[SOLVED] Best flavor linux for a noob? BASH for begginers?

ontheray · 04-16-2009, 02:33 PM

What is the easiest flavor of linux for noob? I am guessing Ubuntu.
I am considering Ubuntu, Gentoo, Fedora, or Knoppix.

I tried Gentoo years ago, but never managed to put the time into BASH commands and did not have a live installer. I was decent with DOS, so I should just learn my BASH commands.

Does anyone know a good BASH for begginers?

I bought a laptop with vista, and am completely dissatisfied with vistax86 (oem os), vista x64, and xp x64 systems. I have gone back to a clean install of vista x32 for the moment ( the best buy idiot squad tried to charge $30 to remove aol, etc. until i argued and asked questions long enough and found then finally found the manager)

So I tried Ubuntu which worked great except for the wireless. It did update itself twice, which both versions did not work ( black display).

So yeah,I need to learn my BASH commands, and I could have gotten the wireless working. I'm not going to completely switch until I have wireless and can run office ( just use WINE I am assuming). Although I have tried to use open office for years, its just too difficult to use due to compatibility issues. School and everywhere else uses office 2007.

Any suggestions on the best flavor or beginning BASH?

ontheray · 04-16-2009, 02:47 PM

I took the test and found the following matches for me:

Kubuntu, Mandriva, Linux Mint, Ubuntu, OpenSuSE.

Is Fedora less new user friendly?

Advantages of Kubuntu vs. Ubuntu?

I just need something for 6 months or more to actually work for me, and by that time I'm sure I'll be ready to try out some new flavors. I've been waiting about 4 years and am ready to make the change, especially with this windows 7 coming out.

Thanks for any input.

**wmorri** · 04-16-2009, 07:26 PM

Hi,

I think that all the distros that are listed are good for beginners.

Fedora is a great distro, it isn't that its not user friendly, but more that there are more feature that come standard with fedora, than with ubuntu. There are some things like SELinux which is the security center for fedora that allows you to change your settings on the fly. I don't believe that there is that in Ubuntu. Another thing that most every distro has that ubuntu doesn't is the use of root. This allows you to have access to everything on the system, and change them when you want to. There are some other advantages to root, but those can be covered another time.

There really isn't any difference between kubuntu and ubuntu. The only thing is the kubuntu uses the KDE desktop and ubuntu uses gnome.

If I was you I would burn a couple Livecd's of the distros that you think you might like, and then see what you think of them. That way you can see the differences.

Let me know if you need any more information.

Cheers!

ontheray · 04-16-2009, 11:34 PM

Thanks, no wonder I couldn't get to the root in Ubuntu! The first linux I saw was Gentoo 2004. I never spent enough time with it to actually install it, maybe because I found a Knoppix live cd. I have enough hard drive space that I can mess around, but with more than one windows os I guess I could only has one Linux os as it needs to be on an extended partition, which leaves me only one free partition. I thought vista x64 would be good (gullible I suppose). I don't recall if the fedora cd I have is live, I guess I shall try that one. I heard good things about Ubuntu, but since I had a computer practically after my baby rattle I think I shall give it a shot with Fedora.

I'll let you know how it goes, as I'm sure I'll run into a problem. The good news for me is, now that my computer is about 18 months old, there should be all the drivers for it. I just know I'm going to get lost in the root and try to pull some ms-dos stuff out of my skeleton closet.

**wmorri** · 04-17-2009, 08:15 AM

Hi,

Here is my advice to you. Don't use root unless it is absolutely necessary. There are two many ways to mess your system up when you are using root.

Whenever you have a question, don't hesitate to post it. I am sure that either myself or one of the other great people on the forum will hav an answer for you.

Cheers!

ontheray · 04-17-2009, 11:06 AM

Here is the thing: I learn computers by breaking them!!! Or at least I used to. Nowadays it is far more complicated than copying the io.sys file after whatever other file it was by simply using xtree to make dos work again...

I want to have a working system, yes. But I would also like to know my way around linux, as windows give you progressively less freedom with each new build.

I couldn't even reside my partition the other day with Acronis, and had to use windows. I am sick of it and want my freedom back.

