laptop won start from USB stick

[fotoflex]

Check whether the boot configuration on bios setting is enabled and try it may help you some time

Thanks, but the bios does not give an option to boot from an USB stick.
In the meantime, i've put in a new, bigger hard disk and doubled the RAM, and the laptop boots up from there.
(But it doesn't run any faster than from the CD. )

[black veils]

i dont know if this is still relevant because i know nautilus has lost features http://askubuntu.com/questions/13437.../134380#134380
i think you want detailed view though, if it is an option.

as for speed of your system, are you using xubuntu? if no, you should try it, because ubuntu uses the unity desktop which is heavier.

[oldfred]

I use fallback or gnome-panel in 12.04 and it is almost the same as 10.10 and seems a tad faster than 10.10 was. Have not used Unity enough to know it it worked or not.

In Nautilus it is edit, preferences and there are several tabs with settings.

gnome3 classic
sudo apt-get install gnome-panel
On login screen click on logo (top right) and choose
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/classicgnome
12.04 LTS / Precise Classic (No effects) Tweaks and tricks kansasnoob & cortman
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Pr...eClassicTweaks
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1966370
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2090021
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/03/g...g-ever-changed

[fotoflex]

Thanks, black veils & old fred,

I thought I used xubuntu, but since the laptop displays Unity (a load of icons on the left), I must have done something wrong.
I tried so many things over the last couple of days, I must have lost track at some point.

I also tried to re-install Vista, which should have worked with a new hard disk,
but NOT if you use a USB-cd rom player!
And no work-around, neither, you MUST use the build-in cd player. (Which is broken.)
After that dissapointing episode, I installed 12.04.
I also installed Wine, with which I opened two of my indispensibe programs.
And they worked! Once.
The second time the programs had to close down for some reason.
Pity, for I just ripped a one-hour television program from dvd, that I recorded yesterday.
I used OGMrip.
That took over nine hours instead of the one hour I'm used to.
That is really long, and none of the options I'm used to.
OGGConvert is now busy converting it to a reasonable size, which takes 2 hours,
another 12 minutes to go.

After that I'll restart the computer in the hope that it will display Gnome,
for it doesn't on re-loggin in ( re-inlogging?).
The icon after my user name shows the little footprint however, so I live in good hope.

PS, I used the extra time to check, definitely Xubuntu:
/media/Elements/Xubuntu/xubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-i386.iso

PPS, conversion finished! No sound!

[fotoflex]

Nah, didn't work.

[fotoflex]

Late at night, but good news:
after another reboot, it works!
But strange; when I open a window, it doesn't show the options, but when I reopen it, it does.
The laptop is sort of slowly building up to it.

One problem solved, any suggestions for the others?

[fotoflex]

And to return to the original subject, today I had the opportunity to test the USB Stick on another computer.
That ran perfectly!
So, for some reason the stick won't run NOT on the computer I made it with.
That's too much exeptions to the rule for a noobie.

[oldfred]

Difference with computers is usually video issue, but could be other drivers that special boot options.
Easiest way may be to search for others with same computer and see if they posted details of how they made it work.

[fotoflex]

So I'm running Ubuntu now, and I managed to get my Xilisoft Ripper and the Converter working with Wine.
And they also take hours to rip or convert, just like Oog and ::rip, etc.
Since they used to do it much, much quicker when I was running Windows, it must be a Ubuntu-thing.
Emailing is a lot quicker now, but I rather had it the other way around.