I've been trying to get my wife to appreciate Linux but so far all she's seen is the trouble I've had, which was due to my own lack of knowledge, but it's what she saw. She's seen all the massive terminal commands and thinks Linux is a fun toy to play with but thats it. Then last night she asked me if it had a cross stitch design program. I didn't think it did but lo and the software manager listed one, This one so I installed it. The software manager says it's installed, I went to the usr/ applications folder (I know that's not exactly the right path) and the folder for it is there and has files in it but there is nothing in the software menu and no way that I can see to use or open it. I've tried right reloading the plugins via a right click but nothing. There is no sense in my trying to download the tar.gz file because I have yet to ever been able to install any file that way. I really seriously want my wife to be able to use this so she won't think Linux is just a pain. Help. Help. Help....

Look here http://lists.ethernal.org/oldarchives/c ... 00577.html

As it leading "K" suggests, kxstitch seems to be a KDE app (ie, integrates into the KDE desktop).

On the other hand, Gimp can be used that way, look at Image/Mode/Indexed and specify a small number of colors, you can even specify a palette (ie, the colors you already have).

Check out the threads below for a GIMP solution to this GMS.

http://registry.gimp.org/node/14919

http://registry.gimp.org/node/24421 (especially this thread; read though the follow up posts too. Lots of cool solutions and not just GIMP).

yes, it's KDE and I have KDE installed and KDE integration turned on in compiz. The link you posted might help, I'm not on the computer that has it installed at the moment but I'll give it a try later.

If the app's launcher didn't get placed on the menu, just execute the app from the terminal. You can easily create your own launcher for the app.

If there are problems with an app in Linux, a good way to troubleshoot is to run the app from the terminal so you can see any error messages that might be generated.

I thought there should be a way to do that but i don't know how to do it.

You would open a terminal window and enter the app's name at the prompt (case sensitive). Normally, you can use the parameter --help to see a list of the start up options for any application in Linux.

As an example, to see the start up options for GIMP, open a terminal and enter this..

gimp --help <enter>

Clicking a launcher from a menu or the desktop does the exact same thing as entering it manually, except it will use a default set of start up options specified in the launcher.

You can right click on the desktop and select "create launcher" to create a custom launcher, which is somewhat analogous to a "shortcut" in Windows.

You get yourself into some pickles. I had a look at some back posts and seems that you use ubuntu but I'm not sure which version.

As said before kxstitch is a KDE package, but no reason why it will not work in Gnome.

From what I can see there is a package for ubuntu 10.x but I think not for ubuntu 11.x, maybe somebody can check the repo. This comes from the equivalent linuxmint versions which are based on Ubuntu.

Some screenshots of a LM10kde with a vile theme.

http://i.imgur.com/Ao6ey.jpg

first one, it installs but there are some errors regarding menu. However it did show up as expected in the graphics menu. If not maybe it is a gnome thing as GnuTux mentioned.

second one, if you want to know where files are installed you can usually fire up synaptic package manager, right click on an installed package, choose properties, then installed files.
Not shown but also in synaptic you can see the installation history which shows what other packages had to be installed.

third one, if you need to run from a terminal to see if there any error messages, it is as easy as that. In this case kxstitch - worth noting that sometimes for old or ancient stuff or bash files or... you might have to use (dotslash) ./kxstitch to start an executable file.

No, I use mint, and yes, i ask a lot of questions because I know Windows but am new to linux. I have a spare computer that I fixed to use just to fool around with Linux. I expected to make every possible mistake with Linux because it was a learning thing from the beginning. The fact that I ask a lot of questions and make a lot of mistakes doesn't mean I'm a noob by any means. it means i intend and will know Linux as well as i do Windows.

I solved the problem. I thought KDE compatility in the compiz settings enabled everything KDE to run but that apparently wasn't true. When I switched to using the KDE desktop kxstitch was there and works fine. My wife will thank you all.

Just a note that you can run KDE apps in Gnome without issue. I use quite a few of them. What happens is that when you start up a KDE app in Gnome for the first time, the needed KDE libs will be loaded. You'll notice it will initially take a few seconds longer when you call up a KDE app for the first time in Gnome. Another thing you might notice is that the custom themes and styling (like font sizing) you've setup for Gnome won't carry over with the KDE apps, but they will run fine.

Without understanding the finer points of what you said it's pretty much what i thpught shu;ld happen. In gnome though, that app won't show up but when i switched to KDE it's right there. But now I have worse issues. I'm 99% sure my laptop died. It was 8 years old and had been ran heavily but I think it's a goner. I'm trying one thing that I doubt will work and then give up on it. I can't foresee ever coming up with enough money to replace it and I'm lost without it. I'm new to linux but not to electronics and troubleshooting, I did it for 35 years but I hope I'm wrong.

Well, my beloved laptop is now a pile of parts on my desk. I took the HD and converted it to a portable one so I have a portable 60g HD. I saved the CD drive, the wireless module, the motherboard, speakers, display, and touch pad. It's very likely that I'll be able to use the salvaged parts on something else I decide to build. my wife has found a reasonable replacement on Ebay, as long as they don't sell it by Thursday night we'll get it. It will mean that I have to do without insulin or something else but it's necessary. Which might be an addition to your 'you might be a geek if' thread. You might be a geek if you do without insulin to buy a laptop.
I guess we can consider this thread closed.

Bummer.

What ended up being wrong? Normally, you're lucky if it's a bad hard-drive or bad ram, which are easily replaced. With integrated laptop mainboards, it can be kinda difficult to troubleshoot which components are bad, unless you see bulging caps or the symptoms have led you to the problem (bad power supply).

Sometimes, it's better to go with another newer laptop than take a chance on used mainboard.

Good luck with the auction!

What really killed it was just the keyboard. I know they can be replaced easily but there were other problems. It had a very small HD, only a 1024 x 768 display, the screen had problems, it didn't work right around the outer edges. I can quite explain it, it looked like water spots around the whole outer edge. And it had some smaller issues that i think made it more expensive to fix than to scrap. My wife found a lenovo T400 on Ebay for a price we cn afford if it's still there Friday we'll buy it.