4 posts tagged “ndiswrapper”
From fighting with Zenwalk I'm at my limits... The drivers tricks don't seem to cut it for me and the lack of network connectivity via wireless is preventing me from installing the Intel 915 resolution packages. I really want to have Zenwalk work to do a comprehensive review on it, but it just doesn't seem like it's happening. I am somewhat at a loss as my parent's wireless router is not in the most accessible place where I can do a direct connect via LAN cable.
From booting the LiveCD, it's a pretty quick process. Though unfortunately, it is plagued with the log-in prompt on booting to the GDM Log-in manager.
Type 'one' to log-in
This could have been done away with as it isn't really intuitive to have the machine with a LiveCD to be waiting on the user to log-in. It's somewhat of a showstopper if you have to even log-in. Though in the manual, they say that the passcode of 'ZenLive' is required to do any root level privileges. The weird fact is that if you log in with the ID/password combination of ZenLive/ZenLive... all of the Thunar windows have a warning that you are the root super-user and to take care of what you do in Zenwalk. Maybe it's a personal thing, but I feel that a LiveCD shouldn't require passwords just to do simple things like install software to test out.
i have a fondness to how quick the system is. This is based on the fact that they use XFCE as the desktop environment and in combination with the principle of one-app-per-purpose. There are basic functionality applications installed and the presentation looks great (Zero's note: It would be far better if I could get proper widescreen resolution). It's not hard to see how Zenwalk gets its reputation as a quick but minimal distribution.
My big gripe is the lack of inclusion for the Intel Wireless Pro 2200 chipset for wireless networking. There is a claim saying that it's a proprietary driver that requires firmware to operate, yet there is a Sourceforge project that works and quite possibly implemented in distributions like Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora/Red Hat. If it was something like the inclusion of NDISwrapper, I could understand... but the last I remembered was Intel supported open source development! Maybe there's more to the picture that I don't understand... I hope to get some functionality up to retest out Zenwalk and do a much more substantial review.
I decided as I don't keep much on my machine and have web-resources to back up my stuff... (like del.icio.us for my bookmarks) I figured that I would try out Linux Mint just to have some fun and try it for a bit just to see how I like it. For having it installed for almost 5 days, it's quite an experience. The art is pleasant and all, but my reason for trying it was based on the mindset of the following:
If it's based on Ubuntu, then it should be just as great, right? I mean the basis of the software and core are essentially Ubuntu, it should provide a more fulfilling out-of-the-box experience.
With that mindset, I backed up my few downloads and files to my external hard drive, prepped the drive for Linux Mint, and just let it do its work. After about 30 minutes, the system was installed and I would begin use. True, Linux Mint has earned it's praise with me, but that is not to say that it has some things that I want to gripe about. Especially the fact that these things were not noticeable when the operating system ran as a LiveCD.
For some reason, the Window's style lay-out of the MintMenu irritated me and I had to configure it in the standard Gnome dual bar set-up. This was a personal preference, so it holds no bearing... I just would have expected that Mint would keep to a traditional Gnome configuration or that they use a set-up similar to DreamLinux. The Novell Gnome SLAB doesn't appear over all of the applications which is more of a bother to me... I would expect it to be on top, but sometimes, you have to click twice to make it appear over everything. That and when you click on something on the SLAB, the menu doesn't disappear... You have to click the MintMenu to close the SLAB.
Apparently the integration of the Mint icons wasn't very well thought out... as the other Gnome icon themes and any others that are used from Gnome-Look cause the sleek Linux Mint leaf logo to change to the Ubuntu circle logo. In a sense, the customization is a little limited from this set-back.
The oddest thing (to me, at least) was that the Metacity window theme was called "Cassandra Green", yet the windows were themed in blue. The irony was when you change to "Cassandra Blue", there's no difference in the window theming. I can only assume that someone who was in charge of the artwork portion had forgotten to change over the colors. I would have loved to see the windows match the great wallpaper with the operating system by default.
A pet peeve of mine and even a few other users is the old references from Ubuntu not thoughtfully changed over to the defaults of Linux Mint. The e-mail editor installed on Linux Mint is Mozilla Thunderbird, yet there was still a default reference to Evolution. Lucky for many, you can change that, by going into Preferences > Preferred Applications and change that. The second instance of this annoyed me because I could not get it to work... The default music player refers to Rhythmbox, but the installed media player is Amarok! I have the great and convenient multimedia keys on Suzaku that are a nice thing to have when you want to just flip through music and tunes. On Ubuntu, I had my "MediaDirect" button launch Rhythmbox and it was perfect! On Mint, the reference defaulted to Rhythmbox and with multiple attempts to try to correct it in gconf and MintConfig, the system would not change its binding to Amarok.
