Installation problem - no clue what I am doing.
 

First of all, I would like to apologize for my post. I know that many of you seen this milion times and are likely to just skip over or post replay "read, read, read...".

Well, I did that. I am just getting more and more confused. I guess that you got to have atleast "some" expiriance with this OS in order to post "sane" question. Here is my problem.

As you can see, I have NO CLUE about linux. Was trying for past week to install ANY software (belive that you guys call that distribution) on my Dell Optiplex gx-150. First was Debian, it give me error with installation, unable to extract data from CD drive and from that moment on all went down the hill. Unable to do that, this etc...

Then I try with Gentoo. Started ok, I assumed that finished ok too expect that I just see vertical lines on the screeen. Well, so much for that...

Want to know if this model of computer is any good for linux? And, is there a distribution that will work fine with it? If I can not install OS on it, how I can start learning?

I am using this computer as a server/player for shoutcast so that friends and other ppl from my comunity can listen to our music from back home. Sistem was crashing a lot due to winxp that is istalled on it. No other problems, bandwith, memory, hardware are ok.

Friend told me about linux that is much better OS then any other available. Want to tru.

Please, do not get me wrong. I am not TOTAL dumba**. Know about the windows, networking, have 4 other computers in the house for my personal use...

It looks like that I just hit the brick wall head on with the linux.

Well, Gentoo probably isn't the distribution you want to start with. Debian should work if you burn the image to CD/DVD correctly. Remember, when you download and burn the Debian .iso, you're not burning music. You have to select CD or DVD image as the project type.

Also, did you check the MD5SUM after you downloaded the Debian .iso to make sure the download didn't get corrupted? If not, you should.

Other than that, doesn't say much. Maybe you could post more accurate error messages that would be useful.

Not familiar with the Optiplex but the Dell PE1850 I just loaded with Fedora Core 4 had an issue I've seen posted often. It booted from the CD but then said it couldn't find the CD media to from which to install. This was easily solved by typing "linux ide=nodma" at the "boot:" prompt.

It sounds a little like you're experiencing something similar. If so it's possible you need this flag as well given you're using a Dell.

Thank you for your fast replay. No, I did not check MD5SUM after downloading, did not know what is that for. Will do.

As far as burnig images goes, I do know about them. With any luck, I will try again tonight to install Debian and will write down what is happening.

Thank you again.

Thanks for the replay. CD media was found, on Debian install did check itself (something about checking the media and then said it is ok). Problem was that it stop install at one point, now i belive it was problem with my cd.

I have Fedora core 5, got it when I purchased magazine Linux something-something... It is dvd version, my box that i want to play with have only cd.

So long as you have a CD burner you can download pretty much any distro you want and create your own images. If you don't and there is a Linux User's Group (LUG) in your area you may be able to find someone willing to share.

Md5sum?
 

When I klik on the link of Debian 1 cd - from linuxiso.org I got buch of the numbers/caracters finishing with debian-31r2-i386-binary-1.iso. I shuld compare that with????

Sorry. I have found explanation using Google.

check out here:
http://www.linuxiso.org/viewdoc.php/verifyiso.html

If you are on Windows the second paragraph will tell you how to check md5sums.

Thank you. I have run program and it show me that both .iso images for Debian are corrupted. Downloading new. Thanks again. Hope that with new images will be able to start instalation.

If you're downloading via http or ftp, there is a high probability that the images will be corrupted during the process. If at all possible try downloading them via rsync (you'd probably need to install Cygwin to do this in Windows) or Bit Torrent. Both these methods check the file as they download, and re-download corrupted sections.

No worries,

If you have more problems downloading, try the Minimal install from Debian
http://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/.

This way you only need to download about 180MB and the rest is downloaded as you go.

Actually downloading jigdo-lite for your Windoze from the Debian site should help. I used that recently to download all 14 of the Debian Sarge distro CDs and it worked a charm.

I suppose it depends on the quality of your connection. I have never had a corruption problem.

I use gftp for my downloads but cannot remember what I used to download my 1st set of Linux CDs.

Well, all I can say is BIG THANK YOU. You guys help me a lot. Now I have 2 new images which are correct. I will download those "mini" versions as well and try tonight.

I am impressed with help you ppl did offer.

Thank you again.

Verify Media
 

Most Distros' install menu includes a "Verify Media" (or words to that effect) option. You should run this at least once to ensure your installation media will work before you get half way through an install.