Linux technical user manuals

[Peanut]

Well, this definitely falls under technical information! Thought it'd go here instead of the library.

A year ago I finally gave windows the boot and switched to Linux. I’ve had to load or reload the OS several times, new pc, laptop, but… loading software doesn’t show or teach how an OS really works. (I'm a geek and an engineer, double cursed, have to know how something works.)

I know frustratingly little about Mint. What I do know is scattered bits and pieces. Pieces so disjointed I still don’t see Mint works. It’s been almost 25yrs since I used command line entry for work, I don’t remember much despite having used such OS’s for 2 decades.

So I broke down and bought a couple books. “The Linux Command Line” by Shotts and “Linux Pocket Guide” by Barrett.

The pocket guide is an O’Reilly book. They’ve had great computer books for years, even back in the 90’s I owned several. The “Missing Manual” series was great, a must for power users and engineers. We kept several at the office, saved my butt more than once. This one is laid out really well and gives the “down an dirty” they are known for.

The other one… I spent an entire afternoon reading technical book reviews. Gave me a headache. I find technical manuals interesting, opinions about them - not so much.

I settled on this one because it starts at the beginning, the command line. I read the first 3 chapters today, learned more about Linux than in the past year. I’m already starting to remember a few things, shake off the cobwebs. The book gives context to the 100’s of commands lost in my old mind. Remembering a command and what it does are two different things after all these years.

 

[bkt]

You really can't go wrong with O'Reilly books - I have dozens of them.

Bash is the default shell Linux comes with, so getting a book on Bash might also be useful.

 

[AlabamaHam]

O'Reilly books are great. Been using them since the 80's.

As far as Linux learning. Search YouTube as well. Lots of good videos out there.

Realize that there are also many different distros of Linux (Debian, RedHat, ...) and different flavors of each. Ubuntu, a Debian Linux is pretty easy and well cooked. After installing, Google "Things to do after installing ubuntu x.xx" where x.xx is the version number. Has lots of things that make your trip easier and the OS more useful. Lots of free software availble from inside Ubuntu as well.

 

[Magus]

My son AMC needs to get back in here, he's a minor linux guru.

 

[Snowman]

Well, finally decided to take the Plunge...!!! After reading some other posts on this fine site also decided to take advantage of this Thread, Thanks @Peanut for starting it...

Here goes, I went looking and found this :
https://www.linuxliteos.com/download.php

next stop was this :
http://repo.linuxliteos.com/linuxlite/isos/6.6/

then went here :
https://www.linuxliteos.com/manual/install.html#installguide

 

[Snowman]

Pics of steps I took after D/L, Burn to Disc and Install :

 

[Snowman]

More Pics :

 

[Snowman]

3 more pics and where I'm Stuck at :

 

[Snowman]

I need to find out what is on that 500GB SSD bee4 CONtinuing...!!!

 

[havasu]

I wish i understood French!

 

[Haertig]

3 more pics and where I'm Stuck at :

You don't have enough room on that disk to install anything.

You have two partitions that are in use (evidently by Windows). the first one is "sda1", which is NTFS, and it is your EFI partiton (used during booting). It is only half a GB (which is fine for this EFI partition). Then you have "sda2", also NTFS, which is probably where you have Windows installed. That 2nd partition is only 9Gb. I don't know how you fit a Windows installation into that, but I suppose you could. You then tried to create a third partition, "sda3", with the space remaining on your disk, or SSD, or whatever this is you're trying to install on. That third partition is only 1.3Gb. You might be able to install a super lightweight Linux distro in that, but indeed it will be super lightweight. Also, you would have no room to store any personal files. That's it. You are out of space. This must be the smallest HDD or SSD you could find. I'm guessing 16Gb is it's marked size (you always get less size than marked due to other stuff that uses the disk space).

The actual complain you are seeing in the error message is not related to the micro sized disk you are trying to install it on. Rather, is is because you never assigned a "mount point" for the root file system. In your case - ignoring available space - that would be on sda3. I can see in your last picture where the error message is, behind and partially covered by that error popup, is a line highlighted in blue. I can see on that line that there is no "mount point" assigned.

Looking at your pictures, this is where you initially set up what you want the partitioner to do. It hasn't actually done anything yet. So this is where you are telling it what you want your disk to look like in the future (if you continue onward), not what it actually looks like now. NOW, you do indeed have sda1 and sda2 created and in use, but sda3 has not actually been created yet. So nothing has been written to your hard disk yet.

