Ubuntu live cd :(

[simon275]

After Installing Ubuntu 6.6 on my old PC like a few months ago and then 6.10. I decided to install it on my gaming rig.

Here begins the trouble.

Here are my three problems that can occur

Live CD hangs on yellow screen just as GNOME boots.
Live CD hangs when I click on install icon
Live CD hangs when I go through the install process and get up to the partioner at 7%.

I have reburnt at a slower speed, tried to boot it from a memory stick, Tried three different optical drives including an external on, Installed a old IDE harddrive and disable the SATA drive.

Nothing works! Unbuntu just doesn't want to play ball. I always end up getting stuck at one of the three hang points.

Can anyone recommend me a good distribution that will fit on a single CD. As I don't want to download Fedora as it is like 4 disks. :(

Edit: Going to newsagents to see what distros I can get on CD's attached to linux magazines.

[Bucko]

Edit: Going to newsagents to see what distros I can get on CD's attached to linux magazines.

Simon, the latest issue of Australian PC User has Ubuntu 6.1 on the DVD attached to the cover. I bought it a couple of days ago.

[simon275]

I went and got a copy of Linux user and developer just then. It has Fedora core 6 on the cover. I am gonna install it now. Cheers for the heads up though mate.

[simon275]

Fedora doesn't boot arghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

I get a Isolinux Disk error 80 AX = 4224, Drive 9F error message.

This is a common problem on the net no one can seem to fix it. It just seems some computers are just not compatible with linux.

The disks boots fine on other PC's and so does Ubuntu but not on my gaming rig.

[simon275]

I give up.

Gonna use old computer but will add more ram to it and install a KVM.

Edit: Added more ram now nothing boots.

Edit: Removed the ram now it boots.

I think I need a hug.

Now to wipe the disk and install Fedora.

Edit: Same error on old PC and as on new PC Fedora doesn't work

EDIT: Managed to instal ubutnu but now when the loading screen comes up the system hangs.

And I get the message /bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off

Why won't linux work for me. Why is life so hard!

1 reinstall later and it runs like a dream. And so ends my tale of wo

[.Maleficus.]

I wish I could help, but I'm clueless as to what that means. TBH, you'd get a better turn-around on this at the Ubuntu Forums. If you aren't a member there, I can post your problem and see what I can come up with, but I really don't know what's going on.

[simon275]

All is well thanks for the offer anyway. Two days of messing around payed off.

[luciusad2004]

Glad you got it working. My attempt at installing ubuntu on my ibook was unsuccessful. It would get to the point were i had to partition my drive then it would just lock up at 5% every single time. I gave up. It wasnt really worth it... the damn thing wont boot unless the built in keyboard is removed. I spilled pizza on it while trying to install. :hurt: I was so itching to try something new.

[luciusad2004]

Sorry about the double post i just wanted to make sure that the thread popped up as having a new post so people found my question.

What ubuntu forums are you guys on? I just installed ubuntu on a spare PC in my room and i wanted to join up. Is it the main forums on the official website?

Also do you guys know were to look for drivers? Ive either got a driver issue or faulty hardware. I have no sound.

Ive never really gotten in to Linux so i don't know anything about it. I wouldn't mind learning though as Im probably going to be getting pretty familiar with it in college.

[.Maleficus.]

Ubuntu Forums. (http://www.ubuntuforums.org)

No sound during what? Playing MP3's? Ubuntu doesn't have native MP3 support (something about licenses and blah blah..) so you do need to install them yourself. You should enable the Universe and Multiverse Repositories in Synaptic. Go System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager > [Password] > Preferences (I think.. I'm now using Gentoo) > Add > Click the check boxes for Community and Non-Free > Add > Close. Now you will have way more packages and access to non-free software (multimedia codecs). To install those, I recommend using Automatix2. Run these commands in order.

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
#Add these lines to the end of the file
## Automatix repo
deb http://www.getautomatix.com/apt edgy main
#Save and close
wget http://www.getautomatix.com/keys/automatix2.key
gpg --import automatix2.key
gpg --export --armor E23C5FC3 | sudo apt-key add -
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install automatix2
This will give you an option to install all the multimedia codecs you need.

