I Think I Broked It!

Sofiztikated

Hey all.

I have an older computer (a Pentium 3 450, with a 12Gig HDD, 192Mhz RAM) that I fool about with, mainly because I can't bring myself to get rid of it (I'm a hoarder)

Its currently running Win 98.

I was thinking about running Linux for a while now, and was mooching around for a Linux distro that would suit the older spec.

I finally came up with Xubuntu (after making a Mint 8 LiveCD for the craic) as it needs less resources to work.

I started to install with the Xubuntu alternate iso, but the Grub loader aborted but Lilo did install fine.

When booting into Xubuntu, it wouldn't go past the command line interface, startx wouldn't work, start xfce4 wouldn't work, nadda.

Now I think I made a booboo when I was partitioning the HDD with Linux, as when I booted back into Windows, it could only see the C: drive as 5.something gig, and I tried removing the partition to format the HDD again, to start completely from scratch, but the Fdisk in Windows can only see the drive as C: with a 1 and 2 parts, not partitions (If I remember, it should be C and D on the HDD)

Now I can't unpartition the drive with Fdisk, I did get the Xubuntu main iso, but not sure if I try to load it, will I balls it up further?

Anybody any ideas?

Sherifu

Why don't you use GParted from the Mint Live cd? That should let you do whatever partitioning you want.

Capt'n Midnight

Mint 8 on 192MB ram ?



start 98 in safe mode command prompt only - press F5
then you should be able to use fdisk to kill any non-dos partiton

purists might want to use freedos



with that spec machine I'd recommend looking at puppylinux
its nice and light and fairly similar to 98

Sofiztikated

Thanks guys.

Sorry, didn't explain myself properly.

Got the Mint 8 to see if it worked on my laptop, and I thought I'd give it a blast on the old one as well. I loaded from the CD, but it got as far as the Mint logo, and hung.

Its just a project that I fancied working on, my computer knowledge has fallen in the last 8 years, what with having to do actual work rather than spend time doing what I liked.

I'll try and kill the partition, and give it a go with the Xubuntu main iso, and if that doesn't work, I'll mooch for the PuppyLinux.

In an ideal world, I'd kill the Win98 completely, and dedicate it to a Linux machine, BUT I don't want to lose my older games, and the XP doesn't run them properly.

Just getting into the open source world, more now since I got an Android based phone. (HTC Hero)

So here's the plan.

Win98 safe mode
F5
Fdisk
kill the partition and format.
Give Xubuntu another go.
IF THEN ELSE
If it works, THEN happy days
ELSE Kick it, and curse a bit, and go with PuppyLinux.

loldog

xfce is probably a bit too much for 192MB of RAM. Try using the LXDE desktop, or Puppy, as someone suggested.

You could also try out Crunchbang Linux too, it's Ubuntu with an Openbox desktop: http://crunchbanglinux.org/

.

Sofiztikated

Crap. Hit a wall again.

Trying to get rid of this damn partition. Using fdisk, the information I get is:

Current fixed disk drive :1
When I try to delete the non-DOS partition, no Non-DOS partition to delete.

But when I try to display partition information

Current fixed disk drive: 1
Partition Status Type Volume Label Mbytes System Usage
C: 1_____A_____PRI DOS_______________5718_____Fat32___46%
2___________EXT DOS______________ 6683_____________54%

Still no logical drives defined, cannot delete extended DOS partition while logical drives exist. Going around in fupping circles!

bman

Run gParted from a live CD. Do whatever you wish to with the partition.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

Sofiztikated

Will try gParted now. Tried installing Xubuntu from the main iso, and it got most of the way through, BUT I believe the HDD is borked in places, didn't install properly, errored on something, can't remember what it was now.

It then went to the GUI run from the LiveCD, and wanted to install all over again.

(I also just sat looking at it for a while thinking "Is that it!")

bman

Mmmm... HD might be broken if everything is having issues with it. Try gParted and let us know how you get on.

Sofiztikated

Ah FFS!

I'm not having a good day.

First Vodafone was borked, had to call them and find out what the hell was up.

Then my router was acting up.