Bottom line: You need a bigger hard disk. You could destroy your existing Windows installation and give Linux the entire disk. It should then install after giving the root filesystem a mount point and telling the partitioner to format that. But everything else currently on that disk will be blown away (which means your Windows installation will be gone and not recoverable). You can indeed run Linux on a 16Gb disk. You won't have a ton of space for user files, but that may be OK with you. Just don't plan on storing large video files. Just a handful of those would consume all of your meager disk space. I haven't seen a hard disk this small for decades. Where did you get such an itsy bitsy thing?

 

[Haertig]

I need to find out what is on that 500GB SSD bee4 CONtinuing...!!!

It's not 500Gb based on what you posted. More like 16Gb per the picture you posted of the partitioning info. I'm starting to think that may be in error. Maybe something in the Linux Lite installer. Did you maybe manually tell it that you are using MSDOS partition table when you are actually using a GPT partitioning table? I don't know if you can even do that, I'm just guessing. A 16Gb SSD makes no sense. I highly doubt they make them that small. Even old ones. But I could be wrong (there's always a first time!)

 

[Haertig]

I am concerned that your Linux Lite installer is saying "Your computer has no detected operating systems". Huh? Then what is that EFI partition and the 9Gb NTFS partition? One would assume that is a valid Windows install. Maybe those are there, but have been klobbered in the past somehow, so are not recognizable and they don't work. Or maybe it's a bug in the installer (highly doubtful at this point of the install - partitioning is generally a solid part that is well tested - but I have no experience with Linux Lite).

Be warned, when you choose "Something else" when the Linux installer is asking you how to partition things, you kind of have to know what you're doing and what is already on your disk. You can think of "Something else" as meaning, "Turn off the safety mechanisms and let me fire away on my own". Fine if you know what you're doing, not so fine if you don't.

 

[Peanut]

According the last picture, sda1(ntfs) = 489.8 GB, windows is taking up all the space on the drive.

 

[Haertig]

@Peanut is certainly correct! Oh crap, I didn't see that screenshot correctly. Yes, sda1 is half a TB, not half a Gb. I obviously looked too quickly. I think I was thrown off by the display a little farther down, where is says that sda1, the half a TB partition, is the EFI partition. Nobody would have a half Tb EFI partition! Half Gb is more like it. sda1 and sda2 are backwards. Even given that, a 9Gb EFI partition is huge. Not harmful, just huge.

@Snowman - I don't know how you got to where you got to take this screenshot - what numbers you entered as configuration parameters - but I would definitely not hit "continue" at this point!

 

[backwoodsman]

3 more pics and where I'm Stuck at :

Something is very strange about those partitions. Did you do anything at all to the partitions before that last photo, or is that exactly the way you found them?

 

[Peanut]

Something is very strange about those partitions. Did you do anything at all to the partitions before that last photo, or is that exactly the way you found them?

Agreed! There is something off with sda1 and sda2, they look backwards.

(Probably not the problem here but… back in the day I worked on a more that a few home pc’s. There was a condition known as Packard Bell Hell. PB, Compaq and for a year or so hewlett packard did it too (their early pc’s). Their hardware usually didn’t meet the minimum requirements of windows. By manipulating the machine language… they hid this from windows, so windows would load and run (somewhat). It was sort of like having a hidden layer of software underneath windows. Everything was fine until someone tried to reload software. Then all the dirty little secrets revealed themselves. I stopped working on PB’s and Compaqs. HP started building real computers)

 

[Snowman]

Ok, so I am guessing that by Post #14 that It is a 500GB HardDrive...?!?

1st Pic is the drive from the PC and I have no idea what is on it as it came with that Laptop...!

2nd pic is the 320 GB HD out of Me other Tosh Sat Lappy, I want to save what is on it but I keep getting...
"Device Drivers Not Found, Insert Drivers Disc to Continue"...

3rd Pic is the 500GB Seagate that is asking for a Password and I have no idea what the Password is or how to get around it...

Can I just use the 1st one and install the Linux OS and what do I change?!? Hoping this will bee of Help to Others wanting to switch OS's...!!!

