sudo lshw

This outputs the hardware specs to the terminal. However in order to check the detailed specs in a graphical format, we need to use the lshw-gtk command. Before you do that, you first need to install it using:

sudo apt-get install lshw-gtk

Then running the lshw-gtk as sudo brings up the list of hardware that you can browse through. It is similar to checking the hardware information from Windows’ control panel.

List detailed hardware specs under linux: lshw-gtk

That’s it. It provides you with relevant information about your processor, memory, display cards, and also some information about the devices connected to USB ports. A quite handy tool for Linux.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

There were a few nvidia video card drivers that got installed. There were several of them;

fglrx-modaliases
nvidia-173-modaliases
nvidia-177-modaliases
nvidia-180-modaliases
nvidia-71-modaliases
nvidia-96-modaliases

Once these modaliases were installed, I performed a search for hardware drivers. This time the search showed that there were several drivers that could work with my Nvidia GeForce 7300 graphics card.

Nvidia graphics drivers after Jaunty update (Feb 2, 2009)

The recommended driver was version 180. After installing the driver, the computer needs to be restarted for the driver to take effect.  Accordingly, I restarted the computer and now the Nvidia graphics are fully enabled.

One of programs that I use frequently is still quite buggy. The gnome-do program, that performs the same functions as Quicksilver (Mac) was working really well under Intrepid. It keeps crashing all the time under Jaunty. By the time Jaunty is in Alpha 4, I think the problem would be sorted out.

While the nividia graphics card drivers have been release for Jaunty, the ones for ATI still aren’t. The graphics on my Toshiba Satellite that has an ATI graphics accelerator card are still using the system memory. We’ll have to wait for the ATI drivers in order for the card to start working in Ubuntu 9.04.