Nerd Fever

As mentioned a couple of posts back, I recently got a new PC and decided to try using Linux on it as my main operating system. I tried – really tried – for 3 weeks, spending a large fraction of my working hours googling for solutions to get things running smoothly.

I used (real) Unix back in the early 1980s (as a user, not an admin), and liked it pretty well back then, so I wasn’t totally new to common Unix commands.

I tried Linux Mint 11 x64, then Xubuntu 11.10 x64, and finally Kubuntu 11.10 x64.

Linux works great as a server or command-line driven operating system. For that, it’s mature, powerful, and effective. But as far as I can tell all the GUI desktops are still suitable only for:

• Users who only surf the web, edit office documents, and do email
• Single-function applications (basically, running one app)

It’s a shame. I really prefer the Unix command-line environment to Windows. But so far as I can tell, the only Unix-based operating system with a mature GUI is Mac OS X. (And that I’m taking on faith, not having tried it…yet.)

But I give up; I’m installing Windows 7, which works smoothly despite its inferior architecture. For those whose main use of their computers is configuring and tweaking the computer itself, Linux may be great. But I have stuff that I want to get done – every time I tried, I ran into little niggling problems that required hours of web searching and learning to get over. I think the rest of this site demonstrates that I’m not technically inept or unwilling to learn. But Linux isn’t ready.

I did learn a lot in the process. For those who want to try it for themselves, my notes follow; at least you can benefit from my experience.

As well as the problems mentioned below, in all three attempts I found a strange problem with the Chrome browser on Linux – after the first hour or two of use, it became incredibly slow.  At first I thought it was my ISP or home network, but Firefox worked fine, as did Chrome on my Win7 boxes.  There is something about Linux that Chrome doesn’t like.  One (unconfirmed) idea is that it wants to see an IPv6 stack – Win7 has this but none of the Linuxes turn it on by default.

The rest of this post consists of my notes on Linux in general, then notes on each of the three attempts I made (Linux Mint 11 x64, then Xubuntu 11.10 x64, and Kubuntu 11.10 x64).

GENERAL LINUX NOTES (some come from previous attempts with Ubuntu…)

sudo fdisk -l		List all mounted partitions
sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda	List partitions on /dev/sda

./configure		Something to do after downloading source code
sudo make install	Ditto? 

uname -r		Report kernel version

sh FILENAME.sh		Run script FILENAME.sh

~			Macro for home folder ( ~ == /home/dave )

Terminal colors		Dark blue - directory
			Green - executable
			Yellow - device
			Magenta - image
			Red - archive

/media			Folder where USB drives get mounted

/dev/ttyUSB0		0th USB serial port

Alt+middleClick		Resize window (GNOME); no easier way than choosing 1-pixel border

lspci			List machine hardware (try -v for verbose, or -vv for very verbose)

Drag MIDDLE button to choose move vs. copy (Gnome)

uname -sr		Reports kernel version name & number

cat /etc/*-release	Returns distribution version

Shift-Ctrl-C and -V work in Gnome terminal (cut/paste)

Random app icons are in /usr/share/pixmaps/

Multiple commands can be on the same line - delimit with ';'

CLASSICAL SHARES vs USERSHARES
	Classical shares are created in /etc/samba/smb.conf
		They must be created by root.
	Usershares are created by the user (without needing
	root privs) in folder /var/lib/samba/usershares.
	Nautilus's "Create share" makes a usershare.  These
	are 'less secure' (not sure exactly how).

du -sh folder		Lists disk usage of folder (summarized)

KERNEL ISSUES

TRIM needs kernel 2.6.33.x or later; 10.04 LTS has 2.6.32-31-generic

I tried updating to a newer kernel; got driver problems as with contempoary versions of Ubuntu (10.10 and 11.04).

Here follows my notes from each attempt – may they be useful to somebody out there.

Gnome 2 on Linux Mint 11 x64:

I chose Linux Mint because it was advertized (accurately) as being more complete out-of-the-box than Ubuntu, with commonly needed things like codecs and Samba (Windows-compatible file sharing; I have to administer lots of Windows boxes) pre-installed. And it was based on Ubuntu (widely supported, stable), and rising in popularity, which I figured would help iron out bugs.

