Ubuntu for two weeks-now I like Linux [Archive]

View Full Version : Ubuntu for two weeks-now I like Linux

Blue078

11-08-2006, 05:21 PM

Every year I've downloaded a few distros and gave linux a whirl and allways gave up trying to get drivers and things working. This year several distros seemed alot more noobie freindly.

Ran Xandros 4 for about a week, but just couldn't seem to find enough useful howto's in Xandros forums so I botched several installs trying to get vidcard drivers working, got frustrated and gave up.

I gave FreeSpire a try. Easily could switch to it from XP for every day stuff it seemed very XP like {in GUI aspect}, but again got frustrated trying to get something as simple as video card drivers going.

Then I tried a new one to me Ubuntu 6.10 and I'm hooked :)
I easily found step by step howto's in Ubuntu's comnuity forums. Took me an rainy Saturday afternoon, but I finely meet success getting openchrome drivers compiled, Installed, and learned how to edit the xorg.conf to get all my LCD's supported resolutions working :) Adjusted FONTS to "subpixel smoothing" and WoW! looks as good if not better than in XP.

Then I moved the drive over to my P5B Deluxe rig and was supprised how Ubuntu booted right up. Had to start over on the vidcard sceen but it's not that big a deal .

Learning how powerful the command line is. Like how dumb I was reinstalling every botched attempt of installing drivers. When a simple little "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg" answer a few questions, and your back in the GUI ready to have at it again :D

Benjie

11-08-2006, 06:49 PM

Ive recently given ubuntu a try myself. My only real reason for sticking with windows, like a lot of people was for gaming. Also id had problems in the past like you mention with xorg.conf and my widescreen resolution.

Spent one evening with it and got everything running smoothly, installed alternatives for everything i do on windows and even had enough spare time to get steam installed in wine! So now i have everything i need. CS:S runs almost as well as it does in windows too!

For anyone wanting to give linux a try, id highly recommend ubuntu as a place to start!

Blue078

11-08-2006, 07:13 PM

Have you burnt any DVD's yet? That and something to deal with ISO's is next on my list. Found Gftp sutes my FTp need quite nicely. Their is so much no-cost software it's mind boggling :D

Benjie

11-08-2006, 07:44 PM

Ive not burnt and dvds yet but ive burnt a few data cds using K3B. I'd used K3B on previous linux installs and found it to suit my needs (as in it burns cds lol :D)

When you say something to deal with isos do you mean to mount them like alcohol 120% or daemon tools?

Blue078

11-08-2006, 08:30 PM

I've allways used ISO Buster to extract files add files, and view them. So something simple like that would get the job done.

Yea I've never realy need all the stuff that comes with Nero. I burn a few Data CD/DVD's and burn a lot of Images to disk.

sierra_bound

11-08-2006, 08:33 PM

Ubuntu 6.10 is very nice.:)

XSAlliN

11-09-2006, 12:50 AM

Agree, it's the most friendly OS (Linux based) - if it gets a good game support people my skip Win for Ubuntu ;)

MentholMoose

11-09-2006, 01:41 AM

When you say something to deal with isos do you mean to mount them like alcohol 120% or daemon tools?
In case anyone is wondering about this, this functionality is built into the OS. The reason is that Linux treats devices as if they were files. So, you can mount an ISO file just like a CD-ROM drive.

For mounting an ISO, use the following command:

mount -t iso9660 -o loop /somepath/something.iso /mountpoint

You will probably have to run it as root or using sudo. You don't even need to use a terminal window if you prefer, assuming your window manage has a "run" option. Below is what this looks like in KDE 3.4:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=52724&stc=1&d=1163063887

In this example I am mounting "blah.iso" located in the root ("/") directory to the mountpoint located at "/iso". Any empty directory can be a mountpoint... so you can just use "/mnt/cdrom" if you are not using your CD-ROM drive, or make another directory ("/mnt/iso" or whatever you want). When you're done, just use "unmount /mountpoint".

If it doesn't work and you get an error message like "mount: could not find any device /dev/loop#", it is due to a kernel compilation option. The "CONFIG_BLK_DEV_LOOP" option needs to be enabled (set to "y" or "m"). I have it set to "m" and I have the module (called "loop") set to load automatically at startup. I don't know what the default is in any distribution.

For images other than ISOs, you can usually find some utility to convert them to ISO format. For BIN/CUE, you can try a program called bchunk (http://he.fi/bchunk/). For Nero, check out nrg2iso (http://gregory.kokanosky.free.fr/v4/linux/nrg2iso.en.html).

