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The Kubuntu Distribution
One of the new in the game Linux distributions is Kubuntu, the KDE-based version of Ubuntu which is also new in the game. I feel Kubuntu is very useful for the typical TUX reader.
I need to offer a bit of background before I can get into the details. Don't panic--we will get to the real info soon.
In the early days of Linux it was difficult to install new software because Linux was changing rapidly and the supporting software needed might not be available on your system. Package managers were developed to do the checking to make sure you had all the pieces needed before installing the new software. The two systems that have survived are the Debian Package Manager and the Red Hat Package Manager.
Debian was there first but most commercial Linux distributions went with the Red Hat (RPM) format. The Debian (DEB) format is far from dead, however. The Debian community itself is fairly large but tended to be the more technical people.
Enter Ubuntu. This is a distribution designed for the desktop and designed to be installed and managed by a desktop user rather than a collection of computer geeks. While my discussion will focus on Kubuntu, the KDE-specific version, Gnome users can fetch the regular Ubuntu system and happily enjoy all the Ubuntu benefits as well.
Now, what benefits? If you venture to the Ubuntu web site the first thing you are likely to notice is the title, "Linux for Human Beings". That's their point--they have built a Linux for people to use. The basic distribution fits on one CD. It can be downloaded for free or even have them send you one for free.
Installation boils down to not much more than having to offer a user login name. Once installed, you can log in and have a totally useful system which includes networking, all the office productivity tools you would expect and a whole host of other programs. That's a great start but some will wish to adventure into additional areas. For example, you might want to add the Mozilla Firefox web browser. That's where Kynaptic comes in.
Kynaptic, a KDE front-end for Synaptic, allows you to look for, download and install additional software packages. Beyond that, it worries about dependencies--that is, does your system have all the other software packages needed to make the new package work? I'm not writing a tutorial here but you basically start Kynaptic, find firefox (there is a search function), click on install and click on the "do it" icon. If there are dependencies, you will be shown a list of other software needed. You just click on ok and Kynaptic does all the work for you downloading the needed packages from the Internet.
Systems Administration will make more sense for people with no Linux systems administration experience. That is, the way you do it seems very logical unless you have some Linux/UNIX baggage in your background. In the Kynaptic sequence described above you will get the typical "enter the root password" KDE dialog box. But, you never created a root user. So, what is that password? Well, it is the password of the first user you created. Assuming there is only one, that's you.
For "harder" systems administration, you might be used to logging in as root or using the su command to change to the root user. Ubuntu does this a bit different. It uses the sudo command. Essentially you type sudo followed by the command you want to perform as root. While this seems a bit cumbersome at first, it prevents one of the most common mistakes someone new to Linux commits--running programs as root that should not be run as root.
That gives you the basic story. For those looking for hand-holding, you have two options. The Ubuntu web site offers community forums as well as a lot of information. In addition, Canonical, Ltd., the people behind Ubuntu, offer commercial support. You get a choice and, as they say Ubuntu will always be free, you will continue to have that choice. Thus, Ubuntu/Kubuntu is an easy place to start with Linux and it may be the place you want to stay as well.
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(K)ubuntu and sudo
Hi, i dont know why in all forums they pay so much focus on the the way root is used. It'r realy not much work to get root activated on (K)ubuntu.
Just "sudo passwd root"
enter u first user password then enter twice root password and its done, on a konsole u can use root account.
See u
Eddie
use kubuntu 5.10 with Brother MFC-630N
Dear all,
I have an IBM ThinkPad T23 laptop running kubuntu 5.10 and a Brother MFC-620CN multifunction USB+ethernet printer/scanner/printer/copier etc. etc. etc. I would like to use as many of its features as possible. That is network printing, scanning, and faxing at least and if possible.
I am using it over the network at the IP 192.168.1.99.
Can anyone share how find, download, install and configure the drivers for printing/scanning/faxing?
