Linux Problem

[Methos]

I brought an old computer out of storage and installed Gentoo Linux on it. It appeared to work just fine. I removed the install disk and when I restarted the computer it started up in windows safe mode. One, why was windows not removed and two, how can I get linux to start by default?

Note: This is my first time using Linux.

 

[Padma]

Not being very familiar with the Gentoo installer, and not knowing just what you *did* do, it might be hard to pinpoint the problem.

Some general things: Did you install the bootloader (probably GRUB)? Did you install it to the MBR?

 

[Strider]

Not being very familiar with the Gentoo installer, and not knowing just what you *did* do, it might be hard to pinpoint the problem.

Some general things: Did you install the bootloader (probably GRUB)? Did you install it to the MBR?

My experience with Gentoo about a year ago was that the bootloader is not installed by default, but rather needs to be installed by itself.

 

[Methos]

To be honest, I'm not sure what I installed. I put the disk in and just as it popped up asking me to press F1 for kernels and F2 for other options, my daughter made a run for the keyboard. I didn't realize you had to press them within a certain time limit so when I took our daughter back to mom, it continued on with the install. The thing is, the install disk appears to not clean everything off, hence my also having a copy of windows on it (which I thought this comp had been wiped).

In other words, I don't know what was installed. Will probably just reinstall it and try again.

 

[Shadylookin]

Note: This is my first time using Linux.

I'm going to strongly recommend you not start with gentoo. Gentoo is a cruel beast.

I recommend you try

ubuntu
fedora
mandriva
suse

I really recommend new users stay away from anything that is gentoo or slackware based

 

[Methos]

II recommend you try

ubuntu
fedora
mandriva
suse

I really recommend new users stay away from anything that is gentoo or slackware based

My understanding is that gentoo is best for what I need. What I need is something for file-sharing and a mini-server. In fact, the computer will sit in a corner connected to my network where it will primarily be accessed via the family computer. There will be some access via the computer itself (wife already talking about surfing the net with it).

Due to my needs, what version do you (or anyone) suggest?

 

[lndm]

I'll second that. Gentoo is not for the faint hearted

The ones mentioned by Shadylookin should do what you want.

Fedora and Suse are examples of serious systems that have been made user friendly. Ubuntu and Mandriva take the user friendliness to the next level, in my opinion.

 

[Shadylookin]

My understanding is that gentoo is best for what I need. What I need is something for file-sharing and a mini-server. In fact, the computer will sit in a corner connected to my network where it will primarily be accessed via the family computer. There will be some access via the computer itself (wife already talking about surfing the net with it).

Due to my needs, what version do you (or anyone) suggest?

gentoo is pretty complicated and time consuming. by the time you get everything compiled from source you'll probably have lost all interested in using it.

well if you want to surf the net you're not going to want a plain old server distro.

if your computer meets these requirements consider xubuntu.

Xubuntu can be installed with one of 2 CDs, both requiring at least 1.5GB of hard drive space. Installing with the Desktop CD requires 192 MB of RAM, while the Alternate CD (which uses a text based installer), requires 64 MB of RAM, and also allows access to additional options for the installation.[2] Once installed, Xubuntu can run with 192 MB RAM, but it is strongly recommended to have at least 256 MB RAM.

Linux OS's are well known for not hogging a lot of resources. For instance a full featured ubuntu installation's requirements are

The desktop version of Ubuntu currently supports the Intel x86 and the AMD64 architectures. Some server releases also support the SPARC architecture[53][54]. Unofficial support is available for the PowerPC,[55] IA-64 (Itanium) and PlayStation 3 architectures.

The minimum system requirements for a desktop installation are a 300 MHz x86 processor, 64 MB of RAM, 4 GB of hard drive space,[56] and a video card which supports VGA at 640x480 resolution. The recommended system requirements for the desktop installation are a 700 MHz x86 processor, 384 MB of RAM, 8 GB of hard drive space,[56] and a video card which supports VGA at 1024×768 resolution.

if your computer meets those recommended requirements I'd strongly recommend using ubuntu, I would say it is by far the most new user friendly distro I've ever used and it's just as powerful and versatile as any other linux distro.

 

[uppi]

My understanding is that gentoo is best for what I need. What I need is something for file-sharing and a mini-server. In fact, the computer will sit in a corner connected to my network where it will primarily be accessed via the family computer. There will be some access via the computer itself (wife already talking about surfing the net with it).

Due to my needs, what version do you (or anyone) suggest?

If the hardware is a bit older and it is primarily used as some sort of server, I'd use Debian. Debain has the advantage that it's quite solid and easy to maintain (especially if you use the stable version). The drawback of Debian is, that you won't get much of the new shiny and flashy stuff ubuntu usually has and the multimedia stuff can require some work. But if the primary use is server and not desktop, that doesn't matter much.

The install shouldn't be too hard, although properly configuring the server functions might be harder, especially as Debian isn't great on documentation. A trick is to look at documentation of other distros (e.g. Gentoo) to see what configurations to make.

I only would use Gentoo if you want to learn a lot about Linux and have free time to tinker with the system. The documentation for Gentoo is great, but it isn't exactly easy to maintain. On upgrades stuff will break sooner or later, and although it's usually a quick fix, you have to invest the time to find and apply it.

And sadly it feels like Gentoo has been going downhill in the recent years.

 

[lndm]

I'd also like to clarify distributions. Generally speaking, all distros can do all things. The main difference between them is how they present their parts.

Linus Torvalds was once asked what distro he uses. He explained at the time that it wasn't really important as he could configure any one of them to do what he wanted.

That said, it tends to help if the distro already emphasises what you want, however.... one designed for some particular thing might still be harder for the newcomer to set up than setting up that same thing on a distro designed for newcomers..... and sometimes setting up one thing can be extremely tedious.

