I am just trying to install any linux on the computer. neither the stable install or the testing install worked.

I tried that too. The problem is that my cds always seem to be missing the base-config files. I have burned 4 now and they all stop installing at the same point.

"What kind of hardware are you installing on? In my limited experience, failed installs are usually a problem with hardware detection..."

I also agree with this. What kind of hardware do you have?


Also: during installation, you can(if not already too late) go to a console mode by pressing ctrl alt F1-F10 (or alt F1-F10) and you should see different logs. There is maybe some information from here.

I can't remember which key combination but there should be at least 2 pages. Try to stay on these before the lock appears and write down the messages.

I figured out the problem. The cd-rom drive's lazer got stuck and could not read the disk beyond a certain point. anyway I got ubuntu to install. My question is should I install debian instead of ubuntu? If so why is debian better.

Is anyone going to answer. Besides I would need help. I don't like running commands.

I guess I would say if you're new to linux, stick with Ubuntu for a while. There's a great site for help doing a lot of common things, and everything will be gui based while you learn your way around linux. But Ubuntu is based off of Debian, so things will be a lot alike. The real difference I noticed is in the initial setup you have to do a bit more tinkering with Debian. But once it's up and running, you don't have to touch a thing even when upgrading from one version to another.

Now, if you really want to "learn" linux, experts have recommended to me to install one of the big three: Slackware, Debian, or Gentoo. I believe these are the most basic linux distros and don't use quite as many graphical tools for configuration by default (although many are available if you take the time to install them).

Anyway, have fun with linux, and once you've tinkered around a bit, feel free to install more linux distros. You can multiboot with many distros all on the same machine, each will be subtly different in how they handle configuration stuff. Most just need around 5 GB of hard disk space... I have three installed now, Debian (my preferred distro), Ubuntu, and SuSe (trying to see what the hype was all about), plus an old win98 install and a win2k install...

I think I can only install 1 distro. I have 8.5 gb hard drive. not enough space for more than 1 distro. It is an old computer(1998). It has an itel celeron processsor and 128 mb worth of ram. How do you get a desktop enviroment in debian. I have no Idea. I haven't really tried linux before and I want to learn how. Could you help me?

Most newbie friendly desktops are going to be a bit bloated to run on your box. For example, Ubuntu typically uses Gnome. You'll just want to stick to a lightweight desktop. If you want to just try out a linux that will fit on your old machine and run pretty quick, try Damn Small Linux. Try downloading dsl-x.x.x.iso (the x's are numbers). If that doesn't work, use dsl-x.x.x-syslinux.iso (special version for old machines, some old bios won't support the initial kernel if it is bigger than a floppy drive). Here's the wiki with more info. DSL will initially boot as a live CD. To install it on the hard drive, there should be an option under something like "tools --> apps --> install to hard disk"

As for debian, if you want to install it, I would follow this guide (it's a bit dated, but should work with the current Sarge install). As long as you use a lightweight windowmanager (here they use window maker, but there's many more), you should be okay.

I would be using a netinstal. My question is after you get debian installed how do you get a desktop enviroment? I get a text login screen and I can log in. After that it wants commands. What do I do to get a desktop enviroment after this?

There's a quick way to find out if you got a desktop or not. Login as your user and then type startx. If you get a desktop, then it's installed. If not, follow the guide I posted above and it will tell you the exact commands to enter (off the top of my head it will be something like which would install X, fluxbox window manager and xdm (graphical login screen). You don't need a graphical login screen, but I like to have the machine boot to a graphical login.

I have a problem with your guide. I can't get synaptic to run. The window opens and them can't do anything with it. Whats wrong? PS I will just now be installing fluxbox and xdm.

Did you try?

[QUOTE=pljvaldez]
su
Enter password for root:
apt-get install x-window-system-core fluxbox xdm

I kept failing the stable install so I tryed the testing and it installed on the first try. What packages should I get? I want to try to program on this computer. Please before you answer look at my system specs to make sure it is compatible.

g site:linuxquestions.org debian +install +sticky
Running the search above will give you a lot of info.

Just go with Kanotix it will give you a working Debian Sid system. I have ran it on my desktop and even on my laptop for the last two years with few problems. The problems I did have were stupid Sid related problems. Sid isn't nearly as unstable as some people make it out to be.

The install is quite simple, even use a graphical installer .

My favorite desktop/window manager for a low memory system is IceWM using ROX-filier as the file manager and to manage my desktop (icons, wallpaper).