At last, Xubuntu is up and running. First impressions are that it looks great, from the new dark theme to the blue wallpaper, which seems a slight nod to some Ubuntu wallpapers I've seen, and seems a little faster than 9.04 was. Most importantly, all the software I'd want seems to be here: Firefox for web browsing, Pidgin for communicating, and AbiWord for word processing being the three that I'm most likely to use with any regularity.
There are a number of set-up steps and tweaks I want to go through now, first of which will be getting connected to my home network. The other computers on this network are running Windows XP, so I hope Xubuntu will be able to talk to them as I'd want it to! No idea how easy this is going to be....
Sunday, 8 November 2009
Saturday, 31 October 2009
Non-functional Xubuntu 9.10 live CDs
I have had to take an alternative approach to installing Xubuntu 9.10. No matter what I do, the Xubuntu live CDs I burn refuse to work on my trusty old Celeron, and don't work wonderfully on either of my more modern computers. Ubuntu live CDs work just fine, though, so I installed Ubuntu 9.10 with the intention of adding XFCE and removing Gnome. To do this I'll follow the excellent instructions for Getting Back to a Pure XFCE on Ubuntu at the Psychocats website.
So right now I'm writing this entry from my 'sofa laptop' while the Celeron chugs away, removing the Ubuntu software and adding the Xubuntu stuff.
So right now I'm writing this entry from my 'sofa laptop' while the Celeron chugs away, removing the Ubuntu software and adding the Xubuntu stuff.
Thursday, 29 October 2009
Xubuntu 9.10 released
Xubuntu 9.10 was released earlier today. My planned project for this weekend can go ahead....
Monday, 19 October 2009
Long time no write
It has been a while.
Since spring, my xubuntu machine hasn't been used all that much owing to space constraints in my house meaning that it's in a place that's not suited to extended use of a computer, but next month I hope to move it somewhere better and do a full install of 9.10.
Will let you know how that goes....
Since spring, my xubuntu machine hasn't been used all that much owing to space constraints in my house meaning that it's in a place that's not suited to extended use of a computer, but next month I hope to move it somewhere better and do a full install of 9.10.
Will let you know how that goes....
Monday, 5 January 2009
Pidgin shortcut and auto login
Eureka! I've been playing around and have worked out how to get a shortcut to Pidgin up on the top panel, though it could just as easily have been the bottom panel if I had wanted it there instead.
I right-clicked on the Firefox icon already provided and clicked on Properties, which gave me details of Program Launcher as configured to launch Firefox. I had seen Program Launcher before, by right-clicking on the panel and going to Add New Item. There it is at the top of the list - Launcher. I filled in the fields for name and description, and then took an educated guess as to the command - if 'firefox' runs Firefox then might 'pidgin' run Pidgin? I also navigated to the same directory as the Firefox icon is found in, and found an icon for Pidgin. I also ticked the box Use startup notification - I don't know what it does, but it's ticked for the Firefox icon. Everything done, I clicked on Close, and then gave my new icon a try. It works!
Something else I have wanted to do is make Xubuntu automatically log me in. When I turn on this computer it boots to a login screen, at which I have to enter my username and password. Given that I am the only person likely to use this computer, it's a bit of a chore. Luckily for me, there is a setting for auto login.
Navigate to Applications >> Settings >> Login Window, and you'll see a window rather like that in the screenshot the below. Put a tick next to Enable Automatic Login, select the user you want to be logged in automatically (in my case it was a simple choice of one), and click close.
I hope this will make the computer boot a little faster as it no longer needs to load the login screen. In testing earlier today, I found that it took 1 minute 56 seconds to boot to the login screen and then, once I had logged in, a further 39 seconds to finish booting to the desktop. Once I've posted this entry I'll shut down and time it again now that auto login is set.
Edit: the system now boots to the desktop in 2 mins 28 seconds. That's 7 seconds saved, a 4.4% reduction in the initial boot time. Not quite what I had hoped, but welcome all the same.
