I need an idiots guide for installing Ubuntu on my E1705

Anyway, been playing with the idea of installing ubuntu for a little while now, especially after some of those flicks on youtube with the beryl graphics, I thought to myself "oh cool, I gotta get that!"...
Yeah well, apperantly it wasn't that easy, I followed a couple of guides, and the end result (so far) is that now I have Ubuntu 7.04 (Fiesty Fawn) on a dual boot with vista, but the Ubuntu didn't recognize my wireless or my graphics card and probably some other devices which I haven't noticed yet. Can anyone here help? I need a simple walkthrough of installing/configuring Ubuntu 7.04 (later on with beryl as well) on a Dell E1705 with:
T7200, 7900 gs, soundBlaster, Intel wireless N.
I think these are the main specs if you need any other info let me know.
I'd appreciate any help!

 

Well, I haven't been able to get Beryl working with same computer and videocard. I have a different wireless card though, the 3945. Did you go to the Restricted Drivers Manager? There is not much you can get from an install guide. It is just getting each piece of hardware working.

I recommend using Automatix for installing the Nvidia drivers along with codecs and commonly used apps. http://www.getautomatix.com/wiki/index.php?title=Installation#Ubuntu_7.04_.28Feisty_i386.29

Keep me updated. I can try to walk you through any specific things.

EDIT: This site http://debian.helicroc.com/inspiron.html has a couple of things that might help you. Thanks to Lysander in http://forums.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=125875

 

Did anyone manage to get beryl to work with the 7900gs? Otherwise is there any alternative that has the same effects? I heard of Compiz or something like that, does that work the same? Can someone plz explain how I install 7900gs driver in Ubuntu? I also have e1705/7900gs..

 

It should be possible based on this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKFYA86LxHc

I'd like to see how anyone else got it working.

 

The graphics drivers are available via the repositories. Simply go to Applications>Add/Remove Programs, search for nvidia, and select the drivers, then click Apply. You should be good to go.

About the wireless card, I don't know if Intel has released any Linux drivers for their newest card yet. Are you sure you don't have the 3945?

 

I just got it. Good guide http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-install-beryl-with-latest-nvidia-drivers-in-ubuntu-feisty-fawn.html

 

You have to use NDISwrapper for the N wireless.

 

I can probably google it, but can you elaborate on the NDISwrapper for the wireless?
notebook_ftw how do you install the 3945 card? I ask this because I think it might also work for my card...

 

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Feisty#How_to_get_ipw3945_and_wep.2Fwpa_to_work

 

You may also try instaalling the NVIDIA drivers directly:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html

 

It's much better to just use the repositories. Not only are they the latest version (97.55), but they don't make it to the repos without the Ubuntu team first making sure that it works right with Ubuntu. Not to mention installing by hand requires a bit of Linux knowledge and shell usage (meaning X is not loaded at all) whereas the repos use strictly a GUI interface.

 

So far I was trying to install NDISwrapper which after reading quite a bit, seems to be the right/only solution for wireless N (at least 'till the end of June). Allas, I wasn't able to install NDISwrapper despite all my efforts, and all the tut's I've read. What am I doing wrong? It could be that I first need to log in as /root? but I don't remmember setting/being asked to set a root user while installing Ubuntu, so unless my default user is root, how do I change to root in Ubuntu? (is there a default pass as well?).
After I can log in as root, I'll try some of the methods a couple more times, though if someone would care to give a detailed step by step of "how to" install NDISwrapper from a file I've downloaded and placed on Ubuntu's desktop it'll be nice.
Thanks.
p.s: you're comments are very helpful, its a damn shame I haven't got yet to the part where I can actually use some of your tips (installing graphics/beryl etc.)