LiveCD works now

[konakona]

This is my third shot at trying linux. The first two times were just for the sake of utilizing scrap parts of hardware hoping I could learn a thing or two about linux, but I never got any far at all to be comfortable with it yet. The distros I have tried were redhat and ubuntu. Though it is known to be the noob friendlist OS, I had more than enough challenge trying to get the TV card / sound card / codepaging working among other stuff.

While I had a generally satisfactory experience with Ubuntu, I wanted to try something new for the third time. I read up on the overview of most desktop-oriented distros on wikipedia, and was torn between Linux Mint and PCLinuxOS. In particular, I like the Mint's idea of having pre-installed codecs and being faster than ubuntu while preserving compatibility with it.

One thing that I am somewhat concerned about is the brief mention of relatively worse localization on mint's part. I had one hell of a time trying to get windows samba mounts displayed in proper code paging mode (never got it working btw), and I would imagine it could get only worse in Mint then. I dont need any localized menu options or anything, just the ability to use IME or something along that line to type in japanese and korean, and to properly handle files that are named in languages other than english.

So aside the fact that Mint is supposedely somewhat less stable, comes with GNOME (which I happened to prefer to KDE thusfar anyway) and my concern with localization, does it have anything lacking compared to ubuntu? I am kinda suprised there were very few results when I searched on it.

Whichever distro I choose to go with, I will probably install it on a spare 80gb hdd - dont feel like partitioning the 500gb leaving multiple file systems on it..

 

[fyleow]

..

 

[doog519]

Myself I have tried.
PCLinuxOS and Mandriva 2008
Both are very simple distro's that just seem to work. And installs pretty much everything.
Both are also live CD's so you will have a chance to see how it matches up with your system.
To install just click on the install icon on the desktop.

There are a lot of good distro's out there. You just have to find the one you like.
That's the good thing about Linux freedom of choice.

One thing that will make using Linux easier on you, is to make sure your hardware matches up. If you try to install hardware made for windows and not Linux.
You will just get frustrated....Make it easy on yourself and do some research.

 

[konakona]

hmmm. some food for thought. Maybe I should just go back to ubuntu...

 

[toadman]

How long has it been since you've tried linux?Alot of the new distros auto install most or are really easy to do so.I'm a newbie and I have found ubuntu,kubuntu,mint,pclinxos all very easy to use.I'm currently running pclinuxos which imo is the easiest disro that I've tried(so easy that it is boring me).I'm also running sabayon,which I like alot.It isn't no where near as newbie friendly,but makes me dig and learn more which will help me in the long run.I also have to use a terminal more with it.

 

[konakona]

Originally posted by: toadman
How long has it been since you've tried linux?Alot of the new distros auto install most or are really easy to do so.I'm a newbie and I have found ubuntu,kubuntu,mint,pclinxos all very easy to use.I'm currently running pclinuxos which imo is the easiest disro that I've tried(so easy that it is boring me).I'm also running sabayon,which I like alot.It isn't no where near as newbie friendly,but makes me dig and learn more which will help me in the long run.I also have to use a terminal more with it.

It is not the newbie friendliness I am after; AV-710 driver was in development back then for ALSA (they barely got it down before I stopped using I think), and Studio TV terminator is still not supported to date IIRC. Having codepage to behave properly with NTFS mounted samba mounts is just a mess that I spent gobbles of hours and no one managed to help me with (trust me, I did enough searching on this matter and tried tons of different combinations on it). The main thing is just wanting to try something different, desktop oriented while learning more about linux. Mint claimed to be more up to date and tad faster, which isnt all that plausible according to that article.

 

[konakona]

Believe me or not, I am really trying to like linux. I like playing around with computers like most of you nerds here even when I dont have a specific task that requires it. Vista and XP suits my needs perfectly, but I am still trying for the sake of fun.

With all this talk of KDE 3.5 having more features and being expert-like, I decided to give kubuntu a shot. The torrent file downloaded superfast (yeay) and I burnt it on a dvd for a LiveCD run. Popped it in, booted up and got the menu with everything. Chose to start/install and the progress bar appeared, then got stuck in a corrupted screen (sorry, no screenshots available)

This doesnt really do much to scare me away, but I just find it odd. Isnt linux supposed to be much more stable than micro$oft crap? I must have a very special computer if it falls flat on its face in the very first minute of loading up even before installing!

parts used include:
Antec EW430
Scythe Ninja Rev A. + Orange Yate Loon @12v
Biostar TP35D2-A7
E6400 @stock speed
2gb patriot ddr2
2gb ocz ddr2
7300 LE
samsung 501LJ
some pacific digital optical drive
EMU 1212M (known to work well in linux)

Whatever, screw kubuntu. Ubuntu here I come! According to what I have read, the 64bit version is only missing the java for netscape and flash plugin, so would I be safe to go with that? The ubuntu unlike kubuntu did not offer DVD downloads (only CD version available on their site). Any notable differences due to varying size?

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

Take a Linux course, it forces you to learn.

 

[Robor]

I haven't tried the 64bit version of Ubuntu but based on the benefits vs. drawbacks most of the posts I read recommend sticking with the 32bit version unless you need 64 bit for something.

 

[konakona]

Originally posted by: Robor
I haven't tried the 64bit version of Ubuntu but based on the benefits vs. drawbacks most of the posts I read recommend sticking with the 32bit version unless you need 64 bit for something.