I right-clicked on the Firefox icon already provided and clicked on Properties, which gave me details of Program Launcher as configured to launch Firefox. I had seen Program Launcher before, by right-clicking on the panel and going to Add New Item. There it is at the top of the list - Launcher. I filled in the fields for name and description, and then took an educated guess as to the command - if 'firefox' runs Firefox then might 'pidgin' run Pidgin? I also navigated to the same directory as the Firefox icon is found in, and found an icon for Pidgin. I also ticked the box Use startup notification - I don't know what it does, but it's ticked for the Firefox icon. Everything done, I clicked on Close, and then gave my new icon a try. It works!
Something else I have wanted to do is make Xubuntu automatically log me in. When I turn on this computer it boots to a login screen, at which I have to enter my username and password. Given that I am the only person likely to use this computer, it's a bit of a chore. Luckily for me, there is a setting for auto login.
Navigate to Applications >> Settings >> Login Window, and you'll see a window rather like that in the screenshot the below. Put a tick next to Enable Automatic Login, select the user you want to be logged in automatically (in my case it was a simple choice of one), and click close.
I hope this will make the computer boot a little faster as it no longer needs to load the login screen. In testing earlier today, I found that it took 1 minute 56 seconds to boot to the login screen and then, once I had logged in, a further 39 seconds to finish booting to the desktop. Once I've posted this entry I'll shut down and time it again now that auto login is set.
Edit: the system now boots to the desktop in 2 mins 28 seconds. That's 7 seconds saved, a 4.4% reduction in the initial boot time. Not quite what I had hoped, but welcome all the same.
Sunday, 4 January 2009
Audio media - mp3, Real Audio, and Flash
What media do I generally find myself using? Well, mp3 files, Real Audio files, and whatever it is that BBC iPlayer uses. This computer's probably not up to playing video from iPlayer, but it ought to manage radio. I wonder how Xubuntu will fare with these?
To find out, I downloaded a podcast from the BBC, saved it to my desktop, and then double-clicked it. Xubuntu opened it in an application called Totem Media Player, but then found that it didn't have the right codecs. Totem asked me if I wanted to search for the necessary codecs, to which I affirmed. It came back with the following:
To be on the safe side, I opted to install both plug-ins, though I suppose just the former would have been sufficient. After confirming that I wasn't breaking the law with these plug-ins, they installed and my mp3 podcast began to play. In Totem I did have to go Edit >> Preferences >> Display and then untick Show visual effects when an audio file is played to do away with some garish visualisation that I can easily live with out, as can the processor on this computer!
So that's mp3 playback sorted. Let's try Real Audio, which I find I mostly use listening to internet radio, and see how much work I need to do to make that work.
Off I went to my favourite spoken-word radio station, BBC Radio 4, and clicked on the 'Listen Live' link, which is a streamed Real Audio feed. The usual pop-up window appeared with what I assume was Totem embedded at the bottom. As happened when I first tried to play an mp3 file, my computer lacked the required codec, but again automatically searched for something that should work. It came back with Gstreamer plugins for mms, wavpack, quicktime, musepack: I'm not sure what most of that means, but I installed it and a few minutes later, after the computer had finished downloading and installing the plugin, I was hearing The Archers. So I closed that Firefox window - nothing against the programme itself, I just don't like soaps! Anyway, a success.
So now to test iPlayer itself. While this machine is probably not up to streaming video, the BBC also uses iPlayer for a lot of its 'Listen Again' radio programmes. I clicked on one of the links provided on Radio 4's homepage. Another pop-up window, but this time it informed me that I needed to install Flash. I'll pass on that for now. It's probably best that I consult with the forums to get some advice, because if I am to have Flash on this computer then I want the lightest version I can get away with.
To find out, I downloaded a podcast from the BBC, saved it to my desktop, and then double-clicked it. Xubuntu opened it in an application called Totem Media Player, but then found that it didn't have the right codecs. Totem asked me if I wanted to search for the necessary codecs, to which I affirmed. It came back with the following:
To be on the safe side, I opted to install both plug-ins, though I suppose just the former would have been sufficient. After confirming that I wasn't breaking the law with these plug-ins, they installed and my mp3 podcast began to play. In Totem I did have to go Edit >> Preferences >> Display and then untick Show visual effects when an audio file is played to do away with some garish visualisation that I can easily live with out, as can the processor on this computer!
