I recently installed Ubuntu, and am trying to get it to update. It updated fine for a while, but now whenever I try I get this:

I've tried looking for this file, but I've had no luck in finding it. There are some 'dpkg' files, but nothing that seems to fit 'dpkg configure a'

 

"you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to correct"

>_>

Open a terminal, either from the applications menu, or by hitting Alt-F2 and entering gnome-terminal. Then enter the following command and hit enter:

sudo dpkg --configure -a

 

That seems to have done the trick, thanks Vash.

 

I'm going to install Ubuntu on a dual boot with Vista some time this week. Any tips/things I should know about?

Does it come with software that plays DVDs?

I'm also thinking about getting Beryl with it.

 

Depending on your computer, you may have some problems with wireless internet or display resolution. Ubuntu comes with a program called 'Hardware Drivers' that allowes you to install proprietary drivers (such as NVIDIA acellerated graphics drivers) and help solve your graphics problems. To solve your wireless problems, I suggest wicd. It replaces the default network manager, and it's a lot more user friendly imo. If you don't have any problems, rejoice! You're among the few that have 100% compatible hardware.

Totem media player (or MPlayer running on the Totem engine as I guess it's called) is installed by default (and works just fine for my purposes), but you can install VLC or a few other media players if you like those better. You'll need to install the CSS library to decrypt DVDs, but it's pretty easy. Medibuntu is a set of repositories that can cater to your media needs.

Compiz/Beryl (I believe they are one in the same now) is installed by default, you may just have to enable it. I suggest installing the Compiz Fusion Icon (this HowTo is pretty handy, you'll just have to replace their Ubuntu version with yours) as it helps you control Compiz more easily than the default tools installed. It should also install the CompizConfig Settings Manager and Emerald Theme Manager, but if it doesn't, they're easy to install too.

This is all based on GNOME, so if you use Kubuntu (or install KDE in Ubuntu) or any other flavor of Ubuntu, this information will probably be pretty useless. Ignore me in that case, yeah?

 

Regarding partitions: my hard drive is already partitioned thus:



I was planning for Ubuntu to be on the D drive. Is this possible? Or is that drive already "used up" as a data drive for windows? I've never saved anything to it.

If it is somehow attached to windows, how do I make it so that I can install Ubuntu on that partition? Format it?

 

You're fine installing it on that partition perfectly, so long as you don't do anything mind-numbingly stupid along the way.

When you toss in the Ubuntu CD and start the installation process, it'll guide you through all of it. Once you get to the point of choosing a partition, you can choose to use the entire D drive, or manually recreate the partition to cut it in half.

Personally, I'd advise you to just go with the guided method to use the entire disk. It will set everything up for you.

 

Dual booting is alright, but if you're just trying to see if you like Linux it's a lot easier to just just use a live CD until you're completely sold on the idea. You could also install VMWare and poke around an Ubuntu virtual machine.

After that you can replace Windows completely and not have to worry about partitioning.

 

I can't really go with just Linux because I still want to access my iTunes library, play my games, and I still want to be able to use my webcam, so I've got to have Windows... but I also want to have Linux for the faster speeds and greater security when just browsing the net and doing office tasks.

 

Not for nothing, but your sig is freaking me out.

 

You will need 2/3 partitions for Ubuntu. Just delete your drive D partition and make some new. I suggest 2-4 Gb for swap (filesystem : swap), 3-5 Gb for main system (mount : "/", filesystem : ext3), and all other space for your desktop/home folder (mount : "/home/", filesystem ext3 or reiserFS ).

edit : Ubuntu can read/write from ntfs (windows partitions), but if you shut down your windows roughly, or smthing you will need to go and shut down it properly (of cource you can use force mount, but it will most likely just fuck up all your data ^^), it annoys some people, and to see ext3 (linux partitions) on windows you will need some extra programms/drivers. I advice to create a shared partition for access from both windows and Ubuntu (mount : "/media/my_share_name/", filesystem : FAT32. size : ??).

If you have ATI graphics card you should consider installing 8.04, not 8.10 : they completly fucked up opengl video output when running compiz.

 

WTF? 4 GB of swap?

Massive, cheap RAM has made the swap partition pretty much obsolete.

Edit: Unless you're going to implement hibernate, which uses swap.

 

Exactly for it..... Sleep mode doesnt work properly on about 20% notebooks.

edit : Of cource if you really need that 2-4 Gb, then just create swap file or make swap 100-200 mb (completly deleting it is not adviced, you will have shit load of unexpected and strange problems). But generel recommendation is your RAM * 2.

 

There are dozens of utilites to replace iTunes that are infinitely better. And you can play games on Linux just as well as Windows. Cedega/Wine/Crossover Office is godwin.

I personally prefer GTKPod for loading shit onto my iPod. Songbird is a decent replacement to Itunes, too. For music, I use Wine and Foobar2000.

VLC is the only video player you will ever need. And Linux uses Webcams just as well. >_>

 

Cedega/Crossover are commercial products and you are not to steal under linux, it just ruins all the fine points of free software and GNU licence. And most MMORPG games or games with protection for copying etc. wont work any time soon under Wine. Most modern Direct X games wont work either. You should go to http://appdb.winehq.org/ and search for the game, plantinum/gold = no problem.

edit :

Hell no. VLC works great, but it just fails so hard with modern h264 HD videos ,mkv container and ass subtiteles that you will definitely need something else like mplayer.

 

Woot I'm on Ubuntu now and its working well.

The problem I had earlier turned out to be nothing to do with the boot menu or whatever: Ubuntu had merely crashed mid-install lol.

Anyway, what I'm trying to do right now is to get some kind of driver for my ATI HD 2400 XT so that I can run Beryl/Compiz.

I've looked at this: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver#Configuring X.org but it's pretty impenetrable to me. The fglrx driver for some reason won't download.

Edit: Scratch that last, it's working now.

 

Taure; Envy-NG should work. Link

It installs and configures Nvidia and ATI.

If that doesnt work, check this.

 

You can also try to enable restricted drivers (System -> Administration -> Software Sources) and it may get the right driver (it is better then using envy or official driver from their site). More information : http://cybernetnews.com/2007/10/20/install-and-enable-restricted-drivers-in-ubuntu/ or just google for your Ubuntu version how to enable them.