I really want to get into Linux, but it's all so iffy, judging by the vast quantities of problems on these forums. Anyway, here goes: just d/l the i386.iso LiveCd (Mandriva). After trying all sorts of LiveCDs, this is the first one to successfully run from the CD on my Dell desktop 3Gb running XP Home. No probs so far.

Great, it'll boot into the old P2 350, the reason I wanted to try it in the first place. Wrong! It boots in, progress bar loads, then a beautiful blue screen with a penguin. Finish. Leave it for several minutes. Zilch. Reboot to get out of it. No key combination worked.

I did an on-line survey to find the best 'distro' for my circumstances (want new life into an old machine), and Mandriva was recommended.

What could have gone wrong? Please, no geek-speak. I know nothing about kernels, grubs, caterpillars, kicker/foot and other command line acronyms. I'm still new to it because for years Linux has only produced problems. I'm a sucker for punishment!

Hi welcome to LQ

Many people have no problem at all.
Or this is a learning curve thing.
Anyway have not used zinblows for 1.5 year now

PII is too hold to run live cd. Live cd not design for this.
Have you see a Zinblows live cd for your desktop, let alone a PII

Are you trying to install mandriva to this laptop?

Have mandy 2006 working fine on PII 300 MHz
What HD size have you got?
Do not run KDE or gnome on your laptop,
install icewm and other light weight window manager

Edit: give full spec + model, if you have a problem we will help.

>>i386.iso LiveCd
Where from, which one, so we are sure what you are talking about

I got the LiveCD from here, linked from Distrowatch:
wwwnew.mandriva.com/en/downloads/mirrors/mandrivaoneiso

which is the one CD ISO. As I say, no problem on the new Dell.

Can't remember who hosted the on-line survey, but plenty here MUST know (it was a link from THE Linux site). I specified an old machine needing new life. It's a P2 350 (AMD processor) with 256Mb RAM, 2 x HDD (master and slave) 1 x 6.8Gb and 1 x 3.3Gb; 2 x CD (master and slave [one a burner]). OS=WinME, usual peripherals. And it's a desktop as per my original post.

Somebody convince me that Linux is better than Windows (much as I hate Microsoft...)

Hi again,

You probably downloaded the beta version, unless you are a club member.
It may explain why you have a problem.
Saying that, it does not matter, you are trying IMHO to install the wrong thing.
Anyway live cd are not for old gear, even if you tried with
acpi=off as kernel boot parameter (at the very beginning)

Get mandriva 2005 or 2006 limited edition, this should work,
and you will have many more packages, including lightweight desktop
managers which are very important for your laptop.

Your HD is the right size for Mandriva.

Is any of your cd a dvd-rom by any chance?

What brand? exact model? If you look on linux-laptop.net
you will find some tips if the video card does not work or anything like that.

Why isn't LiveCD for old computers? What is there then for old kit?

And is geek-speak and I don't know what it means. Sorry. Never had ANY options on boot.

Have you got a link, please? And the CD is not a DVD-ROM.

Sorry, guys, but this continuously sums up Linux. Where is the simplicity?

>>Sorry, guys, but this continuously sums up Linux. Where is the simplicity
Did you remember ever installing Zindows, first time round?
You will find out installation is easy and guided step by step.

>>Why isn't LiveCD for old computers? What is there then for old kit?
The processor and the ram are far insuficient to run the operating system
*just* from the cd-rom.
You seem to have a problem with mandriva one on top,
so I am guiding you toward an alternative solution.

Normally I would not give you the link, because people are expected
to do some homework first, especially when it is one link away
from where they were. Nevertheless you said please, so here goes
http://wwwnew.mandriva.com/en/downloads/mirrors/2005iso
I know it is hard to do homework in a linux forest at the beginning

Some readings: Why linux is not windows
http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

Quick read of the starter guide of 10.1 (will do before the install)
http://wwwnew.mandriva.com/en/commun.../documentation

Reading about linux in general
search lq bookmark for rute, and for newbie admin guide

>>is geek-speak and I don't know what it means. Sorry. Never had ANY options on boot
I knew you were going to say that. Just testing the water, and also was
a way to check if you had any option at boot.
3 things here
1) I need to taylor what I say, and I know it.
2) You need to search for information as well and come back saying
"I do not understand this or that"
3) I am willing to help, *for free*, "indulge me". I am not being rude.
Sorry if you feel I am.

>>Never had ANY options
Good news, is that I hope you will with mandriva 2005 LE

It is a steep learning curve, I know.

I assume you know how to burn isos. Tell me if not

Many thanks, Emmmanuel. I'll check out those links. As you say, to someone just starting out it is a bit of a jungle.

PS - it's a LiveCD that I'm interested in initially so that I can test everything before trashing the old P2.

You are welcome
Just come back to the thread if you have any questions

Do not forget to install "other windows manager" (all of them)
when the option come during the installation,
namely it is icewm and windowmaker.

Kde and gnome are "too bloated" for your hardware
(they are window managers, i.e what does the tricks on the desktop,
icones, displays, menus for applications, and much more.

After installing, when the login manager appears, click on menu
to choose another manager than kde or gnome.

If you tell me the exact model, I could have a look at the video settings.

If you fancy googling yourself try
model name + linux + lspci (+ maybe install)

lspci is the keyword that will reduce the hits quite a lot.
lspci is the way to list in command line the hardware

BTW I didn't see mentioned that Mandriva One Live CD does not seem to give you an opportunity to choose the packages installed it just installs the lot and that takes 12.5 Gig. Doesn't seem like you have the room anyhow?

Someone correct me if I'm wrong. I couldnt get it onto 10 Gigs I tried.

My Dell 3000 has a 160Gb HDD; the old P2 350 has 2 x HDD with 10Gb between them and running Win ME.

Isn't 12.5 Gb a lot to squeeze out of a LiveCD? But then what do I know. I'm too new.

>>it just installs the lot and that takes 12.5 Gig
I have seen this in another thread, with typo being mentioned.
I have no experience with that, but that looks like a huge
compression ratio for 1 cd. Is it not 1.2g Gb?

Anyway, I am sure mandy 2005 (and 2006) dvd edition
will not take all the room on the PII and will be configurable in terms of package.

matelot, did you read enough to understand partitionning schemes with linux?
Do choose ext3 format, do make a separate partition for /home,
put the swap, twice the size of ram on a different HD (faster)
I recommand 5 Gb for where the OS is going (partition called / )
(I know just slash is strange, but short and nice)

If you read the mag "Linux Magazine" May 2006 it confirms 12.5 Gig and as I said I could not get it on !0 Gig

Yep, got all that, and I'll keep this for reference. Ta muchly. Initially it won't be an issue because I just want to run LiveCDs and get a feel for the different distros, particularly something I can later install on a P2 350 without anyone saying that it's too old!

Cheers.

thanks bobbelfield for the confirmation. That is useful.
12 Gb this is scarry...

matelot,
The livecd edition will indeed help you to have a feel for distro,
what they look like, etc (on your desktop)
IMHO if you have the PII hardware available, nothing beats a full install,
to really see what is like. Many people install two distros to see
which one they prefer. With the support for mandriva in F, I would not hesitate
much (biased advice)
What I see in full install is that you can test maintenance, how fast the laptop is, what package are there or not, break software things and learn as well...

By the way, if you really wanted to test a live distro on the PII,
damn small linux and puppy would be the one to try.

Also, when installing, toward the end, you can choose the bootloader,
prefer grub to lilo.

The P2 350 will run Slax, but not DSL. I was going to try Puppy, but I'm about to exceed my ADSL download limit for this month...