school me on ubuntu..

iim trying it right now on my old laptop..im kinda lost on this OS

 

Maybe this might help.

http://showmedo.com/videos/series?name=QFBn7t

 

ubuntuforums and google would help a lot more than one(or more) of us trying to help you with problems you haven't told us yet.
Stating some problems you are having would help us help you. And I would highly suggest googling and going to ubuntuforums to find out about the OS.

 

Learn how to use the Package Manager. First thing to do.

 

I have no problems with it..its just my first time using it and would like some opinions or tips

 

Opinion: the wireless network detection is a bit laggy.

 

well.. there are lots of programs in

Applications --> Add/Remove programs

that will come in handy, thats my best tip for a beginner. There is almost a program for anything you could think of doing with a computer in there

 

A T61 should be an excellent candidate for Ubuntu or Kubuntu or Xubuntu or PCLOS... At first it will all seem confusing because all of your landmarks have been tossed out the window. You just need some "seat time".

Keep a notebook nearby, or start a document in OpenOffice and write down the little things you discover along the way.

Some things are going to be frustrating. But other things will work better than they did in Windows.

 

Very true, and excellent advice Telkwa

 

The advantages of a dual-boot are enormous....I can learn Ubuntu while not fully relying on it.

 

pixelot, are your drivers and firmware up-to-date? Ubuntu wireless works extremely well on my machine - an eMachines desktop with an inexpensive Belkin adapter.

And I agree with you Package Manager advice: makes life with Linux much smoother.

 

I learned everything using the terminal so I had to learn that when performing administrative tasks (installing, moving files, etc), I needed to include the word "sudo" before my command.

So installing GIMP (Open source photoshop alternative), for example, I would enter:

"sudo apt-get install gimp"

One last pro tip... although it's been said already but I'm going to say it again to emphasize its importance .

Google is your friend, and be prepared to read A LOT. Chances are any problems you have come across has been solved by someone else somewhere out there. A search on google will do wonders. The ubuntu forums are great as well.

Cheers!

 

I believe my drivers and firmware are up to date, but I just now installed all the ~200mb of Ubuntu updates. My problem is that it's a bit slow in detecting networks, whereas Windows updates the network list almost instantly. With Ubuntu, networks will remain in the list even when they're miles away.

 

yeah.. wireless is still fairly buggy. I got lucky however and mine worked 100% out of the box (so i dont have this problem)

it should autoconnect to the closest network though

 

Sorry to interject;

I installed ubuntu, but how should I update my system if it won't connect to my wireless? I put a WEP encryption, but it just keeps searching when I put in the password.

 

Can you connect with ethernet? If not, I guess I'm stumped if your wireless doesn't work. Perhaps a reconfiguration of your router until you can get your machine to good working order?


@pixelot: I only connect to my own network - the machine doesn't leave the house - but other networks do NOT remain listed as on your machine. I have no idea why that happens to you.

 

What's your wireless card? Also, make sure you have the correct encryption method....I believe I had a problem with WEP and changed it to WPA (my router)

 

Gigabyte wireless G card

 

Flapjacks....if it searches like that and doesn't connect it sounds to me like a wrong selection of encryption....that's what it will do until it times out. Have you tried different encryption methods? WEP, WPA, WPA personal, WPA2, etc

 

@Flapjacks

Use ethernet, as has been suggested

@bmwrob

It's not permanent, but riding in a car to school, I was testing to see how quickly Ubuntu would detect new networks, but even after the network was on the other side of town, it would still be trying to connect to it. The networks would disappear if I disabled/enabled wireless....

 

Flapjacks, when you left click the wireless icon in the tray, what signal strength does it show?

 

Even Windows will do that. If you're trying to do wardriving, you should use a proper scanning tool like NetStumbler.

It will try to connect to it because it's cached in your list of networks you have connected to, or tried to connect to. Ubuntu understands some people hide their SSID's, so it will still try to connect, even if you're out of range.

Wireless isn't magic. Unless the computer is scanning, it won't detect that it can no longer see the wireless access point. Same thing happens under Windows and OSX.

 

my t61 working with ubuntu and xpp now, some thinkvantage soft need support by microsoft, what a bluekey...