New Ubuntu pains

This must be one of the biggest piece of shits I have encountered in the Ubuntu universe. The sound works fine, but only with the trick of putting the jack only halfway into the computer.
Now I made the mistake of trying out different resolution setups, because the browser wasn't using the full screen. Guess what? The cursor disappeared and it is in invisible mode now. I can see its effect, but not the cursor itself, unless I restart the machine.

What should I say? This decade is not going to be Linux's because this annoying toy is not ready for primetime....

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

You think so? Because I expect something to work out of the box?

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

Sorry to hear about your difficulties, Syzygyzygs. I'm posting this with a cheap laptop (Tosh L305-S5968) that I installed L.Lynx on without a hitch. It was a much easier and faster installation than Windows 7, and almost as easy as putting OSX on a Mac. Everything works fine on this low-end laptop, and there are many good reports out there for other popular hardware too.

I'm no expert (I've been dabbling in Linux for a couple of years). For me, Ubuntu 10 is by far the most user-friendly distro yet (and I've tried dozens). Given a little time, hardware and installation bugs should get worked out, and installations will go better on more systems. Maybe put out some feelers on the Ubuntu forums for your hardware, if you're still interested in running the OS.

It's really a pleasure to break free from M$ and Apple- and it keeps getting better, with more fast, solid, practical, and even eye-pleasing apps to run. Open-source also gives me a welcome kick about human productivity and symbiosis, in an era that often gets me thinking much too misanthropically. If Linux and open-source business models come to adapt and evolve faster than the corporate behemoths, technological life is going to become even more interesting and accessible to everyone.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

No, because every problem you experienced could have been avoided if you would have known what you were doing.

 

But you are making MY point for me, Linux is NOT for the average user. Believe me I am much better than the average user and if I feel frustrated by Ubuntu, the average user would just throw it away.

By the way I think the previous version was better and more fluent, although might be the desktop is too old. I might give a try to Linux Mint, because:

"linux mint is much better than ubuntu. basically it is ubuntu + bugfixes+codecs+flash+java. "

I mean why is my first act with Ubuntu to download Flash?? You can't even watch Youtube without it, it should come preinstalled...

 

That is one good way to use Linux. One can pick up old desktops for $50 or so and use it as an extra. Right now I have two 8+years old desktops and I am planning on experiencing with them. Although the hardware might be a bit too old.

Although the internet speed was way faster than XP, the videos didn't come nicer or more fluent. I assume it is the interaction between the hardware and the OS. Once I switched form one Youtube video to the next one, the sound overlapped for 2-3 seconds.

Also I am a happy clicker, meaning that I do click when I am not sure what the result is. nevertheless with KK I was able to manage and download and install programs. With LL I downloaded Vuze, managed to install it but it doesn't work. I still managed to torrent files, but it doesn't work the way I expected. KK was more logical in this regard. I might put it back on the same old desktop so I would have a valid comparison...

So plans for the upcoming days: reinstall KK and try out Mint.

Oh yeah, I also put LL on the notebook but just for a test using the VirtualBox. Well, since it runs through Windows it was slower than XP so since I am happy with the notebook (fairly new) I will stop messing with it and probably not doing the dual boot thingy...

 

That is one good way to use Linux. One can pick up old desktops for $50 or so and use it as an extra. Right now I have two extra 8+year old desktops and I am planning on experiencing with them. Although the hardware might be a bit too old.

Although the internet speed was way faster than XP, the videos didn't come nicer or more fluent. I assume it is the interaction between the hardware and the OS. Once I switched form one Youtube video to the next one, the sound overlapped for 2-3 seconds.

Also I am a happy clicker, meaning that I do click when I am not sure what the result is. nevertheless with KK I was able to manage and download and install programs. With LL I downloaded Vuze, managed to install it but it doesn't work. I still managed to torrent files, but it doesn't work the way I expected. KK was more logical in this regard. I might put it back on the same old desktop so I would have a valid comparison...

So plans for the upcoming days: reinstall KK and try out Mint.

Oh yeah, I also put LL on the notebook but just for a test using the VirtualBox. Well, since it runs through Windows it was slower than XP so since I am happy with the notebook (fairly new) I will stop messing with it and probably not doing the dual boot thingy...

 

Hey, I have just found out, a commercial DVD does NOT play on Ubuntu out of the box. Really?? Come on people this year is Linux's!!!