So that's mp3 playback sorted. Let's try Real Audio, which I find I mostly use listening to internet radio, and see how much work I need to do to make that work.
Off I went to my favourite spoken-word radio station, BBC Radio 4, and clicked on the 'Listen Live' link, which is a streamed Real Audio feed. The usual pop-up window appeared with what I assume was Totem embedded at the bottom. As happened when I first tried to play an mp3 file, my computer lacked the required codec, but again automatically searched for something that should work. It came back with Gstreamer plugins for mms, wavpack, quicktime, musepack: I'm not sure what most of that means, but I installed it and a few minutes later, after the computer had finished downloading and installing the plugin, I was hearing The Archers. So I closed that Firefox window - nothing against the programme itself, I just don't like soaps! Anyway, a success.
So now to test iPlayer itself. While this machine is probably not up to streaming video, the BBC also uses iPlayer for a lot of its 'Listen Again' radio programmes. I clicked on one of the links provided on Radio 4's homepage. Another pop-up window, but this time it informed me that I needed to install Flash. I'll pass on that for now. It's probably best that I consult with the forums to get some advice, because if I am to have Flash on this computer then I want the lightest version I can get away with.
Looking back - which changes have carried forwards to Xubuntu and which need doing again?
Xubuntu's not as scary as it seems. I've played with it a little now and so far, so good.
Looking back at an earlier post in this blog to see which changes I made in Ubuntu have carried forwards to Xubuntu, the results aren't too bad:
Looking back at an earlier post in this blog to see which changes I made in Ubuntu have carried forwards to Xubuntu, the results aren't too bad:
- Visual effects - there are no such things to worry about in Xubuntu as far as I can tell. I want very minimal visual effects anyway, so this saves me having something to turn off. Good.
- Microsoft Core Fonts - Xubuntu's Add/Remove is found in a slightly different place to Ubuntu's (Applications >> System >> Add/Remove), but seems to work the same way. According to this, the Microsoft Core Fonts package was installed, but the fonts weren't showing anywhere or available for use in, for instance, Abiword. This was fixed by removing the package, rebooting the computer, and reinstalling the package.
- Making better use of on-screen space - this needed setting up all over again. I went to Applications >> Settings >> Settings Manager >> User Interface, and from here ticked the box Use sub-pixel hinting and changed the Font to Arial 9. As before, Arial's a narrower font than Sans so it makes better use of the screen space available - particularly noticeable in Firefox, where the bookmarks toolbar is able to display more bookmarks as a result. On a more subjective level, I think Arial looks better than Sans.
It's perhaps odd that in Ubuntu I changed the font size to 8 but in Xubuntu have left it at 9. To my eyes, size 9 in Xubuntu looks the same as size 8 did in Ubuntu. I don't know why this is, but I'd guess it's something to do with the DPI settings. Size 9 is fine for me, so I'll leave any further settings well alone. After all this was done I pressed Ctrl + Alt + Backspace to restart the session. Once logged in again, everything was looking pretty good. - Gnome panel - I think I'll just refer to this as 'panel' from now on. Help can stay where it is for now until I'm certain I need it no longer. I've also added to the top panel a Screenshot item which will allow me to take screenshots without having to wait for GIMP to boot, and to the bottom panel I've added a Weather item so I can confirm that at the moment it's bloody cold outside (-2 degrees celsius as I write this). I'd like to add a shortcut to Pidgin to the top panel too, but can't work out how to do it. Clicking and dragging the icon from the Applications menu doesn't do anything, and right-clicking on the icon in the Applications menu invokes the application. I'll have to look into this one on the forums.
- Pidgin - lives under Applications >> Network >> Pidgin Instant Messenger until I can get my shortcut set up. All of the settings I entered under Ubuntu have been preserved.
- Firefox - as mentioned previously, all of the settings here have also been kept. Unlike Pidgin, there's already a shortcut in the top panel so as far as Firefox is concerned everything is good.
