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Linux Distro Noob thread of Linux noobs

O

Oracle Dragon

Member
So I'm new to Ubuntu and just playing around with it a bit and trying to use it as desktop; I was also using it to host ps3mediaserver.

Today, I removed PS3 media server from startup, by removing a script I made in /etc/init.d called startpms. It was previously running for a while (from the directions at http://irrationale.com/2010/06/30/ps3-media-server-on-ubuntu-10-04/ ).

Now, I removed the script, and then I ran: sudo update-rc.d startpms remove to get rid of the script from startup. No errors, I figured, hey I got to reboot so I ran a system update. Then I restarted.

Now, I can't get in at all. The screen flashes 4-6 times after showing the Ubuntu logo, then no more display. I can't seem to access any alternate boot options (I thought it was F4 and/or F6?). It's not that I have "no" display, I have a signal to the monitor. Unfortunately it's basically an all black screen.

What can I do? (not to mention, why did it happen...). I have 10.04 LTS.
 
Kevitivity

Kevitivity

Member
Oracle Dragon said:
So I'm new to Ubuntu and just playing around with it a bit and trying to use it as desktop; I was also using it to host ps3mediaserver.

Today, I removed PS3 media server from startup, by removing a script I made in /etc/init.d called startpms. It was previously running for a while (from the directions at http://irrationale.com/2010/06/30/ps3-media-server-on-ubuntu-10-04/ ).

Now, I removed the script, and then I ran: sudo update-rc.d startpms remove to get rid of the script from startup. No errors, I figured, hey I got to reboot so I ran a system update. Then I restarted.

Now, I can't get in at all. The screen flashes 4-6 times after showing the Ubuntu logo, then no more display. I can't seem to access any alternate boot options (I thought it was F4 and/or F6?). It's not that I have "no" display, I have a signal to the monitor. Unfortunately it's basically an all black screen.

What can I do? (not to mention, why did it happen...). I have 10.04 LTS.
Click to expand...

I would boot from your live cd, mount your disk, and backup any important data to a USB or esata drive.

Once that's done, have a look at the logs (/var/log/) on your disk to see if there are any telling errors. Focus on messages and xorg logs.
 
Kevitivity

Kevitivity

Member
ayeorkean said:
Anyone know how safe a ubuntu webserver is floating around the net?
Click to expand...

If you stay up to date with patches, very. Use Ubuntu server, not desktop! And of course follow all the normal hardening procedures... For starters, stay away from cgi programming unless you're an expert. Keep strict permissions on EVERYTHING. Be extra anal when an SQL server is installed. Lock down your network: TcpWrappers, apache allow/deny rules, iptables. Disable services that are not needed.

Automate backups (I like rsnapshot). Clonezilla for bare metal images.

And most importantly, Keep your setuo Simple.

As a professional admin, I would use RedHat or CentOS, but Ubuntu is perfectly capable if you really know what you're doing.
 
P

peakish

Member
Wow, I always hated how Audacious looked but it apparently has a GTK3 interface as well, or got it recently. It looks superbly good, functional and simple.

audaciousvral.png


It's a shame that it has no library support, I don't want to open folders anymore so I'll stick with Banshee.
 
K

kehs

Banned
I'm in dire need of some assistance. I have a couple of ext3/ext4 drives that i NEED to get data from but I don't have access to anything that can read ext3/ext4 drives (thank you ms!).

I need a simple Linux distro to boot from a USB drive I can move some files from the two drives, since I know ext partitions are common place for Linux distro. I've no idea how to use linux, so if it was something with a good GUI to move files that would be fantastic.

I will be forever grateful if someone can help me out.
 
P

peakish

Member
Copernicus said:
I'm in dire need of some assistance. I have a couple of ext3/ext4 drives that i NEED to get data from but I don't have access to anything that can read ext3/ext4 drives (thank you ms!).

I need a simple Linux distro to boot from a USB drive I can move some files from the two drives, since I know ext partitions are common place for Linux distro. I've no idea how to use linux, so if it was something with a good GUI to move files that would be fantastic.

I will be forever grateful if someone can help me out.
Click to expand...
If you need Windows to read ext3/4 drives you can use ext2read, here's a howto.

If you can't do it from Windows, Ubuntu is easy to recommend. Follow the instructions on the download page to boot into a live session.
 
V

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Copernicus said:
I'm in dire need of some assistance. I have a couple of ext3/ext4 drives that i NEED to get data from but I don't have access to anything that can read ext3/ext4 drives (thank you ms!).

