New to Mint, mixed feelings

[daithi81]

Hello,

I just this evening tried out this OS, having partially used Ubuntu previously but mainly Windows. I like the idea of Linux, but I found Ubuntu to be too much hassle. So I mainly saw Ubuntu as a kind of back up OS in case Vista lost its way (which is a lot). Anyway, someone recommended Mint as an alt to Ubuntu as it came with all the goods, out of the box. I tried it for a while and I must say I found it to be superior to Ubuntu... until the keyboard went nuts. Q's became 6's, O's became @'s, etc, etc. So, I just restarted the system. Same thing remained. I was worried that my keyboard might be broken and hurried back to Vista to check if the keyboard works, and it obviously does given the ease in which I wrote this message.

I have never in my life come across something like this. Did you guys forget to work on the keyboard?

[BrianD]

just throwing this out there, but...

it sounds like you might be on a laptop, and have accidentally/unknowingly toggled the Num Lock key.

the standard toggle on most laptops is Fn-F4 (hold down the Fn key, and then press the F4 key).

[_h_]

just throwing this out there, but...

it sounds like you might be on a laptop, and have accidentally/unknowingly toggled the Num Lock key.

the standard toggle on most laptops is Fn-F4 (hold down the Fn key, and then press the F4 key).

I'd have to agree with this, you appear to be on a laptop and accidentally activated the laptops numpad function keys.

Or you cleaned your keyboard and put the keys back into the wrong spots.

[DrHu]

Same thing remained. I was worried that my keyboard might be broken and hurried back to Vista to check if the keyboard works, and it obviously does given the ease in which I wrote this message....I have never in my life come across something like this. Did you guys forget to work on the keyboard?

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 61&start=0
More context/data is required: hardware, software
Which notebook, brand and model #

Neither have I, with that description, since the usual keyboard problems are function key mapping, and serial connection issues (hardware)


Why did the keyboard go NUTS, what were you doing at the time
--also numlock won't usually affect letter selections, just the punctuation characters on the 1..0, keys at top of the keyboard

However on a notebook, they compress the standard keys and sometimes bury cursor keys and number selection keys into a smaller keyboard space, as well as function keys
--so they may have keys that have 1..4 selections available (as you may find on a netbook)

[daithi81]

Whoops! I think you might be right!

Ok, that's great then, because I really like the OS and I am eager to move from Vista. However, there are 2-3 programs that I have on Windows that I cannot do without, is there any way to get Windows programs to run on Linux?

[Joylove]

^
1.) Wine
2.) Virtualization (Virtualbox/QEMU/VMWare) technically simulate a x86 machine on your current OS.

[Midnighter]

Installing WINE

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install wine

(or install thru Synaptic) should allow you to run a number of windows applications. Some run very well, some ok, some so-so, and some not at all. What applications are you needing access to?

[daithi81]

Installing WINE

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install wine

(or install thru Synaptic) should allow you to run a number of windows applications. Some run very well, some ok, some so-so, and some not at all. What applications are you needing access to?

Reason 4.0
Stata 8
LaTeX (this works on Linux anyway, right?)
Matlab

[_h_]

Installing WINE

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install wine

(or install thru Synaptic) should allow you to run a number of windows applications. Some run very well, some ok, some so-so, and some not at all. What applications are you needing access to?

I'd also like to point out that not every Windows application works in Wine.

A great way to see if Wine currently supports the specific applicaitons needed with either a Platinum or Gold seal, check out the Wine AppDB here:

http://appdb.winehq.org/

[lizzibet]

yeah, i'd go with the virtualization and just run xp in a virtualbox if you have the resources to dedicate to it. Wine is tricky as others have noted but there are helper programs like wine doors and playonlinux which are free.. playonlinux is bar far the better of the two. Also, if you are willing to shell out the cash, there is codeweavers crossover office which has some advanced features and make setup easier then with just wine but like i said.. you'll pay for that option.

[daithi81]

Ok, I have yet another twist in this tale. I use a mobile broadband device, a Sierra wireless one. Up until this afternoon, it was working just fine on Mint, and now it wont. It connects just fine but I cannot connect to the internet, and update manager can't get online, software manager, etc.

