Linux Q & A

ApparentlyNothing · 07-30-2006, 10:13 PM

For anyone interested...

Freespire 1.0.2 (Release Candidate 1): Here's the good and the bad so far.

Good
~Installed very quickly
~Preloaded with drivers that worked with my Dell (ATI, Broadcom Wireless). This was the first distro that my wireless worked right after install without having to jump through a bunch of Terminal hoops.
~Preinstalled with Flash, mp3 codecs, and just about any other proprietary software that some people hate to need
~Based on simplicity and ease of use
~Installing new software is all graphical and very easy to do with CNR

Bad
~KDE desktop only at the moment (could be good if you like KDE, but personally, the more I use it, the less I like it)
~Using CNR, while being able to download and install free software, is a paid subscription based service. This is the biggest downside to me. If you don't want to pay the money for the service (and I'm not sure who would want to use Linux and actually pay money for something), then you can still use apt-get in Konsole, but that goes completely against the "ease of use" idea that Freespire is trying to get across, but CNR goes against the "Free" part. Seems like a confused distro.

I think the two bad parts outweigh the good to me, which really sucks because I don't have a way to get ndiswrapper in another distro working since I don't have a way to use a wired network. Blah.

fudrudler · 07-30-2006, 10:30 PM

The thought of not using ndiswrapper had me excited for a moment.

tht00 · 07-30-2006, 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jubal

I think the two bad parts outweigh the good to me, which really sucks because I don't have a way to get ndiswrapper in another distro working since I don't have a way to use a wired network. Blah.

You need to have wired access to get ndiswrapper working? I haven't had to dig into wireless networking and Linux... yet. (though I may be getting a lappy)

tht00 · 07-31-2006, 03:50 PM

More complete software list:

Gnome (Window Manager)
Firefox (Web)
Swiftfox (processor specific compilation -- a bit snappier than 'normal' firefox).
Thunderbird (Mail)
GIMP (Photo editor)
Downloader for X (Download manager)
Gaim (IM)
KTorrent (Torrents)
Firestarter (Firewall)
Rhythmbox (Music player)
VLC (Video player)
Open Office (Office suite)
GnomeBaker (Burning software)
K3B (Burning software)
build-essentials (Compiling software -- gcc, g++, etc)
gedit (text editor; I use it to write code)
MonoDevelop (C# programming environment)
Wine (Windows emulation)
qemu/VMware (machine emulation, running an OS within an OS)

I think that's about it. There are more terminal applications and such (nano, ssh, w3m, etc).

Also keep in mind that there are tons of alternatives -- this is just a list of the stuff I use and like.

ApparentlyNothing · 07-31-2006, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tht00

You need to have wired access to get ndiswrapper working? I haven't had to dig into wireless networking and Linux... yet. (though I may be getting a lappy)

I noticed you quoted me, but credited it to Jubal. Either way, ndiswrapper isn't installed by default. I found the source code using my XP partition and put it on my shared partition, but make isn't installed either, so I can't compile it to install the source code. If I could just get ndiswrapper installed, I could get it working no problem.

tht00 · 07-31-2006, 06:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ApparentlyNothing

I noticed you quoted me, but credited it to Jubal. Either way, ndiswrapper isn't installed by default. I found the source code using my XP partition and put it on my shared partition, but make isn't installed either, so I can't compile it to install the source code. If I could just get ndiswrapper installed, I could get it working no problem.

Oh, sorry... not sure how I did that.

Anyways, were you using Ubuntu? If so, you can download the packages (like setup .exe files) and they can be installed that way.

I'm assuming you'd just need
ndiswrapper-utils: http://packages.ubuntu.com/dapper/mi...swrapper-utils

Make sure you've got the dependencies too (libc6 and perl). If you want to compile, you can get the build-essential package:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/dapper/devel/build-essential

ApparentlyNothing · 07-31-2006, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tht00

Oh, sorry... not sure how I did that.

Anyways, were you using Ubuntu? If so, you can download the packages (like setup .exe files) and they can be installed that way.

I'm assuming you'd just need
ndiswrapper-utils: http://packages.ubuntu.com/dapper/mi...swrapper-utils

Make sure you've got the dependencies too (libc6 and perl). If you want to compile, you can get the build-essential package:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/dapper/devel/build-essential

Wonderful. Thanks. I wish I knew that before. I'm not sure if I'll try installing Ubuntu again or if I'll try and find a different distro. I was having some other problems with Ubuntu working with my laptop the last time I had it installed, so I'm afraid I'm just going to run in to the same problems. But I suppose I should give Ubuntu one more chance.

fudrudler · 07-31-2006, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ApparentlyNothing

Do you have the driver for your wireless card? Terminal can be scary at first. It was for me. But I'm starting to get a lot more comfortable with it.

