Linux Questions

Richard Beer · 10 Jul 2007 at 00:32

Ok im thinking of ordering a second HDD so i can duel boot linux. The thing is, i have a few questions. I have tried up to date 3 linux distro's, Mandriva One. Ubuntu and Mint. I find that mint is a good one, I liked ubuntu but it was a little fiddly and but it did have the top bar that I liked whilst Mint doesn't but mint comes with all the music codecs and add ons etc. What I was wanting to know was.

1) How do i connect my wirless network to my linux, the only way I could do it with ubuntu was by ethernet, in which case I had to take my pc downstairs.

2) How do I get the desktop effects to work, I tried enabling them but nothing happened, I have a Nvidia Geforce 7600 GT so I should be able to handle the graphics.

3) I was thinking of using wine in it, does wine support msn messanger and do I install windows apps just the same as I would on windows if I am running wine?

SiriusB · 10 Jul 2007 at 00:43

1: Not long ago Ubuntu released their newest version, Feisty Fawn. Among many of its improved features and functionality was support for wireless connections. Feisty Fawn will be able to connect to a wireless network straight out the box, so to speak.

2: Not sure which desktop effects you mean, I am not familiar with Mint.

3: WINE supports quite a lot of windows applications and yes it allows you to install windows apps in much the same way. The only difference is you go to the command line and enter

Code:

wine filename.exe

and it will install just like in Windows. I don't know if WINE specifically lets you install MSN Messenger. But I should let you know that using WINE isn't the best option given Linux has several alternatives to pretty much any Windows app. For instance, there are a few different FREE instant messenger that will let you connect to the MSN network. I use GAIM which is, by and large, very similar to MSN. It goes one better too and lets you have tabbed conversation windows. Something Live Messenger doesn't have to my knowledge.

Richard Beer · 10 Jul 2007 at 00:57

true, I didnt know ubuntu had released the next version, The last one I used was 6.06

SiriusB · 10 Jul 2007 at 08:06

6.06 was Dapper Drake. Ubuntu went through Edgy Eft [6.10] before we got to Feisty Fawn [7.04]

So much has changed

.walls · 10 Jul 2007 at 11:00

Richard Beer said:
1) How do i connect my wirless network to my linux, the only way I could do it with ubuntu was by ethernet, in which case I had to take my pc downstairs.

It entirely depends on your setup - some wireless cards are more supported than others (e.g. I have found usb adapters pretty difficult to get running due to lack of support + drivers) - however, you can use NDISwrapper to use windows networking drivers...

Richard Beer said:
2) How do I get the desktop effects to work, I tried enabling them but nothing happened, I have a Nvidia Geforce 7600 GT so I should be able to handle the graphics.

Have you installed the proprietry drivers from nVidia? I don't think you'll get 3d support until you do...

Richard Beer said:
3) I was thinking of using wine in it, does wine support msn messanger and do I install windows apps just the same as I would on windows if I am running wine?

A lot of applications will install and run fine in Wine - however, there are plenty of OSS alternatives - aMSN, gaim [now called pidgin] and kopette all do excellent jobs of replacing msn and they all run natively.

You can install windows apps the same (assuming that you tell your desktop manager that .exe files should be opened with Wine) - but why would you want to when there are so many open source applications that do the same things? (admittedly, there are apps which really don't have linux replacements - but not very many).

SiriusB · 10 Jul 2007 at 12:46

=walls= said:
It entirely depends on your setup - some wireless cards are more supported than others (e.g. I have found usb adapters pretty difficult to get running due to lack of support + drivers) - however, you can use NDISwrapper to use windows networking drivers...

This shouldn't be needed. I found a much better solution here: http://www.debianadmin.com/enable-wpa-wireless-access-point-in-ubuntu-linux.html

There is a command for restarting a part of the gnome desktop "sudo /etc/init.d/dbus restart". Don't bother. Easier to just reboot as that command never seems to work.

Having said all that, the above is only needed on anything before Feisty Fawn. As said Feisty has WPA support out the box.

.walls · 10 Jul 2007 at 12:53

SiriusB said:
This shouldn't be needed.

shouldn't be - but as a last resort, it's available...

SiriusB said:
There is a command for restarting a part of the gnome desktop "sudo /etc/init.d/dbus restart". Don't bother. Easier to just reboot as that command never seems to work.

Restarting X [ctrl+alt+backspace] or changing runlevel to 3, then back to 5

Code:

# init 3
# init 5

should restart all of gnome and is quicker than restarting the whole machine...

SiriusB · 10 Jul 2007 at 13:18

You learn something new every day!

Richard Beer · 10 Jul 2007 at 13:23

the reason i wanted wine or a program similar is so i can run counterstrike source in it, hopefully it should run. Although the only problem with mint i have is that i prefer the top bar instead of a start button.

SiriusB · 10 Jul 2007 at 13:33

Isn't Mint based on Ubuntu? What desktop does it run?

I assume you could configure the desktop to allow a top bar, if you still intend to run Mint.

.walls · 10 Jul 2007 at 14:01

Richard Beer said:
the reason i wanted wine or a program similar is so i can run counterstrike source in it, hopefully it should run. Although the only problem with mint i have is that i prefer the top bar instead of a start button.

Cedega is better than wine for Steam games... I play CS on one of my boxes with no problems.

Kicker is easy to move (the kde "taskbar") and I would assume that other versions of the taskbar are just drag and drop as well...