Noob Linux Question(s)
07mavribea
Perth, Western Australia
I am thinking of moving to linux (or dual booting) but have a few worries which i hope some can quickly help me with.
I currently have 2 computer running Windows XP on a network sharing files and printer. I wan to change one computer to Linux but can't change the other as family computer.
My main concern is compatibality. Will my network (file and printer sharing) still work. I play alot of games and wondering if they are compatible. I dont have a computer science degree or want to spend hours looking for third party apps written in German to get the thing stable.
I want to move to open source Linux but need a stable, boot and use computer. Can someone please enlighten me on my options, or bite the bullet and continue using windows.
:ausflag:
I currently have 2 computer running Windows XP on a network sharing files and printer. I wan to change one computer to Linux but can't change the other as family computer.
My main concern is compatibality. Will my network (file and printer sharing) still work. I play alot of games and wondering if they are compatible. I dont have a computer science degree or want to spend hours looking for third party apps written in German to get the thing stable.
I want to move to open source Linux but need a stable, boot and use computer. Can someone please enlighten me on my options, or bite the bullet and continue using windows.
:ausflag:
0
Comments
linux isnt the easiest thing to learn, ive been playing around with it for a few days and i still cant figure out how to install drivers or software...
can any one tell me how to install src.rpm's on Suse 10? lol
hmm... I'm not familiar with suse but on most other rpm based distro's you use
rpmbuild --rebuild file.src.rpm then go install the rpm's it creates... usually tells you the location it puts them in some where towards the end of the build. this is to build binary versions.
if you just want to get at the source inside the src.rpm you would use
rpm -ivh file.src.rpm.
Skryking
Which games do you play? Many games are Linux-native like all the versions of Quake and Unreal though some need a Windows emulation layer like wine or Cedega. Wine can also run many Windows applications though I'd encourage you to use free software that's available. Check out the Killer Apps thread to see what other people are using.
Right now I'm recommending that Linux newbies try Ubuntu or Kubuntu. Both are fairly newbie-friendly and though the installer doesn't have a GUI it's fairly intuitive and the defaults are appropriate for most situations. The differences between the two are that Ubuntu uses Gnome for it's desktop environment while Kubuntu uses KDE. It's a personal preference thing, if you're not sure just flip a coin.
Unfortunately, nearly all the time dual-booting is something you have to plan for when you built the machine initially. While most hardware is Linux-compatible these days, some things are more compatible than others and if you're planning on gaming you will almost certainly need an nVidia card because ATI has been totally unmotivated to optimize their Linux drivers and nVidia has been committed to providing quality drivers and support for several years. Wireless support is somewhat spotty with cards based on the Intersil and Atheros chipsets being well-supported and those with Texas Instruments and Broadcom chipsets not. Most sound cards are supported in ALSA though it's worth checking their soundcard compatibility matrix to see if yours is listed. Last but not least, you would have had to have left unpartitioned space on your hard drive since resizing NTFS partitions is very difficult without commercial software. You will probably want to use a spare, blank hard drive or repartition and reinstall Windows on your current hard drive.
Let us know if we can help.
-drasnor
If you want stable and easy to use the ultimate noob distro is Unbuntu And for games you need something like Cedega . You will need an nvidia card if you use cedega because ati linux drivers are a joke. And if you have a creative sound card you will have a very hard time getting it going imposable if your on an x-fi.
A friend recommened Ubanta so i think that is the way to go. He also recommended partioning around 20gb of hard disk space (of 120gb).
drasnor said NFTS partion is diffucult with out commercial software but i have a copy of Magic Partioner (i think). I also have a second 6gb hard drive so should i just use that?
Games wise, i play Counter strike source and world of warcraft pretty religiousally at the moment.
Again i am noob to Linux so why/what is SMABA? Is it as easy (*relativaly) to establish an existing network, like microsoft network wizard (and share printer).
I have an ATI 9600 XT and thinking of buying AUdigy 2 in future (have basic 5.1 onboard ASUS sound).
Last thing why do i need a third app like Cedega to play games?
Thanks alot for all your detailed help
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewforum-f-19.html
Skryking
You need an app like cedega because linux can't run windows binarys (The files). Cedega is basicly a translator it lets linux understand what to do.
Since you have a radeon 9600XT trying to game on linux will be very difficult you will get the proformence of around a radeon 7000 and won't get playable fps in css.