I need a simple Linux distro to boot from a USB drive I can move some files from the two drives, since I know ext partitions are common place for Linux distro. I've no idea how to use linux, so if it was something with a good GUI to move files that would be fantastic.

I will be forever grateful if someone can help me out.
Click to expand...

Puppy Linux! It's small like under 150 meg download...

Puppy Linux Download Page!

Grab the Lucid version! The latest is 5.2.8 so look for that directory on the 1st link on the download page. Then just download the iso. Boom 1st part done!

Then go and grab the Linux Live USB Creator! a download that. It'll let you create a bootable USB version of basically any Linux distro. Just point the program to you downloadable iso.

The great thing about Puppy is it runs as a Live Distro automatically without an install, and it's soooo small the whole OS loads into your RAM. I'm talking like 256 megs of RAM. Then your mounted drives will just appear on your desktop at the bottom. Then you can do what you will with them. Copy them to a cd/dvd or put them on another usb drive or whatever.
 
K

kehs

Banned
peakish said:
If you need Windows to read ext3/4 drives you can use ext2read, here's a howto.

If you can't do it from Windows, Ubuntu is easy to recommend. Follow the instructions on the download page to boot into a live session.
Click to expand...

Awesome, thanks.

But, I was able to get inside unbuntu, but the drives have a weird partition setup.

It ha a 2.1 gb partition that I can see and it mounts, but then there is another three parititions. One is about 200 megs, and the other two are ext3 partitions that run 498 gigs.

(the drive is a 500 gigs from a readynas server that failed on me, and I'm trying to extact some files)

How would I got about mounting the main partition that has the data I need, as well as dumping it to another drive?
 
V

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Copernicus said:
Awesome, thanks.

But, I was able to get inside unbuntu, but the drives have a weird partition setup.

It ha a 2.1 gb partition that I can see and it mounts, but then there is another three parititions. One is about 200 megs, and the other two are ext3 partitions that run 498 gigs.

(the drive is a 500 gigs from a readynas server that failed on me, and I'm trying to extact some files)

How would I got about mounting the main partition that has the data I need, as well as dumping it to another drive?
Click to expand...

It should auto mount the whole drive's partitions. If you see one you should see all. Check gparted to see if the drive comes up and how it's partitioned...

PS: Official Ubuntu Page with the Mounting Commands!
 
K

kehs

Banned
Brettison said:
It should auto mount the whole drive's partitions. If you see one you should see all. Check gparted to see if the drive comes up and how it's partitioned...

PS: Official Ubuntu Page with the Mounting Commands!
Click to expand...

I looked around a bit more and it seems the readynas drives I'm using are built with 16K block size because of the processor they are using. I have to load something called FUSE or something?

ugh.
 
S

sruckus

Member
peakish said:
Wow, I always hated how Audacious looked but it apparently has a GTK3 interface as well, or got it recently. It looks superbly good, functional and simple.

audaciousvral.png


It's a shame that it has no library support, I don't want to open folders anymore so I'll stick with Banshee.
Click to expand...

Gosh I don't miss my Linux days. It's STILL hideous :(
 
I

itxaka

Defeatist
Copernicus said:
I looked around a bit more and it seems the readynas drives I'm using are built with 16K block size because of the processor they are using. I have to load something called FUSE or something?

ugh.
Click to expand...


Im sorry but as far as I know it's impossible to mount a 16K block size on any x86 machine. If you have an Alpha or Itanium machine, it would be possible as those archs support it via kernel, but on a simple x86 machine it's impossible. In fact, a 16K block size is not even part of the ext3 standard.

No idea if there is any patches on the kernel to support this, probably there is but with kernel.org down I can't look them up.

Seems that you are screw :( Where did you find about using FUSE to access it?
 
V

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
xcrunner529 said:
Gosh I don't miss my Linux days. It's STILL hideous :(
Click to expand...

Really? Hideous? I doubt you come back into this thread, but I fail to see how winamp, foobar, iTunes etc... look so much better. The exception to the rule being Zune post v3.0 when they redesigned and specifically went graphically awesome.

Seriously though? It's some album art and a list of songs. Just like most players out there. I'm failing to see how this is hedious.
 
S

sruckus

Member
Brettison said:
Really? Hideous? I doubt you come back into this thread, but I fail to see how winamp, foobar, iTunes etc... look so much better. The exception to the rule being Zune post v3.0 when they redesigned and specifically went graphically awesome.

Seriously though? It's some album art and a list of songs. Just like most players out there. I'm failing to see how this is hedious.
Click to expand...