Four days into Ubuntu and I've switched to Xubuntu
Following advice given to me on the Ubuntu forums, and given that the Ubuntu installation was pretty much a 'fresh' installation (ie, the tinkering I have done shouldn't have changed much, if anything, 'under the bonnet'), I've decided to switch from Ubuntu to Xubuntu. Apparently I should see a noticeable increase in the speed at which the system runs by using XFCE instead of Gnome.
I've not used Xubuntu for any great amount of time before, chiefly due to my other computers having plenty of grunt and hence being able to cope perfectly well with Ubuntu. There's also the small matter that I've never been able to get a Xubuntu Live CD to work on this machine, for reasons unknown. Ubuntu Live CDs, on the other hand, have always worked just fine.
So how did I get from Ubuntu to Xubuntu on this machine? Well, there's a very good website of Ubuntu resources here, and amidst these resources are instructions on how to go from a Ubuntu install to a 'pure' installation of Xubuntu or Kubuntu (Ubuntu using KDE instead of Gnome). Copying and pasting the given command into a terminal window, the change was set in action. After entering the sudo password I headed into town to do a little bit of shopping in the new-year sales, while the computer removed the packages for Ubuntu and installed those for Xubuntu. When I returned home a little over an hour later the operation hadn't completed because the terminal wanted the sudo password again, but after I entered that it didn't take too much longer for the operation to complete. The Ubuntu screen looked a little different to how it did before the changes started, and after a reboot I was into the Xubuntu environment with an entirely different desktop theme and, I'm sure, things happening differently (more efficiently, I hope!) in the background.
My fresh Xubuntu install, with GIMP (the Print Screen key doesn't seem to do anything in Xubuntu, so I had to use GIMP to take this screenshot) and Firefox (for writing this blog entry!) both minimised to the bottom panel.
The next step for me will be to work out how many of the changes to Ubuntu I documented previously in this blog have been held over into my Xubuntu installation and how many I'll want to reperform. Already I can see that the cosmetic changes I made (installing Microsoft Core Fonts, resizing desktop fonts, and fiddling with the icons on the panel at the top of the screen) haven't carried through, but all of the changes I made to Firefox have been preserved. But this investigation will be the subject of a new post, I think.
PS From this post forwards, this blog will contain links to relevant sites. I thought it would be more useful that way!
PPS This post means that the name of this blog has changed from 'Matthew's Ubuntu Blog' to 'Matthew's Xubuntu Blog'. Stands to reason, doesn't it!
I've not used Xubuntu for any great amount of time before, chiefly due to my other computers having plenty of grunt and hence being able to cope perfectly well with Ubuntu. There's also the small matter that I've never been able to get a Xubuntu Live CD to work on this machine, for reasons unknown. Ubuntu Live CDs, on the other hand, have always worked just fine.
So how did I get from Ubuntu to Xubuntu on this machine? Well, there's a very good website of Ubuntu resources here, and amidst these resources are instructions on how to go from a Ubuntu install to a 'pure' installation of Xubuntu or Kubuntu (Ubuntu using KDE instead of Gnome). Copying and pasting the given command into a terminal window, the change was set in action. After entering the sudo password I headed into town to do a little bit of shopping in the new-year sales, while the computer removed the packages for Ubuntu and installed those for Xubuntu. When I returned home a little over an hour later the operation hadn't completed because the terminal wanted the sudo password again, but after I entered that it didn't take too much longer for the operation to complete. The Ubuntu screen looked a little different to how it did before the changes started, and after a reboot I was into the Xubuntu environment with an entirely different desktop theme and, I'm sure, things happening differently (more efficiently, I hope!) in the background.
My fresh Xubuntu install, with GIMP (the Print Screen key doesn't seem to do anything in Xubuntu, so I had to use GIMP to take this screenshot) and Firefox (for writing this blog entry!) both minimised to the bottom panel.The next step for me will be to work out how many of the changes to Ubuntu I documented previously in this blog have been held over into my Xubuntu installation and how many I'll want to reperform. Already I can see that the cosmetic changes I made (installing Microsoft Core Fonts, resizing desktop fonts, and fiddling with the icons on the panel at the top of the screen) haven't carried through, but all of the changes I made to Firefox have been preserved. But this investigation will be the subject of a new post, I think.