[luciusad2004]

Thank you. Ill give that a try and see what i can work out. Also signed up for the Ubuntu forums but didn't get around to looking so much. They were so huge i sort of got overwhelmed lol

Edit: forgot to mention. I don't know if i posted it earlier but it could be a hardware issue. I had XP on this computer before as it was going to be for my gf. I was bored and she didnt plan on useing it since she got her mac so i decided i would try out Ubuntu.

Anyway long story short i couldn't really get sound when i had XP on here. Im not sure if i just need some sound drivers or what (Im assuming motherboard drivers since its on board sound???)

I dont think its an MP3 thing. I tried playing some of the media in the "examples" folder and it wouldn't work. I believe it was an Ogg file. I also tried a CD and that wouldn't work either.

Any way, thanks for the help! +rep : D

[.Maleficus.]

It isn't a motherboard board driver thing, because there isn't such a thing. Init loads all necessary drivers at boot, such as SATA, IDE, etc. You probably don't have multimedia codecs installed, which is what Automatix is for. It will give you an option to install those. Actually, do this for me.

dmesg
lspci
lsmod
Post anything that relates to sound/sound devices. You might need to load a kernel module too.


Edit: Nah, just post all of the lspic and lsmod, and sound related things at dmesg.

[luciusad2004]

Ok, ill do that for you when i get home. I'm at my girlfriends for the weekend so I'll either do it Sunday night or Monday. Thanks again.

[Drew]

One word:

ubuntuforums

There are some proper clever buggers there. just post in the total beginners forum, you'll be sussed.

And for mp3 playing, you want VLC media player. Ubuntu hasn't got native mp3 support 'cos of American copyright laws or something.

Welcome to the Linux revolution my friend and comrade in Ubuntu arms.

[luciusad2004]

Ok here is some of the stuff you asked for.

lspci:


charles@charles-desktop:~$ lspci
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M800CE Host Bridge
0000:00:00.1 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M800CE Host Bridge
0000:00:00.2 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M800CE Host Bridge
0000:00:00.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. PT890 Host Bridge
0000:00:00.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M800CE Host Bridge
0000:00:00.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M800CE Host Bridge
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI Bridge
0000:00:0f.0 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID Controller (rev 80)
0000:00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus MasterIDE (rev 06)
0000:00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
0000:00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
0000:00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
0000:00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
0000:00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
0000:00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]
0000:00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
0000:00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 78)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc.: Unknown device 3344 (rev 01)
charles@charles-desktop:~$

lsmod:


