Re: [gNewSense-users] questions about ntfs, w-lan and grub

[Sam Geeraerts]

address@hidden wrote:
> Hello awesome freedom supporters,
>
> however i can't see windows in the Grub loader. How can i change
> this?

Edit /boot/menu/grub.lst as root [1]. Or, as Aurelien said, reinstall. 
It should just work (not sure about latest Windows versions, though).

> Which packages do i have to load to be able to mount a ntfs disk? I 
> know ntfs is unfree,

There may be patents on NTFS, but that hasn't hindered a free software 
implementation, e.g. ntfs-3g.

> but it's absolutely necessary. My parents and my brother do not wonna
> switch to GNU/Linux

Did you explain Free software to them?

> and without ntfs i can't share music with my brother.

What's wrong with a FAT32 partition. I believe there are also Ext2/3 
drivers for Windows.

> Which packages do i have to load to be able to use wireless lan with 
> my leptop. There is no free software driver (I think), so i'd like to
>  use a non-free alternative.

Did you ask the shop where you got the laptop from for a free driver? Or 
the chip's manufacturer? To get a supply going you should let them know 
that there is a demand. Your laptop probably has an extension port for 
which you can get a wifi card that is supported by free software.

> No wireless lan means no internet and 
> consequently no access to information and to the whole human 
> knowledge and culture for me.

You can get Wikipedia in your pocket nowadays [2]. Runs completely on 
Free software as far as I know.

> When i used ubuntu, w-lan worked. So is there a little ubuntu tool
> which scans my hardware and installs missing non-free drivers if
> there is no free alternative? Feature request: It would be awesome if
> gNewSense could ask the user if he wonna use unfree software to
> enable very important hardware functions (opt-in of course). This
> would lead to much more freedom.

No, you would be trading freedom for features. Ubuntu already does this, 
so if we do it too then there would be no point to gNewSense. Please 
read our mission statement [3] and community guidelines.

[1] 
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/legacy/Chain_002dloading.html#Chain_002dloading
[2] http://openmoko.com/wikireader.html
[3] http://www.gnewsense.org/Main/Mission
[4] http://www.gnewsense.org/Main/CommunityGuidelines