The Increadable Journey to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

So , I have this lap top (Gateway model NCL20 , 4gig ram , 2x 1.3 GHz cpu's, 285g hard drive)

And I watch movies on it (mp4 files) sometimes at work late at night when things are quiet. And those movies stutter, and I mean a lot. And it's really annoying.

So I think to myself. This lap top has Windows 7 on it. The latest operating system from microsoft. And look at all the special effects. It's got to be a beast on the computer. If I were to put Linux on it , say Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (LTS = Long Term Stable ... they promise to keep supporting it for 3 years ) I could at least turn off stuff and it wouldn't stutter as much.

Now , before I go trashing my lap top , I did a couple of things first. One was to make sure I could find the windows back up disks I made. I aint toasting the thing if I can't put it back.

the second was a rather impromptu case study. What could I run on Ubuntu that wouldn't run on Windows ? What could I run on Windows that wouldn't .

In this case, my high priority applicatinos were games. Yeah I know , why games ? the answer is I'm a computer Tech. I get computers running. And now that we have a couple of computers running what are you going to do with them ? Yep. Play games. Someone else would load up accounting , or office stuff, but me ... my job is finished when you press the off / on switch and the thing turns on , so games it is.

and what games was I running on my lap top ?

Not a dang thing. The thing's graphics card didn't support very much at all. I just played video's when I was bored and listenned to music, and I already knew Ubuntu would do that.

And what could I run on Ubuntu ? There was a ton of free software that would cost hundreds of dollars , or more, to buy for windows. video Editing (just got a new video cam ..price is less than 100$ ) music editing (ok... gonna have to brush up on the guitar playing and the keayboard again ) all sorts of stuff .

Advantage : Ubuntu. At least for my lap top. For my desk top, Advantage : Windows. I'd lose my games and I aint doing that.

So I download the iso (disk image) for ubuntu 11.04 , which is in beta , and stick it in the disk drive, and reboot, select the dvd to be the boot device .... and nothing. Black screen. Give it 10 minutes. Not a dang thing.

Take the disk out , reboot , and up comes windows.

Ok, no damage done yet. Check windows ... figures. The lap top uses a 64 bit operating system and I'd tried to install a 32 bit operating system. *sigh*

The next day ... with the 64 bit version of 11.04 ... try it again !

Nothing. black screen.

Ok, there's an option to install ubuntu as an application , try that.

Permission denied.

I restrained the urge to throttle my computer.

So I have this old copy of ubuntu 9 kicking around , and I try that. And it installs and works beautifully. Wow.

except that ubuntu 9 is not supported, so it won't patch , it won't install additional programs , and by the way it doesn't recongize the network card so you can't get online.

Wonderful.

So I slip the windows seven restore disk in and away we go.

Restore failed. Didn't recognize the way the disk formatted.

*sigh*. I had a copy of XP at home, I could install that , let it reformat the disk , and then kill the install before it even finished, but I hadn't quite given up on Ubuntu yet.

Ubuntu 9 worked. so that meant ubuntu 11 beta was REALLY beta, as in buggy as all heck and probably the source of all my problems.  And looking on the ubuntu web page I see that the last stable version , the one with all the bugs worked out , is 10.04 LTS .

Down load the iso. download a special program that will install the iso on a memory stick (it's about 700 megabytes by the way, and it wipes any data on the memory stick ) and now I have a bootable memory stick.


Install that. Finally , the thing actually shows me more than a blank screen. I see it install , the network card works, it's a beautiful thing.

Now for the final part. The thing that started this journey.

I read on the ubuntu forums that the wind data stick I had would be automatically recognized and installed by 10.04 , even though it was normally a windows only device. Cool , I thought. (Huawei E181 Data Stick, proprietory to wind mobile)

Tried it out. Kicked it , tried a few things.

Finally. If you already are connected to the internet (through the regular network card) and stick the data stick in , It will search the internet automatically and find drivers , and the thing is up and running right away.

Except it has the wrong settings.

apn = broadband.windmobile.ca
pin = 0000
And leave any other fields blank.

And it works like a charm. And I'm online and everything.

And my movies still stutter.

Probably the dang cheap graphics card, the Intel one built into the motherboard. *sigh*. but I like Ubuntu , I like being immune to virii and stupid tool bars trying to auto install themselves , and every piece of mal ware in the world deciding your computer is their personal property. It's gotten so bad they now install stuff for firefox as well as internet explorer.

Well... my journey is done, and this old lap top is working once more.

Though no better than before.

Dang movies still stutter.