I finally made the jump to ubuntu...

I may have a couple of question as I go about using the system...
is there anything I should pay attention to, security wise?
is there a "device manager" like in windows?
is there anything I should know about?
ogg vs prop. formats?

 

Well, I am not fan of ubuntu but I guess I have to say
Welcome to Linux

for GUI try "HAL Device Manager" , you can also try "lspci" and "dmesg"
you will need to install flash,VLC,wine and also try this https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu

I am kinda out of any ideas of what you might want to pay attention to, but if you need any help just ask

 

I made the switch almost 2 months ago, and I am running Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit. Let me know if there is anything you will like to know.

 

Welcome!

Well, there's a "System Monitor" under System > Administration that's similar to "Device Manager" in Windows.

First of all though, you should read the sticky if you haven't already. That is really helpful, and may answer questions you have.

Security-wise, you probably don't need to worry much... you can install updates as you are prompted. Which brings us to repositories. If you go to System > Administration > Software Sources, you can check all of those boxes under "Downloadable from the Internet," all the boxes under the tab "Third-Party Software," and configure your Update schedule under the Update tab. You can also check the boxes under that tab if/when the time comes that you need to install a pre-release or backported item.

Also, just mess around and check out the programs available under Applications > Add/Remove, configurations and themes, customizations, etc.

Check out this thread for examples of what you can do. And Ubuntu is well supported online, so a little strategic searching can often turn up what you need. And ask here for any questions...

 

What's the best way to get the latest drivers for my nvidia 9500m? Hardware drivers say 180, but latest is 185 now.
also, i'm noticing that keyboard lag is nonexistent like in vista lol

 

to download your nvidia drivers to here: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

 

how can i install them without having the updater overwrite/mess up my ubuntu installation? also, I upgraded to nvidia 180 in hardware drivers and that crashed my computer on the reboot (just as the bar was retracting). do you guys think it is a good idea to reinstall ubuntu? i'm coming from windows and freezing on driver installs tends to be really bad system-wise.

Edit: I have not installed anything except the updates in update manager and the sofware modem in hardware drivers...

 

You could reinstall, I suppose... I've been known to do that if things got messed up.

But I don't think it would necessarily be detrimental if you just removed whatever you've got installed for the driver right now, and then tried to fix it.

Not quite sure what you mean by the updated messing up your installation...

As far as nvidia drivers go, what I've always done is gone to System > Administration > Hardware Drivers. It should search a bit for proprietary drivers (I believe you'll have to have checked those boxes like I mentioned above), and then hopefully find the NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (version 180), which is what I'm using. It works great.

If that doesn't show up, maybe try opening a terminal and running 'sudo apt-get update' and then 'apt-get upgrade'.

Cheers...

 

so, i'm still a noob and have to ask since I haven't found how to reinstall while preserving the /home partition (all websites/tutorials talk about how to install with a separate partition but not how to reinstall...)
I reinstalled ubuntu using the same comp name, username, and password; reformated '/' and mounted '/home' without reformating in the cd installer. Did i "do it right"? Do I have to worry that something might be broken? eg. in windows, registries like to break when any user attempts this

 

1. Unless there is a specific thing a new driver would fix, I recommend against using any nVidia driver other than what is shipped with Ubuntu. Think about how your system currently behaves and whether there is something which a new driver would fix. If not, then you might as well stay with what you have. "If it ain't broken, don't fix it" applies here.

A good reason for not upgrading to something not shipped with Ubuntu is that the Ubuntu developers (and the kernel developers) will be unlikely to want to provide support if you file a bug report with an unsupported closed-source driver.

2. Now if you have a reason to go with a newer driver or if you just decide you must have the newer driver no matter what, then the best method is to use Envy. I've used it myself for a while because when I got my IFL90, the nVidia drivers shipped with Ubuntu were just too old to drive the card. Alberto Milone has done a pretty nice job about packaging the nVidia driver neatly. Envy will compile what needs to be compiled, install what needs to be installed and will integrate the driver with the packaging system (apt). The upside is ease of use and you get a driver newer than what Ubuntu ships. There is a downside though: the version number of the driver Envy supports may be a little bit behind what you can find on nVidia's site.

3. The last choice is to go to nVidia's site and install their package straight up. I've done that a few times. Not tremendously difficult but it does not integrate neatly with the packaging system and you have to be prepared to pick up the pieces if something goes wrong.

Edit to reply to other question:

Sounds right to me but without looking over your shoulder while you did the reinstallation, there's no way to say with 100% certainty that you did not screw up somewhere. In Linux, you're less likely to run into problems similar to registry problems in Windows, that's for sure. And whatever problem you have can be fixed if you understand how the system works. And since Linux is open, it is usually pretty easy to know how the system works.

Here's one easily fixable issue you can run into sometimes. When you reinstall the system and create the first user, the installer does not go into the details of which permissions you want to grant that first user. (I usually use the alternate installer so maybe the "desktop" installer is better in this regard. I don't know.) When I reinstall, I usually check what rights my user has, record that, and then I have to restore that after the reinstallation. For instance, I belong to the groups vboxusers and uml-net so that I can do neat stuff with VirtualBox and with User Mode Linux. If I just reinstall while preserving my home, I'm dropped from these groups. I have to readd myself to them manually after installation.

 

Best way to upgrade to latest nvidia drivers is to add the following repo:

https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-updates

Then just run the update manager.