charles@charles-desktop:~$ lsmod
Module Size Used by
ipv6 265728 6
rfcomm 40216 0
l2cap 26244 5 rfcomm
bluetooth 49892 4 rfcomm,l2cap
ppdev 9220 0
speedstep_lib 4484 0
cpufreq_userspace 4696 0
cpufreq_stats 5636 0
freq_table 4740 1 cpufreq_stats
cpufreq_powersave 1920 0
cpufreq_ondemand 6428 0
cpufreq_conservative 7332 0
video 16260 0
tc1100_wmi 6916 0
sony_acpi 5644 0
pcc_acpi 12416 0
hotkey 11556 0
dev_acpi 11140 0
container 4608 0
button 6672 0
acpi_sbs 19980 0
battery 9988 1 acpi_sbs
i2c_acpi_ec 5120 1 acpi_sbs
ac 5252 1 acpi_sbs
dm_mod 58936 1
af_packet 22920 4
md_mod 72532 0
lp 11844 0
tsdev 8000 0
snd_seq_dummy 3844 0
snd_seq_oss 33536 0
snd_seq_midi 9376 0
snd_seq_midi_event 7552 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 51984 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_mid i_event
usbhid 39904 0
prism2_usb 77060 0
parport_pc 35780 1
parport 36296 3 ppdev,lp,parport_pc
snd_via82xx 28824 2
gameport 15496 1 snd_via82xx
snd_ac97_codec 93088 1 snd_via82xx
snd_ac97_bus 2304 1 snd_ac97_codec
pcspkr 2180 0
snd_pcm_oss 53664 0
snd_mixer_oss 18688 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 89864 4 snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer 25220 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc 10632 2 snd_via82xx,snd_pcm
snd_mpu401_uart 7808 1 snd_via82xx
snd_rawmidi 25504 2 snd_seq_midi,snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device 8716 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq,snd _rawmidi
snd 55268 14 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec,snd _pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mpu40 1_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device
via_rhine 23940 0
psmouse 36100 0
floppy 62148 0
mii 5888 1 via_rhine
serio_raw 7300 0
soundcore 10208 1 snd
i2c_viapro 8980 0
shpchp 45632 0
pci_hotplug 29236 1 shpchp
i2c_core 21904 2 i2c_acpi_ec,i2c_viapro
rtc 13492 0
via_agp 9856 1
agpgart 34888 1 via_agp
evdev 9856 2
ext3 135688 1
jbd 58772 1 ext3
ide_generic 1536 0
ehci_hcd 34184 0
uhci_hcd 33680 0
usbcore 130692 5 usbhid,prism2_usb,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd
ide_cd 33028 0
cdrom 38560 1 ide_cd
ide_disk 17664 3
via82cxxx 9988 0 [permanent]
generic 5124 0
sata_via 10116 0
libata 78992 1 sata_via
scsi_mod 139496 1 libata
thermal 13576 0
processor 23360 1 thermal
fan 4868 0
capability 5000 0
commoncap 7296 1 capability
vga16fb 13704 1
vgastate 10368 1 vga16fb
fbcon 42784 72
tileblit 2816 1 fbcon
font 8320 1 fbcon
bitblit 6272 1 fbcon
softcursor 2304 1 bitblit
charles@charles-desktop:~$


What was it you wanted after i entered dmsg? I looked and i only saw one line that to me appeared to be audio related. Keep in mind that that looking at this stuff is to me like looking at hieroglyphics.


[17179601.252000] input: PC Speaker as /class/input/input0

@Drew

Thanks for the Welcome. I don't that ill make much of a revolutionary as im still pretty attached to commercial software. Im happy to be part of the community though. I'm mainly trying to get in to Linux just to have some fun. I was also thinking that, being open source and all, it would give me something to maybe work with a little bit as i go through college. I want to learn how to work with it now so that maybe in the future i can work on it. I'm looking to get in to software development some day so this sort of gives me something to study and play with until i get a nice job. Not that ill ever get lucky enough to work on a major operating system or anything... i can dream though.

One question, what do you mean by ill be "sussed"?

Thanks for the welcome :)

[Drew]

sussed -

As in 'to get it sussed' = to get it figured out. Can also be said as 'it's OK, I sussed it out'.

Easy to forget how many Americans are on here... the .com ought to give it away.

Oh, and 'mucka' is like mate, as in 'alright mucka?'

Here end british slang lesson 1. Lesson 2, 'advance swearology', at the same time tommorow.

:edit: They actually are hyroglyphics - malefificus and the other Linux hounds can actually read them. they're like historians, or ancient rune scholars. All hail the Linuxians.

:edit2: Sorry. It's late, my teeeth are playing up like mary hell and I'm a bit confused. Forgive me for talkin crap.

[.Maleficus.]

Well luciusad, I really don't know for this one. As you can see by the lspci command, you have a Via AC97 multimedia controller, and you seem to have all necessary AC97 codecs, but that may still be the problem. I'm still going to recommend using Automatix2 to install the codecs, but other than that, I'm not sure.

[luciusad2004]

sussed -

As in 'to get it sussed' = to get it figured out. Can also be said as 'it's OK, I sussed it out'.

Easy to forget how many Americans are on here... the .com ought to give it away.

Oh, and 'mucka' is like mate, as in 'alright mucka?'

Here end british slang lesson 1. Lesson 2, 'advance swearology', at the same time tommorow.

