Feeling adventurous (a desire to mess with computers) I decided that now that my spiritual well being is no longer dependent upon my laptop, I could use it for dangerous experiments like dual OS - in short I decided to install Ubuntu, while keeping Win 7.
Unfortunately Ubuntu 10.04 turned out to be less cooperative. In fact, it would not start at all. First I tried with a standard downloaded live-CD. It would not boot properly. I would see a small icon (which I later found out is supposed to be a keyboard) and then only a blank screen. (Back-lighted black is by far a more depressing sight than any concrete wall)
Since I had nothing better to use my pile of CD-R's for I reinstalled it, now at minimum speed - same result. Then I looked around a bit to find an alternative, more traditional installation CD image that could only install the operative system. The installation went fine, but was less successful. At startup I got the same blank screen and it also turned out that I had managed to corrupt my Win 7 beyond saving.
I then proceeded to reinstall Win 7 and ignore my laptop, which had by then fallen out of my good graces. But I felt I had not yet exhausted all possibilities, and Ubuntu was calling for me to give it another chance. So I did.
I installed Ubuntu as a program in windows (a light version that can be given no more than 30 GB of hard drive space), but all I got was the same blank screen. Determined to see this through to the end I downloaded the netbook edition and set up my spare USB-stick with a boot section.
This time I actually got to see a menu, where I could choose to run Ubuntu from the USB-stick or install it. Feeling in no way inclined to mess up my newly reinstalled Win 7 for nothing, I tried the launch option... And got the same old blank screen (which was by now becoming as familiar to my eyes as my desktop background).
It was not until now that I finally resorted to attempt the Google solution. As I should have known from the start, this provided an instant solution to my problem. It turns out that the Ubuntu people have failed at one crucial point; making Ubuntu load a generic driver for old graphics cards for which no driver is included!
When booting from the CD I had to press a key, any key, when that little symbol appeared in the bottom of my screen. Then press F6 and pick the option 'nomodeset'. Then boot. It worked. Seeing that my laptop was indeed capable of running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS I decided to install it.
But in order to boot the OS I had to edit the grub options from the boot menu. The task comprised of simply replacing the words 'quiet' and 'splash' with 'nomodeset' and then booting. The only thing that remained now was to permanently edit the grub settings...
I now encountered my last obstacle. Where to find the Ubuntu equivalent of the command prompt? No guide included this vital (for a n00b like myself) information! Youtube, however, seems to contain the most "for dummies" guides in the world, and here I could finally find out how to open the 'terminal'. Then, for the first time in my life I got to type the words 'sudo' and 'gedit'. The satisfaction I felt when I saved and updated the grub and rebooted to find that it was working was enormous (as is evident from this overly lengthy blog-post about me being a stubborn idiot and refusing to google my problem)!
Ps. Unlike any version of windows I have yet encountered, Ubuntu 10.04 LTS actually included working drivers for my built-in GSM modem Ds.
3 comments:
What did you learn?
Welcome to the wonderful world of Linux, where any wish you have can be solved by a couple of "sudo apt get" or other hilarious commands.
dont get me wrong, i like the power of cmd/shells (and powershell especially) but spending 30mins to adjust the screen resolution isnt my kind of thing. LiveCD is fun tho, whenever someone asks "have you tried linux?" you can go "yeah" and they'll go "aaahhh" thinking you're pr0.
Post a Comment