Ubuntu Linux questions

[Skybird]

^ As I said, this is what I did. And right that does not work. No matter whether I chose the HD as a whole or just a subdirectory I created on it for Steam - it is not "valid" since not empty (while it is empty for sure, I also made sure it is set to read AND write).

And how would a different software, say any non-game, get installed on the other drive? In the case of Steam, the steam launcher nevertheless goes to the SSD, the primary HD, that is.

So far the situation for me is loike with certain Android versions and cellphones: you can move data to the external SC card manually, but it does not let you install an app o it directly.

[BarracudaUAK]

Just got my system back up on the new HDDs. BUT I still need to move some partitions around, so all of my backup data is not on here yet, that backup data includes... well... everything. Steam, plus all my games installed through wine so I can't double check most of this now....

Originally Posted by Reece

Thanks Steve, I keep thinking Wine is a virtual desktop!!
I will try winecfg later, hopefully it asks for the .NET and Gecko to be installed.

Btw, I tried the WinHQ forum but is a pain since my posts have to be 'approved' before they go on, that takes 24hrs. I did get a reply to the first, I had made a typo and the responder was rather rude!!

Edit:
I ran winecfg from the terminal and it opened up a box, after I closed it I get the terminal message:
"fixme:msg:pack_message nsg 14 (WM_ERASEBKGND) not supported yet"

It seems that Wine is only accessible with context menus on exe files only?

Anyone know what "PlayOnLinux" is like?
https://www.playonlinux.com/en/download.html
Or is this better:
https://www.codeweavers.com/products/crossover-linux

I've noticed the response can sometimes be that way, I do not think that primary forum language is the native language for some of the posters there.
Leads to some rather interesting threads!


Play on Linux and CodeWeavers are, in short... "shortcuts" to setting up programs in WINE, most that you can do yourself (or using "winetricks").

Codeweavers, I believe, eventually sends some of their code to WINE, and they host winehq.org.

I would hold off on either, until you confirm what you are trying to run won't work on wine.

I've yet to use either. Just "winetricks". Winetricks is a free script to assist with the installing of several programs. I can walk you through it if you would like.

Originally Posted by Skybird

I deinstalled Steam launcher and then reinstalled it on Linux, to see whether it really gives me the choice, but it left me no choice ever to select the installation location, so it went onto the SSD. Within Steam I could choose where the game installation folder should be placed, but choosing the second drive, the HD, does not get accepted as a valid location, I need to chose the SSD again, only then it would work. So I have not installed any game.

The HD drive is mounted. Google seems to have instalkled some files there without me noticing it, and I have manually moved MP3 and picture archives here.

Any attempt to install a program to the HD so far has failed.

I don't have steam installed on this new hard drive yet... but, as long as you have read/write permissions, you should be able to install the "steam library" to the drive.
It will be a day before I can try this and get back to you, schedule plus needing a few hours to copy the few hundred GB worth of /home back to the new drives!

Originally Posted by Reece

Not that I know much but I have 2 HDD's and I have trouble installing Linux stuff to NTSF drives, data is ok.

In addition to Skybird's attempt to install Steam itself to a new directory....
I can say this... When installing a windows game, such as SH3, SH4, Need for Speed, an RTS game, etc, you can install it anywhere you like... Assuming you have Read/Write permissions in that directory.

I've yet to NOT have RW permissions on any of my NTFS file systems. Linux assumes that you have a Windows drive, and therefore you need to have access to those drives, Since you have access to them in Windows anyway.

Originally Posted by Skybird

^ As I said, this is what I did. And right that does not work. No matter whether I chose the HD as a whole or just a subdirectory I created on it for Steam - it is not "valid" since not empty (while it is empty for sure, I also made sure it is set to read AND write).

And how would a different software, say any non-game, get installed on the other drive? In the case of Steam, the steam launcher nevertheless goes to the SSD, the primary HD, that is.

So far the situation for me is loike with certain Android versions and cellphones: you can move data to the external SC card manually, but it does not let you install an app o it directly.

I will have to try this, once I'm back up and running 100%.
However, usually when installing a Native Linux program, you don't really get to chose where it goes.
This reduces the possibility for coding errors because they are always looking for a file in a specific location. MOST system and user programs go under / somewhere... (it varies). But most, if not all of YOUR data and programs go in your /home directory.
Helps to avoid users deleting things they actually need!

I have seen some info on actually moving your installed Steam directories to a new location, but I'm not sure if this actually works with Ubuntu or Mint...
(again, lost my VM when things went screwy...)

I will double check. Unless RR gets back to you sooner, it will be a day, or 2 depending on how soon I get this system back up and running.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you want to FORCE EVERYTHING in your home directory to go to the HDD... and leave the system on the SSD, then this is a possibility:

We will assume the HDD is CURRENTLY mounted at: /mnt/harddrive
And the SSD is 4 partitions mounted as "/", "/home", "/boot" and "swap".

In the directory /mnt/harddrive ("/mnt/harddrive" is where ever the HDD is mounted)
Make a directory named "<login-name>" (example: Skybird, Reece, RR, Barracuda).