:edit: They actually are hyroglyphics - malefificus and the other Linux hounds can actually read them. they're like historians, or ancient rune scholars. All hail the Linuxians.

:edit2: Sorry. It's late, my teeeth are playing up like mary hell and I'm a bit confused. Forgive me for talkin crap.

Ah i understand now. At first i thought it had something to do with Linux. :)


Well luciusad, I really don't know for this one. As you can see by the lspci command, you have a Via AC97 multimedia controller, and you seem to have all necessary AC97 codecs, but that may still be the problem. I'm still going to recommend using Automatix2 to install the codecs, but other than that, I'm not sure. Thanks for trying. +rep for that. I honestly don't know how you got anything out of all that code lol.

One more question. For this Automatix2 do i need to have an internet connection or can i find the files i need and download them to another computer and transfer them over a flash drive.

Thanks for all of the help

[.Maleficus.]

You don't have it over the internet? Hmm... I don't think you'll really want, because it's just like installing a program using apt-get, except it has a GUI and some frequently used packages. You'll have to find dependencies, and all sorts of stuff, but I suppose it could be done, but you'll probably just have to do a Google search for like "linux multimedia codecs" and find them in a .tar.bz2 or .tar.gz form, extract them, and then build from source. That really isn't any big deal, but the finding of them might be.

And no problem man!

[luciusad2004]

I guess if i get some free time (ha, i have NOTHING BUT free time... im just lazy) i can drag the PC out to my living room and hook it up to the network. Then i can run Automatix2 from there.

The only other option would be to see if my parents USB wifi receiver will work with Ubuntu. I plugged it in but i had no clue were to go to set it up. Overall the lack of sound wont really be a problem. My stereo is a yard or two away, in fact... i was going to run the sound through my stereo.

I guess i should have taken a better look at what i was getting in to lol.

Thanks for the help guys if i get it worked out ill let you know.

[.Maleficus.]

Well, if you have some time and will try it, I can help you get that working too lol.

You'll need 3 things.

1. ndiswrapper (downloadable program, you can put it on a flash drive and transfer if you need)
2. Driver CD for the card
3. The card.

Download and install ndiswrapper. It is a program that takes Windows drivers, and "wraps" them around your Linux hardware. I'm not sure if there is a .deb or .rpm of it, or if it's just .tar.bz2 or something. Actually, if I remember correctly, you can install it from Synaptic, but then you need internet. If you see some weird file format you've never seen, don't download and tell me what it is, and I'll help from there. If it is a .deb, I guess you can just search Google for "install .deb package ubuntu". Otherwise, if you're not sure, don't download. But anyways, then you want to plug in your card. It probably won't work, unless you have one that works out-of-the-box. Now, take your driver CD, and copy all of the files into their own directory somewhere. You don't need them for other cards, just the model you have (my driver CD has drivers for about 3 cards. Only copy the ones for your model). Now, 'cd' into the directory you made (if it was /home/jonny/pumpkins, you'd do 'cd /home/jonny/pumpkins') Now you'll use the ndiswrapper tool. the command you want to use is 'ndiswrapper -i'. You'll have copied some files with various formats (there should be like 3) and one of them is .inf. That is the important one. The command you'll use is 'ndiswrapper -i drivername.inf'. If it is successful, hooray! There should only be a few lines of code, so to check, run this command. 'ndiswrapper -l'. It will list the installed drivers. You'll know if they are installed :).

[luciusad2004]

Ill check it out tomorrow, My parents were using the WiFi adapter today so i didn't get my hands on it. I did some googleing around on ndiswrapper though and i already have the source in case i need it and i bookmarked a couple of useful looking pages. Thanks! ill be back tomorrow.

[luciusad2004]

Funny thing happened today...

First of all i was sitting around last night thinking about how i could get internet access on my machine without moving it. I realized the answer was simple, Internet sharing. Ive done it before with my 360 so i should be able to do it with Linux. After my gf went to bed i took her laptop, plugged one end of an Ethernet cable in to the mac, the other end in to my machine and set it all up. Ill just be honest here and say i sort of just "stumbled" across the proper settings. After that i found the update manager and let it do some 114 updates while i went to bed. Today i followed your steps to download automatix2 and i got it all working, started it up to be greeted with a message of incompatibility. I need Ubuntu 6.10 I think i have 6.06.

