I'm thinking of taking the plunge and install a Linux distro for the first time.
I need to know which one of the free distro's to use?
I need something very easy to use.
I need a bit of advice on the setup process etc.
I need to know what sort of problems i will encounter (drivers etc)

Any :help: will be greatfully received.

Out of the ones I tried, I thought Mandriva was the best for ease of use as well as overall quality. The installer is as straightforward as XP, the user interface excellent, and the driver database fantastic. It even picked up my RAID card and scanner, which is more than I can say for XP.

To be honest I doubt you'll need any help to get Mandriva up and running, once you have I'm sure there are others on here who could give you better help with navigating the Linux file system than I could! :)

Good luck!

I got the distro form the official site, they have it on both CD and DVD in .iso format IIRC.

http://www.mandriva.com/

They're all free :wink:

I would go for Mandriva or SUSE myself. I used to have Mandrake but have just started with SUSE and neither are any particular bother in installation or getting going.

For a list and some general info, and downloads, www.distrowatch.com

I'm glad i asked now. I had never heard of Mandriva until now :blush:

Thanks for the advice guys :thumbsup:

I'm off to do a bit od downloading :wink:

Ubuntu! It's really really easy to setup, it comes with both an installation cd and a live cd so you can pop the live cd in and restart and it will load up ubuntu without touching your hard drive, this lets you try it out and make sure it works on your computer, then just restart your computer without the cd in and it will start into windows as normal.

I have about 10 sets of both cds if you want a copy to try.

Cheers,

Grant

You may have heard of Mandrake... well that's what madriva is, they changed their name..

You may have problems with some distros if you are running a SATA drive - I tried three before I got fedora core to install straight off :)

Mandriva, or Fedora, SuSE personal and also Ubuntu. I'd reccomend SuSE or Mandriva, as they both have the best hardware detection support.

All four are very n00b friendly. My personal choice is Debian or RHEL, although I used BSD on machines where viable.

Good place for genral help is www.linuxquestions.org

and also check out: http://iso.linuxquestions.org/ Where they link you to the latest ISO files for each distribution.

Joel

I can't believe how big the download is :o

I've started downloading disk 1 but why are the downloads on three disks?

Because most distros come with a gazillion packages and language files. Which is where a lot of people get annoyed. I like debian, 20mb install disk \o/.

What are you getting? Mandriva tends to have a lot of extra stuff, not sure about this version but in the installation of pervious versions it asked you which disks you had and selected the packages available to install from that.

Joel

I opted for Mandriva over SUSE because a few people commented on problems with SUSE when i did a google search.

The three disks total over 1.8GB. It's a good jub i'm not on a download limit :rolleyes:

SuSE does have a few problems, but YaST is still the best user friendly system config tool of any distro. Good luck with your Linux venture, If you stick with it, its well worth it.

Joel

Originally posted by vidster
The three disks total over 1.8GB. It's a good jub i'm not on a download limit :rolleyes:


It's possible to install using 1 CD. However, as Joel mentioned above, many (many) packages will not be available during installation. If you later require them, you'll have to DL & install "on-the-fly" so to speak;).

Originally posted by vidster
I can't believe how big the download is :o

I've started downloading disk 1 but why are the downloads on three disks?

Basically because you get everything in one go. If you were to source the same software for Windows XP you'd have to download XP, Office x 2 etc...

Not sure exactly comes with what distro but most come with plenty of software to do pretty much anything you want without having to start installing loads of extra programs after you've got a naked OS.

I've only just thought about the new partition I'm going to need :rolleyes:
Better 'acquire' Partition Magic pretty sharpish! :suspect:

On my previous installs the Linux installer has satisfactorily partitioned the drive for me. Having now got Partition Magic I use that instead as it does seem to be the preferred method.

Partition Magic now 'acquired' :wink: I'm presuming the 'Install Another Operating System' is the one to use. Although i might wait until later to install everything.

I've still got to burn the disks yet anyway.

Originally posted by lonesome
Ubuntu! It's really really easy to setup, it comes with both an installation cd and a live cd so you can pop the live cd in and restart and it will load up ubuntu without touching your hard drive, this lets you try it out and make sure it works on your computer, then just restart your computer without the cd in and it will start into windows as normal.

I have about 10 sets of both cds if you want a copy to try.

Cheers,

Grant

I agree Ubuntu is great.

SATA no problem, internet no problem, printing no problem, email no problem.

Perfect way to test drive linux

Thanks to all for the info/links in this thread ;)

I've always been a bit conservative when it comes to an OS and stuck with Windows but the time has come to venture out and try Linux.

I like the idea of being able to test drive it before I go for a full install and I think i'll put it on my old laptop at first which is an AMD 500 with 128mb ram...should that be ok?

