[greenhorn]

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

1) I am used to fedora. I absolutely had no issues using USB on Fedora and infact USB is faster in Fedora than even Vista.
Now does Ubuntu 8.10 has inbuilt support for USB like Fedora 6,7,8 and 9 ? Or I need to install drivers ?

never needed to install any USB stuff, everything worked out of the box - two MP3 players, one camera , one phone ( which connected as removable storage)

2) How to install a music player in Ubuntu/Fedora ? I am not able to do so. As soon as I click and start, there wont be any progress. Do I need to use command line for this ?

You may have to install the mp3 etc proprietary plugins seperately - a prompt will show when you try to play an mp3 and it happens automatically. you can add applications, like rhythmbox/xmms/amarok from ubuntu's add/remove dialog (kinda like the add remove programs list in windows , except that it has a big list of supported applications

3) In fedora updating firefox was easy " yum update firefox " and it was done. But how to install firefox in Ubuntu 8.10 as ubuntu is not yum ?

firefox comes preinstalled on ubuntu. Apart from the add / remove dialog, easiest way is to download a .deb file. they are handled by apt , and just double click and it gets installed. oh, apt is what does yum's job in ubuntu

4) How to mount a windows drive in Ubuntu 8.10 ? Is it like sda dev as in Fedora ?

i think they get mounted automatically, not sure though - found it to vary

I would recommend you stick to 8.04. its the LTS ( long term stable ) release. 8.10 is a beta ish thingy

[deepclutch]

^thats nice.even I got a 2 year old Debian Sid install.but dont go with SId alone.use apt-pinning.

[HotChillyPepper]

Hey,
No SUSE fans here? Very strange. Try openSuse11.0 openSUSE.org. Less buggy than many other flavors.

The main advantage is the professional gnome / KDE without messy animations and gimmicks by default.

[deepclutch]

^open suse is real eyecandy.but package management sucks(even with yast) and it is heavy on resources.editing and adding pacman repositories is tough for n00bs.

[RX135]

Originally Posted by deepclutch

I dont regret !8.10 is working awesome for me.I am interested in checking Fedora 10 ,will download(whenever dataone works!).
oh! Fedora 10 released!

OT:
I installed FC10 last weekend (before it was officially release) and then upgraded it immediately. In short, I got FC10 on my machine. I never had any issues with its wireless connectivity. (The damn thing hangs when I go into standby mode though).

Real OT: I also have a suspicion that Fedora consumes battery faster than Windows. (But it may also be because I run both Fedora host and Windows guest OS).

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

never needed to install any USB stuff, everything worked out of the box - two MP3 players, one camera , one phone ( which connected as removable storage)

You may have to install the mp3 etc proprietary plugins seperately - a prompt will show when you try to play an mp3 and it happens automatically. you can add applications, like rhythmbox/xmms/amarok from ubuntu's add/remove dialog (kinda like the add remove programs list in windows , except that it has a big list of supported applications

firefox comes preinstalled on ubuntu. Apart from the add / remove dialog, easiest way is to download a .deb file. they are handled by apt , and just double click and it gets installed. oh, apt is what does yum's job in ubuntu
i think they get mounted automatically, not sure though - found it to vary

I would recommend you stick to 8.04. its the LTS ( long term stable ) release. 8.10 is a beta ish thingy

Originally Posted by deepclutch

^thats nice.even I got a 2 year old Debian Sid install.but dont go with SId alone.use apt-pinning.

@ greenhorn and deepclutch:

Well I got myself Windows Server 2008 and during installation pc would freeze. Vista also gave problem and now I AM NOT ABLE TO INSTALL EITHER UBUNTU OR FEDORA!

Now my cofiguration.
250 GB SATA HDD for windows.
200 GB IDE HDD for Fedora or Ubuntu.
Now during a recent crash ( I am still trying to recover from it ) the bootloader of Fedora was erased. Tried to regain it through autogrubdisk but failed.
Installed Ubuntu 8.04. But when it reboots I get a CLI that says " minimum BASH ". Not something I expect.
When I try to install Fedora, it initially starts after a long time approx. 2 minutes message " initializing hardware " i.e. SATA DVD-R. Then usual stuff like language. But when I select the key board configuration and press next, the PC would freeze.

Can you please tell me is this hardware or software problem ?
I want either of them atleast.
Can you shed light on this. I tried the commands by you Deepclutch, but nothing happens and PC would just freeze.
Tried BIOS flashing, did that, but the problem still remains.

[greenhorn]

three probable causes, all hardware :

busted RAM : To find out , run memtest ( its there in the ubuntu CD boot options) for a long time
Busted HDD : chances are less since neither of them are working, Just unplug/clean the connectors and try it again anyway just to make sure that loose connectors are not the problem
busted mobo : sometimes the chipset may have problems . If you can boot from the ubuntu live CD and can acess the HDD, then the chipset should be fine


My money would be on the RAM. if you have two or more sticks, try using only one

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

three probable causes, all hardware :

1) busted RAM : To find out , run memtest ( its there in the ubuntu CD boot options) for a long time
2) Busted HDD : chances are less since neither of them are working, Just unplug/clean the connectors and try it again anyway just to make sure that loose connectors are not the problem
3) busted mobo : sometimes the chipset may have problems . If you can boot from the ubuntu live CD and can acess the HDD, then the chipset should be fine


My money would be on the RAM. if you have two or more sticks, try using only one

1) I have 2 X 1 GB Dynet 667 MHz DDR2 and 1 X 1 GB Transcend 667 MHz DDR2. Tried with single module, but wont even work.

