Hey guys. First of all, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Victor Zamora. I've been a Linux user for almost 24hrs now, so I'm a TOTAL beginner. Regardless of how new I am to Linux, I have quite a bit of experience with programming. I'm not great, but I'm not totally incompetent (regardless of what these questions make it seem like).


First off, my wireless connection keeps dying...it's never happened before but it is now. How do I set it as "default" or "always connect to." Starting next year, that will not be okay with me due to issues with my school.


Also, I've downloaded VirtualBox 3.0 and can't figure out how to install it. I keep getting "Access Denied" printed back. In the instructions, it tells me to add lines to my /etc/apt/sources.list: I have no idea how to even start looking for where to add that line.

What is Wine? How does it work?

Oh, and my speakers aren't working. Are there drivers for that, or how do I get those functional again? Same question for my touchscreen (I'm running a convertible tablet).

Welcome to LQ
Which distribution are you using?
Did the wireless worked under linux before?
What happened to make it not work anymore (update, installed some software...)
What file did you downloaded?, how are you trying to install?

What Linux distro are you using? That can have a bearing on the best way to offer you suggestions.

What type of file (extension) is the Virtual Box download?

Off the top of my head, the Virtual Box problem sounds like a permissions issue. You can learn more about permissions--how to see them, what they mean, and how to change them--here.

I'm sorry. I'm not the guy to help with the wireless question.

Welcome to LQ and Linux!

So wireless. You mean you get connected, but it drops the connection? What wireless card do you have?

Also, which Linux distribution do you use? Rather then downloading Virtualbox from their website its better to install from your distribution package manager. You'll need the root password to get access to it.

Wine is an implementation of the windows libraries so that you can run your old windows programs under Linux (well many of them anyway). E.g. its popular among those who have difficult to put down those flashy windows games.

Mons
EDIT: people are so quick here. Two reply already in before I can hit the submit button...

Before anyone can answer your question about specifying wireless access point priority, and installing VirtualBox, we need to know which distribution you are running. You mentioned "/etc/apt/sources.list", so it would lead me to think Ubuntu or Debian; ideally the default program that handles the networking, nm-applet (NetworkManager), should be the same on both, but from personal experience, the nm-applet on Ubuntu is much more Windows-like than the Debian build.

"/etc/apt/sources.list" is the full pathname to the file "sources.list" and it is kept in "/etc/apt". To get there, open up a terminal (or console) application and type in:
If you aren't using Ubuntu, I highly suggest you do - it is geared towards ex-Windows users, and overall a much friendlier experience if it is to be used as a basic desktop (word processing, web browsing, email, etc.).

WINE translates MSFC (MicroSoft Foundational Classes) API calls, made by the Windows program, into matching Linux calls. It's not 100%, nor will it ever be. I ditched WINE after the two programs I needed (that had no open-source equivalents) just plain-old wouldn't work.

EDIT:

Quote:

Originally Posted by monsm EDIT: people are so quick here. Two reply already in before I can hit the submit button...

Tell me about it.

rather than trying to manually download and install virtual box.. you should use the package management system in your Distro. It will make your life with Linux much less frustrating.. .

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose virtualbox-ose-guest-utils




edit: monsm had the same suggestion and I skimmed past it.. Guess my post is redundant as well... :/

I will try to give you some general pointers, however, for the sake of sanity I really advice you to open a new thread for each independent problem once you get some basic directions about the principles here.

Unless you have used any other unix clone in the past, you shouldn't assume that anything will work the same that it did on the rest of OSes you used in the past. That doesn't mean that your programming experience can't be re-used, but at user level and for now, don't make assumptions on how the things must work.

For example:

In linux you usually don't go fishing programs around the net, download them and install them manually as you would do -let's say- in Windows. You usually use your so-called package manager. You should really start by checking the documentation for your distribution. All the distros have at least some basic documentation on how to install packages.

VirtualBox is fairly common, and if you are using any of the mainstream distros you shouldn't need to install it manually because most of them will include a proper package specific for the distro for VirtualBox.

This can range from a hardware failure to an outdated kernel or simply a device that's not so well supported, amongst a whole lot of options. You should really open a new thread for this because you will need probably specific support depending on your distribution.

Wine is a reimplementation of the Windows API on top of the linux kernel and xlib (and a few other libraries for more specific purposes). It even include a -still incomplete but very functional- reimplementation of many parts of directx. This allows you to run quite a lot of windows programs, even some very recent ones and even games. You can check if the apps you want to run have been run succesfully, and to what extens, on this web:

http://appdb.winehq.org/

Your distro must be using ALSA for sound surely, 99% of them do by default nowadays. So, I suggest you to open any mixer application that you can find in your desktop and make sure that at least master and pcm are not muted and are not zeroed either. I assume you have checked the connections and such stuff.

If you can't find a mixer app, open an xterm and run alsamixer. There you can use the cursors to set the levels and 'm' to mute/unmute the channels. If alsamixer doesn't run then there's no detected sound card and we can start investigating in other direction.

Wow...I did NOT expect such quick response. It's a little overwhelming. Well, I'm running Ubuntu 9.04. My wireless is working, but intermittently. I seem to have fixed it by telling it to connect automatically. I keep hearing this word: Distro. I think it means "distribution" as in: Red Hat, Ubuntu, etc. So when y'all say that my distro should have the programs instead of me fishing for them...that means that they're on here I just need to "activate" them or what? The reason I've been trying to run VirtualBox (I have a .deb file) is so that I can run iTunes, MSN/AIM Messenger, and one simulator. There are a lot of other random programs I'd like to use, but I can't think of them off the type of my head.

