I am and old (76) retired computer designer, hardwar not softer. To keep my braine working I have decided to check out Linux. I am tring to investigate many of th stuff. So far I have installed ten with very little problem, BUT \I have another sisteen that are semingly uninstallable. Kan I find out SONHOW whitch are =installable? I have tried to get help in installing with no help. Is installation that imposible? Dick

From what I have seen it really just depends on what level of skill you are willing to jump into. Some distros have a graphic interface that makes setup a breeze (point-click hit OK), and others have you do most (if not all) of the install manually. Linux is based on a kernel and anyone is free to build on it and create new systems that come with many different softwares,settings,configurations, etc. http://distrowatch.com/ offers a look at distros with comments,news on distros, reviews, and links to sites that may prove useful. http://linux.com has a list of distros under the "DISTRIBUTIONS" tab (But some of these are outdated).

Which are you trying to install that is giving you trouble?

Hope you have found this useful in someway, Good luck.

I think I am farley compitent. The problem seems to be that the instalatios just stop with absolutly no key as what to do next. The problem I have with some arthe statement that they need a boot, Where in blases to you find thatafter you just rebooted after the instruction to do so? Or another is it can/t install packages because of a corrupt package but leaves no way to fism just retry or reboot. Some seem to stop just for no reason and presing any key gets you nowhere. Dick

Ok, a few suggestions:
use a simple distribution with many users:
ubuntu or fedora are the 2 that come to mind: http://www.ubuntu.com/ or http://fedoraproject.org/

download an install ISO from one of those sites
you need to choose between many options,
I personally choose 32 bits, dvd, gnome, "install"
But another choice that they'll try to "force" on you is: 32 bits, cd, gnome, "live cd".
before burning an ISO to cd or dvd, you should verify the integrity of the ISO.
Also, during some installs, it offers you a chance to verify the integrity of the cd/dvd before doing the proper install.

a live CD means you boot from the cd instead of your hard drive, then from it you can find the menu to do the install.

that's just a few advice. Hope some of it helps. Have fun with Linux!!!

Do you know the hardware in the 16 machines that seem to be uninstallable?

All the installations were in the same machine. I have trayes that install to the one machine. So each installation comes from the same DVD device and through the same hardware.

Post some information on the hardware on the machine you are trying to install to.
What distributions do not work? At what point during the installation do they fail?

The machine is an Intel Motherboard with an Intel CPU. Amoung the OSes that I can place in the machinevis the trays are twelve Linux OSes that function just fine and Windows xp, cisa and 7. The machine is one I asembeled myself and it begane about five years ago but has severay updates, even as receinte as a new CD/DVD device a week agow. The sixteen that will not install have a wide variation that keeps them from compleeting. The problem "to me" is that they give no information as to what to do except start over which I have done many times. Dick

Sorry, but you keep your information so general that no one will be able to help you. An Intel processor from the five last years with a mainboard from the last five years, 12 unnamed distributions work, 16 unnamed do not work, and they fail at unnamed steps with unnamed errors. How do you think we can help with this information?

I loaded ClearOS. It loaded fine it seemed. It gooted, ask for password, instructed to do ALT F1. Feceved anouter request for password, installed and got the Message [root@system ~]# OK now what?

Start typing commands and work with the system

Not familiar with ClearOS but it being described as a 'network and gateway server' (see http://www.clearfoundation.com/Software/overview.html), I would not be surprised if the default is a text-only installation. In which case I would start reading stuff from clearfoundation documentation

Good luck

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Two years ago I had a monstor stroke. Mor than anything it damaged my brain. I am improving it seems to help to take a challange and this is a challange. I do apreciate the assistance I have received. Years ago, a long time, I wrote a lot of micro code and machine language code with some test programes so the enducation I am recieving is great. The biggest prob;em so far is the commmands. Whoever wrote that stuf is a saddist! Dick