Prob installing Ubuntu

[pritsey]

Hi all,

Tried to install Ubuntu 7.04 on my Shuttle SN45G but came across a problem when installing. I use a Mac keyboard (via USB) and a normal USB mouse. When installing it hung on the USB bit - I'll have to do it again to get specific message I'm afraid.

Anyone else get this error message - if so did you just use a PS2 mouse & keyboard? Also woudl like to get my USB wifi adaptor working (Belkin) if poss, but that can come later.

I've already got my drive sorted out, XP pro running on it, separate partitions, one ext3 and another Fat32 to share files between the OS's.

Can anyone help?

Thanks

[aidanjt]

Assuming your Mac keyboard uses HID (which it should) there shouldn't be any problem using those devices, I also have USB keyboard and mouse (although using gentoo-sources, Gentoo patched kernel, it's close to vanilla/upstream), and I use them daily without a problem. Try booting into the LiveCD environment with one or the other detached, try to work out whats causing boot failure.

I'm not sure how well supported Belkin are (but they probably use a broadcom chip, which is supported with the firmware iirc).

As far as filesystems go, reiserfs is a good general choice, it handles lots of small files really well, and very robust against power failure, and the ntfs-3g FUSE module is solid now, it supports full read and writing of NTFS partitions. However, ext3 is a good enough general safe FS, but less than stellar performance without a lot of tweaking.

[peterb]

I have been using the ntfs_3g module to access NTFS partitions without any problems. There used to be dire warnings about writing to NTFS partitions, but these problems seem to be a thing of the past. I cannot comment on the merits/demerits of reiserfs and ext3 - however ext3 is a relatively long established linux filesystem,l robust and probably quite acceptable for your application. It is generally used as the default by most distros.

For information about Belkin wireless products and Linux try

http://opensource.bureau-cornavin.com/belkin/index.html for starters. However a Google search using the term "Linux Belkin USB wireless" will through up lots of references. Sorry no thoughts on the initial reason for your post - the hanging problem. Sounds as if the USB driver isn't loading early enough on, but I don't know why that should be. If you have a PS2 keyboard and/or mouse, can you install with that, then swich to the USB devices once installation is complete. Messy, but if it works... (although not solving the problem)

[pritsey]

Ok, installed it now using PS2 mouse & keyboard. Now.....prob is that whebn booting the bootloader doesn't recognise the USB keyboard meaning that I can't change which OS boots. Big prob as far as the Mrs is concerned!!! I'd like to set it up so that XP boots first - currently set to boot Ubuntu - I guess it;s easy to amend?

[chrestomanci]

You may be able to get the USB keyboard to work in the bootloader, by setting the BIOS to emulate PS/2. I would have a look arround the BIOS for a sutable option.

Having said that, I have an Ubuntu system, and I just used one of those PS/2 to USB converters that came with my keyboard.

[peterb]

Ok, installed it now using PS2 mouse & keyboard. Now.....prob is that whebn booting the bootloader doesn't recognise the USB keyboard meaning that I can't change which OS boots. Big prob as far as the Mrs is concerned!!! I'd like to set it up so that XP boots first - currently set to boot Ubuntu - I guess it;s easy to amend?

Yes, just change the grub.conf file in /boot/grub so that default is set to the XP entry:

This is an extract of mt grub.conf

default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title Fedora Core (2.6.20-1.2962.fc6)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.20-1.2962.fc6 ro root=/dev/main/root rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.20-1.2962.fc6.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.20-1.2952.fc6)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.20-1.2952.fc6 ro root=/dev/main/root rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.20-1.2952.fc6.img
title DOS
rootnoverify (hd0,4)

So I can boot from core 2.6.20-1.2962.fc6 (entry 0)
or 2.6.20-1.2952.fc6 (previous core)
or DOS (actually I can't - there is no DOS system in this computer!)

You will have an entry called WinXP or something. Count down to see which entry it is (probably 1) then cange the line that says default=0 to default=1 and save it. Next time you reboot, it will boot to Wndows.

(You need to make these changes as root, btw)

[peterb]

Duplicate post - deleted

[ikonia]

the file is menu.lst - grub .conf is an old red hat legacy trick symlink

[pritsey]

Sorted it out thanks, USB started working after I posted without me doing anything! Typical!

Also sorted GRUB as well - all happy! ...... well, nearly. Need to now get wireless USB stick working if I can. It's a Belkin 54 as I mentioned above. Looks like it's usng the RT2500 driver in Windows. Seen lots of post about prev versions of Ubuntu and Debian with similar USB sticks but frankly they are a little scary and seem to require lots of make commands.

Oh, and I can't run Ubuntu in 1600x1200. I've tried editing xorg.conf with no success and rebuilding the config files too. Nothing seems to do it. Usng a 6800GT with a Dell 2001FP.

[ikonia]

view the X org and find out why its dropping down the resolution

[pritsey]

The xorg.conf file?

[directhex]

wait until this evening, i'll paste my xorg.conf (nvidia on a 2001fp)

[pritsey]

Thanks directhex.

BTW - mine currently stands as:

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf(5) manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Files"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
# path to defoma fonts
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "gb"
Option "XkbVariant" "mac"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "stylus"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "eraser"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "cursor"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "cursor"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "NVIDIA GeForce 6800GT"
Driver "nv"
BusID "PCI:3:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Dell FP2001"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 28-80
VertRefresh 43-60
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "NVIDIA GeForce 6800GT"
Monitor "Dell FP2001"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1600x1200"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1600x1200"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1600x1200"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1600x1200"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1600x1200"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1600x1200"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

[peterb]

the file is menu.lst - grub .conf is an old red hat legacy trick symlink

So it is! (I hadn't noticed that ) Still, vim /boot/grub/grub.conf works ok!

[ikonia]

driver nv - there is the problem. your not using the nvidia drivers from the ubuntu repo's

Have a read through this guide
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Bi...erHowto/Nvidia

and you'll have it working in a few minutes.

[peterb]

Sorted it out thanks, USB started working after I posted without me doing anything! Typical!

Also sorted GRUB as well - all happy! ...... well, nearly. Need to now get wireless USB stick working if I can. It's a Belkin 54 as I mentioned above. Looks like it's usng the RT2500 driver in Windows. Seen lots of post about prev versions of Ubuntu and Debian with similar USB sticks but frankly they are a little scary and seem to require lots of make commands.

I'm not familiar with Ubantu, but you may find that the Belkin USB stick is recognised by the Kernel and when you configure networking, it is recognised. (Certainly that was the case with a wireless PCMCIA card I used with FC6) The make commands indicate that the drives were distributed as source code and had to be compiled for a particular installation (it does look scary initially - but actually isn't that hard if you read the instructions in the readme that usually accompanies such files) but as I say, you may find that the drivers are already there in the latest Ubantu release. The Ubantu website may give more details.