LivnLarge

hello all, I am a new Linux user. After two weeks of trying to install Mandriva 2006, I sadly gave up and switched to Ubuntu. I successfully installed it on one try and so far pleased with it except for the fact that everything is different and taking me a while to get used to since this is my first linux ever! So far I been to customization sites and got gDesklets which i then got all these cool icons, themes etc. but took me forever to learn how to do that! I was at this site where someone wrote everythign they did when they downloaded Ubuntu and how they customized it and he even mentioned how to install mozilla firefox but to have the updated version and some code to enter into the terminal to change the shortcut because i guess Gnome would still have the old shortcut there and not work for the newer one.. anyways that didnt work for me so im still using the origninal firefox. Anyways in his CRITICAL UPDATES section, he mentions how to edit i believe a source.list file to be exactly like his because of something to do with hoary being not good or somthing i have no idea. Also i tried the update and upgrade commands he mention and they worked but i also got errors when they ran. Hopefully someone can fill me in and help me out. Anyways i edit my file like he said to and whenever i open my synaptic package manager i get this: "W: Couldn't stat source package list cdrom://Ubuntu 4.10 _Warty Warthog_ - Preview i386 Binary-1 (20041020) unstable/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/Ubuntu%204.10%20%5fWarty%20Warthog%5f%20-%20Preview%20i386%20Binary-1%20(20041020)_dists_unstable_main_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory) W: Couldn't stat source package list cdrom://Ubuntu 4.10 _Warty Warthog_ - Preview i386 Binary-1 (20041020) unstable/restricted Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/Ubuntu%204.10%20%5fWarty%20Warthog%5f%20-%20Preview%20i386%20Binary-1%20(20041020)_dists_unstable_restricted_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory) W: Couldn't stat source package list http://ubuntu-bp.sourceforge.net warty-backports/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/ubuntu-bp.sourceforge.net_ubuntu_dists_warty-backports_main_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory) W: Couldn't stat source package list http://ubuntu-bp.sourceforge.net warty-backports/universe Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/ubuntu-bp.sourceforge.net_ubuntu_dists_warty-backports_universe_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory) W: Couldn't stat source package list ftp://ftp.nerim.net testing/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.nerim.net_debian-marillat_dists_testing_main_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)" Also how the heck do you say download partition magic and install it? Im having a hard time with executables in linux. I see tar mentioned everywhere. Im dieing to download my online [censored] games like WPT and start playing.. Its a pain in the 4$$ switching to windows just to use my DC++ p2p program just to download and i dont want to find myself needing windows.. whats the point of using linux when you still need windows? So im trying to never rely on windows again. Thanks oh and what are these splash screens?

umm yeah about that source file... history. Am i able to extract the original copy off the disk i burned the iso to? also, one very important question... These .tar and tar.gz files.. are they linux version of .zip? My problem is.. I dont know how to install them. I have to use the terminal and type tar and the file name right? I wish i could find step by step instructions for installing files on here. The ubuntu web site doesnt really go in much detail and dont in general tell you how to install. their web site is like... "the sky is blue because it just is" Also.. Nero wont work in linux correct? so alot of this old software i have laying around wont work for linux? --------------------------------------------------------- "Plane, you aint gettin me on no damn plane. I'll kill all you crackers in this van right now." B.A. Barrackus. aka Bad Attitude Barrackus

Originally posted by livnlarge: Quote: Originally posted by livnlarge: Quote: btw here are my partitions- why the different ones. well i had partition magic do an auto part. for linux os. and then that trouble with Mandriva I had. and i accidentally partitioned the wrong drive thinking it was other drive. but notice the file color on the Linux Ext2 partition showing it has files and the used space as well... what is there taking up that space. Would that be the another file system for linux already to go? hmm thats wierd. my partition pic didnt show up. I put the "" and it didnt work. and the other day on here i saw a guy who got his partition picture to show up.. hmmm well the url of my partitions pic is http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b197/livnlarge/mypartitions.jpg new link - http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b197/livnlarge/12a16baa.jpg