PS From this post forwards, this blog will contain links to relevant sites. I thought it would be more useful that way!
PPS This post means that the name of this blog has changed from 'Matthew's Ubuntu Blog' to 'Matthew's Xubuntu Blog'. Stands to reason, doesn't it!
Thursday, 1 January 2009
Getting started - making better use of the available screen space, and getting Pidgin and Firefox ready
OK, everything's installed and the computer's up and running. The boot time's not amazing - some time soon I shall time it and see how long it takes - but it's not really a bother. All that wait will give me time to make a cup of tea!
The first thing I want to do is get the desktop looking the way I want it to. Desktop wallpaper and other cosmetic changes can wait a little while - there are more fundamental things to be changing first, starting with toning down the special effects to something more appropriate for an old computer like this.
The first thing I want to do is get the desktop looking the way I want it to. Desktop wallpaper and other cosmetic changes can wait a little while - there are more fundamental things to be changing first, starting with toning down the special effects to something more appropriate for an old computer like this.
- System >> Preferences >> Appearance >> Visual Effects >> None
While this computer seems capable of managing with Visual Effects set to 'Normal', this really slows it down. Setting Visual Effects to 'None' instead seems to improve the system's speed significantly. Besides which, I often don't have time for visual effects. Even if they don't noticeably slow a system down, their effect for me is to make the system feel as though it is being slowed down, which is perhaps as bad as if it is actually slowed down. Fancy graphics - don't do them, kids! - Applications >> Add/Remove
Set the software installer to show All available applications and install Microsoft Core Fonts. Like it or not, these typefaces appear to be used near ubiquitously, and the web looks better if they're available for use. - System >> Preferences >> Appeareance >> Fonts
Change settings to Subpixel smoothing and all fonts to size 8. Subpixel smoothing makes the display look a bit better on the TFT display, and setting all of the fonts to size 8 frees a bit of screen space as well as, in my view, making Ubuntu look better in general. Set Arial as the application and desktop fonts, and Arial Bold as the window title font, which again creates a bit more screen space and makes things look more orderly, as Arial's much narrower than Ubuntu's default setting of Sans.
- Gnome Panel
Delete the shortcuts to Help and Evolution, and add a shortcut to Pidgin. Move Pidgin shortcut in front of the Firefox shortcut. Move the shortcuts to the left to take advantage of the space freed up by setting the fonts as Arial! - Run Pidgin
Set up the accounts I use. Right-click the Pidgin icon in the system tray (or whatever it's called in Gnome - I mean the icon up in the top right that has a green circle overlaying a speech bubble) and set Blink on New Message. Right-click the icon again and go to Preferences. Set the font smaller, set sounds volume to loudest, and turn off logging. One last time, right-click the icon, go to Plugins, and select Message Notification. That should be Pidgin set up to do the job - the default settings don't make received messages prominent enough for my liking, and it's easy to miss friends' messages. I need such things to flash and make loud noises at me, else I stand little chance of noticing them.
- Run Firefox and navigate to about:config.
Search for 'tab' and set browser.tabs.tabMinWidth to 10 or 15 (100 is annoyingly large, especially at this screen resolution), and set browser.tabs.closeButtons to 3 (this moves the close button to the very right of the tab bar, again saving some screen space).
Search for 'backspace' and set browser.backspace_action to 0 (this will make backspace work like the back button, and shift+backspace work like the forward button).
Search for 'google' and change all instances of 'google.com' to 'google.co.uk' - Ubuntu's not as internationalised as it would like to think it is; I'm sure this bit's is done for me on my Windows XP installation of Firefox.
Next, close the about:config tab and click on the drop-down for the search bar. Select Manage Search Engines..., and add the keywords 'g' to Google and 'w' to Wikipedia. Remove all other searches (I never use them anyway!), and add the Chambers 21st Century Dictionary. Give it a suitable keyword, such as 'dict'.
Right-click on the menu bar and select Customise. Tick Use Small Icons and then drag all of the navigation icons up to the menu bar. Click Done, then right-click again and tell Firefox that you don't want to see the Navigation Toolbar. Voila: more screen space!
This completes the tinkering with Firefox.
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