i can't get it to work. whatever i try to load, pharo just hangs when i try to use one of the linux menu entries.

Are you sure you run the latest ubuntu, the latest 4.0 image and the latest Pharo virtual machine? Did you follow the PPA installation guide on: http://pharo.org/download? In any other case the debugger is your friend. Step through the methods tell us where exactly it hangs (which call with with parameters). Thx T.