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Kia Ora and Welcome
Kubuntu Linux and my experiences with installing/using it. [HOME] [Enquire Now] [Contact US] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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I have now installed Kubuntu on my Notepad.
The installation is easy enough. You just follow the prompts. Finding a Drive and Mount Point are the only tricky things really. The Drive will be the one you have prepared hopefully and a swap drive, (use Knoppix and QtParted to setup or maybe puppylinux), the Mount Point is usually just / [www.kubuntuguide.org]-----[www.lulu.com/leftfieldnz] Or click on this link and buy a copy of my Kubuntu Handbook. Linux Operating System We are Using the Linux Operating System, Flavour Kubuntu Hardy, which uses the KDE Desktop Manager. The main one is Ubuntu which use the Gnome Desktop Manager. We do not get viruses or spyware. For more information see www.ubuntulinux.org/ or www.kubuntu.org Kubuntu is largely looks similar to Windows OS and uses most of the same programs and commands. Even some Windows programs will run in Kubuntu using a program called WINE. If there is not a direct equivalent in Kubuntu then there is usually something similar to use.
Installation of Kubuntu It pays to plug all the devices you plan to use like printer, mouse, wifi, router, bluetooth, etc and turn them on before installation, so the right software will be installed. You need a reasonably grunty machine to run Kubuntu. If your machine is a bit old try Xubuntu a cut down version of Ubuntu. 1gb of RAM an a dual processor, with a 100gb drive are the norm nowadays. There is also linux distributions like Damn Small Linux, Feather Linux or Puppy Linux which will run on almost any machine. Another brilliant thing about Linux is that you can run them from a Live CD without installing onto your hard drive so you can try them out. You can have a dual boot if your computer already has windows. You need to partition the hard drive and have a partition for linux of at least 20gb and is ext3 format and a linux swap drive of at least 1gb. Download an ISO like Gparted or Puppy Linux, burn to CD and use as a live CD to assist in partitioning the hard drive. With Vista it may pay to do it from within Windows otherwise it might complain a lot. BTW it is best to install Windows first. To resize the Vista Drive. Windows > Start > Control Panel > Administration Tools > Computer Management > Resize. Insert the Kubuntu CD and boot from the CD. Follow the instructions and within a few minutes you should have a basic installation up and running. NB Select Manually assign Hard Disk Space, Select the EXT3 Drive for Linux, and / as the ROOT location. Keyboard is normally US. But use the options that suit you. The first user ID and password you enter will be the main user/owner of the computer and they will full user rights. Other users added can be full users or can be restricted to varying degrees. Another good feature of Linux. You then need to have access to an internet connection so you can do an update and add the new programs you would like to have. You also need to add things like audio and video tools and codecs. Broadband will be best as you need to download a few hundred mega bytes of files. I did an upgrade today of over 200mb but it only took about thirty minutes on broadband at a WIFI Hotspot outside a local Motel.
With Kubuntu Hardy everything worked out of the box, including printer and scanner. On one Laptop I had to manually install the WIFI Hardware File in the right place, but apart from that it was a sweet install on two laptops. Modems will generally not be found though there are tools to help install them. The easiest modems are external ones as they are usually proper modems and not win modems and will be found automatically. Things like digital cameras generally do not need installing but work out of the box or at least the card they have data on will work. WIFI is easy enough. It took me a week to get it to go as I had not turned it on LOL. It is the first time I have had a WIFI connection with an on off switch. The only other problem was the LAN and SAMBA settings.
Add SAMBA user
I have had issues with SAMBA and using the Workgroup name, but discovered that using the IP address works great. I have the LAN on Static IP and use smb://192.168.0.1 in Dolphin for seeing the Windows PC. Still it is mostly pretty easy when you know how LOL. I am Using KDE not Gnome as I find KDE more mature and useful, also looks better!
Then do an update
Or in a Terminal
and a upgrade
and a distro upgrade
sudo kate /boot/grub/menu.lst
sudo kate /etc/samba/smb.conf
Now everything should be sweet we hope LOL I have also written a book about using Kubuntu. 
www.lulu.com/leftfieldnz
Linux Commands you may find helpful
Some Basic Commands
Housekeeping in Linux There is virtually nil, except every 30 times you use Kubuntu it does a System Test Automatically on startup. If the computer should die, try the recovery mode from the startup screen, or perhaps run fsck to fix the file system. There other thing is do regular updates when online. See to do updates section My Website www.webng.com/leftfieldnz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Kubuntu nowadays will get most things right out of the box. Printers are OK as you can select the nearest to your model and it will probably work. Scanners may need you to download a driver and install it. An Epson JX80 Printer will work on most printers and in colour.