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aysiu
April 21st, 2007, 02:33 PM
For New Users:
The Psychocats site (http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/) is a great site for new users to explore. It uses a combination of terminal commands and screenshot-heavy point-and-click tutorials to help get you up and running with Ubuntu, and it addresses many common questions and problems newcomers have when starting with Ubuntu.

Psychocats isn't intended to compete with other documentation sites. Its goal is to give a uniform look and feel for several key tutorials and, more importantly, not to overwhelm or confuse new users with too many tutorials in hard-to-find places. Each tutorial addresses a common Ubuntu question, and all the internal links are on the sidebar.

If you're interested in a more comprehensive set of tutorials, especially ones aimed at advanced or intermediate use (or just anything not covered on my site--for example, how to use ndiswrapper), you may want to check out the Tutorials & Tips section of these forums, (http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=100) or the official community-maintained documentation (https://help.ubuntu.com/community).

For Other Users:
Thank you for all your help so far!

Users on these forums have caught typos and other errors and kept me abreast of changes in versions of software I don't use (e.g. Songbird). Some users have even contributed whole paragraphs to the Psychocats tutorials, and I've tried to credit them appropriately.

Working with Psychocats:
I've had numerous requests asking if people can link to or translate the Psychocats Ubuntu website. The answer is yes. You can link to Psychocats without asking my permission. If you want to translate Psychocats Ubuntu, you may do that as well (please let me know, though--I'm just curious to know what's going on), and I encourage spreading the knowledge. I haven't officially licensed the documentation, but the closest I've found to what I'd say embodies the spirit with which I'm giving Psychocats Ubuntu to the community is the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/). If you would like to mirror Psychocats, you may do so, but please send me a link to the mirrored site, so I can know to refer people there also.

Future Updates and Feedback:
If you have any constructive criticism, please leave it in this thread. I'll be checking back from time to time. I devote a lot of time to the Ubuntu community and to these forums, especially, but this is not my main job. So go ahead and leave any suggestions you may have, but I may not get around to implementing them right away (or at all, depending on how good the suggestion is).

If the Psychocats website has helped you, you can post that here, too. It's always good to know what people have found helpful, and which pages are most frequently used by people.

Happy_Man
April 21st, 2007, 02:41 PM
Excellent. Thanks, aysiu.

ahaslam
April 21st, 2007, 02:45 PM
Great work :KS

I've got it linked it in my sig for others to stumble across ;)

diskotek
April 21st, 2007, 03:00 PM
i started to use ubuntu with psychocats tutorials :) it's nice to see new version of it. i2ll probably use it when i'll upgrade to feisty fawn. thank you again :D

Sef
April 21st, 2007, 03:03 PM
Those tutorials are real handy. Sometimes, I can find out about things I did not know about.

Malta paul
April 21st, 2007, 03:22 PM
Thank you Aysiu for the tutorial update. Your efforts are very much appreciated. Don't know what we would do without your Psychocats website. its now a standard Ubuntu reference :)

saulgoode
April 21st, 2007, 03:23 PM
The tutorial for obtaining Adobe/Macromedia's Flashplayer bypasses the mechanism whereby the user is presented with the terms of its End User Licensing Agreement (http://www.adobe.com/products/eulas/players/flash/). Perhaps the installation process offers the opportunity to accept or reject those terms but Adobe's website suggests that the EULA is accepted by the act of downloading.

Since some may find the terms of the EULA to be unacceptable (particularly businesses or "organizations"), it would probably be safest if a link to the EULA's terms were mentioned in the tutorial before downloading takes place.

Oki
April 21st, 2007, 04:53 PM
Hi aysiu

You have helped me a lot; even without knowing :-) You site is great, and I like to hear that you still work on it. Thank you for your work, its appreciated.

any constructive criticism, please leave it in this thread.
I belive I do; I followed your guide on installing KDE on top of GNOME(with Dapper Drake), but didn’t know that a lot of KDE programs would bee installed within my GNOME menu, or that my log in/out would thereafter be KDE. My suggestion is that you put a warning at the top of the tutorial so people understand it.

aysiu
April 21st, 2007, 06:06 PM
Great to hear, folks.

Thanks for the suggestions and the positive feedback, too.

Sammi
April 21st, 2007, 08:17 PM
Hey thanks for your excellent guides aisyu. They helped me a lot when I converted from Win a year ago :D

I did a little introduction post/tread in the tech section on a much used local language general purpose forum, where I linked to your site:
http://www.kjak.fo/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5374

Doing that was much more time effective for me, compared to if I had to write everything about how to install and run Ubuntu in my post myself. Pluss your site is much better than anything I would be able to do. I really think you site helps people.

EdThaSlayer
April 21st, 2007, 08:52 PM
Great news. :)
Thanks for your hard work Aysiu.

Oki
April 22nd, 2007, 12:07 AM
Another suggestion for you;
After the first install of Ubuntu Dapper Drake, and now Kubuntu Feisty Fawn there is one big bug; if you copy/paste something it will only paste the first thing you copyed. This makes it hard to follow your guide. Installing a program(cant remember the name) would fix this, so perhaps you could add it as a tip?

Edit;
And under your different tips you should add something to test if it worked. Example; if it has to do with nvidia drivers you should tell them to try the 3D screensavers to se if it works. So after "Enabling Extra Repositories" they could perhaps try to se if Synaptic finds a package that you name.

Thanks again! :)

PartisanEntity
April 22nd, 2007, 12:26 AM
Just wanted to thank you for the time and effort you have put into your site and tutorials. They helped me a lot when I first started with linux and Ubuntu, and I still use your site when I need some info on how to do certain things.

prizrak
April 22nd, 2007, 12:43 AM
aysiu, you should sticky this for a bit. Or at least sticky the link to the tutorial itself.

aysiu
April 22nd, 2007, 12:44 AM
Another suggestion for you;
After the first install of Ubuntu Dapper Drake, and now Kubuntu Feisty Fawn there is one big bug; if you copy/paste something it will only paste the first thing you copyed. This makes it hard to follow your guide. Installing a program(cant remember the name) would fix this, so perhaps you could add it as a tip? I'm not exactly sure what you're talking about. What do you mean by "the first thing you copied"? Can you give an example?

Oki
April 22nd, 2007, 01:04 AM
Sure;
Lets say the first thing I do is to go to your site and mark somthing(like a command), and right click and choose "copy"(so I could follow your guide). When I later right click and choose "paste" the command would turn up(in the terminal). But if I copy another command, or another word(or wathever), then only the first command would turn up. I belive this is a known bug(read it many times), and I find it strange that they have not fixed it yet(?). Even read it on the blogs from the developers...

If this was not cleared enough I can boot into Dapper Drake and tell you witch program I used to fix it.

Edit; program Klipper can fix this problem...

aysiu
April 22nd, 2007, 06:31 AM
I've never seen this problem before, actually. If people are having problems copying and pasting, I think they should ask for help and/or file a bug report.

I'm not going to put on every single tutorial page that people should install Klipper (especially when I don't have Klipper or Glipper installed and don't really have this problem).

I'm still not 100% sure I know what you're talking about. Are you saying you'd copy a command like
sudo apt-get update and paste that in the terminal and it'd work fine? Then you'd try to copy and paste
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade but instead of dist-upgrade appearing, it'd paste update again?

B0rsuk
April 22nd, 2007, 06:33 AM
I have a complaint. Your avatar doesn't look very psycho.

aysiu
April 22nd, 2007, 06:45 AM
I have a complaint. Your avatar doesn't look very psycho.
Looks can be deceiving. I assure you it's quite psycho.

Sef
April 22nd, 2007, 06:52 AM
I have a complaint. Your avatar doesn't look very psycho.

I just figure that the cat must be related to the "nice" rabbits in 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail.'

aysiu
April 22nd, 2007, 07:00 AM
I just figure that the cat must be related to the "nice" rabbits in 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail.'
What? Behind the rabbit?

It is the rabbit.

user1397
April 22nd, 2007, 07:07 AM
Hi aysiu

You have helped me a lot; even without knowing :-) You site is great, and I like to hear that you still work on it. Thank you for your work, its appreciated.

any constructive criticism, please leave it in this thread.
I belive I do; I followed your guide on installing KDE on top of GNOME(with Dapper Drake), but didn’t know that a lot of KDE programs would bee installed within my GNOME menu, or that my log in/out would thereafter be KDE. My suggestion is that you put a warning at the top of the tutorial so people understand it.By the way, if you're wondering how to get rid of this issue, read the 'Helpful Stuff' section of this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=205002

aysiu, adding that to your tutorials might be helpful to some people.

thanks for the update, always appreciate it.

Spr0k3t
April 22nd, 2007, 07:08 AM
Footing in my kudos to the kewl kat of the wonderful site. Thanks again Aysiu.

aysiu
April 22nd, 2007, 07:39 AM
By the way, if you're wondering how to get rid of this issue, read the 'Helpful Stuff' section of this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=205002

aysiu, adding that to your tutorials might be helpful to some people.

thanks for the update, always appreciate it. Yeah, that's something I can definitely add.

Erunno
April 22nd, 2007, 09:42 AM
Kudos for writing all those helpful tutorials. You're a perfect example that one does not need any coding skills to contribute to the OSS movement.

EDIT:

I remember that you once mentioned having seperate installations for Ubuntu and Kubuntu on one machine. I think you're not the only one who would want to alternate between the two flavours of Ubuntu without "polluting" the base installation so a tutorial how to achieve this would be much appreciated.

Oki
April 22nd, 2007, 12:15 PM
I've never seen this problem before, actually. If people are having problems copying and pasting, I think they should ask for help and/or file a bug report.

I'm not going to put on every single tutorial page that people should install Klipper (especially when I don't have Klipper or Glipper installed and don't really have this problem).

I'm still not 100% sure I know what you're talking about. Are you saying you'd copy a command like
sudo apt-get update and paste that in the terminal and it'd work fine? Then you'd try to copy and paste
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade but instead of dist-upgrade appearing, it'd paste update again?

Agree, if people has this problem they should ask for help. To answer your question; yes. As I said, I beliv it is an known error.

PartisanEntity
April 22nd, 2007, 12:54 PM
I don't think aysiu's website should mention bugs otherwise it will deviate from its main function.

As far as specific bugs are concerned, which some users experiences while others don't, we have Launchpad and the forum.

rzlorayes
May 8th, 2007, 08:18 AM
I just want to thank Psychocats for putting up a detailed, comprehensive and graphical instruction site for first time Ubuntu users. I hope he/she gets this message.

Bachstelze
May 8th, 2007, 08:21 AM
His nickname on this forum is aysiu, you'll certainly see him around sometime ;)

jfinkels
May 8th, 2007, 08:21 AM
I would like to thank aysiu as well.

aysiu
May 8th, 2007, 07:33 PM
I just want to thank Psychocats for putting up a detailed, comprehensive and graphical instruction site for first time Ubuntu users. I hope he/she gets this message.
I'm glad you've found it helpful.

rzlorayes
May 9th, 2007, 07:33 AM
Thanks very much again Aysiu. I was able to install my Ubuntu 6.10 AMD64 last night. I can't wait to explore it in depth with the help of your turorials.

By the way, do you know of any anti-virus programs for the 64 bit version. I know that Linux isn't too vulnerable to viruses but I guess I'm paranoid.