Originally posted by livnlarge: Quote: btw here are my partitions- why the different ones. well i had partition magic do an auto part. for linux os. and then that trouble with Mandriva I had. and i accidentally partitioned the wrong drive thinking it was other drive. but notice the file color on the Linux Ext2 partition showing it has files and the used space as well... what is there taking up that space. Would that be the another file system for linux already to go? hmm thats wierd. my partition pic didnt show up. I put the "" and it didnt work. and the other day on here i saw a guy who got his partition picture to show up.. hmmm well the url of my partitions pic is http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b197/livnlarge/mypartitions.jpg

btw here are my partitions- why the different ones. well i had partition magic do an auto part. for linux os. and then that trouble with Mandriva I had. and i accidentally partitioned the wrong drive thinking it was other drive. but notice the file color on the Linux Ext2 partition showing it has files and the used space as well... what is there taking up that space. Would that be the another file system for linux already to go?

Im using the latest version of Ubuntu 5.10 The link i just clicked and it worked so it was probably down when you were on. Try it again. So I take it, programs are called Packages on Linux. I just want to know so I can get used to the new lingo so I can better describe my situation in the forums. As for the emulation packages. I found out about wine. I went to Synaptics package manager and installed it but it doesnt show up on my menus. I then searched my system and found it in the usr/apps/ area but it was just one file i double clicked it and it did nothing. So right now that is slowing me down. Only reason I want wine is to try to run my StrongDC++ P2P program. I tried using aMule and DC++. aMule doesnt really download, and DC++ is difficult in finding a hub and connecting. so thats why i want WINE. quick question i know i posted it earlier but when i was trying to install mandriva 2006 the install process partitioned my ext drive and i was wondering if i lost my windows programs on it. When i open it up in windows i cant access it because i believe its partitioned for linux. but in partition magic it shows all the partitions. Some of which i believe have files on them. So when I go on Ubuntu I can access the drive. When i first installed Ubuntu and I looked at my ext hard drive it listed two or more partitions on the file system browswer window. But now it only lists one. When it did list more than one partition. the two partitions showed a lost + found folder which i cant get access to. I guess only under root. so im going to try that shortly. But as of right now only one partition shows and only the Lost + Found folder is seen. Whereas the other partition (now not seen) also had the same l+f folder along with other folders. I know it may sound stupid, but im hoping that somehow my files from windows werent partitioned over with the new linux partitions, since it shows there is some files there with partition magic. I know partition a drive... everything gets wiped out and then the new partitions are created. so my hopes arent that high. Another problem im having is up[censored] firefox... probably because im still new to the terminal process with commands and this sudo thing. Thanks in advance.

hello all, I am a new Linux user. After two weeks of trying to install Mandriva 2006, I sadly gave up and switched to Ubuntu. I successfully installed it on one try and so far pleased with it except for the fact that everything is different and taking me a while to get used to since this is my first linux ever! So far I been to customization sites and got gDesklets which i then got all these cool icons, themes etc. but took me forever to learn how to do that! I was at this site where someone wrote everythign they did when they downloaded Ubuntu and how they customized it and he even mentioned how to install mozilla firefox but to have the updated version and some code to enter into the terminal to change the shortcut because i guess Gnome would still have the old shortcut there and not work for the newer one.. anyways that didnt work for me so im still using the origninal firefox. Anyways in his CRITICAL UPDATES section, he mentions how to edit i believe a source.list file to be exactly like his because of something to do with hoary being not good or somthing i have no idea. Also i tried the update and upgrade commands he mention and they worked but i also got errors when they ran. Hopefully someone can fill me in and help me out. Anyways i edit my file like he said to and whenever i open my synaptic package manager i get this: "W: Couldn't stat source package list cdrom://Ubuntu 4.10 _Warty Warthog_ - Preview i386 Binary-1 (20041020) unstable/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/Ubuntu%204.10%20%5fWarty%20Warthog%5f%20-%20Preview%20i386%20Binary-1%20(20041020)_dists_unstable_main_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory) W: Couldn't stat source package list cdrom://Ubuntu 4.10 _Warty Warthog_ - Preview i386 Binary-1 (20041020) unstable/restricted Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/Ubuntu%204.10%20%5fWarty%20Warthog%5f%20-%20Preview%20i386%20Binary-1%20(20041020)_dists_unstable_restricted_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory) W: Couldn't stat source package list http://ubuntu-bp.sourceforge.net warty-backports/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/ubuntu-bp.sourceforge.net_ubuntu_dists_warty-backports_main_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory) W: Couldn't stat source package list http://ubuntu-bp.sourceforge.net warty-backports/universe Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/ubuntu-bp.sourceforge.net_ubuntu_dists_warty-backports_universe_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory) W: Couldn't stat source package list ftp://ftp.nerim.net testing/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.nerim.net_debian-marillat_dists_testing_main_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)" Also how the heck do you say download partition magic and install it? Im having a hard time with executables in linux. I see tar mentioned everywhere. Im dieing to download my online [censored] games like WPT and start playing.. Its a pain in the 4$$ switching to windows just to use my DC++ p2p program just to download and i dont want to find myself needing windows.. whats the point of using linux when you still need windows? So im trying to never rely on windows again. Thanks oh and what are these splash screens?

