[Bartender]

Their website has parts of the April 2006 issue archived, but I couldn't find the laptop guide.

[Stephen47]

The mini card is under the keyboard. the model of mine is 4311 I believe.

[fenderfreek]

If you're going to replace the Mini-PCI(shudder) it's usually located under the keyboard, like you noted, and has a set of wires that go to the mobo, either for power or antenna, I presume. If you're going to spend that kind of cheddar, you can save a bit of trouble and go with a supported PC Card or USB one.
</mytwocents>

[Stephen47]

The new Mini-PCI is only $32. and it is not that hard to replace. I haven't even been able to connect to the internet with the cable attached to my computer let alone wireless. I just need to get connected before i try the next step.

[Bartender]

Stephen -
You say you haven't been able to go online even when you have a CAT cable physically plugged in? What are your symptoms? Have you tried disabling IVP6?
Have you gone into Networking, enabled your wired ethernet device, tried pinging anything?

Wireless can be tricky, but from what I've read Ubuntu can detect just about any standard ethernet device. Did you try plugging directly into the modem or are you behind 2 devices (modem/router)?

The "disable IPV6" thing is relatively simple. If it wasn't simple I wouldn't know about it. Anyway, over at a friend's house the only thing that worked in Firefox was clicking on the Ubuntu bookmarks that were already pre-loaded into the Firefox Bookmarks or Quick Links or whatever it was. Synaptic worked once or twice but really slow. Tell me if either of those symptoms rings a bell, OK?

[fenderfreek]

Yeah, that indicates bigger problem for sure. Also, what kind of internet service do you have that you are trying to run this on? If it's DSL that uses PPPoE, then some extra configuration is in order. I'm just throwing that out there because I've seen that quite a bit lately, and it usually is the cause of the problem with wired ethernets.

[Stephen47]

It is Verizon DSL and it does use PPoE. One problem is I have it installed on an old hard drive from my son's computer and I only get to paly with it early in the morning. Although tomorrow looks good for having quite a bit of time with it. Is there a good "how to" site for Ubuntu? I go to the forum but that is time consuming to read all the threads to see if the problem is the same as mine. I need someplace I can look up how to connect whatever it is I am trying to do. Thanks for the help

[fenderfreek]

To be honest, I've never had a problem that I couldn't solve with Google. I just run a search or two, usually refining or tweaking the terms a bit, and it's usually no time before I've got exactly what I want. I haven't found any single definitive online resource, but if you go to your local B&N or Borders bookstore, there are several good books on Ubuntu. I have one called "Ubuntu Hacks" which is actually a collection of awesome tips and tricks to tweak, configure, and maximize the useability of Ubuntu. There is also an Official Ubuntu Book, if you're just interested in learning the basics of using, configuring and troubleshooting the OS.

[Stephen47]

If you were going to buy just one of them which one would you reccommend? The descriptions of each on Amazon makes them both seem worthwhile.

[Bartender]

If you're starting from ground zero with Ubuntu, The Official Ubuntu Book is good. I read thru it all the time. I like Keir Thomas' "Beginning Ubuntu" book.
Stephen, have you tried disabling IPV6 yet?
What I want you to do is plug your Ubuntu PC directly into the Verizon modem. No routers in between. Start the PC up, and follow these directions to disable IPV6. Reboot and see if that gets you online, OK?

[Stephen47]

that didn't get me online

[Bartender]

OK, anything here help?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NetworkDevices

You know, the wired etherne oughta work. Since it's mobile, can you go to a neighbor's house and try their connection? Somebody with broadband and a different modem/router. I'm sure there are smarter ways to pursue this...

[Stephen47]

Ok we have to take a time out here. The Ubuntu we are working on is one I installed on an old hard drive for my son's computer. Now that I have figured out how to change the boot order I figured I could install Ubuntu on my computer. Well there are a few problems here I need to fix before we continue with the connection problem. Using the live CD I downloaded, the same one I used on the previous install, when I got to the partitioning choices window there were three:
Erase entire disk
Use largest free space
Manually edit partition table.
I selected the second one. I clicked on continue and an error message popped up saying:"Failed to partition selected disk" I clicked ok on that and the next window was the Ubuntu will now install on selected disk box. I clicked continue and another error message popped up. This one said: "No Root file system". I clicked ok on that and it seemed to be starting to install. That is when I cancelled, not knowing what was actually going to happen and not wanting Windows wiped out.
I then downloaded the live cd file again and tried installing from it but I got exactly the same messages.
I seem to remember on the first install I was able to choose the size of the partition I wanted for Ubuntu but I was not given that option. What is going on here?

[Bartender]

Stephen -
Need to get a look at your disk. Can you run the UbuntuLiveCD, bring up the terminal, and type in

sudo fdisk -l

? Copy/paste the results and post.

Also, in the UbuntuLiveCD environment, go to System>Administration>Gnome Partition Mgr and take a look at the disk map it brings up. I suspect you have Windows data or a recovery partition way over at the far right of the disk.

You might have better results if you use the "manually partition" route instead of use largest free space when getting ready to install. Take a look at aysiu's guide. You'll probably still have questions, because it's kinda hard to understand the stuff about mount points until you've done it a few times. Write if you have questions.

[Stephen47]

obviously I won't be able to copy and paste it but I will do my best to convey what it says. I don't get the resize IDE master option when I try to install it. I did when I installed it in the other computer. Why don't I get that option on this computer?