Ubuntu 7.04/ 7.10 / 8.04/ 8.10 - After Installation Tips.

earther · Post by **earther** » July 30th, 2007, 1:00 pm

Finally got everything working this morning with a BIG catch 22. The nVidia driver allows the 1152 x 864 resolution but makes hibernation useless as the driver won't reload. Result . . . black screen. I'm gonna see if there is a workaround somewhere that will let me have 1152 x 864 AND hibernation at the same time. It's always something . . .

Nice collection of links and suggestions BTW.

yamal · Post by **yamal** » July 30th, 2007, 4:09 pm

On debian/Mepis which is prob the same as (k)ubuntu;

suspend :

/etc/X11/xorg.conf :

add to Device (section)>Option "NvAGP" "1"

For hibernation(swap hda3):

/boot/grub/menu.lst :

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-27-desktop root=/dev/hda7 nomce resume=/dev/hda3 acpi_irq_balance quiet vga=791

FatJohn wrote:Here's my Ubuntu link collection. Enjoy!

Here's my Ubuntu help link collection.Enjoy!

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=mepis
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=pclinuxos

Frank Lion · Post by **Frank Lion** » July 30th, 2007, 4:12 pm

steviex wrote:... Keep a backup that works handy....

How to back up files using the cp (copy/paste) command, now edited into opening post. Remainder of post tidied up...I did write the original rather quickly in one hit, haha)

@ earther, remember when you first went to school? first week was awful and then it got a lot better after that? ....same with this stuff.

Post by **steviex** » July 30th, 2007, 4:23 pm

If all else fails, you can still boot off your Live CD..... and then repair anything from there, as the CD loads a new copy of Linux onto your computer, so you can function, but still access all the installed Linux's files. It will show as a separate disc partition.
Of course, then you can always reinstall... After finding a safe home for all your important bit & pieces.

sergio eduardo · Post by **sergio eduardo** » July 30th, 2007, 4:28 pm

I agree with frcan that this should be "stickied" . It would help a fair number of people here , like myself , that knows zilch but still giving it a go anyway . It doesn't have to be damn serious either but with a good dynamic to it . Nice anyway , thanks .

Post by **steviex** » July 30th, 2007, 4:35 pm

I'll sticky this for now, as we have a lot of new Linuxians, who may be feeling a bit bewildered, and are wondering what to do with their shiny new Operating System....

tqft · Post by **tqft** » July 30th, 2007, 4:39 pm

Serious about backups?

rsynch is your friend

rsyncbackup.sh /* picked up off the internet somewhere sometime - Uwe Boll's pages?*/
--------------------------------
SOURCE='/bin /boot /dev /etc /home /initrd initrd.img initrd.img.old /lib /opt /root /sbin /srv /sys /usr /var vmlinuz vmlinuz.old'
DEST=/media/hda6/sysbackup
time rsync -raC --progress --stats --delete-during $SOURCE $DEST
----------------------------------------------

do
man rsync
before you run this and read the pages

in SOURCE leave the single quotes specify any particular directories you may may want. For example most people can probably leave /bin /lib and /sys out - unless they are actively changing files in there
change the DEST directory to somewhere you have enough space.

restoring a file:
copy and paste it if it only a few
otherwise copy the script above and change the SOURCE and DEST around - be careful test it first otherwise you can get really hosed

Note: once you have a backup directory created as above maybe once a month or quarter or before major hardware changes or system updates - burn it cd or dvd

tqft · Post by **tqft** » July 30th, 2007, 4:42 pm

Something fun if you like drums - Hydrogen - search your favorite repository for it - hmm drum machine

Frank Lion · Post by **Frank Lion** » July 31st, 2007, 6:26 am

How to install ANYTHING in Ubuntu!

frcan · Post by **frcan** » July 31st, 2007, 7:03 am

Sbackup can be found in Synaptic.
Backup and Restore Ubuntu System using Sbackup
(info http://onlyubuntu.blogspot.com/2007/03/ ... using.html)

Suggestions for equivalent to windows software
http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Lin ... s_software

If you are used to Rainlendar there is a version for Linux too
http://www.rainlendar.net/cms/index.php ... &Itemid=32
How to install it in Ubuntu http://www.arsgeek.com/?p=1383

To back up your Firefox/Thunderbird profiles, and more, Febe is working great in Ubuntu http://customsoftwareconsult.com/extens ... /febe.html

Post by **steviex** » July 31st, 2007, 11:12 am

^^ Thanks Frank.... Now I can install all those games FatJohn suggested...

Hydrogen is cool too

By the way .. love the way you get a seamless installation of .deb files too (via the gdebi Installer)

Do make sure you only have one package manager open at once.... Ubuntu complains is you are being messy....

tqft · Post by **tqft** » July 31st, 2007, 2:45 pm

Bored waiting for something to download/compile/finish - but don't want to be too distracted or just want a blow-em up fix - XGalaga

sergio eduardo · Post by **sergio eduardo** » July 31st, 2007, 2:58 pm

He he he... this is good .

Eyes-Only · Post by **Eyes-Only** » July 31st, 2007, 3:20 pm

For what it's worth folks? Where I have three distros installed on the hard drive, sometimes 4, I keep a Puppy LiveCD in a jewel case right beside the computer. That little LiveCD has saved my posterior more times than I can remember over the past 15 to 16 months!

One example: If I've had grub go on me for some unknown reason, all I've had to do is pop the disk is and use the grub writer on it to rewrite a new one. And I can choose where I want to save it, just like with a regular install of Ubuntu or anything else, either to MBR, floppy, or root. Plus it'll do a simple grub or complex/expert. Got up one morning to use the computer, turned it on and for all intents and purposes it was "dead". I managed to get the CD drawer opened, booted up, therefore it took off from the CD with Puppy. I got to perform all sorts of diagnostics on the drive, the hardware, etc., only to find that the grub had gotten messed up. A minute later I was doing email and surfing as if nothing had happened.

It also comes with full GParted so you can reformat your drive, partition, blank, whatever.

I've been amazed by that little disk because of how it's not just a "lite-weight OS" but likewise because of all the system rescue tools on it as well.

Another topic: I, too, agree with Frank and others about taking a working copy of your Xorg.conf, even your fstab if you're prone to working upon that some, and storing some of these "pristine working files" in a safe directory somewhere that's easy to remember AND type out in CLI should the need ever arise. I not only keep a backup for these on each partition, but on my main partition I have a "BackUps" directory which gets burnt to CD-ROM approx. every 6 months and I keep copies there in a named folder. That way I can get a backup from either there OR a CD later on.

Things like this have saved my posterior countless times. Excellent thread by the way!

Amicalement,

Eyes-Only
"L'Peau-Rouge"

Frank Lion · Post by **Frank Lion** » August 1st, 2007, 5:42 am

From comments here and comments sent to me, it seems, to my amazement, that people are actually reading the OP (that wasn't my intention at all, haha...I just wanted to get the ball rolling with this thread and slapped a load of stuff into the OP

) Anyway, that being the case, I've edited and prioritised the stuff better and generally made it into more of a KB style.

What I'd like now, in addition to these great tips so far, is suggestions as to what to add to the OP to make it better. Just one rule - your suggestions must be stuff that you have personally tried and know to be good and not just stuff you've read about.

For example, in the OP what do we suggest for recovery mode for a user who has no xorg.conf backup and doesn't know what to edit with nano? I don't know, I've only ever done those two, I'd guess dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg or maybe tqft's suggestion...but I've never done either in recovery mode...what would be the best solution? So, anything you feel ought to go into the OP, please just let me know.