Linux Beginner

Fedora 10 was released on November 25, and I finally installed the i386 KDE 4.1 version on an old Dell desktop. Mostly it’s pretty slick. I like that it finally gives a default install of KDE4.1 instead of the nearly nonfunctional KDE 4.0, like Fedora 9 used.

Installing Fedora is a breeze, as it is now with most Linux distributions. I used the manual partitioning to keep the system as a triple boot. Fedora still seems to have issues with recognizing other Linux partitions. I told GRUB to recognize Windows XP on sda1 and Kubuntu on sda3, but on restart, I would only get an error if I attempted to boot Kubuntu.

To fix this, you need a copy of the old menu.lst. you will find this in the file path /boot/grub/menu.lst (make sure you are typing “ell ess tee” not “one ess tee”) Fortunately, I was prepared for this. Scroll down in the menu.lst and copy the information on booting the old partition. Paste it into the new Fedora menu.lst and save the file.

Open the terminal/konsole/bash and use this command exactly to paste a file into menu.lst

su -
(enter your root password)
nano /boot/grub/menu.lst

alternately you can use
gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Paste in the new boot information, and save the file. In nano ctrl+x then type “y” in response to the question. In Gedit, just save with the save button.

On reboot, Kubuntu booted fine, but I don’t understand why Fedora can’t seem to want to allow other Linux partitions to work. Other linux distributions recognize the preexisting partitions fine, but Fedora just doesn’t seem to ever get this straight. Fedora recognized XP, but it wouldn’t boot Kubuntu without having to manually edit grub.conf/menu.lst..

I installed the Windows codecs, or at least I thought I did, but it is not playing videos properly. It plays mp3s but in both cases SELinux is giving me some sort of policy error. I will have to track this issue down. I won’t feel ready to put Fedora 10 on any of my other computers until I resolve this issue.

admin Linux Fedora 10 Review

I like KDE4, especially once it got past the infancy stages of KDE4.0, but there is a definite problem I am having with Kwrite and Kate saving text files. I have encountered the issue with Kubuntu Hardy, Fedora 9, Fedora 10, and maybe something else. I don’t remember what distributions I have used.

I open the text editor. Write something, Save it as a txt file, and it seems to be fine. But when I open it, I have nothing but a blank page. I don’t have a solution to this, but it almost made me give up on KDE4 altogether. Instead, I have decided to install Gedit as my solution. Gedit works fine. Once a file is saved, there is no issue using Kwrite or Kate, it is only the initial period of saving the file.

I think it is not properly saving the encoding, or something. It handles text files fine, unless it is a new file, and you are trying to save it.

Gedit is a good text editor. There’s also the added bonus that many of the command line tips that are available on the internet include Gedit in their commands for editing files. I had been changing them to Nano in any place that Gedit was part of the command, since I couldn’t trust Kwrite, but using Gedit makes it easier because now I can just copy and paste, instead of having to edit the command to Nano.

admin Linux Fedora 10, Fedora 9, Gedit, Kate, KDE 4.1, Kubuntu Hardy, Kwrite

Upgrading to KDE 4.1 in Fedora 9 I received this error message.

Plasma Workspace - The KDE Crash Handler

A Fatal Error Occurred
The application Plasma Workspace (plasma) crashed and caused the signal 11 (SIGSEGV). Please help us improve the software you use by filing a report at http://bugs.kde.org. Useful detail include hot to reproduce the error, documents that were loaded, etc.

The error is also occurring in other distros like Kubuntu and Mandriva.

How to fix KDE 4.1

Get to your login screen and choose “console login” from the menu. From the console you will delete two files in the plasma configuration and this will fix the problem.

Here are the command line commands you will need.

cd ~/.kde/share/config
rm plasma-appletsrc
rm plasmarc
reboot

In Kubuntu the first command will be cd ~/.kde4/share/config because there is the .kde folder for KDE3 and the .kde4 folder for KDE4 (Which will be phased out in Intrepid Ibex).

