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OK, as pathetic as this sounds, I work
as a systems administrator. I know
windows like the back of my hand, but
I know absolutely NOTHING about Linux.
I downloaded the Ark Linux ISO and tried
installing it on 2 different machines. One
is a crappy old Gateway GP6-333c and the
other is a Compaq 1700T notebook.
Being so used to Windows, I'm confused by
this whole install procedure and haven't found
any kind of step-by-step instructions. My main
goal is just to get it running on one of the two
machines so I can become familiar with it.
One annoying thing is that you can't create a
linux partition and then install to it, you have
to install to unpartitioned free space.
On the Gateway, if I use the crappy integrated
graphics, all I get at startup is 4 blurry desktops.
I tried putting in an ATI Radeon vid card, and it's
so blurry I couldn't see anything. How do you
configure the video if you can't even get to the
desktop?
On the Compaq, it works fine, but the touchpad
doesn't work. It doesn't have a ps/2 or serial
port, would it recognize a USB mouse?
Is there a distribution that's better suited for
a moron like myself than Ark Linux?
I know these are some pretty lame questions,
but I'm sick of microsoft and if I could get one
system working, I'd learn it and quit using
windows (at least at home).
As for "is there a distro better suited for a beginner like myself?" probably. Beginner distros include Mandrake and Fedora (as well as many others, and of course this is a subjective question requiring a subjective answer ).
From there, things will probably make a bit more sense, rendering most of your questions no longer necessary to answer. However, for information, I'll take a stab at the mouse for ya:
Yeah, it's likely going to have a better time with the USB mouse than a touchpad, at least until things are a go, and then you can figure out how to get it working afterwards.
You could have a look on Mandrake. It has an easier installation procedure, and a lot of user-friendly configuration utilities. http://www.mandrakesoft.com
Distribution: Fedora Core 1 & WinXP Pro & Gentoo 1.4 & Arch Linux
Posts: 558
Rep:
Quote:
How do you
configure the video if you can't even get to the
desktop?
Now this is the good thing about Linux, you can configure the 'video' by editing the XF86Config(-4) file found in the /etc/X11/ directory. You can do this from a command line using a text editor of your choice (vi, nano, pico, emacs) and correct the settings to what works.
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