Ubuntu Mac new user FAQ
From FreekiWiki
Where are the other buttons on the mouse?
The Free Geek Mac Computer has a USB one-button mouse, unlike the two- or three-button mouse that comes with a PC style FreekBox. Ubuntu Linux expects a three-button mouse, so the Mac version makes special arrangements for that. The one-button mouse acts as the left button (or left-click) on a two/three button mouse. The F12 key on the keyboard acts as the right button (or right-click), and the F11 key acts as the middle button (or middle-click). The association is reversed for if you have set your mouse to be Left-Handed. There are two- and three-button USB mice available, and if attached to the Free Geek Mac Computer, will work just fine and as you would expect.
Why doesn't my monitor work with my FreeGeek Mac?
If your FreeGeek Mac computer didn't come with it's own monitor, the monitor that you do use might not work the first time you turn the computer on. Here are a couple of ways the problem might show up:
1. After the Ubuntu startup display progress bar completes, the screen goes blank, then a notice appears that says that the frequency is out of range, and nothing else happens.
2. After the Ubuntu startup display progress bar completes, the screen goes blank, then notice appears that says that the X configuration is wrong, and will be disabled until you correct the problem.
This problem happens because the monitor you are using is signifcantly different than the monitor that was connected to your computer when it was first set up at FreeGeek. This situation is not unusual. The setup process discovers information about the monitor that is connected at setup time, and that information is saved in a file on the hard drive. You can correct the problem by running a program that discovers the information about the monitor that you are using and saves that information, replacing the old monitor information. You can call Technical Support at FreeGeek, and someone there will help you do it, or you can bring your computer and your monitor back to FreeGeek and someone in Technical Support or MacBuild will do it for you.
How do I get started?
The first time you use your Free Geek Mac Computer, it will come up to a login screen for the oem account. The username for this account is oem and the password is freegeek. While this account will work, and is the one we use to test the machine, it is not very secure to have an account for which hundreds of people know the password. You can change this by resetting the oem account password.
At the login screen, login as user oem with the password freegeek, then follow the instructions in the FAQ item #How do I change my password? later in this document. You will be providing a new password which you should remember.
At the same time, you may wish to create a new, personalized account with your own user name and password. Follow the instructions in the FAQ item #How do I create new users?, providing your own user name and a new password. Be sure to give yourself (in your new account) Administrator privileges. That selection is available as one of the Profile selections in the new user setup. After creating the new account, log out of the oem account by selecting the red button in the upper right corner of the display and then selecting the Logout button. You can also find the red button in the System menu (select System in the top bar) labelled as Quit. The display will return to the original login screen that you saw when you first turned on the computer. Log in with your new user name and password.
Giving a new user account Administrator privileges allows that user to do computer management things that are otherwise restricted to the root user, like create and delete user accounts.
What software is included?
The Free Geek Ubuntu box has a full complement of useful software. The list below is not exhaustive.
- The Gimp - Image processing software roughly equivalent to Adobe Photoshop
- OpenOffice - Word Processing, Database, Spreadsheet, Drawing, Presentation Manager
- Firefox - Internet browser
- Evolution - Email, Calendar, Personal Information Manager
- Nautilus - File Manager and CD/DVD creator
- gThumb - Photo archive and Camera reader
- XSane - Scanner Software
- Lots of games
- Many utilities such as a calculator, screenshot taker, dictionary
How do I create new users?
New users are created by going to System>Administration>Users and Groups
The first user is set to have administrative privileges. This will not be true of new accounts unless it is specifically set under User Privileges.
How do I change my password?
Your password can be changed in System>Preferences>About Me.
Alternatively, all user passwords can be changed in System>Administration>Users
How do I change the name of my computer from "ubuntu"?
Go to System>Administration>Networking and click on the General tab. After changing the computer name, you MUST reboot immediately.
How do I add a printer?
Make sure the printer is cabled to the computer and turned on. Go to System>Administration>Printers. Double-click on "New Printer". You will need to enter your password at this point. A dialog box will pop up. The large box in the middle should have the name of your printer in it, and if you press "Forward", reasonable defaults should already be filled in.
How do I connect to the internet?
