Mandriva Spring 08 - X Server stalls while booting, left with busy indication

[#1]

What you want is Visualisation  - A sandbox area on your machine.  Full 3 page article on how to do it on page 66 of edition 106 of PC Utilities
links to suppliers of programs
Microsoft Virtual PC 2007  http://tinyurl.com/2jr7a7
Vitual Box  http://www.virtualbox.org
VMware  http://www.vmware.com
Microsoft Virtualisation  http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization

[#2]

Just burnt the ISO for 8.04  and tested ok under live (though linux doesn't seem to have built in support for Nvidia Nforce networking controllers though)
Launched inside Windows and it told me I could install as an app inside Windows but that performance maybe reduced but lbooting with the CD will allow me to install alongside Windows
So being a bit of a daredevil I'm going to do that having backed up all my stuff so I'll be back in a bit if it goes well or in a day if not.

In the words of Samuel L Jackson in Jurassic Park "hold on to your butts"

[#3]

many drivers are included in the linux kernel, but proprietary drivers are not freely distributable, so cannot be included.  these include nvidia, ati and a number of printers, webcams, scanners and other bits of kit, which is why users have so much trouble getting them to work.
now that more manufacturers are handing the source to the open sourcerers, this situation will change and even more hardware will work out of the box.

[#4]

The full Ubuntu distro doesn't fit onto a single CD.
The full distro includes 25,000+ packages
I have less than 2,000 - including some that don't get used.

[#5]

Quote from: techguy

Just burnt the ISO for 8.04  and tested ok under live (though linux doesn't seem to have built in support for Nvidia Nforce networking controllers though)

AFAIK the forcedeth module supports nForce chipsets (it may not perform as well as nVidia's own); it's been in the 2.6 kernel for some time.

[#6]

Any idea where I pick up the forcedeth module from?

[#7]

Quote from: techguy

Any idea where I pick up the forcedeth module from?

I'd be surprised if you didn't already have it:

$ sudo updatedb
$ locate forcedeth.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.23/kernel/drivers/net/forcedeth.ko

It's worth checking for any reference to an ethernet device in dmesg:

$ dmesg | grep eth
forcedeth.c: Reverse Engineered nForce ethernet driver. Version 0.60.
forcedeth: using HIGHDMA
eth0: forcedeth.c: subsystem: 01043:816a bound to 0000:00:14.0

Clearly my Debian box is using the forcedeth module but doesn't identify the device as an nForce chipset:

$ lspci | grep Ethernet
00:14.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Ethernet Controller (rev a3)

Did ethernet work on your Mandriva installation (I'm wondering if Ubuntu is loading the wrong module)?

[#8]

Hi Waldo
It did yes, right out of the errr box.
I'll give that a go.
I feel like I did when I was tinkering with DOS when I was 8 meaning "how the hell I am I going to learn all this?"
Axis, where can I download the rest of the packages from or do I need to get the install to a networking state (meaning I can connect to the router and thus the net and use the package installer)
For the record I did download the image from Canonical's UK server (via ubuntu.com) and opted for Desktop but didn't see any options for image size or version other then that but to be honest I just set it going in Free Download Manager, ticked the option to shut down the system when the download was complete, had a drop of Jack Daniel's and went to rest my weary brain.

[#9]

Everything should be set up for you - this includes a list of secured web sites
If you are using the Gnome (Ubuntu) interface then
System -> Administration -> Software sources will show the details and also allow you to choose whether
you want to be informed of security updates etc.
System -> Administration -> Synaptic package Manager will allow you to add or remove packages.
You should avoid installing packages from source until you are sure you know what's happening 
Packages installed via Ubuntu will have all the dependency information maintained.
In the above usage, you will be asked for a password before you can change your installation.
This is your user password - not a root password - I'd suggest you set up an admin style user for this - but it isn't essential.

[#10]

Quote from: techguy

Hi Waldo It did yes, right out of the errr box.

OK, clearly there is support for your network card in the Linux kernel - possibly Ubuntu's hardware detection has borked up here.

Quote

I feel like I did when I was tinkering with DOS when I was 8 meaning "how the hell I am I going to learn all this?"

I remember connecting all the bits of hardware together for my first PC and spending the next two hours reading (and re-reading) the 3" thick DOS manual chapters on disk partitioning and formatting; I'm still receiving therapy for the trauma.... 

Quote

Axis, where can I download the rest of the packages from or do I need to get the install to a networking state (meaning I can connect to the router and thus the net and use the package installer)

Everything needed to get the system up and running (including network connectivity) should be on the CD you burned; /etc/apt/sources.list would normally list the Ubuntu software repositories used for installing packages and upgrading the system (you might like to have a look at this file to see if this has worked in the absence of network connectivity; IIRC initially it would be set to download & install from the CD-ROM you burned)

Quote

For the record I did download the image from Canonical's UK server (via ubuntu.com) and opted for Desktop but didn't see any options for image size or version other then that but to be honest I just set it going in Free Download Manager, ticked the option to shut down the system when the download was complete, had a drop of Jack Daniel's and went to rest my weary brain.

Depending on how pig-headed you are, and how much spare time you have, you might want to wait another four days for the release of Ubuntu 8.10 and install from scratch (you'd dist-upgrade form 8.04 to 8.10  at some point, though it needn't be in the immediate future).

[#11]

Dear oh dear, what a complete dumbass I have been
In my quest to the amount of system resources consumed by Windows I disabled the DHCP client and set a static IP, I also disabled the DHCP server service on my router so of course Linux wouldn't find anything.
Thanks for all your help and apologies for wasting your time by being such a numpty.
I write this through firefox running on top of ubuntu.