Which distro?

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I've played around with Ubuntu in the passed but I can't get either Dapper or Edgy to run on my PC.
It keeps locking at the mounting file system or the /dev part of the boot.

So I'm giving up on Ubuntu for now and am looking for another distro to try.

Any suggestions?

 

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Don't give up! Troubleshoot and learn!

Any indications as to why its locking up? What hardware are you using?

EDIT: Ubuntu is one of the 'easier' distros to setup and use, so if you're struggling with it then you could have bigger problems with another distro.

 

If it is having problems that early then I suspect a hardware problem.

Either a fault, or a device that it can't control. Perhaps you need to enumerate your hardware and check against the driver availability.

Harry.

 

def hardware issues! Is the hard drive in good working order? put it into a windows machine and format it... does it format?

 

Sorry, shoukd have given more details

The PC is dual-booting XP & Linux
With Dapper I think its a SATA or usvb drive issue.
There are a few threads knocking around on ubuntu.com

Tried most of the fixes and none worked.

So downloaded Edgy and the live cd failed.
Re-installed Breezy and pointed the packages at Edgy.
Seemed to go Ok but hangs on boot now.

Might try again at the weekend - install Breezy and then go directly to Edgy

 

Hi,

Is it a laptop by any chance?

Si

 

Burn yourself a copy of Knoppix. It has as good of hardware detection as there is in Linux. If it won't boot you have some pretty rare hardware configuration, or you are running some type of sata software raid that includes the drive on which you're installing Ubuntu. Most motherboard raid controllers are software based, and most of them have not released the specs that the open source community needs to create open source drivers, so if you're using motherboard based raid that may be your problem.

 

If you want to try another distro, my favourite so far is Simply Mepis. It's based on Debian and uses the KDE GUI by default, which I prefer.

 

Well if you machine is already running XP and Ububtu won't install, then it's more than likely a hardware issue. I'm running Kubuntu on a old PIII machine with 256k ram that was running NT when I got it.

Above all, don't just toss it and try something else.....you'll never learn anything that way.

I'm almost at the point where I'm getting comfortable using Kubuntu as my main system at home.

 

I just thought I'd add my 2 cents worth to this statement by TG.

He's absolutely correct. I started off with Debian, probably as hard a place for any Linux newbie to start as there is. The only other Linux distro's that have reputations as unfriendly for newbies are Slackware and Gentoo. Gentoo because you compile everything, including the OS itself. It does have a pretty good package management system, and a very good Wiki for documentation though. Slackware because you have no package management system to speak of.

All three distros allow/require the user to set up the computer exactly the way the user wants. That's why all three depend on text files for configuring the computer, and why they have a reputation for being unfriendly to newbies. They're not really, they just require a steep learning so the newbie can configure them because the distro's themselves don't set everything up. They believe the user ought to set up his/her own computer so that it fits them, not someone else's idea of what they should have. They not only believe that computer users should be free of being coerced into having only a limited set of choices available to them, they put that belief into practice and actively give the users full control over their systems. Someone who uses one of these distro's truly owns their own computer. Nobody else tells you how to configure it. You can make it into anything you so desire. You just need to have the desire to accept that responsibility and begin to learn how to really own your own computer rather than letting some mega corporation own your computer and you accepting the role of untrusted tenant.

One of the first things I did as a Linux newb was to upgrade from the 2.2 to the 2.4 kernel, and then a couple of months later to the 2.6 kernel. The jump from running a stock 2.4 kernel image from Debian to compiling my own 2.6 kernel was a large one. It required quite a few upgraded system tools to complete the job. Problem was I didn't know that, and I didn't know where to look for the correct info or how to phrase my Google searches. I went through a few weeks of frustration before I found the correct set of instructions. Once I found them, learned more about the basics of kernel compiling under Debian, and built a couple of kernels, it was easy to compile custom kernels.

Today it's rare for me to struggle to find the information I need. I know where to look. I know how to phrase my searches. And most importantly I know enough about Debian that I pretty much can figure out things should fit into the system.

The same things were true for Windows when I first started there, but because Linux is completely open, and completely configurable because it is completely open, it both teaches you more, and requires you to know more about computing to fully configure it.

The bottom line is: If you really want to improve your computing skills take on one of the hard-to-use distro's, and then take TG's advice. Stick with it until you get it. There are a TON of good resources on the internet. There are distro specific forums. There are general linux help sites such as tldp.org that has HOWTo's for most of the common issues you'll find when running Linux. There is documentation installed with each software package in the form of README files. Many of the large open source projects host their own help forums and post a lot of documentation, such as Open Office, ldap, Apache, Gimp, etc.... You'll find that within a fairly reasonable amount of time your overall computing skills will have far surpassed what you would have learned had you used Windows alone....

 

And to comment on Freddy's comments on the comments above (everyone get that?)

Once I get to a comfort level with Kubuntu, I'll install another distro on another machine and start the whole process over. What I like about the Ubuntu series is it gets you into Linux with very little user input, then you can start the customization process. My next distro will require more user input......and who knows, maybe one day I'll "graduate" to Debian.

 

If you want something simple, what about Suse V10.

You can buy the complete pack from WHS smith £10 and you get the complete OS with office and utilities, no downloads, a magazine to show how to install it and what other the OS and office pack offers. So simple you just change your bios to bootup from CD-rom first, stick in cd 1, format the HD and install the OS so simple, and nice interface

For the TOP 10 DISTRO'S

CLICK HERE

 

Very nice UCM. Thanks.

 

Cheers for the replies folks.

Newly motivated I'm going to have a play tomorrow.

From reading the Ubuntu forums there have been problems with Dapper and SATA/USB drives. I've got XP on a SATA and Ubuntu on an IDE drive.

So the plan is reformat the IDE. Install Breezy, which works ok, and then go directly to Edgy.

I'll keep you posted.....

 

Installed Breezy Ok.

Whilst I was updating Breezy I had a browse of the How To stuff on ubuntu.com and discovered that the only way to upgrade to Edgy is from Dapper.

So it's going to be Breezy to Dapper to Edgy.

Seeing as I've never got Dapper to work this could take a while.

Like you folks said, it's the best way to learn.....

 

Just something to bare in mind....

The Ubuntu range offer a *check CD utility* I would suggest using this; i recently spent some time looking in to why 6.06 wouldn't install in a identical hardware setup as a previous machine, to find out the image was corrupt.

Si

 

too late Boyce

Completed the upgrade to 6.0.6 and going for 6.10 now.

didn't reboot after completing 6.06 as that's where it normally dies

Should be an hour or so before it's finished

Cheers

Edge

 

Fingers crossed

Si

 

Hmm,
Hangs on boot.

Tried the recovery boot and it dies after the "new usb bus registered" message.

Never been 100% happy with the usbs on this motherboard so that could explain things.

No more time today so a job for later in the week.

 

If you boot from the CD, before installing again, select the option *check CD for defects*.
This takes about five minutes- It is pointless trying to install a duff image. Assuming you have a desktop with no unusual hardware devices and the CD is OK, it sounds like a hardware problem/ or a piece of hardware not compatible with the distro.

Si