The final thing that disappointed me in Linux Mint was the fact of the "Install Software" command in the MintMenu does not bring up a nice choose and click software repository interface... It brings up Synaptic instead! Synaptic is by no means fun or easy to novice Linux users. Sure, they do have a software repository where applications are packed in .MINT files, but the list is by no means even comparable to the folks over at the Ubuntu GetDeb.net site! I am fortunate to have learned that Linux Mint is compatible with Ubuntu .DEB files or even installing from source... This came to me as a shock as I figured that a new user would definitely have no problems getting acquainted with Linux if they use Linux Mint... If the folks of Mint could give the users the ability to have a click and install/remove software menu, then it will have a great polish to the operating system that's very user friendly to those just diving into Linux.
I won't let Mint go away with bad praise... I do like the multimedia integration as it really is top notch. It takes the brainwork out of using the Terminal to enable extra repositories, apt-get all the media packages, then install. That being great for getting a PC ready to enjoy instantly, rather than 10 - 20 minutes depending on your processor speed and internet connection. The inclusion of Beryl, the NTFS writing tool, Envy, NDISwrapper are all great! Beryl is great, as you can play with eye candy without having to bother with doing the install and download for instant gratification. The MintConfig menu provides easy access to the system intensive parts of modifications, including a graphical editor for the xorg.conf file for display configuration...
I am just going to return to Canonical's work and just play with a different flavor just to learn more about Linux. Sure, Mint was an Ubuntu derivative, but it needs more polish to make it really shine. Tomorrow, after work... I will either install Kubuntu or Xubuntu after I deem whichever package is suitable for my laptop Suzaku. If either of those just doesn't fit... I'll gladly do a fresh install of Ubuntu 7.04 and return Suzaku to it's former set-up. I do hope to learn more from my experiences to come tomorrow.
Edit: I am adding my "final" screenshots of my Mint Desktop as a final respect to my experiences.
My ISO for Linux Mint 3.0 finally finished today and I honestly couldn't wait to get home from work to try it out... I know that it was just on the back of my head just burning away at me. Being the geek I was, once the final minutes of closing time at the office came... I just couldn't wait to get home.
To set the mood... Linux Mint is an off-shoot of Ubuntu that hails its development from Ireland. (Trivia: Take a look at the older Linux Mint logos, look familiar?) It is compatible with Ubuntu .DEB files and also share a good deal of the Ubuntu repositories. The stable releases have feminine names (like this release is called Cassandra), while the unstable and bleeding edge new releases (i.e. - nightly builds) are named Romeo. What makes Linux Mint so different? Here's what the Linux Mint site has to say about that:
Linux Mint's purpose is to produce an elegant, up to date and comfortable GNU/Linux desktop distribution.
But on the evaluation of other users, Linux Mint is already preloaded with lots of multimedia codecs and other goodies. In essence, taking out a lot of the work that would have been required to support multimedia in the beginning. In addition to that... The look of the previous releases seem to be relaxed and tranquil. Let's get rolling and boot this ISO up on Suzaku!
Linux Mint 3.0 "Cassandra"
On loading up, the boot prompts looked very similar to the ones on the Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn LiveCD (Cassandra's base is Ubuntu after all). After selecting the choice to run the OS from the CD, the loading procedure begins. There's a stylized leaf logo with an "LM" inside the leaf with "Linux Mint" and then the motto of "from freedom came elegance". Below all of that was a smaller version of the Ubuntu loading bar in a leaf green color scrolling during the load-up. The OS would load automatically and log on as a demo user named "mint", something the other two distros did not add to their design into their LiveCD's. This was something done exactly on the dot. Once again, my widescreen 1200 x 800 resolution was detected without a problem.