**wmorri** · 04-17-2009, 09:14 PM

Hi,

It sounds like linux is just the thing for you then. You can break the OS and then re-install it again in a matter of an hour if you have too. Just find a distro that you like and then go with it. That is how I started and now I have found the one distro Fedora, and I have become much more involved with the community. So, there are many options for you.

Cheers!

ontheray · 04-18-2009, 02:14 AM

okay, well here it goes. I have manages to get my windows partition messes into a substantial chunk of data, which I will keep on a separate data partition. I burned my Fedora 10 live iso downloaded 4 months ago.

Give me Linux, or give me death!

Know of a good bash guide? I am going to embrace the root.

**wmorri** · 04-18-2009, 09:17 AM

Hi,

You might have a look at these two: one, two

Cheers!

ontheray · 04-18-2009, 02:15 PM

Thanks, I will look.

problems, problems. I think I had the wrong cd... it dumped to the root, and wished me luck :(

downloaded dvd x86_64, problem after I verified, cleaned the dvd, presto!! I am online with fedora, with wireless working!!!!!

I am a happy camper today!!!

Thank you very much wmorri!!!

**wmorri** · 04-19-2009, 10:46 AM

Not a problem that is why I am here. If you ever have a problem and more than likely you will, just come back and we can work it out.

Cheers!

Rome5 · 04-19-2009, 10:05 PM

Aside from the flashing lights, were you given an error? Like kernel panic?

Quote:

I blew out my windows boot - is it because I mounted that vloume? I unmounted it and I hope it fixes that. I only need windows for school - in case I run into problems.

Explain that a bit?

No, you don't need an anti-virus on Linux. Setup a firewall if you're connected to the net. Your physical router does a decent job if you have one; otherwise iptables do the trick.

ontheray · 04-19-2009, 10:07 PM

So I did my updates and was unable to reboot, the caps lock light was flashing (same thing happened to ubuntu) but now I was able to get on, weird.

I blew out my windows boot - is it because I mounted that vloume? I unmounted it and I hope it fixes that. I only need windows for school - in case I run into problems.

Do I need antivirus for Fedora? I like antivir for windows.

I havn't looked at the bash guides yet, but I will after I explore the system a little bit.
I

ontheray · 04-19-2009, 11:28 PM

Everything was normal, then the screen went black and the caps light was flashing. Same problem with Ubuntu, except this happened only once with Fedora and then it worked.

New problem: system laggy. Firefox is soooo slow.

Any idea how to get my vista bootloader back?

right now it is booting hda 0,0 but when I try it says the bootloader is missing. I think it may be from mounting the volume.

I really hope that there is some problem that I can fix, because sadly enough to say, the system is performing worse than Vista!!! ( except its probably secure)

Should I use a data partition to share info from windows to linux and vice versa?

Could the system be laggy due to swap file encryption?

I am in disbelief that Fedora would run slower than Vista without some sort of problem. I also noticed that in Vista the cpu load is evenly distributed, where as in Fedora it puts the majority of the load on a single core.

Rome5 · 04-20-2009, 12:00 AM

I have dual core and experience the same; though I rarely see usage above 15% on either. Any higher and it's usually firefox to blame (actually, always firefox to blame).

An encrypted swap partition should not cause major lag. That would depend on a few variables, such as your system RAM, but if you're over 1gb, you shouldn't use swap that much anyway. You can run 'free -m' in a terminal, to get a look at memory usage (both RAM and swap).

As far as system lag; Fedora's a bit of a bulky distro so it may run slower than ligher versions, but it should equal and most often, beat out Vista. If that's not the case, you do have a problem. It could be hardware related, but I would first take a look at running processes to see if anything sticks out. You can do so by running 'top' in a terminal, which will give you a nice system monitor. Firefox will probably eat up a bit, but look for other sources. You're experiencing lag without firefox running, correct? Start there.

Mounting the drive alone shouldn't cause a problem when booting Vista. However; if you want to mount an NTFS partition in Linux, mount it read only (mount -t ntfs-3g -o ro) as Linux does not 100% safely write to NTFS. So that's a yes on the data partition. fat32 is the easiest/best solution for both OSes to read/write to, excluding the lack of permissions/security and file size limits on fat.

