Computer
UBUNTU Resource
Clicking on file links (.doc or .pdf) in any of the resources pages will require the relevant plug in to be available on your browser to display correctly. If you wish to download the file, right click on the link and select 'save link as' (Firefox) or 'save target as' (Internet Explorer) or whatever the equivalent is in your browser to save it on your machine.
The following topics relate to release 7.0.4 of Ubuntu (Feisty Fawn), but may apply to other releases and versions as well.
If you find any additional information which may be of interest or can suggest other useful links please email us at computers@craftrecycling.org.uk to let us know and we may include it in these pages.
1. Ubuntu Forum
There are forums for Ubuntu users where problems can be investigated and comments aired. We have found the following to be useful:
http://ubuntuforums.org/ - The main Ubuntu forum - VERY useful!
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/archive/index.php/f-52-p-24.html - Techy help
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/ubuntu-63/ - Ubuntu section of LINUX Questions.
2. Forgotten password
If you have forgotten your password, try this to reset/change it:
1. Restart the pc and when at the bottom of the screen it says ‘grub loading please wait' and ‘press esc to enter the menu', press the esc key (be quick).
2. This shows a selection screen. Select the highest numbered kernel entry which has ‘recovery mode' after it.
3. The screen will scroll lots of startup commands, then stop at a prompt saying ‘root@user-desktop:' or similar.
4. Type ls /home (that's a lower case ‘L', and there's a space between ‘ls' and ‘/home'). A list of usernames will display.
5. Type passwd username - where username is your actual user id.
6. It will ask you for a new password and then to retype it as a check. Type what you want as a password. Note: your password will not appear, not even as ***** as you type it.
7. Restart then machine and you should be able to sign in using the new password.
3. Connecting to the Internet on Broadband
This link to the Ubuntu documentation site has useful technical detail on setting up broadband connections (both wired and wireless).
4. Conecting to the Internet on Dialup or Cable
See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DialupModemHowto and http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Modem-HOWTO.html for general modem 'how to' instructions. This link also has some useful technical detail about dialup connection (at the end of the page).
5. Playing DVDs, MP3 files etc.
The easiest way to ensure no audio and dvd problems is to install the VLC player - we now install it on all machines with DVD drives. Click on 'Add/Remove...' in the Applications menu and change the 'Show:' box in the top right to 'All Applications'. Then search for VLC player and install it (select it and 'apply the changes)'. Then go to the System/Preferences menu and click on 'Removable Drives and Media'. In the box that appears, click on the 'Multimedia' tab and change the 'Video DVD Discs' entry to be VLC instead of Totem (leave the %m parameter) - this will make it autoplay inserted discs with VLC.
Alternatively, if you don't want to use VLC, you can install Automatix and use it to install the 'Restricted Extras' and 'Multimedia Codecs' items. DVDs and music files should then play.