Whoops my bad. Sorry Danlef. Again your help is greatly appreciated. I was wondering if i should post to the same post but thought i shouldnt because it was a different topic... well sort of. But now I know. btw love the quote. I grew up to the ex military riding in a black van with the school red strip.. show. Good ol A-team. p.s. I noticed you are from Albany. Taking a shot in the dark ever hear of the "Fiehls" or "Fiels" family?

Hello to all the experts. I am a NEWB to this and have been reading post after post, from site to site. I learned some but not what I need to know. Now from reading the posts I believe I have all information needed for you to help me. Heres the prob. I'm sick of windows so I decided to switch to Linux. After reading the forums I decided to give Mandrake 10.0 a try. I wanted 10.1 but couldnt find a downloadable copy nor did I want to pay for any "club member fee" since I thought one of the whole beauties of Linux is that its FREE! So I downloaded the 3 .rar files for Mandrake 10 to my Seagate 200 gb external harddrive which has windows files on it as well that I dont want to lose. I dont want to burn anything to cd to install. (btw I downloaded the 3 .rar files to E:\Mandrake 10\MandrakeCD1, E:\Mandrake 10\MandrakeCD2, and E:\Mandrake 10\MandrakeCD3 and extracted them. So from the forums i learned that i can use a floppy to install by executing "Rawwritewin.exe" from the Dosutilities Folder in the CD1 directory of Mandrake, to write the file "cdrom.img" to the floppy. So then I rebooted my computer with that floppy in the drive and set my bios to boot the floppy drive first of course. Now it seems everything is working thus far, then i get to the main install screen with two options. "F1 for more options" and "Enter to install or upgrade" I clicked "Enter" and it begins the process. Now I assumed its doing what it supposed to and then I get the message "CDROM is not the Linux cdrom" of course... since I didnt burn the install files to cd. So it then wants to know if i want to retry the cdrom and then the options are "Try again" "Back" "no" I clicked "no" and then i get the "Notice" window saying "please insert the Additional Drivers Floppy" so then i try it again with the same floppy and then a new window pops up saying "Please answer..." "Floppy is not a Linux ext2 floppy in first floppy drive" "Retry?" I then click "no" then a new window pops up saying "which driver should i try to gain SCSI access?" then it gives a list starting with "floppy.ko, isofs.ko, cdrom.ko, ide-cd.ko" etc. Now by hitting Alt F1, Alt F2, or Alt F3 it bring me todifferent screens two of which display the process. Now heres the last lines of the processes- "looking for DAC966 Mounting /dev/hdc on tmp/image as type iso9660 have to insmod floppy /dev/fd0 type: h1440 track : 0 mounting /dev/fd0 on /tmp/floppy as type ext2 mount failed : invalid argument /dev/fd0" and on the other Alt F# screen the last line displays "Can't find ext2 file system on dev fd0" so i figure that why i got the message during installation saying "floppy is not a linux ext2 floppy" and to me that its looking for some kind of driver for the SCSI access. Now heres some info on my BIOS if you need it. "Cpu type: Mobile AMD Athlon xp processor cpu speed : 1333 mhz BIOS Version: 0f02 KBC Version : 1320 UMA frame buffer size: 16 mb pxe: disabled usb bios legacy support:disabled Primary Master : [Fujitsu MHR203AT - (PM] - type: auto LBA Format" Please note that I dont think my seagate ext. harddrive is listed in any option of the BIOS, then again Im not that familiar with BIOS. Now here are my questions and goals. My goal is to install Linux Mandrake 10.0 (dual boot i guess so i can keep windows but windows will be on my internal drive which it is now) on my Seagate 200gb internal harddrive which is encased in an enclosure(making it now an external drive) which is connected to my laptop via USB and THAT the drive is formatted and i believe PARTITIONED from what Ive seen in "Admin Tools/Computer Management/Storage/Disk Management - E:\ "layout -Partitioned" "File System - NTFS" "Status - Healthy and Active" There are windows programs on that ext. drive which i want to keep and hope if this all works that linux will not effect them or overwrite them or my windows in general! So thus far I only had cdrom.img written to floppy to begin the installation... Are there other files as well that need to be written to another floppy which i then insert when i get those message that i mentioned previously during the installation process relating to the ext2 which i have no idea what any of this stuff means. From my forum reading i came across alot of post about Grub? So what do I do now... Please help!!! p.s. Please excuse the length of this post and the use of the word "window(s)" to describe the message in the linux installation process... Im so used to using Microshaft. your hopefully new linux user, Chris