TIA
Been using it with Knoppix
I've been using it with Knoppix for some time now as a print-only from the PC (copy and fax manually). CAREFULLY follow the print instructions linked here:
http://solutions.brother.com/linux/sol/printer/linux/cups_drivers.html
...and it looks like they JUST released the scanner support for it (haven't yet tried it):
http://solutions.brother.com/linux/sol/printer/linux/sane_drivers.html
Sharing Printer in LINUX
Hello,
Please go to this link, http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/Printing-HOWTO/
so you can set up your network printer.
thanx,
Navin Shetty
No idea why Ubuntu better than other major distro
I have tried Ubuntu since 4.10 but don t why it special than other distro except
- it ships the CD to your home for free
- it has nice polish on the desktop wallpaper and sound scheme
- it provide selected software for the newbie which most of them does not need 3-4 editors or 3 music players in the system
that's it.
Ubuntu Linux
I find Ubuntu Linux very easy to use (so far). The installation was easy compared to other Linux Distros. My thanks to them i.e. to the Ubuntu venture.
Kubuntu is not fit for school computer lab!
we've try several distro on our computer lab at our Junior High School, and you know what? luckily, they dont know nothing about root password and maybe, some of them (thanks God), dont know about super user account. We use Fedora and some machine use Ubuntu 4.10 and 5.04 , we hardly maintain our computer, especially Ubuntu, some of them must be reinstall again, because the kid now know which password that Ubuntu asked.
for me, Slackware and Vector Linux still the best, easy instalation, and if we get something wrong, we can always use that as material to teach the students. :)
Well, for the part of kids
Well, for the part of kids "now knowing the password", the problem is not with (k)ubuntu but with your approach to rights management.
As it seems, you gave your pupils access to sudo command, which (k)ubuntu gives by default to user accounts described there as "Administrator".
But the (k)ubuntu itself, using "novice" description, ables you to create "User"-style accounts with their default settings making "sudo" command unavaible.
Anyways, if you for some reason need your pupil to have a bit of more "administrative" possibilities (like for the purpose of learning system), you may always create custom accounts, with "sudo" access disabled.
Active desktop
You know, (K)Ubuntu is perfect. But I still miss "Active Desktop" Items... Any Ideas how to add this functionality to K-Desktops?
I don't know if it's what
I don't know if it's what you are looking for, but try karamba. Available from karamba.sourceforge.net. Lets you display various information on your desktop through lots of plugins.
Thanks! That's exactly what
Thanks! That's exactly what I was looking for!
You don't have to use sudo
If you don't want to use sudo all the time, open a root terminal session (not the normal terminal, the root terminal option), type passwd, and enter a password for root. Now if you need to spend some time as root, you don't have to keep typing sudo in front of everything; you can just type su and your password from a normal terminal session.
Or..
Alternatively, you can just type "sudo -s" in the console, and you will be essentially logged in as root...
Ubuntu
I am a KDE Fan. I was when I first was exposed to linux. I like that I can do anything with my desktop, and I like the power and control it has. I've used other minimalist Window managers like Fluxbox and Blackbox, but I always have found myself comming back to KDE. Everything I've wanted to do with my desktop I can do with KDE.
In comes Ubuntu. I've struggled in my short linux past with packages, and dependency hell. Red Hat (before it was Fedora) was a pain with KDE apps, and I foud myself stuck with GNOME and RPM dependency hell. Maybe I did not know what exactly I was doing with it, but I moved on to Mandrake. Only nice thing there was the GUI installation, and the KDE desktop. I was never able to overcome my struggles with package management. With Ubuntu all that goes away. It's Debian based, so I had to retrain myself to stop using "su" and start using sudo. No big deal. I have access to TONS of packages, and dependencies are no longer a problem.
5 years ago I started to use linux, and had a terrible time with Mandrake, and Red Hat, so I trashed it. Back then the documentation was not as large as it is now in regards to new linux migraters from windows. Now I've researched more, and found Ubuntu (I use the KDE desktop too) and it's made my migration from windows that much easier. The best thing about Ubuntu is the online support from the community. Something I did not have 5 years ago. So now I'm 99% Windows free- once Apple decides to port ITunes to Linux, I'll never use Windows again.
