A help to the community? New user info...

[Nixie Pixel]

A lot of people here have helped me get on my feet running Ubuntu (Hardy and Intrepid), and I wanted to give back to the community in my own way. I can't really give the technical advice needed to make a difference here in the forum, so I'm creating a little repository of information that will, hopefully, help people who were in my position as a brand-new Linux/Ubuntu user.

I also want to help people find interesting, fun games that they can play on Linux.

My first goal is to gather information about what people do when they first install Ubuntu. I tried asking this in the support forum, but the message got washed away rather quickly. Can anyone here point me to a newbie guide for post-installation tweaks? I have a few of my own, but there must be something a little more comprehensive out there.

My first blog post on Linux, if you're interested =D :

An Ubuntu girl in a Windows world... (http://nixiepixel.com/blog/blog7.php/welcome)

Thanks again,

~Nix

[shadowdude1794]

Very nice blog post, and welcome to the community! If you want something that can configure some of little things, Ubuntu tweak is an excelent tool. Also if you haven't already gotten it, CCSM is great for messing with compiz-fusion's settings.

[73ckn797]

Here is a link to installing OpenOffice 3.0 in Ubuntu. It is how I did it and it works everytime. I have been using Ubuntu since August 2008 and understand what a newbie has to deal with.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6090196#post6090196

Here are the details to copy to your web site:


I have installed OO 3.0 on my desk and laptops with Hardy and Intrepid. Everything was effortless and is running great.

I completely removed all OO related installs through Synaptic.

Went to http://download.openoffice.org/other.html#en-US

Selected the English (in my case) version: OOo_3.0.0_LinuxIntel_install_en-US_deb.tar.gz

Downloaded the file (OOo_3.0.0_LinuxIntel_install_en-US_deb.tar.gz) from Openoffice.org

Created a directory in /home/name/whatever.
edit: name = your name (directory created during Ubuntu installation) (whatever = Oo30 (that is what I named it) There is actually another sub-directory created so you could just extract to your home folder or even to the desktop. Once installation is completed you can delete the folder. With in that folder will be a DEBS and desktop-integration sub-directories.

Extracted files using File Roller (default Gnome compression utility) to the created directory. Double click on file downloaded will open in File Roller.

Went to terminal and "cd" to new directory (example: /home/name/OO3/DEBS) then entered "sudo dpkg -i *.deb" The "DEBS" sub-directory is created when extracting. This installs the program.

Then changed to the other sub-directory created during extract (~/DEBS/desktop-integration) and repeated command "sudo dpkg -i *.deb". This creates the menu choices.

Started OO 3.0 and it works like a charm for me.

The desktop icon created using menu right click was read only but right click, properties allows changing that so I could rename the shortcut icon if you do not like the default short-cut name.

[73ckn797]

A lot of people here have helped me get on my feet running Ubuntu (Hardy and Intrepid), and I wanted to give back to the community in my own way. I can't really give the technical advice needed to make a difference here in the forum, so I'm creating a little repository of information that will, hopefully, help people who were in my position as a brand-new Linux/Ubuntu user.

I also want to help people find interesting, fun games that they can play on Linux.

My first goal is to gather information about what people do when they first install Ubuntu. I tried asking this in the support forum, but the message got washed away rather quickly. Can anyone here point me to a newbie guide for post-installation tweaks? I have a few of my own, but there must be something a little more comprehensive out there.

My first blog post on Linux, if you're interested =D :

An Ubuntu girl in a Windows world... (http://nixiepixel.com/blog/blog7.php/welcome)

Thanks again,

~Nix


Nice web site. I will contribute what I can to help out. It really will not be that much but it will be, I hope, what you are looking for.

Welcome to Ubuntu.................):P

[MikeTheC]

Looks really cool and well thought-out. Additionally, you are an excellent writer. I will be happy to help. Either post here or PM me with what you are looking for, and within what knowledge I have, I will answer what I can.

