Help with installing Ubuntu- what gives?

[funkadil]

fiesty fawn has been really annoying in a lot of ways for me. Id try some non ubuntu stuff or something.

[koolkeys]

Well, thanks for all the help guys. I've been kind of busy the past few days, but I did get things figured out.

I found out that on my laptop, I needed to enter the following into the end of the command line at the menu screen:

noapic irqpoll noirqdebug


After entering that, the live distro came up perfectly. Also, since I installed from the live distro this time(uninstalled the last one with a format), it applied that command to the app every time I start it. But it works perfectly now.

I did however have other problems before everything worked. I couldn't get Grub to work perfectly. The menu to load different operating systems wouldn't link to the right spot. The problem is that I installed Ubuntu on an external hard drive. Not a problem in itself, but since it's a hard drive that isn't permanent, I ran into some issues.

When Ubuntu installs Gruub, it automatically assigns the hard drive you are installing to as (hd0), even if it's not the system drive or the first hard drive. Well, once you restart, the hard drives jump to the proper order, where my system drive becomes (hd0) and the second drive becomes what it actually is, (hd1). But Grub was seeing what it was installed to, so nothing would load.

So I had to trick Grub by changing it's files to reverse the hard drives and change which menu items were linked to which hard drive and which partition on that drive.

Now, everything works like a charm. I couldn't ask for more.

As for other distros, I've tried Linux Mint. Very nice, but still Ubuntu. So nothing super special here. I have also tried Freespire, PCLinuxOS, and a couple of others. My favorite so far, and the ONLY one that had my wireless internet working straight out of the box with no configuration, is Sabayon. It comes with FOUR desktop managers(Beryl, GNOME, KDE, and Fluxbox), and every part of my system worked perfect without any setup. I haven't done anything heavy on sound though, so I'm not sure if it has Jack or anything. But so far, it's fantastic, and has a great set of software installed by default. Plus, it has the Virtual Machine player installed by default, among other things.

I'm slowly trying other distros, mostly on live disks. I'm getting ready to download Mandriva 2007 Spring, but I didn't like the previous version. Everything was broke out of the box when I installed it. But the new version looks very nice.

I am going to try Ubuntu Studio and 64 Studio, among a few others. But right now, Ubuntu Fiesty is the only distro actually installed. I'm actually doing this all for a project that I'm working with my friend on for his corporation. So I'm open to advice and suggestions on distros to try. I'm just trying to go through as many as I can, while actually USING only a couple. But I do have a need to go through as many as possible.

BTW, do any of the audio distros have Ardour 2 installed yet? It doesn't seem to be in the Ubuntu package manager as of yet.

Brent

[koolkeys]

By the way, the command I had to enter is only required for Ubuntu-based distros. I'm not sure if it's an Ubuntu issue or a Debian issue(which Ubuntu is based on). Debian is supposed to be pretty solid in supporting hardware. So I'm guessing it's an Ubuntu problem, since only Ubuntu distros give me the blank screen.

At least there is a solution though.

Brent

[Lunch Money]

I found out that on my laptop, I needed to utter the following incantation into the end of the command line at the menu screen:

Klaatu Nikto Veratu

Well, that pretty much explains it. Thankfully, Ubuntu is so easy straight out of the box.

On a related note, I fired up my laptop for the first time in ages yesterday, to install some LaTeX-based stuff. Figuring that LaTeX is originally made for Unix and has a home on Linux, it should've been easy. First, the packages did not install properly. Why, you may ask? Ah, because they failed to be retrieved from the repository. I have no idea why they wouldn't be on the repository, but they weren't.

Next, when I tried to test-compile a document, it wouldn't save to my user directory. Got some sort of error that didn't really explain the "why", just told me the "what happened?" Can't remember how, but I eventually got something compiled, and it wouldn't display in the viewer. I'm so glad everything "just works" so well... after that frustrating experience, I installed MiKTeX and LyX on my Windows machine, and it's working fine.

I'm not a Linux-hater, but I can tell you, I hated Linux yesterday. <grumble>

Greg

[VitaminD]

Apparently you could have just asked Grandma for linux help..

did you get 3d acceleration working in Ubuntu yet? I had it working in 5.10 but it seems to be a bear in 7.04.. maybe *I* need to call a grandma and see if one can fix my linux problems..

[koolkeys]

I haven't enabled anything 3d stuff yet personally.

I have found a virtual machine of Fiesty Fawn that I can run with VMWare inside of Windows, so I'm going to use that to do much of my further learning. I already used it to run Open Suse virtual machine. This way I don't have to reboot and run from an external drive(which is where Ubuntu remains at the moment).

Brent

[Scot Solida]

Oddly enough, Ubuntu 7.04 was the only distro of the ones I tried that I could get to install on my Turion 64 laptop. 64 Studio didn't recognize my (common!) hard drive, and Ubuntu Studio's installer wouldn't get past a conflict with my built-in Wireless (which, once I had Feisty installed, still required some effort to get working). Unfortunately, my luck with the audio side of things has been pretty poor. I couldn't install energyXT2 (and that is the sequencer I want to use on it), though the Windows version installed with Wine. However, the onboard soundcard doesn't like it and I have yet to find a satisfactory audio interface for it. I have had much, much better luck with Ubuntu Studio on my desktop in the studio, and thanks to AllenPOPO's fantastic guide, i have most of my favorite Windows plugs and apps running just fine. I may just look into that JAD distro for my lappie, though I primarily use the laptop for writing (articles, not music), so it may not be worth the hassles. I might though, 'cos I am a stubborn bastard.