Back to the bootloader problem. When you boot, you're being taken to the GRUB menu? You then have the option to boot Vista or Fedora? If so, please open a terminal and post the output of the following commands here:

Code:

sudo fdisk -l <-- that's a lowercase L

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

Possible you're just pointing to the wrong partition. Rule that out first.

ontheray · 04-20-2009, 12:37 AM

I don't remember firefox being this slow. my first problem occurred when I tried to play nibbles. I had a freeze up. Everything was going fine though, I thought. I went back to the original build instead of the updated build, and still had a problem. Firefox is so laggy it won't hardly even scroll.

I have hd 0 : 0 vistax32 1:extended partition Fedora 2:data partition (blown out registry on new x64) and 3: vista x64.

I installed another grub, which gave me fedora boot options. I boot into what I am assuming to be a nice colored grub. I was able to edit the boot for windows and try hd3 which just game me an _ cursor . hd0 says bootmgr missing pres ctrl alt del.

I even tried vista x32 installation cd which at said it could not find a problem.

Maybe I should tell you what I am doing next: installed wine to run easybcd (which did not work in windows I might add) to try to fix the boot. I am probably going to blow out Fedora as well if I do this and then be forced to reinstall something... This sucks! I wish I hadn't touched my vista install.

it does seem to be firefox that is the laggy one.

I have 2 gig ram, although it says 1662 (vista did this to me before)

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xfdc239e2

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 7650 61440000 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 13981 17997 32265216 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 17997 30402 99637248 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 7651 13980 50845725 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 7651 7676 208813+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 7677 13980 50636848+ 8e Linux LVM

Partition table entries are not in disk order
[root@localhost radon]# free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 1630 1109 520 0 45 549
-/+ buffers/cache: 514 1116
Swap: 3263 0 3263

ontheray · 04-20-2009, 12:49 AM

nibbles did it again - completely freezes up the system.

Tasks: 157 total, 1 running, 156 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 28.3%us, 3.0%sy, 0.0%ni, 68.2%id, 0.0%wa, 0.5%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 1669920k total, 751144k used, 918776k free, 77868k buffers
Swap: 3342328k total, 0k used, 3342328k free, 198664k cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
2486 root 20 0 281m 35m 8268 S 59.6 2.2 1:28.56 Xorg
3161 radon 20 0 662m 94m 21m S 1.3 5.8 0:11.47 firefox
3226 radon 20 0 341m 18m 11m S 0.7 1.2 0:00.81 gnome-terminal
1447 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0.3 0.0 0:00.12 rtl8187
1937 root 20 0 6880 376 280 S 0.3 0.0 0:00.12 irqbalance
2894 radon 20 0 308m 3820 2052 S 0.3 0.2 0:00.60 gnome-screensav
2909 radon 20 0 166m 9128 5204 S 0.3 0.5 0:01.74 compiz
2921 radon 20 0 236m 14m 8372 S 0.3 0.9 0:00.50 gtk-window-deco
3257 radon 20 0 14880 1176 872 S 0.3 0.1 0:00.43 top
3289 radon 20 0 14880 1180 872 R 0.3 0.1 0:00.24 top
1 root 20 0 4084 864 616 S 0.0 0.1 0:01.17 init
2 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd
3 root RT -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0
4 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ksoftirqd/0
5 root RT -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/0
6 root RT -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/1
7 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ksoftirqd/1
[radon@localhost ~]$

ontheray · 04-20-2009, 01:03 AM

Ok so I put hd 0,1 and sucess!! the older version of grub must have hosed it somehow?

Anyhow, firefox is so slow that I cannot bear to be on the system now. It was not like that at first.

I guess that I need to put up a firewall. Also, I will try booting to the updated build, and see if nibbles still freezes up the system. I am so relieved that I at least was able to get to windows ( crazy thought?? ) because firefox takes about 1 second each move increment (i push arrow down, 10 seconds or more to work and finish).

at least I am back in operation

Rome5 · 04-20-2009, 01:50 AM

Good news. I was going to say that your hd0,0 and so forth were slightly off according the fdisk -l output. Device names and the physical order of partitions on the disk can be different.

Nibbles = online game? What plugin does it require? Plugins are generally what slow Firefox down.

