Upgraded the 'puter

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Brewdude

Brewdude

Broken Pipe
B of B Supporter
Joined
May 4, 2011
Messages
13,861
Reaction score
456
Location
Arid-zona
Finally broke down and got an upgrade to my old OS/browser. The one I had installed about 4 yrs ago wouldn't allow flash player so couldn't access things like vids or music.

Now have a newer version of Ubuntu and Firefox, and it's been a bit of a learning curve in getting to understand the functions. First hurdle was to get the screen size large enough and stumbled onto a way to do this, but still not 100% satisfied with the extra steps.

Have yet to try youtube and the like so don't know how that will play out. The guy that installed all this for me said that it should work fine. He's a computer geek so I'll trust his judgement.

One part of me says that I should have left well enough alone as all the functions worked fine and I never had any problems. And I knew how to navigate pretty well, at least what little I do which isn't more than things like e-mail, this and other forums, and the occasional e-tailer. Computer simple, that's me.

At least for now I can still figure out how to get onto BoB, and that's good enough for the time being. Still have much to figure out though!

:|



Cheers,

RR
 
You're in!

Actually, I don't like Ubuntu itself. I have been using Linux Mint. Currently Linux Mint 17, which is a long term release supported until 2019. It makes use of Ubuntu, but it's much easier to use. A lot of tweaking has already been done for you. I still had to download some favorite programs like Adobe Reader, AbiWord, Gimp, Audacity, K3b. Stuff like that.
 
Stay with it Rande, you'll crack it, it'll just take a bit of time. I've just replaced my laptop after Wendy knocked the last one off the dining room table. It has Windows 8.1 which has taken some getting used to but I frame it as progress.
As an aside, to prevent the data loss that I experienced due to shoddy backing up drills, I've found the personal cloud by Seagate. Not sure if anyone has seen or is using this system but I think it's rather good. They come in different sizes, 1 - 4 TBs and plug into you're wireless hub. You can then save data direct to your computer's hard drive, your personal cloud, or both. You can also access your cloud from anywhere in the world from your phone, tablet or computer. I like this idea as opposed to the clouds offered by Google and similar, as your data can't be scrutinised by another party. No more data loss for me!
 
I used to use a redundant set of external hard drives for back ups when I was heavy in photography.. Now that I mostly browse the net I just use the iPad. I can't even remember the last time I fired the puter up..


I liked Linux Mint Debian. If I were to rework the Windows Machine the boy cluttered all up that's what I'd put on it. Debian versions of Linux are just so much easier in my opinion.. No reason for '15,16,17" etc type updates because it continuously updates itself.
 
OK all you computer geeks, I'm well and truly lost on how to deal with restoring a feature that should be displayed. Basically here's the problem-

The bookmark tab is gone, can't re-size, no display of time of day, and all the other stuff like "File, View, etc" are not displayed. Tried the escape button and that didn't change a thing.

I have had several looks at the Applications, Places, Systems tabs and none of them offer any help. So I'm stumped.

This all happened right after I set up my bookmarks. I accessed my e-mail and found the screen size was too small. So then used "view" and zoomed in. This made the type larger but not the screen size.

Next I clicked on fullscreen and that gave me the screen size I was looking for. But it also removed or hid everything else mentioned. There is also no "exit fullscreen" tab anywhere.

So what do I do? This is making me crazy!

This upgrade involves Ubuntu 10 something and a modern version of Firefox.

:?:


Cheers,

RR
 
Open Firefox. On the right side near the top is three lines in a stack. Click it and it will open a menu. Click Customize near the bottom of that menu. On the bottom left of the tab that opens is a Show/Hide Toolbars. Click the one you want to show all the time.

:santa:
 
Carlos":iplmygz4 said:
Open Firefox.  On the right side near the top is three lines in a stack.  Click it and it will open a menu.  Click Customize near the bottom of that menu.  On the bottom left of the tab that opens is a Show/Hide Toolbars.  Click the one you want to show all the time.

:santa:  
Click to expand...
All I have is the minimize, restore, and close boxes in the upper right. No three lines in a stack, no menu.

Just clicked restore and it reverted from full screen to about 3/4 full size. But now all the "File, Edit, View, History, Bookmarks, Tools, and Help tabs are displayed finally.

This is back to where I started in trying to get the page full sized. Zooming in only only makes the type larger and not the window. And going to full screen hides the tabs listed above.

So now what?


Cheers,

RR
 
I have Firefox and I just toggled in and out of full screen (F11) for the hell of it. Now this forum display is kind of narrow and the typeface is different. Whattup wid dat? I hate this crap.
 
Richard Burley":474juxq2 said:
I have Firefox and I just toggled in and out of full screen (F11) for the hell of it. Now this forum display is kind of narrow and the typeface is different. Whattup wid dat? I hate this crap.
Click to expand...
So what did you do prior to this to get a full screen size? I assume you had no problems before.

Still have a narrow screen and have to scroll left and right to read some of the posts. Clicking on full screen and I lose the other tabs mentioned.