Got that sorted, and then Xubuntu/HDD was being pricky.

Now when I'm trying to get gParted, Vodafone is borked again.

Currently tethered to my Hero, to get online.

Restarted the old computer with Mint8 LiveCd to see if gParted was on it, and I'm getting

[4xx.xxxxxx] buffer I/O error on device sr0, locical block 199xx
(xx being numbers)

So i'm taking that as it being busted.

kicom

chuck it in the bin mate.

bman

Sofiztikated wrote: »

Ah FFS!

I'm not having a good day.

First Vodafone was borked, had to call them and find out what the hell was up.

Then my router was acting up.

Got that sorted, and then Xubuntu/HDD was being pricky.

Now when I'm trying to get gParted, Vodafone is borked again.

Currently tethered to my Hero, to get online.

Restarted the old computer with Mint8 LiveCd to see if gParted was on it, and I'm getting

[4xx.xxxxxx] buffer I/O error on device sr0, locical block 199xx
(xx being numbers)

So i'm taking that as it being busted.

I feel your pain, sometimes things just aren't going to plan . Might be hope yet http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-general-1/buffer-io-error-on-device-sr0.......-713482/

Sofiztikated

Right, today is going to be my day.

New batch of DVD-R's, the last cd-r's I was using was there for quite some time, so hoepfully this'll work.

Re d/ling gparted, and going to burn the iso to a shiny new DVD-r, scrap any and all partitions, and burn a new Xubuntu LiveCD AND a PuppyLinux LiveCD.

I have crisps, coke and biccies beside me, phone is charging from the laptop, and I'm not leaving until I fix the damn thing, OR it gets ****ed out the window.

bman

Sofiztikated wrote: »

Right, today is going to be my day.

New batch of DVD-R's, the last cd-r's I was using was there for quite some time, so hoepfully this'll work.

Re d/ling gparted, and going to burn the iso to a shiny new DVD-r, scrap any and all partitions, and burn a new Xubuntu LiveCD AND a PuppyLinux LiveCD.

I have crisps, coke and biccies beside me, phone is charging from the laptop, and I'm not leaving until I fix the damn thing, OR it gets ****ed out the window.

I want to see a vid of the chucking out the window act :pac:

Sofiztikated

So far things are going good.

Had to get CD-r's as well. (on a side not, Lidl have 50 CD-r's for €6.99, and the only actual computer shop in Cavan don't stock writable media, go figure.)

Gparted worked a treat. Got rid of all those unused partitions, but for some reason Win98 is still showing the HDD as 5Gig, and not the full 12G.

I'm just doing an error check and defrag BEFORE i try linux again.

thinking CrashBang this time around, or puppy.

Sofiztikated

Right.

Got completely fed up with Win98, and formatted the bastid using gParted. (Its so easy to use! Click, bang, done!)

Now just have to decide between Xubuntu, PuppyLinux and CrashBang.

I'm just not feeling CrashBang yet, don't think I have the patience or knowledge for something thats not "stable" as yet.

Xubuntu seems nice, and more "user" friendly.

PuppyLinux seems very oldskool. Kinda drawn to it.

bman

Sofiztikated wrote: »

Right.

Got completely fed up with Win98, and formatted the bastid using gParted. (Its so easy to use! Click, bang, done!)

Now just have to decide between Xubuntu, PuppyLinux and CrashBang.

I'm just not feeling CrashBang yet, don't think I have the patience or knowledge for something thats not "stable" as yet.

Xubuntu seems nice, and more "user" friendly.

PuppyLinux seems very oldskool. Kinda drawn to it.

Yeah, gParted is a great tool. I use it a lot.

I've no real experience with any of those distros (I may have tried PuppyLinux briefly once) so I can't suggest one over the other. But it's Linux, if you don't like it in a weeks time you can wipe and start anew.

Kinetic^

Go for crunchbang lite. It'll run well (browsing/email - not much else)on the hardware you have. I've got it on an old inpirson 510m (Pentium M 1.7Ghz with 768mb ram - had 256mb and was fine for browsing) and it runs very well with the full version of crunchbang.