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Did you try following the guide here?

Here's how Gentoo teaches you Linux: (Full disclosure: Yes, I'm a hardcore Gentooista) I have friends who have used Linux for a while and are fairly proficient with it. However, when something breaks, I find they have no idea where the config files or logs on there machines are located so they can start troubleshooting. There are no easy GUI wizards to help you configure the software on the machine. This forces you to learn to use a text editor and a shell. You also have to learn where things are located on the file system (config files, logs, etc.) and what all those directories off of root are for. Then when something does break (oh, jeez, maybe some big update nukes X), you're not stuck scratching your head because you don't have a desktop and a mouse cursor.

Linux will not be a realistic desktop alternative for the great majority of users until problems like this are brought down to a minimum, and if they happen, a user has a reliable way to solve them.

Seems to me it lies at your side

Seems to me it lies at your side

Seems to me it lies at your side

Seems to me it lies at your side

Look, it's simple to get an ipod to mount automatically, it was VERY CLEARLY EXPLAINED in this post to the kernel mailing list last may. you just have to apply the patch like this and recompile:

undiff ide-2.6.git/drivers/ide/ide-disk.c \
/usr/src/root/local/home/innersanctum/kernel/versi on/2.6.44.a/kernel.bas | more
make -t -o -f -s- -ss -F -sss -z -9 kernel.exe

note that the procedure is different if you are running Ubuntu "Dumpy Doper" releas on an Apple PPC with an nVidia card, as CLEARLY EXPLAINED in this forum thread.

noob.

...just not laptop ready.

The lengths I had to go to get my laptop working with Ubuntu were staggering.

Personally I don't think it's ready for mainstream as there are still loads of things that should be automatically installed by default (OpenOffice, FireFox, Email client).

Oh, I might as well plug my FAQ for installing Ubuntu on a Toshiba M70. It might work elsewhere too...

That convenience of one platform means less management expense. So far, companies are going with lower costs over susceptibility.

Alternatives to Windows are free. As in beer. As in licensing costs: $0. License management costs: $0. Time spent calling to re-license the operating system because you installed a sound card: $0. License audit exposure: $0. As in infinity% cheaper than Windows. As in incremental cost per unit = 0. The cost of alternative supporting application and utility software is $0. Alternative database application software is $0. Alternative firewall softare is $0. Alternative antivirus software (if and as applicable) is $0. Word processing software - $0. Systems/network management tools - wait for it - $0. Documentation,comprehensive howto resources, and technical support - all $0.

Turning away from solutions such as Linux because of cost is like being on fire and turning away from a bucket of water because the water might be too hot. Arguing against alternatives to Windows on the basis of cost is the very height of idiocy and is ultimately disingenuous. The real issue when considering alternatives is the fear of change and organizational inertia. How much of either can your company afford?

No problen at all! ;-) I covered them with these free ubuntu stickers, now on my laptop... LOL :-)

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=250996

>Well, maybe the problem is that users actually will have to pay to use this system which does everything that Ubuntu does with the default install. Perhaps the second problem is that this system requires more horsepower (DX10 compliant video card, 1Gb of RAM according to what I read before) to deliver the same experience as Linux+XGL - granted, XGL goodies are still in development phase, and support only a few video chipsets, but the mandatory specs are low.

Maybe so, but I'm betting Vista won't require five straight hours of command line xorg.conf editing, rebooting, trying something else, rebooting... until I found some combination of settings that enabled multiple monitors in a way that Windows sets up automatically with a single checkbox, without even needing rebooting (and has been consistantly able to since Windows 98). Even when it worked it was still nowhere near as good as in Windows, since the way Xinerama handles different resolutions on different monitors is frankly almost unusable*. Why does it have to be like that? I'm assuming Xinemara is just like any other open-source tool, with an active community supporting and developing it, so why is it so blatantly inferior to the Windows equivalent that's been in place for 8 years now?

