BillD Posted May 29, 2011 Share Posted May 29, 2011 (edited) I have a laptop with PCLinuxOS 2008 (Kde 3.x) that worked great either with wired ethernet or wi-fi using the Broadcom wi-fi chipset. When I installed it, unlike the year previously, I did not have to use the ndiswrapper; it found the Broadcom driver and installed it automatically.However, I cannot get the present 2010-12 version of Gnome to start the xserver; it keeps giving me error messages that saying "Failed to load module "type 1" and "freetype" module because "they do not exist". Have tried VESA safe and no combination of settings seems to work.So I tried PCLinuxOS Kde (4); it would not identify Broadcom and froze. I had similar freezing problems with other things when I tried the Kde version previously on my desktopSo I tried Mint 10; it brought up the desktop and worked fine on ethernet, but after loading the Broadcom driver, it still would not connect; quite possibly because I don't have a clue as to how to make the Mint type wi-fi interface work; when I attempt to run it, I get a window with a series of screens that starts off with requiring me to fill in various things like the MAC address (which surely should not be necessary) . . . All I want to use this laptop for is for handling email and surfing while on trip. I do not need any fancy streaming media or anything (altho I would like to see time lapse weather satellite stuff).Any suggestions as to what distro to use how or what I am doing wrong above?Incidentally, I have been doing all experimenting above while running live (which worked fine with the original PCLinuxOS before installing).Thank you,Bill Edited May 29, 2011 by BillD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onederer Posted May 29, 2011 Share Posted May 29, 2011 (edited) I have a laptop with PCLinuxOS 2008 (Kde 3.x) that worked great either with wired ethernet or wi-fi using the Broadcom wi-fi chipset. When I installed it, unlike the year previously, I did not have to use the ndiswrapper; it found the Broadcom driver and installed it automatically.However, I cannot get the present 2010-12 version of Gnome to start the xserver; it keeps giving me error messages that saying "Failed to load module "type 1" and "freetype" module because "they do not exist". Have tried VESA safe and no combination of settings seems to work.So I tried PCLinuxOS Kde (4); it would not identify Broadcom and froze. I had similar freezing problems with other things when I tried the Kde version previously on my desktopSo I tried Mint 10; it brought up the desktop and worked fine on ethernet, but after loading the Broadcom driver, it still would not connect; quite possibly because I don't have a clue as to how to make the Mint type wi-fi interface work; when I attempt to run it, I get a window with a series of screens that starts off with requiring me to fill in various things like the MAC address (which surely should not be necessary) . . . All I want to use this laptop for is for handling email and surfing while on trip. I do not need any fancy streaming media or anything (altho I would like to see time lapse weather satellite stuff).Any suggestions as to what distro to use how or what I am doing wrong above?Incidentally, I have been doing all experimenting above while running live (which worked fine with the original PCLinuxOS before installing).Thank you,BillFirstly, you should uprade your PCLOS version.I have to assume that it's not the OS that matters, but the quality of the OS and how much attention to details which were done. However, I've found very few distros that can reliably handle wireless networking. What I'm using now, is PCLOS. For the Atheros chipset, the wireless application handled it without any problems. And on another laptop, PCLOS's application also found the Broadcom chipset. If the standard applcation doesn't work, perhaps the WICD application should work. Also today, I tried the latest LinuxMint version. And that one functioned properly. If you use MINT, make sure it is not the LinuxMint Debian. That one didn't work. If all else fails, then it will be necessary to resort to NDISWRAPPER again. Good luck!Cheers! Edited May 29, 2011 by onederer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillD Posted May 29, 2011 Author Share Posted May 29, 2011 (edited) Firstly, you should uprade your PCLOS version.That's what I was trying to do, but as mentioned above neither the Gnome nor Kde versions of PCLinuxOS 2010.12 worked . . . in fact I had problems with the Kde version when I tried a test installation of the Kde 4 version on a my test desktop computer several months ago . . . it too froze on the desktop . . . but the Gnome version cannot seem to find the proper xorg stuff on the laptop.So I tried Mint. How do you get Mint (Gnome) wi-fi to work? Mint 2010 works fine on my desktop installation, but I never had occasion to run wi-fi there (and no wi-fi adapter installed there to experiment with).Thanks,Bill Edited May 29, 2011 by BillD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipDoc Posted May 29, 2011 Share Posted May 29, 2011 I've had very good success with both Ultimate Edition and Bodhi Linux, both of which picked up everything without any trouble at all. They even picked up my Verizon AirCard auto-magically. It took me days to figure out how to do that manually in PCLOS and it was incredibly cool to not have to do it at all.Incidentally, both of those distros picked everything up on the LiveCD, so you don't have to do an install to discover if they'll work with your hardware.Bodhi is a minimal install and you add the stuff you actually