Okay, I've installed Lubuntu, now what?

[ssines60]

Here's the specs; I have a PIII 450mhz w/ 458mb RAM and 40gb Hdd and functional USB ports that I got in college 14 years ago. I tried a disc run of Lubuntu 14.04 on it and it works so I installed it and the GUI and CLI all work fine. What doesn't is ndiswrapper, wine, and gimp that I found through links from here. Despite 25 years of Win/DOS experience, I had only a month of linux in college so I have NO IDEA what to do with the three programs above so I can make them and my wireless WNA3100 fully functional. I didn't even know how to start a new thread on here until I happened to find it (I think, ) and wrote this. (Actually it was the "conversations" section, not this.) I have copies of the following to help, but its a lot of reading just to get started; "The Linux Command Line", "Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting", "Linux Programming Unleashed" (1999). Any help would really be appreciated. I can only securely D/L anything from a Win 7 machine at the library as my laptops and desktops all have Win XP AND a W32.Lecna.H worm variant (Recycler) that no one else seems to care about and that's just the one I know about. (There could be others as my laptops all have at least 2-3 unmovable file sections on them which is of course suspicious.) How do I use ndiswrapper to get my WNA3100 to work, how do I install WINE to get my Windows based drivers to work with my hardware? And finally, where should they and GIMP be stored in the file tree so they aren't just randomly installed?

 

[arochester]

How do I use ndiswrapper to get my WNA3100 to work

Look here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2174748
Scroll down to the message from vanquishedangel

how do I install WINE to get my Windows based drivers to work with my hardware

You don't! This is a typical Windows user's point of view. Many Linux "drivers" are already included in the Kernel. If your hardware works - leave it alone! If some part of your hardware doesn't work - let us know.

where should they and GIMP be stored in the file tree

Applications should download and install (to the correct places) AUTOMAGICALLY!!! Look here, how, http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/installingsoftware

 

[ssines60]

(Being a new poster I had to delete the previous links in order to reply. Don't know why, but thems da RULES)

You don't! This is a typical Windows user's point of view. Many Linux "drivers" are already included in the Kernel. If your hardware works - leave it alone! If some part of your hardware doesn't work - let us know.

Thanks for replying, I appreciate it, but I think I wasn't very clear. A direct internet connection is not possible BECAUSE I don't have WINE or NDISWRAPPER on my computer in a functional form in linux. (There is NO internet connect available yet.) I have them in tars on the desktop since that's where I put them from the flash drive where they were d/l'd when I got them at the library (public, not the one in Linux) and carried them home. If they already existed in Lubuntu 14.04 in a functional form, I don't know where they are or how to make them do anything, install, unzip, detar, or whatever. I think you get the picture, remember I used linux for the first time for 1 month 14 years ago.

 

[Yesyesloud]

That's an old pc. Lubuntu is great and will work ok on it, but there are less ram-hungry distros like Damn Small Linux.

If you are able to get online via ethernet on that pc, this thread will most likely solve your problems as you're running an ubuntu-based distribution: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2215387

 

[ssines60]

Well, I opened a terminal window on the desktop that displayed the following: steve@DTPC:~$
The desktop shows the trashcan, a "Documents" folder and these files that I put there from the flash drive: ndiswrapper-1.59.tar.gz, wine-1.7.17.tar.bz2, and gimp-2.8.6.tar.bz2.
Entering the command "ls ndiswrapper*" results in this:
ls: cannot access ndiswrapper*: No such file or directory
Entering "ls ndiswrapper -l" results in:
ls: cannot access ndiswrapper: No such file or directory
Now I must be doing something wrong if the list command issued (I think) on desktop doesn't even list the tar file contained within it nor does it display it if it was any where else, although the command I issued may not have been globally inclusive. I don't know.

 

[arochester]

Can you connect TEMPORARILY to your router by cable?

Sometimes you just need one program to install. Most times when you install one program it needs to install several others. They are called "Dependencies"; one program depends on several others.

It can be no good trying to install one program from one .tar without knowing, and having, necessary dependencies...

