A lot of questions about Linux.. (ThX!)

[©annabis]

Hi all!

I have tried to install Linux about year ago but I wasn't able to do it. Now I tried for the second time after I have seen/used Ubuntu on my friends computer. Today I had free time to try out some interesting "distros" like Ubuntu, Fedora and Mandriva .. but none of them worked on mine machine so..

I have started from Fedora ... but I got my computer rebooted every time when the system booted up. So it goes to point when the "loading bar" and "services status" showed up, then I got FAILED at eth0 and IP after this it loaded some other services and went to reboot it happend about 5 times then i finally passed to the "login in" screen but after logginning as a "root" user i had some kind of warning message and when the desk showed up copmuter started rebooting again. Why it happened?

In Mandriva I got an error with graphical card when it asked my "localhost" username and password. I have tried root and startx after this configurating manually with xorgconfig but it didn't help.

So.. if you were able to read all this I have some questions about Linux -based distros.

I have tried to install on Fat32 (Fedora) and ext3 (Mandriva) but none of this worked for me finally.. so should I format hard drive before installing Linux to ext3/ext2/Fat32 or something?

I need Linux for Home use not programming or for server use. Just Internet/Music/Movies/Photoshop etc.

I have 2 PC's slower and faster one so I tested thouse distros (ubuntu/mandriva/fedora) on faster machine
DFI Infinity NF4
AMD Athlon 1800@2200MHz
ATI radeon X700 256Mb
Kingston HyperX 1024Mb

slower one:
AMD Duron 1000Mhz
DDR 256Mb
Video: Integrated
I think that Linux would be faster on this one than WinXP ))

What distro would be useful and how to solve my problems?

Thank you all i hope someday i will get linux work on mine


P.S. I looked up the FAQ...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Operatings systems that fit your criteria the best seem to be (in the correct order):

1. Fedora
2. openSUSE
3. Mandriva Linux
4. Xandros Desktop OS
5. MEPIS Linux

[jason_m]

Sounds like it has been a rough start for you - that's too bad. Linux sometimes still requires you to roll up your sleeves a little when installing, but in my opinion, it is well worth it for the power and flexibility you get in return.

I would think that either of the distributions you have tried should work with your hardware. My suspicion is that you have an incorrect driver somewhere that is causing your unwanted behavior.

Some things to try:
Look at log files -
/var/log contains several log files. /var/log/Xorg.0.log or something similar will have all the output from your attempt to start XOrg. Be on the lookout for lines that start with (EE) or (WW) as those indicate errors or warnings.

Check out your kernel messages -
From the command line you can type 'dmesg' to see all of your kernel's output. You can use 'dmesg | more' to scroll through. dmesg will have information about how linux is detecting your hardware and loading drivers and may provide warning/error messages.

Hope that helps shed some light and feel free to come back with follow ups. Good luck and hope you enjoy Linux!

[oz]

Welcome to the forums, ©annabis!

A relatively new distro that is not in your list is Linux Mint.

Lots of new users have been raving about how nice and easy it is to use. I've never tried it so can't vouch for it personally, but it might be worth your effort to take a look.

Enjoy the Linux experience...

[Manchunian]

I have tried to install on Fat32 (Fedora)

This is not a good idea! You should use ext2 or, better still, ext3 for Linux. Alternatively you can try Reiser...but in any case, FAT is a Windows partition and, although you can share data between Windows and Linux on FAT, you shouldn't actually try to put Linux on a Windows partition.

[©annabis]

jason_m
yeah, it's truely difficult system for me as you noticed.. so where I should try to type all this? Should I type to command line (where I can find it?) or just look up CD/DVD's files?

ozar
I have tried to get LinuxMint work but I can't even pass to desktop point (in Live mode).. there is same things happened like in Fedora.. when the desk showed up computer went to reboot why it's keeping rebooting when desktop shows up?
On slower computer I keep getting a lot of errors:





Manchunian
yes, I know that ext3 and ext2 are common Linux's file systems but for example Fedora formatted my hard drive itself. Whats the difference between ext3 and ext2? ext2 is older and ext3 newer?