Is their another version of Automatix2 or should i burn a new ISO and upgrade to 6.10? I really don't mind reinstalling but if its not necessary it would just be a waste of time. I guess my main concern is that they always warn you that the latest version of any specific distro is likely to have bugs. Thats why i didn't download it in the first place.

So question of the day: Is Ubuntu 6.10 stable enough to warrant a reinstall or should i just keep what i have.

Thanks for you continued help :)

Edit: forgot to mention that i have the ndiswrapper source and as soon as i can find a driver for my usb receiver i can try that as well. Ill probably try to find something i can download since i don't have any cd's for it (its my parents and if a driver CD even exists its tucked away in a box full of CDs, hidden in a closet somewhere )

Another question, were did you guys go to start learning commands and what not? Did you pick up some books or use the all mighty google? Or did you just pick it up as you went along by reading forums and what not?

[.Maleficus.]

You can run 'apt-get dist-upgrade' and it should upgrade you to Edgy. And yes, it is very stable. It's been out for a few months, and I've used it for all of them, and it's excellent. While Ubuntu still says that 6.06 is best for n00bs, not much has changed, and most of what you do in Dapper carries over to Edgy. And actually, I think if you look hard enough, you can find a tutorial for Automatix2 on Dapper.

And I mostly use Google. I have a book called "Linux Desktop Pocket Guide" made by O'Reilly, but it isn't about commands, mostly software stuff. If you want a tip for learning the Linux system, install Gentoo once. Or even read the install guide. It is so packed full of information that your head will throb when you're done. And most of Gentoo stuff carries over to Ubuntu, so you can tweak config. files in Ubuntu that you learned about with the guide (I know this, I've done it).

And it's really no problem, I enjoy giving my knowledge to people. And if you want to hear something scary, I've barely even scratched the surface ;).

[luciusad2004]

Awesome, ill run that tonight when i go to bed and let it work over night (net connection can be pretty slow when using internet sharing)

Maybe in the coming weeks if i find that i enjoy Ubuntu ill give Gentoo a try. I can read about something all i want but i find i learn best when i sit down and do it, so installing Gentoo could be a great learning experience for me.

Ill probably be back tomorrow then. Hopefully i can get the wireless card working, then ill take a crack at the sound issue.

Thanks
-Lucius

[luciusad2004]

Ok, sorry about the lack of updates. I wasn't all that motivated to work with this the last week or so. I upgraded to edgy, installed automatix2 and downloaded ndiswrapper.

I was in the device manager and i discovered that my wireless adapter shows up as MN510 802.11b Adapter.I found it odd that Ubuntu recognized the adapter yet it would not show up as an option when i tried to edit my network settings. I decided that before i went messing around with Ndiswrapper I would at least check the networking utility one more time. Like magic there was another option that wasn't there before. I honestly don't know were it came from. Maybe those updates i installed before getting started.

My wireless adapter shows up here as "Wired connection (wlan0)"

I don't know why it is calling it a wired connection (maybe because its a usb adapter???) Either way... It doesn't work. It may very well work, but i don't know how to connect to my network. I really don't know. It is a secured network so i imagine i have to find somewhere that it will let me select what network i want to connect to and then let me enter the password.

I went online today and got some drivers (thinking maybe some drivers would sort all of this out) and then had to install them on my windows machine to actually find the specific files i need.

I transfered them to the Linux box and I just installed ever driver file i had via ndiswrapper. (whatever it was that i downloaded had a bunch of drivers in it) While in Ndiswrapper, it does tell me that there is hardware present for one of the drivers. I don't know what to do. I was thinking it could be something as simple as just getting it connected to the network, but i don't know how to do that.


On the other side of things. Last time i searched on google i found a lot of things about people having sound trouble with the chip set i have. I however did not find anything pertaining to a possible fix. If i feel up to it i might later post a question about it up on the Ubuntu forums.

