Core Duo and Linux

Will i have any problems with Ubuntu utilizing the core duo? Im currently downloading version 6.0.6 on a P4 equipped laptop, but if i like it enough i will put it on my new laptop.

For that matter, are there any obvious compatability issues with the setup i have in my sig?

 

I've had issues getting my X1400 to work properly (I use Fedore Core 5) and I know a lot of people have issues getting ATI cards to work. Also, depending on what 802.11a/b/g you have, you can have different levels of support. I have the Intel 3945 which I feel is still a little touch and go. As for dual core, you just need an smp kernel (like a dual processor system would use).

 

I ordered the ASUS Z96J which is core duo and will primarily be running Ubuntu.

ATI graphics cards do not have as good support in Linux as nVidia. However, Ubuntu added ATI drivers with x1x00 support prior to shipping so you should be good to go. As mentioned, make sure you grab an SMP kernel. This MAY happen automatically but if not, run adept and install linux-686-smp which sets you up with the best kernel

If you do a lot of compiling, you may want to look at using distcc to hook up your laptop to your desktop. It isn't hard to set up, give me a shout if you want more details.

 

actually, the standard 686 kernel has multi core support built in the ubuntu 6.06, you just need to install linux-686

and, if you havent ordered the laptop yet, go for nvidia graphics if you want to use linux, the asus a8jm in particular seems to have excellent support under linux

 

Sorry im very new to linux and i have not installed Ubuntu yet. Exactly what is adept and how do i select a kernel?

I don't plan to do any heavy gaming in linux.

Thanks.

 

Well, the good news is that Ubuntu will probably work just out of the box. You may not have to do anything at all.

Adept is the package manager. It lets you install or remove software. You can run it by selecting "Add/Remove Programs" from your menu. I run Kubuntu so it's on my 'K' menu (sort of like a start menu). It'll be in a similar place for you.

When you get it installed, if you can't figure out whether you need to do this kernel thing, give me a shout and I'll help you out.

 

Fantastic! If i have any major problems i will post them here. Im still reading the wiki but i shouldn't have any problems with installation.

I considered the A8jm, but for my price point and preferences the S96J beat out all other laptops regardless of brand. I don't think i want to change the laptop i buy becuase of issues with Linux. I am only in the experimental stage at this point.

Thanks.

 

ok, and for ubuntu, the package manager will be synaptic, not adept

 

zachtib, adept was added in the 6.06 release (dapper drake). Synaptic does not seem to be installed on my system. For this reason, I strongly recommend using adept instead of synaptic.

 

its still the default on Ubuntu, I don't know about Kubuntu, and I'm running 6.06 as well

 

Hhhmmm, looks like it is a kubuntu thing. Weird. It works much better than synaptic did for me in 5.10. Oh well.

 

Yup, Kubuntu only at this stage although they're trying to get into the next Ubuntu release, "Edgy Eft."

http://web.mornfall.net/adept.html

 

Im trying Ubuntu right now and it's really nice. In fact, im typing this message using FireFox on Ubuntu!

I wouldn't mind installing Ubuntu on the computer (Im running the live cd right now). Fortunately, my new computer arrives tomorrow so i will experiment further on it.

Quick question, how big a partition do i need in order to install Ubuntu on my local HDD?

Thanks.

 

Also, is it normal that the computer seems a little laggy? Im scrolling this window and there is noticable lag. I suspect this has to do with the video card (ATI), or maybe its because of the live cd.

 

its the live cd, linux will run much faster from the hard drive.

and you only need a few gig for install ubuntu, but ive give it at least 10gb if you can spare it

 

I'd recommend setting aside 10GB for a linux partition... a base install won't use more than 2-3GB of it but it's good to leave room to grow. Minimum would be 5GB. This is assuming you'll use another partition for shared data between Windows and linux (make the shared partition FAT32).

The lag you're experiencing is most likely due to the fact that the liveCD isn't using an ATI accelerated driver, so it's falling back to an unaccelerated VESA driver. The ATI driver is fairly easy to add once you've done a HDD install... instructions are available on the Ubuntu wiki.

