Thinking of switching to linux on my laptop...

[Zerix01]

i'm thinking of just reformatting and using windows again, maybe nlite. :/ linux just seems like a hasstle to configure for everything to work...

Well the only thing you said didn't work was your wireless?

Connect to your network through the ethernet port and try this out http://www.kubuntuway.net/forum/showthread.php?t=57

The first two steps are key as this will determine if it is the same problem or not. Oh and you will need to do that from a console. I think in Ubuntu (sorry Kubuntu user here, things are different) you can press alt+F2 and it will bring up a run box. Type in console and a console window should pop up. If that does not start a console then you could just navigate through the applications menu, I think the console is under either system or utilities. I'll fire up a VM of Ubuntu when I get home and correct myself latter.

As for the printer, just plug it in and find the printer setup. I was able to get my mothers all in one printer to work perfectly out of the box in Ubuntu, even the print and scan buttons on the printer start up the default programs for those functions.

 

[UnseenMenace]

Linux takes a little effort, it took me about two months on and off to get everything working on my laptop, I saw it as a challenge and feel as if I achieved something once everything was working.
If your going to get frustrated the moment something does not work you would be better off with windows as half the fun and also the frustrations of being a Linux user is making things work for you.

The fact remains that you will be required to read, learn and try things as a Linux user and this does not suit everyone

 

[Enablingwolf]

Have a look at this considering printer support:

http://openprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=HP-OfficeJet_j5780

Also, instead of speculating on driver support and whatnot, just burn an Ubuntu CD and try it without installing it. Keep in mind of course there are months of updates not included while running off the cd, and it will be far more sluggish than if it were running from the hard drive.

Since it is a HP. Why not go to HP's Linux driver page?
http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/index.html

Yes, HP supports it's devices under Linux. My Father in Law has an all in one, that all the 'one touch' features work as to be expected. He uses Ubuntu 8.10 and the CUPS- HPLIP, stock worked ok.
The device he has work great minus some features are bonkers. I suspect he did an EBKAC. It does print and scan with stock CUPS. With the buttons and GUI.

 

[Elluzion]

Ok i'm going to try linux again and force myself to learn to fix the driver problems. I'm not gonna use wubi this time, im gonna try installing ubuntu 8.10 on a new partition. thnks for all the useful links, hopefully i can get the wireless up and running quick

question: do i need antivirus or firewall stuff? i heard linux is very safe (less than 1% user population)

 

[mbentley]

Ok i'm going to try linux again and force myself to learn to fix the driver problems. I'm not gonna use wubi this time, im gonna try installing ubuntu 8.10 on a new partition. thnks for all the useful links, hopefully i can get the wireless up and running quick

question: do i need antivirus or firewall stuff? i heard linux is very safe (less than 1% user population)

i have all of my machines behind a router/firewall. besides that, i do not have any anti-virus running on my linux machines.

 

[Stratus_ss]

anti-virus no, firewall if thats your thing then yes. Firewall prevents information going where you dont want it to go so if you are paranoid or just like having control over information flow there are a lot of things like SmoothWall to help you out

As for the wireless, I can *probably* help out with this. I have installed linux on more laptops then I can count and gotten wireless working on all of them after some time. I'd be happy to help out.

I would also recommend using the Ubuntu 9.04 Beta version as I have found 9.04 to be a great improvement on 8.10.
I have been using 9.04 since Alpha 3 and haven't had a single problem related to it being in pre-release

Beta can be found here

 

[mbentley]

anti-virus no, firewall if thats your thing then yes. Firewall prevents information going where you dont want it to go so if you are paranoid or just like having control over information flow there are a lot of things like SmoothWall to help you out

As for the wireless, I can *probably* help out with this. I have installed linux on more laptops then I can count and gotten wireless working on all of them after some time. I'd be happy to help out.

I would also recommend using the Ubuntu 9.04 Beta version as I have found 9.04 to be a great improvement on 8.10.
I have been using 9.04 since Alpha 3 and haven't had a single problem related to it being in pre-release

Beta can be found here

i'll second that. the beta release of 9.04 is pretty decent. i run it on my main workstation and my laptop. with your laptop being 3 1/2 years old, all of the drivers should load automatically. you might have to enable the restricted drivers, but it should work since the hardware has been around for a while.

