Help with installing Linux

unwashed potato! · 5 May 2006 at 10:29

i have 2 quesions regarding Linux.

first being that i am trying to install linux on my old old pc but i am having no luck. I burnt this file, ubuntu-5.10-install-i386, onto a CD and then inserted that into my old PC like told to by someone here but nothing happened. I tried to explore the CD in hope of finding some autostart thing but i couldnt so now i am stuck. anyone know what i am to do?

Second is that is it possible to have My Media centre PC that has the internet plugged into it, connected with the Linux PC so that i can have internet on both? they are right next to each other if that helps

unwashed potato! · 5 May 2006 at 11:25

DJ Binks said:
have you been in the bios of the old PC to set it to "Boot From CD"?

thanks for the reply, will give that a go now

unwashed potato! · 5 May 2006 at 13:07

ok i managed to install Linux, problem now is that it is stuck on some black screen i think asking me for something.

It asks for ubuntu login which i do, then it says how ubuntu comes with no warranty, to the extent permitted by applicable law.

then says adam@Ubuntu:~$

This is where i get stuck as i have no clue what i am to do. i have clicked enter and nothing, anyone know what to do?

unwashed potato! · 5 May 2006 at 13:42

vonhelmet said:
Sounds like X hasn't started for some reason. That's odd.

Try hitting Ctrl-Alt-F7 and see what happens. If that does nothing, try typing startx and pressing enter at the command prompt.

yeah it says:

"the x server is now disabled. Resart GDM when it is configured correctly."

How i sort that out?

also after hitting crt alt f7 i now no longer have any control of my keyboard :S ow do i get it back?

unwashed potato! · 5 May 2006 at 13:56

nope no options of more details, i did before but they were nonsense to me so i just firgured if id click ok, it would be ok.

i think im usuing something called hercules3d prophet 32mb or something like that. i have the old place to plug the monitor into, would that help? i believe the old place is some MB graphic thingy maybe if thats possible.

how do i get the use of my keyboard back? it has completed gone

unwashed potato! · 5 May 2006 at 14:14

vonhelmet said:
It might help to see some of the nonsense, though I doubt you fancy typing it all out!

How do i find that nonsense again? i have no problem in typing it out, just dont know how to find it.

Is the hercules a geforce? That should be well supported. You can try the motherboard one instead and see if you have better luck.

i havent got a clue on what type it is, probably geforce but no clue. So to change the monitor should i turn off the pc and restart it once it is in place?

im off now so wont relpy till later

unwashed potato! · 5 May 2006 at 20:53

leezer3 said:
Sounds to me like Ubuntu has decided to use the NV driver, but the card is too old to be supported. From the command line run:

Folllow the dialog boxes, and for the video driver select vesa- This is the absolute standard video driver which should drive anything that outputs to a monitor.
Reboot and hopefully you should be running (Albeit with no 3d acceleration)

-Leezer-

ok? ill give that a go once it finally starts up, taking a very long time

So could you type out exactly what i need to type in, put each time i hit enter on a new line, if possible as i didnt really understand what parts i have to put in. thanks again for all the help recieved

[EDIT]
ok i have typed in sudo passwd root, then hjit enter then it asks me for a password but i cannot type, anyone know why? if i hit enter then iget like 1 second to type something but it then says after not even a sec, sorry try again. what am i to do?

unwashed potato! · 5 May 2006 at 20:57

vonhelmet said:
Restart the PC and then hit Ctrl-Alt-F7 to get to the bit that tells you gdm couldn't start. It should give you the option of viewing the detailed error output. We'd need to see any lines that start with E or W, as I recall.

when i hit ctrl-alt-F7 i just get a black screen now, with only a lilttle line blinking as though i should tpye text howerver i doesnt allow text to be typed

no wonder windows is the most used

unwashed potato! · 5 May 2006 at 22:17

ok i think im getting somewhere, im stuck though where it is asking me what X.Org server modules that should be loaded by defult?

well icouldnt wait no longer so i went for GL something something, and now im click ok for some other things and i get stuck once again. Now i get this messege: xserver-xorg postinst warning: overwriting possibly-customised configuration file; backup in /etc/X11/xorg.conf .20060560015

and then i get back to the black screen and with adam@Ubuntu:~$ which i have no clue on what to do now. anyone? help asap as its getting alte and i dont want to have to turn off the PC but i will have to to sleep

unwashed potato! · 6 May 2006 at 22:28

enragedchip said:
Well to start x and gnome you can type at the prompt

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

this starts the gnome destop manager and lets you login to gnome.

You didn't need to type

sudo passwd root

Ubuntu doesn't use the root password, the root password by default is scrambled and anything the requires root access is done using the password you set during install and using the sudo command.

i typed in what you said, it then asked for a password so i typed in my password, it then said: " * Starting GNOME Display Manager..... [fail] "

Any clue on what to do?

