Ubuntu

[Bryce W]

Ive recently been playing with a build of Linux called Ubuntu which is pretty new on the scene and I have to say, I am VERY impressed with it, mainly because ease-of-use.

First off, you can run it as a LiveCD so you can test it out without installing it which is a great feature for Windows users curious about linux.

Secondly, it detected all my laptops hardware instantly which really amazed me. Previously I had Linux Mandrake on my laptop and it was a pain in the ass getting my wireless working as it isnt supported and the 3rd party drivers are half assed. After much reading & compiling I eventually got wireless to work but I couldnt get WPA to work, I later find out that its not supported.

When I was playing with Ubuntu (still as a livecd at this stage) I was pressing buttons and trying to find out what everthing did and I saw these green bars up the top which I suspected was my battery level. I clicked it and it brought up my wireless interface which was running fine and showing me a list of the available AP's in my area. I was pleased

Thirty. When I did decide to install it properly I wanted it to overwrite my Mandrake install however I suspected I'll have problems with my bootloader (where you choose which operating system you want to load) as Mandrake installed its own version of Grub. I asked around and people said it would be fine so I go ahead with the install. Once installed, I rebooted and suspected not to be able to get into my Windows XP. The bootloader loaded, up the top was Ubuntu.. great!.... Down the bottom... Windows XP... w00t!

Not only did Ubuntu replaced the bootloader, it automatically added my XP install as an option in it.

Very very pleased with it right now. If you are a bit scared at taking Linux for a run around the block, definitely give Ubuntu a shot.

http://www.ubuntu.com/

 

[Rus]

Nice to see people so excited about linux.
I also started with mandrake, around 9.0 and it was ok, but later I find out more and have a more complex distro.

I was also excited when I came across my first live version, it was knoppix, and it was version 2.x and now its 5.x.

I'll try and download it to test it out to see the diference.

 

[Bryce W]

Ubuntu wasnt my first anything, Im not a linux virgin

My first liveCD was Knoppix as well. What more complex build are you running now? and what is the advantages your getting out of having a more complex build that others dont?

 

[Rus]

I know that you are a tux user

Slack is more complex than mandrake because you have to configure almost everything in the shell, and if you learn how to do it in the shell you can do it on any distro.

 

[Bryce W]

Yeah, I didnt enjoy Slack, it was actually my first distro for my desktop (and one I could screw around with). I didnt learn about shell/configuring/compling from Slack though, I learnt that with the Anime-Forums.com server.

As you know A4 got very popular and needed a dedicated server which it got. It was like "here is a dedicated server, here is how to get into shell, here are some basic commands, bye" and I was left to learn from there. It was actually good for me looking back because I had no choice but to learn.

With desktop builds such as Slack, I still dont see the advantage of "more complex builds" which you mentioned before. To me (as a desktop PC), they seem to be more unfinished "there is no installer for it because we didnt get around to doing it, you'll have to compile it in shell yourself".

Of course the arguement will come up that installers will lack customizability but the Ubuntu installers I encountered had alot of options and Ubuntu supplies all the source code for all packages if you want them.

 

[fab]

I've tried Ubuntu 5, both live CD version and install version. It stopped running for some reason.

 

[forumposters]

I just found out about this awesome linux distro the other day as well. I installed it on an old Dell Inspiron 3800 laptop and I was amazed how easy it was. It's easier than installing Windows. I was running Windows 98 on it before and now that it is no longer supported by MS I was very happy to find this alternative OS.

 

[Bryce W]

Yeah, I can see the popularity of Linux picking up because of the lack of support of Windows98. I hate seeing people have to buy new computers because their old ones are too slow, I keep thinking to myself "no, its just too old to run Windows, it'd work awsome on Linux".

I would be willing to install Ubuntu or something on it, however I wouldnt want to support it for them. I can imagine many calls like "how come I cant install Office 2003 on this?".

 

[Bryce W]

Looks like Ubuntu has a chance at becoming very mainstream. Certain computers are being shipped with Ubuntu pre-installed:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/25/ubuntu_goes_mainstream/

In other news, Editors of Major Macintosh website switch to Ubuntu:
http://www.linuxpr.com/releases/8907.html

 

[Goob]

Currently trying the Ubuntu LiveCD and damn it was easy to get going, all drivers worked, and well...looks mighty fine. Will defenintly fool around with it some more

 

[Bryce W]

Yeah, the non-existance of driver problems is pretty nice. I was amazed it worked the first time on my laptop because my laptops wireless drivers were supported in any other version. And the drivers which were available for my wireless were third party and difficult to install (lots of compiling, dependencies etc.).

