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Score several for Linux
Sep. 12th, 2008 11:54 amLast week I needed to scan some slides for use at Oxonmoot. It will be much easier on the day to use a video projector to show them.
I borrowed a fancy slide projector that could handle transparencies, and, because the owner had lost the CD that was supplied with it, I tried to install downloaded drivrs from the Epson website. Windows spat out three different versinos of the drivers. First it complained that they were not signed, and when I clicked OK to use them anyway, it gave the usual copying dialogue box for a while, then told me that the drivers were either corrupted or did not exist. I had already looked at the possibility of using Linux to run the scanner, but it looked difficult, with the drivers only available in an RPM package that is not helpful with Linux. However,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
foradan suggested that I try running XSANE in case it would recognise the scanner anyway. It recognised it as the wrong type (needed the drivers in the RPM to get the right model), so probably some of the functions were unavailable, but it did scan transparencies correctly, with no installation or fooling around with extra software.
I have been reconfiguring the old laptop (Dell Inspiron 8200) that I had used for the scanning, to be dual boot with Linux. I had prevoiusly had one hard disc with Linux installed, and the smaller and older one with Windows. It seemed more convenient, though, to use dual boot. I used the restore discs from the manufacturer, thinking it would be easy to install windows on an 80G partition and leave 20G to install Ubuntu later.
I was half right. The Linux installation worked easily.
Windows installed itself, and took a long time. When it was installed, it was necessary to install all the hardware drivers from another CD. After that, it did not recognise the existence of either the network card or the wireless card. It was not even a case of an incorrect driver error message, it was that as far as windows was concerned, the cards were not connected to the system.
Then I installed Ubuntu. When the installation was done, I entered the encryption key for the wireless network and was connected immediately. It also recognised the LAN card and even the addon cardbus USB2 card (because the computer only had USB1.1 on the motherboard).
Eventually, I was able to download extra software from the card manufacturers websites, using Linux, save it in a directory on the windows partition, and use that to force the network cards to install under windows. Eventually I even found a driver for the USB2 card.
Installing windows and making it all work took over half a day, while Ubuntu took just over half an hour - with much less involvement from me. I would have migrated that machine totally to Ubuntu, but there are some drawbacks. There area couple of CAD programs that won't run under WINE, and the display drivers are not working perfectly. Ubuntu's built-in driver does not manage to switch the screen backlight completely off, as windows could do, if I stop using the keyboard for a while. The non open-source display driver that I can install cannot ever switch ON the backlight.
Still, if the machine lasts that long, I may need to migrate it fully to Linux, because at some stage I will probably need to re-install XP again, and eventually MS will most likely switch off the activation servers, since it costs maney to keep them running and XP is no longer sold. I don't think that vista would work on that machine, even if I wanted it to, and could afford it.
If some of the hardware developers were less unfriendly to the open source community, I think that Windows would, at least, cease to have a stranglehold on the desktop marked, over the next decade. I wonder if there are agreements between MS and, for example, some video card companies, to make it difficult to develop open source drivers?
I borrowed a fancy slide projector that could handle transparencies, and, because the owner had lost the CD that was supplied with it, I tried to install downloaded drivrs from the Epson website. Windows spat out three different versinos of the drivers. First it complained that they were not signed, and when I clicked OK to use them anyway, it gave the usual copying dialogue box for a while, then told me that the drivers were either corrupted or did not exist. I had already looked at the possibility of using Linux to run the scanner, but it looked difficult, with the drivers only available in an RPM package that is not helpful with Linux. However,
foradan suggested that I try running XSANE in case it would recognise the scanner anyway. It recognised it as the wrong type (needed the drivers in the RPM to get the right model), so probably some of the functions were unavailable, but it did scan transparencies correctly, with no installation or fooling around with extra software.I have been reconfiguring the old laptop (Dell Inspiron 8200) that I had used for the scanning, to be dual boot with Linux. I had prevoiusly had one hard disc with Linux installed, and the smaller and older one with Windows. It seemed more convenient, though, to use dual boot. I used the restore discs from the manufacturer, thinking it would be easy to install windows on an 80G partition and leave 20G to install Ubuntu later.
I was half right. The Linux installation worked easily.
Windows installed itself, and took a long time. When it was installed, it was necessary to install all the hardware drivers from another CD. After that, it did not recognise the existence of either the network card or the wireless card. It was not even a case of an incorrect driver error message, it was that as far as windows was concerned, the cards were not connected to the system.
Then I installed Ubuntu. When the installation was done, I entered the encryption key for the wireless network and was connected immediately. It also recognised the LAN card and even the addon cardbus USB2 card (because the computer only had USB1.1 on the motherboard).
Eventually, I was able to download extra software from the card manufacturers websites, using Linux, save it in a directory on the windows partition, and use that to force the network cards to install under windows. Eventually I even found a driver for the USB2 card.
Installing windows and making it all work took over half a day, while Ubuntu took just over half an hour - with much less involvement from me. I would have migrated that machine totally to Ubuntu, but there are some drawbacks. There area couple of CAD programs that won't run under WINE, and the display drivers are not working perfectly. Ubuntu's built-in driver does not manage to switch the screen backlight completely off, as windows could do, if I stop using the keyboard for a while. The non open-source display driver that I can install cannot ever switch ON the backlight.
Still, if the machine lasts that long, I may need to migrate it fully to Linux, because at some stage I will probably need to re-install XP again, and eventually MS will most likely switch off the activation servers, since it costs maney to keep them running and XP is no longer sold. I don't think that vista would work on that machine, even if I wanted it to, and could afford it.
If some of the hardware developers were less unfriendly to the open source community, I think that Windows would, at least, cease to have a stranglehold on the desktop marked, over the next decade. I wonder if there are agreements between MS and, for example, some video card companies, to make it difficult to develop open source drivers?