Thanks very much in advance.

aysiu
May 9th, 2007, 08:30 AM
I'm afraid I don't know much about anti-virus programs... or AMD64. But there are plenty of knowledgeable people on this forum. I would post a new thread about it and see what kind of response you get.

jjbean
May 9th, 2007, 08:41 AM
I would just like to say that I have found your tutorials very helpful. Keep it up. One question. What is up with this (http://www.psychocats.net/melanielynskey/) part of the Psychocats website? :lolflag: Just kidding with you. I hope you have a since of humor and don't ban me our anything.:D I actually think she is pretty cool. One of the reasons I am watching the new show Drive.

aysiu
May 9th, 2007, 08:50 AM
I tried watching "Drive," just because she was in it, but honestly the show bored me. Yeah, I'm a big Lynskey fan, have been ever since Heavenly Creatures.

user1397
May 11th, 2007, 10:25 PM
Aysiu, how about recommending the program imgburn (http://imgburn.com/) instead of CDburnerXP Pro 3 in this (http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/iso) tutorial?

Also in that tutorial, I would recommend HashTab (http://www.beeblebrox.org/hashtab/), which seems much simpler to me than using md5summer.

I found both of these programs after watching this screencast (http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=418683644033990725).

aysiu
May 11th, 2007, 10:27 PM
Thanks for the suggestion, ubuntuman001. When I have the energy to do it, I'll probably revise the .ISO and installing pages (someone else pointed out that the installing page should be changed for Feisty, as Feisty has a different partitioner). Those pages involve a lot of screenshots... and Windows screenshots at that, so... I'll probably get around to it eventually.

I appreciate the feedback, though.

user1397
May 11th, 2007, 10:40 PM
Thanks for the suggestion, ubuntuman001. When I have the energy to do it, I'll probably revise the .ISO and installing pages (someone else pointed out that the installing page should be changed for Feisty, as Feisty has a different partitioner). Those pages involve a lot of screenshots... and Windows screenshots at that, so... I'll probably get around to it eventually.

I appreciate the feedback, though.No problem, and yea I'm not trying to push you to do it or anything, just suggesting, I know it's hard work, but updated with feisty - now that would be great!

OrangeCrate
May 12th, 2007, 01:20 AM
Like many, I found a link to the tutorial the first day I installed Ubuntu. It was invaluable. Without it, I would have many more posts here in the forums, as I worked through the initial learning curve.

I recommend it often to people on a couple other forums I frequent, that want to try Linux. Well done asiyu, your dedication and work here, and with the tutorial, are highly appreciated.

aysiu
May 13th, 2007, 05:12 AM
OrangeCrate, glad to hear it. I don't get any monetary compensation for creating Psychocats, so knowing that it actually helps people means a great deal to me.

New Changes: I've added a new page to Psychocats called Which *buntu to pick? (http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/whichbuntu). It answers questions about the differences between Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu; 7.04, 6.10, 6.06, 5.10; DVD, CD; Desktop, Server, Alternate; and more.

I've also modified the ISO page (http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/iso) to include more links to other tutorials, which may, at this point, be better than the current ISO page. In theory, I'd like to update the ISO page, but in reality it's probably not going to happen any time soon.

I've also included a link to Is Ubuntu for You? (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=63315).

I'm planning very soon (in the next week or two) to include a new installing page (http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/installing) for Feisty Fawn. Stay tuned!

aysiu
May 13th, 2007, 10:17 AM
I've updated the installation/dual boot page for Feisty Fawn.

By the way, I noticed they're not using GParted any more. Does that mean the installer can't resize partitions if you're using the Manual option?

Happy_Man
May 13th, 2007, 02:45 PM
No, it can; it just doesn't automagically assign root partiton, home partition, etc. It makes everything /media/sda1, /media/sda2, and expects you to fix it. Check the ABT forums; almost every other post is some variation of this issue....

OrangeCrate
May 13th, 2007, 03:47 PM
...so knowing that it actually helps people means a great deal to me.


:)

aysiu
May 13th, 2007, 04:18 PM
No, it can; it just doesn't automagically assign root partiton, home partition, etc. It makes everything /media/sda1, /media/sda2, and expects you to fix it. Check the ABT forums; almost every other post is some variation of this issue....
No, I'm not talking about assigning partitions. I'm talking about resizing them before you assign mount points.

Happy_Man
May 13th, 2007, 07:57 PM
Does that, too. 'tis how I installed my copy of Feisty...

aysiu
May 13th, 2007, 08:03 PM
Thanks for the confirmation.

By the way, I've finally updated the ISO page (http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/iso).

derek45
May 13th, 2007, 08:04 PM
Excellent work.

It's been VERY helpful to me.

Thanks much.

aysiu
May 28th, 2007, 07:02 AM
derek45, glad you found it helpful.

Everyone, I've added a point-and-click portion to the extra repositories page (http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/sources#simple).

I've also included screenshot tutorials on installing MP3 playback in Feisty (http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/mp3) and installing Nvidia drivers in Feisty (http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/nvidia). The idea is that people should know how dead-simple it is to take advantage of Feisty's easy-codec-installation. What good are new features if people don't know they exist and don't use them?

smoker
May 28th, 2007, 07:48 AM
hi, aysiu

i find psychocats the best, most in depth, info help site for new users, i recommend it to everyone,

thanks for taking the time to create, maintain, and keep up to date, it must take a lot of hard work:D

cheers:D

aysiu
May 28th, 2007, 08:06 AM
Thanks, smoker. It is a lot of work, but if it helps new users, the work is worth it to me.

shen-an-doah
May 28th, 2007, 08:16 AM
A link is now on my blog. At some point I'll have to go through and stick a post up covering setting up Ubuntu with regards to doing music tech related stuff. I shall be linking to your stuff as much as I can :D

I'll do that at a time when it's not 8am and I haven't slept yet...

aysiu
June 2nd, 2007, 10:05 PM
Another update. I've added a a little screenshot-laden explanation of enabling MP3 export in Audacity (http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/audacity). It's also included as a link in the Wiki's troubleshooting page (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Troubleshooting#head-d321f1e65ef188ae3d6a13e3fd626e2e7f840af4).

starcraft.man
June 2nd, 2007, 10:26 PM
You do great work on those, keep it up and a big thank you for doing it :).

Lucifiel
June 2nd, 2007, 10:28 PM
Reeeoowwwww!!!!!

The cat strikes again!!! :D

aysiu
June 2nd, 2007, 10:29 PM
Glad you appreciate it. I just got a PM from someone who wanted to translate the security write-up into Japanese. I'm looking forward to seeing that (even though I can't read Japanese...)

Lucifiel
June 2nd, 2007, 10:47 PM
Japanese, huh?

Wow, that's awesome! :D

Btw, I'm starting to see Ubuntu being mentioned in plenty of forums. It's so awesome. :D

aysiu
June 2nd, 2007, 10:47 PM
Cool.

steveneddy
June 2nd, 2007, 10:49 PM
Cool, indeed.

picpak
June 7th, 2007, 03:10 AM
Some comments about your Install Internet Explorer (http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/ies4linux) page:

1) The guide says to type in ies4linux in Firefox and you'll be taken to the page. It takes you to an ad page.

2) It also says to scroll down until you see the Download link, but the Download link is at the top.

3) The line


sudo mv ~/bin/ie6 /usr/local/bin/ie6 rmdir ~/bin

should have an && in it, as in:


sudo mv ~/bin/ie6 /usr/local/bin/ie6 && rmdir ~/bin

That's all!

aysiu
June 7th, 2007, 04:47 AM
I said to type
ies4linux not to type
ies4linux.com But I will fix those other two things. Thanks for bringing the errors to my attention.

picpak
June 7th, 2007, 02:59 PM
I said to type
ies4linux not to type
ies4linux.com

Wait...then...how does that work? When you type in ies4linux in Firefox doesn't it automatically add the .com? Or is that Opera only?

shen-an-doah
June 7th, 2007, 03:11 PM
Wait...then...how does that work? When you type in ies4linux in Firefox doesn't it automatically add the .com? Or is that Opera only?

Nope, takes you to this site: http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page

Basically does the equivalent of hitting "I'm feeling lucky" in Google...

Oki
June 11th, 2007, 12:43 PM
Just a suggestion aysiu;
Very often people are saying that we don't need Automatix, since everything can be installed via Synaptic. But not all know how to do it, and some might want Automatix since they can learn about programs for Linux that way(just a guess).

What if you could make a Howto section on your site called Automatix applications (http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/index) where you list the different application that you can get from Automatix(http://onlyubuntu.blogspot.com/2007/04/install-popular-applications-in-ubuntu.html) and under each program an howto for doing it via Synaptic and/or the terminal? And it should start with how to(or a link to your howto) enable extra Repositories.

I know you already have a lot of howtos for different programs like Thunderbird, so my suggestion is just to add more to the range that Automatix has(and point out that they don't need Automatix).

drfalkor
June 11th, 2007, 01:23 PM
aysiu, very good work.. here is a ubuntu gold star of good work for you: :KS ..sir :)

aysiu
October 18th, 2007, 11:42 PM
Hey, there, everybody!

I've downloaded via BitTorrent the desktop CD ISOs for Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Xubuntu for Gutsy Gibbon, and I'm going to work on slowly getting the Psychocats documentation up to date.

Please be patient. It may take me a few weeks or a month to get everything in line with the 7.10 improvements.

Stay tuned.

jasay
October 18th, 2007, 11:45 PM
Hey, there, everybody!

I've downloaded via BitTorrent the desktop CD ISOs for Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Xubuntu for Gutsy Gibbon, and I'm going to work on slowly getting the Psychocats documentation up to date.

Please be patient. It may take me a few weeks or a month to get everything in line with the 7.10 improvements.

Stay tuned.
Thanks for your hard work aysiu. Your website is always clear and straight forward.:biggrin::biggrin:

wana10
October 18th, 2007, 11:53 PM
your website is amazing, and back when i was new to ubuntu it helped me in more ways that i can remember. keep up the good work!

aysiu
October 18th, 2007, 11:57 PM
Thanks for your hard work aysiu. Your website is always clear and straight forward.:biggrin::biggrin:


your website is amazing, and back when i was new to ubuntu it helped me in more ways that i can remember. keep up the good work! Thanks. It's good to know people find it useful. As I said before, stay tuned...

venator260
October 19th, 2007, 12:06 AM
I'll chime in with praise for Psychocats.net. It's helped me out a few times.

-grubby
October 19th, 2007, 12:06 AM
thanks! nice work!:)

aysiu
October 19th, 2007, 06:46 AM
Okay... the updates have begun. Here's what I've done so far:

* Changed language indicating that 7.04 is the latest version of Ubuntu
* Updated the Flash installation page
* Updated all the "pure" (KDE, Gnome, Xfce) pages for Gutsy
* Put in new screenshots for enabling extra repositories
* Put in new screenshots for finding the terminal

More to come...

ubuntu27
October 19th, 2007, 07:41 AM
Glad you appreciate it. I just got a PM from someone who wanted to translate the security write-up into Japanese. I'm looking forward to seeing that (even though I can't read Japanese...)

Hello Aysiu. I always loved your website. Its been helpful to everyone.

Do you know the URL of translated version of Psycocats in Japanese?
I would like to see them :)

Billy_McBong
October 19th, 2007, 07:47 AM
your tutorials are the best aysiu

southernman
October 19th, 2007, 08:13 AM
Okay... the updates have begun. Here's what I've done so far:

* Changed language indicating that 7.04 is the latest version of Ubuntu
* Updated the Flash installation page
* Updated all the "pure" (KDE, Gnome, Xfce) pages for Gutsy
* Put in new screenshots for enabling extra repositories
* Put in new screenshots for finding the terminal

More to come...Am I missing something, or are you? :/

For the record, Aysiu. I've gotten good results using several of your tutorials (unfortunately, I can't recall the specific ones atm), and have referred many people to them as well.

