Do you Ubuntu?

[nelsonfoto]

Jorn, finally got around to bringing out the old tower and downloading some newer distros. I grabbed Ubuntu based on your glowing appraisal - spent several hours bounding off the install, kernel would not install. Finally found the check-sum tool in the menu and scanned the CD... turned out to be a bad burn.

So... I burned the image a second time, much more slowly than the first attempt - good burn, and I am now running Ubuntu on an HP ze4100 just given to me out of the blue. Laptop is smoking fast now, and I even managed to get the default install of Firefox (full of holes) replaced with the up-to-date-and-secured v1.5.0.1 - this is the easiest GNU-Linux install I've done yet, even more pleased by the auto-magical updating that queried at first-boot and the packages fetched like a breeze.

So, thanks for the suggestion. This is a nice, clean interface they have, and it's the first time I've been happy in GNOME.

Hoping now that I can plug in my wireless card and reboot, finding the DHCP without a hitch. Not worried about right now. Am curious about printers - were you able to get printers installed without a hitch?

[mitspooner]

Craig I have been using Ubuntu for the past 1 1/2 and I have had only problem. My scanner doesn't like linux. My printer was not the easiest also because for the driver situation (Proprietary) but after a couple of tries I just set it up under a older model. Works like a charm. Just realize you have steped into the most user friendly distro ever.
PS - I'm on Team Canada for the userlist of Ubuntu.

[nelsonfoto]

A team member eh? Good.

When I installed, I had a CAT5 plugged in, my DWL-G630 wireless card in my other laptop. I obviously have net access and this is only due to the landline. I have inserted the wireless card and rebooted and get no response from it.

Do you have any suggestions? Would this have been a non-issue had I had the wifi in during install?

Help a brotha out.

Thanks,
C.

[GeneW]

Ubuntu is based on Debian is it not? I've been using Debian for years. The new installer that came in with Debian 3.x is quite good. What is the advantage of using Ubuntu instead of just installing Debian? Just curious.

Gene

[mitspooner]

Craig - I have posted the question to the hardware guys I should have a answer in a little bit.

Gene - ubuntu which is based one Debian has taken away most of the fear that people have about linux by making from install (which uses sarge) to work screen (Gnome) as bullit proof as possible, The other big thing about Ubuntu is the regular updates and a billionare Mark Shuttleworth bankrolling the whole thing. Still alot of user group input and pro's working on the back end.

[denis_HR]

Congrats on the successful install, Craig...

I've been on Suse (9.3 now) full time for couple of years now. Before that, I had a dual boot setup, and used Linux only occasionally.
Now I have a rather complicated setup, with Windows 2000 running inside vmware, with no glitches
I have to use Windoze for work (I'm a translator and have to run some proprietary windows-only translation software), and vmware is a Godsend. Without it I wouldn't be able to make the switch to Linux.

I'm quite happy with Suse - it also has autoupdate, etc.. Works nice with various modern hardware, too - the only problem being the scanner (Microtek USB model). However, I can use it under vmware - but it's a bit slow. So, when I'm in a hurry and want to scan, I usually boot up Windoze, scan the stuff, and then reboot back to Linux.
My main concern and reason for going Linux full-time was security. Keeping up with millions of security holes, trojans, etc. under Windoze was beginning to take too much of my time, and was realy a no-win situation.
Now I have a system which suits me best - Linux takes care of security quite well, and I do my work in Windows/Office when I have to.
BTW, my consumer digital camera (Canon A60) works much better under Linux (using Digikam) than under Windows
I'm also quite happy burning CDs/DVDs in K3b.

Denis

[Mike Kovacs]

Mitch,

Have you tried the Linux version of Vuescan to get that scanner going?  Linux's strongpoint is not exotic USB/firewire hardware...

[nelsonfoto]

Ubuntu is based on Debian is it not? I've been using Debian for years. The new installer that came in with Debian 3.x is quite good. What is the advantage of using Ubuntu instead of just installing Debian? Just curious.

Gene

The installer is identical to Debian's, I know that much. When I found the Ubuntu install persistently breaking at kernel install, I burned a NETINST of Debian, but the first menu locked on me, unable to make entry for language. Probably another toasted cd, but I got pissed off and went back to trying to nail-up Ubuntu.

I first found Debian while tinkering with the early Knoppix discs, 3 years or so ago. Debian looked very nice, but I could never get package dependencies worked out and with my attention deficit issues I would finally blow up and remove it. I like to geek a little, but I cannot spend too much personal CPU trying to memorize O'Reilley's "Yer An Idiot If You Can't Memorize All Of This!". Ubuntu looks to have made a major step in removing hassles for mid-level GNU-Lin wannabes.

