New Linux User

Well, not yet, technically. But I will be very soon. I got the CDs from vslayer in the mail today (finally!). Tomorrow, I'll be setting up a dual-boot system: Windows XP Home and Linux Mandriva 2005.

I'm a Windows native. I've had experience with Mac OS 9-ish and have very briefly messed with OS X recently. But this will be the first time I've ever even touched a Linux. I have a passing knowledge of computers – that's to say, I can use one pretty well, perhaps better than some others, but I don't really know the fine intricacies.

I'm using this thread, first of all, to announce the news; second of all, to post about any problems I may have while learning to use Linux; and last of all, to get any tips and insight anyone here might have concerning Linux, dual-boot systems, whatever.

Wish me luck.

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good luck man !
i will also be interested in your pursuit of the linux dream for i too have been giving some thoughts about trying it out.

i am particuarly interested in your video and sound drivers
do you have a seperate video and sound card or are they integrated into your motherboard?

i am also interested in any problems you might have in playing directx compatible games such as doom and unreal tournament

also does linux support usb devices

edit
i forgot to ask but whats your proccessor? intel? amd?
what model 386? 486?
what windows version you running now?

 

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*whoosh*



EDIT: Haha. I couldn't resist.

Tell ya what: Tell me how to find out half of that shit, and I'll go find it out for you.

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All I can really tell you is what the computer tells me in the Properties menu of the computer itself. Here's what I currently have:

Windows XP Professional, Version 2002, Service Pack 1
AMD Athlon XP 2200+
1.79GHz
224MB RAM (planning on upgrading soon)
76.2GB harddrive

 

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sorry.
let me explain
if your video and sound card is integrated into your mobo (motherboard) everything will plug in down one side of the computer

on the other hand if they are seperate then they will occupy one of your expansion slots

did you install windows yourself?
if you did then another way to tell if the video and sound card is integrated is if you had to install the drivers seperatly from windows.

 

Sorry guys, my installation of Linux has to be postponed. When I put the first Linux disk into the disk drive and get the install screen, the link that allows me to install will not respond to my mouse click. I have no idea if it's related to the other problems I have with the computer now that I have a new Windows on it.

My two problems that I've discovered are that I cannot connect to the Internet and there is no audio. The Internet people can probably help us connect, but until then I can only use the Internet at school and at the library. As for the audio, there is no audio device installed, according to the computer. The computer is utterly incapable of producing sound other than a mechanical beep that comes from the computer tower.

I have a feeling I didn't install the new Windows quite properly. Two things that I did stick out in my mind which could be factors in this:
:- I had the file system converted from the original FAT32 to NTFS. A guy at Staples who claims to know a lot about different OSs said that NTFS was the best to use if I were to put Mandrake on the computer; during the Windows installation process, however, it recommended FAT for that.
:- The hard drive may not have been completely written over. The computer recognizes input from my wireless mouse, which one has to install otherwise. There may still be old files on my computer.

I greatly appreciate any help you can give me. If you need more information, ask and you shall be answered (eventually).

 

The majority of my recent linux experiences have been with Fedora core.

Are you attempting to install mandrake and Xp home on the same partition?

 

to install a OS on a dual boot computer you need to INSTALL FROM DOS ie the command line. a mouse will not work in dos unless the drivers are loaded from your autoexec.bat file

also you must remember that i have never installed or used linux so these things might not apply

put your first linux disc into your cd drive
shut down the computer
restart the computer
to manuver around the menus in dos you must use the tab and arrow keys

 

the most probable cause of this is there are no drivers intalled
locate your modem and audio card discs and follow this procedure

put the modem disc into you cd drive
if it starts to run a program close it
manuver to control panel and open system
look for your modem and remove it
click on refresh
at this point the computer will find new hardware and look for the drivers
a dialog will open asking you for the files to install the modem
point it to your cd drive
after the files are installed you might have to restart your machine

follow the same procedure for your sound card except put the audio drivers disc in the drive.
when you get to system remove the sound card
the rest of the procedure is the same

 

Hello, Athelwulf...
we are very interested in Linux... We've just learned that Ubuntu 6.06 is available since yesterday. This is a very good distribution.
We tested it during 3 days and it seems to be good.

