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Ubuntu: I give up
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Alright, well XP has been massively screwing up and although I could do a clean reinstall (which I probably will anyways) I've decided to try out Ubuntu.
So I'm downloading the iso and wanted to know pretty much the intricacies of it and how to add mods, for lack of a better word. I saw some rotating cube that seemed pretty cool so that's awesome. Is there any definitive list of programs that are simply necessary, or at least, pretty nice for their functionality and design?
Also, dual-booting? I've only ever dual-booted the Vista Beta (how great that turned out...) and I pretty much forgot how to do it. (Yes, I know, Google is my friend, but it'd be nice to hear some extra tips on the info I already have).
So I'm downloading the iso and wanted to know pretty much the intricacies of it and how to add mods, for lack of a better word. I saw some rotating cube that seemed pretty cool so that's awesome. Is there any definitive list of programs that are simply necessary, or at least, pretty nice for their functionality and design?
Also, dual-booting? I've only ever dual-booted the Vista Beta (how great that turned out...) and I pretty much forgot how to do it. (Yes, I know, Google is my friend, but it'd be nice to hear some extra tips on the info I already have).
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Me too, I have an Ubuntu disc sitting on the shelf and I've been wanting to dual boot to play around with it.
art
* Firefox, Gimp, Inkscape, ...
art hacking
* Imagemagick,
wizard art hacking
* blender, gcc, povray, wings3D (?)...
gaming
* Tremulous, Warsow, Nexuiz,...
advanced gaming
* all standalone mods, a scumm emulator and MAME.
ultrahardcoregamming
* install Windows XP
programming
* Eclipse IDE, perl, SciTe, Emacs , VI, gcc,...
script kidding
* wget, ssh, mc, ping, ifconfig, nano, ps, screen, btdownload, sirc, bitchx, mutt, pine, nmap, nc,...
hacking
* python, perl, ruby, gcc, bash, ...
desktop moronity
* Gnome Desktop, Picassa,
advanced desktop moronity
* mplayer with all the codecs,..
most of this stuff install by default.
stuff you dont want installed on your linux computer
* Flash ( because it lag the computer
* Adobe PDF reader. (because Evince or KPDF are much better )
update: bolds added for clarification
When I set up a dual-boot with ubuntu and XP, it was basically as simple as putting the ubuntu CD in, having it install Grub (which is the boot loader that lets you select which to boot into), specifying how it should format space on my drives, and letting it go. I have ubuntu running off a second hard drive (that's dedicated to it), but the grub part is (obviously) going to be on the master hard drive. It should probably be able to handle formatting drives you have, though I'd probably recommend partitioning space out beforehand (or just using a new hd) just in case
I forget exactly how to do it, but if you have issues afterwards (or just want to get rid of the dual boot) you can have windows repair the boot order... I think this just requires putting the windows CD in and following some instructions, but it's been a couple months
I have one acting as a MySQL server next to me because we needed a free alternative to MS SQL Server. For basic home computing I don't see how it would fill any of my needs aside from internet.
From my adventures into that world you'll want to find guides on installing your video drivers and getting any odd components you have situated. The OS itself is fantastic, takes a little getting used to.
Ignore this man. Half of this list is already included, the other half is in no way necessary. Just put the Ubuntu cd in and reboot. You can just mess around with it from there.
Once you get into Ubuntu, Synaptic is also a good way to find new stuff. Basically think of it like this: if you had a bunch of freeware on windows, it'd be placed into one large database, with one click downloads and installations, and descriptions for each product. You can sort by what type of program it is.
For office apps, i suggest openoffice. For photo editing, GiMP. For IM, Pidgin or GAIM (same product, two names).
I'd suggest Automatix for easy install of codecs etc. Swiftfox is a nice browser to use, imo.
http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=73
^ A good link to get all the info you need. ABSOLUTE BEGINNER TALK is about the best description ever :P
Automatix is basically a very easy way to install certain programs which are otherwise tricky to install. I remember using it to install a 32-bit Firefox w/Flash on my 64-bit system with just a mouse click after struggling to do it through aptitude. I also used it to get a media player with all the popular codecs installed with a simple click.
http://www.getautomatix.com/
edit: beat'd on the Automatix recommendation -- rats!
