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Unless I am mistaken, Linux is a free OS is it not? If that is not true then please correct me.
If it is a free OS, then where might I download it? And once I download it, how do I install it onto my computer? Also, I read something about partitioning the drive if it has an OS already on it? How do I prep my *used* drive to install linux? keep in mind though that I can not login to windows because it is password protected from the previous user.
Thanks for your help!
Yes, its free, and it is Open Source.
Heres the website for different distros: http://distrowatch.com/
I'd recommend you to start with Ubuntu though: http://www.ubuntu.com/
About partitions, as far as I know, you cant separate a already partitioned 80gb HD to 2 40gb logical drives, because that would erase anything on it.
Basically, you just need a clean HD which is going to be formatted later on by the linux install.
You can either reformat and make 2 partitions when you reformat..
or you can try this: http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoff...d=sp&pvid=pm80
It's 70 bucks, but chances are you will dl it... like my roommate did.
I would still recommend reformatting. My friend used this on his computer three times, but one time it didn't do it properly... eee.
Okay, I am downloading Ubuntu for Desktop now. I'll follow the webpage on what to do when I am done. But what do I do once I have it on a CD? Do I just turn my computer on and pop in the CD? I can't login into windows so do I do something in the bios or will it do it for me automatically?
You've got to have your CDROM on primary boot, and your HD on secondary.
Then it will just autostart it.
Yep, like ESX said, set CDROM to first boot device, then whatever you want second (probably hard drive). Then, GRUB will load and you want to choose "Start or Install Ubuntu". Then, the loader will appear, you will be taken to the desktop with Gnome (window manager) and on the desktop will be an icon called "Install Ubuntu" or something to that effect. Start it up, follow the on-screen instructions, and choose the partition(s) you want to install on. Let it install, and you have a working dual-boot system. Just don't install over your NTFS partition, or you won't have Windows anymore.
Also, if you try out some of the software before you install, don't be worried if it is really slow. It's running all of it off of the CD, so it's going to be slow.
lol
I was just about to say that it was REALLY slow. Especially on this old hunk of junk.
What kind of vid games can you play using this? For example...
WoW?
WarRock?
AAO?
Oblivion?
Those are pretty much the only games I play. Are any of them compatible?
Also, can you use MSN Messenger on Ubuntu?
-SnowFire
Games: This will help you out.
MSN: Yes, Gaim (which comes default) has AOL, MSN, Yahoo, Google, ICQ, and a bunch of other messenger programs all bundled in one package. You just select the provider (AIM, MSN, etc.), type your username and password, and you're all set.
Or you can use Wine to run Windows' games and programs, just check this website: http://www.winehq.com/
Also, with your first question (Linux being free) is both a yes and no. Some distros are free (Ubuntu, Gentoo, Mandriva Free, openSUSE, Fedora, PHLAK and the list goes on...) but some aren't.
About Wine. It works with lots of games, but some don't work. I know it works with Steam, and I think WoW, but other than that I haven't checked it much. I finally got it running and then my computer died, so I didn't bother reading about it more. I don't use Ubuntu much for gaming since I have Windows on the same machine, and I think to have WoW or Steam running on both Windows and Ubuntu, you need to install on both, meaning double the space is being used, so I just stick with Windows for gaming. But if you really want to game in Ubuntu, also check out Cedega. It's like Wine but you pay for it and it has a wider range of supported games.
Banana boat do dooo do do do
Now that that's out of the way. Have you tried restarting after you've installed lolz. Dumb question but sometimes it works for me.
Yeah, I had to restart. lol ><
I have an .iso and this thread pretty much awnsers my question perfectly. The only problem is, I don't understand a lick of what they are talking about. Can anyone help me?
http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic483.html
mount: special device /dev/hdc does not exist
Thats what it says when I try mounting my .iso.
-SnowFire
Umm...not really. What are you trying to do? Burn an ISO through linux? That's what the guys there are talking about-BASH is a shell in Linux, where a shell is (in layman's terms) the command prompt.
If you're burning under Windows, open the ISO with something like ISO-Buster and then copy from the ISO to a new folder. Then copy the contents of the folder to a disk. The best way to do this is with some proper ISO burning software to burn straight to a disk.
