Questions prior to Installing Mint

[clair]

First of all, thank you for the forum. And here's a bit of background for my questions. I teach graphic design and web design in a community college. I need to keep Windows for using Photoshop (and for play one online game.) So, I bought another box and will leave my old box as a Win computer with one monitor.
I really loathe Windows and have tried Fedora, and then Debian. I had real hopes for Debian, but it was not happy with the online class I'm taking which involves videos and sound. (Neither Ice Weasel nor Epiphany worked.) So, in my depressed state, with a new box and nothing to put on it, I went again to search Linux flavors and read about Mint. Here are my questions:

1. Will I be able to play videos and hear sound through a browser AND through Google+ Hangouts (that is vehicle for get togethers outside of the online class)?

2. Will I be able to hook up my USB Wacom Bamboo tablet and use screen recording software that also records sound?

3. It must run two monitors.

These are my absolute must haves for teaching and learning.

IF the answers to the above are "yeses", THEN do I need the full Gnome setup or does all of this capability come with LXDE? (I ask this because of the "multi-media out of the box" comment on the first page of linuxmint.com. It did not specify a desktop with that comment. As there is a great disparity in size between the Gnome and LXDE, I wanted to make sure.

LAST QUESTION: I now have the .iso LinuxMint LXDE on my hard drive. If I burn that to a CD, is all that is necessary for me to do is put in the CD drive of my new machine and turn the machine on? (This will be a dedicated machine -- only Linux, no dual boot, no Virtual Box.)

Thank you so much for your help. I really liked what I saw about Mint. (I did try to install in a VB, but it only hung, several times. And, since that was only for test driving, I gave up, and came here with my questions.)

[xenopeek]

Hi clair, thanks for considering Linux Mint and for your clear questions

1. Generally you can play videos and hear sound through a browser without problems. However, as you mention online classes, some online teaching platforms use proprietary software that may hinder it working without some additional effort (like Microsoft Silverlight), or worst case it may not function at all. Of course it also depends on your audio chip (if it is something exotic, the driver may not be very good). I'm not familiar with Google+ Hangouts.

2. The tablet should not be a problem. RecordMyDesktop (installable from Synaptic or Software Manager) should allow you to capture video and audio. Again, it also depends on your hardware.

3. Depends on your graphics card, if it can handle this. Generally, it should be possible but for proprietary cards like AMD or Nvidia may take a little work.

Generally Gnome can be a little easier, but you should be able to do all on LXDE. Hardware may require a little more work on your part in configuration files, but other than that multimedia support is the same. Consider however that you should be using the DVD versions, not the CD versions. The CD versions lack multimedia support. You can upgrade to the DVD version after installing from a CD version, but perhaps easier to put the DVD .iso on a USB and install from there if you don't have a DVD drive.

LAST ANSWER: Yes Except for depending on your hardware and desktop you choose, you may have to configure some things. The best option is to just boot from the CD/DVD/USB and try it out live. Does the tablet work, does video and audio work, does it display on two monitors. Etc. Once confirmed, you can go ahead and install it (it doesn't do so until you start the installer, for which you find the icon on your desktop after booting).

Any issues, please share here. If you are able to boot, but some things don't work as expected, please include the output of the following command run from the terminal to give us some understanding of your hardware:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fc 0

[clair]

Hi Vincent -
Thanks for you nice answers. And, they made me realize I should have mentioned my hardware: HP Pavillion -- just purchased,, 6MB ram, 1 TB hard drive -- and the monitor connections on the motherboard, BUT I also have a new ATI graphics card though it is not in the machine. And, I don't know if you know of it yet, but the online class I am in is at udacity.com ( the online "university" started by Sebastian Thrun of Standford AI fame) and we are programming in Python 2.7.

I've downloaded the big .iso and will muck about with it as soon as my third monitor comes - either today or tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be back! But, your message was a very nice welcome.

Thank you. (And BTW, I had forgotten to say in my first post that I had read your "Things to consider . . . " post before I asked my questions!)

[xenopeek]

udacity.com seems to work fine here, but I haven't enrolled so it may need something additional once you go to the section for which you need to enrol. Your computer sounds fine, and probably the AMD (formerly ATI) graphics card will work fine with the open source drivers.

If you are learning Python, you may also be interested in the free online Google Python Class. I'd highly recommend it https://code.google.com/edu/languages/g ... ction.html.

[clair]

Well, tomorrow (Thursday, 29 March) is D-day for Windows. I'll be trying to set up Mint tomorrow. (The new monitor came today.)

