Love Vector but 2 problems I'm encountering until perfection

[zbirdman777]

After trying about 14 distros, I've found that I like Ubuntu and Vector Linux a lot. As a matter of fact, I found Vector to be more competant in a few areas than ubuntu. For example (WPA2 Enterprise Wireless, and mounting partitions on boot).

But 2 problems remain:
1) My audio playback doesn't work and attempting to set it up using VASM just closes the application. This is a major problem that can be a deciding factor on whether or not I decided to stick with Vector so if someone has ideas on how I can resolve the issue please help.

2) I cannot figure out how to add shortcuts to the desktop. Its embarrassing to admit, but normally I just click and drag icons or create a launcher with its terminal command. It's probably just a matter of time until I figure this out but some feedback would be nice.

One other thing, can someone provide me with a FAQ to terminal commands for VL, I'm familiar with Debian terminal so I'm not a complete n00b. If not, just the normal command on how to install an application from terminal and how to open a window (with the GUI) through terminal would be nice.

I appreciate any feedback and thank you all in advance.

I am using the newest version of Vector Gold 5.8 I think, XFCE desktop environment.
Dell XPS M1530 Laptop

[Rytz]

1) My audio playback doesn't work and attempting to set it up using VASM just closes the application. This is a major problem that can be a deciding factor on whether or not I decided to stick with Vector so if someone has ideas on how I can resolve the issue please help.

I had a few sound issues myself but no crashing - have you tried running alsaconf as root through the terminal?  If it crashes there, where does it crash (which screen)?

2) I cannot figure out how to add shortcuts to the desktop. Its embarrassing to admit, but normally I just click and drag icons or create a launcher with its terminal command. It's probably just a matter of time until I figure this out but some feedback would be nice.

Not sure off hand since I'm new myself but you could search for existing icon names with grep from the command line (as root):

Code:

grep -r "an_existing_desktop_shortcut_name" /

[zbirdman777]

I tried running VASM under terminal and it let me install the sound drivers for my intel sound card but when I try to play a song or video I get this error "[AO OSS audio setup: Can't open audio device /dev/dsp: No such file or directory" this only occurs when I attempt to play videos, music seems ok. I'm currently testing different formats of videos: .avi and .flv are throwing this error. Keep in mind that the sound for the videos still works but the error DOES occur.

[zbirdman777]

Ok, I corrected the problem with the error by a fluke. I was trying different sessions and attempted to open a video under KDE 3.5 and it let me configure some settings. Now I am no longer getting the errors. Everything seems to be fine now besides the shortcut issue which is only a minor set back. Thank you Rytz for your feedback!

[Rytz]

No prob - glad you got it worked out.

[toothandnail]

After trying about 14 distros, I've found that I like Ubuntu and Vector Linux a lot. As a matter of fact, I found Vector to be more competant in a few areas than ubuntu. For example (WPA2 Enterprise Wireless, and mounting partitions on boot).

I'm glad you like Vector - it has a lot to recommend it.....

2) I cannot figure out how to add shortcuts to the desktop. Its embarrassing to admit, but normally I just click and drag icons or create a launcher with its terminal command. It's probably just a matter of time until I figure this out but some feedback would be nice.

There may well be another (better?) way of doing this, but the simplest under Xfce is to create or copy an existing .desktop file to ~/Desktop. So, to get a shortcut to the Gimp on my desktop, I would fire up MC (mc from a command line), open ~/Desktop with one pane, then change to the other pane and navigate to /usr/share/applications. I would then scroll down until I find gimp.desktop, highlight it and press F5, which will copy the gimp.desktop file to my Desktop directory. Shortly after doing that, I would have a Gimp launcher on the desktop.

To do the same thing completely manaully, open a terminal and enter this:

Code:

cp /usr/share/applications/gimp.desktop ~/Desktop

If you are trying to add a program that doesn't exist in the normal Xfce menu, you will need to create your own .desktop file for it, once again located in ~/Desktop. You can one of the manu .desktop files you find in /usr/share/applications as a guide to what is needed.

One other thing, can someone provide me with a FAQ to terminal commands for VL, I'm familiar with Debian terminal so I'm not a complete n00b. If not, just the normal command on how to install an application from terminal and how to open a window (with the GUI) through terminal would be nice.

Terminal commands in VL are pretty much the same as terminal commands in Debian - its all bash. Package management is somewhat different. For command line package management, have a look at the man page for slapt-get.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by how to open a window (with the GUI) through a terminal? If you want to start a GUI application from a terminal window, simply entering the name of the executable will work, so long as it is in your users' search path. Adding '&' to the end of the command will alllow you to regain control of the terminal (by placing the GUI command in background).

I am using the newest version of Vector Gold 5.8 I think, XFCE desktop environment.
Dell XPS M1530 Laptop

  I hope you don't really mean that. The most recent version of VL is 6.0 Standard. And its getting a bit long in the tooth itself. 5.8 was a pretty long time ago.....

To find out for sure, open a terminal window and enter this:

Code:

cat /etc/vector-version

That should return something like this:

Code:

Vector Linux 6.0 Standard Final Built on Feb016-09

Paul.

[zbirdman777]

Ahhh! I should hit myself in the head for not figuring out how to create shortcuts! Well thank you, I think I can take it from there.

What I mean by terminal commands is in Debian/Ubuntu I would type "apt-get install <application>" to install a program within terminal.
And what I meant by open a window in terminal is in Debian I could navigate to a folder or text file for instance and type "gnome-open <directory or file>" and I could open that directory or file in a gui window.

Obviously these commands would be different in Vector because the package manager is Gslapt instead of Aptitude and the DE is Xfce instead of Gnome. I'm just wanting to learn some new bash commands for this instance.

My mistake about the version I am running. I have version 6.0.

Oh yea. And by the way, I just ran into a strange problem. Gslapt will no longer open, I haven't figured out the command to run it in terminal either to test it. I get a message at startup that says I can't connect to "vector.linux.vnet" and I should add it to "/etc/hosts". <-- this file doesn't exist

I'll write down exactly what the error message is and post it in a moment.

Thanks again for the help! You guys are great!

[zbirdman777]

This is the Error Message:

"Could not look up internet address for vector.linux.vnet. This will prevent Xfce from operating correctly. It may be possible to correct the problem by adding vector.linux.vnet to the file /etc/hosts on your system."

"[Continue Anyway]"   "[try Again]"

[Rytz]

This is the Error Message:

"Could not look up internet address for vector.linux.vnet. This will prevent Xfce from operating correctly. It may be possible to correct the problem by adding vector.linux.vnet to the file /etc/hosts on your system."

"[Continue Anyway]"   "[try Again]"

Are you getting that at the start of gslapt or at the start of your system?  I think I remember the address vector.linux.net as the default hostname for the system during Vector Linux Installation.  Check the hostname of your machine and see if that same address shows up.

[zbirdman777]

That messege is occurring at the log in when I click "log in", but I think that's the reason gslapt isn't responding.

The hostname which is in the file etc/HOSTNAME is vector.linux.vnet

The file that the message describes is different though. The error message says etc/host, in that file it has this information:

127.0.0.1     localhost
127.0.0.1     DexterIII.ttu.edu     DexterIII

I don't know what the IP address is but its not mine, DexterIII is the name of my computer and ttu.edu is the domain of my college.

[Rytz]

I'm guessing vector.linux.vnet should match up with (be changed to) DexterIII.ttu.edu.

Both of my files (that you mentioned above) have the same domain information.

[zbirdman777]

I'm guessing vector.linux.vnet should match up with (be changed to) DexterIII.ttu.edu.

Both of my files (that you mentioned above) have the same domain information.

Your guess would be correct. That fixed the problem. I got the package manager working as well. Everything seems smooth at this point. I appreciate the help. I'll be sticking around this forum for a while I think. Seems like a friendly place.

[Rytz]

Great - glad its working - have fun

[bigpaws]

Gslapt is actually a front end to slapt-get which is the Slackware type version of apt-get.

Here is the link for more documentation:

http://software.jaos.org/

HTH

Bigpaws