use. Ultimate is the opposite - everything including the kitchen sink, two and a half baths, a pool, jacuzzi, sauna, laundry, and irrigation system are included in the 2+ gig ISO. Both are excellent; each is sculpted to a different set of user needs. But the bottom line is that both have the basics (like connecting to the Net) wrapped up tight to the point where the user needn't worry about problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urmas Posted May 29, 2011 Share Posted May 29, 2011 Bill,The essential "follow-up question" here is "which Broadcom [chip]?"In terminal: $ lspci (Returns a longish list, so you might want to use one of the following instead:) $ lspci | grep -i wlan$ lspci | grep -i wireless$ lspci | grep -i wifi$ lspci -nn | grep Network Or, if your wireless device is an external USB dongle, use lsusb instead of lspci. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipDoc Posted May 29, 2011 Share Posted May 29, 2011 Well, here's mine: chip@bodhi-ssd:~$ lspci | grep -i wireless03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02) So I guess my experience isn't necessarily going to mirror yours... best of luck, Bill! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted May 29, 2011 Share Posted May 29, 2011 http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=50194This pupplet might work for you. The first post has a link to the .iso. Look at the last few posts on page 4, Thanks for the bcm4312 iso, jrb. Bought an old laptop (Acer Extensa) on ebay for parts only to find it had the BCM94312MCG wireless chip. Tried several flavours of Puppy and a few workarounds before loading your iso. Now working flawlessly.Even lets me turn off wireless with the button on the front of the laptop (something I've never had work before using Puppy)! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillD Posted May 29, 2011 Author Share Posted May 29, 2011 (edited) Thanks for the Puppy Linux link. However: I've had very good success with both Ultimate Edition and Bodhi Linux, both of which picked up everything without any trouble at all. They even picked up my Verizon AirCard auto-magically. It took me days to figure out how to do that manually in PCLOS and it was incredibly cool to not have to do it at all.Since I have never looked at either of these, and since they apparently do stuff automagically, I think I need to check these out!Thanks for all the good inputs above; I appreciate them.BillEdit: Having downloaded and run Bodhi live, I find on running it that I cannot locates "home" . . . ? Also, is there any way to get icons onto the desktop? It did indeed detect and show available wireless connections very nicely. Edited May 29, 2011 by BillD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipDoc Posted May 29, 2011 Share Posted May 29, 2011 Edit: Having downloaded and run Bodhi live, I find on running it that I cannot locates "home" . . . ? Also, is there any way to get icons onto the desktop? It did indeed detect and show available wireless connections very nicely.Yeah, there's a known E17 glitch in the Places module. I've long since stopped relying on it but I'm surprised it wasn't fixed in the latest update. If you open the included PCManFM (or install one of the other file managers in the Software Repository) you'll have access to everything just as you usually do. One other thing, if you're going to use the "Install Now" option in the Repository, you need to run it from the Midori browser. Run sudo apt-get update first too - as it says in the instructions which I didn't read at first... Not only can you put icons on the desktop, you can put almost anything on the desktop in about a half dozen different ways. It's immensely configurable. The screens start off bare so you can set them up however you like.Glad it picked up your wireless nicely! They've got a helpful and enthusiastic forum too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillD Posted May 29, 2011 Author Share Posted May 29, 2011 (edited) Well, I installed Nautilus, but it still does not let me see anything more in "Home" . . . ? Its like there is no home folder; just the icon and when I look in home all that is there is the desktop , but since I have installed Mozilla Firefox and added some personalization to it, there certainly has got to be somewhere that is being kept . . .Incidentally, I am posting this from Bodhi.Thanks,BillEdit: OK, I found out I need to "show" hidden files; in Bodhi there are no non-hidden files when one starts the thing.Now if I could just put icons on the desktop . . . ? There are supposedly instructions for doing that in the wiki but not only can I not make them work, but I cannot drag and drop stuff there. Edited May 30, 2011 by BillD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipDoc Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 No Home folder? That's certainly odd. I wonder what could possibly be causing that? Yet you're right; if you installed Firefox it certainly went somewhere! Glad you got it up and running though; I really love this thing and I hope it works for you too. Enlightenment is flat-out different from Gnome or KDE and it took a bit of getting used to, but it does everything I need and more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmjlinux586 Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 Hello,Sorry you are having trouble withPCLOS.I am running pclos gnome and it foundeverything on my laptop, which otherdistros have not found.It's been a while, but I believe Pclosfound my wireless, also which otherdistros have not found.Linux Mint worked, which my wifehas on her laptop.I tried Bodhi, and it found the wirelesson this laptop, and it is blazing fast.I could not get the sound to work, however.That is another issue I have with thislaptop, which works with Pclos.I installed alsa by synaptic on thelive cd.That is the only issue I had with Bodhi,maybe I will try again at another time.Thats my 2 cents.Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillD Posted May 30, 2011 Author Share Posted May 30, 2011 (edited) No Home folder? That's certainly odd. No, it was there; there are just no non-hidden files in this distro in Home when you start, so all the Home "folder" had was the Desktop. It finally dawned on me to set preferences in Nautilus to show hidden files, and then there they were including the .mozilla one. Unfortunately, I got so carried away I tried to install the Nvidia drivers and when I did that; it said (as it always does) "run nvidia-xconfig" as root and then log out of x environment", which I did, but it gave me an error message in the terminal that there was no xorg.conf and therefore it had created one. It still said that after logging out and back in, so I rebooted . . . and then everything fell apart because it could not find "x" and so I could never get to the desktop again. Tried safe mode, etc., and when that failed, I tried finding the xorg mess with a live Mint CD to fix it, but never could find it. So I restored the Mint that was there when I started the experiment.But one final question: How do you get icons (eg., Firefox) onto the desktop. The wiki says to copy them from /usr/share/icons and "paste" them on the desktop, but I could never drag and drop, or paste anything to the desktop; it worked in the Home folder after I got it showing stuff besides the Desktop and I realized there was a Home folder, but I could not get anything on the desktop . . . ?Thanks ChipDoc,Bill Edited May 30, 2011 by BillD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewmur Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 Firstly, you should uprade your PCLOS version.I have to assume that it's not the OS that matters, but the quality of the OS and how much attention to details which were done. However, I've found very few distros that can reliably handle wireless networking. ....While this may have been true a few years ago, any distro that has come out in the last couple of years should have NO PROBLEMS handling wifi. I've setup dozens of Linux distros and once the driver issue is settled, then there have been ZERO problems. And ndiswrapper has been able to solve the driver issue with any nic that wasn't supported OOTB.I'm not saying that there aren't some older routers that can't give connection problems, but they must be few and far between because I haven't come across one I couldn't get to work with a reasonable amount of tweaking. But I've had far worse trouble with that other OS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillD Posted May 30, 2011 Author Share Posted May 30, 2011 (edited) Well Mint 10 did not detect the wi-fi circuit and for some weird reason, altho PCLinuxOS Gnome did, it never would give me any video; Kde4 did, but I have tried PCLinuxOS Kde4 on both a temporary installation on a desktop computer, and running live on laptop, I just flat hate Kde4! Not only that but the Kde4 version seemed to really load the laptop down (not that it is much of a laptop, but it does still work). I am not wild about the Bodhi desktop, but the OS is fast, light, detects the wi-fi OK, etc., so I fear that may be the best option.I have not noticed any sound problems after I realized the volume control was not set to the master and was muted. Nearly blasted my ears off as I was playing with it on the ill-fated desktop installation described above when I discovered this and could not get the volume down fast enough after I set the volume control to "master" rather than whatever it was on initially.Still cannot figure out how you are supposed to get icons on the desktop in Bodhi, though.Bill Edited May 30, 2011 by BillD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipDoc Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 I tried Bodhi, and it found the wirelesson this laptop, and it is blazing fast.I could not get the sound to work, however.I was about to suggest installing alsa, but I see you've already figured that one out. Cool! No, it was there; there are just no non-hidden files in this distro in Home when you start, so all the Home "folder" had was the Desktop. It finally dawned on me to set preferences in Nautilus to show hidden files, and then there they were including the .mozilla one.This is less of an issue with the default file manager because PCManFM's default setting is to show the hidden files. Since Bodhi is a minimal distro, it doesn't create anything that isn't necessary for operation of the OS and the few installed apps. If you want a folder to keep your music in, you have to create your own Music folder; if you don't need one, it isn't sitting there cluttering up your system.But one final question: How do you get icons (eg., Firefox) onto the desktop. The wiki says to copy them from /usr/share/icons and "paste" them on the desktop, but I could never drag and drop, or paste anything to the desktop; it worked in the Home folder after I got it showing stuff besides the Desktop and I realized there was a Home folder, but I could not get anything on the desktop . . . ?This is one of those things that's easy to do, but not particularly intuitive. In Enlightenment, icons live in the IBar. Left-click anywhere on the desktop to bring up the Main Menu. (Right-clicking