[FFfanatic]

I downloaded the ubuntu 6.10 for AMD 64 systems .iso but when it's burnt to a disc and I boot it off the disc, it gets to a screen where it says:

Mouse Driver Installed (either successfully or unsuccessfully), depending on the mouse I have connected.

and then it waits at:
A:\

What am I supposed to do?

[Bartender]

Do you have some sort of exotic USB wireless mouse? I'd try a plain old PS/2 mouse and see what happens.

[FFfanatic]

I did connect a regular old mouse, that's when it said that the mouse driver was installed successfully. Otherwise, the mouse driver doesn't install properly. Either way, it just sits at
A:\
waiting for me to enter something, though not giving me a clue about what.

[Bartender]

If you've got broadband and it's no big deal to download another distro, I'd do that. Try PCLinuxOS or Fedora Core or Mepis or etc. etc. If your PC does the exact same thing with another distro then it's pretty much gotta be either hardware or operator error.

[prunejuice]

Make sure CD-ROM is first in the boot order in the BIOS settings.

Burn the ISO file as an image, not a simple DATA CD/DVD.

[fenderfreek]

If you're installing Ubuntu, you're not going to get anything like that. Ever.

You've got a basic DOS filesystem installed on your hard drive, and it's booting to that instead of the CD.

Make sure you created your CD properly, and that your machine is set up to boot from CD, then try it again.

How exactly did you create your CD, and where did you get your .iso?

[sportscrazy]

You can also check your BIOS settings to see what order the boot-up devices are in (for example it loads the hard drive first, and then the CD/DVD drive) that way you can change the drive order so that the CD drive boots first. If that doesn't work then there is probably something wrong with the CD itself. You can try burning it again or go to: https://shipit.kubuntu.org/ to order a free Kubuntu CD.

[FFfanatic]

Finally got the Ubuntu 6.06 working. Now to check, are all linux drivers the same, or are there different ones for each distribution? If they are the same, then is there a list where I can pick and choose what I need to download or do I have to go to each manufacturer's website and download one for each piece of hardware?

[prunejuice]

Originally Posted by FFfanatic

Finally got the Ubuntu 6.06 working. Now to check, are all linux drivers the same, or are there different ones for each distribution? If they are the same, then is there a list where I can pick and choose what I need to download or do I have to go to each manufacturer's website and download one for each piece of hardware?

Ubuntu has great hardware support out-of-the-box.

Is there a piece of hardware in particular that's giving you a problem?

[Bartender]

FF -
As prunejuice mentioned, which devices are you trying to drive?
If it's hardware inside your PC that's not working correctly you're probly better off to try an entirely different distro such as Mepis or PCLinuxOS or Fedora Core.
If it's a peripheral, such as scanner, printer, etc. then there's a better likelihood of finding drivers that might work. For instance, printer drivers are available from sources such as gutenprint. Some manufacturers have started offering Linux drivers. My Brother HL-1440 laser is recognized by Ubuntu, but there are also drivers on the Brother website. If only I could figure out how to install them!

[FFfanatic]

At the moment, the only thing I know isn't working is my Matshita DVD-RAM UJ-850S. One other thing I'm not sure about is my Acer Orbicam manufactured by Bison.

[fenderfreek]

The DVD drive should work with no extra configuration. Linux supports that model with no additional drivers.
What have you done to test whether it works or not?

As for the webcam, I don't know of, nor can I find any currently working drivers. It is either too new or not ubiqitous enough to have drivers written for it.

[FFfanatic]

To test the drive, I boot from the liveCD and when I get into Ubuntu, I can't press the tab on my drive to open it, though I can go through the computer and eject it. I just don't want to have to do that every time.

[fenderfreek]

Sounds like a problem with your drive, so I'd get that checked out. The OS doesn't have anything to do with the functioning of the hardware button.

Edit: It didn't even occur to me before, but did you unmount the CD? If a volume is mounted(any kind, CD, HD, anything), then Linux will lock the drive, so that data won't get corrupted by removing it during I/O.

[FFfanatic]

The drive works in Windows so I know it's not the drive. And mounting, I'm not familiar with the term.