Need assistance with Linux

[FilledVoid]

Hello all,
Let me first explain my questions about Linux. First of all let me give you my system configuration.

AMD 4400
Asus M2N MX – SE
2 GB Ram
2 HDD (80 GB SATA and a 40 GB PATA )
Tech-Com TV Tuner Card
Ace External 56 k Modem
Sony 720 DVD-RW
Nokia 6681 (I know this isn’t part of my computer but I would like to know if I can sync its contacts and stuff)

My only experience with Linux is a little with Mandrake Linux 10 and I’m planning on installing a new flavor. However the only distro’s I have access to are the ones given with Digit, Chip and some Linux for You Editions (I have the one with SLED 10 and one of the others as well, need to check to be sure). However before I begin installing something I would like to confirm a few things.

What are the chances of getting all my hardware to work with any flavor of Linux. I would really like my tech Com TV-Tuner card to work and I hear that getting it installed is a nightmare. I don’t even know my chipset since I can’t find the specification in my system at the moment and I don’t have the cover for it either. It does work on an application called SuperTv though.

Recently I heard that you could get NimbleX installed on a USB Pen Drive. So I found ot the instructions and really liked it. If I had a big enough drive then can I install any flavor of Linux the same way? I extracted the ISO to the drive and then downloaded syslinux and ran the command syslinux – (Insert options here, cant remember what I did then). NimbleX didn’t recognize my sound settings (Onboard sound).

When I learned how to use Linux I pretty much did trial and error and was able to find out how to execute files etc. I have no clue about how to execute files and stuff in Linux other than the ones shown in the program List. So I’m looking for a good place to start. I recall Digit giving out a Linux tutorial for Knoppix I think? Could anyone point me the edition that was in and any other resources I could find useful?

I heard of the certification RHCE and RHCT from Linux for You, although I don’t plan on becoming an RHCE is the course material a good place to start?

I know this sounds like trying to stretch your legs before you sit but I would also prefer to be able to modify my desktop looks to look cool J.

Finally, given my constraints could you recommend me a preferable distro. Please note that I only have the distro’s given with the magazine and I can’t download any since I’m using dialup and my phone bills are already huge as it is.

Thanks in advance,

 

[NucleusKore]

Ubuntu Ultimate 1.5 (DVD) has everything you'll need

 

[FilledVoid]

Thanks for the link. I will check it out. But did this come out in any of the magazines ? I definitely can't access it through dial up.

Also is there any way I can get chessmaster 10th on Linux . Its the only thing I play when I get time.

Thanks in advance

 

[nileshgr]

In July-07 DVD, you have Fedora 7 which is nice Linux OS which has easy operation and less problems with hardware. I am using Fedora 7. Its really nice.

 

[QwertyManiac]

The best you can use for offline based multimedia distro is Linux Mint.

It's got codecs etc inbuilt, and perhaps TV stuff too (Not entirely sure about this TV thing really, the best one out there they say is MythTV). Rest assured, your sound, graphics and other things will definitely work out of the box.

I'd just suggested Linux Mint in the recent poll thread you can find in this section and the user is really happy with it, being a dial up user too.

You can go with Ubuntu Ultimate too, but I guess Digit gave Linux Mint this time around or something, which is why am suggesting it. Ubuntu Ultimate is good like Linux Mind too, but also bloated up quite a bit. Am not discouraging its use, just pointing out its irritating bloat.

However, using Linux without a proper internet connection might be a slightly difficult task cause you can't acquire packages easily for some new required software. But you can of course, use an external net link to download them as .DEB packages and use them. (Sites like www.getdeb.net assist in this).

About executing files in Linux. Its not based on file extensions like Windows uses. Rather, it depends on the permissions. A +x to its permissions (Read chmod in Wiki) list will make it executable ( +r is to read, +w is to write and +x is to allow execution, get the drift? ). Once its +x'ed, you can double click and run it or run it via the Terminal Console by using a dot-slash prefix (./) to the filename. (Setting permissions is a matter of right clicking it and changing it in the file's properties)

But don't worry about all that so soon, get the feel of these modern distros first and then you can ask away here and we'd only be too glad to assist you, seeing your queries are wonderfully pieced together and full of enthusiasm we don't wish to disappoint.

And yes, Linux can _entirely_ be customized with no effort at all unlike Windows. All you need are respective theme files for Panels, Splashes, Boot Screens, Window Borders, Buttons, Cursors and on and on and it takes just a click to apply them. Mix and match at its best

 

[FilledVoid]

Thank you for the advice .

Although I am using Dialup at the moment by next week I should have access to BSNL broadband connection. Definitely the insight on chmod helps . I was always curious how these files executed. One of my friend also told me to check out Ubuntu 7.10 but I think that it just came out and hence its availability is going to be pretty hard . Anyway I'm going to check out mint and query about my Tv Tuner card a bit .

I was curious about the drivers for my motherboard and was keeping my fingers crossed hoping that the sound card would be recognised.

