₦airaland Forum

jidobaba:
Guys, I think that I am finally ready to give Ubuntu a go. Problem is that I be complete JJC
Can you pls direct me to the pages where I can get step by step info on installing Ubuntu on my system.
I want to make it as lightweight as possible( Windows will remain my primary OS), just that I hear linux is good for developing programming skills, thats all I want it for.
Thanks

Pardon me, but I use an HP Netbook 

Pls i think u shld consider the ubuntu desktop edition. i have an acer netbook too and i have tried the ubuntu and kubuntu netbook and desktop editions and i am of the strong opinion that the desktop is your preferrd choice. The reason being that the netbook does not give you access to your desktop basically and graphically that is a main let down, especially for a new user. Having said that, i must also mention that the desktop edition is optimized for the netbook too so you will have no problem using it.

Since you have almost completed downloading the netbook edition,i cant tell u to start downloading the desktop edition. however i can offer you a free copy on a usb drive of the desktop edition if you are interested. About installing the software, i think u shld

1. create a separate home partition manually but this is not as difficult as it sounds (this will protect your data frm crashes and re-installations)
2. try an installation script that would install all the basic codecs and applications you may find useful.
3. have a friend you can always reach (sometimes just as a sounding board and other times cos your system may depend on it)

Well having said all these, i'd like to help you so u dont go thru some of the hassles a lot of newbies went thru, including me,  Ubuntu doesn't have to be a pain in the neck so i intend to help make it as easy as possible. It's ok to read the complete thread but i advise against it cos at a point, u may lose the main gist. Just keep asking questions and frequent users will respond, and if they don't, buzz me at damilaredavids@yahoo.com. Don't send an email pls.

Welcome to the world of Ubuntu. I hope this is a grand experience for you.

Let me know how i can help. I work around Onikan.

muyiscoi:
well, it seems i've been away from this site for a little too long so this post is gonna be a little lenghty. bear with me pple

firstly, i have been using a lot of things been churned out by the elementary-project over the months and have decided to share it with the rest of you. for those that dont know what the elementary project is, check them out www.elementary-project.com. they r really cool designers n programmers. my favourite is thier tweaked version of nautilus file manager aptly named nautilus elementary. you can check it out on my screenshot below. to install it, paste d following into the terminal. NOTE: it is a very small installation and is guaranteed not to crash your system. n if it does, well, my condolenses. lol

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:am-monkeyd/nautilus-elementary-ppa

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

nautilus -q #restarts nautilus

moving on. i saw bigbrovar's screenshots on kde and to be quite frank, i have been mulling over the decision to switch for a while now. gnome is not just cutting it for me anymore. the only thing still keeping me rooted to gnome is the feeling that because ubuntu is using it as thier flagship DE, nobody else (apart from kde devs) is developing native apps for kde and gtk+ apps just look horrendously terrible on kde. i'll probably be downloading kubuntu 10.10 along with ubuntu .iso files when they r released in october so i guess i'll make my decisions then. dont just want to get locked down to d default apps kde provides me.

gnome3 has always been one uncertain journey. first time i saw it, sometime last year, i waas quite frankly very impressed cos i never thought gnome devs will take such a radical look at thier DE. i cant be objective about it cos all attempts to install it on my system have failed and reading articles on it just gives me mixed feelings

i installed midori a while back cos of just how good it looked n how well it integrated with gnome but after trying to load one page made it slow down my entire system, i uninstalled it pronto. maybe its just me,

read someone some pages back talking about an irc channel for linux n ubuntu user in nigeria instead of having to rely on nairaland. well, one actually exists n i was informed about it a few days ago. its mostly quiet now cos most people dont know bout it but what better way to share d news than here right? anyway, its #nglug on[b]irc.freenode.net[/b]. come join us there. (u might only meet d bot at first but persevere). nglug = nigeria linux user group. dont know what irc chat is? google it. doent know how to connect to an irc chat? google it. for clients, i personally use opera browser. u can also use xchat (sudo apt-get install xchat)

i've said it before and i'll say it again. for multiple fast downloads on linux, it all begins and ends for me with DownThemAll which happens to be a plugin for firefox but i couldnt care less. for torrent however, i wouldnt recommend Transmission to my worst enemy. i tried using it to download a 350mb torrent that usually takes about 8-10hrs on my useless connection and it ended up taking more that twice that time while downloading about 500mb and verifying the 350 out of that 500. i stick to deluge for torrent. even Vuse doesnt cut it for me

well there you have it. my opinion on all the things that have been hapenning on this forum since i last commented. and now for the screenshot,

PS: hope i havnt bored u guys out completely

bro, big ups. Well the IRC #nglug may yet fit the profile.