Just one last question, If you run from disc...Does it alter the MBR at all?

Thanks

Originally posted by vidster
Partition Magic now 'acquired' :wink: I'm presuming the 'Install Another Operating System' is the one to use.

I usually just create a partition then format it accordingly, either with PM or or let the Linux installer do it.

Originally posted by mimic
Just one last question, If you run from disc...Does it alter the MBR at all?

No.

Mandriva has the Ecellent "DiskDrake" tool that will do it for you, and give you some different configs for the type of system you need.

You only need a swap (twice the size of your ram, no more)
and /, but i'd reccomend having:

swap
/
/home
/var

as separates, just in case.

Joel

Originally posted by vidster
I've only just thought about the new partition I'm going to need :rolleyes:
Better 'acquire' Partition Magic pretty sharpish! :suspect:


Mandrake linux can re-partition your HD during installation:thumbsup: (worked perfectly on the 3 machines I've installed it on).

If you're still downloading it, you could save yourself a bit of time and buy the DVD edition of PCW Magazine.

They usually have the latest distros of Linux on there to fill up the disc space.

One of the things I like about Ubuntu is that it comes on 1 CD ~600MB. Most of the others give you several versions of each application and it can be a bit overwhelming for a newbie. Everything in Ubuntu looks and feels the same, and there is great community support online if you get stuck with anything.

Let us know how you get on.

Well that was a disaster! :(

The last disk refused to burn 4 times :mad: Then partition magic completely FUBAR'd my notebook completely. After spending all day trying to find a work around i've had to give up and reinstall XP.

Linux will have to wait a few days now :wink:

ubuntu!
ubuntu!
ubuntu!

I hope you didn't lose anything too important. I've had disk disasters with Partition Manager in the past.

If you're not too put off to try again, my advice is let the linux installer partition the disk for you. All the ones I've used play happily with an existing Windows install. I generally find the linux install, once you have the disks, is easier than installing XP. You should be up and running in 20 minutes.

Ohh, i'll definately be having another go at it :)
I'm just in the process of installing everything again on the notebook. I didn't really have anything too important on it. All my photo's had been installed on another computer in the house just in case :wink:

I do have another question though......

When i burn the three disks, do they all have to be bootable disks?

Originally posted by Phanerothyme
ubuntu!
ubuntu!
ubuntu!

I hear you there Phan :wink: I'm thinking about it now.

No. Only the first should be a bootable image :)

Joel
Originally posted by vidster
Ohh, i'll definately be having another go at it :)
I'm just in the process of installing everything again on the notebook. I didn't really have anything too important on it. All my photo's had been installed on another computer in the house just in case :wink:

I do have another question though......

When i burn the three disks, do they all have to be bootable disks?

Tip :

Aquire yourself a copy of norton ghost and take a image of the server before you tinker then if it all goes tits up you can restore from the image (you will need some form of external storage to keep the image on or a ghostcast server wich would need a second machine)....

Thanks superted666, i'll try and get Norton Ghost and do that (although i've now saved everything onto a seperate partotion).

I downloaded Knoppix and ran it for a couple of hours. I must say it is a lot easier to use than i imagined. For some reason i thought it was going to be like trying to work in DOS :?
This is just like Windows but set out differently.

I'm downloading Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger) now to install.

Am i right in thinking that Linux runs faster than Windows or does it depend on the distro you use?

Another Update! :rolleyes:

I can't install Ubuntu because it fails at the 'Detecting CD-ROM' stage. I've tried all the different settings it suggests to no avail :(

If anyone knows a way to solve this it would be appreciated.

Not on a dell by any chance is it?

There is a bug in the ata_piix driver, which seems they havent actually fixed yet. Despite it being an issue since last year.

Joel

I'm using an Acer TravelMate 4150 notebook Joelc :?

Originally posted by vidster
Another Update! :rolleyes:

I can't install Ubuntu because it fails at the 'Detecting CD-ROM' stage. I've tried all the different settings it suggests to no avail :(

If anyone knows a way to solve this it would be appreciated.

I feel like I've had this problem and it was just caused by the CD not burning properly.

Originally posted by tslogf74
I feel like I've had this problem and it was just caused by the CD not burning properly.

It's my CD-ROM that's knackered :( This notebook is only 2 months old and the drive has stopped picking up any sort of bootable disk. Even my restore disks are not picked up :rolleyes:

It's going back on Monday :mad:

And so the odyssey continues.

Many people I've been speaking to, are saying Mandrake - or whatever it is called now.

:)

Mandriva is the new Mandrake. It is always recommended as a good starting point because it has one of the friendlier interfaces out of the box and is more refined than some of the other 'hardcore' packages.