I don't want to have to go back to XP! Can anyone fix this?

[wizarddrummer]

Hi folks,

I hate Windows and Bill fracking Gates and is crappy software, but, in spite of all the short comings and endless hours of hassle, much of their crap works ... occasionally.

After fighting, for days; problems with using Ubuntu I found Mint.

Mint was advertised to be one of the "best" Linux distros. Has a greater amount of things automatically configured; Mint just worked right from the start ... so they said. From my pitiful experience that's a load of hooooey!

I'm old, I'm tired; have major health problems and maybe the 35+ years experience I have with computers is working against me.

The Mint install didn't work for me, as it has for most people.

- I downloaded the iso;
- Partitioned /, /swap, and /home; Installed the system;
- Notified (No difference from Ubuntu) that a proprietary driver was necessary to take advantage ...; Installed Nvidia Driver and Restarted.
- Installed all of the updates.
- Reconfigured my panels - got it to look like I wanted it to.

I started to use the system and I realized that hardly anything worked! Fully configured?

What are the most common things people want to do? Listen to music, watch videos, use applications, play games, chat with people...

First I tried playing .mp3, .avi, .wmv, and .flv files on my hard drive. This FAILED to function: missing plugins - Eventually a panel came up and prompted me to install a plugin. They are working now.

This is what's not working or confusing.
1) Hardware Drivers Panel shows the newest [Recommended] driver to be active.
Software Manager Panel: Subsection Drivers has an item: Nvidia 3D Drivers (it shows this to be NOT installed.)
Why?

2) Can't play flash movies in Firefox.
When I used Ubuntu, Firefox had this massive automatic plugin option.
Not so, here in Mint.
The only plugins available are IcedTea and Silverlight.
When I go to Youtube to watch a video Firefox says it needs a plugin.
The install for adobe FAILS during this process.
The install also FAILS if you go to Adobe's site.

3) Downloaded Rosegarden: well-rounded audio and MIDI sequencer, score editor, and general-purpose music composition and editing environment.
When I started it up it failed:
- First Error Message:

Failed to connect to JACK audio server.

This is the same mother fracking message and hair pulling experience (JACK, ALSA, etc) I was running away from in Ubuntu that's happening here all over again.

- Second Error message is long:

System timer resolution is too low
Rosegarden was unable to find a high-resolution timing source for MIDI performance.
You may be able to solve this problem by loading the RTC timer kernel module. To do this, try running sudo modprobe snd-rtctimer in a terminal window and then restarting Rosegarden.
Alternatively, check whether your Linux distributor provides a multimedia-optimized kernel. See http://rosegarden.wiki.sourceforge.net/ ... cy+kernels for notes about this.

- Third Error Message:

Helper programs not found
Rosegarden could not find one or more helper programs which it needs to provide some features. The following features will not be available:
Export and import of Rosegarden Project files
To fix this, you should install the following additional programs:
kdialog - for project file support

This is just for starters.

I'm trying to get away from Windows BSOD's and I can't even get meager functionality.

Other than installing the Nvidia driver, the updates and the missing plugin I was prompted for; some cosmetic panel changes, I have not changed anything on this system. It's still, virtually brand new.

Ideas anyone?

[beefstu]

1. The package in the software sources is a dummy (transitional) package used for upgrading (from clicking on more info button). You probably do have the correct drivers already installed.

2. When you downloaded Mint, did you download the Main or Universal version? From what you have described I would imagine it is the Universal which does not contain all the codecs (something to do with distribution laws in US and Japan). To install Flash, the easiest way is to use the Package Manager and find "adobe-flashplugin" and install that. should install it into Firefox for you.

3. Not too sure about this, although there are some posts on the Forums from people with problems about this software, not sure if any are relevant but can be easily found using the search box.

Hope this helps

[Jay514]

Firstly, seems as that you are stressed a bit , as I can relate coming from Windows ...it can do that to a person.

Linux is not windozs, although you do have to learn it , to be able to configure & set it up properly,ect, If you are new to Linux it can take some time.Linux is not & can not be preconfigured for every type of hardware, therefore we must tweak some things ourself.
I will attempt to help,
You should be able to find synaptic package manager in your system menu, or adept, or a package manager, depending on what desktop version you are using (Gnome,KDE,LXDE,Ect.) There will be a package manager somewhere in your system menu. Find it

Open it , go to the search box & type in flash player: hit search button if necessary.When it list the package click it & it will note, to be installed, Install the package.
Let us know if this works,Post the desktop ver & prob, one step at a time. the community will respond,
Hope this helps,
Jay514

[wizarddrummer]

1. The package in the software sources is a dummy (transitional) package used for upgrading (from clicking on more info button). You probably do have the correct drivers already installed.

2. When you downloaded Mint, did you download the Main or Universal version? From what you have described I would imagine it is the Universal which does not contain all the codecs (something to do with distribution laws in US and Japan). To install Flash, the easiest way is to use the Package Manager and find "adobe-flashplugin" and install that. should install it into Firefox for you.