 

This is easy to fix. SOunds like the nvidia driver didn't compile right. Reboot, hits ESC at the grub bootloader screen, and select the protected/recovery mode option for your latest kernel. When you boot, go to the option of try to fix x server. This will restore you to the standard driver. Then try re-installing the drivers from the link above. You may need to run the following command after installing the drivers:

sudo nvidia-xconfig


Re-installing ubuntu us the LAST thing you should do. You can fix anything from driver crashes to files system corruption. Linux is a lot more resilient.

 

I just got ubuntu too (early july) . Now that my speakers work, I'm tackling the wireless, it worked fine up to last week and now it won't connect. xfix is a great thing, I've used it once before for a driver mess-up. The only thing that doesn't work for me ever is suspend, but that doesn't really bother me.

 

Thanks for pointing this out. I see that Alberto Milone is responsible for the nvidia packages there so I'd expect the same quality as Envy.

One thing though, adding that repository might cause apt to upgrade things you don't want upgraded (for instance, the synaptics driver). You can use pinning in apt to prevent other things to be upgraded but pinning is a "female dog" [yep, I have to write "female dog" so that vBulletin doesn't censor me]. OTOH, Envy only ever upgrades the nVidia driver and nothing else.

 

cool, thanks for the info.. 3 new questions
1) Do you prefer 32bit or 64bit?
2) Is there an easy way to check for errors like the event manager in windows that lists errors? I'm storing a whole bunch of pictures and school work and I don't want to lose them due to a system problem...
3) When upgrading, should I do a clean install (especially since the next version has a new loader and file system)?

 

I prefer 64bits but I don't have solid data to back this up. The opinion I've heard from people who've actually done benchmarks is that for most people 64bits is not faster by much. On the other hand, there are compatibility issues (e.g. software which won't run on 64bits) on 64bit systems but these issues are becoming less and less.

Hmm.... I check the files in /var/log. Maybe there's a nicer way but I don't know it.

It depends on several factors. For instance, is the filesystem upgradeable without reformatting? Going from ext2 to ext3 for instance does not require reformatting. (I'm not sure about ext4.) I've used both methods myself and it really depended on circumstances which method I'd use. Some people prefer to do a clean install because it allows them to start using the machine from a reproducible state. Whereas upgrading without doing a clean install is not reproducible unless you save an image of the disk before upgrading.

 

I go with an in place upgrade.

Ext3 to ext4 conversion is possible.

 

So, if I do a clean install or upgrade an ubuntu installation in which /home is a separate partition, would the "incompatible" or "bad" settings stored in the hidden folders be removed, cleaned, or fixed? I know it sounds anal, but I get bugged by those things... maybe I should just install plain debian/gentoo eh?

 

If you are new, working through this guide is very, very helpful in terms of learning about/how to use your new OS.

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Jaunty

 

I think you are a little bit confused (LOL having Windows ideas of linux). Hidden files are just a dot before the file name "Visible-file" and ".hidden-file" to show hidden files just press ctrl+h and same to hide them

by the way, why don't you use 2 partitions "/" for root and the other one is swap. I mean you wont need a partition for "/home/" which is more dynamic as it will be less likely to run out of space from one place or anther.

Just a friendly advice: Don't get into Gentoo (You aren't ready,yet) also Ubuntu is better for you (Or any distro that based on it like Mint)
I would go and tell you to backup whatever data you want from ubuntu and format it into the way I told you, only 2 partitions (EXT4 and SWAP/linux swap)


For smoothing your linux experience get 32-bit (After you find your way on 32-bit you can move into 64 (6 months+))
By the way you should know that your distro isn't ready to fits your need from installing time (More of trying to keep away from property stuff).
The best thing you might like about linux is that you are the only person who can destroy it (Actually root,but who cares )




Edit:
I forget to suggest KDE (So you might want to try KDE if you didn't like gnome way)

 

When you do a clean install, it is normally not a problem.

When you upgrade, it is also usually not a problem because the upgrade process runs scripts to clean out what needs to be cleaned or convert what needs to be converted. However, upgrades are trickier to implement correctly than clean installs. For a developer a clean install is easy to imagine: you start from nothing. An upgrade is more difficult to implement correctly. If the developer forgets a possible case and does not handle it properly in his installation scripts, then you can end up with a bad upgrade. There is a small possibility that an upgrade will not go smoothly due to a bug. It sure has happened to me on a few occasions. Usually though these problems are easily fixable.

 

So I keep getting random kernel panics on shutdown/reboot which require a forced poweroff on the laptop. I've heard that this is due to bad IRQ management in ubuntu... is there any way around these, or is it something you have to just deal with?
These kernel panics can happen after I update, hardware drivers, or just plain normal use of the computer. On shutdown as the bar regresses from left to right, it freezes and the caps lock key blinks.

 

Nvidia 185 works way better with my Quadro FX 770 (Nvidia 9600GT)...I'd recommend upgrading that.

 

I was having random kernel panics shutdowns and it ended up being the intel wireless drivers it was using. It was the standard Ubuntu drivers. You should not have crashes at all.

 

Um.. as a note, by "random" I mean it will happen randomly as I am shutting down or rebooting the laptop. It has not happened while I am using the computer or booting (like other Wi-Fi kernel panic threads indicate). The closest solution I read somewhere was that a kernel update was needed, however I am not sure that is a good idea since it is not in the ubuntu repositories.