well i got anxious and now i tried Ubuntu and i got it fully installed now im trying to figure out to get my wireless net connection to work. Figure out how to get certain programs for linux like i want my StrongDC++ file sharing prog but linux doesnt recognize .exe and .rar files . Now so far with Ubuntu i am having no problems... just getting used to everything... quick question my ext harddrive is now there... but i cant get into a Lost + Found directory in the drive. Only root access i guess so then i logged out to tryt o log onto root but i dont know how to.. i dont know what the username and pw is for that.. i know windows was simply admin... btw whats your opinion on Ubuntu i see on Distrowatch, that its the number one downloaded distro and mandriva is like number four... I heard Ubuntu is a bit more advanced.. hell im having a hard time changing the desktop there i guess its Gnome that controls all that... everythign is brown thats all i know. Feel like im in cocoa land. Anyways i got Ubuntu, but why doesnt mandriva 2006 want to install though? i tried the 86 64 isos.. but when i booted the first cd. it said i needed to use the 32 version. which i was happy and unhappy to see. happy to know my processor is 32 but mad that its old and that i wasted more cds burning these isos... anyone need them? pay for shipping and handline. ill send them to you haha. so i take it... there is something about mandriva that doesnt like my computer? but right now i want to know about the data i accidentally partitioned over... could i still retrieve it... is it the data locked in the lost + found folder that i cant get access to?

download the 3 iso files from the Mandriva Mirror or anywhere reliable. Burn them as IMAGES on to cd with a speed no faster than 8x. Then pop cd1 into your computer and reboot. Enter your BIOS setting during start up usually by hitting Delete. Then set your BOOT order with CDROM as your first choice I usually have harddrive next, floppy after, and network last. it doesnt matter just set cdrom first. then save and exit the BIOS and reboot. that should bring up the installation.