There has to be a way to get full screen and the tabs displayed but I'll be hanged if I can figure out a way to do it!

:x



Cheers,

RR
 
You're asking someone who knows next to nothing about this, a dangerous state. I solved my problem with the text by view>zoom>reset. I guess everything's back to normal. You're going to get some pages that do need to be scrolled sideways if there's a big pic posted. You said "some," right?

I assume you have both toolbars checked, right? View>toolbars. I originally got full screen by view>Full screen (F11).

That's it for this whizkid. I'm about ready to trade mine in for one of those wooden diesel jobs anyhow. Good luck with yours.
 
Hmmmm..........Brewdude, try moving your cursor to one of the screen corners.  See if a box or menu pops up.  I think they call those hot corners or something.  If it's activated, that may have the tools to get you back to where you need to go.  I guess I don't understand where you went to do the zoom and other changes.  

That stack of three lines icon is on the same toolbar line as the web address and Search.  I just played with the zoom in Firefox.  It's very well behaved for me.  Makes me think you were not using that zoom, but a zoom in the OS.
 
Carlos":8yup7ept said:
Hmmmm..........Brewdude, try moving your cursor to one of the screen corners.  See if a box or menu pops up.  I think they call those hot corners or something.  If it's activated, that may have the tools to get you back to where you need to go.  I guess I don't understand where you went to do the zoom and other changes.  

That stack of three lines icon is on the same toolbar line as the web address and Search.  I just played with the zoom in Firefox.  It's very well behaved for me.  Makes me think you were not using that zoom, but a zoom in the OS.
Click to expand...
Carlos, I originally opened the "View" tab. That allowed me to zoom in and make the type larger. It didn't do anything for the screen size.

Clicking on "full screen" did this but I lost the tabs mentioned earlier. Only through clicking on "restore" did I get those tabs back, but it also reduced the screen size.

There are no other options in the screen corners that I can see. In the upper right, it's either "Minimize", "Restore", or "Close". I've looked at the other corners.

Don't understand what you're saying about the difference between using a zoom in Firefox vs the OS. There's only one I can see, and that's in the tabs from what I assume are Firefox.

Not trying to be intentionally obtuse. Like I've said before I'm computer simple and don't have the training or experience  that many of you have.



Cheers,

RR
 
Oh, ok.  You are doing it from inside Firefox.  See where my cursor is in this screenshot.  (Damn! My cursor does not show up in a screeshot. Figures.) Near the upper right.  Not all the way in the upper right.  Near the upper right.  Do you have that stack of three lines?  Or are you missing the address toolbar?  Those 3 lines icon is a customize menu.

screen10.png
" />
 
It also occurred to me that you are trying to make the forum screen fullsize. The view I have is the forum skin that is provided to us and should look like this. It works fine unless somebody posts something with a huge picture and screws the format up.
 
I recall that in recent, well, some months ago recent Firefox installations that they have been making some changes. I like the Menu toolbar and address bar. But some idiot at Mozilla seems to think we will want it differently and I had to customize it the way I want it. But hey, it's free software so I guess I cannot bitch. Too much.
 
Carlos":mxhz2hhy said:
Oh, ok.  You are doing it from inside Firefox.  See where my cursor is in this screenshot.  (Damn!  My cursor does not show up in a screeshot.  Figures.)  Near the upper right.  Not all the way in the upper right.  Near the upper right.  Do you have that stack of three lines?  Or are you missing the address toolbar?  Those 3 lines icon is a customize menu.

screen10.png
" />
Click to expand...
No I don't have the address toolbar nor any of the stuff in the upper right. No 3 lines.

What I have are the tabs "File, Edit, View, History, Bookmarks, Tools, Help". No address toolbar.

Right now the window (box, screen, or whatever it's called) for displaying BoB, my e-mail, and everything else is about 3/4 the entire monitor width. Zooming in only makes the type larger, not the screen display window.

The only other option under "View" is full screen. And that's where I lose all the tabs like "File, Edit, View, History, Bookmarks, Tools, Help". Clicking on "Restore" brings those tabs back but also reduces the screen width.

While I can accept the smaller screen display window, it just means I have to scroll left and right on some posts which is a kind of PIA. There's got to be a way to get the larger screen as well as the tabs, plus address toolbar.

Looks like I might have to take it back to the computer geek and have him deal with it!



Cheers,

RR
 
Try this.  Move your cursor so it's on the tab toolbar.  Then right-click.  That should bring up the Menu option and allow you to check which toolbars you want.  The address bar is called a Navigation bar.

You should be able to do this through the View tab also.
 
Carlos":30bkbscc said:
Try this.  Move your cursor so it's on the tab toolbar.  Then right-click.  That should bring up the Menu option and allow you to check which toolbars you want.  The address bar is called a Navigation bar.

You should be able to do this through the View tab also.
Click to expand...

Just tried this and it basically wiped out my connection!

Closed the browser and logged in again. Now the screen size is full and what I want but the tabs are not displayed!

I'm going backwards here!


Cheers,

RR
 
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