Mitch, thank you kindly for putting in the call. I found a few references to the card on Ubuntu, and one ref on the wiki that claims the card should work fine in Breezy with a simple addition in the netconfig - trouble is, I'm not seeing where I can activate it manually in any netconfig tool.

Time for breakfast now, mind spinning like a top...

C.

[jake]

Craig:

Yes, Ubuntu is kind of finicky sometimes on install, but once it is cranking, it works really well. And you are right - the updating is one of its best features. However, I spent a lot of time trying to get the wireless card to work in the laptop to no avail. However, I do know now, that Ubuntu works with certain chipsets and not with others, primarily because of drivers (as I understand it.) I also know that Ubuntu is more likely to run with B rather than G cards.

I spent a lot of time reading through this page and changing things through the terminal, until I finally decided to discard Ubuntu and go back to XP. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NetworkDevices

The whole goal was to take an old laptop and turn it into an Internet device that would require nearly minimal maintenance, so my wife could use it to work from home. All she needed was a VPN and a screen. Connected to ethernet, Ubuntu was a dream and she totally thought it was great. But wifi was key, as her office is away from the router, and I ain't running wires all over the house.

Anyway, check the list of cards and instructions, and then get ready to use Ndiswrapper for a Windows driver. That in the end seemed to be the solution, one that worked for a lot of people, but I just wasn't smart enough to get it to work for me. Plug and play, ndiswrapper is not.

But that operating system is great. And Evolution, the email etc. manager, is one of the best programs I have used. Open Office has been updated several times since then, and is now very good. And the whole Synaptic system seemed to work really well. Just couldn't get WIFI to go. Keep your progress posted though, as I plan to load it onto my desktop once I upgrade to an Apple. You know, just to have something to tinker with.

J Ake  :twisted:

[jake]

Check here for ndiswrapper fun.

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/List

The other thing I am remembering is that older drivers are often better than newer drivers. Some more recent cards do not have say, Windows 2000 drivers, so they are not or less likely to work right away. For several cards the recommendation is to load them through ndiswrapper using a Windows 2000 driver.

J Ake :twisted:

[jake]

Oh and my printer started without a hitch, but it is an HP 842C, which is an old standard. I never tried printing to the Epson 2100.

J Ake :twisted:

[nelsonfoto]

But that operating system is great. And Evolution, the email etc. manager, is one of the best programs I have used. Open Office has been updated several times since then, and is now very good. And the whole Synaptic system seemed to work really well. Just couldn't get WIFI to go. Keep your progress posted though, as I plan to load it onto my desktop once I upgrade to an Apple. You know, just to have something to tinker with.

J Ake  :twisted:

OOffice is sexy nowadays... I looked through it last night and was mightily impressed at how much it has matured in 3 years.

This laptop fell out of the sky this week. It belonged to an office I do tech for on an infrequent basis. They just replaced the office laptops and this one was being gifted to an employee. Standard XP install was hanging at boot. I tried to break this one to recover, and I mean I threw everything I had at it, but the boot is FUBAR and would not complete. In a nutshell, they gave it to me asking me to simply recover the sensitive data, project files, etc. That was simple enough, took 3 hours with a USB drive and a BART-PE disk. Then, on my own dime, I spent another 5 hours trying to break into it to recover completely. Futile.

Simple solution would have been to run the XP installer and shitcan the current install, replacing it with a fresh one. Call I got the other night said not to worry about recovering the system - they just want the data, the machine is mine to dispose of as I see fit. So, I installed Ubuntu.

One other thing I did discover through this was the AVAST BART CD.... man, that things a monster, though I only got to play with a 14-day trial. Big money to unlock the license, but as a tech I could see falling in love with the full-featured version.

C.

[nelsonfoto]

Check here for ndiswrapper fun.

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/List

The other thing I am remembering is that older drivers are often better than newer drivers. Some more recent cards do not have say, Windows 2000 drivers, so they are not or less likely to work right away. For several cards the recommendation is to load them through ndiswrapper using a Windows 2000 driver.

J Ake :twisted:

http://support.dlink.com/products/view.asp?productid=DWL-G630

Yer suggestion might be the trick. The card does have 2k drivers available. Will try later.

[titrisol]

RedHat user here... disguised as NC State EOS linux though

[nelsonfoto]

Speaking of RH... I attempted several times to DL the latest stables for Fedora, but no go. In fact, several issues encountered with bad server links while looking for a suitable distro to burn. Had a lot of DLs begin, then fail around 11mb, or worse, crawl to 200mb and suddenly drop. Very frustrating. I would like to see that Fedora in action.

While I have the tower hooked up - it being the only machine on which I have software for burning images from ISOs - if any of you are curious, head over to http://www.distrowatch.com and pick yer poison. I can DL and burn for you. This will expire in 48 hours as the wife will kill me if I leave this beast-rig wired on the living-room floor for much longer.