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Old 02-18-2015, 05:57 PM   #1
brian_d_garcia
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Newbe needs help.


Hi I am taking a Linux class at my local community college, I have a laptop that I would like to use but don't want to delete the entire window OS. I have a usb harddrive that I can use at least 200GB off the hard drive. For class we are using "a practical guide to Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux,which gives you a copy of Fedora 19. I have tried to load the disk onto the usb hard drive I which is no problem until I reboot. I get a "can not find tocblock. database may be corrupt" then feodra loads with no problem. I can login but after logging in the GNOME welcome page shows up and after that the video screen goes haywire and you cant see anything. any thougts?
 
Old 02-18-2015, 06:18 PM   #2
grail
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To be honest I am not sure what the problem is, however, instead of installing you may wish to consider putting it onto a virtual machine with something like virtualbox.
The nice part about doing that is you still have access to your Windows machine if you need to and you can learn to use your newly minted Fedora install (or multiple other distros if you like)

You can of course store the virtual machine(s) on your external device

Last edited by grail; 02-18-2015 at 06:20 PM.
 
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Old 02-19-2015, 05:19 AM   #3
fatmac
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Sounds like the cd is bad/faulty, (TOC = Table Of Contents), therefore giving you a bad install, try another cd/disc.
 
Old 02-20-2015, 11:45 AM   #4
veerain
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The usb device physical connection may be loose?
 
Old 02-20-2015, 12:04 PM   #5
michaelk
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After a quick search I think there are two problems. The first could be cause by Fedora trying to access a windows dynamic disk (LDM) and can't. Since Fedora continues to boot I would ignore it.

The second could be due to a video configuration problem. Post the make / model or if you know the graphics adapter type. You should be able to get the type from windows.
 
Old 02-20-2015, 12:28 PM   #6
TB0ne
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Quote:
Originally Posted by brian_d_garcia View Post
Hi I am taking a Linux class at my local community college, I have a laptop that I would like to use but don't want to delete the entire window OS. I have a usb harddrive that I can use at least 200GB off the hard drive. For class we are using "a practical guide to Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux,which gives you a copy of Fedora 19. I have tried to load the disk onto the usb hard drive I which is no problem until I reboot. I get a "can not find tocblock. database may be corrupt" then feodra loads with no problem. I can login but after logging in the GNOME welcome page shows up and after that the video screen goes haywire and you cant see anything. any thougts?
I would go with grail's solution here....a virtual machine will be simpler. Virtualbox is a good choice, and is fairly simple to set up:
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

...and has Windows binaries, which you can load, and use the CD/DVD to build your machine. If you specify the 200GB of free space on the USB drive to build your VDI image on (you configure that path when you set up Virtualbox), you won't have space issues, and things like MBR and boot orders won't really enter into things. It'll look like any other machine.

---------- Post added 02-20-15 at 12:29 PM ----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by veerain View Post
The usb device physical connection may be loose?
VERY OBVIOUSLY NOT, since the machine boots and things function. If the connection was loose, the drive wouldn't work AT ALL, would it? And it wouldn't selectively pick that ONE SPOT to break each time on boot, but rather give different results each time.
 
Old 02-20-2015, 01:49 PM   #7
John VV
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Quote:
Linux,which gives you a copy of Fedora 19.
well you are going to have / face all kinds of royally hard problems

fedora 19 is PAST IT'S END OF LIFE
it is dead and unsupported
there is and NEVER!!!! will be any support for it
-- NEVER--
no bug fixes
no new software
no updates
and the software reops are being deleted
-- so NO software to install

now
you can hack the operating system
and use OLD unpatched software if you must - but NOT a good idea


the current is Fedora 21
but here is the kicker
fedora CHANGED SO MANY THINGS in 20 and 21
that that fedora 19 book is NOW mostly a bookend / doorstop
not many things are done the same way in 20 or 21

so

while you are learnning to do things the old and out of date way
you might want to book mark the END OF LIFE section of the Fedora forum

it is a section FOR people that MUST use unsupported software
--- the End Of Life section ---
http://www.forums.fedoraforum.org/forumdisplay.php?f=75

you will need it seeing as there is NO new software for fedora 19 and yum ( the package manager) will be almost 100% useless


PS.
well maybe NOT "dead"
but it would be a ZOMBIE a shuffling oosing decaying almost "not quite dead yet" zombieish thing that is more dead than not

Last edited by John VV; 02-20-2015 at 01:57 PM.
 
Old 02-20-2015, 07:27 PM   #8
Fred Caro
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So you have a copy of Fedora 19 (out of date) but there is a guide to Red Hat Enterprise also. Why did the community college choose that scenario?
Red Hat is commercial event meant for servers, Fedora their experimental arm given "free" to individuals.
If the hard drive is easily accessible then you could pull it out first to make sure whatever you install on your usb drive does not get mistakenly put on your hard drive on the laptop.

You might want to ask the collage if they are willing to use a different distro, after all there are many similarities and they should have the expertise.

Fred.

Last edited by Fred Caro; 02-20-2015 at 07:28 PM. Reason: typo
 
Old 03-05-2015, 01:50 AM   #9
brian_d_garcia
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Thank you for all the suggestions out there folks. I went with grails suggestion of virtualbox and I got it working. I understand that Fedora 19 is out of date but when the college directs which book your using I have no real say in that. I really dont like Sobell's book where it takes you from chapter to chapter and the lab manual doesn't match the book either. It's almost turning me off of Linux.
 
  


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