Please help this Linux NOOB

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Fyson

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Hi everyone.

I've got a laptop that has been running Windows 7 for the past 2 years but due to the fact that it needs to be permanently on and since it is Windows, I need to restart it about once a month. Until i forget and it in turn gets dead slow and stops doing what it is supposed to be doing.

Which is why I thought its high time I turn to Linux.
I downloaded Ubuntu and installed the 64bit version on the crappy old laptop. (minimum recommended specs)

BUT, i have a problem. I have no Linux experience and whilst I am good with windows it seems theres a big gap between them.

I have a TP-Link EAP220 Access Point that basically provides WIFI for my clients.
The control software is available for Windows and Linux and i'm familiar with it on windows.
But i can't get it to work on linux.

I've downloaded the linux version on my Windows pc and transferred it over on flash drive, copied it to the laptop and basically spent the entire morning on how to install the darn thing. Why double clicking to install is not available on linux i have no idea.

Through a LOT of googling i've managed to figure out I had right click>properties>permissions etc and then I spent a few hours more to figure out how the hell terminal worked so I can install it through sudo yaddayaddayadda.

Its installed. Great. It said its installed correctly and will start it on the next boot.
BUT, underneath it, it said it failed to launch or something to that effect, I should have made a note or at the very least taken a picture of it but NNOOOO, i just restarted.

Starting up again and theres no hint that anything was even installed. so I was about to install the darn thing again when I noticed the directory it is going to install to already had a TPLink folder in it, so I opened that up and lo and behold there it is installed. BUT NOW - HOW THE HELL DO I OPEN IT??

When I installed the thing there was a install.sh file that I had to install via sudo using terminal. But if its already installed surely I shouldn't need to install it again? I have no idea on how to open it since i don't know if it should be via terminal and if so then what do i type?

Linux must be soooooo easy for those that used it for ages, it seems like nothing but a pain to me since in windows I could double click the TP-Link config file to install and just run the darn thing once its installed. compared to linux its heaven, if only i didnt' need to restart it every few weeks there would not be any reason to change.

I'm hoping its just me being dense and not having a clue how the hell it works, but I am hoping someone here can point me in the right direction because once that darn thing runs I NEVER NEED TO TURN THE LAPTOP OFF EVER!!!!!!!!

Sorry for the long post regarding what for many might seem such a trivial thing. For me its the deciding factor between linux and Windows.
 
Update: If all else fails, ReadTheFackingManual amirite?

Turns out its not a program that needs to be running as it is on windows and more like a service.

Still a long way to go to get it completely setup but for the moment it looks promising.
 
How did you install it? A proper install should send windows back to redmond.
 
I had to install it via terminal using the sudo command
 
Darn this is much much harder than I thought.

Getting the hang of it now, but problems are popping up, like the USB POS printer I had installed on WIN7 and as far as I can see it only has Windows drivers. For the moment i'm just going to write to a file and print from my windows pc. I'm only going to print once a quarter so its no big deal. Other than that the laptop will just sit there doing what I need it to do without me worrying whether its in desperate need for a reboot or not.

BigAl-sa - I've no idea what redmond is sooo, i'm showing my noobiness here. Anyway I got it to sort of work, just need to configure the software again, which fortunately is the same as on Windows. Only drawback is the page doesn't display properly in Firefox for some reason. GOD I wish i had chrome. never knew i would miss it so much. Surely theres a way to install it on Ubuntu. but I don't have the time or patience for that now. Luckily what I need done is almost done.
 
So, what exactly is the question?

What program are you trying to install
 
Fyson said:
Darn this is much much harder than I thought.

Getting the hang of it now, but problems are popping up, like the USB POS printer I had installed on WIN7 and as far as I can see it only has Windows drivers. For the moment i'm just going to write to a file and print from my windows pc. I'm only going to print once a quarter so its no big deal. Other than that the laptop will just sit there doing what I need it to do without me worrying whether its in desperate need for a reboot or not.

BigAl-sa - I've no idea what redmond is sooo, i'm showing my noobiness here. Anyway I got it to sort of work, just need to configure the software again, which fortunately is the same as on Windows. Only drawback is the page doesn't display properly in Firefox for some reason. GOD I wish i had chrome. never knew i would miss it so much. Surely theres a way to install it on Ubuntu. but I don't have the time or patience for that now. Luckily what I need done is almost done.
Click to expand...

So just install Chrome...

From what I remember Chrome should really be as simple as on Windows by going to the website, downloading the .deb and double-clicking it in Nautilus or File Manager or whatever they call it.

Your wireless thing was probably crap to install because TP-Link were lazy, not because Linux makes it difficult.

Either way my recommendation is stop thinking like Windows and trying to operate Linux “Windows style” as that just doesn’t work.

Take it as a brand new fresh step. Like learning to ride a motorcycle if you’re only ever driven a car, not just driving a different type of car.

A lot of it is familiar and similar but mostly it’s different.
 
Last edited:
Chromium doesn’t back the Google account features though which is partly the real reason to want full Chrome.
 
You can get full chrome.

There are two terminal commands that is very important to use
Code: 
sudo apt-get update

and

Code: 
sudo apt-get upgrade

For full Chrome you need to add the key first

Code: 
wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -

Next repository

Code: 
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google.list'

next update

Code: 
sudo apt-get update

and finally

Code: 
sudo apt-get install google-chrome-stable
 
Make sure after you have installed linux (whichever version) that you have the proper DVD's for recovery and troubleshooting. You could save yourself a lot of time in getting those set up properly before you actually need it. Good luck.
 
Ryansr said:
Make sure after you have installed linux (whichever version) that you have the proper DVD's for recovery and troubleshooting. You could save yourself a lot of time in getting those set up properly before you actually need it. Good luck.
Click to expand...

I have never once needed a DVD to recover a Linux install and I’m sure most people here will tell you the same.

This isn’t Windows where the default answer is to reinstall.

Never mind the fact that you generally don’t need to recover it at all.
 
Last edited:
Ryansr said:
Make sure after you have installed linux (whichever version) that you have the proper DVD's for recovery and troubleshooting. You could save yourself a lot of time in getting those set up properly before you actually need it. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Your install medium is your "recovery dvd" and of course logic dictates that one usually run it in live-mode first to test everything.
 
SauRoNZA said:
I have never once needed a DVD to recover a Linux install and I’m sure most people here will tell you the same.

This isn’t Windows where the default answer is to reinstall.

Never mind the fact that you generally don’t need to recover it at all.
Click to expand...
Give that man a Bells.
 
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