Also, what video card are you running and what driver have you installed (if any)?

If you want a more user friendly firewall; firestarter works. iptables would require a bit more reading up, but I've never had problems thus far.

ontheray · 04-20-2009, 02:11 AM

nibbles is a game under games menu of Fedora. I haven't tried it on the new build yet. Sudoku and winemine both work. I don't really want to play games, just am testing out everything on the system and getting familiar. Games sure are a great way to find system problems!!!

I have an ati radeon x1200 series.

The weird thing is, I remeber firefox being a little slow, but now it is outrageous. I went back to the original build, and it's the same there.

I have not installed any firefox plugins yet. How do I check for the drivers installed? can a new build (updated system - don't know if I am using the correct terminology here) change drivers on an old build? Because when I first installed updates, the screen went blank and I had the flashing caps. But then it worked when I used it, after I had booted to the original a few times. I had the same issue with ubuntu, but the updated version never worked.

04-16-2009, 02:33 PM	#1 (permalink)
ontheray Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 36 OS: vista	[SOLVED] Best flavor linux for a noob? BASH for begginers? What is the easiest flavor of linux for noob? I am guessing Ubuntu. I am considering Ubuntu, Gentoo, Fedora, or Knoppix. I tried Gentoo years ago, but never managed to put the time into BASH commands and did not have a live installer. I was decent with DOS, so I should just learn my BASH commands. Does anyone know a good BASH for begginers? I bought a laptop with vista, and am completely dissatisfied with vistax86 (oem os), vista x64, and xp x64 systems. I have gone back to a clean install of vista x32 for the moment ( the best buy idiot squad tried to charge $30 to remove aol, etc. until i argued and asked questions long enough and found then finally found the manager) So I tried Ubuntu which worked great except for the wireless. It did update itself twice, which both versions did not work ( black display). So yeah,I need to learn my BASH commands, and I could have gotten the wireless working. I'm not going to completely switch until I have wireless and can run office ( just use WINE I am assuming). Although I have tried to use open office for years, its just too difficult to use due to compatibility issues. School and everywhere else uses office 2007. Any suggestions on the best flavor or beginning BASH?

04-16-2009, 02:47 PM	#2 (permalink)
ontheray Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 36 OS: vista	Re: Best flavor linux for a noob? BASH for begginers? I took the test and found the following matches for me: Kubuntu, Mandriva, Linux Mint, Ubuntu, OpenSuSE. Is Fedora less new user friendly? Advantages of Kubuntu vs. Ubuntu? I just need something for 6 months or more to actually work for me, and by that time I'm sure I'll be ready to try out some new flavors. I've been waiting about 4 years and am ready to make the change, especially with this windows 7 coming out. Thanks for any input.

04-16-2009, 07:26 PM	#3 (permalink)
wmorri Moderator/Fedora Amb. Join Date: May 2008 Location: /pm/etc Posts: 2,814 OS: Window 7/Fedora 10 My System	Re: Best flavor linux for a noob? BASH for begginers? Hi, I think that all the distros that are listed are good for beginners. Fedora is a great distro, it isn't that its not user friendly, but more that there are more feature that come standard with fedora, than with ubuntu. There are some things like SELinux which is the security center for fedora that allows you to change your settings on the fly. I don't believe that there is that in Ubuntu. Another thing that most every distro has that ubuntu doesn't is the use of root. This allows you to have access to everything on the system, and change them when you want to. There are some other advantages to root, but those can be covered another time. There really isn't any difference between kubuntu and ubuntu. The only thing is the kubuntu uses the KDE desktop and ubuntu uses gnome. If I was you I would burn a couple Livecd's of the distros that you think you might like, and then see what you think of them. That way you can see the differences. Let me know if you need any more information. Cheers! __________________ Linux Forever!

