start up to blank screen every time. live disk works but won't install. (again)

[Snowhog]

The only real downside to E.S. Raymond's guide, is it's to long. Almost any 'newbie' looking for immediate help would never take the time to read it.

[SteveRiley]

Wow... it's been many years since I last read that. Thanks for the reminder!

[FezMiester]

First of all i ant to say that I really appreciate you guys.
--the little computer we are talking about --- which is all I have now-- (i've had Intelistations & Itronix gobooks and all but.. ;z)) NOW--

Item Type: NetBook PC
Screen Size: 13"
Brand Name: HZONE

Processor Manufacture: Intel
Color: White
web cam / no mic jack!
Hard Drive Capacity: 320GB
Processor Main Frequency: Intel Atom D2500 1.86GHz
Memory Capacity: 2GB
Feature: Wifi & bluetooth& 3G
Operating System: came with (no disk) Windows 7
Display resolution: 1024x768
Weight: 2500 g
Model Number: HZ-A141
Processor Model: Intel Atom
Place of Origin: Guangdong, China (Mainland)
Graphics Card Type: Integrated Card
Optical Drive Type: NULL

I would like to boot to kubuntu or suse and have the other on a 2nd partition & maybe a third as Debian already installed and loaded with my packages so I can switch if the first gets rocky while i figure out what to do about the first. I May be better served by having a auto-backup system installed so I keep stability through easy reversal of package installs. 320 isn't a huge drive but I have external drives and ipod etc 1 250gig partition will easily hold all my necessary files after duplication. Computer will depart with me in about a week to China as i have taken a job at a privet school teaching English. (Firewall questions)

Ok a lengthy unasked for explanation of my usage: A over organizer of information. Virgo/Leo Myers&brigs: intj
i know I'm the type of Linux user that knows enough to be dangerous but not enough to fix his mistakes.

About 8 years ago someone put a Suse box on my desk next to my windows box and I used the windows box for my database needs. I used to run a business where i compiled all the public databases of most counties in Florida into Access and bought and sold tax certificates. if i had a SQL platform for dummies i'd love it. Because even though I don't do any database work anymore I still get some sick thrill out of compiling as much information into linked databases as I can. I have an even greater fascination with mind mapping. In my opinion VUE (tuffs university) is the only platform that is really slick.
I had hopes for OBM being my key in linux but I never got it to work. -- to collaborate with other people online / contact management.
(you could do this in google.. but privacy -forget it.
Mindjet-- for free might be my juice.

Past actual uses-
Meanwhile Suse and then Kubuntu was a multi media box for me. processing all the music / open office / torrentz to ipod----;z)

( I like 'the teaching company' products for example' & TED. for example - safe downloading, windows is a joke for heavy internet users.

If anyone ever used the win program: ' Time & Chaos ', this I think was the height of contact management in windows. outlook was never my cup of tea. This program had the feeling of a mac- all drag and drop with the great time sequencing. & many integrations as you could want. i still never have found a replacement. Thunderbird is to inbox centric same with epiphany.

belief: social networks, Skype(!) are critical for self promotion-jobs, business growth, finding your ' tweet deck ' and our new power to broadcast 1 to many should be used. Even slowly and badly at first. how to do this best in linux?

sea monkey (or something better) is going in... : A goal
i own undeveloped web sites like:
moneyeasyfast.com
grouproject.com
thistoshallpass.com
tradeagreement.us
drewmccarty.com
deathofweb.com
yogaposeshelp.com
to name a few,

I tried. ;z)

[FezMiester]

well, I reinstalled Kubuntu

I actually manually assigned the partitions! therefor they are probabily all mesed up ;z)

anyway it installed and so far the only error message I have gotten is this one in the post install update.. hah

Failed to download http://gr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/...u2.3_amd64.deb
403 Forbidden
----
however flash was installed, afterstalled, and I got synaptic in..

I couldn't get gparted to work or other partition software to work on the Debian that was installed due to unresolvable dependancy issues. - so.