It worked pretty well up until I got frustrated with the horrible vertical grid for desktop icons. It does have a grid, but the grid is much too fine in the vertical dimension, so you end up with icons in neat columns but messy rows. And there’s no way to change the grid short of hacking Gnome 2 (believe me, I looked into this hard).

So I attempted to install XFCE in parallel. That borked the whole system and I had to reinstall the os.

I got as far as you see below; this took a couple of weeks. I was still running 90% of my apps on a Win7 box via rdesktop, but I was able to use EaglePCB on the Mint machine.

SETUP NOTES FOR LINUX MINT 11 x64

Setup notes for ENOUGH - Intel i750-2600, 8 GB, Linux Mint 11 x64
Started 8 November 2011, gave up 26 November 2011 (Chrome got corrupted, conflicts between Gnome2 & XFCE)

>>> Marks unresolved problem
[u] Marks removed program (thought better of it later)

1 - Updated everything
2 - Google Chrome
3[u] - RDPfree (because of black cursor problem with rdekstop) [UNINSTALLED LATER; rdesktop 1.7 is better]
4 - Added Chrome and Terminal to Panel
	Right click then unlock, rt-click then Move to move
5 - Turboprint for Canon ix7000 printer (works well so far)
	Set CtrlCntr>Printing>Properties>JobOptions>ScaleToFit to avoid cropping at margins
	Couldn't get applet to appear in applet list for panel (posted 2011-11-12) - fixed after rebooting
6 - PuTTY
	Note middle-click does paste.  Enter sends CR, ^J sends LF.
	Ctrl-RtClick brings up menu to change settings.
7 - Eagle PCB
	Setup folders to search separated by ':' in Options>Directories
8 - Meld & BeyondCompare (not sure which to keep yet)
9 - XRDP (>>> probably ought to configure, also set fixed IP and port)
10 - Installed rdesktop 1.7 (to fix black cursor problem in 1.6):

	download source from website
	tar -zxvf rdesktop-1.7.0.tar.gz			Un-gZip, Xtract, Verbose, from File
	cd rdesktop-1.7.0
	./configure					Gives error, so then...
	sudo apt-get install libssl-dev
	./configure					Seems happier now...
	make
	sudo make install

 	Works!

	To get 32-bit color and anti-aliasing, use:
	padsp rdesktop -a 32 -g 95% -r clipboard:PRIMARYCLIPBOARD -x 0x80 <ip>[<:port>]&

	Right now, QUIET is .117 and NIGHT is .111

	>>> Cut/Paste works toward client, but not toward server
11 - Fixed PDF printing as follows:
		sudo apt-get purge cups-pdf
		sudo apt-get install cups-pdf

	That installs printer "PDF" that prints to ~/PDF

	Change output folder to desktop:

		gksu gedit /etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf
		Change this line:
			Out ${HOME}/PDF
		sudo /etc/init.d/cups restart
12 - Plugged in Canon MP830 printer/scanner/fax, let it install printer driver for it.  Works.
13 - XSANE (scanner driver for MP830)
	Works, but very clunky to make multi-page PDFs from ADF.
	For now using Win7 stuff; consider VuePrint or Wine/VM instead.
14 - Picasa
	>>> Picasa viewer isn't associated with .JPGs, etc.
15 - Setup (wrote) "startRDP.sh" in ~/scripts.  Now I can make links to machines on the desktop.
16 - Wine 1.2.2
16a - MS Office 2003, SP3 update
	Works fine if launched from command line or from 1st of 2 right-click menu options.
	Doesn't work if launched from mintMenu or 2nd of 2 right-click options.
		Seems to be because of:
			http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=76&t=60130
			http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=586846&page=2
17 - Google Earth
	>>> Copy over placemarks
	>>> Get SpaceNavigator working
18 - Menu>Control Center>CompizConfig Settings Manager>WindowDecoration
	Change command to "/usr/bin/compiz-decorator" (fixes loss of min/max/close buttons in Mint 11)
	See http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=74327#p444922
19 - Tweak destkop appearance and fonts:
	Nautilus>Edit>Preferences>FileMgmt>IconViewDefaults>66%
					  >ListViewDefaults>66%
					  >CompactViewDefaults>66%
					  >ViewNewFolders: List View
	Menu>Prefs>Appearance>Fonts
		Application:	"Sans 10" to "Libration Sans 9"
		Document: 	"Sans 10" to "Libration Sans 9"
		Desktop: 	"Sans 10" to "Libration Sans 9"
		Window Title: 	"Sans Bold 10" to "Libration Sans Bold 9"
		Fixed: 		"Monospace 10" to "Droid Sans Mono 9" 

