Dear Sifus and Gurus, I've installed Ubuntu 9.04 a couple of days ago in an old lappy just to know what's all the hype is all about. So far I'm really impressed with it, minimal yet robust! However, I have questions about Ubuntu that I'm hoping someone would shed light upon:

1. The system (Pentium 4, 768MB RAM, NVidia Go, 40GB HDD) seems to lag especially when I open Firefox (1 windows and 3 tabs). Going back to the system requiremens, I'm confident that the system is adequate enough to run Ubuntu or am I wrong to assume that?

2. Being lived and breahed MS Windows my entire live, I'm very spectical about not having any antivirus sofware running, although having read the documentation, ubuntu is almost virus-free. Is this true? Is ubuntu's firewall all I need to make sure my system is virus-free?

3. Currently I cannot use the 3-D graphic capbility of NVidia. I've tried to enhance my desktop earlier and ubuntu prompted an error whislt trying to download the propriety software. When restarted, I found myself staring at a blank screen. Luckily issue solved when rebooted to 'safe mode' and ubuntu detected the graphic problem. Does this mean that I am stuck at 2-D graphic?

Thats all for now, will update later after I play around more with ubuntu. My thanks to all for reading and replying.


This thread was moved from Technical Support

This post has been edited by Live2BuyNSell: Oct 26 2009, 05:48 AM

1) it is enough, though i worry about firefox, sometime open 10 tabs will
slow down firefox alot.

2) if you found a linux virus send it to me, i stop having virus infection since i use linux as desktop.
must be strong password,

3) sometime it may or maybe not, what card you use precisely, and what version of ubuntu you use. some older or extremely new card don't work. and how you install it for the first place

firefox is prone to lag. it even lag on my MS desktop, not to mention lower end laptops. it has nothing to do with ubuntu.

Glad to hear that!


The system comes with NVidia GeForce 420 (16MB if not mistaken), yeah old school Ubuntu 9.04 detects it straightaway (during installation) so no proprietary driver installed (when checked in Ubuntu).

My thanks for the comments.

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Added on October 16, 2009, 3:38 pm
Yes I've experienced lagging when opening too many tabs in Windows but its just Firefox, the system as a whole seems to be running at normal speed. But in Ubuntu it seems that the whole system is lagging?

My thanks for the comment.

This post has been edited by Live2BuyNSell: Oct 16 2009, 03:38 PM

ubuntu 8.10 have good support for old grafic card.

Swiftweasel is an optimized build of the Mozilla Firefox web browser for Linux. With builds for both AMD and Intel processors. Swiftweasel is 100% compatible with all Firefox themes, plugins, and extensions.
deb for ubuntu

This post has been edited by fat16: Oct 16 2009, 06:27 PM

1) For me, the sys spec as stated by you already good to run Ubuntu. I'm also experience same prob when opens a lot of tabs and windows. It only slow down a lil' bit the FF. No need to worry about that.

2) TS, you will found virus in Ubuntu, but it's a Microsoft-based virus. Advisable to have anti-virus if you use mobile devices into Windows and Ubuntu [Vice-Versa], although the sifus said the Microsoft virus can't do anything. HAHA

3) For this one, I'm not kinda expert about it. You can ask further to Master SweeMeng for hardware probs.

Hi, I will definately try this. Thanks for sharing!

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Added on October 18, 2009, 2:53 am

Thanks mate!


This post has been edited by Live2BuyNSell: Oct 18 2009, 02:53 AM

cool ... Swiftweasel is my kinda browser !!!

There's also Google Chrome for Linux. It's still in the development phase though. But it's good enough to be used. I'm using it.

Is 10 gb enuf for ubuntu? Coz my lappie hdd capacity is 60 gig and i have 2 partition, C (29.2 GB) and D (26.5 GB). I plan to install linux on D coz D is my place to store all the software and document and after thorough cleaning left me 10 gb free space. C is my win xp. Thanks

This post has been edited by nightzstar: Oct 18 2009, 11:37 PM

Actually, the minimum HDD size to install Ubuntu is 4GB. It's OK to install Ubuntu in HDD with 10GB space, but it's advisable, when you do that, make sure you always save space, and save files needed only, than it will be safe, otherwise unexpected problems will happen

Or maybe, continue using your FF, or install Shiretoko or Swiftfox [lighter].

It's no big deal, mate. Happy enjoying Ubuntu

If you wan 3D, you best bet is to install the legacy nvidia driver. Your card is no longer supported by the latest driver.

There are 3 legacy driver versions available. 173.14.20, 96.43.13, and also 71.86.11. I think you can try first with 96.43.13. I'm currently using SUSE so i dont know if there's binary package available to you in synaptic. But in worst case scenario you can just compile your own driver.

nVidia Drivers:

173.14.20

96.43.13

71.86.11

Any other advice before i go on installing ubuntu? Do i need defrag first?

please defrag before partitioning.....
it is nice and faster when you partition the hard disk....

I see. I analyzed it and it say does not need to defrag. Ok, i want to ask if i can take out the 10gb from my D: drive and create it as another partition let say E:. Can I do this during ubuntu setup or must use third party partition software?

Bro, what do you mean by unexpected problems will happen? The system might not work as intended or something like BSOD?

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Added on October 19, 2009, 12:45 pm

Thank you, will try this. but I dont have any idea whatsoever how to compile the driver Will google that as well.

This post has been edited by Live2BuyNSell: Oct 19 2009, 12:47 PM

it used to be linux will go crazy when hard disk is full, or too small.

now it have warning, but it still do not result the problem...

First check synaptic to see if you have the binary package for the driver. If got just install that and u're done...

Otherwise you'll have to compile the driver. For ubuntu i think you only need gcc, make and matching kernel header. Go to runlevel 3 in virtual terminal and just run the nvidia driver installer.

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Added on October 19, 2009, 1:21 pm

Your choice. If you wan to free up some space using Windows's Disk management also can. Use GParted also can, use the Ubuntu partitioner also can. The importance is the user, not the software. Just think twice before confirming anything and you should be fine.

No nid to spend $$ buying partitioning software to install Ubuntu.

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Added on October 19, 2009, 1:23 pm

WinXP can go ki siao also when used up all the space. Use to over DL till the hard disk full and then cant even boot.. Luckily is in VirtualBox..

This post has been edited by sc4bbk: Oct 19 2009, 01:23 PM