I used get-apt to install synaptic,
and I can't find it in the kickoff menue..
but going to terminal I can just typ synaptic and it launchs.
1. it says I don't have administrative privlages..
2. it loads and says I have a broken package - and that I can't upgrade the system because ot it. -- the error above?


aghhhhhh
partition manager output
Partition ‘/dev/sdc1’ does not end at a cylinder boundary (last sector: 3,911,679, modulo: 7,885).
besides tht it says I now have a 298gig hard drive instead of a 320.. (I know I left 4gigs unused but 20?) lol

[Snowhog]

There must be something you have left out/have not told us about. Before anyone can give qualified assistance, we need to know that you have a 'vanilla' installation -- one from the LiveCD and without any further modifications. I would suggest that you re-install again, wiping out EVERYTHING (format all partitions used for Kubuntu).

[FezMiester]

reinstalled kubuntu as you sugested, simpler partitions withe the edition of one ext for boot of 1gig which i thought might be more stable and be benifitial for mutli booting later..

I've only had it up a few minutes but the first thing i notice is this:
fezmiester@leaf:~$ apt-get update E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/apt/lists/lock - open (13: Permission denied) E: Unable to lock directory /var/lib/apt/lists/ E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (13: Permission denied) E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root? fezmiester@leaf:~$

i went into settings and made sure I had a good password (as if loging in wasn't good enough) so updated password.. entering password in terminal after this or typing y or something isn't the solution.. in Debian you can go to root teriminal easily here you just go to one terminal.. ;z(/
mmm
muon doesn't have 'synaptic' in it??

somthing fishy lol

from kubuntu 12.04

[Snowhog]

You have to run apt-get update 'as root':

sudo apt-get update

Muon does have synaptic. Are you running Muon Software Center instead of Muon Package Manager? Muon Package Manager will show synaptic. You could also install synaptic from the command line:

sudo apt-get install synaptic

[FezMiester]

Thanks Snowhog,

yep that worked.

Unfortunately,
after choosing a pile of packages to install in synaptic
libraoffice.
empathy
telepathy
libpurple
minitube
radiotray
backup ninja
dropbox

pretty much that but-etc

It has frozen on the spot..
extracting templates from packages: 100%
configuring packages .. It's been stuck there like 45 minutes now.

along with the screen Postfix configuration
after picking internet server..
the next panel: system email name:

it has root in there, and I can't change it. it's just sitting 'configuring -- -- too long
and I can't change the postfix configuration.. I can't go forward / back / or change the name.

so it's frozen. I haven't learned that I can't mix packages and download them together or ... something else.. which is what crashed this system in the first place 2 weeks ago, except that I didn't add OBM this time.
so if I restart ouf of this I'm afraid that I will go back to the original title of this thread.

sigh*

I can go to kickoff and open a new terminal - but I dunno what to put in it..

1 hour no change.

there was also a notification that there were updates.. however starting updates when the system is not working never worked well before so I got rid of that message.

I'm going to let the machine sit there until someone tells me what to do this time.

[Snowhog]

In a new terminal just type:

sudo shutdown -r now

Enter your user password and the system will safely shutdown and reboot. Log back in and come back into KFN.

[SteveRiley]

Postfix is an SMTP email server. The package includes a configuration script, which is waiting for your input. You have to finish the script before you can do anything else. Just hit [Enter] for all the prompts. Then when all of the installers have finished, drop to a command line and run

sudo apt-get purge postfix

Fez, you really need to slow down and do only one thing at a time. I have no clue how you managed to trigger an installation of Postfix on a desktop machine. Judging from your posts, it appears that you sometimes make guesses about what you think you need without taking the time to prior research. Please, once more, start with a completely clean computer -- wipe all your drives. Then perform a standard install from a Kubuntu live CD. Only after that, come back here, explain what else you want, and allow us to offer suggestions.

[FezMiester]

thanks Snoghog that worked-

Steve,
Regarding your post

- Thanks
Well,
It may appear that I didn't go and read up on PostFix as soon as it popped up; but I did go and start reading about it and it's uses.
However the main point to me was that when ever a app on any computer comes up and refuses to respond to anything- it's frozen.
therefor I figured it was that program that was killing the install of the rest of packages.
however partial broken installs are death anywhere.

