Posts Tagged ‘Windows challenge’


26.11.2006

Linux Challenge

posted by Karsten

in RedGloo

I've now installed Linux as a dual boot on my system.

I've installed two different systems this morning and both of them have been succesful the first time around! The first one I did was Mandriva Free 2007, which is a free-speech free-beer distro, and therefore doesn't supply any firmware based drivers. After installation it had detected all hardware, but had not supplied drivers for the nvidia graphics card, my modem, printer or scanner. I easily installed the modem (under 5 minutes), but when I wanted to install the graphics driver I ran into problems, as the driver officially supplied from nvidia didn't support my kernel. I could not face any grievings after my XP experience yesterday, so I decided (rather un-scientific but pragmatic) to try another distribution with firmware.

As I'd already started with Mandriva, and decided to install the Mandriva One distro, which is a live distro (A Linux that will install and run directly from a CD, installation is then done after setting up hardware.) The initial boot up took a bit of time, but when I had a running system I realised that it had detected all of my hardware and furthermore automatically installed all drivers except for the printer. Unfortunately when I startedmanual installation it told me that it didn't have a driver. Further investigation showed that the Dell 725 color printer doesn't provide a Linux nor Mac driver… D*mn you Dell!! Well it was a printer we got for free when my wife boughther laptop, and we have been disgusted with it planning to buy a new one in January.

But everything else is running smoothly out of the box, even my scanner is scanning. The 3D effects provided with the xserver (gui system) is simply wicket!!

Compared to the Windows Installation process I must say that the Mandriva One installation was MUCH smoother and except for the printer it detected and installed correct drivers for all my hardware. If I'd had my old printer (A HP printer) it  probably would have detected that automatically (it was on their list), but that doesn't really count. The XP installation was easier than the Mandriva Free 2007 installation, but it installed a mis-fitting driver for my ATA harddrive controller, which I'm very unimpressed by (the old XP SP1 installation did that correctly, the only good thing to say about that installation), but with the help of driveragent.com it was still a better experience…

The Mandriva Free 2007 distro was quite annoying to install, as I had to install all the firmware from the "Terminal" which by most ordinary users would be a turn off. That my kernel wasn't supported by nvidia was just the nail in the coffin!

The XP SP1 installation was by far the worst experience, as it simply did not work! I was flooded with all kind of nasties from the second I started my modem, even with proberly installed firewall and Anti virus.

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25.11.2006

Windows Challenge V2.0 – DONE

posted by Karsten

in RedGloo

I've finally managed to get a (hopefully) clean XP sp2 installation up and running on my home PC. It wasn't as smooth as I'd expect, however it was MUCH smoother than the XP sp1 installation previously mentioned. I ended up having to install it 3 times in total before arriving at this clean installation.

  1. Installation went well. "Only" 4 devices were not provided for by drivers. (USB and Ethernet were found, that wasn't the case in SP1) The computer acted strangely frrom the outset. It was laggy, meaning that the mouse (and everything else) froze every (approx) 10 second. I'd tried that before on anther computer and the it was a problem with the driver for the harddisk controller. Hence I tried updating the controller driver with an old driver of mine, but something went seriously wrong, and I lost the CD and DVD => new installation
  2. Same as before => new installation
  3. Same as before, but I installed firewall, AV and modem first. Then I went to my friend driveragent.com where, surely enough it found a problem with the harddisk controller driver. I downloaded the one they suggested, and after installing it the computer has been running smoothly.

Conclusion: I'm not too impressed with the Windows installation, especially that it installed a wrong or mis-fitting driver for my hd controller without noticing. The device manager didn't show any problems, and it was only due to my (excellent) memory of another old computer and driveragent that I actually managed to get a smoothly running Window installation from a SP2 installation disc. That is in my opinion quite bad, because the normal user probably would have had to live with a freezing computer or get in expensive expert help!

I can't wait to do the Linux Challenge to see how that goes…

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24.11.2006

Windows Challenge v2.0

posted by Karsten

in RedGloo

This week-end is the big one! I'll re-install XP on my less than new home computer. I've found a XP sp2 disc, so many of my previous network attacks in the form of trojan horses and other nasties should be eliminated.

My hopes are that it will go much more smoothly, and that it will detect more of my old hardware automatically.

I hope to be able to perform the Linux Challenge as well, but that all depends on the success of the former challenge 😉 There I initially believe I'll have problems with my USB based DSL modem, but I've found a guide on how to install the firmware and I've downloaded all the files needed. 

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