trying out linux

[kjm112385]

i've been reading a lot about kubuntu, and from what ive read i can run it off a cd. im curious about how that works? does it run the cd before windows boots? and, with a portable hard drive ( 160 gigs) can i download linux to it and boot it from there? by doing tis keeping my windows safe?

i appreciate any help.

[renegade600]

yes you can run it from a cd, all you have to do is to boot to it. Place it in the drive and reboot. Then follow the on screen instructions. Just make sure you have your boot order set to boot from cd first in your bios.

As far as placing it on an external drive, if your bios will let you boot from it, then you should be able to install it without any problems.

[kjm112385]

thank you very much, but me myself being relatively unfamiliar with bios, how to i change it to boot from a cd, i mean i have discovered it before when i pressed f8 while booting because it said to for some reason or another.

[renegade600]

without knowing the different bios, the best you can do is to go into your bios and find something that says boot order - it should be self explanatory. You may not even need to change it. Try placing the linux cd into the drive and boot.

[kjm112385]

about to try that now, if im lucky, ill be back on the forums with linux :-D

[kjm112385]

ok no luck, i know i must sound very noobish, but how should i download a .iso to a cd, because the dell bios thing when i boot my computer gave me the option of internal hdd, cd-dvd, and some other options, i picked cd-dvd, then after a sec it went to windows did not start correctly bla bla safe mode or start windows normally. i think i just downloaded kubuntu wrong to the cd. lol

hope you can help, wanna try linux before i go out of town

[renegade600]

if you just copied it to a cd, then it will not work. It will have to be burn as an image file.

[kjm112385]

k im on linux right now, pretty cool, buttt, how can i get drivers for my wireless card to work with linux, i probably have to reboot windows first of all right? find out what it is then search?

[renegade600]

Originally Posted by kjm112385

k im on linux right now, pretty cool, buttt, how can i get drivers for my wireless card to work with linux, i probably have to reboot windows first of all right? find out what it is then search?

that is one of the problems with linux right now. I am still green when it comes to linux but as far as I know, you may be out of luck with wireless as long as you are running from a cd if you do not have the proper drivers installed and you are using a laptop.

Are you running linux from a laptop or desktop? If laptop, what model? What wireless card? Exactly which version of linux?

[kjm112385]

laptop, dell xps m170, intell pro/wireless 2200BG, and the newest kubuntu, i think its called fiery fox or something.

hopefully i can wireless up and running, :-) and question, running off the cd, does the stuff i do on kubuntu save on my hdd? if i need to ill dl to my hard drive

[kjm112385]

ok actually i found the intell driver for it, but it says this

Driver Support:
- Only email support is available
- Support is provided on installation issues only
- Support is provided only when used with kernels 2.6.8 or greater

does that mean i cant use it to browse the internet normally??

[renegade600]

Originally Posted by kjm112385

laptop, dell xps m170, intell pro/wireless 2200BG, and the newest kubuntu, i think its called fiery fox or something.

hopefully i can wireless up and running, :-) and question, running off the cd, does the stuff i do on kubuntu save on my hdd? if i need to ill dl to my hard drive

you can save some stuff like downloads and such, I dont think you can save any settings like wireless settings. most settings will have to be redone after every boot. There may be a way around this but if there is, I don't know it.

the version of xubuntu you are using have the proper drivers for your wireless card. You may need to make sure you setup the proper security settings from your network in linux.

You can try the following in your teminal

# iwconfig eth1 mode Managed
# iwconfig eth1 essid your_essid_name
# iwconfig eth1 key restricted your_wpa_key
# iwconfig - just to check up if the card is up and running
# ifconfig eth1 up
# dhclient eth1

This should setup your card and get an ip address from the router via DHCP. If that doesn't work you can always setup your ip address, netmask and gateway (ip of the router) with ifconfig command.

the above was stolen from here

I really do not know that much about xubuntu or linux networking so someone else will have to help from here on

If you type intel pro wireless 2200bg xubanta in google, you will find more info about how to set it up

[kjm112385]

renegade600, i owe you my soul!

thank you very much, ill try this out asap

[kjm112385]

thank you renegade, i have it up and running with wireless, i commend you. so far the most helpful person ive encountered dealing with computers. now that i have linux running from the cd, ill see what it is and possibly download it to my hardrive later.

[renegade600]

Originally Posted by kjm112385

thank you renegade, i have it up and running with wireless, i commend you. so far the most helpful person ive encountered dealing with computers. now that i have linux running from the cd, ill see what it is and possibly download it to my hardrive later.

thank you - glad you got it going