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View Full Version : Tip for non-geeks



e6626550w
July 9th, 2007, 04:13 AM
If you are computer savy and understand these creatures like some of the folks do who post here, apparently you can fix almost any problem from the command line but if you're not and I'm one of those, what does one do? Here are a couple things I've found besides getting to one of the forums for help. ( they is only useful if you can get on the internet, though)

Fire your computer up and boot with the live Ubuntu cd. Go in and play around some and see if everything is working and if so, odds are you have fixed the problem with your installation or at least restored the internet connection.

Today though, the live Ubuntu cd didn't do the trick. This is the first time it hasn't worked.
Ubuntu wouldn't work off the hard drive and it wouldn't work off the live cd. I was left in a position where I couldn't even reinstall if I wanted to.

So I tried using a Xubuntu lived cd. It worked, it fixed everything. It allowed me to get the internet working again ( Xubuntu did it, not me) and get what ever daemon that was mentioned in the Ubuntu error messages shooed off. :) There are some real smarts in these live cd's. They have been life savers for me.

eileen...

aysiu
July 9th, 2007, 04:18 AM
Thanks for posting this, Eileen.

I've moved it out of the support forums, though, since it's not really a support request.

steveneddy
July 9th, 2007, 04:24 AM
Hey, aysiu, good to see you again.

Missed seeing you around, buddy.

sublimation
July 9th, 2007, 04:24 AM
what do you mean "play around some"? I thought running the live CD meant that you were working with just the CD, and not touching the installation on your computer.

Could you give an example of what sort of problems you have solved with your Ubuntu live CD method?

jpkotta
July 9th, 2007, 04:58 AM
You can boot with a Live CD and mount your HD installation. Then you can chroot to it and do anything there.

FuturePilot
July 9th, 2007, 05:36 AM
Hey, aysiu, good to see you again.

Missed seeing you around, buddy.

It's aysiu! Nice to see you around again.:)

Anyways, the live CD has to be one of the coolest things about Linux. Being able to boot an entire OS from the CD. Wow!

e6626550w
July 9th, 2007, 08:35 AM
what do you mean "play around some"? I thought running the live CD meant that you were working with just the CD, and not touching the installation on your computer.

Could you give an example of what sort of problems you have solved with your Ubuntu live CD method?

Sure. What I meant by "play around some' was simply opening up a browser to see if I had an internet connection operating off the cd. I found that the internet connection was restored and when I shut the live cd off and went back to using Ubuntu off of the hard drive that my internet connection was working there again. This has happened several times now and I doubt if it is coincidence.

Today's problem I should have taken notes on because I can't remember exactly what it said but when I started the computer up this morning, when the Ubuntu screen appeared, a large white error message screen appeared in the upper left hand corner telling me I had problems. The computer was fine when I shut it down last night. The error message was accurate because my internet connection didn't work. I have never seen this screen before and was a bit concerned but I hoped my live cd fix would do the trick here too.

I put the cd in and it worked like it usually does and I was able to use Firefox to bring in some web pages. I hoped the problems were fixed but I was still a bit concerned because of unusual the error messages and as it turned out, I had reason to be.

This time when I tried to go into Ubuntu on the hard drive, I still got error messages the internet connection did not work and other scary assorted problems for a non-geek like me. The technique failed this time, I had no internet connection when I fired Firefox up. I tried it once again and it really got weird, the live cd wouldn't even get to the desktop stage, thus I couldn't reinstall even if I had wanted to fix the problem by using that drastic of a fix.

Out of desperation, I tried the live cd fix using Xubuntu instead of Ubuntu. For what ever reason, it went right into the desktop stage when Ubuntu wouldn't and I was able to open up Firefox and bring in a web page or two, etc. I then shut it down and tried to boot into Ubuntu the usual way. Then it worked fine, no weird error messages. I wish now I had written down what Ubuntu told me about the various problems but I was too frustrated to bother. It even said I should send in a report on these problems... I'm paraphrasing but something like that. I suspect one of the computer literate people could have deciphered them and told me how to fix the problems rather than this sledge hammer approach that I've found to work now several times.

eileen...