Originally posted by jmmijo: Quote: Another option is to remove the CPU cover and see if the heatsink is removable and check out the thermal paste, it maybe that is has dried up and needs to be cleaned off and a fresh layer of paste added again. You will be surprised at how well even the basic thermal paste does to help the heat transfer to the cooling device I am no expert with computers, but one day while shopping for my 200GB Seagate external drive; I ran into this guy who was a computer junky with like this super system he made, and he told me to first dont buy the external drive to buy the internal and then go to newegg.com which i have never heard of at the time... and to buy an enclosure case to make it an external... which i did and happy that i did. Anyways, i have a Compaq Presario notebook and it too heats up. My brother has a Dell which heats up even worst because Dell made some notebooks that all do this. So expext your notebook to heat up. But what im getting to is what the guy told me... the heatsing thermal oil. That the factory puts very little on when you get it and that adding more oil to it will cause it to stop overheating. I yet have to do this because im too lazy too... and dont know what im doing. So chances are I would screw it up. p.s. my bro bought probably the same cooling pad with fans blowing up into the notebook.. Has two fans, grooves thru the pad and connects to your laptop via usb? So far it works great, but notthe best.

Thanks for sticking around trying to help me with this. I have a feeling after we are done; these threads can be edited and bundled to make your own step by step mandriva linux ebook. haha. Anywho, first off are you able to recover data on a drive that got partitioned? probably not right? Right now, I reinstalled my system so everything is back to normal. Starting from scratch. c:\ is back to c:\. As for checking the integrity of disks during installation... I don't know how to check the integrity. Also I noticed you referenced Fedora's installation. this is Mandriva 2006. Now when I seen you mentioned checking integrity of disks... as far as i know when i open them with "Run" "D:\" all the files were there shown in the open box along with all the subfolders. However I learned about checking something called the MD5SUM of a installation or something? I read about them and that the values should match. So i d/led the program MD5SUM.Exe to do that. I guess im supposed to put it in my C:\WINDOWS folder and then run it and then a dos windows pops up and then closes quickly. As for the type of cds being used for burning and the type of drives being used for the burning and the installation... I use a DVD burner to burn the disks, which let me note ARE NOT CD/RWS but in fact are CD-R. I apologize for stating that they were cd-rws. I just noticed the other day that they were CDR. The drive i put the burned disks into is the drive that is built into the laptop which is "IDE\Compaq DVD-ROM GDR8081N" but again I use two seperate drives to do the burning and the installation. the burning drive is an external usb and the drive used for installation is the one built in. My Video card is a MOBILITY U1 ATI (C6), ATI Technologies with 16 mb RAM. The installed drive for it is ati2dvag.dll version 5.1.2600.0. For partitioning- I read that it was smart to make extra partitions for more Linux Distros in the future. But anyways. My drive is back to normal So the drive has the factory partitions which one big partition for C:\ and being Primary. Partition Magic shows DISK 1 have the one big C:\ partition with 28,615.8 MB and says that 7,281.4MB is USED. It shows a visual bar to show the drives with their partitions on Disk 1 it shows a sandy skin color in the bar im guessing which displays data on the disk within that partition? My my ext USB HD is DISK 2 and i really screwed that up with that partitioning. For DISK 2 its displays: DISK 2 ----------------------------------------- Local Disk (* Linux Ext2 Active Primary (*) Extended None Primary SWAPSPACE2(* Linux Swap None Logical Local Disk (* Linux Ext2 None Logical Local Disk (* Linux Ext3 None Logical SWAPSPACE2(* Linux Swap None Logical Local Disk (* Linux Ext3 None Logical I think all my data is lost that I had on it before of course.Which wasnt a total loss. I think Partition MAgic and mandriva double the partitioning hence why so many. oh btw I see there are two black arrows pointing to a "2GB Boot Boundary" and a "1024 Cylinder Boundary" on both Disk1 and Disk2. Ok now moving on, as you are familiar with Partition Magic there is an "install another operating system" option. and then you are allowed to click Linux as the lost option... Should I use this? or should i just let Mandriva do it. To tag onto that thought. You said: "You either; 1. use it to make one fat32 partition for Windows and leave free space (no partition) for Mandriva. This allows Mandriva to automatically make and set the partitions for you on the free space. or; 2. make one partition for Windows and make one linux partiton (say ext3) and one swap partition for Linux. Then you point the partition utility in Mandriva to use those partitions for your installation, using the "expert partitioning" mode of the Mandriva utility." When I partitioned my disk1 before.. I made a swap parition which i read is to be double your RAM size in your computer. During this process it asks if I want to put it to the beginning of the disk because it says it runs better or something. So I clicked YES to do that before. So what I am getting at is how many partition should i have on Disk 1 and what order do they go in? Because before when i put the LINUX SWAP partition at the beginning of the disk i think it caused my computer to not boot up windows. But like I said my system is back to normal with factory settings. Another quick question, I read somewhere that maybe I should upgrade my bios is that necessary? before i went to the website of compaq where i was able to download some update drive for my BIOS which was called PHLASH BIOS or somethign like that... another thing I learned is there are these i386, i486, i586, i686, and something like x86_84 i think it was. I noticed these were version numbers of something? I have a Compaq Presario with all i know is AMD Athlon XP 1500+. I believe I downloaded the Mandriva 2006 3 isos that were for x86-32(i586). I read last night that AMD Athlon are i686. I dont know if this means anything but in my C:\ there is an i386 directory with sub directories such as SYSTEM32. Does this mean mine is a i386? and that the person was wrong when they said that Athlons are not i386 that intels are i386? But in the meantime Im going to wait. I have the same three cd-rs burned with the 3 complete isos, with one partition on disk1 being the C: for winblows xp with NTFS filesystem. I have the series of 2 Partition Magic Floppy diskettes made one being a boot and the other being a program floppy. I also have the linux cdrom.img written to another floppy for the linux boot, since i read that some laptops and/or their cdrom drives have a hard time booting from their cd rom drives and that a boot floppy is necessary. but please note only the cdrom.img is written to floppy. I noticed there is a all.img, boot.iso, hd_grup.img, ka.img, the MD5SUM file(opened in notepad and saw the values for each of these images), network.img, network drivers.img and a pcmcia.img. I kinda have an idea that they are for different types of installations. and the the grub is for installs off the harddrive. that I may need to look further into these but I wont right now.