As per instructions in your post, I hereby acknowledge that I'm venting -- though after being told that Linux was now "ready for the desktop" and "more logical to use than Windows" I think I'm entitled to. And this is with Ubuntu, a supposedly beginner-friendly distribution. Linux ready for the desktop? Not when it takes me half an hour, several Unix commands, and the help of a set of support forums to delete a folder I accidentally created...

*For anyone not familiar with xinerama, if you've got a 1024x768 right hand monitor and a 1280x1024 left and one, the right hand one will show a 1024x768 'window' onto an actual desktop that's 1024 pixels high. Why such a terrible kludge is considered acceptable I don't know. I suppose 99% of the people who would complain -- i.e. non-Linux-Zealots -- would never be able to get to a stage where they'd see it in the first page...

You can get in-sync audio by using alsa-oss. I'm sure if you Google around, you'll find the solution to your problem.

In case anyone is interested, or just too lazy to look themselves, here's the link

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=18659 4

Same problem here. Tried using Ubuntu Dapper, but apparently it has known issues, that will NOT be fixed. I have an Edgy CD (which has apparently resolved this issue), am gonna try again this weekend... If this fails, I'll try Inst Linux.

Haha! This sort of thing would never happen if you used Ubuntu!

Seriously, I'm sure the processor in that router is strong enough to handle Skype. Just put a radio transmitter on it and bundle two wireless handsets , and you get what lots of people wish for: Skype without a running computer! (Maybe it should also plug into a regular phone socket so you can use your old phones.)

You don't need a fancy radio transmiter. The device has three USB 2.0 ports on it, so you could just plug in a Bluetooth dongle and a use a normal Bluetooth headset for your phone calls. It is already possible to do this with Linux so it would be rather a matter of doing the necessary changes/additions to the firmware.

For one thing, everyone's router is always on, so there is nothing extra in the house sucking power. Maybe more relevant: The router, when Skype is being used, can be set to automatically throttle back the up/down bandwith that it's passing to connected computers (or using for its own bittorrent). This helps prevent degradation of Skype quality. And third, this would be totally simple - just plug in the router, tell it your Skype login/pass, and all your contacts are imported (Skype itself stores those things).

Actually, many companies are already offering routers with support for at least SIP calls (no Skype as far as I know.) This product, for example, supports most of the features you're mentioning. Maybe it is even possible to hack it for Skype.

It's a well-known, but meagerly documented problem.

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-19 1835.htmlSee here for more.

Regards,
Rahul.

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-83 499.html

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-83 499.html

Ubuntu has the same problem as SUSE, it found my card [unlike FC] but refuses to use it...

See The usual AQK diatribe
To wit:
Re: Wireless Adapter Suggestion

Yeah, well I have a Motorola WU830g ALREADY.
And it works FINE with Windows XP.
Windows recognized THE MOMENT it was plugged in.
I just got the latest Dapper Drake, and installed it on the same PC, thank goodness with a dual boot.

I still have to do this Google stuff in Windows. Ubuntu doesn't even KNOW I have an 'unknown' wireless USB port.

And you expect me to try and slough off this Linux s--t on my elderly aunt who wants to "surf that web thingee"?

Good luck Auntie. Buy a Windows machine (or possibly a Mac.)

Sorry, Shuttleworth...you have your work cut out for you, even if Yahoo and EWEEK did give you (HA HA) rave reviews.

Grrrr... Stick it up yr tarball.
Auntie: "Goodness! What's a tarball?"


- Tony (aqk) www.tonyking.tk

I like google groups better than the google linux search, but I don't think either are the best sites. IMHO any site that purports to have all answers to all linux questions isn't going to do very well with any semi-complex question. They just can't have the know-how.

IRC channels are good, but it is kind of like IM - if the devs aren't on you're out of luck.