If you have your driver and ndiswrapper installed already, try this.

Code:

sudo ndiswrapper -i (The Path To Your The Windows XP .inf File)

Obviously, replace (The Path To Your The Windows XP .inf File) with the actual path to your driver. If you don't know the exact, you should be able to just type the first part (sudo ndisrapper -i) and then drag your driver on to the Terminal and it will automatically put the path for you. It will ask you for your password, and when you type it won't actually show anything, but just type it and press enter and it'll work. After that, it should be installed. You can check by typing

Code:

sudo ndiswrapper -l

It should let you know that it's installed and hardware is present. Then type

Code:

sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

That should activate it and it should start working then. I'm not sure if when you reboot you'll have to run modprobe again. I don't know Fedora, so I wouldn't know what to tell you to make it load every time you boot. So if it doesn't, you're on your own there.

Ok, so I finally got ndiswrapper installed. (I originally had a terrible ndis with no installer and crappy instructions as to how to actually install it)

Now, you say install my wireless driver....how? I'm sorry to be dumb, but I have no earthly clue how to do that. I thought ndiswrapper was what installed it. Sooo....what am I doing here? I really want to get this figured out. If I can actually get internet usage from Ubuntu then I can actually start figuring some stuff out.

**mtlmouth** · 07-31-2006, 08:35 PM

I'm kind of clueless about installing anything here. I'm having trouble getting Macromedia Flash installed. The Firefox plugin failed, and manual install has me feeling stupider than I've ever felt in front of a computer before. Please explain using small words.

tht00 · 07-31-2006, 08:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mtlmouth

I'm kind of clueless about installing anything here. I'm having trouble getting Macromedia Flash installed. The Firefox plugin failed, and manual install has me feeling stupider than I've ever felt in front of a computer before. Please explain using small words.

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

Excellent page for getting mp3, flash, etc. Feel free to ask questions.

What have you tried so far?
Are you familiar with Synaptic yet?

ApparentlyNothing · 07-31-2006, 09:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fudrudler

Ok, so I finally got ndiswrapper installed. (I originally had a terrible ndis with no installer and crappy instructions as to how to actually install it)

Now, you say install my wireless driver....how? I'm sorry to be dumb, but I have no earthly clue how to do that. I thought ndiswrapper was what installed it. Sooo....what am I doing here? I really want to get this figured out. If I can actually get internet usage from Ubuntu then I can actually start figuring some stuff out.

ndiswrapper is what lets you use your Windows wireless driver if there is no Linux version. If ndiswrapper is installed, then what you also need is the driver for your wireless card. Once you have that on your hard drive, a good place to put it is on your desktop. Then type this in to Terminal:

sudo ndiswrapper -i ~/Desktop/(file name of .inf driver file)

To make sure it loaded the driver right, type:

sudo ndiswrapper -l

(That's a lower case L by the way). It should say "driver loaded, hardware present" or something like that. Then you need to load ndiswrapper in to modprobe. So type:

sudo ndiswrapper -m

Restart. Then go back to Terminal and type:

sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

That should work. But I did the exact same and it doesn't seem to be working for me for some reason. Hopefully you'll have better luck. Let me know.

fudrudler · 07-31-2006, 09:57 PM

ok, well then I did do it right. It's not working. Gah. So now I guess no wireless for me?

**mtlmouth** · 07-31-2006, 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tht00

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

Excellent page for getting mp3, flash, etc. Feel free to ask questions.

What have you tried so far?
Are you familiar with Synaptic yet?

I'm exploring a Synaptic how-to right now, and it seems to make sense. The link you gave says I need to install flashplugin-nonfree, but I don't see that on the list.

tht00 · 07-31-2006, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mtlmouth

I'm exploring a Synaptic how-to right now, and it seems to make sense. The link you gave says I need to install flashplugin-nonfree, but I don't see that on the list.

Yeah, it isn't there as it is in another set of repositories that need to be added.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Re...es/Ubuntu#what

The Universe repository is stuff that isn't officially supported by Ubuntu (lots of good stuff in there though). Multiverse has non-free (non-opensource) stuff in it. Go ahead and enable both of them using the link above as a guide. Everything you need should be there then.

**mtlmouth** · 07-31-2006, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tht00

Yeah, it isn't there as it is in another set of repositories that need to be added.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Re...es/Ubuntu#what

The Universe repository is stuff that isn't officially supported by Ubuntu (lots of good stuff in there though). Multiverse has non-free (non-opensource) stuff in it. Go ahead and enable both of them using the link above as a guide. Everything you need should be there then.

Edit: Oh, wait... misunderstood it, never mind... working on that.
Edit again: Okay, actually, that makes a lot of sense. Took me years to learn how to do all this stuff on Windows.

It works now!

(thanks for being so patient with the Linux n00b.)