PS- Yes I play games, and I've only had 1 game not be able to play in linux. Everything else I've been able to play with Cedega/WINE.
gtkpod
or if you have an iPod and thats why you are using itunes, give gtkpod a try, it's what i use for my ipod. it's not that much fun setting up, but there is a manual out there (can be found by googling) for using an ipod with debian, it works the same with ubuntu/kubuntu
Unless there is something App
Unless there is something Apple-specific that you like about iTunes, like the iTunes store, try Amarok (a KDE music application). I personally think Amarok is much better than iTunes, but that's just me.
Kubuntu and Mepis Rocks!!!
I am a linux newbie. Tried all the live cds and several installed distros (from (Knoppix to Fedora Core) and the one thing I can say is of all the distros I've tried, both Mepis and Kubuntu installed and detected my hardware flawlessly and both updated well. Still working on the GATOS thing though, for my AIW card. I have noticed, however, that kubuntu takes a long time to boot. Other than that, I'm a happy camper with either.
(K)ubuntu won't leave me with a sticky end.
I've just been given an old 233 Mhz pentium with 64mb memory for my two years old and I've never had linux before. It would be far to get an expensive license to install windows on PC-wreck.
Therefore I started to install linux in the form of knoppix and everything was detected. Only the RT2500 wifi-card gave me an heartache to get it started, since it was up and not running correctly. Also the overall boottime of the system was nearly 8 minutes, that was just unworkable. On a friends advice (who doesn't have a way of dealing with computers) I tried ubuntu. It didn't recognice my RT2500 card.
A simple HowTo did the trick however. http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/Rt2500WirelessCardsHowTo/
After switching the machine on, the system was up and running within a minute.
After all that I installed some kidsgames and tuxpaint, made it login automatically with
Computer -> System Configuration -> Login Screen Setup
Automatic Login is right there, just enter the name of the user and click the login automatically option and you're all set.
Now, I must say I've partialy converted my own PC to Kubuntu-linux.(entirely would by a wast of my expensive XP-licence and pricely Pinnacle Studio) Ans it hasn't left me with a sticky end on my PC.
For me it seems installing drivers on Linux with a clear HowTo is just as difficult as installing a windows driver with an incomplete installation instruction.
Maybe I'll be needing another windowsmanager to speed up the machine more, but that is for later.
It seems like (K)ubuntu realy is for human beings!
why all the hype about (K)ubuntu?
I realy do not see anything soo special about the whole (K)ubunu distro. I have been using linux for at least 7 years now and in my opinion if you want something very easy to install/use and great HW detection go with Kanotix or Xandros if you want a pro distro go with Suse. (K)ubunto does not even detect my HW correctly (every other distro I used did that!) and does not have good system management tools and finaly for synaptic,kynaptic or the whole apt system this is available in all debian based distros and even in suse or fedora if you want! so why (k)ubuntu is special, why the hype!!!
not really hype, your just not looking at it right.
I have been using linux for about the same amount of time as you and I have to say single disk distro's like Kubuntu, and Mepis are actually very, very good. I really never had them choke on my HW though :)
they are clean, easy to install installing packages are really easy, (adding sources it a PITA for the novice user though, unlike URPMI in Mandrive you have cut and paste the sources into a config file. maybe there is a better way but, I didn't see one.
and as for Xandros, I installed it (the free ver.) and it was terrible, crippled and did not configure MY HW correctly, and my stuff is not esoteric. nvidia, creative labs, VIA.
real standard stuff. never liked SUSE, seemed convoluted to me, but, that is just my opinion.
xandros hype
Who said Xandros detects hardware easily.
In my system P III 500 / 20 GB HDD/
810 chipset it failed to detect the on board
video card. Being a learner in linux, I got wild.
Mandrake and Slackware work nicely on
my system. So also is Redhat. I am yet to
try other distros.
Your problem is the 810
Your problem is the 810 chipset. I have an identical system to yours, and had to get a seperate video card (nVdia, as it happens) second hand for $15. Xandros 2 would recognise the 810, but not Xandros 3.... but neither Would FedoraC4 or Suse9.x
Suggest you get an el-cheapo video card -- the 810 chipset is just too old (1998, I believe)
We tried it on my brother's c
We tried it on my brother's computer... we tried a lot of things.