 

[Snowman]

Something is very strange about those partitions. Did you do anything at all to the partitions before that last photo, or is that exactly the way you found them?

When I went back to that screen to try again, I noticed way over to the right side of the window a thin blue Vertical Line so I moused it and saw it was movable so I slid it and the results is in the pic...

 

[12icemaker]

A lot of things can cause the place you are from lack of sufficient RAM with all of the drivers and actionable programs loaded to the called drive being set up in a password protected mode.

If you have insufficient space on the drive you are calling you should get an insufficient space error in most cases if your OS is running the program.

Hard call, but if you are using a multi drive hub, instead of different portals for each drive it may be unable to process the transfer because of R/W tunnel limitations.

Good luck with this one my friend, a lot of these things are best done with a fresh drive, and a new ADMIN user with full access administrator privileges on the Computer doing the work with nothing but the basic programs loaded no communications link and firewall settings set for the proper access.

For the drivers program you can usually get the proper drivers from the website of the drive maker with the right model and serial.

 

[Haertig]

Hard drives themselves don't need device drivers. Maybe for the SATA controller on your motherboard, a device driver may be needed. Depends on if the OS recognizes it or not. Personally, I've never run into an OS that needed an externally supplied device driver for a SATA controller. Was this Linux that was telling you that? All the computers you have mentioned (in a different thread) are not exactly bleeding edge stuff that might have some kind of brand new never-heard-of-before SATA controller. I would be surprised if Linux, or even Windows, wouldn't recognize your motherboards SATA controller. What OS was telling you that you needed a device driver? And how old is that OS?

I hate to say this, but you appear to be a magnet for weird computer problems.

 

[backwoodsman]

When I went back to that screen to try again, I noticed way over to the right side of the window a thin blue Vertical Line so I moused it and saw it was movable so I slid it and the results is in the pic...

That doesn't address the question. It sounds like maybe a roundabout "no you didn't do anything to the partitions" answer, but I've found it's best not to assume answers on stuff like this.

So, did you modify those partitions, or are they exactly as you found them?

And a new question: Will that drive boot Windows right now, with the partitions as shown?

If you didn't modify those partitions, my guess is, someone else who doesn't know anything about Linux did. There shouldn't be a tiny ext4 partition, and definitely not where that one is. The normal way to install Linux in a dual-boot setup with Windows is, shrink the main Windows partition to make room for Linux, leave whatever other partitions are there alone, then make your Linux root and swap partitions.

 

[Snowman]

I have done Nothing to those partitions and NO it will not Boot to those either... It kept showing "Device Drivers not found, Insert the Driver Disc and install the needed Drivers" as I posted earlier...!!!

If it would Boot to Wins, there would bee no reason to go to Linux, as I also stated earlier, I have No Idea as to what is on the drive as it came with the Laptop...

I know what I'll do, I have a Win 8.1 Startup on a Flash Drive somewhere and I will try inserting that into a USB and see what happens as the way it is Now, even Linux won't load... Unless I give it the go ahead and let it delete what-ever is on the Drive...?!?

 

[Peanut]

I need to find out what is on that 500GB SSD bee4 CONtinuing...!!!

For clarification and context...

1) You have no idea what may or may not be stored on the drive?
2) Is this an old laptop you had laying around?
3) A gift from someone else?
-----------
4) Or, were you using this drive and it suddenly stopped working?
5) And you don't remember what was on the drive?
6) Why the need to see what is on the drive? Something specific you're looking for? a file or photo?
-------------------------------
7) have you seen this laptop working recently?

--------------------------------------------------

You posted this link"
https://www.linuxliteos.com/manual/install.html#installguide

This guide addresses multiple scenarios, exactly which section of the guide did you follow? Did you create a thumbdrive? or a dvd?

Since this laptop isn't working... what system did you use to create bootable media?

 

[Snowman]

^^^ Read Post # 23, it's the One above Yours...

 

[backwoodsman]

I have done Nothing to those partitions and NO it will not Boot to those either... It kept showing "Device Drivers not found, Insert the Driver Disc and install the needed Drivers" as I posted earlier...!!!

If it would Boot to Wins, there would bee no reason to go to Linux, as I also stated earlier, I have No Idea as to what is on the drive as it came with the Laptop...

