New Linux User

you can download dr. hardware from the following link.
it will tell you all kinds of stuff about your computer.
http://www.dr-hardware.com/

 

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No, I mean the Rochester Institute of Technology. The internet at KU SUCKED compared to this!

Anyway, I'll tell you about the RAM through a PM so we don't completely derail this thread. I still want it readable in case I have any more problems

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Which reminds me, I still can't figure out what's wrong with my linux. Maybe I should just switch to Mandriva or something? Or at least try out some other distro to help diagnose the problem.

 

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How many Windows partitions did you have on your first drive before starting the install? You said something about a problem with creating a primary partition, which suggests that you already had 3 or 4 Windows partitions on your drive. If you can spare it, try temporarily removing one or two of these partitions (transfer the files to your other HD), and recreate them later as logical drives.

 

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I don't exactly understand what you're asking. So I'll just explain my whole partition situation.

I have my main drive (120GB) that has Windows on it. It's almost full. Single NTFS partition.
I have my second drive (250GB) that I just use for data. I don't want any OS on it. Single NTFS partition.

Then I have my third drive (120GB, shows up as hdb in the installer). This is the one I want linux on. I started with a single NTFS partition on it, and then I let the installer do it's thing. When I bring up the info from Windows, it shows 2 partitions, 1 is "Active", and 1 is "Unknown." Both partitions show up as healthy.

Another weird thing I noticed. Every time I do a fresh install, and then boot up windows, it says it found new hardware, but I have to restart in order for the hardware to work properly. I have no idea what this is about.

 

Ok. Do you think you could spare 100 megabytes or so on your first hard drive (should be "hda")? If you can, reinstall with the /boot partition there, that way you can be pretty sure that GRUB will go on the MBR of the first drive. The rest of your Linux system can go anywhere you want - the hurdle is getting /boot detected.

If you feel like it, resize the win partition so that /boot can go at the beginning of the hard disk. You'll avoid the 1024 cylinder limit this way, though it shouldn't be a problem unless you have an old BIOS.

(And in case no-ones already mentioned it, make sure you have a swap partition somewhere)

 

So you think that maybe the /boot partition is on the wrong drive? I have plenty of space on that drive. I guess I'll try that a little later. So when I'm in the setup, and it asks me which drives I want it installed on, I assume I have to check both hda and hdb?

Can the swap partition go on hdb along with linux, or does it have to go on hda?

What's considered an old BIOS?

 

I expect so. I've never been faced with this problem, as I only have one hard disk.

This site states that /boot must be on the same drive as the WinXP boot loader:
http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux/grub-w2k-HOWTO.html

Should be fine on hdb. The swap partition is just reserved for virtual memory; I only mentioned it because you seemed to imply you only had one Linux partition.

Not really sure, but if you have a Pentium 4 era machine you should be safe.

 

I initially set up a swap partition (ten percent of my harddrive) when I started trying to get my dual-boot system to work. In the end, however, I decided I could do without that partition, and now I have two, one for Windows (NTFS) and one for Linux. Is a swap partition recommended? And should it be FAT?

Perhaps Mandriva will be easier to install. Mandriva does have a very user-friendly installer. Hell, even I could use it.

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If you do end up getting Mandriva 2006, can you make a copy for me? I can give you CD-Rs or a DVD-RW if getting disks will be problematic.

 

You can buy Linux cd's cheap from here:
http://www.osdisc.com/
http://www.cheapbytes.com/

 

I'm downloading the Mandriva 2006 ISOs as we speak!

As for my Fedora problem, here is the actual error message it gives me: "Could not allocate requested partitions: Partitioning failed: could not allocate partitions as primary partitions"

The whole partition GUI is vey confusing to me. What are all the LVM volume groups, and why do I have to choose "allowable drives"for my partitions?

Athelwulf: Sure, I can give you a copy after I make sure I downloaded the right thing.

 

Man, how fast is your download speed? It must be really fast if you're willing to download those huge-o files.

Thankya.

 

At this instant, it's running about 11 megabytes per minute (around 187 kilobytes per second). That's actually really fast, considering I'm behind a router sharing bandwidth from 3 computers. This must be a good FTP server I'm connected to.

I might have to let it run all night and finish the install tomorrow

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At this rate it won't get done until 3 in the morning, and then I still have to burn all 3 CDs, and then do the install. Hmmm... should I go for it?

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I can always finish watching season 2 of Seinfeld while I'm waiting

 

Wow! Breakthrough! I installed Mandriva 2006, and apparently the problem was with the GRUB loader. When mandriva asked me to install GRUB, it gave me an error

So, anyway, then I chose instead to install LILO, which worked. Now I see the LILO screen everytime I boot up. There is one problem however. When I load into linux, it asks me to log into localhost, which is weird because I'm not trying to do anything with a network. But anyway, I log in with the account I set up during the installation, and then I'm at a command prompt. I know my way around a UNIX-like command prompt pretty well, and I'm able to change directories and everything, but where the hell is the GUI?? I don't want to be stuck at the command prompt for the rest of my life.

 

1. localhost is your computer and you need to log in to use it
2. there might be some weird problem with video card drivers
1) did you set up the appropriate video card driver during the install?
2) did you set that X should be launched upon boot?

Anyway, try writing "startx" as root and see what happens.

 

this might have something to do with your nat router or ethernet card
my os is winme and i don't even have a network but every time i start windows it asks me for my network name. i just press enter. i never had that with dialup

 

Hey!! Look at me, I'm posting this from my new linux!

I finally figured out how to work the basics. I can load into KDE, but I think it also comes with GNOME. How can I use this, if even possible?

Second of all, when I'm in KDE and I click logout, it logs me out, but the screen is all weird, with a lot of yellow, and then some noise near the top. The noise changes when I type, so I'm sure it's just a display problem of some sort.

Anyway, that's all for now. I might have more questions later.

 

Congrats! If you have any questions, I suggest you go to mandrivausers.org,
I'm there known as solarian, but can help you here too.

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You can log into Gnome, if you have it installed. It's on the cd's, but I have no idea whether you ticked Gnome during the install.
It might be that you set that every time you boot, you are automatically logged into KDE. There's an option for that during the install and I think it's ticked in by default. You can disable that in MCC (Mandrake Control Centre). Just write "mcc" in konsole, to get to it.

The logout weirdness is something to do with video card drivers, i.e., Mandriva has some problems with it. Most times it's due to incorrect setting up, because 90% of graphic cards are supported.
It could also be a monitor problem and to do with set up frequency. Check out if your correct monitor model is selected I (in mcc).

Please be more specific about what card you use and make a thread about it in Hardware section of mandrivausers.org and either I or someone else will help you from there.
I don't use Mandriva any more (I did not have problems with it), so I can't look into your problem more competently, because I have no Mandriva system files to check out, so mandrivausers.org would be an ideal place to solve your problems and answer your questions.

 

i just purchased red hat linux version 9 for 5 bucks i also purchased mandrake linux 9.1 for 5 bucks

which one if any should i attempt to install?

 

Why don't you people do a little research before you buy something?
Mandrake 9.1 is ancient, really ancient! And RedHat 9 is from 2003 - ages ago by Linux standarts.
The answer is - neither.

If you purchase something, do it from a Linux shop, like the links I provided earlier.
Or be reasonable and download the latest/greatest for free.

 

OK, thanks for the help, everyone! I'll check out that mandriva forum, and hopefully all my problems will be solved then!

By the way, is it pronounced man-dree-va or man-drive-a or something else completely?

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