OK. I'm not necassarily a hater of linux. If anything, I love it. IN the past 6 months I've been using it, it showed me why my trust with windows has been misplaced for years. I have wowed my friends with it's security, Compiz-fusion, the ease and applicability of the programs, and the damn cool idea of freedom. Of course, with my triumphs, also come harrowing walls that I cannot easily overcome by myself. SO I plead to you, the fellow users, to help me with my problems on Linux. Take a shot, see what you can do.

1. External HDD Permissions - I have an external. It has a ****-ton of files, and they're formatted to ntfs from my windows, which I still use. I am stupid enough to log in as root (I know, dumb), but this is because, I cannot access the files from my standard user account. I can't view them or anything. I tried changing permissions, and I tried chown, it wouldn't let me. I don't know why. it just says something HAL won't permit me to access it. This is why I still use windows.

2. AUDIO OUTPUT!!! - So. I have a Lenovo 3000 N100. Standard soundcard and all. Speakers work just fine, no volume problems. Problem is, when I plug anything into the headphone jack, the regular speakers don't shutoff. It plays through both. This is a killer, because when I'm on the train, I don't want to disturb others, but my damn speakers won't cut off when I plug in headphones.

3. Shortcut Key - Everyone who has a laptop should have one. It's a key, and it says Fn. on my lenovo, that is connected to the arrow keys, and they're used to control WMP in Windows. But, Linux won't recognize the Fn key. I don't know why.

4. MP3 Player - I plug in my Sansa, it's recognized as a Digital Camera. Why?

5. Some Misc. stuff - How do I enable my S-Video Output? How do I connect to wireless? why won't it read my xD picture card, when I have a card reader on it.

6. NEW problems - I just put compiz-fusion on my computer. Now, will someone please tell me how in the hell to configure it. I can do the whole switching desktops as a cube thing, and the windows are animated, but not wobbly. In addition, it has killed my video players. I used MPlayer in the past. I tried changing the Video output to X11, but that for some reason locks the aspect ratio, so the video is as large as this text entry box and I can't enlarge it. Even when I press fullscreen. Also, this xgl stuff has slightly slowed down my computer. Until I get more ram, I want to know how to speed it back up. My system specs are listed at the end.

7. Themes - For some reason, I put this Blue Planet theme on my comp, and now, all my drop down menus are sorta blank. Blank as in, I can't see what I'm going to press, until I'm directly over it. SO i roll past and see it, but I have to guess at what I'm seeing. And in all text boxes, it's still like that.

8. One last gripe. Amarok, pretty much stacks right up to WMP, even in sexiness. That was really all that was keeping me from migrating was a centralized, search able library. It does that. But when I double click on a song, it just adds it to the main playlist. Is there anyway I can make the double click play the song, and the right click drop down menu add it to the playlist?

SO, in summation, these are the only problems keeping me from completely switching from XP. Linux is a badass setup, no doubt about it, and I really do want to be a complete linux power user. I'm kind of new, don't know much about bash commands and console, still stuck on Graphical installers and such. But I'm pretty good at finding my way around the computer. So I plead to you, the users, to help me solve these problems. I will list my specs below, and hope somebody helps me.

Lenovo 3000 N100
Intel Centrino Duo, 1.67 GHz
Intel GMA 945 (eww)
512 MB Ram (soon to be 1024)
80GB HDD (250 GB External USB HDD)
4 USB ports
1 firewire
Integrated Wireless and Bluetooth card
DVD SuperMulti Drive
Ethernet port
S-Video Output port