Tips on moving to Linux?

[stefcep2]

Y'know, I ditched Linux once Ubuntu 9.10 ended support, but every now and then I think:"Lets see where its at, now".

And then I see a post like Amigapixel's, and all its starts to come back to me, and I realize its just Crazy Thinking.

Oh and if you want to know why it happened Amigapixel, I'll save you some time.  Man what were you thinking going nutso and installing a video diver like that!

"Its your fault".

[AmigaPixel]

The Vista to 7 transition was far better than the 2000->XP or XP->Vista transition for driver compatibility, especially if you took the plunge and installed the 64 bit version.
 
Even if windows doesn't find all the drivers, somewhere like http://www.station-drivers.com/ is a good place to start. I mainly start off by googling for the device id from device manager and the name of the OS. If you're looking for a driver now it's very likely that someone has previously been looking for one as well.

OK that's good to know, thanks for the link and tips. I plan on installing the 64bit version since the hardware supports it. The system originally had a Pentium D 820 but I upgraded it to a Core 2 Duo E6400 since the MB supports it. Other than the Geforce card I am using the built in Network adapter and audio. I was able to find the XP drivers so hopefully Windows 7 will be straight forward.

[AmigaPixel]

Y'know, I ditched Linux once Ubuntu 9.10 ended support, but every now and then I think:"Lets see where its at, now".

And then I see a post like Amigapixel's, and all its starts to come back to me, and I realize its just Crazy Thinking.

Oh and if you want to know why it happened Amigapixel, I'll save you some time.  Man what were you thinking going nutso and installing a video diver like that!

"Its your fault".

Well yes and no! I have virtually no experience with Ubuntu, before now I only tried running version 9 on the CD. I assumed as with Windows the driver is out dated or not even the best match and needs to updated. It ran pretty good before I messed it up, although it would stop responding quite a bit. For example Firefox would turn grey for a few seconds intermittently.

[TeamBlackFox]

AmigaPixel,

By default Ubuntu will default to using the opensource X11 drivers, package names are
nouveau for Nvidia cards
radeon for ATi/AMD cards unless very old

If you don't intend to run 3D games on Ubuntu, it is best to stick with nouveau, if it isn't broke, don't fix it. If you want to run 3d games, look for the nvidia proprietary driver (free to download) and ensure your xorg.conf (X server config file) is setup for it. Feel free to ask me if you get stuck, I have used GNU/Linux for about 8 years so while I'm not super knowledgable, I know a fair amount about UNIX.

[AmigaPixel]

TeamBlackFox

 No I intend to use Ubuntu as a safe way to use the internet and basic apps.  "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" Yes too bad I had to learn the hard way! Oh well now I know better. Do you use Unix at home? If so what version of Unix do you use?

[TeamBlackFox]

I use several versions:

Arch Linux on a laptop
FreeBSD for desktop and servers
IRIX on SGI Octane
And I have a PowerMac G5 I need to rebuild the watercooler in, going to be used for something, yet to decide since it doesn't run at the moment.

[persia]

Oh god, the liquid cooled G5 Mac Pros.  Why didn't someone at Apple think "hmm liquid and electronics, what could possibly go wrong with that?"  

I use several versions:

Arch Linux on a laptop
FreeBSD for desktop and servers
IRIX on SGI Octane
And I have a PowerMac G5 I need to rebuild the watercooler in, going to be used for something, yet to decide since it doesn't run at the moment.

[ElPolloDiabl]

Water cooling was going to be the future for single core desktops. Fortunately they decided to take a a different approach.
Adding a second core gives between a -5% to %100 speed improvement.

[TeamBlackFox]

Oh god, the liquid cooled G5 Mac Pros.  Why didn't someone at Apple think "hmm liquid and electronics, what could possibly go wrong with that?"

Hey, its not leaking in my quad G5 version - I have no qualms as its whisper quiet, I am just rebuilding the cooling unit as a way to stave off a failure - standard for water cooled computers every so often.

[persia]

A few years ago we had four liquid cooled G5s fail.  The liquid got on the motherboard and nothing worked after that.  We ended up having to replace them all.  If it works it's brilliant but they also fail spectacularly...

[TeamBlackFox]

Hence me doing prevetive maintenance and also changing the coolant to distilled water - far less corrosive to stock stuff.

[Ral-Clan]

Notice I say the word “had”. I just could not leave well enough alone. I thought hey lets install a Linux nVidia driver which screwed it all up. I got stuck in an endless loop of low graphics mode message. I could not even click on or tab to the OK button. I tried the Ubuntu recovery mode and steps I read to fix the issue but it didn’t work. To sum it up I had to delete the partition and use the Win install disk/Recovery console to fix the MBR. Then use a third party partition software to reclaim and stitch the lost partition back to the second partition. Whew! Lesson learned! Leave it be! Ubuntu works just fine without me mucking it up. I will try re-installing it tomorrow.

