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After having installed KDE 4.3 on my ubuntu installation and really enjoying using it, I decided I wanted the full Ubuntu/KDE experience. So I decided to wipe my Ubuntu installation and install Kubuntu 9.04. It turns out the switch wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. There we’re definitely a few stumbling blocks along the way.
First I couldn’t get tomboy notes to work. I’m aware that KDE offers Basket Notepad but I really prefer Tomboy. I love the wiki style and simplicity of it. I could install it fine but attempting to launch gave me errors. I never did quite figure out what the issues was but I knew it was very important for me to get it working as all my installation notes we’re in tomboy which I sync to dropbox so I can have available to me anywhere (this is really handy as tomboy also has a windows version so I can run them back and forth). Well after much goggling I discovered it’s some kind of issue that won’t let tomboy run with out gnome. Well I thought, at the very least I can install ubuntu in virtualbox and access my notes this way. So that’s what I proceeded to do. Well I decided to have a look at the article on how to forge entitled The Perfect Desktop – Kubuntu 9.04 This article is very thorough and allowed me to get everything I needed on kubuntu without the primary use of my notes.
After following the guide and picking the software I wanted (I didn’t install all the software mentioned as I use alternatives to some of them) I then went to google to search for a way to test my browser plugins. This is when I noticed I had no sound in my browser. Flash, totem and mplayer remained silent. So off to google again. Many hours and much goggling later I discovered the reason for my sound issues was that Kubuntu does not install pulseaudio by default. So I needed to install it. So I followed the instructions found in this post. But for some reason I still had no sound. This drove me completely insane, at this point I was highly frustrated. Well somewhere in the mirad of google pages I came across a post and the reply to that post was that this person had discovered that their PCM volume was turned down and when they turned it up they had sound. So I checked my PCM volume using the mixer option available when clicking on the volume in the system tray and sure enough it was turned all the way down. Now I had sound in my browser. Flash, Mplayer totem they all worked!
Supposedly they are working on these sound issues and most of them should be fixed with the release of Karmic Koala in October. I really hope so as this is a bit complicated for anyone to fix.
I updated my KDE to 4.3 which is far superior to the KDE that ships with Kubuntu Jaunty. The widgets are great and I love using them, also I noticed that the networking widget, which refused to work under kde installed on top of ubuntu, now worked perfectly under Kubuntu. Also I no longer have annoying sounds when using gtk applications under kde this was the most annoying thing about using kde ontop of ubuntu.
I almost forgot to mention that after following the Perfect Desktop article, my tomboy notes began working. So I have installed now and running as well. From the error I was recieveing when attempting to launch it through the terminal, I know it was some kind of Mono error, though I can’t be sure what as I don’t know anything about programming.
I’m running Neverwinter Nights 2 with wine on my new rig
- Systemax PC
- CPU: AMD Athlon 64×2 4400
- RAM: 3 GB DDR2 800 (PC2-6400)
- Display: Nvidia Geforce 7600 GS
I installed using the 7 Disk PC/CD version in order to get it working I had to use winetricks I installed the following with winetricks:
- DirectX9 (not d3dx9 but the actual DirectX9)
- dotnet20
- vcrun2005
- vcrun2005sp1
in order to update to the latest version I ran
/home/angel/.wine/drive_c/windows/regedit.exe
and changed the value of
HKey_Local_Machine>Software>Obsidian>NWN2>Neverwinter>NWUpdate
from 0 to 1
The only issue I had was that the game only recognized a resolution of 1024×768 so I had to edit
/home/angel/Neverwinter Nights 2/nwn2.ini
manually and put in my 1600×900 resolution. All this info I found at The Wine Appdb.
I hope this information helps other people.
Today I have my very first all Linux Box! This system came without an OS and windows has never touched it. First Some Specs:
- Systemax AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ 2.30GHz
- 3GB DDR2 800 (PC2-6400)
- 250GB Hard Drive
- 9-in-1 Media Reader
- Realtek ALC883 High Definition Integrated Audio
- DVD±R/RW
- Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 6100
- I have added a NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS 512 mb card
We paid $249.97 for it from tiger direct.
The other PC works fine, we purchased this with the intent on taking the other computer to the living room and hooking the T.V. up to it. We are planning to cancel our cable to save more money in the long run.
After getting the box setup in it’s proper location, I proceeded to turn it on. It of course informed me that there was no OS and I should pick something to boot from. I inserted the Ubuntu 9.04 disk & within 20 minutes had a fully functioning Ubuntu Desktop.
