New convert from Windows

[Fuzzy Penquin]

Hi all-

Just wanted to say hi, as I'm sure I'll pop in from time to time with questions. I'm a recent convert from the Windows world. WinXP was the last good OS Microsoft made, and I held out for a long time. Then our water cooled computer developed a leak, and the poor computer caught fire. My computer became the donor to replace the destroyed bits of the water cooled one, thus leaving us with only one working computer.

Now, I grew up with Windows, I was around from the very beginning. I very much liked WinXP and 2000. My Uncle gave my mom Red Hat when I was a little kid, to see how she liked Linux, and we sort of tried it, but nobody's tech level was up to the challenge yet. So back to Windows we went. Fast forward many years to two weeks ago, a year after the water cooled computer burned up. Knowing I needed somebody's OS for my next computer, and very much disliking Win7 & 8, I took my ancient and slow Sony Vaio pcg-fx220 laptop for experimentation and loaded an older version of Mandriva (v. 2010? I think?) onto it from my Linux for Dummies book. It auto recognized everything, including the Intel 815EM graphics card, for anyone else with the same laptop who might be reading this. After living with Mandriva for a week, I was really sold on Linux. The Terminal commands are a complete mystery to me, and nothing like the DOS commands I vaguely remember from the DOS days of Windows. So this part will be an uphill battle for knowledge and understanding. But the rest of Linux was pretty sweet.

So I ordered up a whole bunch of parts (I'm so broke now), and they all arrived 48 hours ago. Built my new computer that very night, and installed 32-bit Mint 14 w/Cinnamon. I'm so in love! The only minor issues I've encountered so far are that my clock displays in 24 hour mode (can't seem to get it to change), my sound is barely audible with everything maxed out in Mint (can't yet afford a sound card, using motherboard's for now), Firefox refused to shut down once and my software update program froze once. Very minor issues. Heck, even Windows freezes up once in a while too, so meh.... I do have one question: do I still need to run the driver DVD that came with my motherboard? Linux seems to have auto-detected everything, but presumably the DVD would have drivers for the Thunderbolt port, current USB 3.0, sound, etc? Yes? No? Never done this on a non-Windows machine before.... Don't even know if Linux can read/use the drivers since they are probably not open source and built for Windows only. Correct? Wrong?

Specs for "Project Tux Table":
Intel quad core Ivy Bridge i7-3770k 3.5GHz
MSI Z77A-G45 Thunderbolt motherboard
16GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz RAM
1TB HDD
Old Video card (for now, to be replaced by Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition)
Would like to add Asus Xonar Essence STX sound card, or other Xonar model...still researching this.
Eventually to be put into a case mod setup inspired by the "L3P Desk", google it. It's cool.

[The-Wizard]

Welcome to the Mint family forums


wizard

[jesica]

Good day
Welcome to the Mint forums

[anandrkris]

Welcome to the Mint family. Hope you enjoy Mint and share you experiences with others as well.

Below links are of custom search engines that help in searching linux related topics. I find them to be very useful to solve linux related issues.

http://home.windstream.net/joelwest/
http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=017607476515012185699:b_owgx6xyi0

[Jerry]

Glad you made the jump to Linux. I myself did too and eventually I am thinking of getting rid of Windows altogether. Welcome to Mint.

[Fuzzy Penquin]

Welcome to the Mint family. Hope you enjoy Mint and share you experiences with others as well.

Below links are of custom search engines that help in searching linux related topics. I find them to be very useful to solve linux related issues.

http://home.windstream.net/joelwest/
http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=017607476515012185699:b_owgx6xyi0

Oh wow! Thanks for those two links, I didn't even know about those! I've bookmarked them for immediate reference, as I'm still trying to solve my barely-audible sound problem. Awesome.

[EDIT] Solved my sound issue. Finally found a second set of speakers, plugged them in for testing because I suspected the first pair were the problem, and now I have full normal sound. Fixed! [/EDIT]

[Fuzzy Penquin]

Glad you made the jump to Linux. I myself did too and eventually I am thinking of getting rid of Windows altogether. Welcome to Mint.