Instead of rebooting you could try startx to login to the graphical desktop, but it’s probably best to reboot anyway. Removing these two files will reset plasma to the default configuration. I believe that something about haveing moved and/or resized the panel is not allowable with KDE4.1 and that is what is causing the crash. If you haven’t made any modifications to the panel, you might not get the error. If you do get the plasma error in KDE 4.1, that’s all there is to it. Happy computing.

admin Uncategorized Fedora9, KDE 4.1, Kubuntu, Plasma Workspace, Signal 11, SIGSEGV

The installation process when installing Fedora 8 is delightful. I can’t possibly put it any other way. Fedora 8 asks all the information it will need for the installation right up front. I’ve tried various Debian and Ubuntu installations before, and in both cases I needed to stay put as it went through the install process to tell it the network name, fill out passwords, and username. And whatever other things it asks along the way before it can proceed.

Fedora 8 Gets the Installer Right!

It’s always irritated me that the install process in Debian and Ubuntu gets broken up into pieces. I can step away from the computer, but that means the install process gets put on hold until I navigate through the next set of prompts.

Fedora 8 installs just like an Operating System should install. The installer boots up and asks for your name, username, password, and partitioning scheme right from the get go. I was thrilled when I realized that as F8 was installing, all I had to do was sit back and take a nap. That was it. Once I gave the go ahead, Fedora 8 sailed right straight through to the finish.

Fedora 8 install was fast! I think the entire process was only about 1/2 hour. I installed the Fedora 8 KDE version of the program. I have to give Fedora 8 ten stars out of 5 for ease of installation. No doubt in my mind. It was the easiest Operating System to install that I have ever done.

Fedora 8: The Good News Ends with the Installer

Soon as the computer rebooted, Fedora 8 KDE started to lose its lustre. I’m supposed to have an installation of Debian Lenny and Kubuntu on the hard drive as well. It should be a triple boot setup, but F8 behaved as the only installed OS!

The GRUB bootloader didn’t show anything installed on my machine other than Fedora 8. I’ll have to look into whether this is a common problem or if it’s just the crappy 9 year old Compaq PC that I tried running it on. Either way, I am certain that on my system, Fedora 8 did not seem to want to allow other OSs.

Now, to be fair, during the install, there was some sort of “advanced” option when configuring GRUB. But I just went through that on the default settings, because I’m still a Linux Beginner. On the other hand, Debian and Ubuntu both always recognized the other partitions when I installed them.

Yum is a slow Package Manager

Again, I have to mark down Fedora 8 on the package manager. Yum was significantly slower than Apt at retrieving updates, and new packages to install. I would say it took about twice as long for the installs and updates to take place once I was booted into KDE with the main installation completed.

No Final Word Yet on Fedora 8

Unfortunately, Fedora 8 is just too much of a strain on my dying PC to keep fiddling with it for now. I’m getting a new machine that will drag my PC kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. A 733mhz Pentium III from 1998 just isn’t cutting it. Neither is the whopping 256 RAM. Someday in the not too distant future I will give Fedora 8 another go around, and this time I will be able to start to learn Redhat Linux, which is something I really would like to do.

For now, I am able to sum up my F8 experience thusly:

• Installing is a breeze. All OSs should be this easy to install.
• Doesn’t seem to want other OSs on the HDD. I suggest installing first, then Install other OS to see how it works then. Like doing a dual boot with Windows, where Windows is installed first.
• Yum is slow.

admin Linux Debian, Fedora 8, Fedora 8 KDE, GRUB, Installing Fedora 8, Learn Redhat Linux, Ubuntu

I’m on a 9 year old Compaq desktop while my one year old HP laptop is mid nuke. I’ve been using a dual boot setup on the thing, and I just wasn’t happy with how much space I had allowed for Windows, which I only ever use if I have to. Which is rare.

So, the laptop is in the middle of destroying the previous partition tables to make new ones. Meanwhile, I’m on my first computer ever, and it seems that it may soon be time to retire the old girl.

The system is slooooooow. Every time it trys to process an action, the hard drive sounds like it has broken glass spinning around inside an aluminum can. I think the video card is getting ready to die as well.

I don’t know what’s up with the video card, but it keeps doing some pretty freaky things. I have the brightness turned all the way up, but everything is still too dark, and just try to watch a video. That will make the video card freak out and start flashing all kinds of colors.

For no reason, things just turn plaid.

I’m running Debian Lenny with a custom build KDE setup. It’s the fastest that I’ve ever used. Yes, I know xfce is less resource intensive, and there are other desktops that are faster than KDE as well, but I just don’t care much for the interface. KDE rules.

Here’s a screenshot of my Debian Lenny Custom KDE.

Click for full size.

admin Linux Debian, KDE, Linux, Screenshot