So, anyone who reads this, keep your fingers crossed!!

[xenopeek]

So, anyone who reads this, keep your fingers crossed!!

For how long But seriously, I hope installation goes smooth but the forums are here if you run into issues (like the graphics card, which might need some wrangling).

[clair]

Okay - I'm in - Mint is up and running.
And sound is great!
Dual monitors working fine (though not at first).

Problem -- printer is your basic HP Laserjet P1606dn.
It is plugged into a USB port.
I cannot find anywhere in the desktop menus that will let me "add printer".

AND finally, how can I get rid of gnome and get lxde without losing the setup I have.
If I can't, I'll have to live with it, but it is almost as bad as windows, which I'm running away from.

I know LXDE makes it easy to add printers. (At least it did on Debian and Fedora.)

BUT, I do have my python setup running for the class. Udacity works well, and I can
get here to you all !! So, what more do I need ---

I would like to be able to put a launch link on the work bar for gedit, firefox, and the terminal window.
Any chance that can happen (only if I can't go to lxde as asked above.
AND I need to get to the screensaver as well as the printer -- can't find that either.

Thanks very much!! And glad to have gotten this far. (But, I must say, I miss the Debian screen very much.)

[xenopeek]

I'd suggest giving Cinnamon a try as an alternative user interface to Gnome; that makes it much easier to add launchers as you want. Just right-click the application in the menu and you can select to add a launcher To install Cinnamon, search for that word in the Software Manager and install it. Then, on the login screen, click the little gearwheel icon in the top right of the login box and select Cinnamon. Cinnamon is being developed by the Linux Mint team, it's still under development but very usable already and it will be the default on Linux Mint 13. Read more here: http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com/

Now, LXDE is also fine though perhaps a bit more spartan To install it, again just search for that word in the Software Manager and install it. Proceed to choose it at the login screen to run it. It also install default LXDE applications, though you may have to change some preferences here and there to use them all by default.

For your printer, you would need the hplip drivers I think. Those are installed by default on Linux Mint 12 so you shouldn't need to install anything for this, but probably do need to add the printer to your system. You configure your printers through the printer management software called cups. It doesn't have a GUI, but you just access its web configurator through your browser. By default it is running on http://localhost:631/. See if you can from the administration tab add your printer there.

[clair]

Thanks much, Vincent for your help.

And, it's not for lack of your help, but the printer simply won't work. Looked like it intalled and shows up in Libre Writer just fine, and prints out 5 pages with $garbage and smiley faces on one line at the top and then some with garbage scattered around.

This is pretty disheartening. So I'm going to play with the lxde that I just installed. And try to work on the printer tomorrow -- though I've no idea what to do -- will just cruise the internet for help.

I saw a topic here or somewhere about why Linux isn't taking over the world. This is exactly why it's not.
Common computer, common printer and they can't communicate.

ALSO -- I don't find anyway to have a screen saver. The screen just goes dark and then it takes about 3 minutes of fiddling with keys, and mouse to get anything to appear. I'm assuming this is a bug.

Anyway, thanks again!

[clair]

NO luck with LXDE -- used the Manager - appeared to download and install. But I can't find it anywhere, and I am offered no choices when I shut down and started up again. I've tried searching anywhere I have the opportunity but nothing every turns up.

I also tried the command line install because I knew that would at least let me know if I had it. And, I do, said everything was up to date.


Please, would very much appreciate information on where it is and how to activate it.

[chipbuster]

Hello there!

Which command line install did you try? There's multiple pieces of software that can be installed in a bunch of different ways, so it would help if you remember exactly what you installed and how.

To be honest, I'm a little puzzled that the printer isn't installing normally. HP usually has amazing support for Linux (as opposed to, say, Epson/Canon), and its pretty rare to hear of an HP Printer not working out-of-the-box.

While we're here, could you post the results of

Code: Select all

 hp-check -r

That should give us a good analysis of what's going on. CTRL+SHIFT+C to copy from the terminal, since CTRL+C is a special key combo.

[clair]

It's a lot of stuff - but here is the output from hp-check -r
I guess I'm your project for the month!! I'm lucky -- you are not! Thanks!!

AND - btw -- install did not ask me for root password and it behaves like Windows in that I don't see all the files -- it just shows me what it wants me to see.

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.11.7)
Dependency/Version Check Utility ver. 14.3

Copyright (c) 2001-9 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.