 

My desktop system has a 10G root partition, 2.8G of which is used. I also have a 32M /boot partition. I have 51G of raid0 which I use for /tmp and for placing object files on while compiling (4x speed increase, woo!). I have 325G of RAID-5 for my /home, 275G for a backup of my mythtv box, and 70G for a FAT32 transfer. The other 300G or so is used for Windows XP. Most people won't have all these different partitions, though. They'd have one for Linux root and perhaps one for Linux swap, plus one for Windows XP.

10G is pretty good for a Linux partition on a laptop. You may want to go 20G if you can spare the space. My laptop, when it ships, will come with a 100G hard drive. As Linux is my primary operating system, I'll likely set aside about 50G - 60G for Linux.

If you have the choice of file systems, you may want to CONSIDER XFS which has some advantages for a laptop due to delayed writing of the data. Reiserfs or especially ext3 is considered a more conservative choice. Almost certainly one of these will be the default; if you don't want to be bothered with this, just accept the defaults. Ubuntu won't steer you wrong.

Though I prefer the KDE desktop that comes with Kubuntu.

 

I have another question: what are the advantages between choosing FAT32 vs NTFS? All i know is that my old Win98 desktop uses FAT32. XP and Vista will run on FAT32 right?

Thanks for all the help guys. Im definitely getting hooked onto Ubuntu. I will consider other distros and Kubuntu for experimentation in the future.

Thanks.

 

NTFS is superior in just about every way. However, Linux has better support for FAT32 (especially for writing to FAT32). On my system, I have a transfer directory which is FAT32 which I use for copying files back and forth. The rest of my Windows installation uses NTFS, however.

If you don't need to transfer files between the operating systems, go for NTFS, no doubt. If you do, you may want to consider a small partition formatted as FAT32. You can do the whole Windows XP install as FAT32, of course, but not many people do.

One of the main benefits of NTFS is that it is a journalled filesystem which is much better than non-journalled filesystems (special cases like soft updates ignored). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS gives you some information.

 

Hi There,

I have a Z96J on order, and got here while searching for compatability with Ubuntu like yourself. I thought I would register and contribute a couple of things I have learnt during my search:

1. Video card
-------------
The x1600 video card is not supported by the open source "ati" driver. It will result in a blank screen on boot up. You need to install the official ATI linux driver (aka "fglrx") to get decent graphics.

Up until you install it, make sure you use "safe mode" on your installation. This will force the OS to use the failsafe "vesa" drivers. You will have really crappy resolution and color depth while you do this, but it will at least allow you to get "fglrx" installed.

Install with the instructions here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/ATI

2. Wireless
-----------
The release version of the latest Ubuntu did get the drivers for the new Intel wireless chipset in. It has been reported to work out of the box

3. Suspend and Resume
-----------------------
Doesn't look like this will work for us correctly out of the box. CPU frequency scaling should work.

4. Laptop Special Keys
----------------------
Most should work. Any problems will be with Bluetooth and Wireless toggles.

Also, as far as a shared data partition goes I find the best way is to install Ubuntu on an ext3 partition (it's the default) and to access it from windows using these filesystem drivers: http://www.fs-driver.org/. With FAT32 you end up losing your file permissions, capitalisation (yes, it matters in Linux) and have your file lengths truncated. There is also a limit on how big a FAT32 partition can be. As for journalling, using this method your FS will be journalled from Linux, but not journalled from Windows.

I'm getting my Z96J in 1-2 weeks, so look out for me under this same handle on http://ubuntuforums.org.

Anyway, hope this helps.

Cheers,

L.

 

Thanks for that info.

Ubuntu has an icon called install on the desktop (still running live cd), and since im willing to take it to the next level, i want to install. It took me through a few steps setting up date and time, keyboard config, username, and then it came to the partition section.

*I installed windows first and made it partition my HDD. Windows is on ~73GB and the remaining 20GB is for linux.
*Ubuntu recognizes that i have a 20GB unallocated partition, but how do i set it up? If i remember correctly it has 3 options: Erase 100GB, Install on continuous free space, and Manual config.
*I don't want the first 2 options, i want to install it on the linux partition that already exists. I tried the 3rd option but it asks me where i want to put swap, / (root?), and some other system files?