Well, the thing is that I have a wireless USB adapter getting me connected to the internet, since my gateway is too far away for an ethernet cable (which are extremely expensive for some reason). Although I prefer a hard-wired connection, I'm stuck with this.
mc - command line file manager.
nano - excellent newbie text editor.
beagle - search daemon. it's neat, but I don't know really use it a lot.
sled menu some people like this better.
really learn to use the CLI if you want to get the most out of Linux.
also, since about 3 or 4 versions ago the wireless support has been amazing.
Do you play a lot of games? Dual booting isn't fun. As long as you really have a need or a use for Linux, you'll eventually get used to it.
I think my main concern with a Linux install is the ability to fix something if something goes wrong. Usually, if Windows does something it's not supposed to, I'm computer savvy enough to figure out what it is. What I'm afraid of is if I have a problem in Linux, can't figure it out, and then I'm screwed. I remember messing around with Ubuntu a while back and couldn't get it to figure out how to connect to my wireless network. It was a huge hassle. Of course, it's also a huge hassle in Windows, but in a new OS it seems a lot more daunting.
This is FluxBox, one of the most clean and non-memory intensive windows manager you can get. It's also completely customizable. Also, as you can tell, my Ubuntu partition is named 'SHODAN'.
My login screen looks like this:
I need to work on this some more, I want to be able to switch sessions and have a 'shut down computer' button.
Also, I stopped using Opera. I've found Firefox to me much more stable and easier on Linux, though it's a memory hog. I've switched from XMMS to Amarok because Amaraok supports EVERY audio format under the sun.
This site: http://www.beginningubuntu.com/ used to have the best guide ever on how to set up Ubuntu for everyday use, but it seems to be gone. But you should also check this out: http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Dapper <- this has almost every command that you will use. If you plan on mounting your NTFS partition and want to automatically mount itself on startup, you will need this page.
To some people, the terminal is useless. But for a lot, it's the lifeblood of the system. I regularly have Pidgin, Firefox, XMMS, IRC, and a torrent client on 5 desktops, but then I have terminals next to XMMS or sometimes i'll have 3-4 open on another desktop.
It's not impossible to get wireless to work, just a crap-shoot. More and more people can start linux and wireless will just work. But it's also possible that it just won't work at all or completely too. Google "linux" "ubuntu" and your wireless device to see if others have gotten it to work. If all else fails, you can try using your windows drivers. ndiswrapper or linuxant are widely used programs to do this.
nano is more convenient for the no developer. And anyway most people will use gedit, or kate.
It's basically a more powerfull version of DOS, you'll have it down in a few days (that may just be me though, when I was 6 I preffered DOS over Windows 3.1). The Ubuntu Wiki I linked to in my post will help you through this. Don't forget to post on the Ubuntu forums for help, some members of the dev team even post there.
it's difficult to pick up on, easy to master, I'd say. once you learn the basics it just flows.
I don't think you understand my point. Which is, learning how to use vi is an initiation rite into linux. Once you master that, you're set forever.
Hang on while I quit without saving ESC:q!
As far as dual-booting goes, just create a seperate partition for Linux (make a 250-500 meg SWAP partition as well) and install it on the partition. It will set up all the dual-booting stuff for you. Keep in mind that Ubuntu will recognise Windows as the master OS, and will work through that for certain things, like the system time. Windows didn't switch over to day-light savings time for me, so neither did Ubuntu. That was a pain that took days for me to fix.
Edit: vi is definitely something you're going to be using if you plan on editing system files, but you could still use gedit for everything.
You can get just about everything everybody has talked about here by using the apt-get program.
sudo (this imitates administrative privledges) apt-get install amarok will download and install Amarok. You can also use this for FluxBox. In fact you can use this for almost everything, even things you don't think you can use it for. It's very nice.
Also if you want to share shit between probably the least hassle way is to format a drive to FAT32, I believe. I can't remember if my share drive is ntfs or fat32.
I installed Beryl last night, which is one of the cubey-type things with huge gui flash. It is kinda nice, but on my laptop I have an integrated video card that doesn't do video too hot.
