Entering the world of linux

I have a problem and a question?
I discovered that my wireless is not working. Does not recognize any networks.
Of course, I found this out while sitting in Finance class, this evening...Doh!
Any ideas where I would begin to look to fix this issue?


[edit on 5-1-2010 by LadySkadi]

Originally posted by LadySkadi
I have a problem and a question?
I discovered that my wireless is not working. Does not recognize any networks.
Of course, I found this out while sitting in Finance class, this evening...Doh!
Any ideas where I would begin to look to fix this issue?


[edit on 5-1-2010 by LadySkadi]

Was it working before?
What's the hardware and flavor of linux?
Are there other spots you can check for signal?
Does the laptop indicate that wireless is `on' at all?
Does the class' access point broadcast its SSID (name) and have WEP/WPA?

Originally posted by jokei
Does anyone use - or more importantly know how to use the Down Them All add on for Firefox??? Not sure how to set it up with Xubuntu.

addons.mozilla.org...

It looks like a really cool add on, but...

It's just an add-on. Once you tell it to install, it does. There isn't a ton of tweaking needed but if you have specific questions, ask. I run Xubuntu and use DTA.

You won't hurt anything by installing it. In fact, it's a lot more difficult to `hurt' linux than other OSes.

My wife is now 100% linux. She grew to hate Windows too. And neither of us is elegant enough to require a Mac

reply to post by leftystrat

EDIT:

Aha! Never mind, I've got it working... I had to activate a driver: there were 2, I just picked 1 of them, hopefully it was the right one. It seems to be working for now. Keeping my fingers crossed!




[edit on 5-1-2010 by LadySkadi]

reply to post by LadySkadi


It's good that you got it working. Just for the future, sometimes Linux doesn't activate all hardware by default. The reason is because some hardware is proprietary and may not integrate well into the Linux system, so it's turned off. If that's ever the case, all you need to do is tell the system to use it anyway.

reply to post by Helig


Have you tried Docky as your dock? I've found that it's the dock that is closest to the OSX dock.

reply to post by leftystrat


Right, I've downloaded and installed it, that's fine - using it on Xubuntu by the way.

My Google skills are lacking me today, as I'm snowed in and started the morning with some relaxing Port, anyway... can't seem to find a decent/idiot proof faq...

www.downthemall.net...

was the best I could come up with, but how do I actually use it? I've gotten to the point

where I go to a web page,

right click and it gives me all the specific URLs,

I can choose to view these as LINKS or PICTURES AND EMBEDDED,

guessing the video (target) of what I want to save/download is in the PICTURES AND EMBEDDED,

but how do I know which one is the video source?

Been tinkering around but with little success, I can imagine a lot of people face-palming at this comment.

reply to post by jokei


right. you're not gonna thank me for this coz i aim to make your life more complicated. download and install the "video downloadhelper" addon for firefox. this addon will detect downloadable media in the form of mp3's and flv's in the page you are visiting. once it detects downloadable media, the downloadhelper icon (3 colored balloons) will animate, click on the downward facing triangle button beside the downloadhelper icon. this will bring up the file name of the media file on the page (and this will tempt you to immediately click on the file name so as to download the file), just keep your mouse cursor over the file name and in a second or so a menu will appear magically with options like download & convert, tweet this video, etc... you should select the copy URL option. after doing so you can load the downthemall manager and start your download by clicking on Add URL(s) and pasting the URL you have copied with video downloadhelper.

reply to post by toreishi


Awesome, thanks loads, I got it working. Am I right in thinking though that there are some sites that it just won't download from?

reply to post by jokei


true, but you can help the community out by informing the developers of the addons that you use about the sites you've been having problems with. that way they can tweak their code to better handle similar sites so that in the future you'd be using an updated version of their addon on the sites you've been having probs with in the past. win for them, win for you.

Currently I'm using Brasero for copying media files, but could anyone recommend a decent programme for making a dvd compilation?

I want to make a dvd version of a compilation tape for my lady, is there a good programme to use - ideally I'd like it to run as a normal dvd, chapters etc?

Something user friendly.

reply to post by jokei

HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows.

HandBrake

here's a tool for grabbing linux packages for offline installation

If you're planning a re-install of your Linux system that might involve being offline, free utility "Sushi Huh?" (actual name) can grab your software, and all the nagging dependencies, for easy installation without internet access.

