Postings by Nigel Ridley

OT: Will they put Kubuntu on this?

New generation laptop - or rather rolltop:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H0K1k54t6A

Installing nvidia driver from cmd line

A guy in work has tried to install 9.10 from the live CD.
The install went OK but he can't log in as his nvidia card is not supported by the nv driver. He
just gets dropped to a shell after X tries to start a few times.

What commands does he need to install the latest (or best) nvidia driver and enable it?

Nigel

Changing browser for Plasma rss news

Where do I change the browser that is opened when clicking on a news item in the Plasma News feed
(RSS) widget?

Nigel

Flash inconsistency 9.10

Running 9.10 from a fresh install.

The page at:
http://www.rapala.com/how2tv/ loads OK and the intro flash movie plays OK. There is a few icons
under the player window to choose a different lure. There is also an icon to choose from a
complete list. There should be a slider bar under the visible icons which allows you to see and
choose other icons.

Here's the annoying bit. Firefox (3.6) and Opera will not show anything in the pop-up window
(after clicking on the 'Video Playlist' icon/button) which should show a list of choices.

Any thoughts on Miro?

I came across an application called Miro (Open-source, non-profit video player and podcast
client) advertised on the Firefox website and wanted to know what you guys thought about it
before I installed it.
http://www.getmiro.com/

Any thoughts - is it as good as it looks?

It's actually in the repos:

nigel at nigel:~$ apt-cache search miro
democracyplayer - GTK+ based RSS video aggregator (transitional package)
democracyplayer-data - GTK+ based RSS video aggregator data files (transitional package)
miro - GTK+ based RSS video aggregator
miro-data - GTK+ based RSS video aggregator data files
li

Wireless in 9.10

I've tried all the options:- KNetWorkManager; Network-Manager-Gnome and Wicd. All of them work
for a while then start making problems.
This is on a Dell Vostro with several users.
My own Dell Inspiron 1525 has KNetWorkManager and hasn't caused any problems at all.

The main problem on the multi-user laptop is when someone "switches users" to log in. Only Wicd
consistently allows all users to choose from the visible routers. But this weekend Wicd abruptly
gave a message that no wireless routers were visible.

eBay Desktop & Adobe Air

I was trying to find a Plasma widget to keep a track of 'My eBay' and came across the eBay
Desktop [http://desktop.ebay.com/] It requires Adobe Air [http://get.adobe.com/air/].

Anybody want to offer their view on the above apps?
I really wanted a Plasma widget and am not too happy about installing unnecessary propriety software.

Thoughts about the usefulness of the above apps would be most welcome.

Blessings,

Nigel

Gwenview & printing Landscape

I just printed a map using Gwenview. I chose 'Landscape' and it printed in 'Portrait' but with
half the map missing.
Is this a 'feature'? - has anyone else noticed this or is it a bug?

Nigel

KnetworkManager vs. Network-Manager-Gnome

Ok. I tried both on a multi-user laptop.

KnetworkManager doesn't always load for some users - have to start it manually with a 'Alt-F2
knetworkmanager'.
Network-Manager-Gnome won't load if another user is already logged in (ie. second user does a
'Switch User') but the internet connection is still active - just can't adjust any settings (like
switching to a different active router). Doing a 'Alt-F2 nm-applet' still won't put a
Network-Manager-Gnome icon in the 'System Settings Tray'.

So which is best?
I have still to try wicd.....

Nigel

Knetworkmanager not starting 9.10

We have a Dell Vostro laptop running Kubuntu 9.10. There are several user accounts.
Sometimes Knetworkmanager will not start for an individual user and has to be started manually. I
even added it to the 'System Settings > Advanced > Autostart' and it still refuses to start
automatically. This is not the case for all users all the time. It did happen once to my wife's
account but a log-out/log-in fixed it.

How do I get it to start as it should?

If I decide to use network-manager-gnome instead, how can I make sure that knetworkmanager stops
loading - forever?

Blessings,

Nigel

Spell checking & Firefox 3.6

With Firefox [3.5.5] from the repos, it underlines spelling mistakes as I type.
I downloaded 3.6 beta 2 and extracted it to /home/nigel (I also tried it in /opt).
Flash works - Java doesn't (but it does in 3.5.5); neither does spell checking (which I tend to
rely on).

How do I symlink to the necessary plugins and where are they?
I did find a bunch in /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins but couldn't find anything about spell checking.

Nigel

Firefox 3.6 beta

I have downloaded Firefox 3.6 beta from Mozilla and extracted it to /home. Flash etc. works but
the spell checking doesn't.
How do I symlink it to the various dictionaries like aspell? Or should I just move it to /opt?

Blessings,

Nigel

Disabling touchpad tapping in 9.10

OK. No Xorg.conf in 9.10 -- so how do I disable touchpad tapping?
In Jaunty it was simply a case of adding:
Option "MaxTapTime" "2"
to the Synaptic Touchpad section of xorg.conf

So what do I edit? Is it something to do with /etc/hal/fdi/policy/10_keymap.fdi ?

Blessings,

Nigel

Enabling Ctrl-Alt-Backspace in 9.10

If you want to enable the Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to kill the x-server then here's how:

First of all it's not in a logical place at all!!

'System Settings' > 'Country/Region & Language' > 'Keyboard Layout' > 'Advanced' tab.
You then need to scroll just over half way down to find the entry 'Key sequence to kill the X
server' - check the box next to 'Control + Alt + Backspace' and then click 'Apply'.

Now you have control over your machine once again........

Told you it was in a strange illogical place!

Nigel

Default measurements in OpenOffice

I was changing mt Default Template in OpenOffice and can't figure out how to set the margins etc.
in cm instead of inches :-(
I did search the web but the same issues have been around for years and nothing newer than a
couple of years ago.

