14.04 LTS - some issues

[Ed1975]

Hi Guys,

I'm new to Ubuntu and just installed and tested the version stated in the title. I must say I found the media creation, booting and installation process not at all easy. I have it on my K: drive (120GB), whereas Windows is installed on my C: drive.

I've run into some issues though and am wondering if anyone can help?

1) How can I make a boot loader that lets me choose between Win 7 and Ubuntu just after the BIOS screen and before any OS loads?

2) My right speaker doesn't work, only the left works

3) Only analogue sound output works (SB Audigy SE)

4) Webcam comes on when I don't request it

5) Amazon app crashes when I open it - entire OS freezes and I have to reboot

6) My Ubuntu drive has completely disappeared in Windows! (Is this normal?)


Other question:

Is Ubuntu as secure online as Win 7? Do I need another firewall other than the one that comes as standard with Ubuntu?

Thanks for your feedback!

Cheers, Ed

[TheFu]

Welcome here. Glad you came.

a) please as only 1 question at a time. Make a good title, so that people with that specific expertise will notice it. Place each individual question into the correct subforum, so that lurkers in those subforums with expertise will notice it. For example, I don't visit the Apple-HW subforum, but hang out in the virtualization subforum, based on my knowledge. Plus I deal with server software much more than desktop software and GUIs.

b) Pretty much any Linux is much, much, much MORE secure than any Windows, especially on the internet. It is a pure numbers thing mostly, but also a system architecture thing. Linux was designed as a multi-user, networked OS from the start, based on UNIX. That is very different from the legacy of Windows, and it shows. Bugs introduced by Windows 3.0 are still showing up in Win8.x! Windows has many more users, so malware/virus/scammers target Windows much more than Linux. Yes, you need a firewall. There is only 1 in Linux - all the other tools advertised are just GUIs over the primary firewall, IPTABLES (though a newer kernel-level firewall is coming to replace iptables). Newer isn't always better, but this will be the 3rd major firewall for Linux since the beginning, so I have great hope it will be easier to use, while still industrial strength protection.

c) Linux file systems are very different from Windows file systems. Natively, Windows cannot read those files, but Linux, due to necessity, can read NTFS/FAT32/vFAT and other partition formats. The disappearing disk in Windows is expected. It isn't "K:" anymore. It is best to refer to it by label or UUID in linux, not the device name. Device names can change based on the environment, labels and UUIDs shouldn't change without a major change to the partition.

d) Some lite reading to get you launched on learning Linux: http://blog.jdpfu.com/2014/12/28/learning-linux Start in order to get the greatest understanding as quickly as possible. Learning Linux is like learning a new language, and mastering it can take decades. The timespan for learning is similar and based on effort/uses. Often, things that seem the same aren't, which can be confusing to folks coming from non-POSIX systems. For example, **never, ever** install software using a .deb file directly. This will probably break your package manager dependencies, which is one of the main reasons that Linux is better than other OSes. You'll end up in APT-hell (or RPM-hell) eventually and have a system that cannot be updated. For the first few years, it is best to only install software using the official repositories. There are 20,000+ packages, so this really shouldn't be a hardship.

e) To my knowledge, Amazon doesn't support Linux, so I would expect every application to not work. Which app is this? How are you trying to run it? Did it install? What do the system log files say about that application? Any errors, warnings? Log files are key and located in /var/log/.

f) When you ask questions, it is helpful to provide a little background. We cannot read minds. "Need the info. Throw me a bone, please." For example, "amazon app" is a little vague.

If you are like many of us here, Linux will change your life. You'll use it more and more for everything and eventually, running some other OS will be the exception, not the rule. I use Windows for 3 specific things and nothing else. Recording TV, cutting commercials from those recordings, Quicken. Everything else happens on Linux.

I truly hope you find Linux as rewarding as I have over the years. It can be a new career, if you are so inclined or just something you boot into occasionally to get 1 task completed. You will decide.

[nerdtron]

I'm new to Ubuntu and just installed and tested the version stated in the title. I must say I found the media creation, booting and installation process not at all easy. I have it on my K: drive (120GB), whereas Windows is installed on my C: drive.

I've run into some issues though and am wondering if anyone can help?

1) How can I make a boot loader that lets me choose between Win 7 and Ubuntu just after the BIOS screen and before any OS loads?

How did you install Ubuntu then? What option during install did you choose? I think if you installed correctly on a dual boot system, Ubuntu will scan all available partitions and OS and will add them to grub. Therefore, i'm on the impression here that windows partition was not detected. Is your windows drive still accessible in Ubuntu?

