Alright, today I installed Ubuntu after spending my whole life using Windows products, and now I'm absolutely knee deep in a pile of junk I need help with #1 I downloaded Java, but I dunno how to install it. this message (gedit has not been able to detect the character coding. Please check that you are not trying to open a binary file. Select a character coding from the menu and try ) #2 I got no sound, I tried installing a driver, no Linux ones though. #3 I put my Windows harddrive in an external case, is there a way to boot from it without putting it back inside my comp? #4 I got a very annoying screen resolution, it's to small, and the next one is too big. In windows I had a lot more choices. Should be a lot more problems coming.
1. You shouldn't need to download Java yourself. You'll be much better off using Synaptic to get it. (As an aside, the message you're getting is because the file you've downloaded doesn't have execute permission for users on the file: you've actually just discovered why Linux doesn't get many viruses!) I'll leave it to you to work out how Synaptic works, you'll be much better off in the long run if you work some things out for yourself. 2. Windows drivers don't work on Linux (generally, disregarding ndiswrapper). You'll need to find out what chipset your sound card is (probably by running 'lspci', or you may need to run 'sudo lspci' if that doesn't work). Then basically go to Google and do a search for 'ubuntu <chipset>', maybe throw the release name into the search for good measure, whether you're using gutsy or feisty. That failing, ask questions on the Ubuntu forums, they'll be able to help much more than anyone here can. 3. You'll need to edit /boot/grub/menu.lst ('sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst'). There are some commented out lines regarding Windows that are probably pretty close to what you need, you'll need to read up on how grub interprets device names like (hd0,0), and work out what yours is. You may also need to allow booting from USB devices in your BIOS? I've never had the need to, so you'll need to investigate that one. 4. If you know exactly what your monitor's ideal resolution is, you might be able to just go into your xorg.conf and set it in there for your "Screen" section ('sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf'). A small snippet from mine: SubSection "Display" Depth 24 Modes "1280x800" ViewPort 0 0 EndSubSection Your exact settings will need to vary more likely than not, that is for a widescreen laptop, and using a different distro than Ubuntu. Finally, Google is your friend, as are the official Ubuntu forums. Have a look for answers, a lot of people have probably had the same problems as you, and they are probably all really easy to fix if you can just find the answer. Good luck!
have a read thru this, it's for USB thumbdrives but the principle should be the same - http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/572521 (ie you need to have a motherboard whose BIOS is able to boot from USB)
If you're doing what I think you are, you'll just need to change the boot order in your BIOS. Most recent motherboards will let you select to boot from USB, and it should all be pretty straightforward. If on the other hand you're talking about from Grub which is already on an internal drive, you'd need to find out what node the device identifies itself as. Doing "fdisk -l" (or "sudo fdisk -l") will identify if it is /dev/sdg etc. Just a simple case of playing around in that /boot/grub/menu.lst again after that, if the external is a Windows drive. Edit: creaky beat me to it, I procrastinated a bit before posting my message...
No matter what I do, it seems to boot Windows. I even went into BIOS and just disabled everything but USB-HD and it still booted Windows from my internal HD. http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2006/08/29/usb-bios-boot-options/#more-36 I viewed this, and did the stuff, yet it booted windows.....
Alright, after some tough thinking. I managed to get it to boot (posting from Ubuntu atm). Hope Windows works easy though.. I'll leave this thread open for any general tips, and I'm sure I'll need more help along the way.
Good work; i've got about 10 machines in use, but none of them support USB booting. Nearly every one has a DVD burner though so i can boot virtually any live cd out there or install any distribution.
Alright, new problem: I try and run synaptic, but it states "Unable to get exclusive lock" You guys gotta keep in mind, this is the first time I haven't used Windows, I know very little.
that's an easy one, most package managers on most distributions will have the same sort of protection of the package database ie first one i found - http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-114894.html ..something's got synaptic open...
Ouch - that type of Windows 'fix' is going to leave you with Linux being broken sooner rather than later
Trying to do stuff in Terminal. When I get asked to enter my password for anything it says: Authentication failure Now what...?
Ubuntu is super easy to set up right from the get go but first you need to know where to look. Here is a must have link for any noobs. Start here: http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Feisty (if your using Fiesty) If your using Gutsy this page will still work for most things.. but be on the look out for the Gutsy wiki. They should have one up soon. Once you get to this page the first thing you will always want to do is edit your sources list. (CTRL+F will help you navigate through the wiki a little easier) So hit CTRL+F "sources" and you will see the first line that you need to place into a terminal. This is basically to back up your current sources list in case you somehow manage to get copy and pasting wrong and bork your system. Anyways bring up your sources list with "gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list" and then replace all the text in that field with that entire box you see there in the wiki. (Later on as you familiarize yourself a little more w/ ubuntu you will want to do your own editing but this is a great list for now) After doing that make sure you save then add any keys you may need otherwise you will hang at 99% on a sudo apt-get update. Once you have edited your sources list the rest should fall like domino's for you. Just shoot straight down the wiki for media codecs, java, flash etc. You will find plenty to keep you occupied from there I believe. The key thing is just getting that sources list right otherwise you will have issues w/ authentication. Synaptic is great way to install things as well.. but synaptic will not edit your sources list 4 you and you will find that terminal is much faster at most things anyway. After you do get your system how you want it it is a good idea to go into synaptic and generate an install scrypt of all the packages you currently have installed. That way should you decide to ever do a reinstall or maybe you would like to have the same set up on a separate machine you can run it all from that simple script. Anyways, I'm going on and on.. hope that helps a little.
