A couple of issues in KDE Neon

[Dlrocket89]

Hi everyone,

I installed Neon a week ago or so and have a couple of issues, wondering if anyone has any ideas.

1. When the computer sits for awhile and it goes to the login screen where you have to enter your password to continue, it will not accept any control inputs, whether that be mouse or keyboard. Only option is to do a hard reset with the reset button on the front of the box.
2. I know that Discover has installed a program successfully because it crashes as soon as the install is complete.
3. Is there any way to get Open Officeworking? I don’t see it in any of the repositories. I have a macro-enabled spreadsheet that I want to use and the LibreOffice spreadsheet program won’t work right (not that it’s a security thing, the macros don’t execute correctly).
   
   Thanks for any help!
   
   Dustin

edit for readability

[Dlrocket89]

Nevermind on the open office...got that working, but calc won't read the macro in the sheet I'm trying to run, so no dice anyways. WINE also won't run a program that's pretty critical to one of my hobbies (same one as the calc macro). Soo.....probably back to Windoze for me.

[GreyGeek]

Looks like you have a screen saver installed and/or a power setting to blank the screen or log out, and you have the screen locked on return. Disable those controls.

Instead of Libre Office you may want to consider wps office.

What is the program that WINE won't run? Did you install PlayOnLinux or just WINE. Have you installed the Windows dlls that your special program requires? I use WINE to run IQUAN from Parker-Hannifin to do PCL programming, a graphical dev app that runs as if it were on Windows.


Muon or Synaptic is a better app manager than Discovery (IMO, until Discovery matures).

[Dlrocket89]

1) Been trying to do that, haven't found the right "switch" to throw.

2) Never tried WPS, I'd always worked with Open Office...I'll try wps, that's a new one on me. Just trying to get macros to read right. EDIT: Holy smokes, it works right! FANTASTIC!!!

3) The program is Rocksim v9 https://www.apogeerockets.com/Rocksi...im_information I emailed them and they don't support it on Linux. What's going on is that there are .csv files that are parts libraries (model rocket parts like nose cones, etc)...the program is looking for them in a certain location (c:/program files/Rocksim/data/) and because the files are located in /home/wine/dosdevices/c:/program files/Rocksim/data/ it can't see the .csv files. This location it's looking at, unfortunately, "hardwired" into the program. This is a problem with RockSim, not Linux. The program itself runs fine, just none of the in-program data works.

4) I'm glad to hear you say Discovery isn't great, I'm used to Synaptic. Do I need to uninstall Discovery first, or can I just install Synaptic over the top?

I'm going to order a Win7 DVD, think I'm going to install it as a virtual box, because Neon is chugging along for 90% of what I'm doing, would just like some things like this to work without "fuss" if needed.

Thanks!

[Dlrocket89]

Current status -

1) I figured out how to turn the screensaver off. Computer has been down for awhile, I move the mouse and it wakes the computer and I'm at the desktop...and nothing responds. Cursor moves with the mouse, but nothing reacts, so I have to hard reset. Does that help at all?
2) As stated above, WPS works, thanks a ton!
3) No idea here yet. Ordering Win7 DVD today, I'll just run this in VirtualBox.
4) I didn't delete Discovery, but installed Synaptic over the top and I'm "back to normal", so that's good.

[Worzel]

Have a similar problem unlocking the desktop. Current solution is to hit Ctrl + Esc which brings up the System Activity window and makes the desktop respond.
Hope that works for you as a temporary measure till you find the proper answer.

[GreyGeek]

Try a soft link between c: and the drive_c directory.

Open a Konsole and issue
sudo -i
cd to root
cd /
create a link from "c:" to /home/youracctname/.wine/drive_c/
ln -s /home/jerry/.wine/drive_c/ c:
See if that works.

If that doesn't work for you then "sudo -i" to root, "cd /" to change to the root directory, and issue
rm c:

[GreyGeek]

...
3) The program is Rocksim v9 https://www.apogeerockets.com/Rocksi...im_information ...

I'm going to order a Win7 DVD, think I'm going to install it as a virtual box, because Neon is chugging along for 90% of what I'm doing, would just like some things like this to work without "fuss" if needed.

Thanks!

First, there is no guarantee that running Win7 as a guest OS will allow Rocksim to run. The 3D acceleration support built in VirtualBox uses your native machine’s graphics hardware to provide this capability, so if your native graphics driver doesn’t have 3D capability, VirtualBox cannot make use of it. When you set up Win7 as a guest OS you will be given the opportunity to check a box titled "Enable 3D graphics". When you check it you might get a msg stating that 3D cannot be enabled. If you don't get an error msg then your next step will be to install the guest additions. The easiest way to do that is to install VirtualBox and VirtualBox-guest-additions-iso from the repository.

That program looks neat and I hope that with the proper soft links you can fool it into accepting the locations of the data directory. Reminder: spaces in names must be escaped with the backslash.

When I taught physics I had the students use rocket kits and Estes engines. I used Estes Technical Manuals 33 & 100 to write an HP SR-52 program to compute maximum altitude, which Texas Instruments published. It took three magnetic strips. We used classic geometric methods to measure maximum altitudes and then compared the results with the output of the program. They matched within experimental error. The students learned that for a specific engine (with a specific impulse) there was a certain weight + payload that reached a maximum altitude. If the payload were less or more the maximum altitude was always less. I really enjoyed teaching that unit.

