Linux Nvidia Display Driver Install...

[Gamingphreek]

Ok seeing as I have created a few threads about recovering my WinXP disc... my Uncle suggested that I try Linux out. I have a Tablet for Windows based apps if i absolutely need to so i figured...why not?

I took this test thing and it looks like I am leaning towards Ubuntu or Mandriva. I am downloading an Ubuntu LiveCD right now. If I like it I can keep it and install it, but I have a few questions first.

*Can I get something similar to Word (Or Word itself)? I NEED to be
able to have Times New Roman Font, an Excel type utility, and
something that can save files as a .doc.

* Does Half Life 2 or any of the games have a Linux version (Perhaps
Battlefield 2, Doom III, KOTOR, ya know; If not is there anyway
for me to emulate the Windows environment to let them run?) If a
lot of them don't run it wont be too bad because then it will give
me an excuse to try and jump ahead a couple weeks and free up my
Thanksgiving break

* I'm have a Skype phone (We can't have cordless phones RJ-11 in the
dorms, and I got tired of trying to drag a cord around because my
Cell doesn't work so I got this.) I looked on their website and it
looks like it supports SuSe, Mandriva, all Debian based, and
Fedora Core.

* I kind of want my RAID done in Hardware. If I buy a cheap SATA2
RAID controller will Linux support it, or is there absolutely no
support for RAID other than Linux software? If there isn't I am not totally against letting Linux do my RAID setup.

* Is there a Distro out there that will be easy enough to use that I
can just make the switch Cold-Turkey (If so Ill use any distro you
recommend to me).

* And I have a patch cable going to a Windows based machine. Will I be able to transfer files between the two?

-Kevin

 

[Lepard]

The only thing I can offer is that concerning your preference of a Word type program, is no worries as there is OpenOffice. It is a great alternative to MS Office. There is a Windows version if you want to try it out.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Thanks, I have heard of OpenOffice before and it seems to be quality software. Can anyone else help me with the other stuff?

-Kevin

 

[Gamingphreek]

Also does Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Mandriva all support SATA2 and PCI-E?

-Kevin

 

[stupidkid]

Ubuntu and Kubuntu are the same thing just with different desktop environments. I know all popular Linux distros support PCI-E. As for gaming, any game that runs on OpenGL (Doom III, Quake IV, Unreal Tournament etc) will support Linux perfectly. Games such as HL2 and CSS will work if you use Cedega or maybe Wine. But must pay for Cedega. I've played CSS using Cedega before and it runs great. Hopefully you have an Nvidia card, ATI support for Linux is pretty bad as of now.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Nvidia HW except my HDTV Wonder (Drivers are horrible even in Windows though).

I have found they support SATA, but as far as RAID goes. I know Linux only supports its own RAID and not the NVRAID. Does it however support a PCI-E Controller card that does HW RAID-0. No biggy if it doesn't, because i can use the Linux RAID but if it does i might look into a controller card.

-Kevin

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
*Can I get something similar to Word (Or Word itself)? I NEED to be
able to have Times New Roman Font, an Excel type utility, and
something that can save files as a .doc.

OpenOffice, and the Bitstream Vera Sans font is similar enough that no professors oculd notice. OpenOffice has a spreadsheet program as well, and the word processor can save as .doc.

* Does Half Life 2 or any of the games have a Linux version (Perhaps
Battlefield 2, Doom III, KOTOR, ya know; If not is there anyway
for me to emulate the Windows environment to let them run?) If a
lot of them don't run it wont be too bad because then it will give
me an excuse to try and jump ahead a couple weeks and free up my
Thanksgiving break

As mentioned, HL2 can run on Wine (I only got it working in DX8 mode though). Doom 3 has a Linux version, not sure about KOTOR, BF2 has a Linux server but not client.

* I'm have a Skype phone (We can't have cordless phones RJ-11 in the
dorms, and I got tired of trying to drag a cord around because my
Cell doesn't work so I got this.) I looked on their website and it
looks like it supports SuSe, Mandriva, all Debian based, and
Fedora Core.

Skype seems to run on Ubuntu (Debian-based): http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS9221359619.html

* I kind of want my RAID done in Hardware. If I buy a cheap SATA2
RAID controller will Linux support it, or is there absolutely no
support for RAID other than Linux software? If there isn't I am not totally against letting Linux do my RAID setup.

Some hardware controllers are supported, others are not. I'm not sure where to find a list of supported ones but just Google them (preferably their chipset) and you should be able to find out quickly if Linux does indeed support it.

* Is there a Distro out there that will be easy enough to use that I
can just make the switch Cold-Turkey (If so Ill use any distro you
recommend to me).

