Ubuntu... again.

[GenericBox]

I'm installing Ubuntu again, but the version I downloaded / burnt and now re-installing is outdated.

I have version 9.04 and according to the website the newest version is 9.10...

Do I have to download the 9.10 now or is there some update feature and installing 9.04 is fine and I can just update when I'm in?

[GenericBox]

Yeah all in good time. I don't know if I have the bandwidth to use downloading another operating system. I struggle to survive a month as it is.

I will have to see at the end of them month.

Right now it is a damn mission to install the sucker again. I'm already getting frustrated lol :S

[GenericBox]

No it's fine. Don't trouble yourself :)

I will see how I like Ubuntu again and if I can survive on Linux. I still haven't even managed to install it yet. Every time I get to the 'Prepare disk space' step it comes up with an error and says it has to abort. So it aborts.

I am trying to install it side-by-side Windows... sigh.

I went on IRC support for Ubuntu and they can't help. I even booted LiveCD - ran GParted and manually resized it but when I hit apply I got a no-action error.

Frigen frick.

[GenericBox]

I am going to install it on my laptop... Hopefully it works.

I couldn't get it to work on my desktop.

[GenericBox]

And it's pissed me off again... That was quick. Now I just have to figure out how to remove the sucker...

Everyone touts it as being free and breaking free of paying for software, but to make the sucker work properly I have to go buy a new printer, new sound card... hell, practically a whole new laptop. It'd be cheaper (and easier) to just go buy Windows 7.

I can't help but love how it acts and looks. But it's just a big pain in the ass to have. Even the little things like typing. When you use shift or capslock it isn't quick enough to end capitalisation - so the second and third letters also get capitalised. Bloody annoying.

Not to mention it took me 3 hours to figure out how to stop it from freezing every single time I hit backspace or used my numpad. Apparently I had to disable system beep (wtf?).

Anyway I've been through all this before I don't know why I expected anything different on my laptop. Oh well. Back to boring Windows.

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

@GenericBox: What hardware are you attempting to install Ubuntu on?

Also having beta-tested Windows 7 before I must say albeit being quite impressive on a Dell Dimension 8300 (1GB RAM + Pentium 4 3200 + ATI Radeon 9800 Pro) and performing quite OK it really needs a cleanup. It uses at least 50% of the RAM (just for the OPERATING SYSTEM alone) and has a minimum install footprint of around 6-7GB (without the accessories and all tha gizmos that you can install) and it can be quite frustrating to install it.

[GenericBox]

Yeah I'm not racing to replace XP - its still running fine. But it would be easier to go get Windows 7 than to deal with all the Ubuntu errors and what not.

In the first 3 hours I had Ubuntu it froze more times than windows xp has since I've had it all these years. And then theres the lack of hardware support (I still don't have sound on ubuntu laptop) and no drivers/codecs/whatever.

I understand its free - but they could still polish it off abit more before releasing it.

It froze 6-7 times in the install process alone.

Just gotta figure out how to get rid of it in Windows now... I forget.

[GenericBox]

As to Hardware - I ran Ubuntu's Hardware Driver tool thingy, but it said my laptop had too many hardware items that were consigned (or something to that phonetical nature) and that I couldn't get drivers because the manufacturer's hadn't released their code or something or other.

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

Yeah I'm not racing to replace XP - its still running fine. But it would be easier to go get Windows 7 than to deal with all the Ubuntu errors and what not.If you can handle the DRM and other restrictive crap then maybe it would be easier. Even the beta I tried out was quite stable despite what the Linux zealots will claim. You do need some pretty pimped up hardware however.

In the first 3 hours I had Ubuntu it froze more times than windows xp has since I've had it all these years. And then theres the lack of hardware support (I still don't have sound on ubuntu laptop) and no drivers/codecs/whatever.

I understand its free - but they could still polish it off abit more before releasing it.

It froze 6-7 times in the install process alone.I've noticed that many Linux distros seem to have this problem particularly when installing it on virtual machines. I've not encountered it on real hardware as such.

Just gotta figure out how to get rid of it in Windows now... I forget.Not sure what you mean by that.


If that fails how about giving Debian a go? It seems OK and I have used it quite extensively for university work before.

