Ubuntu question please?

I'm new to the Ubuntu world. I configured an Alienware m5550 as a dual-boot Ubuntu/XP pro machine is all seems to be working well. XP sits on 50GB and Ubuntu, on 30GB.

But these are some things that I don't understand.

1. I have an Nvidia Go 7600 256mb card. How do I know that Ubuntu is really using it? graphics are sluggish so I think that it's not. If so, how do I set it up to use the card?

2. How do I recompile the Ubuntu kernel? A website or two with instructions would help me.

3. How do I enable SUPER USER mode from a graphical interface? Sometimes I can't access the network settings--I've had to reformat and reinstall Ubuntu because I just couldn't figure it out.

ok, that's it for now. Other than that? Ubuntu's really cool!!! Just a few more tweeks and I may actually use it instead of Windows.

Thanks.

 

This is a good guide:
http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Edgy

 

Here's a guide for your NVIDIA card. Make sure you backup your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, because sometimes the drivers don't work right with some NVIDIA cards. If you've never altered you xorg.conf file, you can always recover the default using the command line.

http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/Latest_Nvidia_Edgy

 

All you need to do is to install nvidia-glx driver if you are trying to install Edgy. The nvidia beta driver will give you more trouble and spend more time to figure out what's wrong. nvidia-glx driver is easy to install, however you don't have much freedom to overclock it.

Here is one of screen shot of using nvidia-glx driver and beryl. This screen is not the best but did show a lot of transparent layers that you can expect including one HD video, browser, random ripple wave(just for fun). The machine is equipped with Go6150. I am sure yours will do at least the same thing.

 

I hope I can get some of this stuff to work with Dapper Drake (6.06). I couldn't get wifi to work as well using Edgy Eft. I'll have to keep checking their live versions to see if they fixed it. Now I need to locate the nvidia information for DD. Thanks all.

 

1) https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia

2) try here for starters https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Kernel/Compile?highlight=%28kernel)

3) well, Ubuntu locks you out of root proper by default, although you should only need to enter your personal user password for certain system admin tasks, but you'll get a prompt when you need it. if you want to enable a root file browser, you'd need to either hit Alt+F2 to bring up the run program dialog and enter

Code:

gksu nautilus

or you could also make a script and put it in /home/ yourusername/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts then you can right click in a nautilus window and there will be an entry called "Scripts," where your new script will be.