 

[NucleusKore]

Thank you for the advice .

Although I am using Dialup at the moment by next week I should have access to BSNL broadband connection. Definitely the insight on chmod helps . I was always curious how these files executed. One of my friend also told me to check out Ubuntu 7.10 but I think that it just came out and hence its availability is going to be pretty hard . Anyway I'm going to check out mint and query about my Tv Tuner card a bit .

I was curious about the drivers for my motherboard and was keeping my fingers crossed hoping that the sound card would be recognised.

I can mail you Ubuntu Ultimate DVD 1.5 for a small fee. PM me

 

[nileshgr]

Thank you for the advice .

Although I am using Dialup at the moment by next week I should have access to BSNL broadband connection. Definitely the insight on chmod helps . I was always curious how these files executed. One of my friend also told me to check out Ubuntu 7.10 but I think that it just came out and hence its availability is going to be pretty hard . Anyway I'm going to check out mint and query about my Tv Tuner card a bit .

I was curious about the drivers for my motherboard and was keeping my fingers crossed hoping that the sound card would be recognised.

ahref, a member of this forum is also facing problem with Ubuntu configuring his sound card on his laptop.

 

[QwertyManiac]

Ubuntu 7.10 is downright lovely. In fact if you get a good internet access, you will really be happy if you download and start using it. Its very intuitive and full of cool stuff. Am using it right now.

Your motherboard is similar to one of my offline friends. Sound works out of the box for him, in fact everything does, even his TV tuner (Its some Pinnacle one I think, not sure). So that's not gonna be a problem really

And oh, I use a 6681 too. Haven't got really far with syncing etc but BT works ultra fine for Pushing and recieving files. Any kind.

 

[FilledVoid]

Thank you guys for the help in changing from this OS to a new one. I've been checking out both Mint and 7.10 going to check out Ultimate Edition. I see that itys based on "Feisty Fawn" I think thats what its called?

Anyway my sound card wasn't found when I was using NimbleX from a USB drive I think definitely the scenario will change when I use one of the Operating systems mentioned above .

Also checking out if Chessmaster will run on any of them .

 

[QwertyManiac]

Feisty Fawn is Ubuntu 7.04. Predecessor to 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon.

Ubuntu comes with an inbuilt free Chess game, almost all Gnome distros do I think. Is there something specific in Chessmaster?

 

[azzu]

Nucleus kore
tell me somethin about ubuntu ultimate
i may take it

 

[FilledVoid]

Ubuntu comes with an inbuilt free Chess game, almost all Gnome distros do I think. Is there something specific in Chessmaster?

Well its one of the better chess games available from Ubisoft. Another one is Fritz 9. I sort of maintain a good rating in it and it maintains my stats over the time. Another thing is the famous games database and the opening databaseit maintains . i found that Wine doesn't support the installationbut there is a workaround of copyign the files to anther folder.

 

[QwertyManiac]

You can also try Cedega, for gaming in Linux. Subscription to its services is 5$ a month though.

 

[NucleusKore]

Nucleus kore
tell me somethin about ubuntu ultimate
i may take it

Please click here

 

[mehulved]

Since you've mentioned that you have dial up connection. Do you have external modem? Internal modems usually don't work with linux, as they are just just software modems not hardware. And usually the software just exists for windows.
Secondly, RHCE isn't offered by Linux for You but by Red Hat which is one of the few companies that distributes linux and they are the ones behind fedora project too.

 

[FilledVoid]

Since you've mentioned that you have dial up connection. Do you have external modem? Internal modems usually don't work with linux, as they are just just software modems not hardware. And usually the software just exists for windows.

Oh yes, See I've been trying to rid Windows off since a long time ago. I started with Mandrake Linux 10 but it didnt seem to work out. I couldn'r play my multimedia files and I had quite a few crashes as well while configuring it . Before I installed Mandrake I heard about the issues with Winmodems and I bought an external one. I'm using an external 56K modem.

Yes, I understand. However there was an article in Linux For You about certifications ones could get for job opportunities etc . In it the article explained that by learning for RHCT was a good way to familiarize one with any flavor of Linux iif I recall correctly .

Anyway i'm thinking about going with Ubuntu Ultimate if I could arrange a copy from NucleusKore but I have several questions before that.

1. If I do get a copy of Ubuntu 7.10 DVD , can I upgrade or do I have to reinstall the whole system?

2. I'm a frequent user of Microsoft Office (Word and Excel) I would consider my experience in both to be advaced. Could anyone tell me whether adapting to OppenOffice.org would be hard for me. I usally use features like formulas in Excel and features like Table of Contents, Indexes etc in word. Further more I do use basic Macros as well.

3. I checked the various sizes for Ubuntu 7.10 theres the following

Ubuntu 7.10 PC CD
Ubuntu 7.10 64-bit PC CD
Ubuntu 7.10 PC DVD
Ubuntu 7.10 64-bit PC DVD

and server editions.