Also after typing startx i get loads of things pop up and then it says somehwere that there is a fatal server error and that no screens found. Please consult the x.org foundation support at http://wiki.X.Org for help

please also check log file at /var/log/Xorg.0.log for additional information on XIO

Gosh i already am not liking Linux

unwashed potato! · 6 May 2006 at 23:06

Back to the problem at hand, no screens found means that the setings for the screen you set in the reconfiguration of the X-Server were not right for your screen- What you need to do is to find the specifications for your screen, and use the advanced configuration to set the refresh rates and available resolutions manually.
Hopefully this will help

-Leezer-

ok so how do i find out the information about my screen? All i know is that my screen is very very very old, and has a IBM sign on the front.

im trying to reconfiugre again and am again stuck at the point where i have to select the X.Org server modules that should be loaded as default. what do i pick? last time i picked GLcore

[EDIT]

ok not sure if i jhave but mihgt have narrowd it down on to what is set wrongly. It says in the log file this:

(ww) TRIDENT: no matching device section for instance (BusID PCI:1:0:0) found
(ee) No devices detected.

Does this mean the PCI thing is set wrnolgy. when configuring it is automatically as 1:0:0 so i leave it, how could i find out what it is?

unwashed potato! · 8 May 2006 at 21:09

sorry for bumping this but i am realy in need of dia help, my soon to be linux computer is just sitting there begging to be set up and used!!!!

please help

unwashed potato! · 8 May 2006 at 21:49

enragedchip said:
you could try manually editing you xorg.conf file with

sudo nano /etc/xorg.conf

this assumes you have nano installed. Find the section related to the graphics card and change the driver to vesa.

ok ill try that now and report back, whats a nano btw?

my god i am looking at it and dont know waht the heck to do

unwashed potato! · 8 May 2006 at 21:54

ok so how do i use it? what do i type in etc, like the steps of what ui need to do>?

unwashed potato! · 8 May 2006 at 22:14

ok this makes no sense, i type in that "sudo nano /etc/xorg.conf" and i get a blank black screen and at the bottom is some writting saying things like "^G get help", "^O Writeout" etc. What do i do from here?

unwashed potato! · 8 May 2006 at 22:34

leezer3 said:
Hope this helps.

Edit: Crikey, spent nearly 30 mins writing this post lol.

-Leezer-

That really is helping me, i really am appreciating everyones hard work, especially when its 30mins of there time.

Ok i did the lspci thing and there was ones that had the name trident in it, it says

0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Trident Microsystems CyberBlade/i7 (rev 5d)

unwashed potato! · 8 May 2006 at 22:43

i have typed in that X11/conf thing and got a lot of info, what parts should i type out?

says my busID is PCI:0:9:0

dis is all d info about my screen n etc:

section "Device"
identifier "trident microsystems cyberblade/i7"
driver "trident"
busID "PCI:0:9:0
end section

section "monitor"
identifier "generic Monitor"
option "DPMS"
horizsync 28-51
vertrefresh 43-60

section "screen"
identifier "defualt screen"
device "trident mircosystems cyberblade/i7"
defualt depth 24

does this help?

unwashed potato! · 8 May 2006 at 22:53

lol how do i get out of the screen im now in after typing in that X11/conf thing? lol

unwashed potato! · 8 May 2006 at 23:35

Dunky said:
I'm guessing you could do as leezer says and do a sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg and select vga or vesa just to get you to a desktop.

Actually just had a thought, is it a PCI, ISA or Onboard gfx? If it's ISA then that could be the problem :/

1. i tried typing in that reconfigure xserver-org again and now it doesnt work, all i get is something saying 'server-xorg' is not installing and n
o info is available. use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files

how would i find out if its PCI or ISA, its defiently not onboard as i did have onboard but bought a new one ages ago as it wasnt good enough for games.

unwashed potato! · 8 May 2006 at 23:51

Dunky said:
Should work :/ I'm pretty sure that is the command but can't check atm, I'll let someone else double check it. Double check the command you're typing in. I'm pretty sure it's:

When you opened up /etc/X11/xorg.conf, did it display a blank file or did it already have a stuff in it?

ISA graphics cards are very old and are few and far between but if it was ISA then it would probably need to be configured manually before using it with xorg. The easiest way is to open the case and see what type of slot the card is in. Long (and black usually) means ISA, PCI slots are white (usually) and AGP is brown usually.

yeah the server-xorg is exactly what i type in and it no longer works, maybe a reboot will fix it.

When i tpy the /etc/X11/xorg.conf i now get a screen with loads of info, check a few of my posts back and i wrote out some of it about my screen and things relaated to it.

Ok its late now so im going to check the type of card tomorrow morning. thanks for the help chappys