Thank you for all you've done, on and off the forum. It is appreciated greatly.

hyper_ch
October 19th, 2007, 08:25 AM
Aysiu:

Is there any way we can help you for faster updating your tuts?

Chilli Bob
October 19th, 2007, 08:27 AM
Aysiu Rocks!!

You've helped me out many times. Thanks!

Paqman
October 19th, 2007, 08:56 AM
Aysiu:

Is there any way we can help you for faster updating your tuts?

Seconded. Psychocats is a great resource, i'm sure plenty of people would be happy to help.

Tux Aubrey
October 19th, 2007, 01:29 PM
Thank you for all you've done, on and off the forum. It is appreciated greatly.

++++1

aysiu
October 19th, 2007, 02:23 PM
Seconded. Psychocats is a great resource, i'm sure plenty of people would be happy to help.


Aysiu:

Is there any way we can help you for faster updating your tuts? Thanks for the offer. I think the best thing would be to read the site and see if there are any blatant typos or factual errors. That'd be a great help.

hyper_ch
October 19th, 2007, 02:43 PM
So, if we find typos or factual errors shall we post them on digg.com and slashdot.org? Or would it be sufficient to email/pm to you? :mrgreen:

aysiu
October 19th, 2007, 02:48 PM
So, if we find typos or factual errors shall we post them on digg.com and slashdot.org? Or would it be sufficient to email/pm to you? :mrgreen:
Just post them to this thread. That'd be great.

aysiu
November 9th, 2007, 10:42 PM
I've added a page dedicated to IceWM:
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/icewm

Right now, it has only instructions how to install IceWM. I'll be adding some tweaks and tips later.

Rinzwind
November 9th, 2007, 10:59 PM
Excellent install how-to. The images make it impossible ask questions about it :D

You might save alot of room by having 2 or 3 of those screens next to eachother and group the text for those

Or have the text on top and all the images underneath them. This will show all the needed packages (icewm icewm-common and icwm-themes) at 1 glance. Plus the more experienced user will have enough with knowing the names of the packages.

aysiu
November 9th, 2007, 11:30 PM
Excellent install how-to. The images make it impossible ask questions about it :D

You might save alot of room by having 2 or 3 of those screens next to eachother and group the text for those

Or have the text on top and all the images underneath them. This will show all the needed packages (icewm icewm-common and icwm-themes) at 1 glance. Plus the more experienced user will have enough with knowing the names of the packages.
I am trying to make it as step-by-step as possible. I feel there's enough documentation out there for IceWM that assumes all you need to know are the package names. This one is targeted specifically toward the uninitiated user--one who is just beginning to feel comfortable with Linux and Gnome but who may want to explore something else.

If there is enough of a demand for it, I can also create a much shorter, text-only guide to IceWM for the slightly more advanced users.

OldTimeTech
November 10th, 2007, 12:20 AM
As all have said aysiu, your tutorials, your advice in forum and everything you do for this community is totally appreciated by me......if it wasn't for your tutorials when I started with Dapper....I wouldn't be as far with Ubuntu as I am today.....

Congrats to you!!!!!

aysiu
November 10th, 2007, 12:56 AM
That's great to hear OldTimeTech. Thanks.

K.Mandla
November 10th, 2007, 01:06 AM
I've added a page dedicated to IceWM:
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/icewm

Right now, it has only instructions how to install IceWM. I'll be adding some tweaks and tips later.
Thanks for that. I sometimes tinker with IceWM but get frustrated and throw it out, because I can't ever get the wallpaper to change. :evil: Sigh. ...

aysiu
November 10th, 2007, 01:09 AM
Thanks for that. I sometimes tinker with IceWM but get frustrated and throw it out, because I can't ever get the wallpaper to change. :evil: Sigh. ...
Well, I've added a few tweaks to the tutorial.

As far as changing the wallpaper goes, it's a little tricky, because it can be a three-part process.

1. You have to specify in the ~/.icewm/preferences file the location of the wallpaper image
2. You have to run the command
icewmbg
3. You have to make sure the theme you're using doesn't specify a wallpaper in the theme.default file, especially if it's specifying a wallpaper file that doesn't exist

Hope that helps!

aysiu
November 15th, 2007, 05:56 AM
After a user complained about Ubuntu still being a "geek OS" and citing as an example Java being difficult to install, I looked for documentation to prove this user wrong--couldn't find any.

So I've created a screenshot-laden instruction manual for getting Java installed:
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/java

-grubby
November 15th, 2007, 06:04 AM
Yes. you always have very high quality,easy to follow tutorials. I think they're overly simple but I'm sure I wouldn't have felt the same way when I started using linux

aysiu
November 15th, 2007, 06:11 AM
Yes. you always have very high quality,easy to follow tutorials. I think they're overly simple but I'm sure I wouldn't have felt the same way when I started using linux
They are overly simple, but that's kind of the point. My site is targeted at beginners.

There are definitely other documentation sites that are better suited for intermediate or advanced users.

-grubby
November 15th, 2007, 06:19 AM
They are overly simple, but that's kind of the point. My site is targeted at beginners.

There are definitely other documentation sites that are better suited for intermediate or advanced users.

Well if knew about your site when I first started using linux it would have saved me a lot of trouble

smartboyathome
November 15th, 2007, 06:22 AM
After a user complained about Ubuntu still being a "geek OS" and citing as an example Java being difficult to install, I looked for documentation to prove this user wrong--couldn't find any.

So I've created a screenshot-laden instruction manual for getting Java installed:
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/java

Just to let you know, you need to state that that tutorial is for Firefox 2, as Ubufox isn't available for Firefox 3.

aysiu
November 15th, 2007, 06:23 AM
Well if knew about your site when I first started using linux it would have saved me a lot of trouble
Well, help spread the word to new users, then. Some of us users who had to learn the hard way can't do much but make life a little easier for beginners.

aysiu
November 15th, 2007, 06:23 AM
Just to let you know, you need to state that that tutorial is for Firefox 2, as Ubufox isn't available for Firefox 3.
Firefox 3 isn't in Ubuntu 7.10, as far as I know.

If things change for Ubuntu 8.04 when it's released, then I'll update the tutorial.

smartboyathome
November 15th, 2007, 06:31 AM
Firefox 3 isn't in Ubuntu 7.10, as far as I know.

If things change for Ubuntu 8.04 when it's released, then I'll update the tutorial.

Its in the repos now (it is called Firefox-3.0). I just thought I would let you know in case some users upgraded to it.

aysiu
November 15th, 2007, 06:52 AM
Its in the repos now (it is called Firefox-3.0). I just thought I would let you know in case some users upgraded to it.
Ah, I didn't realize it was in the repos. Thanks for the heads-up.

aysiu
November 15th, 2007, 07:38 PM
I used to advise new users to set up dual-boots, but now that I know about VirtualBox (VMWare was too complicated for me), I think I'm going to direct people to installing Ubuntu as a virtual machine inside Windows.

The page is a work-in-progress, as some of my images didn't upload properly to ImageShack:
http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/virtualbox

kevdog
November 16th, 2007, 01:21 AM
What about setting up Windows XP inside VirtualBox using Ubuntu as the main OS?? Would the instructions be similar?

aysiu
November 16th, 2007, 02:03 AM
What about setting up Windows XP inside VirtualBox using Ubuntu as the main OS?? Would the instructions be similar?
They would be similar, but you would need a Windows installation CD (not just a restore disc).

aysiu
December 1st, 2007, 01:14 AM
I've added a new page on How to reset your password in Ubuntu (http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/resetpassword)

hyper_ch
December 1st, 2007, 08:44 AM
nice

aysiu
December 3rd, 2007, 04:09 AM
I've also added a page on enabling desktop effects (http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/desktopeffects).

-grubby
December 3rd, 2007, 04:17 AM
I've also added a page on enabling desktop effects (http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/desktopeffects).

oh yah you should mention that with some NVIDIA cards (or all, maybe I'm mistaken?) you have to open a terminal and type
gksudo nvidia-settings to change to a decent refresh rate (that is, after installling the proprietary drivers)

aysiu
December 3rd, 2007, 05:33 AM
oh yah you should mention that with some NVIDIA cards (or all, maybe I'm mistaken?) you have to open a terminal and type
gksudo nvidia-settings to change to a decent refresh rate (that is, after installling the proprietary drivers)
The goal of the tutorial is to show the basic steps. I did add a little blurb at the end linking people to the Desktop Effects & Customization subforum for extra help, though.

I've also added another page on installing ubuntu-restricted-extras:
http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/nonfree

kevdog
December 3rd, 2007, 06:01 AM
Great job on those tutorials!! Maybe you can add my gpg tutorial when you are done -- its on the advanced side.

Just kidding of course -- but keep up the good work. Your tutorials were the first thing I used when I first switched to Ubuntu.

-grubby
December 3rd, 2007, 06:22 AM
The goal of the tutorial is to show the basic steps. I did add a little blurb at the end linking people to the Desktop Effects & Customization subforum for extra help, though.

I've also added another page on installing ubuntu-restricted-extras:
http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/nonfree

I suppose you're right

aysiu
May 3rd, 2008, 12:17 AM
Okay, it's taken me several days... almost a week, but I think I have the bulk of Psychocats updated for Ubuntu 8.04. I may do a proofread in a few days and just make sure there aren't holes I've missed. Eventually, I'd like to update the PartImage tutorial so it isn't using Hoary Hedgehog screenshots.

The biggest change is probably to the page on installing software. I thought my old page was a little too text-heavy for beginners, and I really wanted to point people in the direction of using the easy ways to install software and using the more difficult ways as a last resort, and include as little explanation as possible without neglecting essential information.

More changes to come, but they'll come slowly.

smoker
May 3rd, 2008, 12:33 AM
a big 'Thanks', aysiu,

i sure it must number in the hundreds of thousands the users who benefit from your hard work,

cheers :-)

aysiu
May 3rd, 2008, 12:34 AM
a big 'Thanks', aysiu,

i sure it must number in the hundreds of thousands the users who benefit from your hard work,

cheers :-)
You're welcome. I'm not sure of the exact numbers, but I'm glad it's been of help to people. After all, I get this free product from Ubuntu and want to give back. Since I'm not a programmer or philanthropist, this is the best I can do.

ghindo
May 3rd, 2008, 01:06 AM
Sweet. Thanks for the update, aysiu!

Dr Small
May 3rd, 2008, 02:00 AM
a big 'Thanks', aysiu,

i sure it must number in the hundreds of thousands the users who benefit from your hard work,

cheers :-)
+1
aysiu has helped me more than once in the beginning with his tutorials. As a matter of fact, I think it was his DualBooting page which I showed to my mom, when I told her I wanted to install Ubuntu. I followed it to the tee, and I successfully installed Ubuntu the first time on my old computer.

Your website has always been a big help :)

steveneddy
May 3rd, 2008, 02:18 AM
I remember when I first started using Ubuntu back in the late seventies and I would come to these forums when aysiu only had about 158 posts, mostly in the Community Cafe, and I would ask for help and aysiu was always there to help.

The website helped me get my server set up way back when and it continues to churn out music, movies and data for those on my small network.

I can only say that aysiu is the sole reason that we all in the forums have done so well, and many of us don't give him the full credit that he deserves for his tireless work in helping to keep Ubuntu knowledge alive.

