Ubuntu users

oldskoolmseriesfan · Post by **oldskoolmseriesfan** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 9:38 am

I installed Ubuntu on the laptop last night, gonna give it a trial run to see if I like it. At first I was like WTF?! Starting to get used to it now. Its kinda cool how the send you a list of applications as "packages" from the community. If you guys have any info to help me out to getter up and runnin smoothly, please chime in.

bretti_kivi · Post by **bretti_kivi** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 10:28 am

just run updates / upgrades occasionally. The forum I administer runs on Debian - it's pretty cool.

You might also want to try Xubuntu, Kubuntu or Edubuntu - all variants, Xubuntu is good for old machines, Kubuntu uses a different front end. Lots to play with

Bret

Post by **Francious70** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 11:24 am

That's a version of Linux, right?

oldskoolmseriesfan · Post by **oldskoolmseriesfan** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 11:55 am

oldskoolmseriesfan · Post by **oldskoolmseriesfan** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 1:33 pm

a small glitch, my son and i where looking through the screen savers and went to preview one and it froze, rebooted a couple of times to change it and it freezes. So i let it go to sreen saver by itself and sure enough same thing, it freezes and i have to reboot. Its not that big of a deal but its kind of annoying, any ideas?

Post by **fuzzysnuggleduck** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 1:58 pm

When it "freezes" can you still switch to the text console by using "control-alt-F1" (or F2, F3, F4, etc.) ?

If it freezes, can you use "Control-Alt-Backspace" to kill the X server?

Post by **stipud** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 2:00 pm

Mmmm... ACPI issues. Welcome to the world of Linux hurt. My work PC running CentOS (another Linux distro) will not resume from standby either, and I sure don't want to fix it.

Hell, even Windows can't do it right. Took me a few hours to get my new PC capable of going to sleep even. Though in it's credit, at least not going to sleep seems to be better than never waking up and requiring a force restart like in Linux.

Sorry dunno what to recommend.

Post by **fuzzysnuggleduck** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 2:33 pm

Turning off ACPI (if that is the issue) is easy enough.

bretti_kivi · Post by **bretti_kivi** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 12:56 am

i think that ACPI will be a FLA for the OP.

OP: maybe play with the power options. What laptop is it? did you try Googling already?

Bret

oldskoolmseriesfan · Post by **oldskoolmseriesfan** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 2:43 pm

fuzzysnuggleduck wrote:Turning off ACPI (if that is the issue) is easy enough.

found a loophole... if I logoff and leave it on the user name page it "sleeps" and then starts right back up as soon as I "trigger" it. The laptop is a Gateway. It actually belongs to my wifes friend. She was running Vista and it kept crashing, she was told it was her HD and has had it replaced twice

and still no luck. I tried to get the Vista up and running to no avail

So I decided to give Ubuntu a try and it it worked.
Its a Pentium dual core,should I try the others that were mentioned?
Im also having troubles getting the media players to work. It wont play DVD's, it plays aboot 10sec worth and then quits and says it cant read the file.
Any more ideas?
Eventually I want to run my desktop with it, once I work out all the bugs.

Post by **fuzzysnuggleduck** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 2:51 pm

oldskoolmseriesfan wrote:
fuzzysnuggleduck wrote:Turning off ACPI (if that is the issue) is easy enough.
ACPI stands for?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_C ... _Interface

I'd link you to the Ubuntu forums where they discuss the easy procedure for disabling it (you have to edit your grub.conf file and reboot) but their forums are down right now.

oldskoolmseriesfan · Post by **oldskoolmseriesfan** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 3:10 pm

ACPI. Whoa I dont want to mess with that, it made my head hurt

If I feel ballsy enough to try it where would I find it?

oldskoolmseriesfan · Post by **oldskoolmseriesfan** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 11:35 am

I, in some aspects hate this fn Ubuntu shit. Why cant I post jpeg files, please help. I didnt know that Linux was this complex, ( well to complex for me I guess

) Feel free to chime in.
Thanks guys.

Post by **fuzzysnuggleduck** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 11:46 am

What do you mean by "can't post JPEGs"? You can't attach images to phorum posts?

Post by **stipud** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 11:47 am

Click Post reply

Scroll down to "Add an Attachment"

Click browse

Find file

Click "Add Attachment"

Pat yourself on the back

oldskoolmseriesfan · Post by **oldskoolmseriesfan** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 10:50 am

How hard is it to re-install WXP over Ubuntu, Im finding it to complex to install anything on Linux. I still have a copy of XP from GX3. I should have left well enough alone

Please forgive my noobness. Any and all help is very appreciated.
Thanx,Dean.

