# Leaning about Linux



## watcher (Sep 4, 2006)

I have a computer which I think the only thing wrong with it is the HD is dead. I'm thinking about trying to put a new HD in it and checking out Linux. The problem is I know nothing about Linux. Is there a website which has a tutorial on it?


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Are you thinking of tinkering with a Linux workstation or a Linux server?


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

You dont need a hard drive to try or even use linux. You can boot from a live cd or from a usb key. And Puppy has even more options as its smaller.

If you have broadband, you can easily download the iso file free and burn it to a cd yourself. Assuming you are now using windows, you might want to get a small freeware 'iso burner' as there then is no confusion, such little freeware programs ONLY burn iso files.

My recommendations in this order (though there are many more good distributions):

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/

www.pclinuxos.com/

http://www.ubuntu.com/

I will add that there is no need to become some kind of expert on commandline linux commands. Set you computers bios to boot from cdrom first and stick in the live linux cd and voila, most likely you will easily boot to nice familiar looking desktop, at least with Puppy and PClinux. Ubuntu uses Gnome desktop which is bit different.

As you get used to linux, then you might want to learn how to do things under the hood so to speak, but if you dont want to, you still can use linux with no problem. Just like you dont need to know all under the hood stuff to use windows or mac. Then whichever distribution you pick, start reading on the support forum for that distribution. You will learn as you go and most such forums are newbie friendly though maybe bit of eye rolling if you havent even tried to do search for your questions. Most newbie questions have been asked a zillion times so being so lazy as to not even do a search before asking the same question for the zillion and one time doesnt impress.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

What HermitJohn is trying to say is the same thing I was getting at. First you should decide on a Linux distribution that will meet your needs, be it a workstation or server environment. After deciding on the distribution that best meets your needs, you should look for a reference for that particular distribution.

I suggest that you shift the discussion to which distributions you should consider.


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## watcher (Sep 4, 2006)

Nevada said:


> Are you thinking of tinkering with a Linux workstation or a Linux server?


There's an example of how much I don't know because I don't know enough to answer your question for sure. I think a work station. I want to be able to load programs on it and run them and learn how Linux works differently than windoze and/or DOS.


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## watcher (Sep 4, 2006)

HermitJohn said:


> You dont need a hard drive to try or even use linux. You can boot from a live cd or from a usb key. And Puppy has even more options as its smaller.


I'll need a HD to make the computer usable. I'm not even sure if I can justify the cost of a HD right now. Money's just a BIT tight. 




HermitJohn said:


> If you have broadband, you can easily download the iso file free and burn it to a cd yourself. Assuming you are now using windows, you might want to get a small freeware 'iso burner' as there then is no confusion, such little freeware programs ONLY burn iso files.


There goes my ignorance again, what does iso stand for and what does it do.

Thanx I'll check out the links next week. Things are going to be really busy around here for the next several days.


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## watcher (Sep 4, 2006)

Nevada said:


> What HermitJohn is trying to say is the same thing I was getting at. First you should decide on a Linux distribution that will meet your needs, be it a workstation or server environment. After deciding on the distribution that best meets your needs, you should look for a reference for that particular distribution.
> 
> I suggest that you shift the discussion to which distributions you should consider.


Consider it shifted. 

As I have already said all I want to do for now is to set up an old HP, that was running Vista before it died, to run Linux as an experiment.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

watcher said:


> There's an example of how much I don't know because I don't know enough to answer your question for sure. I think a work station. I want to be able to load programs on it and run them and learn how Linux works differently than windoze and/or DOS.


Yes, you are looking to setup a Linux workstation. I think HermitJohn's previous post covered the workstation distributions pretty well.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

watcher said:


> I'll need a HD to make the computer usable. I'm not even sure if I can justify the cost of a HD right now. Money's just a BIT tight.


You should be able to find an economical hard drive at eBay. Let me know if you need help selecting one.

If not, you can still boot to Puppy off a CD.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

watcher said:


> I'll need a HD to make the computer usable. I'm not even sure if I can justify the cost of a HD right now. Money's just a BIT tight.


Puppy is small and runs in RAM memory, it just needs something to boot from. If you have CDrom, you can boot Puppy. If you have at least 256mb ram, you can remove the Puppy cd once Puppy boots. Be aware that without a hard drive, you will need some sort of storage drive if you want to save any setting, etc. This can be usb or CDRW or even floppy for just simple settings.

