Anne Kowalski

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Installing Ubuntu Feisty Fawn

Since I’ve gotten my desktop computer running again, I decided to give Linux another shot and install the latest version of Ubuntu.  I had it installed on my laptop several months ago, but decided to get rid of it because the ATI graphics support was so flaky on that machine (a 2005 Compaq R4010US).  Scrolling was very slow, I couldn’t play DVDs...just all sorts of problems I didn’t want to deal with.  Linux on laptops is still kind of shaky.

Fortunately the experience was much better on my desktop.  I have an older Compaq Presario 6420NX with a 1.8Ghz Athlon processor that I recently upgraded to 1.5GB memory.  I had already sectioned off about 20 gigs for linux using Qtparted a while back, so I was all set to go with the install.

After I grabbed the latest release from Ubuntu and burned the image to a CD, I rebooted my computer, popped in the Live CD, and after tinkering with it for a few minutes chose to install.  (This option is somewhere on the Gnome taskbar.) Installation was very, very simple.  The only part where I had to think was making sure I installed it on the correct partition.  Other than that it was just a matter of answering a few questions about time zone, keyboard, etc and setting up a user account.

Once I logged into my account, the only problem I had was getting my Netgear WG111T USB wireless adapter working.  I immediantly thought of using ndiswrapper.  I had used with with my laptop with excellent results.  However, this time I couldn’t seem to get ndiswrapper working.  I have my desktop in an area in a room away from my wireless adapter, and didn’t have an Ethernet cable that long to download the recommended files.  To make a long story short, I was never very happy with that adapter, which seemed to be prone to overheating if used for extended periods of time.  I ended up getting rid of it on eBay and bought a D-Link WDA-1320 wifi desktop adapter from Amazon.

There was no problem getting Ubuntu to work with the D-Link WDA-1320. It immediately recognized it, but gave a warning message about it using proprietary drivers.  I wasn’t too concerned about the error message since it did work, but later on I plan on looking into it more to see if this means anything.  In the GNOME desktop (the default desktop for Ubuntu) I didn’t have any trouble getting my wireless settings to work.  When it boots up, I type in a password and it connects to my network.

In the KDE desktop, I chose to use KWiFiManager to connect, and had a little trouble getting it to work. Going into Settings>>Configuration Editor and punching in a few settings managed to get it to recognize and connect to my network, but it took opening up a terminal and typing in sudo dhclient ath0 before I could surf the net.  When I booted into KDE the next time, it immediately connected with no problem.  Maybe KWiFiManager needs a system reboot before the settings get applied?

Overall I’m really pleased with this install.  I’ve been tinkering with Linux on and off since 2001, when I first installed Mandrake 8.0.  Every time I try it out again, more things “just work” out of the box and it gets easier to use.  This is by far the least buggy install I’ve ever done, and I think it is actually easier to use than Windows XP.  Plus KDE just looks nicer .