Good Morning, All!

It's FRIDAY! Yea! LOL!

Lately, I've posted a LOT asking about just how to partition my 80 gig Maxtor hard drive to get Ubuntu 9.10 working on my old, iWILL computer.

Last night, I decided to just try and LOAD, the recent versions I had on the drive to see what would happen. Someone was kind enough to burn me some CD's and test them before sending them to me. I tried Slax 6.1.2, Xbuntu 9.10, Linux Mint XFCE, Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop (32 bit). I got the
splash screens and even a cursor on a black screen that just 'froze'. I even waited 30 minutes to see if any one of them would just
'take off' and run.

Either my Motherboard (i Will K-266 Plus) won't run the software, my peripherals won't run it, or I'm a bloomin' iD10T!

So, I've just decided to give the HELL up, save up and BUY me a laptop with Linux already installed on it.

I want to Thank each one of you for your help and suggestions. I really DO appreciate the help. Y' All are the BEST! I can only guess I'm too stupid to even have a computer.

GOD BLESS,
Warmest Regard,

"Buck"/KA5LQJ

From memory, that is quite old and back at that time there were various chipsets around that were not all that compatible with Linux (or, more generally, with working reliably). If you have a chipset by someone who has since dropped out of the chipset business (SiS, VIA and some others), there is a good chance that this is making your life harder.

It still may be possible, but it would likely need a bit of trial and error to see which distros happen to 'get lucky' with your chipset, and you may need to add a few words of command-line magic to get the booting process to work, but I completely understand if you feel that this is a bit too much.

Hi

Don't give up so easily. I think your hardware may be the problem here; so maybe get a slightly newer machine; and give it a shot again

We all have those days of frustration but don't give up and persevere

Hi,

I agree with 'salasi' here. You may need to use a older version of distributions. Or look into the logs of the ones you are trying at the boot time. Maybe a sense of what is needed can be found.

For something of this class of hardware I would pass at least 'noapic' & 'noapci' to the kernel at 'boot:' when possible.

Do some searches here on LQ as potential problems with your hardware. Look at 'HCL', google or whatever if you want to over come this challenge. It may be a great chance to have a good learning experience. Giving up is just the easy way out!


Just a few links that may be useful to you;

Linux Documentation Project
Rute Tutorial & Exposition
Linux Command Guide
Utimate Linux Newbie Guide
LinuxSelfHelp
Getting Started with Linux
Bash Reference Manual
Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide
Linux Home Networking
Virtualiation- Top 10


The above links and others can be found at 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!

I doubt that it's physically possible for an OS not to load just because the user who put in the CD is an "iD10T".

It's almost certainly a problem with your hardware.

Hi,

And this is helpful how?

We know it's a hardware issue but trying to resolve so the OP can experience GNU/Linux. Labeling helps no one.

Not for long anymore... Only three hours to go and my Friday over. Besides, my Friday is on the Saturday, so... it's in the eye of the beholder.

I tried to install Ubuntu (and Kubuntu and Xubuntu) on 10 different machines among which were top notch brands such as Compaq, HP and Dell. Wouldn't go. Friends told me how easy it should be. I failed. They also failed when I was looking...

So don't take it too hard. ?Ubuntu is a difficult Linux to start with. Better try Knoppix. It's candy Cane as well but it installs better and faster.
Give it one more try. Install Slackware 12.2 on it. Get it here: ftp://ftp.belnet.be/packages/slackwa...kware-12.2-iso

It's easy and straight forward to install. There's an online Slackbook. Lots of people who will help you with one CONCRETE example of Linux.

If you were plain old stupid, you would just be a happy user of The Other System. TOSsers are a different brand. You're one of us. You are a follower of the Penguin, like the lot of us.

Don't give up yet. You can see the finish line. ONE last try. If you succeed I will send you a nice gift.

I don't think it was an attempt at technical help. To me, it appears to be a vaguely witty bit of encouragement.

DSL will work.

Correct.

Give puppy linux a try; it is only about 150MB and very simple to test. I use it from a usb stick as a utility system and it has worked in every pc I have plugged it into.

Thanks, All for the encouragement,

The reason I'm wanting to use Ubuntu is that it contains certain packages that would allow me to hook my Icom 706 MkII-G ham radio transceiver (all mode-all band)[Yes, Morse code] to the computer and be able to use "fldigi' and the logging program to make digital radio contacts, using PSK-31, PSK-63, BPSK, Hellschriber, and RTTY. I haven't heard of another LINUX distro that has this package arraignment.

I do have a copy of Kubuntu 7.10, but I've been told it's too old to work with what is out now.

Being on medical disability, I don't get a lot of money per month and I can't go back to work with my medical conditions. My wife is handicapped as well and could not hold down a regular job, either. We do the best we can and aren't starving to death, but there isn't much money for luxuries. I have what I have and I'm happy.

I may never get the $300. for a linux laptop, but I certainly can dream.

GOD BLESS,
Warmest Regard,

Donald J. BuckSaunders
Amateur Radio - KA5LQJ

King Ace 5 Lucky Queens & Jacks, my name is Don, Double Or Nothing, it goes with the poker hand.

@ BuckNekkid

Have you tried FreeBSD 7.3 Legacy Branch, NetBSD or OpenBSD as these distros supports the i386 architecture.

There is a website I heard from a podcast called http://freelinuxbox.org/

These people put up there old computers they don't want. The computers are functional.

All you have to pay is the shipping.

This may not be of much additional help as you may know this already, but there is a useful-looking list of ham-related stuff here; in particular, there a couple of remastered versions of knoppix for ham radio applications. As knoppix tends to be particularly good with obscure hardware, when combined with the boot options mentioned by onebuck, i think they could be worth a try.

Changing a distro hardly ever solves a hardware problem, but there are exceptions.

Ubuntu is focused on running out-of-the-box on the newest hardware, especially laptops. This ia one of their marketing keys. It might be that in the course of achieving this goal, some minor errors were made regarding the support of older hardware on the way to get there.

In general, most distros run excellent on older hardware, and unlike with TOS (I like that acronym!) hardware support is hardly ever removed. The ilder the hardware, the more mature the software has become.

I had often experience with Ubuntu that it would show a black screen during booting or a splash screen and hang there, just like TOS.

I agree with the other colleagues here, try a distro different from Ubuntu. I heard DSL, Puppy which are generally good on less powerful systems, and also Knoppix which is Debian based. I could also recommend Debian Stable, but install first a bare command-line system with Debian, and later add a lightweight desktop.

jlinkels