a good linux distro

[cwl157]

I am looking for a linux distro to dual boot with. I have tried a couple and not had much luck. I tried ubuntu 6.10 and the start screen would come up and when i would choose to install it it would load and then hang on a blank screen until i restarted it. Then i tried to just boot into knoppix version 5.1.1 and that would come up with an error like unable to mount file system and stop loading so that doesnt work. I only have a cd burner so anything that only has a cd or 2 is what i am looking for. I looked at fedora and suse but those seem to have like 4 or 5 cds. Right now i am looking at free bsd that only has 2 cds but i want to make sure it will work before i waste anymore cds. I have an athlon 64 3200, radeon 9800 i know not the best for linux but i dont plan on doing anything 3d on this so i dont think it should matter. Onboard sound which is ac 97 or something like that. My monitor is a samsung syncmaster 793mb. I dont know if that matters?. Wireless internet through usb. I didnt think this would be a problem cause its usb. I basically want out of this for internet and audio to work. Any suggestions on a distrobution that would work? Thanks.

[devils casper]

installer couldn't configure your Graphics Card. its easy to fix that after installation. download Ubuntu Alternate CD. it has text based installer.
something might be wrong in partition structure too.
boot up from Ubuntu LiveCD, open Terminal and execute this

sudo fdisk -l

post output here.

[cwl157]

ubuntu 6.06.1 dapper drake? Is that the right one to download?

[devils casper]

Latest version is Ubuntu Edgy ( 6.10 ). download "ubuntu-6.10-alternate-i386.iso" from here.

[cwl157]

ok I downloaded the alternate. First, there is no live cd to boot to so i just installed it using the text installer. Installation went fine. However, when i start it after the initial loading screen the screen again goes blank and hangs. Probably because of the graphics card problem. Because of no live cd I was not able to try that command. All i want is a linux distro that will play music and let me go wirelessly on the internet. During the installation i tried to set up wireless internet and it could never find the access point. This is not my main computer so i am willing to try pretty much anything I just want something that doesn't take 5 cds or a week to download and that will work. I thought knoppix booting from cd would work but that didnt. Anyone have any other ideas?

[devils casper]

ok I downloaded the alternate. First, there is no live cd to boot to so i just installed it using the text installer. Installation went fine. However, when i start it after the initial loading screen the screen again goes blank and hangs. Probably because of the graphics card problem. Because of no live cd I was not able to try that command.

check Monitor' Manual for supported HorizSync, VertiRefresh rates and Resolutions. when screen goes blank, press Ctrl+Alt+F1. this will drop you at command line login prompt. log in and execute this

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

accepts default options and enter correct refresh rates and resolutions when prompted. reboot machine.

All i want is a linux distro that will play music and let me go wirelessly on the internet. During the installation i tried to set up wireless internet and it could never find the access point.

whats the format of music files? you have to install necessary codecs for playing mp3 files. post the details of wireless card.

[cwl157]

I have an interesting question. So since all of these did not work when installing on my computer I downloaded vmware server and installed them as virtual machines. All of them work as a virtual machine. Why do they all work as a virtual machine but not as a stand alone operating system when its all the same hardware?

[tech_man]

Why do they all work as a virtual machine but not as a stand alone operating system when its all the same hardware?

Because virtual machines use different (virtual) hardware.