Ubuntu: An Excellent Beginners Distro

[greeny_fastcar]

Hi, I just ordered some CD's from the Ubuntu website, and I was wondering if anybody else has done this??

If so how long does it take to be delivered??

Thanks

ChrisG

 

[Mpemba Effect]

Originally posted by greeny_fastcar
Hi, I just ordered some CD's from the Ubuntu website, and I was wondering if anybody else has done this??

If so how long does it take to be delivered??

Thanks

ChrisG

The current release of Ubuntu is not yet final, it is still release a candidate (Ubuntu 4.10 "The Warty Warthog" Release Candidate). Cd's won't be shipped until 4.10 final is released as mentioned on their site - http://www.ubuntulinux.org/download/

We will be sending these CDs after we finalize the 4.10 release: probably before the end of October

 

[greeny_fastcar]

Ahhhh thanks for the info, I didnt see that part of the site....silly me ey

I'll just have to wait for them to come then.....

 

[robmiller]

Originally posted by greeny_fastcar
Ahhhh thanks for the info, I didnt see that part of the site....silly me ey

I'll just have to wait for them to come then.....

How many did you order?

 

[greeny_fastcar]

I ordered 4 x86 CD's and 1 AMD64 CD

 

[deano]

Hi

if you want i can send you the cd's with the beta on, drop us an email.

Got Ubuntu on me power mac now, a few gripes but i'll wait till the full version comes out, is a very good distro IMHO.

cheers
deano

 

[greeny_fastcar]

Thanks for the offer but I managed to get a version off their website so i'll burn it to CD at the weekend, when I'm not working

Thanks aniway

 

[freebooter]

Is there an option to use kde rather than gnome in ubuntu?

 

[dirtydog]

Originally posted by freebooter
Is there an option to use kde rather than gnome in ubuntu?

Not by default, but you can download KDE via Synaptic, and then it will be an option you can select on the login screen

 

[freebooter]

thanks for the reply. I might give it a go as I have had problems getting fonts to work properly in mandrake but I am not sure whether I want swap to debian and gnome.

 

[dirtydog]

If you do a search for 'kde' and it doesn't show up, enable the extra repositories in Synaptic - I posted earlier about that on this page

 

[freebooter]

Part of the problem is I am on a dial-up and downloading large packages or updates is a problem so I pretty much have to stick with the included packages. I will download the iso's at work, is it possible to dl the different packages there and install them later?

I am tempted with ubuntu from what people are saying about it here.

 

[dirtydog]

Hmm yes KDE is quite a large download if I remember correctly, so it might take a few hours on dial-up which I realise isn't ideal I'm not sure about downloading it separately but I'm sure Mpemba Effect can answer that

 

[robmiller]

Couldn't you download the .deb(s) and install them with dpkg?

 

[Mpemba Effect]

What you can do is you apt-get or synaptic to to "fetch" the files (rather than fetch and install), you should be able to fetch the files at your own leisure so a bit one day and bit another. Once you have all the file use apt-get or synaptic to install them. I wouldn't download the packages one by one manually there a lot. I'm not quite sure how much (I'm not booted in Ubuntu atm) but in to install KDE on my current gentoo box i'll need

