My main computer is running Ubuntu 9.04 but it does not
have a built in wireless. I bought a Buffalo Ethernet Converter
model WLI-TX4-AG300N. I connected it to the Ethernet
port and it came right up on the wireless Internet automatically.
No configuration ...no nothing. This is the second
Buffalo Ethernet Converter I have bought and the same
result happened. Works with Unbuntu 8.04 and Redhat
Fedora 8 as well. Great product.

It is also a 3 port router so I think I can plug in my
HP Pro all in one printer and my wife can print from her
office using her Mac I think. The old HP notebook computer running
XP has built in wireless but I never connect it to the Internet
for virus reasons. That is the only thing we have running
a Microsoft product.

The Motorola cable modem I have is wireless but not a router
so to add computers they need to be wireless.

The EeePC has built in wireless and that has never
failed to work in several countries around the world.

That makes six computers so far at our house.

Paul Lamar


I put a new hard drive in my 4+ year old Compaq laptop over the
weekend - deciding not to buy a new machine this year.Went from 80G
with the old to 320G on the new, so I split the new into two
partitions, leaving 160G to XP and 160G to Ubuntu 9.10.

I initially installed the 64 bit AMD support version of Ubuntu, but
wasn't able to get wireless to function out of the box.I had found a
few references to better wireless support for my BroadCom chipset with
the generic i386 32 bit version, so I switched to that (downloaded and
burned-installed a different ISO image).

Still no wireless.

For a different reason I plugged in the wired ethernet, and downloaded
the latest package updates online.I pulled open the app for getting
the hardware drivers and it identified the BCM wireless as something
that there was a driver for, so that downloaded and installed with
only a couple of entries of the password, and voila, wireless worked.

After that I wondered if the 64 bit also would have worked had I
connected the wired ethernet so that the system could identify and get
the driver online.After getting it working in 32 bit, I did a bit of
digging to find what performance difference I might see with 64 bit
and decided reinstalling just for that wasn't worth the effort.

Ubuntu still doesn't recover from Suspend/Hibernate/Sleep on this
system properly, and I think it may be related to the ATi graphics
chipset parameters.Otherwise it runs very well - Skype, movies,
flash, etc.

XP installed fine, but of course it was from a disk that's five years
old, meaning it had a ridiculous number of Windows Updates to install,
each one seeming to need a reboot before it could identify and install
the next.Finally it's up to SP3 with all of the critical security
items addressed.I'll bet it had to reboot 20 times.

The new hard drive is faster (5400rpm vs 4200rpm plus some other
improvements), and has a DRAM cache that's 8x (or was it 16x?) bigger
than the original, so performance, while not quite like a "brand new"
machine, is noticeably improved.Not bad for less than $100, and
maybe I don't have to worry about it crashing.Now I'll order a new
battery and do a little cleaning and touch up and the system will have
a new lease on life..Doing my part to slow the economic recovery.
:)


Matt-

Linux has always been problematic on notebook and lap top computers.
I have given up trying to install it on those types of computers.
It is all the non standard hardware in them.
IMHO you are lucky to get as far as you did.

I have a brand new copy of OEM XP. If that Windows HP notebook ever
dies I'll replace it with a desktop.

Paul Lamar


Matt, you are a Linux GENIUS to get a dual boot laptop running.
Brav-O!
I gave up on mine. Paul is right about portable devices and their drivers. I
suspect my dual boot failures had to do with the wifi drivers, where they
get loaded in the boot process, followed by W7 performing system checks on
the same locations when it tries to boot from its partition. It got to the
point where W7 was asking for system repair on every boot.

At this point, as much as I think W7 is the best yet released from MS, W7 is
not dual boot friendly. Probably more security features...
I recently cloned the 120Gb drive on the CQ-50 to a new cheap ($89 special
on newegg) 620Gb 2.5 SATA to give the Compaq space for the iPhone and the
music library. Nuther reason I cling to the laptop FF.
C. Smith