Thank you, aysiu.

Your humble student

DMK62
May 3rd, 2008, 02:19 AM
His site has helped me several times. I really think his site should be included in the Ubuntu bookmarks in Firefox.

Dale

aysiu
May 6th, 2008, 07:28 PM
steveneddy, I nearly busted a gut laughing about that seventies remark!

By the way, I've added a new tutorial, since there seem to be a bunch of new Hardy users who are nervous about using beta Firefox or whose extensions and themes have all been disabled because of Firefox 3:
Switching to Firefox 2 on Ubuntu 8.04 (http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/firefox2hardy)

DonnieP
July 1st, 2008, 03:48 AM
A note about
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/nonautilusplease

I had installed LXDE to see what it was like. Its default file manager is pcmanfm. When I went back to Gnome, pcmanfm was still the default, instead of nautilus. I tried the psychocat script to restore Nautilus, but it didn't do the job for me. After mucking around in the pcmanfm man files I discovered /usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache. Removing all references there to pcmanfm.desktop did the trick.

watto_one
July 19th, 2008, 08:37 AM
A quick thank you for all the help you have given me and the many others you have helped. I have Psychocats and your daily blog saved and I READ THEM AT LEAST twice a week. Again thank you for making it easier to understand the processes in changing to Ubuntu.

aysiu
July 19th, 2008, 04:44 PM
You're welcome. Glad you found the tutorials helpful!

hyper_ch
July 19th, 2008, 05:01 PM
keep up the good work ;)

amoore
July 24th, 2008, 03:35 AM
I used the script to replace Nautilus with Thunar. When I click on a folder on the desktop, the file browser opens using Nautilus. When I use the places menu, the file broser uses Thunar. Does any one know how a I can fix this so that Thunar is my only file browser.

koji042
July 25th, 2008, 01:04 AM
I want to say thank you for the help your site has given me and many others. Thanks especially for the /home partition article. Will be very helpful for new installs.

Keep up the great work.

P.S. Your blog is very interesting. :)

aysiu
July 25th, 2008, 01:10 AM
You're welcome.

And thanks for reading my blog. I know no one agrees 100% with the stuff I say, but I do hope people (like you, for example) find it interesting.

gn2
July 25th, 2008, 01:18 AM
I particularly enjoyed the essay you wrote about the various types of OS zealots, it was a while ago, but still holds true today.

tdrusk
July 25th, 2008, 03:23 AM
aysiu, I searched for you on twitter and I think you are on there, but you haven't updated in a year. Any chance we can get updates through there?

ChaoticMind
August 1st, 2008, 09:35 AM
hey, just wanted to tell you that the line on http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/security#recoveryrisk saying: "There is a fifteen-minute "timeout" for sudo. If you launch one command with sudo, you'll be prompted for a command" should probably say "you'll be prompted for a password" instead.

great tutorials :)

wersdaluv
August 1st, 2008, 09:44 AM
aysiu,

I noticed that you are an Eee PC user. Can you write about netbooks on your blog or on a thread? I am thinking of buying an Eee PC 1000 as my main and only computer or a relatively cheap 12" laptop. What can you recommend to people like me?

How do you survive with your Eee PC, which Eee PC do you have, is it your only laptop, and what are the things that you can do with your netbook and the things that you cannot do?

aysiu
August 1st, 2008, 03:46 PM
aysiu,

I noticed that you are an Eee PC user. Can you write about netbooks on your blog or on a thread? I am thinking of buying an Eee PC 1000 as my main and only computer or a relatively cheap 12" laptop. What can you recommend to people like me?

How do you survive with your Eee PC, which Eee PC do you have, is it your only laptop, and what are the things that you can do with your netbook and the things that you cannot do? I've blogged about it a bit here:
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntucat/tag/asus-eee-pc/

Let me know if there's other info you'd like to know about.


hey, just wanted to tell you that the line on http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/security#recoveryrisk saying: "There is a fifteen-minute "timeout" for sudo. If you launch one command with sudo, you'll be prompted for a command" should probably say "you'll be prompted for a password" instead.

great tutorials :) Thanks for catching that! I've fixed it.

wersdaluv
August 3rd, 2008, 03:52 PM
Great posts! Thanks for leading me to them. Those things just aren't too relevant to me now since I'm looking at netbooks with 10" screen, the Eee PC 1000 MSI Wind. The competition is different now. Another thing is the fact that dual core Atom is coming out. It's getting harder for consumers to settle with products now.

Well, it seems to be offtopic but what I want to say is that I want you to talk about the netbooks that are available today and in the near future. Hehe

aysiu
August 3rd, 2008, 04:49 PM
I don't really know much apart from my own experience with the 701. Maybe you might want to check with some of the people posting in this thread? Mini Laptops / Netbooks (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=831275)

wersdaluv
August 4th, 2008, 08:47 AM
I don't really know much apart from my own experience with the 701. Maybe you might want to check with some of the people posting in this thread? Mini Laptops / Netbooks (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=831275)
Okay. Thanks. I hope that you find out about the latest netbooks because I want your wisdom. hehe. Replace your 701 when the dual core atoms come out. hehe. I don't think you would do that, though because you're practical.

Nepherte
August 12th, 2008, 04:55 PM
Just want to mention that the link 'this', the last word in the introduction of the 'create separate home partition', doesn't work anymore.

aysiu
August 12th, 2008, 05:22 PM
Just want to mention that the link 'this', the last word in the introduction of the 'create separate home partition', doesn't work anymore.
Thanks for letting me know. I've fixed it.

Canis familiaris
August 12th, 2008, 05:37 PM
In your UbuntuCat Blog, whenever the Month is cliked a 404 error comes.
eg. When I click August 2008, a 404 error comes.

aysiu
August 12th, 2008, 05:40 PM
In your UbuntuCat Blog, whenever the Month is cliked a 404 error comes.
eg. When I click August 2008, a 404 error comes.
Thanks for pointing that out. That'll be a little bit trickier for me to fix. I'll have to look at the PHP code carefully, but I'm on it...

Canis familiaris
August 12th, 2008, 05:41 PM
Thanks for pointing that out. That'll be a little bit trickier for me to fix. I'll have to look at the PHP code carefully, but I'm on it...

I think it would be better while you work on it, to just keep it as text and not as link, if it is possible that is.

lukjad
August 15th, 2008, 05:54 PM
I have been using your site for quite a while now. I would like to thank you for the help that it has given me and, in turn, the help it has given others whom I have helped with informations and tips gleaned from your site. Thanks!

Lukjad007

boddhisatva
August 16th, 2008, 11:36 PM
The site seems to be very helpful, however I think there should be some warnings when suggesting copying/pasting some code for seemingly innocent operations, especially as it's aimed at inexperienced users. I used the code in the 'pure gnome' section to remove my kubuntu desktop and then experienced some moments of sheer terror as I saw half of my carefully accumulated software collection disappear. Why are programs such as Blender, VLC, Audacity (to mention but a few) removed - they are not specifically KDE? I lost most of my multimedia collection. Well, now I just have to search all the repositories and websites for all the programs, hoping I'll remember all the names.
Sorry for this sour note, I appreciate all the unpaid effort of people in the open source community, but you can understand my frustration. Perhaps I should have just 'played it safe' and left the unused KDE desktop alone instead of experimenting.

lukjad
August 16th, 2008, 11:41 PM
The reasons why they were removed (I think) is that they were dependent on the KDE. With KDE gone, they weren't usable so they were removed too.
I could be wrong but that is my understanding.

aysiu
August 17th, 2008, 12:21 AM
Removing an entire desktop environment isn't any less simple than reinstalling VLC or Audacity is.

The fact is that if packages are removed, they can just as easily be reinstalled, and none of your settings will be gone.

What kind of warning would be suitable? You really can't know what's going to happen until you run the command, and I don't want to warn people off, when really nothing terrible is going to happen.

I will say that the command to remove all the KDE stuff comes from a default Ubuntu installation and takes into account all the packages adding kubuntu-desktop would bring with it. The second half of the command also makes sure you still have ubuntu-desktop installed so that you're not stuck at a command prompt in case something goes wrong.

I took a quick look at man apt-get and didn't see anything like this, but does anyone know if there's an option that is the opposite of --force-yes? In other words, an option that would force dpkg to ask for confirmation of changes before you go through with the removal?

aysiu
August 17th, 2008, 12:32 AM
I just tried it out myself and was prompted as to whether I wanted the packages removed or not:
The following packages will be REMOVED:
audacity ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly icewm
imlib11 kdelibs-data kdelibs4c2a kolourpaint krename libarts1c2a libartsc0
libaudio2 libavahi-qt3-1 libid3tag0 libimlib2 libjpeg-progs liblua50
liblualib50 libmodplug0c2 libmpcdec3 libopenexr2c2a libpulse0 libqt3-mt
libungif4g libxvmc1 mozilla-mplayer mplayer mplayer-fonts
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 29 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives.
After unpacking 110MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n
Abort. I was able to say I did not want to continue after seeing what packages would be removed. I don't really see a problem.

Are others not being prompted for a confirmation?

boddhisatva
August 17th, 2008, 09:04 AM
OK, maybe I overreacted a bit :)
I just didn't see why packages such as Blender should be removed, which are totally desktop-environment independent (when I first installed it I didn't have any KDE components, I don't think you even need to install it to run it). I know I can reinstall all the packages (I already have, most of them), but the first impression was quite distressing, even the screen resolution got screwed up after a re-login, so I feared some serious changes had happened. Now things are back to normal, more or less. Perhaps just a warning saying: 'A lot of your applications (even non-KDE) may be removed in the process' would be useful?
I know it's not such a big deal in the end, but a not very experienced user can freak out for a while when he suddenly can't start the most used applications and the program list is decimated.

On a positive note, keep up the good work :)

P.S. I think the prompt for confirmation was there, but the list of items was huge and I just assumed they were all the KDE components and trusted the uninstallation process. I know, silly me :)

aysiu
August 17th, 2008, 05:07 PM
I've added in a warning, which I hope will help.

Georgia boy
August 18th, 2008, 03:15 AM
Hi Aysiu!!!
Just wanted to say thanks for all of your help from your site. I finally got my feet wet and installed the Ubuntu 8.04!!!!

I'm a little red in the face at admitting that I had trouble with Thunderbird and Evolution. I had SMTP switched around saying SMPT instead. NO damn wonder I could only receive but not send mail.:lolflag:

Anyhow, thanks to you, ForrestPixe, and Paqman for the encouragement that helped me to install. I got my feet wet without any cement boots!!!!:guitar:

Thanks

Tom

koshari
August 21st, 2008, 10:33 AM
just a quick tip regarding removing KDE and returning to pure gnome.

if one installed using synaptic the log from the date that kubuntu-desktop package will contain the names of all packages that were added.

so if the user say had amarok for arguments sake installed, then installed kubuntu-dektop , and then wanted to return to remove the majority of KDE components BUT retain amarok, they could use the log file to build a list of packages for apt to remove.

