Vista owners beware

[freeztar]

You should be able to run it from cd, if you downloaded a livecd.

No installation necessary. :rolleyes:

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

You should be able to run it from cd, if you downloaded a livecd.

No installation necessary. :rolleyes:

 

Actually I downloaded a "live cd"

and an "installation cd" :phones:

 

The "live" to try it.

 

The install so I could tinker with it as an "actuall" O.S. on my beater.

 

It's one thing to boot up the live cd and go oooo ahhhhhh nifty!

It's quite another to actually install it add accessory programs* and actually use it as I presently use my XP o.s.

 

In other words a real world comparison of my present o.s. and a possibly better one without a learning curve system crash on my good computer! (OH SH**!!!!!!!!!! Tell me I didn't just delete that!!!!! F###! Where's my backups?!?!?!?!?!?!!)

 

*A media player, music editing software, imaging software etc.

 

(It's not an entirely fair test though as my beater is a 1.2Ghz wonly 128mb sys ram, 64mb vid while this one is a 3Ghz with 1.2G of sys ram, 512mb vid.)

[alexander]

freeztar, Ubuntu cds are live cds with the installation option (aka installer script and some packages)

 

Oh and yes you can read and most likely write to your windows partitions from linux.... It may not be automated in Ubuntu, but it's not hard to do

 

(# indicates a command for you to run)

Pop open a terminal

 

# su

now you are running as root (if asks for password, it should be empty, if it does not do anything, then you might be running as root, to check)

 

# whoami

should display root

 

Now to find your hard drive partitions

 

# ls /dev/hd*

if you see something like hda hda1 hda2 hda3 hdb hdb1 hdb2 hdc then you are running an ide drive, if you only see hda hdb hdc then you are not and should try

 

# ls /dev/sd*

should display a list of scsi/sata derives like sda sda1 sda2

 

ok at this point what do those mean, hda or sda indicates a drive or lack of thereof, if you have just hda then that means you have an unpartitioned drive, but further checking is needed, hda/sda1 or any other number indicate a partition of the drive so if you see hda hda1 hda2 you know that you have a hard drive hda with 2 partitions (ps linux will show hidden partitions with utils and stuff, except for the crazy ibm ones)

 

now that you see the list you need to figure out which partition you want, in this cfdisk is an invaluable tool

 

# cfdisk /dev/hda

this will bring you into a text-window interface that shows you partitions and allows you to allocate space. if you want to preserve data DO NOT use this tool to repartition your drive, but if you just need to find info or partition a new hd, this tool is as good as it gets. anyhow, not which partition you want to use (generally the bigger one) and quit out of the tool without writing or changing anything (space will set the boot flag on the partition, so don't use it too much, right/left moves between menu selections at the bottom enter chooses, also there are short keys)

 

ok so now that you know which partition you are going to use, and in my case i will use hda2 as an example, but it very easily can be sda1 or hda3 or or even sdb1.... etc (last hd device is generally the cd/dvd drive wich is also linked to by /dev/cdrom)

 

if you just want read access to the drive

 

# cd /media

# mkdir my_windows

# mount -t ntfs /dev/hda2 /media/my_windows

# cd /media/my_windows

# ls -lsah

you should now see all the files in your windows drive (folders, hidden files, hashes all!)

you will also be able to navigate there via the graphical file explorer

 

Write access IS EXPERIMENTAL (aka reverse engineered, but works very well, yet still BE WARNED) Ah, also i can't recall if ubuntu live cd had ntfs-3g set up in it, so this may or may not work.... will work if you have ntfs-3g

 

# cd /media

# mkdir my_windows

# mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/hda2 /media/my_windows

# cd !$ (or cd /media/my_windows)

# ls -lsah

Should now display all the files

 

to test write support

# touch test

# ls te*

if it shows test as one of the outputs then you are good... if not then you did something wrong

 

Pay attention if you have any errors, remember that reading is essential, so use the skill :rolleyes:

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

WOO!HOO! This post is the first post on my Ubuntu powered beater!

 

Granted it's ancient (built 2002), it's a bit slow but it works!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[alexander]

Congrats, i now have an ubuntu powered MBP.... i'll post a link to a howto article i gotta write up, yes there are many articles out there on howto set up ubuntu on mbp, but all of them somehow omit this tiny little detail that can make your life hell if you don't know what is going on... namely a problem of boot loader just totally failing to find any hardware bootable devices....

 

yes back to dual boot of linux/leopard, got compiz fusion running and kiba dock compiled :phones:

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

Cool!!!

[DougF]

OK. I'm up to speed on this thread now.

alexander

in a securityfocus article titled "Owning Vista from the Boot"

Good article' date=' I'm still running XP and was thinking about upgrading to Vista hopping that it was better, but thinking hard about Linux now Questions on this at end.

Pyrotex

Be afraid.

Be very afraid.

Buy a Mac.

I got scared when I want to Window 95.

CraigD

due not to evil intentions or technical negligence' date=' but because the modern OS/application paradigm is inherently insecure – but again, that’s a subject for another thread. [/quote']

If this thread gets started Please give me an invite, I would like to know more on this.

Boerseun

Come on. Vista is about as clever as a toaster strapped to a wheelbarrow.

all of the people I know of who have Vista this is the same opinion.

alexander

How did you guys get to the internet before they invented electricity?

(joking of course)

LOL

Pyrotex

"The Top Ten Reasons Why Windows is Inferior"???

LOL

alexander

lol you are probably the only person here who actually read it' date=' it really is spot on..! [/quote']

I read it and all of the attached links, and yes it's "spot on"

Buffy

Chevy Corvair

I had one of this when I was 17' date=' that thing never did run right.

Theory5

I have not gotten the blue screen of death for years.

I have gotten the black screen of annoyance though. :-P

and now I get the all programs shut down and go to the start up screen, and think about it thingy.

DFINITLYDISTRUBD

I read it too!!!

Didn't fully understand it...but I read it...forgot most of it

Trying to figure out how to "test drive" Linux on my PC w/out flipping-it- up

A rocket scientist I ain't

Man you are one funny dude' date=' love to read your stuff.

I'd give you rep if I could for this.

C1ay

Just burn a LiveCD like Knoppix or Ubuntu. Boot from the CD and test drive Linux. Reboot to get back to Windoze.

Good idea,

alexander

you dualboot' date=' resize the windows partition (in case of ubuntu during the ubuntu install), install Linux [b']and set up the box to ask you if you want to boot to windows or Linux [/b](in case of ubuntu, once again, its a part of the installer, and is automagificated).

OK once I start the upload I wont be able to ask (only one PC at house) so is this a check the box or something else?

DFINITLYDISTRUBD

I just figured out today that I could change how this site displays on my pc....Nightshift

how did you do that' date=' I know they were working on it but never heard any more about it.

DFINITLYDISTRUBD

Actually I downloaded a "live CD"

and an "installation CD"

The "live" to try it.

The install so I could tinker with it as an "actual" O.S. on my beater.

I'm glad you said "and installation CD" I thought all that was on the live CD.

DFINITLYDISTRUBD

It's one thing to boot up the live CD and go oooo ahhhhhh nifty!

It's quite another to actually install it add accessory programs* and actually use it as I presently use my XP o.s.

 

In other words a real world comparison of my present o.s. and a possibly better one without a learning curve system crash on my good computer! (OH SH**!!!!!!!!!! Tell me I didn't just delete that!!!!! F###! Where's my backups?!?!?!?!?!?!!)

I can hear that' date='

I hope I don't F**k up trying this!!!

alexander

freeztar, Ubuntu cds are live cds with the installation option (aka installer script and some packages)

 

Oh and yes you can read and most likely write to your windows partitions from linux.... It may not be automated in Ubuntu, but it's not hard to do

 

(# indicates a command for you to run)

Pop open a terminal

OK I printed all of this so once I start I have something to go on,

 

Now I'm curently running Windows XP Home Edition 2002, (on a Laptop)

with some Issues, IE: shuts down when I click on a link or when ever as in shut down twice just typing this response.

 

have 27.9 GB TTL with 8.9 GB free, running the FAT 32, NTFS

 

Question (1): will Linux run PC/online games, and if I like Linux and want to trash windows will I have any trouble.

 

Question (2): is there anything I should know before or after I install Linux

 

From what I've read Linux should run the rest of my programs as far as Word, E-Mail, IM, and Internet but do you know if it will run AutoCad and other Survey/Eng. programs?

 

Well I'm going to download the Linux and make a CD copy of it,

I'll wait for your input before I proceed.

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

 

1.I got scared when I want to Windows 95.

 

2.Man you are one funny dude, love to read your stuff.

I'd give you rep if I could for this.

 

3.how did you do that, I know they were working on it but never heard any more about it.

 

4.Now I'm curently running Windows XP Home Edition 2002, (on a Laptop)

with some Issues, IE: shuts down when I click on a link or when ever as in shut down twice just typing this response.

 

5.have 27.9 GB TTL with 8.9 GB free, running the FAT 32, NTFS

 

 

1. I miss 3.1.;)

 

2. Just think...by the time a post makes it from my head to your screen it's been rethought, edited, thought about some more, re-edited, completely forgotten, scrapped rethought some more, re-edited and then either posted or run through the loop a few more times!

 

3.I really wish I knew:hihi: I haven't a clue....the first attempt at downloading a "livecd" yielded an OEM Installl disk the 10th or so try yielded a "Livecd" BEWARE the Mirrors!!!!! unless you speak geek.

 

4. check your cooling. My pc did that crap and all it needed (discovered after hours of *&*^*&%$#@ around) was a thorough cleaning of its cooling system.

 

5. Uuummmmmmmmmmmmmm..................yeah..........suuuuuuuuuuurrrrre.......

Ooooooooo.kaay...........yah.........what was the question?!?...............Uuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh......yeah.....what the *&@# is a TTL?!?!?!?!?!?!?!:doh:

[DougF]

A friend just told me about Linux mint at site below he said that this is the same program that you pointed me to but has all the bells and whistles that I would want, have you heard of this site? is he right?

 

Index of /mirrors/linux/linuxmint/releases

 

DFINITLYDISTRUBD

1. I miss 3.1.

Me also!

DFINITLYDISTRUBD

2. Just think...by the time a post makes it from my head to your screen it's been rethought' date=' edited, thought about some more, re-edited, completely forgotten, scrapped rethought some more, re-edited and then either posted or run through the loop a few more times! [/quote']

day-sa-vu

DFINITLYDISTRUBD

3.I really wish I knew I haven't a clue....the first attempt at downloading a "livecd" yielded an OEM Installl disk the 10th or so try yielded a "Livecd" BEWARE the Mirrors!!!!! unless you speak geek.

I'll have to do some digging' date=' I didn't think it was running yet.

DFINITLYDISTRUBD

4. check your cooling. My pc did that crap and all it needed (discovered after hours of *&*^*&%$#@ around) was a thorough cleaning of its cooling system.

Been there done that. (first thought) All Clear,

and it shuts down to the start up screen and I can restart my Internet and such ASAP just like i just started for the first time till the next time.

DFINITLYDISTRUBD

5. Uuummmmmmmmmmmmmm..................yeah..........s uuuuuuuuuuurrrrre.......

Ooooooooo.kaay...........yah.........what was the question?!?...............Uuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh.. ....yeah.....what the *&@# is a TTL?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

This would be Geek stuff.

[freeztar]

I don't know how I missed this post...

 

freeztar, Ubuntu cds are live cds with the installation option (aka installer script and some packages)

 

Yep.

I merely said, "installation not necessary".

Oh and yes you can read and most likely write to your windows partitions from linux.... It may not be automated in Ubuntu, but it's not hard to do

 

Yep, NTFS translations seem solid, but I haven't used it enough to see a flaw.

(# indicates a command for you to run)

Pop open a terminal

 

# su

now you are running as root (if asks for password, it should be empty, if it does not do anything, then you might be running as root, to check)

...

Pay attention if you have any errors, remember that reading is essential, so use the skill

 

Thank you Alex! :doh:

[freeztar]

A bit more on-topic:

 

I haven't used Vista since I set up my linux/xp partitions and now it seems my password has slipped through the crevices of my long-term memory holding cells. A search party has turned up nothing.

 

I tried ophcrack with no luck.

 

Any other suggestions? Surely I can reset or change something while running in my xp or linux partition?

 

No loss to reinstall, except for time spent and an unsettling feeling of un-geekiness.

[Southtown]

Search "sound issues" returns NULL. Yah i ditched a costy Vista for a free XP cuz well, glitchy sound is simply unacceptable. Worked at first till I installed a driver via disk. When it glitched, I couldn't revert. So I yanked the card and sought integration to the same end. No thx I can wait for eye candy. lol **** mp3's are necessary damnit.

[alexander]

...Linux now Questions on this at end.

i will take the challenge

If this thread gets started Please give me an invite, I would like to know more on this.

we discuss software security here from time to time, example of such a thread would be the MySQL thread...

A rocket scientist I ain't

neither am i, always wanted to get into ammature rocketry though...

OK once I start the upload I wont be able to ask (only one PC at house) so is this a check the box or something else?

its a boot loader.... once again ubuntu sets that up automagically.

how did you do that, I know they were working on it but never heard any more about it.

many ways to change this website looks, my favorite is using stylish (FF extension), but in your user preferences you can also change the theme for when you view these pages to nightshift, though nightshift is a bit too light for me, so i still use stylish and my custom hypo theme :cup:

 

I'm glad you said "and installation CD" I thought all that was on the live CD.

it is a live cd, just that if you like what you see, you have the option to install it, and the installer is really good on ubuntu. knoppix on the other hand is a story on its own...

I hope I don't F**k up trying this!!!

you know how many installs of ubuntu and other linux distros i have done? right, probably more then 100 times what you have done with windows. So as long as you follow these steps you CAN NOT screw up you system, except ofcourse if the power goes out at a wrong moment...

 

These are only recommended if you are going to install linux on your HD, for running live, its not needed.

 

> Boot into windows and defragment your drive (unless you have free space already, as in another hard drive, or another free partition)

> Reboot, to the live cd

> Click the install icon on the desktop (once or twice, but try once first)

> Installer comes up, go through to the partitioning part, resize your windows partition to allow at least a few gigs of space for ubuntu.

> Use ext3 file system and you can probably have it "auto partition" the free space, whatever they see fit.

> Finish the installation.

> Before you reboot, you can mount your linux installation partition by:

mkdir /mnt/ubuntu

mount /dev/(h or s)da# /mnt/ubuntu (where hda/sda is either your ide or sata drive, and the # corresponds to the partition where linux is installed (you can view the list of partitions with cfdisk on the console or gparted or i think its now refered to as hard drive partition manager or something to that extent in applications>system)

 

> after the mount you can do:

cat /mnt/ubuntu/boot/grub/menu.lst

 

if the menu.lst has an entry for windows you are fine, if not, you may have to manually add it

 

title Windows

rootnoverify (hd0,0)

makeactive

chainloader +1

 

Question (1): will Linux run PC/online games, and if I like Linux and want to trash windows will I have any trouble.

depends on the game... if its a shockwave game, then no, shockwave uses direct x, and i dunno if they made an open gl counter part yet, if its a flash game then yes, linux has support for flash, same with java. As far as pc games go, not in the sense that you would on windows. There are games written or ported to linux, though majority are not, games like UT and QUAKE have always been, so if you have a decently powerful machine, you might play windows games in a windows "emulator" on linux. Either a general purpose emulator like wine (sadly it stands for wine is not an emulator) or game-centered ones like cedega, both support most of the games that are played on windows, but you do need to have decent hardware to play games that need decent hardware, like crysis, hl2, etc...

