I installed edubuntu 9.10 on my HP Pavilion dv6 laptop, and am having trouble locating launch buttons for programs I install with Synaptic Package Manager. Specifically, I installed an app called backuppc, and it appeared to install correctly, and completely, but no launch button was placed in any of my menus, or on the desktop. I'm not sure how to create a launcher for the program. Previously, in ubuntu 8.04, there was a GNOME app installer called "Add/Remove", and this asked which menu I wanted to install the launcher in, but this version of ubuntu doesn't seem to have that application. Any ideas about how I locate the installed application and create a launcher?

Thanks for your help.
Brent

System > Preferences > Main Menu to see invisible menu options

Applications > Ubuntu Software Center replaces "Add/Remove Programs".

rt-click on the desktop, select "create launcher" to make a custom desktop launcher for the installed program.

You can add it to the main menu by rt-clicking on the menu, select "edit menu"

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Thanks for the help. I now need to be able to find the executable program which was installed. Any idea how I can do this. I did find a folder in /etc called "backuppc", but it doesn't have much in it. There is another folder in that folder called "pc", but I can't open it. When I try to open it, it just keeps showing the same contents (exactly) as the folder above. Other files in this "backuppc" folder include "apache.conf, config.pl, localhost.pl, hosts, htgroup, and htpasswd" How can I recognize executable files?

Sorry if this seems very elementary.
Brent

In GNU/Linux distros, you have a different directory tree compared to windows or Mac. Global configuration files go in /etc (user configs in the user's home directory), libraries in /lib, executables in /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, or /usr/sbin depending on type of application.

A quick way to find the executable: in a terminal, give this command: which backuppc. Or, if you don't know the name of the executable, apropos backuppc.

Thanks,
I appreciate the information on the location of types of files. I tried the commands and received this:
brent@brent-laptop:~$ which backuppc
brent@brent-laptop:~$ apropos backuppc
backuppc (8) - BackupPC manual
brent@brent-laptop:~$ ^C
brent@brent-laptop:~$

I assume the executable file is BackupPC, but I still can't locate it in the directories you mentioned, /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, or /usr/sbin.

I do need the location to make the command for the launcher, right?

Thanks for all your help.
Brent

No - the command just needs to be in your path.

man BackupPC

to learn how to run it.

Note:
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/BackupPC

According to this, backuppc is run as a service rather than a regular program. On installation, it is already running. But you use it from a web interface.

It strikes me that BackupPC is not what you may have thought it is. Please read the documentation:
http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/faq/BackupPC.html

Thanks for the help. You are correct, that I didn't realize this was a web based, partially offsite backup system. I am looking for a simple backup solution for my laptop, running edubuntu, with backups to an external hard drive. Any suggestions?

Thanks all for the help and the education.
Brent

File backups are not hard - the basic concept is that you copy the files someplace else. If anything happens, you copy them back. Most solutions also compress the copies, do this automatically on some sort of schedule, and detect when to restore.

I have used the tar program to backup my computers before, though, these days, I have tended to be lazy and use cp -a

http://www.geekvenue.net/chucktips/j...279/index_html
tar pzcvf tarball.tgz
... creates the backup of your home directory preserving permissions and compressing them to an archive file called a "tarball".

cp -a ~ /media/drivename
... the lazy approach. You can also pipe it through a compression program.

Putting the files back is just the reverse of this process.

The beauty of this approach is that the programs are already installed and you have complete control over the outcome.

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