Xandros / Debian / KDE 3 questions.

Hi,

I was playing with Xandros Deluxe 2 on my Thinkpad T41 last night and had some questions. The desktop is KDE 3.1.4, kernel 2.4.24-x1. It looks very nice at 1400x1050x24 bits (changing to this resolution was simply a matter of choosing '"Laptop LCD 1400x1050" on ATI Radeon Mobility M9 Lf' in Settings -> Monitor. I wish I could change the DPI of the desktop but there seems to be no way to do that. (I can change it in Mozilla, but the Menu text is still really tiny.)

I updated things, or attempted to, with Xandros Networks. It complained about not being able to update some lists (apparently it was unable to connect to one or more of the Xandros servers), but eventually listed available programs, etc.

I wanted to install Privoxy and gnuplot. They weren't listed as being available from Xandros Network, but I noticed there's an "Install .deb" menu item in the Xandros Network application. (apt-get / aptitude / something similar must be in the distribution somewhere, but there's no indication of it that I've been able to find. Whoops, apt-get is in /usr/bin .)

I went to [link|http://www.privoxy.org|http://www.privoxy.org] and found the latest .deb listed. I downloaded it to the desktop then use XN File -> Install .deb to install it. It was painless. I have no idea where it went, but on changing the proxy settings in Mozilla, Moz is able to find it and block ads as I want. So that was successful.

I then went to [link|http://www.debian.org|http://www.debian.org] and searched for "gnuplot" and found 3 packages. I downloaded the 3.7.3-1 "testing" .deb package. (I tried installing the "unstable" package, but it failed.) I installed it using XN -> F I .deb and it worked. No idea where it put it though...

Using Find in Xandros File Manager (and changing the viewing options to show hiddend files, all file systems, etc., etc.), I was eventually able to find the binary in (graphically):

My Linux - All File Systems - /usr/bin/gnuplot

I made a symbolic link, it asked:

Link name: /usr/bin
Link to: /usr/bin/gnuplot

I replaced "/usr/bin" with "gnuplot" as the Link name. (The labels in the Browse window didn't make any sense - it wasn't clear whether it was asking for a new source or new destination for the link, so I aborted out of there.) The symlink was created as:

/ home / scott / gnuplot

It works from there, but I'd like a symlink to be on the desktop. I can't seem to drag the symlink to the desktop. Cut and pasting it to the desktop gives flaky behavior (other icons on the desktop stop working) and it doesn't work from there anyway.

1) What am I doing wrong? How does one create a symbolic link on the desktop using the file manager? How does one do it in a terminal window?

2) Xandros Networks seems to have problems as a source of new applications. Browsing debian.org seems to work, but are there less kludgey ways of finding and installing new applications? Aptitude? Something else?

3) Is Midnight Commander worth installing? I'm a huge fan of [link|http://silk.apana.org.au/fc.html|File Commander] (it's a text mode file manager/editor/application launcher/etc) but unfortunately there are only OS/2 and Win versions. My understanding is that MC is also a Norton Commander-like clone. I think having something similar on Xandros would make my transition easier. Is there something better?

4) Crossover Office on Xandros works very well. It seamlessly knows when you're trying to start a Windows application and the ones I've tried (a few custom Borland C++ Builder v5 apps) have worked fine. I'm impressed. However, I seem to be having trouble loading input files into Win programs under CO. C: is NTFS. CO doesn't let me see it in a File -> Open dialog in a Win program under CO. It lists "fake_window (C:)" but none of my files are in it. It may be some NTFS issue or something. Anyone know? Do I have to copy files from the NTFS partition to somewhere on the Linux partition?

5) How does one run DOS applications on Linux? If I just double-click an icon, I get an error. Crossover Office seems to think that they're Win apps. Do I need to start up an emulator and run the program inside that? What's the best DOS emulator under Linux? Will it run VGA graphics applications?

6) If all of the application binaries are in /usr/bin or similar, how does one run applications under Linux? Do you drill down with the file manager every time you want to run something? Do you make symlinks to /home/scott? Do you open a termial window and do things from there? Do you install things on the panel? I'm sure one does many of those things, but it seems as if one is installing a new graphical application then symlinks to things should show up in the Lanuch button list of programs and/or on the desktop. Is this an area where KDE is weak or is there something I'm missing?

7) How does one change the desktop DPI in KDE, or use larger fonts for things like File, Edit, View, etc., in graphical windows (e.g. like Windows "Large Fonts" option)?

That's about it for now. Thanks very much for any tips!

Cheers,
Scott.

dpkg -L packagename shows were the individual files of a packages were stashed.

To add links to the desktop: KDE uses a small text file to create the icons. So any symlink to the desktop would have to be to such a file. Normally, they hide in /home/a_user/Desktop. I think the safest way to create new icons is to just let KDE do it (desktop context menu/Create new/Link to application...).

Normally, PATH includes a reference to /usr/bin, so anything in there is executable from the command line. You mean they nuked that in Xandros?

