Dealing with problems on ubuntu

Duffields dhltd at telus.net
Thu Jun 21 00:41:23 UTC 2007


I am assuming that you are brand new (newbie) to Ununtu, just like I am.  There 
are days when I think Ubuntu may be easier to learn for people who have never 
used Windows or perhaps an Apple OS.  Many (most?) of us who have used Windows 
almost exclusively for decades are so knowledgeable about that product that we 
find it frustrating to deal with Linux.  Almost nothing we have learned about 
Windows can be transferred to Linux.

I too have done several re-installs to fix problems that I thought were related 
to Ubuntu, only to find that most of them were caused by my lack of knowledge or 
more correctly my impulsiveness to take some action that I thought I understood 
and did not.

Now I take the time to read the instructions on the Ubuntu web site THOROUGHLY.
I don't know about you but I find that I scan instructions and often 
mis-interpret them because I make assumptions that are unfounded.  One word can 
make a huge difference to the meaning of an instruction.

If you can't find information on the Ubuntu site, think about PRECISELY what it 
is you want to know and try to put it into a few words, then use an Internet 
search engine and enter the phrase you want to search for.  It helps to include 
the word "ubuntu" or "linux" in the search to narrow down the possible hits.  I 
almost exclusively use a search engine called Vivisimo  (www.vivisimo.com) or 
Clusty which is the consumer version or Vivisimo.  This provides an hierarchical 
list of possible answers and makes finding an answer much quicker.

Of course you have already discovered the Ubuntu technical support here.

It helps to read a book or three on Linux if you want some in-depth knowledge 
about what is going on and why.  I enjoy reading but I realize that most people 
prefer to just work with an application and muddle through.

The biggest problem is the foreign language Linux uses in its command lines.  If 
you gain a working knowledge of it and what the commands do, you will have a 
more satisfying experience with learning about Ubuntu.

There is no substitute to just playing with an application to learn it well.  I 
am still using an old machine to play with Ubuntu and to make my mistakes before 
I start to use it for real.

Long answer and you are probably looking for an easy way to master Ubuntu so it 
probably does not tell you what you want to know, but you did ask.

Mac


ac wrote:
> SteVe Cook wrote:
>> How do deal with problems on ubuntu?
>>
>> At the moment it would often be quicker for me to reinstall ubuntu than 
>> sort out problems (normally created by me!).  working on the theory that 
>>   I'll learn a lot more about the system if I try and resolve the 
>> problem I'd rather spend an evening or two rooting through the archives 
>> of this list or asking it's users questions.
> 
> In the early days I did just the same thing. The bad news was I had 
> been adventurous and messed up, the good news was I had been trained 
> at M$'s knee where reinstall was the norm, so I thought my distro 
> reinstall was easy!  :-)
> 
> My learning process was (is) in several stages. Initially my curiosity 
> was too great for my experience. I tried to recover, and learned a 
> little each time, including reinstalls.
> 
> I also had problems making sense of many or most answers - usually 
> command line things. CL confidence is coming slowly and steadily, to me.
> 
> I now have more confidence and can usually avoid major problems, and 
> anyway have a fair chance to recover things myself using advice, 
> forums, and my own google use.
> 
> Things are not perfect for me yet, but I no longer need windows 
> (great!) and can pose useful questions and even mostly understand the 
> given answers!
> 




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