Ubuntu - Almost There ! Yai!

[Thanh-BKK]

Hello.

After so much trouble with Ubuntu on the other computer and a short but hot love affair with PC Linux OS 2008 Gnome, i have reverted to Ubuntu - Hardy 8.04 LTS version, on the main machine.

Standalone.

I am currently running the last test prior to making the full switch, which will be on Sunday. So far the system runs almost 100% fine, i have a quirk with an error being displayed when shutting down and my IrDA doesn't work yet but everything else is fine.

I was able to get a few of my most-used Windows applications to work flawlessly in Wine (uTorrent, Noiseware Community Edition, Magic Video Converter, AOL Desktop) and still am trying to get the last one to comply - iPhoto plus, while simultaneously familiarizing myself with Gimp to eventually replace my beloved iPhoto after 9 years of using nothing else to edit images :..(

Also as of yet i haven't figured out how to burn DVD's (actually, only how to set the burn speed in either Brasero or GnomeBaker - i will probably stick to ImgBurn, another Windows app that runs fine in Wine

So, things still to be done - exporting all my e-mails from Outlook XP and Windows Mail to files to be used for IMporting on Linux, saving Firefox bookmarks file to be imported in Linux, doing one last backup of the XP and Vista partitions to the external backup-HDD.......

and then....

RETIRE THE WINDOWS HDD!!

Best regards......

Thanh

[adammike]

I have just put hardy on my main machine so no more windows at all.

Firefox3 will not do bookmark synch so I have mailed them to my gmail account,

I just open gmail and there they sit and they work from there or re-bookmark them

might back them up or at least the important ones on a regular basis.

[kriswillems]

I've also installed ubuntu hardy. Everything worked except the cheap chinese WEB-cam I bought in tuk-com. The other times I installed linux I ended up erasing it, because there was always something that didn't work. But this time it runs stable and ubuntu has everything I need, except support for my webcam. Thai language support is also excellent. There are many linux applications available that are good replacements for commercial products (much more than before).

[Khutan]

The problem I have with Ubuntu is the support for Firewire. I was able to capture one video then is gave up the driver somehow.

I am looking to remove it simply because there is no measurable improvement in speed.

[Gumballl]

Consider these apps, which can be obtained using the "sudo apt-get install" command:

• limewire
  
• bittorrent
  
• k9copy (tool that permits the re-mastering of DVDs)
  
• amarok (mp3 music player, similar to iTunes but without the store)
  

As for burning DVDs, I use the built-in Gnome (Nautilus?) tool for doing that. K9Copy is nice for creating an ISO image of single- and dual-layer DVDs.

[astral]

Thanks for those comments.

Now I have more space on my notebook disk I will try Ubuntu again.

[Thanh-BKK]

Hello

I don't know if you noticed my other topic, but i am now running Ubuntu only, since last Sunday. I was able to fix the error messages during shutdown (Ubuntu forums are a great help, not because you get answers quickly which is definitely NOT the case, but because someone sometime had the same error and a solution was found at some stage

So far i have noticed that the CPU gets hotter than under Vista (Vista = ~37-38 degrees C, 42 max under full load for several hours vs: Ubuntu ~41-42 idle and 45-46 full load), but as an "exchange" there is next to no HDD activity, it seems that once Linux has booted, everything happens in the RAM only, even starting an application only yields a few seconds HDD activity, if any at all. As a result the HDD runs cooler (Ubuntu highest i've seen was 41 degrees C, while under Vista easily 48-49).

There appears to be a bug in the kernel which i came across, that is transferring data to a thumb drive goes horribly slow - 40 minutes for 4.5 GB, under Vista that was done in less than 10 minutes. I have since learned that Linux kernels generally seem to have this problem, something with the implementation of USB 2.0. But i can live with that - i have to do such large-data-shuffling only once a week.

Oh, and my IrDA thingy still doesn't work

Meantime, for the odd time i need the AOL software, i have XP running again - in a virtual machine (VMware Server) under Ubuntu! But that's only for AOL and iPhoto Plus, which i can't get to run in Wine and which handles certain tasks so much easier than Gimp. I could also use that XP to finally test what effect viruses actually have - as in all the time i used Windows i never actually caught a bug But probably, as soon as AOL brings a Linux version (there's a beta but i wasn't able to find it anywhere.... just reports about it) i will use the VM to test other things.... i always wanted to have a go at Mac OSX

I am actually so satisfied with Ubuntu that tomorrow i'll go and buy another graphic card for my previous experimental machine and put a decent Ubuntu install on that, too.

Best regards.......

Thanh

[johnnynmonic]

Hello

I don't know if you noticed my other topic, but i am now running Ubuntu only, since last Sunday. I was able to fix the error messages during shutdown (Ubuntu forums are a great help, not because you get answers quickly which is definitely NOT the case, but because someone sometime had the same error and a solution was found at some stage

Glad to hear you got things working with Ubuntu. Just out of curiosity, why leave PCLOS? So far I've found it to be the best of the distros (IMO of course), and am curious why anyone would leave it. Particularly, PCLOS has a very fast Thailand repo. I had trouble with timeouts and very slow speeds with Ubuntu, Puppy, Fedora, BSD, uhhh - actually all Linux/Unix distros but PCLOS.

[Merlin]

I've been running the Heron for the last couple of weeks now and finally I think I've got to the stage where I won't have to dual-boot XP on my main machine. I'll be interested in looking into running XP in a virtual machine, though, I'll have to do a bit more reading about that.

The only problem I've run up against is that 8.04 came with Firefox 3, and the browser sync plugin won't work with it, for now.