I like Mint better and better....

 

"a" commercial DVD? Maybe something wrong with that DVD, I have not had problems with DVD.

On a slightly related note my laptops harddrive just died, I managed to burn a DVD of my documents and pictures before it went to that big electronics waste bin in the sky. I always keep one full version behind the times (10.04 is out now) might as well try it now that I have to do a full re-install.

 

I downloaded and installed Mint on the old one. It is faster than Ubuntu and plays everything out of the box (Flash and such). Also it looks nicer somehow. Hulu doesn't play very well, it keeps breaking up but Youtube is OK. Probably the Hulu server is too busy.
I will try how the torrents work and if it is nice and fast I will dual boot this on the newer desktop.

I downloaded Opera, it didn't run it automaticly after installation, took a while to find it. I don't like to learn new things, if I haven't mentioned it yet.

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

 

huh, since I'm going to need to re-install, I'll try out mint, its just a skinned over ubuntu by the way.

 

I'm trying out mint on my desktop and I got to say, I'm impressed! It even noticed my raid controller! I had to set that up in ubuntu.

Edit: tried Ubuntu 10.04 and it sees the raid as well, never mind, mint just has a better menu and flash in the box, that about it, but considering the two are almost one in the same I'll go with mint.

 

I am surprised I haven't learnt about Mint earlier. When I was looking for the simplest/most popular Linux, always Ubuntu came up. So I assumed that is for a beginner.
Now when I read comparisons, everyone is saying that Mint is much better for someone just switching from Windows....
But yes they are compatible, everything on Ubuntu runs on Mint too, although the opposite isn't true.
Mint usually comes out a few weeks after the Ubuntu release, so a new one is in the works...

The Mint Live CD had no sound on the newer desktop, I think I have to mess with the Nvidia card recognition...

 

Mint IS Ubuntu variant which is debian.

 

I know but it is irrelevant. The relevant part is that Mint WORKS out of the box and faster!

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

My notebook's wireless speed is 5 Mbps which is OK for average webcruising, but with Linux I could easily double it. Although I just realized that the wire downstairs can reach the deck and I get 14 Mbps with it, so after all I don't really need Linux on the notebook...

 

When installing linux of any distro, I'd recommend you have another computer running so you can connect to an IRC channel.

the address for ubuntu channel is
irc.freenode.net
join #ubuntu

I use xchat as an IRC client, but there are many out there
a good web-based one is chatzilla, which is a firefox plugin


There are at least a hundred users at any given time on there that can answer all sorts of questions. Use the community around ubuntu even after you install it. The channels also support other languages if English is not your lingo.

 

I'm using Ubuntu Lucid the final release, it's out!

This one is the best, the old one sucked ass. This one kicks ass, I love it. Hummmm Here's 1 screenshot I'm to lazy to take more

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

 

What was wrong with KK? I still have it with Vista as a dual boot, although I don't really use it since Vista was as fast as Linux, thus there was no gain in speed.

The only thing that holds me back putting it on the notebook is the pain of getting it on a USB drive since as an extra step I need to format it first...

 

I had never touched Linux or any version of Unix prior to a few months ago. Unless you count OS X as a version of Unix.

I converted a 4 year Sharp notebook running XP into a dual boot machine and converted an EEE PC running XP into a dual boot machine. I had no significant problems with either installation. I avoid new releases of anything. I installed Ubuntu 9.04 version.

I got hung up for a bit thinking I was having a problem with wpa2-psk but then I got past that. Wifi worked fine everything worked fine. All easy.

I hate going on the internet with Windows. I hate the way the anti-virus programs I need with Windows slow my machine down.

At this moment I am happily using my seven year old Mac desktop running 10.3.9. If it's not broke why fix it?

 

Ok so I decided to put Mint on the newer desktop. I wanted to do it using Wubi or the Mint version of Wubi, Mint4win.exe or what. It exists but I couldn't locate it. Then when I gave up and wanted to download Wubi (although I didn't really want Ubuntu), that gave me error messages.
So eventually I went with the partition and that was actually rather fast and painless. Speed is good, sound works, except the resolution set up is not good enough 800x600 right now and when I messed around with the Nvidia driver it actually got worse.
I found a solution to the problem in a forum, but I simply don't understand the steps or whenever I try to follow them things don't happen the way they describe.
For now 800x600 will do, and I am still working on the problem...