Hi everyone, first of all, I need to thank everyone who offered help when I was struggling with issues in Mandriva Powerpack 2007. There are many good things in Mandriva, for example the intel pro wireless on my toshiba centrino works with the transferring of firmware to /usr/lib/firmware, etc. I have not been able to make Mplayer plugins to work though and hence not been able to play any windows media over the internet. I researched Ubuntu and found that there was a very apparent difference in the way Ubuntu offers help and the documentation too. Ubuntu 6.10 seems better to me from many aspects, documentation being one (Please note that I am a complete newbie so I may be wrong or some may say its subjective). So anyways, I have decided to switch to Ubuntu 6.10 but I have the following concerns:

1. I have Windows XP SP2 and Mandriva Powerpack 2007 installed on my Toshiba M35-S320 laptop. I wanted to know if I could install Ubuntu 6.10 by erasing the "/","/boot" and "/swap" and reformatting for Ubuntu when I install Ubuntu 6.10. While doing this I wanted to know if Ubuntu will be able to use my "/home" folder which has my documents and downloads. Please let me know if this can work.

2. I downloaded Ubuntu 6.10 yesterday and noticed that unlike the i586 or sometimes even i686 architecture on Mandriva Powerpack 2007, it says i386 on the ISO for Ubuntu. This CD is a live CD. Is there a DVD version for Ubuntu 6.10 which would have many essential packages installed on my system like Mandriva DVD? Can I find i586 or i686 version of Ubuntu 6.10?

3. I ran the live CD for Ubuntu 6.10 but I wasn't able to get my wireless card working. I checked through "lsmod" that ipw2200 was loaded. Do I have to download the firmware for Ubuntu too as I did for Mandriva? Can the same downloaded version of the firmware which I used for Mandriva work for Ubuntu as they both are based on 2.6.17 version of the kernel? I read on the forum Ubuntuforums.org that sometimes the wireless works without downloading the firmware. When I opeened the properties section for my wireless card eth1, unlike Mandriva, it didn't show the wireless connections in my area including my wireless. Is it because the wireless card was not configured properly? Please correct me if I am wrong but I didn't find an interface like the one on KDE Mnadriva Powerpack 2007 for configuring my network cards plus gprs etc.

4. I wasn't able to see my windows partitions either while running the Live CD version of Ubuntu (I can see them in Mandriva).

I know these are too many questions and I don't expect to receive answers for all of them, but any help regarding these issues will be greatly valued. Thanks.

Keith.

May I suggest that you use (k)ubuntu 6.06(.1) not 6.10, which is under development, can be unstable and a pain in the *ss for newbies?

Q1] You don't need to erase / /boot or swap. You do need to reformat / and /boot. Be careful here, don't reformat /home by mistake! (Hint: make backups if you are uncertain).
You can leave /swap alone, it'll stay as swap. Just tell ubuntu to use it as swap. To do all this you'll have to choose "Custom Partitioning" when you install. Make a note of just what & where all your partitins are while you are running mandriva. (Useful commands for this: fdisk -l and mount)
Ununtu will be able to use your /home partition, but it would be sensible to give yourself a new usrename when you install ubuntu, then you can copy any useful files from your old username to your new one after the install.

Q2] If you have a pentium, you can use the 686 kernel, but I tried it, and it is no faster than the 386 kernel, and there were a few problems with my hardware, so I just use the standard 386 kernel. It works fine.

Q3] Sorry, can't help you with the wireless thing, maybe better to start another thread.

Q4] Your windows partitions will probably be in /media, not /mnt/windows. Windows partitions are easy to mount after you have done the install anyway.

I didn't expect anyone to answer all my questions and I am so glad you did. Thank you so much. Yes, I am going to use Kubuntu as you suggested, but I was wondering why 6.10 is unstable. On the website of Ubuntu, somewhere I read it was the stable version and only the newer version of Ubuntu which is going to be launched in April was unstable right now. I am just assuming 6.10 would have more and better features so I am tempted to use it compared to 6.06. Please correct me if I am wrong. Can you please let me know from where you found the i686 installation packages? I have Toshiba Centrino and I think it's an equivalent of Pentium IV, not to mention it is Pentium itself. I think I was able to connect to wireless yesterday from the Live CD, so hopefully I will be able to connect to wireless after I install it too (wireless was one major concern). Once again, thanks for your help.

I am just assuming 6.10 would have more and better features so I am tempted to use it compared to 6.06.
Well, you might want to head over to the ubuntu forum on this board, or to the ubuntu forums at
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/
to see the number of people unhappy with 6.10, and who want to go back to 6.06. 6.06 is "special" in that ubuntu are offering "Long Term Support" (LTS) for this version. But this being linux, you can do as you please!
For downloads, go here:
http://www.kubuntu.com/download.php
You are right - I do not see a 686 kernel, I think I am confusing kubuntu with Suse. My aplologies, but do not worry about pentium-optimisations, in my experience, they make little discernable difference.
If your wireless worked with the live CD it is likely to work with the installed version.
Once you have installed, you'll need to go here to enable MP3 and DVD playback:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats
These people simplify the installation of a load of useful extras:
http://www.getautomatix.com/

So, just get started and have fun!