I am a very frustrated linux newbie, and i have a lot of things that i need to understand, so let this thread be more of a discussion. The first linux distro i tried was ubuntu on my dell 1400 2 years ago laptop the sound worked and it was fast. but i decided i had no time for it and used windows. Now, i got linux mint installed, a 900+ mb iso, and im wondering why is it more than 200 mb bigger than ubuntu, what more does it have? the sound doesnt work and it is considerably slower. In ubuntu it had the hardware drivers tool but it doesnt exist in Mint so now i dont know what to do. the touchpad, wireless, graphics, and sound isnt working. it is a shame that google is completly and utterly useless to me when it comes to linux.

If this turns into a major windows/linux discussion, I won't be partaking. I have spent the evening attempting to reinstall drivers, updates, software when all that blew up in my face, and then recover codes just to get a new map on my gps.

Linux is a learning curve and google is your most useful tool. Acquire knowledge.Linux has a learning curve, then it's fine. It's knobbly and awkward in places but it's written by geeks for geeks - and ubuntu tries to make it more user friendly. That's why it's bigger

Have you a hard disk install? If you're running from an iso file, it could be messy to change the config. Presuming you have a hard disk install, post the output of
and we'll see what we can get going for you.

Hi propcuser,

A little more imformation about the system in question would go much further in helping us help you.

I don't know anything about the laptop, but lets start with sound. Pretty common is one of the Intel ICH chipsets, even my old AMD Turion laptop had one or a chip based on it, so it's not specific to motherboard or processor. IIRC, one of the simplest solutions is to add a vendor specific string to /etc/modules.

As for graphics, many chips are supported out of the box but require firmware to get going, this was the case with my Radeon in the above mentioned laptop. I use Debian, which has "firmware-linux", "firmware-linux-free" and "firmware-linux-nonfree" packages. Open up Synaptic and do a search for package names containing firmware and look for these packages or similar. If you find a package specific to your hardware, just as well.

Can you get to a terminal? Run lspci -v at a shel prompt and paste the output in a reply.

here are the specs from the system information tool: intel core duo 2, Audio adapter: HDA-intel Display: Gallium 0.4 on NV86
the wireless adapter is not there...??

I did want someone to tell me why Mint is 900mb while ubuntu is 700 does anyone know?

thing is i cant even find the curve to begin with to even learn it

The latest Ubuntu is also larger than 700MB in size, so there is not so much difference.
The main point is that Mint comes with most multimedia codecs pre-installed.

sudo lspci
[sudo] password for administrator:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 PCI Express Root Port (rev 0c)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1a.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 02)
00:1a.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 02)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 6 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA Controller [IDE mode] (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G86 [GeForce 8400M GS] (rev a1)
03:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 05)
03:01.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)
03:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12)
03:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 12)
09:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5906M Fast Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)
0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)

sudo lsusb
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 05a9:2640 OmniVision Technologies, Inc. OV2640 Webcam
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

lspci -v
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c)
Subsystem: Dell Device 0227
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 PCI Express Root Port (rev 0c) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000dfff
Memory behind bridge: fa000000-feafffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000e0000000-00000000efffffff
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Dell Device 0227
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 20
I/O ports at 6f20 [size=32]
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd

00:1a.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Dell Device 0227
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 21
I/O ports at 6f00 [size=32]
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd

00:1a.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 02) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: Dell Device 0227
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 22
Memory at fed1c400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Dell Device 0227
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 45
Memory at febfc000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel

00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=0b, subordinate=0b, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00002000-00002fff
Memory behind bridge: 80000000-801fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 0000000080200000-00000000803fffff
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=0c, subordinate=0c, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00003000-00003fff
Memory behind bridge: f9f00000-f9ffffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 0000000080400000-00000000805fffff
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=0d, subordinate=0e, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 0000c000-0000cfff
Memory behind bridge: f9c00000-f9efffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000f0000000-00000000f01fffff
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 6 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=09, subordinate=09, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00004000-00004fff
Memory behind bridge: f9b00000-f9bfffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 0000000080600000-00000000807fffff
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Dell Device 0227
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 20
I/O ports at 6f80 [size=32]
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd

00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Dell Device 0227
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 21
I/O ports at 6f60 [size=32]
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd

00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Dell Device 0227
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 22
I/O ports at 6f40 [size=32]
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd

00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 02) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: Dell Device 0227
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 20
Memory at fed1c000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f2) (prog-if 01 [Subtractive decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=03, subordinate=03, sec-latency=32
Memory behind bridge: f9a00000-f9afffff
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Dell Device 0227
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: lpc_ich
Kernel modules: lpc_ich

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
Subsystem: Dell Device 0227
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
I/O ports at 01f0 [size=8]
I/O ports at 03f4 [size=1]
I/O ports at 0170 [size=8]
I/O ports at 0374 [size=1]
I/O ports at 6fa0 [size=16]
Kernel driver in use: ata_piix

00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA Controller [IDE mode] (rev 02) (prog-if 8f [Master SecP SecO PriP PriO])
Subsystem: Dell Device 0227
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
I/O ports at 6eb0 [size=8]
I/O ports at 6eb8 [size=4]
I/O ports at 6ec0 [size=8]
I/O ports at 6ec8 [size=4]
I/O ports at 6ee0 [size=16]
I/O ports at eff0 [size=16]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: ata_piix

