Before I install...

[qwertyfish11]

I've had some pretty negative experiences of putting new OS's on my machine, so before I actually install ubuntu, I need to make sure all my devices are compatible. My wifi card needs a driver, and when I last upgraded, I had to borrow a friends machine and put the driver on a CD. The Wifi card is a Netgear WG311. Also, I need a driver for my sound, Creative SB X-Fi.
Are any of these devices compatible with ubuntu? Are there any third-party drivers that I can use? :confused: I can't wait for ubuntu!

[sanderd17]

The best way is to try yourself. You can try it by burning a ubuntu live cd (this is the standard way, almost all guides to install ubuntu start that way.)

When you boot from the CD and you choose to "try ubuntu" instead of installing it, you'll have a perfect working ubuntu (a bit slower because of the CD speed vs HDD speed and a missing swap partition). If the things you want work OOTB, all is all right. If some features are missing, it might be possible to get them right but you'll almost always end up in a mess. So if it works, install it, if the live CD fails, just remove the live CD and all'll be back to normal.

[Mark Phelps]

...The Wifi card is a Netgear WG311. Also, I need a driver for my sound, Creative SB X-Fi.


In addition to booting from the LiveCD (which I heartily support), you can also go to the Networking forum and the Video forum and do searches using your hardware info -- to see what experience other folks have had with the same equipment.

[oleink]

In addition to booting from the LiveCD (which I heartily support), you can also go to the Networking forum and the Video forum and do searches using your hardware info -- to see what experience other folks have had with the same equipment.

This pretty much covers it between the two of them. Most "major" things can work in Ubuntu

[woodmaster]

it looks like you need to use ndiswrapper and the windows driver for that wireless card. haven't had luck with ndis myself so...