04-16-2009, 11:34 PM	#4 (permalink)
ontheray Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 36 OS: vista	Re: Best flavor linux for a noob? BASH for begginers? Thanks, no wonder I couldn't get to the root in Ubuntu! The first linux I saw was Gentoo 2004. I never spent enough time with it to actually install it, maybe because I found a Knoppix live cd. I have enough hard drive space that I can mess around, but with more than one windows os I guess I could only has one Linux os as it needs to be on an extended partition, which leaves me only one free partition. I thought vista x64 would be good (gullible I suppose). I don't recall if the fedora cd I have is live, I guess I shall try that one. I heard good things about Ubuntu, but since I had a computer practically after my baby rattle I think I shall give it a shot with Fedora. I'll let you know how it goes, as I'm sure I'll run into a problem. The good news for me is, now that my computer is about 18 months old, there should be all the drivers for it. I just know I'm going to get lost in the root and try to pull some ms-dos stuff out of my skeleton closet.

04-17-2009, 08:15 AM	#5 (permalink)
wmorri Moderator/Fedora Amb. Join Date: May 2008 Location: /pm/etc Posts: 2,814 OS: Window 7/Fedora 10 My System	Re: Best flavor linux for a noob? BASH for begginers? Hi, Here is my advice to you. Don't use root unless it is absolutely necessary. There are two many ways to mess your system up when you are using root. Whenever you have a question, don't hesitate to post it. I am sure that either myself or one of the other great people on the forum will hav an answer for you. Cheers! __________________ Linux Forever!

04-17-2009, 11:06 AM	#6 (permalink)
ontheray Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 36 OS: vista	Re: Best flavor linux for a noob? BASH for begginers? Here is the thing: I learn computers by breaking them!!! Or at least I used to. Nowadays it is far more complicated than copying the io.sys file after whatever other file it was by simply using xtree to make dos work again... I want to have a working system, yes. But I would also like to know my way around linux, as windows give you progressively less freedom with each new build. I couldn't even reside my partition the other day with Acronis, and had to use windows. I am sick of it and want my freedom back.

04-17-2009, 09:14 PM	#7 (permalink)
wmorri Moderator/Fedora Amb. Join Date: May 2008 Location: /pm/etc Posts: 2,814 OS: Window 7/Fedora 10 My System	Re: Best flavor linux for a noob? BASH for begginers? Hi, It sounds like linux is just the thing for you then. You can break the OS and then re-install it again in a matter of an hour if you have too. Just find a distro that you like and then go with it. That is how I started and now I have found the one distro Fedora, and I have become much more involved with the community. So, there are many options for you. Cheers! __________________ Linux Forever!

04-18-2009, 02:14 AM	#8 (permalink)
ontheray Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 36 OS: vista	Re: Best flavor linux for a noob? BASH for begginers? okay, well here it goes. I have manages to get my windows partition messes into a substantial chunk of data, which I will keep on a separate data partition. I burned my Fedora 10 live iso downloaded 4 months ago. Give me Linux, or give me death! Know of a good bash guide? I am going to embrace the root.

04-18-2009, 09:17 AM	#9 (permalink)
wmorri Moderator/Fedora Amb. Join Date: May 2008 Location: /pm/etc Posts: 2,814 OS: Window 7/Fedora 10 My System	Re: Best flavor linux for a noob? BASH for begginers? Hi, You might have a look at these two: one, two Cheers! __________________ Linux Forever!

04-18-2009, 02:15 PM	#10 (permalink)
ontheray Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 36 OS: vista	Re: Best flavor linux for a noob? BASH for begginers? Thanks, I will look. problems, problems. I think I had the wrong cd... it dumped to the root, and wished me luck :( downloaded dvd x86_64, problem after I verified, cleaned the dvd, presto!! I am online with fedora, with wireless working!!!!! I am a happy camper today!!! Thank you very much wmorri!!!

04-19-2009, 10:46 AM	#11 (permalink)
wmorri Moderator/Fedora Amb. Join Date: May 2008 Location: /pm/etc Posts: 2,814 OS: Window 7/Fedora 10 My System	Re: Best flavor linux for a noob? BASH for begginers? Not a problem that is why I am here. If you ever have a problem and more than likely you will, just come back and we can work it out. Cheers! __________________ Linux Forever!

