Chile Forum

Many, many thanks, Tomás, for your clear and direct instructions. I'll try to apply them.

tombrad2 wrote:In Ubuntu if there are no soundcard detected you may emulate a sound blaster 16

Click aplications accesories terminal, in terminal type

sudo gedit

enter your admin password
It will open a sort of word processor (gedit) click file open
/etc/modules

If no soundcard detected will open a blank document
write the following line

snd-sb 16

Save and close. then restart. With this sound may work

thanks tom, here is what i have under modules (/etc) - gedit

Ubuntu wrote:# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.

lp
sbp2

should i still write "snb-sb 16" ??? i know dumb question, but thanks to your skills at least i got this far!!!! i dont really know that i want a dummy system, but i am willing to learn but find it far too hard to get the information that i need when i need it, so thanks again
jon

hey one more thing: thelinuxstore in canada has a computer- 1.33 gigahertz motherboard, 512RAM 80gig harddrive and DVD readwrite for 219$C with ubuntu 7.10 loaded, and given my ongoing interest in producing family DVD's from my camcorder and computer, and given that i have spent 100$C "repairing" my old computer, and almost 100$C for my nonworking DVD readwrite that winduds doesnt seem able to use - altho the DVD was specifically stated to work with XP, and since film editing takes a LOT of hard drive space, and since my old computer probably has a bad motherboard - could i use my old 80gig drive as a second hard drive with a new computer such as the aforementioned one? in other words, can one have two harddrives on one computer?
thanks for reading such a long winded fluff filled post
jon

Hello longjohn

Well, most probable cause of no sound is that Linux do not recognized your soundcard at install time, or recognized erroneously.

If you google "ubuntu sound problems" will see lots of different ways on diferent specific hardware and Ubuntu versions (it is the linux problem), for me the sound blaster emulation worked, and may work for you, just try.

You just type bellow and try, that is:

# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.

lp
sbp2

snd-sb 16

If no effect just edit again and delete, try to find an howto for your specific case using Google

Suerte!

Oh, of course you can have 2 hard disks in the same computer, in primary-secundary or master-slave jumping.

Motherboards usually have 2 IDE connectors to hard disks and CDRom/DVD, every conector may use 2 devices. If you made 2 connections using the sameflat cable (Ita have 2 connectors) you have to set the jumpers in the back of the second hard disk in "slave" mode. Usually the HD has a label with the jumper positions.

If you intend to edit video I STRONGLY recomend you buy 2 Gigabytes RAM, taking the oportunity of low prices now in USA, they can send it by registred mail. With this amount of RAM you can also run several virtual machines in your equipment,

since i think one motherboard is defective (?) im gonna do what you say and join my harddiscs as you said. i looked for a distributor of linux stuff in canada and can get a package of 5 different linuxs for only 23canadian pounds (heh heh). but they come in 32 bit and 64 bit. they have not answered my email about which one i need - how can i tell which one my HP compac with AMD 3400 uses? muchisimas gracias
jon

Not sure but seems to me that your computer has AMD Sempron chip (64 bit), so, you may use any linux distro with the words "AMD64" included in the name. I have heard that if they have not the VIA chipset included is not easy to install Linux on it but you has just to try. Anyway if you hac¿ve time you can download at 0 cost any linux distro from the web, with my slow conection 300 kb/s It taked all nigth to download the gOS (based in Linux Ubuntu).

Anyway, try with google "amd 3400 hp compac linux" because probably the install willbe not easy,

tombrad2 wrote:Not sure but seems to me that your computer has AMD Sempron chip (64 bit), so, you may use any linux distro with the words "AMD64" included in the name.

thanks, i know what to order.

tombrad2 wrote:I have heard that if they have not the VIA chipset included is not easy to install Linux on it but you has just to try. Anyway if you hac¿ve time you can download at 0 cost any linux distro from the web

whats this about a VIA chipset? i downloaded my ubuntu copy from the web, and i guess i got it right because of their proofreading (?) software that said i had it correct. BUT i want to have 5 different linux versions, all with the correct stuff in them - NO errors(?)! it has

* Software Freedom Day 2007 CD
* Ubuntu Select 7.04 DVD - 4 Ubuntu versions on 1 DVD
* Fedora Desktop 7 DVD
* openSUSE 10.2 DVD
* Mandriva 2007.1
* Sabayon 3.4e DVD

all for only 23 loonies. such a deal.

tombrad2 wrote:Anyway, try with google "amd 3400 hp compac linux" because probably the install willbe not easy,

':('
jon

you have a lot of distros but you have to choose only one to install. I agree with Charles that Ubuntu may be not the best, but I reccomend you install it, because it is the most popular at this moment and the most complete with drivers (the main problem with Linux). From your disk
Ubuntu Select 7.04 DVD - 4 Ubuntu versions on 1 DVD

probably you will find some archives like:

ubuntu-7.04-desktop-amd64.iso
ubuntu-7.04-server-amd64.iso
ubuntu-7.04-desktop-i386.iso
ubuntu-7.04-server-i386.iso

I suggest you try first with ubuntu-7.04-desktop-amd64.iso and if this doensnt work try with ubuntu-7.04-desktop-i386.iso
(ignore "server" versions)

Anyway Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn is some outdated, newest version is Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon

You have a long way ahead, remember look for howtos, suerte!

