I'm not necessarily new but this seems like a place to post it tbh.

So i'm clearly doing something wrong and installing on a Laptop vs a Desktop is MUCH different and i'm downloading the wrong version of them or something.

I've used an old laptop for around 4 months now at school and have installed around 10 different versions of Linux on it (Mint, KUbuntu?, PlayLinux, etc) and most worked (except SteamOS because it's an old laptop).

I decided I wanted to install Linux on my 2nd harddrive on my Desktop. Installed SteamOS worked fine but was buggy so I attempted to install Linux Mint. Got to log in and it said logging in in 10 and just kept black screening and repeating. Tried PlayLinux worked fine but was much too buggy (I think it's a dead OS since not even Steam works) and then I tried to install Zorin. Only difference is they don't give you the auto log in thing nor the log in user and pass so I had to look it up and it just black screens and goes back for me to log in again when I try to log in.

The log in parts I am speaking of are BEFORE installing so there must be something i'm missing because I highly doubt they would ignore one of the most popular graphics cards from 2014.

Any ideas? Thinking of trying Ubuntu but Linux Mint and I think Zorin are both based off of it so... don't think it's worth trying.


Specs: A8-6500
8 GB RAM
EVGA GTX 750 Ti SC

Hi & Welcome to Linux Questions.

In order to recommend a good distribution for that old laptop you might want to post the specifications of that machine. Knowing what CPU and GPU is essential.

AFAIK Steam only works with Ubuntu. That may have changed but I haven't kept up on that.

There are a few lightweight distro's that you could try if you like.
Puppy Linux, Tiny Core and Damn Small Linux.

http://puppylinux.org/main/Download
http://tinycorelinux.net/downloads.html
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/download.html

You need to do a bit of configuring (well, a lot actually!) to get that graphics card working. Look here
http://linuxbeastmagazine.blogspot.c...-on-linux.html
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=172515

Thank you. I will try that within a few weeks and report how it works.