A few newb questions about Linux.

its a conspiracy I tell you Windows doesn't want you to have Linux! Before I went and got a copy of Kubuntu from my friend I couldn't download Ubuntu or Kubuntu. The download would stop at about 60-80% done and just stay there.

Oh and I turned Kubuntu into Xbuntu today and it runs a little faster. It seems to be compatible with the KDE and GNOME programs so no reason for me to go back to Kubuntu.

 

conspiracy or not Im pissed

 

Not sure if they'll say anything but you aren't supposed to use foul language in the forums.

http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/2487

 

back on topic... I deleted PowerISO from my laptop because I think it may have something to do with Ubuntu not working (I really dont know Im just deleting random things and files until something works). At start up I switched the boot to boot from cd/dvd drive, but still when I boot it still goes to the Vista loading screen, so obviously there is nothing to boot from on the cd. I dont know what else to right as I seem to have written everything that is wrong. Just stating the obvious the only thing on my 700mb CD is the .iso file. If anyone can help, thanks, and thanks for the people that have gotten me this far. If nothing works out in the next few trys Im just going to abandon all hope on Linux. I gave it a try but it seems that Microsoft or my lack of computer skills are preventing the usage of it.

 

nooo!!! dont give up hope. you would give up that easily!!! no one said this was easy. then this forum wouldnt exist. try finding some other distro or try to download ubuntu from somewhere else. maybe your iso image isnt bootable. this is only the begining. best things always come after hard work

 

oooooooh. i see what the problem is. you burned your iso file on a cd and it didnt exctract. this is what you should do. right click on iso file then open with. select open with nero or whatever burning sofware you got. it should extract all the files and burn them to cd. you shouldnt mess with anything or delete anything. just let nero take care it for you. dont try to exctract files yourself because cd wont be bootable anymore

PS
sorry for double posting

 

Don't panic.. there is a knack to this.. You have burned the disk in the wrong fashion.. what you have managed to make is a data disk with the backup of the iso file, not a bootable disk .. Don't go opening the file or messing with it.. It is set up in a very specific way (those of us in the know can make bootable linux system disks)

Your burning program will have an option to "burn disk image or saved project" (if it's nero.. I'm not familiar with most other windows burning programs.. but all do seem to have that option..) and that is what you need to do. Don't burn too fast.. I find 12x to 16x is best for linux iso's for boot disks.
What are you burning with?

Laptops are bad news.. the newer ones seem sometimes to be almost hardware locked to vista. (there may be a hidden system partition which has drivers and the bootloader, which you can edit if you feel really brave.. can be brick time tho.. so don't touch any partition with a name like "system" or "*")

Finally you need to get into the bios and make things so that "boot from CD" is your ONLY option.

That should bring up a boot screen where you can attempt to get things started. Read the boot options.. there are a lot of cheats you can put on the command line to get a non starter going.

 

varnull explained it more detailed than i did but its the same principle. just open .iso file with nero then hit burn and there you have it

 

Ok I have a new problem. I want to start using FrostWire but it wouldn't load. So I need a newer version of Java to run it. I downloaded a file called jre-6u5-linux-i586.bin and I have no idea what to do with .bin files. I looked for a .deb or .rpm and there was one called jre-6u5-linux-i586-rpm.bin but of course it is also a .bin file.

 

You need to install the java.. like this

log in as root...

mkdir /usr/java

cp /path/to/jre-6u5-linux-i586.bin /usr/java/jre-6u5-linux-i586.bin

cd /usr/java

chmod a+x jre-6u5-linux-i586.bin

./jre-6u5-linux-i586.bin

and follow the on screen stuff....

 

Thank you once again varnull you are awesome!

 

sorry i haven't updated my current position been busy this week, um to varnull and loood, after my last post i finally realized that i burned the cd wrong. I installed a free 200kb program to correctly install for me, and it worked. Ran Ubuntu with no problem except I can't seem to get my internet working. I also figured out that ubuntu doesn't support my sound. Ubuntu looks really neat but for a lack of a better term, it seemed pretty basic. And it was VERY user friendly and looked A LOT like Windows. so with that in mind I think I am going to download a few more distro's before I make my choice to partition my HD.
Thanks for the help so far,

 

I guess with your sound problems it's a little case of being a c-media soundcard? cmi8738 perchance?? I had troubles with my onboard sound too.. realtek ac97 which seems to be faulty somehow.. I found that very old ISA cards are very well supported..

There you go.. already a more advanced user. ubuntu doesn't give you the choices you need

Now you will all have to excuse me while I go back to beating the crap out of a minimal gentoo installation. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.. modules... grrrrrrr

 

yeah i found a lot of trouble with realtek too. luckily i found a support cd. it was on windows. to honest i wouldnt know how to deal with it on linux. need much more experience :S

 

Ok I have a new problem. Everything about my old PC seems to be great except one thing. When I go to youtube or anything else with flash in it, the flash is way too slow. I just want to know is it because of my computer's stats? Here they are again:

Pentium II-MMX @ 450Mhz
256MB RAM SD-RAM
ATI Radeon 9250 128MB PCI
Xubuntu 7.10 Gutsy

I just wondered if my Video Card's Driver might be the problem. When I play video files like avi, mkv, flv, or anythig else offline they play smoothly.

 

chain i don't know the reason why.. but i am also having a problem when I boot from the linux cd. This happened to me both on Ubuntu and berry linux w/ XGL. Although the berry was cool for some reason it was "laggy" and slow. Also same thing with Ubuntu no sound and I can't connect to the internet. I use a wireless connection, am I am clueless on how to get it to work. When i am on windows it automatically detects my signal (as well as a couple of my neigbors)and bascially connects me to the internet. I mean i know how to find my Ip address and all its just that i don't know how to navigate my way through linux yet to be able to enter the info. The HELP tool doesn't work and also for some reason everytime i try and enter my WEP key for the internet its always wrong. There are about three numbers on the bottom of my router all differating in length of numbers, and its funny because when I check my desktop it says the key is 8 numbers yet there isnt a code with 8 numbers of the router. Sorry for the mini tangents but my problem(s) are listed in this paragraph and hopefully you can give me some info on this linux prob. i am havin.
Thanks,

 

I have PCLinuxOS running on my daughters laptop wirelessly. Linux needs a prgram called ndiswrapper to use the windows driver that will be required for your wireless card. (tip - the wireless driver shoulkd be in you windows c:/ folder, possibly in a folder called Drivers, mine was). The driver will end in .inf extension. You will need to know the make of your card before you can determine the driver for it. Google "wireless linux" and you will find a lot of help from people who know their stuff on this subject (i am still getting to grips with it myself).

If you are running Live CD's, you will find that things will run slower than a proper install. Keep the desktop effects (e.g. Beryl) to a minmum when trying to do more than one thing. The Live CD uses your RAM up like nobodies business. I have 1GB DDR2 667Mhz RAM in my main box and Live CD's can be a bitch in that.

@chain - Flash can be a bit of a pain under *nix at times, are you installed OS or still live CD? (although even installed it can be a bit temperamental). I know that my issue is probably due to a ndiswrapper version of flash because of my 64bit system, flash on 32bit is actually supported from Adobe's website.

 

I have Xubuntu installed over Kubutu on my HD the live CD was a little slow on my CPU.

 

yo thanks ktulu and creaky i will get on that ASAP.