I have a compaq presario v5120nr and I'm trying to install red hat 7.2 on it and after I make the partions it seems like it is going to start writing on the hard drive but it just stays there.
and when I first boot of the cd it says probing video and then it says it wasn't able to probe it, I'm reading this book for the linux+ certificaion and I just got to chapter 3 and I'm trying to install it but I don't know if I should just wait or if it can't write to the hard drive.
please help me!!!!!!!!

Any particular reason why you've gone for RedHat 7.2?

It's kind of old now, I would have thought RedHat 9 would be a better choice.

If it's a matter of getting hold of a copy let me know.

Even Redhat 9 is old and unsupported. There are plenty of newer distros to choose from e.g. Fedora Core.

I tried ubuntu but it just doesn't work, does all the linux operating systems have the same commands like this book is for training with red hat, can I use another version instead of red hat? because it's for the linux certification.

I tried ubuntu but it just doesn't work, does all the linux operating systems have the same commands like this book is for training with red hat, can I use another version instead of red hat? because it's for the linux certification.

If I remember correctly, If it is not able to probe your Video, you can skip and choose your Video Card, Monitor, and sync frequencies manually.

Later you can change it using "Xconfigurator" if you run into problems with the Desktop...

Good Luck

KC

Which Linux cert are you going for ?
As mentioned, you'd be better off with eg RedHat's Fedora Core 5 ( I think that's the latest), if you want an RH distro.

Do all Linux distro's contain the same commands?

Up to a point yes. The heart of the system is more or less the same across the board. There are minor differences between distros when it comes to system configuration, ie; on redhat you have the redhat-config-xxx command, where xxx is mouse or network etc, on Debian based systems you have the dpkg-reconfigure xxx-xxx command. The actual tool chain, vi, sed, awk, cut, grep, and so on are more or less identical in all distros.

If the screen is going black on you it's probably something to do with the chipset. This happened to me when I started with RH on a laptop. Try RH8 or 9 as the differences won't show up in differing commands, but in build versions and available software and later versions may well have drivers for that particular hardware config'. You could always contact the publisher of the book and ask if you'd be OK to use a later version of RH. I'm really not sure that Fedora Core 5 would compare too well to RH 7.2. (Then again, it's been a while since I used RH in any form).
Another alternative is to use alive cd. Boot the laptop and when it's up and running press Ctrl Alt Fx (where x is a number between 1 and 6) and see if you can get a login prompt. If you can, login as root and type lspci and post back here what chipset the graphics is using.

I suggest you to go for FC4, it is quite stable.
No matter what distribution it is, almost all the commands work in similar manner.
If you need for frequent experiment, you can install it in 'qemu' (like vmware).
http://qemu.org/

I'm going for the linux + certification but I think I'm going to go for net+ first because it'll be easier and faster now that I'm A+ certified.
where can I get red hat9 or the e.g. red hat fedora core 5?

The information below is for the laptop Dav3 is working with. Note that it is a 64 bit processor. I do not think Red Hat 7 supported 64 bit.

Anyway, as you do the install and ask questions, the information below will be very useful:



Product Name V5120NR
US Product Number ET826UA#ABA
Microprocessor 1.8 GHz AMD Turion™ 64 Mobile Processor ML-32 with PowerNow!™ Technology
Microprocessor Cache 512KB L2 Cache
Memory 512MB 333MHz DDR System Memory (2 Dimm)
Memory Max 2048mb
Video Graphics ATI RADEON® XPRESS 200M IGP
Video Memory 128MB DDR (shared)
Hard Drive 80GB (4200RPM) Hard Drive
Multimedia Drive DVD±R/RW and CD-RW Combo Drive with Double Layer Support
Display 15.4” WXGA High-Definition BrightView Widescreen (1280 x 800) Display
Fax/Modem High speed 56k modem
Network Card Integrated 10/100BASE-T Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector)
Wireless Connectivity 54g™ 802.11b/g WLAN with 125HSM / SpeedBooster support
Sound Altec Lansing
Keyboard 101-key compatible
Pointing Device Touch Pad with dedicated vertical and horizontal Scroll Up/Down pad
PC Card Slots

* 1 ExpressCard/54 Slot (also supports ExpressCard/34)

External Ports

* 2 Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0
* 1 headphone-out
* 1 microphone-in
* 1 VGA (15-pin)
* 1 TV-Out (S-video)
* 1 RJ-11 (modem)
* 1 RJ -45 (LAN)
* 1 notebook expansion port 2
* 1 Consumer IR


Software
Operating System:
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition+Service Pack 2
Microsoft® Windows® Vista Capable*



Hmmmm......"Capable" with an "*".

Better use Fedora Core 5. Go to www.distrowatch.org to download, or remember that linuxquestions.org has a download area. If all else fails google Fedora Core 5 download.

Good luck.

C

Good luck

thans for your help, I'll try that and why did you write "capable" with an "*"? what does the "*" means?
and is anyone christian here? 'cause someone wrote " Jesus loves you " up there, I play guitar in my church and Jesus does loves us.
later, GOD BLESS!!!

by the way, when you learn more about linux how do you change from newbie to member to senior member?

The status titles are based on post count only. You become a senior member when you have 1000 posts (or is it 1500? I can't remember). Can't remember how many you need before it changes to member, it might be 50 or so.

what's up
I tried fedora core 5 and it didn't work, I downloaded it and burned it to a dvd because it was three point something gigabytes and my pc doesn't boot from the dvd, I went to the pc's BIOS and change the boot sequence to the cd drive and it didn't work. any suggestions?
well I keep looking for it on other websites but if you can help me in any way I would appreciate it. my laptop is running a AMD turion64 and all the other details are listed up there, so if you know what would work best or where can I download a FC5 version that would work please let me know.
thanks.