Any ubuntu guides for *total* beginners?

[timzak]

I've never tried any version of Linux before this weekend. Decided to put ubuntu 7.04 on an old rig and see what it's all about. Tried going to ubuntu's forums and under the newbie section, was still saying "huh?" at some of the tips. This is because they use terminology that a newbie wouldn't understand. They tell you what to do, but not HOW (step by step). I found myself getting half-way through tutorials and getting stuck because they don't say HOW to complete the next step. I couldn't even figure out how to install nvidia drivers for my video card! Got conflicting info on if my card was legacy or not and when I'd try both ways, somehow the directions would be off (they'd say do "this" and I couldn't see the option on my screen, etc). That said, does anyone know of a good beginners website or walkthru that I could follow to help me set up and configure the OS on my old rig? Here's the specs. Might get a chuckle out of some oldtimers:

P3-1000/133 running at 750Mhz because mobo only has 100Mhz FSB (socket 370 cpu on a slotket)
Abit BE6
GF3 Ti200
512MB PC100
SBLive! original
Linksys LNE100TX v5
Diamond Fireport 40 SCSI adaptor
Seagate Cheetah 18LP-AV (Windows installed)
Western Digital 20GB (ubuntu installed on)

When I enabled the restricted mode setting for the video card (please forgive my poor use of terminology), I'd lose all my standard refresh rates in the screen res changer. It was giving me options for like 50hz, 51hz, etc. And when I'd switch, my monitor's OSD wouldn't agree with it. Then when I disabled the restricted mode thing again, I'd get back the real refresh rate settings.

Thanks for any help.

 

[blackangst1]

I would get familiar with the official ubuntu foruns at http://ubuntuforums.org/

Very very helpful community. Moist of my questions were answered by searching when I played with ubuntu.

 

[xtknight]

If your questions are easy almost anyone at #ubuntu irc.freenode.net will be able to answer. I hang out there too. There are some very knowledge people there.

 

[FreedomGUNDAM]

i'm reading Ubuntu Linux for non-geeks right now.

 

[Robor]

There is an pretty steep initial learning curve when going from Windows to Linux. Usually getting Ubuntu installed isn't too difficult. The hard part is when you run into something that doesn't work and have to find out why. It's difficult at first but after a little while things start to make sense. One big friend: Google. Google the problem and include Ubuntu in the search and you will usually find others in the same situation. UbuntuForums.org is also great for How To's.

 

[timzak]

Thx, I guess I just need to roll up my sleeves. I was amazed how difficult it was to figure out IF I needed to update video drivers, HOW to do it, do I use the Linux drivers on Nvidia's site, etc. Then when I read the directions on Nvidia's site for installing their Linux drivers, "Type "sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-9755-pkg1.run" to install the driver." I was like, where do I type this? Then when I found the console thingy and typed that in, I got an error message. I still don't know if Nvidia's Linux drivers work on Ubuntu or not. I'm going to have to invest some time here...thanks for the replies.

 

[M00T]

If you would like more foundational knowledge on linux, a good bootcamp style course would be to install gentoo on a spare machine. It put me over the hump after so many years of Redhat GUI ignorance.

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: timzak
Thx, I guess I just need to roll up my sleeves. I was amazed how difficult it was to figure out IF I needed to update video drivers, HOW to do it, do I use the Linux drivers on Nvidia's site, etc. Then when I read the directions on Nvidia's site for installing their Linux drivers, "Type "sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-9755-pkg1.run" to install the driver." I was like, where do I type this? Then when I found the console thingy and typed that in, I got an error message. I still don't know if Nvidia's Linux drivers work on Ubuntu or not. I'm going to have to invest some time here...thanks for the replies.

In most cases the video driver is going to work right out of the box. Unless something isn't working for you I'd run the default driver 'as is' - you can always check for updates later. If it's not working usually all you have to do is get your xorg.conf file straight. Depending on what driver you're using there's different commands to do it. It's intimidating and frustrating at first but everything you learn builds on what you know and eventually it starts making sense. Just remember, when you get frustrated don't give up. 🙂

 

[Nothinman]

I still don't know if Nvidia's Linux drivers work on Ubuntu or not. I'm going to have to invest some time here...thanks for the replies.

They do but you don't need the ones from nVidia's site as they should be installed with the restricted-modules package. Also using the .run file from nVidia is generally a bad thing too because it overwrites files that should be managed by the package manager.

 

[Alone]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

I still don't know if Nvidia's Linux drivers work on Ubuntu or not. I'm going to have to invest some time here...thanks for the replies.

They do but you don't need the ones from nVidia's site as they should be installed with the restricted-modules package. Also using the .run file from nVidia is generally a bad thing too because it overwrites files that should be managed by the package manager.

I've used the .run files for a while now and haven't run into any problems.

 

[drag]

The run file is ok.

The downside is that every time you do a kernel update or update part of X.org (both of which are fairly common) what will happen is that you will break X and you'll be operating at the command line until your re-install nvidia's drivers.

It's preferable to install the distribution pre-packaged drivers if you can. It will still probably break, since it's propriatory software and propriatory software almost invariably breaks in a fluid software distribution, but it's going to be less often.


......


For in-deapth Guides to using Linux for new users you can find books at any large-ish book store. Linux books have been quite popular in the computer sections for many years.

The problem is that you need to pick something that is relatively recent. You don't want to pick up a book about Fedora core 2 or Redhat 9. Look at the dates and such, see if you can find anything from the past year or so.

Unfortunately I don't have any recommendations on what book to get.

 

[Nothinman]

I've used the .run files for a while now and haven't run into any problems.

You're lucky then because any time you update the system there's a chance it'll replace the nVidia files with the original package files and you'll lose DRI. A friend of mine actually had things break on every boot because some startup script was replacing the files for him.