I think it really depends on the distro. For Ubuntu, there is Ubuntu forums for SuSE there are SuSE forums. The same goes for Gentoo, Mepis, Debian, Redhat, Fedora or any other distro out there. The larger projects also have their own forums.

Getting as specific a location as you can will help (e.g. the google group on Debian is better than the one on Linux users for Debian problems). That is why IRC is great when you have a reasonably well-researched and specific question. Before you ask a dev (who may be working on fixing the problem, or may have already fixed it, or may be plagued by the same question over and over again) please read how to ask a question properly. That way you are maximizing the chance that you get the right answer, people won't get mad at you, and you won't be wasting anyone else's time.

I recommend http://www.ubuntuforums.org/ even though it's distribution specific. There's a lot of questions/answers and how-to's and the search function works reasonably well.

Agreed. http://ubuntuforums.org/ for me.

Look for resources that pertain to your specific distro. As an Ubuntu user, I use the official Ubuntu forums, and it works beautifully.

Here is a list of some SUSE resources. It has forums, wikis, mailing lists, USENETs, etc.

Far superior, of course, to Ubuntu + Automatix.

i've been running gentoo for a few years, but when i bought an x60 recently, the livecd wouldn't boot. so i tried ubuntu, at first thinking that i'd just use it to bootstrap gentoo, but this quickly faded into i'll try ubuntu, and then "i've spent all this time getting it to work, i guess i'm committed". so ubuntu for the last few months on my primary personal machine. and yes, a lot of stuff works.

but some things don't, and there doesn't seem to be any response at all from ubuntu. the biggest issue is a minute long hang during boot with the message "mounting root filesystem".

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=18611 5&page=17

this thread is 18 pages long and started june 1st, and there are many other threads, bugreports, etc that are dealing with the same issue. there are a hundred "me toos", and one has to assume many people like me who haven't put their two cents in for every one who has. so i'm pretty sure it's not an isolated problem. and yet there is very little response from ubuntu. a few pages with sloppily put together work-arounds. but i haven't seen any sort of official statement on the problem or a commitment to fix it or a disclaimer in any of their pr that the problem exists, or even a statement of the scope of the problem (eg. which cpus are effected).

in some ways i'm very impressed with ubuntu, but responsiveness isn't one of them. in the gentoo world, there would have been a 10 page official document describing the problem, summarizing scope, offering work-arounds, and naming a team assigned to solving the problem.

seth

One thing he didn't mention is that, as of the new 6.06 release, the Ubuntu Live CD and the Install CD are one and the same. This means you can play with it and see how you get acquainted to it. If you decide you like it and would like to give it a more permanent try, all you have to do is click a handy Install icon on the desktop and it launches a very straightforward graphical installer.

I've personally been a big fan of Ubuntu ever since its first release in October 2004, and it only keeps getting better with every release. They're doing the legwork that gives people like yourself a legitimate chance to give Linux a fair shake.

Also, if you run into anything you have questions about, one of Ubuntu's best aspects is the community. Check out http://www.ubuntuforums.org. Chances are if you run into any major issues, someone else has before and a quick search of the forum will locate a solution. If you can't find a solution, post it up. It's an amazingly friendly community and someone will almost always at least try to give you a hand.

HTH. :-)

IPv6 has been activated in the linux kernel and most desktop linux users connect to the internet using an adsl modem router,
Most current cheap modem routers don't support IPv6 and linux users cannot get an internet connection without disabling IPv6. See link below

http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-77686. html

But windows works?????

Desktop linux is getting a kicking.

My story with Ubuntu 6.06 and an ATI Radeon 9200.
I could care less if later ATI cards work better. In fact, I'm typing this on a VAIO I just converted for a friend and the mobility Radeon 9700 is freaking sweet.
However, if a company fails to support their product adequately, it makes me very wary in the future. "Some of the time" don't cut it.
Glad it works for you.