We had to update so much though. Kubuntu doesn't even have Firefox!
I had to install the Ubuntu half to get that. And then root would only boot in GNOME. I eventually had to switch to using GDM (the KDM wont allow you to log in as root.)
Not one of the distros i used could get his wifi working, so I sadly saw my brother turn back to Windows. Ndiswrapper... Ralink... none worked well at all.
iwconfig didn't change the settings when I told it to.
Sorry too be negative, but I was sorry to see my brother do that.
Kubuntu was nice. I liked apt-get, but would they include the programs they have on the ubuntu distro with their kubuntu one? And I mean out of the box.
It looks very promising, but I'll stick to slack.
I realize this is 1.5 years old, but I have to comment
I realize this is 1.5 years old, but I have to comment.
You liked Kubuntu. You say you liked apt. Yet you didn't manage to install Firefox without installing 'the ubuntu part.' I call male bovine defecation.
The point of Kubuntu is to provide a KDE-centric distribution. Including all of Ubuntu's applications would mean including GNOME, which would make Kubuntu look nearly pointless, if you ask me.
Re: We tried it on my brother's c
Lunarcloud,
Not being able to login as root under KDE is a security feature you can easily enable/disable root access to KDM using Control Center->System Administration->Login Manager. Why are you using root in the first place? https://wiki.ubuntu.com//RootSudo
To put it bluntly, running X sessions as root is stupid. A buggy application taking unncessary system resources would ordinarily be confined to safe limits as a normal user, but with root privaledges that process, and all of it's children, can do anything as they haev root permissions. Getting into a terminal with root access is dangerous enough, but running a graphical environment with full root access is in no way wise. Hence, KDE and Gnome provide excellant means for ordinary user accounts to gain administrative privaledges when necessary.
(K)Ubuntu developers are making a sincere and valiant effort to make their OS and the applications/drivers bundled with it secure by default. They will not repeat the mistakes Microsoft made. By enforcing users, who cannot be bothered with googleing their problems to customize their free software, to use intellegent security measures unconsciously they are continuing Linux's reputation as a OS where the user experience ultimately comes down to the users' willingness to force the system to do what they want.
I use Gentoo for my servers and desktop, but when I decided to put Linux on my laptop I decided I didn't have time for another Gentoo installation. Not having DVD or MP3 support due to a binary distribution scheme and the limitations of apt in contrast to portage have given me cause to question the logic of my decision. However, Ubuntu has been a wonderful distrubution and it has been a pleasure to work with. Things like DVD/MP3/Win32 codecs/wireless internet can wait. Having an ATI card work perfectly with OpenGL immediately following installation was a welcome surprise. Having hotplug/coldplug work reliably as I rip various USB keyboards, mice, and drives in and out has been marvelous.
Two of my co-workers have also been working with Ubuntu recently. One has had a very bad experience with Linux in general as a result of attempting to use two separate SATA RAID controllers in a striped volume. I told him the PEBKAC. The other has nothing bad to say. He tells me that he downloaded Kaffeine and installed it from source and it has provided flawless encrypted DVD playback. He was even more surprised that his sound card worked without configuration.
Ubuntu is a great system. Install Kaffeine from source and you've got a working multimedia box. It already comes with all the web-browsing, email, office, and messaging tools you will need. It bundles with the usual plethora of games associated with KDE or Gnome. The only hardware troubles I've heard of were related to wireless cards, and I have no doubts those problems will vanish soon.
(K)Ubuntu is a well though-out system that comes with most of the tools and drivers that you will need. I hear the community is helpful and I know from experience the system is as secure as it is stable. (K)Ubuntu is a distro that both the total newbie and the experienced UNIX user can and should enjoy. Just don't be scared to make it do what you want it to do ;)
For non-free software you
For non-free software you might try Easy Ubuntu. This project uses the PLF repositories. You can easily get Java, DVD and MP3 support. No need to wait.
