Ubuntu help needed

"wiffleballtony" (wiffleballtony) 11/18/2016 at 23:29 • Filed to: None

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TLDR: I’ve installed applications, but I have no idea where they are. Please send halp.

So I had a 8 year old Dell desktop in my closet that a family member dumped on me to fix because it was “slow.” I “fixed” it but they didn’t want it back. On a lark I decided I’d try my hand at Linux. So I downloaded and installed Ubuntu on it. The OS install went pretty smoothly. I was feeling pretty confident. I decided that I didn’t want to use the pre installed Firefox and I wanted Chrome, and also Team Viewer so I could mess with it at work. AND here’s where things turned south and fast.

I was able to download Chrome and install it, as well as Team Viewer. HOWEVER, I can’t locate a shortcut, EXE, or quick launch button anywhere. I assumed that the button on the top left of my lead image was where this stuff should appear, but it’s totally blank. Either I’m missing something or Linux managed to break on a clean install. If you have any ideas please help, and keep in mind I know absolutely nothing about how to troubleshoot anything on this OS.

audicatt > wiffleballtony 11/18/2016 at 23:52

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Open the terminal and type “chrome”. That should open it, and once it’s in the bar on the left, you can right click it and set it to stay there.

pip bip - choose Corrour > wiffleballtony 11/18/2016 at 23:57

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i got nothing, never used Linux/Ubuntu.

wiffleballtony > audicatt 11/19/2016 at 00:06

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I’ll give that a shot. Is that main screen supposed to be where apps are?

audicatt > wiffleballtony 11/19/2016 at 00:21

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Not sure, I haven’t used Ubuntu in years. The user interface is a bit weird.

tromoly > wiffleballtony 11/19/2016 at 00:39

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Alt + F2 is a fantastic shortcut, brings up a launcher so you can launch whatever application you’re wanting.

Once the program is running you can right click -> add to launcher (something like that) and it should stay on the launcher bar, something like that.

mcseanerson > audicatt 11/19/2016 at 01:22

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Yeah, the interface for ubuntu has gotten pretty weird over the last few years and it’s been a bit since I’ve messed with it either.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > wiffleballtony 11/19/2016 at 07:48

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Hi! As a note, you might want to try a version of Linux Mint - the GUI is more akin to Windows, so if you are giving it to people used to Windows, they may prefer it. It’s Ubuntu-based, so all the commands and apps that work on Ubuntu work on Mint as well?

‘Taskbar’ like Windows, and a fairly Windows-like applications menu at the bottom left, like the Start Menu on Windows with a very Windows-like ‘System Tray’ for running apps, etc. That’s the desktop on my laptop from a few weeks ago for reference.

If you do get Ubuntu working, or you use Mint, you can remove unwanted apps from the Software Manager program, or by running the ‘sudo apt-get remove firefox’ (or whichever app it is, as long as you know the actual name used in the system) to remove it from the terminal. Sudo means the command is being issued by an administrator account, so it will ask for your administrator password when you run any sudo command.

I was like you, new to Linux, back in around 2006 when I first got into it running it on VMs....I’d completely miss it now as I run it on my laptop, my netbook and my spare desktop (still Win10 on my main desktop though!). I’ve never really had many issues with it other than sporadic WiFi glitches solved by simply restarting. :)

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > wiffleballtony 11/19/2016 at 07:52

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Ubuntu uses Unity right now so they SHOULD be on that ‘dock’ type bar along the left side of the screen?

If not, they USED to be under that little icon at the very top left that looks like the Ubuntu logo....I’ve not used Ubuntu since they switched from using Gnome2 to Unity as a Window Manager, so I have no idea if that icon even still exists or not. Check the dock, then check the very top-left icon and see if they are there.

TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. > wiffleballtony 11/19/2016 at 10:21

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To see what you’ve installed run this in the terminal window (ctrl t or alt t can’t remember off the top of my head).

apt list —installed

Applications are usually installed in /usr/bin (in terminal; cd /usr/bin ; ls -al)

wiffleballtony > audicatt 11/19/2016 at 10:22

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Tried that, said Chrome not found

wiffleballtony > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 11/19/2016 at 10:35

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Yesh, checked that, completely empty. I think it’d broken.

wiffleballtony > tromoly 11/19/2016 at 10:38

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Hitting alt f2 takes me to the same screen as my lead image, which is completely blank.

Bryan doesn't drive a 1M > wiffleballtony 11/19/2016 at 12:00

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I second the Mint recommendation, but this might be the way to go to really speed up your old computer: http://lubuntu.net/

It’s Ubuntu, but with a very lightweight desktop environment. Also more windows-ish for ease of use.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > wiffleballtony 11/19/2016 at 12:06

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If running the chrome command by typing chrome and pressing enter in terminal does nothing, that usually means chrome isn’t installed - did it give an error? How did you install it, from a package onChrome’s website?

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > wiffleballtony 11/19/2016 at 12:07

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Sounds it...try downloading and installing Linux Mint. I think you’ll like the interface better and, luckily, installing Linux distros is pretty quick and painless.

gergey - Wishes vette was Datsun > wiffleballtony 11/19/2016 at 12:59

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If you hit the “windows” button on your keyboard it brings up the search bar, you can search for programs / files / etc there

Also, how did you install it,

a) manually using apt-get,
b) via a website,
c) the easy way, using the Ubuntu Software Center (which is one of the icons on the left menu of the desktop)

Also, did you install Chrome or Chromium? I’d strongly recommend using Chromium over Chrome on any Linux distro, Chrome is “generally” meant for windows...

tromoly > wiffleballtony 11/19/2016 at 13:29

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I don’t know what to tell you then, I have a machine running Ubuntu 16.04 and Alt + F2 works just fine. The documentation for keyboard shortcuts even says it’s a valid shortcut, don’t know what to tell you.

wiffleballtony > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 11/19/2016 at 14:52

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I downloaded and installed a package from the website. I received a pop up saying it’s installed, but that could be a trick. Is there a better method?

wiffleballtony > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 11/19/2016 at 14:52

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I’ll give it a shot.

wiffleballtony > Bryan doesn't drive a 1M 11/19/2016 at 14:53

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That seems like the way to go then.

wiffleballtony > gergey - Wishes vette was Datsun 11/19/2016 at 14:55

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The windows button takes me to the screen on the lead image. No search bar. I may try Mint. And Chromium.

wiffleballtony > tromoly 11/19/2016 at 14:55

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It’s probably broke.

audicatt > wiffleballtony 11/19/2016 at 16:50

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Seems that Chrome hasn’t installed properly, then. Instead of downloading it from the website as if you were using a Windows computer, try “sudo apt-get install chrome” in the terminal.

Your Linux install might also be broken. Instead of trying to fix it I would recommend trying a different distro, such as Mint. It’s a bit more user friendly and lighter on the hardware.

wiffleballtony > audicatt 11/19/2016 at 20:54

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So, I had to add a third party repository and then download chrome. Pretty convoluted. still doesnt solve the Unity issues though. I did download Mint, however the machibe refuses to boot from the disk. http://askubuntu.com/questions/510056/how-to-install-google-chrome

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > wiffleballtony 11/19/2016 at 22:53

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What’s the error for booting from the disk? Could be an issue with the burn to the disk or a corrupted download of the disk image. If you use a program like unetbootin, you can format a flash drive as a boot device instead temporarily?

wiffleballtony > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 11/20/2016 at 14:35

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No error, just get the spinning icon indefinitely.

audicatt > wiffleballtony 11/20/2016 at 16:11

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Did you burn it to a DVD or use a USB drive?

wiffleballtony > audicatt 11/20/2016 at 17:18

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DVD

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > wiffleballtony 11/20/2016 at 17:21

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Try it again with usb drive if you can...I’ve found live boots seem to act up more if run from discs...

Unetbootin and Linux Live USB Creator work well for creating bootable flash drives, and you purpt the flash drives back to normal with a simple right-click, format in My Comouter/This PC later.