Thanks, I don't regret the move at all. I've completely ditched Windows, but will eventually have to grudgingly buy and install Win7 for use with any games that don't run in Linux (on wine, play on linux, etc) or won't run at full speed. And for Photoshop. The latest version of Gimp seems to have fixed the things I didn't originally like about it, but there are a few things it can't do that Photoshop can. So I'd like to be able to jump back and forth as needed. Other than that, I have no more use for Windows. I found the Linux alternatives for all my programs, and installed them last night. So I'm set. Although i still need to figure out how to get my iPod to interface with Linux.... since Apple doesn't make iTunes for us.

I've been spreading the Linux love to my co-workers and mother, lol. One co-worker wants to try it, and my mother may have finally given in. She's hated her Win7 machine since Day One, and complains about it constantly. I'm surprised she hasn't thrown it out a window yet, or beat it gangster-style with a baseball bat (like on Office Space). So I've been trying to convince her to try Linux since it is WAY more compatible with stuff than her Win7 is, doesn't have a nanny program that won't let you do anything, and won't cause burn-in and destroy her monitor like Win7 did. She's had nothing but daily problems.

[Orbmiser]

Welcome yep also dual boot Win7 as use Lightroom for my image editing is the only real reason as don't game much.
And found darktable (Lightroom Like) http://www.darktable.org/ fills those needs I think as steep learning curve and finding the time to learn it. But linux last few years has been making strides in image editing.

Programs like darktable,Raw Therapee,Digikam 3,Rawstudio making great strides for the benefit of photographers.

Also nice to know if I or updates bork my linux setup which by "Murphy's Law" is required to do so at the optimum moment that I need a working system that exact moment for business. So dual boot is a nice safety layer.
.

[Fuzzy Penquin]

Welcome yep also dual boot Win7 as use Lightroom for my image editing is the only real reason as don't game much.
And found darktable (Lightroom Like) http://www.darktable.org/ fills those needs I think as steep learning curve and finding the time to learn it. But linux last few years has been making strides in image editing.

Programs like darktable,Raw Therapee,Digikam 3,Rawstudio making great strides for the benefit of photographers.

Also nice to know if I or updates bork my linux setup which by "Murphy's Law" is required to do so at the optimum moment that I need a working system that exact moment for business. So dual boot is a nice safety layer.
.

Hi Orbmiser,

Oh yes, I am very familiar with Murphy and his stupid Law. He's cursed my family for several generations, we just can't seem to get rid of him. He seems to have taken a particular shine to me, so I feel your pain. Lol. I make sure to back up my system very frequently, just in case. And, when I do finally get around to buying a copy of Windows for my dual boot system, I intend to put that on a seperate hard drive, just in case, to make absolutely sure that if one OS implodes and/or I have to reinstall an OS, it doesn't effect the other or I don't accidentally delete both while reformating one. Because of Murphy's Law. Redundency and extra saftey nets are my best friend. Lol.

Thanks for the link to Darktable, I bookmarked it. I have need of such things for my photography as well. Photoshop isn't the only thing I like to use, and a good RAW program would be great. The more programs that I can use in Linux, the better. My gaming needs are secondary to my photography and art needs, since I like to make digital art and take advantage of all the nature in my area. I'm also wanting to expand into 3D as well, so I downloaded Blender last night. I think I'm in over my head on that one, lol. So yeah....I'm still tied to Windows just a little bit. But as you mentioned, open source has made great strides in being able to compete with commercial software. Hopefully I can eventually fully ditch Windows.

[Orbmiser]

I downloaded Blender last night. I think I'm in over my head on that one,

I think Everyone it is Over their Heads with Blender! Complex & Very Step Slow learning curve. But worth the effort if into 3d rendering & Animation. Always hated Gimp and it's unintuitive interface but 2.8 with integrated interface of 2.8 and some good books may give it a try as there is advantages of using layers for image editing.
.

[anandrkris]

eventually have to grudgingly buy and install Win7 for use with any games that don't run in Linux (on wine, play on linux, etc) or won't run at full speed

Now that Steam is aggressively working on porting games to Linux, the gaming landscape should change for better.

