The Linux Distro Thread (maybe)

[ej-solutions]

Thought I'd start this one off, rather than continue on another thread.

As a quick catch up for others:

Have a look at Unetbootin, as a means to try out different versions of Linux, without producing numerous coasters (unwanted CDs).
I haven't tried the method of installing to hard drive, only the USB flash drive method (so far).

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[ej-solutions]

Good News 😄

System requirements:

You need 128MB RAM to run the Live CD or 192MB RAM to install. To install, you need a minimum of 3GB of free space on your hard disk. Once installed, Linux Mint 6 XFCE CE can run with 192MB RAM, but it is strongly recommended to have at least 256MB RAM.

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[otherego]

I am determined to be in bed at a reasonable hour tonight!

Scuttles guiltily off to Distrowatch>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[ej-solutions]

http://mirror.sov.uk.goscomb.net/linuxmint.com/stable/6/community/LinuxMint-6-Fluxbox.iso

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[ej-solutions]

(he, he) ]:)

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[otherego]

Thanks to mucking about with Mint XFCE (WHY is it so hard to get wireless working on the blessed Eee PC with so many distros, I've not progressed with the Windows problem.

This is, of course, not my fault. I was led astray.

It certainly looks as if there's little chance of getting Windows working without a repair, which is something I've not done before. It looks more of a performance than any I've had with Linux distros - which I reinstall quite cheerfully and with no real difficulty.

A couple of quick queries, please. The only copy of Windows 2000 I have is an ancient copy - somebody's backup, and I have no idea of its details. A note on it says that it only includes SP2 - this should be correctable from Windows updates, presumably? Additionally, I remember that the Windows product ID shown on start-up was an OEM version - no idea what my disk is. Is this likely to be a show-stopper with W2K? Surprisingly little gen on the internet - it's all about XP (and how much people dislike poor old Vista, for some reason.)

The next problem is Windows's insistence on a product key being entered during reinstallation. Is there any way of getting at this from my Mepis partition? I know it lives in a folder somewhere in Windows, but that it is encrypted. So this may be a stupid question.

The sticker on the base of the computer DOES look like a W2K licence, but the product ID is slightly different from the one which used to show on start-up. (Reinstalled by the previous owner? No idea!) I'm hoping that, if worst comes to worst, the product key on the sticker will work.

All advice greatly received!

(Mental note - download Magic Jelly Bean or similar to surviving M$ machine and rescue the product key before its XP installation next needs repair...)

[ej-solutions]

Win2k SP2 should be fine for a repair. I'm not 100% sure but I don't think that you're asked for the key during a repair (been a while since I done one). I think that it's only Win98 keys that are not highlighted with the OS type and that Win2k would have Windows 2000 Professional, or similar under/over the key - Knawes/Countess_Vlad should be able to clarify. The barcode number alongside the key may give a clue (Google?)

Wireless networking is often a real PITA - in some cases you need to install a different method of connectivity. If you do a sudo lspci it should identify the wireless adapter (Network Controller). That'll be a good starting point.

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[ej-solutions]

From a spot of Googling: (no warranties on accuracy)

Here's a list of Product Codes. This is the first number of the Product ID.
55274 : XP Pro generic OEM or Volume License (VL is a special case of OEM)
55276 : XP Pro (upgrade)
55276 : XP Home (?) '
55277 : XP Home generic OEM
55285 : XP Pro '
55661 : XP Pro (retail)
76475 : XP Home (upgrade) (?)
76477 : XP Home Royalty OEM
76487 : XP Media Center Edition 2005
76487 : XP Pro Royalty OEM
76487 : XP Pro volume license (with '640' channel ID)
76500 : XP MCE 2005 (XP Pro with AD/GPO disabled)
76588 : XP Pro x64 OEM

The second number is Channel ID

000 : Other (includes some retail, upgrade and evaluation versions)
007 : Retail
009 : Not for resale - bundle
011 : XP Home Upgrade
OEM : OEM (This does not specify royalty or normal OEM)
270 : Volume License
296 : MSDN
308/347 : Microsoft Action Pack subscription
335 : Retail
640 through 648, 652 : Volume License (usually generated via 270 CID in setupp.ini)
699 : Volume Windows XP Tablet Edition
071 : Possible, but unknown. Possibly an SP2 integrated install of some variety.

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[grumpy-cook]

I seem to recall that Magical Jelly Bean can recover keys from unbootable installs, but I think you need to run it from Windows PE or put the disk in another system. You'd have to check their website or forum.

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[otherego]

Thanks, ej and g-c.

I'll do a spot more reading around.

I realise I seem to be making a great fuss over rescuing a soon-to-be-obsolete system. In actual fact, it wouldn't be one of life's greater tragedies if I couldn't rescue it intact. I am greatly enjoying the "educational" element of the exercise - and really appreciate the suggestions and ideas offered here.

If I DO end up having to reinstall from scratch, then that will be a useful experience (I've never installed a Windows OS). And if I get really fed up with M$, then I believe that Mint XFCE might just work on the low-powered computer...

[ej-solutions]

Sad-ist! :-p

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[otherego]

JUST about to give up on this one.

Dual booting Mepis and Windows, 2000, I ran chkdsk and defrag on W2K. It then refused to boot - black screen with a flashing by unresponsive cursor in the top left hand corner.

Running fixboot and fixmbr from a W2K CD/recovery console achieved nothing other than booting GRUB out of the MBR.

I finally plucked up the courage to do a repair install. All went swimmingly, except that it was now SP2, not 4 (the only CD I have is SP2, so fair goes.) All my other programmes were still there.

