I'm new to ubuntu

Tombones

I dont know anything about code or much else about computers. Is ubuntu aimed at people who know these kinds of things? Anyway my main issue is that my wireless seems to have disconnected on my HP paviollion since i installed ubuntu. I was talking to someone in the know and he told me I needed to enter some "code", which i know nothing about, to reactivate the wireless.
Anyone know of a fix for this? Its the most recent version of ubuntu 11.04

Still no luck, wireless will not come on. I think its a firmware thing.I dont have a clue what firmware is.
Do I press ctrl+alt+t to enter code?

chin_grin

Not really. It's one of the most user-friendly distros of Linux. The only hard part is looking for drivers. It should do this itself though. Have you tried a few of the FAQ's on ubuntu.com?

https://help.ubuntu.com/11.04/ubuntu-help/index.html

pieface_ie

Up at the top right hand corner bar of the screen you will see a little wireless sign, press it and select your wireless network name and input your password when requested. Your password is most likely underneath your router/internet box.

chin_grin

pieface_ie wrote: »

Up at the top right hand and corner bar of the screen you will see a little wireless sign, press it and select your wireless network name and input your password when requested. Your password is most likely underneath your router/internet box.

Ah yeah..............I took it as a driver issue. It's probably your WEP key. Follow this and you should connect fine.

JOSman

Hi all,

I have windows and work with this all the time (as an operating system). Can I have both systems running on the same p.c.

I'd like to see what Ubuntu is about and give it a try.:o

Thanks

chin_grin

JOSman wrote: »

Hi all,

I have windows and work with this all the time (as an operating system). Can I have both systems running on the same p.c.

I'd like to see what Ubuntu is about and give it a try.:o

Thanks

Well you can test it from a live cd (just burn the iso to the cd and you can run it off that). The ubuntu installer is quite good and will ask if you want to make it a dual-boot setup.

Read this first to make sure you've everything covered if you want to go ahead.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

Copper_pipe

ya i think you can dual boot windows and linux. AFAIK you need to partition the hard drive

harney

JOSman wrote: »

Hi all,

I have windows and work with this all the time (as an operating system). Can I have both systems running on the same p.c.

I'd like to see what Ubuntu is about and give it a try.:o

Thanks

Before switching from Windows to Linux, or going to the effort of repartitioning you system to dual boot, it might be worth installing Linux in a virtual machine to see what it is like.

You can get vmware software for free, just register and they will send you a code. The install of vmware is straight forward, with a typical next next finish type effort. http://www.vmware.com/products/server/overview.html

Vmware acts like a new pc in software without affecting Widows. Once you start it you can install Linux inside it. Have a play around with Linux and if you like it then consider dual booting your pc.

Personally I am more a fan of Linux Mint (yes the cardinal sin of bringing preference into it ), based on Ubuntu, than Ubuntu itself. I've stuck it on my parents and gf laptops and haven't had any complaints yet. http://www.linuxmint.com/ (and it is "Irish" )

For those that are looking to try out different types of Linux the following site is good for finding out info and downloading disros: http://distrowatch.com/

Dun

Is it a Pavilion laptop? Unfortunately the supplied wireless driver* doesn't work with my Pavilion laptop, and I have to do a manual workaround. Unfortunately (not for me though ) I'm on Linux Mint, so I can't tell straight off how your Ubuntu would show whether or not the wireless is working, but if you can determine that the wireless isn't showing up at all, then I can give you a workaround to help fix it. Do you have a cable that you can run to your wireless router (modem)?

* a driver is a piece of software that allows the operating system (e.g. Ubuntu or Windows) to use a piece of hardware, like the wireless card, or a printer, etc. Both Ubuntu and Windows have a lot built in but newer hardware especially might need manual install of the software. Ubuntu can be problematic because the manufacturers don't always provide linux drivers, and closed source drivers generally then have to be coded by the open source community, which might take a while, or might not be done for lesser used hardware. Sorry if this is a bit too basic.

