Linux redux - *sigh*

[jkmorse]

Hey folks,

Sorry to beat an old horse, but never say die.    I have no brains but I remain determined to get PI up and running on Linux.  This time I have made it farther than ever before (which ain't saying much  ).  Tried Fedora (again, sigh) and again had no success. But I have now successfully put Mint 17.2 in dual boot mode on my Desktop.  A Major accomplishment, especially since I also successfully loaded the NVidia driver which for me was no small feat.  So here's the problem.  I wanted to built my desktop system with the latest hardware so I put in a new TP-Link AC1200 DWA-582 high speed wireless PCIe adapter.  Problem is, no matter how hard I search, I cannot find a linux driver for that card or any other drivers for cards with the same technology.  (If anybody knows how to get that puppy to work in Mint 17.2, I would be forever grateful for some help  ).

So why am I boring you with all of this.  Well, I saw a post a while back about someone who wanted to run PI on a machine completely divorced from the Internet.  The suggestion was to download PI onto another computer, then use a USB to load it on to the Linux system, which I did and even successfully loaded it up, another first!  But now I can't activate it because that requires an internet connection.    So, to quote one of my all time favorite Far Side cartoons, "two questions Mitch"*

1.  Is there a way to activate PI without an internet connection.
2.  Assuming I can successfully do 1, where can I find the updates for the linux edition that would normally be sent to me over the internet.
3.  And while I only am allowed two questions, again, if anybody can help me figure out how to get my wireless up and running, I'd be forever in your debt.

Best,

Jim

* In case you were wondering, the cartoon shows two elephants and one of them, without realizing it, is stepping on the other's trunk.  The one being stepped on says, "Two questions Mitch, what's the most sensitive part of an elephant's anatomy? and how much do you weigh?"  Probably doesn't translate well, but the cartoon itself is hilarious       

[NGC7789]

I think I can answer #1. The license file is cross platform and PI only attempts to activate over the internet if the license file is not present. Just copy it from windows to Linux. See FAQ 2.7 for proper locations.

As for #2, can you not connect to the internet at all without your fancy wireless card? There's nothing native on your motherboard? If not, then I would get a cheap usb dongle that can at least get you onto the internet for PI updates.

[jkmorse]

Thanks!  That makes sense.  So does the dongle.  Only question is finding one that works with Linux 

[NGC7789]

I have one of these and I just confirmed that it works on Ubuntu 15.04 out of the box. Didn't need to install anything.

http://www.amazon.com/Edimax-EW-7811Un-150Mbps-Raspberry-Supports/dp/B003MTTJOY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442248884&sr=8-1&keywords=Edimax+EW-7811Un

[lucchett]

Jim,
how do you installed the nvidia driver?

I went through rpm package and it worked well at the beginning.

yesterday I installed some updates and the system no longer boot...
I wonder if the kernel has been self updated and the nvidia driver is now not called properly.
fortunately I can boot the previous one.

I know there's a different procedure suggested by Nvidia but it scared me due to the complexity (for me...)

FYI, I installed the system (Fedora 22) and wrote down a few steps that could help "non-tech guy like me".

if you are interested, you can find it here.
https://andrealucchetti.smugmug.com/Tips/How-to-install-PI-LInux

Personally I have to thank Alex (Avarakin) for his help in the learning process.

Andrea

[jkmorse]

NGC7789    I just ordered one from Amazon!

Andrea,

I looked at the procedure on the NVidia site and had to go lay down for an hour.    Clearly that and me were never going to play nice together.  So I went simple and just went on the web and looked up how to install a .run file.  Got that most of the way done, but then got an error message.  Back to the web to find out what to do when that error comes up.  Plodded on, had the same issue come up two more times but each time I was a little farther down the process and each time the web had an answer even I could understand.     All told, only took about an hour and it has been stable since.  Have rebooted  several times with no issue.

If only the wireless worked so simply, but NGC7789 saved the day in the short term and I am reading up on the ndiswrapper program which allows you to load windows drivers in Linux.  If I can get that to work, maybe, just maybe, some day I will be able to use my super dooper PCIe card, but I'm not holding my breath. 

Best,

Jim

[Andres.Pozo]

I think that if you want to make Linux detect the WIFI card the best way is to have a WIFI card supported by Linux. A new card should cost only 50-60$. Perhaps these links can help:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WirelessCardsSupported
https://www.thinkpenguin.com/catalog/wireless-networking-gnulinux

[jkmorse]

NGC7789 

Got the dongle, plugged it in and, miracle of miracles, it just worked as you promised!!!!   

And, to top that off, I am writing this note on Linux and now have PI up and running on Linux.  Be still by heart.

Such simple joys 

Best,

JIm

[NGC7789]

Congrats! Welcome to the penguin.

The next step is to run a benchmark a see how much better PI performs!

[jkmorse]

First gotta gets my partitions fixed (was so excited to actually get things working, I didn't set the size of the swap partitions properly  ) and my ramdisk in place, but then a benchmark is the next step.

[jkmorse]

Andres,

Thanks for your post.  The dongle has me up and running but is painfully slow and sometimes cuts out.  So I have ordered a new PCIe card from thinkpenguin which looks like a great source for the future.

Best,

Jim

[NGC7789]

The dongle ... is painfully slow and sometimes cuts out. 

That's too bad. Sorry about that. I don't use wifi on my desktop much. I only used the dongle for a brief period when I had to relocate while painting the office. At least you're only out $10. 

[lucchett]

Jim,
my dongle wifi .n is as fast as the on board one (which is .g).
Mine is a Cisco linksys
what I can tell you is that it is very sensitive to positioning and nearby objects.
Andrea

[jkmorse]

Andrea,

I am assuming you got NVidia to load, but if not, I reloaded everything to eliminate dual boot so had to reconstruct how I loaded it.  Biggest issue was killing xserver without causing a reboot.  Here are the steps:

1.   Download the latest NVidia driver (mine is ver 352.41);
2.   Go to the directory that holds the driver and right click on it and choose "open as root";
3.   right click a second time and this time choose "open in terminal";
4.   type "ls" (el ess) to get a list of the program files;
5.   copy the nvidia driver run file from the terminal;
6.   type "chmod +x [nvidia file name] and hit enter;
7.   type "sudo ./[nvidia file name] --no-x-check";
8.   Then just let it run and answer the few questions that come up and you are there!

The key to the whole thing is the "--no-x-check" insert.

Best,

Jim

[jkmorse]

NGC7789 

I am not the least bit upset.  I have the card coming from ThinkPenguin but in the meantime you saved me 

Otherwise I would have never got PI up and running and got to play with Linux so much!

Best,

Jim