Pre-Installation Questions

[CrazyCanuck]

NOTE: Please go to the end of this message and read the last paragraph, it is a summation of everything I have written.


Mainboard: Asus A8V-VM
Chipset: K8M890CE Host Bridge
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ @ 2200 MHz, Socket 939, Level 1 Cache: 128 KB, Level 2 Cache: 512 KB
Physical Memory: 2048 MB
Video Card: Nvidia Corp NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT
Hard Disk: ST3500320AS (500 GB)
DVD-Rom Drive: SONY DVD RW DRU-820A
Monitor Type: Samsung SyncMaster - 16 inches
Network Card: VT82C570 MV IDE Controller VT6102 Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter
Mouse: Razer DeathAdder Mouse
Gamepad: Microsoft Xbox 360 PC Wireless Controller
Sound: Analog Devices SoundMAX HD Audio (driver has a 2005 date within Windows XP)
Keyboard: Logitech G15


Future Upgrades:

Sound: Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI Express
TV Tuner: Suggestions? Hauppage is an option but which one?

Being offline makes it rather difficult to install any current OS, Ubuntu included. What I am trying to do is to collect all drivers required for my machine to operate under Ubuntu and then to do a 100% offline installation. My Ubuntu install will never be online, so as far as security goes, I am not interested in any. Ubuntu will become my game design workbench, so I will be doing extensive audio and video rendering and creation as well as being an IDE for whatever scripting/programming may be required regarding my game/mod designs. Of course, there are some interesting games available to be played that are native to Ubuntu code which I will also be installing. I am hoping there has been progress made regarding making games that are PC-native to run under Ubuntu. WINE comes to mind as far as emulation goes, however I am looking more for Ubuntu-native games for now. It would also appear that programming applets for my Logitech G15 keyboard seems to be geared for Linux-native coding and then ported to the PC environment. I have yet to dabble with the Logitech applet creation due to that issue.

I am attempting to keep this as short as possible and already I probably have bored many of you, and for that please accept my humble apologies. For those of you still reading, please continue on!

As you have noticed at the top of this message you will find my computer spec sheet. I am hoping that someone out there can help me by telling me where I can manually download the necessary packages my machine requires along with what Ubuntu initially requires as well. Security is a non-issue as I have previously stated because the hard drive that will contain the Ubuntu OS will never ever get online to the Internet, hence no need for security. I suppose I am in need of creating a local tar ball that will contain software packages that interest me, as well as driver and OS-specific packages that will enable my Ubuntu install to funtion normally.

I currently am still using Windows XP, and certainly know that some things I would like to shift off my WinXP box and do them under Ubuntu. I purchase used DVD movies from places like Blockbuster and then convert the movie to DivX format. I despise disks, and simply ripping an entire DVD to my hard drive does nothing to alleviate filesizes above 2 gigabytes. I like to keep things defragmented, and having huge file sizes above 2 gig makes things complex on the defrag side. Converting huge raw DVD movies to DivX keeps file sizes to 1.5 gig or less which means those files are easily handled by any defragmentation software available. As well, it appears that an encoded DivX movie displays great on a 36" LCD tv, as my friend has proved to me. So I need to be able to rip a DVD movie and then convert to DivX for later playback. Once the movie has been ripped and converted, I then throw away the awful plastic container that holds the DVD disk and then place the DVD disk on a spindle for a low-footprint storage solution.

As for audio, I use Cool Edit Pro 1.1 for its multi-track sequencing and rendering. As well, the drag and drop performance of Cool Edit Pro 1.1 allows for absolutely simplistic audio file conversion based on my current session/project settings. I enjoy recording my own sounds and then altering them to something completely different using a multi-track audio sequencer. SoundForge 6 has the most comprehensive audio cd rip utility I have seen to date. I do the same with DVD as I do with CD audio. I rip the disk, convert to 320 KB playback and then store the audio CD on a spindle for a low footprint storage solution. SoundForge 6 also has excellent batch processing capabilities. I also use SoundForge 6 to remove tv commercials found in a tv program that I have captured using my tv tuner card in the past, and wish to do so again soon. I also am in need of using Bink/Smacker software to render *.BIK files.

So here is the gist of my topic:

- I am in need of audio software that resembles (or not?) SoundForge 6.0, Cool Edit Pro 1.1 for file conversion and multi-track audio sequencing and rendering, ASIO4All latency-reducing Ubuntu compatible driver package, AC3filter complete audio tweaker Ubuntu compatible driver package
- DivX converter and DivX movie player
- HTML software (not doing anything complex, simply using HTML to display and print docs cross-platform)
- OpenOffice (is this excellent suite being used more abroad or still a small market solution?)
- Blender built for Ubuntu (need specific steps to build a proper Blender suite for both WinXP and Ubuntu)
- other modeling software that is native to Ubuntu, not to WinXP
- screen capturing of still and moving images with audio (is Fraps native to Ubuntu, and what to use for still images?)
- ROM emulation (Nintendo flavours only)
- DDS file handling (still a GIMP neophyte, floating windows are difficult for me to grasp for some reason)
- graphic imaging such as layers, feathering, sharpening, creating shapes, image resizing and graphic format conversion et al
- Ubuntu-native version of FFDSHOW
- disk imaging/emulation that resembles Alcohol 120% or Daemon Tools
- archival program able to create and decompress zip and rar files (how versatile is 7-Zip?)
- an IDE resembling UEStudio's UltraEdit or at least a hex editor and a good text editor allowing for different TXT formats
- PDF viewer and maker

