Please Help an Extreme Newbie

[Tuxic]

Hello everybody! This is my first post here, and I need some help installing Linux (which has a problem). Let me first summarise my time with Linux (a couple of weeks) as shortly as possible...

-Downloaded Kubuntu(K) and Ubuntu(U) i386 iso LiveCD's

-Found Ubuntu simpler (and less irritating with K-less names ), but liked the looks of Kubuntu

- The installer of U was very slow and crashed when partition program started, but K was super fast and I actually did install it once on my computer (dual boot with XP). First run with installation was good, but in the second run the resolutions were screwed-up. I type the dpkg-configure thing into the terminal...something went wrong during the process, and K wouldn't start.

- Being absolutely new to partitions, I just deleted the part of the hard disk that was taken by K (probably I misread an instruction somewhere ), which became a few hundred MB of free space and 18GB of unallocated space (For the first install I had let K take the max. free space)

- I tried installing once again, but it wouldn't

- But I have somehow managed to free up almost the same amount of free space, but now when I start K, I get a SIGABRT 6 message saying that Desktop crashed or something asking me to send a bug report. I get something similar when trying to install.


PLEASE HELP!!!

Hope that was a short intro.

I've been an MS user all my life till last week and I don't have much experience (actually none) dealing with things "outside" the OS.

-
Navneeth

[John Bird]

Re: Please Help an Extreme Newbie

Hi,
I am fairly new to Linux myself, but the following should work download the alternate CD boot from this when it get to the point to partition and format the harddrive select manual and just delete the partition's that Linux occupies there will be two if you did a default install once this is done if you want to use the live install disc eject the alternate CD and replace it with the live CD and reboot now follow the normal install.
I think your problem with Xserver may not have been your fault please see the following link, there is no problem now and it is safe to update.
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=8126.0

Regards John

[Tuxic]

Re: Please Help an Extreme Newbie

Hello, John.

I could be wrong, but I don't think the problem is with the CD. There's something "inside" the computer that recognises the problem. I even burnt a new CD of Kubuntu, and it came with the same problem. I don't have anything stored on my computer that has to do with Linux, at least as far as I can see.

This is what happened: There were two drives, F: and G:, a space of 40GB was divided more or less equally among them. I installed it in G and later deleted it from there (just did a 'Delete partition' from Windows). But since it became unallocated, and also since I couldn't install it again there, I made into a Primary partition (the only option available), and shifted the stuff from F to G. F, being a Logical drive, was deleted to make some free space. That's how it is now. Yet I cannot install it.

Btw, I would prefer to let Kubuntu do the install in the free space. I haven't done much with regards to partitioning hard disks.


Re:

I think your problem with Xserver may not have been your fault please see the following link, there is no problem now and it is safe to update.
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=8126.0

Hmmm...Actually, I faced a similar problem with the Ubuntu Live CD, but this time I took care in answering the questions and it (the LiveCD) worked properly after a restart.