3. Not too sure about this, although there are some posts on the Forums from people with problems about this software, not sure if any are relevant but can be easily found using the search box.

Hope this helps

Thanks for the reply:

I installed the DVD version from here: http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=44

[Aging Technogeek]

If you downloaded a DVD version of Mint and don't have all the audio and video codecs preinstalled, you got the Universal version. The best thing to do is probably to go back to the download site and get the Mint 8 Main Edition CD (either 32 bit or 64 bit). It comes with everything installed by default.

It will most likely be quicker and easier to install the Main Edition than to get everything working in what you have.

[wizarddrummer]

Firstly, seems as that you are stressed a bit , as I can relate coming from Windows ...it can do that to a person.

Linux is not windozs, although you do have to learn it , to be able to configure & set it up properly,ect, If you are new to Linux it can take some time.Linux is not & can not be preconfigured for every type of hardware, therefore we must tweak some things ourself.
I will attempt to help,
You should be able to find synaptic package manager in your system menu, or adept, or a package manager, depending on what desktop version you are using (Gnome,KDE,LXDE,Ect.) There will be a package manager somewhere in your system menu. Find it

Open it , go to the search box & type in flash player: hit search button if necessary.When it list the package click it & it will note, to be installed, Install the package.
Let us know if this works,Post the desktop ver & prob, one step at a time. the community will respond,
Hope this helps,
Jay514

Thanks for the reply. You have a great community here.

Without boring anyone; I do know that Linux is NOT Windows. It wasn't Windows when we downloaded the original copy back in the very early 90's. I'm an old Unix guru/developer/geek from before some of you reading this were born. I got away from Unix/NeXT world and came back recently to Ubuntu.

It's just that's its 2010: According to A.C.Clarke, we should have Moon bases and Mars installations ... we shouldn't be scrapling with dependencies. If I was still coding (which I do very little these days), I would write an installation program that would first check the system to see if all of the necessary files are there for MY program to run; If they are not I would, in the script, call for these applications to be downloaded.

As far as flash goes, i don't know what happened with my distro but that should be one of the main installation items that are in the package. Maybe it is, maybe I downloaded the wrong thing. If I did that, then perhaps the website should be more clear (or I should pay more attention) about what to download.

Since I am into music, graphics, video etc., perhaps the suggestion to try UbuntuStudio is not a bad idea.

[wizarddrummer]

If you downloaded a DVD version of Mint and don't have all the audio and video codecs preinstalled, you got the Universal version. The best thing to do is probably to go back to the download site and get the Mint 8 Main Edition CD (either 32 bit or 64 bit). It comes with everything installed by default.

It will most likely be quicker and easier to install the Main Edition than to get everything working in what you have.

I live in Mexico. Far from any place that sells CD's I have not used a CD in probably 5 years.

My original plan was to try and install with a USB. I downloaded the .iso file; used a program called unetbootin and it put a bunch of garbled mess on the USB.

My little mother board has 3 USB boot options USB-CD, USB-FDD and something else. It never recognized it. (btw, yes i did a md5sum / checked the integrity of the .iso before I used Unetbootin and it was good.

But, after three tries, I am assuming that unetbootin is not liking my usb. Had no problems with regular files.

Here's a screen shot of the disaster.

unetbootinfailure.png

[wizarddrummer]

If you downloaded a DVD version of Mint and don't have all the audio and video codecs preinstalled, you got the Universal version. The best thing to do is probably to go back to the download site and get the Mint 8 Main Edition CD (either 32 bit or 64 bit). It comes with everything installed by default.

It will most likely be quicker and easier to install the Main Edition than to get everything working in what you have.

Yup, i just looked at the name of the dvd .iso and it says Universal.

Okay, I have the CD .iso on my other hard drive is there a way that I can use that iso image to install the CD version?

[Aging Technogeek]

If all you have is DVDs, just burn the .iso to a DVD instead of a CD. It should work alright. Just a few days ago, I burned the XFCE RC to a DVD instead of a CD and it boots, runs and installs just fine.

[Jay514]

If you are trying to install from USB thumbdrive & unetbootin is not working, go to http://www.pendrivelinux.org & try the free image writer/installer they offer,
Sorry, I did not assume that you did not know what you were doing, but you did seem frustrated in your first post. I know what it's like & I have been around a while myself Let us know if you get it installed,
Jay514

[chipps61]

I would agree with the last few posts - dust your existing setup and install the Mint 8 main edition, download here: http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/linuxmint.com/ ... Mint-8.iso

All codecs and so forth will already be installed and things should just plain work. Sorry for your initial woes and hope to see you back with a better experience.

And yes a burn to a blank DVD works just as well as a burn to a CD - it's just a bit of a waste of space. All of the live CD's I've tried in the last few months were burned to DVD's, as those were the only blanks I had laying around.