Ubuntu driver installation?

Status
Not open for further replies.
P

Pommie

Well-Known Member
Most Helpful Member
I´ve installed Ubuntu on my main machine and it was all rather easy. The re-partition and dual boot just happened and the wireless network worked first time - I can even mount network drives. I assume I have the Gnome desktop as itś listed under system. My problem is with the video drivers, Iḿ advised by ubuntu that I need the Nvidia driver version 177 and I click the Activate button. A window (do we call it that) pops up and briefly (1 second) states ¨Downloading and installing driver¨ after which it still states that the driver is inactive. I tried rebooting but still the same. Anyone any idea what I need to do to get the driver installed?

Also, what is wrong with my keyboard, if I type Iḿ I get the apostrophe above the m. I have language set to English and a USA keyboard. I can get around it by pressing ´ twice but I´m sure there is a better way.

And, one last thing, how do I set the text bigger in Firefox?

Thanks,

Mike.
 
ericgibbs said:
Hi Mike,

Tools/Options/Content set font size/style
Click to expand...

Thanks Eric but I just realised itś not Firefox, itś Mozilla.

Edit, and now I just found out theyŕe the same thing.

Mike.
 
Last edited:
Well, I´ve been using Ubuntu for a couple of hours now and Iḿ quite impressed. You go to add/remove Applications and there is a huge list, click on one and off it goes and gets it of the internet. The internet access is just stunning, it seems to be many times faster than Windows. I´ve not yet figured out how to install (or other wise find) g++ but Iḿ sure it will all fall into place soon.

BTW, does everyone else see my apostrophes as an acute accent? I.E. Iḿ instead of I´m.

Mike.
 

The I've is OK but I see Im with the apostrophe above the Im
 
Thanks Eric but I'm now back on windows. The dual boot thing appeared to work but when I tried to boot into XP it just hung. Luckily I cloned my HD and so I can switch (cable swap) back to my old system. It's 2AM here and so bed time for me. I'll play some more tomorrow and see if I can get this dual boot thing working and sort out the keyboard with the beret problem. I think if I can get the dual boot thing sorted I will like Linux.

Mike.
 

Hi Mike! Welcome to Linux.

I'm not sure on the apostrophe thing, but you can install g++ with:

% sudo apt-get install g++


Torben
 
My wife's laptop has Ubuntu preinstalled and she loves it. All we had to do to get Pogo to work is follow the instructions to get flash loaded.

As for myself I still like to run Slax off my thumb drive on her machine. I would recommend ditching mono as the M$ virus it is-it comes as 60M of Ubuntu to support a ridiculously small amount of very minor and easily replaceable apps.

As to the installation thing, go through the package manager... sorry I do not remember what it is called. It is GUI and available through the menus.
 
Last edited:
A quick update, as I couldn't get XP to boot I ran the repair console and fixmbr, not a good idea. After that nothing would boot as I seemed to have an XP boot sector and a set of linux files on the same partition.

As I had my old disk I cloned it again and so I'm back to where I started. I'm glad that I bought a new drive to try this on. I'll try again tomorrow. Anyone any idea what I could have done wrong.

The partitions I ended up with are,
XP (380)
Ubuntu (200)
Swap (???)
Vista recovery (25) (maybe one day I'll install it)
in that order.

I could delete the vista partition as I have the old drive if I ever need it.

I'll have a good google before I attempt it for a second time but if any one has any suggestions I'm all ears.

Mike.
 
Hi Mike,

One of my friends tried that too and it didn't work either.
The only solution seemed to be different harddrives, one
for Ubuntu and the other one for mister Gates. In our
opinion the problem is the bootsector of the harddrive . . .

on1aag.
 

No, dual-booting Vista and Linux works just fine. I've never met a hard drive upon which it wouldn't work. You do have to do it in the right order, though, especially if there is a stock install of Vista already on the machine.

