Any ubuntu users here?

I've just installed unbuntu on my PC but it cannot detect the Terratec soundcard. I've had a quick look on ubuntu's website and forum but nothing very helpful so far.

Anyone here had similar issues?, more importantly how did you resolve them?

 

Welcome to Linux

Drivers can be a nightmare, have you surfed the googleweb for linux versions?

If not some people have had success using ndiswrapper, it is supposed to be for network drivers but it can work for other things.

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/

PS Driver issues are the main reason I always use Windows and not Linux, I just can't live with it.

 

I've used Linux before, mainly SuSE which supports a lot more hardware than ubuntu seems to. However ubuntu is by far THE easiest OS I've ever installed. Before going to work today I had unbuntu running well within an hour (including OpenOffice etc., try that with XP), I don't know the exact time as I left the PC unattended. The only problem I've had is the soundcard not working. As far as I know ubuntu support Terratec. I just don't know why it can't detect it properly on my machine.

 

A lot of distros are like, take Fedora Core, it installs my printer automaticaly etc, it detects my network and gives an IP address via DHCP it all works perfectly out of the box, until you try using WIFI with it and it just becomes a head ache.

Sorry this is not of direct help for you but Linux distros need to do much much better in terms of support for hardware, it is pointless having a really easy to use interface if you have to start tryping in a load of commands and probing different things just to get some driver to work.

I remember on Vector I used to run on my laptop I spent 3 hours in the config file just to get my USB storage device to work.

 

Without wanting to sound patronising, you are probably too young to have gone through this pain with MS OS, for me, Win95 was particularly painful, especially if plug and pray decided not to play ball.

 

Probably not to young if AT has been in the game for a while. I want the days of dip-switches on the cards to set IRQ and DMA back! Far less confusion! Ahh childhood was sweet back then

Edit: Actually I want to go back to the XT kind of stability! The only thing that ever went wrong in that for me was that sometimes a RAM chip would blow and I'd have to go through each of the 64 (or was it 32?) one by one to find which was broken! That was the penalty for wanting a whole 128kB!

 

Are there any drivers in the Ubuntu package manager I forget what it's called. Ubuntu is locked down WRT installed and installable packages but you can unlock it by editing a config file. It was about there that I gave up forever on Linux and bought another copy of XP.
You could try re-running the X-windows configuration and setting the card manually if it did an auto setup first time.

 

I formated my first hard disk at the age of 11 so I am not too young. I remember the old IDE controllers which you had to set a million jumpers on. I even remember the old MFM hard disks.

I remember the old days of playing about witht he config.sys and autoexec.bat in order to play a game

My PC life started out with MS Windows 3.0 (not 3.1) and MS-DOS 4.1.

It is just when your used to the ease of XP it is hard to go back.

 

I really did not want to get into a debate about which OS is better but I can lock up my XP or cause it to blue-screen with about 20% certainty just by trying to renew my DHCP address or cut and paste text in Visio 2000 or use Ethereal.

Before I installed ubuntu I thought my daughter would have serious issues with it because she needs the PC for her A-level revision, but she has preferred it's user interface and the fact that Open Office hasn't crashed like Word used to. I'm not saying that my XP has been "tuned" correctly but I'm impressed by how easy it was to install and run ubuntu. Installation took less than an hour and installed everything that a normal home user will need. The problem with the soundcard not withstanding.

 

Just a thought, but you could always change the soundcard. Its not like they cost a lot.

 

Its been a while for me but - Have you tried installing the terratec driver package and then manually configuring the sound card ?.

Sound hasnt been a priority in business installs I have done in the past (a long time ago) but it should be relatively straight forward.

I am going to try ubuntu as I need a distro for an old laptop so if I have any better insights I will let you know

 

Hi Simon/indolent,

I have an old Soundblaster I can use, it's just that Terratec sounds so much better using it's digital output into a DAC. But, you are right, I could buy a new card.

However, as far as I can tell the card is supported by ubuntu so I'll persevere for now. There's no urgency to resolve this problem, I can always listen to a CDP. There is no driver package for Linux that came with the card, but I'm looking at manually configuring it.

 

Dev - I took a look last night at ubuntu - There is a hardware utility (device manager) under the administration menu (under system) - in there there is a driver / config utility which goes through and tests each component. It does a bleep test on the sound card and then goes into a more detailed config if you say it doesnt work.

I didnt get any futher than this as my hard disk has a few "minor" sector problems and ubuntu wouldnt install permanently on it.

Good luck - It does look like a very nice version.

 

I've tried that utility already, twice. It only tests hardware that it has detected. My problem is that it doesn't detect the Terratec as soundcard.

I'm going to give up on it now.

 

Have you tried moving it to a different slot in the mobo? Might get it to detect it on different IRQ settings.

 

Hi Simon,

It's not just the soundcard. I clicked on the -allegedly- funny link that Michael posted, only to see a message saying I need to install a plugin. I'm wondering what else I need to install. It's a great shame since I really like the product otherwise.

 

have you not tried contacting the vendor for advice?

 

Hey I'm running XP and I needed to get a plug-in too! Flash 8 I think! But who wants to watch those silly videos Julian/Michael posts anyway?

 

It's a free download. I did look at their support links and forum but no luck.