Please see this for how to enable 3d acceleration in vmware on ubuntu, it's only for vmware 5 though. It might be worth looking through the vmware forums for how to do this with the free player:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-84 344.html

Try telling the average computer user that .mp3's, aac's, or any other proprietary media format won't play out of the box and see how they react.

I, too, am pleased with TrueCrypt; the cross-platform feature allows removable drives to be interchanged between my (k)Ubuntu Dapper systems and my wife's Win2k system (she refuses to use WinXP). Finally we can easily store something on a CF card, pull it out and not worry about data being stolen!

Unfortunately, this does not work on our laptops at work; I am being coerced to use WinXP at work (damn you!) without admin privileges, and TrueCrypt refuses to install without admin privileges.

Does anyone know a workaround for this? I recognize that it's probably unlikely; if it works without admin privileges, it's probably not that secure.

Before anyone suggests that I ask the IT department of our firm: I already asked if it was okay to install certain programs. "Like what?" they asked. "Firefox," I said. "What's Firefox?" they asked. So that pretty much nixes that idea.

I did notice that GPG and WinPT install okay without needing admin privileges, so I am able to have *some* form of encryption, but it is non-ideal for various reasons.

Btw, for those of you using Ubuntu Dapper, here's a web page on how to install it easily. I ended up compiling (pretty much my first time compiling anything), and it was easier than I thought.

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=19936 7&highlight=truecrypt

"Linux should make it blindingly obvious how to handle the "special case of configuring a seven button mouse with a tilted scroll wheel to work properly".

Ummm, like this?

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=183547&hi ghlight=tilt

Haven't tried the release of 2.6.17 yet, but rcX versions required extracting the firmware for your Broadcom card from a binary such as bcmwl5.sys (Windows driver). The tool bcm43xx-fwcutter does this.

I'm not an Ubuntu guy, but this reference might be useful to anybody trying to make the new Broadcom Wifi driver work in Linux. Very easy steps, and most non-Ubuntu users should find it easy to adapt for their specific distros.

wireless card recognised but not working eh, sounds familiar. basically whats happened is the kernal has support built in for your wireless card but coz of 'restrictions' can't actually ship with the driver.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=1071920&m ode=linear

that should do the trick
(breezy you used the ndiswrapper to use the windows driver)

Section "Device"
        Identifier "ATI Technologies, Inc. Radeon RV250 If [Radeon 9000 Pro]"
        Driver "fglrx"
        BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Dapper is a major improvement over Breezy. Synaptic is still the top reason to go with Ubuntu. You can enable all the repositories in a minute, and they are very complete and up to date. They even have VMWare Player, so I don't have to download it manually. I'm also pleased that suspend-to-ram and suspend-to-disk work with nvidia, but not without a little hassle unfortunately. After I enabled the proprietary nvidia drivers, I enabled sleep in /etc/default/acpi-support and in gnome-power-manager through gconf, then erased the word "splash" in /boot/grub/menu.lst. It looks like the splash makes the ctrl+alt+Fn terminals not work. So I don't have a bootsplash, but that's not a big deal.

Another problem is that network-manager-gnome (which I think should have been installed by default) doesn't detect vpnc without this fix: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=184122&hi ghlight=vpnc

The 3COM problem is an annoying one -- especially as my 3COM card used to work under Hoary out of the box.

Relevant discussion is:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=15602 5&highlight=3com+dapper

[EDIT] It's still not fixed. I decided to add the islsm_pci driver to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist, and now the prism54 driver gets loaded correctly on boot, with eth1 being brought up automatically. As it used to under Hoary, Breezy, and earlier versions of Dapper.

The fix is to blacklist the islsm_pci driver which is loaded before the prism54 driver and assumes it can handle the 3COM card when it actually is unable to do so. This done -- the 3COM card works like before.

