Replies

Hello ~ All,
I’ve found wubi to be problematic for me! It’s never worked on my win7-64bit system.
I found virtualbox the answer….I now have a fast,stable Ubuntu version, which upgrades perfectly and does all computing I need…It actually runs faster with firefox 4 than windows !!
If you can install programs, you can setup virtualbox, it’s that intuitive, it does most of the work for you.
Just a thought for those that are curious about alternative OS’s …Just think – NO dual booting – NO installing hard drives – Just fun!!
John in Dallas

Not to burst your bubble, but VBox doesn’t let the Guest OS access your hardware directly. My PC has a Nvidia video card, but my Guest OS ( Ubuntu ), wasn’t displaying at full res. Normally I’d just update the video driver. Not with VBox. It emulates something very generic.

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Hello – JM,
That may be, but I did upgrade my Nvidia card, seems to work OK…I have all compiz functions I want..Guest Additions does make a difference, though…Didn’t look right until I installed them…For Ubuntu and pass words….SXIPPER…great utility….Just works and will import roboform files….

Hello – All,
Solved the problem!! Virtual Box!! Works flawlessly !! Now I have all my windows things, on the same drive as Ubuntu….Hate dual booting, anyway…I tried VB on earlier versions, didn’t work…The latest version 4.00??? works like a charm!!
The best way to try other OS’s and NOT corrupt windows. Can get my pass words stored in roboform on win 7 and import them into last pass ( new p.w. mgr for xmarks ) everything simply WORKS!! A happy win7 and Ubuntu camper!
Thanks / John in Dallas

Hello-All,

Thanks for all your help and support through this mess with TB not closing properly….It was all in the profiles.ini…..I found on the TB forum, if this occurred….delete the profile.ini….TB will create a new one….IT did….have my mail back….
Revo may work but not for this instance….
Appreciate your help.
Johnhttp://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_in_use#End_processes

That’s where I found the trick re the profile.ini files

Hello-All,

Thanks for all your help and support through this mess with TB not closing properly….It was all in the profiles.ini…..I found on the TB forum, if this occurred….delete the profile.ini….TB will create a new one….IT did….have my mail back….
Revo may work but not for this instance….
Appreciate your help.
John

Like I said in an earlier post, I had to use REVO Un-installer to get com[completely rid of Thunderbird before I re-installed it.
Then it worked fine.

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Well OK,,,Banyarola,
Took your suggestion and d/l revo!!! Found all sorts of left over fragments…deleted them all and searched for everything…revo completely un installed TB..
D/l another copy…installed it….tried to open – still running close all OPEN appsQ@???
did the process AGAIN….Still same results…I give up…Guess TB won’t install-period…
I’m about ready to sell or send back to Dell this mess…I don’t like win7!
Thanks for help / john in dallas

I’m assuming that you are upgrading from a previous version of Windows. The profile.ini and related files in Windows 7 (& Vista too I think) are kept in the path noted above. If you place it where it was in XP and earlier versions of windows under
C:UsersxxxAppDataLocalThunderbirdprofiles.ini It won’t work. (xxx is yourusername)
This link may help.
Thunderbird already running

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Hello – Madturtle,
Was so in hopes your tip might help!! It didn’t!? in (isrelative=1) is there in profiles.ini…
I’ve gone through the registry and ((( removed )))) every mention of TB….then d/l and tried to install…..Won’t since win7 says it’s running??? The first two apps I installed were FF and TB.. ran just fine initially, could send and receive msgs….For some reason — a suggestion on some forum — I uninstalled TB to have a — blank – empty profile to copy my xp mail into??
Apparently, TB didn’t uninstall correctly? I’ve used the uninstaller in CCleaner and registry function to clean up win7, no HELP….

I bought carbonite as my back-up, thinking it would be easier to migrate files from xp…..Believe ME,,,,that’s my first MISTAKE!!!! I’ll never recommend then for “”””anything””””!!
They have NO idea how to get my files where they should be!!!! My files (((( mail – docs word )))) are all over win7!! It would have been easier to d/l everything to my external HD and copied over!!!! I wonder if TB is trying to get into the carbonite backups? I don’t see how, they are just files….no profile…..TB makes its own when installed…

I believe win7 is the main problem!!! I d/l seamonkey – it’s similar to TB…It installed ok — BUT, I can’t send or receive msgs…..My settings are identical to my xp settings…Why won’t win7 recognize them?
Thanks for help/suggestions.
John in Dallas

Am I reading your comment correctly? It appears that you are saying that TB is shown listed in Task Manager, but there is nothing to indicate TB is running? TB may not be running, but if a TB process is still showing under the Task Manager Processes tab, then that can cause your difficulties. Any TB process should be killed after you quit TB.

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Thanks – Gerald,
No – nothing appears in task mgr. on my win7 box relating to Thunderbird…I was referring to how they DO appear in my xp box – clearly labeled.
Thanks / John

Thanks – Guys,
Appreciate your responses, but that’s NOT the problem! Nothing in TM indicates TB is running? Unless it’s masquerading under another name…Firefox is there and labled – TB is there and labled on my XP system..
I’ve noticed on the win7 box, when I d/l TB then check in programs/ d/l area, there’s nothing in the size column??? Perhaps, it’s NOT d/l correctly? Should show the size in MB’s. Other programs do.
I’ve run CCleaner – has no affect….Also, I notice the TB icon has only ONE KB in size!!?? That’s really strange!
I finally did system restore….Still didn’t help!! Running out of ideas?? Registry —- NO THANKS!!!! I know enough to stay away from that!!
Thanks for suggestions.
John in Dallas,

Hi Jon,

Fear not! I have been using Firefox and Thunderbird, along with all the updates, since Windows 7 was released last October. Never had an ounce of trouble. I downloaded and installed the 32 bit versions of both. If Mozilla has 64 bit versions available for download, then maybe that is what you have heard horror stories about.