Inane_Asylum
August 28th, 2008, 03:48 PM
Quick question off the current topic...I created a /home partition and afterwards, my personal settings like superkaramba widgets, firefox bookmarks/history, quicklaunch bar, desktop background, etc. were gone. It looked like I logged in as a new user (here's (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=5680670#post5680670) the thread, btw). Once I get home, I'll compare permissions and such to see if that's the problem, but I was wondering if anyone else has heard of/experienced this.

doas777
August 29th, 2008, 01:03 AM
Hi.
I just clicked the link for the "HALL OF SHAME" mentioned in Psychocats thread, but I think somthing is wrong with the page.

it attempts to run a script which looks rather suspicious:

***DO NOT RUN THIS***
pVeHpV <a href="http://krcvqwszgtje.com/">krcvqwszgtje</a>,http ://tqoegurqiyye.com/]tqoegurqiyye, dntkvwbjhcyq, http ://xukvcnqarwdn.com/]

I don't know if this is bad, so sorry if it's not a big deal. Just didn't want the thread to point people to bad places.

Thanks for the resources!

aysiu
August 29th, 2008, 03:30 AM
It looks as if something happened to that Wiki. I've replaced the link with a link to another hall of shame. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

sciurus
September 5th, 2008, 05:25 PM
Hi, thanks for all your work on these guides. The one on how to reset your password (http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/resetpassword) is missing a step in the latest version of Ubuntu. Instead of dropping you directly to a root prompt, booting recovery mode takes you to a menu with several options, one of which is dropping to a root shell.

aysiu
September 5th, 2008, 06:24 PM
Hi, thanks for all your work on these guides. The one on how to reset your password (http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/resetpassword) is missing a step in the latest version of Ubuntu. Instead of dropping you directly to a root prompt, booting recovery mode takes you to a menu with several options, one of which is dropping to a root shell.
Fixed.

sisco311
September 5th, 2008, 08:39 PM
Fixed.
There is no need to reboot to start the computer in normal mode.
You can select the Resume normal boot option from the menu after you logged out from the root shell(command: exit).

aysiu
September 5th, 2008, 08:45 PM
There is no need to reboot to start the computer in normal mode.
You can select the Resume normal boot option from the menu after you logged out from the root shell(command: exit).
That's good to know. Don't know when I'll get around to changing that, though (a little less pressing of a change).

hyper_ch
September 7th, 2008, 09:53 AM
I still wonder why you call it "psychocats" ;)

lukjad
September 7th, 2008, 11:12 AM
That should be fairly obvious. ;)

hyper_ch
September 7th, 2008, 12:23 PM
that cat in aysiu's avatar doesn't look like a psycho at all...

lukjad
September 7th, 2008, 01:36 PM
Perhaps it is because aysiu is the psycho...
At least about cats.

smartboyathome
September 7th, 2008, 06:18 PM
Aysiu: I was reading the no mono thread and think that you should have a "Remove Mono from Ubuntu" tutorial on your page. Mind if I recommend it? :)

aysiu
September 7th, 2008, 06:37 PM
Aysiu: I was reading the no mono thread and think that you should have a "Remove Mono from Ubuntu" tutorial on your page. Mind if I recommend it? :)
I'm going to respectfully disagree. I think that's a bit outside the scope of what Psychocats seeks to cover.

It's really about the basics for new users and a few next steps. It's not intended to be a comprehensive collection of tutorials.

Maybe a Wiki page on that? Frankly, I don't even know how to remove Mono.

boddhisatva
September 8th, 2008, 03:54 PM
Sorry to bring up the subject of "Pure Gnome" again, but whereas the recommended method to install KDE via "sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude install kubuntu-desktop" easily installs kubuntu desktop with all its default applications, the corresponding command "sudo aptitude remove kubuntu-desktop" removes the KDE desktop only but it leaves all the KDE applications behind (visible in the cluttered Gnome menu). So in that sense it doesn't get you back to "pure Gnome". You have to remove all the unneeded applications manually.

aysiu
September 8th, 2008, 04:04 PM
Sorry to bring up the subject of "Pure Gnome" again, but whereas the recommended method to install KDE via "sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude install kubuntu-desktop" easily installs kubuntu desktop with all its default applications, the corresponding command "sudo aptitude remove kubuntu-desktop" removes the KDE desktop only but it leaves all the KDE applications behind (visible in the cluttered Gnome menu). So in that sense it doesn't get you back to "pure Gnome". You have to remove all the unneeded applications manually.
That hasn't been my experience, but then again I haven't tested it out in a couple of releases. Can someone else verify this as the case in Ubuntu 8.04?

Canis familiaris
September 8th, 2008, 05:27 PM
Aysiu: I was reading the no mono thread and think that you should have a "Remove Mono from Ubuntu" tutorial on your page. Mind if I recommend it? :)

I dont think so since people who would be "geeky" enough to want to remove Mono will be smart enough to figuring it out.

kevin11951
September 8th, 2008, 06:55 PM
That hasn't been my experience, but then again I haven't tested it out in a couple of releases. Can someone else verify this as the case in Ubuntu 8.04?

yup, it removes the package, but leaves everything inside behind

aysiu
September 8th, 2008, 07:07 PM
yup, it removes the package, but leaves everything inside behind
Well, I'll have to change those instructions, then.

wolfen69
September 12th, 2008, 07:09 AM
on pure gnome (http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/puregnome) page, the command to remove kubuntu has a space in "apt- get install ubuntu-desktop".

aysiu
September 12th, 2008, 03:38 PM
on pure gnome (http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/puregnome) page, the command to remove kubuntu has a space in "apt- get install ubuntu-desktop".
Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I don't know how that happened!

It was on the Pure Xfce page, too.

airjaw
September 12th, 2008, 11:22 PM
For New Users:
[url=http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/]


Thanks for the link. Was wondering what pyschocats was.
Btw, your first link is wrong. IT has a " at the end and fails.

aysiu
September 12th, 2008, 11:27 PM
Thanks for the link. Was wondering what pyschocats was.
Btw, your first link is wrong. IT has a " at the end and fails.
Thanks. I've fixed it.

airjaw
September 12th, 2008, 11:35 PM
Thanks. I've fixed it.

you're welcome. I'm not sure how this thread went 17 pages without anyone noticing. :P

danbh
September 19th, 2008, 07:06 AM
the pure xfce command for ubuntu has lots of extra spaces. I assume the kubuntu part suffers from the same problem. They are easy to find, they all follow a dash. So all "- " should be replaced with "-"

Here is the corrected command for removing ubuntu and installing xubuntu:
ps - why dont you use the tasksel command for install xubuntu: sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop^ ?


sudo apt-get remove alacarte bluez-gnome brltty brltty-x11 bug-buddy capplets-data cdrdao cli-common compiz compiz-core compiz-fusion-plugins-extra compiz-fusion-plugins-main compiz-gnome compiz-plugins compizconfig-backend-gconf contact-lookup-applet dcraw deskbar-applet diveintopython ekiga eog espeak evince evolution evolution-common evolution-data-server evolution-data-server-common evolution-exchange evolution-plugins evolution-webcal example-content f-spot fast-user-switch-applet firefox-3.0-gnome-support firefox-gnome-support gconf-editor gedit gedit-common gimp-gnomevfs gimp-python gnome-about gnome-applets gnome-applets-data gnome-control-center gnome-desktop-data gnome-doc-utils gnome-media gnome-menus gnome-netstatus-applet gnome-nettool gnome-panel gnome-panel-data gnome-pilot gnome-pilot-conduits gnome-session gnome-settings-daemon gnome-spell gnome-terminal gnome-terminal-data gnome-themes gnome-user-guide gnome-utils gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-plugins-base-apps gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio gstreamer0.10-tools gtkhtml3.14 gvfs gvfs-backends gvfs-fuse hwtest hwtest-gtk launchpad-integration libalut0 libao2 libarchive1 libart2.0-cil libcdio-cdda0 libcdio-paranoia0 libcompizconfig0 libcurl3 libdecoration0 libdeskbar-tracker libdirectfb-1.0-0 libedata-book1.2-2 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserverui1.2-8 libeel2-2 libeel2-data libegroupwise1.2-13 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libexempi3 libflickrnet2.1.5-cil libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-google1.2-1 libgdata1.2-1 libglade2.0-cil libglew1.5 libglib2.0-cil libgmime-2.0-2 libgmime2.2-cil libgnome-pilot2 libgnome-vfs2.0-cil libgnome-window-settings1 libgnome2.0-cil libgnomevfs2-bin libgnomevfs2-extra libgpgme11 libgpod-common libgpod3 libgtk2.0-cil libgtkhtml3.14-19 libgtkhtml3.16-cil libgtksourceview2.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-common libgvfscommon0 libgweather-common libgweather1 libicu38 liblpint-bonobo0 libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo1.0-cil libmono-corlib1.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil libmono-data-tds1.0-cil libmono-data-tds2.0-cil libmono-security1.0-cil libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip0.84-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil libmono-sqlite2.0-cil libmono-system-data1.0-cil libmono-system-data2.0-cil libmono-system-web1.0-cil libmono-system-web2.0-cil libmono-system1.0-cil libmono-system2.0-cil libmono0 libmono1.0-cil libmono2.0-cil libmtp7 libmusicbrainz4c2a libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libneon27 libopal-2.2 libopenal0a libopenobex1 libpam-gnome-keyring libpisock9 libpisync1 libpt-1.10.10 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l2 libpth20 libpulsecore5 librarian0 libsamplerate0 libsdl1.2debian libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsgutils1 libsmbclient libsoup2.4-1 libsqlite0 libtracker-gtk0 libvorbisfile3 libwpg-0.1-1 libwps-0.1-1 libx11-xcb1 libxml2-utils mesa-utils metacity mono-common mono-gac mono-jit mono-runtime mousetweaks nautilus nautilus-cd-burner nautilus-data nautilus-sendto nautilus-share o3read obex-data-server openoffice.org-base-core openoffice.org-calc openoffice.org-common openoffice.org-core openoffice.org-draw openoffice.org-gnome openoffice.org-gtk openoffice.org-impress openoffice.org-style-human openoffice.org-writer pkg-config pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat pulseaudio-module-gconf pulseaudio-module-hal pulseaudio-module-x11 python-gmenu python-gtksourceview2 python-uno rdesktop rhythmbox rss-glx scim-bridge-agent scim-bridge-client-gtk seahorse sound-juicer sqlite sqlite3 ssh-askpass-gnome tangerine-icon-theme tomboy totem-mozilla tracker tracker-search-tool tsclient ttf-opensymbol ubuntu-desktop ubuntu-docs ubuntu-sounds usplash-theme-ubuntu vino whois xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xsane xsane-common xsltproc xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support yelp && sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

aysiu
September 19th, 2008, 07:27 AM
Thanks for pointing that out. It should be fixed now.

Is there an advantage to using tasksel?

danbh
September 19th, 2008, 04:11 PM
Well, I don't know if it has advantage. Its the command that I used to use to switch between kubuntu or ubuntu or xubuntu. As you know, just removing ubuntu-desktop and installing xubuntu-desktop, because that just relies on most of the metapackages of the previous installation. You know this. The tasksel command seems to go through each package, and install it one by one, that way, getting every package of the installation, and overriding the previous installation.

Personally, I would use gtkorphan to clean up afterwords. But, I tested my method, and then yours, and your method clearly got more packages. I really don't know.

Besides this question, I have a request. On your page for creating a separate /home, you use the cpio | find whatever command. My understanding is that stems from cp not being very functional, and not supporting sparse files, whatever. Today, supposedly, cp can do the copy now, but its still not that great.

The command I would like to see added as an option is rsync -aS. Very simple, use it like rsync -aS /home/. /new_home/. and it works like a champ (I hope I got the syntax right). Copies all the files, and maintains permissions and ownerships and I think timestamps even.

