HEY GUYS FREE LAPTOP

[K-Mann]

For me.

Now that I have your attention, HELP ME OUT.

The laptop is my moms old one, and I'm going to reformat the thing. Once everything is completely blown away, what should I load it up with? An opinion thread, if you will. I was thinking Ubuntu because I've always wanted to try it, I've never used anything linux before, so I though Ubuntu would be a good way to get started. once I have the OS and everything, I'll take the time to learn it and linux and so on. I also thought XP but I'm not sure. Its what she had on there before, and it would be nice to have a windows laptop with me.

So what do you think? I'm kind of leaning towards Ubuntu. If I chose it would someone like to teach me in some sort of messenger?

Also I'm not exactly sure what the specs of it are, all I know is that it has 2 gigs of ram, because she came online one day and was all happy and excited that she upgraded the RAM.

Thanks

[Sneaky]

Ubuntu is definitely more of a plug and play linux than others.. fedora is okay as well. You may not see any particular advantage to it in terms of performance, because you have to install shit so damn anally with packages and admin roots and bullshit like that.  If you want to toy around with it and learn something new, I would suggest loading XP on it first on a blank slate format, then use a partitioning software (Acronis Disk Director is my fave.), and install ubuntu/whatever on the 2nd partition.  Using linux as your main go-to would be a mistake in my book, unless you're like spec or boobies and know exactly what's goin on and how to fix what you will break.

have fun with your new toy

[Bobbias]

unless you're like spec or boobies and know exactly what's goin on and how to fix what you will break.

You have no idea how much that just made me laugh. If it involves me and linux, A) It WILL fail, B) in the word way possible, C) I will employ google (note: this only works when the computer is still capable of running, or I have another computer available), D) I will spend 4 times the amount of time it should take to install and set up, and still end up with a half-working program/setup.

And occasionally somewhere in there will be a posting here asking what I do and why it's s broken.

[Sneaky]

Fine then just spectere :p you always seem to be in these kinds of threads so I ASSumed you knew something more than the average bear

[Alice]

If it involves linux, A) It WILL fail, B) in the worst way possible, C) I will employ google (note: this only works when the computer is still capable of running, or I have another computer available), D) I will spend 4 times the amount of time it should take to install and set up, and still end up with a half-working program/setup.

fixed for you lol

[Bobbias]

lol, well, that's how I feel about it, but I'm aware that for some people, linux just works.

[K-Mann]

I got my laptop today.

There wasn't too much left on there, just some wireless network stuff and a web browser and chat stuff. But they forgot to bring the recovery disc, so I guess I'll just wait for it, and then do what sneaky suggested. I am still considering ubuntu as well, but I would just leave it simple when I load it. I'm not gonna start totally messing with things right away, I just want to see lol. Then when I feel like it I can maybe start with a bunch of simple stuff. Its really just going to be a computer away from home, I'm not going to do any coding or anything like that. Its just I really want to fix this laptop, get rid of all the junk and so on.

[Spectere]

Ubuntu is definitely going to be your best bet if it's your first time using Linux.  Frankly, I don't like it* (Debian and Gentoo are my two preferred systems), but it's perfect when you're looking for something that's easy to get running.  The Ubuntu forums are absolutely amazing when it comes to getting support.  The people that frequent it are very knowledgeable and helpful -- definitely the exception rather than the norm (looking right at you, "RTFM/lrn2howto/LOLN00B" douchebags).

*Things I don't like: broken network control software (out of the box, I was unable to assign static IPs through the GUI on several PCs), tons of bloat (lots of programs that I simply don't need getting installed), poor RAID support (it's easier to set up RAID 1+0 in Gentoo and that's REALLY saying something), blurry line between "development" and "stable" (Ubuntu tends to put beta software in the stable tree).

Things that I do like about it: one of the most up-to-date package repositories I've seen in a binary distribution, helpful wiki and forums (I can't emphasize this enough), regular release cycle, and, most importantly, the ability to update the entire distribution in-place almost effortlessly (i.e. you can upgrade from Ubuntu 8.04 to 8.10 without reinstalling).

[Bobbias]

Yes, there are definitely some pluses there. Mind you, after SSHing into a Linux distro mainly comprised of busybox, I've learned a lot more about linux than I did before, lol. At the cost of having to googling some things for hours before attempting them :/

[Spectere]

lawl, busybox.  I've done my share of time in that environment, haha.