Oh wow! Thanks for those two links, I didn't even know about those! I've bookmarked them for immediate reference, as I'm still trying to solve my barely-audible sound problem. Awesome.

[EDIT] Solved my sound issue. Finally found a second set of speakers, plugged them in for testing because I suspected the first pair were the problem, and now I have full normal sound. Fixed! [/EDIT]

Glad to be of help. Yes, those are great links - i wish they are either stickied or even better integrated in Mint Community / Forums. Becuase the current forum search ignores many relevant keywords.

[Fuzzy Penquin]

I downloaded Blender last night. I think I'm in over my head on that one,

I think Everyone it is Over their Heads with Blender! Complex & Very Step Slow learning curve. But worth the effort if into 3d rendering & Animation. Always hated Gimp and it's unintuitive interface but 2.8 with integrated interface of 2.8 and some good books may give it a try as there is advantages of using layers for image editing.
.

Yes, Blender is very complex! At this point, I'll be happy if I can make a ball...LOL. But I look at videos like Big Buck Bunny and Sental (the girl and the dragon), and I see that you can make some really cool stuff with it. I want to try that too, but I see that I have a steep learning cuve to overcome. It's almost intimidating.

As for Gimp, I found that it's not much different than Photoshop to work with, it's just learning what Gimp calls a particular function, where they put it, and what the icon looks like. To me it feels unpolished, whereas Photoshop feels very polished and finished. But that's ok, so long as it can still do what Photoshop does. And it almost pulls it off. But since there are some things that Gimp still lacks, I still need Photoshop to pick up the slack. Working with layers when editiing your photos is a really nice thing, I think you will like it. It's worth giving Gimp another try, especially since it's free... you aren't out anything other than time if you decide you don't like it. And Gimp 2.8 is a vast improvement over the previous versions, I like it much better now. Also, many Photoshop brushes are compatible with Gimp, so if you see/have one you like, you can import it into Gimp too. I imagine that some of the Photoshop tutorials can be used in Gimp too, with minor adjustments for the names of various functions and where they're located. I found one for how to enhance the eyes of your subject so that they pop more, while still looking realistic. The before and after results are stunning; I've got to try it in Gimp one of these days. Check it out: http://www.416studios.co.uk/journal/2012/eye-sharpening-photoshop-tutorial.

[Fuzzy Penquin]

eventually have to grudgingly buy and install Win7 for use with any games that don't run in Linux (on wine, play on linux, etc) or won't run at full speed

Now that Steam is aggressively working on porting games to Linux, the gaming landscape should change for better.

Oh wow! Thanks for those two links, I didn't even know about those! I've bookmarked them for immediate reference, as I'm still trying to solve my barely-audible sound problem. Awesome.

[EDIT] Solved my sound issue. Finally found a second set of speakers, plugged them in for testing because I suspected the first pair were the problem, and now I have full normal sound. Fixed! [/EDIT]

Glad to be of help. Yes, those are great links - i wish they are either stickied or even better integrated in Mint Community / Forums. Becuase the current forum search ignores many relevant keywords.

Yup, I saw the news about Steam while I was still contemplating building a Linux machine or just buying a Mac, before the laptop experiment. I was really happy to see that there was a fairly big collection of games available on their website. I so badly want Star Craft2 and Aliens: Colonial Marines, but I think those will not be available for quite some time. Probably have to try in Wine and if it doesn't run well then go through Windows. But at least there's hope now, because of Steam's porting!

I agree that those links need to be stickied or included in the Mint Community/Forums. I have never had any luck with forum search engines, but I nearly always find what I'm looking for through Google or other web search engines. No idea why.

[xenopeek]

Welcome to Linux Mint

The Terminal commands are a complete mystery to me

You don't need to get comfortable on the command line unless you want to. But if you want to, this is a good resource to get you familiar: http://en.flossmanuals.net/command-line/

my clock displays in 24 hour mode

Click on the clock in the panel, and select "Date and Time Settings". Change the "Date format for the panel" from:

Code: Select all

%a %b %e, %H:%M

to:

Code: Select all

%a %b %e, %I:%M %p

my sound is barely audible

Probably best to open a separate topic for that in the Hardware Support forum. Please include the output of the following command run from the terminal, so others have some basic information to help you. You can copy text to/from the terminal, see its Edit menu.

