How do I use the Live CD ?

[BUCHANKO]

Hey folks, I finally decided to check out all this "Linux is super customizable and better in that and that...".

Which leads me to... I downloaded a Debian Live CD from Debian web-site(duh...).

I downloaded the standart version burned it to a CD a booted form it and selected "Live"...
It does some operations and just gives me The black screen with command line...
The first and newbie(in this area) reaction was... " Wtf? , okay i know this is Linux and all,but come on..." , so i typed a few commands which did not exist apart from "help" assuming i would find a command to start up the Graphical side of the OS,yet... it was not there.

Any ideas what should i do now ?

P.S. I might have downloaded a distribution without the Graphical side of the OS, but they would probably call it Command-something instead of "Standart install".

[Jonathan183]

Try the installation instructions here
It may help if you tell us which CD/DVD image you downloaded - there are quite a few different options ...

[BUCHANKO]

Try the installation instructions...

That's the thing mate, i don't want to install, i want to test/try out.

It may help if you tell us which CD/DVD image you downloaded - there are quite a few different options ...

And i believe i did say it was "standart" , but i guess there are too many type of Linx and their variety packages that not everyone can get the track of,sorry for that,I downloaded : " debian-live-6.0.0-amd64-standard.iso ".

[BUCHANKO]

Googling up the "something + de" , That de stands for Desktop enviroment, so i believe I downloaded the very OS but without the normal grahphical functionality right ?

If it is so, Which of those DE's ( desktop enviroments, i'm guessing) Should i choose ?

[oz]

Hello and welcome to the forums!

If you properly downloaded the correct ISO file for your machine (depending on what your machine is) and burned it to disk as an image, the installation disk should run as a liveCD when you boot your machine with it properly. You can check the steps in this HowTo for making sure you've done all that correctly:

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/ins...ll-cd-dvd.html

If it is not running as a liveCD, you might have some piece of hardware that is not working well with Linux, or the liveCD disk is corrupted in some way. Quite often, when there are hardware issues, it will be graphics oriented. I've not tried the latest Debian so can't say for sure, but there might be some kernel boot options available at boot time that you can try via the F-keys that will get you past any hardware issues.

I personally recommend doing a businesscard netinstall which installs only the minimum base system, then you install only those apps that you really want or need on top of that:

Installing Debian GNU/Linux via the Internet

You would probably need to check and perhaps even print out the applicable Debian installation documentation to complete the task, unless you know what you are doing:

Debian -- Documentation

Maybe some current Debian users will reply with additional information for you. Best of luck to you with it.

[Jonathan183]

That's the thing mate, i don't want to install, i want to test/try out.



And i believe i did say it was "standart" , but i guess there are too many type of Linx and their variety packages that not everyone can get the track of,sorry for that,I downloaded : " debian-live-6.0.0-amd64-standard.iso ".

The image you have downloaded does not have a gui ... see flavors here

[BUCHANKO]

The image you have downloaded does not have a gui ... see flavors ...

Thank you... now i just need to actually understand how to use it before i give up on it,But that's a diffrent story.

So i was right about the DE(desktop enviroment) thingy, thank you for confirming it.

[elija]

Debian is a fine OS however, a couple of somewhat easier choices are Linux Mint Debian Edition (Gnome Desktop Environment) or Simply Mepis (KDE Desktop environment). Both are completely compatible with Debian but provide extra configuration tools, drivers and software installed out of the box. Alternatively, there is Ubuntu or Linux Mint, both of which ultimately derive from Debian but are no longer compatible.

Outside the Debian lineage, some good friendly distros are (in no particular order) openSUSE, Mandriva and PC Linux OS. There are many others and I'm sure I've missed out peoples favourites.

The beauty of Linux is that being free, it is easy to experiment. Have fun looking around

[BUCHANKO]

Debian is a fine OS however, a couple of somewhat easier choices are Linux Mint Debian Edition (Gnome Desktop Environment) or Simply Mepis (KDE Desktop environment). Both are completely compatible with Debian but provide extra configuration tools, drivers and software installed out of the box. Alternatively, there is Ubuntu or Linux Mint, both of which ultimately derive from Debian but are no longer compatible.

Outside the Debian lineage, some good friendly distros are (in no particular order) openSUSE, Mandriva and PC Linux OS. There are many others and I'm sure I've missed out peoples favourites.

The beauty of Linux is that being free, it is easy to experiment. Have fun looking around

Thank you, i guess some culture about linux community being friendly is kind of right.

I believe there are a lot of distro's out there but they are pretty much the same once you know the basics of Linux, and currently i can't install anything or do anything, as well as lack drivers and got no idea where to get it(not to mention i don't know where to look for something similar to "device manager"...

[MASONTX]

A good place to start would be to go to distrowatch.com. They have over 600 linux distro's you can download. Ubuntu receives the most hits and is beginner friendly. The Ultimate edition (#11 in the rankings) is Ubuntu with all the extra codecs, drivers, etc plus some extra programs all in one live DVD. If you run into questions, <Linux> - Google Search will give you linux specific search results. Welcome and have fun.