@all, pardon me, but i really believe that Ubuntu thrives on the community support. i do not think it is entirely fair to keep referring anyone that needs help to google. If you've been through it, the philosophy behind Ubuntu is essentially to make certain that each of us represents 'help'.

Desmond Tutu: A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.

Nelson Mandela: A traveler through a country would stop at a village and he didn't have to ask for food or for water. Once he stops, the people give him food, entertain him. That is one aspect of Ubuntu but it will have various aspects. Ubuntu does not mean that people should not enrich themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to be able to improve?

'We' are the help, each of us must have gained a lot from the world of possibilities that this software has exposed us to and we must continually seek ways to lead others away from the pitfalls we encountered. That, is when we (truly) have Ubuntu.

'Help' may not necessarily mean posting screenshots and put it in the best English possible, it may mean referring to the most appropriate link, website, blog, channel or person for 'immediate' assistance. Remember, Mandela did not say the villagers will direct the traveller to the nearest market to get food.

Please, the only way we can encourage a lot of people to embrace Ubuntu is measured to a large extent by the magnanimity of its current users.

I believe this is still our message - "in a world without walls, who needs windows"

Be Human!!!

the fella with multilinks modem, install GPPP and replace the wvdial script with the one u have now that works, thats a short dirty option.

advantage is that you can start ur connections with a graphical interface instead of terminal.
u may stay with terminal though, just to show guru to ur pals anyway


else just create a launcher and pin it to the panel.

WVdial reminds me of those times when i had just started out in ubuntu (around 2007 with ubuntu 7.04). we had one next to useless starcomms dail up internet at home n i spent days searching google to figure out a way to connect to it before i stumbled on wvdial. some wvdail.conf config file edition later and i was gratiously connected to the net on ubuntu. some iterations later, i thing 7.10 or 8.04, wvdial stopped working and i had to do another maraton google search n i came across one very nice automatic text based config for dailup called "pon". n i used that n was jolly well on my way to enjoying peak download speeds of 4kbps on my thrusty starcomms dailup. having being delivered from the "plague" of dailup internet, and not having used a broadband modem i couldnt configure from network manager, i have had no runnings with WVdial until now. brings up memories. not exactly pleasant ones but memories all d same.

@DareDavids:

i agree with u completely. we should try to be more humanly when giving advice. i'll see what i can do bout that. however, sometimes, posting relevant links involves me actually doing the google search myself so to eliminate d involvement of third party, u could just tell d user to "google it". i do agree sometimes that the person asking the question might not know what to search for as a result of limited knowledge but we were all once there (at least i know i was) n d persistent "googling" helped me grow n sometimes find some interesting things even though it might not be what i am looking for. thanks for d observation anyway.

PS, #nglug is still a graveyard

it should also be said that with the state of ubuntu right now, there is graciously little that the user actually need to google for. rewind a couple of years n u'll know that ubuntu has really come a long way. most of the time, as long as ur hardware is fairly popular, once it is plugged in, it is recognised most other things just work without any user interaction.

UBUNTU Really has come along way.

i guess i'm in a bit of a mood to reminiscence today

muyiscoi:
WVdial reminds me of those times when i had just started out in ubuntu (around 2007 with ubuntu 7.04). we had one next to useless starcomms dail up internet at home n i spent days searching google to figure out a way to connect to it before i stumbled on wvdial. some wvdail.conf config file edition later and i was gratiously connected to the net on ubuntu. some iterations later, i thing 7.10 or 8.04, wvdial stopped working and i had to do another maraton google search n i came across one very nice automatic text based config for dailup called "pon". n i used that n was jolly well on my way to enjoying peak download speeds of 4kbps on my thrusty starcomms dailup. having being delivered from the "plague" of dailup internet, and not having used a broadband modem i couldnt configure from network manager, i have had no runnings with WVdial until now. brings up memories. not exactly pleasant ones but memories all d same.

@DareDavids:

i agree with u completely. we should try to be more humanly when giving advice. i'll see what i can do bout that. however, sometimes, posting relevant links involves me actually doing the google search myself so to eliminate d involvement of third party, u could just tell d user to "google it". i do agree sometimes that the person asking the question might not know what to search for as a result of limited knowledge but we were all once there (at least i know i was) n d persistent "googling" helped me grow n sometimes find some interesting things even though it might not be what i am looking for. thanks for d observation anyway.

PS, #nglug is still a graveyard

Thank you. i think the whole essence of our trials and errors will only make sense when the next generation of users don't have to go thru them. As you have rightly pointed out, we could go the extra length by bookmarking anything that you have tested and really worked in Ubuntu. It is right that wht a newbie wants from Ubuntu may be entirely different from what we have thot of, at least we can save them thru the rough times of configuring stuff and preferences till they can venture out on thier own.