What make and model is it? If you google the manufacturer, model and "linux" (or even "ubuntu" these days, since there are a lot of linux newbies using it, myself included) you should be able to figure out pretty quickly whether or not it's supported.
My desktop(which is running Dapper, I'll get around to upgrading it at some point) uses a 3Com 3CRUSB10075, which didn't work automatically, even though it uses the Zydas ZD1211 chipset for which there is an included driver. I got it working with the driver from here.
My Laptop, on the other hand, worked perfectly on first boot, wireless included.
Either way, it helps to see if other people have had success with your hardware in advance, since you can download any extra software you might need (because you won't be able to connect the machine to the Internet, obviously).
Yea, it's not safe for Linux to write to NTFS partitions. So it's a good idea to setup a FAT32 partition if you plan on moving things you get on Ubuntu over to your Windows partition.
Oh yea, for playing video, get MPlayer, just do it.
Post-install, a lot of people suggest Automatix or Easy Ubuntu for the things that a lot of people want that the installer doesn't set up, but take a poke around the system and see if you need them or can set things up yourself. Most of the things you can do with them are also listed in this guide (which is also useful for a bunch of other info).
Don't be afraid of the CLI -- you don't really need it all that much, but if you do, just remember:
-- " -h" (which after a command will tell usually you the options for it. sometimes it's "--help". it's like /? in DOS.)
-- "man " (which before a command will tell you basically everything about it. usually. man is short for manual.)
-- "apropos " (which can give you a list of commands if you don't know what you're looking for -- ex "apropos mp3" will list commands to play, convert, use mp3s. sometimes if the command's description sucks, it won't come up, but usually you'll get something close to what you're looking for. this is technically equivalent to "man -k ".)
ETA: Actually, there are stable NTFS-write drivers out now. I've used them for months now with no issue. I think they're even in the universe repos in Feisty.
For going the other way, there are drivers for ext2/3 for Windows, but if you run ext3, you may get errors with your journal the next time you boot into Linux (it's not a huge deal, there aren't actually errors, but the computer will think there are and freak you out anyway).
It's possible, but not recommended.
Yes, the NTFS write drivers work fantastically.
Eh? I had no trouble installing and running it at all, and I have an ATi card (A Mobility Radeon 7500). The included Ubuntu driver for ATi cards (the open-source one, the one supplied by ATi is trash) has direct rendering enabled, so all I had to do was add the beryl project repositories and GPG key in Synaptic, then select the "beryl" package for installation. I didn't even have to touch the command line.
The nVidia supplied driver is supposedly pretty good, and can be easily installed with Automatix or EasyUbuntu.
It all depends on the card. Some are a breeze while others are a royal pain.
Not writing to NTFS has always been a popular recommendation, but I've been using ntfs-3g drivers without issue well before they ever had a STABLE release. These drivers look amazingly strong now:
http://www.ntfs-3g.org/quality.html
Obviously, you want to store extremely important data on redundant hardware, but if you need to read/write ntfs from linux - it is far from dangerous.
Even if the current implementation is good, who knowns? maybe the guy will install a old version of slackware over Ubuntu withouth NTFS support. Be paranoid, I say.
By the way, thanks for all the help so far guys! If I ever get this thing installed then I'm positive it'll come in extremely useful.
ata2.01 : failed to set xfermode
I googled it and it said something about adding irqpoll to something. I think I need to do some more reading up on this stuff before I try it out.
It's something with your CD-ROM drive, it's having trouble detecting it. I think.
But yea, try adding irqpoll to the boot line. It should work fine after that.
If you have another CD/DVD drive try using that as the master boot instead.
Yeah, that's what I read on one of the Ubuntu forums. I'm going to try it out.
DON'T use Automatix. Yes, it's very convinent at the time, but every time there's a major upgrade, a *ton* of Automatix users get b0rked systems. The #ubuntu regulars will tell you not to use Automatix. There's a reason for that. Fistey *should* allow you to install the 3D drivers for your video card using the restricted drivers manager anyway.
Yea, Ubuntu's add/remove program thing or whatever it's called has something on there that will help you install the 3D drivers.