<HTML><HTML>Hi I decided to try to learn to use Linux this year. Research indicated that hardware compatibility might be an issue so to try to avoid problems I chose an HP nx5000 as these have been sold with SUSE on them (in parts of the world other than the UK, where I am). Then bought SUSE as it should work on the laptop, and comes with support, was well established, widely used, plenty of info about. Unfortunately never got SUSE 9.2 Pro to load and run reliably (I gave up on SUSE help after some time. They tried, and they made various sensible suggestions but they were slow and uninspired, they missed some points that were obvious even to me, and had me do un-necessary work). Second choice Kubuntu (not Ubuntu because I have made a start at learning my way round KDE). Still problems. Thus the finger of suspicion starts to move towards the laptop, though apart from any amount of hassle with Linux it has given no other indication of being faulty and - apologies - it will be partly my lack of knowledge, but there are some problems and items I would welcome comments on. Please note that I appreciate all the work that has gone into K/ubuntu (as I do with SUSE). But if I had not been trained by MS to think of software as something very problematic and troublesome which never works properly, and never works at all for long without all sorts of knowledge and fiddling, rebooting and reloading I would soon have rejected Linux, and a lot of time and effort has not got me far with it yet. I can see that Linux is at least designed to work, at least people are trying to make it work, and care about it working. Once I have completed a project to make some space I plan to get one or two more PC’s to run Linux on in case a lot of the problems I have had are the fault of the laptop. Also I now consider that just as with Windows it is best to have several PC’s if you wish to have one that works. As with Windows, I shall have a system of removable hard drive cartridges, so that I can have two or more separate installations per PC. I am hoping that thereafter I shall have one or more working systems reliably present, and will be able to move on to sorting out a broadband ISP and learning to use apt-get and all that. And focus more on learning to use applications. (I had a cunning plan to use the second drive (in the laptop’s multibay) as an alternative booting drive for when the installation on the main hard drive didn’t work. Kubuntu switched to using Lilo, then stuck at the CUPS stage (as above) then there was "filesystem not clean" and "problem installing, one or more packages failed to install" so I plan now only to use alternative hard drives in the laptop’s main hard drive bay.) There are several points below. Some are more in the way of observations, but if anyone is kind enough to respond to any of the questions perhaps it would be best to start a fresh thread per topic? I have searched about before asking for help and if I have missed something more apologies, by all means please refer me to existing url’s, documents, etc. Regards, Edward Fowler-Wright 1. Having used Windows for many years I am fanatical about backing up. I thus bought an Advanced Port Replicator. I have a second hard drive in the MultiBay in the laptop, and the DVD drive and a floppy drive in the APR. (This post-dates my SUSE problems, I used the standard setup with that). Kubuntu is not good at recognising the floppy drive. It is better at handling an external USB floppy on one of the USB 2 ports. I tend to end up with several floppy icons, sda to (e.g.) sdg, one of them being the ext USB, the rest the APR one. I can’t always get to them, especially the one in the APR. Currently in /media I have 9 entries: "External Floppy Drive". When loading Kubuntu it is best not to have a floppy in the drive or it may spin the floppy continuously, until I eject the disk. Another problem is that on loading a floppy disk it may be spun continuously but is not mounted. On one occasion a "1.5M Removable Media" was claimed to exist. But usually I can eventually get to one or other floppy. 2. Kubuntu sometimes stops when loading, at the stage "Restarting Common Unix Printing System: cupsd". I can then force the laptop to switch off but that leads to "file system not clean". Or I can use SysRq keys, but in view of various items below I lack confidence that Kubuntu has installed properly. (Though I lack this in any event). 3. Once I got as far as being told to take the CD out, then got a blank screen with no response to mouse or keyboard. Eventually I forced the laptop to switch off. Then on again, to get Grub error 17. I didn’t try to sort this because if the installation process doesn’t go smoothly I prefer to do it again as I am suspicious that there may be hidden imperfections. 