Reilly2040's Blog

So, I decided to take the plunge, and partition off a small (couple of Gb) Linux system on my laptop, to see if it would be usable enough to replace Windows on it.

So, I put on Ubuntu 8.04, and in fairness to it (you can tell this is going to end well ), most stuff worked perfectly. Graphics and sound worked no problem, although by default the switch to enable headphone jack sensing was switched to off. However once I found the option in the mixer, it worked perfectly. Graphics (intel-based) ran fine at 1024×768, with even Compiz working fine (although I switched it off as its not really needed on my laptop).

However, there was a big problem. Wifi.

Now, Ethernet worked fine. I plugged in a cable, set the IP address etc, and the laptop was online no problem. However my wifi light remained dark. A quick bit of reading up, and I found out my wireless card (Broadcom 4306) needed to use either ndiswrapper or the new B43-fwcutter to use the Windows driver/access the firmware code. Fair enough. I tried both, and in both cases the blue light came on. However also in both cases, I couldn’t connect to my WPA-secured network.

After spending an afternoon messing about with it. I admitted defeat.

In the evening though, I thought, as a last-ditch attempt, I’ll try Mandriva just to see if another distro can sort it out.  I installed the system, and was very happy to see that one of the last steps in the installation was to select the driver (I picked B43-fwcutter) and enter all your wireless settings.  Something I must admit I prefer to Ubuntu’s (sort it out after you’ve rebooted approach, although there’s no real benefit to either).

Much to my surprise, the wifi sprung to life.  The blue light came on, and it connected.   I was pretty happy.

However, I do prefer Ubuntu’s package management.  So I thought that perhaps KDE made the difference.  So I tried installing Kubuntu.  Long story short, I must admit, I found Kubuntu much less polished than the main distro, but I also was back to having a non-working wifi.

Currently I’ve reinstalled Mandriva.  However, big surprise, the wifi’s playing up again.   I’m pretty much at the point of sticking to Windows, and just trying to ensure that my next laptop (which is probably a while away) has a natively-supported wifi chipset.

I am wondering however if part of the problem is me trying out different drivers (ndiswrapper and b43-fwcutter) and if they’re causing problems for each other.   Of course, installing one uninstalls the other, and I update the blacklist as appropriate, but given that I did get it working under Mandriva at one point, I am stuck wondering what exactly is going on.

Hmmm, not put up any new posts for a while.

The other weekend, I decided to finally do something with the spare partition on my Linux drive.

Since getting the new drive, the intention had always been to have a main Ubuntu setup, and a couple of other distros to play with. Since I’d been impressed with SuSE, it was the 2nd distro, but until recently the third spot had been free.

After some deliberation, I decided to install PCLinuxOS. According to Linux Format, its flavour of the month, and is fast rivalling Ubuntu’s popularity as an easy-to-use distro.

Sadly, it proved to be too much grief for me. There was something about my hardware it really didn’t like.

On booting up after the install:

Strike 1 – no sound. Well, in fairness Ubuntu has issues in that area as well (although seems fixed in the Hardy Alpha4 liveCD I tried – and in Ubuntu at least, its quickly sorted).

Strike 2 – no NVidia drivers. Well, some distros are funny about carrying them, so maybe I’ve just been spoiled by Ubuntu automatically detecting the card and asking me if I wanted to install them.

Strike 3 – No ethernet. This broke the camel’s back for me. Every other distro and live CD I’ve tried has had no problems detecting my Ethernet. Just two of these problems and I might’ve stuck with it, but no ethernet was really a killer. I didn’t see why I should spend time trying to fix something so vital when I had other distros sitting there.

So, I went back to the Linux Format distro heaven DVD and looked to see what else there was. Then Mandriva caught my eye.

When I was last into Linux. Mandrake was the distro of choice for many users, and that included myself. Having fond memories of it, I thought I’d give this latest incarnation a spin.

What a difference.

Everything just worked from the outset. On rebooting after the install, I was greeted with the NVidia logo with no prompting (although I appreciate that not automatically installing their drivers is a matter of principle with other distros like Ubuntu). My ethernet was up and running no bother, and my sound was clear as a bell (score one over Ubuntu).

While Mandriva may not be the big name it used to be, I must admit, from my first impressions its still an incredibly good desktop distribution. Its been the easiest to install and get up and running from the ones I’ve tried so far, and KDE’s as easy to use as you’d expect (although I’m still a GNOME man).

Definitely worth a try if you’re looking for an easy distro.

I do still find the PCLinuxOS thing a bit strange though. Given its glowing reviews, and the fact that its actually based on Mandriva, I’m really at a loss to explain the problems I had. I’m sure other people have had more luck than me with it, but as I say, first impressions – especially with a system that was for mucking about – didn’t give me much reason to stick with it.