An ISO is basically a large single file that contains the entire binary data stream from a CD. It doesn't have logical files in it, unless you use something like ISO buster to 'translate' the data into files.
Kind of like a Zip file.
-Dave
Try this to burn an .iso file to a cd/dvd;
http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm
oh I know about mounting images and all that good stuff. But only on windows, I tested it out first on my brothers windows computer and it worked perfectly. But then I tried to mount it on linux, which has a built in mounting tool, it gave me that error message. I searched it and came up with that link, which explained how to correct the error. My problem is, I don't understand how to use linux. Everything they said was like when I got my first computer. :drooling out of stupidity:
So Bash is like command prompt? How do I get/access Bash? Is that what I need to do to do what they are talking about?
-SnowFire
Yes. Everything they talk about is entered into the Linux equivalent of the Command Prompt in windows. (Linux pros, I'm aware that sentence is wrong on so many levels, forgive me.)
You should have an option in your main menu, and some versions, you can open a 'command line emulator' at the bottom of your Windows X system, if you are in fact running that GUI.
Anything else and i can't really help you i'm afraid. You need to command prompt to use linux, so get comfortable with it.
-Dave
So I am using Konsole. Thats about as far as I got. lol I don't know what the heck I am doing. When I try to mount the image off of the CD it comes up with...
mount: special device /dev/hdc does not exist
...So what do I do to make it work? I think that link says how to fix it, but I don't understand what I am supposed to do to do that.
-SnowFire
You might need to be ROOT user to mount a disk. I don't think you do, but that's possible.
If you're using the Konsole then i think you're probably using the BASH shell; the only distro i know about that doesn't use BASH is Scientific Linux, which in some distros seems to have CSHELL instead.
Stick with BASH.
Anyway, with your problem...you need to create a folder under /dev/hdc.
Something important to remember in linux is that / in a directory is equivalent to C:/ in windows. So Although you're on the desktop in Windows, you're running it from C:/Settings/My docs/Desktop or whatever. In Linux, this directory is propbably /users/Snowfire. It's not like saying 'open users from current location, then Snowfire within it.' It's saying explicitly, C:/users/Snowfire. Although in Linux drives are inherintly abstract and don't quit work in the same manner.
Another important one is ~. This refers to your 'My Documents' in linux.
Your home directory is therefore ~/.
So to change directory to ROOT:
And to change to your home:Code:cd /
Working through these ideas will help you see what's going on. Also, try usingCode:cd ~/
to see more information about your files, including read and write permissions and hidden files.Code:ls -al
-Dave
Okay, lets just take this step by step. lol
How do I do that? /dev/hdc doesn't exist?Quote:
Anyway, with your problem...you need to create a folder under /dev/hdc.
-SnowFire
Also, how do I become the root user??
-SnowFire
Nevermind that last one. I figured out the login as root.
So what now?
-SnowFire
You want to use the command:Code:mkdir /dev/hdc
Okay, so this is what I am doing. I type in this...
sudo mkdir /media/iso
sudo modprobe loop
sudo mount file.iso /media/iso/ -t iso9660 -o loop
But then I get this...
file.iso: No such file or directory
lol why am I having so much trouble with this?
-SnowFire
It's just because you aren't used to Linux and the way it expects you use it yet.
This is your problem. This line must be executed either in the same directory that the file.iso is in, or it must be turned into the absolute path to that file. eg:Code:sudo mount file.iso /media/iso/ -t iso9660 -o loop
Hope that helps.Code:sudo mount ~/file.iso /media/iso/ -t iso9660 -o loop
-Dave
lol
It says the same thing. Does it help to tell you that the .iso is on a CD in my CD-Drive? Maybe it isn't checking my drive for the files location?
Also, where it says "file.iso" in "sudo mount ~/file.iso /media/iso/ -t iso9660 -o loop", Do I type in what the file I am trying to mount is called?
-SnowFire
Yes. And in order to access the stuff from a CD, you should be copying it to a location on your drive, such as ~/.
-Dave
How do I copy it to my drive? I can't even access it lol
Not 100% certain. I think you can probably do it through the X windows system. I've never accessed a drive through the command line, although i think the drive is listed under /dev/drivename or something similar.
