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Linux for Dummies.

asthmatic camel

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I've salvaged a hard drive from a friend's beyond all hope pc, installed it in one of my machines and formatted it. I'd like to put one of the Linux releases on this drive but don't have a clue where to start.

Could some kind soul point me in the right direction?
 
The easiest way to get Linux going? Just by one of those new fangled network drives. It will look just like and Windows shared drive, but run Linux. You will need to know almost nothing about it apart from that.
 
asthmatic camel said:
I've salvaged a hard drive from a friend's beyond all hope pc, installed it in one of my machines and formatted it. I'd like to put one of the Linux releases on this drive but don't have a clue where to start.

Could some kind soul point me in the right direction?
Click to expand...

Suggest something like Ubuntu to get you going.
 
Darn it Darat! Luckily I hit "refresh" before I posted :D

I, ehm, agree with Darat's choice, Ubuntu
 
a_unique_person said:
The easiest way to get Linux going? Just by one of those new fangled network drives. It will look just like and Windows shared drive, but run Linux. You will need to know almost nothing about it apart from that.
Click to expand...
?????????????????????????

I have NO effin' idea what you think you just said. I use Linux (SuSE 8.2 and 9.2) on my home PCs and work with Windows all day at work. I've used bootable Linux CDs, and I carry a USB flash drive in my pocket with an installed and operable DamnSmallLinux system on it.

I. HAVE. NO. IDEA. WHAT. YOU. THINK. YOU. JUST. SAID.

???????????????????????????
Ubuntu is a good choice to start with. My first action, though, would be to use SMARTMonTools to see that the drive really is OK. Since it is salavaged, it might be bad.
 
Thanks, guys, I'll give ubuntu a try.

MortFord, the drive works perfectly, but thanks for the tip. The machine was purchased at a "computer fair" by someone who has absolutely no experience. Fake AMD Sempron processor from Romania, second-hand drives, dodgy power supply which blew up, taking the motherboard with it, pirate copy of Windows XP. Well, you get the picture...
 
a_unique_person said:
The easiest way to get Linux going? Just by one of those new fangled network drives. It will look just like and Windows shared drive, but run Linux. You will need to know almost nothing about it apart from that.
Click to expand...

AUP, I'm as confused as MortFord. Is it wrong to ask people who know what they're doing for advice?
 
I'm a long time Mandrake (Mandriva) user who switched about a year ago to Suse. Suse is very nice. Everyone raves about Ubuntu and I helped a friend install it on his laptop. It is also very nice. I didn't care for the partitioning tools but you can browse the web and play some simple games while it installs. Ubuntu has some very active forums that are helpful.
 
asthmatic camel said:
Thanks, guys, I'll give ubuntu a try.

MortFord, the drive works perfectly, but thanks for the tip. The machine was purchased at a "computer fair" by someone who has absolutely no experience. Fake AMD Sempron processor from Romania, second-hand drives, dodgy power supply which blew up, taking the motherboard with it, pirate copy of Windows XP. Well, you get the picture...
Click to expand...
"Works perfectly" is one thing. "One bad hair day from extinction" is something else.

SMARTMonTools will tell you if it is OK now, and whether it is likely to stay that way.

Modern hard drives can remap bad sectors, so that you and the OS never notice a problem. The drive only has a limited number of spares, though. If your drive has used up all of its spares, then the next bad sector means lost data. SMART can tell you all of that.

We've had drives replaced at work with supposed "used but good" drives that quit the day after installation. I've gone to checking each and every one's SMART status before the tech leaves - that's why I carry that USB drive with DamnSmallLinux on it - I boot it and run the SMART tools from USB.

From what I've seen (small sample<20 replacements in the last couple of months) Maxtor sucks with drives that have <10000 hours having used all of their spares. Western Digital seems the best so far. We got a "new" one that had >32000 hours on it and no spares used.

Again, small sample, personal experience. I wouldn't put anything important on a salvaged drive without checking it first, though.
 
Fedora Core 6 is aslo very easy to install. I personally prefer a BSD like OpenBSD or NetBSD, but Ubuntu or Fedora Core 6 will do just fine for you.
 
I'm going to agree with all the people saying ubuntu.
You should go for Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper) not 6.10 (Edgy) since Dapper is the stable release and everything on it works. Edgy still has some rough edges.
 
a_unique_person said:
The easiest way to get Linux going? Just by one of those new fangled network drives. It will look just like and Windows shared drive, but run Linux. You will need to know almost nothing about it apart from that.
Click to expand...
It finally dawned on me just what the heck that was supposed to mean.

There are Network Attached Storage devices that run an embedded Linux. Getting a Linux system that doess something useful is then as simple as plugging a Linux based NAS in and connecting it to your network. All you get from that, though, is a shared drive to store data on. That's not the same as running a Linux system on your desktop, though, which is what Asthmatic Camel was interested in.
 
MortFurd said:
It finally dawned on me just what the heck that was supposed to mean.

There are Network Attached Storage devices that run an embedded Linux. Getting a Linux system that doess something useful is then as simple as plugging a Linux based NAS in and connecting it to your network. All you get from that, though, is a shared drive to store data on. That's not the same as running a Linux system on your desktop, though, which is what Asthmatic Camel was interested in.
Click to expand...

Sorry for being obtuse. I can't think of an easier way to get Linux running, though. The Linux appliance.
 
AUP, message received, understood and filed for future reference, thanks.

This seemed an ideal opportunity to try Linux without digging myself into a hole I couldn't climb out of. My brain is hurting a bit (Ubuntu seems to dislike my wireless connection) but, I'm sure the problem can be solved.
 
asthmatic camel said:
AUP, message received, understood and filed for future reference, thanks.

This seemed an ideal opportunity to try Linux without digging myself into a hole I couldn't climb out of. My brain is hurting a bit (Ubuntu seems to dislike my wireless connection) but, I'm sure the problem can be solved.
Click to expand...
Wireless is a weak spot in the Linux world. Manufacturers aren'T too hot on having third parties develop drivers, and there are FCC converns as well with third party drivers.

Since I have neither Ubuntu nor Wireless, I can't give you a direct answer as to how to get it going.

If you tell me what wireless adapter you've got and what the problem is, I'll see if I can find some info for you.
 
Ndiswrapper

asthmatic camel said:
This seemed an ideal opportunity to try Linux without digging myself into a hole I couldn't climb out of. My brain is hurting a bit (Ubuntu seems to dislike my wireless connection) but, I'm sure the problem can be solved.
Click to expand...

I don't know if this would help. I have both Suse and Fedora. For the wireless connection, I had to install a software called NDISWRAPPER. Suse had the software already but needs to be installed. If you don't have it, just do a google for NDISWRAPPER.
 
asthmatic camel said:
AUP, message received, understood and filed for future reference, thanks.

This seemed an ideal opportunity to try Linux without digging myself into a hole I couldn't climb out of. My brain is hurting a bit (Ubuntu seems to dislike my wireless connection) but, I'm sure the problem can be solved.
Click to expand...

What wireless card do you have?
 
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