 

[Elluzion]

crap after i read this i am already installing linux on my new partion (8.10)

i have a question, my processor is an AMD Athlon64 3200+, would i be able to install the 64bit????? should i if I can?

Stratus what can I do to get the wireless working on my hp pavillion zv6201cl?

Thanks!

 

[mbentley]

crap after i read this i am already installing linux on my new partion (8.10)

i have a question, my processor is an AMD Athlon64 3200+, would i be able to install the 64bit????? should i if I can?

Stratus what can I do to get the wireless working on my hp pavillion zv6201cl?

Thanks!

since it is an Athlon64, yes it does support 64 bit instructions. for the most part, it is personal preference or if you have more than 4 gigs of ram, 64 bit would be best.

in terms of getting your wireless to work, it depends on the chipset of the wireless. you might want to post the ouput of "sudo lspci" so we can find out the exact chipset. also check to see if ubuntu has restricted drivers for your wireless card if it isn't working by default after install (system > administrator > restricted drivers manager)

 

[Stratus_ss]

it will be a broadcom chipset. I have the DV6500 sitting right beside me. Ubuntu didn't detect the restricted drivers until 9.04 however MoonOS, OpenGEU, Linut Mint all detected it fine. In order to download the firmware you will need to be plugged into the router long enough to download and extract stuff.

If need be I can probably zip my /lib/firmware folder for you to extract in yours. This worked for Gentoo and a few other distros that didnt have it by default but I dont have any guarantees that it will work for Ubuntu

 

[Elluzion]

it says that the restricted driver is the ATI/AMD graphics driver.


when i typed in the sudo the wireless came up as Broadcom Corporation BCM4318

 

[Stratus_ss]

see my previous post

 

[ihrsetrdr]

crap after i read this i am already installing linux on my new partion (8.10)

i have a question, my processor is an AMD Athlon64 3200+, would i be able to install the 64bit????? should i if I can?

-just my .02: go with a 32 bit distro for now, to avoid the complexities of such things as getting flash player working(youtube, hulu etc).

 

[Elluzion]

ok it is a broadcom driver,
BCM4318

also the restricted drivers are the ATI/AMD graphics drivers, but i connected to the wired (works) but it wouldn't let me activate it????

where can i find the driver for the wireless to make it work? (besides you zipping it)

 

[Elluzion]

also, i found this on the ubutnu help forum

some guy put up a guide, do i download this straight to my ubuntu laptop? or what? how do i install a driver in linux?
http://www.ruudbeukema.nl/linux/guides.php

 

[Stratus_ss]

Honestly I just stuck in a liveCD that did detect it and then copied that to a flash drive.
There are a few things you can do, you can manually install Ndiswrapper or you can copy the /lib/firmware folder from a known working install.

You can try (cross your fingers)

sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter

its a program that is specifically designed to locate broadcom wireless chipsets and fetch the proper firmware

 

[Stratus_ss]

also, i found this on the ubutnu help forum

some guy put up a guide, do i download this straight to my ubuntu laptop? or what? how do i install a driver in linux?
http://www.ruudbeukema.nl/linux/guides.php

This link is just the windows XP drivers in a zipped file. If you go this route, you need to install ndiswrapper

then from the command line

sudo ndiswrapper -i /path/to/extracted/drivers/driver.inf

 

[Elluzion]

Honestly I just stuck in a liveCD that did detect it and then copied that to a flash drive.
There are a few things you can do, you can manually install Ndiswrapper or you can copy the /lib/firmware folder from a known working install.

You can try (cross your fingers)

sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter

its a program that is specifically designed to locate broadcom wireless chipsets and fetch the proper firmware

i typed it in and it said it couldn't find b43-fwcutter or whatever. :/

 

[Stratus_ss]

look in synaptic package manager

 

[Elluzion]

nope, it wasn't in there