I understand the 64-bit edition being the edition for 64 bit processors but what I don't get is the content of the DVD and the CD. Does including the extra Window Manager's explain the extra space required? Are there much more applications in them ?


I'm doing my MCA at the moment (Distance Education )and how well will I be able to continue my studies on this system if I do Install any flavor of Linux. Example will be able to do my java programs, C++ and C programs without any additional installs? What about Oracle and SQL ? I can understand .NET goign to be an issue but I could always keep a dual boot system somewhere around till the paper is over .


Also Ubuntu mentioned being Bloat are we like talking Norton Antivirus Bloat cause I've only installed it once and then ... well let me put it like this I wouldn't even advise it to my worse of enemies. . I dont want Ultra real time performace. however I would like my system to respond when needed to.

 

[Cool G5]

Guys can i use NOP on ubuntu or fedora via nokia 3230??

 

[QwertyManiac]

Anyway i'm thinking about going with Ubuntu Ultimate if I could arrange a copy from NucleusKore but I have several questions before that.

1. If I do get a copy of Ubuntu 7.10 DVD , can I upgrade or do I have to reinstall the whole system?

I wouldn't recommend upgrading from Ubuntu Ultimate as its a very differently built distribution than the Normal Ubuntu (Its actually more like Applications installed on it and then packaged into an ISO). While upgrade might work, its not recommended you do it without updating the existing distribution completely. I'd suggest a re-install for a hassle free experience of 7.10.

2. I'm a frequent user of Microsoft Office (Word and Excel) I would consider my experience in both to be advanced. Could anyone tell me whether adapting to OppenOffice.org would be hard for me. I usally use features like formulas in Excel and features like Table of Contents, Indexes etc in word. Further more I do use basic Macros as well.

Yes you'll find it all in OpenOffice and sometimes even more than Word. Am not sure about Macros (VB right?). But must be an automation thing available in OpenOffice too I s'pose.

3. I checked the various sizes for Ubuntu 7.10 theres the following

Ubuntu 7.10 PC CD
Ubuntu 7.10 64-bit PC CD
Ubuntu 7.10 PC DVD
Ubuntu 7.10 64-bit PC DVD

I understand the 64-bit edition being the edition for 64 bit processors but what I don't get is the content of the DVD and the CD. Does including the extra Window Manager's explain the extra space required? Are there much more applications in them ?

There are a few extra softwares, yes/ But basically a DVD gives you a mix of an Alternate Installer + Live CD. I don't think there are much except Server-related packages like Apache, etc, some additional development stuff like IDEs and compilers, and the extra DE, KDE. So basically its Ubuntu (Live CD + Alternate Install CD + Anything that's on the main repository of Ubuntu (See Components of Ubuntu))

I'm doing my MCA at the moment (Distance Education )and how well will I be able to continue my studies on this system if I do Install any flavor of Linux. Example will be able to do my java programs, C++ and C programs without any additional installs? What about Oracle and SQL ? I can understand .NET goign to be an issue but I could always keep a dual boot system somewhere around till the paper is over .

Java - Definitely (Install JDK)
C/C++ - Yep this is the easiest, comes inbuilt (GNU C/C++ Compiler GCC)
.NET - Available under Mono Project for Linux
Oracle and SQL - I hardly know about these two but google tells me that Oracle installing procedure isn't tough and I think you do get to use MySQL from the DVD itself (Or download from Ubuntu's repository).

Also Ubuntu mentioned being Bloat are we like talking Norton Antivirus Bloat cause I've only installed it once and then ... well let me put it like this I wouldn't even advise it to my worse of enemies. . I dont want Ultra real time performace. however I would like my system to respond when needed to.

By bloat I meant the excess of applications Ubuntu Ultimate (specifically) bundles along with itself, you hardly would use more than half of them. I never did refer to the system performance, which is fact is very speedy. Definitely faster than any Windows on the same system.

Guys can i use NOP on ubuntu or fedora via nokia 3230??

Create another thread and also look at the sticky list.

 

[FilledVoid]

Yes you'll find it all in OpenOffice and sometimes even more than Word. Am not sure about Macros (VB right?). But must be an automation thing available in OpenOffice too I s'pose.

I must say that I was pretty scared to changing this software to Openoffice. But after seing your advice I just installed it . I must say "This thing Rocks!" It gives me access to pretty much everything I need for free?!?!?. And to think that I paid for Office 2000 when i came back from states .

Oh boy. Now that removes my issues with office applications I'm one more step closer to ridding my system from Microsoft ! Maybe in a week or so I will be able to migrate provided I can get NucleusKore to send me one.

I'm going to guess that there are no issues with using IPods on linux systems since I saw a screencap of someone using Itunes on ubuntu .

Do I need an antivirus program? I see there is solutions called FProt and Avast. I use Avast on my desktop at the moment and definitely am pleased with it . Is Avast a good choice for Ubuntu?

Checking the Distro request thread also .