Thanks

-Lucius

[.Maleficus.]

So the drivers installed correctly, no errors? The output of 'ndiswrapper -l' is good? Then I think you might just have to go into the Networking tool, select the device (wlan0) and click 'Configure' (I think that's what it's called). It will give you some options to enter, and then activate the device.

One thing. What sound and wireless devices are you running?

[luciusad2004]

I ran that command you asked about and i got this.


charles@charles-desktop:~$ ndiswrapper -l
Installed drivers:
mn110 driver installed
mn120 driver installed
mn130 driver installed
mn510 driver installed
mn520 invalid driver!
mn710 driver installed
mn720 driver installed
charles@charles-desktop:~$


After that i uninstalled mn520.

The wireless chip set i am using is mn510 or at least thats what it tells me in the device manager. I can get more info on that tomorrow, right now my mom is using it with her laptop.

I tried clicking configure in the networking utility and it just takes me to a window were i can choose from automatic configuration via DHCP or Manual configuration via a Static IP. I don't however get an option to connect to my network.

The sound chipset is VT8233/a/8235/8237 AC97 audio controller.

Edit: forgot to mention that after installing and running ndiswrapper i have had some kernel panics when booting... I don't even know what that means but thats what it said. It fixes itself with a simple reboot though so im not worried about it just yet. Maybe deleting that bad driver will have taken care of it.

Edit v1.2: Ill try to be back tomorrow my gf is making me go to bed. :dead:

[Airbozo]

..................

Another question, were did you guys go to start learning commands and what not? Did you pick up some books or use the all mighty google? Or did you just pick it up as you went along by reading forums and what not?

I actually took a beginning UNIX class at my local community college. I also picked up a beginning to intermediate UNIX book to read through. UNIX Unleashed, by SAMS publishing is a good book to start with. Pick up an older copy to save some $$ since most everything is the same.

RTFM!

Also learn the "man" command. It is your friend and has helped me out of some tight situations at 2:30 in the morning ("man cpio" for an idea...). Create a dummy account (no root privilege), then play away. You will not be able to harm anything, and if you happen to dork that account up, delete it and create another. Learn vi. I know it is just a simple text editor, but it is _very_ powerful! You will hate me for suggesting it until you get good with it, then you will hate other "normal" text editors. "man vi" or "man vim" (not sure what comes with ubuntu). You can also try emacs although I am not that good at it.

More useful commands;

cd
ls
less
more
find
df
du
rm
cp
mv
chmod
chgrp
tar
cpio


Couple of notes: If you find that you need to edit a critical file, use the following procedure:

mv filename filename.original
cp filename.original filename
edit filename (use your favorite editor in place of "edit")

This preserves the creation dates and ownership of the original file and leaves a copy on your system in case something goes wrong.

cd /usr/bin
ls | more

This will show you a list of commands (not all of them) that are available to most users. Look at some of the commands and, you guessed it "man" them.

Use the cd command to work your way around the filesystem to see where things are. Some of the system commands and config files are under the /etc directory.

Have fun, and post if you have any questions about any command.

NEVER EVER use; "rm -r *" as root. you will have to reload _everything_!

[SgtM]

One that I'm finding very useful on Unix and AIX boxes is
ps -ef | grep xxx

where xxx equals whatever you're looking for. Haven't tried it in Ubuntu or Fedora yet though. I'm getting a crash course in Unix at work, on live production servers at that. Of course we have procedures for EVERYTHING we do, so it's really easy to follow a document and type the commands listed in that document. Let say we get an alarm that a process isn't running on a server. I would go in and do a ps -ef | grep process_name to look at it. If it's really not running (could have just been restarted by another admin) we just start whatever it is and log out. I now find myself wondering why I didn't start using linux few years ago. Then I remember.. I didn't have an over abundance of computers a few years ago.

[Airbozo]

One that I'm finding very useful on Unix and AIX boxes is
ps -ef | grep xxx



There are differences in the flags, depending on the OS. On some UNIX variants, "ps -ef" = "ps -a". This is why "man ps" is so usefull...