AmigaPixel, I did the exact same thing as you.  Tried to install an NVIDIA driver and it resulted in a black screen on boot.  I was almost ready to delete my Linux partition and reinstall when I finally found a good tutorial which helped me remove the bad NVIDIA driver using recovery mode.  I then installed the NVIDIA driver manually using the command line and the driver from the NVIDIA site and it worked!

The driver installed from the Linux GUI (software & updates) was the one that screwed up my system.  PM me if you need help.

[desiv]

Just wiped my XP machine and went MINT.
So far so good.
it's my laptop and mostly i just use it for web browsing.
The install recognized my video, wifi, sound and media buttons on my laptop.
No major complaints so far and much easier install than some in the past..

The initial issue I have (not major) so far is Netflix.
I knew there wasn't a Netflix for Linux yet, so I wasn't worried.

I did install Netflix Desktop, which is a WINE based install with Netflix running in a Windows Firefox instance with Silverlight.
That does seem to work for me..

Only drawback to that is that I have a Chromecast, and that requires Chrome, not Firefox.  Apparently there are issues with that still..
Not a killer.  I have the Wii and smartphone for sending Netflix to the TV.  But I wish Netflix would just release a Linux version.  ;-)

Haven't tried any games or anything yet, but not much of a gamer.  This is an older laptop anyway.
I could run Win 7 on it.  Still an option, but I'm familiar with Linux so decided to give it a shot first.
(Nothing against the other OSes.  Use LOTS of Windows ( 7 on the desktops with some straggling XP VMs and lots of different versions on the server side) at work.  Wife is pretty happy with her Win 7 netbook.  I REALLY liked XP too..  So nothing against Windows.  Just trying Linux on this guy.  I like lots of OSes..)

desiv

[CritAnime]

AmigaPixel, I did the exact same thing as you. Tried to install an NVIDIA driver and it resulted in a black screen on boot. I was almost ready to delete my Linux partition and reinstall when I finally found a good tutorial which helped me remove the bad NVIDIA driver using recovery mode. I then installed the NVIDIA driver manually using the command line and the driver from the NVIDIA site and it worked!
 
The driver installed from the Linux GUI (software & updates) was the one that screwed up my system. PM me if you need help.

I don't know what Canonical where thinking when they altered how the drivers were installed. In the last LTS it was a simple case of going to the restricted drivers option in settings and the drivers marked as reccomended. Simple as that. There were others to install but they were beta drivers and legacy fallback drivers.
 
Now it's not newbie friendly because they just throw a bunch of drivers at you in a part of the system menu that you wouldn't think of looking in. they don't even say whats reccomended you have to pick and hope for the best.
 
However, as you found, terminal installs are usually the best way if all else fails.
 

Only drawback to that is that I have a Chromecast, and that requires Chrome, not Firefox. Apparently there are issues with that still..
Not a killer. I have the Wii and smartphone for sending Netflix to the TV. But I wish Netflix would just release a Linux version. ;-)

Have you installed Chrome? If you go to the Chrome download page it should automatically give you the option to download the 32 or 64 bit version for debian systems. Click download and it should download the .deb file. Simply open it and the package manager will install it.

[desiv]

Have you installed Chrome?

Oh yeah.
I have Chrome and that works and the Chromecast plugin.
I can send youtube or whatever to my Chromecast from my MINT box.

I just can't send Netflix, as Netflix doesn't run in Chrome (or any native browser) on Linux.
There is a way to get the Windows version of Firefox to work and I've done that, but that version doesn't support the Chromecast from Netflix.
The Windows version of Chrome does, but I haven't seen anyone that has the Windows version of Chrome running with the Chromecast extension and Netflix.
Most people seem to just run a VM for that, but I'm trying to go without a VM.

Well, I just got Netflix running in my Linux native Chrome browser using Pipelight, which is nice..But still no Chromecast option in Netflix.  I'm guessing the pipelight extension doesn't talk to the native Chromecast extension.  Still, closer..  ;-)


 desiv

[CritAnime]

Oh yeah.
I have Chrome and that works and the Chromecast plugin.
I can send youtube or whatever to my Chromecast from my MINT box.
 
I just can't send Netflix, as Netflix doesn't run in Chrome (or any native browser) on Linux.
There is a way to get the Windows version of Firefox to work and I've done that, but that version doesn't support the Chromecast from Netflix.
The Windows version of Chrome does, but I haven't seen anyone that has the Windows version of Chrome running with the Chromecast extension and Netflix.
Most people seem to just run a VM for that, but I'm trying to go without a VM.
 
Well, I just got Netflix running in my Linux native Chrome browser using Pipelight, which is nice..But still no Chromecast option in Netflix. I'm guessing the pipelight extension doesn't talk to the native Chromecast extension. Still, closer.. ;-)
 
 
desiv

I have taken a look at the Ubuntu knowledge base and this came up.
 http://askubuntu.com/questions/324236/how-can-i-use-chromecast
 
Dunno if the second answer helps.