Sushi Huh

Here is a link to 10 nice open source packages. I think Ubuntu should be at the top of the list but that's just me. LOL! It has its aggravations like getting an ATAPI DVD burner to work, installing some programs can be a pain, and copying and pasting.

www.cyberciti.biz...


If I create anything I store it in my /home folder on a separate partition from my OS and on another hard drive separate from that one right then. And then backup /home to a large external hard drive periodically.

It's easy in Windows because its file system is easily written to. Its not easy in Ubuntu. If you do a gksudo nautilus in the terminal you can copy and paste but you have to make sure the Hard Drive your saving to is mounted writable first or nautilus won't see it. By the time you mount your hard drive with the command line you might as well copy with the command line.

sudo cp -aRvp /home/username/* /media/external/backup/ would copy my whole home folder to my external HD. Thats what I love about linux

The first thing I did when I got Ubuntu was back my system up with a backup program I downloaded. The backup ended up on the desktop and it took me a week to find out how to move it.

sudo mv would have moved it or sudo rm -rf /home/username/Desktop/.backup would have deleted it. I used the later.

gksudo nautilus would have made it deletable like in windows.


Virtual Machine is awsome just to quickly try a new .iso .

Audacity- is awesome too . It will slow a guitar riff down so one can tell what Brad Paisley is actually playing.

Right, thanks to everyone for their advice so far...

What are the specific add-ons I need to enable Brasero to convert AVI to dvd? Are there any other desirable add-ons for Brasero? I quite like it's functionality.

Also, if there could be pointers for what to actually type into the Terminal, that would be super-useful, as I'm really falling down there.

reply to post by jokei


Hey joke, here is a link I just found. Someone has written a user friendly graphical interface non command line video converter.



rudd-o.com...

reply to post by jokei


To transcode a 16:9 avi with mencoder, to a format suitable for DVD:

$ mencoder -of mpeg -oac lavc -ovc lavc -mpegopts format=dvd -ofps 30000/1001 -srate 48000 -af lavcresample=48000 -vf scale=720:368,expand=720:480,harddup -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:vbitrate=4900:keyint=15:vstrict=0:acodec=ac3:abitrate=192:aspect=4/3
-o outputfile.mpg inputfile.avi

(if the input avi is 4:3 instead of 16:9, use "-vf scale=720:480,harddup" instead of "-vf scale=720:368,expand=720:480,harddup").

To make an ISO image from one or more mpg files:

$ dvdauthor --title -o outputname -f inputfile1.mpg
$ dvdauthor -o outputname -T
$ mkisofs -dvd-video -o outputname.iso outputname/

(for multiple mpg files, list them all after inputfile1.mpg in the first command).

Originally posted by jokei

What are the specific add-ons I need to enable Brasero to convert AVI to dvd? Are there any other desirable add-ons for Brasero? I quite like it's functionality.

If you install Devede from the Ubuntu repositories, it will convert an AVI for you. No command line, no muss, no fuss. I use it all the time.

Then use Brasero to burn the ISO.

reply to post by Ian McLean


OK

Treat me like I'm an idiot

Can you, if you have the time, explain the process from start to finish.. I mean start me at my desktop and go from there?

Sorry to be a pain, but I get confused with a lot of the editing required in Linux and don't really understand where to go to put the text in..

I REALLY appreciate all the things you all do to help us Linux Newbies

Semper

Guys, major problem.

For the past few days, ubuntu refused to boot up. When, I click for ubuntu to boot from the dual boot screen, the ubuntu symbol comes up and loads for some time and then the screen goes blank and monitor switches off without signal.

So, I thought that I would reinstall ubuntu and uninstalled it using the control panel in xp. It was removed in seconds, but the thing is that ubuntu still shows up on the boot screen. How do I rectify that?:shk:

I think, I cant install ubuntu again without rectifying that problem.

Originally posted by peacejet
Guys, major problem.

For the past few days, ubuntu refused to boot up. When, I click for ubuntu to boot from the dual boot screen, the ubuntu symbol comes up and loads for some time and then the screen goes blank and monitor switches off without signal.

So, I thought that I would reinstall ubuntu and uninstalled it using the control panel in xp. It was removed in seconds, but the thing is that ubuntu still shows up on the boot screen. How do I rectify that?:shk:

I think, I cant install ubuntu again without rectifying that problem.

right click my computer...-properties
click on the advanced tab
start up and recovery ...settings
put Xp in the default pulldown
uncheck "time to display operating systems"

then you wont have that delay and it will boot to windows