NEWER UPDATE... I have now try partitioning my internal harddrive with windows on it. I used Partition Magic to create partitions "C:\"(2.15GB) and "E:\"(10.9GB). But now "E:\" is the old C: and windows is on that drive. "C:\" is a partition i name "HOME" I read it was good to make extra partitions for future use so i decided to make one to put files on that may be used by both windows and linux or just more space for another distro. PLEASE NOTE both the C and E are FAT32 filesystems since i changed them when i reinstalled the windows OS and it allowed me to pick what file system to now use for windows. Since I heard people say FAT32 is read by linux... Ive chosen for that reason. i tried reinstalling the linux cds again and the same problem occurs... am i not partitioning right? I just updated my Phoenix BIOS with a program from their site PHLASH BIOS which flashes the bios. I dont know what to do now...

well my usb 200gb harddrive doesnt show up in the BIOS boot section. Ok lots of new things happened since the last post. Iwent and downloaded three new isos from the mandrivas mirrors and burned them onto 3 cd rws Using NERO. The thing is the slowest writing speed you can pick is 8x. So i burned with that speed and went to install linux. I got to the first screen "F1 for options and <Enter> to install. So i hit enter to install and then I just get this blue linux screen with the penguin and a white status bar on the lower left hand corner. and thats it. Nothing happens it just stays there and doesnt show anythign being done. So i would restart my laptop and i found out that if i put cd2 into the drive first boot it that iget the option of putting in the correct cd.. CD1. So i then do that..this now gets me to start the installation. I choose my language and all that stuff, but then the installation stops at the partition section because it wont let me partition my drives. If i hook up my external usb harddrive it sees that and lets me partition it. so i did that and now my drive doesnt show up in windows... and i cant access it. At this point i dont care what i do. I just want to start using linux whether its on my C: in my internal harddrive or on my external harddrive. I already wiped out my entire system and reinstalled it and have everythign backed up so im starting from scratch. Why isnt the installation working right.. since it seems to freeze up. I redownloaded 3 isos form another mirror on mandrivas site and d/led a program to burn called "cd dvd indepth" to burn the isos as images since it allows me to slow down the write speed to 2x and 4x whereas nero only lets me slow it down to 8x. So anyways i burned the 3 new isos to the 3 new cdrws with the new 4x speed and then use them to try to install again and i got the EXACT same problem with them. So i assume that the writing speed isnt a problem here. Also if im in windows and insert the CD1 iso cdrw into the cd rom drive it will run and pop up a windows asking to install with many other options. This windows i never saw before when i tried to install linux on start up... Right now I ahve no idea whats wrong and what to do. I was hopeing that since i burned them correctly and partition the c drive correctly with the "/" "/home" "ext32" my "windows" "swap" that that would be the hardest part of the process so i understand that i think. but still I cant get that far. My usb isnt seen in my bios but is seen in the installation process. whereas my internal drive isnt... now my ext usb drive isnt seen in windows but my windows is still working. *gasp* help

