OK heres the layout... i want linux, i have a CD with it on it i go to load it on my lap top, *its bootable* and i get thru everything installs and such, but when its done it shows a black screen with 2 white squares about half a inch long and half a inch wide, 2 of them apart from each other now when i reboot and take the CD out, there is no OS asks for a OS disk, it is called ubuntu. + where would i go about getting a *free* program to make a CD bootable so that i can download another thing of linux and also, which should i get? please answer this is vary confuseing O_o *edit* edited topic title to be more descriptive

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OK so you have installed it already in the Ubuntu OS? So are you running the Live CD by shutting off the computer and rebooting it with it in the disk drive? I am pretty confused from your post haha. Have you partitioned your HD?

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yeah, im using Ubuntu right now and I'd be glad to help if I knew what was going on. I have no idea what this means:



But from what your saying, assuming your install actually worked it sounds like when you changed it to boot from the cd you never changed it back. If that's the case, you would have to hit F1 or DEL or whatever key you have to hit during start up, go into your BIOS configuration and make sure it's starting from the hard drive and not the CD rom.

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When the installation of Ubuntu is finished you should remain on the Live CD desktop, and you can still use the Live CD. You have to manually restart the laptop. After a short while you will see a prompt asking you to remove the disk, and your CD drive should pop open. Take the disk out and close the drive. Turn the PC back on and you should get into Ubuntu. When are those two white squares appearing? If they appear after you restart then you have either not partitioned the hard drive correctly, or have not made the Linux partition bootable.

If you do not have, or want, Windows on your laptop, put the Live CD back in and go through the installer, but get it to completely wipe your hard drive and put its own default partitions in. This should make sure it works correctly. WARNING: This will remove everything currently on your hard drive!

If you can, take some pictures or a video of what happens, and we might be able to help a bit more. Also, if you see any error messages, try and write them down and put them up here.

 

 

 

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ok i seem to have gotten it working and all but i'm at a loss for wireless and lan, i have all the cables plugged in and still no internet, i tried configureing everything on there. I was told by the person who gave it to me to find a linux driver for it.. anyone know where i can find that?

Edit: i have a dell Inspirion 1200 LOL yes i know 30 GB hard drive but 1 gb ram

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If you are using wireless, what exactly are you plugging cables into? Have you tried opening the application to connect to wireless networks. Ican't remember what it's called in Ubuntu but it should be easy to find. Also, try temporarily making the wireless network unsecured, so you can connect the first time and make sure it works. If you want to use WEP then that should work out of the box, but WPA requires a few downloads.

As for finding a Linux driver, you'll need to go to the wireless card manufacturer's webiste and look for Linux drivers. Only a few provide them; most rely on the inbuilt Linux drivers.

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well now i'm running off of ubuntu AND knoppix and neither of them support my wireless card, so far windows kicks the $hit out of linux

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Your problem sounds like it is in the drivers, if you could post the brand and model of your hardware that is not working, I might be able to help you.

The Linux community needs to grow so that more companies will produce drivers for their hardware.

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I got Ubuntu 7.10 and it automatically found my LAN and configured it, and I instantly had internet. The likely reason for this is that I got an nVidia chipset, and Linux likes most of the stuff nVidia makes. See if you can figure out what kind of controllers you got, both the LAN and the WiFi, and google around to see what people did about it. There is no universal almighty Linux driver for every WiFi out there, but it's likely that following some instructions from people with experience will solve your problem. If all else fails, post something on www.ubuntuforums.org, it's pretty helpful.

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