However an 8gb usb key is around $8 to $10. If you have USB2.0 port, it will be fast enough, little slower when you shut down for Puppy to update its save file than using a hard drive. USB1.1 will be slow to load Puppy and to save updates. But even that will work. Like Nevada said, you shouldnt have much problem finding a used hard drive very cheap, especially an IDE/EIDE hard drive.

And if you dont have fast USB port or your computer cant boot from USB, there is yet another workaround. There is a converter gizmo for around $16 on ebay that plugs into hard drive cables inside your computer and then you put an SD flash memory card like you use in a camera into it. Then you use that as your hard drive. Your computer will see it as an IDE or SATA hard drive depending which you need and bought.


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## watcher (Sep 4, 2006)

Nevada said:


> You should be able to find an economical hard drive at eBay. Let me know if you need help selecting one.
> 
> If not, you can still boot to Puppy off a CD.


Thanks


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## watcher (Sep 4, 2006)

HermitJohn said:


> Puppy is small and runs in RAM memory, it just needs something to boot from. If you have CDrom, you can boot Puppy. If you have at least 256mb ram, you can remove the Puppy cd once Puppy boots. Be aware that without a hard drive, you will need some sort of storage drive if you want to save any setting, etc. This can be usb or CDRW or even floppy for just simple settings.
> 
> However an 8gb usb key is around $8 to $10. If you have USB2.0 port, it will be fast enough, little slower when you shut down for Puppy to update its save file than using a hard drive. USB1.1 will be slow to load Puppy and to save updates. But even that will work. Like Nevada said, you shouldnt have much problem finding a used hard drive very cheap, especially an IDE/EIDE hard drive.
> 
> And if you dont have fast USB port or your computer cant boot from USB, there is yet another workaround. There is a converter gizmo for around $16 on ebay that plugs into hard drive cables inside your computer and then you put an SD flash memory card like you use in a camera into it. Then you use that as your hard drive. Your computer will see it as an IDE or SATA hard drive depending which you need and bought.


The computer isn't that old. It an HP Pavilion, I forget the processor speed, but the sticker on the side says Athlon 64X2 dual core 5600+. It also says 3 gig RAM but I think we upgraded that.

When I get time I'll try dl'ing puppy. I'm not sure if it will try to boot from the USB but I'll trying booting from it and let you know what happens.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

watcher said:


> The computer isn't that old. It an HP Pavilion, I forget the processor speed, but the sticker on the side says Athlon 64X2 dual core 5600+. It also says 3 gig RAM but I think we upgraded that.


Wow. I'd put Win7 on that dude.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

That is way more modern computer than I thought. Yes when it first posts, push "del" or F2 or F12 or whatever key it tells you in order to get into the bios. Then set it to boot from cdrom first or usb or whatever depending on what you are using. It will definitely have a usb boot option, probably more than one. Just depends how it sees whatever usb storage device you use. Try most logical one first, and so on.

There is a way to run Puppy directly from an iso file without burning it, but usually people burn it to cdr then run Puppy and run install program to put it on usb stick or to hard drive or whatever.

By way since you have dual core processor, you might want to look for 64bit versions of linux. I dont think there is an official 64bit Puppy yet though might be an unofficial one. Puppy is really designed to run on older and lower power computers so not huge demand for 64bit version yet. Ok, looked and there is a derivative Puppy (unofficial) for multicore processors. Just look at Puppy derivatives section of forum.

However I'd advise just trying the last stable official 32bit release with the newest kernel offered first.

There is definitely a 64bit version of Ubuntu.

32bit Puppy will run fine, your computer is just vast overkill for Puppy, but since you can download all distributions you want with fast connection, you might try a 64bit linux distribution just to see the difference.


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

Nevada said:


> What HermitJohn is trying to say is the same thing I was getting at.


Actually, I believe was trying to say PUPPY LINUX YOU SHOULD USE IT OH PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF PETE USE PUPPY LINUX I BEG OF YOU PLEASE PLEASE!

Sorry, I couldn't resist.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Kung said:


> Actually, I believe was trying to say PUPPY LINUX YOU SHOULD USE IT OH PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF PETE USE PUPPY LINUX I BEG OF YOU PLEASE PLEASE!
> 
> Sorry, I couldn't resist.


If you want to make jokes in the computer forum, I suggest you start in the "Removing a Trojan" thread. If that title isn't fertile ground for humor I've never seen it.:hysterical:


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Nevada said:


> If you want to make jokes in the computer forum, I suggest you start in the "Removing a Trojan" thread. If that title isn't fertile ground for humor I've never seen it.:hysterical:


Yep, think somebody removed their Trojan a might early.


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## watcher (Sep 4, 2006)

Nevada said:


> Wow. I'd put Win7 on that dude.


