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| Giving Linux a Chance |
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Michael Jensen
Member #2,870
October 2002
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Hey guys, I'm installing the latest Ubuntu desktop on a machine I have, if I can get it working all the way that is. It's a Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz 32-bit, 4 GB Ram, dvd-everything burner (including light scribe), radeon hd 3650(? can't remember the exact number, but it's the over clocked edition). It will have a small primary hdd (40 or 80 GB), with a giant second hdd (1 TB), and possibly more (questions about that in a moment). I plan to hook it up to my TV using S-Video (any advice on the topic appreciated, I'm concerned it won't work right). I plan to run XBMC or another media center product (advice welcome). I plan to also use the machine as a samba/print server (how is the support for HP printers?). And I also plan on using it as a router (I know how to setup incoming internets, but I don't know how to setup a dhcp server, firewall rules, security etc, so any links would be nice.) So main questions involve setting up the networking and hardware correctly, I'll post issues as they develop, in the mean while any links/infos before hand would be great. Also, I plan to x-fer files from my current wannabe "NAS" server to this one, and then pull the hard drives out of it, and add it to this one to increase the space (hence the above comment), I do not plan to use hardware raid, and I have nowhere else to store the files temporarily. Spanning is fine. Does linux (or any free package that I can easily put on ubuntu) support stable software raid? Six months from now I may want to change the configuration, what management tools are available? What do ya'll recomend here? Thx in advance!
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bamccaig
Member #7,536
July 2006
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int capacity = threads.size() + 20; if(threads.capacity() < capacity) threads.reserve(capacity);
I think it's really great that you're giving Linux a chance. I will warn that if you're relatively new to Linux or the specific topics you've mentioned within the context of Linux then it will probably take quite a while to get all of that working correctly... I'm currently using software RAID on my server. I haven't had any problems with it, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. I just trust that it's working... I think the software RAID guide that I followed was distribution specific (though it really shouldn't matter). Nevertheless, Google returned this, which I assume is distribution independent, and probably the same damn thing. -- acc.js | al4anim - Allegro 4 Animation library | Allegro 5 VS/NuGet Guide | Allegro.cc Mockup | Allegro.cc <code> Tag | Allegro 4 Timer Example (w/ Semaphores) | Allegro 5 "Winpkg" (MSVC readme) | Bambot | Blog | C++ STL Container Flowchart | Castopulence Software | Check Return Values | Derail? | Is This A Discussion? Flow Chart | Filesystem Hierarchy Standard | Clean Code Talks - Global State and Singletons | How To Use Header Files | GNU/Linux (Debian, Fedora, Gentoo) | rot (rot13, rot47, rotN) | Streaming |
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Timorg
Member #2,028
March 2002
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Ubuntu is pretty good at configuring hardware on install, it then should offer to install proprietary drivers for your gfx card, which I expect it will run fine. As for the raid, I would expect it to work, but never tried. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ |
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Myrdos
Member #1,772
December 2001
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http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Jaunty is the first place I look. If you can't find it there, just googling it is usually sufficient. HOWEVER, don't search for how to do X in Linux, search for how to do it in Ubuntu. Instructions 'for Linux' are often very low level, so that they apply to multiple Linux distributions. They don't take advantage of the high level tools that ship with Ubuntu. The same is true for installing software: On your menu bar, go to System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager and search for the software you want to install. It's as easy as clicking 'install', and the software will be automatically upgraded when new versions are released. For example, Allegro is available there. You'll also automatically get any libraries or tools the software depends on. Only download source and compile it yourself if you 1) need a newer version than what's in the Ubuntu repository or 2) the software's not in there at all. __________________________________________________ |
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Michael Jensen
Member #2,870
October 2002
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Hmmm, the wifi app likes to crash. I had it working with the same card from Ubuntu server 8.10 the other day (was apt-getting and everything, and even though it's a new mobo/system, it seems to be "working" now, as in, I can see networks and signal strength and what not...), but I forget the terminal commands now. I have everything up and going from the terminal, except for taking the card out of open mode and putting it into restricted (shared key) mode. iwconfig wlan0 key xxxxxxxxxx leaves it in open mode. Why would I put in a key if I didn't want to use it? iwconfig wlan0 key xxxxxxxxxx restricted also don't work... :: sigh ::
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OICW
Member #4,069
November 2003
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Welcome to the club. Just yesterday my computer crashed leaving sound output damaged. I've reinstalled Alsa driver, which in consequence downloaded new kernel which in consequence had my graphics go into pixel-soup mode preventing me from running X server. After reinstalling the graphics (and downloading kernel sources, which didn't get installed, from lowlevel tools under terminal) I've discovered that the sound still doesn't work. Oh I guess that I'll stay away from OpenSUSE in the future. Word for advice with the wi-fi, Ubuntu has its network manager, which just works (icon on top right corner in the app bar). It works provided you have firmware and drivers for the card. If you insist on using console, I'd advise you to use wpa_supplicant tool, you just write your wirelless connection into the config file and let the daemon do its job. [My website][CppReference][Pixelate][Allegators worldwide][Who's online] |
