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Thread: Persistent problem

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Beans
    264

    Persistent problem

    Someone got their knickers in a twist because I accidentally posted this problem twice, and closed the thread. (I would delete the posts, if I knew how.) But the problem remains if anyone would like to take a crack at it.
    I have a ten-year-old Dell laptop I'm trying to keep running. It is original except for added memory. It has been working pretty well with Xubuntu 11.04 but for some reason it decided to quit booting. I tried to boot with the original disk but no go. Finally, I got it to boot to a Puppy Linux disk but Puppy wouldn't install on the hard drive and I still don't know why. If I thought it was just the drive I would get a new, bigger one but I don't want to spring for that if it is something else that I might not be able to fix. Can/would anyone tell me know to diagnose the problem? Or should I just retire the Dell for good?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Nux Jam
    Beans
    Hidden!
    Distro
    Ubuntu Development Release

    Re: Persistent problem

    so the bios seems to works, right ?
    have you tried with the boot option ? https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions
    maybe also check the partitions, with gparted or partedmagic on a cd/usb about possible partition(s) errors.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Beans
    264

    Re: Persistent problem

    Thank you. I'll explore that. I did get gparted running and changed the main partition to ext2 instead of ext4 and -- I think -- I got Puppy installed. Testing it now. If Puppy will boot and run, maybe I can get it back to a late version of Xubuntu at some point and I'll mark this solved.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Beans
    264

    Re: Persistent problem

    Well, it is installed but I can't get on the net. The network wizard won't work unless I tell it "auto DHCP" and when i do it tells me I'm connected, but I'm not and I can't download a browser or do anything else via the Web. (It did connect previously with Xubuntu without any problem. At one point it also connected from the live CD! Very irritating...

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Beans
    684
    Distro
    Ubuntu Studio 20.04 Focal Fossa

    Re: Persistent problem

    With Puppy Linux try running:
    Code:
    lspci
    Read through that output and look for your NIC network interface card. If you have access to another computer go online and look for the driver for your NIC-
    That; theoretically; should help--

    If lspci is to hard to read thru try:
    Code:
    lspci | grep -i network
    Hope that helps-
    -Check yourself before you wreck yourself-


    Devuan, MX Linux, Debian 12 & Slackware 15


  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Beans
    264

    Re: Persistent problem

    Thank you both. The boot options info was helpful. Here's the update in case anyone has a similar problem. Xubuntu 12.04 is installed, booting and running. The only glitch is that it WILL not work with the Broadcom STA driver it wants to install. That crashes and breaks the system and I had to reinstall. I have the Broadcom 4306 which apparently needs the B43 driver and fwcutter installer but, guess what, those don't work anymore. It fails when they try to fetch the driver that works with this antique network card. The workaround is that I just stick a Belkin USB device in and it instantly hooks up to my network. Would like to keep using the old network card if anyone knows how to make it work, but if necessary I can keep running as is.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Beans
    26

    Re: Persistent problem

    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=201902 That might help you with your network card issues

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