[borojohn]

I am looking to download/instal linux on a second pc. Been on a few sites to find it, but totally baffled by the number of options. How can I download a basic version, just to try out, and install on a second pc? where do I go?

[CouchMaster]

http://ubuntulinux.org/
http://www.linuxquestions.org/
I have Ubuntu 5.04 and SuSE 9.1 personal - You can find them at the above sites, plus many more at Linuxquestions. I highly recommend either/or both of them. They just about install themselves and for a first timer you can't beat them...
You would DL the ISO to your HD and then burn an image file to a CD-R with something like Nero. The CD will boot and follow the few on screen instructions.

The only problem you might encounter is with dialup and using a win-modem...

[borojohn]

thanks for that. Installed ok, but get the message, grub loading, please wait on startup, and just hangs. Any ideas.

[CouchMaster]

Which one did you install, and did you run the md5 checksum on the download?

[borojohn]

ubunto 5. Dont know what the md5 checksum is. You said it was easy, lol

[CouchMaster]

Sorry to hear that you're having problems. Ubuntu is rated #1 at http://distrowatch.com/ because it is so easy (and such a good distro) to install.
This thread has info on MD5 http://forums.techguy.org/t352330.html
Without more information it sounds as if you might have a bad download, and running an MD5 checksum will tell you if it's good or not.
This site has a lot of information on installation problems - http://www.brunolinux.com/

[borojohn]

What is this grub thing? I have tried both versions, as you recomended. Both loaded/installed ok, but when booting up, on the ubunto vers it hangs at the "grub waiting, please wait" prompt. And the Suse version, on bootup it hangs at the "grub" prompt. What is going wrong?

[CouchMaster]

GRUB is the GRand Unified Bootloader. Why 2 different versions of Linux hang there on your computer has really got me stumped. Are you doing a dual boot, and when it comes to choosing the OS it just stops? Or did you actually put it on it's own HD? The only time I see a boot loader screen is on my dual boot HD with XP and Ubuntu, and it ask which OS I want to boot to.

On SuSE you should see a green screen (9.1 personal) that has 3 options (I think) with the first one being Linux and already hi-lighted, by not doing anything it boots to the OS in 8 seconds, and if you chose the auto login during installation you will see the desk top almost immediately.

I'm not sure I've ever seen a 'grub' prompt (like a DOS prompt) on any of the installations I've done between the two - other than the dual boot, and I've done about 20. Perhaps you can go into a little more detail.

[CouchMaster]

I grabbed a couple of shots with my digital camera of the loader screens. Sorry about the quality but this is what you should see with the green one being suse.