best upgrade path for the newbie.

[ardvark71]

Re: best upgrade path for the newbie.

256

Hi John...

256 MB's? I don't imagine you're getting much from your system.

Regards...

[Tezuka27]

Re: best upgrade path for the newbie.

No, Aardvark - I'm not. This is a genuine exercise in frustration. I'm used to reasonably fast computers with a couple of gigs of ram - but I smelled the faint hint of burning plastic the other night and in the morning, my machine wouldn't power up.

Anyway, I apologize in advance. I know it says to read the forum and search. I've been searching, but search engines on forums and I just don't seem to think in the same manner. I almost never get fruitful returns from them.

Here's where I am. I've shrunk my original partition and added a second partition for the new Kubuntu install, using the partition manager on the Natty live cd that I burned from an ISO. It's painfully slow, but the computer works under Natty booted from the CD drive. I figured, what the hell, I already have the bootable CD, let's install from here instead of jumping through the extra multiple hoops of making a bootable USB Flash Drive.

Every time I try to install Natty either from the desktop icon or the system (I think it was system) menu, the cd drive cranks for a minute or two and then stops and the graphics lock up (cursor locks in place) until I reboot the machine. This pretty much means that even if I knew where to look, there's no way for me to get to a log to see what's happening. Is there a command line install I should try or another method, or should I try Maverick instead?

Thanks again,

john

*Leo got it right the first time*
*Then he added a second pickup and got it righter*

[ardvark71]

Re: best upgrade path for the newbie.

Is there a command line install I should try or another method, or should I try Maverick instead?

Hi John...

In all honesty, I really don't think you would get any better results using Maverick. Even if it installs correctly, the performance would still be dreadful.

Perhaps a better option for your system is to give Lubuntu a try. It's designed with older systems in mind, with 128 MB's of memory being stated as the minimum amount needed to run a functional system. I've installed it before and while I found it stable, it doesn't have any eye candy to speak of. Very basic in appearance. It actually reminded me of Windows 95.

I also wrote a small review here if you're interested.

Hope this helps...

[Tezuka27]

Re: best upgrade path for the newbie.

Aardvark - thanks so much for the suggestion. I downloaded, tried, and installed Lubuntu, and it's great! Coming off the flash drive, it runs circles around the Kubuntu install.

I now have only one problem, and I feel like a fool, but I cannot get Lubuntu to boot from the installation, only the flash drive. It's installed on the hard drive in its' own partition, but when I start the machine, it defaults to Kubuntu Gutsy without any obvious options to boot with Lubuntu. On launch, I go into the boot manager with the f-12 key, but none of the options there allow the machine to boot into Lubuntu either (except for #5, which is the flash drive option).

I then booted Lubuntu from the Flash Drive and used GParted to play with the partition and reassign boot status to the Lubuntu partition, which appears to have "taken" (whenever I launch GParted, the Lubuntu partition comes up with Boot status), but upon reboot, no joy.

Any time I've two OS on a windows machine, or even a Unix box, it's always given me an option on which to boot to. :P :P :P

Thanks,
john

*Leo got it right the first time"
*Then he added a second pickup and got it righter*

I'm sure the answer is really simple, but at the moment, it appears to be beyond me. As always, any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated

[ardvark71]

Re: best upgrade path for the newbie.

Hi John...

You're welcome, glad to help.

Hmm, apart from reinstalling Lubuntu from a CD to the partition you've created, I'm not sure how to advise you. However, I did find this thread that may help.

Regards...

[oshunluvr]

Re: best upgrade path for the newbie.

Gparted has nothing to do with the boot process per se and marking a partition "bootable" is a windows requirement, not linux. Sounds to me like you need to work on your Grub install.

Without knowing how you've actually done your install and which version of grub you're using I can't give any advice, but there are dozens of post on various ways to fix it. If you can't find any applicable, start a new thread.

[Pondus]

Re: best upgrade path for the newbie.

I would first try to boot into Gutsy and edit its /boot/grub/menu.lst (if I remember the name and path right...). There you can add the boot-parameters for your new Lubuntu install and unhide the boot menu. May the old grub of Gutsy which obviously still has control over the boot process is able to load Lubuntu.

Or you could try to boot from the Lubuntu live-system and try to reinstall Lubuntu's grub into the MBR of the first partition, overwriting the one of Gutsy.

[vinnywright]

Re: best upgrade path for the newbie.

should be even easer than that; even the old grub has the update-grub option and should find the Lubuntu and add it.

so boot into Gutsy and do

sudo update-grub

and see if it finds it .

if not from in Gutsy post your menu.lst and the output of fdisk -l and maby we can help.

VINNY

[Tezuka27]

Re: best upgrade path for the newbie.

Thanks everyone. Here's where I now stand. I tracked down my menu.lst and edited it with Kwrite - changed my sleep time from 3 to 30 seconds and unhid the menu. Then I finally found basic operating instructions for Grub (more or less), rather than the updated Grub2 instructions that most everyone's pushing. I edited again and copied the default set up for Kubuntu Gutsy Gibbon and pasted that in as my last entry and then edited it for what I thought was appropriate (I'll take the liberty of including it here, if anyone has suggestions), saved it and rebooted. I was allowed to select the choice, but I've got something wrong as it didn't recognize it. I wish I remember the error message but I've forgotten it. Here's the new entry to the menu.lst:

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu gutsy (development branch), kernel 2.6.22-12-generic
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-12-generic root=UUID=d98f5fb5-fb35-4c10-81de-d46287d5f06f ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-12-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu gutsy (development branch), kernel 2.6.22-12-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-12-generic root=UUID=d98f5fb5-fb35-4c10-81de-d46287d5f06f ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-12-generic

title Ubuntu gutsy (development branch), memtest86+
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

title Lubuntu, kernel 3.0.0-12-generic
root (hd0,2)
kernel /%2fLubuntu/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-12-generic root=UUID=d98f5fb5-fb35-4c10-81de-d46287d5f06f
ro quiet splash
initrd /%2fLubuntu/boot/initrd.img-3.0.0-12-generic
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

The first three entries are the file as I found it - the last entry is my attempt to write what I thought should be there to allow Lubuntu to launch from Grub.
The /%2fLubuntu strikes me as a bit squirelly - that's the new partition I made (sda3) and I wasn't sure what to name it, so I called it Lubuntu, but it ended up with the %2f in there. I'm a hopeless mess.

john

*Leo got it right the first time*
*Then he added a second pick up and got it righter*

[Tezuka27]

Re: best upgrade path for the newbie.

If anyone could tell me how a second partition is supposed to appear on a hard drive, it would be very helpful. I can't remember if they're supposed to be a second file system, of if they somehow mount under root of the first partition. I'm suspecting that I've messed this one up by trying to tie it in under root of the first partition, so I'm going to repartition and try to figure something else out for that, and then re-install Lobuntu.

Once again, any advice (or even straight answers ), is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

john

*Leo got it right the first time*
*Then Leo added a second pick up and got it righter*

[Tezuka27]

Re: best upgrade path for the newbie.

Got it all figured out - more or less. Thanks for the help.

john

*Leo got it right the first time*
*Then he added a second pickup and got it righter*

[Pondus]

Re: best upgrade path for the newbie.

Got it all figured out - more or less. Thanks for the help.

What's the more and what's the less?