So, how do I solve this doozie?

Please note that I didn't play around with any options related to networking or anything.

[kalwisti]

What applications are you needing access to?

Reason 4.0
Stata 8
LaTeX (this works on Linux anyway, right?)
Matlab

Hi, daithi81,

LaTeX is available in Mint 8 via TeX Live 2007 (texlive). You will need to install texlive using Synaptic rather than through Mint's Software Manager utility. You'll also likely want to install a front-end LaTeX editor such as Texmaker or Kile. (I think that auctex is available in the repositories, if you're an Emacs fan).

I'm a new Mint user and I have both Texmaker and Kile installed. I was a bit surprised that the version of Kile offered is the KDE 4 version, and it pulled in a large number of dependencies along with it. (I downloaded it anyway). So if hard disk space is tight for you, you might opt for Texmaker.

I don't know about the other programs you mentioned, and I'm away from my Linux box, so I can't check at the moment. I will try to check this evening and report back on what I find.

HTH,
=david

[beefstu]

For Latex, i dont think you need to install Tex live, I just installed texmaker from the software centre and it worked fine, very nice program and easy to use compared to some that ive used.

The only thing i did do to it was set the spell checker. To do this i went to search in the Mint Menu and searched for ".dic" then selected the relevant one i.e. en-GB, found the location something like /usr/share/SomethingOrOther and put that in the dictionary location in the preferences in Texmaker.

There is a Linux version of Matlab, there are also some free versions which are very similar such as Octave or Scilab where the majority of the syntax is the same.

I dont know Stata however, http://www.stata.com/products/unix.html would suggest a linux version exists but there seem to be many different types so not sure if the one you use is available.

As for Reason, I again have no idea, however http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=203845&page=4 is along forum thread about it!

Enjoy!

[kalwisti]

For Latex, i dont think you need to install Tex live, I just installed texmaker from the software centre and it worked fine, very nice program and easy to use compared to some that ive used.

Hi, beefstu,

I apologize in advance if this sounds a bit pedantic, but Texmaker is just an editor and does not perform any actual typesetting, so when you installed Texmaker, it would have pulled in the necessary components of TeX Live (or teTeX) in order for you to have a working TeX installation. (I always begin by installing my base TeX distribution first, and then install LaTeX editors as the second step).

One needs 3 basic components in order to run LaTeX on a computer:

a. the appropriate TeX distribution for your computing platform:
For Linux and Unix-based systems, that distro is now TeX Live. (Some systems are still using teTeX as a base, but teTeX has been officially declared obsolete and is no longer maintained by its originator [Thomas Esser]). For Windows-based systems, there is MiKTeX; and for Mac OS X systems, there is MacTeX.

TeX/LaTeX is the program that handles the typesetting. TeX was created by Donald E. Knuth, but most of us "regular" people use Leslie Lamport's LaTeX, which was first released in 1985. LaTeX is a large set of macros built upon the TeX program and it is the recommended system for all users except typographic programmers and computer scientists.

b. a front end/editor to allow you to create and edit .tex files:
In Linux, there are several nice editors available, such as Kile and Texmaker. Windows has WinEdt, TeXnicCenter, LEd (LaTeX Editor) and others. Mac has TeXShop et al.

It's possible to create/edit .tex documents and run LaTeX from the command line, but I'd wager that most people nowadays are using a LaTeX editor of some sort. Editors provide niceties such as color syntax highlighting, auto-completion, spell-checking and one-button compilation and viewing of .tex files.

c. a tool/program to view your finished, typeset document:
LaTeX can produce output in three different formats: DVI (device-independent) files; PDF files; and PostScript files. There are several tools for displaying .dvi files (such as xdvi, KDVI, Evince and Okular) as well as for displaying PDFs (Evince, Okular, KPDF, Adobe Acrobat Reader).

