Can't burn disks.

Tried Brasero and Xfburn. Both appear to work.. No errors.. But there is no data on the disk. Still blank. Installed K3B. Locks up at end of burn process. Never gets to data verification process because the disk is still blank. It throws an error that the dusk in the drive is blank.

Linux Mint 15 XFCE 32bit

Wow..

After a bunch of different stuff happened, I now have Linux Mint 15 XFCE 32bit installed. I still have my brightness/volume OSD problem and my popping sound is back (even though pulse audio is already installed). So far, Mint Xfce is my favorite distro. Its not nearly as lite as LXDE/Lubuntu, but its still functional on my old dog machine with only 500MB RAM.

Xfce

I couldn't figure out how to fix my brightness and volume indicators. Decided to try Xfce instead of LXDE. Did a fresh install of Xubuntu. Didn't fix the problem, but so far I like Xfce better than LXDE.

Was going to install Fedora with Xfce but couldn't get it to install.

Popping sound fixed.

Installing pulse audio fixed my popping sound when running on battery.

On screen indicators update

EDIT-- 9 JAN 2014: this is definately a video/graphics driver issue. that exists for me on all distros and multiple kernels. I have better luck with old kernels like 3.2.X

Still no luck solving this issue. I tried installing different graphics drivers with the help of someone in the Linux Google+ community I joined, but that had no effect. Upgrading to Lubuntu 13.10 as I type this. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Fun Fact, dmidecode to view hardware

Fun Fact:

use "sudo dmidecode" to view your hardware information in the Terminal

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-general-1/command-to-check-hardware-135433/

Linux Google+ community

I joined a Linux Google+ community. Looks like there is a lot of good information there.



linux

https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/109254488709825102030

RAM didn't work

My 2GB of RAM I ordered unfortunately did not work out. They appeared to be correct. Both were labeled DDR2 533MHz PC 4200/4300. That's what my laptop takes according to Gateway, but the computer would not boot. Not even the bios menu showed up. Just a black screen.

I tried every combination of new and old sticks possible, but no dice.

Computer still works fine with old RAM reinstalled.

Sending the RAM back to Amazon. I will have to do some research before I buy any more memory.

Jupiter Broadcasting

If your looking for great info about the best things about Linux and real insight into the future of the OS, keep up with the guys at Jupiter Broadcasting. The Linux Action Show they produce is really entertaining and presents us with the true best of Linux today.


https://plus.google.com/+JupiterBroadcasting/posts

Bluetooth Tethering

My next issue remains unresolved. My laptop does not have native Bluetooth. I have a USB Bluetooth dongle. Lubuntu installed the dongle without my help. I can connect to devices including my Samsung Galaxy S4 and browse send and receive files, but I cannot connect to my phones internet connection via Bluetooth. I've tried multiple methods I found online, but nothing worked. Lots of people having this issue, especially people using a dongle rather than built-in Bluetooth. Blueman (the built in Bluetooth manager in Lubuntu) sees the connection and tells me I have an internet connection through my phone, but the Network manager sees nothing. I can use my phones internet via USB tethering or WiFi hotspot no problem, so its not a show stopper. I just prefer using Bluetooth. 

Hopefully I will figure it out soon.

Popping Sound

The next unresolved issue is a popping sound coming from my speakers randomly when running on battery power. I have read quite a few posts on a couple different Ubuntu forums where people had similar issues. So far none of the solutions I've found have fixed it. It apparently has something to do with the power saving mode. Basically, the sound card is off or asleep most of the time when running on battery. When the system generates a sound it turns the card on. On some hardware (including mine apparently) the speakers pop when it turns on. Its super irritating.

Based on this discission I uninstalled PulseAudio. Will have to wait and see if it worked. If I dont get any popping for a whole day, I'll call it fixed.

some links (in case someone else is having similar issues)

http://markmail.org/thread/64f2twu2yyjftnje

http://askubuntu.com/questions/339625/lubuntu-ubuntu-13-audio-clicking-in-power-save-mode

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1788483

On Screen Indicators (volume/brightness)

Another issue I'm having is with the little indicator that usually shows up on the screen of most computers when you use the function keys to adjust the volume or brightness. When i adjust my volume/brightness an approximately 1x1cm box full of garbled random dots appears in the upper left corner of the screen. As far as I know these indicators are usually generated by the video card itself, not by an application, OS or any other piece of software. I'm guessing it must be a driver issue. I saw a lot of posts online where people had no indicators at all or the function keys didn't work at all, but nothing quite like my problem.

WiFi

So the first issue I had was WiFi drivers. My wireless card did not install out of the box. It didn't take too many Google searches to find that this was due to a very common issue with Broadcom wireless cards. My B43 series card is one of them. Basically I just searched on the synaptic package manager "b43", installed the packages and rebooted. Done.

more details here:

http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/379

Fun Fact (Alt+F2)

Alt+F2 opens the Run Dialog.

More:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/alt-f2-ultimate-linux-keyboard-shortcut/

The Facts

So first off, I will give a little background. I am a fairly experienced Windows user. I have been using Windows since Windows 3.1 (and DOS on my parent's 286 before that). I have owned probably 20 or so computers in my life. Almost always using Windows.

I have dabbled for brief periods with Linux. I first learned of its existence back in the late 90s when a goofy nerd I worked with was using Red Hat. It all looked awfully complicated to me, and for no good reason (I thought at the time). I installed Ubuntu 6.X for a couple weeks quite a few years ago, but got bored or frustrated with a driver issue. I installed Xubuntu on a laptop 2 years ago, but never really used it and ended up re-installing Windows XP and selling the machine.

I recently aquired and old laptop for free. Its a Gateway MX6123 with a 1.5GHz Celeron M and 500MB or RAM. The display had no backlight and it was missing the left Shift key. I did a little research and saw that the driver board was more likely than the bulb itself to be the culprit for the display issue. I found a used driver board on Amazon for $4.99 including shipping. I installed it and sure enough the display lit up no problem. I ordered a Shift key from LaptopKey.com for another $6.50. Now I have a fully functional laptop for $11.50. I decided to splurge and order a couple 1GB sticks of ram, $17.50 for the pair, but they have not arrived yet. That will bring my total spent up to about $29.

I initially installed XP on my new machine, but realized pretty quickly that XP is old, boring, ugly and buggy. Microsoft finally dumped support for it, so updating is a little more irritating than it used to be. Windows 7 or 8 wouldnt work well on it even after I get my 2GB of RAM and I don't have copies of those OSs around anyway. Only one option left..

Hello Linux. I did a little looking around and decided Lubuntu was the distrobution for me and my hardware. Its been 2 weeks now. There have been some speedbumps, but I have to say overall, Linux has come a long way as far as usability for "normal" non-hackernerd users without compromizing the controlability that the hackernerd requires.