Is there a way to do it?

Blessings,

Nigel

'Indicator Display' on Panel 9.10

What is the 'Indicator Display'(the one with an envelope icon) on the Panel in 9.10 for?
When I hover the mouse over it it pops up a notification window that says:
Indicator Display
No applications running

So what is it for?

Blessings,

Nigel

Panel config in 9.10

I just did a clean install of 9.10 and can't find where to configure the 'Panel' :-(
I want to be able to hide all of the open window notifications except for the one associated with
the 'desktop' that is visible.

Blessings,

Nigel

Doing a clean install of 9.10

So after reading that some on the list had problems with their upgrades, I've decided to do a
clean install of 9.10.

Not wanting to wipe my [separate] /home partition - how do I know which _is_ my /home partition?
This might sound like a stupid question but there used to be a time when /home was on, say, hda5;
nowadays with all this uid (or whatever it's called) there is no hda5, hda1 etc. only [stupid]
unrecognizable too_long_for_humans_to_remember numbers!

So how do I format /root and not /home?

Blessings,

Nigel

Mp3 tags problem

Using EasyTag on 9.04
I have a sandisk Sansa Mp3 player and have downloaded an audio book in Mp3.
The problem that I am having is that the 'book' chapters don't play on the sansa in the correct
order. So I opened up EasyTag and changed the tags etc. using ID3 v.2.4 but no joy. The
'book'/Album is still listed as 'Unknown' and the playing order is still not correct.

Is there something I'm missing?

Blessings,

Nigel

CD audio ripping in Jaunty

What's with Jaunty and ripping audio CD's? First a dialogue window doesn't pop up and ask me what
I want to do. I then unsuccessfully tried to mount it so that I could see its content in Dolphin,
and hopefully, as in the old Konqueror, just copy the 'MP3' folder to my home folder.
I also tried K3B but it kept giving errors every time I tried to rip the audio CD.

In the end I stuffed the CD in my daughter's Gutsy box and it is ripping just fine.

Is it going to work properly in Karamel Kola (aka 9.10)?

Blessings,

Nigel

List of user installed apps

How do I get a list of user installed apps? (getting prepared 9.10).

I already know the following but it gives all installed apps:
dpkg --get-selections > list-of-installed-packages

Blessings,

Nigel

OT: extracting codec info from an mpeg video file

Sorry for the OT questions.
I have managed to find on the web a short video clip with a .mpg file extension which plays on an
Artech Portable DVD Player :-) I now would like to be able to find out how the said file is built
ie. what do I have to do to replicate its make-up.
Any cmd line suggestions? I did look through the man pages for ffmpeg but no joy and I also
scoured the web but again no joy :-(

TIA

Blessings,

Nigel

OT: converting files to mpeg4

I know this is not a Kubuntu specific question but I have searched all over the web and the
DownloadHelper site:
Using Firefox and the DownloadHelper addon I am trying to convert some .flv fishing clips to
mpeg4 to play on a Artech Portable DVD Player (it states that it can play mpeg4 videos). After
trying several options in the DownloadHelper conversion menus I still cannot get the burnt CD to
play in the Artech Portable DVD Player.

Kubuntu [simple] DVD authoring tools

Running 9.04

OK, I've Googled the subject line and read loads of tutorials etc and got information overload....

I just want to take a collection of .mwv [fishing] video clips and burn them to DVD (for stand
alone players) so that I can give them to some friends for their encouragement.
How can I get all of them to play one after another with/without user intervention?
The apps that I looked at all seemed geared to create titles and menus etc.

Any suggestions? cmd line is OK.

Blessings,

Nigel

Lost sound control after yesterday's updates

Dell Inspiron 1525 running Jaunty.

I updated my laptop yesterday which included the new kernel (2.6.28-13-generic) and I have now
lost the ability to adjust the volume control by either the touch buttons on the laptop or
scrolling whilst hovering over the speaker icon on the panel.
I can only adjust the volume by opening KMix and using the sliders.

Does this affect other users of different hardware, or is it specific to the Inspiron 1525?

Blessings,

Nigel

OT: Latest Firefox 3.5 beta4

http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html
Just a heads-up for those that want to try the latest....

Blessings,

Nigel

Jaunty Kate not saving sessions

Kate has always saved open documents when either I logged out or closed Kate. Now however Kate
always starts with a blank session regardless of any settings that I make.
Anybody else noticed this [annoying] behavior?

Blessings,

Nigel

Jaunty Plasma 'Notification' bug?

Yesterday I used Dolphin to transfer some pdf files to my website using the ftp protocol. As they
were being uploaded a blue 'information' icon appeared in the 'System Tray' part of the panel
(taskbar) and a box displaying the transfer process appeared below it. Wonderful - but when the
transfer ended neither the notification icon nor the info box go away. If I click on the
notification icon the box disappears only to reappear again.
How do I get rid of them both?

Blessings,

Nigel

Flash and Linux

There seems to be a general problem with Flash and Linux. There are some websites that have an
abundance of Flash content and Linux can't seem to handle it well. I mean that when viewing these
websites suddenly the processor[s] jump to around 99%, the temp. rise dramatically, the fans
works overtime and the website slows to a crawl. This is compounded when more than one tab is
opened from the same website.

Task Manager settings

How do I configure the Task Manager so that it only shows the open window[s] for the current
desktop? At the moment it is showing all open windows on all desktops.
In KDE 3.5.x it was easy.....
The option I'm looking for is - in KDE 3.5.x - Taskbar Settings > uncheck 'Show Windows From All
Desktops'.
So where is that in KDE 4.2?

Blessings,

Nigel