2 year Ubuntu user here... trying to find a distro that my laptop likes...

[Jayce]

You're right. I have seen that.

CAUSE ITS ME! All of my usernames on other computer forums are Roasted, except for this one which is my nickname.

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

Sadly, wireless networking is very poorly supported under Ubuntu. Some cards work (such as Broadcom chipset cards) but installation is still tricky because manufacturers have copyrighted firmware that is only available in Windows versions of their drivers. Broadcom Linux drivers require you to cut part of the firmware out of the Windows driver in order to work.

This probably didn't happen, but did Gutsy's Restricted Drivers Manager pick up on your network card? Also, did you update to the latest version of ALSA? My ThinkPad laptop's sound didn't work until I updated the ALSA package after I installed Gutsy.

But Ubuntu runs fine on my laptop (using it now). I think Ubuntu is best suited for older computers, because new hardware takes time until developers find out how it works and write Linux drivers.

 

[Nukem]

You're right. I have seen that.

CAUSE ITS ME! All of my usernames on other computer forums are Roasted, except for this one which is my nickname.

LMAO... ok then... I guess you've been there, done that... So I'll shut up now.

 

[Jayce]

Sadly, wireless networking is very poorly supported under Ubuntu. Some cards work (such as Broadcom chipset cards) but installation is still tricky because manufacturers have copyrighted firmware that is only available in Windows versions of their drivers. Broadcom Linux drivers require you to cut part of the firmware out of the Windows driver in order to work.

This probably didn't happen, but did Gutsy's Restricted Drivers Manager pick up on your network card? Also, did you update to the latest version of ALSA? My ThinkPad laptop's sound didn't work until I updated the ALSA package after I installed Gutsy.

But Ubuntu runs fine on my laptop (using it now). I think Ubuntu is best suited for older computers, because new hardware takes time until developers find out how it works and write Linux drivers.

I think that's the problem... that my laptop is just that new. Yes I did try the latest Alsa drivers. I tried everything in Ubuntu and Fedora Core 8 I could. With Fedora and Ubuntu having the reputation they do, I figured one of them would work, and seeing as though I like both distros it wouldn't disappoint me to have to use FC8 if Ubuntu didn't work yet FC8 did...

No, it did not appear under my restricted drivers manager. If I could just get my sound to work, then I'm willing to bet the wireless would be cake cause I would just use ndiswrapper with the windows drivers associated with my wireless nic.

It's going to be a never ending battle, because I want to see when this thing works. Currently I dual boot, with Ubuntu Gutsy only being a 12 gig partition. I put it on there simply to boot into it and test it after new updates and whatnot to see if my problems are ever going to natively be fixed via updates. Until then, 100% of my work is done in Vista. And quite frankly, Vista isn't bad at all. It's just different. I guess I'm just hung up on boot times with Vista because I'm used to Ubuntu booting so **** quick on here... I mean after I type in my password, I'm looking at 25 seconds till it's fully ready to go... And I actually forgot how much I missed media player... There's something about setting up a playlist and full screening media player to just have a full screen of crazy twangy graphics as you rock out to Pearl Jam. That's one thing Linux didn't have, is an audio player with a ton of eye candy like that.

 

[jakec]

Jayce,

try these links, see what other Linux users have done with your model laptop

Linux on Laptops
TuxMobil: Linux With Laptops, Notebooks, PDAs and Mobile Cell Phones

Jake

 

[Jayce]

jake - no luck on either link.

I'm half tempted to install win 2k pro on this thing... geesh...

 

[kpmwrestler]

opensuse!
(it has gnome and kde too)

 

[Jayce]

opensuse!
(it has gnome and kde too)

Tried it. No luck.

I downgraded to XP Pro. I'll be using that primarily until Ubuntu picks up support. Which, even then I'm not sure if I'll use Ubuntu as my primary due to the applications I need to use in windows for school. But nonetheless, Ubuntu is and always will be my desktop primary. Rawr.

 

[SinxarKnights]

Since your obviously not a newbie with Linux... Have you tried to use Debian? I had a ton of issues with Ubuntu on my older PCs using special hardware - more specifically the motherboard of an old HP. Debian was the only distro that worked properly. Maybe because it includes everything and isn't cut down like *buntu.

You may end up with having to use a wrapper for your wireless.

Now if someone could tell me why Ubuntu 7.1 (amd64) won't let my computer go into S3 suspend mode... It worked on all Ubuntu distros from 6.06.

 

[Jayce]

Can you explain a little more about S3 Suspend mode? I don't recall hearing that before...

I didn't try Debian, simply because I know Ubuntu was based from it and figured it was useless to try it. However, I think I should... I'll download Debian tomorrow.