[SOLVED] View hardware drivers? And log files?

HHi everyone,
I'm working my way through a Linux for beginners book, I thought it was abuot time I learnt what I was actually doing instead of just guessing timidly around the edges! TThe book's wrutten for Ubuntu 10 (Lucid Lynx) (it's from the library), and there area couple of things I've got to that don't match what Zorin does, and I'd like to know how to do them in Zorin. (NB I'm using Zorin 9, not 12, if that makes any difference.)

First, clickking System > Administration > Hardware Drivers is supposed to show you available drivers, although the book does say that this shouldn't often be an issue with Ubuntu as it supplies most of its own drivers. My Admisnitration menu doesn't have that item. Is it just a program I should install, and if so what's it's name? I'm slwoly getting used to the idea that almost everything's a program, evem things like the preferences windows that on Windows I'd always just assumed were a built-in part of the operating system - I learnt that from finding out that the thing for adjusting the appearance and n coulur sscheme pf windows wasn't included with Zorin and had to be installed separately!

Second, there should be a thing under System > Administration > Log File Viewer which displays system log files in a slightly more readable format than just opening the text fi;es. Again, not there, where should I look for it?
Thanks,
Wombat140

Hi Wombat140, as an intermediate reaction I feel that working with Zorin 9 (4 years ago top of the bill) is like still using err windows xp. why? Zorin OS 12 Lite is there for lower spec machines. I suggest you update and you will look surprised

+++

OK, first things first - additional drivers was primarily for two things or one of two things, a. dedicated proprietary GNU/Linux drivers for nVidia graphics cards in Desktops, and b. Intel microcode - which, as things stand, I would not touch with a barge pole. From memory, 'Themes' in Zorin 9 are accessed via the Panel Preferences (right click the Panel) and the last tab on Panel Preferences allows you to change the 'theme' colours of the panel. Zorin 9 was never meant to mimick XP Themes - it did offer a Windows XP style menu etc. The Panel sadly, did have a few bugs in 9 which is why in the long-run Zorin Devs dropped the implementation of AWN (Avant Window Navigator a.k.a. the Panel at the bottom of the screen) as it is a 'dead project' and the GNU/Linux kernel has moved on. If you are really after something you can create that looks like Windows XP I would suggest you give Q40S a trial as it is only 300 Mb in size in respect of its .iso:

Screenshot: https://www.q4os.org/style/image2.jpg

Official site: https://www.q4os.org/

If you want to theme your desktop from Windows 3.1 all the way through to 10 then Makulu Lindoz may fit your bill:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/makulu/

The only issue with Lindoz is it is 64-bit only if my memory serves correctly, also Freespire is back in town:



but again only available in 64-bit flavour.

Lastly, you may want to give SolydX 32-bit community (Stable edition) a run for your money. But it is built the same as Zorin 12 Lite using Xfce DE - but with SolydX it is PAE free (Physical Address Extension) which is used by more recent hardware, unlikely to be found on yours, but could be wrong.

Hi, I still use Zorin 9 - as long as it is supported - as well as Zorin12 Ultimate.

I hardly had any issues with Zorin 9 - Zorin 12 Ultimate has been a long haul though various issues - but it keeps me amused and is now really very good.

I accidentally found Logs in Zorin 12 - just enter logs above the blue "Z". I never found it in 9 - but it's worth a try in the similar place (click on the lhs bottom icon to get the entry point). Logs seemed to pick up all sorts of things that, worryingly, did not seem to be working perfectly - but the laptop seems to be running great - so a little mystery here.

It would be interesting to view the hardware drivers in both 9 and 12 - I don't know what I woulld do with the information, but it sounds technical and cool. That's above my paygrade though!

Right, I just want to say thank you very much to Finmston Pickle for the encouragement... I hate getting the hang of new operating systems/versions and find it very difficult, especially as I have health issues that make a lot of graphics things, animations etc. very painful for me to look at, so breaking in a new operating sytame is a long and painful process of gradually hunting down and turning off all the relevant settings until I end up with something I can look at comfortably. It took me a couple of months for me and Zorin 9 to reach and agreement. I don't particularly want to go through all that again for no apparent reason except "err why? ". And actually, we have another computer in our house which is not connected to the internet, and we're still happily using Windows XP on it.
tl;dr If I'm using Zorin 9, I probably have a reason for that and didn't come here for a telling off about it thanks all the same. Since this computer DOES have an Internet connection, I'll have to get a new version when they stop releasing updates for Zorin 9, but I'm particularly ill at the moment and hopefully 9 will last me until I'm feeling more up to the challenge.

In the meantime, back to the original question. Good idea about the search box, I tend to forget about that. Unfortunately typing in "logs" didn't turn up anything, but "drivers" did. At least, it led to a tab in the Software and Updates window, marked "Additional; Drivers", but it just said "No additional drivers available - No proprietary drivers are in use". So,, is I'm looking at the right thing, that's nice and simple anyway. -I'm just going to proceed on the guess that the log file viewer is something I don't need to know, and proceed to the next chapter in the book. Fingers crossed that one will be more straightforward!


As for different themes, thanks Swarfendor but I was only really using that as an example. Finding out about Gnome Tweak Tool, which is an additional program to do something that I'd assumed was just part of the OS, has given me a completely new idea of how those things acutallyl work and how many OS gadgets ARE just programs like any other programs.

Thanks for your help, the three of you.

Hi wombat140, Sorry to hear of your ill-health and hope it won't be long before you are fully fit!

To give you peace of mind, Zorin 9 support ends April 2019 like its Ubuntu counterpart, 14.04, on which it was forked from.

Keep enjoying GNU/Linux!

With regard to your 'log' query, this thread on askubuntu should assist you.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/186276/ ... ted#186280