	CompizSettings>Grid>Uncheck (turn off windows "aero snap")
20 - Get NETBIOS working:
	sudo gedit /etc/nsswitch.conf
		add "wins" before "dns".  Result should look something like:
		hosts: files wins dns
	Then:
		sudo apt-get install winbind
	Works.  Now can ping QUIET and NIGHT (others worked OK before)
21 - Setup "classical share" for /home/dave:
	sudo smbpasswd -a dave		Setup SMB password for "dave"

	gksu gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf

	Then add at end:

	[SHARENAME GOES HERE]		used 'dave'
	path = /home/dave
	available = yes
	valid users = dave
	read only = no
	browsable = yes
	public = yes
	writable = yes

	Then

	sudo restart smbd
22 - Added "Force Quit" to panel
23 - Remove mounted volumes from showing on Gnome desktop
	gconf-editor
	Apps>Nautilus>Desktop>Uncheck "volumes visible"
24 - XFCE 4 metapackage (try to get rid of ugly icons, desktop grid problems...)

TODO
* Write scripts to:
	Follow Windows .LNK files (when double-clicked; open Nautilus)
	Arrange icons
	Create launcher to open Nautilus at SMB share folder
* Programmers' editor
	KATE
	TextPad via Wine
	NetBeans (use also for MPLAB X)

UNRESOLVED ISSUES

* No drag-n-drop when using XRDP.  Fix, per https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gtk+2.0/+bug/587856 is:
	apt-get install libgtk2.0-0=2.20.0-0ubuntu4 libgtk2.0-bin=2.20.0-0ubuntu4 libgail18=2.20.0-0ubuntu4 libgail-common=2.20.0-0ubuntu4 gtk2-engines-pixbuf=2.20.0-0ubuntu4apt-get install libgtk2.0-0=2.20.0-0ubuntu4 libgtk2.0-bin=2.20.0-0ubuntu4 libgail18=2.20.0-0ubuntu4 libgail-common=2.20.0-0ubuntu4 gtk2-engines-pixbuf=2.20.0-0ubuntu4
* How to make SAMBA/NETBIOS work before local login?
* Widen mouse target for dragging the window sizes
	Use Alt-MiddleClick for now; may not be any better way

NOTES FOR FUTURE

* Re TRIM
	Stick to 10.04 LTS and it's kernel.
	Instead, find out how to use hdparm and "wiper.sh" to clear out the drive once in a while (daily?)

* For future reference, some of the RTL8192 prolbems in LATER kernels seem to be a conflict between
	the RTL8192E and SE drivers; the BLACKLIST of the SE seems to fix it for some people.

*  apt-get install gedit-plugins
	For multi edit, which allows column editing.  Supposedly.

CONCLUSIONS

* Neither LibreOffice nor Google Docs is (nearly) compatible enough with MS Office 2003 to transition.  (as of 2011-11 anyway)

XFCE on Xubuntu 11.10 x64:

As I said, the Mint install got borked by the parallel install of XFCE.

Since I wanted to try XFCE, I decided to next try a clean install of Xubuntu 11.10 x64.

I found it very nice, simple and clean. Less tweaking was needed than Gnome 2. But Thunar (XFCE’s file manager) is completely incapable of handling Samba (smb:) shares on other machines. I tried some complex instructions to work around this and borked the whole machine.

