complete linux novice

Alex_L

Alex_L

Alex_L

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Joined
18 Oct 2002
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I've just bought a thinkpad laptop, and I've always fancied having a go at linux just for interests sake, and I hear thinkpads are well supported linux wise.

I was wondering if there are any good idiots guides to linux, and how to choose which flavour to install?


thanks for any advice
 
Second vote for Ubuntu, just put it on mine as a second boot option a few days ago. It automatically resizes your Windows partition to fit in

Good guides for setup are in PCW magazine this month and last month, plus the guys in this part of the forum are fantasically patient and helpful. Check out any of my threads in here as I'm just getting started myself.
 
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another vote for ubuntu, suse is also very good for the n00b but a lot of people on this forum use ubuntu so will probably be better suited to helping you.
 
thanks. Looks like i'll download ubuntu then and have a go with that. Whats the difference between the dvd and cd releases you can download? as the cd seems to be only 700megs, and the dvd 2.8gigs, yet i can't see more than one cd image to be downloaded
 
One of the aims of Ubuntu has always been to fit a fully working system onto a single CD, there is nothing else to download :D
With regards to a newbie friendly system, you might consider downloading either the DVD or the 3CD release of Mandriva- This has a lot more apps available by default and has well done GUIs for configuring most stuff.

Cheers

-Leezer-
 
I'm pretty sure the DVD has more packages by default, also the DVD acts as both a Live CD and Install CD so if you burn the DVD, then you should be able to try Ubuntu out before installing it to check for many major incompatibilities (if any). I'd recommend the DVD for this purpose alone.

Link for the DVD: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/breezy/release/ubuntu-5.10-dvd-i386.iso or the torrent: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/breezy/release/ubuntu-5.10-dvd-i386.iso.torrent . Even if you have a AMD64 processor, I'd hold of on the 64 bit version of Ubuntu for a bit and get some experience with Ubuntu i386 first. Certain things (Java and Flash come to mind) need a bit of setting up before they work on the AMD64 version of Ubuntu.

As said there's plenty of Ubuntu users here so any problems then don't hesitate to post :)
 
i've downloaded the live dvd version for i386. Do I simply restart with the DVD in the drive and it will give me the option to try the live version? Is the live version pretty safe, in that its not likely to leave me needing to restore the system to factory defaults.


If i decide to them install it, from what I understand linux uses a different file system, so i'll need to partition my hard drive for installing ubuntu. Can i do this when I boot from the DVD or do i need to do it in windows first of all? Is there a good guide to installing it so that it dual boots with windows?


thanks again for the help
 
BUSH said:
i've downloaded the live dvd version for i386. Do I simply restart with the DVD in the drive and it will give me the option to try the live version? Is the live version pretty safe, in that its not likely to leave me needing to restore the system to factory defaults.

If i decide to them install it, from what I understand linux uses a different file system, so i'll need to partition my hard drive for installing ubuntu. Can i do this when I boot from the DVD or do i need to do it in windows first of all? Is there a good guide to installing it so that it dual boots with windows?
Click to expand...

Yep just put it in and restart. When the DVD boots, you should type: Live and press enter and give it a few mins to load up. Live CD is very safe from the point of view that nothing is stored on your HD, just in RAM. This means any settings you change will be lost on restart. When you want to install Ubuntu, boot up off the DVD again and type: Install and then press Enter.

Ubuntu will need to create it's own partitions but it would be best (especially with NTFS partitions) to resize in Windows before installing Ubuntu. The Ubuntu partitioning software in the install is not the most user friendly interface and it is easy to wipe a whole drive accidentally. Just make sure you read all the instructions associated with partitioning before you actually make any changes (it will list all the changes it will make and ask you to confirm it).
 
Does Ubuntu natively support broadcom wireless chipsets yet?
Click to expand...

No distro does. Although some (like Mepis) pick them up, install ndiswrapper and a specific driver.

Apparently broadcom wont release their tech papers and hence no-one can really program a driver. I wouldnt hold your breath any time soon........
 
FirebarUK said:
No distro does. Although some (like Mepis) pick them up, install ndiswrapper and a specific driver.

Apparently broadcom wont release their tech papers and hence no-one can really program a driver. I wouldnt hold your breath any time soon........
Click to expand...

I'll give mepis a whirl, thanks.
 
Mepis is fantastic. You should try out Simply Mepis 3.4 RC 1 (RC 2 might be out now)
I currently run Mepis on a duel boot with windows and I would say that is much better made and user friendly compared to Ubuntu.
 
Yep, I've got it on my laptop atm. RC2. Its fantastic.

I think RC2 sorted out some of the bugs I was having in my control centre to do with networking.
 
I had a flick through the guide, although it's for 4.10, the screenies look very similar to 5.10 (the latest stable version) so there should be no problem.

I had a look at Mepis (well a review of it), I'll probably try it on my spare machine. However if I've read the review right, I don't like the whole bleeding edge packages. I prefer Ubuntu's 6 month release cycle, best of both (Between Debian stable and Mepis). But will try it sometime, does look promising.
 
I've been running Ubuntu on my laptop for a while, and find it ok, but dislike gnome and kde, so I resort to a server install, then apt-get x and fluxbox. Using the default (Gnome) will be good for a newb as it is easy to set up and has a gui for most things, but if you want to learn linux try and do things with the command line.
To partition the drive there is software on the boot cd, and iirc it asks whether you want to erase the disk or shrink a current partition to make room for ubuntu, leaving your box so it can be dual booted.

Col
 
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