14 LXF260 March 2020 http://www.linuxformat.comANSWERS
GET HELP NOW!
We’d love to try and answer any questions
you send to [email protected],
no matter what the level. We’ve all been
stuck before, so don’t be shy. However, we’re
only human (although many suspect Jonni
is a robot), so it’s important that you include
as much information as you can. If
something works on one distro but not
another, then tell us. If you get an error
message, please tell us the exact message
and precisely what you did to invoke it.
If you have, or suspect, a hardware
problem, let us know about the hardware.
Consider installing hardinfo or lshw. These
programs list the hardware on your
machine, so send us their output. If you’re
unwilling, or unable, to install these, run the
following commands in a root terminal and
send us the system.txt file too.
uname -a > system.txt
lspci >> system.txt
lspci -vv >> system.txtshould be the address of the router.
Another way to find a router, or any other
device, on the local network is to use a
network scanner, either one of the GUI
programs or a command line program like
arp-scan:
$ sudo arp-scan --interface eth0 --localnet
If the modem is locked to one particular
ISP, you won’t be able to configure the
details for another. However, all may not be
lost. If either OpenWRT (https://openwrt.
org) or DD-WRT (https://dd-wrt.com) is
available for your device, you can flash it
with that. These are open source operating
systems for routers that give much greater
control. They generally do not always work
with the modem side of things, but you can
use your existing modem to connect
between the router and your ISP.Xfce to Cinnamon
I am using Kali Linux, which I have been
told is using the Xfce desktop. I want to
change the Xfce desktop to a Cinnamon
desktop. I have done this so far:
sudo apt install synaptic
go to cinnamon
select all the packages
apply
In a terminal I ran cinnamon --reset
then typed ‘cinnamon’. I have now both
desktops at the same time. So I’m still
trying to find out how to make it work
with only the Cinnamon desktop.
John BurtonDesktop environments are separate
entities within a Linux distro, so you can
have more than one installed at the same
time. Switching is then just a matter of
selecting the desktop you want to use fromthe login screen. In other words, you need
to exit Xfce before starting Cinnamon –
your approach has run Cinnamon on top of
Xfce. All you need to do is install
Cinnamon, or any other desktop
environment you want to use.
However, as you have already
discovered, there are many packages
related to Cinnamon, and you most likely
don’t need all of them. Distros deal with
this situation by creating meta-packages, a
package that contains no files itself but
depends on all the packages you need for
that software, so installing it pulls in
everything you need. Kali is based on
Debian, so this advice applies to all such
distros, including Ubuntu. RPM distros like
openSUSE and Fedora handle the situation
in a similar way.In Synaptic, search for desktop, set it to
limit the search to names only, and you will
see a list of desktop packages (you could
also search for meta to see all meta
packages, not all of which are desktops). In
this case you want cinnamon-desktop-
environment, install that and you will have
everything you need to run a Cinnamon
desktop. Log out, enter your username and
password, but before you press the login
button, open the desktop menu situated at
the top right and select Cinnamon. Now
log in to the Cinnamon desktop, and this
choice will be remembered as your user
for future logins. You still have Xfce
installed and can go back to it from the
login screen.The cure to many router ills is to install an open source firmware on it, like OpenWRT here.To install a desktop environment, you normally have to select only one package, the package manager does the rest.14 LXF260March 2020 1112March 0Gotb2u0oANSWERS
GETHELPNOW!
We’dlovetotryandansweranyquestions
you send to [email protected],
no matter what the level. We’ve all been
stuck before, so don’t be shy. However, we’re
only human (although many suspect Jonni
is a robot), so it’s important that you include
as much information as you can. If
something works on one distro but not
another, then tell us. If you get an error
message, please tell us the exact message
and precisely what you did to invoke it.
If you have, or suspect, a hardware
problem, let us know about the hardware.
Consider installing hardinfo or lshw. These
programs list the hardware on your
machine, so send us their output. If you’re
unwilling, or unable, to install these, run the
following commands in a root terminal and
send us the system.txt file too.
uname -a > system.txt
lspci >> system.txt
lspci -vv >> system.txtshould be the address of the router.
Another way to find a router, or any other
device, on the local network is to use a
network scanner, either one of the GUI
programs or a command line program like
arp-scan:
$ sudo arp-scan --interface eth0 --localnet
If the modem is locked to one particular
ISP, you won’t be able to configure the
details for another. However, all may not be
lost. If either OpenWRT (https://openwrt.
org) or DD-WRT (https://dd-wrt.com) is
available for your device, you can flash it
with that. These are open source operating
systems for routers that give much greater
control. They generally do not always work
with the modem side of things, but you can
use your existing modem to connect
between the router and your ISP.
Xfce to Cinnamon
I am using Kali Linux, which I have been
told is using the Xfce desktop. I want to
change the Xfce desktop to a Cinnamon
desktop. I have done this so far:
sudo apt install synaptic
go to cinnamon
select all the packages
apply
In a terminal I ran cinnamon --reset
then typed ‘cinnamon’. I have now both
desktops at the same time. So I’m still
trying to find out how to make it work
with only the Cinnamon desktop.
John Burton
Desktop environments are separate
entities within a Linux distro, so you can
have more than one installed at the same
time. Switching is then just a matter of
selecting the desktop you want to use from
theloginscreen.Inotherwords,youneed
to exit Xfce before starting Cinnamon –
your approach has run Cinnamon on top of
Xfce. All you need to do is install
Cinnamon, or any other desktop
environment you want to use.
However, as you have already
discovered, there are many packages
related to Cinnamon, and you most likely
don’t need all of them. Distros deal with
this situation by creating meta-packages, a
package that contains no files itself but
depends on all the packages you need for
that software, so installing it pulls in
everything you need. Kali is based on
Debian, so this advice applies to all such
distros, including Ubuntu. RPM distros like
openSUSE and Fedora handle the situation
in a similar way.InSynaptic,searchfordesktop,setitto
limit the search to names only, and you will
see a list of desktop packages (you could
also search for meta to see all meta
packages, not all of which are desktops). In
this case you want cinnamon-desktop-
environment, install that and you will have
everything you need to run a Cinnamon
desktop. Log out, enter your username and
password, but before you press the login
button, open the desktop menu situated at
the top right and select Cinnamon. Now
log in to the Cinnamon desktop, and this
choice will be remembered as your user
for future logins. You still have Xfce
installed and can go back to it from the
login screen.The cure to many router ills is to install an open source firmware on it, like OpenWRT here.To install a desktop environment, you normally have to select only one package, the package manager does the rest.