[Davec]

Odered ubuntu 8-24-05 and got it today. When defragging the drive prior to install should this be done with windows defrag since third-party utilities frequently organize the disk differently?

[CouchMaster]

I'd defrag with windows.

[Davec]

That's my thought, pending any guidance otherwise. I plan on burning my recovery discs and then install this weekend.

[Davec]

Things did not go well. Install seemed to be going fine, then when it booted into Linux, neither my keyboard or the mouse worked. When I tried to reboot GRUB wouldn't let me into windows. I ended up restoring the system and will do more research before trying again.

[jiml8]

When you have that kind of problem, you usually need to take a look at X, which may have been improperly configured for your system. To do this, you need to boot to runlevel 1 which is single user, console based, no networking. Work up from there.

[CouchMaster]

Did you not try the live CD first to see if it found all of your hardware?

[Davec]

Originally Posted by jiml8

When you have that kind of problem, you usually need to take a look at X, which may have been improperly configured for your system. To do this, you need to boot to runlevel 1 which is single user, console based, no networking. Work up from there.

Will do some more reading and then try that.

[Davec]

Originally Posted by CouchMaster

Did you not try the live CD first to see if it found all of your hardware?

No, I figured I would still be able to get into windows if things weren't going well. I will play with the live CD before installing again.

[Davec]

Booting from the live CD also leaves me with no keyboard or mouse.

[saikee]

You must have a USB keyboard and mouse then.

Linux distros don't normally have a problem with the standard PS2 keyboard and mouse.

[Davec]

PS2 keyboard and serial mouse.

[saikee]

Do you have to install Ubuntu? How about giving Slax a try? Often your hardware having problem with one distro may be perfect for another.

I have Ubuntu 5.04 and 5.10 installed in different disks (hda31 & hdc38) and they behave well. I only have to modify the booting for the version in hdc38 because its boot loader can't cross the 137Gb barrier. I end up calling its kernel directly by another Grub.