Note: hp-check can be run in three modes:
1. Compile-time check mode (-c or --compile): Use this mode before compiling the
HPLIP supplied tarball (.tar.gz or .run) to determine if the proper dependencies
are installed to successfully compile HPLIP.
2. Run-time check mode (-r or --run): Use this mode to determine if a distro
supplied package (.deb, .rpm, etc) or an already built HPLIP supplied tarball
has the proper dependencies installed to successfully run.
3. Both compile- and run-time check mode (-b or --both) (Default): This mode
will check both of the above cases (both compile- and run-time dependencies).

Saving output in log file: hp-check.log

Initializing. Please wait...

---------------
| SYSTEM INFO |
---------------

Basic system information:
Linux HP-MINT-p7-1226s 3.0.0-12-generic #20-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 7 14:50:42 UTC 2011 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

Distribution:
linuxmint 12

Checking Python version...
OK, version 2.7.2 installed

Checking PyQt 4.x version...
error: NOT FOUND OR FAILED TO LOAD!

Checking for CUPS...
Status: scheduler is running
warning: Version: (cups-config) Not available. Unable to determine installed version of CUPS.)
error_log is set to level: warn

Checking for dbus/python-dbus...
dbus daemon is running.
python-dbus version: 0.84.0


------------------------
| RUNTIME DEPENDENCIES |
------------------------


Checking for dependency: CUPS - Common Unix Printing System...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: CUPS DDK - CUPS driver development kit...
warning: NOT FOUND! This is an OPTIONAL/RUNTIME ONLY dependency. Some HPLIP functionality may not function properly.

Checking for dependency: GhostScript - PostScript and PDF language interpreter and previewer...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: PIL - Python Imaging Library (required for commandline scanning with hp-scan)...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: PolicyKit - Administrative policy framework...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: PyQt 4 DBus - DBus Support for PyQt4...
error: NOT FOUND! This is a REQUIRED/RUNTIME ONLY dependency. Please make sure that this dependency is installed before installing or running HPLIP.

Checking for dependency: Python DBus - Python bindings for DBus...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: Python libnotify - Python bindings for the libnotify Desktop notifications...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: Python XML libraries...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: Python 2.3 or greater - Required for fax functionality...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: Reportlab - PDF library for Python...
warning: NOT FOUND! This is an OPTIONAL/RUNTIME ONLY dependency. Some HPLIP functionality may not function properly.

Checking for dependency: SANE - Scanning library...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: scanimage - Shell scanning program...
OK, found.

Checking for dependency: xsane - Graphical scanner frontend for SANE...
warning: NOT FOUND! This is an OPTIONAL/RUNTIME ONLY dependency. Some HPLIP functionality may not function properly.


----------------------
| HPLIP INSTALLATION |
----------------------


Currently installed HPLIP version...
HPLIP 3.11.7 currently installed in '/usr/share/hplip'.

Current contents of '/etc/hp/hplip.conf' file:
# hplip.conf. Generated from hplip.conf.in by configure.

[hplip]
version=3.11.7

[dirs]
home=/usr/share/hplip
run=/var/run
ppd=/usr/share/ppd/hplip/HP
ppdbase=/usr/share/ppd/hplip
doc=/usr/share/doc/hplip-doc/HTML
icon=no
cupsbackend=/usr/lib/cups/backend
cupsfilter=/usr/lib/cups/filter
drv=/usr/share/cups/drv

# Following values are determined at configure time and cannot be changed.
[configure]
network-build=yes
pp-build=yes
gui-build=yes
scanner-build=yes
fax-build=yes
dbus-build=yes
cups11-build=no
doc-build=yes
shadow-build=no
hpijs-install=yes
foomatic-drv-install=yes
foomatic-ppd-install=yes
foomatic-rip-hplip-install=no
hpcups-install=yes
cups-drv-install=yes
cups-ppd-install=no
internal-tag=3.11.7
restricted-build=no
ui-toolkit=qt4
qt3=no
qt4=yes
policy-kit=yes
hpijs-only-build=no
lite-build=no
udev-acl-rules=yes
hpcups-only-build=no
hpijs-only-build=no


Current contents of '/var/lib/hp/hplip.state' file:
# hplip.state - HPLIP runtime persistent variables.

[plugin]
installed=0
eula=0



Current contents of '~/.hplip/hplip.conf' file:
[installation]
date_time = 03/29/2012 17:26:43
version = 3.11.7



--------------------------
| DISCOVERED USB DEVICES |
--------------------------

No devices found.