[Impavidus]

6) My Ubuntu drive has completely disappeared in Windows! (Is this normal?)

It seems Windows is still bootable. Many guides advise to disconnect the Windows drive before installing Ubuntu, and reconnect it afterwards. Then you can select either operating system from the bios menu, choosing the correct hard drive. If this is the case, simply running

sudo update-grub

should detect Windows and add it to the grub menu. Maybe you have to reboot Windows a few times and run a file system check there. Also make sure Windows isn't hibernated. If the grub menu isn't visible at all, you'll have to modify the file /etc/default/grub and set GRUB_TIMEOUT to something decent, like 10, and then run update-grub.

And yes, it's normal that the Ubuntu drive isn't visible in Windows. Windows only lists the partitions it understands in the file manager and it doesn't understand Linux partitions. So it's no longer called the K drive.

About your sound and webcam issues, maybe it's best if you ask that on the multimedia subforum.

[Bucky Ball]

About your sound and webcam issues, maybe it's best if you ask that on the multimedia subforum.

Welcome. Yes, please post new threads for each issue. Gets confusing dealing with more than one a thread. Good luck.

For getting Windows on the selection options at boot, you could open a terminal in Ubuntu and type:

sudo update-grub

Reboot. Is it there? If not, try Boot Repair.

[Sef]

Yes, please post new threads for each issue. Gets confusing dealing with more than one a thread. Good luck.

Also issues can get not responded too, if there is more than one issue listed.

[Ed1975]

Dear All,

Many thanks for your long, considered replies to my post/queries. It's much appreciated.

- Regarding the Amazon app, it's the one that came with 14.04 LTS and is listed in the App launcher strip (or whatever it's called, I don't remember exactly)
I'm running it just by clicking on its icon. I didn't get any error messages, just a complete system freeze/lock-up
Thanks, I'll try to locate the log files, assuming these are still available after reboot.

- I installed Ubuntu by booting from a CD which I'd burned from a download of the OS from the official site

- Yes, my Windows drive is still accessible in Ubuntu; during partitioning the installer program also saw the Windows Loader

- Thanks, I will try the update to grub to get the Windows option; what I am really looking for though is an Ubuntu option from BCD / BOOTMGR bootloader - I know this is possible, as I have it on my laptop with a several-year-old version of Ubuntu that I played with very briefly

- Thanks, I will try my multimedia issues on the other forum

Back later. Cheers!

[Ed1975]

Update: I'm back after doing some more playing with Ubuntu.

- Amazon app worked this time - no crashes. I also looked in /var/log/ but have no idea where to look for crash info

- Discovered that webcam only comes on when I'm testing the system sound

- Updated Ubuntu boot menu to include windows loader (but I'm really looking for a Ubuntu option on BCD)

- So far, I am finding Win 7 a vastly superior OS, with many more options and a massively bigger range of available software, but it's early days yet and there may be a lot I have not discovered?

I'll start reading that guide on learning Linux. Thanks for all your help.

[Holger_Gehrke]

- Updated Ubuntu boot menu to include windows loader (but I'm really looking for a Ubuntu option on BCD)

Good luck with that. BCD can not load Linux because the Kernel is on a Linux file system, which it can't read. The only option is to have Grub installed into the boot sector of the partition on which Linux is and then have BCD chainload Grub. I've got it set up like this and used a program called EasyBCD (or something like that) to set BCD up for it, because I didn't quite understand what little documentation I could find on BCD.
Having two boot menus is a bit confusing ...

[efflandt]

As you become more familiar with Linux you will find it quite capable of many things. For example Libre Office can do most things that MS Office does, other than Microsoft Vistual Basic macros. And although it normally saves in its native format, it can save files as types that can be opened in MS Office. And Libre Office is open source with versions for Windows and Mac as well. Some other open source programs that can run in Windows or Linux are "gimp" for working with graphic files and "vlc" for playing videos. I could not even find anything in Windows to play mp4 videos recorded on my Android phone (Win Media Player or Quicktime could not do it) until I installed vlc in Windows.

And if you are a gamer, besides many native Linux games, there is now native Linux Steam with many Linux games. But make sure that you have plenty of Linux disk space for that because some games are many megabytes.

But I have been running Linux for about 20 years (since before I had Win95), so I have figured how to do most anything I need to do in Linux. I rarely boot Windows at home unless I need to help someone else figure out how to do something in it, because Win7 takes so long to boot and settle down with all the malicious software and virus checking and software updates it needs to do.