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n00b to Ubuntu...need help

rudeguy

rudeguy

Lifer
Hey guys I need some help. I just installed Ubuntu on my Dell E1505 and am having a couple issues.

First I can only seem to boot from CD. I have installed Ubuntu and I can see it on my HD but I can't boot from HD. I have to boot from CD and then choose "start Ubuntu without making changes". Did I miss something?

The big one though is that I can't seem to get my wireless to work. I keep getting the option to activate the driver for my wireless and have clicked on it to activate but then I'm stuck.

I am a total n00b to Linux and need help.
 
I am not too great at ubuntu either, but I think you chose the option to boot from CD, where it does not install Ubuntu. Like a live CD. You need to re-run the CD installer and instead of "Try ubuntu without changes to your computer" pick "Install ubuntu." After it installs, change the boot priorities in your BIOS back to the hard drive as first boot, instead of the CD-rom. If you leave it as CD-rom as the first boot, then it will keep booting from the CD instead of HD.

And for the wireless, I believe you need to configure it. Like enter the IP address you normally get on your LAN like 192.168.1.101 and the gateway (IP of your router), etc. Here is a page on the ubuntu website for it... https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/internet/C/wireless-connecting.html
 
Last edited:
It sounds like you didn't install the Grub bootloader, and it's using the CD to boot. Try this...

1. Pop in the Live CD, boot from it until you reach the desktop.
2. Open a terminal window or switch to a tty.
3. Type "grub"
4. Type "root (hd0,6)", or whatever your harddisk + boot partition numbers are (my /boot is at /dev/sda7, which translates to hd0,6 for grub).
5. Type "setup (hd0)", ot whatever your harddisk nr is.
6. Quit grub by typing "quit".
7. Reboot.
Click to expand...
from this page...

http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-24113.html

What exactly happens when you try to activate the wifi driver?

Edit:
Look at this page regarding wifi. It's a bit old, so it may be easier now. I'm not fluent enough with Linux to give you good ideas...

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=297092

Edit2:
Ok, I looked over the stuff in the last link, and that looks convoluted as hell. Before you go through all of that, try doing it the easy way. First get a copy of the Windows drivers for your wireless. Extract them to your Ubuntu desktop. Hook the laptop up with ethernet so you can download packages. Open synaptic, and do a search for ndiswrapper, and ndisgtk. Install both of them. Here's where I'm not sure what to do. You need to start ndisgtk somehow. There may be a menu for it, but I don't remember. If all else fails, open the terminal and type *sudo ndisgtk, and that'll open up a graphical front end for ndiswrapper. Now do what looks right(I don't remember exactly, but it should be obvious :^D), and your wireless drivers should then be loaded. Works now?

Edit3:
*I'm not sure if it makes a practical difference, but this may need to be gksu. So you'd type gksu ndisgtk. I /think/ sudo should work, but gksu is more appropriate, and technically correct for launching a program with a graphical interface.
 
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grrr.....is there some kind of "Idiots Guide To" for this? I kind of know what I'm doing but I feel like I am just missing the basics. I have run command line prompts since Win98 days...
 
Rudeguy said:
grrr.....is there some kind of "Idiots Guide To" for this? I kind of know what I'm doing but I feel like I am just missing the basics. I have run command line prompts since Win98 days...
Click to expand...

Lol if your not ready to get knee deep in it then you might want to turn back. Installing a linux distro is about the easiest part of using linux. Once installed, you will have a finite number of programs at your disposal based on whatever distro you choose and they will work well for the most part. At some point, your going to want to venture outside, and that is the moment where your either going to be a linux user for life or decide the agony of dealing with uncompiled software is just too much hastle and flee back to windows. Good luck.
 
Rudeguy said:
grrr.....is there some kind of "Idiots Guide To" for this? I kind of know what I'm doing but I feel like I am just missing the basics. I have run command line prompts since Win98 days...
Click to expand...

I'm glad you asked :^)

http://www.ubuntupocketguide.com/index_main.html


Edit:
It'll get easier for you as you play around with it. Computers are computers. Things are a bit different in Linux, but you should get it figured out in short order. Ubuntu's a good choice since it's well documented, and has a lot of gui tools for getting things done.
 
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ok...so the boot problem was my short term memory...or more correctly, my lack of. I forgot that I got an IO error when I was doing the initial install. It booted to the main screen so I forgot about it. I burned a different copy of the ISO and now that problem is licked.

Once I got that all straightened out, it installed my wireless driver (I think). I dl'd and installed ndisgtk but I can't figure out how to run it or what to do with it.

Sigh...its sad that I can come home pissed off at the world and find it relaxing to fight with a computer and be humbled to the fact that I really can't do everything.
 
Rudeguy said:
Once I got that all straightened out, it installed my wireless driver (I think). I dl'd and installed ndisgtk but I can't figure out how to run it or what to do with it.
Click to expand...

lxskllr said:
Edit2:
Ok, I looked over the stuff in the last link, and that looks convoluted as hell. Before you go through all of that, try doing it the easy way. First get a copy of the Windows drivers for your wireless. Extract them to your Ubuntu desktop. Hook the laptop up with ethernet so you can download packages. Open synaptic, and do a search for ndiswrapper, and ndisgtk. Install both of them. Here's where I'm not sure what to do. You need to start ndisgtk somehow. There may be a menu for it, but I don't remember. If all else fails, open the terminal and type gksu ndisgtk, and that'll open up a graphical front end for ndiswrapper. Now do what looks right(I don't remember exactly, but it should be obvious :^D), and your wireless drivers should then be loaded. Works now?
Click to expand...

I inserted my edit into the above.
 
thanks for the help.

Next issue: I can't play DVD's. I installed Mplayer and VLC but everytime I try, I get an error saying something about no URL for DVD.

I know the drive is working (I installed Ubuntu from it). Any ideas on this one?
 
Oooooh. Well look at that. I got the first command on that site to work fine but the second one didn't work:

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/examples/install-css.sh
yielded: command not found
 
I'm not sure what to do exactly, but you'll probably have to enable all the repositories(Universe, Multiverse). Do that, reload them, then see if it works.
 
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