New User...Frustrated

[MohamedKhaled]

Thanks all for your assistance. I ended up installing Chromium from the synaptic manager. Install was a breeze thanks to your tutelage. I signed in with my Google credentials and viola...it was all there and worked. Beautiful! Re: new SSD...it is for my 2nd laptop project which is an old Dell I am reviving for my wife. Mine(the one I am working on now) is an even older Compaq/HP with 4G ram and a 2.3 AMD processor and a newer SSD. Both SSDs are only 120G as these machines will be used for browsing, email and some music streaming. This OS has reawakened my old laptop and it is actually fast. Love it! I think I have everything sorted for the moment and thanks again for your kind assistance.

hi ... glad the problem is fixed ... well what about changing that creepy NEW USER ..FLUSTRATED it may just drive people away ... and we don't want that... thanks a lot

[newtusmaximus]

Good news.  Could you upload hardware details to the database  menus/system/share hardware config    All helps other newbies

[1032]

Thanks all for your assistance. I ended up installing Chromium from the synaptic manager. Install was a breeze thanks to your tutelage. I signed in with my Google credentials and viola...it was all there and worked. Beautiful! Re: new SSD...it is for my 2nd laptop project which is an old Dell I am reviving for my wife. Mine(the one I am working on now) is an even older Compaq/HP with 4G ram and a 2.3 AMD processor and a newer SSD. Both SSDs are only 120G as these machines will be used for browsing, email and some music streaming. This OS has reawakened my old laptop and it is actually fast. Love it! I think I have everything sorted for the moment and thanks again for your kind assistance.

[trinidad]

Just a small comment. If you are awaiting a new SSD I would not recommend reinstalling multiple times on an SSD. Best to get your ducks in row first. Modern SSDs do not endure overwrites as well as old slow HDDs.

TC

[torreydale]

@1032 ,

Perhaps Chrome might be too much for your computer, but just because it was a problem in MS Windows, doesn't mean it will be one in Linux Lite.  In fairness to yourself and to the users trying to help you, we don't know the hardware specifications of your computer.  You could complete your forum profile, and that would help.  You could also post the result to the following command to the forum and that would help as well. 

Code: [Select]

inxi -F
Lastly, it is my understanding that Opera is now also based on Chromium.

[1032]

Vera-
Thank you so much for the comprehensive reply. Very helpful and very much appreciated. I was just venting a bit and sorry if I gave the wrong first impression. I like this OS a lot. I have discovered the synaptic installer and was using that as the final step in the seamonkey process but kept getting errors. I decided on seamonkey since users here like it and I have experience with Mozilla Thunderbird. I will research Opera and Chromium. I run Chrome on my WIN 7 desktops but it is a resource hog. Will likely choke my aging laptops to a crawl with 6 or 8 tabs running. I wonder if chromium will connect me to all my Google stuff (calendar, etc.). I'm awaiting a SSD hard drive and upon arrival and install it will be my wife's new/old Dell LL laptop.

The reason I did the OS installs was maybe misunderstanding the terminal. I couldn't figure out how to delete the bad command and kept getting the error message when trying to use synaptic. Seemed to be the only way I knew to clear the error. And since the install was new and I wouldn't lose anything and re installing only takes a few minutes it was not an untenable option.

Thanks again and best regards,
1032

[Vera]

Hello. I'm sorry to hear of these difficulties. I too come from a Windows background (7 not 10 though!) and also have installed LL on my machines. I am a little confused as to why you have had to re-install the OS several times? Usually a software program install that isn't successful or that has errors will only affect that particular piece of software, not the OS as as a whole. However I do realize you have some considerable computer experience in general, so there must be a reason that you were re-installing the OS.

I too found the software installation aspect of LL a little confusing when I first came to LL... until I realized I don't have to do it by command-line. I hate to think how much time I wasted typing in command-line commands when I could have just used the point-and-click software installer that comes pre-bundled with LL, called Synaptic Package Manager (more details below if you haven't used it much). Now I use Synaptic for almost everything I install, or at least it's my option of first choice. I checked just now though and Synaptic does NOT have Seamonkey, so I realize that if you really need Seamonkey that you would have to do a manual install of the Seamonkey software.