 

[GrumpyOldMan]

Entering "ls ndiswrapper -l" results in:
ls: cannot access ndiswrapper: No such file or directory
Now I must be doing something wrong if the list command issued (I think) on desktop doesn't even list the tar file contained within it nor does it display it if it was any where else, although the command I issued may not have been globally inclusive. I don't know.

What's happening is that your terminal/shell opens up with the working directory set to user home. If you have files on your desktop, that's a directory within user home (or ~). So to list them:

cd ~/Desktop
ls -l

and you'll get a listing of what's on the desktop.

 

[ssines60]

I am reluctant to do that only because I am pretty confident that by rebuilding it in linux no windows viruses will affect it. Accessing the net at this stage may leave it vunerable to unknown attacks that will make themselves at home before I'm ready to combat them.

Can you connect TEMPORARILY to your router by cable?

Sometimes you just need one program to install. Most times when you install one program it needs to install several others. They are called "Dependencies"; one program depends on several others.

It can be no good trying to install one program from one .tar without knowing, and having, necessary dependencies...

 

[ssines60]

So I have these files but I don't know what to do with them. I have used Win Gimp before so thats not a problem, but I NEED the others to work so I can move forward beyond this one to my laptops next. They MAY prove easier as they are newer.

Well, I opened a terminal window on the desktop that displayed the following: steve@DTPC:~$
The desktop shows the trashcan, a "Documents" folder and these files that I put there from the flash drive: ndiswrapper-1.59.tar.gz, wine-1.7.17.tar.bz2, and gimp-2.8.6.tar.bz2.
Entering the command "ls ndiswrapper*" results in this:
ls: cannot access ndiswrapper*: No such file or directory
Entering "ls ndiswrapper -l" results in:
ls: cannot access ndiswrapper: No such file or directory
Now I must be doing something wrong if the list command issued (I think) on desktop doesn't even list the tar file contained within it nor does it display it if it was any where else, although the command I issued may not have been globally inclusive. I don't know.

 

[ssines60]

I have been reading an article on sourceforge about installing ndiswrapper and the WNA3100 wireless network antenna. I tried installing ndiswrapper using the info from the web site with the following results which I don't understand. Behold:

steve@DTPC:~$ pwd
/home/steve
steve@DTPC:~$ cd Desktop
steve@DTPC:~/Desktop$ ndiswrapper -i
The program 'ndiswrapper' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-common
steve@DTPC:~/Desktop$ sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-common
[sudo] password for steve:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package ndiswrapper-common
steve@DTPC:~/Desktop$

I looked through the tar file and its folders and couldn't find a file named common anywhere. Is that a command, or a location on the HD, or a switch like -l?
Also, what is the E: referring to, Error, or something else? I know it is not drive E: because linux uses hda1,2 etc, to refer to drives so what is that then?

 

[arochester]

So you don't want to connect by wire, but you want to make your wireless work...???

Accessing the net at this stage may leave it vunerable to unknown attacks that will make themselves at home before I'm ready to combat them.

If you have installed Linux it will not be vulnerable to any Windows virii.

When you type: sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-common
It wants to load the package from Repository - which is available over the Internet - but you don't have an Internet connection.

E. stands for Error.

There are ways to install packages and ALL NECESSARY DEPENDENCIES but you need access to the Internet using a different computer.

Things like:
Keryx Project https://launchpad.net/keryxproject
Sushi-Huh? http://sushi-huh.sourceforge.net/
AptOnCD http://aptoncd.sourceforge.net/

 

[ssines60]

What's happening is that your terminal/shell opens up with the working directory set to user home. If you have files on your desktop, that's a directory within user home (or ~). So to list them:

cd ~/Desktop
ls -l

and you'll get a listing of what's on the desktop.

Thanks, I have been trying out some of the CLI mnemonics with some success, though its a slow process that I already did years ago with DOS/Windows. The directory structure is pretty unfamiliar and shares little with the Microsoft way of doing things so now I have all new places and commands to learn again with much less time and patience than I had then, but I appreciate it, at least you take the time to respond with explanation and no disdainful attitude.