Hello Linux community.....

Hey all.... i'm so confused and a linux noob to boot, so that doesn't help matters. I just picked up a samsung nc10 and i'd like to put ubuntu on it as I just recently installed this distro on a dell d600. I've got another lappy with xp & pclinux on it. (i guess that's a KDE build?) But i read on here just a little bit ago that you can install the KDE desktop environment on top of ubuntu? or is that have something to do with installing kubuntu?

The 8.10 release of ubuntu was such an easy install and has everything working out of the box. It took me a bit to get the compiz thing going, but that's all eye candy anyway. (but i like eye candy)

Here are my concerns:

I've been readin this morning about ubuntu with the nc10 being a hard drive killer. Is this true?

The nc10 has a webcam built in and i plan to install skype. Will this be an issue?

Mainly i'll be using this netbook for email, surfing, listening to tunes and watching movies. From time to time, I'll be using this as my GPS with MS streets & trips so i know that i'll have to either get wine or vmware configured.

So anyway, I'm hoping that you guru's can give me some advice before i install ubuntu on this thing, that would be great.

 

If it is, then it's likely due to overly aggressive hard drive Advanced Power Management (APM) systems. APM spins down the hard drive during non-use to save energy, which is good, but it wears away the drive's Load_Cycle_Count.

You can manually manipulate the APM level with the hdparm -B [num] command, where [num] is an integer from 1 to 255. 1 is the most aggressive setting, and 255 completely disables drive spin-down. For example:

Code:

$ sudo hdparm -B 1 /dev/sda  #<----- highest
$ sudo hdparm -B 128 /dev/sda  #<----- moderate
$ sudo hdparm -B 255 /dev/sda  #<----- disabled

I've heard horror stories about APM's causing drives to go through several load cycles every minute, causing an exaggerated amount of wear. Personally, though, I've been using the most aggressive APM level ( hdparm -B 1) the whole time I've had the laptop in my sig (1 month), and my Load_Cycle_Count is <6000, which seems pretty normal to me, considering that laptop drives are usually designed to handle more than 600,000.

You can check your device's Load_Cycle_Count with the following command, assuming you have smartctl installed:

Code:

$ sudo smartctl -A /dev/sda | grep 'Load_Cycle_Count'

The number on the far right, (or the next line depending on the size of your terminal), is the raw value of your Load_Cycle_Count.

 

There's nothing to it but to try it.

My built-in webcam was autodetected, and yours might be too. But again, until you actually have the system in your hands, we'll never know for sure. Try running cheese once you have it. If it doesn't work, post back here with the outputs of the lsusb and lsmod commands.

 

What Archer7 said, exactly...I never would have remembered that, but what Archer7 said... I checked my machine's load cycle count when this first hit hysteria levels, and it happened to be barely within tolerable limits, so I didn't change it.

 

Download and burn Ubuntu to a CD. It is a live CD so you can try it out in your CD drive first before installing it. That will answer a lot of your questions as to whether it works with your hardware or not. Ubuntu comes with the Gnome desktop environment. You can install others if you want.

 

I'd be more afraid of the load cycle "fix" than actual load cycle issues.

 

It's always good to get a feel for things with the Live CDs when you're choosing which desktop environment to install, although in many cases the hardware detection will differ between the live and installed systems. Live systems are generally more limited, so if a particular component doesn't work in the live environment, don't let that be a detriment. However, what works with the live CD should work OTB.

Try Ubuntu and Kubuntu to see the difference between KDE (Kubuntu) and Gnome (Ubuntu). You can install KDE onto Ubuntu, and Gnome onto Kubuntu later, as The_Fire_Snake mentioned, but I wouldn't suggest it, especially not for a netbook.

The difference between Gnome and KDE is generally a preferential issue, but I would recommend Gnome for inexperienced users at this point in time. The new version of KDE is having growing pains.

 

Hey peeps

I got things going well so far. i've got sound, i've got a webcam with cheese, and now i'm fighting with the wireless atheros thing. i've done the steps according to https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NC10#Wireless Networking - Atheros and for whatever reason it's not kickin' it... any other suggestions?

 

Did you disable the previous madwifi driver you were using? Go to System > Administration > Hardware Drivers and disable the madwifi driver.

I don't think that blacklisting them will disable them until you reboot; hence why your ath5k wireless still isn't working.

 

Thanks for the lucid instructions by the way, archer7. I had been meaning to go back and read one of those Ubuntu forum posts on the subject, but never got around to it.

 

I use sudo hdparm -B 254.

 

To fix the "load cycle issue" permanently (OS independent), I've contacted Hitachi about the (fairly agressive) power management settings for my Hitachi Travel Star HDD and on their advice I've used their HDD power management software to adjust the HDparm setting, as explained in this thread.
Cheers.