Im thoroughly confused. Is it supposed to have seperate partitions for each?

I really want to sit down and get through this. I won't have a key for Windows until i get back to school, so i must manage on linux.

 

Ok, i went to the forums and saw that many others had this same problem as me. See here:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1088366&postcount=11

 

OK I haven't actually installed Ubuntu from a CD in about 18 months, so I can't really remember what happens with each of the options

You absolutely need minimum 2 partitions for Linux. The first is "swap" of type "swap". It should be a 2 x (your RAM) for best performance, but can be smaller if you are hard up for space. It will be the equivalent of the windows swap file, and acts as extra RAM when you run out.

The second is the root partition ("/") and it can be of pretty much any type. I suggest ext3 because it's the default and the Windows drivers exist for it. FYI "reiser" partition types are rumoured to be faster, but you can only get read-only access to this type of partition from Windows.

If the installer detects 20GB as free I think option 2 will simply use that. Otherwise you can manually partition a swap and root partition.

The docs on partitioning for Ubuntu are at: http://doc.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/install/i386/ch06s03.html#di-partition. Hopefully that will help.

Cheers,

L.

 

Ok, after reading some of the docs and your comments, i will choose option 2 and go with the 'All files in one partition' scheme to see how that goes.

However, i strongly suspect i will get these errors:

hdb:ide_intr: huh? expected NULL handler on exit
hdb:ide_intr: huh? expected NULL handler on exit
Buffer I/O error on device hdb, logical block 357298

I will install linux today and post my results.

 

I suspect manual config is similar to FC5 which uses Disk Druid. Very simple, just go into manual config, select the empty partition, make 1 swap partition of 2x your RAM, and then make one partition with mount point / and make it a filesystem type ext3 (dunno if Ubuntu supports RaiserFS) to fill the remaining space. As long as you DO NOT select your NTFS partition and click delete, you are golden!

 

Ok, i installed Ubuntu and then it prompted me to reboot. Did that, it ejected the live cd and all is good.

It reboots and hangs on 'Mounting root filesystem'. It tries to find it for a while, then i get a command line with the following errors:

ALERT! /dev/sda2 does not exist. Dropping to a shell!

/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off

What do i do from here?

 

Hhhmm, that's very strange. I wonder why it can no longer find your hard drive. Your best bet now is probably to ask in one of the Ubuntu forums. Sorry.

 

Its ok. Thanks for your help. I've given up on Ubuntu and im now with Kanotix. Its working well. Are there any Kanotix users here who can tell me how to set up my Intel 3945 wireless card?

Also, is there an app to monitor my cpu and hdd temps?

Thanks.

I guess ill start a new thread.

 

The app you want is GKrell. It can monitor just about anything, I think.

 

FWIW, Ubuntu 6.06 worked with my 3945 chip right out of the box.

With Linux, you'll find that giving up won't get you anywhere. Try and try again.

Try Ubuntu again, and try to find out what happened when you tried to install it. Thats how you'll learn, by trial and error, and by the frustrations of fixing the problems that arise.

Ubuntu runs way faster than windows on my a8jm.

back to metrowars.............

 

You forgot the m gkrellm

 

Very odd. It seems like the kernel thinks your root (/) partition is on an external HDD. External devices are usually mapped using SCSI emulation, thus the /dev/ sda2 address above.

Looking at the post you've linked to on the Ubuntu forums above, it seems there may be an issue with the USB hotplug system messing things up during the install. Still, doing a HDD install from within a booted live CD session is virtually unheard of... I'm not that suprised that it has some gremlins in it.

 

sata drives are also generally mapped this way.

 

Meh. I guess I just showed everyone how old my current hardware is...

 

I was told to use Gparted to set up the partitions and i did, but that didn't work. However, when i tried it with Kanotix it worked very well. It recognized the swap partition and the root partition automatically. Installation of Kanotix using Kanotix live cd was smooth.

