I think I understand

Dell laptops, like this Inspiron 1300, are a pain in the neck with Ubuntu. I've had to wrestle with the screen resolution, touchpad, microphone, and many other things that were 'automatic' in XP. I didn't like windows or XP for many reasons. That's why I switched to Ubuntu (Linux).

But it's frustrating to go through many of these same setup hassles with each distribution - Dapper, Edgy, and now Feisty. Actually, any time I use something new, I have to ask several questions and eventually ask the launchpad folks to get it working. (No way will I attempt the webcamera.)

The developers surely realized that the hassles will carry over to the next distribution.

I think I finally figured it out. Canonical and Dell are sleeping together. They want frustrated Dell laptop users like me to buy a new Dell. Sorry it took me so long to realize this. I'm getting slow in my old age.

RichPicker said: Dell laptops, like this Inspiron 1300, are a pain in the neck with Ubuntu. I've had to wrestle with the screen resolution, touchpad, microphone, and many other things that were 'automatic' in XP. I didn't like windows or XP for many reasons. That's why I switched to Ubuntu (Linux).

But it's frustrating to go through many of these same setup hassles with each distribution - Dapper, Edgy, and now Feisty. Actually, any time I use something new, I have to ask several questions and eventually ask the launchpad folks to get it working. (No way will I attempt the webcamera.)

The developers surely realized that the hassles will carry over to the next distribution.

I think I finally figured it out. Canonical and Dell are sleeping together. They want frustrated Dell laptop users like me to buy a new Dell. Sorry it took me so long to realize this. I'm getting slow in my old age.

I don't get it?

Maybe Ubuntu just isn't your cup of tea? You could try another distribution instead and maybe you would have better luck? Then again, maybe not.

All I know is that my touchpad worked out of the box, and my screen resolution was automatically set to the highest setting after installing the drivers. I have had nothing but good luck, but that is with a Inspiron 1505. ;)

hahaha..very good one. "everything" won't work out of the box with a stock XP install on that Dell. If you did a stock install with a pure clean XP CD, you'd still have to go to the manufacturer site to get a lot of drivers to support a lot of the hardware. Just check Dell's site and you'll see. The issue is the a lot of hardware manufacturers write drivers for windows not linux. the linux community has to develop their own drivers and many of which get built into the kernel eventually. this means that a clean linux install will support more devices out of box than a clean xp install. the linux community is full of ninjas that write a lot of these drivers for linux support from scratch and give them to the community for free. it's just getting around the difference in thinking.

reckless2k2 said: hahaha..very good one. "everything" won't work out of the box with a stock XP install on that Dell. If you did a stock install with a pure clean XP CD, you'd still have to go to the manufacturer site to get a lot of drivers to support a lot of the hardware. Just check Dell's site and you'll see. The issue is the a lot of hardware manufacturers write drivers for windows not linux. the linux community has to develop their own drivers and many of which get built into the kernel eventually. this means that a clean linux install will support more devices out of box than a clean xp install. the linux community is full of ninjas that write a lot of these drivers for linux support from scratch and give them to the community for free. it's just getting around the difference in thinking.

You are correct, as the original poster is as well about some things.

With my Inspiron 1505 on Windows XP, I had to download and install video card drivers and sound card drivers for a high resolution and to even get sound. Windows XP doesn't necessarily have everything working out of the box. :)

it's true that he will have to jump through a few hoops to get somethings working (915 resolution) and such but once again it's a difference of thinking. dell provides drivers on their site. ubuntu provides forums that tell you how to "fix" what you need. the beauty of linux is that you get to know your system better. you become stronger with your computer knowledge. you kinda almost have to be forced to with exotic hardware. i wouldn't call his exotic but he does have to work a little to get some things going "as if" he was doing a stock XP install.

I didn't know that. Thanks for enlightening me. I don't deal with frustration well. I keep hoping that the set-up process is done, but no. It's keeps on keeping on. I'm trying to set-up and use Ubuntu Studio, and specifically Jack, but all must be configured correctly.

Here is a sentence from the installation documentation from Ubuntu: "For a Creative Audigy2 ZS PCI card, these settings seem to work well on my system (actual settings may vary for your card/system):"

But no info on how to configure another system - trial and error?

I'll ask the launchpad people again. They've always helped before. I just get tired of going through the motions.

RichPicker said: Dell laptops, like this Inspiron 1300, are a pain in the neck with Ubuntu. I've had to wrestle with the screen resolution, touchpad, microphone, and many other things that were 'automatic' in XP. I didn't like windows or XP for many reasons. That's why I switched to Ubuntu (Linux).

But it's frustrating to go through many of these same setup hassles with each distribution - Dapper, Edgy, and now Feisty. Actually, any time I use something new, I have to ask several questions and eventually ask the launchpad folks to get it working. (No way will I attempt the webcamera.)

The developers surely realized that the hassles will carry over to the next distribution.

I think I finally figured it out. Canonical and Dell are sleeping together. They want frustrated Dell laptop users like me to buy a new Dell. Sorry it took me so long to realize this. I'm getting slow in my old age.

I just want to ask one question... Are you doing clean installs between each version? When I do a proper upgrade it carries all of these things I have 'fixed' to the new version. I don't have to keep refixing them.

I started with Dapper, then upgraded to edgy, finally I'm on feisty and I haven't had a single issue repeat itself.

Yes, you're correct. Some of the things do carry over. But others, like the microphone I've had to do again. But you're right. most of them do transfer. I'm seeing this as more trouble than it probably really is, because I detest this part of computers - having to ask questions and setting them up. Too many hours are spent each time I do something new here. I've asked questions about Jack several places, and there are MANY people other than me asking questions. But I haven't heard anything yet - not from the Jack folks either. I suspect that getting the music applications to work might be a really huge headache, likely to be 2 or 3 full days of configuring. I hate this part of it, I really do. It eats up too much life.

Rich Picker

You say you got your microphone working with the 1300 - how did you do his? I m trying to make this work for a friend's computer who lives in a different country, so i would like to provide her with a simple :-) solution to her problem-i.e a simple step by step I can email her.

regards & thanks if you can help

(PS i am running 7.10 on a inspiron 1501 with no problems at all)