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SadLittlePony
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Joined: 22 Apr 2012
Posts: 10
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 Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 11:07 pm Post subject: From Win7 x86 Laptop |
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Hello everyone I am way out of practice of all this and I need a little help to get back into the game. I am currently running Win7 on my Compaq laptop and I am really getting sick of windows lately. I want to switch and because my father is a programmer he suggested Gentoo as I want to get back into hacking.
I want to put Gentoo onto a flash drive and reinstall my computer all from the begining. I have some files I wanna back up but I have a 8gig flash drive so I want to partition it and boot from the drive and use the remaining space to store my information.
I have some concerns though. When win7 was put on this laptop the wireless card stopped working so I am using an external wireless adapter now and I hope that Ill have wireless after installation.
I also rely on skype quite a lot for my business and I want to know right off the bat how to get skype up an running.
I thank anyone who can help me even in the least bit.
EDIT: I also want to play world of warcraft with the RealUI installed if you can offer tips on getting that going on linux. |
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audiodef
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Joined: 06 Jul 2005
Posts: 4949
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| Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:53 am Post subject: |
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Let's start with the basics.
No CD/DVD drive in this laptop? That would be the easiest way to get started.
Chances are fairly good you can get your wireless working, whether you use the internal or external wireless chip.
Do you want to get rid of Windows or dual boot?
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SadLittlePony
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Joined: 22 Apr 2012
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| Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 2:08 am Post subject: |
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I do have a CD drive but no way to burn a CD.
I also want to rid of windows entirely. |
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Dont Panic
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Joined: 20 Jun 2007
Posts: 317
Location: SouthEast U.S.A.
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| Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 2:10 am Post subject: |
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FWIW, I used gparted to shrink my Windows 7 partition on my laptop and use the rest of the space for Linux experiments.
Occasionally, it comes in handy to be able to boot into Win7. |
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audiodef
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Joined: 06 Jul 2005
Posts: 4949
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| Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 2:19 am Post subject: |
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Well, check this out. Many people use sysresccd instead of the Gentoo boot CD image (and also instead of several distros' default installation medium). It looks like you should be able to create a sysresccd USB drive, which will continue to be useful after you've got Gentoo installed.
Once you boot up with your sysresccd USB drive, install Gentoo onto the hard drive as you normally would with the CD image.
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SadLittlePony
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Joined: 22 Apr 2012
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| Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 2:43 am Post subject: |
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| Awesome that should work thank you. Now Skype is my other big concern, As I said its important for my business. I should be able to install skype no? |
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cach0rr0
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Joined: 13 Nov 2008
Posts: 4117
Location: Houston, Republic of Texas
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| Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 4:55 am Post subject: |
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| SadLittlePony wrote: | | Awesome that should work thank you. Now Skype is my other big concern, As I said its important for my business. I should be able to install skype no? |
yep. everyone at my company does the "work from home" deal, and we'd be dead in the water without skype (well, we'd likely find an alternative eventually, but for now everyone does skype)
skype on linux is a bit older, and as such has a bit of an older look and feel - for example, every message appears in a new window, instead of a tabbed setup.
thankfully, some good soul created this:
| Code: |
[I] net-im/skypetab-ng
Available versions: (~)0.4.9_pre20111124-r1 (~)0.4.9_pre20120325 **9999
Installed versions: 0.4.9_pre20120325(16:07:41 03/28/12)
Homepage: http://github.com/kekekeks/skypetab-ng
Description: An LD_PRELOAD wrapper that adds tabs to Skype for Linux
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it's ~arch but it's been flawless for me thus far, and gives me tabbed skype. Actually liking skype on linux nowadays better than i do when im forced to boot into windows. Whoever keeps making changes to Windows skype is on crack - another software project afflicted by the whims of the Good Idea Fairy it seems (they keep screwing around with skype for Android/iOS, too, drives me nuts; icons always changing, moving, just annoying)
Anyway, just a confirmation here from another skype-dependent user, I too am married to it for work, and it's done just fine. Also a plug for skypetab-ng (I use fluxbox, and have changed the executable path for the Skype menu entry from /usr/bin/skype to /usr/bin/skypetab-ng)
*IF* you have any trouble, it will not be a skype thing, it'll be a "cripes this audio driver is a pain in the ass" thing, or a "man, the internal mic on this laptop sucks" thing (though for me that affects both windows and linux on one particular laptop where i dual boot). Internal mics are a notorious PITA, headsets tend to work flawlessly, as do external mics. That one's a crapshoot really, I had one internal mic that was non-functional until a BIOS upgrade, then it was perfect.
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SadLittlePony
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Joined: 22 Apr 2012
Posts: 10
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| Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 12:49 pm Post subject: |
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| Awesome Awesome Awesome You guys are the Best! Thank you so much for helping this hopeless little girl out. I appreciate it so much I really do! |
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audiodef
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Joined: 06 Jul 2005
Posts: 4949
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| Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:23 pm Post subject: |
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Ditto here on skype: it works perfectly for me. I have it on two laptops at home, and on both, I have both the internal mic and integrated web cams working. Post back here if you run into trouble with the internal mic and web cam if you have one. There's a specific driver section in the kernel config for integrated web cams that cover quite a few models under just a handful of drivers, since a lot of them come from the same manufacturer. Sometimes a mic is actually part of an integrated web cam.
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cach0rr0
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Joined: 13 Nov 2008
Posts: 4117
Location: Houston, Republic of Texas
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| Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 5:00 am Post subject: |
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| audiodef wrote: | | Ditto here on skype: it works perfectly for me. I have it on two laptops at home, and on both, I have both the internal mic and integrated web cams working. Post back here if you run into trouble with the internal mic and web cam if you have one. There's a specific driver section in the kernel config for integrated web cams that cover quite a few models under just a handful of drivers, since a lot of them come from the same manufacturer. Sometimes a mic is actually part of an integrated web cam. |
USB_VIDEO_CLASS?
that's the one all of mine seem to use. Havent had an issues, just made sure my normal user is in the 'video' group
...though after i confirm it works i blacklist uvcvideo and masking tape cardboard over the webcam, just in case ^_^
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audiodef
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Joined: 06 Jul 2005
Posts: 4949
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| Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 12:33 pm Post subject: |
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| cach0rr0 wrote: |
USB_VIDEO_CLASS?
that's the one all of mine seem to use. Havent had an issues, just made sure my normal user is in the 'video' group
...though after i confirm it works i blacklist uvcvideo and masking tape cardboard over the webcam, just in case ^_^ |
Yeah, that's the one.
Why not continuously send a looped video to the webcam so anyone who sneaks in will see, say, Chevy Chase (or even Gerald Ford) falling or picking his nose?
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