Fedora Core 5 - My troubles with Linux...

Well first I would like to say 'hello' to everyone, this is my first post! Ok, a few months ago I decided to abandon WindowsXP and convert to Linux. I chose to install FC5 (Fedora Core 5) and the install went smoothly. I had to tweak some of the display settings because it didn't auto-detect my monitor type and was having some graphical glitches, but overall it was working great. I installed GAIM (AIM and ICQ), aMule (eMule), and Wine (Windows Emulator). I had hoped I could use Wine to run Windows EXEs and it did 'kinda' work...I let me install some things but wouldn't let me run them. After some frustration I found out it couldn't handle OpenGL so I popped over to some Linux Help Forums to see what was up. Apparently I had chosen one of the few (if not the only) versions of Linux that had this problem with Windows Emulation. Apparently FC4 (Fedora Core 4) worked fine...after several days of fumbling around and installing every Windows Driver I could find I gave up...I had loved Linux but I wasn't about to sacrafice all my Windows stuff... Time to re-install WindowsXP!

*Insert XP installation Disk*

"Setup is detecting your computers hardware configuration...please wait..."

*Blank screen*

Well, I was befuddled...I tried several more times and it just flicked to black after it tried to detect my hardware. Well...time to do something I hate, I called customer support! After hours of waiting I got to talk to someone that I could barely understand due to his heavy arab accent...Well, he walked me through the retard steps, "Is your computer plugged in?" ... "Is your monitor turned on?" ... etc. Well, I could only hide the truth for so long, I had to finally tell him I had installed Linux...and Uh-oh, customer support is only for Windows! I tried to tell him it was the WINDOWS installation that was messing up, Linux was working FINE! Well, that didn't work...he asked if I wanted to be transfered to other 'Tech Experts' and pay $50 every 40 mins. No thanks...

Needless to say I was getting desperate, "MUST HAVE WINDOWS"...so, I insert a Windows98 DELL installation CD (My Computer isn't a DELL). It starts, then goes to a DOS Prompt with a message about only being able to install on a DELL. Well, at least the installation got furthur along than the XP did. After hours of headache and hastle and buckets of sweat I did a 'fdisk' and found the problem. The active partition was 5Mb... wow Linux does some wierd stuff...I formatted and installed XP, and it worked. Well, I would have THOUGHT the WindowsXP installation would be intelligent enough to have a message saying, "Active partition does not have enough free space to install Windows..." But I guess not. Well, it was an adventure but now I am back and using XP... Anyone have any comments on what I coulda done differently to avoid some of this, and maybe a way to get FC5 working?

 

 

 

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hmm... that is very interesting. just sounds to me that you should just scrub your drive. I have this nice tool called Partition Logic. It allows you to go in and modify a hard drive's partition table. What I like to do is stick the disk in, and ERASE ALL PARTITIONS. Then I let the operating system installer add partitions & format. It's linux based as well.

99% of all tech support you get on this planet will be for Windows only. Mention "linux" and they cringe (only because their software on their computer tells them to because they are all idiots... I've never ran into a tech support angent with an IQ over 50 and NOT reading off a computer). It's the one thing tech support doesn't want to think of. If you "mess" with a computer (lets say a dell) & you replace Windows with Linux. Something soon doesn't work. You tell the dell guy you installed Linux. Boom! "Sorry sir, we can't help you."

Linux is a touchy subject. If you want MAJOR windows functionality, purchase an OS like Xandros or Linspire. They're about $50 and up depending on the version, but it is still cheaper than Windows, plus it is Linux so there are NO viruses!

I also run FC5, and it is a powerful OS, if you know what you're doing.

[N]F

 

 

 

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Interesting... Thanks for that bit of info. Yeah, I loved FC5...just a question though, are there any errors when you enter 'glxgears' in the console? Wouldn't work back when I had FC5 and was just curious if it was just me, and does Wine work fine for you too, or do you use it?

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Hey Shrike,

FC5 is my OS of choice and of course you will run into problems but that's part of the fun I think.

To me it sounds like for you to get WINE to actually work for you, you need more than the standard video drivers (MESA, etc) and actually get a driver that takes advantage of your graphics hardware acceleration, which should then allow you to handle OpenGL. If you're using an nvidia graphics card go to their site, or ATi card, go to theirs, if it's anything else, go to their site but it must be a card that can handle 2D/3D (especially 3D).

If you don't want to try FC5 out (which I can help you with), I'll tell you how to revert back to your Windows XP.

Insert that Dell Windows 98 CD, when at the dos prompt, type:



This is now all from memory so it's a bit sketchy but I hope you can get it done properly.

If asked about Large access, YES.

Firstly, is this Hard Drive safe to remove everything on it, e.g. nothing stored in another partition you were wanting to keep? If there is, you must know which partition and must not remove it.

Remove/delete all extended partitions, you'll also want to delete all primary partitions.

Then exit.

Type:



Which will remove GRUB bootloader.

Restart the computer using your Windows XP CD now. Hopefully this will now work, and it'll ask you to create a Windows partition, if this fails, then it's possible your Windows XP CD could be corrupt or a recovery CD only.

Hopefully this helps,

Cheers,

MC

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