Changing my religion- to linux

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SETEC_Astronomy
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Re: Changing my religion- to linux

Post by SETEC_Astronomy »

L. Daniel Rosa wrote:I not a believer yet. I tried the "Graphic Installer" and that got hung up at 74% too, but it was "locales" or something like that. I have it going again with the "Netinst" version, but I have a bad feeling about it all.

The first time I tried to install it as a secondary and it gave some excuse for failing. I copied all the important files to an SD card because I have an adapter for the laptop, but w* wouldn't work with USB drives. Now I find that the media is one of the nefarious type: It holds maybe 2G, but aliases itself as 16G and perforates the files after it's full. I now have a few folders that contain nothing but can't be deleted because they're "not empty". I suppose this links into the "Corupted flash drive" post from earlier.

What brand and model computer are you trying to install to? Are you burning the ISO to CD or DVD media? Does the computer you want Ubuntu (Any flavor of Linux) on have a DVD drive? By graphical installer you mean the Alternate Install disc or the LiveCD, I'm guessing the Alternate Install CD. Do you receive generic errors at seemingly random spots with each install attempt? Try burning the CD ISO to a DVD (it works, trust me) and then re-attempt an install. For some reason (seems like the read rate and pure data throughput of a DVD) a DVD disc has a higher success rate over CDs. I could go into more details of why this sometimes works but it's not really important, trying it is though. Good luck.
SETEC_Astronomy
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Re: Changing my religion- to linux

Post by SETEC_Astronomy »

Externet wrote:Hello Al.
The Ubuntu liveCD will not harm any compfuser; can you please try on any other PC ? Is yours a Dell ?
If it is a Dell do you have a PCI video card installed? I've had trouble in the past for that very reason. To fix the issue you must blacklist the Intel kernel modules.

Externet wrote:Never thought of this before... Will get into the nastiest most infected virus-loaded site I can find now... they cannot harm me at this moment. :razz:
That's not entirely true, there are a few known viruses that can infect the microcode of some processors and also the firmware of a few NICs which leads to a persistent infection that can survive hard drive wipes. That being said the chance of finding a site distributing that type of virus/trojan/malware is highly unlikely and they still have to get through your defenses to infect you. Thought I should mention that in the interest of full disclosure.

It does give you a warm fuzzy feeling to know your computer is 99.9% safe from anything bad guys can throw at you. Run a few security scans on a fresh Ubuntu install and you'll see that taking over a Windows machine is a much simpler option.
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MrAl
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Re: Changing my religion- to linux

Post by MrAl »

Hi,

No, my graphics is VIA Chrome 9 HC IGP.
Any ideas?
LEDs vs Bulbs, LEDs are winning.
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kheston
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Re: Changing my religion- to linux

Post by kheston »

MrAl,

It looks as though you'll need to install a separate video driver. Your card isn't supported yet in the distro. You can download it from Via here:

http://linux.via.com.tw/support/downloadFiles.action

I haven't done it in a while, but I believe there's a point in the Ubuntu setup where you can stop in and load a 3rd party driver. It may also be a menu option.

HTH
Kurt - SF Bay
L. Daniel Rosa
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Re: Changing my religion- to linux

Post by L. Daniel Rosa »

What brand and model computer are you trying to install to? Are you burning the ISO to CD or DVD media?
Thinkpad 380XD, CD only.

I have something running now, but it takes twelve minutes to start and took3.8G of hard drive space; only about ten times what it replaced! It also says that there are several fatal errors while booting up, and a kernel failure once it is running. The fastest application takes two minutes to start.
SETEC_Astronomy
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Re: Changing my religion- to linux

Post by SETEC_Astronomy »

Looking at the specs for that computer you should be using the Xubuntu version of Ubuntu. Xubuntu is a light(er) weight version of Ubuntu that requires less resources. If you want a computer like ttat to be "zippy" you should really try Puppy Linux, DSL Linux, TinyMe Linux or some other distro geared towards legacy style hardware.

Try this site to help find the right Linux distro for you, http://distrowatch.com/search.php simply pick the specs and features you desire and it will display a list of suitable options.
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Externet
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Re: Changing my religion- to linux

Post by Externet »

- Abolish the deciBel ! -
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MrAl
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Re: Changing my religion- to linux

Post by MrAl »

Hi again,

Thanks for the links. I'll have to look through them.

I think i am just too lazy to look into Linux anymore since i have tried them and had too much
trouble getting them to work. I guess i would have to ask more questions.
LEDs vs Bulbs, LEDs are winning.
RiJoRi
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Re: Changing my religion- to linux

Post by RiJoRi »

MrAl wrote:Hi again,
...
I think i am just too lazy to look into Linux anymore since i have tried them and had too much
trouble getting them to work. I guess i would have to ask more questions.
This is what keeps me from Linux. I have used TRS-DOS, OS-9, Xenix, MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, 95, XP & XP-Pro, and have NEVER had any trouble loading (or re-loading) the OS.