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le_y_mistar
Member #8,251
January 2007
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your headaches with linux and drivers have just barely begun. welcome to linux. ----------------- |
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ReyBrujo
Moderator
January 2001
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Why people want to use wifi with Linux? It is like buying a Mac for gaming. -- |
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Arthur Kalliokoski
Second in Command
February 2005
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Why would people want stereos in their cars? They all watch too much MSNBC... they get ideas. |
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OICW
Member #4,069
November 2003
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Rey: because I don't like the idea of running with ethernet cable plugged into my laptop? [My website][CppReference][Pixelate][Allegators worldwide][Who's online] |
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ReyBrujo
Moderator
January 2001
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Down here, people put stereos in motorbikes and even bicycles, listening to cumbia and reggeaton. OICW said: Rey: because I don't like the idea of running with ethernet cable plugged into my laptop? But you are talking about a laptop, not a PC like Michael. -- |
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OICW
Member #4,069
November 2003
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Oh well, what about it being the only mean of broadband internet in the area? However I don't know anything about his ussage. I personally would go for ethernet cable being it at home. [My website][CppReference][Pixelate][Allegators worldwide][Who's online] |
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ReyBrujo
Moderator
January 2001
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My point is, if you want to try Linux as operative system, you know you will have problems with wifi. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It varies greatly. So, were I to try Linux, I would make sure I have a spare Ethernet cable just in case. Yesterday I upgraded to the latest Ubuntu. The new notification system is strange at the very least. I got popups going at the bottom right from ForecastFox, and at the top right for Pidgin. Tracker has a bug that corrupts the search (you need to delete all the cache files for the tracker and the reindex everything, or risk 100% CPU usage in a infinite loop and a log growing at a MB every 3 hours). Don't see many changes, but at least it didn't break my Nvidia drivers like the previous 3 or so updates. -- |
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Michael Jensen
Member #2,870
October 2002
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OICW said: Word for advice with the wi-fi, Ubuntu has its network manager, which just works (icon on top right corner in the app bar). It works provided you have firmware and drivers for the card. It didn't just work for me, and so far it hasn't, at all. From the commandline I can at least see that there are networks out there, set the key, it randomly went into restricted mode today with version 9.1 of ubuntu, but dhclient failed. :-( ReyBrujo said: Why people want to use wifi with Linux? It is like buying a Mac for gaming. Is that why many consumer grade wifi routers run linux, or maybe that's why when many businesses set up computers as routers in their server rooms, they install linux on them? ReyBrujo said: But you are talking about a laptop, not a PC like Michael. it's where the internet comes in. I was planning on installing mad-wifi and splitting the adapter into multiple adapters; set one to managed mode, and then share the internet out via wire to the rest of the apartment via ethernet, and also use another virtual adapter to share out wifi. Is that a bad idea?
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ReyBrujo
Moderator
January 2001
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If I were you, I would connect the wifi adapter to a router that would spread the wifi signal around, and using ethernet to connect the router to your main computer. I was told I could use wire the whole house with ethernet cables using the electricity channels (with good isolation), so that I could connect computers via ethernet no matter where the computers are. Michael Jensen said: Is that why many consumer grade wifi routers run linux
It is not the same -- |
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Trezker
Member #1,739
December 2001
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My room is situated so that if I had to use a cable it'd have to be drawn through the entire house, that's just not practical. It seems the properly managed distros have good wifi support now. I've tried some lately and it worked right out of the box for some distros. |
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Michael Jensen
Member #2,870
October 2002
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Trezker said: My room is situated so that if I had to use a cable it'd have to be drawn through the entire house, that's just not practical. It seems the properly managed distros have good wifi support now. I've tried some lately and it worked right out of the box for some distros. I used a neat little wall-socket extender that ReyBrujo was talking about when I had that issue. Basically it throws small amounts of noise onto your power line, and modulates a network signal. Mine run at 75 mbps, but you can get ones as high as 300 mbps. But my dolphin massager destroys the network (apparently it puts noise on the power lines too!) So I don't use the power line extenders anymore. Okay. So here's what I did to make my network work: grabbed an old WRT-54G (v5), and installed DD-WRT v24 on it (version 24 sp1 and newer seemed to have issues). I put it into client mode and entered the security information. It's magically using that as the internet, even though I didn't really tell it to So now I have wifi, and wired internets, and a million and one headaches to come, paired with the scariest network configuration in the history of man (until I start using my power line extenders again!). Yay. edit: Right, so while that worked, it took me from 20mbps download to .5 mbps... super lame.