So for the time being, I'm using my EeePC as a backup for when I want to revisit old sites.

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

I've been running Heron as my sole OS for one full week now, and had no major problems. I found that Gnome's native applications "Brasero" and "Gnome Baker" are both unable to copy a music CD, but a KDE app "k3b" came to the rescue and does it so well that i don't need any other anymore

Also there seems to be one major weakness which is kernel-based - transferring data to a thumb drive goes horribly slow, 40 minutes for 4.5 GB which is quite unacceptable (less than 10 minutes under Vista) but that seems to be a general problem with Linux....... or so i have been told.

I am 100% satisfied with FF 3.0 Beta, it works perfectly, even tough i miss the full listing of recently typed URL's..... instead of chose-and-click i often have to type the first few letters before i can click. But i get used to that.

The reason i abandoned PCLos? Because i could not get a very important feature to work - AWN. And their support, to be frank, sucks. I was told "under no circumstances" to enable any repo but PCLos' own, and even there "never more than one". Of course there's no AWN in their repos, and the one downloaded from AWN's project site didn't work for missing dependencies - which are not in PCLos' repo, either.

Then there's no "Hardware Drivers" manager in PCLos, and i was left on my own to experiment with Nvidia's drivers. I much prefer Ubuntu's way of "restricted drivers" which work flawlessly, without experimentation.

Anyway i've gotten Ubuntu customized to my liking (black theme and all, it actually IS "drag and drop" for theme installing!) and i've gotten that graphic card for the other machine, so tomorrow morning i'll start getting me a second full-time Linux box going. That one i'm planning Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu (i.e. Gnomw, KDE and XFCE in one) to learn the differences between them.

By the way.... one of the app launchers i have in AWN is a terminal.... i could never imagine this to happen.... but the command line is now a friend of mine, no longer an enemy

Best regards......

Thanh

[Thanh-BKK]

I'll be interested in looking into running XP in a virtual machine, though, I'll have to do a bit more reading about that.

Hello

Sorry forgot to mention this. I DO have an XP installed inside a VM, only for AOL - there's no Linux version of that and it won't install in Wine, either. It's a bit tricky to get VMWare Server running (you need to "crack" it, sort of, not an illegal sort of crack but one to make it compatible with Heron's compiler or kernel or something) but once it's installed, the rest is a breeze........

With kind regards.....

Thanh

[Thanh-BKK]

and i've gotten that graphic card for the other machine, so tomorrow morning i'll start getting me a second full-time Linux box going. That one i'm planning Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu (i.e. Gnomw, KDE and XFCE in one) to learn the differences between them.

Now THAT was a non-starter.

The graphics card i bought is a brand new Nvidia GeForce 6200 AGP, 256 MB. I wanted a GeForce 7200 but those don't seem to come in AGP...... so i got the 6200.

None of my Live CD's will boot to GUI, the moment X starts (login screen) the monitor simply turns off and the machine hard freezes. No reaction to any keyboard buttons, even caps lock or num lock won't make their LED's light up.

Tried with Ubuntu 8.04, Ubuntu 7.10 and PCLos. Same with all.

Testwise installed Windows XP - no problem!

Then wiped it again, installed Ubuntu 8.04 using the onboard graphic (shitty SiS) and it worked fine. Re-enabled the AGP again (in BIOS) and booted - again same, the moment X is supposed to start, machine hard freezes, no picture. Booted into "recovery mode" and got the thingy where it auto-detects hardware, it seems to complete that successfully and offers me to "continue booting normally", however - guess what? Freezes again the moment X is supposed to start.

I am downloading the "alternate CD" right now, but i don't have too much hope. That computer doesn't seem to like Linux for it forces me to use the onboard graphics which can't enable any desktop effects, runs no games and no Google Earth.

Doomed!

Thanh

[johnnynmonic]

Hi

The reason i abandoned PCLos? Because i could not get a very important feature to work - AWN. And their support, to be frank, sucks. I was told "under no circumstances" to enable any repo but PCLos' own, and even there "never more than one". Of course there's no AWN in their repos, and the one downloaded from AWN's project site didn't work for missing dependencies - which are not in PCLos' repo, either.

Then there's no "Hardware Drivers" manager in PCLos, and i was left on my own to experiment with Nvidia's drivers. I much prefer Ubuntu's way of "restricted drivers" which work flawlessly, without experimentation.

Sorry, slow reply. But you're right about the lousy support. They are very uptight about repos, odd workarounds, and rpm installs. I was looking for a copy of IPBlock (similar to Peer Guardian). Works fine to take the Feisty .deb and alien it into a PCLOS rpm, but don't ever suggest using a non-repo app to anyone there. I suspect something like that would have worked fine for AWN as well. For more helpful advice, I skip PCLOS and go to the Fedora forum.

Regardless, glad you found one that "just works" for you. I gave Kubuntu 8.04 a try a couple weeks ago, and it seemed like a real improvement over Feisty, I can see why you like it.

Cheers,

JN

[johnnynmonic]

I am downloading the "alternate CD" right now, but i don't have too much hope. That computer doesn't seem to like Linux for it forces me to use the onboard graphics which can't enable any desktop effects, runs no games and no Google Earth.

Doomed!

Similar problem here, only with Trident card. Nothing worked except PCLOS, Fedora, and Puppy. But this year when I tried the new Ububntu release, it worked ok. I don't know much about Ubuntu, but with Fedora you can go to command line after X fails, and enable the Livna repo, which allows you to download Nvidia drivers for *nix.

Good luck.