4. When Kubuntu does load OK and then starts up for the first time, or when I start the PC from cold thereafter (warm re-starts are sometimes OK) the startup procedure goes quite quickly until I enter log on details. Then, often, the PC shows the screen which is two tones of blue, divided by a wavy horizontal line, with the Kubuntu logo and name but nothing else (after my name, and "Initialising system services" has gone). About 10 minutes after this the screen goes to blank as if a black screensaver, unless mouse or keyboard input has prevented this. If the blank screen appears mouse or keyboard input does not clear it. Either way after a total of about 20 minutes there is the short bit of music and the taskbar and kicker appear, all appears normal and correct (i.e. other than as set out below, and please note I haven’t tried everything yet). If I take it that starting the PC may be a 25 minute process this is not a particular problem, but it affects my confidence in the system, especially as there are other problems. Before I knew that it would eventually complete starting up I used Ctrl Alt Backspace. Or Ctrl Alt F1 to get a terminal screen. 5. On one occasion Kubuntu did not recognise a FAT 32 partition on hdc so I tried to make an entry in fstab. I described the file system as "FAT 32" having seen this when partitioning. Various efforts failed, only on a later loading did I see in fstab that I should have written "VFAT". Might be useful if, as the documentation develops, this is noted somewhere. 6. When I use the command runlevel, just after starting Kubuntu (i.e. without having made any changes to it myself), I get the report: N 2 Is this right? 7. Ctrl + Esc gets me KDE System Guard. Unfortunately Ithis never works, I get a failure warning sound along with the message "Connection to local host has been lost". This has been the case every time I have loaded Kubuntu. 8. If I try to set up a new user I may get "Root login is not allowed". 9. I have a similar problem to Stroller’s "Re: KDE su & Control Centre". Things are not greyed out for me, but i get sent round in a circle if I try to get into Administrator Mode. I get a screen in the right pane offering the options in the left pane. I choose Login manager, in which there is Administrator Mode… 10. If I try to open KPPP I am told that "/etc/resolv.conf is missing or can’t be read. Ask system administrator to create it with appropriate read and write permissions." What type of file should I create, would an OOo text file be suitable? and what permissions, please. Hopefully after doing this KPPP will recognise the modem. 11. Often, in Konsole or using a terminal mode screen I try to move around the directory tree. E.g: /X/Y/Z I try to cd from Y to Z but am told "No such file or directory". But I know it’s there. I can see it in Konqueror. Answer is to go back to X, then can cd two levels at once, straight to Z from X. 12. After years of Windows one thing that does work well for me is Windows Explorer, configured how I like it. I am used to the keystrokes and can move files about easily and rapidly. I have made good progress with Konqueror, and would be grateful for any assistance. I have a View Profile I have developed, but so far I have to work my way into the menus and select it every time I open Konqueror. It would be great to open it, just as I want it, with a keystroke. Hopefully I can organise a shortcut etc. in KDE menu editor myself, but what would the command be to get it to open with my View Profile please? And is it possible to have Directory Tree View but get rid of the Navigation Panel? 13. A solution to 12. above would sort Konqueror being opened maximised. Is there a way to get other KDE apps to open maximised? 14. When working in a terminal is there a command that works like "cls" in MS-DOS or should I just close the one I have and open another? 15. Control Centre, Peripherals, Mouse: Sometimes (some of the times I load Kubuntu) this won’t load, I get endless "loading". Have to minimise the window then right click and kill it. 16. Control Centre, Screen saver. Blank screen, Test. Works OK save that mouse movement doesn’t clear the screensaver. 17. I set up a root password, having got used to that way of working. I can still then use the first user’s password (i.e. as entered when Kubuntu was loaded) for Administrator Mode. I appreciate the choices made re sudo etc, but would like to eliminate the initial privileged user. Open KUser, I get something like "DCOP communications error (KUser). Error setting up inter process communications for KDE. Authentication Rejected… Reason none of the authentication protocols specified are supported. Please check that the "dcopserver" program is running". This leaves me thinking that there is more than one basic problem with the operating suystem installation. I press OK, and am surprised to see KUser then start. I emove the first user, then add another, with the same details, taking on the home folder. Close KUser, then KUser won’t re-start. (Nor will Konqueror - think it is reinstall time again.) 18. In Storage I see the various drives. Looking at the Properties for the DVD drive it is referred to as scd0 with Location / (media). Using Konqueror to show what is in / or what is in media, there is no scd0. Could someone explain the notation / (media) means please. To end on a positive note - Only had a few quick looks at it but so far OOo 1.1 Writer doesn’t freeze and chuck me out with Kubuntu, it quite often did with SUSE. </HTML>