Again, I'm sorry if this reads like a mini-lecture -- that's not my intention. I just wanted to clarify a misconception. I've tried to help several folks learn LaTeX and install working TeX setups on their PCs, and this question has come up before. They sometimes don't understand that installing a LaTeX editor by itself is not enough ... Or they will ask "Well, you've installed LaTeX, so where is the menu entry for the LaTeX program? What does its program icon look like and where should I click?" It takes a few minutes to explain that LaTeX is the typesetting engine that runs in the background, there's not a menu item for it (and meanwhile you can see their eyes starting to glaze over). I'm a big LaTeX fan so I try to write about it as accurately as possible.

Happy TeXing!

[beefstu]

thanks kalwisti, that was pretty interesting!

I realised that Texmaker was only a front end, at the end of the day you could write Latex in Gedit, it even has syntax highlighting!

So presumably when you download and install Texmaker in Linux Mint, it installs Tex live as a dependancy?

Its interesting that all of this happens automatically in Linux when a friend using a Mac had to do alot of tinkering to get it to work, such as downloading Mactex and pointing Texmaker in the right direction and installing a DVI viewer and putting the correct settings into Texmaker and a similar situation to get it all done in Windows.

And they say Linux isn't user friendly!

[daithi81]

Ok, I have yet another twist in this tale. I use a mobile broadband device, a Sierra wireless one. Up until this afternoon, it was working just fine on Mint, and now it wont. It connects just fine but I cannot connect to the internet, and update manager can't get online, software manager, etc.

So, how do I solve this doozie?

Please note that I didn't play around with any options related to networking or anything.

Thanks for the info on TeX, guys. Any idea why this might be happening?

I will go through my actions after installing.

1) Inserted Sierra device and set it up.

2) Used Firefox to download and install Chrome

3) Mounted Vista HD and copied one video file and a music album

4) Tested music on Rhythmbox and found it worked

5) Decided to look for VLC in the package manager when I hit NUM lock and rebooted Vista to post here

6) IIRC, I have not accessed the internet via Mint since 2)

I thought it could be Chrome doing this, but I did use Chrome with the Sierra device.

[Midnighter]

Installing WINE

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install wine

(or install thru Synaptic) should allow you to run a number of windows applications. Some run very well, some ok, some so-so, and some not at all. What applications are you needing access to?

I'd also like to point out that not every Windows application works in Wine.

A great way to see if Wine currently supports the specific applicaitons needed with either a Platinum or Gold seal, check out the Wine AppDB here:

http://appdb.winehq.org/

Did you actually read my post? I pointed that out. I never said they would all work.

[kalwisti]

Ok, I have yet another twist in this tale. I use a mobile broadband device, a Sierra wireless one. Up until this afternoon, it was working just fine on Mint, and now it wont. It connects just fine but I cannot connect to the internet, and update manager can't get online, software manager, etc.

So, how do I solve this doozie?

Please note that I didn't play around with any options related to networking or anything.

Hi, daithi,

I thought I'd take a stab at this, since I feel partially responsible for causing this thread to veer off-topic. I searched the forum (which produced several hits) as well as a Linux-specific search with Google ( http://www.google.com/linux ).

http://bit.ly/a0WB1J
"Sierra ATT 3G Card problem." 4 Dec. 2009.

You didn't mention which specific model you have, so I'd suggest visiting Sierra's website and taking a look there:

http://www.sierrawireless.com/Support/k ... ebase.aspx
(I just typed "Linux" in the Search box and retrieved several items).

**Note: Ubuntu 9.10 distribution is not supported with Sierra Wireless modems.
Ubuntu 9.04 distribution is still supported with all Sierra Wireless modems
listed in this KB article.
We expect the issue to be fixed in Ubuntu 10.4.

Click on the "Supported Modems" hyperlink for a list. If you have one of the supported models, it looks like Sierra has supplied some scripts you can run. Mint 8 is based on Ubuntu 9.10, so this might explain the problem you've encountered (although it's strange that the wireless card was working until now).

If neither of the above is helpful, you could post again with more detailed information on the hardware and paste the output of the following command:

Code: Select all

$ lspci -vvnn

Hopefully, someone more knowledgeable will see this thread (I don't have experience with laptops or wireless) and be able to offer more concrete advice.