will bring up your Favorite Applications, but it's blank until you designate at least one application to be your Favorite) Select Settings/Gadgets and select IBar and one will appear on your desktop. If you already have an IBar (one is created by default at the bottom of the Laptop setting) the new one will have the same icons in it, but don't worry about that. Each IBar is its own entity and you can edit them individually. Now say you want Firefox to be in there; just right-click on the new IBar, select Gadget IBar/Contents and a new window will pop up with all of your applications in it. Select Firefox and click Add and the Firefox icon will appear in there. Then you can delete any unwanted icons from the new IBar and Firefox will sit there alone. It can be either free-floating or attached to any side of the screen.Now say you also want Synaptic on the desktop. Just click the IBar again, select IBar/Contents again, and add Synaptic. It'll appear right next to the Firefox icon. These can be sized however you like and oriented either horizontally or vertically. You can also arrange the order however you like. But if you don't want them next to one another, the solution is to just create another IBar and put Synaptic in that one instead. Then you can arrange them wherever you like on the desktop.Incidentally, because it's a minimal distro, almost nothing comes pre-installed. This is a good thing because you only install the stuff you actually want. Lots of stuff is available in the Software Repository where everything's already configured for Bodhi. You're faced with a choice - either Download, which allows you to download the .BOD file to your local machine or Install Now which uses Synaptic to install it automatically. The .BOD files include all the needed dependencies for each application, so they tend to be fairly large. I'd recommend using Install Now, but you MUST run sudo apt-get update to set up the Synaptic repositories before you begin. This is printed right at the beginning of the instructions which I didn't read... It's an amazingly configurable system which you can set up in ways of almost infinite variety. For a few ideas, check out the Desktop Of The Week in the Art Wiki, or the Post Your Desktop thread in the forum. When I first saw Enlightenment, it was set up for netbooks and I didn't particularly like it. But the thing is almost limitless in its variety and I've really enjoyed learning how to manipulate it. Enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichase Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 (edited) This is less of an issue with the default file manager because PCManFM's default setting is to show the hidden files.Chip, don't think that is a true statement as I had to check off "Show Hidden Files". I have yet to see a file manager that defaults to show hidden. NOT saying there is not one out there, just saying I have had to enable it on all that I have used.Installed Bodhi on the desktop this weekend. Loved everything but this distro did what many others have done as well. Does not give you the change to by pass grub installation. Now my Slackware goes into Kernel Panic when I try to run it. At least Arch loads but I plan on putting Arch back to the "grub host" Once I learn how to do that. ;)Other than that, I have been VERY impressed with Bodhi so far. Great Job Jeff and the rest of the Bodhi Team!!!All the best,Ian Edited May 31, 2011 by ichase Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipDoc Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 Chip, don't think that is a true statement as I had to check off "Show Hidden Files". I have yet to see a file manager that defaults to show hidden. NOT saying there is not one out there, just saying I have had to enable it on all that I have used.It may not be true in the 1.1.0 release, but it sure confounded me for a few minutes when I first opened it up! Installed Bodhi on the desktop this weekend. Loved everything but this distro did what many others have done as well. Does not give you the change to by pass grub installation. Now my Slackware goes into Kernel Panic when I try to run it. At least Arch loads but I plan on putting Arch back to the "grub host" Once I learn how to do that. ;)Other than that, I have been VERY impressed with Bodhi so far. Great Job Jeff and the rest of the Bodhi Team!!!Great observations, Ian! If you don't come on over to the Bodhi forum and share them (maybe in the Discussions area) then I'm going to do it myself!Incidentally, my desktop was nominated for Desktop Of The Week this week! Oddly it wasn't my Night Freight desktop... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 At least Arch loads but I plan on putting Arch back to the "grub host" Once I learn how to do that. ;)All the best,IanJust boot into Archlinux, make the changes to grub to include Bodhi and then rerun: grub-install /dev/(harddrive) replacing (harddrive) with the actual harddrive not the partition. Example: /dev/sda not /dev/sda1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillD Posted May 31, 2011 Author Share Posted May 31, 2011 (edited) OK, thanks for the icon input, Chip.Just thought of something else to ask you tho: How do you update it? By reloading synaptic as in PCLinuxOS, or what?And this time when I ran it live, when I opened synaptic after running apt-get update in terminal, the thing took up the entire screen with no when to "x" out of it. Same thing happened when I ran the browser; it took up the whole screen and put itself on top of synaptic, etc. This is stupid, but I cannot figure out how to control