I just installed Ubuntu on an old laptop I was given the other day (a 12 inch, P500, 256 ram). It was either install XP which will run crap, or Ubuntu which is just as functional and runs awsome.

 

[Rus]

My friend(server root) is switching to ubunto on his laptop and home pc.

 

[Bryce W]

By "server root" you are saying your friend manages servers?

 

[Rus]

By "server root" you are saying your friend manages servers?

Yes, a few of them, we statred working on them together, from hardware construction(from old PC's) to instalation and managment of the system, but I wasnt alble to do that for one year and he went far ahead of me in that field.

And now I switched to ubuntu too
I was a SOB (stupid old-fashioned *******) sticking to slackware.
Yes, slackware is good and stable distribution, but it asks for a lot of work for instalation, configuration, maintainance, ./configure, make and other stuff
I like the simplicity of ubuntu for a change. Click on the program from the list to install and then apply and thats all I like it. After years of slackware now I can use linux without thinking

It recognized all of my hardware components with out any problems.
The instalation was simple 6 step procedure, and it was up, it recognized it was a dual boot.
There were two problems on my PC, and none of them happened to my friends.

1. the system wouldn't boot, it would report an error on my file systems.
It had problems with my FAt32 partitions, they are Partition Magic made 80G partitions (because windows can't make a FAT32 partition larger than 32G).
It would always stop at that point at my PC and friend had a 95G partitiona and he had no problem.

After some thinking I changed /etc/fstab and marked those partitions not to be checked at boot time:

/dev/sda3       /media/alfa     vfat    noauto,owner,users,rw     0   1
/dev/sdb4       /media/beta    vfat    noauto,owner,users,rw     0   1

was changed to

/dev/sda3       /media/alfa     vfat    noauto,owner,users,rw     0   0
/dev/sdb4       /media/beta    vfat    noauto,owner,users,rw     0   0

The procedure was not so simple because system wouldn't boot and i couldn't change that from windows, so I used the ubuntu live cd from installation.
Then i had to become a root using "su -" but i didn't know the pass so i had to chang it with "sudo passwd".
With root account I made a /mnt/root directory where to mount linux partition so it could be edited.
Edited /etc/fstab file like you can see, and rebooted
It worked.

2. The second problem was harder to handle because it featured "ubuntu vs ati random freeze technology" and i was pressing the restart buton on my PC all the time
After googling in command line interface i found the solution on one blog: http://jefim.wordpress.com/2006/04/26/random-freeze/

To make it short here's the answer:

“sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst” (without quotes)

Go down, and on the kernels list, on the kernel line add the following:

noapic
nolapic
pci=noacpi

the kernel line will now look something like:

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.12-10-k7
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.12-10-k7 root=/dev/sda3 ro quiet noapic nolapic pci=noacpi splash
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.12-10-k7
savedefault
boot

Then use Automaix or Synaptic to download BUM (Boot Up Manager) once done goto Boot Up Manager -> Services from the Administration menu to disbale the following:

acpid
apmd
powernowd
acpi-support

And the random freeze feature wil stop

 

[Bryce W]

You and your friend being more experienced Linux users, did you find Ubuntu limiting at all? Alot of the more knowledgeable Linux users wont touch it because they think that its limiting, cant hack it the way they want etc.. Is this true? or is it just an excuse for them not to try it?

 

[Rus]

I just installed it, it will take some time to test it, it looks very simple to use

 

[aaa_triple]

ubunto

very userfriendly!

 

[//backslash]

I am also an Ubuntu lover. I'm happy Edgy is out but alot of peoples wireless stoped working on this release and they are working to fix that now I believe so I have to wait longer. I am not gonna wrestle with it when I can just sit on 6.06 instead of going to 6.10.

 

[Bryce W]

For the record, you can get Ubuntu to ship you proper copies of Ubuntu with printed covers, cds and even some stickers for free!

I've been sent 10 so far.

https://shipit.ubuntu.com/login

 

[breadtrk]

The Edubuntu version is great for kids. It lets them use the PC, learn while playing and I don't have to worry about them being on the internet since that box is not connected to the home network.