Unfortunately, im having problems with ATI driver installation shutting the GUI down and with 3945 Wlan recognition. Im working on it. I gave up on Ubuntu because i can't even get it installed! It's partition program needs some work i think.

 

Kubuntu (so probably Ubuntu) also uses parted for partitioning. It sounds like you had already partitioned part of your space for Linux using another tool. That probably confused the partition manager. You'd have a similar problem installing Windows XP if you had already allocated a partition. You should still have been able to clear out this partition and allocate some yourself (or autoallocate). I'm not sure why this didn't work for you, though it could be that you didn't think to try this as it is not obvious.

 

I made Ubuntu erase my entire hdd (including my windows partition) and install -> didn't work
I made Windows partition my hdd into 75-25 split, 75 for windows (ntfs) 25 for linux (not formatted), then tried to get Ubuntu to install on free space --> didn't work
I used Gparted to create 2 partitions out of the 25 split, 4.5GB for swap and the rest for root --> Ubuntu didn't like it, so in Ubuntu i configured the partition again manually, set swap to 4.5 GB and root to the rest, leaving windows alone. Didn't work.
Am i missing something here?

 

I'm sorry you've been having all these problems. If you like, I can send you some screenshots of how I'd go about doing the partitioning starting from the live DVD version of Kubuntu. It'll look slightly different compared to Ubuntu but it should be basically the same. I'm assuming you are doing the install through the 'live CD' version of Ubuntu?

Now, I'd try to start with 3/4 of my disk allocated for NTFS but I don't actually have Windows to install there so this would just give you a ballpark.

Give me a shout if you want me to do this for you. You'll have to wait until at least this evening, possibly later in the week, but it shouldn't take THAT long for me to grab some screenshots for you.

 

Im very happy with all the support and suggestions im getting. If only it could work

Yes, i am trying to install from the live cd, and this leads me to believe the live cd is incomplete. It has an option where it scans the cd to see if anything is corrupted or missing but it came out clean.

Is there any other way to install Ubuntu? Would installing Kubuntu or Xubuntu be more successful on my machine?

Thanks for the offer yamla, but i don't think i need that. I think it has to do with the live cd.

Thanks.

 

Partitioning is one of the most frustrating parts of Linux, it takes some knowledge to do it properly and is nerve-racking if you don't feel comfortable with it. Luckily you don't seem to mind erasing your entire hard drive. Give us more info on how you are partitioning. Such as what mount points you are defining, which partition on /dev/sda they reside on, etc? The fact that you get some info there is a good sign, because it is finding the bootloader (GRUB?). That makes me think you have at least 3 partitions, /, /boot, and swap.

Your x1600 and 3945 are going to be fun. The 3945 is a new Intel chip that runs on Mini-PCI express and the drivers are rather new. I am still using pre-release drivers for mine, though there is source available for the final release now. Check out http://ipw3945.sourceforge.net/. I feel wireless in Linux is still "iffy", it just is not very easy to use, you get to learn all about iwscan and iwconfig and ifconfig which are all commandline networking programs.

As for the x1600, I have x1400 and it took a while. Best find suggestions from someone with a x1x00 card running the same distro as you, sorry I can't help but I'm using FC5 with packages specific to FC5 for the card.

 

I considered FC5 but balked when i saw how big the files are. My internet connection would take 5 nights to get that done. I looked for the most compact yet fully functional distros and so far it's been Ubuntu and Kanotix.

What i don't understand is why Ubuntu makes patitioning so complicated when Kanotix had 0 problems with installation of the entire OS. I had 3 partitons, swap = 4.5 GB, / = ~20GB, and Windows = ~68 GB. I created these using Gparted, then booted into the Ubuntu live cd. During the partition step it had a bunch of '!' so i removed the 2 small partitions while keeping the Windows partition. Then i make a 4.5GB partition again and set the format to linux-swap and the rest i set to ext3. Then in the next page i assigned swap to the 4.5GB partition and / to the ~20 GB partition, then there was one extra field that i left empty. Finished installation, then reboot. Fail!