The benefit is that the syntax of the command is clearly, easier to see what is going on, and that you are showing a modern backup command being used in action (which is good for its teaching purposes).

jbruced
October 2nd, 2008, 09:50 PM
Excellent website, I've had it bookmarked for quite a while now.

You don't assume your readers have a high expertise, so your tutorials are very easy to follow, yet even the "experts" can learn from the tutorials.

One issue I've been researching recently is automatically mounting ntfs partitions. Your tutorial seems a little out of date. Please see http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=217009 for the easiest, and it seems, safest way to auto-mount(a word?) ntfs partitions for all us dual booters.

This is not a complaint by any means, it is my way of trying to give something back to you.

I'd be glad to do a rewrite of this issue for your web-site(with your editorial approval of course) if you'd like.

Thanks for your efforts to educate us all.

aysiu
October 2nd, 2008, 11:28 PM
Even what you linked to I linked to at the bottom of that page, and it's a bit outdated, too.

I'll work on revising that page.

aysiu
October 3rd, 2008, 12:52 AM
I've revised the Mount Windows page:
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/mountwindows

I've also renamed the old page (and it's referenced by the new page at the bottom):
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/mountwindowsfstab

enlightenment now
October 3rd, 2008, 08:09 AM
aysiu (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=21941), this is awesome Thank you very much!

I am always glad to see that ubuntuforums supports Psychocats, CafeLinux.org, Ubuntu-Geek's blogs and other great Open Source/Linux projects, blogs, and how-tos.

aysiu
October 3rd, 2008, 10:54 PM
I've added a new page for Wubi:
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/wubi

germanix
October 4th, 2008, 06:02 PM
I used your tutorial to create a new home partition in Ubuntu. It did not work for me and in the end I had to new install. I am not blaming your tutorial. I encountered three problems which complicated the matter for me.
The first and second problem were identical and concerns the 2 commands below:

cd /old/home
find . -depth -print0 | sudo cpio --null --sparse -pvd /new/
sudo mv /old/home /old/home_backup
sudo mkdir /old/home

/dev/hda7 /home ext3 nodev,nosuid 0 2

In the first command I was not sure if third word in the command namely -print0
ended with a capitol letter "O" or a zero "0", and in the case of the second command was this a "O" or a "0" in nosuid 0 2,
Looking at it now in this thread it is obvious that it is a zero, but on your tutorial you used a black background, that made it impossible to spot the dot inside the circle. I assumed it was an capitol O.and entered it as such.

The third problem was when I got to the nano text, your tutorial says add this line: /dev/hda7 /home ext3 nodev,nosuid 0 2
Well as a newbie to Linux and the command line etc, I had never seen the nano texter before, and the cursor was blinking right at the top line, and here I then gave the command.I do not know if this was correct or if I should have moved the cursor down (if that was at all possible)
Anyway if I did add it at the wrong line, I also added it wrong as I still believed the 0 was an O.
(I know I could have done a copy/paste of the commands, but I was reading the tutorial on my laptop whilst working on my PC, and anyway I wanted to gain some experience with typing the commands myself))
The pc crashed and would not boot again, not even with the Ubuntu live cd. I had to go in with a live GParted, delete all partitions and re-install.
Before trying this again I would like you to confirm that it is a zero, and where/which line in the nano texter the last command should go in.
May I further suggest that you change the background of the commands from the current black in your tutorial to some background that will show the dot inside the circle of the zero, to prevent others from making the same mistake.
Apart from these few issues it is a good tutorial, and if it works, which unfortunately I cannot yet comment on, I will be very pleased.
Have a nice day.

aysiu
October 4th, 2008, 06:49 PM
I'm sticking with white on black, but I would highly recommend you copy and paste commands instead of retyping them. I'll revise the tutorial to say that.

Fr33d0m
October 25th, 2008, 08:56 PM
Is it possible that your tutorial "Create a separate home partition in Ubuntu" is out of date? Does fstab require a UUID for the home partition these days? Either way I am unable to make it work. Here is my fstab


# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda3
UUID=3991bd01-9cfd-4558-bed9-c8a117540658 / ext3 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda5
UUID=734ff907-02d7-4328-aded-577107590c9b none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
/dev/sda6
UUID=b2e0ca61-c3a0-4bad-b73d-47c952a2264c /home ext3 nodev,nosuid 0 2

I would also like to suggest marking your posts to indicate what version of Ubuntu the tutorial is written to or has been tested on.

aysiu
October 26th, 2008, 02:58 PM
Every tutorial is supposed to work with the latest version of Ubuntu, as I've indicated in the FAQ:
http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/index.php#howoftenupdated

And the separate /home one no longer makes no mention of UUIDs, as far as I can tell.

kgas
October 27th, 2008, 08:09 PM
Thanks aysiu for the nice post. I will post shortly about my experiment on this. I would also like to know how to mount a particular external hard disk to a particular mount point every time it is plugged in. (editing fstab is the solution, is it possible to mount by HD ID). This will be helpful to take backups.:)

kgas
October 29th, 2008, 03:48 PM
For my earlier post I found the following two links that will help.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-general-1/make-removable-usb-hdd-mount-at-fixed-mount-point-511917/

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=736555

My idea is to use drive naming and use that name to mount the disk in the desired location thro' a bash script. :)

Thanks aysiu. I am following your blogs for useful tips and tricks.

aysiu
October 30th, 2008, 11:24 PM
It's going to take me a while, but I'm slowly beginning to make revisions in light of the recent Intrepid Ibex release. Bear with me...

ardvark71
November 3rd, 2008, 01:31 AM
Hi...

I wanted to let whoever maintains this page...

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

... know that the window or picture that gives the code to install Kubuntu is so narrow vertically that the code cannot be read at all. Plus, there is a horizontal slider bar on the bottom of the window or picture. I'm viewing this through Internet Explorer 7, however, it appears normal in Firefox 3.0.3. I have no idea what it appears like in any other browser.

Best Regards... :)

aysiu
November 3rd, 2008, 06:09 AM
I think most Ubuntu users trying to install KDE won't be browsing with Internet Explorer 7. But thanks for letting me know anyway.

dorkdork777
November 6th, 2008, 05:19 PM
First of all, I'd like to say a huge thanks for the awesome website. You've got me out of quite a few sticky situations, and helped ease the transition over from XP so that now only need to boot into Windows for games - everything else is absolutely fine, and I couldn't have done it without your help! :)

Anywho, there's just one very small thing I'd like to point out - you refer to Intrepid as 8.11 on this page:

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

...but thank you so much for these excellent tutorials :D

aysiu
November 6th, 2008, 05:39 PM
Good catch, dorkdork777. I'm glad my tutorials have helped you out, and now you've had a chance to help me out. I've made the correction.

aysiu
November 9th, 2008, 11:47 PM
I've updated the Flash and KDE pages (the KDE one was badly in need of a makeover... it's been pretty much the same procedure for the past four or five releases, but I think the screenshots were still from Breezy Badger before).

Ubufox is apparently not working for Flash and Java in Intrepid, so I had to do a total overhaul on Flash.

Things are slowly getting updated. Thanks for your patience, folks.

gpsmikey
November 10th, 2008, 12:19 AM
I too would like to thank you for taking the time to put those tutorials out there. I have learned much from them and may have to give you your own drawer in my filing cabinet :)
(I'm one of those people that needs a hard copy I can make notes on etc -- I got in trouble for writing directly on the screen ... :lolflag: )

mikey

andrew.46
November 10th, 2008, 03:04 AM
Just a quick note to say the 'thanks' I should have said some time ago :-). Your pages were a great help to me when I began with Linux and a long apprenticeship with Ubuntu 6.06.

In particular this page was an inspiration to me:

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

and I am a little sorry to see it moved away from your main site. This page woke my great interest in the command line and has actually lead me away from Ubuntu to Slackware, but it is all Linux I guess :).

Thanks for making the effort!!

Andrew

mashcaster
November 11th, 2008, 02:30 PM
Can I make a suggestion of a light weight bare bone system which has a usable modern desktop and makes use of prism for people who want word/spreadsheet applications?

after installing a base ubuntu 8.04 command line system, type in the following.


sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/lxde.list << EOF
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/lxde/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/lxde/ubuntu hardy main
EOF

sudo apt-get update && sudo aptitude install xserver-xorg xterm slim lxde obconf lxtask lxrandr kazehakase flashplugin-nonfree prism

Choose "slim" when given the choice of login managers

Note: Sets up a light weight 8.04 system using about 1Gb HDD, and 50Mb ram once the desktop has loaded. Not tested on 8.10 yet.

caljohnsmith
November 20th, 2008, 02:54 PM
Hi Aysiu, I think there might be a really small error in your tutorial about moving /home to a different partition, please see this thread:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=986798

aysiu
November 20th, 2008, 04:12 PM
Hi Aysiu, I think there might be a really small error in your tutorial about moving /home to a different partition, please see this thread:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=986798
I assure you it's not an error. This is how I've addressed it in the tutorial:
Note: I have tested the second command myself, and it works, but some have pointed out it might make sense to preface the commands with sudo in case one of the other users has subdirectories manually marked as unreadable to the user making the move. Since I have not tested this out and all directories and readable to all by default, I'm offering this as only an alternative in case the command as given does not work:
sudo find . -depth -print0 | sudo cpio --null --sparse -pvd /new/ In fact, I've found that when people use sudo to copy that they end up with all sorts of permission and ownership issues later and sometimes aren't able to log in.

In any case, I don't know why my tutorial gets so much flack, since it's really just a step-by-step new-user-friendly version of another tutorial that doesn't get any flack.

I have used these steps myself and know that they work as written. I also know some people have had problems with the steps and proposed other solutions, and I know other people have tried to follow those steps and run into other problems.

I don't think there is a perfect, works-all-the-time procedure for a separate /home partition. I've made it very clear that the way I have copied the tutorial from the original Wordpress tutorial has worked for me and that's all I know.

aysiu
November 20th, 2008, 05:25 PM
Sorry. I don't mean to snap at you. I know you mean well. You're just trying to help.

I'm just a little frustrated.

I did not create the steps in the tutorial. I do not know what the best way is to approach it, and I also cannot take every single suggestion people throw at me or my tutorials would be a mess (if you don't believe me, take a look at the Ubuntu Wiki).

The best thing to do is to go to the source, and I've added a huge bold disclaimer at the top of the separate /home tutorial to that effect.

This is exactly how the tutorial was created: At one point in my Ubuntu journey I decided I wanted to create a separate /home partition. I did a Google search for how to do it. I came across a Wordpress blog entry that had the steps to do it. I followed those steps, and they worked for me. So I thought, "Hey, those steps are good. But it doesn't look very new-user-friendly in presentation. Maybe I'll rewrite that other person's tutorial with a different look." I used the exact same commands as the original tutorial and dressed up the form of it a little bit. That's it. Someone else wrote it. It worked for me. I took the same steps and dressed them up a bit. That's it. I'm not a copy or cpio expert. I don't know all the intricacies of it. I just know it worked for me, and I wanted to make a friendlier-looking version of it.

Normally, I own the tutorials I write because I have actually written them. In this case, I took someone else's tutorial and added a few screenshots, so I'm going to deflect any criticism of it, since I did not create the steps or the commands, and I have a lot of disclaimers at the top that people should read.