LazyBum

11-09-2006, 11:27 AM

I have been testing out ubuntu 6.10 and I really like it also. I kinda had a bad attitude toward ubuntu before this version, but 6.10 64 bit runs fantastic on my machine. Other than a botched config file trying to get my mx1000 to work (my fault) it has worked very well. Now I am working on getting codecs/plug ins for all my videos and things will be golden. If I didn't need windows for gaming this OS would be fantastic.

Blue078

11-09-2006, 11:45 AM

Thanks for the tips MentholMoose :toast: I'll give that a try

matinez

11-09-2006, 12:07 PM

My experience is the same as the ts, tried a lot of distro's.
But for a noob it wasn't that user-friendly as ubuntu now is!

Since they released breezy, dapper.. and now edgy the most essential stuff is working out of the box.

Finally wpa2 is supported in edgy , which I tried to fix in dapper. It's also cool that linux now can handle ntfs-partitions, this makes a very clear connection to windows.

To get some experience with linux, definately use Ubuntu =)

Blue078

11-09-2006, 12:30 PM

Samba comes pre configured too in Ubuntu. I was shocked after the install that I could access my windows network shares from with in Ubuntu.

uOpt

11-09-2006, 01:22 PM

Ubuntu comes with my blessings, too.

Not because of hardware support, I really can't understand why people have so great difficulty patching and recompiling their kernels ;)

But because Ubuntu doesn't screw up your software packages with their own patches like Fedora does.

The main weakness of Debian derivates (Ubuntu is a Debian derivate) is lousy 64/32 bit integration, so it is a hassle to run 32 bit software on a 64 bit install. For a beginner the 32 bit install is hence much better.

The main weakness of Ubuntu 6.06 is that the graphical partition editor sometimes screws up and gets the partition data wrong. You can work around it by using the commandline fdisk and tell the graphical one to do nothing. I don't know whether they fixed that in 6.10.

Duh

11-09-2006, 01:54 PM

I've burnt a DVD with Gnome DVD baker some minutes ago. Although it consumes lots of hardware resources ( hdd mainly), it does the job in a very easy way :D

A thing that I have not liked is that does not allow me to burn a folder that has inside many directories, which obliges me to zip the whole thing up :S

I've been running Ubuntu for some time and I a happy """customer""" :D

Blue078

11-09-2006, 02:54 PM

Ubuntu 6.10 is very nice.:)

Sierra your the very person that encouraged me to stick with Ubuntu. See what you started :D

Blue078

11-09-2006, 02:55 PM

Man I'm kinda surprised how many Linux users are here at XS.

uOpt

11-09-2006, 03:03 PM

Are you guys successful in making video DVDs from mpg files?

[XC] Teroedni

11-09-2006, 03:26 PM

Man I'm kinda surprised how many Linux users are here at XS.

And most of them uses Ubuntu:D

Ive used Ubuntu for a long time , and has just begun playing with Gentoo now:)

Blue078

11-09-2006, 03:47 PM

MentholMoose you are dead right. I copied over a copula ISO from a windows share, then simply right clicked to see what I'd get. Their were a ton of options right off the bat, built in the OS. I chose "{open with archive manager" and was able to view, and extract any individual file at will.

:cool: is all I can say. Don't need a $40 program to do my small time dabbling :D

Duh

11-09-2006, 04:07 PM

IMO the good thing of Ubuntu itself is that you get most of the utils you need included in the OS. The ones that are not included you can easily include them by:

Automatix
Sinaptic Package Manager
Or by simple DL them at no cost at all

Apart from being free, they tend to work without freezing. The one who doubts about this statement can defy any of Ubuntu users to see who had a better uptime :P

perkam

11-09-2006, 09:17 PM

[XC] Teroedni

11-10-2006, 08:13 AM

Should have tried Ubuntu 6 beta for two weeks...you'd be back on windows in one.

Turned out great though...prefer the gnome version myself...hopefully ubuntu has an update for the new gnome revision that fedora and some of the other distro's are touting.

Perkam

Yust sign up for the next Beta, then you get all the latest:D
+You Learn alot each time something gets Borked:P

XSAlliN

11-10-2006, 01:39 PM

This is why I "NEVER" try a Beta OS - Windows/Linux/whatever, a application is one thing but an OS - No, thank you! :)

uOpt

11-10-2006, 02:15 PM

This is why I "NEVER" try a Beta OS - Windows/Linux/whatever, a application is one thing but an OS - No, thank you! :)

Beta versions of Linux are usually deadly. They play with the disk partitioning tools a lot and have quite a few oh-shiny-KABOOM-Oops moments that they only discover when people try out of the betas and nuke their other OS installations.

