linux systems

superscaper

wolfman wrote: »

Hmm first mistake. Completely changing distro because one driver isn't working isn't the right approach. Best stick with a common distro like Ubuntu and keep trying to get it to work via that.

Which card/wireless chipset have you got? There's usually a How-To out there somewhere, and if not sell the card and buy a more compatible one. The Netgear WG311GT works out of the box in Linux. I know selling it isn't the most ideal solution though.


My advice would be to try using Ubuntu first via the Live CD. See if all your hardware works. Then in future when buying any hardware, pick carefully. Try to get something that will work easily in both Linux and Windows.

I was playing around on an old pc I had so obviously not worth buying replacement hardware just for that. I think I was mostly playing around with Mandriva, might have been trying Ubuntu as well. I couldn't get Netgear WG111 V1 to work. Tried the various solutions with driver wrappers etc but still couldn't get it to work. It's up in the attic at the moment but once I have time I'll probably give it another go.

wolfman

Heh, grrrr that thing. Had ones of those (bundle with the DG834GT) and at the time couldn't get it to work with Windows or Linux.

With XP it used to kill the connection. I wouldn't even be able to repair the connection etc... I'd have to reboot. Ended up selling it and getting a Gigabyte internal card (which is pretty pants too).

My brother has the WG311GT though, and I can confirm it works straight out of the box in Feisty. You just need to click the network icon, select your network, put in the WPA-PSK and you're done.

Llyllyll

ToddlingAlong wrote: »

I have had a lot of trouble installing Ubuntu to the point that I have been unable to ... must be me :embarasse

Everyone I know that uses it is very pleased with it

I've had the same experience.

I've toyed with various distro's over the years (right back to my college days when I had to use it) but have never really found anything that is, IMO, equal to Windows. Now I don't mean that Windows is better than any/all Linux distro's (before I get flamed ), it's just that as I get older I want to fiddle with system tweaks less and less and generally I've found that it just isn't the case with Linux.

I will however keep watching this thread as it might be the catalyst for me to try again...

Thanks,
L

crox

What you could do is download ubuntu, burn it to the disk and then boot of the disk, this lets you play with the os without changing anything on your pc. I found the ubuntu install to be painless, it divided up my disk so that I could still run windows and imported the users from my windows install (not sure about files, though ubuntu could read the windows disk).

One thing I'd say is that just because it's not windows doesn't mean it's bug free.

superscaper

wolfman wrote: »

My brother has the WG311GT though, and I can confirm it works straight out of the box in Feisty. You just need to click the network icon, select your network, put in the WPA-PSK and you're done.

Ahh well, "next time Gadget, next time....."

superscaper

crox wrote: »

One thing I'd say is that just because it's not windows doesn't mean it's bug free.

In fact there's no such thing as a bug free piece of software. We had that drilled into us in software engineering lectures.

wolfman

Llyllyll wrote: »

it's just that as I get older I want to fiddle with system tweaks less and less and generally I've found that it just isn't the case with Linux.

That's the great thing about Linux. Once you've got it setup, it'll just run and run. No need to tweak it, run av scans, check for anti-spyware, defrag, nor will it just simply get slower over time.

It's light, fast, and the chances of you needing to upgrade any time in the future are much less.

Getting it setup just takes a little time. You have to be prepared to learn and spend time doing so (just at the beginning that is).

kingmonkey

Ubuntu Feisty Fawn has a windows migration tool for importing bookmarks etc from your windows install.

Blacksheep1979

superscaper wrote: »

In fact there's no such thing as a bug free piece of software. We had that drilled into us in software engineering lectures.

hello world?

superscaper

Blacksheep1979 wrote: »

hello world?

Even that was given as an example that you can't mathematically prove it is bug free. It's one of those situations where you can only prove it has bugs but you can never prove it doesn't, you can only ever fail to find bugs but that in itself isn't proof. I'm not an expert that was the software engineering theory we were taught. Also it was meant to back up why we should always put as much error checking in as possible.