---------------------------------
| INSTALLED CUPS PRINTER QUEUES |
---------------------------------


Hewlett-Packard_HP_LaserJet_Professional_P1606dn
------------------------------------------------
Type: Unknown
Device URI: dnssd://HP%20LaserJet%20Professional%20 ... tcp.local/
PPD: /etc/cups/ppd/Hewlett-Packard_HP_LaserJet_Professional_P1606dn.ppd
PPD Description: HP 910 hpijs, 3.11.7
Printer status: printer Hewlett-Packard_HP_LaserJet_Professional_P1606dn is idle. enablReady to print. Mar 2012 05:09:14 PM EDT
warning: Printer is not HPLIP installed. Printers must use the hp: or hpfax: CUPS backend to function in HPLIP.

HP
--
Type: Unknown
Device URI: http://localhost:631
PPD: /etc/cups/ppd/HP.ppd
PPD Description: HP LaserJet p1505n zxs, hpcups 3.11.7, requires proprietary plugin
Printer Destination printer does not exist!hu 29 Mar 2012 05:04:32 PM EDT -
warning: Printer is not HPLIP installed. Printers must use the hp: or hpfax: CUPS backend to function in HPLIP.

HP-LaserJet-Professional-P1606dn
--------------------------------
Type: Printer
Device URI: hp:/usb/HP_LaserJet_Professional_P1606dn?serial=000000000QQ0FRZRSI1c
PPD: /etc/cups/ppd/HP-LaserJet-Professional-P1606dn.ppd
PPD Description: HP LaserJet Pro P1606dn Foomatic/foo2zjs-z2 (recommended)
Printer status: printer HP-LaserJet-Professional-P1606dn is idle. enabled since Thu 29 /usr/lib/cups/backend/hp failed

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.11.7)
System Tray Status Service ver. 2.0

Copyright (c) 2001-9 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.

warning: Qt/PyQt 4 initialization failed.
error: hp-systray requires Qt4 GUI and DBus support. Exiting.
warning: Unable to connect to dbus. Is hp-systray running?
warning: Optional plug-in status: Not installed
error: Unable to communicate with device (code=12): hp:/usb/HP_LaserJet_Professional_P1606dn?serial=000000000QQ0FRZRSI1c
error: Device not found
error: Communication status: Failed


----------------------
| SANE CONFIGURATION |
----------------------

'hpaio' in '/etc/sane.d/dll.conf'...
'hpaio' in '/etc/sane.d/dll.d/hplip'...
OK, found. SANE backend 'hpaio' is properly set up.

Checking output of 'scanimage -L'...

No scanners were identified. If you were expecting something different,
check that the scanner is plugged in, turned on and detected by the
sane-find-scanner tool (if appropriate). Please read the documentation
which came with this software (README, FAQ, manpages).


---------------------
| PYTHON EXTENSIONS |
---------------------

Checking 'cupsext' CUPS extension...
OK, found.

Checking 'pcardext' Photocard extension...
OK, found.

Checking 'hpmudext' I/O extension...
OK, found.

Checking 'scanext' SANE scanning extension...
OK, found.



-----------------
| USB I/O SETUP |
-----------------

Checking for permissions of USB attached printers...

HP Device 0xa2a at 001:003:
Device URI: hp:/usb/HP_LaserJet_Professional_P1606dn?serial=000000000QQ0FRZRSI1c

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.11.7)
System Tray Status Service ver. 2.0

Copyright (c) 2001-9 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.

warning: Qt/PyQt 4 initialization failed.
error: hp-systray requires Qt4 GUI and DBus support. Exiting.
warning: Unable to connect to dbus. Is hp-systray running?
Device node: /dev/bus/usb/001/003
Mode: 0664
getfacl: Removing leading '/' from absolute path names
# file: dev/bus/usb/001/003
# owner: root
# group: lp
user::rw-
user:clair:rw-
group::rw-
mask::rw-
other::r--



---------------
| USER GROUPS |
---------------

clair adm dialout cdrom plugdev lpadmin admin sambashare

error: User needs to be member of group 'lp' to enable print, scan & fax.
User member of group 'lpadmin'.

-----------
| SUMMARY |
-----------

error: 9 errors and/or warnings.

Please refer to the installation instructions at:
http://hplip.sourceforge.net/install/index.html


Done.

[xenopeek]

NO luck with LXDE -- used the Manager - appeared to download and install. But I can't find it anywhere, and I am offered no choices when I shut down and started up again. I've tried searching anywhere I have the opportunity but nothing every turns up.