Here is one link to information on how to do it: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

If for some reason that doesn't work, there are quite a few sites out there with information on the process.

That said, single-booting Linux is more straightforward, so if Pommie still has the the old drive to restore from, single-booting Linux is what I would recommend. Anything which desperately needs Windows to run can usually be run in a virtual machine on Linux with no need for dual-booting. This laptop is running Ubuntu 8.04 with Vista on the first partition, but I hardly ever need to boot Vista; all the Windows stuff I take care of with XP in a VM.


Torben
 
Hi Torben,

I still have the old drive but I want to get it to dual boot on my new drive. Mainly so I have a backup if all goes wrong. Once I'm happy with the XP/Linux dual boot I may even reinstate vista on the old drive.

Anyway, one question about Ubuntu, where do I type % sudo apt-get install g++?

I looked for something that looked like a CLI but couldn't find it.

Thanks,

Mike.
P.S. could be offline for a while as there is one huge storm happening here at the moment and lights are starting to flicker.
 
Good news, I reinstalled everything and it all works this time. Not sure what is different this time around.

Torben said:
Hi Mike! Welcome to Linux.

I'm not sure on the apostrophe thing, but you can install g++ with:

% sudo apt-get install g++

Torben
Click to expand...

Thanks Torben but where do I type this command. I can't seem to find any sort of CLI.

Mike.
 
Pommie said:
Good news, I reinstalled everything and it all works this time. Not sure what is different this time around.
Click to expand...

Well, it's good that it worked, anyway. I don't have any really good guesses about what might have gone differently, except that perhaps you did some crucial steps in a different order. The dual-boot setup can be a bit tricky sometimes.

Thanks Torben but where do I type this command. I can't seem to find any sort of CLI.

Mike.
Click to expand...

In *nix, the generic term for the cli is a "terminal"--in Ubuntu (assuming you're running the default Gnome UI), you will find one at Accessories|Terminal.

Note that you don't actually type the '%' at the beginning of the command line; that's just the usual convention in *nix to indicate a command prompt. In Ubuntu, it will probably look somewhat different. Say you named your machine 'athena' when you installed, and your username is 'pommie'. In that case, your command line prompt would look like this:

Code: 
pommie@athena:~$

. . .or in other words, <username>@<hostname><current directory>:$ . (In Linux, '~' is an alias for your home directory, so for instance you can always change directories quickly to your home directory by simply typing 'cd ~' at a command prompt.)

Just a bit more info if you're interested:
'apt-get' is the application which will install the requested software if available on the net, along with any dependencies it may have; 'install' is an argument to apt-get (bet you can guess what it means), and so on. 'apt-get' can only be run by root, and 'sudo' is the application which will allow you to run the application given as its argument with root privileges. So what you actually type is: 'sudo apt-get install g++'. (Trivial: 'sudo' means 'super-user do'.)

If you prefer a GUI interface to the software repositories, you can go to System|Synaptic Package Manager and search for g++. (On my box, a search takes a while to run since there are 25,255 packages available online for installation). Once the search has run, you should see a selection of packages listed and g++ should be somewhere near the top of the list. Right-click on it and select 'Mark for installation' from the popup menu. Any other packages needed for g++ to work will also be marked for installation. Click the 'Apply' button when you're ready to install.

If you like IDEs I would suggest also installing Eclipse. Otherwise there are huge number of good text editors available; the best are vim and emacs.


Torben
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

K
Ubuntu LibreOffice Glitch with Dock
Replies
0
Views
3K
KeepItSimpleStupid
K
K
Partitioning 240 GB SSD for Ubuntu Linux, SMB share & Renaming Drives
Replies
3
Views
5K
nsaspook
T
Trackpad Driver
Replies
17
Views
4K
TtOoWwAa
T
M
how to make a driver for a new hardware in windows
Replies
3
Views
2K
BrownOut
B
M
How to simulate a MOSFET gate driver
Replies
0
Views
2K
monaf
M
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…