SETUP NOTES FOR XUBUNTU 11.10 x64

Setup notes for ENOUGH - Intel i750-2600, 8 GB, Xubuntu 11.10 x64
Started 27 November 2011

>>> Marks unresolved problem
[u] Marks removed program (thought better of it later)

1 - Updated everything
2 - Copy data into ~/.
3 - cd scripts; chmod +x *		(rdesktop scripts now work)
4 - Google Chrome 			(direct from Google via Firefox)
5 - Get NETBIOS working:
	sudo gedit /etc/nsswitch.conf
		add "wins" before "dns".  Result should look something like:
		hosts: files wins dns
	Then:
		sudo apt-get install winbind
6 - Moved main taskbar to bottom.
	To move the panels just right click the panel and go to panel>panel preferences and uncheck lock panel
	then you will see a handle on the left side of the panel and you can move it around. The re check lock panel.
7 - Moved launcher panel (panel 2) to left edge, vertical
8 - Samba per TINY notes
9 - Workaround for Thunar's inability to handle Samba:

a) Install fusesmb in Synaptic (from Universe repository)
b) Edit /etc/modules and add the word 'fuse' to the modules list to be loaded (without quotes), and save the file.
c) Reboot, so the fuse module loads, and the proper workgroup is read for samba.
d) In XFCE Applications -> System -> Users and Groups... Properties of your username... User Priveleges Tab... check
	"Allow use of fuse file systems..."
e) Create a directory that you are going to mount your network browse to... I used /media/network. [~/network]
	Change permissions to read / write for group and others (777). [skipped]
f) In a terminal, type: sudo chown <username>:fuse /media/network  [sudo chown dave:fuse ~/network]
g) Double check that the permission to use fuse took. Applications>System>Users and Groups... Manage Groups...
	find fuse and choose properties. Make sure your user name account is in that group and check-marked.
h) Reboot the system and triple check with step (g)
i) In >Settings>SettingsManager>SessionAndStartup>Application Autostart... Add an application... name and describe as you wish...
	for command line, put: fusesmb /media/network (Or whatever mountoint you created).
j) Open Thunar, and navigate to the parent folder of your mountpoint... then drag the 'mounpoint folder' to the places
	(shortcut) pane of thunar.
k) Logout and log back in (So the user privilege and fusesmb autostart will take affect)

TODO

* Icon & font size/grid (closer to Win7 compact)
* Better default edtior (textpad-like: regexp, column/block select)
	Kate, "Programmers Notepad 2"
* BC or similar (GUI diff)
* ix7000 printer
* Setup screensaver/power mgmt for screen
* Fonts
* Wallpaper
* Enable IPv6
* Move taskbar to bottom

UNFIXABLE, WITH WORKAROUNDS

* Mouse wheel scroll in vim (man, etc.):
	Known bug.  Live without it.
* DragDrop icons at drop location instead of next open spot
* Move multiple icons at once (group select & drag)
	Works fine in Thunar, not on desktop - live with it
* GUI move vs. copy vs. link [The following applies to Thunar ONLY, not XFCE desktop]
	Shift+Drag: 	Move
	Ctrl+Drag: 	Copy
	Ctr+Shift+Drag: Link
		(Note how the mouse pointer changes)

That last step messed up the machine so badly that I had to, again, wipe the machine and reinstall the OS.  I probably could have un-done the changes, but without convenient access to Windows shares, there wasn’t much point.

KDE4 on Kubuntu 11.10 x64:

Last, I tried KDE on Kubuntu.

KDE4 (4.8) is very powerful. Lots of eye candy – in fact way too much; it was on my list to turn a great deal of it off, but I never got that far. Kate is a powerful editor; I like it a lot. Dolphin is a very capable file browser, it can easily handle not only Samba, but also FTP folders, and (unlike Nautilus on Gnome2) it handled softlinks to Samba shares in a smooth and seamless way. It’s better than Windows Explorer.