One 'problem', is that I have had 1 machine running a version of Linux around me for years. So I know some things I want it to put on it. I know what programs I want it to have. so I just go and add them all at once. Because they have been tried out on previous systems before over time.
(why haven't I learned commands? shrugs* I had one genius/crazy friend who lived around the corner who would come over all the time anyway and keep it in shape. He got brain cancer -end of story- Now... I'm learning what he was doing and not bothering to show me.

so yes I am dumping everything on this machine at once, but I only have 2 days left before I fly to China and I dunno what I'll have really to deal with there.
Maybe I am over-critical of the internet situation there and I should expect to work on this slowly there but- if not.

(Having my old laptop die 2-3 weeks ago and buying this new one and trying to get it ready wasn't great timing but life is funny that way)

so -- rebooted.


"unable to mark upgrades -muon
not all packages could be marked for upgrade,. the available upgrades may require new packages to be installed.
or removed. do you want to mark upgrades that ...... require the installation or removal of additional packages?

My first reaction to this message is 'of course'. run! However bearing in mind that I should slow down I am not pressing that mark upgrades button.

F;z

[vinnywright]

do the updates in a terminal

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

or replace dist-upgrade with upgrade as the dist-upgrade will probably pull in a newer KDE version ,,,,,,,,but that would be good

VINNY

[FezMiester]

chuga

hmmm a completely new error!
synatiks:
No touchpad was found in this system. If the system has a touchpad, please make sure that the synaptics driver is properly installed and configured.
If your touchpad is not found, though the driver is installed and configured correctly, please compile detailed information about your touchpad hardware and report this issue to the issue new
the touchpad and 2 buttons work fine on this - in every distro wherever - I can't say I am in love with them but that isn't linux's fault

mmmm
I was going to attach the output of the update and upgrade in terminal. however when I go >> advanced repy >> attarchment all I et is a white 4" wide line underneath -- no file pick up. - mmm I'ts not a photo or a video.. and the aperclip button / attachments isn't activating a popup or something. - do you want it?

Does anyone use Tor project? this would seem to solve my china firewall problems...

[FezMiester]

Hi! well I had a minute at my new job to sign in and say YO peeps. It's hot and sunny in Qingdao China. Always humid it seems as well. & stuff isn't lower cost then America;mostly. That surprised me ;z) Ok a bus ticket is maybe .13c or something but... Aptments are .. 200-500$
friendly people.. bad smells.. strange mix of clothing syles... almost random combinations.

Right now the machine won't turn on. I think the power adapter/ chord is blown. The power cord made in China couldn't handle china power or something.. Have to see about that. it worked the first fiew days here.

I (unfortionatly) found a technology instructor at the fine art university and he showed me his servers.. I was reasonably impressed and I let him take a look at the netbook. The next thing I knew I had been reinstalled to ubuntu/ gnome on the computer. Gnome I don't mind at all. but I get this error.. I can't remember it's been days since it started up. - lol -
Maybe installing 32x would be a solution? It seems like it wasn't likeing the 64x or I was getting an error with that in the title.

(from terminal at work)

In the trip here, my 1 backup drive of EVERYTHING. got STOLEN. mofo- since this has been coppied onto the laptop bultible times between multible reformats.... (when I find a way to get it to boot... I hope I can recover the files.... ya think?

[SteveRiley]

I was reasonably impressed and I let him take a look at the netbook. The next thing I knew I had been reinstalled to ubuntu/ gnome on the computer.

since this has been coppied onto the laptop bultible times between multible reformats.... (when I find a way to get it to boot... I hope I can recover the files.... ya think?

You loaned your computer to someone who managed to replace your desktop environment? That's rather astonishing. Also dangerous, I'd think. You can no longer trust that machine, nor can you trust anything on it. Time for yet another rebuild, and no, you shouldn't attempt to preserve anything.