I keep seeing command-line type inputs. Where do I execute these? In "Terminal" or what? VirtualBox told me to modify some line...is that one of the OS lines? If so, I guess that's for OS developers...and I guess it's what everyone did that created a Distro (haha, already using it!) that has it already installed.

Yes, my sound is ALSA and none of the things are muted.

About Wine, I tried installing it...but I guess it's the same situation as VirtualBox. Since Wine and VirtualBox are supposed to allow Windows programs...does that mean I can install .exe files like I would in Windows?

Yes, "distro" is short for "distribution". Each distribution has an official repository of packages which you can download and install using your package manager. In ubuntu or debian I think you can use apt-get, dselect or synaptics, but bear in mind, I am no debian or ubuntu user so you should either check the docs for your distro or wait for someone who knows about whatever distro you are using.

Additionally some distros might have non-official repositories (quality and stability of these can vary greatly so you should be careful when using anything that doesn't come from the official repository.

VirtualBox is usually not installed by default because it's a very specific type of software that not everyone wants on their system. But using synaptics or whatever package manager your distro uses you should be able to install it. The package manager will download the package and do everything for you, that's why you don't need to go fishing stuff around the net. This also guarantees that the package comes from a reliable source. One of the big problems of other OS comes when you go to a random web site and download a random program that you have no idea if has been modified in a colorful way by personX to add a trojan.

If you are going to use mostly windows programs, you might as well be using windows instead. It will be easier and far less painful. You should really start looking for linux programs that can do what you want instead, and use windows stuff only when there's no valid alternative available. There are lots of music players and IM programs in Linux.

Commands are entered on a terminal emulator. There can be many in your default installation. However, xterm comes -almost- always preinstalled. It should be somewhere around your menu. If not, you can always use the lauch functionality that desktop manus usually have to launch "xterm", once you have the terminal in front of your face you can start typing commands.

There's a big difference. Wine allow you to run -some- windows binaries directly in linux. VirtualBox is just a virtual machine, like vmware, bochs, qemu and a few others. VM's allow you to emulate a pc, inside that virtual pc you can install windows or whatever you want, inside that windows inside the vm you can install and use whatever you want. It's like having a separate pc running windows inside a window on your desktop.

VM's usually provide greater compatibility, but virtualization has usually an extra penalty. Nowadays this is evolving quickly but still, playing 3d intensive windows games inside a VM (just a known example) is quite impossible for the most part.

Wine on the other side run the windows programs natively inside linux. Compatibility is usually not that great, but that doesn't really matter if it can run the couple of programs you need. I gave you a link above to the wine app db, if you want to run anything with wine, check it. I am not checking it for you

But as said, your first thought should be to find an equivalent linux app instead. There's no sense in using linux if you are going to use only windows apps.

Yes, use the Terminal (aka gnome-terminal). The Terminal is similar to the Windows MS-DOS console (it's been a while since I've used Windows). Open the Terminal, and try the following:

This will open an editor, called nano, which will open the text file "sources.list". As the instructions said, add the lines to your sources.list. Then, press Ctrl-X on your keyboard (hold down the "Ctrl" key, and then press the "X" key). Nano will ask if you wish to save the file. Answer yes (hit the "y" key). This will exit you from nano, and return you to the command line. Now, enter the following command:

Now, follow the rest of the instructions from your VirtualBox 3.0 program (IE, it will likely tell you to install something that will make the program work).

If you don't like the command line, and abhor the Terminal, then you can do the same things with a general user interface program called "Synaptic". Open Synaptic, and choose "Settings" from the top menu. Then, choose "Repositories". Here, you can enter the lines that VirtualBox 3.0 tells you to. After this, press the "Reload" button (this is the same as "apt-get update"). Now, I'm guessing you'll be able to install the rest of VirtualBox 3.0.

i92, why won't you check it for me? How can you expect for me to learn ANYTHING if you don't do it all for me? Haha, kidding. Yeah, I checked the applist yesterday and found the simulator I'm talking about as a compatible program. VirtualBox seems to be like BootCamp for Mac. I guess that one's going to be deleted off my computer since I don't have access to Windows right now (I was running Windows 7 Beta and then it expired). When I said MSN/AIM I meant a messenger software compatible with hotmail, yahoo, and aim domain users. When I said iTunes...I meant something that syncs with my iPod (actual iPod...not general mp3 player ). Any suggestions?

I am not much into iPods, I prefer generic stuff that I can just plug and handle like a pendrive or external HD. In that case, any player will work. For iPods, I don't know. I'd start checking one called "amarok", but have really not much idea.

For IM, popular options seems to be gaim and kopete, but there are many more. amsn is designed specifically for hotmail stuff, but since I don't use hotmail I can't speak about what's better either.

I suggest using jabber or irc instead, that way the choice is yours and you don't have to be always worried about the next time that ms changes the protocol.

Oh, and this is what I get when I said I get an "Access Denied" message:

E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (13 Permission denied)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root?

Holy crap!! I went to Add/Remove programs and just found SOO many programs! I'm done. Now all I want to know is how to install a couple VERY specific programs. I can't find Wine on my distro...and I guess that's how to do it?

You could use portable-qemu, it's not as good as vbox/vmware(maybe)
but it's portable, plays on windows, linux, and wine too.

Now work either, 2 scripts, one for windows, one for linux
many options on editing/making new scripts.
Just a thought