We are going to install it and we'll give you all tips and informations later.

Bauer Team 2

 

Good evening!!

For your sound and internet problems, we are not experienced enough to have an answer. We have tested during two weeks the fedora core, mandrake and a unbountu version. Linux seems to be based on command lines with an OS such as ms-dos (unix) script

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. We installed also windows XP, 2000 and 2003 server and everything started properlly, but we have installed all on a formated disque. :m:

We are based in martinique and send some sun from here

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bye!!

 

Dear, Athelwulf

I read your message and I am myself a neophyte linux's administrator.
I have just finished an intensive training period on Ubuntu 6.06the last distribution of linux from South Africa.

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If you have any questions on the matter, please contact me.
I come from the French West Indies

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more precisely from Martinique :m: , and I wish to have some contacts over the World.

Frindly yours
Da_Real_DiDoodle

 

Whoa... It looks like I attracted (almost) spammers. :bugeye:

I have an update concerning my Linux: I messed around with the computer to see if a work-around to installing was possible. The disk claimed to be bootable, but it wouldn't boot when I restarted the computer; it wouldn't even give me the option of booting. But what I did was hit the Tab button at the very beginning of the restart, before Windows was loaded, and it gave me this menu. I changed a few options which I thought might do something for me, and it worked: I got the Linux CD to start installing. I made it partition the disk – 45% for Windows, 45% for Linux, and 10% for a swap partition. It seemed to be doing everything smoothly from then on.

But now there's a new problem: It got to the fifth and final disk, and then at four minutes remaining, it just stopped installing altogether. Nothing on the screen changed – it was still "installing". It's like it froze. I pressed the eject button on the CD drive, but it didn't eject the CD. I forced an eject and turned off the computer. I restarted, but it didn't give me the option of booting into Linux. Apparently, I have to do it over.

Have I ever mentioned that I hate computers intensely?

 

The Linux CD let me make separate partitions, which I did. So no.

It wasn't in DOS. The CD gave me a GUI install screen when I put it in. The three buttons on the left simply do not respond to my mouse click. The three buttons on the right (which do nothing useful for me since I have no Internet connection) do respond.

I managed to get into some sort of menu, which I explained in my last post. It didn't seem like DOS, though it's not like I'd recognize it. It didn't give me a way to get to the install CD and do the install that way. So um, do you know how to get into DOS and do that?

 

the most probable cause would be you ran out of hard drive space.

another reason could be you have a defective cd disc or maybe a defective cd drive

 

your 3 "spammer" friends would be able to help you immensly.
i have never used linux so i am afraid to give any advice on it.

 

Ha, on a 76ish gig drive? Not likely. 5 disc install for linux, including compiling and linking/etc shouldnt take more than 10 - 15 gigs, and only if you install EVERYTHING. That leaves like 15 - 25 gigs open.

You should look at a more user-friendly distro for your first install. The best at that are Novell, aka Suse Linux. Heres a link for their newest distro -Suse Linux. Those guys at novell get paid to do it right..

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Ew, I just read that Mandriva is Mandrake with a new name.

 

And, an "Oh my bad."

Latest free version - http://en.opensuse.org/Welcome_to_openSUSE.org

HA, i'll evdit this one now... Cool thing about suse is that you can download the CD or DVD, or do an Inet install, so you only download what you want. Plus it has this thing called "YAST" which lets you download an install more things. When you get comfortable with linux I'll let you know about the pimpest distro ever

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Only half the hard drive has been filled up. So it can't be that. I'll be trying to install again today, and if it doesn't work, then the computer will probably be taken to Staples so things can be fixed.

They might, though it seems suspicious that three of them just happened to register today, only to tell me about Linux and offer their help.

That aside, I realize you can't help me on Linux, but that's okay.

 

doh! yeah not likely at all that you ran out of disc space

he said he partitioned his drive into 3 parts
i wonder if he installed on the correct partition?

i've read some stuff about linux. whats this i hear about live cd?
its supposed to be all you need to run linux from a cd. you don't need to install anything.