Throwing someone to google may be a blessing and a curse at the same time. I'm sure no one wants to crash his/her system cos of a workaround he/she got from google all in the name of trying a new operating system. We, as experienced users may not find anything out of place with installing and re-installing (btw, one day in the not-too-recent-past, i reinstall ed Ubuntu on my system 6 times and in all the instances after a fulll system's setup i.e downloading codecs and applications.) Now that is not something you want a newbie to go thru cos its discouraging and its not in the spirit of Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is arguably the most widely accepted linux distribution simply beacause of the community support it enjoys. When anybody has a problem, any nearby experienced user is ready to go out of his way to help. I have enjoyed such support (pple i dont know from Adam) at different times of the day and that has really blown my mind, On each occasion they patiently took me tru the steps until i got a breakthru and if i got stuck at a point they would gradually help me back to the starting point so we can try something else. I remeber one such helper once, after abt 3 hours with me online trying to help with an issue with alsa-sound that i had on intrepid, in his words, ", im sorry but i am not sure abt wht could be wrong at this point, you may visit #alsa if anyone there has used alsa successfully with your type of hardware, ".

Tho i was disappointed cos of my issue, i was humbled by his approach and even further help tho he cldn't help anymore.

That, is how we can help entrench this philosophy and operating system in Nigeria. Please guys, let us try in our different ways and at different times to help with a human face.

For instance,

i have copies of all the editions, on usb, for anyone who is interestedin a small demonstration cos i have advantage of a pretty good connection.

I have been keeping bookmarks of any link that i have sucessfully used in the past. This is so that i can make sure the process really works b4 recommending it.

Where i cannot bookmark, i have copied and saved relevant workarounds (tho without screenshots) using gedit, including various scripts that can be copied and pasted anywhere for anyone to use.

I remember that this thread even started with full explanatinos and even meetings that were set-up to help solve pple's issues. Im sure some of us ere benefitted from such.

Thank you muyiscoi, for bringing back fond memories.

"In Ubuntu, you hold a world full of windows"

^^^

the fanboy club is really out in session, and some ple say am a fanboy, watching u pple go on and on makes me smile from ear to ear!!!

personally i think the fun is going outta ubuntu and being replaced by pure unrivalled functionality.

yes i remember when the slightest task was a tussle, when common setting a system-wide proxy was hell!!
(funny though i still dont know how to force all connections thru a single https port)

these days, everything just works its not fun anymore, when was the last time i fought a terminal battle, not even once in lucid!!

UBUNTU ROCKS OOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
imagine discovering i could actually watch streaming tv on my ubuntu box, whilst the same task with the same connection in windows was impossible!!! abeg, God i thank you for opening my eyes ooo

Ubuntu yesterday
Ubuntu now
Ubuntu tomorrow
Ubuntu always,

@davids
i agree with u but the thing is do u think u would have known all wat u know about ubuntu if u were directly spoon-fed?
Don't get me wrong oh. . . . i believe in sharing, helping n stuf; but like musico said most of d info newbies need are mainly from google dat gurus dig out. so i think it's still ok to point the right direction and when dey encounter any probs, they can always share it with others and come up with solutions.

NB:
am still learnin oh!! so don't ignore me wen i throw out questions oh!!!!

Cheers

i just spent over 30 mins composing a post and it was deleted. i no post any warez oh. its not breaking any of d code of conduct shizzle and it is on point so y was it friggin deleted? i'm gonna fish it out from my profile n post it again n see what happens. make we know whether na humanbeing abi ma bot wey dey delete my post

okay i think it has got to be a bot cos it was deleted again. i'll have to read through it n delete any suspicious word. trying again in a bit

okay, i give up. guys, please go over to my profile n check out my post. at times like this, i hate nairaland. after spending all that time composing it. dey shldnt be using a bot to screen posts. anyway sha, that's discussion for another thread. for this one, please head over to my profile and checkout the recent posts n u'll see d post duplicated a coupla times

Its like I'm stuck with wvdial for now because i can't seem to get others to work with Multilinks
BTW, multilinks dey vex this morning, i had download speed of over 400kbps (for some few seconds o)

abes:
Its like I'm stuck with wvdial for now because i can't seem to get others to work with Multilinks
BTW, multilinks dey vex this morning, i had download speed of over 400kbps (for some few seconds o)

keep going bro,  in the final analysis, its what works that works. i am using the xcomms izap and i find it quicker thru wvdial cos it takes like 'forever' to switch by usb-modeswitch.

lynxnoon:
Ubuntu yesterday
Ubuntu now
Ubuntu tomorrow
Ubuntu always,

@davids
i agree with u but the thing is do u think u would have known all wat u know about ubuntu if u were directly spoon-fed?
Don't get me wrong oh. . . . i believe in sharing, helping n stuf; but like musico said most of d info newbies need are mainly from google dat gurus dig out. so i think it's still ok to point the right direction and when dey encounter any probs, they can always share it with others and come up with solutions.