Well I was talking Mac, but yes they really do because the OS as a whole has decent fonts and icons that are lined up.
 
P

peakish

Member
xcrunner529 said:
Well I was talking Mac, but yes they really do because the OS as a whole has decent fonts and icons that are lined up.
Click to expand...
FWIW the app in question follows the appearance of the current selected theme, which includes icons, fonts and general appearance. For good or bad, since there are few super good looking themes in Linux (At least in Gnome/GTK-land, I haven't delved too deep into KDE/QT. I'm however quite fond of Adwaita with Elementary icons, which is the combination in the shot.).

I'm very fine with this but there's a lot of people who don't like the GTK look, regardless of theming. I can dig that.
 
M

MrHicks

Banned
peakish said:
Wow, I always hated how Audacious looked but it apparently has a GTK3 interface as well, or got it recently. It looks superbly good, functional and simple.

audaciousvral.png


It's a shame that it has no library support, I don't want to open folders anymore so I'll stick with Banshee.
Click to expand...

linux programmers are so assbackwards too many times to count
most of the time linux software just isn't up to par with windows/mac alternatives

but hey!!!!! atleast its "free as in freedom" and not "free as in beer"....everytime i read ubuntuforums.org and see this posted i wanna punch the screen
 
A

angelfly

Member
MrHicks said:
linux programmers are so assbackwards too many times to count
most of the time linux software just isn't up to par with windows/mac alternatives

but hey!!!!! atleast its "free as in freedom" and not "free as in beer"....everytime i read ubuntuforums.org and see this posted i wanna punch the screen
Click to expand...
As someone who likes to manually organize all my music into folders I don't want or need to store things in a library. That's the great thing about having choice. I can choose to use Audacious which I have been doing for the last few years (since slack stopped shipping XMMS) or use another media player that uses a library to organize the media.
 
I

itxaka

Defeatist
MrHicks said:
linux programmers are so assbackwards too many times to count
most of the time linux software just isn't up to par with windows/mac alternatives

but hey!!!!! atleast its "free as in freedom" and not "free as in beer"....everytime i read ubuntuforums.org and see this posted i wanna punch the screen
Click to expand...


The fuck? There are plenty of incredibly good media players in linux.

If you can remember, there was an outrage when winamp stopped using their simple music player and changed to one with a library. There is still places that have the old winamp 3 to download because people want it.
 
T

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
MrHicks said:
linux programmers are so assbackwards too many times to count
most of the time linux software just isn't up to par with windows/mac alternatives

but hey!!!!! atleast its "free as in freedom" and not "free as in beer"....everytime i read ubuntuforums.org and see this posted i wanna punch the screen
Click to expand...

Every time I read your posts it makes me want to punch the screen.

Linux is in a bit of an identity crisis now but there is solid UI/UX work being done.

While I'm on a subject, is the single window Gimp out yet? And no I don't mean that piece of garbage Gimpshop.
 
A

angelfly

Member
Andrex said:
While I'm on a subject, is the single window Gimp out yet? And no I don't mean that piece of garbage Gimpshop.
Click to expand...
It's currently included in the dev releases and will be in the next major release which is 2.8 (not out yet). So check if your distro packages the dev releases.
 
V

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Andrex said:
Every time I read your posts it makes me want to punch the screen.

Linux is in a bit of an identity crisis now but there is solid UI/UX work being done.

While I'm on a subject, is the single window Gimp out yet? And no I don't mean that piece of garbage Gimpshop.
Click to expand...

Yes and no...

2.7 has the single window Gimp in... it's a dev release though... 2.8 is the next stable with a point of November as a real release date...
 
Kevitivity

Kevitivity

Member
Copernicus said:
Yup, part of a flex raid, ReadyNas NV+. It's one of two, so I know the data is just doubled.
Click to expand...

Are you certain? Most ReadyNAS boxes use their proprietary FlexRAID file system. You would have had to manually reformatted to RAID-0.
 
K

kehs

Banned
Kevitivity said:
Are you certain? Most ReadyNAS boxes use their proprietary FlexRAID file system. You would have had to manually reformatted to RAID-0.
Click to expand...

Yup, Netgears uses an ext3/ext4 setup with their own proprietary front end, but it still allows access to the raw data. It's one of the reasons I chose to go with the NV+ at the time.

Also, I'm not trying to move the drive into a new raid setup, I'm just trying to pull the data out.
 
Kevitivity

Kevitivity

Member
Copernicus said:
Yup, Netgears uses an ext3/ext4 setup with their own proprietary front end, but it still allows access to the raw data. It's one of the reasons I chose to go with the NV+ at the time.