D'Agger

Copper_pipe wrote: »

ya i think you can dual boot windows and linux. AFAIK you need to partition the hard drive

You can download wubi and install Ubuntu from there - the setup process asks you how much of your Hard drive you want to assign to Ubuntu so in essence it partitions the drive for you - The minimum is 8GB IIRC

Whenever you boot your PC after installation it will ask whether you want to load windows or Ubuntu.

Simples

Tombones

Tombones wrote: »

I dont know anything about code or much else about computers. Is ubuntu aimed at people who know these kinds of things? Anyway my main issue is that my wireless seems to have disconnected on my HP paviollion since i installed ubuntu. I was talking to someone in the know and he told me I needed to enter some "code", which i know nothing about, to reactivate the wireless.
Anyone know of a fix for this? Its the most recent version of ubuntu 11.04

Thanks for the suggestions, sounds like I need to source driver software for the wireless.

5uspect

You can use ndiswrapper to run windows drivers on Linux.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/Ndiswrapper

A lot of laptops use Broadcom wifi chipsets which have little or no Linux support.

Snowbat

@Tombones can you post the model number of your Pavilion?

5uspect wrote: »

A lot of laptops use Broadcom wifi chipsets which have little or no Linux support.

While that used to be true, the common Broadcom 802.11 devices gained support in the b43 reverse engineered driver in kernel2.6.17-rc2 (released 2006). The Linux STA driver from Broadcom (released last year) supports many older and most of the newer devices.
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#supported

One ugly problem with using the b43 driver is that it requires a firmware file that cannot be included with most Linux distributions for legal reasons. The user needs to download an archive from openwrt.org and run b43-fwcutter on it to extract the firmware (not difficult... details at the link above, but a PITA for new users).

Johnboy1951

Snowbat wrote: »

@Tombones can you post the model number of your Pavilion?


While that used to be true, the common Broadcom 802.11 devices gained support in the b43 reverse engineered driver in kernel2.6.17-rc2 (released 2006). The Linux STA driver from Broadcom (released last year) supports many older and most of the newer devices.
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#supported

One ugly problem with using the b43 driver is that it requires a firmware file that cannot be included with most Linux distributions for legal reasons. The user needs to download an archive from openwrt.org and run b43-fwcutter on it to extract the firmware (not difficult... details at the link above, but a PITA for new users).

Dunno about that .... if some distros can carry it then all could .... unless they decide not to.
The firmware is definitely in the PCLinuxOS repository and available for installation without any jumping through hoops or 'uglyness'.
So it would appear that Ubuntu has decided not to carry the firmware.
Other distros include it, making things easier for new users.

TeachMealog

long time user of Ubuntu and it is linux for Humans... occasionally like other distros is misses a hw driver.
but i have found if you keep it uptodate with updates and versions it happens less frequently

but if the driver isnt auto available some work in getting the debian driver is needed
the two other linux-distros I have used have been Gentoo and OpenSuSe and both worked smoothly for me.
If you can get a LiveUSB or CD it may be worth using to check if it runs on your system

Stuxnet

Tombones wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestions, sounds like I need to source driver software for the wireless.

just press menu>and search for "additional drivers" program while the pc is connected to internet (if you can) via etherent, ubuntu will download and installed to required wireless driver, if its a pavilion, it will suggest you install broadcom sta, click and install, reboot

Capt'n Midnight

when you are setting up a new install of windows or linux or whatever one tip is to connect to your wifi router box with a network cable


this will allow your machine to connect to the internet and download updates / new drivers / look up stuff on line , then when it's settle down you can connect to wifi


it's worth trying the live CD to check for drivers
also worth looking up on line too, especially with very new computers

with wubi you don't need to mess with partitions, you simply tell the installer how much space you want to use on the windows partition


If you want stability go for LTS 10.04
a lot of people don't like the user interface in 11.04 (dis)unity


if you go down the 11.04 path
sudo apt-get install choosewm
this will allow you to choose a different window manager to unity