last hope

tizwaz · 09-03-2007, 01:18 PM

thanks, I feel better now

it should be finished installing soon so I will at last be able to try and learn linux, thanks to you

tizwaz · 09-03-2007, 01:27 PM

YES YES YES,,,, I have a debian linux system up and running, I really do appreciate all the help and time you have given me today stress junkie and I cannot thank you enough for everything,,, but I will be sure to keep you updated on my progress in learning linux

stress_junkie · 09-03-2007, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tizwaz

thanks, I feel better now

it should be finished installing soon so I will at last be able to try and learn linux, thanks to you

You have already started to learn Linux. This particular installation was a little bit trickier than most.

Remember that you will be learning the Debian version of Linux. Each distribution has its own quirks.

One thing that I would recommend doing soon is to install the Synaptic software package manager. It is easier than using the apt utilities.

Code:

sudo apt-get install synaptic

Synaptic may already be installed. You can find out by opening a terminal window and entering this command.

Code:

sudo synaptic

If it is already installed on your machine then you will see the Synaptic interface. You can use Synaptic to add or inventory or remove applications.

I'm just glad that we could find a floppy installer to do a network installation of a good distribution. I would have hated to be limited to using something like Puppy Linux or something like that. Those are not going to give you the real Linux experience because they are so focused on being very small.

tizwaz · 09-03-2007, 01:41 PM

right now I am just so happy about having a linux system to use and yes I will get the synaptic package too,

I do seem to have one little problem in that I cannot mount the drive which contains the XP but I guess that may be something with the way I messed up the install, ie swap file, when I click on the drive icon I get an error saying it cannot mount the drive,,,, but, I am still learning now at least..

stress_junkie · 09-03-2007, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tizwaz

right now I am just so happy about having a linux system to use and yes I will get the synaptic package too,

I do seem to have one little problem in that I cannot mount the drive which contains the XP but I guess that may be something with the way I messed up the install, ie swap file, when I click on the drive icon I get an error saying it cannot mount the drive,,,, but, I am still learning now at least..

You don't have permission to mount that partition. It's probably better to wait a few days before you do that. It's just a few steps but you've learned enough for one day. Time to relax and enjoy.

tizwaz · 09-03-2007, 01:49 PM

I agree,, I need the relax and enjoy time,,, I have been working on this problem for 4 days now, so I won't rush now I have it,,,
Thanks for everything and you relax too, you deserve it

I would buy you a beer or 10 if I could

Hooke · 09-03-2007, 04:27 PM

What's your motherboard make and model? Maybe you can update ("flash") your bios, either from windows or from a floppy. You could even do that with linux and freedos, without a boot floppy (I have), but this last thing is not useful in your case. If you have a jumper to reset your bios (right next to the clock battery) then I think it's safe to try to update it. In the worst case, you would have to reset it to factory defaults.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tizwaz

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the responses, ok here is my system spec.

Bios dated 2000
CPU 500mhz
RAM 512mb
Drives = 10 gig maxtor and 80 gig samsung
Cd writer
Floppy 1.44mb

It is running XP pro, how? easy it had millenium and I just put in XP cd and ran update from inside millenium

so far so good !

I have tried several ways to get the cd to boot :::

rawritewin but with sbm but it still does not see the cdrom in the boot device list.

Wubi as a direct installer from within windows, but it stops and says it cannot read from cd boot loader?? which is confusing as the ISO came from inside Wubi as a downloaded file ???

I also tried moving the cdrom to ide 1 as was suggested by someone but it still wont attempt to boot from it...

In the Bios all is ok, it shows all devices including the cdrom but does not give any options to change the boot device...

Now, Why am I using such a low spec box???? good question,,, well I am a linux newbie and I would really like to try linux as I am very very fuffed off with windows, this old system is a test bed system for me and yes I do have another system which will boot and run live distros but I do not want to install linux on there until I have some more knowledge about it..I value my data on the higher spec system...

All I want to do is install linux on the old box so I can learn more about and how to use linux...

IndyGunFreak · 09-03-2007, 06:18 PM

Personally, I think you made a mistake not setting a swap on a machine that old, but I guess we'll see how it goes. Your saving grace will be 512mb of Ram, which is high for a PC that old.

IGF

Junior Hacker · 09-03-2007, 08:58 PM

Glad to see you finally decided to follow the suggestion in post #4, something tells me it was not post #4 that convinced you to do so.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tizwaz

ok it is almost ready but I did skip the swap file, DUH I am guessing it is ok and that I can make a swapfile once I am in linux,,,, please tell me I can

You most certainly can, you don't need a separate partition. Instructions are at the top of this thread under the red colored Warning.

stress_junkie
Sudo is not setup by default in Debian, commands starting with sudo will cause these errors: bash: sudo: command not found

tizwaz · 09-04-2007, 01:23 AM

Thanks Junior Hacker

I now have debian up and running with a little problem which is accessing or mounting the other drives, damm, so close

I have 2 drives in my system first is fat 32 and contains XP os and the second is 80gig partitioned, 1st partition is ntfs and second is ext2 with debian linux and although I can mount the XP drive I cannot get to the ntfs partition on the second drive ?? it does mount (sometimes) but then it says I do not have permissions to view the files ??? damm here comes my headache again

I guess this is easily resolved but as a new linux user, I have no idea where to start....

chrism01 · 09-04-2007, 01:50 AM

Please show your /etc/fstab file contents, use the cmd:
cat /etc/fstab

tizwaz · 09-04-2007, 01:59 AM

How do I enter that cmd ? sorry to be so super dumb but I am a new guy and just got up and running

tizwaz · 09-04-2007, 02:06 AM

Is this what you mean???