Also, I'm not trying to move the drive into a new raid setup, I'm just trying to pull the data out.
Click to expand...

Ok. Did you see this thread over at the ReadNAS forums re: pre-made Linux installs for accessing data on ReadyNAS drives?

http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=35153
 
K

kehs

Banned
Little help....when I do the app-get install fuseext2

I get the following:
E: Unable to locate package fuseext2

I can see the drive mounted and its content just fine though ....
 
A

angelfly

Member
Copernicus said:
Little help....when I do the app-get install fuseext2

I get the following:
E: Unable to locate package fuseext2

I can see the drive mounted and its content just fine though ....
Click to expand...
It's in the Universe repository which I don't think is enabled by default. This should help with enabling it.
 
K

kehs

Banned
Brettison said:
Hey did you get it all off? I hope you got your problem solved!
Click to expand...

Yup, everything, the drives were setup in, what is essentially a raid 1 config, so I wasnt too worried about the data not being there, I was more worried about me being stupid and accidentally erasing everything with a simple command . I'm sorta digging linux now...was messing around with the ubuntu install.

I think I'm gonna give it a go as a primary OS at home for a little. I've actually been wanting to get into android developing, but the Linux necessity was putting me off, I think nows my chance.
 
V

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Copernicus said:
Yup, everything, the drives were setup in, what is essentially a raid 1 config, so I wasnt too worried about the data not being there, I was more worried about me being stupid and accidentally erasing everything with a simple command . I'm sorta digging linux now...was messing around with the ubuntu install.

I think I'm gonna give it a go as a primary OS at home for a little. I've actually been wanting to get into android developing, but the Linux necessity was putting me off, I think nows my chance.
Click to expand...

Not to discourage you from going primary, but it's easy as funk to dual boot these days. IDK if you are running Win or OSX at home, but it's easy as funk for me to dual boot Win 7 and Ubuntu.
 
K

kehs

Banned
Brettison said:
Not to discourage you from going primary, but it's easy as funk to dual boot these days. IDK if you are running Win or OSX at home, but it's easy as funk for me to dual boot Win 7 and Ubuntu.
Click to expand...

I don't do anything out of the ordinary at home, so much so that I'm using Windows 8 Dev build as my primary on my cr48.
 
V

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Copernicus said:
I don't do anything out of the ordinary at home, so much so that I'm using Windows 8 Dev build as my primary on my cr48.
Click to expand...

Hey it's cool. I mean I have Win 8 as my primary Windows install currently because I didn't have anything pressing I was doing. I mainly keep Windows around for Zune + Steam, and then use Ubuntu for other random Linux FOSS.
 
P

peakish

Member
Gnome 3.2 has been released, I just upgraded to it in Arch. If you didn't like the Shell in 3.0 there's not much new here to win you over. Everything of course looks a bit better and stuff like calendars and contacts is integrated in a cool new app (though apparently only Google accounts are supported right now).

For me the biggest noteworthy difference is that Mutter feels a lot snappier. Maybe they've just speeded up transitions but regardless it's a much smoother experience. The Adwaita theme now takes less vertical space and also includes a dark version which Totem and Eye of Gnome uses.

Personally I had hoped for some more Shell updates since it's a huge part of the 3.x experience. It's still not possible to create new desktops in between existing ones if you want to rearrange stuff easily (someone on this board told me that's impossible, in which case I say make it possible :p). No Zeitgeist integration. No Places. And the Application Menu (right of the Activites button) still doesn't do anything. But, eh, I liked the experience before and it's a smoother ride now in this release so I'm kinda happy.

Release notes: http://library.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/3.2/

 
T

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
Looks great. Gnome 3 is shaping up. Just looked at Unity and it's still not appealing at all to me. :/
 
T

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
Copernicus said:
That's like vomiting from excitement right?
Click to expand...

No, more like from an unholy union of perfect good and ultimate evil.

Although it could be worse, you might have installed OS X on it. That would have been truly heinous. :p
 
K

kehs

Banned
Andrex said:
No, more like from an unholy union of perfect good and ultimate evil.

Although it could be worse, you might have installed OS X on it. That would have been truly heinous. :p
Click to expand...

Come on dude, the cr48 is a not that bad, I wouldn't say it's evil.
 
T

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
Copernicus said:
Come on dude, the cr48 is a not that bad, I wouldn't say it's evil.
Click to expand...

You eliminated the best part of it. :( How could you kill such a fragile, young creature...
 
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