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

As to Hardware - I ran Ubuntu's Hardware Driver tool thingy, but it said my laptop had too many hardware items that were consigned (or something to that phonetical nature) and that I couldn't get drivers because the manufacturer's hadn't released their code or something or other.And what hardware is it? Like graphics card and sound card and CPU and RAM and HDD and network card etc.

[GenericBox]

GPU :: ATI MOBILITY RADEON X700
Sound :: C-Media High Definition Audio Device
Network :: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2915ABG
Processor :: Intel(R) Pentium(R) M Processor

And I don't know about the RAM or HDD. I don't know which ones they are under in Device Manager :P

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

There are third-party tools such as Piriform Speccy (http://speccy.com/) to make things easier. :)

Oh and the RAM can be found by going into Control Panel -> System and it should be listed on the General tab.

Hard disks can be checked using Windows Explorer (right-click on the C: drive and click Properties for example) and you can view the capacity and model.

[GenericBox]

While we are on computers. What is a SCSI/RAID Host Controller and why is Windows telling me to install the driver everytime I turn on my computer?

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

I presume either it comes with your motherboard or is a card that is part of your computer.

Basically a RAID controller is good if you have multiple hard disks in which you want to "pool up" and make it appear as one contiguous volume. Often RAID offers redundancy as a parity drive for safety (except RAID-0) and uses striping to store the data. There are loads of different configurations of RAID which can be used depending on what you want in your array and what compromises you are willing to make.

SCSI is a bus which is used to control SCSI devices. I suppose one can think of it as "1337 USB" in a way. It was (and still is to some extent) often used for SCSI drives and basically unlike USB where you can simply plug things in, there must be a SCSI terminator at the end and devices need to be assigned a number.

I would guess that the SCSI/RAID host controller you are referring to is there to control a RAID array of SCSI drives.

One way to disable this (if you don't have SCSI devices or a RAID array) is to go into Device Manager and look for it there. Double-click on the device item in question and under the "General" tab you will see a "Device usage:" drop-down list. In that go "Do not use this device (disable)" or something like that. See if that helps.

[GenericBox]

Okay. So Speccy says:

Operating System
MS Windows XP Home SP3

CPU
Intel Pentium M 760
Dothan 90nm Architecture

RAM
1.0GB Samsung Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 266MHz (4-4-4-11)

Motherboard
LG Electronics HUNTER (U1)
Intel i915PM/GM Chipset

Graphics
Plug and Play Monitor on ATI MOBILITY RADEON X700
512MB ATI MOBILITY RADEON X700 (LG Electronics)

Hard Drives
100GB FUJITSU MHV2100AT 46°C

Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4082N

Audio
C-Media High Definition Audio Drivers


My laptop is at least 5 (probably 6) years old - never upgraded / altered. I'm surprised its actually lasted this long and still works well.

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

I wonder if this thread on another forum (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=2237438#post2237438) will help you with the sound card issue.

As for the "hardware not consigned or something or nothing" type error I think it seems safe to ignore that. Unless something else is not working.

Is your DVD-RAM drive working OK as well?

BTW I'm not too surprise it has lasted you 5 years. Considering you know a hell of a lot more than many others I know of when it comes to computing you have probably looked after it well. I have an old NT box which has been existing since 1996 and it is just a little rusty on the specs as of this year. It still works OK for me.

[GenericBox]

Ha! Looked after it well :P

I'll look up that other forum thanks - if the sound is fixed that'd be good. That's the only major issue.

Does anyone know why there is keyboard lag - in regards to capslock/shift and how I would fix that? (and no it isn't because I am holding it down too long - capslock / shift will be off but it still capitalises the next letter or so).

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

Ha! Looked after it well :P

I'll look up that other forum thanks - if the sound is fixed that'd be good. That's the only major issue.I've NEVER been able to get sound to work on my laptop (SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio) so good luck there. :)

Does anyone know why there is keyboard lag - in regards to capslock/shift and how I would fix that? (and no it isn't because I am holding it down too long - capslock / shift will be off but it still capitalises the next letter or so).SO YOur TYping APpears LIke THis? It could be a physical issue with the keyboard. Is that appearing under Windoze XP as well?

[GenericBox]

Croc would you mind walking me through that forum thread you linked? I can't understand a word of it lol. My skype is GenericBox / Jamie Poole or my MSN is genericbox@live.com.au

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

Yeah I know what you mean. :D

Unfortunately I don't have MSN anymore but skype I do indeed have. I'll install it and get back to you on that one. I'll be a few hours though since I've got some things and stuff to do.

