Trying out Linux

BudDurland · Joined: Dec 05, 2002 Posts: 475

Has been a humbling experience. I thought I was a smart guy.

It took a couple tries to get it (SuSE Linux 11.1) installed as dual-boot with windows on my pc. I have three internal hard drives, two of them were blank. After a while I figured out that the installer (more accurately, GRUB) hates it when I also have my exteranl USB drive powered on at boot.

Now I'm just trying to get some basic capabilities set up -- browsing and e-mail. Firefox was pre-installed, but no Flash player. I thought I'd get flash working, but none of the instrauctions on Adobe's page got ti done. I downloaded Thunderbird, but there's even less documentation for that; I got it extracted to a folder, but can't get it to run.

And they wonder why Linux has trouble getting traction...

zlim · Joined: Mar 11, 2005 Posts: 2636

If you type about:plugins in firefox, is there no flash plugin?

I don't run SUSE; none of the versions I tried like my monitors. I always get an "out of range" message on a black screen.

I went to Mozilla and looked at the flash plugin information for linux
http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/linux.html#Flash
It is seriously out of date because flash is version 10.

I'm still running the outdated v9 on my eeepc but I'm almost positive I have v10 on PCLinux. I suspect it came installed.

What happens when you go here
http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/
and click get flashplayer 10?

BudDurland · Joined: Dec 05, 2002 Posts: 475

I gave up. 2 days of fooling around and the best I could do was get the flash installer to claim that it was already there, and FF would say "Nyet!". IMHO, flash is a basic part of internet access; it should be installed with the distro. As it it, the FF that was delivered was ver 3.0, and notes at the Mozilla site say the best way to get the latest version is to wait until you distro decided to give it to you.

Also tried to download & run Thunderbird.. That comes with a complete lack of instructions, and none of the files in the archive that clam to be executable would run.

Sorry, I'm not young enough to spend 18 hours a day learning all the esoteric ins and outs of a new OS.

zlim · Joined: Mar 11, 2005 Posts: 2636

In linux, you do not download programs and then try to install them.

I've never used what I've discovered about SUSE.
The SUSE package manager is included in YaST2.

If you are interested in linux and do not want a steep learning cure, I might suggest that you download and burn PCLinux (KDE). This is more like windows. The gnome desktop would be good for Mac users because the taskbar is at the top as it is on Macs.

http://www.pclinuxos.com/index.php?option=com_ionfiles&Itemid=28
This is up to date as far as August or September, I think because it says 2009.2 and I remember reading 2009.3 was just released.

It is easy to install something, once I explain how it works.
If you are up to it, it is a lot less challenging than SUSE, download the live CD, burn the ISO and boot up the computer with it in. You will have to answer a few questions about language and time zone but everything else is pretty much picked up. Find the FF icon, launch the browser and see how it works on some troublesome spots.

BudDurland · Joined: Dec 05, 2002 Posts: 475

zlim · Joined: Mar 11, 2005 Posts: 2636

Run it live and yell if something doesn't seem to work correctly or if you have any questions. Very Happy

donrc · Joined: Feb 16, 2003 Posts: 882

zlim,
I tried downloading PClinux and couldn't get it to run.
How did you make out Bud?
It could be that it is looking for an IDE drive. It told me "appropriate media not available". I tried both 2009.1 and 2009.2 .

The new boards (some anyway Intel PB55WB) do not have floppy output or IDE output. Will PClinux address this in an update?

drc

zlim · Joined: Mar 11, 2005 Posts: 2636

What did you use to burn what you downloaded?

The live runs from the CD so "appropriate media not found" should not be coming up. It loads into RAM.

donrc · Joined: Feb 16, 2003 Posts: 882

zlim,
I understand that it should not be happening, but a look at their forums (PClinux) will tell you that it is rather common. No one had an answer in that forum.
I use active iso-burner to burn the disks and it does a double check of the media after the burn. Since my DVD drive is a SATA I thought that might be confusing the issue.

drc

zlim · Joined: Mar 11, 2005 Posts: 2636

Ah, I'll back out because I have nothing SATA in the house so at present, I have zero experience with anything SATA.

donrc · Joined: Feb 16, 2003 Posts: 882

Fair enough zlim. If I figure it out I'll report back.

BudDurland. How did you make out with it?

drc