2) NO chance. I checked using sea tools. No errors.

3) I am not able to access HDD.

The most alarming thing is that everything is working fine with XP. Even with Vista things are not good.

I think my mobo is acticities smell fishy.
Thanks greenhorn.

If any other solution comes to your mind, kindly post here.

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

aggoswami, please post details about your mobo. Looks like some sata driver problem. I guess both disks are sata.

You are getting some minimal bash with ubuntu 8.04, right? Now, do this -

dmesg |grep -i sata, write down the results, and post here. Here is what the command does.

"dmesg" prints the messages spewed out by the kernel at boot time. grep filters output of dmesg, and because "-i" is specified, both upper and lower case occurrences of "sata" is searched for. So, essentially, the commands gives us an output of what the kernel thinks of your sata subsystem. Also, try "dmesg |grep -i error".

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR

aggoswami, please post details about your mobo. Looks like some sata driver problem. I guess both disks are sata.

You are getting some minimal bash with ubuntu 8.04, right? Now, do this -

dmesg |grep -i sata, write down the results, and post here. Here is what the command does.

"dmesg" prints the messages spewed out by the kernel at boot time. grep filters output of dmesg, and because "-i" is specified, both upper and lower case occurrences of "sata" is searched for. So, essentially, the commands gives us an output of what the kernel thinks of your sata subsystem. Also, try "dmesg |grep -i error".

Thanks for helping out.
My computer configuration is this:
1) Processor : AMD Athlon X2 5000+
2) Mobo : MSI K9N Neo V3 , chipset MCP 560 from nvidia.
3) RAM : 2 X 1GB Dynet 667 MHZ DDR2, 1 X 1GB Transcend 667 MHz DDR2
4) HDD : Windows is on SATA 250GB Seagate Barracude 7200.10.
For Fedora/Ubuntu I have Seagate Barracude 7200.10 IDE 200GB HDD.
5) Optical media : LG and Samsung DVD writers.
6) PSU : 400W Iball LPE223-400.

When the " Minimum bash " came out with ( after ubuntu 8.04 was installed and mahcine rebooted ) CLI, I pressed TAB ( was asked to do so ) and a around 25 commands came out. The one you have mentioned were not present. If I enter anyting other than those commands there will be message of not recognized.

Note that when I completed the installation of Ubuntu 8.04 and after than when the machine reboots, the minimum bash came out with CLI and when I enter " boot " I get the message "kernel has to be loaded first to boot ".
I dont know what is wrong. Both the optical media players are working fine with DVD and CD.
Fedora wont go ahead of the stage " initializing hardware " after sbin is loaded and if I manage to cross that stage, it wont go ahead of Keyboard layout stage.

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

Looks like a misconfiguration issue to me. Probably, some disk is not being mounted. Probably, you mis-specified some partition to be mounted? What is your partition set up?

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

2) Mobo : MSI K9N Neo V3 , chipset MCP 560 from nvidia.

This is probably only area where I suspected problems, but google does not throw up any problems with this mobo.

3) RAM : 2 X 1GB Dynet 667 MHZ DDR2, 1 X 1GB Transcend 667 MHz DDR2

Possible problem area 2. Just go through BIOS set up on ram detection and make sure that there are no problems. DO NOT DO THIS if you you do not know what bios is.

4) HDD : Windows is on SATA 250GB Seagate Barracude 7200.10.
For Fedora/Ubuntu I have Seagate Barracude 7200.10 IDE 200GB HDD.

These would be recognised as /dev/sda and /dev/sdb; and partitions would be like /dev/sda1, /dev/sdb1, etc. Which disk is which?

What does "cat /etc/fstab" say?

5) Optical media : LG and Samsung DVD writers.

Ought to be /dev/hda and /dev/hdb respectively. IF they are IDE drives.

When the " Minimum bash " came out with ( after ubuntu 8.04 was installed and mahcine rebooted )

If the installation is completed, be assured that what you have is a slight mis-configuration somewhere.

CLI, I pressed TAB ( was asked to do so ) and a around 25 commands came out. The one you have mentioned were not present. If I enter anyting other than those commands there will be message of not recognized.

Yes, TAB lists all available commands. All you need for trouble shooting at this point should be

1. "cat" or "more" or "less" - to print out contents of files.
2. a text editor - "vi", "nano" or "emacs", or "vim"
3. "mount" to tell what is mounted.

"cat /proc/partitions" will tell if (edit - wait!!!! - see below!!!)


What partitions are mounted at this point? (type "mount").