Most 32 bit software will run fine on Windows 7 64 bit editions, as long as the software is fully compatible with Windows 7. You can check much of that in the Windows 7 Compatibility Center here.

Windows 7 shipped with IE in both 64 and 32 bit editions, but most add-ons are not yet available in 64 bit. Adobe Flash just recently released a beta version for 64 bit browsers. If you stick for the time being with 32 bit browsers and email clients, you will be fine. Eventually we will all be able to easily migrate to the 64 bit editions.

Hope this helps.

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OH!!! Thanks so much Gerald!!
That’s a great relief!! I couldn’t believe FF/TB wouldn’t work in win 7…..I’m an OLD guy 71, and don’t like surprises much!? Our lives are so connected to these machines, it’s unbelievable….Now , I can look forward to my experience not dread it!!
Appreciate your kind response.
John in Dallas.

If you put the IDE drives into external USB enclosures, you just need to make sure the enclosure is for IDE, not SATA, and you need to make sure the drive is jumpered for Master or Cable Select, and not Slave.

There should be a sticker on the drive itself showing you how to configure the jumper. It’s really not that difficult.

That last note of caution is to make sure that the IDE connector inside the enclosure is firmly plugged into the IDE receptacle on the drive before you close it up.

After that, it’s just another USB external drive.

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Thanks – bbearren,
Appreciate your help, here…you mentioned “make sure the drive is jumpered for master or cable select….? I still have to be concerned
about jumpers??? What do you mean “cable select”? I assume both IDE HD ‘s will be set as masters, right?
Is your statement “cable select” another type of connection? Will that eliminate the need for master designation?
Thanks / John in Dallas.

Hi~~Cluttermagnet – All,
I too, had problems with “upgrading” to 9.10…..It left my laptop – V2630US HP compaq presario unbootable !!! The hated grub error 17!!
I found NO help on the forums…So much for upgrading!!
It worked fine on my dell desktop…I did have an old CD of 8.10 and decided to install it, hoping it would ””overlay”” the corrupted 9.10.
It did not….left the corrupted version and made space for 8.10….NOW-I have a messed up disk! I’m barely a step above a noob, so I don’t feel comfortable deleting all the extra ext partitions. In grub, 9.10 is listed sda2 un-bootable? in gparted from a CD or my ISO, it doesn’t tell me where the 9.10,is, just various ext partitions???
I hate to mess up my windows XP system, since I need it for work…
If I knew how to copy/paste in Ubuntu, I’d do that—so you could see the grub menu and what gparted displays….?
BTW, how do you know for sure if an ISO is OK for installation? I can use it as a live CD, surf, go anywhere and it sees what a CD should…mem tested OK…cksum OK – I think?
I ‘m never sure which partition the CD is seeing? By installing it could it wipe out my XP or will grub KNOW where to put 9.10??
Thanks for suggestions.
John in Dallas.

Your experiences will vary, in part, depending on your particular hardware. I have a lot of medium- old hardware. I found that Ubuntu through Feisty 7.04 recognized my older video cards just fine. Beyond that, no good for me until the release of Jaunty 9.04, then Ubuntu started recognizing my older video cards once again. BTW during that period, Linux Mint continued to work with this older hardware, as I remember. What those two couldn’t handle, Mandriva could get to work. In general, older hardware which can’t make the grade with newer Windows versions can definitely still have a long and useful life under Linux. That old hardware does not need to be thrown away.

Windows also has problems working with some of your hardware, sometimes. A lot of perfectly good hardware that worked fine with 98SE and Win2k would not work with XP. I have a Visioneer scanner in that category. Still works great under 98SE. Much, much hardware got obsoleted with the release of Vista because it didn’t have near enough ‘horsepower’ to run that OS. The same was also true when XP came along. But that ‘obsolete’ hardware can still run Linux.

My reasons for leaving Windows were several. Mostly, I got tired of the security software rat race. It just became such an onerous burden to try to keep up with all that stuff. My experiences with Linux OS’s have been nothing short of fantastic! It really changed my life as much as learning Windows did when I first got into computers in ’96.

Windows needs a *lot* of tinkering- with security software, patches, drivers, etc. Linux can need a lot of tinkering too, it’s just mostly in different areas. Most folks will stay with Windows, because it’s familiar and they know their way around it. It’s harder to try new things and learn new ways. Took me a while to get around to switching- but once I did, I was waaaaay happier (“Why did I wait so long?”)

Ubuntu and Linux Mint have both worked great for me. Either is a good starting point for the newcomer or experienced Windows user. Once a person has made a definite decision to make the change, they will find lots of help if they look for it. I found a wealth of friendly Linux help online. Often problems are surprisingly easy to solve. I doubt it is impossible to make a particular wireless card work under Linux. Usually there is a way.

Hello~everyone,
Problems SOLVED!!! Don’t ask me HOW, I haven’t a clue!! Since I couldn’t d/l any of the drivers from HP site….I took another road….
Decided to check out my router IN MY LAPTOP – had been doing it just on the desktop – big mistake!!!! Could have saved many hours of frustration!!!!
Apparently, the router signatures were “”””mudged”””” by the MS miseries, affecting wireless operations. I set them back to defaults, then carefully, reinstalled each function I wanted….It WORKED!!!! Also, have faxing back!!!!
This might help someone in the future with wireless problems…..CHECK THE ROUTER FIRST!!
Still can’t understand why I can’t d/l any updates from HP site?
http://h10025.www1.h…product=1838816
Probably, just as well, since that was not the problem!
Thanks all for your help. ” life is good Ubuntu is free”.
John in Dallas.