
  /dev/sda5 swap mount and Format blank, Size 2006 MB Used Unknown

Step 6 confirmation

 WARNING: This will destroy all data on any partitions you have removed as

well as on the partitions that are going to be formatted. 

 The partition tables of the following devices are changed:
 SCSI4 (0,0,0) (sda)

 The following partitions are going to be formatted:
 partition #3 of SCSI4 (0,0,0) (sda) as ext4
 partition #5 of SCSI4 (0,0,0) (sda) as swap

Alas, "Migration Assistant:" is blank, it never detected my C: drive full of Windows stuff.


Scared about the missing sda4, so went back.

Clicking [Back] from step 5 briefly displayed a checking disks window, and then nothing for many seconds.

Step 4 had forgotten my additional partitioning after the root, I had to repeat it.

redo

The /dev/sda5 was because I let it be logical, not physical.

Now, 

 /dev/sda1  ntfs  Size 90025 MB (83.8 GB) hopefully untouched
 /dev/sda2 ext3 Mount / Format? checked  Size 20003 MB Used 495 MB
 /dev/sda3 ext4 Mount /home Format? checked  Size 8003 MB Used unknown
 /dev/sda4 swap Mount [blank] Format? [blank] Size 1998 MB Used unknown

Step 6 says 

Language: English
Keyboard layout: USA
Name: S Page
Login name: skierpage
Location: America/Los_Angeles
Migration Assistant:


If you continue, the changes listed below will be written to the disks. Otherwise, you will be able to make further changes manually.

WARNING: This will destroy all data on any partitions you have removed as well as on the partitions that are going to be formatted.

The partition tables of the following devices are changed: SCSI4 (0,0,0) (sda)

The following partitions are going to be formatted: partition #2 of SCSI4 (0,0,0) (sda) as ext3 partition #3 of SCSI4 (0,0,0) (sda) as ext4

partition #4 of SCSI4 (0,0,0) (sda) as swap

Then went off!

User Firefishe is awesome!!

Who needs decent doc for this step with him or her around!

firefishe @ inbox.com

Kubuntu glitches

Konqueror

  • kde bug filed "The [Icon] History in your SideBar "
    I can't tell what the icon is in the black background, and the menu calls it Go > Show History in Sidebar (not 'SideBar).
  • I ran into Bug 189761: Middle-clicking does not work in Konqueror if gestures are enabled.

Kubuntu Help

  • "Open Add/Remove Programs by going to Application Launcher → System → Package Manager (Add/Remove)."
    1. I have to navigate to the Applications tab first before I see "System"
    2. No such application, it's "Software management (KPackageKit)"
  • bug 367224 In Kubuntu System Documentation Index, click "How do I view my Windows partition?", get
    There is no documentation available for /kubuntu/index/kubuntu/hardware/hardware.html.
  • bug 367219 Tried to search, nothing but a black box (checkmark?) for Unix manual pages, the installer should have built search index.
  • Clicking Build Search Index... didn't work, brought up a dialog with another checkmark "Application Manuals Status Missing"
    • Status missing mis-aligned.
  • bug 367215 Clicking build anyway, got error

(7729)/ main: cmdFile: "/tmp/kde-skierpage/khelpcenterqp4796.tmp" (7729)/ main: indexDir: "/home/skierpage/.kde/share/apps/khelpcenter/index/" (7729)/ main: can access (7729)/ KHC::IndexBuilder::IndexBuilder: IndexBuilder() (7729)/ KHC::IndexBuilder::buildIndices: Opened file ' "/tmp/kde-skierpage/khelpcenterqp4796.tmp" ' (7729)/ KHC::IndexBuilder::buildIndices: LINE: "/usr/lib/kde4/libexec/khc_docbookdig.pl --indexdir=/home/skierpage/.kde/share/apps/khelpcenter/index/ --docpath=khelpcenter:kde_application_manuals --identifier=kde_application_manuals" (7729)/ KHC::IndexBuilder::processCmdQueue: IndexBuilder::processCmdQueue() (7729)/ KHC::IndexBuilder::processCmdQueue: PROCESS: "/usr/lib/kde4/libexec/khc_docbookdig.pl --indexdir=/home/skierpage/.kde/share/apps/khelpcenter/index/ --docpath=khelpcenter:kde_application_manuals --identifier=kde_application_manuals"

INDEXDIR: /home/skierpage/.kde/share/apps/khelpcenter/index/

FINDCMD: find /usr/share/doc/kde/HTML/en/ -name index.docbook Creating index for 'kde_application_manuals'

htdig failed

(7729)/: running ("/usr/lib/kde4/libexec/khc_docbookdig.pl", "--indexdir=/home/skierpage/.kde/share/apps/khelpcenter/index/", "--docpath=khelpcenter:kde_application_manuals", "--identifier=kde_application_manuals") failed with exitCode 255 (7729)/: stdout output: "" (7729)/: stderr output: "" (7729)/ KHC::IndexBuilder::sendProgressSignal: IndexBuilder::sendProgressSignal()

(7729)/ KHC::IndexBuilder::processCmdQueue: IndexBuilder::processCmdQueue() (7729)/ KHC::IndexBuilder::quit: IndexBuilder::quit()

I think because /usr/bin/htdig does not exist.