Note that when I completed the installation of Ubuntu 8.04 and after than when the machine reboots, the minimum bash came out with CLI and when I enter " boot " I get the message "kernel has to be loaded first to boot ".

The Grub menu!!!!!

So, there is some problem with the boot loader configuration.

Please read this for help - Booting from grub shell | Chris Searle

[aaggoswami]

@backseatdriver:
OK, may be in case of one, but even Fedora is not working now which was working 10 days ago!

I had selected Logical drive for installation. Root was " / " and it was ext3.
I have already flashed the BIOS, but the problem remains.
BIOS detects 3072MB ram.

LG is SATA and Samsung is IDE.
What is misconfiguration in case of Ubuntu. It manages to complete, but wont work.
Can you specify which are potential areas ?
While installing I tired both logical and Physical partitions with " / " as root and ext3.

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

This is a bit confusing.

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

I had selected Logical drive for installation. Root was " / " and it was ext3.

Root is always "/". in Linux, there are no drives. Only a file system.

Means - Windows has C drive, D drive, F drive, etc. Linux does not work that way. Linux "hides" the drives in the "devices" section. And the user accesses only the "mountpoints". Everything is "mounted" at some mount point under the root file system. "/" represents the root of the the file system. That should not be confused with the "/root/" directory, which is the home directory of the "root user" - and the "root user" is the administrator. More than one device may be mounted at a single mountpoint. (like one hard disk for /usr/ and another partition for /usr/bin/)

I suspect you have this problem, because you "installed everything under "/". If you got the concepts right, you would have said "I use /dev/sdaN as /", and sdaN is configured as a ext3 file system. (N should actually be a number - like 1, 2, 3, etc.).

Linux has to be told to use some device as "/". This definition (for a running system) is found in a file called /etc/fstab; and for grub bootloader, in the file /boot/grub/menu.lst. (menu.lst is accessed only by grub, only during boot time).


Here is what my menu.lst says.

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.26-1-amd64 Default
root (hd0,2)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda4 ro console=tty0 vga=0x314
initrd /initrd.img

"title" is what shown when the boot menu is presented, at boot time.

"root" specifies the device used as '/'. It is the THIRD partition in the first hard disk. (hd0,2).

"kernel" line defines the kernel to be used. everything after "/vmlinuz" in that line are parameters to be passed on to the kernel. "root=" in that line tells the kernel to use /dev/sda4 as the root file system. (sda is the first sata disk, and why the 3rd partition is numbered as sda4 - is a real long story, which you probably know).

"initrd" line is required, because "vmlinuz" requires an initial ramdisk to boot - this is something depends on how the kernel is compiled.

You (or some script on your behalf) have screwed up on "root (sdaX,X)" line AND the root=/dev/sdaX parameter in the "kernel" line.

So, read the link I posted on using grub command shell, follow the instructions there, and try to boot from the grub command shell, remember what worked, use those parameters in menu.lst and revert.

[aaggoswami]

@backseatdriver:
I am not a novice in case of linux cli.

I used " / " as mount and partition was kept Logical first and after it failed, I tired Physical. I give 40 GB to installation.

What must be the root to install Ubuntu ? What must be type of partition " physical or logical ( I think its logical ).
The other two partitions are 150 GB to " /home " and rest as swap area.

But still not working. I have successfully used Fedora since Fedora 6, but not used ubuntu much.

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

I used " / " as mount and partition was kept Logical first and after it failed, I tired Physical. I give 40 GB to installation.

What must be the root to install Ubuntu ? What must be type of partition " physical or logical ( I think its logical ).

See? You got these wrong.

Please answer these questions - Which disk do you want Linux on? sda or sdb? (First or second - or other - drive?)

And which partition on that disk? sdx1? sdx2? sdx3? sdx4?

Windows (vfat - dunno about ntfs) recognises only one primary partition on a disk. Hence, partition tools create a primary partition, and further "extended" partitions, within that. Linux does not have limitations like M$ Windows.

But the problem is, the first usable partition within the logical partition is recognised as, for example, sda4, and not as sda2. You may have messed up this number scheme.

For info on primary and extended partitions, see Primary, Extended and Logical Partitions

What you need to do is to remember to specify the correct partition which must be used as "/".

The other two partitions are 150 GB to " /home " and rest as swap area.

Swap area need be maximum twice the RAM. You have 10 Gigs? But swap area is NOT cause of your problems.

But still not working. I have successfully used Fedora since Fedora 6, but not used ubuntu much.

There is not much difference; once you get to understand the tools and applications and minor configuration variations. For example, if you understand grub properly, it does not make much difference whether you are using grub from Fedora or Ubuntu.

The confusing part is, Version 2 of Grub and up use a different configuration file than /boot/grub/menu.lst; and according to specifications, configuration files should be in the /etc/ directory; so some distros use /etc/grub/menu.lst. But this is not relevant for your problems, IMHO.

And I suspect my earlier explanation of the keywords "root", "root=", etc in grub is a way off mark.

Please read the online grub manual -

GNU GRUB Manual 0.97.