Some (k)ubuntu and Thunderbird questions

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Tue, Oct 17, 2006 at 11:25:20PM -0400, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
> Hi folks.
> 
> Moving over from Mandriva to Kubuntu Edgy, I still have some lingering
> questions about the packaging system (adept, apt-get, dpkg, etc.); any
> help is appreciated:
> 
> 1) What is the dpkg/apt-get equivalent of `rpm -qf filename`, which
> tells you the name of the package that `filename` belongs to? Can this
> be searched in any of the GUI tools?

dpkg -S filename

> 2) Similarly, how can I query the database of uninstalled packages to
> ask what package would need to be installed to give me a specific file?
> (This query was brought on by the earlier question of where to find
> "smbmount" when that is the name of a command embedded inside a package
> of another name. How do I ask adept or apt, "what package, if installed,
> would provide the file named `smbmount`"?)

That requires installing apt-file and then doing:
apt-file update
apt-file search filename

I hardly ever use it though.  I find most things I can find by just
doing:
apt-cache search keyword

Most things are obvious enough that a keyword is all you need.

> 3) In Mandriva, when the notification system said there were new package
> versions to download, it would tell me whether the need for the upgrade
> was critical (ie, security or sever bugfix) as opposed to low-priority
> (cleanup or feature-add). I was able to look at the GUI package manager
> and get a full changelog. In `adept` I can't seem to find anything to
> show me this info in either `adept` or `adept_updater`. Am I missing
> something?

No idea.  I figure all updates are important.  At least on debian the
stable release really should only get security updates or potentially
bug fixes for critical bugs (which should of course have been found
before release if they were so critical so it really never seems to
happen either).

> I also have two non-packaging questions, both related to the Kubuntu
> package of Thunderbird (rel 1.5.0.7):
> 
> 4) The little application icon in the upper left corner of the window is
> the generic "X" logo as opposed to an applications icon. How/where can I
> change this? All other apps (including Firefox) seem to have this down OK.

The icon of a program is whatever that program sets it to.  Many smaller
programs don't set it at all and get the default.  Some window managers
can be made to override the icon.

> 5) When I click on a link in Thunderbird it calls Konqueror to open the
> page, not Firefox. This is doubly weird, considering that I've changed
> the KDE settings properly -- when I click on a link from Kmail it calls
> up Firefox, but when I click a link in Thunderbird it still goes to
> Konq. I have no idea of how to set things within Thunderbird to change this.

I suspect thunderbird like firefox is more gnome oriented and uses the
gnome settings instead.  Check the gnome control panel.  That's where I
always found the setting it seems to use.

> and finally:
> 
> 6) How can I remove something from the Kicker? I accidentally installed
> a keyboard-changing applet, and I can't seem to remove it. I need to
> close it every time the system boots, and I can't seem to find out where
> I can manually revove stuff from the KDE panel such as the OpenOffice
> quickstarter, etc.

Can't you just clost it and then save the session?

--
Len Sorensen
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