Now I play and modify several games, and as such, it is a better idea to have both programming environment and game I am modifying to be on the same OS. Here is a list of games that I play and modify:

- Crysis
- Call Of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare
- FarCry
- Dungeon Siege 2 vanilla
- Oblivion
- Doom 3 / Quake 4
- Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
- World In Conflict

What I am trying to do is wean myself off of the Windows platform. A few years ago Ubuntu was not quite where I wanted it to be when I tried to do a test install of the Ubuntu OS with as many native programs in the repositories that I found interesting. I had issues with my older Nvidia video card back then, and Ubuntu never did detect my monitor as anything other than a Plug And Play Device. Now I have a much more complex set of instances, and if Ubuntu can do all of them, then I will gladly install Ubuntu and be happy to continue on doing my own personal works.

So in closing and a short recap, I am trying to do a 100% offline installation of Ubuntu on my machine that has the specs listed above. I am in need of downloading the correct software/driver packages to make Ubuntu run in a 100% offline environment using a soon-to-be-built local-to-me tar ball with assistance from community members here and to do as many things I have listed as possible.

Thanks,

CC

[Mashuteichou]

I will answer this more in detail tomorrow. I stumbled across your question and while I am still a recovering Windows user, I have some good insight and answer for you.

For now, I would say, look up WINE. Its a Windows Emulator and it runs alot of different windows programs. I use it to play some games and use some programs that I can't pull myself away from. One game being Fallout 3, and another Guild Wars. They have a compatibility section for games, so you can see if they are playable, glitchy, or fully functional.

If I remember correctly, its www.winehq.com. Ill make sure tomorrow. This is just a quick reply.

There are many, many, many programs to choose from. And I too used Ubuntu a couple years ago, and this version pulled me from windows. Its taken 3 weeks to get used to it. While most programs you can load through the add/remove section with no effort, some take a littler bit of research to load. Such as, for me, Stepmania and Cinelerra. Cinelerra is a video editing program.

The main Word Processor is Open Office. Built right in from the get go.

In just the add/remove part, typing "word processing" I got 4 other programs besides open office. So if you don't want open office for example, you just uncheck which deletes it, then check one you want, then it downloads it.

As for an offline thing, you can't really do that from the get go if you want to use all the programs. You would have to download Wine, and all the programs and updates for them, then load all your games to make sure they work, then you can do offline.

[Mashuteichou]

The only game it looks like you'll have the most trouble with is Farcry. Crysis may be difficult, but in low settings it seems to work. The other ones all have gold or platinum ratings. Crysis had silver. Farcry had bronze or garbage rating, (unplayable) But it was the older version of WINE, so it may work now. I can't test it myself beings I don't actually have the game.

[oldos2er]

Doom3 and Quake4 both have Linux versions, at ftp.idsoftware.com.

[Mashuteichou]

For drivers, Im not sure which ones you need. For example: I have a laptop that needed drivers for every single thing except the exchange rate of protons and neutrons on the 30th day of February, under XP and Vista. Under Ubuntu, everything worked right from the start. At first, I was scared and the OS was awesome. Then, I realized, it was. It took me 3 hours to find a driver for XP to run my PS2 controller. I plugged it into ubuntu...and nothing even popped up. I thought it didn't recognize it. But, when I started pressing buttons in an emulator to test it, everything worked. So in that one thing, nothing even popped up to confirm it was working, it just did. Its like an android or something! AHH!!!

This may not be the same for you beings I don't actually have a desktop. I assume its the same.

For programs, I really don't know how to do this yet. Some programs, for example, VLC, have a DL for Ubuntu on their website. Once its downloaded, I have no idea how to load it without the internet. Everything that I could download from a website manually, needed some sort of download to work. Be it a codec or an update.

Other things you can't simply download. Or, if its possible, its really difficult.

The good thing is, if you had to download stuff, most of the programs are relatively small. I can download Open Office Suite in 15min at 20 kbps. Not sure of the size though. Theres alot of single downloads it has to do.

[CrazyCanuck]

As a quick update, since I posted this message a while ago I have purchased an Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI Express sound card. Works well enough for a relatively low cost sound card offered by Sound Blaster.

Thanks for all of the replies. I am rather saddened by the tether the Internet has become regarding installing of any OS.

I will have to consider bringing my computer to a friend of mine to install Ubuntu properly.

Still, I am interested in creating a tar ball with my drivers being part and parcel to the software packages in the tar ball.

Brings me to my next question then.

Once I have successfully installed Ubuntu on my computer, is there a way to create an image of the installed OS for backup and restore purposes? I would think this approach makes sense seeing as I am one of the very few offline users. Any further assistance would be appreciated.

Thanks,

CC