How To Start Ubuntu

[dcf-joe]

Alright, I currently have Vista and Ubuntu (Hardy Heron) installed on my system. I installed Ubuntu with the Wubi Installer, however, I do not know how to start the darn thing. I notice that about 30 GB are gone from my hard drive, but I cannot find Ubuntu. So, I boot up and it gives me the option to boot into either Vista or Ubuntu. I choose ubuntu, and then I choose the option to install normally or something like that, and then it goes into some BusyTalk command stuff, and I am lost. Please help!!!

[dcf-joe]

Come on anyone???

[xfire]

Is it visible in add-remove programs?

[jonmcc33]

Try installing OpenSUSE instead. It just works!

[Wile E]

Try installing OpenSUSE instead. It just works!

lol. You plug OpenSUSE like you were on the development team. :laugh:

EDIT: On a related note, it seem to be working. Thinking about giving it a try. lol.

[jonmcc33]

Hee hee!

http://www.novell.com/company/logo/img/opensuse_5.gif (http://software.opensuse.org)

[Ninkobwi]

you can install Ubuntu on a windows hard drive without causing crazy fatal errors? My HDD has only one partition, I dont have a space reserved for Ubuntu but I do have the memory for it.

[panchoman]

just install from the live cd, it'll automatically configure your grub and everything... im guessing your bootloader isn't right if its not appearing as an option to boot to.

[dcf-joe]

Okay, let me clarify everything, it might help resolve my issue.

I went online to download the Wubi installer. I installed it and ran the program. I let Ubuntu use 30 GB, I chose the Ubuntu desktop manager, and I set my login name and password. I saw that it needed to download about 700 MB of stuff, so I left my computer alone for two hours. I came back, and all it told me to do is restart. So I restarted into Vista, and then restarted again so that I could choose to go into Ubuntu.

Ubuntu and Vista both appear on my bootscreen. I chose Ubuntu, and then it loaded the splash screen. Right before the splash screen appears, a message appears on the top telling me something about a bug with some type of timer and an ACPI problem. And then, it goes into a BusyBox terminal with an inframstr thing. It just sits there, waiting for me to type something in. People have told me to wait 15 minutes. I waited 30 minutes, nothing happens.

Oh yeah, for the record, I have already edited one of the boot options by typing in "irqpool," like I was told by the Wubi forums to do, to no avail.

Are there any suggestions??? I hope this clarifies the problem.

[AsRock]

you can install Ubuntu on a windows hard drive without causing crazy fatal errors? My HDD has only one partition, I dont have a space reserved for Ubuntu but I do have the memory for it.

you can setup partitions without killing your windows partition \ setup. It will alow you to set sizes and resize partitions.

[dcf-joe]

I finally got it to work. I uninstalled Wubi, and then downloaded the ISO off of the internet. I burned the ISO onto a CD. To make a long story short, I successfully got Ubuntu to work. However, I made a fatal mistake. I forgot to shrink my Vista partition, so Ubuntu wrote right over it. So, no more Vista for me. Right now I am running the Vista recovery disk on the laptop to return everything to out-of-box condition, and this time I will shrink the Vista partition. However, I have two questions:

First, whenever I went into Ubuntu, I would see wavy lines on the screen. I think it is because the display driver is not loaded. So, I looked around, and I found the drivers. I have three of them, and ATI FireGL something is enabled, but not in use. How do I get this to work???

Second, I have a huge wireless problem, it simply doesn't work. Help on this too!!!!!

[dcf-joe]

So, I got the wavy line thing fixed by installing the 32-bit edition of Ubuntu. However, the ATI card still is in the restricted driver thing and I do not know how to fix it. I mean, yesterday was the first real day of using Linux in my lifetime. I also have a problem with the wireless system, I do not think that Atheros wireless is supported by Ubuntu stock. However, I found this driver here, http://sourceforge.net/projects/madwifi/
but I need someone to tell me how to install the driver. I will need to download the driver with Vista, and then put in on a memory stick. When I get into Ubuntu, do I just double click on the driver thing, or do I need to do some crazy coding with the Terminal??? Also, to fix the ATI problem, do I just need to go to the ATI website, and get their linux driver for the card?

[Oliver_FF]

To fix the wireless, go to www.google.com and search for "Ubuntu [wireless-hardware-name-here]" and hit search, the top result will most likely come from the official support forum thing. Failing that you can use ndiswrapper and the windows driver, but that should be a last resort. Oh, and you should find that your wired network works fine - i've never heard of the wired network not working for anyone.