The audigy 2 is supported but you will need to recompile your kernel and add the kernel module for it well your there you can add support for ntfs reading (I advise agenst noobs recompiling there kernels because you will break it the first few times)
Your onboard realtek ,soundmax, cmedia , ect sound will probably be supported out of the box with oss but not alsa (ALSA is advanced linux sound arcitecture and yeilds FAR BETTER sound quality then the sound mixer in windows)
As far as I know there is no wizard for setting up samba. But if you apt-get install it you will get prompted to fill out the basics such as workgroup domain ect. After that your client will be able to connect to windows shares. If you want to share your printer or connect to a shared printer you will need to edit the config located in /etc/samba/smb.conf You will need to do this in the console first install a userfriendly text editor called jed (The command to install it is sudo apt-get install jed) then enter this command jed /etc/samba/smb.conf
Edit the file to your liking then press f10 and select save.
After that just restart the samba daemon
Type in the following /sbin/service smb restart
Ok now your file and printer sharing is setup.
I use an Audigy2 Platinum in my Linux system. You could recompile your kernel to add support for it (snd-emu10k1 module), but I prefer using the alsa-drivers package because it has more current ALSA drivers than the ones bundled with the kernel source. Using alsa-drivers doesn't require a kernel recompile but the drivers will be linked against (compiled) your current kernel source. Ubuntu's apt-get will do all this for you so all you have to do is load the modules after install using modprobe and add them to your /etc/modules.conf file (tells Ubuntu which modules to load on boot). If any of that didn't make sense, let us know.
Samba is another name for the Windows File and Printer Sharing protocol. When a Windows PC shares files or printers, any computer that supports Samba will be able to browse the network and see which computers in which workgroups are sharing. If you install Samba support you'll be able to use Nautilus (the Gnome file manager) to browse your network a la "My Network Places/Network Neighborhood" (see below). Connecting to a shared printer merely requires telling CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) the network address for the printer and what driver it takes. There's a few HOWTOs out there on Google but I've done it before so if you need help just ask. A graphical configuration tool for Samba exists (SWAT - Samba Web Administration Tool) but I've never used it so I can't comment.
Like Grayfox said, Linux doesn't know how to run Windows software without an emulation layer such as Wine or Cedega. Cedega is a version of Wine with full access to MS's DirectX DLLs since they paid the license fee for their use while Wine reverse-engineered the interface. As a consequence, Cedega supports DirectX games better than Wine but requires a subscription fee to work whereas Wine does not. If the Windows game supports OpenGL then Wine is a good choice since Linux supports OpenGL natively. Wine supposedly supports WoW and Steam so you may not need to go to Cedega. I don't play enough games to justify Cedega but YMMV. I dual-boot with Windows when I need to play DirectX games and try to buy Linux-native games.
6GB is adequate to play around in Linux but if you plan on installing commercial games you're going to need much, much more. If your commercial partitioning software supports resizing NTFS partitions then you can do that to get the necessary space. Just be sure to defrag the hard drive beforehand.
Unfortunately Linux can't write to NTFS partitions in a useful fashion though reading is supported. This means you can store all your music and files you won't need to change on your existing Windows partitions and not duplicate them in your Linux ones.
-drasnor
I think I will use the 6gb hardrive for Linux just to play around with linux (remeber iv never even see linux run). Ill stick with windows for playing games, especially if my radeon only get performance of a 7000, and i currently run css in 1280x1024 (on high detail).
dransor, it didn't make sense, probably because i never used linux or commands before. And i dont know about recompilling kernels either but i sure once i start playing around it will all become clear (i hope).
One last thing, do you know of any good links for guides on setting up dual booting (with windows and linux) and some learn how to use linux guides and basic commands.
Thanks alot again for all your help, very much appreciated
If you want to use GRUB (Linux's bootloader) to start your PC:
http://www.devhood.com/tutorials/tutorial_details.aspx?tutorial_id=405
If you want to use NTLoader (Windows's bootloader):
http://enterprise.linux.com/article.pl?sid=05/02/16/1919205&tid=129&tid=49
As far as basic commands go, I learned using a book but we have a Linux shell guide in the pipe so stay tuned.
-drasnor
Oh, no worries: Here's a screenshot:
BTW, if you're looking for simplicity and features at the same time now I have to recommend KDE. Gnome used to be good but they basically removed everything to allow retarded people to use it. If you want something alot lighter try Gnome-light or XFCE4. If you want something stupidly fast and light try Fluxbox (these are all Window managers and desktop environments btw, not Distros or anything, so its just whichever you like the look and feel of most).