Ubuntu [Day 3]

[Martin]

Day 1
I finally broke down and installed a 32 bit version Ubuntu linux.

The first thing that I noticed about it was how professional it looked. It uses Gnome, and a really nice login screen (infinitely nicer than Windows XP's at least).

So far, I got everything set up perfectly. Wireless works, and I haven't had the chance to test out the 3d acceleration.

Now, I do have some complaints. The first is that they changed some of the commands around, as well as some of the folders. There's no more 'dhcpcd', and I haven't actually managed to find a replacement for that yet. Also, the network information is stored in /etc/network, which I also found to be confusing. Finally, they package firefox 0.9.3 with it, and for some reason Synaptic won't allow me to update it to version 1. Not a problem as the source IS available on the net.

Another thing is that my wireless drivers (done through ndiswrapper) seemed to be incredibly slow at first, but this problem apparently corrected itself after a restart.

On a side note, the gnome theme that they use is really slick. I'll post some screenshots later.

So far though, I'm loving it.

EDIT1: So far, I have been unable to get hardware 3d acceleration working.

EDIT2: Okay, more 3d acceleration woes. XFree86 screwed up somehow, gotta work that out. Until then, no X for me.

[Hikaru79]

Find out about the Ubuntu Backports Project if you want updated binaries for Firefox, Thundebird, OpenOffice, GiMP, etc.

Also, what video card are you using? If it's either NVIdia or ATI I can help you with your 3d woes

[Martin]

Day 2
ATI Radeon mobility 9600.

I was messing around with XFree86, and well, X won't start. Yeah...fortunately the reinstall is pretty painless.

Help, please.

[rizzix]

switch to SuSE.

[wtd]

rizzix wrote:

switch to SuSE.

Once you go Gnome + Debian, it's hard to go back.

[Neo]

Post those screenshots if you can, I'd like to see.

[Martin]

Does linux have an equivalent to Norton Ghost?

[rizzix]

wtd wrote:

rizzix wrote:

switch to SuSE.

Once you go Gnome + Debian, it's hard to go back.

i went hardcore debian. with gnome.. i switched back.. my basic needs were not satisfied: hardware support.

i dont care about anything else.

[wtd]

Neo wrote:

Post those screenshots if you can, I'd like to see.

You can see a whole bunch at the Ubuntu forums.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=240&page=1&pp=10

[Mazer]

That's nice and all, but correct me if I'm wrong, isn't the only thing that screenshot has to do with Ubuntu is the wallpaper? Otherwise, it's just a screenshot of a Gnome desktop. Eh?

[wtd]

Coutsos wrote:

That's nice and all, but correct me if I'm wrong, isn't the only thing that screenshot has to do with Ubuntu is the wallpaper? Otherwise, it's just a screenshot of a Gnome desktop. Eh?

To some extent, yes. The Ubuntu developers have customized Gnome 2.8 a tad, though. I haven't been able to find the Human theme elsewhere, for instance, and the man panel has been changed with the addition of the Computer menu and deletion of the Actions menu. In conjunction with this, there's nothing on the desktop by default. Gnome in Ubuntu is very clean.

[Hikaru79]

martin wrote:

Day 2
ATI Radeon mobility 9600.

I was messing around with XFree86, and well, X won't start. Yeah...fortunately the reinstall is pretty painless.

Help, please.

Here's UbuntuForum's take on ATI cards. It's worked for me.

Quote:

1. sudo apt-get install linux-686 if you haven't already.

or -k7 or -686-smp or -386... whatever matches your kernel.

2. sudo apt-get install fglrx-driver
3. echo fglrx | sudo tee -a /etc/modules

This command won't have any effect until you reboot. To load the kernel module immediately, run sudo depmod -a ; sudo modprobe fglrx, but this will only work if you have already rebooted since upgrading the kernel. If it doesn't work, perform the next step (below) and then reboot.

4. sudo sed -i -e 's/"ati"/"fglrx"/' /etc/X11/XF86Config-4

Note: If you are going to compile 3d applications, you will want to install the fglrx-driver-dev package
Note: You might want to install the fglrx-control package, which provides a control panel to configure graphics card options such as dual-head display (two monitors)

[wtd]

So, you want screenshots, eh?


Click for larger.

[Hikaru79]

I totally support GNOME for Ubuntu. But there might be those who prefer KDE, so here's a screenshot of KDE 3.3.2 in Ubuntu. It works just as well, see?

[Mazer]

Well that's good to know because, y'know, if you aren't using Gnome then KDE is your only option for a graphical interface eh?