I don't know. I had to try Linux several times before I made the full transition but SUSE and Ubuntu are great. I'm using Ubuntu now and love it, even more so than SUSE. Tons of community/support as well for Ubuntu.

* And I have a patch cable going to a Windows based machine. Will I be able to transfer files between the two?

Yup, you'll probably have to use static IPs for them to communicate correctly.

 

[h0nke]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
*Can I get something similar to Word (Or Word itself)? I NEED to be
able to have Times New Roman Font, an Excel type utility, and
something that can save files as a .doc.

OpenOffice. Its free and beats MS Office in my view. http://www.openoffice.org

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
* Does Half Life 2 or any of the games have a Linux version (Perhaps
Battlefield 2, Doom III, KOTOR, ya know; If not is there anyway
for me to emulate the Windows environment to let them run?) If a
lot of them don't run it wont be too bad because then it will give
me an excuse to try and jump ahead a couple weeks and free up my
Thanksgiving break

Doom, the Quake series, UT series, and more run on Linux fine. I only say fine not excellent because it will depend on your computer. You can use Cedega to run anything
else you need. Ive never used it (not a gamer) but have heard good things.

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
* I kind of want my RAID done in Hardware. If I buy a cheap SATA2
RAID controller will Linux support it, or is there absolutely no
support for RAID other than Linux software? If there isn't I am not totally against letting Linux do my RAID setup.

I think you mean you want hardware RAID in Linux? Well if you do I reccomend the 3WARE Escalade series. Best hardware RAID card in my opinion. Software RAID under
Linux is average at best. I have had problems with it, as have friends of mine.

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
* Is there a Distro out there that will be easy enough to use that I
can just make the switch Cold-Turkey (If so Ill use any distro you
recommend to me).

Sure. Fedora, PCLinuxOS, Mandriva, SuSE, Ubuntu, and more. Get comfortable with one of these and then someday move to Gentoo and build your own distribution.

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
* And I have a patch cable going to a Windows based machine. Will I be able to transfer files between the two?

Yes. I will not explain how, just google that and you should have an answer.

Good luck! Windows sucks!

 

[Gamingphreek]

Wow thank you so much for everything guys. I just finished taking my quiz so I SHOULD have the Live CD of Ubuntu Downloaded.

Well i would like to try to switch tonight and being a college student i dont have much money to spend on a RAID controller card. Seeing as it doesn't support NVRAID i can use Linux's RAID configuration.

Is this hard to set up. I honestly need it as i have no use for 2x 160 Gig drives.

Static IP's aren't too hard, im sure ill manage

-Kevin

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Wow thank you so much for everything guys. I just finished taking my quiz so I SHOULD have the Live CD of Ubuntu Downloaded.

Well i would like to try to switch tonight and being a college student i dont have much money to spend on a RAID controller card. Seeing as it doesn't support NVRAID i can use Linux's RAID configuration.

Is this hard to set up. I honestly need it as i have no use for 2x 160 Gig drives.

Static IP's aren't too hard, im sure ill manage

-Kevin

I haven't kept up much on desktop news, but last I heard a while back about NVRAID is that is sucked royally compared to Linux software raid anyway (for speed AND reliability). Linux software raid is very mature and one of the things linux is considered to excel at.

I have a year old file server running linux software raid and have never had a problem. Of course, I've also never had a drive go bad, so I'm not sure how rebuilding would go though.

I set up my system on a single 60 gig drive and then used Webmin to create a mirrored 2 x 120 drive array for my samba share. Using Webmin was stupidly simple. I run Ubuntu on my laptop, but I don't remember anything about configuring RAID during setup. Personally, if I was doing it, I would install Webmin in the LiveCD environment, use it to set up the Raid and partitions, then install Ubuntu leaving the partitioning untouched.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Well as long as it is all in the installation I wont worry too much about everything. I tried the live CD out and really liked it so i guess ill just have to bite the bullet and go for it. Mets-Cards are on right now so no better time.

-Kevin

Edit: Nevermind, I'm going to Radford (Im at VT) with some friends for the night so I guess ill do it tomorrow . So if anyone else can answer some more questions and quell my fears that would be awesome.

 

[SleepWalkerX]

I think everyone's pretty much answered your questions as well as I could. Personally I feel that if you got Suse linux you could switch cold-turkey. The installation is stupid easy and it has a lot of software already installed. However, Ubuntu would probably be more suited for you in the long run as it has an extensive amount of packages on its repositories.

When it comes to whether certain hardware is supported in linux, there has to be a little research involved. If you could tell us which card you plan on getting then I wouldn't mind googling myself if I have free time, but basically you need to find out whether the chipset used has open sourced driver support. Try to stick with and support OSS friendly vendors whenever possible.

