frustrated n00b dislikes libranet
 

Hello all
First let me say that i think libranet has some very nice functions. the ability to "try out" all the different desktop environments etc. really appeals to me. i also like the adminmenu and the ability to login as root when needed. -sigh- but it all seems for naught.
I recently decided to try libranet after reading a description proclaiming it to be the newb's last hope. I must say after attempting to install gentoo (for about 15hr.s) and still not getting it to boot, I wanted something quick and easy. Something with a gui install. So libranet seemed the obvious choice.
I bittorrented the disks (took forever) and excitedly awaited this 'simpler' install.
Everything went pretty well, but the installer would not recognize my (standard MS usb) mouse. So theres no mouse, i thought. "well you really don't NEED that to finish the install, right." I figured i could use this adminmenu i had heard so much about to set that up later. I was wrong.
It didn't recognize my vid card or sound card (ATI 9600 AIW, dynex 5.1 sc) but i really didn't expect it to.
However, the sound it did install didn't work, and again I could not figure out how to fix this. Especially w/o a mouse.
When it came time to config the eth0, though, it said that it detected the ethernet device (nvidia onboard), but not the module. Choosing the closest thing in the list and choosing dynamic IP prompted "No drivers are loaded for the ethernet device" or something like that, but no notions as to how.
So anyway, it booted fine and i opened a gnome session, but had no mouse, sound, or network.
So for me, it is an OS with little to no functionality and =complete waste of hdd space.
If anyone can help me resolve this, I would love to give it another try, but i guess the "newbies' last hope" has failed me.

*inquisitor06 grudgingly goes back to M$

hey welcome inquisito.. don't give up.

with more bells and whistles, comes a larger learning curve.

but it takes time..

you can either work through these glitches, or obviously try another distro.

but to be frank, (or bill, or george), any one distro will probably have at least *one* glitch.. because, well, there are sooo many different configurations outthere.

if you think you can either use the keyboard to manipulate what you have now with libra, or type commands in the terminal (that thing that looks like your classic dos window) then i'm sure you will have all your system working soon.

You could of course have tried to ask specific questions here, starting seperate threads for each specific problem, and you'd probably have gotten an answer. And Libranet is not the last hope of newbies, just browse the reviews section here on LQ or have a look on distrowatch.com
There are plenty more newbie friendly distros, but remember that every GNU/Linux is completely different from Microsoft Windows, so you will need to be prepared to put on your thinking cap, make a lot of mistakes, ask questions when necessary and learn. Good luck with it!

thanks all. I will keep trying. sorry if the post seemed a little rash, but i was seriously frustrated. I understand that nothing is without its problems. I also understand that nothing worth having is easy. I used to run redhat back in like 1998, and it took forever to set up. But it was worth the effort. I apologize for the above post and for not asking specific questions. Forums like these are what has made linux so appealing. I am happy to note that i am now running UBUNTU without a hitch. again, thx.
inquisitor06

qool :)

was it libranet 3.0 or 2.8.1?
Don't expect 2.8.1 to be that easy for a newbie, or work without problems on the newest hardware..

Unfortunately Libranet 3.0 is almost a year old now and based mainly on a pre-release of Sarge, so it may not work with new hardware. It was top notch when it came out, but changes in recent kernels, udev, and Gnome and KDE are not available in it, nor will they be without some tweeking on the users part.
Last year it was the bomb, now it is on life-support and fading.

I suppose I should change my distro in my profile here as I have not used Libranet for a few months now.

Completely dead, i should say -unfortunately.
Strange they don't just give it away now.

I don't need 3.0, have never tried it.
But 2.8.1 is the best OS I've had.
If you have some experience it is not a problem to combine/expand a minimal 2.8.1 with Sarge
-and then take it further if you want (I have some comments on this in the other recent thread).
2.8.1 + Sarge is perfect for my hardware and needs: you keep a Libranet feel and lightness to the system and get Debian updates.

Newcomers are better sticking with newer distros which have a much better ability to kick start the hardware.

Libarnet 2.8 has a 2.4.20 kernel!

The Knaotix I installed took 14 minutes (It timed itself!). It has 2.6.14 kernel.

The Sam 2006-1, based on Mandriva 2.6.12 kernel, fired up everything without any intervention, playing MP3 music and surfing the Internet immediately after installation.

My Debian Woody has 2.2.20 kernel and I had to fix the keyboard, mouse, fonts, video and the X window.

2.4.21, actually.
It's not for newbies, I certainly agree to that.
But I actually have a piece of hardware that refuses to work with the 2.6 kernel: a Pixelview TVcard made ca. 2002 (I tried everything).
So I went back to the Sarge 2.4.27 kernel which gives me all I need.

What is this SAM thing?
have you tried PCLinux OS, if so what did you think?

MEPIS is supposed to be a very good and newbie-friendly 100 % Debian compatible distro (comes as a live cd, installs to HD in 15 minutes).

The 100+ systems in my signature has all of them.

I am an odd ball in that I have to put Linux at the end of a 300Gb disk and in partition hda60, which is all within Linux declared limits. For this I like distro that does not afraid of high-number partitions and would not go to pieces when crossing the 137Gb barrier. In that sense I find European Mandriva and Suse pretty good at coping with my demand. PCLinuxOS is one of them (From USA but based on Mandrake) and it is good too. SAM is another one based on Mandriva.

Debian, Slackware, Red Hat families are lagging behind in this aspect. For example if you need them to mount a partition say at hdc40 they will respond back the partition does not exist. Some of them can be installed say agin at hdc40 but the boot loader goes to pieces. If I restore the boot loader inside the hdc40 root partition it will responds back "No Bios drive", even the whole Linux is inside it! They are perfectly harmless if I install them at the lower section of the hard disk.

How bizarre to have so many partitions. You must test everything!

Linux supports the 63 partitions every IDE disk entitled to make.