At least I can say for its present form "It worked for me." If I took every suggestion thrown my way and people still encountered problems every now and then, all I'd be able to say is "Someone told me that'd work, so I changed my tutorial."

caljohnsmith
November 20th, 2008, 05:44 PM
No offense taken, I can certainly understand your frustration. In fact I want to apologize since I see now that I skipped over the beginning of the tutorial where you make it quite clear:

If you believe there is something wrong with the steps, leave a comment on that guide. I did not create these steps. I just was able to follow them successfully myself and wanted to present them in a more new-user-friendly form.
Maybe the reason you hear more feedback about your tutorials is because your tutorials are simply more popular and well-known than other help pages, so that would seem like a good thing and not a bad thing. But being in the spotlight also has its disadvantages when people like me come along and unintentionally skim over the disclaimers or other important stuff. So again, sorry I didn't read it more closely, but I just want to say thanks for providing some really helpful tutorials. :)

aysiu
November 20th, 2008, 05:47 PM
No offense taken, I can certainly understand your frustration. In fact I want to apologize since I see now that I skipped over the beginning of the tutorial where you make it quite clear:

Maybe the reason you hear more feedback about your tutorials is because your tutorials are simply more popular and well-known than other help pages, so that would seem like a good thing and not a bad thing. But being in the spotlight also has its disadvantages when people like me come along and unintentionally skim over the disclaimers or other important stuff. So again, sorry I didn't read it more closely, but I just want to say thanks for providing some really helpful tutorials. :)
Actually, I just added in that little bit today. But the other disclaimers were there before.

If I had more energy, I'd do extensive testing on all the suggestions I get, but I don't know how important it is for people to create separate /home partitions. It can be nice, but it's not necessary, and in many cases it's not even advisable. It's just there as a possibility.

I do appreciate you wanting to help out.

If I do get a month or so when I have nothing to do and want to delve into separate /home partitions with more depth, I'll certainly include your suggestion in my testing.

Kinstonian
November 22nd, 2008, 11:33 PM
I was just reading some of the security section of psychocats today and liked the part where you made the point that not running as root won't protect you from everything.

I think the people who say Ubuntu doesn't need a firewall because it doesn't have ports open make a few erroneous assumptions...

1. Firewalls are only useful for filtering inbound connections: If you only look at a firewall as filtering inbound connections, you only see half of it's potential. What about filtering outbound connections with suspicious protocols, or to known bad IPs like the Russian Business Network (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Business_Network)?

2. All protocols use ports: There are protocols like ICMP which don't use ports. It's not only commonly used for information gathering in attacks, but it's not unreasonable to think history could repeat itself and there could be a vulnerability in the way it's handled by the OS.

3. Firewalls are only for preventing attacks: While they are no doubt preventative controls, by analyzing the logs they generate they can detect both failed and successful attacks. If you look at firewall logs from inbound traffic you can detect attacks and take actions. If you look at firewall logs from outbound traffic like outbound IRC or SMTP traffic to China was blocked, you could have detected a successful attack.

4. At no point will there ever be an open port: There is a chance that at some point someone could open a port. Whether it was from the administrator making a mistake in installing/configuring software, or it could be an attacker purposefully using your computer as a server to store and distribute contraband, or perhaps using your computer to host a phishing site.

I think there two of those points were brought up in the guide, so kudos for that.

Maratonda
November 23rd, 2008, 10:25 AM
I think there are some mispelled words in here:


I live in the United Stares, so that's my locale, but you should inputt he appropriate locale for your country of residence.

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

aysiu
November 23rd, 2008, 05:41 PM
I think there are some mispelled words in here:



http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/mountwindowsfstab
Wow. I can't believe no one ever caught that before. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

laceration
November 29th, 2008, 12:46 AM
Hi Aysiu, thanks for your tutorials. This is regarding the one regarding creating a home partition. I had a lot of headaches. I got creative and backed my old home to another drive, which probably mixed something up along the way and caused my travails. I booted from a disk and cleaned things up but still got the $HOME/.dmrc file and .ICEauthority file errors and a message "Your home directory is listed as:'/home/xxx' but it does not appear to exist..."
My problem was permissions but there was a lot more to do than what was in "What if it doesn't work" section. I found this post and followed it and now everything works.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=524986

I might have had a weird screwup, so I do not know if you would want to refer to this in your tutorial, but I share it here in case it might help someone down the line. Caljohnsmith I appreciated your input too.

lazylew
December 1st, 2008, 09:32 PM
My absolute compliments on your pages; they cleared up a lot of issues that weren't clear to me, and I'll refer to them a lot in the future, I'm sure.

There's one thing though in the bit about Audacity that isn't working.
The Add/Remove can't find liblame0 nor libmp3lame.so.0

When trying to convert wav to mp3 Audacity itself did open a window saying I need that liblame-thing and had a "download it here" box, but that didn't do anything either.

Is this something that's outdated maybe?

edit: via Synaptic the download did work; all's working :-)

aysiu
December 2nd, 2008, 03:40 AM
I think it's now called libmp3lame0. Not sure if it's in Add/Remove, but it may be in Synaptic Package Manager.

grepnix
December 3rd, 2008, 10:07 PM
As a new user of Ubuntu your tutorials have been very helpful but I did spot one glaring mistake when you mentioned distros that install proprietary codecs/programs by default.

BLAG most definitely doesn't install these. Infact, it is well known as one of the few distros recommended by the Free software foundation as being completely free of non-free applications. It even goes as far as to remove all binary blobs from the kernel.

Regards,
grepnix

aysiu
December 3rd, 2008, 10:20 PM
I can't get on to the Blag wiki right now, but the last time I checked it had non-free packages installed. I'll check again later, and if it's now changed to be completely free, I'll take that off the page.

grepnix
December 5th, 2008, 12:48 AM
I can't get on to the Blag wiki right now, but the last time I checked it had non-free packages installed. I'll check again later, and if it's now changed to be completely free, I'll take that off the page.

The main developer of BLAG has disapeared. A lot of the webpages as well. The community is rallying to put everything back up but it doesn't look good for BLAG.

This page lists the free distros that the FSF recommends:-

http://www.gnu.org/links/links.html#FreeGNULinuxDistributions

Note: BLAG's inclusion.

cheers,
grepnix

dewclaw82
December 25th, 2008, 05:43 PM
My kubuntu-using niece just got an iPod for Christmas so I wanted to see if she could use iTunes. Your article on the subject was, as usual, invaluable information. However, although you discussed using Wine or VMware, you didn't mention VirtualBox (VB). I've been using the free version of VB for several months now and have found it much easier to use than either Wine or VMware.


Thank you so much for your tutorials--they are a great resource for all ubuntu users; even those of us who have some experience run into installation issues that we've never encountered before or haven't done in so long that we've forgotten the best way to go.

halw
December 28th, 2008, 07:40 PM
In your discussion of using Partimage to backup a partition you mention creating a mount point and mounting the partition/drive where you want your image to be stored.

It might be useful for beginners if you actually gave examples of those precedures.

FWIW, keep up the excellent work. I've learned a ton over the past few years from your site.

ben2talk
December 29th, 2008, 04:48 PM
3. There are also some graphical applications that simply will not run with the sudo command. Kate, for example, can be run as
kdesu kate
but cannot be run as
sudo kate


- on my system I installed Intrepid 8.10 gnome, so mostly use 'sudo' or (lazy to type gksudo) gksu from ALT F2 launch

Your statement that you can run kate as 'kdesu' implies that you have KDE installed - but assumes too much. Under certain conditions, either one may be available or not.

Thank you.

drmohamed
January 5th, 2009, 09:34 PM
thank you :P

vijaym
January 6th, 2009, 09:56 AM
psychocats is a reference site. The /home partition worked for me.
Thanks

perixx
January 12th, 2009, 05:00 PM
hello aysiu,


Your website www.psychocats.net has helped me a lot, especially back almost 2 years ago, when making the switch over to Xubuntu!
Dual booting, separated /home partitions some other things...

Since then, I've been using Xubuntu as my everyday's OS and have played around quite a bit with different releases and some other distro's, too.
Ubuntu still stays my main favourite, though, due to it's simplicity and reliability.

It's but a bit sad, that many potential users are being held from trying Ubuntu, due to the lack of good localized tutorial sites in their native language (I see you maybe don't like to have that term applied to your :]). Not all people know English well enough, to cope with advanced tech talk.
Because your site is of great advisory factor with beginner's problems, I'd like to propose translating your site into German. Other contributors may follow up; if that's of interest to you - I could do the German translation. I already have some experience translating major parts of a Linux-based RPG, too.

Best regards,


perixx

aysiu
January 12th, 2009, 06:08 PM
Yeah, you can translate to German if you'd like. Thanks for asking. But please put a link here to the site when you're done with the translation. I'd love to know that resource is available.

perixx
January 12th, 2009, 07:03 PM
Hello again,

I regret to say, that I lack of a webhoster myself, Aysiu...
Would yours allow for an embedded translated webpage of similar appearance of your own?


perixx

aysiu
January 12th, 2009, 07:30 PM
I'm probably not going to be hosting any translations on Psychocats. There may be others willing to host it, though.

perixx
January 12th, 2009, 10:03 PM
Well, if you maybe know someone, let me know :)
I could ask at the german ubuntu forum, but I don't think they'd do it by themselves...


perixx

silver-fox
January 19th, 2009, 08:08 PM
I wanted to know how to get from a well-worn Kubuntu setup to a nice clean Ubuntu setup and found the answer at http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/puregnome - thanks!

However, when I booted into Kubuntu, even though I selected a console login, when it came to remove kdm, the kubuntu splash appeared and then reverted to a blank screen. I couldn't get back to the console view. I ended up doing Alt-PrtSc-SUB to restart.

Then I booted with an Ubuntu Live CD, opened a console window, mounted the hard disk, did chroot and carried on. It would have been better to do that in the first place - might be worth pointing out on your howto?

aysiu
January 19th, 2009, 08:18 PM
I wanted to know how to get from a well-worn Kubuntu setup to a nice clean Ubuntu setup and found the answer at http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/puregnome - thanks!

However, when I booted into Kubuntu, even though I selected a console login, when it came to remove kdm, the kubuntu splash appeared and then reverted to a blank screen. I couldn't get back to the console view. I ended up doing Alt-PrtSc-SUB to restart.

Then I booted with an Ubuntu Live CD, opened a console window, mounted the hard disk, did chroot and carried on. It would have been better to do that in the first place - might be worth pointing out on your howto?
No, not really. This is the first I've ever heard of that problem occurring.

Thanks for the suggestion, though. And I'm glad you got it sorted.

Hooya
January 24th, 2009, 07:12 PM
I have an update to give on this tutorial:

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

When attempting this with my Intrepid install (I'm preparing to downgrade back to Hardy) I couldn't complete this command:

$find . -depth -print0 | cpio –null –sparse -pvd /mnt/newhome/

even when starting it as "sudo" - I always got permission errors.

My solution, which I suggest be added to the tutorial, is to start the command line process by becoming su, which requires creating a password for su while booted into the live CD. The first command after re-partitioning should therefore be:

$sudo passwd root

then enter a short password like "god"

$su
password: god

Now every command is done as super user by default, and the large copy command will work. This shortens all of the mounting and mkdir commands as well because "sudo" is assumed.

danbh
January 24th, 2009, 08:31 PM
Hey Hooya,
I think that command is an old way of doing things. I've written my own tutorial, and linked to the other tutorials that I worked off of. You can see my work here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Partitioning/Home and https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Partitioning/Home/Moving

Secondly Hooya, there is no need to set the root password. You can just run: sudo su. Also, purposely setting the root password to a very weak password seems like a bad idea.

Take care,
Dan

GrfyGrumpyBear
February 3rd, 2009, 11:57 AM
There is a quicker way to uninstall Ubuntufox and replace it with the Mozilla one: uninstall the Ubufox extension.