[ebuild  N    ] media-libs/lcms-1.12  
[ebuild  N    ] media-libs/libmng-1.0.4  
[ebuild  N    ] media-libs/tiff-3.6.1-r2  
[ebuild  N    ] net-print/cups-1.1.20-r3  
[ebuild  N    ] x11-libs/qt-3.3.3  
[ebuild  N    ] kde-base/kde-env-3-r3  
[ebuild  N    ] media-fonts/gnu-gs-fonts-std-8.11  
[ebuild  N    ] app-text/ghostscript-7.07.1-r7  
[ebuild  N    ] net-dns/libidn-0.3.7  
[ebuild  N    ] app-admin/fam-2.7.0  
[ebuild  N    ] dev-libs/libxslt-1.1.8  
[ebuild  N    ] media-libs/libart_lgpl-2.3.16  
[ebuild  N    ] app-text/sgml-common-0.6.3-r4  
[ebuild  N    ] kde-base/kdelibs-3.3.0  
[ebuild  N    ] kde-base/kdeaccessibility-3.3.0  
[ebuild  N    ] media-gfx/xloadimage-4.1-r1  
[ebuild  N    ] app-crypt/gnupg-1.2.6  
[ebuild  N    ] dev-libs/libgpg-error-1.0  
[ebuild  N    ] dev-libs/libgcrypt-1.1.94  
[ebuild  N    ] app-crypt/gpgme-0.4.0  
[ebuild  N    ] kde-base/kdepim-3.3.0  
[ebuild  N    ] sys-apps/eject-2.0.13  
[ebuild  N    ] kde-base/kdebase-3.3.0  
[ebuild  N    ] dev-libs/fribidi-0.10.4  
[ebuild  NS   ] x11-libs/gtk+-1.2.10-r11  
[ebuild  N    ] media-libs/imlib-1.9.14-r2  
[ebuild  N    ] media-libs/t1lib-5.0.1  
[ebuild  N    ] x11-libs/openmotif-2.1.30-r5  
[ebuild  N    ] app-text/xpdf-3.00-r2  
[ebuild  N    ] media-libs/glut-3.7.1  
[ebuild  N    ] kde-base/kdegraphics-3.3.0  
[ebuild  N    ] kde-base/kdewebdev-3.3.0-r1  
[ebuild  N    ] kde-base/kdeartwork-3.3.0  
[ebuild  N    ] kde-base/kdeutils-3.3.0  
[ebuild  N    ] app-crypt/qca-tls-1.0  
[ebuild  N    ] kde-base/kdenetwork-3.3.0  
[ebuild  N    ] media-libs/svgalib-1.9.19-r1  
[ebuild  N    ] media-libs/audiofile-0.2.6-r1  
[ebuild  N    ] media-libs/libsdl-1.2.7-r2  
[ebuild  N    ] media-libs/taglib-1.2  
[ebuild  N    ] net-misc/curl-7.12.0-r2  
[ebuild  N    ] media-libs/libao-0.8.5  
[ebuild  N    ] media-sound/vorbis-tools-1.0.1  
[ebuild  N    ] media-libs/musicbrainz-2.1.1  
[ebuild  N    ] media-libs/tunepimp-0.3.0  
[ebuild  N    ] kde-base/kdemultimedia-3.3.0  
[ebuild  N    ] media-libs/libmikmod-3.1.11-r1  
[ebuild  N    ] media-sound/xmms-1.2.10-r5  
[ebuild  N    ] kde-base/kdeaddons-3.3.0  
[ebuild  N    ] kde-base/kdeedu-3.3.0  
[ebuild  N    ] kde-base/kdegames-3.3.0  
[ebuild  N    ] kde-base/kdetoys-3.3.0  
[ebuild  N    ] kde-base/kdeadmin-3.3.0  
[ebuild  N    ] kde-base/kde-3.3.0

It might not be this much since you may have a lot of these already installed but it gives you an idea

 

[freebooter]

Do I need distro specific versions of these files? I have seen magazine dvds available with kde versions on but will I have to process these to use these with ubuntu? I understand the advantage with the package manager approach is that it gets all dependencies needed and in versions compiled for that distro.

 

[Mpemba Effect]

You might be able to use the file from magazine dvds however these are either specific to another distro (or i may be that it's not specific to any distro). I don't know what files are on these disks and I don't know exactly how to you'll be able to use them.

 

[MastermindUK]

Im thinking about installing ubuntu on an old system that can't boot off the cd drive. is there an ubuntu boot diskette? I don''t think the knoppix to ubuntu trick will work as it doesn't like the network card in the box...

 

[Mpemba Effect]

Originally posted by MastermindUK
Im thinking about installing ubuntu on an old system that can't boot off the cd drive. is there an ubuntu boot diskette? I don''t think the knoppix to ubuntu trick will work as it doesn't like the network card in the box...

Thats a good one! Theres no Ubuntu floppies that I know of Check the faq on the Ubuntu site, I'm pretty sure theres nothing about floppies. You're best bet is to drop the folks at Ubuntu a mail.

edit: Apparently you can netboot .. not sure if thats useful to you or not - http://www.ubuntulinux.org/support/documentation/howto/installation-i386

 

[dunc]

It is possible apparently.

2.2 The dreaded floppies

If you can't boot from CD, you can download floppy images to install
Debian. You need the floppy/boot.img, the floppy/root.img and possibly
one of the driver disks.

- floppy/net-drivers.img
To do an install over the network with a few common ethernet cards,
you do not need this driver floppy. If you have a less common ethernet
card, or pcmcia, you will need it.
- floppy/cd-drivers.img
If you have a cdrom, but cannot boot from it, you can boot from floppies,
and use this driver disk to complete the install using the cdrom.

Floppy disks are one of the least reliable media around, so be prepared for
lots of bad disks. Each .img file you downloaded goes on a single floppy;
you can use the dd command to write it to /dev/fd0 or some other means.
It's a good idea to them use cmp to compare what ended up on the unreliable
floppy disk with the image. If it fails throw that floppy away and try
again. Since you'll have more than one floppy, it's a good idea to label
them.

The boot floppy is the one with boot.img on it. This floppy, when
booted, will prompt you to insert a second floppy -- use the one with
root.img on it.

taken from /doc/install/installation-howto off the disk.

Haven't been able to find those files on the download site yet tho

Dunc