[Joeb454]

Nice post :) I even made a comment, which was quite a long comment for me actually :p

I look forward to reading more

[aschwerin.moses]

Well.. i would suggest u to install these software's (to name a few) if u have'nt yet..

startupmanager (helps u manage how ubuntu must start)
gparted (a disk manager like in windows)
ntfs-3g ntfs-config (helps u auto mount NTFS partition)
nautilus-wallpaper (can right click on a picture in click on "Set as wallpaper" which is'nt the default option in Nautilus)

[magmon]

Ugh, tell them how to install java. Its always like a friggin 60 step process getting runescape to work xD

[Joeb454]

ntfs-3g ntfs-config (helps u auto mount NTFS partition)


Check the link in my sig, I wrote a how-to guide on that ;) Also ntfs-3g is installed by default now :D


Ugh, tell them how to install java. Its always like a friggin 60 step process getting runescape to work xD

Surely it's just
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-bin or installing ubuntu-restricted-extras (apt://ubuntu-restricted-extras)

[magmon]

Lol joeb, it should be. But I always have to go into synaptic and install all the java junk then go into add/remove menu and add all the java junk after I run that before EVERYTHING works xD. No complaints, it still beats vista.

[dannytatom]

Nice post, Nixie. :)

The first thing I do after doing a fresh install is get finch (http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/Using%20Finch), lynx (http://lynx.isc.org/) and irssi (http://www.irssi.org/about). That way, if I screw something up and am without a graphical interface, I can still get some help. :O

Btw, all 3 are in the repositories, so you can just do an apt-get install on 'em.

[dannytatom]

whoops, double post.

[Nixie Pixel]

Wow, thanks for all the replies! The response has been greater than I anticipated.

I think that with all of your continued help I can make these newbie guides very useful!

[Nixie Pixel]

I haven't written any guides yet, but I did finish a post I had been thinking about regarding how new users view Linux. Hopefully it may help a bit, or at least generate some thought. Let me know what you think!

Ubuntu sucks. I hate Linux! (No, not really) (http://nixiepixel.com/blog/index.php/ubuntu-sucks-i-hate-linux)

Thanks,

~Nix

[carnadi88]

A lot of people here have helped me get on my feet running Ubuntu (Hardy and Intrepid), and I wanted to give back to the community in my own way. I can't really give the technical advice needed to make a difference here in the forum, so I'm creating a little repository of information that will, hopefully, help people who were in my position as a brand-new Linux/Ubuntu user.

I also want to help people find interesting, fun games that they can play on Linux.

My first goal is to gather information about what people do when they first install Ubuntu. I tried asking this in the support forum, but the message got washed away rather quickly. Can anyone here point me to a newbie guide for post-installation tweaks? I have a few of my own, but there must be something a little more comprehensive out there.

My first blog post on Linux, if you're interested =D :

An Ubuntu girl in a Windows world... (http://nixiepixel.com/blog/blog7.php/welcome)

Thanks again,

~Nix

Nice site. Welcome to Linux.

[Nixie Pixel]

Thanks for all the encouragement!

My first "help" post is up. Let me know if you think it is useful, and how it can be improved?

Thanks!

Nixie's Ubuntu Linux - A Travel Guide for Visitors from Windows (http://nixiepixel.com/blog/blog7.php/nixie-s-ubuntu-linux-a-travel-guide-for-)

[handy]

Welcome too. :-)

You may find this site helpful:

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/

[vikramaditya]

Nice blog, nixie, and well written. What part of SoCal are you in? I lived in Hawthorne during the upper Oligicene, long before marauding pods of "disenfranchised" inner-city thugs claimed it as their own. ;)

[Nixie Pixel]

Sorry, I am in NorCal...did I mistakenly put SoCal somewhere??

[magmon]

Tell them to install Realplayer for rmvb video files. Took me forever to figure that one out.

[Nixie Pixel]

I would love to update the guide a little bit, and have an idea for what would be useful. Can anyone here tell me a way to troubleshoot kernel panics that would make sense to a Windows user? I've had a real hard time finding help on how to do that, and understanding what tools, if any, are available to assist with it.