The System runs great I also finally have a working microphone, as my other p.c. had some sort of bug which refused to allow the microphone to work in Linux.
I’m totally stoked about having a new rig which runs Ubuntu so wonderfully.
I have several websites that I reference regularly while playing Guild War. Firefox is a great browser and I love it to death, but being on Linux, and loving to customize stuff I decided to install Epiphany and now I have it set up as my Guild wars browser. It works great as it’s light weight and doesn’t add much extra pull to the system while running my game. I made the home page the Official Guild Wars Wiki, as I use it constantly. and the only bookmarks (Outside of google) are several other Guild Wars websites which I placed as bookmarks on my toolbar. I just love customization!
Well The upgrade seems to have went fine, I’m really digging the new notifications, they are so much nicer looking than the old ones…I guess I tell the hubby to back up his stuff and try to upgrade his system as well. Response times are nice.
I did have to upgrade my xfire plugin for pidgin it was causing pidgin to crash, as well as re-installing banshee which the upgrade saw fit to remove. Everything else seems peachy 
Guess this means I’ll have to re-gimp my forum signature…
Can’t wait for the disc any longer (I know I’m so impatient) so I’m attempting an upgrade, files are downloading as I type. I already did my backups, and I have a separate /home so I figure if any goes sour I can always re-install 8.10.
Wish me luck! I’ll let you know how it goes….
It has recently come to my attention that Linux operating systems are being completely ignored by the major T.V. networks of ABC, NBC, and FOX. They are using a player for their online shows called Move Media Player. This player does not work on Linux, therefore completely alienating us as a user base.
This could be bad news for any new linux user, and add to the number preinstalled systems being returned, Lot’s of new users may not have the patience to try and install say firefox in wine, or look up other ways to get their programs, which seem to have played fine on their old windows system. If Linux is to grow it’s presence in the market this behaviour needs to be addressed.
There is currently a petition to ask them to use another player as well all Linux users should write The Networks asking them to choose another player. Here are the links below.
I know it’s been a bit since I’ve posted , so I figured I would share what I’ve been doing with Ubuntu since the last time.
First off I finally decided to try out KDE and have installed KDE 4.3 along side gnome. It took a bit of getting used to but once I figured out how to get it set up the way I wanted it’s not been bad at all. The widgets are nice, and I enjoy having them there. I’ve also grown to like Amarok 2, it’s been a while since I used the older version, so I can’t make a comparison, but this Amarok has been working quite nicely for me.
I have always preferred Kopete’s Layout over pidgins, it just seems a bit cleaner to me, though I still use pidgin for facebook, myspace, and IRC.
Once I got into investigating how to configure Kmail it’s quite lovely, I have also been using akregator for my news feeds and it’s working out quite well.
I Still prefer Tomboy for my notes, and I still use firefox for my default browser. I have konqueror set up as a guild wars browser, which I use only while playing Guild wars for quick wiki checks or price checks. Firefox running with Guild Wars seems to push the CPU up.
I still feel that KDE runs best on Ubuntu, where to me Kubuntu feels like there is still a lot of back end work to be done to get it right.
So Anyway that’s what I’ve been up to these past few months.
I’ve been looking into Linux Games lately I did demo Knights and Merchants from http://www.linuxgamepublishing.com But it just didn’t have zing you hope to see in a video game. The graphics weren’t that great and the game seemed a bit difficult to learn. It would be great to find some good Linux games, but as of yet I’m at a loss. though I’m still enjoying my Guild Wars 😀
Well a few weeks ago I was messing around on the web and discovered ning . Having seen soo many threads shut down or closed in the ubuntu forums cafe because they strayed to far from the forums main agenda, I decided to give a try at creating a social networking site for Ubuntu Users. The first day a few members signed up. One person named Gary and I began chit chatting, and we really hit it off about where our interests lie in ubuntu. So together we decided we would undertake this project. That was the beginning of the Ubuntu Network . Now a few weeks later we have grown to 30 members and are still growing. It’s quite amazing the feeling the whole community has. Just a bunch of people who share a common interest who want to hang out. The website allows us to blog, discuss topics of interest in the forum, share videos, photo’s and create even smaller groups who want to discuss particular items. If anyone out there is intersted in being social with some fellow Ubuntu users feel free to come on over and join us!
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