Ubuntu

Lockstep

I moved away and forgot my Vista installation disc and my vista is giving me grief. I was thinking of giving Ubuntu a whirl; basic stuff like browsing, word processing, maybe a few older games like Age of Empires II etc.

I'm just wondering if Ubuntu is any good; I'm not too up on OS other than Windows so I was just wondering if my computers hardware etc will work with it.

I'll need to do a clean boot etc but all my saved drivers (in case my pc needed to be rebooted as I can't access the internet (needed for making my wirelss able to connect to the net etc) might only be for Vista.

System specs;
ASUS F5SL
Intel Core duo t5550 (1.83Ghz)
ATI Radeon Mobility 3470
250GB hard drive
HD Audio

Anti

try a live iso so you can try it out first before you take the jump.

Amalgam

Try Linux Mint too, a fork of Ubuntu with extra codecs and Media centered applications included on the install\Live CD.

http://www.linuxmint.com/

Keano

I have Ubuntu and XP on my PC. Find myself drifting more towards Ubuntu everyday. Still have a lot to learn about Ubuntu though.

cable842

linux mint is the bomb..

but the misses say that the broadband runs slower on the linux computer then it does windows

kickoutthejams wrote: »

I moved away and forgot my Vista installation disc and my vista is giving me grief. I was thinking of giving Ubuntu a whirl; basic stuff like browsing, word processing, maybe a few older games like Age of Empires II etc.

I'm just wondering if Ubuntu is any good; I'm not too up on OS other than Windows so I was just wondering if my computers hardware etc will work with it.

I'll need to do a clean boot etc but all my saved drivers (in case my pc needed to be rebooted as I can't access the internet (needed for making my wirelss able to connect to the net etc) might only be for Vista.

System specs;
ASUS F5SL
Intel Core duo t5550 (1.83Ghz)
ATI Radeon Mobility 3470
250GB hard drive
HD Audio

monkeypants

I've no problem with linux, but it does take a bit of tweaking. You can also simply run it from the CD as a test rather than installing it.

I'd see if I could get a copy of the Vista installation disk from somewhere, or an XP one. Yes, linux is free and all that, but sometimes Windows is handy to have around for games and things like that.

tman

Drivers shouldn't be an issue as long as you're using a recent version of Ubuntu. As has been said, just give the live CD a whirl and see if you fancy using it long term.
Can be a bit of a learning process, and I normally go back to Vista/Windows 7 out of familiarity, but if I only had Ubuntu on my pc then I'd happily use it every day

Stark

Have been using Ubuntu instead of XP for well over a year now. Performance wise, it's far better than XP. For basic stuff like web browsing and word processing, you'll have no problems with Ubuntu (Firefox and OpenOffice both run on it).

biko

Ubuntu is fine. As the others said, burn a Live CD and test run it without installing it.

Lockstep

Tried, it, loved it.


Installed it on my pc. RUnning great now although I'm still working my way around some problems installing drivers.

Stark

Cool. What drivers are giving problems? You'll sometimes see a green icon that looks like a PCI card in the top right of the screen. That allows you to install drivers that aren't open source.

Lockstep

My biggest problem so far is with the graphics drivers; my Asus F5sl has an ATI Radeon Mobility HD 3470 (256mb) which doesn't seem to be recognized.
I'm unable to turn on graphics on the desktop or play 3d chess etc. I'm pretty baffled as to what to do as the laptop doesn't seem to have a device manager like Windows which lets me see my drivers. The System/Hardware Drivers doesn't seem to give any luck (it just mentions about a wifi alternate I can turn on or not)


Other problem I have is with the media player; I can't listen to music (sound is working though) or watch movies.
Any ways around this?

Other than that, I love ubuntu. Lovely OS and very nice working.

monkeypants

kickoutthejams wrote: »

Other problem I have is with the media player; I can't listen to music (sound is working though) or watch movies.
Any ways around this?

Possible codec problem? I normally use Windows with klite and therefore never much have to bother with codecs.

Stark

kickoutthejams wrote: »

My biggest problem so far is with the graphics drivers; my Asus F5sl has an ATI Radeon Mobility HD 3470 (256mb) which doesn't seem to be recognized.
I'm unable to turn on graphics on the desktop or play 3d chess etc. I'm pretty baffled as to what to do as the laptop doesn't seem to have a device manager like Windows which lets me see my drivers. The System/Hardware Drivers doesn't seem to give any luck (it just mentions about a wifi alternate I can turn on or not)

Ahright. ATI cards are a complete pain under Linux (Nvidia cars fare much better). In your case ,your card uses a RV620 chipset. This article should explain the current state of play: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_r600_r700_2d&num=1 . From the jist of it, it looks like 3D support should be provided in Ubuntu 9.10 (out at the end of the month).

Lockstep

Thanks for the help (although I'm not tech savvy enough to follow the article )

Is there anything I can do about the music? I keep getting error messages every time I try to install.
Maybe shoulda tried Linux Mint.

Tony H

Stark wrote: »

Ahright. ATI cards are a complete pain under Linux (Nvidia cars fare much better). In your case ,your card uses a RV620 chipset. This article should explain the current state of play: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_r600_r700_2d&num=1 . From the jist of it, it looks like 3D support should be provided in Ubuntu 9.10 (out at the end of the month).

The beta of Ubuntu 9.10 is out and fairly stable , I installed it today on a laptop that had graphic problems(ATI card) with 9.04 and it looks and feels great ,
If you are having problems have a look at the ubuntu forums
http://ubuntuforums.org/ , there's lots of good info there and even a Absolute Beginner Talk section as well ,
Linux mint is a great disto as mentioned already and all the codecs are already installed , boards also have a good unix forum with very helpfull and knowledgeable members willing to help .

Lockstep

damn need help again

was looking for help for my system and came across http://www.lucioalbenga.com/2008/06/11/asus-f5-laptop-with-ubuntu/

which suggested my internet would be more stable by disabling the ATH9K driver, I did so but was unable to get the next step and dont know how to reenable the ATH9K driver, any help? my internet stopped working altogether

Kinetic^

Hmm, so you typed in the following

sudo modprobe -r ath9k

And now it doesn't work?

Try this in the command line

sudo vim /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

If I'm right (if ), you should see "ath9k" in there. Just delete it, save the file and restart your laptop.

If you don't know how to edit with vim then press "i" and you will be able to edit stuff. It's purely navigated with arrow keys and you can delete with either delete/back space. To save press "Esc" and then type ":x" and that will save the file and exit for you. Just reboot. *fingers crossed*

The guide should really say you need an ethernet cable hooked up while following it.