Firefox on Kubuntu
Had some trouble as well getting Firefox to install using Kynaptic,
tried apt-get a few times and it didn't work. Lator I decided to try again
this time I tried to get Thunderbird email to install, so I did a
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install mozilla-thunderbird
and it worked, then I tried sudo apt-get install mozilla-firefox
and it installed, so I'm a happy camper.
Ubuntu/Kubuntu and an editorial comment
Ubuntu/Kubuntu community forums are friendly and informative. These are fine people to learn/work with.
On another note, this is just a personal preference, but could ya'll stop writing "I need to offer a bit of background before I can get into the details. Don't panic--we will get to the real info soon." in almost every article? It's annoying. I can't speak for everyone, but I don't "panic" when someone wants to give me background information or details. If I did, I wouldn't use Linux at all.
Thanks.
Suse Newbie
I have installed Suse and am using KDE as desktop, but want to install it (or another linux) on my compaq EN500. Unfortunately Suse goes spaz on screen(lots of lines) after the hardware detection.....any ideas or should I try Kubuntu instead?
Monitor blitzes on SuSE Install
I installed SuSE 9.3 on two computers flawlessly, but hit a snag when I tried to upgrade my SuSE 9.0 personal. At the first install screen, look at the bottom left- F2 allows you to use "text" install. Don't panic that you will be doing a list of shell commands, the YaST will just look a lot simpler (actually simple like the Ubuntu screens). If one has gone too far into the install and hit the blitz screen, just type Control+Alt+F2. A blank screen appears where you type "yast" then Enter for the YaST text install to appear. Do a full install if you are a Newbie, and the GUI should kick in when rebooting the finished install. I actually had some further problems that were solved by entering YaST=>System=> /etc/??? Editor and double-checking the settings as some were not set to "default" (why on this computer I do not know). Finally had to move into an "expert" part to reset the "runlevel" to 5 before KDE would start properly at boot. Try the text install first as SuSE is usually pretty good at doing most things automatically.
I really like my SuSE and remember, "YaST is your friend!"
Suse Newbie
Your monitor is not supporting and hence the
lines are coming. Please Contact HP and get the
Details of your monitor. While booting use F1 or F2
and then give the proper command for boot
e.g. linuxresolutin=800X600, Please try and get
going.
I'd like to give it a try. A
I'd like to give it a try.
As soon as it comes in my native language (Dutch).
RE: I'd like to give it a try.
Kubuntu is er in het Nederlands, Fries en Limburgs.
Gewoon kiezen tijdens de installatie of achteraf de language-packages installeren.
dutch ubuntu
mot je engels lere joch !!!!!
I dont have a top line system
I dont have a top line system (P3700, 640ram) I have a hardware ISA Modem and an external. ubuntu did not have ANY way to use a modem. 4 weeks on the forum, and all I heard was modem lights, atc. I never did get it set up, so back to Xandros\SLAX.
But the forums are the BEST!
Kubuntu uses KPPP, which is v
Kubuntu uses KPPP, which is very easy to set up.
I had lots of troubles trying to get a dialer running in GNOME, too. I managed to get it eventually. :)
Try PcLinuxOs at PCLinuxos.co
Try PcLinuxOs at PCLinuxos.com you can download it with ati and nvidia drivers preinstalled. The multimedia works better than any other distro I have tried and the community is super friendly and supportive. The developers actually hang out in the forums! I downloaded the Nvidia version burnt it to disk and placed it in my cdrom, it found everything and booted in record time. To me it is amazing! I have never used a more complete and easy to use distro.
i have a IBM Think pad laptop
i have a IBM Think pad laptop, Celeron 400, 256 mb Ram and 5 Gb hard drive.
Ubuntu (i wont used kde again) detected all hardware, incluing my xircon pcmcia network card. It picks up my flash drive (via usb) and picks up my cable modem (via usb) getting my 100mb zip drive to work required a little bit of googling, but no biggie.
The great 'selling point of k/ubuntu is the online community. it must have one of the largest memberships of any community and I've never seen any flaming or namecalling. Any issues or indeed questions that I've had have been answered promptly and respectfully.