04-19-2009, 10:07 PM	#13 (permalink)
ontheray Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 36 OS: vista	Re: Best flavor linux for a noob? BASH for begginers? So I did my updates and was unable to reboot, the caps lock light was flashing (same thing happened to ubuntu) but now I was able to get on, weird. I blew out my windows boot - is it because I mounted that vloume? I unmounted it and I hope it fixes that. I only need windows for school - in case I run into problems. Do I need antivirus for Fedora? I like antivir for windows. I havn't looked at the bash guides yet, but I will after I explore the system a little bit. I

04-19-2009, 11:28 PM	#14 (permalink)
ontheray Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 36 OS: vista	Re: Best flavor linux for a noob? BASH for begginers? Everything was normal, then the screen went black and the caps light was flashing. Same problem with Ubuntu, except this happened only once with Fedora and then it worked. New problem: system laggy. Firefox is soooo slow. Any idea how to get my vista bootloader back? right now it is booting hda 0,0 but when I try it says the bootloader is missing. I think it may be from mounting the volume. I really hope that there is some problem that I can fix, because sadly enough to say, the system is performing worse than Vista!!! ( except its probably secure) Should I use a data partition to share info from windows to linux and vice versa? Could the system be laggy due to swap file encryption? I am in disbelief that Fedora would run slower than Vista without some sort of problem. I also noticed that in Vista the cpu load is evenly distributed, where as in Fedora it puts the majority of the load on a single core.

04-20-2009, 12:00 AM	#15 (permalink)
Rome5 Alternative Computing Team Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Denver.CO Posts: 311 OS: Arch linux	Re: Best flavor linux for a noob? BASH for begginers? I have dual core and experience the same; though I rarely see usage above 15% on either. Any higher and it's usually firefox to blame (actually, always firefox to blame). An encrypted swap partition should not cause major lag. That would depend on a few variables, such as your system RAM, but if you're over 1gb, you shouldn't use swap that much anyway. You can run 'free -m' in a terminal, to get a look at memory usage (both RAM and swap). As far as system lag; Fedora's a bit of a bulky distro so it may run slower than ligher versions, but it should equal and most often, beat out Vista. If that's not the case, you do have a problem. It could be hardware related, but I would first take a look at running processes to see if anything sticks out. You can do so by running 'top' in a terminal, which will give you a nice system monitor. Firefox will probably eat up a bit, but look for other sources. You're experiencing lag without firefox running, correct? Start there. Mounting the drive alone shouldn't cause a problem when booting Vista. However; if you want to mount an NTFS partition in Linux, mount it read only (mount -t ntfs-3g -o ro) as Linux does not 100% safely write to NTFS. So that's a yes on the data partition. fat32 is the easiest/best solution for both OSes to read/write to, excluding the lack of permissions/security and file size limits on fat. Back to the bootloader problem. When you boot, you're being taken to the GRUB menu? You then have the option to boot Vista or Fedora? If so, please open a terminal and post the output of the following commands here: Code: sudo fdisk -l <-- that's a lowercase L cat /boot/grub/menu.lst Possible you're just pointing to the wrong partition. Rule that out first. __________________ Arch64 ~ PekWM

04-20-2009, 12:37 AM	#16 (permalink)
ontheray Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 36 OS: vista	Re: Best flavor linux for a noob? BASH for begginers? I don't remember firefox being this slow. my first problem occurred when I tried to play nibbles. I had a freeze up. Everything was going fine though, I thought. I went back to the original build instead of the updated build, and still had a problem. Firefox is so laggy it won't hardly even scroll. I have hd 0 : 0 vistax32 1:extended partition Fedora 2:data partition (blown out registry on new x64) and 3: vista x64. I installed another grub, which gave me fedora boot options. I boot into what I am assuming to be a nice colored grub. I was able to edit the boot for windows and try hd3 which just game me an _ cursor . hd0 says bootmgr missing pres ctrl alt del. I even tried vista x32 installation cd which at said it could not find a problem. Maybe I should tell you what I am doing next: installed wine to run easybcd (which did not work in windows I might add) to try to fix the boot. I am probably going to blow out Fedora as well if I do this and then be forced to reinstall something... This sucks! I wish I hadn't touched my vista install. it does seem to be firefox that is the laggy one. I have 2 gig ram, although it says 1662 (vista did this to me before) Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0xfdc239e2 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 7650 61440000 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda2 * 13981 17997 32265216 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda3 17997 30402 99637248 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda4 7651 13980 50845725 5 Extended /dev/sda5 7651 7676 208813+ 83 Linux /dev/sda6 7677 13980 50636848+ 8e Linux LVM Partition table entries are not in disk order [root@localhost radon]# free -m total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 1630 1109 520 0 45 549 -/+ buffers/cache: 514 1116 Swap: 3263 0 3263