Fun thing to do: have Gentoo generate you a tar.gz of gcc, glibc, and binutils and build your own self-reliant Linux environment out of it (you could go the full LFS route, but it's much faster to set up a build environment using portage).  I started by building busybox, the deps for building gcc, glibc, and binutils, and then the development tools themselves, then went from there.  I didn't get as far as I would have liked (I didn't even get around to getting <insert init provider here> installed) but it was still a lot of fun.  I plan to do it again sometime.

Edit: Oh yeah...speaking of busybox and other minimal shells:



My phone is awesome.

[Bobbias]

lol, well, I learned the hard way that integrated linux environments can be SLOW when building large binaries.

It took me about 45 minutes (3 or 4 times to get it right) to compile PHP..... Not to mention however long it took to compile MySQL.

In SSH sessions, 45 minutes is quite a while.

[K-Mann]

Wooooooo.

Guys my laptop is awesome. Ubuntu 9.04 on there now. Everything works beautifully except the sound, but there have been many issues for many people with sound and Jaunty, so I'm not the only person. Even though I can't play music yet, I'm still really enjoying it.

Did a tiny bit of playing in the terminal, but only following one of the many guides I tried for my sound. Gonna see what else I can do with this baby.

[Spectere]

lol, well, I learned the hard way that integrated linux environments can be SLOW when building large binaries.

That's why you set up an ARM (or whatever) toolchain on your powerful x86 rig.

Whenever I'm compiling PPC code I always make sure to set up either distcc or just do all of the work on my x86 box.  Every PPC I've seen (including the mighty Cell) sucks ass at software compilation.  Fortunately, Gentoo makes it so easy to set up alternate toolchains that a drooling retard could practically do it.  Most of the other distros, not so much (though there are plenty of prefabbed ARM, SH, etc, toolchains for Win32).

It took me about 45 minutes (3 or 4 times to get it right) to compile PHP..... Not to mention however long it took to compile MySQL.

That's it?

You need to try compiling Linux 2.6 on a Pentium 120 (or, hell, compiling OpenOffice on anything).  It's an eye-opening experience, believe me.

Wooooooo.

Guys my laptop is awesome. Ubuntu 9.04 on there now.

Sweet.  Glad you like it.

Everything works beautifully except the sound, but there have been many issues for many people with sound and Jaunty, so I'm not the only person. Even though I can't play music yet, I'm still really enjoying it.

Hop into a terminal and type in "lspci | grep Audio" (note: it's case-sensitive).  It should give you something like this:

Code: [Select]

00:09.0 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP73 High Definition Audio (rev a1)
The two information that you need to know are the first two.  "00:09" in this case.  Now, get some more information on that by typing in "sudo lspci -vv -s 00:09" (substituting "00:09" with whatever it is on your box).  Copy and paste the result here.  It should look something like this:

Code: [Select]

00:09.0 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP73 High Definition Audio (rev a1)
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 7518
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0 (500ns min, 1250ns max)
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 22
Region 0: Memory at fcf78000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold+)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
Capabilities: [50] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask+ 64bit+ Queue=0/0 Enable-
Address: 0000000000000000  Data: 0000
Masking: 00000000  Pending: 00000000
Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel

[Bobbias]

That's why you set up an ARM (or whatever) toolchain on your powerful x86 rig.

Whenever I'm compiling PPC code I always make sure to set up either distcc or just do all of the work on my x86 box.  Every PPC I've seen (including the mighty Cell) sucks ass at software compilation.  Fortunately, Gentoo makes it so easy to set up alternate toolchains that a drooling retard could practically do it.  Most of the other distros, not so much (though there are plenty of prefabbed ARM, SH, etc, toolchains for Win32).

That's it?

You need to try compiling Linux 2.6 on a Pentium 120 (or, hell, compiling OpenOffice on anything).  It's an eye-opening experience, believe me.

If I could remember my damn password to log in (any idea on how to find it out, or break in?) I might consider setting a toolchain up, if I'll ever need it.

Just to let you know what's the issue seems to stem from, spec, he's trying to get PulseAudio working, and an update seems to have broken it (since it worked fine before the update).

[K-Mann]

So as it turns out, it must be something else. I did reinstall it, and the sound was done even with a totally clean reinstall. I guess the first time I didn't listen to it long enough, as this second time I listened for about 5 minutes and it went haywire. So its not the updates.

Also spec:

Code: [Select]

00:14.5 Multimedia audio controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 80)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device ff00
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=slow >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx+
Latency: 64 (500ns min), Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 17
Region 0: Memory at c0007400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: [40] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit- Queue=0/0 Enable-
Address: 00000000  Data: 0000
Kernel driver in use: ATI IXP AC97 controller
Kernel modules: snd-atiixp

No idea what I just did. I'm guessing I got the specifications of my audio driver?