In conclusion, I think you need to try them until you find one that pleases you, and don't be put off if one isn't helpful enough.

 

[Padma]

For a (nearly) strictly server system, I would suggest Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) or CentOS. For a more user-friendly system, I would expand that to include Mandriva.

My own, personal preference for what you want would be to use BEL (Business Edition Linux). It is a spinoff from PCLinuxOS (which was originally a fork from Mandrake/Mandriva). PCLinuxOS is, IMHO, the hands-down most newbie-friendly distro available. BEL takes that, and makes server operations friendly as well.

Of course, the best way to find the right distro is to try them. Not everyone likes PCLOS, and the things I dislike about their distros may be what they do like.

 

[croxis]

I must also echo not to use gentoo, slackware, or arch as your first foray into linux, including servers. Also learning linux just from the command line (unless you are comfortable with cl in general) is also very daunting.

Here is my suggestion. Download a virtual machine (such as virtualbox.org) and install linux into a virtual machine, OR use Ubuntu's wubi installer (http://wubi-installer.org/) which installs Ubuntu as a windows programs, so no need to format. That way you can get use to the way linux does things, how package management and networking works, and all that fun stuff.

One you feel comfortable with that you can install your distribution of choice. Debian is good but it does require some set up as all you get is a basic system (unless I am mistaken). Several distributions, such as ubuntu, also offer server based editions which can configure some of these things for you during setup. Server based distributions are usually command line only. If you are looking at something with a gui then I suggest a lightweight variant of ubuntu such as xubuntu.org

If you have any questions I am in chat most days at most hours.

 

[GVBN]

Gentoo is one of the worst choices for a first time user. Compiling everything from source isn't going to make your system that much more optimized

My favorite is Arch Linux. It's lightweight and fairly simple, kinda feels like a binary-based Gentoo without a horrible installation

 

[Beam]

If you want to go the Ubuntu road and system resources are an issue try Xubuntu.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xubuntu

 

[shieldfire]

I brought an old computer out of storage and installed Gentoo Linux on it. It appeared to work just fine. I removed the install disk and when I restarted the computer it started up in windows safe mode. One, why was windows not removed and two, how can I get linux to start by default?

Note: This is my first time using Linux.

My guess is that the CD you used is a so called "Live CD". That is that Linux boots and runs from the CD unless you actually install it. When you removed the CD and rebooted you were back in the unaltered OS.

 

[shieldfire]

gentoo is pretty complicated and time consuming. by the time you get everything compiled from source you'll probably have lost all interested in using it.

My understanding is that Gentoo doesn't use stage 1 or 2 as default any longer, so everything you initially install (by defaultt) is actually precompiled. You can run a stage 1 or 2 installation still, but it isn't the default.

That said, I wouldn't recommend Gentoo as a first Linux experience. Much better would be something that just works. Currently (due to time constraints) I'm running Mandriva 2009 which I would recommend over Ubuntu as I hate Gnome, or Kubuntu as you miss the mickey-mouse security of the Ubuntu familly.

THAT said, this is the territory of religious warfare, and not really constructive - to each his/her own. But make an informed decision.

 

[Till]

If the hardware is a bit older and it is primarily used as some sort of server, I'd use Debian. Debain has the advantage that it's quite solid and easy to maintain (especially if you use the stable version). The drawback of Debian is, that you won't get much of the new shiny and flashy stuff ubuntu usually has and the multimedia stuff can require some work. But if the primary use is server and not desktop, that doesn't matter much.

The install shouldn't be too hard, although properly configuring the server functions might be harder, especially as Debian isn't great on documentation. A trick is to look at documentation of other distros (e.g. Gentoo) to see what configurations to make.

I only would use Gentoo if you want to learn a lot about Linux and have free time to tinker with the system. The documentation for Gentoo is great, but it isn't exactly easy to maintain. On upgrades stuff will break sooner or later, and although it's usually a quick fix, you have to invest the time to find and apply it.

And sadly it feels like Gentoo has been going downhill in the recent years.

I second this. Debian is easy to install and setting it up as a network fileserver is a walk in the park. It's also reasonably lightweight out of the box.
My 190MB RAM server gets by with little swap access, even though i haven't made any effort in reducing memory usage besides stopping the x server.

 

[Methos]

Hehe, now that my wife knows I'm setting it up she wants me to set it up with internet access and a desktop. So, whats good for file sharing, mini-server, and internet/desktop use? I'm considering going with ubuntu, though still looking around. Weekends are my best time to mess with it.

 

[Shadylookin]

My understanding is that Gentoo doesn't use stage 1 or 2 as default any longer, so everything you initially install (by defaultt) is actually precompiled. You can run a stage 1 or 2 installation still, but it isn't the default.

That said, I wouldn't recommend Gentoo as a first Linux experience. Much better would be something that just works. Currently (due to time constraints) I'm running Mandriva 2009 which I would recommend over Ubuntu as I hate Gnome, or Kubuntu as you miss the mickey-mouse security of the Ubuntu familly.

THAT said, this is the territory of religious warfare, and not really constructive - to each his/her own. But make an informed decision.

well ultimately for the experienced user the distinctions between distros come down to mere personal preference.

Hehe, now that my wife knows I'm setting it up she wants me to set it up with internet access and a desktop. So, whats good for file sharing, mini-server, and internet/desktop use? I'm considering going with ubuntu, though still looking around. Weekends are my best time to mess with it.

I'm going to stick to my guns and say these are the best options for you

ubuntu
fedora
mandriva
suse

 

[croxis]

Without knowing the exact system specs i am still going to recommended the light xubuntu (which uses xfce as the gui) vs ubuntu (which uses the heavyer gnome for the gui).

The nice thing is if you install one you can always install the other without a problem!