this desktop when in the laptop mode . . . Thanks,Bill Edited May 31, 2011 by BillD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipDoc Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 Just thought of something else to ask you tho: How do you update it? By reloading synaptic as in PCLinuxOS, or what?There are wonderfully detailed instructions on how to update Bodhi right HERE. Incidentally, updating Bodhi and updating the kernel are separate processes and that's explained on that page too. I find it easiest to do this with the CLI and all the commands you need are listed so you can just cut-and-paste them into a terminal window.And this time when I ran it live, when I opened synaptic after running apt-get update in terminal, the thing took up the entire screen with no when to "x" out of it. Same thing happened when I ran the browser; it took up the whole screen and put itself on top of synaptic, etc. This is stupid, but I cannot figure out how to control this desktop when in the laptop mode . . . You sure you were in the laptop profile? It sounds like you were in the notebook profile which is set up to full-screen everything. It's actually easy to switch among the many profiles; just select Main Menu/Settings/All/Settings/Profiles. This will bring up a box where you can choose whatever you like. Don't like what you've chosen? Do it again and pick another one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross549 Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 I've had very good success with both Ultimate Edition and Bodhi Linux, both of which picked up everything without any trouble at all. They even picked up my Verizon AirCard auto-magically. It took me days to figure out how to do that manually in PCLOS and it was incredibly cool to not have to do it at all.???Why would Ubuntu ultimate be any different than regular Ubuntu? Don't they have the same drivers? I though Ultimate was just a bunch more programs....?Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 ???Why would Ubuntu ultimate be any different than regular Ubuntu? Don't they have the same drivers? I though Ultimate was just a bunch more programs....?AdamI am pretty sure that the Ultimate edition includes extra drivers and such. Look at the extra features list here http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Oper...ion-22863.shtml Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipDoc Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 Why would Ubuntu ultimate be any different than regular Ubuntu? Don't they have the same drivers?Ultimate has every one of the Ubuntu drivers and plenty more besides. In fact, Ultimate Edition's real hook is that it's got everything already installed and set up. The UE 2.8 ISO is 2.4GHz in size! It's really a wonderful "starter" distro for folks looking to see what Linux is all about because the "it just works" factor is so high and because anything you'd like to play with is probably already installed.I like Bodhi Linux for exactly the opposite reason - there's almost nothing installed on it and you build it yourself to do whatever you want. The underlying code of both is rock-solid though and all the basic stuff is done auto-magically. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipDoc Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 I am pretty sure that the Ultimate edition includes extra drivers and such. Look at the extra features list here http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Oper...ion-22863.shtml Want to know the most amazing thing about that list, Josh? It's for the 2.7 version of Ultimate Edition - they're getting set to release 3.0! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 Want to know the most amazing thing about that list, Josh? It's for the 2.7 version of Ultimate Edition - they're getting set to release 3.0!That is very cool but Ubuntu is not my cup of tea, per say. Not that there is anything wrong with Ubuntu but if I were to go that route, it would be pure Debian (testing). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross549 Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 I am pretty sure that the Ultimate edition includes extra drivers and such. Look at the extra features list here http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Oper...ion-22863.shtml I see the nividia drivers included, but the rest of the list looks like application software. No other drivers are mentioned. I remember when Ultimate first came out. The big draw was the staggering number of applications that were already preinstalled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillD Posted June 1, 2011 Author Share Posted June 1, 2011 (edited) Thanks for update info on Bodhi.Well, I was pretty tired Monday night; maybe I got the wrong one. My wife has been in the hospital and I was exhausted.Take another look at this soon!I was going to download Ultimate last weekend when this all started, but when I tried, sourceforge was slow it was going to take 2.5 hours or more and I just wasn't up to coping with it then.Thank you again,Bill Edited June 1, 2011 by BillD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichase Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 1st and formost Bill, my thoughts and prayers are with you and your wife right now. I do hope she get's to come home soon. All the best,Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 Computer stuff takes a back seat to family. I hope your wife is okay and will be coming home soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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