Last night I added some components to my parents' old computer and installed Ubuntu Linux. The installation went pretty well, but I do have a few problems. The most severe one is that the ethernet card is not working. It won't be much of a webserver without that. The light on the back of the card flashes on briefly about once every two seconds. Then a light on the ethernet switch flashes at the same time. In Ubuntu's configuration GUI I try to activate the card and after about two seconds the checkmark next to it just disappears. I've got another card I might swap in there. But that card was working just 2 hours earlier in Windows. Frustration!

My second problem isn't as bad as that, but it's still very annoying. When I'm logged into a desktop there's some kind of lag. The best way to describe it is that when I'm moving my mouse around in circles it will be smooth for 3-4 seconds and then it will freeze for about half a second. The same thing happens when I'm typing. It's like I'm not getting a very good framerate from my video card (which is one the components I swapped out).

My third problem is that I have no sound. I'm not too surprised since I've never had sound on my Fedora box.

If anyone has any ideas, especially about the ethernet problem, then I'd love to hear them.