[Ham-Computers] Linux Questions - More

[Joe]

Jim,

> How can I change these properties (screen resolution, refresh rate,
> and DPI (changes font size)) when using using Linux? 

Resolution and refresh are modified in System > Preferences > Screen
resolution*.  Write down the initial values that were set during the
installation.  Use this as a backup in case things get bollixed up
later. 
* This may have changed to System > Preferences > Display in 9.04.

To change the default UBUNTU font and font size go to
System->Preferences->Appearance and select the Font tab.

The Windows Explorer equivalent is Nautilus.  You can see a listing (or
thumbnails) of the files in your home directory by selecting 
Places>Home Folder.  

In the upper right area of this panel you should see 2 magnifying glass
icons and the current font size between them.  This is another way to
adjust font sizes (but only for Nautilus).  To the right of the size
tools is the icon or list display option.  If you don't want to be
bothered by details, choose the icon view. 

As for the lack of space to add new applications...

> If problems occurred when using 9.1, I could reboot and check 5.1 to
> see if the same problem existed.  It's a 40GB hard drive, which I 
> assume is of adequate size for both versions.

40 GB 'should' be more than enough, however I suspect that your old 5.1
is not a minimal installation.  UBUNTU will install in less than 12GB +
some space (1MB or so) for a swap partition.  

Have you emptied the 'Trash' folder?

I suspect that you tested 9.1 using a 'live' CD before doing the
install.  Any particular reason why that isn't a suitable 'emergency'
disk for troubleshooting?  Or, other than sentimental reasons, why keep
the 5.1 install?  

If I recall correctly, the Grub boot menu has 2 versions of 9.1
available for booting, the normal default boot and the other basically a
'safe mode' boot.

The initial display of the Nautilus-explorer directory panel shows the
free space in the lower left corner. 

> Is there a Linux-equivalent of Partition Magic...

GParted is the free *nix equivalent of Partition Magic. 

You can install it (if you have room): Applications > Add/Remove then
search for GParted. 

GParted, which is what you probably used during the 9.01 install, should
be available on the installation 'Live' CD.  

The following are a series of commands to check out the current disk
partitioning w/o the installation of any additional software:  

Open up a terminal (i.e. a command-line)

Applications > Accessories > Terminal
Type in the command(s)

<=prompt==><==command + options     (That's a small L in the option.)
joe at JOE3:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for joe:            (type password after the colon)

Disk /dev/sda: 41.1 GB, 41110142976 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4998 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8b5b8b5b

   Device Boot    Start       End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *         1      2638    21189703+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2          2639      4998    18956700    5  Extended
/dev/sda5          2639      4894    18121288+  83  Linux
/dev/sda6          4895      4998      835348+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

The HPFS/NTFS is a WinXP partition.

(to see total and free space)
<=prompt==><==command + options

joe at JOE3:~$ df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda5              18G  7.6G  8.8G  47% /
...other stats...
joe at JOE3:~$ exit

exit is the command to quit terminal and return to the GUI interface.

My guess is that eventually you will have to reduce the size of the 5.1
partition, maybe even deleting it and re-installing 9.1 in either case.

As for getting help, as always: "GOOGLE is your friend!"
i.e try: UBUNTU Font Size or UBUNTU resolution or UBUNTU partition 
Each yielded lots of spot on info and help. 

You might want to take a tour of the default drop down menus, maybe even
make a couple of screen shots.  Very helpful for the newbie.  8-)

Joe, K9HDE

PS Why is it that the first response to someone's question always seems
to be:  "Download 'the-responders-favorite-software'?"