After the basics of the OS loaded... I would notice that there was only one Gnome panel on the bottom. Not the dual Gnome panel set-up that Ubuntu or Fedora had. But that's where the unique nature of Linux Mint begins... From what I have observed, it can't be said that Linux Mint is completely Gnome based. It shares traits both from Gnome and KDE! This makes for a very unique fusion and definitely a refreshing take on a GUI. On the bottom left corner, there is the menu button but it opens to something unique and not standard to the Gnome scheme... I knew it looked familiar, so I jumped to the first place I thought I saw it... The openSUSE project by Novell. It's the Novell Gnome SLAB. On scouring Google about the Gnome SLAB, it turns out that it's actually quite difficult to implement into just any Linux distro... This was impressive enough to me. The ease of navigation and a more centralized design for the system commands was a pleasant experience. There seems to be a bit of KDE dependencies within the OS as amaroK is installed as the music jukebox program, rather than Rhythmbox.
Applications... There's quite a list of them, but it was odd to see that games were not included. I was impressed to see Beryl was available as well as the NTFS disk writing tool. The thing that impressed me most was the inclusion of NDISwrapper in the system tools menu. It's quite bold to have that, but makes it possible for users who have unsupported wifi cards to hop online by loading their Windows drivers. I do wish there was a little more applications to try out as system tools and all can only be tested so far. Beryl runs a little faster than my Ubuntu set-up which has me rethinking about Beryl configurations. All of the restricted Ubuntu modules are all loaded... Things like Sun Java are Adobe Flash are all here, making Linux Mint a good way for the Terminal fearing user to jump into Linux just to get the multimedia support up and rolling.
This LiveCD is a rather light weight environment, so application loading and window rendering is quite quick. Little lag is great to really have a bit of fun with a LiveCD. That may be due to the stripped down packages within the Linux Mint LiveCD, but it certainly helps the pleasant experience. The desktop's colors are pleasing to the eye and that will definitely create a welcoming environment for the potential convert. I will definitely keep a copy with me as this is one distro that I will definitely be watching.
Below are some screenshots for your viewing pleasure
So I decided to go on a bit of a Linux distro testing "spree" this week so to speak... I figured "Why not see what else is out there? Can't be prejudice to the other distros as they all have their merits." I decided to run LiveCD tests as I no longer have a spare machine to randomly install and destroy partitions just for fun and the sake of reviewing. LiveCD's are a great thing... the ability to contain an entire basic frame work of an operating system. This is great for potential converters to test their hardware and make sure that compatibility will not be questioned.
Due to the size of this entry, I have decided to break it into separate posts.
I would use Alice's Sony Vaio to test out the first distro on review.
PCLinuxOS 2007
An American derivation of the French Mandriva project (formerly known as Mandrake Linux) has aims to simplify the Linux experience for the non-tech savvy user. After much refinement, their 2007 release has finally arrived to the general public after much polishing. Naturally, fascination would draw me into the project to see if it was worth keeping in my repertoire of great Linux distros. After a few hours of downloading through http sources, I would burn the ISO and begin testing on Alice's machine.
On boot-up, PCLinuxOS loads up a log-in screen that has the following message on the top left corner:
To me, I feel that this could have been avoided. The point of a great LiveCD is the ability to get into the OS in one shot and begin to play! So I have to dock a bit of my appreciation for PCLinuxOS on that part. I will say that the KDE User Log-in screen is quite well done in a sharp and presentable style. Presentation is always a good as it should appeal to the user. But enough on the log-in screen...To log in as root, use the password: root
To log in as demo, use the password: demo
The next step is internet configuration. This step honestly was not something I was expecting. It's a simple dialog that asks the user "Which method do you use to connect to the internet?" From there, the user picks which one their computer uses. For Alice's machine, she uses a Buffalo WLI-USB-54G adapter which was detected by PCLinuxOS. The only problem was that her adapter used a proprietary driver, but this is where I was impressed the most... PCLinuxOS loads the NDISwrapper module to find the Windows driver for the USB wifi dongle. At the time, I did not have the driver on me, so unfortunately, I could not test this feature... I will definitely revisit this when I get another chance to play on her PC
The KDE splash screen mentioning which modules are loading is actually well thought out. There's a string of text telling you what module is loading, while on the bottom are gray spheres that glow softly in blue as a percentage marker of the loading procedures. The splash screen encompasses the entire screen very well, unlike the default KDE small splash screen just displaying icons of the load procedures. After the processes finish, you are dropped into a very simple but sophisticated looking form of KDE. There aren't too many applications to play with unfortunately, but that may have been due to me lacking an internet connection to really let loose and do downloads or play with the package manager. The system is nice and robust for being unique to try offering a user friendly experience.
I will definitely be revisiting PCLinuxOS 2007, but for now, it has earned its spot in my Linux distro wallet.