That's an option but I've wanted to try out lunix for a while and this seems a good opportunity. Plus as I have posted I have several old programs 7 will not run and I'd like to see if lunix will. If not I may try putting XP on it.


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## watcher (Sep 4, 2006)

HermitJohn said:


> That is way more modern computer than I thought. Yes when it first posts, push "del" or F2 or F12 or whatever key it tells you in order to get into the bios. Then set it to boot from cdrom first or usb or whatever depending on what you are using. It will definitely have a usb boot option, probably more than one. Just depends how it sees whatever usb storage device you use. Try most logical one first, and so on.
> 
> There is a way to run Puppy directly from an iso file without burning it, but usually people burn it to cdr then run Puppy and run install program to put it on usb stick or to hard drive or whatever.
> 
> ...


Ugh. . .this was supposed to be simple :huh:

Right now here's what I _think_ I know.

I could run a very small OS (puppy) from a flash/cd but I'd probably be better off going with a larger version (32bit) and might want to check out the even bigger version (64bit). 

I foresee a lot more studying in my future. Again, is there a website with a good tutorial on this?


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

Nevada said:


> If you want to make jokes in the computer forum, I suggest you start in the "Removing a Trojan" thread. If that title isn't fertile ground for humor I've never seen it.:hysterical:


DUDE. I now have to clean the coffee off my keyboard. LOL! How did I even miss tha? :gaptooth:


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## Hazmat54 (Aug 10, 2010)

Well, I tried the new Puppy Linux, Racy something. Still no joy. It can't find the wireless card in this laptop. Mint Linux can find it, and I can use the Internet. If only Puppy Linux could talk to Mint Linux and learn how to go wireless.

I would like to restore Win7 on this laptop. And be able to boot Linux from the SD card slot when I want to surf the Internet. Because Win7 on the Internet was trouble.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

duplicate


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Hazmat54 said:


> Well, I tried the new Puppy Linux, Racy something. Still no joy. It can't find the wireless card in this laptop. Mint Linux can find it, and I can use the Internet. If only Puppy Linux could talk to Mint Linux and learn how to go wireless.
> 
> I would like to restore Win7 on this laptop. And be able to boot Linux from the SD card slot when I want to surf the Internet. Because Win7 on the Internet was trouble.


Probably because even newest Puppy doesnt use the latest linux kernel. Latest kernels have lot drivers built in that older kernels dont. Post on the Puppy forum the specs of your computer, what wireless card/chip it has, and what version of Puppy you are trying to use. Sure somebody will give you direction. Most likely there is a linux driver, but just not included in kernel that Puppy you are using has. If nothing else ANY wireless card can work using Ndiswrapper and windows driver, but its a roll your own experience, not anything automagic about it. I am still on dialup and using Puppy 4.31 so not any kind of experience with Puppy 5.xx and not lot experience with wireless, any wireless cards I have tried have had the driver module for the card found and automagically installed....

And not wanting to be your google daddy, but here is link to info on installing MINT 11 to sd card: http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2011/06/01/install-linux-mint-11-on-an-8-gb-sdhc-card/ Just saying if MINT works for you and you are happy, maybe thats way you should go. And I am sure you can find more info on installing MINT to sd card, that was just first article I found that seemed more than somebody asking a question on some forum.


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## watcher (Sep 4, 2006)

Ok, it maybe a couple of weeks before I get to try anything. My schedule just got a lot more crowed. Anyone got an extra couple of hours each day they aren't using I could borrow?


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## JohnnyLee (Feb 13, 2011)

Nevada said:


> Wow. I'd put Win7 on that dude.


LOL! No, I would put UBUNTU on that dude! lol

Well, unless I was a gamer. Linux can do EVERYTHING better and cheaper and FASTER than any Windows operating system can - except new games that require a high speed graphics card, but that is slowly being realized.

As to the OP. On a big system like that, go for the Ubuntu distribution (distro). Once you get a feel for it, you will like it much better. Also, GOOGLE is your friend when getting started with any version of Linux.


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## ||Downhome|| (Jan 12, 2009)

Get " Back | Track " if your gonna learn might as well learn.

Runs off a live CD and I had no problems getting network going off the bat. Has a nice GUI and pretty user friendly environment.

Its based on UBUNTU which is Based on Debian.

You'll find that not all Linux commands work in every flavor. 

http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major


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## watcher (Sep 4, 2006)

Just wanted to update things. I'm still seriously considering trying Linux on the machine but its going to be a while before I can get around to it. 

Thanks again for the info.


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