Debian Wheezy in VirtualBox - Part 5

v 0.2

This time I'd thought I'd talk about packages I've installed / uninstalled. 

• First up is the Flash plugin.  Wheezy comes with the latest IceWeasel browser (Firefox) however uses the Gnash plugin.  Whilst this is improving steadily, for what I want to do especially in Youtube, the Adobe Flash is much better.  Ensure you have  "main contrib non-free" activated for your repositories in "/etc/apt/sources.list" and after updating the repositories, fire up Synaptic and search for "Flash".  You will find the "Browser plugin for Gnash" is installed - mark it for removal, and at the same time, mark the Adobe Flash non-free for installation.  Apply, and now you have the Adobe Flash plugin installed.
• Some fonts.  Search for " ttf-mscorefonts-installer " and mark that for installation.
• Gdebi.  When you wish to install a " deb " package to your system that you have manually downloaded, if you use Gdebi to install, then all the dependencies will be checked and if available, downloaded from the Debian repository.  Once installed, it appears in the "System" section.
• Boot-Up Manager.  Look for " bum " .  What it does is to allow you to control which services run on startup.
• Debian-reference-en  .. an excellent book all about Debian.  This also installs the  debian-reference-common package.  If you are not careful and don't just choose your preferred language, you'll end up installing the lot.  You might also consider the debian refcard, and the installation guide as well.  Now, because of the wonders of the Debian menu system (worth finding out about), the Debian reference is now in the  "accessories" section.
• xchm - to view Microsoft compiled help files.  Once installed, it appears in the "Office" menu.  There is also kchmviewer, however though that is a little more capable, it is also somewhat larger.  If you are going to have a number of KDE applications though, it might not be so bad.
• xcal - an old and basic calendar / memo / alarm program - but interesting.  AND it brings up another question - that of modifying the Xfce menu, since xcal does not appear and can only be launched via the terminal (unless you create a launcher).

 Of course, the "application finder" spyglass on the dock could be used to do some modifying of the menu, however I've not chased it up yet.

Menus in Debian

Menus in Debian are interesting - there is an automated system to add and delete items that enables the menu of any desktop / window manager to be automatically updated as packages are moved in and out.  You can start reading about the Debian Menu System, and then,of course, Google is your friend.

Alacarte Menu Editor

The Gnome menu editor was the first to cross my mind .. " Alacarte" however when I went to install it, many of the Gnome packages were listed for installation as well, which was not what I was after.

The Debian Menu

One menu selection that is missing is the "Debian" menu, which DOES include all the installed applications.




Enough for the moment.



More later .......