NB:
am still learnin oh!! so don't ignore me wen i throw out questions oh!!!!

Cheers

Bro, please don't get me wrong. I am not in anyway suggesting that newbies should not do thier own reseearch in any way. I am only of the opinion that each newbie, and even us, still have a long way to go in totally harnessing the possibilities Ubuntu presents. I just feel that once a newbie has come up with a question then that may suggest that they feel that 'we' have the know-how and most times, i am very confident that some of us really do have the knowledge but still we refer them to google. I really think for us ere, referring pple to Google should be a last resort and not the first option.

i do agree sometimes that the person asking the question might not know what to search for as a result of limited knowledge but we were all once there (at least i know i was). - muyiscoi.

Helping them once doesn't mean we have helped them for a lifetime as we know that they may be the very people helping us 2moro based on their own line of research.

If my memory serves me right i think i can still recall reading 4llerbuntu being the one giving his 'mentors' new workarounds on this thread at some point. That is the crux of my discussion. We can only help in instances and not on the whole. Till 2moro, i am still googling abt the possibility of setting up ubuntu to control my home appliances

muyiscoi, i saw your multiple-deleted-threads. i feel u.


@jidobaba,

you are the new kid on the block. Any updates? how may we be of help? my yahoo id is damilaredavids.

"Looking through a window is limiting, Step out"

@ abes thats ubuntu SERVER for AMD u downloading there?

@DareDavids thank u jare.

@abes

i'm kinda in d market for a new ISP. watz multilinks like? wat area r u in (state). is it reliable, recommended, better than izap in ur opinion? n will it let me download my torrents?

4llerbuntu:
@ abes thats ubuntu SERVER for AMD u downloading there?

yeah, I want to have it handy, cos i might need it soon.

muyiscoi:
@DareDavids thank u jare.

@abes

i'm kinda in d market for a new ISP. watz multilinks like? wat area r u in (state). is it reliable, recommended, better than izap in your opinion? n will it let me download my torrents?

I'm in Ibadan, multilinks works fine here (75% reliable). I don't know how good their service is elsewhere. And sure you can download angel Micheal from heaven if you want to

well that's encouraging news somewhat. i live in PH (most of d time) n most ISP's r crappy here (especially in the part that i stay). except maybe MTN but we all know thier limitations

to whom it may concern:
deluge works very very very fine and more importantly, actually downloads on ANY YF SERVER, including the ones that dont support p2p protocol!!


i for use frostwire but it insists on using sun jre, but i prefer jdk

@4ller
i told u thie DELUGE is cool. . .
been enjoying it like crazy for awhile now
hmmmm may put up some screenies ltr

NU distro in the offing

It is called MANHATTAN OS

http://www.manhattanos.com/

KDE, GNOME combo feature

new os? coulda sworn id heard that name b4!!

anyway, scratch that, whats interesting abt it, other than a whole gamut of KDE/Gnome libraries. isn't that gonna be a large iso?

tell us more

nazzyon:
NU distro in the offing

It is called MANHATTAN OS

http://www.manhattanos.com/

KDE, GNOME combo feature

so wat r d cool stuff on it?

deluge in action

oga lynx abeg which ISP you dey use? plan, subscription, and location. tanx. i'm desperately looking for a new ISP. if i am doing what u r doing in dat screenshot on xcomms, na block them go block me sha

manhattan OS from what i've read in d past is really large (over 1GB) n has all sorts of eyecandy dat one really doesnt need n hinders productivity. might be good to have around though to show some newbies how pretty linux can be. PS: the site is ugly

In my own opinion it is a pimped Ubuntu.

If I am opportuned I will download and check its features over night.

Nothing we haven't seen in the default apps in it.

found this review of manhattan OS. might be worth checking out

http://www.webupd8.org/2010/07/manhattan-os-based-on-ubuntu-makes-it.html

muyiscoi:
oga lynx abeg which ISP you dey use? plan, subscription, and location. tanx. i'm desperately looking for a new ISP. if i am doing what u r doing in dat screenshot on xcomms, na block them go block me sha

dats d yello boys but i hv a frnd who uses xcoms n downloads wit torrents alot. . . . he was 1st notified abt his dwnloads but aftar he verified wit them n filled som funny forms its bin a hitch-free ride all d way. . . .
btw. . . almost done wit dwnloadin Manhattan OS( abt 85% )

@lynxwood

how r u coping with the 3gb download limit? that has been d major reason y i dont venture near yello modem