[VitaminD]

was it broadcom wifi by chance?

[koolkeys]

Hmmmm, my laptop is a Turion 64 and I was able to get EXT running fine, IIRC. I've tried it on most distros I've experimented with, and I BELIEVE that it was running well.

I haven't been able to get wireless internet working yet on any Ubuntu distro, but in Sabayon I have(very nice distro), and in the virtual machine of Open Suse it worked fine. But that might be running through the windows drivers. I'm going to try the windows driver wrapper in Ubuntu next. I think they are in the repository.

So it's all a work in progress. Sometimes fun, sometimes frustrating.

But my general feeling when I open up Linux is "yeah, so what?". I've tried various distros over the past couple years, and especially lately. But overall, I open up the distro and try a few apps, and my thoughts follow along the lines of "wow, there's really nothing to do here". Everything that I WOULD do, I can already do very well in Windows, and without hassle. There is some cool stuff available for Linux, but really, it doesn't seem to justify ever doing any actual work in Linux.

So am I missing something? I mean, I know you can configure Linux however you want. But is it really worth all the hassle with getting it working properly? I WANT to see the value in Linux, and I need to learn it anyways for the projects I was talking about. But what am I missing? What does it bring me that Windows can't in terms of every day working?

Brent

[Scot Solida]

was it broadcom wifi by chance?

Indeed it was. It's working quite well now...though as I say, I couldn't even finish installing Ubuntu Studio due to an issue with it. I have some generic wireless thing in my desktop box downstairs, and Ubuntu Studio didn't seem to mind that one at all.

[Scot Solida]

So am I missing something? I mean, I know you can configure Linux however you want. But is it really worth all the hassle with getting it working properly? I WANT to see the value in Linux, and I need to learn it anyways for the projects I was talking about. But what am I missing? What does it bring me that Windows can't in terms of every day working?

Brent

For me, a lot of the incentive to get Linux up and running on my new lappie came when i saw the ridiculous resource footprint the OEM-installed Vista was stamping on the thing. And instead of buying yet another copy of XP, so I figured "what the hell?". I only needed the lappie for writing, so I figured I'd take a chance. Besides, in my line of work, it's good to know my way around the various operating systems. Would I recommend it as one's ONLY music machine? Not yet, no. At least not without a lot of forethought and preparation. I could change my mind about that. But for now, it is an informative diversion. And one that doesn't cost me anything to try.

But it can indeed be a chore to get going! There is so much to know and to learn and so many places to dig for a lot of (sometimes "mis-") information. I found no less than four conflicting versions of how to get my wireless thing going. It seems that even minor variables in hardware are really the bane of the would-be Linux user. I would love to get my laptop running as smoothly as my Desktop Ubuntu Studio system, but just the few differences seem to cause a big difference.

[Lunch Money]

My installation of Ubuntu (6.10 Edgy Eft still) is really useful for 2 things only:

- browsing the internet (RJ-45 cable; my laptop doesn't even have wireless)
- word-processing in OpenOffice.org

Since those are 2 of my main activities, I'm not planning on using the WinXP installation (handily, intact from Ubuntu's nice installer) but it's there if I need it.

Kinda disappointed nobody noticed my joke, though (or at least, found it funny)... have to admit... <laff>

[VitaminD]

was it broadcom wifi by chance?

Indeed it was. It's working quite well now...though as I say, I couldn't even finish installing Ubuntu Studio due to an issue with it. I have some generic wireless thing in my desktop box downstairs, and Ubuntu Studio didn't seem to mind that one at all.

ahh ok.. yeah I had the same issue with my laptop..

I resolved it with an ndiswrapper.. wasn't fun but it works now..

[Scot Solida]

was it broadcom wifi by chance?

Indeed it was. It's working quite well now...though as I say, I couldn't even finish installing Ubuntu Studio due to an issue with it. I have some generic wireless thing in my desktop box downstairs, and Ubuntu Studio didn't seem to mind that one at all.

ahh ok.. yeah I had the same issue with my laptop..

I resolved it with an ndiswrapper.. wasn't fun but it works now..

Yeah. Same thing here... I had to dig through a lot of misinformation or outdated information online to find the solution. As it was my first excursion into the wonderful world of command line, I was terrified that I was going to wind up with a doorstop. Still, quite happy with the way all of this stuff is turning out. It can be frustrating, but I'm learning lots of stuff in the attempt...

[koolkeys]

I was at the bookstore the other day, searching for the solution to get my wireless working. I found ndiswrapper, as mentioned above. BUT, it took FOUR pages to explain how to do it. And it was a DUMMIES BOOK!

So yeah, I'm not looking forward to doing it.

One thing that has helped me is getting on the irc chat for Ubuntu while doing stuff inside of Ubuntu. Then people can walk you through step by step. Of course, for the Grub problem, I had six people help me before I actually had a solution that worked.

Plus, now for some reason, I can't even post using Chatzilla any more. It all of a sudden decided to stop letting me post without "registering". But when I try to register the username using the NickServ commands, it says I'm already registered. I can't find my password, but then again, I never set one and never had to enter one before.

So yeah, one problem after another.

Brent