I can't afford to erase my entire hdd anymore. I just ordered XP Pro for $17 shipped so i began installing my programs windows programs already, all i need to do is put in the activation.

 

Thanks for the correction.

Installation from Kanotix live CD has never failed for me yet. Why do you want 4.5GB swap file Safer? For hibernation? My system hardly ever goes to swap file, but I do have a lot of ram.

 

I believe that there's a standard CD install disc available for download in addition to the live CD which you'll probably have more luck with. The install to HDD option on the live CD is still not 100% reliable... as I'm sure you'll attest.

One of the reasons I've recommended Ubuntu is because the 3945 wifi works out of the box, and the Gnome network config applets makes wifi management fairly painless. From what I understand, the ATI video drivers are fairly simple to set up under Ubuntu too... there's a straight-forward HOWTO on the Ubuntu wiki.

I suggest downloading the standard install CD for Ubuntu and persevering with it... don't forget about one of Ubuntu's great strengths, it's forum community is almost as good as ours.

 

If it can be used for hibernation, great. I set the swap partition high just incase it was the reason my Ubuntu installation was failing. It is generally said that swap should be 2x your ram, so i thought id go a little over that just to be safe. I never changed it before installing Kanotix.

NOOB QUESTION: Server cd or alternate cd? The alternate cd has advanced features that i don't need, i guess ill go with the server cd.

I have noticed that even when running off the Ubuntu live cd my wireless was on. Ubuntu seems great as far as recognizing my hardware, i will try the server cd to see if that will solve my problems.

 

Have you installed your bootloader on the MBR (master boot record)? Sometimes people don't and they just put their bootloader at the beginning of the linux parition. However, you have to have another bootloader such as BootMagic or a special Windows setup (involves making a Linux img and putting it in your Windows XP boot list) if you don't put the linux bootloader in MBR. The other thing is that sometimes Windows anti-virus software thinks it is corrupt if you overwrite the MBR with the Linux bootloader (I've never had this particular issue and I use GRUB in MBR).
In conclusion, I recommend using your Linux bootloader in the MBR, if you have issues, use your Windows recovery CD to rebuild the MBR. You must add an entry in your bootloader for Windows in order for it to allow dual booting.

 

I believe so. I do not have any other boot loader, the default is GRUB if i remember correctly. The computer boots and the boot loader does show.

 

Ok, i downloaded the Server iso via torrents last night. Lets see if this baby will work. Ill post results tonight.

Thanks.

 

That Server install is dad-gum minimal. I mean, minimal! It's intended for servers, which aren't supposed to even have X-windows on them. You'll probably have to use ifconfig and iwconfig and ifup to get your internet connection running (here's to hoping Ubuntu at least includes the restricted kernel modules for the Realtek LAN NIC and the Intel Pro WLAN NIC on that install). If you have trouble doing this, post an SOS.

Once you get internet established, immediately do the following:

Code:

sudo apt-get update
# aptitude should already be installed but it's good to double-check
# aptitude's a little bit smarter than apt at pulling down packages that
# are dependencies
sudo apt-get aptitude
sudo aptitude upgrade
sudo aptitude dist-upgrade
sudo aptitude install ubuntu-desktop

This will bring you up to the Ubuntu Desktop version. After that, you might have to start X by issuing

Code:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

Let us know how it goes.

 

Didn't go so well . First thing i did was make it check the cd for missing or corrupted files, it came back clean. I was able to install it successfully, it set up the partitons on it's own and i confirmed that it did it properly. Booted from HDD, failure! It would try to load the kernel and then freeze. It throws an error sequence that i've already forgotten. I restarted several times with same results.

Im down and out at this point . Im going to wait for a few people with a 96J to load linux on their systems and copy what they did. *sigh*

 

When you remember the error sequence, post it. Sometimes it's not helpful, but frequently it is.

Also, have you tried the manual partitioning tool on the Ubuntu desktop install, nuking all the partitions by right clicking each one and selecting "Delete", and then setting up two primary partitions, maybe a dozen gigs of ext3 fs to be mounted as "/" and two gigs swap fs to be swap space?