Hi everyone
After a while I have managed to get my laptop to boot from cd but now i don't know whether to put Ubuntu on it or suse. Its an old laptop with 256 ram hope fully i will upgrade it to 256 within a few months but I want to know which one would work best on it and which one you recommend for beginners to linux.
Many thanks
HLA91
The spec of your laptop is your limitation. 256mb of ram is ok, but it is still iffy. I don't think suse would run swiftly on that.
I'd go for ubuntu, or if you want to be doubly safe go for xbuntu. It's a lighter version of the former.
Yeah, 1) Suse is buggy 2)Its crippled in terms of media and 3) Runs about as slow as Vista
I recommend ubuntu. Pure Debian Stable would probably run best on 256 but ubuntu would be a safer bet as its 1cd, has a livecd mode and has easy instilaltion and maintainance
I installed Ubuntu and it looks good is there anything you would recommend I should download for it any special programs please I only have 256 ram so no big programs please.
umm most things will be inluded
main apps and thier windows equovilents
Internet Explorer -> Mozilla Firefox/Seamonkey
Outlook Express -> Evolution / Thunderbird
MSN Messenger -> Gaim/Pidgin
MS Office -> Openoffice.org
Photoshop -> GIMP
Media Player -> Rythmbox
Nero -> GnomeBaker
some of these apps may run slow on 256 meg so you may want to look at more lighweight versions. e.g use epiphany instead of Mozilla or use gnome-office instead of openoffice
hi,
I recently got a ubuntu cd from a friend of mine. can I use it as a live cd to practice some C / C++ programming . would someone help me out in this as to how to go about it ?
yes first thing is to connect to the internet and type into the console:
apt-get update
(wait)
apt-get install build-essential
this will install the C compiler and associated files
I just found out that my wireless usb pen/dongle is not compatible with Linux. Can anybody recommend a usb wireless device for me as at the moment I cannot get any updates, it must be usb though. Is there a "package" that I can download and transfer to my laptop which I can then run and it will perform all the necessary updates until I can get a new wireless pen?
Many thanks
Harry
Also I cannot install anything while I am not connected to the internet so that is quite annoying
usb wireless = no-no for linux
very limited driver support.
thats the only way I can connect to the web though so what else can i do?
I need someway of getting the updates and installing software.
plug it in using an ethernet cable or alternatively download the required .dpkg packages (and all thier dependencies) and put them on a disk
Ethernet slot doesn't work and where do I get all the packages from please?
What kind of USB wireless device do you have? You may be able to get it to work with the ndis wrapper.
TP-LINK 54m Wireless USB adapter
Model No-TL-WN321G
I have no idea on how to do anything in Linux so please tell me exactly what to do
Many thanks
Harry
NDISwrapper is a pice of software that enables you to use your windows wireless driver inside linux, its a bit buggy but is the only choice sometimes.
Yeah, 1) Suse is buggy 2)Its crippled in terms of media and 3) Runs about as slow as Vista
I recommend ubuntu. Pure Debian Stable would probably run best on 256 but ubuntu would be a safer bet as its 1cd, has a livecd mode and has easy instilaltion and maintainance
Rashkil, why did you bad rep me?
That was a sensible post, backed up by facts
1) Suse IS buggy - The updater is broken after over a year on 90% of installs and is still a little broken, even in the newest development branch.
2)Novell deliberately crippled the media players shipped with it and in the repositories so that they cannot be made to work with w32codecs or libdvdcss because they feared software patents laws
3)A suse 10.2 install uses more RAM than any distribution I have ever seen. The installer takes over an hour to transfer what other distributions do in about 15 minutes and when idle a KDE desktop uses nearly 450mb
4) A livecd of ubuntu would be a good idea so that he could test driver compatibility etc... and dont mention the Suse livecd- i ran that on my 1gb ram pc with sata DVDrom drive and it ran unbearably slow.
How do I use this NDISwrapper then and what exactly do I do?
When you say the ethernet slot doesn't work, you mean...What? Getting a wireless to work is much more difficult.
*edit* I've never had a problem with opensuse 10.2, updater works fine, dvds etc work fine after adding vlc player to the repository, and with 512 ddr it handles quite nicely.
really?
ive installed suse on many pcs and its always managed to be broken in some way usually related to the updater and with regard to dvd etc... its fine if you install vlc, its just that you cant soimply install the codecs and use them with the boxed players are they are "novelllized"
>its just that you cant soimply install the codecs
It depends what you mean by simple. No you can't open yast, type in vlc and expect it to find something, novell have obviously crippled that. And you can't use it with the boxed players ,amorak etc either, like you said, without some hacking.
But you can go to the vlc site, add the http/ftp thingie to the repository and away you go.
And I've found with vlc you don't even need to install the libdvdcss. The only thing it really lacks is the ability to play mov files.
>ive installed suse on many pcs and its always managed to be broken
Well you've got one up on me. I can only speak for my pc alone. I've tried it once with this dvd I got of a cover mag and the updater works.
And in terms of it being a memory hog, you may have a point. But isn't that similar for fedora 7 and all the other distros in a similar boat? Suse does take eons to boot as well.
i think its because of beagle and thier decision to stick with init instead of the newer upstart software (which is why ubuntu boots fast)
I have an Ethernet slot but the "connections" behind the slot are missing you had to buy them separately and my brother didn't. So wireless is my only option unless I go to a pc shop and get them to fit one
In that case you probably need to use what jbennet suggested. Ndiswrapper. (it is tough to set up and in no way reliable)
But you probably need to download it, which you obviously can't at the moment.
...It's not looking good. I guess you might be able to use a usb connection to the internet (if your internet box supports a usb connection), but then ubuntu might not necessarily detect the drivers for it. Ideally an ethernet connection is best.
every time I plug the usb wireless pen in it seems to freeze so I don't know what to do anymore I think I might have to buy teh connections for the Ethernet slot
> I might have to buy teh connections for the Ethernet slot
Updating hardware peripherals for laptops is one major pain in the **** and expensive. Especially for old laptops.
Try Linux Mint. Its based on ubuntu but the "full" version (not the "light" one!!!!) has certain restricted drivers enabled out-of-the-box including ndiswrapper
usb wireless = no-no for linux
very limited driver support.
Well, that's only half-true. Just depends.
I managed to get all my usb wireless lan sticks running on Ubuntu until now.
Here are two
This one went without any driverinstallation
http://www.preis.de/produkte/D-Link-DWL-G122-USB-Stick/34416.html
This one needed a driverinstallation, but on the producer's website you can dowload one for Linux
http://www.avm.de/de/Produkte/FRITZBox/FRITZ_WLAN_USB_Stick/index.html
Rashkil, why did you bad rep me?
That was a sensible post, backed up by facts1) Suse IS buggy - The updater is broken after over a year on 90% of installs and is still a little broken, even in the newest development branch.
2)Novell deliberately crippled the media players shipped with it and in the repositories so that they cannot be made to work with w32codecs or libdvdcss because they feared software patents laws
3)A suse 10.2 install uses more RAM than any distribution I have ever seen. The installer takes over an hour to transfer what other distributions do in about 15 minutes and when idle a KDE desktop uses nearly 450mb
4) A livecd of ubuntu would be a good idea so that he could test driver compatibility etc... and d
ont mention the Suse livecd- i ran that on my 1gb ram pc with sata DVDrom drive and it ran unbearably slow.
lol i know this is an old post but true rashkill he said a reasonable post n
ot like me
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