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Dell Device 0227
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 10
Memory at febfbf00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
I/O ports at 10c0 [size=32]
Kernel modules: i2c-i801

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G86 [GeForce 8400M GS] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Dell Device 0227
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Memory at fd000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at e0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Memory at fa000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32M]
I/O ports at df00 [size=128]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at fc000000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: nouveau
Kernel modules: nouveau, nvidiafb

03:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 05) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Dell Device 0227
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 19
Memory at f9aff800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: firewire_ohci
Kernel modules: firewire-ohci

03:01.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22) (prog-if 01)
Subsystem: Dell Device 0227
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 18
Memory at f9aff400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: sdhci-pci
Kernel modules: sdhci-pci

03:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12)
Subsystem: Dell Device 0227
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 18
Memory at f9aff600 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: r592
Kernel modules: r592

03:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 12)
Subsystem: Dell Device 0227
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 18
Memory at f9aff700 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: r852
Kernel modules: r852

09:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5906M Fast Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)
Subsystem: Dell Device 0227
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 46
Memory at f9bf0000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Expansion ROM at <ignored> [disabled]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: tg3
Kernel modules: tg3

0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)
Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
Memory at f9ffc000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
Kernel modules: ssb

im now in the synaptic package manager trying to find drivers.. i found nouveau-firmware for nvidia but it says for nv40.. i dont know to install it or not
EDIT
i installed the Broadcom drivers but still doesnt work.
i dont even know if the chipset has its working driver, how do i know that?
installed bcmwl-kernal-source and restarted but still no wireless, cant find any audio packages related to mine, graphics improved after nouveau-firmware installation

For the sound issue, check out this thread at another site:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1143500

This describes the option i mentioned you may have to add to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base, and the author apparently maintains a small database in the thread of available options. There is a section for Dell there. Start with model=dell. You may have to try several times with different options.

Firmware may not be available/necessary for that graphics adapter. Also, check if the nouveau xorg driver is installed. Lastly, if you don't mind proprietary graphics drivers, why not just head over to nVidia's site and download them from there.

As for the Broadcom module, odd. On every laptop I had with a Broadcom card, I just installed bw43-firmware-installler or the like, and in post install it would download the firmware from the net, and on the next reboot I had a working WiFi card.

THANK YOU
i didntt know i can actually get the drivers simply from their site downloading now..also installing the firmware-b43-installer, because i have only installed the bcmwl-kernel-source
do i need to download the common files too?

i had the xserver-xorg-input-synaptics installed because tapping doesnt work but it didnt do anything, any ideas?
after opening nvidia-linux.run it gives me the error
"Could not open the file /home/administrator/Down…IDIA-Linux-x86-310.19.run. pluma has not been able to detect the character encoding.
Please check that you are not trying to open a binary file.
Select a character encoding from the menu and try again."
i wonder why ubuntu has audio right out of the box while Mint doesnt..should be an easy tweak.
edit: so to install i put the directory in the terminal then the chmod "chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86-310.19.run
chmod: cannot access `NVIDIA-Linux-x86-310.19.run': No such file or directory"
god WHY is this happening?? im so angry.
IM OFF TO BED...Ill be back.

Be angry all you like, but not at us pls. This stuff works, and just needs to be set up.
There is usually a netcfg or system-config-network script you can run for the wireless.

I spent 3 hours last night on vista fighting windows with my gps. All I wanted to do was get a new $@£%! map onto the gps, and I had to reinstall software twice, then reinstall drivers. The software still didn't work, but a fresh download of a smaller package did something finally. The nice thing about linux is reinstalling is rarely necessary.

For the wireless, you have a b43. Have you firmware? You need to go to this pagehttp://www.linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43 and follow the instructions carefully. They work. I have a box with a very reliable 4311 here.

I installed the broadcom binary common files.. i really dont know what im doing
.
I still dont know why the chmod +x command is not working
.

wait..i just watched a youtube video and audio was working, never mind, the volume slider was muted.

If the wireless still does not work, try the link business_kid gave. However, in the past few years this has gotten very easy with simply installing the firmware-installer package. As long as you have a network connection (i.e. wired) to download the firmware, you're good - the package takes care of it for you.

Silly question, did you try chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86-310.19.run in the same directory as the file is in? Also, it seems like you're trying to double click the file from a file manager to run it. Go to a terminal and type ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-310.19.run at the prompt. If that still doesn't work for some reason, try sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-310.19.run.

it didnt work becuase i didnt preceed the directory with "cd", (followed a wrong tutorial) but now im just waiting for software sources> Additional drivers to finish as it is recomended to do it there rather than the file and we'll see what happens.
EDIT
ok, so all i need now is the synaptic touchpad drivers and a bit of help on the broadcom drivers. i have broadcom-sta-common, broadcom-sta-source and b43fwcutter all installed but when i open wireless connections i see nothing
im going to software sources and enabling backported packages as seen in this thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=811248
.
do u guys know a way to test the internal mic?