[clug] Story: Fijian Resort (now Ubuntu issues with Dell Optiplex 950)

[Scott Ferguson]

I've got a two more questions - I've marked them with *****

On 29/07/14 18:39, Paul Rands wrote:
> HI Scott,
> 
> Thanks for the reply.

No worries, I'm happy to help - if I can, as I'm sure are other list
subscribers.

NOTE that I've changed the subject line to aid people using search engines.

> 
> On 29 Jul 2014, at 1:31 pm, Scott Ferguson 
> <scott.ferguson.clug at gmail.com> wrote:
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>> 
> As I mentioned before, the colouring of both folders and files. I
> have added a plug in for emblems, but it’s a bit flaky.

OK. I'm not familiar with Ubuntu, except where it is the same as Debian,
or with GNOME. But many on this list are.

Custom colours for files I don't know about - I have modified KDE
Dolphin file browser to allow custom directory colours. But that's
hardly a solution to your requirements (and changing your DE is very
unlikely to not bring in other issues). It's 'possible' (maybe) to do
the same thing with the mimetype icons so files can be custom coloured -
but I haven't tried it.

Is this any help with the Nautilus emblems problem?
https://people.gnome.org/~bmsmith/build/gosnautilus-203.html

> 
> I also like Apple Finder’s Quicklook feature, using the space bar.
> Now I know Ubuntu’s file browser does this now, but it’s annoying to
> have to keep closing windows to move to the next file when
> previewing.

I don't know Nautilus (sorry) Anyone?

Is that like a preview that shows when you move your mouse over the file?
Dolphin has that feature - you can change the size of the preview, which
filetypes it applies to, set size limits for the files that are
previewed (for both local and remote files). The preview shows in a pane
(so moving the mouse changes the file that's previewed.


> 
>>> 
>>> I have used Android and iOS and definitely prefer the latter and
>>> its integration with OS X. Much less clunkier experience. What I
>>> do find annoying that Android phone producers don't provide a
>>> Linux based phone manager and the Sony one for example doesn't 
>>> work with Wine.
>> 
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> 
> No, they’re like most other vendors, who don’t have a Linux
> offering. The Sony Android phone carked it recently and I am back on
> the iPhone but looking for a replacement phone.

If you decide to go back to Android....

GNOME 'should' be able to allow you to connect you Android phone to
Ubuntu - they use a different mtp mechanism (gvfs-mtp). Older Androids
are seen as simple USB Flash devices.
I use gammu to access the phone components - it should work fine in
GNOME without bringing to many new libraries for you.
I had to create custom udev rules to access the programming interface
(from the google code repo).

Sorry - can't help with iPhone.
I expect a 'smart' phone to be able to run multiple processes at the
same time, I like admin rights, and I definitely won't use a phone that
potentially thousands of people can render non-private :/

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> I have Virtual Box running with said app, but trying to offload
> Windows altogether, and been trying to move away since 2006. The app
> works fine under Ubuntu and my current Wine install.

Sorry, somehow I imagined you'd had network problems under WINE.

-----8<------------->8----------------------------

> However the new iOS cross features to OSX such as SMS from desktop to
> phone, and so on, is very very attractive. I already experience this
> with Apple’s Messages and it’s great.

That's not a feature unique to Apple... ;)

>> 
>>> 
>>> At the moment, I'm leaning towards going back to OS X as my main
>>> OS, simply because I've had enough of video bugs with my Intel
>>> display chipset
>> 
>> Did you mention that because you wish to resolve those issues[*1]? 
>> If so - what issues are those (and)?
> 
> The issues are when waking the computer from sleep (Dell Optiplex
> 950), sometimes the video will hang, but the mouse and keyboard still
> work. This was a problem in Ubuntu 12.10, and the last couple of
> incarnations of Linux Mint as well.

IFAIK neither are based on Debian stable. I'd only recommend testing to
those that are testing. If it has features that are required it's better
(for the purposes of stability) to run stable and backport or
selectively (with pinning) pull from testing.

Thank you for all your answers - I almost have enough info,
unfortunately I can't figure out what the Dell Optiplex 950 is....

*****Please post the output of:-
# for i in system-product-name system-version baseboard-manufacturer
baseboard-product-name baseboard-version;do dmidecode -s $i;done

NOTE: you'll need to be root and you'll need dmidecode installed
# apt-get install dmidecode


-----8<------------->8----------------------------
> I have installed the Intel driver, but can't seem to tell whether
> it's working or not.

*****Please attach /var/log/Xorg.0.log

-----8<------------->8----------------------------
> 
> 
>> 
>> [*1] FOSS relies on the user...

-----8<------------->8----------------------------
>> 
> I am aware of this, however, I have a real hit and miss affair with 
> getting answers (I hate waiting and just want to get on with
> things), and have mostly relied on trying things myself based on
> other forum postings, and sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.

And the ones that don't work are frustrating, time wasting, and usually
create other problems... :(


> I am an instant gratification person, if it doesn’t work straight out
> of the box, or within a few minutes or couple of hours, I move on. I
> don’t have the motivation to keep persevering, however, I have done
> so with Linux on and off since 2005. But each time I get fed up, and
> walk away. I am not at that stage just yet, but it’s getting close. I
> am a big advocate of open source / free software products, and would
> really like to convert as many people as I can, but after getting
> presented with little glitches and bumps and installing something or
> finding an alternative program to function similarly to others in
> Windows or OSX and finding nothing, it really takes the shine off
> things. If I could program, I’d be in there making what I need or
> want, but I can’t, and it’s sometimes frustrating that I can’t
> contribute to solving similar problems identified by friends
> interested in jumping into Ubuntu or similar OSes.

Understood, and, experienced the same thing (see my previous comments in
this thread about unrealistic expectation of users - some people have
other things in their lives).
Initially I built a huge collection of various distros trying to find
one that "just worked" in all circumstances. I never succeeded.
Then I decided to pick one (Debian) and examine the bits that did work
in others and compare the differences to make the same thing work in
Debian. (Kudos to Klaus Knopper for solving so many boot problems for me)
That and the decision over a decade ago to never again install anything
but Linux to baremetal for my personal use - plus the development of
note taking and documentation skills, and learning to read man files
eventually got me to a place where closed source offering are far less
capable at meeting my needs.
I also learnt to carefully test any "fixes" that I didn't understand -
in a VM *before* applying it to my main workstation or servers. I was a
lesson hard learnt. One of the things I suggest to people beginning
Linux is use two machines - one to learn (and have a bit of a fiddle on)
and one that's only changed after careful testing. A major difference
between Linux and closed source is that Linux comes with application -
lots of applications. Closed source tends to come with very little - so
it's easier (they have less excuses for not doing so) to test
interaction between packages.

apt-cache stats
Total package names: 49011 (980 k)
Total package structures: 49011 (2,353 k)
  Normal packages: 37164
  Pure virtual packages: 512
  Single virtual packages: 4340
  Mixed virtual packages: 1052
  Missing: 5943
Total distinct versions: 40754 (2,608 k)
Total distinct descriptions: 76970 (1,847 k)
Total dependencies: 247605 (6,933 k)
Total ver/file relations: 46194 (739 k)
Total Desc/File relations: 76970 (1,232 k)
Total Provides mappings: 8305 (166 k)
Total globbed strings: 255 (2,925 )
Total dependency version space: 1,036 k
Total slack space: 70.5 k
Total space accounted for: 12.9 M

> 
>>> 
>>> -- Paul Rands lists at paulrands.com
>>> 
> 

Kind regards


P.S. I noted you have DKIM setup - and correctly. Thanks for raising the
standards. :)