I also tried the command line install because I knew that would at least let me know if I had it. And, I do, said everything was up to date.

It should be selectable at the login screen, click the gearwheel icon at the top right of the login box. It should be in the list, similar to here:

Else please check if lxde is properly installed:

Code: Select all

dpkg -l | grep lxde

[chipbuster]

Ugh, that's a mess

What commands did you run from the command line? I'm starting to suspect this install went sideways at some point.

Two big lights flash at me in this thing: one is that it can't seem to communicate with your printer at all. Was it plugged in/powered on when you ran this?

Second is that you're not in the lp group, which is the standard printing group. While this may not be the central issue, it'll certainly be an easy fix if it is. Please run the following commands in sequence to add yourself to the lp group.

Code: Select all

sudo groupadd lp
sudo useradd -G lp [your_username_here]


and try to print something again. If that works, great! If it doesn't (I'm suspecting it might not), then we'll have to look at possibly redoing the printer.

Out of curiosity, how long did it take you to install Mint? If this gets incredibly out of hand, it might be faster just to reinstall

[clair]

hi Vincent --
Took about 20 minutes to Install Mint --
3 times that long to do anything at all with gnome
and I had already done the useradd stuff -- and tried to print -- to no avail

Also, when I worked with your cups suggestion, the printer was found immediately. Correct name and everything.

So Mint knows it's there. And says it is ready and idle --

[clair]

If I reinstall, how can I make it ask for the /tmp /home /swap setup and for a root password? But, I will await your advice on the reinstall -- Since everything seemed to go without hitch when I did install, what would another install do differently?

Just curious.
And, is there anyway to everything (the multi-media setup) with LXDE? Trying to work out issues with this horrendous desktop where windows keep changing sizes, disappearing and what not, and trying to read half shown filenames under iconds instead of in a list is driving me right round the bend.

thanks -- I've been at this most of the day, so I'm getting weary now and will quit for the day. Will give it a try in about 8 hours when I get up.

Again, I really appreciate the help.

Clair

[chipbuster]

Huh. The config appears to disagree

Could you post the output of the command "groups"?

This quite honestly does not make sense to me. Everywhere I look, it says Mint 12 should support this printer just fine.

http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/in ... index.html
----------
Let's see if the py-qt issue is causing it, maybe. Perhaps the installer did not appropriately check that dependency.

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install python-qt4


After that, try running hp-setup and see if you have any luck with that :<

-------------
As for the reinstalling, I was just curious. Sometimes, a reinstall of the system and a clean install of other software will fix issues resulting from bad configurations, but I think its better to hold off on that unless its really necessary (as you said, since everything else went without a hitch, not sure what would be different).

I'm not quite sure what you're asking with LXDE, but seeing as that's the one major DE that I've never used, I don't think I'll be much help :<

[clair]

Ohh - chipbuster -- I didn't realize there was another helper in this topic -- my apologies -- I've been talking to Vincet for so long --

And I did the lp lpadmin thingy after I saw the output that I posted -- that's why it doesn't show up there. And, after that, I tried to print again -- again with negative results.

Thanks -- and glad to have you here!

G'night!

[clair]

WAHOOO --
I got up this morning, really ticked and so I installed Mint LXDE and wiped out the non-working mess.

I now can print -- easy as pie.
I have a desktop on which the windows do not resize themselves when I move the mouse.
I can find everything I need.
udacity works just fine.
Mint has another happy camper!!!

I have only 2 questions -- and I'm sure this is just a matter of a quick answer.

I need the package that will allow me to specify that I have two monitors. And, plus,
I need to know where things go, when I install them -- for instance, I installed plugins for gedit but don't know where they went. And, so I want to know this, and therefore where I can find whatever it is I download that will allow me to configure two monitors.

THANK you BOTH - Vincent and chipbuster -- for your help.

[xenopeek]

Well, good to hear you have LXDE working and are happy with it No clue why the printer should work on that, but who is complaining when it works now

For dual monitor, have a look at item 16 here: http://douwil7.100webspace.net/linux/Tuning.html

If you installed the gedit-plugins package (I'm assuming), or another package from the Software Manager, you can easily find the files it has installed. Open the Package Manager (Synaptic), search for your package, right-click it and select Properties, then have a look at the Installed Files tab

Or from the command prompt:

Code: Select all

dpkg -L gedit-plugins

Unlike on Windows, files of your applications are not installed to one folder. To get a better understanding of that, the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard may shed some light: https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/en/FHS