I found the Plasma desktop very complicated and unfamiliar. One I found the “folder view” things got better, but I never did figure out how to get shortcuts/links/launchers for apps onto the desktop (or even the panel, which was easy on Gnome 2 and XFCE), or how to copy/move files on the desktop (worked fine in Dolphin tho). The default theme needed a lot of tweaking that I never got to (the text on the taskbar had such low contrast that it was mostly unreadable, etc.). And I mentioned the crazy busy eye candy that needed to be turned down.

But I still had major problems with Chrome/Chromium being incredibly slow (Firefox was OK). In the process of working on that I seem to have borked the system.

At this point I’d spent 3 weeks trying different flavors and versions of Linux, and again had a borked system (Win7 is far more stable than any of these Linuxes – never thought I’d say that, but it’s so). With a little luck my new SSD will show up tomorrow and I’ll install it and then Win7Pro on that and be able to get back to work.

I’d seriously consider Mac OS (OS X, currently Lion) as something else to try. It may be the only Unix varient OS with a really mature and stable GUI (all the Linux versions are fine at the command line…). The Mac Mini is not what I want, but is the only thing close to reasonably priced (if you order the base hardware and upgrade it yourself). So that might work, but I’d wasted enough time fiddling with computers this cycle. Maybe in 2 or 3 years I’ll try that, but before dropping the $1200 or so on it, I’ll download a VM with Mac OS and try it in a virtual box on Windows and see how I like it.

SETUP NOTES FOR KUBUNTU 11.10 x64

Install notes for ENOUGH with Kubuntu 11.10 x64
Started 2011-11-26 (gave up 2011-11-27)

>>> Marks unresolved problem

1. Update everything, reboot
2. Firefox (had trouble downloading avast with default browser)
3. Downloaded Avast .deb file; to install:  [I was thinking the Chrome problems might have been due to a virus...]
    cd /Downloads
    chmod +x *
    sudo apt-get install ia32-libs
    sudo dpkg --force-architecture -i avast4workstation_1.3.0-2_i386.deb
    avastgui
      Enter key
      Update database
      Initial full scan of whole machine, thuro
	crashes
    Add "kernel.shmmax = 128000000" to end of /etc/sysctl.conf, reboot
    Initial full scan of whole machine, thuro
4. sudo apt-get install rdesktop
5. Kate leaves backup files strewn about the desktop
    Settings>Configure Kate>Open/Save>Advanced> add "." (dot) to "Prefix" under "Backup on Save".
    Also enable for remote files
6. Right-click on K and set "Classic Menu Style" (so much faster!)
7. Uninstall:
    KAddressBook (generates annoying warnings; useless)
    KMail
    Kontact
    KOrganizer
    KVkbd
    kPPP
    rekonq (using Firefox/Chrome)
    LibreOffice (mostly; kept Math & Draw)
8. Rt-click on tray, then Akonadi, then Quit (remove it from tray permanently)
9. Set "folder view" on desktop (forgot how; something to do with the cashew)
    This lets you see the files in ~/Desktop on the desktop
10. Rt-click destkop>Icons>Align to grid (yay!)
11. Somewhere along the line I did:
      Copy data into ~/.
      cd scripts; chmod +x *		(rdesktop scripts now work)
12. Installed 7zip (p7zip) from Muon Sw Center.
13. Get NETBIOS working:
	sudo kate /etc/nsswitch.conf
		add "wins" before "dns".  Result should look something like:
		hosts: files wins dns
	Then:
		sudo apt-get install winbind
14. Samba - sudo apt-get install samba smbfs
15. Setup "classical share" for /home/dave:
	sudo smbpasswd -a dave		Setup SMB password for "dave"
	sudo kate /etc/samba/smb.conf
    Then add at end:
	[dave]				This is the share name
	path = /home/dave
	available = yes
	valid users = dave
	read only = no
	browsable = yes
	public = yes
	writable = yes
    Then
	sudo restart smbd
16. Tweak Dolphin to taste:
	Folders, Places, Main Toolbar
	Add Seperator, Compare Files, New Tab, New Window, What's this to toolbar
	Small icons
	Remove menubar
17. Tweak kate to taste:
	Small icons, text below
	Settings>Configure kate>Spaces and Tabs, 4 and 8 places
	Toolbar to taste
	Documents to List Mode
18. Chromium (not Chrome), via Muon
19. Settings>System
	Desktop Effects>all>translucency off
	Default apps>Web browers>Firefox
	(Note: "snapping" can be managed in Workspace>Screen Edges)
	Printer>New Printer> (didn't find MP830)
19. Turboprint, rt-click in Downloads, "open with QApt".
	Can't figure out how to add applet.  Added to desktop (appears), tried to move>KDE4 crashed.
	Added ix7000 printer, print test page.

