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Tetris999 · 29/09/2012 06:50 PM

Yay, finally a rather less retarded and aspergers-free post, yay.

You know, I really want to get into linux, but every goddamn time this operating system devours the precious time I have. Recently, I got a 300$ acer laptop (was on sale) for school since I had to spend 7+ hours on campus doing whatever and I needed a laptop that I could read and program on. Anyway, programming aside, I figured this would be the perfect time to install Linux on the laptop (since this is my first machine that isn't either extremely old or a tablet).

Of course wee all know linux right? First thing that happens is that the touchpad doesn't work, big fudgeing deal (literally, not sarcastically). I decide to plug in a USB mouse to move around, second, the brightness keys don't work (I remember this was a rather simple, but annoying fix, and because I couldn't remember it, more time wasted). After about 1~half hour of searching, I decide to stop wasting my time for a fix and go back to hurr durr windows.

The problems, if any linux bro wants to help me is that my touchpad was showing up under the hardware list, but even as it was recognized, it just wouldn't work, yeah, double you tee eff.

You see, I want to use linux, installing libraries is a synch compared to windows and I like the highly extendable functionality you get with the OS, but goddamn, when linux doesn't f***ing work, it doesn't.

I don't use windows because I absolutely adore it, but as a one size fits all operating system, it's hard to justify linux when all of the software is a lot more mature for windows. I just feel like linux is an operating system for a person with a lot of time and not a lot of pressing issues. I really liked using the command shell too (though I guess windows has the same thing but I haven't looked into how deep it is).

Also, windows has some pretty nice stuff that matches workspaces in linux, as always, windows surpises me with having a lot more stuff out there than I realize. For one example, I'm using this totally obscure program called Dexspot to have multiple workspaces (Really helps with programming and doing a bunch of stuff at once) and it was more feature in-depth than the granddaddies that implemented such a feature, even if it isn't as feature rich, it was definitely a lot easier to access modifying those features.

Speaking of pressing issues, I'm totally unable to even get an INTERVIEW these days, ugh. Probably my cover letter sucks, or transcript, or maybe just both; sometimes it's really hard to care much about doing anything in life when life disallows you to do what you want.

Anyway, the thing I keep telling myself is that the real failure comes when I finally give up all ambition to do anything and that's what I'm not planning to do any time soon.

God fudgeing dammit I hate group projects at times.

Joom · 29/09/2012 08:20 PM

When booting, hold down Shift immediately after the BIOS splash. The GRUB menu should load. Edit the entry for the kernel you're trying to boot (presumably the first entry) and on the kernel line, add this at the end. The line should have linux-3.x.x in it, or something similar.

Code:

i8042.reset i8042.nomux=1

ZiNgA BuRgA · 29/09/2012 11:09 PM

Drivers can be a pain in Linux - arguably not entirely their fault though.  I'm not sure about your brightness thing - tyipcally that's a hardware thing and has nothing to do with software... :/

Jobs: well since I know nothing of what you're applying for and how you've written, here's some generic things:
- try to understand what the employer is seeking - do they want someone who will be able to learn their procedures, or perhaps someone who knows a lot and can start working indepently very quickly?
- take into consideration that it's probably some HR person with no technical knowledge reading your stuff initially.  They probably have a checklist of requirements (probably stated on the job listing) and if you can't clearly address every single point, expect your application to be deleted
- following on from above, be clear and explain things you might think obvious.  Someone who can "HTML and Javascript", a technical person may assume they know CSS, but the HR guy doesn't.
- bullcrap a bit - everyone seems to do it; you used Linux 3 years ago?  You have 3+ years Linux experience etc

whjms · 30/09/2012 10:51 AM

What distro are you using?
And yes, I agree: Linux is for tinkerers.

S7* · 30/09/2012 04:22 PM

(30/09/2012 10:51 AM)whjms Wrote: What distro are you using?
And yes, I agree: Linux is for tinkerers.

Seconded - also curious about what distro you're using.

TatsuyaXD · 30/09/2012 08:18 PM

If it's Ubuntu touchpad works fine. Dual booted my laptop once with Winny + Ubuntu and it's just a smooth run.

Tetris999 · 02/10/2012 05:55 PM

(30/09/2012 10:51 AM)whjms Wrote: What distro are you using?
And yes, I agree: Linux is for tinkerers.

(30/09/2012 04:22 PM)S7* Wrote:
(30/09/2012 10:51 AM)whjms Wrote: What distro are you using?
And yes, I agree: Linux is for tinkerers.

Seconded - also curious about what distro you're using.

Fedora, Mint, Lubuntu, Ubuntu, and openSUSE

All had the same problem, so I figured it was a kernel issue. Going to try joomla's suggestion, I feel like it'll work but I'm too big of a sissy to mess up my windows install atm. :P

Joom · 05/10/2012 09:13 AM

Distro usually doesn't matter when it comes to hardware issues. It's normally related to the kernel. I have this same problem on my laptop, except the keyboard doesn't work as well. To fix this permanently, add what I said above to /boot/grub/grub.cfg.

FreakAlchemist · 06/10/2012 10:02 AM

Im sorry if im high jacking your thread @Tetris999 but i have serious problem with Ubuntu and im hoping everyone here can help.For starters i have a $400 theater pc that i got from walmart and it has Nvidia motherboard,Amd Athlon 2 x4 645 processor,4gb of ram,and an amd hd 6450 graphics card.I have an old install disc of Ubuntu 11.10 and when i use it everything installs great.The problem comes from when i try to install the amd 6450 proprietary drivers.It downloads the driver and installs it as if there is nothing wrong but when i reboot it im greeted with a nice black screen.I also hear the usual boot sound too.Is their something else im suppose do before rebooting or are the drivers not going to work no matter what i do?

Joom · 06/10/2012 04:35 PM

(06/10/2012 10:02 AM)FreakAlchemist Wrote: Im sorry if im high jacking your thread @Tetris999 but i have serious problem with Ubuntu and im hoping everyone here can help.For starters i have a $400 theater pc that i got from walmart and it has Nvidia motherboard,Amd Athlon 2 x4 645 processor,4gb of ram,and an amd hd 6450 graphics card.I have an old install disc of Ubuntu 11.10 and when i use it everything installs great.The problem comes from when i try to install the amd 6450 proprietary drivers.It downloads the driver and installs it as if there is nothing wrong but when i reboot it im greeted with a nice black screen.I also hear the usual boot sound too.Is their something else im suppose do before rebooting or are the drivers not going to work no matter what i do?

Code:

sudo aticonfig --initial
sudo gedit /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Run those in a terminal before rebooting and add nomodeset to the end of the kernel string in your GRUB configuration file. Kernel string looks like this.

Code:

linux	/boot/vmlinuz-3.x.x-x-generic root=UUID=UUID ro   quiet splash

Also, I suggest using the open source ATI driver. It's a lot smoother than fglrx and Catalyst.

Code:

sudo apt-get install xf86-video-ati

If that doesn't work (I'm not an Ubuntu user, so I don't know what's in their repos), try the following.

Code:

cd
git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-video-ati
cd foldername
./configure && make
sudo make install clean

It might require a different compilation method, but that's the gist of it. Ubuntu has documentation on their site for ATI cards.

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