Linux

Ok. Thanks for the reassurance, Alan. I'll cook up a live CD tonight and give it a go.

:D
 
This is what it looks like, in fast forward. You might just have to also click on the network icon in the top right (it might look different from that one) to connect.
 
Mister Earl said:
With a live CD, could I use something like PlayOnLinux as well? How would I have to handle drivers, if I'm unable to connect to the 'net right away? I really don't mind just doing a straight install, given that I was planning on reloading windows anyway. (I have two external hard drives for data storage, and two internal solid-state drives for OS and programs).

#EDIT: Gotcha, Norseman. I was looking over Backtrack's page, and was considering it. But given my infamiliarity with Linux, I'd better try a watered down variant first.
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Yeah, I wasn't talking about Backtrack specifically. It's an option of course and I use it mainly for my professional life -- it's not a distro I run at home.

Try the Live CD of Ubuntu or Mint or Sabayon or any other that JREFfers suggest from personal knowledge.

Most distros handle drivers fairly well except for NVidia cards -- they still require a "binary blob" or proprietary drivers to run at full resolution, etc. That's why I like Mint Linux; it came basically out of the box ready to one-click install the NVidia drivers for my laptop and the wireless did need to be temporarily hooked up to the wired ethernet to work, but other than that, it was great out of the box. Had WINE already installed for example which is, I think, what PlayOnLinux is based on but I don't really remember offhand.
 
And I'm pretty sure that the proprietary driver that is tested by Canonical for my video card breaks my system because of my NVIDIA Optimus. Upon restarting, it doesn't get past the system checks.
 
The recent Linux distros I named all run NVidia cards with the free non-proprietary drivers, just not to the cards' full potential. So, yeah, that may be a deal breaker. You can, however, go to NVidia's site and search for Linux drivers for your card. NVidia makes those. The only reasons they aren't included in nearly all Linux distros is the philosophy of free and open-source software (at least my understanding of why).

Note I say "not included". They can be downloaded and installed just like any Windows driver you would install.

And I can't find the NVidia Optimus video card except for the GeForce GT 420M? Is that your card?

The Linux 32bit drivers for that card are here.
 
The Norseman said:
The recent Linux distros I named all run NVidia cards with the free non-proprietary drivers, just not to the cards' full potential. So, yeah, that may be a deal breaker. You can, however, go to NVidia's site and search for Linux drivers for your card. NVidia makes those. The only reasons they aren't included in nearly all Linux distros is the philosophy of free and open-source software (at least my understanding of why).

Note I say "not included". They can be downloaded and installed just like any Windows driver you would install.

And I can't find the NVidia Optimus video card except for the GeForce GT 420M? Is that your card?

The Linux 32bit drivers for that card are here.
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That is indeed my card, and I have a 64 bit processor. I installed the proprietary driver that Ubuntu suggested for it, which was tested by Canonical, and my computer wouldn't reboot properly afterwards. Twice (I tried to isolate what caused the problem so I tried it again after reinstalling). So that's three reinstallations from one problem!

Thank you for finding that driver. I hope that it's not the same driver so I'll look into that. Actually, I'll probably be reinstalling soon anyway since I hop between distros. I'm a nomad like that! So I'll try it out anyway.
 
Do not try playonlinux on a live cd. It may work, but would be utterly pointless. Reason is that the cd is essentially acting as your hard drive, a read only hard drive at that, so it is going to run at a considerable rate slower than a proper install, data will be in RAM.

I assume you will be wanting to try some 3d games, most live cds come with the open source video drivers, and so screen performance will not be as slick as the propriety drivers.

What I would recommend is Ubuntu installed via wubi, this allows you to install ubuntu as a program in Windows with no need to repartition:

http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/windows-installer

Again, their will be a slight hit as the Linux FS will be on a windows formatted HD, but nowhere near as bad as a cd. This is not virtualisation but chosen at boot time what OS to run. If you decide to go a proper install you can just uninstall it via the window control centre.

As for games, take a look at :

http://appdb.winehq.org/

For a list of how games are supported.

Personally, I dualboot, all my work and 'real' computing is done in Linux and games under WINE.

As for personal experience of WINE, I was did a masters the other year and a large part of the research was based on data gathered in the field fro placed instrumentation. The supplied software was windows based, but refused to install on XP. I tried on 4 different PCs. Eventually I put it on my Acer netbook, running Ubuntu and wine, worked flawlessly, allowing me to connect and fully use the instrumentation in the field.
 
Is it actually the nVidia or the nouveau one it's trying to install?

Older versions of the proprietary drivers can usually be found on the nVidia website; might need to do a bit of digging though.
 
Mister Earl said:
Gonna try installing it this weekend. What advice do you all have for someone putting linux on a machine for the first time? What traps should I be on the lookout for? Will I have trouble with drivers?
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I've started this process this week. I say 'process' because I've never had a Linux install go smoothly. This one was no different.

