Ubuntu drivers for notebook

[ToiletDuck]

I'm new to linux. I've toyed with it in the past but this time I'm taking the complete plunge. I used wubi to install ubuntu and that could possibly have been the best decision I've made in a LONG time regarding computers. Simply put, I love it. The ease of use, well made menus, extremely useful download and install application are just some of the things I like about it. I'm going to try using WINE for the few apps that can't be replaced by linux apps and see how that works. If it goes well I'll probbaly be kicking windows 7 to the curb. There's only a few reason I might keep it on a small partition but basically Ubuntu looks great, feels great, handles well and can do everything I want while at the same time using less resources.


My question comes down to drivers. I have an ASUS X83V notebook. I've notice it being a little sluggish. I'm assuming this is all because Ubuntu is a new install. I'm wanting to make sure I can optimize this system the most possible and one area I can tell needs help is the graphics. I have the Nvidia 9300m chipset and currently am working at installing that. Having issues but I'll figure it out. I'm wanting to know if there's some way for me to see which system components have generic drivers vs optimized ones. IE Gfx card, sound, motherboard, CPU. Is there an easy way to search for that in Ubuntu and then have it download the appropriate drivers for those components?

 

[Sydney]

Typically on a PC with an NVIDIA card, the only driver you need to manually get is the display driver. Should be able to download it from System > Administration > Hardware Drivers.

 

[Krogen]

From my experience, Ubuntu is one of the fastest Linux distributions. I have used a few others ones, including Gentoo, and I must say Ubuntu wins in most speed contests. I'm not sure what Ubuntu uses for its init scripts, but it's certainly something faster than in Gentoo. But I have never bothered to use the verbose mode during bootup, so I wouldn't know.

Gentoo apps might run negligibly faster, simply because you can compile them for your processor, and use all of the optimizations available. But then again, at what expense? Hours/days of compilation time?

Anyways, you might find some tweaks online, but honestly you're already on a very well made OS, there's not that much you can do. Downloading proprietary NVIDIA drivers is a good idea to get hardware acceleration, but besides that there isn't that much you can do.

 

[curtis1552]

From my experience, Ubuntu is one of the fastest Linux distributions. I have used a few others ones, including Gentoo, and I must say Ubuntu wins in most speed contests. I'm not sure what Ubuntu uses for its init scripts, but it's certainly something faster than in Gentoo. But I have never bothered to use the verbose mode during bootup, so I wouldn't know.

Gentoo apps might run negligibly faster, simply because you can compile them for your processor, and use all of the optimizations available. But then again, at what expense? Hours/days of compilation time?

Anyways, you might find some tweaks online, but honestly you're already on a very well made OS, there's not that much you can do. Downloading proprietary NVIDIA drivers is a good idea to get hardware acceleration, but besides that there isn't that much you can do.

I think you might be using boot time as a substitute or overall performance. I will say that in the most recent 2 versions Ubuntu has greatly reduces boot time and it is rather nice. But I have also had apps that load beter on other distros.

The appeal of Gentoo is that almost nothing changes without your modifying it. If I reorder my drives on Ubuntu I have numerous issues with boot up and shut down, and can't seem to get the fstab to read things properly. I never had those issues with Gentoo.

+1 for proprietary Nvidia drivers.

I wouldn't ditch your copy of Win7. There are still a few programs that have no equal in linux (e.g. M$ Silverlight - used commonly by Netflix). So it's worth hanging onto for a while. Though i will also agree, almost everything is easier for me to do in linux. I used to complain about Flash videos on linux till I tried it with Win7 and it's just as bad.
Also you won't be able to play most games on Linux (though most people uses consoles these days anyway)