need some compy help

Turbo Tax 1.0 · Post by **Turbo Tax 1.0** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:33 am

im not exactly the most computer wise guy but my mom has this hp laptop that isw a few years old and runs like crap. i wanted to try and install ubuntu on it and need a little help. i already have the ubuntu iso on a dvd but how would i wipe the things hard drive?

thanks in advance guys

XPCportables · Post by **XPCportables** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:37 am

when you boot the disc, you should have the option to erase/ reformat the partition.

Lucretius · Post by **Lucretius** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:39 am

Well, you could always format C:

Try researching to see if the OS installer does it automatically...SuSE 9.1 gave me the option, maybe the ubuntu does to. Google and find out.

Turbo Tax 1.0 · Post by **Turbo Tax 1.0** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:40 am

ive tried the server disc and the desktop disc now, all the desktop one did was give me a bunch of downloads for abiword, gimp, and firefox. and the server one just gives something asking me what i would like to do with the pictures on the disc

EDIT: @luc i tried that but it says exit all disc utilities, what are the disc utilities?

XPCportables · Post by **XPCportables** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:43 am

What version of ubuntu do you have? I am running ubuntu v5.10 and the whole installation process was completely easy, step by step. when I got to the choose your partition section, I had the option to reformat

.

Turbo Tax 1.0 · Post by **Turbo Tax 1.0** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:46 am

it was 6.0 maybe i'll look around for previous versions of ubuntu then

MajorLag · Post by **MajorLag** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:46 am

By "Pictures" you wouldn't happen to mean "images" would you? "Image" is jargon for a file that contains a file system, sort of like a zip file, but not really.

Turbo Tax 1.0 · Post by **Turbo Tax 1.0** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:48 am

yes, the window that shows up is the same one that shows up when i use my card reader, or pop in a blank disc. if that makes anymore sense

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:53 am

Did you boot with the disc in the drive and have the bios set to boot from cd? You need to boot from the disc, not run it while windows is running.

Turbo Tax 1.0 · Post by **Turbo Tax 1.0** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 12:16 pm

how do i set the bios to 'boot from cd'?

sam fisher · Post by **sam fisher** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 12:27 pm

You go into the bios and set it to boot from cd...

LMAO

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 12:48 pm

Turbo Tax 1.0 wrote:how do i set the bios to 'boot from cd'?

You put the cd in the drive so that its there when you turn it on. Turn off the computer. Turn it back on and it should display the hp logo. Somewhere on the screen it will say to push f-whatever to go to the bios or boot order (something like that). Then there should be a menu that you can change the boot order, and put cd at the top.

@sam fisher- Dude, help out you jerk, not just pretty much call someone stupid if they aren't as stupid as you.

Post by **bicostp** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 1:34 pm

me being a mod wrote:
sam fisher wrote:You go into the bios and set it to boot from cd...

LMAO
Just stop talking. <img src="http://skytroniks.com/images/database/smilies/wtf.gif">

Just to be sure, you did burn the disc as an image with recording software (burn .iso image), or did you just drag the ISO onto the DVD-R drive and click "write these files to disc"? If you did the latter, it won't work.

As for setting your computer to boot off the optical drive, it should be configured to do that already. If it isn't, let it boot up to the BIOS splash screen, then quickly press Pause/Break (it should be up by the Print Screen button) repeatedly. This will give you time to peruse the splash screen looking for the "go to SETUP" command. Then just press the button it tells you. (to skip this just press any other button; keyboard activity will unpause the machine.) If you still don't see anything, try pressing TAB to go to the verbose text POST screen. This should definitely give you the command. If you still can't find it, then try keys like F1, F2, F10, Del... stuff like that. But like I said the PC should be set to look at removable and optical media first in the boot process.

XPCportables · Post by **XPCportables** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 1:57 pm

my thinkpad is set to f8 for the bios, it's the only one I have ever seen like that, but you might give it a try.

Turbo Tax 1.0 · Post by **Turbo Tax 1.0** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 2:18 pm

i got ubuntu on it but im not sure what to do now

it said it was installed the disc popped out, i rebooted, logged in , and now i am at a pretty simple looking screen that says "ubuntu has no warranty blah blah blah"

and then

im pretty sure im at the command line or whatever its called, anybody know what to do?