I'm installing Ubuntu 10.10 on a VIA Epia M10000 ITX motherboard (iirc, circa 2006) with 1GB RAM, 80GB+100GB HDs, on-board graphics (CLE266) and wired internet access.

First problem: inserted Live CD and end up with blank screen. After searching various forums it appears this is caused by the kernel doing video mode switching rather than the GUI so that the splash screen can look nice (good engineering decision). The fix is to hit any key when the keyboard + man icon appear at the bottom of the screen and edit the command line by getting rid of "quiet splash" and replace it with "nomodeset" (obviously, duh!)

Second problem: Live CD boots and presents a prompt for username and password. WTF!? More searching on the net reveals "ubuntu" for the username and hit enter for password are the required magic words.

Third problem/issue: Started install of Ubuntu 10.10 to hard disk from GUI. All appears to be going well (and my hopes are high that this isn't going to be a crap and flaky as every other Linux release) until towards the end of installing packages downloaded from the net it reports something is broken and the installation will not be able to complete. Sure enough the install terminates and the system restarts (after corrupting the screen and hanging until I hit enter).

System boots to desktop and appears to work okay, though I haven't really pushed it yet. Quickly (it was late) tried playing a DVD which didn't work (frame rate ridiculously slow), despite the system apparently having installed the openchrome drivers for the on-board graphics (which has MPEG2 hardware acceleration) given that it used a non-VESA standard resolution of 1360x768. On shutting down, system corrupts screen and hangs. No doubt more fiddling, downloading and text-editing will be required to get all this to work.

Mister Earl said:
Let's say I go with ubuntu, cook up a live CD, and let it rip. Would I begin at a command prompt, or a GUI?
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Alan said:
You will see a graphical user interface.
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If you're very lucky. Be prepared to faff around for several days and then give up and re-install windows when you feel you've wasted enough of your life typing in commands and running scripts that don't work.;)

It really shouldn't be necessary to do any of the above when installing version 10 of an operating system that claims to be easy to install and use.
 
For whatever reason, my DVD drive isn't reading correctly and won't burn anything, so a live CD is out. So I downloaded the image, and installed a dual-boot. I have space enough. So I reboot, choose Ubuntu... and after a command-line batch of commands scrolls past, I get a black screen. That's it.

#EDIT: Pretty sure I used wubi.
 
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I remember it did have NVIDIA in its name but I don't know a lot about drivers or video cards.

I searched online and I heard that Optimus causes problems and they aren't supporting linux.
 
Tried a USB. For whatever reason, my system refuses to boot from one. I even tried disconnecting my hub and using that port directly on the laptop. No dice.

I rebooted after my last post and tried again. I saw hitting ESC opened an options menu; I tried the safe mode with simple graphics or whatever. Same result: Black screen.
 
Do you press F12 or something to select the boot method?

EDIT: When you see the very first screen upon turning it on.
 
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To clarify: I installed dual boot Ubuntu. The latest version. When I tell windows to restart, I am given the option to select ubuntu. When I do so, and do not hit ESC to choose a different ubuntu boot method, I get a permanent black screen. If I do hit ESC and choose the safe mode for graphics, I also get a permanent black screen.

I've also used the F12 method to try to get it to boot from a USB drive, BIOS as well. No luck there. Though I might try again and put USB above hard disk and try it that way.

#Edit: I'll do that right now
 
You installed ubuntu wubi then. As I said before, that is installed under windows. I have never installed like that. The only machine I have vaguely like that is at university and then I run Ubuntu as a VM on virtualbox.

I would ask someone to burn the iso for you.
 
Back now. Even putting USB before all, it refuses to boot from the USB drive. I tried a complete power down, then boot into Ubuntu. Got the command line spam again, then again the black screen where nothing happens.

Thanks, Captain Snort, but that won't work either. For whatever reason, my laptop's drive isn't working like it should. It appears to be unable to read whatever I put into the drive. It's got one of those slot-drives without a tray.

Safe to say at this point that I'm completely out of ideas.
 
Mister Earl said:
Tried a USB. For whatever reason, my system refuses to boot from one. I even tried disconnecting my hub and using that port directly on the laptop. No dice.

I rebooted after my last post and tried again. I saw hitting ESC opened an options menu; I tried the safe mode with simple graphics or whatever. Same result: Black screen.
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Try removing "quiet splash" and replacing with "nomodeset"
 
When you get the black screen, press Ctrl + Alt + f2, or f3, etc.

Does this give you a login prompt?

If so, login in, and type

startx

It should throw some errors up noted (EE)

I am suspecting the BIOS of your laptop to be honest. Had the same with this one, but I updated the BIOS and it works perfect.
 
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