04-20-2009, 12:49 AM	#17 (permalink)
ontheray Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 36 OS: vista	Re: Best flavor linux for a noob? BASH for begginers? nibbles did it again - completely freezes up the system. Tasks: 157 total, 1 running, 156 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie Cpu(s): 28.3%us, 3.0%sy, 0.0%ni, 68.2%id, 0.0%wa, 0.5%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Mem: 1669920k total, 751144k used, 918776k free, 77868k buffers Swap: 3342328k total, 0k used, 3342328k free, 198664k cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 2486 root 20 0 281m 35m 8268 S 59.6 2.2 1:28.56 Xorg 3161 radon 20 0 662m 94m 21m S 1.3 5.8 0:11.47 firefox 3226 radon 20 0 341m 18m 11m S 0.7 1.2 0:00.81 gnome-terminal 1447 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0.3 0.0 0:00.12 rtl8187 1937 root 20 0 6880 376 280 S 0.3 0.0 0:00.12 irqbalance 2894 radon 20 0 308m 3820 2052 S 0.3 0.2 0:00.60 gnome-screensav 2909 radon 20 0 166m 9128 5204 S 0.3 0.5 0:01.74 compiz 2921 radon 20 0 236m 14m 8372 S 0.3 0.9 0:00.50 gtk-window-deco 3257 radon 20 0 14880 1176 872 S 0.3 0.1 0:00.43 top 3289 radon 20 0 14880 1180 872 R 0.3 0.1 0:00.24 top 1 root 20 0 4084 864 616 S 0.0 0.1 0:01.17 init 2 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd 3 root RT -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0 4 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ksoftirqd/0 5 root RT -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/0 6 root RT -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/1 7 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ksoftirqd/1 [radon@localhost ~]$

04-20-2009, 01:03 AM	#18 (permalink)
ontheray Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 36 OS: vista	Re: Best flavor linux for a noob? BASH for begginers? Ok so I put hd 0,1 and sucess!! the older version of grub must have hosed it somehow? Anyhow, firefox is so slow that I cannot bear to be on the system now. It was not like that at first. I guess that I need to put up a firewall. Also, I will try booting to the updated build, and see if nibbles still freezes up the system. I am so relieved that I at least was able to get to windows ( crazy thought?? ) because firefox takes about 1 second each move increment (i push arrow down, 10 seconds or more to work and finish). at least I am back in operation

04-20-2009, 01:50 AM	#19 (permalink)
Rome5 Alternative Computing Team Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Denver.CO Posts: 311 OS: Arch linux	Re: Best flavor linux for a noob? BASH for begginers? Good news. I was going to say that your hd0,0 and so forth were slightly off according the fdisk -l output. Device names and the physical order of partitions on the disk can be different. Nibbles = online game? What plugin does it require? Plugins are generally what slow Firefox down. Also, what video card are you running and what driver have you installed (if any)? If you want a more user friendly firewall; firestarter works. iptables would require a bit more reading up, but I've never had problems thus far. __________________ Arch64 ~ PekWM

04-20-2009, 02:11 AM	#20 (permalink)
ontheray Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 36 OS: vista	Re: Best flavor linux for a noob? BASH for begginers? nibbles is a game under games menu of Fedora. I haven't tried it on the new build yet. Sudoku and winemine both work. I don't really want to play games, just am testing out everything on the system and getting familiar. Games sure are a great way to find system problems!!! I have an ati radeon x1200 series. The weird thing is, I remeber firefox being a little slow, but now it is outrageous. I went back to the original build, and it's the same there. I have not installed any firefox plugins yet. How do I check for the drivers installed? can a new build (updated system - don't know if I am using the correct terminology here) change drivers on an old build? Because when I first installed updates, the screen went blank and I had the flashing caps. But then it worked when I used it, after I had booted to the original a few times. I had the same issue with ubuntu, but the updated version never worked.