New to Ubuntu

[Mario Vukelic]

On Sat, 2007-03-10 at 00:41 +0000, rmg at milray.co.uk wrote:
> When I plug in a USB drive it recognises it, puts the icons up on screen
> then after a couple of minutes gives a load of "Unsafe removal" messages
> and hides all the icons. Then it redetects the drive and does it all
> again - and again.

Does this happen with all USB drives or just one particular? Can you try
another one?

> Also it appears to be writing to the USB like crazy -
> which is probably why if I plug in the camera it crashes it after a bit
> and I have to remove the battery to reset it. (The camera is configured
> as USB storage with the 'feature' that it's read only).

I have no idea here, it always just worked for me

> I can't find wine in the package lists which is a pain because I intend
> it to be Microsoft-free, the couple of things I need to run under
> Windows (eg, a CAD system) *should* work under wine

Ubuntu has several software repositories, not all of which are enabled
by default. See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/

Wine is in the universe repository, which you have to enable first,
instructions are linked from the link I just gave. You can find out
which repository a package belongs to: either use the command "apt-cache
policy <packagename>" in a terminal, or browse to 
http://packages.ubuntu.com/ and search there (scroll down for the search
interface). There is also a package search in the Firefox search box
which uses the same webpage

> Actually I was told that you can use the Debian archives but I can't
> find any documentation for that and it's something I'll need to do, I
> use some unusual packages, eg a cross compiler, that I doubt will ever
> be in the Ubuntu archives.

The person that told you this had no clue. Don't mix Debian and Ubuntu
repositories, you would enter a world of pain, since Debian and Ubuntu
are not binary compatible. Or rather, their compatibility changes all
the time -- during development, Ubuntu syncs with Debian and there is s
short window of compatibility, but then they grow in different
directions.

Why would you assume that the package you need will never be in Ubuntu?
If all repositories are enabled there is hardly any difference between
Debian's and Ubuntu's number of packages. And Ubuntu certainly views
itself as being a general distro that is also useful for software
development, so why wouldn't it have a certain cross compiler. If it is
not there, you can request it by opening a ticket in launchpad
https://launchpad.net/

If for some reason you really need to pull the package from Debian, it
is best to download the sources and compile it on your target machine.

One other option (but still not exactly recommended in this case) is to
pin this one particular package:
http://jaqque.sbih.org/kplug/apt-pinning.html
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/ch-apt-get.en.html (see
point 3.10)
http://wiki.debian.org/AptPinning

> How do I get rid of those blasted splash screen when it boots and shuts
> down, I don't mean after X has started but on the initial boot. I don't
> want the nuts and bolts hidden from me a la Windows, I want to know what
> it's doing.

Excuse my asking, but are you sure that Ubuntu is the distro for you?
Wouldn't you be happier running straight Debian?

It certainly is a personal preference, but why would you want to know
this through every boot? Isn't it enough to know that it works and then
forget about it? You can see what it is doing during boot by checking
the following:
      * Rund "dmesg" in a terminal after boot
      * Go to /etc/defaults and edit the file bootlogd to enable boot
        logging. Then you will have a bootlog in /var/log after the next
        boot

If you still want to disable the boot screen, you can do so in the
bootloader configuration:
      * Press Alt+F2 to open the run dialog
      * Enter "gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst"
      * Remove the "quiet splash" option: note that you have to remove
        it several times: in the configuration section further up (## ##
        Start Default Options ##) and in the kernel list at the end

You might still not like what you see since Ubuntu uses upstart as the
boot system, not sysvinit, and upstart's reporting is different
(worse?). See http://upstart.ubuntu.com/ for how to configure

> What's the normal monthly update volume? It wants to get 232Mb of
> updates on a fresh install and that ain't going to happen on a dialup
> line (I have my reasons for that). Or can I get up to date CDs/DVDs?

Depends. If a kernel security hole is found, it's immediately > 20 MB.
Security updates are not that frequent, you can check the security
mailing list archive:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/

You did not say which version you are installing (6.06  or 6.10 I
assume) and which CD/DVD you downloaded, so it is hard to say if a more
up-to-date version is available. But 232 MB sounds about right for the
initial update after installing 6.06. Updated CDs are made available
regularly for 6.06, but not all the time.

Note that any other distro with the same packages would pull in the same
security fixes. Also note that the Update Manager shows you what is
about to be updated - if you are on a single user machine on dialup you
can probably ignore many of the security fixes.

Cheers,
M