-Dave
There should be an icon on your desktop, for accessing the cd drive.
Ok. First things first. "Sudo" is not absolute root. To become root completely, do either "su" or "sudo su". Then, your terminal will say "root@whatever :$". Not just "blah@whatever :$" or whatever it looks like (on Windows right now..).
Next. You want to type in the EXACT name of the file. Sometimes, when cd'ing to a directory, I have to do
and type the WHOLE path to the file, even if it's contained within 20 other folders.Code:$ cd /home/"username"/desktop/Blah/Blah
So, what you might want to try to do is...
Complete root-ness.Code:sudo su
This will open up a window with the contents of the device.Code:nautilus /media/(drive name)
Since you are "root", you should be able to copy the .iso to your desktop (or wherever) and it will be on your hard drive.
Edit: Also, I have no idea where your drive is located. It may be /dev or /media or some other name, I really don't know. Try opening your home directory and look to the left; its got a bunch of other places to access, and I think your CD drive might be one of them. If it is, then open it up, and copy the .iso to your desktop.
lol You know what, I'll just put it this way.
.iso bored of this ****.
This is more of a pain in my butt than what it is worth. But I do still have a question, on boot up, why can't I select my CD drive as priority boot?? It's not even listed in there anymore... ?
-SnowFire
Is the bios still pointing to the CD as the primary boot device?Quote:
Originally Posted by SnowFire
SnowFire, The issues you are having is why Linux has not really caught on like it should. Simple issues like this impede the progress of an otherwise good OS.
I know I am jumping in late on this, but I have never run KDE and wanted to look some **** up. I believe that in one of the menu panels (under system I think) there is a disk manager type of option. This should allow you to mount the CD and open it up lust like on windows. In fact it should automagically mount the cd when you load it in the drive. load the cd, and at a shell prompt type in "mount" without the quotes and see if you see it mounted. Let me know what you see and we can go from there.
So funny story...
I connected the Floppy Drive cable but I forgot to connect the CD-ROM Drive cable. ><
So I have it on priority boot now, but it won't boot the cd on priority. I am guessing it has something to do with the CD I am using. But when I go into the home folder, yeah, nothing. Oh wait, there is something, I have 2 floppy drives now. ...? lol what happened to the CD drive? It wasn't connected and it showed up, now its connected and it doesnt show up. Psh, no wonder you pay so much for windows. lol
-SnowFire
...What?Quote:
Originally Posted by SnowFire
It won't boot the cd on priority? What do you mean? After the POST screen, or what?
2 Floppy drives? I really have no idea why that would show up, but I know in Windows when I was trying to get a computer running, it showed my CD drive as a floppy drive. Then I just Uninstalled Windows cause it was gay and Ubuntu was free.
Pay so much for Windows? No, Microsoft just does that because they know, no matter what, people will use Windows. Nobody wants to take the time to learn anything new. Once you know Windows, it's harder to take the dive into the deep pool of Linux. But once you do, it's worth the extra time.
Actually I got it working yesterday, but I was too tired to post. But yeah, I don't even remember what the heck I did to get it to work. I think whispering that I was going to kill its family helped though... What? I'm not crazy! o.O
Thanks for the help guys! I most certainly would of been forever doomed without your guidance! ...and hey, I learned alot too! :D *cough* Stabs Ubuntu *cough*
-SnowFire
Well, since were speaking about Linux already, Im gonna ask a question:
How come I am unable to run ANY (Slax/gnoppix/ubuntu/kubuntu) live linux distro on my pc? When I boot from the CD, it just gets stuck at some point.
What point?
This could be graphics. If you have ATI graphics, they don't get on as well with Linux as Intel or NVidea would.
-Dave
Nope, not ATI, eVGA 7900GS.
When ubuntu loads, it gets stuck after some hell of a lot of some codes, which make no sense to me.
Unfortunately, you can also get banned from WoW for playing it on Linux. It's an issue with Warden, Blizzard's controversial anti botting software. Basically, Linux users may send a false positive to Blizz. And unfortunately, Blizz is pretty tough about giving you your account back after they ban you, though I have heard of a couple of people getting theirs back after being banned while running on Linux.