ok i need help getting started with a ubuntu live cd. i have never used linux before and have no idea what i'm doing. i'm using an hp pavilion ze5600 with about 8 gigs free space, 768 megs ram, running windows xp. i connect to the internet using a dlink dwl-g122 rev. a1 which i cant figure out how to use in ubuntu. i need to know basic stuff that isnt covered by any of the faqs or help articles i've seen. i need to know how to connect to the internet, how to access my harddrive, how to get around in ubuntu, anything like that. thanks for any help.

Hi

Accessing the internet with your wireless card will require a driver called ndsiwrapper which actually uses the windows .inf driver for the card.

Ubuntu is basically a ¨point and click¨ distrobution which should take no effort at all to learn to navigate. For specific questions you can find a tremendous amount of help for the distro here:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/

As far as accessing your Windows partition on your hard drive, you will need NTFS support compiled into your kernel. I do not believe Ubuntu comes with this module on the live cd (could be wrong).

Hope this helps,

Bob

ok how do i get ndsiwrapper and use it in ubuntu? and what does that thing u said mean?

Actually, using ndiswrapper while running the livecd isn't possible (I think), but if you install ubuntu, you only have to go into synaptic package manager and simply search "ndiswrapper" and then install it. all you do then is read the readme of ndiswrapper and follow it (if you need help, post back).

The kernel is what is really called "linux", and the distros out there are built on top of it.If you want, it's the core of the operating system. Knowing that, lets say all your machine does is done with the help of the kernel. And that's where many drivers are installed in Linux, the ntfs reading ability being a "driver" . Now the kernel has two options : either it loads a module (a separate file containing source code) or uses the code included in the kernel itself. The second option is what is called "compiled".

I do not know if the ndsiwrapper driver is included with the LIveCD. Here is a post about your card in the Ubuntu forums:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=185232

There is a module available for the Linux kernel which allows reading the files from your Windows partition (some even allow writing to the windows files). This module is not built in most distrobutions kernels, but can be added. You must then mount the partition to a pre-created mount directory. I realize that this is probably information/instructions which sound totally foreign to you right now. If you can remember the first time you ever tried Windows, you may feel/experience a lot of confusion. You are going to have to do some reading/experimenting. The link I provided above for the Ubuntu Community forums is an excellent place to get information, and there is an Ubuntu forum here at LQ. However, here is the commands to mount your Windows partition:

1. You can create a mount point anywhere you want to. Lets put it on your desktop for easy access. Type this from a command line:

mkdir /home/user/Desktop/Windows (where user is your user name)

This should put an empty file icon on your desktop.

2. From the command line as root, type this:

#mount -t NTFS /dev/hda1 /home/user/Desktop/Windows

This will put the files from the partition into the folder you created on your desktop. However, if you do not have the NTFS module, you will get an error that says:

¨Unkown filessystem¨

Hope this helps

Bob

NDIS wrapper (in my case with me laptop(same model) dosen't work. you need to (after installing ubuntu) get in a terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter

it will ask to download the drivers. select "yes" and push enter. Good Luck!