Here's another;

netstat -ina
ifconfig -a
traceroute ip addy -or- hostname
ping ip addy -or- hostname
flood ip addy -or- hostname <- USE THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK AS IT DOES _JUST_ WHAT IT SAYS, flood the ip addy -or- hostname with pings... useful for testing...

[intergalacticman]

umm its version 6.06!!!!!! not 6.6

its ok i make that mistake all the time lol

[Drum Thumper]

flood ip addy -or- hostname <- USE THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK AS IT DOES _JUST_ WHAT IT SAYS, flood the ip addy -or- hostname with pings... useful for testing...

Ugh. Reminds me of the first major DOS attack on Yahoo. I was using the same screenname as one of the hackers at the time. The computer lab at the college that I attended at the time became part of their botnet.

And to make matters worse, a friend of mine who happened to work at the computer lab thru workstudy and I were joking around via the school's IM program about it at the time.

He almost lost his job, I almost got expelled.

Not fun at all.

Ok, I'll quit the hijack now.

[luciusad2004]

Thanks for all of the advice guys, ill go through those commands tomorrow if i get the time.

How helpful is the man command in Linux i tried it on my Mac a long time ago when i was trying to learn how to use the terminal and the manual was like... almost useless. I think the shell was bash. It was aimed at people who already had some experience and i just got lost.

If i get some spare change i might consider picking up a book though... give me something else to add to the list of stuff that will take me forever to actually get around to reading.

Thanks guys : )

-Lucius

Edit: On the hardware side of things... Here is the mobo i have. MOBO!!! (http://www.jetway.com.tw/oldweb/evisn/product/p-4/p4mbms/p4mbms.htm)

I downloaded the manual and it doesn't actually say much about the audio chip so all i have to go on is what the hardware utility tells me.

[.Maleficus.]

Well, it really depends on what they wrote in the manual. Some are helpful, some are not.

[Airbozo]

What Mal said.

Man pages are there for quick reference. Some are quite useful with examples and in depth explanations of all the flags and options, others are just simple cheat sheets to remind experienced users what the flags are.

Some are even comedic. I know the programmers get bored sometimes and use the man page for a creative outlet...

[luciusad2004]

Hey guys just thought i would drop in and let everyone know what was up. I think I'm going to put this on hold for a while.

I just haven't been very motivated lately and every time i try to get in to this and get something done i just end up with a disappointing couple of hours spent in front of a machine that honestly i probably wont use that much anyway.

Maybe once i get some money to buy myself a proper book ill look and see what i can get up and running. I just have a very difficult time trying to learn by flipping through man pages. They seem as though they would be much more useful after i get some basic working knowledge.

Anyway, ill probably tool around with this every now and then and try to get a handle on working with Linux but I'm not going to actively try to fix things that aren't working. I feel like such a disappointment. Sorry guys (and gals... i know there are some of you out there.)

+rep to everyone who sent in useful advice (if i can)

One last question. If I'm just going to be tooling around in the terminal and whatnot, would a live CD be sufficient for learning or would i want something that was installed on my PC so that i can edit files and whatnot.

I have various distro's that boot from a CD and it would be a much more pleasant experience to work on the "family" PC. Since its not technically mine, i can't really install an OS on it but its really nice to sit at a desk and not on my floor in front of a dresser staring up at an old outdated monitor.

Option wise i have,

Ubuntu (obviously)
Puppy (loads to ram, pretty quick, and not to bad on the eyes)
DSL (also loads to ram, but i think puppy is nicer to look at)


I also know how to find anything else anyone might recommend.

Thanks for the help everyone.

-lucius :bunny:

[.Maleficus.]

You may look into Mandriva, but it's somewhat of a system hog, but you may find you like KDE and might want to try it.


Also, I read somewhere about a LiveCD that let you mess with config files, the terminal, and all sorts of stuff that they put on for you to play with. It doesn't affect anything at all, and seems like a really handy learning tool. If I can find a link I'll post back about it.