Messages

346

General Discussion / Re: Something is wrong..

« on: December 28, 2005, 09:24:34 am »

!

Oh well, it probably was my fault or something. Windows 2000 Pro is working perfectly.

  Maybe XP Pro kept on "locking up" because Microsoft realized it was pirated!

347

General Discussion / Re: Something is wrong..

« on: December 27, 2005, 01:11:34 pm »

Yeah, I'm going to install XP Home if it works, then I'll stick with that. But, if it keeps on constantly freezing, I'll switch back over to Windows 2000.

From my other posts....

When I upgrade from 2000 -> XP Home, will it let me do a clean installation? If not, when I upgrade, will it delete things that are already on the HDD? Like MS Office, Firefox, etc?

348

General Discussion / Re: Something is wrong..

« on: December 27, 2005, 10:59:37 am »

Hmm, yeah, I got an update from NVIDIA and the Windows 2000 display now takes up the entire screen (1500x1050).

I asked the previous owner of this laptop for his Windows XP Home upgrade CD. I should get that today, hopefully it doesn't crash every few seconds..

When I upgrade from 2000 -> XP Home, will it let me do a clean installation? If not, when I upgrade, will it delete things that are already on the HDD? Like MS Office, Firefox, etc?

349

General Discussion / Re: Something is wrong..

« on: December 26, 2005, 11:08:30 pm »

"Laptop problem" and "hardware problem" are synonomous.

Er, yeah, haha.

Well, the very first time I installed Slackware, it worked perfectly fine.

350

General Discussion / Something is wrong..

« on: December 26, 2005, 10:58:55 pm »

Well, from my other thread, I installed Slackware successfully, however, I scrapped it after a week or so.

First off, when I got this laptop from the previous owner, he never gave me Windows. He got Windows 2000 Professional but he got Windows XP Home upgrade CD from Microsoft.

So, after installing Slackware for a bit, I got XP Professional (pirated) with a way to fake the activation from my cousin. I installed XP Pro and it kept on freezing. Well, now that I think about it, it was mostly when I loaded msoobe.exe, which is the way to activate Windows with Microsoft. However, it crashed other times, too. I was never able to successfully fake the activation.

Then, I re-installed multiple times with no success.

Then, my cousin gave me his own copy of XP Professional, and I installed that. This time, I was able to successfully activate Windows, however, it still froze/crashed. It didn't crash as often, though. One of the times, XP Professional froze and when I was trying to boot it back up, something like hal.dll has corrupted or been deleted and Windows cannot boot up. I tried to repair the installation with the XP CD, but didn't work out.

Then I was just successfully installed Slackware. However, when I was restarting after installing Slackware, it said "Error Loading Operating System." And, well, now it's broken.

Then, after that, my cousin let me use his Windows 2000 Professional. And, it works perfectly fine. But, the display is limiting me to 800x600 and something is wrong with the color. I know its not the laptop, because a little sticker on the laptop says, "Designed for Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional and Windows ME."

So, what could be the problem? The laptop? Hardware problem? OS problem?

Thanks!

351

Unix / Linux Discussion / Re: Pre-install Linux Questions

« on: December 19, 2005, 09:37:41 pm »

Where do I go to do "adduser"?

But, I mean the black space is HUGE!

352

Unix / Linux Discussion / Re: Pre-install Linux Questions

« on: December 19, 2005, 09:23:24 pm »

Well, I finally got my HDD and now, I have installed Slackware, yay!

I'm on Slackware as I speak .

But, I got something messed up. The display doesn't take up the entire screen. There is a lot of extra black space, how do I make the display take up the entire screen?
EDIT: I tried the "Configure Desktop" thing, but the biggest display is 1024 x 768 and theres still a lot of black space. I remember from the installation there was bigger displays, I think.
Also, I'm currently logged in as root, how do I make a user?

And, thanks to everyone who helped me install Slackware .

353

Unix / Linux Discussion / Re: Pre-install Linux Questions

« on: December 17, 2005, 09:15:35 am »

Oh, oops, haha .

354

Unix / Linux Discussion / Re: Pre-install Linux Questions

« on: December 17, 2005, 08:49:52 am »

Well, my HD failed me. Oh well, it's an old laptop (Inspiron 8100), I'm suprised it didn't corrupt earlier. Anyways, I ordered a new HD from NewEgg. A 80 GB Western Digital for about $120. It should arrive, lastest, Wednesday.

I have a few questions about Slackware, though :
Which FS should I install?
What's "X"?
I don't quite undestand the configuring the network part of the installation.

After pressing enter, you are taken to a screen to configure your network. If you have DSL or Cable, you probably want to do this now. If you have dial up, you probably won't need this.

Select yes or no and press enter. If you selected yes to configure the net, you are taken to a screen for a host name. Unless you're installing this on a server or something where a lot of people will be accessing the machine, you can just make something up. If you are installing on a server, enter the hostname.

