Ubuntu For Free

I’d heard mention of KSquirrel in other neighborhoods before (Gentoo and Debian systems mostly) and thought anything would be better than gwenview. I was right. It’s much faster and a major improvement. It was a little tricky to install, but I was able to do it. Here’s how:

Installing KSquirrel

From the above link, click on Downloads and you’ll be taken to a page with multiple selections. You’ll need both files for the Debian binaries. In Konqueror, right click on the *-libs.deb file and use the Kubuntu package manager to install it. Mine failed, and that’s ok. Do the other file now using the same way, and it may fail again, like mine did. I fixed the install of both by using


sudo apt-get -f install


from Konsole. I was then able to launch by using alt+f2 and typing ksquirrel

In Ubuntu, it sometimes happens where a program locks up, and using the X or close button just doesn’t do anything. I frequently encounter this when k3b has a crashed burn. I’ve seen a few ways of closing it, but nothing as convenient as the close button. Several have suggested going to terminal and typing a command or three to close it. I think that’s just too much to ask, as I didn’t have to do that in DOS or Windows.

Fortunately, I found a shortcut that *is* as convenient as the close button. You can add a “Force Quit” button to your panel, by right clicking on the panel and choosing “Add to Panel“. You’ll see an icon that looks like a cracked screen. Drag it to where you want it on your panel, and you can use it when that pesky program just won’t go away.