robodestructo
01-04-2009, 03:14 AM
Guide to Linux
I just wanted to introduce some of you to linux if eilio already hasnt. To fix my computer, I had to make a linux boot disk, and I then went and backed up all my files safely.
Here are some things that Linux has that Windows does not:
3-d Cube to switch between desktop
4 Desktops for extra space
Window effects like the page burning or exploding in rainbow (must have berly project(free))
Window effects like the page wobbling like jelly as you move it around
Open Source
Toolbar Customization (The ability to put apps on your tool bar and to have multiple toolbars)
Free
Low RAM Requirements (256MB)
Free Graphics Customization (Beryl, Lookingglass)
Free Boot Disk Usage (incase you dont feel like installing)
The Negatives:
Many lesser-known programs dont have versions for it
Doesnt support NTFS (the hard-drive formatting that windows uses:
This gets in the way when you wanna access your files through a boot disk, to solve this follow instructions:
Once the system has started up, the first thing you want to do is choose Places \ Computer from the menu.
This should show you all the drives available in the system, including your Windows drive. In my case, that is the 52.4 GB volume.
You can try and double-click on the drive to open it… and if it immediately works then lucky you! Most of the time it's going to give you an error saying "Unable to mount the volume", because Windows didn't shut it down cleanly.
Click the Details link so that you can see the full message, and leave this window open. You'll see a "Choice 2″ in the message, which includes the commands to force Ubuntu to use that drive even though there's something wrong.
What you'll want to do is open a new Terminal from Applications \ Accessories \ Terminal on the top menu. Once you've done that, then you'll want to type in a bunch of commands, which I'll walk you through.
First, we'll want to switch to "administrator" mode, which in Linux terms is known as "root". The simplest way to do it is with this command:
sudo /bin/bash
Now we'll need to create a directory that we'll mount the drive on. The full explanation of mounting drives is a little complex, so just run this command:
mkdir /media/disk
Now comes the tricky part. You'll need to type out a command very similar to this one, but you'll need to replace /dev/sda1 with what you see in that message box we showed you above. This command tells Ubuntu to use the ntfs-3g driver, and force mount even if there is a problem.
mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /media/disk -o force
If your drive is FAT32 instead of NTFS, then you can use the following command instead:
mount -t vfat -o umask=000 /dev/sda1 /media/disk
If you are having problems figuring out whether you have NTFS or FAT32, and you can't figure out which /dev/whatever to use, then type in the following command at your prompt (make sure you already ran the command to run things as root)
fdisk -l
In the output you should see a lot more information about the available drives… you can see in this example that the filesystem type is NTFS and the device name is /dev/sda1.
At this point, you should be able to access your hard drive through the icon in Computer.
Instructions:
1.Go to http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download and download the live cd
2. Download http://www.imgburn.com/ or any other software and write the ISO image you downloaded to a CD/DVD
3. Pop in your disk and shut down your computer, dont worry, just restart your computer and your new linux should kick in
ENJOY
I just wanted to introduce some of you to linux if eilio already hasnt. To fix my computer, I had to make a linux boot disk, and I then went and backed up all my files safely.
Here are some things that Linux has that Windows does not:
3-d Cube to switch between desktop
4 Desktops for extra space
Window effects like the page burning or exploding in rainbow (must have berly project(free))
Window effects like the page wobbling like jelly as you move it around
Open Source
Toolbar Customization (The ability to put apps on your tool bar and to have multiple toolbars)
Free
Low RAM Requirements (256MB)
Free Graphics Customization (Beryl, Lookingglass)
Free Boot Disk Usage (incase you dont feel like installing)
The Negatives:
Many lesser-known programs dont have versions for it
Doesnt support NTFS (the hard-drive formatting that windows uses:
This gets in the way when you wanna access your files through a boot disk, to solve this follow instructions:
Once the system has started up, the first thing you want to do is choose Places \ Computer from the menu.
This should show you all the drives available in the system, including your Windows drive. In my case, that is the 52.4 GB volume.
You can try and double-click on the drive to open it… and if it immediately works then lucky you! Most of the time it's going to give you an error saying "Unable to mount the volume", because Windows didn't shut it down cleanly.
Click the Details link so that you can see the full message, and leave this window open. You'll see a "Choice 2″ in the message, which includes the commands to force Ubuntu to use that drive even though there's something wrong.
What you'll want to do is open a new Terminal from Applications \ Accessories \ Terminal on the top menu. Once you've done that, then you'll want to type in a bunch of commands, which I'll walk you through.
First, we'll want to switch to "administrator" mode, which in Linux terms is known as "root". The simplest way to do it is with this command:
sudo /bin/bash
Now we'll need to create a directory that we'll mount the drive on. The full explanation of mounting drives is a little complex, so just run this command:
mkdir /media/disk
Now comes the tricky part. You'll need to type out a command very similar to this one, but you'll need to replace /dev/sda1 with what you see in that message box we showed you above. This command tells Ubuntu to use the ntfs-3g driver, and force mount even if there is a problem.
mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /media/disk -o force
If your drive is FAT32 instead of NTFS, then you can use the following command instead:
mount -t vfat -o umask=000 /dev/sda1 /media/disk
If you are having problems figuring out whether you have NTFS or FAT32, and you can't figure out which /dev/whatever to use, then type in the following command at your prompt (make sure you already ran the command to run things as root)
fdisk -l
In the output you should see a lot more information about the available drives… you can see in this example that the filesystem type is NTFS and the device name is /dev/sda1.
At this point, you should be able to access your hard drive through the icon in Computer.
Instructions:
1.Go to http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download and download the live cd
2. Download http://www.imgburn.com/ or any other software and write the ISO image you downloaded to a CD/DVD
3. Pop in your disk and shut down your computer, dont worry, just restart your computer and your new linux should kick in
ENJOY