For the KDE DPI thing: you can size the icons and fonts through the KDE control center (normally found in /usr/bin in case it disappeared from the desktop)
- Appearance & themes/Icons/Advanced has a dropdown for the icon size (up to 64x64 on the desktop)
- Appearance & Themes/Fonts lets you pick the font size for the desktop

Post #148,942 by Another Scott 3/27/04 9:58:53 AM Reply	Xandros / Debian / KDE 3 questions. Hi, I was playing with Xandros Deluxe 2 on my Thinkpad T41 last night and had some questions. The desktop is KDE 3.1.4, kernel 2.4.24-x1. It looks very nice at 1400x1050x24 bits (changing to this resolution was simply a matter of choosing '"Laptop LCD 1400x1050" on ATI Radeon Mobility M9 Lf' in Settings -> Monitor. I wish I could change the DPI of the desktop but there seems to be no way to do that. (I can change it in Mozilla, but the Menu text is still really tiny.) I updated things, or attempted to, with Xandros Networks. It complained about not being able to update some lists (apparently it was unable to connect to one or more of the Xandros servers), but eventually listed available programs, etc. I wanted to install Privoxy and gnuplot. They weren't listed as being available from Xandros Network, but I noticed there's an "Install .deb" menu item in the Xandros Network application. (apt-get / aptitude / something similar must be in the distribution somewhere, but there's no indication of it that I've been able to find. Whoops, apt-get is in /usr/bin .) I went to [link\|http://www.privoxy.org\|http://www.privoxy.org] and found the latest .deb listed. I downloaded it to the desktop then use XN File -> Install .deb to install it. It was painless. I have no idea where it went, but on changing the proxy settings in Mozilla, Moz is able to find it and block ads as I want. So that was successful. I then went to [link\|http://www.debian.org\|http://www.debian.org] and searched for "gnuplot" and found 3 packages. I downloaded the 3.7.3-1 "testing" .deb package. (I tried installing the "unstable" package, but it failed.) I installed it using XN -> F I .deb and it worked. No idea where it put it though... Using Find in Xandros File Manager (and changing the viewing options to show hiddend files, all file systems, etc., etc.), I was eventually able to find the binary in (graphically): My Linux - All File Systems - /usr/bin/gnuplot I made a symbolic link, it asked: Link name: /usr/bin Link to: /usr/bin/gnuplot I replaced "/usr/bin" with "gnuplot" as the Link name. (The labels in the Browse window didn't make any sense - it wasn't clear whether it was asking for a new source or new destination for the link, so I aborted out of there.) The symlink was created as: / home / scott / gnuplot It works from there, but I'd like a symlink to be on the desktop. I can't seem to drag the symlink to the desktop. Cut and pasting it to the desktop gives flaky behavior (other icons on the desktop stop working) and it doesn't work from there anyway. 1) What am I doing wrong? How does one create a symbolic link on the desktop using the file manager? How does one do it in a terminal window? 2) Xandros Networks seems to have problems as a source of new applications. Browsing debian.org seems to work, but are there less kludgey ways of finding and installing new applications? Aptitude? Something else? 3) Is Midnight Commander worth installing? I'm a huge fan of [link\|http://silk.apana.org.au/fc.html\|File Commander] (it's a text mode file manager/editor/application launcher/etc) but unfortunately there are only OS/2 and Win versions. My understanding is that MC is also a Norton Commander-like clone. I think having something similar on Xandros would make my transition easier. Is there something better? 4) Crossover Office on Xandros works very well. It seamlessly knows when you're trying to start a Windows application and the ones I've tried (a few custom Borland C++ Builder v5 apps) have worked fine. I'm impressed. However, I seem to be having trouble loading input files into Win programs under CO. C: is NTFS. CO doesn't let me see it in a File -> Open dialog in a Win program under CO. It lists "fake_window (C:)" but none of my files are in it. It may be some NTFS issue or something. Anyone know? Do I have to copy files from the NTFS partition to somewhere on the Linux partition? 5) How does one run DOS applications on Linux? If I just double-click an icon, I get an error. Crossover Office seems to think that they're Win apps. Do I need to start up an emulator and run the program inside that? What's the best DOS emulator under Linux? Will it run VGA graphics applications? 6) If all of the application binaries are in /usr/bin or similar, how does one run applications under Linux? Do you drill down with the file manager every time you want to run something? Do you make symlinks to /home/scott? Do you open a termial window and do things from there? Do you install things on the panel? I'm sure one does many of those things, but it seems as if one is installing a new graphical application then symlinks to things should show up in the Lanuch button list of programs and/or on the desktop. Is this an area where KDE is weak or is there something I'm missing? 7) How does one change the desktop DPI in KDE, or use larger fonts for things like File, Edit, View, etc., in graphical windows (e.g. like Windows "Large Fonts" option)? That's about it for now. Thanks very much for any tips! Cheers, Scott.
Post #149,106 by scoenye 3/28/04 1:19:26 PM Reply	Some answers based on Debian and KDE proper dpkg -L packagename shows were the individual files of a packages were stashed. To add links to the desktop: KDE uses a small text file to create the icons. So any symlink to the desktop would have to be to such a file. Normally, they hide in /home/a_user/Desktop. I think the safest way to create new icons is to just let KDE do it (desktop context menu/Create new/Link to application...). Normally, PATH includes a reference to /usr/bin, so anything in there is executable from the command line. You mean they nuked that in Xandros? For the KDE DPI thing: you can size the icons and fonts through the KDE control center (normally found in /usr/bin in case it disappeared from the desktop) - Appearance & themes/Icons/Advanced has a dropdown for the icon size (up to 64x64 on the desktop) - Appearance & Themes/Fonts lets you pick the font size for the desktop
Post #149,147 by Another Scott 3/28/04 8:04:37 PM Reply	Thanks! You've given me many things to check and read up on. Under Xandros, from the desktop, Create New -> Shortcut ... seems simple enough. I can create a symlink to /usr/bin/gnuplot and it shows up on the desktop. Unfortunately, it won't run. I get a busy pointer for a few seconds then nothing happens. Oh well, I'll bet it is something reasonably simple. I'll read up on it when I get a chance. gnuplot apparently did create a menu entry off the "Launch" button on installation: Apps -> Math -> gnuplot . It runs fine from there. I can start gnuplot from a default console/terminal, so the path apparently is there (I haven't been able to find out how to read the present setting yet). Thanks for the tips. I greatly appreciate it. Cheers, Scott.

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