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

Just a little update for where I'm at mate: I'm still trying to decipher the thread. To be honest I'm not a 100% Linux person either and I presume the person who required the help (and posted to that thread) was already a Linux guru and needed just a "tip" if you know what I mean.

I've never come across such an issue in my life to be honest. It has been a long time since I used Ubuntu as well.

[GenericBox]

I am bloody pleading the irc ubuntu help channel but no one bloody helps out lol.

I downloaded PulseAudio Volume Manager on recommendation and when I play audio it "shows" sound playing (the bars are moving) but I hear nothing...

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

hehe yeah there is usually an RTFM snob over at these places.

I found the key post (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=2181835&postcount=2) after a few seconds:

You can test them out by
- Removing ALL audio devices - this includes the volume control applet in the panel.
- Opening a terminal, and becoming root by typing "sudo su" (alternatively, prefix all commands with "sudo")
- As root, remove the hda-intel driver: "rmmod snd-hda-intel"
- As root, load the hda-intel driver: "modprobe snd-hda-intel model=minimal" [this is the model my LW60 uses]
- Now, this is important, since when nothing is connected to line-out, the Center/Subwoofer channels control Front-Left and Front-Right output! Run "alsamixer" and unmute (hit "m" over the channel) the PCM, Center and LFE channels.
- Test it out: "speaker-test -c2"All I need is what sort of setup do you have:minimal : 3-jack in back
min_fp : 3-jack in back, 2-jack in front
full : 6-jack in back, 2-jack in front
full_dig : 6-jack in back, 2-jack in front, SPDIF I/O
allout : 5-jack in back, 2-jack in front, SPDIF out
auto : auto-config reading BIOS (default)

[GenericBox]

I assume minimal - it's a laptop. It has only 1-green jack and 1-red jack on the side.

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

I think we'll try auto to be on the safe side. :)

OK here goes. Open a terminal and type in the commands in code boxes one by one:sudo su
rmmod snd-hda-intel
modprobe snd-hda-intel model=auto
Then type alsamixer and unmute the channels. And then finally to test the setup type the following:speaker-test -c2Not sure if any of this will help but it's worth a try.

[GenericBox]

ERROR: snd_hda_intel is in use

[GenericBox]

UPDATE:

Without altering anything --- Sound works!!! BUT ONLY WITH HEADPHONES PLUGGED IN!!???

Headphones in - perfect sound... Headphones out - no sound at all.

[robertkd]

Does it beep and squawk at you through the speaker(s) during boot?

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

@GenericBox: If the steps in this post (http://www.atheistfoundation.org.au/forums/showpost.php?p=42633&postcount=29) do not work then I think we can modify some of the steps here. First of all the commands:sudo su
rmmod snd-hda-intelRestart the machine after this. Once the machine is started up type the following:sudo su
modprobe snd-hda-intel model=autoThen restart the machine again.
Once the machine is completely up and running type alsamixer and unmute the channels. And then finally to test the setup type the following:speaker-test -c2

[GenericBox]

IT WORKS!!! ZOMG FINAL-FREAKING-LY!!!

I did::

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf


then added:

option snd-hda-intel model=minimal


then saved and rebooted. Still no sound.

So I ran:

sudo alsamixer


And there was a "new" channel. I unmuted it and changed it to <2 channels> and ESC.

Then I ran

speaker-test


and it came out mono! but then I tried

speaker-test -c2
and it came out perfectly.

I feel so uber right now. I beat linux!

[robertkd]

Oh no you didn't beat it, you've been assimilated,... :cool:

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

@GenericBox: Well I'm glad you succeeded because that taught me a few things. Firstly, you have to sudo to use alsamixer (which is actually quite stupid) and second I should have got you to check the configuration files and third Linux is nothing like Windows now a days.

[GenericBox]

POST SENT TO PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE FOR BEING TOO NAUGHTY.

[GenericBox]

medibuntu?

[GenericBox]

lol nope. I've already got all my mp3 codecs and stuff. I don't know what I downloaded but it all works.

[GenericBox]

I didn't say I will or would crack. I just need to learn how to :P But never-the-less, the post has been sent to the principal's office.