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My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. - Printable Version

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My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by DJeX on 01-30-2006 at 03:07 AM

\\\Warning quite a lengthy story///

Ahhh where should I start. Well I guess I'll first start with the story.

One day my self like other computer crazy people out there decided to try Linux. I had heard that Ubuntu was a great Linux OS and that it was great for beginners like myself. So hearing all this great information about it I said to my self "Hey! Why not install it. I'll just have it double boot with XP.”

And then I was off. Downloading the Linux iso at 300 kbps, burnt it to CD and whipped it into my CD Rom. Restarted my computer and started the install. Who ever knew a Linux install was so easy I said to my self as I wiped through the questions. Finally Ubuntu booted up and I was logged in. Wow it was amazing and it was lot better than Windows.

After 3 hours of using Linux I decided to reboot back into XP and transfer some music over to the Linux hard rive. Now remember I’m all happy that I installed my first Linux system without blowing it to shit. But then I became very Unhappy to find out that alls my Windows XP consists of now is a nice eye piercing blue screen with screeching bright white letters telling me that I’m basically screwed up the butt because ‘Where sorry but A fatal system error has occurred and your system has shut down to prevent any damage that could occur.”. So now you can fill in what I might have said at a time like this. Any who getting back to the story. My Windows was dead and I had no clue what to do. So I did the best possible thing. Booted up my other PC and headed straight for nothing less but … Google. At times like these there’s nothing like the feel of Google telling you the words you want to hear… OMG that sounded gay lmao. Yea so I Googled it up and found my info I needed.

To make a long story short the Linux boot loader (GRUB) changed my XP NTFS partition to type 44, which is an unknown type so the computer didn’t know what the hell it was. So I had to manually edit the partition table and set it back to 07 which is the NTFS file system. So by doing that I screwed my MBR, so I had to write a new MBR as well. So now my Windows finally booted up but then only to find my backup hard drive, (you know the hard drive where you keep all your important backup stuff on) can’t be recognized by windows any more. So by now its been 2 days in front of a DOS prompt with piles of boot floppies scattered throughout my desk and hard drives lying allover my floor. Now at this point I just about have had it so I formatted the hard drive with Linux and went back to Google for more answers.

After hours of Google searching I come across a great program called Winternals EDR Commander. I booted with this program and ran it. It found my lost hard drive and right away found all the files on it. I was quite pleased. It just so happened that my Norton System Works had made a backup copy of the partition table right before my computer died. So I was able to restore my hard drives partition table back with EDR Commander. Thank God for Norton. 

So now after 3 days of swearing, smashing and throwing of objects I’m happy to say my computer is running 100%. But just to think that a simple install of Linux almost cost me the lose of irreplaceable data which makes me think twice before installing Linux again. So there’s my story, I just had to tell it. But now I’m off to go back up my stuff.

** And if any one knows a way to install Ubuntu without affecting Windows XP please tell me :D


RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by ShawnZ on 01-30-2006 at 03:13 AM

Did you have to resize the ntfs partition, or did you have a blank one already? The thing I don't get is why grub would have corrupted your partition table. By the way, you could have used lilo, which allows you to install it in the MBR or just the boot record of each partition, which probably would have worked better than some random nt one or whatever you had previously in there =p


RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by Moo on 01-30-2006 at 03:19 AM

That story is exactly why I do not dual boot.


RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by [MR] on 01-30-2006 at 03:23 AM

you must have felt like just doing this [Image: throwpc.gif]


RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by Hank on 01-30-2006 at 03:56 AM

Btw, ddi you Check/confirm the md5sum matched before you installed it?


RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by ShawnZ on 01-30-2006 at 06:50 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Animal
Btw, ddi you Check/confirm the md5sum matched before you installed it?

why in the fucking hell would a broken download cause the install to work fine but have a faulty fdisk tool that also works fine untill you save the new partition table at which point it corrupts it?

:---------------------------o
RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by Kryptonate on 01-30-2006 at 07:09 AM

Never had a problem with dual booting windows xp and Mandrake/Red Hat/Mandriva. I'm gonna try Ubuntu in a week or so after the exams. But I don't suspect it to be different from the others. Have you used Partition magic or another partitionmaker to make an Ext3 first? Or just let the Ubuntu-install do it?

Just a tip for not having to dual boot from Linux to Windows just for some music: you can access the Windows partition without a problem in Linux and so accessing all your files.

I'm glad to read at the end it worked out fine :). Did you remove Ubuntu or are you still using it?


RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by rav0 on 01-30-2006 at 09:22 AM

quote:
Originally posted by DJeX
Who ever knew a Linux install was so easy I said to my self as I wiped through the questions. Finally Ubuntu booted up and I was logged in. Wow it was amazing and it was lot better than Windows.
* rav0 questions wether DJeX works for Ubuntu even though they are nfp

Ubuntu has the worst installer that I have ever seen (NB: subjective comment), and what makes it "a lot better than Windows"?
RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by Stigmata on 01-30-2006 at 11:04 AM

Ubuntu Live Disk ;)


RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by user27089 on 01-30-2006 at 11:21 AM

Linux has only ever caused me problems tbh, I think it's more trouble than it's worth.


RE: RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by rav0 on 01-30-2006 at 12:56 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Stigmata
Ubuntu Live Disk ;)
Instructions:
  1. Put in disk
  2. Start computer
  3. Have dinner
  4. Play PlayStation
  5. Spam shoutbox
  6. Check it Ubuntu is loaded yet
  7. Be disappointed
  8. Watch The Simpsons
  9. Have Ubuntu load halfway through the episode
  10. Turn off computer because you'd rather watch The Simpsons now

RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by spokes on 01-30-2006 at 05:10 PM

I might re-install it soon, but onto a spare hard drive incase ^ ^ that happens, lol, especially considering i got my shipment of 50 ubuntu cds last week :D

anyway, when i install it, i will probably uninstall my main HDD, and plug my spare one in, then install it, then put spare drive as slave and other as master, how could i edit GRUB or the mbr to for this?


RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by DJeX on 01-30-2006 at 05:30 PM

Well I had installed Ubuntu it on a seperate hard drive.

I used GRUB because I'm new to Linux and it came with the Ubuntu install so I said why not.

What the GRUB did is when you load Linux it hides the NTFS partition and its supost to unhide it when you go into XP. But it never unhid the NTFS which then I had to edit the partiton back to 07 (NTFS File System) then make a new MBR because I no longer wanted GRUB.


RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by L. Coyote on 01-30-2006 at 08:23 PM

quote:
Originally posted by rav0
Instructions:

   1. Put in disk
   2. Start computer
   3. Have dinner
   4. Play PlayStation
   5. Spam shoutbox
   6. Check it Ubuntu is loaded yet
   7. Be disappointed
   8. Watch The Simpsons
   9. Have Ubuntu load halfway through the episode
  10. Turn off computer because you'd rather watch The Simpsons now
Now, now, I watched half an anime episode to run the CD. :P It really depends on the computer and what it's in it, tbh.

I didn't have a bad experience with the Live CD. So I'm planning to install Ubuntu on either computer when I get the new one, it depends if it'll come with WinXP or some other Linux.
RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by surfichris on 01-30-2006 at 09:17 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Moo
That story is exactly why I do not dual boot.
So your story is, you do not dual boot because you do not know how to do it properly? ;)
quote:
Originally posted by rav0
Ubuntu has the worst installer that I have ever seen (NB: subjective comment), and what makes it "a lot better than Windows"?
Because its text based? I'm trying to work out how that makes it worse because from what I can tell, it is one of the fastest installers for an OS.
quote:
Originally posted by traxor
Linux has only ever caused me problems tbh, I think it's more trouble than it's worth.
Only because you're doing something wrong and you haven't had much experience with it because you've used Windows all your life.
quote:
Originally posted by DJeX
What the GRUB did is when you load Linux it hides the NTFS partition and its supost to unhide it when you go into XP. But it never unhid the NTFS which then I had to edit the partiton back to 07 (NTFS File System) then make a new MBR because I no longer wanted GRUB.
That is not what GRUB does. GRUB is simply a boot loader which runs from the MBR of a disk and shows a list of predefined operating systems available to boot. It doesn't do any "partition hiding". If it did "hide" the partition, how were you even able to boot Windows to the stage it did?

All GRUB does is takes a list of OS' on the machine and displays them in a list allowing you to select which one to boot.


For all of  those who think "linux causes problems and is too hard to switch to", how about you see it from the point of view from switching from Linux to Windows? http://www.madpenguin.org/cms/html/47/5937.html
RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by DJeX on 01-30-2006 at 09:58 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Chris Boulton
That is not what GRUB does. GRUB is simply a boot loader which runs from the MBR of a disk and shows a list of predefined operating systems available to boot. It doesn't do any "partition hiding". If it did "hide" the partition, how were you even able to boot Windows to the stage it did?

All GRUB does is takes a list of OS' on the machine and displays them in a list allowing you to select which one to boot

Well I think you need to do some Google searching and you will see that GRUB has a problem with XP. There’s a small bug in grub that it changes your partition table type. I got the blue screen because it could not find the partition to boot from, it only loaded from the boot sector then XP stopped loading right at the screen where the XP logo came up. After I switched the partition back it worked fine.

I used a program called ptedit to edit the partition if you were interested.

RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by ShawnZ on 01-30-2006 at 10:11 PM

quote:
Originally posted by DJeX
then XP stopped loading right at the screen where the XP logo came up

so what your saying is xp was loading?? which means it was past the partition table??? :----o
RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by DJeX on 01-30-2006 at 10:15 PM

quote:
Originally posted by ShawnZ
quote:
Originally posted by DJeX
then XP stopped loading right at the screen where the XP logo came up

so what your saying is xp was loading?? which means it was past the partition table??? :----o

How the hell should I know ? any ways is it possible to Boot Linux with the Windows Boot loader instead of useing GRUB.
RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by ShawnZ on 01-30-2006 at 10:23 PM

quote:
Originally posted by DJeX
How the hell should I know ?

err, because a blue screen of death is sort of shown by the windows k e r n e l...

quote:
any ways is it possible to Boot Linux with the Windows Boot loader instead of useing GRUB.

http://jaeger.morpheus.net/linux/ntldr.php


RE: RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by rav0 on 01-31-2006 at 07:00 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Chris Boulton
quote:
Originally posted by rav0
Ubuntu has the worst installer that I have ever seen (NB: subjective comment), and what makes it "a lot better than Windows"?
Because its text based? I'm trying to work out how that makes it worse because from what I can tell, it is one of the fastest installers for an OS.
Not because it's text based, the overall installation process, and the input required by the user.
quote:
Originally posted by rav0
NB: subjective comment

RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by Hank on 01-31-2006 at 07:52 AM

have to agree with CB. just cause its text based, doesnt mean its worse, if people want a Graphical install, they ned to either Use Mandriva/fedora/Suse,


RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by Pyro on 01-31-2006 at 08:09 AM

lol i am using ubuntu 64x with its own hard drive and everything is fine for me i just have to plug the power cable in when i want to boot into linux and pul it out if i want to use windows...

so yea im happy :p


RE: RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by rav0 on 01-31-2006 at 08:48 AM

quote:
Originally posted by YA_MUM
lol i am using ubuntu 64x with its own hard drive and everything is fine for me i just have to plug the power cable in when i want to boot into linux and pul it out if i want to use windows...

so yea im happy :p

If you want to have each OS on its own disk and don't need to be able to access one disk from the other, rather than pulling out the power cable, pull out the data cable, or both. Even better, just disable a disk in the bios.
RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by Mike on 01-31-2006 at 01:10 PM

Why didnt you just install it into a Virtual Machine? :P
It would be safer :P

Some help about Virtual Machines: Virtual Machines. ;)


RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by DJeX on 01-31-2006 at 06:02 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Mike
Why didnt you just install it into a Virtual Machine? :P
It would be safer :P

Some help about Virtual Machines: Virtual Machines. ;)

Too slow.
RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by Kryptonate on 01-31-2006 at 06:08 PM

quote:
Originally posted by DJeX

Too slow.
virtual machines aren't that slow. They are a bit slower yes but they are indeed safer.
RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by ShawnZ on 02-01-2006 at 03:47 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Kryptonate
quote:
Originally posted by DJeX

Too slow.
virtual machines aren't that slow. They are a bit slower yes but they are indeed safer.

safer how? its just a freaking operating system :-/ and, its not a "bit" slower.

RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by L. Coyote on 02-01-2006 at 11:58 PM

* L. Coyote runs Ubuntu full install process.

* L. Coyote gets to decide! :o

A) This is the easiest road, you idiot!!!! Pick THIS!!!
B) This is a very tough road, you suck and will mess up by picking this. Only choose this if you want to spend countless hours swearing at your stupidity.

* L. Coyote picks B.

* L. Coyote pets backups.

Anyway, if I had picked A, it would have ended in half an hour.

Now I've got Ubuntu and XP... But damn I'm such an idiot! :P

Now I've got to reinstall SP2 and set up the ASDL on Ub.

Reason to install Ub: Because I fucking wanted to! :refuck:


RE: My 3 day Linux Eventure. The Story... and some. by DJeX on 02-02-2006 at 02:52 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Leo
* Leo runs Ubuntu full install process.


* Leo gets to decide! :o


A) This is the easiest road, you idiot!!!! Pick THIS!!!
B) This is a very tough road, you suck and will mess up by picking this. Only choose this if you want to spend countless hours swearing at your stupidity.

* Leo picks B.


* Leo pets backups.


Anyway, if I had picked A, it would have ended in half an hour.

Now I've got Ubuntu and XP... But damn I'm such an idiot! :P

Now I've got to reinstall SP2 and set up the ASDL on Ub.

Reason to install Ub: Because I fucking wanted to! :refuck:

Nice :D

Oh and BTW I finally managed to install Ubuntu with out screwing my XP. I had to unplug the XP hard drive and install Ubuntu then plug the XP HD back in and now I use my BIOS for a boot loader :D(Y) Worked good.