Reboot.

Still problems with Chrome/Chromium being extremely slow.  I enabled logging and tried to capture
a log (and strace) for posting, but when I ran strace the whole machine crashed.

On reboot, kate doesn't work anymore.  Sometimes it shows up in the taskbar, but I can't find a way to get
at the window.  I installed gedit to finish up these notes.

KDE was working pretty well for me up to this point - better than anything else, but I never did figure out
how to move/copy things on the desktop (in Dolphin it worked great).  Dolphin and kate are both very good
when they work.

TODO

* Customize clock
* Remove mounted HDDs and "New Volume" from Dolphin Places
* Change theme to make stuff on taskbar more visible, less busy eye candy
* Change desktop icons
* Add launcher panel on left (hidden), or launchers to panel on bottom
* Add "7z" on right-click compress options (already installed p7zip)
* Icon & font size/grid (closer to Win7 compact)
* BC or similar (GUI diff)
* Setup screensaver/power mgmt for screen
* Fonts
* Wallpaper
* Enable IPv6
* Latest NVidia driver
* Start moving files over
* 3DConnexion SpaceNavigator & driver for Google Earth
* Move Google Earth database (placemarks)
* PDF reader in Chrome that will handle TI document and print-to-file OK
* Links to folders on other machines
* Turn off auto-snap to borders
* MPLAB X and C32
* Wine/Virtualbox vs VMWare
	MS Office 2003
	Photoshop
	Sony Vegas
* Write scripts to:
	Follow Windows .LNK files (when double-clicked; open Nautilus)
	Create launcher to open Nautilus at SMB share folders

Look at:

http://hanschen.org/2010/03/04/10-things-you-might-want-to-do-in-kde-sc-4-4/
http://hanschen.org/2011/05/15/7-ways-to-switch-activities/
http://userbase.kde.org/Plasma/HowTo
http://userbase.kde.org/Plasma
http://userbase.kde.org/Glossary

>>> After downloading from Firefox, rt-click on file offers "Open containing folder", but if you pick it it doesn't know what program to open it with (should be Dolphin).  Where is Dolphin?

KDE TERMINOLOGY

Activity		A screenfull of Widgets (dedicated to a task)
Cashew/Toolbox		A tool usually in upper right corner for managing Activities
Act. Mgr		Three dots (red/blue/yellow) for managing Actvities
Two boxes on left	These select windows (workspaces)
K			Start menu
Panel			A thing that holds icons or widgets

UNRESOLVED ISSUES

* No drag-n-drop when using XRDP.  Fix, per https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gtk+2.0/+bug/587856 is:
	apt-get install libgtk2.0-0=2.20.0-0ubuntu4 libgtk2.0-bin=2.20.0-0ubuntu4 libgail18=2.20.0-0ubuntu4 libgail-common=2.20.0-0ubuntu4 gtk2-engines-pixbuf=2.20.0-0ubuntu4apt-get install libgtk2.0-0=2.20.0-0ubuntu4 libgtk2.0-bin=2.20.0-0ubuntu4 libgail18=2.20.0-0ubuntu4 libgail-common=2.20.0-0ubuntu4 gtk2-engines-pixbuf=2.20.0-0ubuntu4
* How to make SAMBA/NETBIOS work before local login?
* Widen mouse target for dragging the window sizes
	Use Alt-MiddleClick for now; may not be any better way

CONCLUSIONS

* Neither LibreOffice nor Google Docs is (nearly) compatible enough with
  MS Office 2003 to transition.  (as of 2011-11 anyway)
* kate is pretty good (see "Programmers Notepad 2" for a possible free alternative)