If you do try out k/ubuntu, check out the online forum, cause they're doing a fantastic job
Appel
Well done Guys!!!
I'm just using Kubuntu on my Mac, everything works
out of the Box. Thats fantastic.
K/Ubuntu Rocks - No Hardware problems
I started trying various Linux distributions about five or six months ago and I have tried a lot of them now. The first one that I was able to use on a daily basis was Xandros which was, by far, the easiest "transitional" distribution I have found, especially for those who work on Windows-based networks and need seemless integration.
I kept a Xandros install running for me to do my work on while I continued trying different options. Then I found Ubuntu. The hardware support was great on all the machines I tried it on (Toshiba laptop, Dell laptop and Sony desktop) but GNOME was a bit strange at first. I continued to use it while waiting for Kubuntu to release. Strange thing is after living with GNOME for a couple of months I had no desire to switch back to a KDE-based distribution. Sorry Kubuntu.
For new users, familiar with Windows I recomend Kubuntu. Xandros is great but seems to break easily (one of the reasons I wanted away from Windows). I recomended K/Ubuntu to a buddy who wanted to load Linux in a second partition on his 64-bit AMD box. He read all the reviews and decided to try SuSE instead. He runs Ubuntu now as well ;-)
Why Xandros
If you want to break free of the hobbist distros and go for something more professional and refined you should really checkout Linspire 5.0. It makes other distros seem like cheap shareware.
Xandros
I've been using Xandos for about six months after trying SuSe, Mandrake and Fedora. I'm a beginner with Linux and the installation of programs other than the OS seems to be the most difficult thing for me to grasp. Xandros is not perfect and neither is Linspire according to others more knowledgable than I. Each one of us has a prefrence and mine happens to be Xandros as it has help me to ween myself from Microsoft.
I never come back to KDE
Gnome is a wonderfull desktop. 10 weeks working in Gnome changed my mind about desktop. I never come back to KDE.
I never come back to KDE
Gnome is a wonderfull desktop. 3 monts working in Gnome changed my mindi about desktop. I never come back to KDE.
So? I switched to KDE from GN
So? I switched to KDE from GNOME, Enlightenment, XFCE and WM and haven't looked back. KDE has lots of cool add-ons and technologies like KIOSLAVES that makes everyday desktop use so pleasant.
In the end, it's just a matter of personal preference so, please, don't try to start Desktop Wars 2000.
to everybody having problems:
to everybody having problems: please tell us in #kubuntu on irc.freenode.net. We want to have 100% working hardware everywhere out of the box and this works quite good on most computers... (KaiL)
#kubuntu on irc.freenode.net
How do you send messages to #kubuntu on irc.freenode.net. I've not used IRC before.
Here's how
Open up Konversation; it comes with Kubuntu. K->Internet->IRC Chat(Konversation).
There will be a server list dialog box. Double-click on the line with #kubuntu in it. You'll see a connection to IRC happen, and two tab show up at the bottom of that window: irc.freenode.net and #kubuntu. Click on the #kubuntu tab.
And then ask away!
(K)Ubuntu 5.04 & SUSE 9.3 on 64 bit laptop
I like (K)Ubuntu very much for its concept and its speed.
I have it running on my Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo A 1630 (Athlon64 - 3700+) in 64 bit mode and I will keep it there and follow up on (K)Ubuntu. Until further notice, however, my workhorse remains SUSE 9.3 Pro. It installed flawlessly, ALL hardware recognized, PowerSave working fine, WiFi all working out of the box. Of all distros I tried on this laptop, SUSE 9.3 Pro beats them all by many lenghts.
On my Amilo A1630 (Athlon64 -
On my Amilo A1630 (Athlon64 - 3200+) I cant get neither working.
They all install fine but...
When I boot Ubuntu 64 bit (4.10) i get Xserver error (can´t start) and on both SuSe 9.2 pro 64 bit and 9.3 pro 64bit i get to GRUB and then nothing... : (
Somebody help me, I don´t wannabe stuck with 32bit windovs!
What am I doing wrong here?