Code: Select all

inxi -SAx

do I still need to run the driver DVD that came with my motherboard?

No, generally those will contain only Windows drivers which you normally don't use on Linux (in edge cases you do need to use your Windows driver for your Wi-Fi chip). If everything apart from the things you mentioned here works, then no need to install other drivers. The Linux kernel includes the drivers for most of your hardware. If a hardware device or function, or peripheral, is not fully working--you can request the help from others here on the forum by posting in the relevant forum section. Reading "How to get help" (viewtopic.php?f=17&t=83444) will give you some tips on the best ways to find and get help.

[Fuzzy Penquin]

Welcome to Linux Mint

The Terminal commands are a complete mystery to me

You don't need to get comfortable on the command line unless you want to. But if you want to, this is a good resource to get you familiar: http://en.flossmanuals.net/command-line/

my clock displays in 24 hour mode

Click on the clock in the panel, and select "Date and Time Settings". Change the "Date format for the panel" from:

Code: Select all

%a %b %e, %H:%M

to:

Code: Select all

%a %b %e, %I:%M %p

my sound is barely audible

Probably best to open a separate topic for that in the Hardware Support forum. Please include the output of the following command run from the terminal, so others have some basic information to help you. You can copy text to/from the terminal, see its Edit menu.

Code: Select all

inxi -SAx

do I still need to run the driver DVD that came with my motherboard?

No, generally those will contain only Windows drivers which you normally don't use on Linux (in edge cases you do need to use your Windows driver for your Wi-Fi chip). If everything apart from the things you mentioned here works, then no need to install other drivers. The Linux kernel includes the drivers for most of your hardware. If a hardware device or function, or peripheral, is not fully working--you can request the help from others here on the forum by posting in the relevant forum section. Reading "How to get help" (viewtopic.php?f=17&t=83444) will give you some tips on the best ways to find and get help.

Thanks for the link and code to correct my clock problem! Clock still reads 24 hour format on the bar, but if you mouse over it displays the normal 12 hour format in the text bubble. Good enough for me! Maybe this way I will learn to read it and automatically know what time it translates to, LOL. Right now I have to sit there and think about it for a moment....

I have bookmarked your link, because it just seems like a really good idea to at least halfway understand the terminal commands in case something goes very wrong in the GUI. But from what I've been seeing since installing Mint, today's Linux doesn't have to be like it was back when I was a kid. I get the impression that some distros still require a strong knowledge of Terminal, but Mint certainly doesn't seem to be one of those (thankfully). I feel very comfortable in Mint after only a few days. But, I remember liking typing DOS commands back when I was a kid, I felt "really cool" and super "techy", like I knew what I was doing. LOL. So learning the Terminal commands doesn't scare me, haha. They intrigue me, and confuse me, all at the same time. And I have no idea what to type to get what info or install/remove, etc. Yay for learning curves.

As for my sound issue, I did solve that one. I hunted around and finally found a second set of speakers in the house, and hooked them up. Turns out that my sound problem was that my first set of speakers sucked.... which I suspected but couldn't prove until I found my second set and hooked those up. My suspicion for what might be the problem kept me from posting a thread about it until I had been able to confirm it. So happily, all is well now.

Re: motherboard drivers... Thanks, good to know, and I suspected as much. Linux does seem to have auto-detected and found/used all the correct drivers necessary to make everything work correctly, right out of the box. I can't test the Thunderbolt port since I don't have any Thunderbolt devices, so I can only assume it works as intended. But I didn't buy this board for that feature, it just happened to be there. Reviews all said it was a very stable and reliable board, so that is what sold me. I don't like finicky motherboards, I've had a few, and they were annoying. So I guess everything is awesome.

Thank you Conical for developing Ubuntu, which lead to the wonderful creation of Mint. I am loving this OS so much, and annoying all my friends/family/co-workers because of it.