wash with gasoline · Post by **wash with gasoline** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 4:46 pm

getting xp drivers for a newer laptop mite be a problem, check out there website an see if they have them, if you dont have another computer online download them an burn them on a cd before you start. if you want to do a dual boot with windows an linux i dont know how, if you mean repartition and get rid of linux altogether then start up the machine an go to the bios menu. go to the boot order an select your cd rom to boot first. put in your windows cd restart the machine. when it comes up and says push any key to boot from cd ...push any button. it will come up with options, select instal a fresh copy (or something similar, been awhile) when it asks what partition to instal it on, select the erase partition option. then make a partition in the empty space. then select instal windows on that partition. let the machine do its thing, when it restarts it will give you the option to press any button to boot from cd. DONT, let it start up itself. put in your name password an time zone stuff when it asks. when its done and starts up in windows the video will probly be crappy resolution, put in the drivers and it will look fine. do all the service packs an million updates an antivirus. usually takes a few hours to do it all, make sure you have good ventalation for your laptop or it will be cooking by the time your done ...any qnestions and il try an help

oldskoolmseriesfan · Post by **oldskoolmseriesfan** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 6:04 pm

wash with gasoline wrote:getting xp drivers for a newer laptop mite be a problem, check out there website an see if they have them, if you dont have another computer online download them an burn them on a cd before you start. if you want to do a dual boot with windows an linux i dont know how, if you mean repartition and get rid of linux altogether then start up the machine an go to the bios menu. go to the boot order an select your cd rom to boot first. put in your windows cd restart the machine. when it comes up and says push any key to boot from cd ...push any button. it will come up with options, select instal a fresh copy (or something similar, been awhile) when it asks what partition to instal it on, select the erase partition option. then make a partition in the empty space. then select instal windows on that partition. let the machine do its thing, when it restarts it will give you the option to press any button to boot from cd. DONT, let it start up itself. put in your name password an time zone stuff when it asks. when its done and starts up in windows the video will probly be crappy resolution, put in the drivers and it will look fine. do all the service packs an million updates an antivirus. usually takes a few hours to do it all, make sure you have good ventalation for your laptop or it will be cooking by the time your done ...any qnestions and il try an help

Will this work on my PC? the (ex) wife has the laptop and this q pertains to my PC, and yes I do want to get rid of linux all together.

wash with gasoline · Post by **wash with gasoline** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 8:01 pm

same on a pc. not sure how fast your computer is. win xp likes at least a 1.2 ghz processor an 512ram to be useable in my opinion, it will run on less but its like pulling teeth. i tryed to play with linux a few years ago but after a few days of fighting with it i gave up. i put windows back on and did more research and found that my motherboard was on a short list of boards that would not work with out doing modifications to the kernel and some other stuff that was way over my head. im still curious but i dont have the space or time to mess with it now. seems to me the key is you need another computer to use online while you are getting it running

oldskoolmseriesfan · Post by **oldskoolmseriesfan** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 9:27 pm

Just got in from watching the hockey game. Ill give her a shot, and let you know how it goes

wash with gasoline · Post by **wash with gasoline** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 9:50 pm

see your posting again. did it go smoothly, or did i lead you astray?

oldskoolmseriesfan · Post by **oldskoolmseriesfan** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 11:10 pm

Its been a crazy week around here, so I havent had the time needed, but I have gone to the bios menu and checked it out. Looks like it should work. Your tutorial seems to be on the money. I will give an update as soon as I have the time. Should be able to give er a shot in the next day or so.Thanx WWG

wash with gasoline · Post by **wash with gasoline** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 10:37 am

i was thinking about it and you might have a bunch of partitions on your hard drive with linux. if you do just erase all of them until you have one big unpartitioned space then make one big partition, or if you want to get fancy you can make 2 partitions. use the first one for the operating system and the second for storage, i would give the operating system around 30 gigs. when you do that it makes the computer a tiny bit quicker because it limits the op system to the beginning of the disk which is smaller in diamiter which makes seek times a hair quicker because the disk head does not have to travel as far to find what its looking for, its such a tiny increase you wont notice unless you are a ocd gammer. but having your storage on a diff partition means that if you are loading diff operating systems and experimenting alot you dont have to keep loading your pics and other stuff on every time you change it, and if you crash the system or get a virus its harder for it to corupt your stuff in the storage drive. and when you are done loading windows up go back into the bios menu and have the boot order have the partition with windows on it boot first. will save a few seconds everytime the computer starts up

oldskoolmseriesfan · Post by **oldskoolmseriesfan** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 11:46 am

wash with gasoline wrote:i was thinking about it and you might have a bunch of partitions on your hard drive with linux. if you do just erase all of them until you have one big unpartitioned space then make one big partition, or if you want to get fancy you can make 2 partitions. use the first one for the operating system and the second for storage, i would give the operating system around 30 gigs. when you do that it makes the computer a tiny bit quicker because it limits the op system to the beginning of the disk which is smaller in diamiter which makes seek times a hair quicker because the disk head does not have to travel as far to find what its looking for, its such a tiny increase you wont notice unless you are a ocd gammer. but having your storage on a diff partition means that if you are loading diff operating systems and experimenting alot you dont have to keep loading your pics and other stuff on every time you change it, and if you crash the system or get a virus its harder for it to corupt your stuff in the storage drive. and when you are done loading windows up go back into the bios menu and have the boot order have the partition with windows on it boot first. will save a few seconds everytime the computer starts up

My evening is open tonight, the kids are going to theyre moms for the night, so I will have the evening open to give er a shot. Stay tuned for any q's I might have in a few hours

wash with gasoline · Post by **wash with gasoline** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 2:10 pm

il try, going to be helping my uncle tear out his drive way