To get the ATi card drivers installed and working fully you have to go to the Administrator menu in Gnome (top left), then there's like Restricted Hardware or something. Go into that and tick the box next to ATi Radeon blah blah... Enter your root password and it'll download some stuff and stuff happens, it'll do some more stuff, then you restart and it'll all be working :) Oh, you'll need to be connected to the internet for it to download etc ;)

[Oliver_FF]

btw if you do have to use the ndiswrapper, it should be on the install cd, you can find it by browsing the Synaptic Package Manager for "ndiswrapper", ticking the box next to it and clicking Apply.

If it's not there, add the disks contents to the package manager via the terminal:
sudo apt-cdrom add
and follow the instructions...

As i said though, ndiswrapper should be the last resort and it's not using the real linux driver, it's using the windows one in some weird way.

[dcf-joe]

I am sorry to say that all of what you said Oliver did not work. I cannot find the ndiswrapper on the system or on the ISO Boot Disk. I went to the Restricted Driver place, and the tick box is already ticked, but it says in red letters right by the box that device is not in use. I went to the internal help in Ubuntu, and it says that I needed to look up something else in Synaptics, which was not there also. Do you have anymore suggestions, before I just install Ubuntu on my home computer, which should work because it has a X300SE and hard-wired cable internet. But, I would prefer to use it on my laptop, because the home computer doesn't have partition space for Ubuntu, so I would have to install another hard drive.

[Oliver_FF]

Plug in a network cable, open the package manager and search name+description for "ndiswrapper"...

http://forums.techpowerup.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=14004&stc=1&d=1209647808

Google how to use it, it's been a long time...

[dcf-joe]

I don't think you understand, I cannot find it within any system in Ubuntu. I tried Synaptics Manager, and the search system within Ubuntu. Either search was not fruitful as they returned void.

[mdm-adph]

So, I got the wavy line thing fixed by installing the 32-bit edition of Ubuntu. However, the ATI card still is in the restricted driver thing and I do not know how to fix it. I mean, yesterday was the first real day of using Linux in my lifetime. I also have a problem with the wireless system, I do not think that Atheros wireless is supported by Ubuntu stock. However, I found this driver here, http://sourceforge.net/projects/madwifi/
but I need someone to tell me how to install the driver. I will need to download the driver with Vista, and then put in on a memory stick. When I get into Ubuntu, do I just double click on the driver thing, or do I need to do some crazy coding with the Terminal??? Also, to fix the ATI problem, do I just need to go to the ATI website, and get their linux driver for the card?

I thought your problems sounded like you were using the 64-bit version... :p 64-bit Ubuntu's still got quite a bit of kinks -- not enough people using it to troubleshoot it effectively. Kinda ironic, really (I think).

Atheros chipsets are supported in Linux -- they're one of the few chipsets that are supported almost perfectly. you really shouldn't have to use ndiswrapper or anything to get them to work. Are you sure you have an Atheros chipset?

Can you get into a terminal window? If so, post the results of the command "sudo lspci" here -- it'd really help out.

[dcf-joe]

I am very sure that I am using Atheros wireless on my laptop. I have a Toshiba P25-D laptop. It has three stickers on the left, and one of them is Atheros wireless. I also know, because when I ran the Vista recovery disk, it was installing Atheros drivers. However, I will go into the terminal and type the stuff in, save it on a flash drive, and then post back up in windows, and let you guys know what is up.

[dcf-joe]

00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (Internal gfx)
00:05.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (PCI Express Port 1)
00:06.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (PCI Express Port 2)
00:07.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (PCI Express Port 3)
00:12.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 Non-Raid-5 SATA
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI0)
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI1)
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI2)
00:13.3 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI3)
00:13.4 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI4)
00:13.5 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB Controller (EHCI)
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 14)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 IDE
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 PCI to LPC Bridge
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RS690M [Radeon X1200 Series]
11:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 01)
17:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)
1d:04.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller
1d:04.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCIxx12 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
1d:04.2 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD)
1d:04.3 SD Host controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 SDA Standard Compliant SD Host Controller

[dcf-joe]

Come on anybody???

[mdm-adph]

Aye, there it is -- it's loading up your wireless chipset just fine... did you get this same result when you were just booting with a live CD? have you tried just booting with live CD yet?

[dcf-joe]

No, I haven't, how does one go about doing this?