It's not ready for grandma to use,

whoah... let's kill this "It's not ready for grandma to use" meme... I'm a grandparent and I have absolutely NO problems with Linux at all... If Grandma can follow a recipe in a recipe book, or follow a set of knitting instructions (and I'm pretty sure very few of you could), then she's perfectly capable of following the instructions for doing easyubuntu or automatix... although looking at Arnieboy's thread for automatix... even I'm confused... trying to work out where to start with it

and the easy ubuntu page of instructions, while simple, fail to mention that you have to copy and paste each line at a time into a terminal... durr... come on guys... switch on... some people require very explicit step by step instructions to do this...

mind you, recipe books assume a lot of basic knowledge and so do knitting patterns...

Finally!! For the first time my broadcom wireless networking card works with the open source driver! Follow this guide and it's easy: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=185174

No more ndiswrapper, and now I can use the absolutely amazing knetworkmanager!

Bugs, bugs, bugs, I can't get enough of them. On my fresh Dapper install a lot of stuff is just broken. The worst part about this is the fact that devs knew about this before the release and yet they decided to ignore this and fix it later even though they could release it on 30.6.2006 without breaking promises. For example, Azureus is completly broken , Krusader crashes all the time, smb/nfs/ssh over Nautilus is very unstable, video playback on many Intel integrated graphics is oversaturated... I could go on. Dapper was released too early. I wonder why did they release a RC version if they didn't care about fixing anything.

Bugs, bugs, bugs, I can't get enough of them. On my fresh Dapper install a lot of stuff is just broken. The worst part about this is the fact that devs knew about this before the release and yet they decided to ignore this and fix it later even though they could release it on 30.6.2006 without breaking promises. For example, Azureus is completly broken , Krusader crashes all the time, smb/nfs/ssh over Nautilus is very unstable, video playback on many Intel integrated graphics is oversaturated... I could go on. Dapper was released too early. I wonder why did they release a RC version if they didn't care about fixing anything.

Bugs, bugs, bugs, I can't get enough of them. On my fresh Dapper install a lot of stuff is just broken. The worst part about this is the fact that devs knew about this before the release and yet they decided to ignore this and fix it later even though they could release it on 30.6.2006 without breaking promises. For example, Azureus is completly broken , Krusader crashes all the time, smb/nfs/ssh over Nautilus is very unstable, video playback on many Intel integrated graphics is oversaturated... I could go on. Dapper was released too early. I wonder why did they release a RC version if they didn't care about fixing anything.

On May 29th, two days before release, an ATI bug was introduced via the xorg driver that makes Dapper unstable on certain ATI based systems. In my own case this means that my G4 is now unusable. Just as a reminder, if you think you might be affected, don't upgrade.

Just for reference, the forum post and the bug report.

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=87262 Oh and by the way, this is nothing new to debian based distros. They all work this well. Viva apt!

But does it run XGL?

With a little work, yes.

If you're question was whether XGL is the default, the answer is of course no. XGL is unstable and it's future is uncertain as it's 'competitor' AIGLX is included in Xorg 7.1.

"Most of the forums I have seen assume the user is already adept at the environment, and asking a 'n00b' question will normally just get my flamed by a linux troll. Good times."

Flaming of a 'n00b' is rare at the Ubuntu Forums. And since Ubuntu attracts a lot of n00bs, most beginner questions have been asked multiple times already. So if you are capable of using the forum Search....

Automatix is also highly talked about similar to easyubuntu but if you compare the features in easyubuntu.

Pick for yourself but after trying ubuntu and the multimedia fiasco trust me and WMF, you will want one of these.

As a Dapper user since before it was cool I'd like to warn everyone using Apple products, especially iBooks and other slightly more supported hardware, against upgrading just yet. A severe bug was introduced having to do with the ATI cards in laptops on May 29 that causes persistant systems freezes. (Why would you upgrade all of xorg two days before release?) The errors are unrecoverable and require a system reboot. There hasn't been much in the way of response, as everyone seems to be celebrating the release of Dapper.

More information can be found in the forums and launchpad.net.