[PCKill4]

I have a computer that was given to me. It's a compaq deskpro (??)
It had windows xp installed, but it was not "genuine". I didnt want to pay MS 150$ for it to be validated, so I started looking into free linux operating systems. I downloaded Ubuntu and installed alongside windows. It worked. I wanted to get rid of Windows xp entirely.

system:
733/133 mhz
384 mb
no graphics card (motherboard only)

I have one 3.5 gb hd, one 4gb hd, and one 120gb hd.
I dont use them all at once, the 120gb is always the slave.
I switch between the other two for the master.

I have downloaded and burned .iso's for Ubuntu, knoppix, openSuse, openMamba, Puppy. I can get openSuse to run, but not install (Freezes up during partioning). Knoppix will sometimes get to the desktop, but not install to HD. Ubuntu doesnt even get to the desktop, just the first menu. OpenMamba freezes and puppy keeps coming up with errors and says "trying to kill init!" then freezes.

I'm not a tech, and a real noob to linux.
I dont know what to do. Obviously some of the operating systems work off the live cd, could it be that I dont have enough memory for the install?

If I could I would format both hard drives (and loose everything is fine with me). start with a clear computer. I dont know how to do that.

Does anybody have any ideas on what I can do to get it back up and running? only using free programs?

Not sure if the master boot record is in bad shape(most likely)

If someone suggests just using an operating system, could you also refer me to a known working link that will pass the md5sum, I think a couple of the iso's I burned didnt pass, including the openSuse that actually runs but wont install.

My computer will work, just need to know what to do to it. I dont care what operating system is installed, just not Windows.

I would appreciate any help at all.

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knoppix is not really used to install, its more of a diagnostic and problem solver - designed for cd/dvd use,

if you have tried to install each alongside windows then you don't really have enough hdd space,

best bet is partition off the 120gb and use that to install (20gb should be ample),

if you choose this way then the tools you need are all in the knoppix cd,

another option is a 20gb drive, this is the way i do it - in fact my daughter has a pc with pclinuxos installed with 256mb ram, 800mhz cpu and a 20gb hdd,

pclinuxos is a live cd and had no problem installing on my daughters pc,

http://www.pclinuxos.com/

scroll down and you will spot the link for 'D/L KDE 3 – 2009.2' on the left,

the version i am using is 2007 and only available by torrent now - its free and licensed under GPL, if anything that is included in the original distribution is not GPL then it's released under their respective licenses

[hawklord]

knoppix is not really used to install, its more of a diagnostic and problem solver - designed for cd/dvd use,

if you have tried to install each alongside windows then you don't really have enough hdd space,

best bet is partition off the 120gb and use that to install (20gb should be ample),

if you choose this way then the tools you need are all in the knoppix cd,

another option is a 20gb drive, this is the way i do it - in fact my daughter has a pc with pclinuxos installed with 256mb ram, 800mhz cpu and a 20gb hdd,

pclinuxos is a live cd and had no problem installing on my daughters pc,

http://www.pclinuxos.com/

scroll down and you will spot the link for 'D/L KDE 3 – 2009.2' on the left,

the version i am using is 2007 and only available by torrent now - its free and licensed under GPL, if anything that is included in the original distribution is not GPL then it's released under their respective licenses

[Kemasa]

I have a Compaq computer and it hung with Ubuntu for some reason. My main Linux machine is another machine though, so I did not investigate much. I do know that Compaq are a bit strange.

I did install Mandrake and it worked, so you might want to try Mandriva (the new version), http://www.mandriva.com/

When you do the install, you should be asked if you want to use the whole disk. The master boot record should also be reinstalled when you install the OS.

Your memory is a bit limited, but it still should work.

Did you setup a swap partition? You may want to install just the /boot filesystem on the small disk and the rest on the large disk. If you setup the machine as a multiple boot machine, then you really don't need to swap the disks.

You might check to see if there is a Linux Users Group near you:

http://www.linux.org/groups/

This is not a complete list.

[hawklord]

not a good idea with mandriva, it really needs about 512mb ram for any real use and more than 4gb space for running the standard kde,

the 2008 version i am running on my main machine is optimized for around 800mb - but sadly this is only available by torrent as well

[fleamailman]

an idea then, remove the two other hd drives, keeping the windows on one of them as a fallback in case, install the linux on the remaining hd drive, only then after the install itself, add back the two hd drives, and they should mount, use sun's vitualbox if you still needs to run a windows system within linux(but you will still need a windows license key to install XP), also, with linux it's best to go to the forum of the distro, vitualbox is a free program so I am linking it here but I only hear that it good because I have no windows system now

http://www.virtualbo...iki/Screenshots

[silverbeard]

Older machines have their own issues with more modern OSes. The trick to older PC's is to find a distro more or less that caters to older machines.SimplyMepis AntiX has been tested on machines with as little as 64MB of RAM (128MB recommended minimum). IceWM windows manager is very fast and lite (Fluxbox is also installed if you don't care for IceWM)

I haven't done much with BSD variants but the the ones I have tested are very fast.

OpenBSD

[daplumpkin]

i put ubuntu on a dell inspiron that is close to 4 years old. where did you burn your iso image from? if you didn't go through ubuntu.com then you could have gotten a bad image. http://www.ubuntu.co...ubuntu/download
this is where i did it from and then used the same cd that i installed it on my old computer to dual boot it and run it on a virtual machine on my work computer. if you need any help, i got pretty good at installing it. the only thing that won't work well if you don't have a graphics card is the advanced visual effects, but aside from that everything would work great

[mysoogals]

first mistake ! you done was to burn it to CD and install it from there !

second mistake is if you had already xp, and wanted dualbootin ! you should've been asking google for more info about Linux install for windows !

Type in Google Wubi

Wubi makes dual boot possible! i have ubuntu 8.10 runnin fine with xp many months

Edited by mysoogals, 08 September 2009 - 05:29 PM.

[hawklord]

installing from cd is not a mistake - in fact i would say its the correct way of installing,
all mine are installed using a cd, and i have windows xp and windows 2000 on the same pc,

why ask google ?, ask on a forum,

and its simple dual booting linux and windows,

wubi is for installing ubuntu inside windows, not for installing other distros,
try installing mandriva with wubi, or pclinuxos, debian, etc - all mine are separate operating systems, not installed inside windows