 

[dhaddox]

I personally don't like Ubuntu because I think Gnome sux. I would recommend Knoppix or Kanotix because they use KDE and they don't rely on special repositories.

Openoffice tries to be too much like MS office in that it's slow and bloated. Try Koffice instead. Also, you can download the actual windows fonts so you don't have to try to imitate them, I don't remember what the apt package is called, but you can apt-cache search fonts.

As for games, only a few run on linux. Sad but true, and I have yet to get wine or cedega run a single thing, so they're useless in my view.

Skype runs perfecly well in linux.

Not sure why you don't want software raid support. Being based on unix, linux has a long history of quality in that area since it was made for servers, etc.

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: dhaddox
I personally don't like Ubuntu because I think Gnome sux. I would recommend Knoppix or Kanotix because they use KDE and they don't rely on special repositories.

Kubuntu is Ubuntu with KDE rather than Gnome. I like it over Ubuntu but both versions are great IMHO.

 

[Gamingphreek]

I'm still going to convert but I have a few more questions:

Which Antivirus? Symantec Corporate Edition doesn't appear to have a Linux version.

Which Anti-Spyware? Windows Defender obviously doesn't have a Linux version.

Anyway to sync my iPod seeing as Itunes is not supported?

Firewall? I guess the Nvidia Personal firewall isn't supported.

I have an ATI HDTV Wonder. After research it apparently is supported through Linux Drivers, but not by ATI. Will this still work? Will I be able to watch TB over my Cable or should I list the card and get ready to sell it? (I also have the Remote Wonder so it would be nice if that were supported too )

Can WINE be used to emulate most applications or just games? I want to use my ConvertXtoDVD software but it isn't supported by Linux. If not I can transfer it over to my Tablet and just have it save a .iso.

I copied my profile from Thunderbird so I retain all of my messages. Can someone tell me where i put that once I get Ubuntu installed.

Is there anything else I should know about Linux that I may not have yet realized. I will be on my Tablet from here on out as I am now restarting and beginning the Ubuntu install.

-Kevin

 

[Gamingphreek]

Well right before I restarted i noticed something else. I have a Linksys CIT200 phone for Skype which apparently doesn't have Linux support yet. It will be a huge hassle for me to have to connect that to my tablet every time I walk in. Do you guys know of ANYTHING I can do to get this to work (Any applications able to emulate this part of Windows?)

-Kevin

 

[Gamingphreek]

GUYS NEED HELP.

How do i set up the RAID on Ubuntu. Im in the installer and unlike in SuSE it doesn't ask me about that. I have the 2x 160 Gig HDDs. Should i format the first one and then will it give me the option to configure a RAID array later?

 

[M00T]

Google

 

[Gamingphreek]

Well im in the LiveCD installation, not the alternate CD.

Also its a little vague. Do i create a 10Gig partition of ext3 a 1 Gig Linux-Swap partition on each drive? And then what do i format the remaining partitions as?

-Kevin

 

[magomago]

just a point about skype (unless anything has changed....) : the linux version is horribly out of date.

 

[Azuen]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Anyway to sync my iPod seeing as Itunes is not supported?
-Kevin

Amarok has support for iPods.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Ok i followed a guide and i managed to get a 10Gig ext3 partition, a 1 gig linux-swap partition, and a 298Gig extended partition with a logical drive format ext3 inside.

However next the guide is telling me to mount the partitions with the command "mkdir /target". When i type that i get a "Permission denied" error. So i tried skipping it but then when i type "mount /dev/mapper/nvidia_agbbbdcf1" it says that it cant find that device in "/etc/fstab" or "/etc/mtab".

Can someone tell me what is up here. This guide told me to activate the NVRAID and get the RAID-0 partition up and running. And then it told me to partition the drive up on the live CD and now to format it.

-Kevin

 

[kamper]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
However next the guide is telling me to mount the partitions with the command "mkdir /target". When i type that i get a "Permission denied" error.

Time to learn how to use sudo.

Can someone tell me what is up here. This guide told me to activate the NVRAID and get the RAID-0 partition up and running. And then it told me to partition the drive up on the live CD and now to format it.

-Kevin

Why are you so insistent on using raid? Especially raid 0

 

[cleverhandle]

There are many simpler and more important things to learn than how to configure Linux on a RAID array, especially if it's not on a dedicated, true hardware card. Keep it simple and install on separate drives for now.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Well RAID only because i have 2x 160Gig HDD's and i dont like dealing with an enormous amount of partitions. I like one big fat partition (aside from the root and the swap partition for linux)

Can you tell me how to use sudo or whatever?

-Kevin