My Operation System Dilemma – Linux or Windows
If you have read my last post about switching from Windows to Linux, you may know that I had switched to Open SuSe as alternative operation system. Actually there is no OpenSuSe installed in my laptop anymore. As day passing by, I realized that the system became slower and slower. Even it was slower than my Windows XP. There is no point of using it anymore. OpenSuSe was uninstalled and I stay with beloved Windows XP.
After a few weeks, my friend reintroduces me with Ubuntu. Yeah, I know it. I have it once installed but having no success getting the right driver for Broadcom wireless card to function properly. Hey, but this time the Ubuntu is different. It comes with Compiz Fusion, which has super cool graphic effect. It is way much cooler compared to Vista.
Being amazed with the effect, I installed Ubuntu on the empty partition left by OpenSuse. This time, with a little bit luck, I manage to get the wireless card to work. The learning curve was not too hard. Getting used to Terminal, installing packages, root access and so on was not a big deal.
But then some problems occurred. The first thing which annoys me very much is the video freeze. It freezes every time I watch movie. The video freezes for about 5-8 seconds but the sound is still there. It is okay when I watch English or Malay movies, but when I need to depend 100 percent on the subtitles, such as Japanese dramas, it is awful! I need to rewind back a little bit and for an episode of drama, I need to do that about 5 times. I have looked for solution in forums, but nothing worked. Maybe I just need to wait for the update.
Changing platform is not only change the Operation System; you need to change most everyday software you use. As a photography enthusiast, I do use Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom a lot. Unfortunately, there is neither Photoshop nor Lightroom for Linux. Yes, there are some alternatives to such softwares, such as GIMP for Photoshop or Lightzone for Lightroom. But, again I need to learn them. After so much effort learning Photoshop and Lightroom, I should change to new softwares, learn them, and get use to them.
All these make me thinking again, whether I do want to switch to Linux. Do I need to fancy graphic effects? Do I need an almost virus-free Operation System? (There are lots of free antivirus programmes out there. By the way, after about two years using this laptop, it does not suffer any virus attack.) Does Ubuntu 8.04 more stable than Windows XP?
Gosh, I need to get some sleep now. Tomorrow morning I need to catch a train to Games Convention in Leipzig. Good night.
Give your Firefox more spaces
I am surfing on a 14″ wide screen laptop and somehow I find out that the I dont have enough space. The browser (Firefox) is cramped with tabs, Menu Bar, Google Bar, and Navigation Bar. A great idea is to make all of these a little bit smaller and pack them on just a bar. The trick is actually quite simple. First, you need to right click anywhere on the navigation bar (not on the button though), then select “Customize…”.
On the customize window, select the option “view small icons”, which can be found at left bottom of the window. After that, drag the navigation buttons and put them beside the menu bar, then followed by the address bar and search field. Apply the change and return back to Firefox. You will see that there is still an empty bar below the menu bar. To get rid of this, go to View – Toolbars, and untick the Navigation Toolbars.
It is very simple and no plugin required. What make me feel bad about this is, I have found this feature after years of using Firefox. Ok, below is the snapshot of my Firefox.
Have a great weekend!
Hey, I am back. Now with Linux
Hello guys. This is my new post after about five months. Oh my God! It seems that I write a post in five months. What a rate! Honestly speaking, I don’t know where my blogging’s passions have gone. Maybe it is because stress in study or maybe not. Ok, whatever it is, now I am back. Hopefully, I can improve my rate of writing. Maybe once in a month. Just kidding.
Like the title said, I am back with Linux. No, I am not boycotting Windows or Microsoft! Microsoft are such a great company, who gives us (most of home computer users) such a great and user-friendly operation systems (hey, it even comes with great IE7! Who needs Firefox?) and they new version looks very great to my eyes. Unfortunately, my old printer does not want to work on Windows Vista. Canon just refused to come up with updated Vista driver for this printer. Yes, I know, it is an old printer, so what? Customers are king, right? Or nowadays not anymore? By the way, it was also my fault of buying an old used printer (Canon MPC190), just to spare some money from buying the ink. I muss keep up with technologies or just borrow my friends’ printers.
Ok, back to Linux. Now I am running openSUSE 10.3 on Compaq Presario V3000. The biggest issue was the wireless network card. Before this, I gave up installing Ubuntu because of the same issue. It is difficult to find solution for your troubles with Linux, if you couldn’t get to internet. I needed to switch to Windows XP to get access to internet looking for solution for this wireless issue. I need to save the whole webpage and restarted the system and opened it back on Linux. Not all the solutions work for me. That means, I need to switch from Linux to Windows quiet a number of times.
This guide from Jabba Rants did work great for me. I still will paste the steps below because many of links pointing to the solution don’t work. The sites are not exist anymore. Sorry Jabba, I don’t intend to steal your content.
Installation Guide
- Insert CD and boot.
- When you see the menu to choose which installation type you want to do, choose the regular installation, but before pressing Enter, type: “noapic irqpoll nosmp” without the quotes. Those three words should be at the bottom of the GRUB menu in the Options line. Hit Enter.
- Go through the graphical installer. It is pretty straight forward and self-explanatory. Go ahead and accept most defaults as they are. I would recommend setting up networking and everything and getting updates with a regular ethernet wired connection during the install process.
- Once it is finished, go to YaST (Administrator Settings). Go to System and click on “Boot Loader”. Click the first item and click “Edit”. Make sure that you see “noapic irqpoll nosmp” in the Options line. If they are not there, add them.
- While still in YaST, click on Sofware and then choose “Community Repositories”. Make sure that the main repositories as well as the nVidia and any other ones you think you might want are checked and click Finish. After they are done being set up, click on “Software Repositories” in YaST and make sure that all the repositories you selected are enabled and make sure that the “openSUSE-10.3-OSS-KDE 10.3″, which is the CD or DVD, is disabled.
- Click on “Software Management” in YaST, and search for “nvidia” and choose “nvidia-gfxG01-kmp-default” and “x11-video-nvidiaG01″ to install. Then search for “ndiswrapper” and choose it to install. Click “Accept” and let it finish the installation.
- Google for “Dell R151517.EXE” and download that file from Dell’s download site. Open a terminal and navigate to the directory where the file was downloaded. Type: “unzip R151517.EXE”. This will probably spill files all over the place, so you might want to move that file into a directory that you can easily delete later. Once it is done unzipping, type in the following series of commands:
Now, if everything went smoothly, when your computer boots back up, you should see the nVidia logo flash across the screen right before you log in. Once you are logged in, you should be able to click on the KNetworkManager icon in the system tray and see your wireless networks. If you didn’t see the nVidia logo before you logged in, edit the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf as root and find the word ‘nv’ and change it to ‘nvidia’ and restart the X Server or reboot again. Hopefully someone will be helped by this guide and not have to go through the many hours of trial and error to get this notebook working nicely with Linux.
I didn’t use the Dell R151517.EXE file. The contents of the files are just the same like my Broadcom wireless network card driver for my laptop SP36684A.exe. Wireless and Graphic card issues are now settled. Now I am having problem with my sound card.
Ok, till then. Sayonara!