Here are a few tips to hopefully help you out in the next few days. Perhaps they are things you already know - sorry if this is the case. These were things I did NOT already know in my first times in LL and I'd managed to trip myself up a couple of times at first:

1. In case you're not sure how to access the Synaptic Package Manager (it's not immediately obvious), go to start menu -> System -> install/remove software. That is the Synaptic Package Manager.  If you'd like more info on how to use Synaptic, you can find it in Start Menu -> Favorites->Help Manual and then navigate to the section on Installing Software. When you open Synaptic, you can select software you want to install by point-and-click, and then it does everything for you. As mentioned, this won't work for Seamonkey because isn't on Synaptic, but there is an impressively huge library of other software that you can look at and pick from.

2. If you have a particular reason for Seamonkey, that's totally understandable. However, if you're just looking for a good stable alternative browser option for your machine, I can recommend Opera (I'm using it right now from my LL machine). You can install it from your Synaptic Package Manager as mentioned above. Correction: Opera is not available normally through Synaptic. I think I only see it in my Synaptic because I had installed it from other means.

Anyhow, anything you install through Synaptic is just automagically 'there' on your machine after clicking the button to install the desired package (browser software will appear in Start menu->Internet). Another browser option is Chromium, which is actually slightly different to Google Chrome: Chromium is the open-source equivalent of Chrome. They appear almost identical from a user point of view. Chromium is available via Synaptic.

3. If for some reason you wind up downloading software direct from its home page (I did this with Opera), then it will wind up in your Downloads folder by default, typically as a .deb file and with a box-package icon. If you want to then install the software, then RIGHT-CLICK on its icon and select "open as administrator". It won't work if you just try to open it as 'you', it'll only install if you open it as administrator. This is typically how I download and install anything that I can't find on Synaptic. This way, no command-line is needed and I can get the software I want.  Yes there are a few rare exceptions where you have to wind up using the command line during at least some of the installation process. (Sophos was one of these for me, although it had an installation guide that I followed and it worked fine).

4. Generally, the more I'm using LL the more I'm finding the GUI way of doing things! I almost never use the command line any more (as it takes longer to type everything). The only exception is if I'm doing some bash scripting or something like that where I more or less HAVE to use command-line stuff. So, it is possible - with a few exceptions - to use LL without having to wind up doing DOS-like stuff at the command line.

Again, apologies if this is stuff you already know. I'm just trying to cover all bases to get you helped out, since we both come from Windows backgrounds. I'm hoping other more experienced users than myself will be along soon too and will be able to help you more also.

[bitsnpcs]

Hello ,

where commands do not work it can be for a variety of reasons.
A command not working does not mean the terminal is broken, only it means, you need a different command/s.
You do not need to reinstall LL because a command does not work.

[1032]

Thanks. Notably I tried to install Seamonkey. Copied and pasted code from a thread here and followed instructions. Got error message similar or same as other forum users. Then saw later in the thread a series of codes to use to repair the original one that didn't work. I just said no thanks and re-installed since I couldn't figure out how to repair the terminal. I saw something about rolling back terminal commands but I was unable to figure that out. Just kept getting the same error. Software installer wouldn't work. Seems overly complicated to accomplish simple and common tasks. I acknowledge I may need to unlearn windows. The code I need to understand is just not making sense to me. I am not interested in learning a new language. Many people in my circle seek computer help from me. I do not consider myself a novice. Certainly not an expert or programmer but able to figure out most issues and resolve. Not so much here...

[bitsnpcs]

Hello 1032,

Welcome to the forum and Linux Lite

Why did you need to reinstall, eg; which issues did occur, after which changes made etc ?

Have you added any commands in to the "terminal" (how you called DOS like equivalent), on the current install of LL ?
If so please list any that you can remember at this time, for each one add a details of why you added it/ what you wanted to achieve with it.
Or is current install clean no changes made, or tried ?

Also add a list here of all the simple task things you want to do.

It should be each topic goes in its own thread for that subject to attract more responses from the community.

[1032]

Greetings-
In short, I hated WIN10 so I looked for alternatives. Landed on Linux Lite for 2 laptops and have been generally satisfied. I am reasonably intelligent and am moderately tech savvy. I am NOT an IT professional or code writer. I have been frustrated with some processes in LL that require code written into the DOS prompt equivalent. I even copied and pasted some of the code from this forum and in each and every instance it did not work. I don't know enough to know what I am doing wrong. As much as windows sucks I could almost always accomplish simple tasks like adding a browser or other software. Sorry to complain but I'm 3 days in and have had to re install the OS several times.

Other than that I like it! :-) I'm sure as I use it more I'll begin to "get it". This forum will doubtless be a valuable resource.
Thanks,
1032