Interestingly, with FreeBSD the beta versions used to be often better than first releases. They never change their install and partitioning tools anyway, but developers rush their changes during the beta test period to bring them in before release and if they have a good enough excuse they are allowed to bring them in as "release polishing". Recent versions got a lot better, though.

XSAlliN

11-10-2006, 07:26 PM

Trust me I know that - even Windows can be dangerous :P

[XC] Teroedni

11-11-2006, 02:00 AM

Nah dont be so pessimistic;)
The worst brokage ive ever had was an X11 xorg problem, and an dist-upgrade went wrong:P

Actually I run Egdy knot(beta)almost since the start with it without any brokage or problems at all:D
And im gonna jump at the next Ubuntu Betas in 2 months .
THeres nothing like a beta os that upgrades all the time with the latest gnome and everything.

Bleeding egde:woot:

Ofcourse if the machine is used for work i advise against Betas;)

Blue078

11-11-2006, 05:24 AM

So what kinda hardware are you guys running Linux on :)

P5B-D
6300 @3500Mhz
2 gigs @500_4-5-4-12
7800Gtx

slykid

11-11-2006, 06:14 AM

Ubuntu 6.10 is very nice.:)

yeah and from what i understand very straight forward but nothing like the other *nix distros

Duh

11-11-2006, 03:25 PM

So what kinda hardware are you guys running Linux on :)

msi k7n2 delta
amd 2400+
2x512 Corsair ddr 400
radeon 9200 SE
320+60 gigs

In some time I might be migrating hardware: do you guys know If I have to make something when I change hardware?

Okda

11-11-2006, 03:36 PM

my rig used to run gentoo few months ago

and will do again in few days

xlink

11-11-2006, 03:40 PM

Learning how powerful the command line is. Like how dumb I was reinstalling every botched attempt of installing drivers. When a simple little "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg" answer a few questions, and your back in the GUI ready to have at it again :D
guilty of doing that

twice

Blue078

11-11-2006, 04:27 PM

guilty of doing that

twice

:toast: So I'm not the only one :D

slykid

11-12-2006, 05:50 AM

damn i'm gonna try this distro out

[XC] Teroedni

11-12-2006, 11:52 AM

slykid

Just be aware that Linux likes Nvidia 10x better than Ati;)
Many users get turned off by Linux, just because they get a lot of problems with Ati products. However if you can survive in console modus you should be able to manage. Then you can install the ati binary drivers and all should work great:toast:

Blue078

11-12-2006, 12:40 PM

[XC] Teroedni

11-12-2006, 02:20 PM

Yea thats right
In most cases you get kicked back at the console . And often all you need to do is to write sudo apt-get install (The name of the ati package) and its fixed.
However if you never used Linux before it may be hard to know this:/

Edit:You might have to change the device tab in you /etc/X11/xorg.conf from whatever Ubuntu have tried to fglrx which is tha Ati binary one.

I know that Nvidia Binary drivers edit the xorg.conf file , but im n not sure if Atis Binary Package have managed that yet:confused:

Okda

11-12-2006, 02:26 PM

anyway AMd annouced that it will release a big part of its vga drivers to the open source community soon which for sure means better linux support

Blue078

11-12-2006, 02:28 PM

However if you never used Linux before it may be hard to know this:/

:D :D Thank You that is sooo true.

[XC] Teroedni

11-12-2006, 02:30 PM

anyway AMd annouced that it will release a big part of its vga drivers to the open source community soon which for sure means better linux support

You got a link to verify that?
It would be great news inded:D

slykid

11-12-2006, 02:32 PM

illmatik

11-12-2006, 02:38 PM

I've been meaning to try ubuntu, I've been using its parent (Debian) @ work & home for a while now.. It's such a great building block distro as you can fit a fully functioning server into an ~80MB footprint. The amazing apt package manager then allows you to add in what you want without getting hundreds of megs of crap you dont need like other distros do. It's pretty secure to boot, and i hear ubuntu has been keeping that tradition as well which is impressive when you think of all the features it has that can be possible exploits. since its rainy as hell i might just dl it and load it in parallels on the mini to kick the tires ;)

sierra_bound

11-18-2006, 01:52 PM

Very easy to create a dual-boot system with Windows and Ubuntu 6.10. You don't even have to manually create a swap file. The Ubuntu installation program will do it for you. Just need some unallocated space on your HDD.

Blue078

11-18-2006, 08:05 PM

sierra_bound

11-18-2006, 08:05 PM

Did you have windows installed first?
Yes

Blue078

11-18-2006, 08:21 PM

Yes

Ah, thank you much :)