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Thomas Fjellstrom
Member #476
June 2000
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ReyBrujo said: It is not the same Not a lot anymore. Even some broadcom wifi cards have native drivers now. And they work. Michael Jensen said: edit: Right, so while that worked, it took me from 20mbps download to .5 mbps... super lame. Adding a second router really shouldn't have slowed it down any. Those routers are capable of 100mb speeds. -- |
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Mordredd
Member #5,291
December 2004
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I am using Kubuntu 9.04 with KDE 4.2.2. Looks amazing, easy to install and stable =)
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kazzmir
Member #1,786
December 2001
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I upgrade to ubuntu 9.04 a few days ago and now I'm forced to use the open source ati driver which is slow as crap. Thanks open source! Wifi works pretty well though. |
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Timorg
Member #2,028
March 2002
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You are blaming the wrong group! The open source people are doing the best they can with limited information from AMD. If AMD released the driver specs or source code to the open source community, the drivers wouldn't have the issues you are complaining about. Try using an IBM graphics card, the drivers work awesome, because IBM actually care about linux and release card specs, allowing for a fully featured driver to be writen. The cards have less processing power, but perform better under linux because a better drivers. AMD are to blame for the ATI open source drivers being crap. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ |
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Thomas Fjellstrom
Member #476
June 2000
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Timorg said: The open source people are doing the best they can with limited information from AMD. If AMD released the driver specs or source code to the open source community, the drivers wouldn't have the issues you are complaining about. Quote: AMD are to blame for the ATI open source drivers being crap. Just what kind of illicit substance are you on? It will take some time, but the ATI drivers are going to be pretty good. kazzmir said: I upgrade to ubuntu 9.04 a few days ago and now I'm forced to use the open source ati driver which is slow as crap. Thanks open source! I wouldn't blame open source, I'd blame AMD for not having a new driver out yet -- |
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kazzmir
Member #1,786
December 2001
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Actually its not open source's fault, I just wish the open source radeon developers could do a better job. I would help them (I downloaded the source code) but I have no idea how this stuff works. Without the open source driver I would be completely out of luck because ATI stopped making linux drivers for my card. The latest catalyst driver (9.4) only supports the newer cards. If I had stayed on ubuntu 8.04 with xorg 1.5 then I could still use the 9.3 catalyst driver which has pretty good performance. Its only because I upgraded to ubuntu 9.04 with xorg 1.6 that I'm out of luck. So really I have only myself to blame for upgrading.. but goddamit, when will open source drivers be useable!!! Timorg said: Try using an IBM graphics card, the drivers work awesome, because IBM actually care about linux and release card specs, allowing for a fully featured driver to be writen. The cards have less processing power, but perform better under linux because a better drivers. I have a laptop. I don't think I can just change graphics cards willy-nilly. |
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Timorg
Member #2,028
March 2002
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It was more of a generic rant, insert your favourite unsupported device in. I haven't kept up with what companies have released which specs. I dumped ATI cards a long time ago because of issues with linux drivers. My other argument was that you should have done research before buying a card, etc, etc. But there is no way you could have known that Ubuntu 9.04 was going to use X.Org 1.6, and that it was going to be incompatible with the propriety drivers. Edit: Also I don't do illicit drugs, that was covered in another thread. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ |
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Thomas Fjellstrom
Member #476
June 2000
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kazzmir said: So really I have only myself to blame for upgrading.. but goddamit, when will open source drivers be useable!!! I don't think older cards are really a priority for the radeon drivers either. I have a mobile Radeon "U1" chip that the fglrx drivers NEVER supported afaik. I can't say I get rad speed out of my laptop graphics, but its not bad for a crappy 5-8 year old laptop chipset. I actually get mostly usable compositing on here with KDE4. -- |
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Linux is really flexible and powerful, but a consequence is that there is often a lot of reading required before you figure things out.
As far as I know, it is considered stable.
... The virtual adapter stuff doesn't seem to work if you're using the wifi in client mode, so I just grabbed another router, and plugged that into it to share a strong wifi signal back out to my apartment; All of my networking equipment is plugged into the secondary router which is also serving as a firewall etc...
they have released the specs. Even the r600+ specs are released. But it takes them time to properly implement 3D. And more time to optimize it.
AMD "are" why any specs are released AT ALL. They even have a couple full time Novel developers on the radeonhd team.
but ATI has been darn good about releasing often. If one for your version of X and the kernel isn't out yet, it should be soon.