Dialup
We recommend using gnome-ppp instead of the Ubuntu "Network Settings" dialog. On the Free Geek boxen, it is in the Internet menu, It is not part of the default Ubuntu installation, so if you install from CD, you will need to use the Add/Remove application to install it. When you first use the program, you should go to "Setup" and click on "Detect" to detect the modem. This should only have to be done once. (Some Macs will not detect an internal modem. See #My internal modem isn't working.) Otherwise, most users should leave all the defaults alone and only put in the username, password and phone number in order to be able to connect. Make sure to check the "Remember password" box. Do not put anything in the "Dial prefix" box on the settings page, unless you need to dial an extra number (like 9) to access an outside line.
Broadband (cable or dsl)
For most cable and dsl modems, once the modem is set up, your ubuntu box will be able to connect without any extra configuration. If you are not able to connect, then check the following:
- The ethernet connection may need to be enabled. Go to System>Administration>Networking, highlight the ethernet connection and then click on properties. There should be a check mark in "Enable this connection". The Configuration should be DHCP unless you know it should be otherwise.
- The modem may need to be rebooted or reset.
- If the modem has not been configured, try browsing to the web interface of the modem. This can be found by checking System>Administration>Network tools. Change the network device to show the ethernet connection. If the IPV4 IP address starts with 169, or is absent, you are not connected. Otherwise, click on the Netstat tab. and check the routing information. The gateway address is the address of the modem. Just put that address in to firefox and you should see the administrative interface for the modem.
My internal modem isn't working
Unfortunately, some later Mac models, especially iBook/Powerbook and some G4 towers, have modem hardware that is not supported by versions of Ubuntu Linux since about 6.10 (Edgy Eft). The only known solution at this time is to use an external serial modem (NOT a USB modem) with a USB-to-serial adapter.
My menu and icons are messed up. How can I fix it?
The gnome panels (the strips containing menus, icons and buttons on the top and bottom of the screen) are very easy to customize, and so are very easy to mess up. The following tips can help you recover them.
missing panel
It is easy to delete one of the panels. To replace it, right-click on the remaining panel, and choose "New Panel" from the menu. This will give you a new blank panel. You will need to replace the menus and other features of the panel.
missing menu or other feature
You can add most features of the panels by right-clicking on the panel and choosing "Add to Panel". You will be presented with a large list of features to be added. Try them out. You can always delete them by right-clicking on the feature and selecting "Remove from Panel". Note that the Menu which was there originally is "Menu Bar", not "Main Menu".
Application icons are added by clicking on the menu and then right-clicking on the application icon in the menu and selecting "Add this launcher to panel"
panel in the wrong place
Panels can be moved to different sides of the screen by clicking and dragging.
Adding Software
The first place to look for software to add is in the Add/Remove utility (Applications>Add/Remove). This gives you access to the Ubuntu supported applications plus many others. More packages, and finer control over them, can be found by going to System>Administration>Synaptic Package Manager.
BEWARE! The Synaptic Package Manager window will announce that a new release (version 7.10) is available and offer to upgrade for you. DO NOT UPGRADE YOUR MAC TO RELEASE 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) UNLESS YOU REALLY REALLY KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!! As of November 14 2007, there are significant problems with the powerpc version of Ubuntu 7.10, not the least of which is that your Mac will not boot once it is installed. Free Geek does not support release 7.10 at this time, and the only thing Tech Support can do is re-install the currently supported version.
(Free Geek Mac Computers do not have Automatix installed. There is no Automatix for the PowerPC platform as of Ubuntu release 6.10 'Edgy Eft')
Media and online games
For various reasons, the Free Geek Mac boxen do not come preinstalled with software to play some types of video formats. Some Macs and "Store Specials" may come with DVD players physically installed, but again do not have all the the software installed to play all DVDs and video files. Automatix can be used to install other software for playing videos.
- Flashplayer is necessary to play video on sites such as youtube.com.
- Totem-xine and Multimedia codecs allow the playing of DVD's
- Mplayer and FF plugin allows the playing of many kinds of online streaming video
- AUD-DVD allows the playing of encrypted DVD's such as current movies. Free Geek will not install this package due to legal issues.
- Java (found in both Automatix and Add/Remove) enables the playing of online games.