I know what I'll do, I have a Win 8.1 Startup on a Flash Drive somewhere and I will try inserting that into a USB and see what happens as the way it is Now, even Linux won't load... Unless I give it the go ahead and let it delete what-ever is on the Drive...?!?

Sorry, I hadn't put all the bits of info together.

I guess it comes down to whether you want Windows, or Linux. If you want Linux, since it's not your data anyway, you might as well let Linux blow away everything on the disk. If you decide later that you want Windows after all, you'd have had to reinstall it anyway, so just let it wipe out Linux.

If you do install Windows, keep in mind that you need to think about activation. Windows 8 and newer machines have the license key in BIOS which Windows reads and activates automatically. Windows 7 and earlier need a matching license key to activate, usually from the sticker on the machine.

 

[Peanut]

^^^ Read Post # 23, it's the One above Yours...

Post #23 doesn't answer any of my questions. I'm not asking random questions here, used to do this sort of thing for a living. i lived in CA but worked in europe... I helped other engineers solve problems with email or the phone. If i couldn't then i had to get on a plane and solve the issue in person.

Just trying to help you. To do so I need precise details... vague responses gets us nowhere. Your choice...

 

[Haertig]

Now, even Linux won't load... Unless I give it the go ahead and let it delete what-ever is on the Drive...?!?

Seems like Linux is loading just fine. It is telling you that there is a bunch of stuff already on the disk you want to install on, and asking if you want it to blow all that away and start fresh with Linux. If you tell it "no", and that you want it to install itself alongside to what is already on there, it is telling you (or will tell you if you get that far), that you only have a gigabyte of available space, and Linux won't fit into that. It will then probably ask you again what you want to do?

That's not a failure of Linux to load. That's expected and very reasonable behavior of the installer.

What people normally do in this situation is shrink the Windows partition to make more disk space available to install Linux into. That is, if you want to keep Windows around. If not, what you do is tell the Linux installer to just blow away all that crap and use the disk exclusively for itself. But you said that Windows can't even read your disk to load itself, and is prompting you to install device drivers. That is a Windows problem, not a Linux one. So you're kind of stuck if you want the option to shrink the Windows partition to make room for Linux alongside Windows. I have not done this personally, but I imagine it is potentially possible, for Linux to shrink a Windows partition. This would be a very high risk operation IMHO. But Linux does allow you to do high risk stuff, if that's what you tell it you want to do. To shrink a WIndows partition - at least the last time I did that decades ago - the first step is to defrag the partition. Then use some Windows software (I forgot the name of it) to shrink the partition. Only after doing all this (in the Windows world) would you be ready to begin installing Linux.

At this point, based on what you've told us, I think your Windows may be toast. Maybe you can find the device driver that it wants and get things working. Assuming this laptop worked with the hard drive/SATA controller before, I don't know where the original device driver would have gone off to, but evidently it is gone (or corrupted). But you're in the Windows world when you're trying to fix that kind of stuff, not the Linux world. I am not qualified to help you in the Windows world.

 

[Haertig]

p.s. - In your pictures above, I can see that your Toshiba disk was manufactured back in 2013. The Seagate one was manufactured in 2014. I haven't been able to locate the manufacture date of the Western Digital disk.

These disks are due for replacement simply because of their age. You might want to consider if simply purchasing a new hard disk (or better yet - an SSD) is the easier and better way to go.

 

[Snowman]

For clarification and context...

1) You have no idea what may or may not be stored on the drive?
2) Is this an old laptop you had laying around?
3) A gift from someone else?
-----------
4) Or, were you using this drive and it suddenly stopped working?
5) And you don't remember what was on the drive?
6) Why the need to see what is on the drive? Something specific you're looking for? a file or photo?
-------------------------------
7) have you seen this laptop working recently?

--------------------------------------------------

You posted this link"
https://www.linuxliteos.com/manual/install.html#installguide

This guide addresses multiple scenarios, exactly which section of the guide did you follow? Did you create a thumbdrive? or a dvd?

Since this laptop isn't working... what system did you use to create bootable media?

1) Correct as I have posted earlier...
2) No, I bought it Cheap...
3) No, I bought it Cheap...
4) No, I bought it Cheap...
5) No, I don't know what is on that drive Period...
6) No, just Curious...
7) No, I bought it Cheap...!!!

8) Link... I downloaded the ISO and Burned it to a DVD...!!