After entering a host name, press enter. After pressing enter, you enter the domain name. Again, you can pretty much make up whatever you want here. Unless of course you are installing on a server as said before.

If you are installing on a server, enter the required information, and press enter. After you press enter, you are taken to a screen where you can set up how you get an IP. Since I have a LAN, I select DHCP. After you make your selection, press enter.

After pressing enter, you come to another screen asking for networking information. You can just press enter here usually, unless your ISP needs more information. After pressing enter, you will be shown your networking information. If it looks good, press enter, if it doesn't, press the right arrow key to highlight "No", and press enter.

If you selected "No", you will be taken back through the networking set up. If you selected yes, you are taken to an area where you select what services to run. Unless people need to access your machine remotely, deselect SSHd at the very bottom. Sendmail is OK though. That way you can send mail from a command line.

After selecting what services to run, press enter. After pressing enter, you are asked if you would like to try custom screen fonts. "No" is already preselected, so press enter, unless you really want to try screen fonts out

After pressing enter, you are taken to another screen. Unless you are sure, press enter. "No" is already highlighted here, and is a safe option.

I can just put ANYTHING I want for the hostname and the domain name and what if I'm planning on using two ways to connect to the internet? At home, I use my DSL box and at places with free Wi-Fi, a NIC.

And, no, I haven't even tried to install Slackware my first time yet .

Thanks! .

355

Unix / Linux Discussion / Re: Pre-install Linux Questions

« on: December 14, 2005, 11:44:31 pm »

Well... it seems as though I can't get pass the first step! Burning the CDs, GJ me .

But anyways, I downloaded both Slackware CDs using bittorrent. In my download folder are two files, "slackware-10.2-install-d2.iso" & "slackware-10.2-install-d1.iso." The file has a .iso extention but has folder icon. However, inside the ISO folder is three files, "slackware-10.2-install-d1," which is a WinZip file, "slackware-10.2-install-d1.iso.asc," and "slackware-10.2-install-d1.iso.md5." Should I put the whole ISO folder onto the discs or put the the three files onto the discs without unzipping the WinZip file, or..?

BTW, inside the WinZip file are two folders, "linux-2.6.13," and "slackware." Inside each of those folders are more WinZip files.

356

Unix / Linux Discussion / Re: Pre-install Linux Questions

« on: December 13, 2005, 08:24:30 pm »

Alright, cool.

If I can't get it after about 10 tries, I'll either IM iago or you on my desktop computer and you give my step-by-step instructions while I install it on my laptop  .

No, I'm not SaNNy.

357

Unix / Linux Discussion / Re: Pre-install Linux Questions

« on: December 13, 2005, 06:18:21 pm »

Alright, I think I'm going to go with Slackware, but I'll just try all of them, KDE, WindowMaker, etc.
Yeah, I'll be running specs over that.

If I were to try to install Slackware than screw up and when I try to re-install, will it override the screwed up Slackware or do I have to manually delete it off my HD?

I hope trying to install Slackware, than screwing up, then trying again over and over won't corrupt my HD .

358

Unix / Linux Discussion / Re: Pre-install Linux Questions

« on: December 13, 2005, 05:46:34 pm »

Thanks a bunch everyone:).

Since it's my first time on Linux, I'm going for simplicity. I plan on installing Linux alone, no Windows.

So, if I were to install Slackware, and how would I get a fancy desktop? Plain? I think I'm going to go with KDE.

I think I'm going to have a lot of trouble with installing Slackware.. By looking at rabbit's link & iago's brief tutorial, it looks complicated.. Are all Linux Distributions like this?

Warning - while you were typing 3 new replies have been posted. You may wish to review your post.

Wow, I must type slow.

359

Unix / Linux Discussion / Pre-install Linux Questions

« on: December 13, 2005, 11:41:36 am »

Hello,

Recently, my Windows XP corrupted and I lost a bunch of important files. Now, I am thinking of installing Linux. I know that a lot of you here use Linux as your primary Operating System and was hoping you guys would answer a bunch of questions I have. If you are going to critical about my lack of knowledge of Linux, please don’t bother posting, thanks:). Everyone has to start somewhere, right?

1.   What’s an easy to use Linux distribution? I was thinking Slackware, since a lot of you like it.
2.   Will I be able to do the things I want? Including, Surfing the web, typing of reports, listen to music, etc? No, I will not be playing BW, I know BW is not compatible with Linux.
3.   Can someone give me a screenshot of Slackware, or if you think there’s a better distribution, that screenshot, please.
4.   How much space will the Linux Distribution take up?
5.   How does it boot up?
6.   I’ve been told that for you to use Linux, you need to always type in code to do stuff. For example, if I needed to execute my browser. I would have to type in code. Is that correct?
7.   And the most important question of all, how do I install it? I gave a decent idea of how to, but just incase, how?

I’m sure I can get these answers from Google, but I’d have to search all over for it.

Thanks in advance.