Re: Greetings / Newbie questions

From: Ian East (ian.east_at_gmail)
Date: 09/10/05 

Date: Fri, 09 Sep 2005 16:26:11 -0700

>Greetings linux community! Please welcome your newest member! (group hug)
>I have been running Fedora core 3 for about a week now, and I LOVE IT!!!! I
>am FINALLY FREE OF MICROSHAFT!!! I feel like Mel Gibson in >'Braveheart':
>"FREEEEEEEEEDOM!"

Please, don't jump on the "Linux is the be-all, end-all OS and is
superior in everything" bandwagon. Every OS has it's strengths and
weaknesses and it's all about finding the right tool for the job.
>
>0. I am having a bit of trouble deciding which to use: Gnome or KDE. KDE
>seems much prettier and more configurable (visually / behaviour wise), but
>it also seems slower and less stable. I have had a few lockups where the
>machine just hangs using KDE. Currently I've got my default session set to
>Gnome. Any comments comparing the two which might help me decide would be
>nice...
>
>What's the story with Gnome & KDE? Why don't the two join forces and build
>an uber, configurable, stable, pretty window manager? If this happened, I
>think M$ would have some SERIOUS competition!

No, if Gnome and KDE got together you would have a seriously sucky and
buggy window manager. I guess the most fundamental difference is that
KDE is written in C++ and is based on the commercial Qt library while
Gnome is written in C and based on the GPL'd GTK+ library. Both hog
resources and are slow as molasses especially in an older system like
you have. I'd go with something more lightweight like XFCE.
>
>1. I've read that Fedora comes MP3 and DVD disabled out of the box. I have
>managed to get MP3 Playback with XMMS working by copying the appropriate .so
>file from an older version of XMMS I had lying about into the XMMS plugins
>directory, but what do I need to do to get totem playing Movies and DVDs? I
>have tried:
> - Running Totem as Root (I've found that lots of things need to be done
>as root. This is a seperate question)
> - ensuring Gstreamer is installed (it is, V0.8). It even seems to have
>heaps of plugins installed...
> - Fiddling with totem preferences. I can't see anything wrong in there.
>Does anyone have any Ideas as to what I need to do? I am using a work
>internet connection, so downloading is difficult. I have been thinking I
>should download MPlayer and Xine...
>
Sorry... can't help much here.. I don't use Linux for Multimedia.

>2. I've read that it's not a good Idea to be logging in as root. My 'normal'
>username on my system is antisol, and this is what I log into gnome as, but
>I have found that alot of things need to be done as root. For example:
> - Burning with K3b. If I don't run this as root, it won't do anything,
>because it doesn't have sufficient permissions to /dev/hda (my CD Burner)
> - Running XMMS with 'Use Realtime Priority' option enabled (I have been
>getting the odd skip in XMMS when playing Mp3s)
> - Running the Audio Cd Player. same problem as K3b - insufficient
>permissions to the device.
>
This is true. You should not log in as root. su to root or better
yet use sudo when you need to run a command as root. You probably
have a group in /etc/group called cdrom. Add your user account to
this group and you should be able to access the cdrom.

>In KDE, There is an option with each launcher to 'run as a different user'.
>I have set this up to run as root for these applications, but there are a
>couple of issues with this: I have switched back to Gnome and cannot find
>any equivalent option so I have to run these programs from a terminal after
>typing 'su'. Also when I'm using KDE, it prompts me for a password every
>time I want to run these programs. Can this be turned off? I don't want to
>have to type in the root password everytime I want to run XMMS!
>
>What I'd like to be able to do is either give my 'antisol' user almost the
>same rights as root (i.e editing configs etc, but I think this might pose
>the same risks as logging in as root?), or to save the authentication or
>give antisol the permissions to run these programs as antisol. I have
>considered doing a recirsive chmod on /*.*, but decided that this might
>break things. Suggestions?
>
Very bad idea. Also, remember you're not in the DOS world anymore and
it's /*, not /*.* .

>3. I have noticed some sort-of random lockups. This usually occurs when
>running multimedia type stuff. For Example, Tux Racer will usually play
>music and display the main 'press any key' screen, but that's it. It freezes
>at that point with the music still playing. Pressing keys does nothing,
>pressing CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE to exit X does nothing, CTRL-ALT-DEL does
>nothing. When this happens I have to hit the reset button... I have left it
>there for up to 10 minutes, and the music just keeps playing. If I press any
>key INSTANTLY as soon as Tux Racer starts up, it might let me play one game
>before freezing.
>
>Also, I have Installed Unreal Tournament 2004 for Linux. This works fine but
>will occasionally just lock up as well. When UT locks up, it just freezes.
>No sound, no mouse, no keys do anything. Reset button.
>
If you want to be playing 3-D games use Windows... Linux driver
support blows in this area and you will be seriously dissapointed.

>I have also noticed some odd lockups when doing lots of things in X. these
>aren't really lockups, though, more like 'thinking sessions'. The mouse will
>still move, System monitor either freezes or says the CPu is at 100%, but I
>can't click on anything. If I just leave it there for a couple of minutes
>though it will start responding again. This usually happens when I have
>multiple nautilus windows open and am moving/resizing one of the windows.
>It's a strange one. It happens in both gnome and KDE, but more often in KDE.
>I'm thinking some kind of memory/hardware incompatibility thing?
>
This is because your 800MHz CPU is having a hard time keeping up with
multitasking on a heavyweight window manager like Gnome or KDE. Get a
faster CPU/more RAM or get a lighter window manager.

>4. Can someone point me to a good link (or type an essay, if you're bored)
>explaining what a 'journaling' filesystem is, and why I don't need to defrag
>it? This is WAY COOL!!!
>
Journaling filesystems keep a log of all the most recent changes. You
can probably find some info and links here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_systems

>I can't wait to get myself familiar and confortable with Linux. I have found
>these current versions to be excellent in terms of ease of installation and
>user-friendliness, and I think Linux is starting to approach a point where
>it should be useable for the masses. I'm very interested in starting to
>learn C so that I can maybe even contribute to it (I have become an
>open-source fanboy). Does anyone have any good general links / info /
>programs / whatever that they think I might find usefull / helpfull?
>
Learning C and about all the Unix system calls is very helpful but may
be a bit advanced for someone just starting out. I would get more
comfortable with the environment and shell scripting or an
interpreted language like Perl first.

>Thanks for taking the time for reading all this, and thank you in advance to
>anyone who replies!
>
>Regards,
>-Dale Maggee
>
>

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