[Dlrocket89]

Yes, RockSim is neat! Softlinks didn't work, nice try though. Win7 arrives on Monday, not too worried about my computer being up to the task. Only have 8GB RAM, probably going to throw another 8 at it next paycheck.

<goes off on tangent> When I was in high school and college I did a lot of "high powered rocketry". Basically, those Estes motors were sized A-D...each letter having twice the total impulse of the one before. High power is anything H and above. The biggest I've launched personally is an L, which is pretty fantastic to behold. As I'm a bit of a DIY nut (hence Neon, lol) I design and build my own rockets as compared to building kits. The thing that's so neat about RockSim is that their attached libraries have all of the commercially available products out there, arranged by company. So as compared to saying "I want a 4" OD tube for the body....now where do I get that?" you say "I want a 4" x 36" long phenolic tube from Public Missiles Ltd" and it loads the geometry, the mass, etc. (sidenote: "Public Missiles Ltd" is possibly the best named company in the history of companies). So...not having the libraries functioning negates one of the most important features of the game. </tangent>

The computer hasn't been locking up when I walk away now...what I've been doing is leaving a program window open, and then it's fine. ...don't know if that helps any either, lol, but who knows? I'll remember the Ctrl+Esc thing if needed though.

Thanks everyone!

[GreyGeek]

One of my brighter students designed a three stage rocket that had 3 D's in the first, 2 D's in the second and one D in the third stage. The SR-52 program predicted an altitude of 5,200 ft. Tracking failed because the third stage became invisible before 3,000'. In addition, there was a strong 50 mph wind blowing at altitude, and we estimated that the 3rd stage would come down about 4 miles North. We search the area between the launch and 5 miles north and couldn't see anything. The seconds of land were harvested and disced so a three foot diameter red and white striped parachute should have been easy to see, but we never found it. We could only guess as to how far it went.

Great fun, great learning experience. My son and grandson had a rocket experience as well, when the grandson was five. His eyes were as huge as saucers when he saw his 18" rocket, which he helped to build, rise to about 500' and parachute back down. He ran off to fetch it and fired it again. It now adorns the wall of his room.

[vinnywright]

I used to love making those ,,,,,,,,, when I was a teenager ,,,,,,now you have me wanting to get a kit

the biggest one I ever made though was a 2 stage with B or C soled fuel ,,,I think ,to be honest I do not remember that much about it(the engine sizes) that was 35-40 years ago.

what I do remember that was big fun , was taking those mini size engines and gluing a nose cone to it with no fins and using a fuse igniter and dropping them in the parking lot ,,you never new where they would go ,,,, skipping and spinning around or jump up into the air

VINNY

[GreyGeek]

One of my students glued long fins to a C6-5 engine directly, and glued a nose cone on top. The four fins formed a channel for two more C6-0 engines. It was supposed to be his version of a three stage rocket, without a parachute. Air drag tore the fins off the first stage and we all went diving for cover as the engines spiraled above our heads. Fun times!

[Dlrocket89]

Those are cool stories! My dad is an engineer (as am I) and always encouraged things like that, and my uncle actually owns (owned) a small business selling rocket kits a decade or so back…so this has been a part of my upbringing and I think I’m better off for it.
FYI – the way to get rockets like that back is to use a small flight computer (about $150 or so). Gunpowder charges are triggered to deploy parachutes at various times, making things far more controlled.My level 2 certification rocket (certifying me to fly J, K, and L powered motors) went to about 5k feet and landed about 100 feet from the pad in a 15mph wind.The rocket was over stable, so it turned into the wind on launch and actually went upwind during powered and coasting flight.The flight computer punched out a small parachute (12” diameter for a 20 pound rocket) at apogee.It came down in a barely controlled freefall until the barometer on board sensed some altitude (think I had mind set at 400 feet), when it triggered another charge and blew a huge chute (15’ diameter for mine), catching it right before it cratered.It was actually upwind yet when the main parachute deployed, ended up 100 feet downwind at the end.
To the computer problem…Win7 Home just arrived and is installed. Have the graphics at 11somethingx9something because if I went to 1600x1200, it got slow. No biggie. Installed RockSim and and couple other programs that I want, and they all work fine.

Also - the Ctrl + Esc thing works to "wake up" the Neon install when it stops responding, so that's cool.

[GreyGeek]

Your experiences mirrors mine, except that in the 70's computers and apps like Rocksim weren't available. An SR-52 was state of the art personal computing and my 3strip program computing the performance of three stage model rockets was the first, and two my knowledge the only, such program published by by TI. Back the the big appeal was the rocket cam, which took a picture at altitude, not movies.

Glad to hear that Ricksim ran fine under the Win7 as a guest OS. Now, your big problem will be to prevent Microsoft from "upgrading" your copy of Win7 without your permission, by hook, crook or trick.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dlrocket89]

Lol, the reason I went to Linux this time was they "upgraded" me to 10 and it crashed every 2 minutes. And as far as that goes, Win7 will only be running when I am using RockSim or a couple other programs, so no biggie. Heck, I might just disable the network connection for it and be done with it.