KPackageKit

  • Didn't know about Firefox, unlike what the Kubuntu help said
  • Clicking its bottom-left [Help] button popped up Help Center which alerted
    Kioslaves > mbox "The file or folder help:/ does not exist"

InstallingSoftware out-of-date

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallingSoftware says "Kubuntu's new and easy method of installing packages is to use the 'Add/Remove Programs' tool." with a screenshot of "adept"

Not there any more! adept not around.

Flash install

Went to flash page, http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ , Konq popped up dialog asking if it should install plugin. Installed a lot of things. But still didn't work. dpkg and aptitude and KPackageKit thought I had flashplugin-installer, flashplugin-nonfree, and konqueror-nsplugins installed, yet no Flash in Konqueror. I quit and restarted, still none.

Answer! After everything auto-installs, you have to do Settings > Configure Konqueror... > Plugins > Plugins tab and click [Scan for Plugins] !

No sound in Flash

E.g. ftp://www.skierpage.com/www.skierpage.com/docs/olpc/flash_tests/embed_car_smash.html

Dog on internet recommended web page with alsa-oss. That didn't help.

/usr/bin/package-install

I think Konqueror is popping up /usr/bin/package-install.

  • ? How can I find a log of what this did? I don't see a history in KPackageKit
  • BUG: kdesudo "/usr/bin/install-package --install NoSUCHFoo"
    no such package NoSUCHFoo     , but the dialog says "already installed"

logout thingy

I pressed Ctrl-Alt-Del, got a logout chooser, but I couldn't choose Cancel with mouse or keyboard. I finally started killing processes at random in a shell.

MP3 install

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats suggests `sudo apt-get install kubuntu-restricted-extras` to play MP3s. says 51 newly installed packages/221 MB, seems a lot just to play MP3s in Amarok.

Answer! The minimal is `sudo apt-get install libxine1-ffmpeg`, only 8MB!

KHelp Center

  • Clicking KInfoCenter >IEEE 1394 Devices gives
    There is no documentation available for /kinfocenter/view1394/index.html.

and an alert "The file or folder help:/kinfocenter/view1394/index.html does not exist"

  • Clicking "Browse Info Pages" takes you to DIR:top with nonsensical instructions like "Typing "q" exits, "?" lists all Info commands, "d" returns here,"
  • help:/khelpcenter/userguide/kicker-configuring.html seems out-of-date:
    • Says "kicker displays some icons next to the K menu. ", but I just have a starred folder icon.
    • Says "To remove an icon, right mouse button-click on the icon, and select Remove application name Button " but the starred folder icon's right-click menu has "Remove this Quick Access"
    • Says "To add a new icon, right mouse button-click on an empty space on the panel, and follow the menu entry Add Application to Panel ." but ther's no empty space, I couldn't do it. Even when there is empty space, there's no such menu item.
  • help:/khelpcenter/userguide/kicker-related-information.html says "there is a lot more information on Kicker ... simply entering help:/kicker" But this doesn't work, no such document.

Jockey hardware drivers window crash

367265

ubuntu.com

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Video says

You can back it up:
  cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.old

doesn't work unless you prepend sudo

Font trouble

Click System Settings > Font Installer right-click "AR PL UMing TW MBE", choose Open in Font Viewer", get alert 

 Could not read font.

also for other fonts like "AR PL UMing HK[1]

Tried Running KPackageKit

No Firefox in it, despite what KHelpCenter says.

Tried vim. Very confused by + and minus signs. The moment I clicked OK the window vanished, no feedback.

Seele's blog post about its update tab has more comments on it, including mine.

Missing Help

I explored why broken help for KInfoCenter > IEEE 1394 shows up in KHelpCenter. (see /usr/share/kde4/services/kcmview1394.desktop ). Part of mega launchpad bug about docs, https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/284915

Sometimes Help button for KDE Connection Manager

But why does e.g kcmshell4 kcmsolidproc have a [Help] button that doesn't work (goes to help:/ which doesn't work), while `kcmshell4 kcm_solid` knows to gray it out?

Something deep within http://lxr.kde.org/source/KDE/kdelibs/kutils/kcmultidialog.cpp ? KPageDialog ?

strace woes

I tried using strace to debug the KCM mysteries but it kept crashing on me. 

 *** glibc detected *** strace: malloc(): memory corruption (fast): 0x0000000002642610 ***

is another launchpad bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/16762, with possible workaround in bugs.redhat

but sometimes get 

 *** glibc detected *** strace: munmap_chunk(): invalid pointer: 0x00000000008107d0

Thunderbird switch

I want to run Thunderbird 3 beta 2 on Windows XP.

Thunderbird 3 start-up errors

(thunderbird-bin:32711): Gtk-WARNING **: /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/engines/libqtcurve.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64
GConf Error: Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information. (Details -  1: Could not send message to gconf daemon: The name org.gnome.GConf was notprovided by any .service files)

but it seems to start.

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