Linux Mint

If you look at the last story on the Toshiba 1800-400 Laptop, you would have seen how I never managed to get an Old laptop working at all on Linux, in this instance Windows XP gives you a VGA driver before installing any chipset drivers, which means you can at least see what is going on and it does not crash when you insert a PCMCIA Card. Today, I thought I would install the same Linux Mint 8 on a desktop computer, surely this would work much better right?

The Hardware in question

We have the Acer Aspire E700 which comprises of an Intel Motherboard, NVidia GeForce 7600GS, 1.5GIG Ram, 19” Widescreen Monitor and already had installed and working Windows 7 Ultimate 32Bit. Due to not been near a network point, I was using a Wireless N USB Stick made by EnGenius.

I started life with choosing the dual boot which installed GRUB and defaulted to Linux Mint 8. Although the Wireless network got picked up as such, it only showed a couple of points to choose from and did not present me with mine sitting a few feet away. I tried to connect via Hidden Wireless setting but nothing. The Adaptor in question was EnGenius EUB-9702 which is Wireless N Mode, I did try and stick in the wired as a temporary measure but it did not even come up, a quick boot to Windows 7 showed the device driver not working – maybe bad hardware. I need to say that the USB Wireless worked 100% fine in Windows 7 and it even installed the drivers itself.

I resorted to pulling out another network card, this time a USB Stick made by NetGear – WG111V2 and it showed straight away my wireless. This been a Wireless G card though means much slower access then the Wireless N Model, I was not happy that Linux Mint had not picked up my wireless on the N Card.

Updates and Googling

I tried to update, got various updates and had the 3D Cube working a treat but given the above, this is not workable for me. I looked around Google, the Ubuntu and Mint forums to see if I could get this working but nope, it was not to be. Remember that it knows there is a wireless card in there and is showing a couple of wireless but none are mine and locked down.

Roll Back

Once again I have proven to myself if nothing else that While Linux is great, it is always the drivers that let it down. Who do we blame here and is this not a chicken and egg situation? People cannot use all there hardware (and I felt networking is a major one) so they shy away from Linux and as the people who make the hardware feel not enough are using Linux, they do not provide drivers, the circle of life I guess.

But maybe you have odd hardware?

Remember that I can take these machines and turn them into a Hackintosh with ease yet Linux is falling flat on its face? Sometimes I feel it is as hit and miss to get Linux working properly as it is with a hackintosh.