Then copy ALL of your data -including hidden files- in /home/<login-name> to the HDD at /mnt/harddrive/<login-name>.

Then mount the HDD as /home.

So the Directory you made on the HDD that was originally viewed as:

/mnt/harddrive/<login-name>

After mounting the HDD as /home, "<login-name>" would be viewed as:

/home/<login-name>

with no need to every worry about the SDD (the data would remain intact, and untouched).
Using fstab to do this automatically at boot would make this a one time thing.


Rather than "symlink"-ing files, we have basically "sym-link"-ed the whole partition.
With the added advantage of keeping the original data.

Remember, there aren't any "drives" in Linux. There is just the "file system". You "mount" 'physical disk' to locations in the "file system".

You can have / on 1 drive -for example- a 250GB 10k rpm WD Raptor, then you could have the /boot on a 4GB USB jump drive (overkill on size here!), /swap could be another 250GB Raptor, and finally you could have /home on 4 1TB Raptors in Raid 0 (or raid 10 for redundancy and speed).

Any of these Directories can go on any physical drive... drives can be "mounted" in the "file system" ANYWHERE...

Another type is the LVM, LVM are "file systems" that can literally span Multiple drives... and they can grow when new drives are installed... (not sure if yours is on an LVM).
You have to think a bit "abstract" when you think about the way Linux handles the hard drives.

Let me know if you want to try putting the HDD as /home....




Back to fixing my sytem now.......
Hardware failures!

Barracuda

[Skybird]

Thanks, Barracuda, that must have costed you some time.

I must admit however that I hit my limits of juggling with Linux here. My general understanding of such non-routine complications under Linux simply is not profound enough. I even already have forgotten again how I once managed to mount the HD... I will try once more tomorrow to get the Steam game library accepted on the HD - and if not, it is no big deal since I cannot play my preferred titles under Linux anyway.

If I would have known before, I probably would not have even bought the second HD.

[Rockin Robbins]

To mount a drive, simply use the Nautilus file manager, choose other locations and click on the drive of your choice. The square with up arrow will appear, showing you the drive is now mounted.

I know there's a way to have a drive auto mount on startup but I haven't bothered. It's too easy to mount manually to make me want to fix it.

[Reece]

Originally Posted by BarracudaUAK

Linux assumes that you have a Windows drive, and therefore you need to have access to those drives, Since you have access to them in Windows anyway.

Not sure what you mean here, I am mostly wanting to get Far Cry 2 running, this won't run well in Win 10 and I want to stay away from Windows.
If I install the game does it have to be on a NTSF drive?
Certainly I can access the Win 10 files but don't want to corrupt Win 10.
Should I install it in Win 10 but then access the exe file through Wine?
Confused!!

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

After six years of developing a decently working desktop on their own, Canonical has decided to go back to its open source roots. Starting in 2018 with Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu will ship with GNOME 3 (or 4 by then?) as its default desktop.

When developers were unable to get the next version of Unity, Unity 8, stable enough to use as a default desktop, Mark Shuttleworth and cohorts took stock and made the tough choice to stop duplicating the efforts of truly open source desktops.

Unity started out to near universal jeers by the Linux crowd. They persevered until Unity 7 became a well functioning desktop deserving respect. Then it looks like they dropped the ball on Unity 8. Game over.

Well imo that sucks, does this mean that my version of Ubuntu will be redundant and in 2018 I have to reinstall the new version from scratch?
Can this version just be upgraded?
This seems worse than Windows!!

[BarracudaUAK]

Originally Posted by Reece

Not sure what you mean here, I am mostly wanting to get Far Cry 2 running, this won't run well in Win 10 and I want to stay away from Windows.
If I install the game does it have to be on a NTSF drive?
Certainly I can access the Win 10 files but don't want to corrupt Win 10.
Should I install it in Win 10 but then access the exe file through Wine?
Confused!!

I mean, that if you have a Hard drive partition formatted with NTFS (Windows), that Linux "sees" that partition as a "Windows drive". Meaning, that if you have a Windows installation (which you currently do on that PC), you can access that NTFS drive with Windows. So Linux allows you to access the NTFS partition in Linux as well.

To illustrate: Lets say you have a house. And roughtly 1/4 of that house is divided into a a storage room, such as a garage.

You have a key to the main house (Linux), and you have a key to the garage (Windows).
So it makes sense that the "house key" would also unlock the door between the house and the garage. Since restricting you from accessing the garage from the house makes no sense. As you can go outside and open the outer door to the garage.

You already "own" the NTFS drive with Windows, so Linux let's you "own" the NTFS drive in Linux as well.


I really hope that made sense...


Also with wine, you can install to WHERE YOU WANT. Using winecfg you can set a directory to be a "hard drive".

One of my previous post I said that I have /home/<login-name>/driveH for all of my 32bit games. These games "see" this directory as "H:\".

Remember, wine is just telling the program what it wants to hear so that the program will run.


On my last PC, I had a 300GB WD Raptor with 1 partition of 300GB.

