Retrying Linux

C

Climber

Supreme [H]ardness
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Jul 27, 2007
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Ok so here is the thing. I have an old dell laptop (inspiron 1545) laying here without a HDD. Figured I would put a new HDD (WD10JPVX) in it and install a Linux Distro on it.

So I downloaded Ubuntu 14.04 on a USB stick and tried to install it. It crashed a couple times during install but a few hours later it finally made a complete install. However, on boot up it didn't register the HDD in the BIOS. I tired again and it took probably 10 hours or so to get to where it loaded to the desktop, but once there it wouldn't do anything. I was able to see the mount point and allocate the drive space, but from there I couldn't do anything, as in nothing responded and it ended up crashing again.

So I tried Mint 17 and it installed pretty quickly and got me to the desktop. Again I got to where I could see the mount point and allocate the drive space but I didn't know where to go from there. I forget what happened but I rebooted and it couldn't see the HDD again.

I installed Windows 8.1 on the HDD and attached it to my desktop and ran the WD utility software to check the health of the HDD and it came back 100% error free.

So I'm at a loss here. I'd like to tinker with a Linux distro and learn it with my son but I have no idea what is wrong or what I'm doing to screw up an easy process. Last time I worked with Linux was back in probably 99 with Red Hat but it was already installed. This will be my first time installing it fresh. When I installed Windows 8 on it it was up and running in 15 minutes. The linux installs are taking anywhere from 2-10 hours depending on which distro. I just wanted a single root partition for starters and to use for internet browsing and learning how to navigate so my son and I could learn it together.

Is there something I'm missing? Since the HDD works with Windows and it hasn't crashed yet I wouldn't think the HDD was bad, but perhaps so. Should I keep the Windows install and make a partition just for Linux? Should I try a clean install of Linux and troubleshoot where to go from the allocation window? Or just screw it and stick to Windows like the rest of the flock?
 
Sounds like a controller issue to me. This is going to sound strange to non-Linux veterans, but try older versions of the distro. To summarize why to help you better understand, Linux runs on what's called a kernel that is precompiled to be compatible with certain hardware. If it maintained all legacy hardware your kernel would be massive. So that being said an older distro will have an older kernel which supports older hardware. To test, I go back 4 years (or last LTS for Ubuntu) to verify and then slowly advance if I'm going for the latest I can.

DISCLAIMER: Do not have an ego about this!

The other option would be compiling your own kernel but I would never recommend this for those unfamiliar as it can take hours to compile just to find out you did wrong. This can be a frustrating and difficult process even for those with years of Linux experience.

Hope this helps.
 
Yea not going to try compiling my own, I'll go try some of the earlier distros. That does make sense; however, would I run into issues using such a new HDD on such an old laptop? My wife used it in college a few years back until it finally died on her so I'm guessing it is at least 5-6 years old now.
 
Do not want to discourage you from learning the magic of Linux, but compiling kernels was the primary reason people wouldn't try Linux to begin with back in 99. Was a nightmare and less documentation etc. Ubuntu got where they are by having "large" kernels to make installation easier. Back to your question, short and sweet, no, highly unlikely that if your controller works your hard drive would make a difference. I also said this in another post that asked about Linux, but I always like to remind people. Linux distros are just someone's configuration. You are not limited to there standards and many distros are splinters of others because they wanted something a bit different. If there is a feature on another distro you want, take the time to learn how to install that feature on your current installed distro. You will get more education and more satisfaction that way.
 
I don't have any input on your issue really, as I'm pretty tired and having trouble seeing straight. However, you might look into OpenSuSE as a distro to try out. I've been using it off and on for many years now, and I've always had very good out-of-box compatibility and so forth with it. Generally my laptops run them as the only or primary OS. It has a good file manager, and really you don't even need to go into the terminal at all. I only use it (terminal) for utility stuff, or some more off-the-wall software that I run.
 
Win 8 installs GPT partitions and uses UEFI, so installing Linux on top of that can be tricky.

You can just install Linux on a USB flash drive. If it's UHS-I it will run as fast as a hard disk, about 80MB/s. Linux install takes about 5 min.

See my post here for more ideas: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2120763
 
Will give that a try reb00ting. Thanks for the link as well. Installing on a fresh hdd then shouldn't really be an issue then it seems.
 
One suggestion that's worked out for someone else with old hardware and Ubuntu:

Try xubuntu instead of the standard ubuntu installer (and perhaps disable composition effects once booted), or even go for a command line install. If I have the specs of the laptop correct, it uses the old Intel GMA graphics. Newer Linux desktop environments will enable 3D acceleration effects by default, and end up defaulting to pure software rendering on a graphics chip like that. Would be the most likely explanation for the 10 hour long install times, as the CPU is pegged just to draw pretty windows with OpenGL effects from a software renderer.
 
Climber said:
Will give that a try reb00ting. Thanks for the link as well. Installing on a fresh hdd then shouldn't really be an issue then it seems.
Click to expand...

If you want to keep Win8, better to leave it alone and install Linux separately, media are inexpensive.

When you install Linux on another medium, during install make sure you specify to put the Boot Loader on that disk, not the default sda (which is probably where your Win8 will be).
 
i think i know what you did possibly? you may have not booted the install media in UEFI mode. make sure from your boot list that you select the media with UEFI designation. All you need to install / root partition , /home partion and swap partition for linux to install properly. you will want to use the same efi partition windows 8 created and you can do this by selecting the same disk for the bootloader. Everything should install correctly and you should have a nice grub2 menu to select which os to boot.
 
Climber said:
So I'm at a loss here. I'd like to tinker with a Linux distro and learn it with my son but I have no idea what is wrong or what I'm doing to screw up an easy process.
Click to expand...

Why not just run it in a VM? VMWare Player and virtualbox are free.
 
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