[Freston]

This is not a good idea! You should use ext2 or, better still, ext3 for Linux. Alternatively you can try Reiser...but in any case, FAT is a Windows partition and, although you can share data between Windows and Linux on FAT, you shouldn't actually try to put Linux on a Windows partition.

I agree. Linux needs features not supported by ye olde FAT filesystem. The etx3 is the default filesystem for Linux, or at least it's the most widely used.




It sounds like you had a rough start. I'm pretty sure it's your graphics card. Alas, that happens a lot. You'll probably need to put in some manual labor to get it to work. It's not really that difficult if you know what you are doing.

As far as your top-5 goes. It's practically impossible to rate them in any order. Each have their strengths and weaknesses. Just like there is no perfect flavor of ice cream, there is no perfect flavor of Linux. All I can say is that you seem to be looking into the distro's that are known to be on the heavy side of the spectrum. For your older machine, I'd recommend something lighter.


And auto detection of hardware upon install is only one part of a distro. Some hardware and some distro's require manual work while installing. But once something is installed, it is installed.

As I said, getting around the graphical issue may not prove to be to difficult (although I'm not guaranteeing anything). Maybe if you decided upon a distro and post what happens when you install it, we can help?

[devils casper]

Difference in ext2 and ext3 :

1. What is the difference between ext2 and ext3 filesystem?

Ext3 filesystem is essentially an ext2 filesystem except for the fact that Ext3 supports journaling for ext2. Ext3 has been structurally implemented same as ext2, i.e. The data structures are the same. This implies that a cleanly umounted Ext3 filesystem can be successfully mounted as ext2 filesystem and an ext2 filesystem can be successfully mounted as ext3 if it is journalled.

2. Ok. But what is journalling?

In earlier days (ext2), a sudden power failure or another such condition could leave the filesystem in an inconsistent state. So after every boot the fsck program was run for every uncleanly unmounted filesystem. This took very long. Ext3 avoids this time consuming task by letting check only the specific areas that were recently accessed or modified. For this a log is kept which is called �Journal�. This way filesystem checking time is drastically reduced.

Check here for more details.
I would suggest you to try text based installer of any distro. Installers are not configuring your Graphics Card and its easy to fix after installation.
Try Ubuntu Alternate Installation CD.

[©annabis]

thank you all for helping me, but how actualy i can fix my driver problem? I have tried SuSe today .. and there is the same problem. Why computer reboots all the time when Im getting to desktop/login screen? becouse of my videocard/drivers?


!SuSe on faster computer! Same Hard Drive
after xorgconfig.. (sorry for bad quality )


after startx:



P.S. ihave found some manual about ATI drivers in Linux but its on french so can someone tell how i can exactly install them?
- Topic dédié / version 7.10 'Gutsy' [UBUNTU] - Installation - OS Alternatifs - FORUM HardWare.fr

P.P.S. Ithink here mate had same trouble as me.. but there are no replies
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/deb...r-problem.html

Thank you!

[jason_m]

jason_m
yeah, it's truely difficult system for me as you noticed.. so where I should try to type all this? Should I type to command line (where I can find it?) or just look up CD/DVD's files?

First you'll need to get to the command line. If your computer can boot up, you'll either start there, or can switch there by pressing ctrl-alt-F1. Then you can log in as any user you set up.

To see the log files, you can do the following from the command line:
cd /var/log
ls

That will give you a listing of all the files in that directory.

To see the contents of one, say it is called Xorg.0.log, you can type:
cat Xorg.0.log | more

To see what message the kernel has, from the command line you can type:
dmesg | more

Did you use another OS with this computer before? That first picture you posted looks to me like a hard disk problem.

If I were you, I would reformat my drive as ext3 and install from scratch. If you have data you don't want erased when you format we can talk about how to save it. I like the suggestion of not doing a graphical install if you are given that option. You can always use your distribution's package manager to install that later. But let's get that system booting and access to a command line first.

You're going to be an expert in no time!

[Spagnuts]

Personally i would change the Video card.
If you could.
:smoker: