Check this out: http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=9569&page=2
(Linux Live CD roundup)
Ok, Ubuntu is running and is pretty cool, except for this: it won’t recognize my NTFS partition. Which is, uh… where all my data is. Help :/.
Edit: Oh, and it won’t let me change my resolution to 1600x1200, for some reason.
Edit: Oh and one more. It didn’t prompt me for a root password during installation, and… now I can’t log in as root.
You can read from it, but you can’t write to NTFS with linux - unless some recent magic happened.
You need to mount it, as Root, to be able to access it. That’ll be something like this…
cd /mnt
mkdir ntfsdrive
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/ntfsdrive
cd ntfsdrive
ls
and you should see your stuff.
Now, if you want that mounted every time you boot up, and I’m sure you do, then you’ll have to edit /etc/fstab and put basically the same info in there but in its own funky format. There’s an example in the file, commented out.
No one has chimed in yet, so I will.
The best Linux distro is OS X. Hardware is a bit pricey though.
Thanks! Bummer that I can’t write to it though… any idea how to get around this “no root password” problem?
I might just reinstall it. I think I will. Bye!
Reinstalling with Ubuntu will get you nowhere. There IS no root password on Ubuntu. Everything is done with SUDO.
If you want to put a root password it’s super easy though. Under the “System utilities” or whatever menu, there’s a “Root Console” that launches a consol in root mode. Then you type PASSWD and now you have a root password.
Well I wish I’d seen that before I reinstalled. But the install is so quick and painless anyway, I don’t really mind.
Any thoughts on the resolution? Paying for linux is weird.
Now that I think about it, just plain not letting people log in as root ever by default is a fantastic idea. That’s how every *nix server I’ve worked with was set up anyway, but it’s cool to see it done that way by default on a desktop linux.
Resolution is controlled in the X86Config file, which should be in /usr/bin/XR11/ or something like that
If you hunt through the file (Tip: install Nano for a text editor - VI is the devil despite the twinkle in geek eyes when you mention it.) you’ll see a section of display settings. It’ll have one per resolution that you can run in. Might have to add a 1600x1200 one. CTRL-SHIFT-+ forces a bump up to the next rez I think. That’s keypad + too
Thanks for that… and vi isn’t so bad once you get used to it.
Cept I can’t find that file. Or make the extra buttons on my mouse work. Or give myself permissions to view the NTFS partition as not root (though I may have just fixed that).
Your best bet is their forums, definitely. I did it on mine, but I don’t remember how - but it HAS to be part of fstab config.
The permissions I managed to fix, and yes, it was.
The first thing to do is see if your possible resolutions are even being detected properly in the first place.
While in Gnome on Ubuntu, Click on the System button on the taskbar, then Preferences, then Screen Resolution. If you’re not getting any love there, then it’s time to move on to getting those resolutions detected.
Ubuntu moved from XFree86 to Xorg, like many other distros have, so your config file is going to be /etc/X11/xorg.conf. The Ubuntu Forums have many threads on this topic, though.
Neither is bamboo under the fingernails, my friend.
Thanks for your help, guys. That resolution problem is now fixed. Now all I need is for my extra mouse buttons to work, and to figure out how to extend my Gnome panel’s transparency to everything on it, and I’m in business!
This thread has at once re-awoken my lust for an alternative to Windows, and reminded me why I’m still waiting to make the move…there are just a few too many little annoyances than I have time for these days so I shall wait some more. Still tempting though!
Linux is a perfectly good Windows alternatives for work tasks. Word processing, programming, etc. It’s only unsuitable for gaming and for productivity situations where proprietary windows-only apps are required.
I’ve been using Linux on my main PC at work for the better part of 3 years now for word processing, email, web browsing, etc. I do have a Windows box as an emergency backup, but I only use it for MS word when OpenOffice barfs on some particularly complicated document.