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View Full Version : [xubuntu] New user problems - display, hardware, updates.....



PaulM47
December 22nd, 2008, 10:58 PM
I've been trying to get into Linux for a long time and stalled every time, this time I have the inclination to get to grips with it but I'm really struggling...

Hardware - E-System 3088 laptop, VIA C7 processor and associated chipset, 1Gb RAM, 80Gb hard disk. The display RAM (32M) is shared with main RAM.

I've re-partitioned the hard disk (dual boot XP SP3/Xubuntu 8.10). Re-partitioning and installation was a breeze and I've got the desktop running, but...

The desktop, and all other startup screens, are ~50% bigger than my display. I've found the display settings but nothing other than the default display size works, everything else, including my screens native 1024 x 768 size, is scrambled.

The touchpad is Sooooooo.... sensitive it's very difficult to use it, I've resorted to using a mouse for now.

I can't find any hardware settings - Applications, System, Hardware Drivers says 'No proprietary drivers are in use on this system'.

How do I find the hardware settings and adjust anything ??

The network and Internet access is working, I'm typing this in Firefox, set up by DHCP. I tried installing the latest updates in case these solved some of the problems. I can connect and get the list of updates but when I click 'Install' everything works for a couple of minutes, then the transfer rate changes to 'Unknown' and everything times out. If I repeat the process it runs again for a couple of minutes and stops again, and again, and again.... The trouble is it'll download the smaller updates (120 available in total) but stalls before it completes the bigger packages (> a few Mb). The network, modem etc. etc. work fine for web browsing both in Xubuntu and XP so the timeouts must be in the update software or at the server end somewhere.

Help pleeeeeeeeeeease or I'm in danger of stalling once again :(

Thanks