gracias, tombrad, necessito mas oracion para reussir. creo que ubuntu seria el mejor pero me gustaria tratar los otros tambien. mi ubuntu me da el mensaje "BIOS bug: timer not connected to 10-AIPC"

y tambien quando empujo a f10 se dice "No se pubo iniciar el servidor X (su entorno gr/-ifico) debido a un error interno."

no say
jon

oh-oh, you have a long way ahead

tombrad2 wrote:oh-oh, you have a long way ahead

i downloaded gutsy gibbon last nite - 2.6 hours to download, 1.8 hours for something else, dunno how much longer as i went to bed. reiniciated this morning and what do ya know! i have sound and no problems getting on the internet - whereas with the ubuntu fiesty fawn wounded in the battle with winduds i could only get on 1/4 - 1/10 of the time and had no sound. now to check out if my kids can play their games and if i have youtube.':)'
edit: ubuntu's been working for a while now and id like to add the second hard drive. im considering going windowless as my 100gig drive has XP and my 80 gig drive has windows 98 - how can i get rid of one or both windows versions and still keep gutsy gibbon? id like a clean ribbon for my gutsy gibbon. ':D'
jon

I bought a new HP desktop computer for my wife two months ago. It came with Vista. Long story short: I hate Vista. So, I went looking for a Linux distribution. I read the opinions of others, and decided on PC Linux OS.

I bought a new HP laptop two weeks ago. I attempted to install the PC Linux OS on my own, as a dual boot, but failed. So, I hired somebody to install it for me. He spent five hours at my house. He tried and failed with PC Linux OS. He tried and failed with a distribution called Mepis. He was finally successful with the Fedora 7 distribution.

Everything was fine with Fedora 7, except that the wireless LAN card wouldn't work. So, he took my laptop to his house for a couple of days, and voila! I have a wireless capable Linux machine. I later found out that wireless is the bane of Linux. He also upgraded the operating system to Fedora 8.

So far, after a couple of days using Fedora 8, I am impressed with it. Though Fedora 8 has a Windows-like feel to it, it is going to take me some time to get used to the Linux way of things.

I've been wanting to dump Windows for a loooong time. I tried to run PC Linux OS from a live CD but it's not recognizing my video card and I don't know a work around. It's still a bit of a challenge for a non-techie windoze zombie like me to make a switch to linux. I may try Ubuntu 7.10. From what I've read, it and PC Linux OS are the two most Windows friendly Linux OS's. I'm still running XP though I hate Windows.

Sorry for not getting back to you, been off the reservation for a while.

The good news about your video card problems is that you where able to see the graphical installer, so on some level there is at least a basic driver that will work. You are getting that right? Typically what happens at that point is the video card is having problems getting the setting right automatically. For example, it is not able to detect correctly what resolutions are supported.

Do you know the specs on your video card? make and model?

At the black prompt screen type "drakconf" if it will let you. This should give a method of tweaking your video card. T

if it asks for your login prompt it should be user: root password:root
Normal user should be: guest and password guest

I am a little suspicious that you might be having some other problems, if those default passwords are not working on your livecd.

a plan B would be to try another live cd like Knoppix or mandriva one. Each live cd gets a slightly different set of the less used drivers added, so sometimes computers that will not boot with one will boot with the other. Knoppix is generally designed for systems work, and I as yet to see it not boot on a computer or detect the video card. I normally keep 2 or 3 live cds for such situations for emergency repair of an unknown system and try them all. Another option is to try the PClinuxos minime distro. If it works, your computer should fly because the whole distro is like 256 mb. You can then add the software you want once you get it installed. I am planning to put it on my old IBM PIII think pad with 256 mb of ram in it. I tested it and it blew away my other laptop's duel core processors performance. It is PClinuxOS, just even more stripped down. So, there are some options.

Plan C, pick up a new video card. Nvidia is best supported. ATI is very so , so under linux but getting better. Still a pain.

A good rule for buying hardware for linux is buy the most generic or widly used. Typically that is also the cheapest hardware, and chances are some techy bought it on sale also and wrote and released drivers because it was so cheap. Price in computers has very little to do with the quality of the parts. In fact, in linux the more super duper specialized a piece a hardware is the more of pain it is to deal with in general. Wireless cards and video cards are a pain because everyone is trying to hide their proprietary hardware specs, so people can not write proper drivers for open source. Most companies are coming around, but there are still a few that are kissing bill gates' **** in that outdated microsoft model of computers from the 1980's

admin wrote:Wireless cards and video cards are a pain because everyone is trying to hide their proprietary hardware specs, so people can not write proper drivers for open source. Most companies are coming around, but there are still a few that are kissing bill gates' **** in that outdated microsoft model of computers from the 1980's

The guy who installed Linux on my laptop said basically the same thing. Microsoft does not want hardware manufacturers to write Linux drivers because, if they did, it would make it easier for people to migrate over to Linux.

I can think of two instances where Microsoft has influenced people in order to maintain its dominance:

1. I told one of the IT guys where I work that I was going to try out Linux. He told me that Linux would screw up my machine.
2. A lady who has a nationally syndicated radio talk show centered on computers and technology told one of her callers recently that there is no support for Linux.

Having said that, I am not discouraging anyone from trying out Linux. Rather, if you find yourself wanting to try out Linux, don't be afraid to do so. I tried to do it myself, but I needed help. Find someone who knows Linux well and is willing to help you. There are signs that things are changing. For example, Dell offers a laptop with the Ubuntu operating distribution, which is Linux. And, there are other sellers of desktops and laptops already pre-loaded with Linux.