can someone else help me? My help never came back. hehe probably got tired of reading my long posts.

Before I go on, I just wanted to let you know that i went to mandrivas web site and downloaded the new "Mandriva-Linux-2006-CD1&2&3.i586.iso" from their mirrors. since you mentioned trying this newer one, and i read that it has many more fixes such as the kernel whatever that is. (you can tell im a newbie haha) and also i know how to burn them as images on NERO at the slow speed since i read in here that lots of newbies were burning them fast and causing them unreadable and so on. So now shall we switch this topic now to mandriva 2006 which im sure shouldnt change much of the procedure because they are very similiar. "In order to boot Mandrake, you need a bootloader, which is grub by default. This is the most commonly used Linux bootloader and is by default in Mandrake. During the installation, Grub can be installed on your internal hard drive (IDE) or in some cases, to the external drive. BUT, if to the external hard drive, it must always be connected to the system, if you install grub to the MBR, or Master Boot Record of the ide drive." Now MAndriva2006 im going to assume also comes with the GRUB bootloader by default in the 3 isos i just dled last night. As for my EXT drive, i always have it connected to my laptop. "BUT, if to the external hard drive, it must always be connected to the system, if you install grub to the MBR, or Master Boot Record of the ide drive." I have hardly any free space on my IDE (3.2 GB) hence why i want to put linux on the ext drive. so since im not familiar with BIOS and dont know if im able to boot from the external Its safer and easier to simply install GRUB to the IDE's MBR? and im still able to put linux on the ext. drive. That only the GRUB needs to be on the IDE and it will still work to boot linux on the EXT.? Before I got my ext. drive.. Icrashed my computer... and when i got it back from the shop i had to reinstall windows myself. Compaq came with these cd's.. "Compaq Quick Restore Application Recovery CD, and a set of "Compaq QuickRestore System Recovery CDs" and 1 "Compaq Operating System CD" When i had to reinstall windows I wasnt sure what cds to use but since im here now i guess i picked the right ones haha. i believe i used the set of System Recovery CDs. Im not familiar with the function of all these really.. I just got lucky when I choosed the sys rec. cds to get my computer working. I had nothing to lose with this gamble since i knew all my information was on the new External drive which i had to connect once i got my laptop back up and running. But i assume these are the necessary disks to have. oh and one more thing.. since i have files on my new ext drive and I dont think ill have space to put them on my IDE (internal drive right) i would like or have to keep them on the EXT drive. Being that the situation... am i able to partition(since i guess ill have to if i want linux on it as well) the external drive to run linux without losing the files on the ext drive that are already there? Again the guys at the cpu shop did all the ext drive setting up so im not familiar with what was done. Right now im deleting unnecessary files on the Ext. drive to free up space even though i have plenty. Then Im going to defrag it, i also download partition magic. Also as for backing up files.. Do i need to back up anything? if so.. IDE or Ext drive? or both? So now that we have that covered. Shall we now talk about installing the Mandriva 2006 since you reccommended it and I also always like using the newer updated version of ANYTHING so im also leaning towards to installing the Mandriva 2006. In the meantime Im going to burn the 3 new MAndriva 2006 .isos to cdrs now while i wait for your new reply. Again I appreciate your help and time, you are saving me from lots of stress!