4gb memory. plus I was told there was nothing apparently holding it back

Take a Linux course, it forces you to learn.

I am doing this at my own leisure, dont have time to delve into it so religeously...

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: konakona

Originally posted by: Robor
I haven't tried the 64bit version of Ubuntu but based on the benefits vs. drawbacks most of the posts I read recommend sticking with the 32bit version unless you need 64 bit for something.

4gb memory.

Text

Originally posted by: konakona
plus I was told there was nothing apparently holding it back

A quick search turned up problems with Flash and codecs.

 

[Nothinman]

A quick search turned up problems with Flash and codecs.

Flash maybe, codecs not really. I've been using 64-bit Debian for about a year now and have yet to find a video that mplayer won't play. There's also nspluginwrapper for Flash if you really want to have it.

 

[konakona]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

A quick search turned up problems with Flash and codecs.

Flash maybe, codecs not really. I've been using 64-bit Debian for about a year now and have yet to find a video that mplayer won't play. There's also nspluginwrapper for Flash if you really want to have it.

thats what I saw with some googling and you could use GNASH for flash right? not that I really need flash I will always have another XP/vista machine to handle it

 

[Nothinman]

There is gnash but AFAIK it doesn't implement everything yet.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: konakona

Originally posted by: Nothinman

A quick search turned up problems with Flash and codecs.

Flash maybe, codecs not really. I've been using 64-bit Debian for about a year now and have yet to find a video that mplayer won't play. There's also nspluginwrapper for Flash if you really want to have it.

thats what I saw with some googling and you could use GNASH for flash right? not that I really need flash I will always have another XP/vista machine to handle it

You can install a 32 bit browser with 32 bit flash and sun java. If you rather stick with just a 64 bit browser, you can use the nspluginwrapper for Flash and IcedTea for java.

This is the only case I would ever recommend Automatix. You can get all of this done with Automatix if you find doing these things yourself intimidating. Preferably, doing it yourself is the way to go if you are not afraid to learn how.

 

[konakona]

ok, it turns out what I had burnt was a i386 version of kubuntu LiveCD DVD; the x64 version was ubuntu and I never burnt that one.

Anyway, I gave it another try and it did boot into kubuntu fine today. Dunno if it was my cdrom drive before flashing it to benq firmware or something else, but back when I reported malfuction the machine looked like crashed for like good 3-5 minutes. This time around, things were similar except the read LED on the optical drive was flashing constantly so I knew it was at least trying to load the damn thing. Loading was very slow to put it nicely, you gotta have some patience with these things! Dont think PE took this long, though I would imagine ubuntu/kubuntu is a much fuller OS than PE is.

Once I got into the desktop, I noticed the mouse movement was EXTREMELY choppy. The keyboard wasnt much better either, which makes me suspect some kind of USB related issue (I did find some similar observations on google). But if my memory serves me right, the menus popped up quite sluggishly as well, so maybe its some kind of video card driver problem. The card I have is a 7300LE, and under system settings kubuntu says it is a "nv" video card.

 

[Nothinman]

The 'nv' driver will be slower than the closed 'nvidia' driver but it shouldn't be a big deal. Generally the menus only take a few seconds to pop up the first time since they have to be paged in from the disc but once they're in memory they should be fine.

If you open up a terminal and run 'top' does anything stand out as hogging the CPU or is it all system time?

 

[konakona]

I checked through something else from the menu forgot what it was called... nearly 0% for all the processes, thats why I was guessing it had to do with USB inputs.

http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-453512.html
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-326288.html -> could be the ACPI problem then? dont have any ps/2 mice I could use to see whether it is just the USB support

 

[Nothinman]

You can always try booting with 'noapic' and see if it helps, the LiveCD kernel should support that parameter.

 

[accguy9009]

Just because you can and it is fairly easy to do, try running the Live CD of Mandriva 2008. I was having some issues with Mint and Ubuntu with the Live CD and installing it on a box with old hardware. Mandriva worked like a charm. Give it a shot, it will not cost you anything but the price of a CD and a little time.

 

[fyleow]

..

 

[Nothinman]

Yes, 'nv' has no GL hardware accelleration so if Compiz runs at all it'll be running in software.

 

[konakona]

here is another question:

My secondary computer is used for heavy downloading, so I cant afford to have it being turned off on a regular basis. QEMU looks like a nifty tool to play around with since I dont really plan on using linux as my main OS. On the primary machine, I found out kquemu doesnt work with vista x64, unfortunately. The secondary rig has a x86 vista, but the newer ATi cards are apparantly linux-unfriendly:

http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=17069
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=585145

So I guess there was supposed to be a patch due for gutsy gibbon, wonder if its out yet?

This is what I found on the Ubuntu website. I am very unskilled when it comes to Linux. Can anyone give the the instructions how to get this file edited? I believe this may be the cause of my blank screen and attempts to reset screen resolution.

Blank screen with some ATI hardware
People with ATI display adapters may get a blank screen when loading X due to the driver being unable to initialize certain hardware. Upstream is working on it, and hopefully we'll be able to release an update for 7.10 soon after the release. In the meantime, add 'Option "LVDSBiosNativeMode" "false"' to the driver section of xorg.conf. Bug #132716

not sure how I would do this with qemu... possible at all? I put the iso file on a flash drive for qemu. Thx!