Mint Noob help needed!!

[electric-wildflower]

Hello everyone i have some questions that need answering if anyone could help.

I not long started using Mint 10 lxde a few hours ago i initially downloaded a iso as i was curious like everyone else and due to the fact ubuntu is going to unity and i tried the netbook version on my netbook and felt it was awful so decided to stick with 10.10 for the time been untill i try 11.04 desktop on my desktop/server to see if i actually like it or not enough to carry on with ubuntu. Anyway i was looking around for alternatives to test and found mint downloaded a iso and ran it from cd spent a few hours well around 3 playing with it i got to the point i wanted to play more with it but running from cd has it's limitations.

I decided to duelboot with ubuntu 10.10 now as being abit of a noob i have some questions that need answering if anyone could help.

1. ive gotten used to terminal in ubuntu using sudo for a few things nautilus for editing restricted files and a few things i learned not a master but can get through is mint any different in the terminal.

2. The log in screen on ubuntu it show your username you click it type in the password and it takes you to the desktop with mint it seems different you type in the user then password and it takes you to desktop is there anyway of changing it to be like the ubuntu your username shows and you just click and type password ??

3. Start up applications im not seeing anything in the menu that will let me choose what i want to start up as some stuff like printing, power management are not really needed is there a way of disabling start up applications.

4. Showing hard disks on the desktop is there a way of showing them as i have multipul mounted using pysdm and in ubuntu they just show it's easier for me to get access to files then.

5. Panel question is there a way for me adding the firefox icon to the panel as i use it alot and having it on panel is conveniance ive played with mint abit but carn't seem to get it to add.

Anyway all help would be greatful thanks

[ThistleWeb]

1 - The terminal is the same as Ubuntu
2 - The log in screen can be modified to show user names or not, ask for a password or not etc
3 - Look in the Control Center, there;s Startup Applications, to let you disable what you don't need
4 - Right click on the desktop and look at "display" (I think....it may be in the Control Center as Display) there should be options for what to show on the desktop, including mounted volumes. If it's not quite what you need you can add a launcher easily enough.
5 - You should be able to drag the Firefox icon from the menu to the panel

I don't use Gnome normally, I'm going from memory.

[hemimaniac]

1. a terminal is a terminal

2. you can literally do anything you want with this

3. you could install bum, it actually feels like msconfig, just done better imo

4. sudo apt-get install pysdm

5. quickest dirtiest way add custom launcher to panel, or add to desktop, then drag to panel (not sure if the last one works in lxde)

[electric-wildflower]

Sorry for the late replying been really busy and not had change to reply back.

the terminal it feels the same although when using nautilus to edit restricted files it told me it wasn't installed not sure if there is a equivillent on LXDE so i just installed nautilus.

the log in screen i could not find a option in any menu about changing it, in ubuntu using gnome it was easy to change as there was a option in settings.

Control centre i am not finding it at all ive looked everywhere i did look at start up manager but it just lets me edit if i want boot splash to show if i want to boot into lxde mint or ubuntu etc nothing on start up applications.

right clicking on the desktop only gives me preferences to change the background and abit of the look and feel no option for showing icons for hard disks

The Firefox icon i can add to desktop but no matter how i try it won't add to the panel unless im doing something wrong.

[lmintnewb]

Not sure if it's an option. Have zero understanding of lxde and not much more about the Mint release I'm actually using. But random thought. Might try to install another desktop on it. Think ... may be wrong. That openbox is the desktop on lxde ?

Might try installing another one ... fluxbox as an example.

Just an opinion, but openbox blows by comparison. Have installed openbox a couple times and played around with it. In fact a couple mins ago again. Uninstalled it immediately. Didn't like it at all and saw no advantage to using it. Seemed way more limited than flux to me and the resource usage was about equal anyway.

Why use the same amount of resources to get something a lot less user friendly ? Oh well ... just a poss/suggestion. Or xfce is you wan't a nice GUI cushion.

Don't see why you couldn't get another DE. Or another random thought. Might try another one of the Mint releases instead and overwrite lxde. My leaning personally in the near future is lmde w fluxbox installed as one of the desktops on top of the default one.

Not saying openbox isn't dandy for people who know what they're doing with it. Don't think a person would want to cut their teeth with it though. Sheesh ... didn't seem much better than just going ahead and using a CLI instead of a GUI like openbox. Someone would save on system resources and as an added bonus would have no choice but to learn their way around the terminal.