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hdd2 / ext2 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hda /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
debian:/home/geoff#

Junior Hacker · 09-04-2007, 02:36 AM

What you need to do is install ntfs-3g which will give read/write access to an ntfs partition. This should also install fuse and fuselibs as dependencies, install via synaptic or with command as root:

Code:

apt-get install ntfs-3g

Then, from a terminal issue this command: fdisk -l
This should show all drives visible by the OS and all partitions within. You should be able to figure out which is the drive and ntfs partition you want to access. Let's say for example, it is /dev/hdb and the ntfs partition is /dev/hdb1. You'll need to edit the /etc/fstab file to make neccessary changes to mount this drive every time you boot in read/write for all users. To do so, if you installed a default Debian, you'll have a Gnome desktop environment, issue command as root in a terminal: gedit /etc/fstab to open the file in an editor. Then, if a line exists for that drive and partition already, it should also have a directory where it can be accessed in the file system, Debian once did this for me and called the mount point /windows, make changes so it looks like the line below, but make sure to use the proper /dev/xxx for the partition found when you ran the fdisk -l command. If there is no line for it and no mount point, you'll have to make a mount point with the command: mkdir /windows and add a line like the one below with proper /dev/xxxx. Use the 'Tab' key on the keyboard between items, some you may need to hit the tab key twice, not the space bar.

Code:

/dev/hdb1	    /windows	  ntfs-3g	defaults	0	0

Now after a re-boot, the ntfs partition should be mounted in read/write and you can access it via /windows.

To install ntfs-3g you need the proper repository configuration in /etc/apt/sources.list, I show my /etc/apt/sources.list below which has Canadian mirrors (yorku and iweb), you should replace the URL with the URL of a mirror close to you in yours. There is a list of all Debian mirrors in section 2.3 of the Apt How-to, just hit the link to a mirror you want to use, when the page is displayed in the browser, copy the URL in place of the mirror you have in yours which may be the main Debian servers. My sources.list is pretty basic, you can expand yours to include many more sources if you like. The lines with a hash (#) at the beginning are not read by the system, some of those lines are the commands to add the repository keys to the Debian keyring which will be needed to use the repository. Again, to edit the /etc/apt/sources.list, you can do so with gedit.

Code:

####################
##### From DVD #####
####################

deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux testing _Lenny_ - Official Snapshot i386 DVD Binary-1 20070423-09:22]/ lenny contrib main

###############################
##### From Debian Mirrors #####
###############################

deb http://debian.yorku.ca/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
deb-src http://debian.yorku.ca/debian/ testing main contrib non-free

#deb http://debian.yorku.ca/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://debian.yorku.ca/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free

##################################
##### Kernel Archive Builder #####
##################################
#gpg --keyserver hkp://wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net --recv-keys 29F335B3
#gpg --armor --export 29F335B3 | apt-key add -
#deb http://kernel-archive.buildserver.net/debian-kernel/ trunk main

####################
##### Security #####
####################
deb http://debian.mirror.iweb.ca/debian-security/ testing/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://debian.mirror.iweb.ca/debian-security/ testing/updates main contrib non-free

##################
##### Kernel #####
##################
deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
deb-src http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free

#deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free

######################
##### Multimedia #####
######################
#gpg --keyserver hkp://wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net --recv-keys 1F41B907
#gpg --armor --export 1F41B907 | apt-key add -
deb ftp://mirrors.powersource.cx/pub/debian-multimedia/ testing main
deb-src ftp://mirrors.powersource.cx/pub/debian-multimedia/ testing main

######################
##### Unofficial #####
######################
#gpg --keyserver subkeys.pgp.net --recv-keys 6823D007
#gpg --armor --export 6823D007 | apt-key add -
deb http://ftp.debian-unofficial.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free restricted
deb-src http://ftp.debian-unofficial.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free restricted

##### Kirya #####
#gpg --keyserver wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net --recv-keys FBABB737
#gpg --export -a FBABB737 | apt-key add -
#deb http://packages.kirya.net/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://packages.kirya.net/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free

#################
##### Beryl #####
#################
#wget http://debian.beryl-project.org/root@lupine.me.uk.gpg -O- | apt-key add -
deb http://debian.beryl-project.org/ etch main
deb-src http://debian.beryl-project.org/ etch main

Junior Hacker · 09-04-2007, 02:42 AM

You do not have an entry for the ntfs partition in /etc/fstab, you'll have to make a mount point as specified in my prior post and add a line for it in /etc/fstab. To issue commands as root, you need to switch user from user to root with command: su, then enter root password. A user prompt has a dollar sign ($), a root prompt has a hash (#).