OrangeCrate
February 5th, 2009, 12:22 AM
@aysiu

A comment was made, that the instructions to get back to a pure Gnome from KDE are outdated. If you're not already aware of this, you can find the conversation here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6677859#post6677859

:)

aysiu
February 5th, 2009, 12:43 AM
I'll have a look. Thanks, OrangeCrate.

cb474
February 5th, 2009, 11:35 AM
Regarding your page on iTunes:

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

What about running iTunes in a virtualized version of Windows or OS X, with something like VMware or VirtualBox? I realize this is not for the faint of heart. But hypothetically speaking, wouldn't it allow you to have iTunes effectively running within a window in your Ubuntu system? So then you wouldn't have to dual-boot. That might be a solution for someone who really wants to have access to the iTunes download services.

aysiu
February 5th, 2009, 04:13 PM
Regarding your page on iTunes:

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

What about running iTunes in a virtualized version of Windows or OS X, with something like VMware or VirtualBox? I realize this is not for the faint of heart. But hypothetically speaking, wouldn't it allow you to have iTunes effectively running within a window in your Ubuntu system? So then you wouldn't have to dual-boot. That might be a solution for someone who really wants to have access to the iTunes download services.
I think I've already mentioned that:
If you must run iTunes, your best bet is a dual boot. This means you have to reboot your computer every time you want to access iTunes and then reboot your computer again if you want to use Ubuntu. Two slightly more convenient variations of this are running virtual Ubuntu inside Windows using VMWare (or running virtual Windows inside Ubuntu using VMWare) or having two computers and a KVM switch that allows you to quickly switch back and forth between Windows and Ubuntu using the same monitor and keyboard.

All of those are workarounds.

mrowl
February 10th, 2009, 05:40 PM
Hi Aysiu,

I successfully created a separate Home partition following your tutorial.
I had to use sudo find at the back-up and move stage, but apart from that everything worked for me. Very clear and easy to follow.

I'll be checking out your Back-up tutorial next.

Thanks, much appreciated from a noob like me.:KS

longtom
February 23rd, 2009, 09:34 AM
Hi,

thank you for that. Found a dead link so:

What other Ubuntu resources are there?
I'd highly recommend these links:
The Ubuntu Forums
Ubuntu Knowledge
The Ubuntu Guide

Here the "Ubuntu Knowledge" Link goes nowhere.

You might want to revisit that one.

Greetings

longtom

aysiu
February 23rd, 2009, 04:39 PM
Yeah, the link looks dead. That's a shame. I've taken it out now.

JoshuaRL
March 6th, 2009, 10:21 AM
Hello aysiu! On this page here, (http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/puregnome) I think it might be easier if you used aptitude to remove the desktops. It would work no matter what version you were running too.

sudo aptitude remove kubuntu-desktop
You probably know this WAY better than me, but that would work because aptitude can keep track of metapackages and remove them without trouble.

Just thought I'd pass that along. Thanks for the great site!

aysiu
March 6th, 2009, 05:01 PM
Hello aysiu! On this page here, (http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/puregnome) I think it might be easier if you used aptitude to remove the desktops. It would work no matter what version you were running too.

sudo aptitude remove kubuntu-desktop
You probably know this WAY better than me, but that would work because aptitude can keep track of metapackages and remove them without trouble.

Just thought I'd pass that along. Thanks for the great site!
On my old pages, I used to recommend aptitude, but it works only if you used aptitude to install the package in the first place, and aptitude can also be funkily over-aggressive in removing packages and remove too much; so I took it out. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

OldGrey
March 8th, 2009, 10:24 AM
Hello Aysiu,

I have recently installed the Kubuntu desktop in Ubuntu as per your instructions. One of the points you make is that the applications menus become infested with the programs from the alternate desktop. I have recently come across an article in Softpedia which has an idea to tidy that up.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-to-Install-KDE-4-2-on-Ubuntu-8-10-106118.shtml

If you scroll towards the end of the article it recommends a couple of little programs which sorts this out by putting all the KDE or Gnome launchers (depending on which desktop you are using) together in one sub menu. I have tried them, they work well and it makes the applications menu much tidier.

The article also suggests using Startupmanager to enable you to change the splashscreen back to Ubuntu (is you wish), as installing the KDE desktop overwrites the Ubuntu splashscreen.

Hope this helps.

longtom
March 8th, 2009, 10:47 AM
Hello Aysiu,

I have recently installed the Kubuntu desktop in Ubuntu as per your instructions. One of the points you make is that the applications menus become infested with the programs from the alternate desktop. I have recently come across an article in Softpedia which has an idea to tidy that up.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-to-Install-KDE-4-2-on-Ubuntu-8-10-106118.shtml

If you scroll towards the end of the article it recommends a couple of little programs which sorts this out by putting all the KDE or Gnome launchers (depending on which desktop you are using) together in one sub menu. I have tried them, they work well and it makes the applications menu much tidier.

The article also suggests using Startupmanager to enable you to change the splashscreen back to Ubuntu (is you wish), as installing the KDE desktop overwrites the Ubuntu splashscreen.

Hope this helps.

Now - this is a neat old trick indeed!!

Thank you!

longtom

Elfy
March 17th, 2009, 07:04 PM
Hi aysiu - I was looking at your site again today and noticed that on http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/puregnome you have got && sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop missing from the Remove Kubuntu (KDE 4 version) command.

It maybe deliberate, but if not I thought you might like to know.

aysiu
March 17th, 2009, 07:13 PM
Hi aysiu - I was looking at your site again today and noticed that on http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/puregnome you have got && sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop missing from the Remove Kubuntu (KDE 4 version) command.

It maybe deliberate, but if not I thought you might like to know.
Good catch. That was a purely accidental omission, so I have corrected it. Thanks.

Elfy
March 17th, 2009, 07:16 PM
That was quick :D

jpfle
April 17th, 2009, 04:37 AM
Hi,

I would have a question about the tutorial "Getting Back to a Pure Gnome on Ubuntu":

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

I would like to know how to find the command to remove Kubuntu on Ubuntu 9.04.

Thanks a lot for the tutorial.

aysiu
April 17th, 2009, 05:08 AM
Hi,

I would have a question about the tutorial "Getting Back to a Pure Gnome on Ubuntu":

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

I would like to know how to find the command to remove Kubuntu on Ubuntu 9.04.

Thanks a lot for the tutorial.
I'll update my tutorials after Jaunty is officially released. Even at that point, it may take me a couple of weeks to have them all up to date.

yabbadabbadont
April 17th, 2009, 05:13 AM
I'll update my tutorials after Jaunty is officially released. Even at that point, it may take me a couple of weeks to have them all up to date.

Slacker... ;) :D

aysiu
April 17th, 2009, 05:25 AM
Slacker... ;) :D
Them's the breaks.

yabbadabbadont
April 17th, 2009, 05:30 AM
Them's the breaks.

Have you been listening to Kurtis Blow lately? Your comment gave me a severe 80's flashback. :D

Xero Xenith
April 28th, 2009, 05:09 PM
Extreme nitpicking here, but there's a stray quotation mark on the front page.

How often do you update this site? Are there any out-of-date tutorials?"

Just thought I'd mention it... I'm really grateful for the site BTW, I've introduced my dad to Linux for the first time, he wouldn't touch it before because of the lack of easy documentation :P

aysiu
April 28th, 2009, 05:22 PM
Extreme nitpicking here, but there's a stray quotation mark on the front page.


Just thought I'd mention it... I'm really grateful for the site BTW, I've introduced my dad to Linux for the first time, he wouldn't touch it before because of the lack of easy documentation :P
Good catch. I've fixed it now.

Glad it was a help to your dad.

BGFG
May 4th, 2009, 12:37 AM
Used the minimal tutorial to install jaunty and Gnome-core, thanks for a great tutorial. Sadly, after i 'built back up' the system, I'm back up to 900+ packages :P.
machine is VERY peppy though, and I learnt a lot. Think the minimal will become my tradition...

anaconda
May 8th, 2009, 01:03 PM
Hi!
Tried to follow this quide with the new 9.04 release
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/minimal

And it doesn't seem to work any longer.

With 8.04 you could install a minimal (command-line) version of ubuntu with these mini.iso:s (without internet connection),
But the 9.04 version wont install anything without downloading from the internet (I didn't finish the install), and when it installs from the internet I think you will get the whole gnome (which sucks with an old and slow machine with modest specks..)

DO you know if it is still possible to do minimal install without internet connection? Are there any other mini.iso:s available?

(Ofcourse I could install from 8.04:s mini.iso and then upgrade it, but the upgrade would remove wvdial, which I need. And would I have to upgrade from 8.40->8.10->9.04?)

EDIT: sorry. Just re-read the webpage, and noticed that you dont actually instruct to install without internet connection.
But would still be nice to know what does the installer install? Do you get the whole gnome-desktop with the mini.iso now?

aysiu
May 8th, 2009, 01:54 PM
I installed with the mini.iso for Jaunty not too long ago. Yes, it does (like the earlier installers) need an internet connection, as there's no way a 10 MB file will contain the necessary packages for even a minimal installation.

And, no, you do not have to install all of Gnome.

PaganImmolator
May 10th, 2009, 08:46 PM
I used your Mini-Iso tutorial and it was EXACTLY what I was looking for. I have been using Crunchbang but it was more fulfilling to do it on my own. For the other user, it installed jaunty just fine over the internet.

While the IceWM is nice and lean, I can't for the life of me figure out how to modify the resolution. It seems like its defaulting to 640x480 and that is just not enough real estate for Firefox. I can't find a tab or application devoted to "appearance" like in regular ubuntu.

efreak
May 13th, 2009, 10:47 PM
You've got a dead link in your "Installing Software in Ubuntu" guide, located at http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/installingsoftwareold.

The link is named "a guide on how to use Synaptic Package Manager (complete with screenshots)" and points to http://www.monkeyblog.org/ubuntu/installing.
MonkeyBlog.org, regardless of whatever it was before, is now a parked domain with no useful content.

Fortunately, the web archive has a copy of the page from feb 2008. Not sure if this was the latest version, but the author's email address is in there as well.

The web archive's copy is at http://tinyurl.com/oj3oqg (http://web.archive.org/web/20080214235528/monkeyblog.org/ubuntu/installing/).

aysiu
May 13th, 2009, 10:56 PM
It should be fixed now. Good catch.

awang
May 17th, 2009, 04:18 PM
Thanks so much for the tutorials.
They have been most helpful.
I especially liked the KDE Gnome comarison.

awang
May 17th, 2009, 05:19 PM
A suggestion for a possible new tutorial - Update Manager.

This is probably outside of scope for a brand new user, and I did not find it in this thread.

And maybe a statement about clean install vs. upgrades for releases?

aysiu
May 17th, 2009, 05:34 PM
I think Update Manager's pretty straightforward. Was there something in particular you thought new users might need help with there?

In terms of clean installs v. upgrades, I'm not sure what to recommend. In the old days, I'd always recommend a clean install, but I've been doing upgrades for the past several releases and not encountered many problems.

Chris Musampa
May 19th, 2009, 08:12 PM
From Gnome/KDE comparison:


It used to be so simple (in older versions of KDE) to change it so the panel was on the top instead of the bottom. I can't find that option anywhere. What does screen edge mean as a setting?

That option you can't find anywhere? Thats what 'screen edge' does.
What does screen edge mean as a setting? Thats that option you can't find anywhere.

:mrgreen: