Replacing Linux momentum for Ubuntu - 3 questions:

[FredLC]

Hello there.

I have recently bought the following Laptop:

http://www.cceinformatica.com.br/pr...egoria=8&item_sub=0&item=1&img=lap.jpg&texto=

NCL-C2H4

#
# CPU: Intel® Celeron® M 410 1,46GHz
# OS: Insigne Momentum 5.0
# Chipset: Intel® 940 GML Express
# Drive: Combo - CD recorder & DVD reader
# Mem: 256MB DDR2 533MHz
# HD: 40GB SATA (5400 rpm)
# Screen: 14.1 inches TFT Hi-definition Widescreen with BrightView
# Graphics: Intel® Graphic Media Accelerator 940GML,
# Sound: 16-bit Sound Blaster Pro-compatible audio, Internal Speakers, AC audio link
# Modem: 56Kbps hi speed 10/100BASE-T Ethernet LAN integrada(RJ-45)
# Wireless LAN 802.11b/g
# Expansion Slot : Express Card/54 (admite ExpressCard/34)
# Ports: 3USB, Leitor de Cartão 4-1, (MMC, SD, MS, MS-Pro), Headpone-out (SPDIF), VGA (15-pin), RJ-11, RJ-45, firewire IEEE1394, S-Video
# Keyboard: Portuguese
# Touch Pad: Traditional
# Battery: 4 Cells

Well; Just after the purchase, it was in the tech support for a few issues, which made them replace the sound board.

Only that two of the issues are apparently unsolved:

1 - When I plug the headphone, it does not cut out the sound of the external speaker. This pretty much makes the headphone useless (what is the advantage if you're still gonna bother everyone around?). Tech support claims this has to do with limitation of Linux momentum, and not a hardware issue. I found that extremely weird, and wanted to know if that is even possible that a whole OS has this silly limitation, and if it truly is so, if installing Ubuntu would solve it?

2 - Apparently there is a bug in the timezone setup. Every time I restart, the system goes gives me 4 hours less than the actual time which I set. testing, if I made it so as to make time be 4 hours ahead, it would jump back 8 hours straight in a single reboot giving me back the 4 hours delay. Now, this is more feasible as a system bug. I just wanted to know if it is a known one.

3 - Recently, I wanted to install a wireless network in my house. One of the reasons it didn't happen was because the tech guy which came did not know how to install the wireless modems in Ubuntu (he could handle windows only. I fear that if I re-install the system which came with the notebook, I'll be unable to get it to wok. Now, do I have reason to be fearful, or is Ubuntu supposed to recognize it promptly, knowing that, since it works on Momentum, it does have the proper firmware to run on linux?

Regards .

 

[taper]

1,2 could very well be software issues, I can't help there too much. Are there any updates to your OS? It's funny a computer would ship like that though.
3: I can say that Ubuntu picked up my wireless card easier than XP did.
Since you're already on Linux, if you don't like your current distro, there's little harm in trying another, and Ubuntu is great for most people. You can even make a live cd that'll let you try everything out without installing to your hard drive. You can find out in a few minutes if your wireless works or not.

 

[Padma]

I've never heard of Momentum, but no matter.

1) I've never had this problem in Linux distros I've used, so ....

2) I've never run into this bug, either....

3) Wireless in Linux tends to be rather arcane, because hardware manufacturers do weird things, and don't provide proper specs for Linux gurus to work out the "how-to"s. If a card works with one distro, it *should* work with any. (FWIW, my understanding is that Ubuntu is average, or even worse, when it comes to easily handling various wireless cards. You can get them to work, but you often have to jump through a lot of hoops you shouldn't have to. Just my humble opinion.)