Brilliant, thought I. Let's get it updated. IE 6 installed easily. I told it to install SP4 - the next update offered. I rebooted. Black screen with blinking cursor.

RATS.

I've tried two more repair installs. As soon as it gets to the re-boot, we're back to square one.

A possible clue - when it DID work, a warning appeared:

The procedure entry point IsWellKnownSid could not be located in the dynamic link library ADVAPI32.dll

Clicking its OK button made this disappear, and everything kept working - until the reboot.

Getting Mepis working again every time takes a matter of seconds with Super Grub Disk to repair GRUB - otherwise I would be deeply suspicious of the hard drive itself.

I tried copying the boot.ini, ntdetect.com and ntldr files to a floppy disc and told the T23 to boot off "external devices". I think it saw the floppy; at any rate, it gave some message along the lines of an invalid disk, replace and hit any key - or something like that.

What started as an entertaining academic exercise is now driving me mad - the joys of a mildly obsessive personality. Tidying the flat, job hunting and seeing people have fallen by the wayside. The laptop is glaring at me with smug malevolence. I can hear Bill Gates's maniacal laughter in my dreams.

Any suggestions?

[otherego]

JUST about to give up on this one.

Dual booting Mepis and Windows, 2000, I ran chkdsk and defrag on W2K. It then refused to boot - black screen with a flashing by unresponsive cursor in the top left hand corner.

Running fixboot and fixmbr from a W2K CD/recovery console achieved nothing other than booting GRUB out of the MBR.

I finally plucked up the courage to do a repair install. All went swimmingly, except that it was now SP2, not 4 (the only CD I have is SP2, so fair goes.) All my other programmes were still there.

Brilliant, thought I. Let's get it updated. IE 6 installed easily. I told it to install SP4 - the next update offered. I rebooted. Black screen with blinking cursor.

RATS.

I've tried two more repair installs. As soon as it gets to the re-boot, we're back to square one.

A possible clue - when it DID work, a warning appeared:

The procedure entry point IsWellKnownSid could not be located in the dynamic link library ADVAPI32.dll

Clicking its OK button made this disappear, and everything kept working - until the reboot.

Getting Mepis working again every time takes a matter of seconds with Super Grub Disk to repair GRUB - otherwise I would be deeply suspicious of the hard drive itself.

I tried copying the boot.ini, ntdetect.com and ntldr files to a floppy disc and told the T23 to boot off "external devices". I think it saw the floppy; at any rate, it gave some message along the lines of an invalid disk, replace and hit any key - or something like that.

What started as an entertaining academic exercise is now driving me mad - the joys of a mildly obsessive personality. Tidying the flat, job hunting and seeing people have fallen by the wayside. The laptop is glaring at me with smug malevolence. I can hear Bill Gates's maniacal laughter in my dreams.

Any suggestions?

(Alcohol? Already thought of that one!)

[otherego]

Actually - re-reading that - looked out of the window and it's a beautiful evening, so a short stroll is in order to clear the head! Please don't think me rude if I'm a little slow responding to any queries.

Among other typos - "Booting" GRUB out of the MBR as in "Chucking" it out in the antisocial, unfriendly, uncooperative manner of a Certain Operating System.

Back later!

[ej-solutions]

Manically mad - sounds familiar 😉
Try booting in safe mode, then applying SP4.
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/findbyerrormessage/a/advapi32-dll-not-found-missing-error.htm
The above seems to support this theory (checked after I typed it) and the file may be corrupt. As it's a core part of Windoze, it's probably updated during the SP install, if not extract from CD and copy it in (Google?).
Don't ya just lurve Windows?

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[otherego]

Trouble is, unfortunately, that it doesn't even get to the stage where one would tap F8 to get into safe mode - just straight into the black screen/blinking cursor.

It then tells you indignantly that it's already tried to repair Windows when you boot off the CD to try again - goes through the repair installation, and reboots - to a black screen.

The wellknownsid thing does seem to have something to do with the uninstallation of SP4.(Odd unresolved matters found by googling.)

If I could only boot the wretched thing into some semblance of life long enough to try to extract its product code, I'd be tempted just to wipe it and reinstall from scratch! (Remembered I had something called Produkey on a USB stick - if it still works.) Not entirely sure that this would solve the problem, of course.

Really showing my ignorance now, but I wonder whether there's some way of downloading SP4, then copying the W2K CD to a folder (as an iso image - haven't a clue how one would do that), combining the CD image with SP4 and burning a new CD. (Is this "slipstreaming"?) AND I'd have to do it all on a Linux computer.

I haven't actually found anywhere from which to download SP4, other than through Windows updates - which means having the computer up and running...

All very annoying!

[ej-solutions]

Try this, for slipstreaming (though not sure of the method for Win2k):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1001AAF1-749F-49F4-8010-297BD6CA33A0&displaylang=en

Make up a UBCD4Win to access the W2k partition. You might me able to access the key that way.

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[otherego]

Thanks for that, ej. I had a quick look at UBCD4Win and decided it was way beyond my capabilities. Obviously, I need to look again! And will do so over the next few hours/days.

[ej-solutions]

For those with (relatively) modern machines, Linux Mint 7 RC1 (x86_64) has been released. Though it is a Release Candidate, it's still worth a try - I've certainly found no major issues with using RC versions from the 'Mint Camp'.
Mint 7 Main Edition has been running well on a lowly 32-bit machine 🙂

[Right thread this time...:|]

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[blackburn_stevie]

Are ordinary folk allowed on this thread or is it just for folk who speak Geek?

I have 2 rules. I say exactly what I mean and I mean exactly what I say.

[otherego]

They've not chucked me off yet...