Tag Archives: couple days

Can’t Boot Into Linux?

Posted on July 23, 2010 | 5 Comments

Well this has happened with most of the Linux distributions that I’ve tried to install and run. What happens is that I install Linux okay, then it tells me to reboot. Fine. Theoretically (and from what I’ve heard), Linux is supposed to boot instead of Vista initially right after you first install Linux. Well, no such luck. I install Linux then when I reboot, I go right into Vista. I don’t even get a ‘What OS Would You Like To Boot Into’ or anything. Why is that? I’ve spent the past couple days trying to get Sabayon, 64 Studio, and recently, Kubuntu to run, but all in vain. I can boot into the Live CD, I can install the OS, but then I just can’t boot into it. The only Linux that ever worked for me was Mint and Ubuntu (which I personally didn’t care for), but I want to try other Linux distributions before I say ‘Mint is for me’, especially Sabayon, because I think Sabayon is better than Mint (in my opinion from what I’ve experienced on the Live CD). Mint doesn’t have a KDE version either (at least none that I’m currently aware of. If someone could point me to a link to a x64-bit KDE Mint, that’s be great. I’ve already tried googling it, so please don’t suggest that) and Kubuntu IS the KDE Ubuntu. The only two things that I can think that are a problem are;
1) Linux is being installed on a separate hard disk (but this shouldn’t be a problem seeing as Mint and Ubuntu worked perfectly) and
2) The Linux drive is being formatted in ext3 (which also should not be a problem I would think)

Can anyone help me? I’m really on my last string with Linux at this point, but I don’t want to give up already, however I’m just about ready to.
I would write a really long line of text, but it would just be mainly jargon. So to make a long story short; when I switch to Linux as the boot drive, I still can’t boot into it and it says something along the lines of ‘insert bootable media and restart’ or something like that.

Also, my main hard drive is on SATA and Linux is on IDE, so I can’t really physically switch them (as far as I know at least)

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Should I install xubuntu, or stick with windows xp pro on my system?

Posted on July 14, 2010 | 3 Comments

I just got an old laptop from a family member a couple days ago (256mb of ram, 600 mhz celeron processor, and 8mb video ram) that has windows xp pro on it. It runs surprisingly well, however I want to try linux (preferably xubuntu, because it will be my first linux computer and I need it to run well on my old computer). Most of the applications I use are ported from linux anyways (open office, gimp, inkscape, firefox), so I don’t have a problem there. The most important thing to me would be a speedy operating system that doesn’t hang often. Do you think it would be a good idea to switch to xubuntu?

Also, it turns out that the copy of xp pro on this system is not genuine, as I ran the tool from microsoft (the people I got the laptop from don’t remember how they got xp since the computer is so old, but it seems to have come with ME and was upgraded. However, the only thing that that seems to mean is that I can’t get updates, but the rest of the operating system works fine. I think that means that if uninstall xp, I won’t be able to get it back.

PS: I tried the live cd, and xubuntu looked good but I can’t really make my decision based on that as it suffers a performance decrease because it is running off a cd. Thanks and sorry for the long question.
My hard drive is only 10gb (only 4gb left with windows installed) so I can’t really try wubi or dual boot.

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