help installing mandriva 2008

[BlG_B0SS]

I'll give an intro to my situation, if you don't want to read it just skip to my questions:

 

OK... I'm completely new to linux. I've been reading up on it because I'm interested in installing it on my old laptop (128mb ram, 700 mhz intel celeron, 8 mb vram, 10 gb hard drive). Right now I have WinXP on it and it runs pretty slow. I found the mandriva site of where to get mandriva one, and burned a copy. At the time I did this, I didn't know what a "live cd" was. It took about 2 hours for Mandriva to boot up on my laptop, and when it finally did, it was EXTREMELY slow. I also noticed that the cd drive was constantly reading the boot cd (I could hear it)...this caught my attention and figured that mandriva didn't actually install onto my computer. So I restarted my computer and took out the cd - and saw that windows was still there. So I did a little more homework and realized that there are two versions - Mandriva One LiveCD and Mandriva Free. LiveCD is supposed to have an option on the desktop to download it onto the hard disk - I did not see anything on the desktop other than a DNA spiral made of blue people (the background). Also, under the description of Free, it says "does not contain any proprietary drivers or software" - I noticed that live cd had firefox and openoffice already on the disc. It seems that Free is not a complete package. So I really wanted the LiveCD version. After learning that I can boot the cd on a computer and not change anything on that computer, I tried putting the LiveCD into my new laptop -- to my demise it killed my laptop screen. I'm not really sure how (maybe it messed with the driver or something???), but I called Sony and they're going to fix it for me (it'll probably take a long time though). Anyways after going through all that and killing my day, I decided enough linux for me. But today the interest recurred, hence my being here. I tried doing some more homework on the subject, which is how I found this website. So I got an account about ten minutes ago. I guess now you want me to shut up and ask my questions lol. Here is what I need help doing:

 

1) Reformat the hard drive of my laptop to wipe it completely clean and put Mandriva 2008 on it.

 

2) LiveCD vs Free - what am I losing if I pick Free. Or is there a way to get the Live version since I don't see the "install on hard disk" option on the desktop.

 

3) If by any chance, does anyone know how to fix the screen of my new laptop? I'm able to hook up an external monitor to it and work off of it like that, but I really need to use it for my work asap (instead of waiting a week for the Sony technician to arrive). It's kinda funny how linux did that to it, especially since it's just a live cd which isn't supposed to do anything to you computer.

 

Thanks in advance! :)

[jkerr82508]

The live CD requires 256 mb RAM in order to run. I'm surprised that it even booted up on just 128 mb.

 

The Mandriva installer (on the Free CD's) also requires 256 mb, but since you seemed to be able to get the live CD to boot, perhaps it will work for you. Assuming that it does run, then the Mandriva installer will take care of wiping the disk and re-formating. Just select the option to use the entire disk, when it asks.

 

The only way that I've been able to get Mandriva on to a system with just 128mb of RAM was to use the mini CD.

 

There are other linux distro's that are especially designed for older and less powerful equipment:

 

http://www.linuxbasis.com/distributions.html#minimal

 

Jim

 

Edit: On reflection, I may be wrong about the Mandriva installer requiring 256mb of RAM. It's worth trying it to see.

Edited December 21, 2007 by jkerr82508

[dexter11]

1) Reformat the hard drive of my laptop to wipe it completely clean and put Mandriva 2008 on it.

 

2) LiveCD vs Free - what am I losing if I pick Free. Or is there a way to get the Live version since I don't see the "install on hard disk" option on the desktop.

1, The Mandriva installer is able to do it. It will ask for formatting the partition(s) you want to install to.

 

2, You loose nothing. Actually some things are missing from the Mandriva live CDs (just documantation) to save some space.

The Live installer icon should be on the desktop. But if you can't find it there then it still should be in the menu somewhere.

 

P.S. Be patient. We are all around the world sometimes hours away from you. Plus it's the holiday season.

[arctic]

BigBoss,

You simply cannot expect that you get instant replies on a forum, so please don't flood the topic with comments that do not explain your problems with more detail/new material. If you cannot wait some hours for an answer, then better use the IRC channels, where people might be able to give you an answer immediately.

IRC-Channels:

#mandriva and #musb

 

I have removed the "flooding posts" in order to clean things up.

[Ixthusdan]

Another note: Linux did nothing to your screen, anymore than any other operating system can/would do something to your screen. I suspect that we are dealing with multiple issues including some hardware failures. B)

 

A "driver" is a software layer which a device uses to communicate to your system software layer. A driver from Linux in no way affects a driver from windows. Your XP installation, if you did not touch it, is the same software prior to running a "Live" Linux system. Your Sony laptop had a hardware problem which manifested at this particular time. If you must, blame Sony.