Windows had the raptor set as "H:\".
Linux mounted my Raptor partition (sda1), at /mnt/raptor
So in winecfg I set "H:\" as /mnt/raptor .
So just so I could keep it straight -in my head-.

Originally Posted by Reece

Well imo that sucks, does this mean that my version of Ubuntu will be redundant and in 2018 I have to reinstall the new version from scratch?
Can this version just be upgraded?
This seems worse than Windows!!

There is a time frame where a version (i.e Ubuntu 16.04, Fedora 25, etc) is supported.

For 16.04, which according to Ubuntu, (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases) will be supported until 2021. However I believe there is an upgrade program in Ubuntu. I know Fedora has one. That will allow you to upgrade without the need to "re-install" the new version.

Barracuda

[BarracudaUAK]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Thanks, Barracuda, that must have costed you some time.

I must admit however that I hit my limits of juggling with Linux here. My general understanding of such non-routine complications under Linux simply is not profound enough. I even already have forgotten again how I once managed to mount the HD... I will try once more tomorrow to get the Steam game library accepted on the HD - and if not, it is no big deal since I cannot play my preferred titles under Linux anyway.

If I would have known before, I probably would not have even bought the second HD.

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

To mount a drive, simply use the Nautilus file manager, choose other locations and click on the drive of your choice. The square with up arrow will appear, showing you the drive is now mounted.

I know there's a way to have a drive auto mount on startup but I haven't bothered. It's too easy to mount manually to make me want to fix it.

FSTAB

You can find it in

/etc

use your preferred txt editor to view it.

Skybird, Post it here and I can see how things are mounting, and we can -if you want to continue- go from there.


RR's method is one I use when I'm just putting a drive in for a short time just to move some files around.
Nothing wrong with it. I like to keep things "manual" until I decide that I want them automatic.

Barracuda

P.S. now I'm off to work!

[BarracudaUAK]

Ohh, by the way, you two are really keeping my on my toes here!


Barracuda

[Reece]

Thanks Barracuda, that makes a lot more sense now, the IT person that setup my PC did a good job and this is the HDD setup:
First drive has 4 partitions The last partition (sda4) is virtually 1Gb the other 3 are windows recovery, EFI system FAT 32 and reserved (only 17Mb).

The second drive has 3 partitions, the first 686Gb is Basic data sdb1 NTSF - Not mounted, sdb2 Linux swap (version 1) - Active, sdb3 Linux File System Ext4 - Mounted. Don't ask me what they all are but I assume I should make use of the first partition, it is only used by Win 10 for 3 Virtual Machines, 640Gb free.

Good to know that I can just upgrade my version when needed.

[Reece]

Anyone know how to minimize Firefox in Linux? the minimize, maximize, and restore buttons are missing!!
I suppose I can use Workspace Switcher.

[Rockin Robbins]

What's the GUI you're running? Can you give us a screenshot. Sounds like your window decorator isn't working right. Also, try hitting F-11 to get out of full screen mode.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Reece

Anyone know how to minimize Firefox in Linux? the minimize, maximize, and restore buttons are missing!!
I suppose I can use Workspace Switcher.

Which distribution and version are you using?

I am using xubuntu and for me, I would open up

Settings Manager then open up Window manager and check the configuration. But I remember when I was using Ubuntu, there was a different set of commands. So each distribution can have different commands.

I am afraid that I am not experienced enough to remember the command line text. Nice thing about Linux is that you can always ask your question on some of the more respectable Linux sites and someone will give you the command line text.

Good luck with it. I am still learning my way around Linux and it has honestly not always been an easy path.

Does this help at all?

[Reece]

I am using the stock Ubuntu 16.04 desktop, admittedly I do have a wallpaper,
launch bar on the left and status bar on the top.
If I had to guess I'd say it was Firefox, version 52.0.2 (64bit).

Edit: My apologies, I can't stop treating this as windows, it's there on the top left corner!!!
I do notice that the slide bars are very small in Linux, is there a way to widen them? I made the Launch Bar icons smaller but that didn't seem to effect the slide bar.

Edit 2: Yet another question.
I have dual boot and Use an external keyboard and monitor, it used to start ok in Linux (haven't used Win 10 for a long time) but no more.
When I start I have to lift the laptop case to press the start button then I usually close it and all starts fine. Now part way through loading, the computer decides to hibernate, or I assume so, all stops until I lift the lid again then it carries on to desktop screen.
In the Power settings I have "When the lid is closed" Do Nothing for both power settings, also discovered that when I open and close the lid anytime it hibernates. Weird!!

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Reece

I do notice that the slide bars are very small in Linux, is there a way to widen them? I made the Launch Bar icons smaller but that didn't seem to effect the slide bar.

That bugged me too. But I seem to remember (and that's is always risky) that the scroll bars seemed smaller on Ubuntu but larger when I went to XFCE

[Rockin Robbins]

They're that way for a reason. When you mouseover the line that represents the scrollbar the handle appears. Takes a little getting used to and I don't think it's better or worse, just different for no gain.