Thanks for the reply! Ok, now to answer your questions. This is a Compaq Presario 900US with Mobile AMD ATHLON XP 1500+ 1.33ghz(which fluctuattes for some damn reason. just a second ago it was 662 mhz and now its 1.33 ghz, but im sure its supposed to be always in the 1.3 ghz area.), 240 mb RAM which I could have sworn was at least 300. but for some reason i think its fluctuating just like the mhz (662) number. Have you checked to see if all your hardware will work with Mandrake 10? Or would Mandriva 2006 be more appropriate? as for checking to see if my hardware will work with mandrake 10.0- I have no idea, I dont even know how to check. I only choosed mandrake because i heard its newbie friendly, and I only choosed 10.0 because it was the easiest one to find on my P2P software (StrongDC++). Im 25 yrs old and learn things pretty fast with hands on experience so if you recommend another Linux Distro then I will go with that one. As for the whole floppy thing... I didnt want to burn the .isos because I didnt have a burner in the previous days. but now i just got my bro's DVD burner which comes with NERO software to now burn the 3 disks. Most folks want to connect to the internet, so what is your internet connection? What method are you using to connect to the internet, cable, DSL, modem? As for the NET connection. This has always vexed me... I subscribe to ADELPHIA CABLE. The local cable company which I have a packkage with them that i get cable tv and high speed internet which comes with a router looking thing that the tv cable plugs into and then from that a thick phone plug looking cord i think its called an ethernet cable? runs from that into my wireless router. and I bought a LINKSYS WIRELESS-G broadband router because i have a laptop and wanted the mobility and wireless. so i bought the link sys wireless broadband-g card which slides in on the side of the laptop. But I assume its a cable? but some say that even though its a tv cable that plugs into it.. it can be dsl which i doubt. So, the Seagate drive, which holds the rar files, is external usb? This will not work with just the floppy, as drivers need to be loaded for usb, so that the drive will be seen. Also, the drive is NTFS, which will not work (unless you really know what you are doing) for an installation. I have never used rar files, just ISO, so I don't know if Mandrake will see them as valid Mandrake archived files. I believe that ISO files are needed for this. Unless, of course, you found an article on how to do this. If so, please post a link to the site or source. Ok the seagate drive was purchased because i crashed my laptop and the only way to retrieve wanted data was to buy a new hd and i took it to a computer shop which i heard only THEY had the right hardware to perform the procedure. So THEY did all the harddrive setting up stuff. So I assume they formatted it and then partitioned it? When I got my computer back it had my files on the drive and i was able to plug it in and access them. I dont know what NTFS means and what IDE means. but yes its a NTFS drive i guess. The the files i downloaded I believe are the 3 .ISO files but since i have this WinRAR program everything i download if its a zip or whatever seems to change its format to the RAR format automatically. But i open the three archived RAR files and i see all the files are there. Ok Finally now that i have this External DVD burner I will now just burn those three files which i guess people call images thru NERO as IMG files from what I learned on here and just use them to help relieve some problems. BUt heres another question. Since I have files on my USB/Firewire Seagate 200gb External harddrive,and you said that NTFS wont work unless i really know what im doing.. which i dont but maybe i might learn from reading the posts. Is there a way i can partition that EXternal Drive again so that i have one partition for the windows files on there already and of course a whole new partition for Linux.. Does parititioning configure the NTFS to be the other format or no? and since i want to do this on the external drive do i need to back up my C: drive of the internal harddrive in my laptop or is that not necessary. Also, dual boot... is that just for people partitioning their internal harddrive simply because windows is already on that master drive... So since i have an external drive that doesnt have the windows op sys on it will i not need dual boot or is dual boot just means. you get the option of choosing what OS you want to boot when you turn your computer on? as of right now Im going to attempt to burn the three ISOs on disk but i wont attempt to install since i dont know about the external harddrive and the consequences yet.