There were also times when programs which ran nicely under W* (FreeMind & Leo) presented problems under Linux -- of the "I can't get <progname> to run under <DistroName>!" sort.

THIS is what will keep people from adopting Linux in lieu of Windows -- Linux may be "better" but if it will not load itself, it is u-s-e-l-e-s-s!

--Rich
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jaem
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Re: Changing my religion- to linux

Post by jaem »

Hey folks,
I haven't been around in a while, but I thought I'd poke my head back in now.
@MrAl: Last I heard, VIA graphics chipsets weren't fun with Linux - and that probably is the fault of VIA rather than the Linux devs. That said, I can understand how it would be frustrating.
@Jwax: Google's "ChromeOS" is in fact Linux, running Chrome on top. As for privacy issues, while Google has plenty, their main way of doing things is to convince you to give them all your data. They don't really "spy" on you - they just make everything so tightly tied into their web services that you have to give them copious amounts of data for their apps to function. ChromeOS seems to be the culmination of that: "here - stick all of your data on proprietary, corporate servers owned by a multinational datamining company (which is what Google is)"
also @MrAl: "I had used one version of Linux a while back, called the 'live' version. I would use it more too but i couldnt get the settings to 'stick' to the USB stick"
That's the whole point of a Live System. There are ways to modify your flash drive install to save data - search for "Linux persistent live flash drive" or some such.
@L. Daniel Rosa: Your laptop is far too old for the standard Ubuntu disk. Linux itself will run on pretty much anything, but the level of usability (and user-friendliness) that you can shove into a machine decreases with age. You could run DSL on there, but it's fairly limited. To be honest, if you want to try Linux without buying a new machine, just scrounge around a bit. I don't know where you live, but up here (BC, Canada), it's pretty easy to build a P-III or later-gen box for free (or almost free) if you're resourceful, and that would run something useful quite decently. If you're adventurous, by all means keep tinkering, but if you're not, a machine that old will probably leave you disappointed and frustrated.
@Most people in this thread: Linux advances very rapidly, especially in some of the more "cutting-edge" distros. Some hardware is problematic, but honestly, most distros work pretty well on the majority of computers, and every release gets better. If you want a computer that is guaranteed to run Linux perfectly out of the box, check out the list here: http://linuxpreloaded.com/. They're not always the cheapest, since they're usually from small companies, but it might be a good entry to Linux, if you're worried. If you want to try it out, and need a box to play around with, you can scrounge one as I mentioned (and hardware that old will essentially always work - even if they needed to reverse-engineer things, they've had time), or I can recommend some economical hardware that I know works well.
Cheers
Rodney
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Re: Changing my religion- to linux

Post by Rodney »

[I've now installed Ubuntu on three different computers, one with AMD and two with Intel processors. All went on very easily and gave no problems with one exception. I have not been able to get a Brother's or Lexmark printer to work with any of them. All worked well with HP printers, did not even have to load or look up any drivers for them. I had one machine I have not been able to put Ubuntu on, an older SCSI Intel machine but have not had time to try to find out why. The more I use Ubuntu, the more I like it, an excellent product plus the price is ideal; i.e. FREE and includes Open Office, Gimp, etc. again, all excellent programs at no cost.
L. Daniel Rosa
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Re: Changing my religion- to linux

Post by L. Daniel Rosa »

Now it's bricked. I can't even get into the BIOS. Errors 00161 and 00163, then it gives me the bird. The CMOS battery still tests good.
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haklesup
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Re: Changing my religion- to linux

Post by haklesup »

I think i am just too lazy to look into Linux anymore since i have tried them and had too much
trouble getting them to work. I guess i would have to ask more questions.
Clearly a Religion as the level of devotion, study and faith do testify
L. Daniel Rosa
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Re: Changing my religion- to linux

Post by L. Daniel Rosa »

I'm getting over the frustration of lost and destroyed files. I'd like to give another go at installing (smaller) linux, but the laptop wom't boot from anything. I gave it a new CMOS battery, but it still tells me errors 161 and 163 and stalls. Is there a key I should be able to press to get into a settings screen?
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CeaSaR
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Re: Changing my religion- to linux

Post by CeaSaR »

Here's your manual. Pg 39 has the error codes you mention. Elsewhere are the instructions to get into the machine (F-keys).
Check the pins for your battery (code 161). They may be bent or corroded. After that, set the time and date (code 163),
if you get in.

Good luck,

CeaSaR
Hey, what do I know?
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