There are games written for linux too, flight simulators, driving simulators, as well as your general arcade games, tux racer, etc... there are plenty, which are open-source and free... go to http://www.games4linux.eu, browse by category, buy, install, enjoy

 

notable linux games:

Cube Engine Games - quake 2 engine on steroids

FooBillard - Project Page - if it looks as good as the screenies, i will have to try it

Frozen Bubble - the official home - careful, addiction guaranteed

Neverball - oh can be so frustratingly difficult, though a simple concept

Maniadrive - rally game, dunno how good the physica are, graphics are not all that impressive, though versatility is insane, so much stuff you can do...

Simutrans Homepage - economic and transportation simulation game (similar to sim city... like 2000enish

Frets On Fire - ever play guitar hero? this totally kicks its ***

there is a beta port of serious sam II to nix

lastly 2 flight sims:

X-Plane, by Austin Meyer - the most advanced flight simulator to date, the US airforce is has a team of developers working on a special military version of this simulator, to be used in virtual cockpits, etc.

FlightGear Flight Simulator

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

alexander....buddy.......pal....

 

Could I trouble ya for some help?

 

I need a tuneski player....pc with no mp3 sucks!

The player that came with the install claims to need junk to play them.

 

Also Ubu claims to need something to open .exe and self extracting files....whats up with that?

 

Also can Ubu be fed the internet through an xp (can you have a functioning network with one pc running xp and the other running Ubu.) or do I have to continue to unplug one from the internet to plug in the other?

[Southtown]

Oh man. No exe's on linux. Codecs are a different matter. Go to "Applications/Add-Remove" or something ain't it?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu

[alexander]

alexander....buddy.......pal....

 

Could I trouble ya for some help?

 

I need a tuneski player....pc with no mp3 sucks!

The player that came with the install claims to need junk to play them.

so you say ubuntu, eh?

 

I as usual, have a resource for newbies that will blow anything M$ claims to have out there for help look like a child made it.... so catch:

 

Ubuntu:Gutsy -

 

all sorts of stuff there

 

as to getting it working, ok, there are a few things you may want to do, i would recommend using Amarok with gstreamer and gstreamer-plugins packages (you need to install them through the installer obviously)

 

Also Ubu claims to need something to open .exe and self extracting files....whats up with that?

um, the executable format is different on ubuntu, so yeah, you are not natively running windows applications on linux... if you need something really bad, you can install wine and use wine to run windows installers and programs, but if you are just looking to extract self-extracting archives, you can unzip them with this program called "unzip" which is an extension of the "zip" package and is also in your installer, or rather a link to "zip -x" or something like that... once installed, you just "unzip file.exe" and shazaam you have unzipped the archive

 

can you have a functioning network with one pc running xp and the other running Ubu

a network does not care what OS you are running, so for example at home i have 2 xp machines, 2 macs and a linux box, as you would imagine, i don't unplug anything, so, it's most likely your layout/setup...

 

i can help you figure out what is up, or what you may need to setup/configure your network, but i need to know the layout, like what you have for provider, modem/router/firewall/switch, most importantly what is plugged into what and how it is configured..... before i can go on and tell you either reasons your network is not working, or what you need to do to make it work... but no there is absolutely no reason why both could not be accessing the network at the same time...

[alexander]

disturbed, also if you are not sure about how to do something, like what the installer is, etc, please ask, i dont want you to be confused... linux is just another os, it takes time to get used to the fact that extensions do not matter because programs use file headers to determine the file type, it will take time to figure out that you have access to over 20000 pieces of software free and at any time, as long as you have an inet connection, it will take time to realize that in fact the updates will update not only the os, but also all the programs you have installed through installer, it will take some describing of what apt sources are, and that Linux is NOT Windows and things are done differently, programs are installed differently, that there is no registry and just how stupid the registry is, but trust me, as a person who has switched almost if not over a hundred people over to linux, you will find really awesome things you like about linux, and it does not guarantee that you will not have a dual boot system with windows for gaming or something, but i notice that at first people will go back to windows a lot, then they familiarize themselves with linux, then they start visiting windows less and less and less until they realize that they haven't even used windows for 3 months and delete it all together... well or they have a gaming box and a working box, or laptop...

 

but yeah don't hesitate to ask, if you have a question or do not understand something, i would rather answer you, then have you think that something is stupid because you can't figure out how to get it to work, or can't make it work period...