Kubuntu Install

I have finally gotten around to setting up some of my other computers. I plugged this one in and installed Kubuntu this afternoon. Had to run over to Iguana Micro to pick up some ethernet cables so I could hook up more than one computer. Everything seems to be working okay, except this keyboard, which is from an old E-machines systems. I picked it because of all the keyboards I have, the layout on this one is most similar to the one on the Dell keyboard I have been using. Most of the differences are inconsequential, but the backspace key on some of the others is half the size of this one. Problem is it keeps dropping characters. Typing really hard seems to alleviate the problem, but I don't think I want to keep doing that. On the other hand, maybe it's simply because this keyboard hasn't been used for a while. Maybe it's just that the contacts are dirty. We shall see.

The g-mail display is different here as well. Kind of surprised by that. I would have thought that html was html. But then I heard that Microsoft changed something to make Firefox incompatible, and Firefox has been crashing on my XP system lately. So maybe I will just keep using this one, but my fingers are getting tired.

Of course, when I tried to add the Iguana Micro link to this post, the Linux web browser (Konqueror)crashed, so I thought I would try good ol' Firefox. I was able to download it, but install, well, all the pieces are on the disk, but that seems to be as far as it will let me go without the secret handshake. So now I'm back on my old XP system and it's working fine, so far.

Plugging the video cable into the other box required using a DVI-to-VGA adaptor. I imagine there is some reason for this, but right now it's just an annoyance. The little thumbscrews don't want to turn and I want them tightened down because I don't want the video cable falling out because the adaptor came loose. Naturally I don't have a tiny slotted screwdriver handy, but wait, what do we have here? An X-acto knife with the blade reversed. The tip is stuck in the collet and the square end (the mounting end) of the blade is exposed. I do this to protect the tip and to keep from slicing my fingers. But the square end should work as a screwdriver, and it does. Actually works pretty well. Thin wide blade fits easily in the slot and doesn't slip out. Can't make more than half a turn at a time, but it is easy find the slot again. I like this.


The sex of the connectors on this adaptor are wrong. I included this picture because it shows what the VGA end of the cable should look like, and what the DVI socket on the computer looks like. The previous picture (with the pins showing) does not really show enough detail.

Update December 2016 replaced missing pictures.