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[MOVED] Newbie Questions

chrob61

Mon Aug 18, 2014 3:19:00 pm

Hello all-

I am a former Windows XP user, and have downloaded the 32 bit Zorin 9.1 to a dvd. I tried just using the DVD, and am fairly satisfied, so I decided to go ahead and do a dual install on my computer. My computer is older, Dell, from 2003, and I am just trying out Zorin to stave off the inevitable buying of a new computer. I like the fact that the system seems more streamlined than my previous Windows experience. As soon as Microsoft discontinued their support of XP, I switched browsers over to Google Chrome.

The system DVD I burned came with Firefox loaded on, and I am used to using Chrome. Is there an easy way to switch over? I downloaded, and I can see it in my Software manager, but don't know how to "install" it, or make Chrome my default browser.

I also created a shortcut to my desktop for LibreOffice Calc, which looks to me like an excel-type spreadsheet, that I'll give a try.

I watch a LOT of youtube videos, and would like to find a program that will allow me to save to my computer. Any suggestions on this?

Also, I come to find that my tax software, Turbo Tax requires Windows to be the operating system. I have history using Turbo Tax and would like to continue using it.

So for me in the mean time, I think I'll just do the double booting, since I have so much on my system using windows. It's only been a couple days using my Zorin, so I am definitely a newbie.....perhaps all I need is a little more time to get comfortable with it.

Anonymous

Mon Aug 18, 2014 4:47:57 pm

Firstly Zorin OS 9 Core 32-bit is going to be ...way......way tooooo heavy for your computer.
You need Zorin OS 9 Lite 32-bit for things to run smoothly.
Don't go by the minimum requirements per version of any GNU/Linux OS.
That only tells one that it will run on their system. [ Barely ] [ In Most Cases ]
This is relative to the pre-pentium 4 systems.


ZorinOS9LIte : http://sourceforge.net/projects/zorin-o ... o/download

chrob61

Mon Aug 18, 2014 6:02:18 pm

Thank you for the feedback.

Can I uninstall Zorin 9.1 and install Zorin 9 lite?

Anonymous

Mon Aug 18, 2014 10:59:32 pm

chrob61 wrote:Thank you for the feedback.

Can I uninstall Zorin 9.1 and install Zorin 9 lite?




Start from scratch.....[ Fresh Install ZOS9Lite ]

chrob61

Tue Aug 19, 2014 11:33:08 am

Excuse me if I don't understand, do you mean I can install ZOS9lite on top of 9.1? When you say fresh install, I take that to mean I need to uninstall 9.1 first.

madvinegar

Tue Aug 19, 2014 12:43:24 pm

No need to uninstall zorin9 core. When you proceed with the installation of Zorin9 Lite, the disk or partition will be formated and Zorin 9 Lite will be freshly installed replacing Zorin 9 core.

chrob61

Tue Aug 19, 2014 12:48:42 pm

Thank you for the feedback. Do I need to make a DVD of Zorin Lite and install it from that, like I did when I installed 9.1?

madvinegar

Tue Aug 19, 2014 12:52:02 pm

Yes. A dvd or a usb.

chrob61

Wed Aug 20, 2014 1:32:34 am

OK now I've got a problem.

I downloaded the Zorin Lite, made a DVD of it, then rebooted from the DVD.

It asked me if I wanted to download it alongside my current applications, and I said yes.

Now what it did was section off another part of my hard drive for the Lite option. That isn't what I wanted, I want to have Windows XP and Zorin Lite, because you suggested the Zorin Core OS was too heavy for my computer. What should I do? And when it comes to booting up on my computer, the option doesn't show Zorin Lite, but something like Zorin 9,9....? I'm back in XP to get to these forums.

I think I need to uninstall something, and I want to keep XP until I learn more about Zorin.

SteveD

Wed Aug 20, 2014 5:29:32 am

Can you boot into a live version of Zorin, run GParted (it's in System Tools >> Administration) and post here a screenshot showing the layout of your partitions?

chrob61

Wed Aug 20, 2014 11:31:40 am

Yes I will do that when I get home. Can you please tell me how to do a screenshot in Zorin? In Windows, I can use the print screen button and paste it into Word, but alas, I would be in Zorin, not XP.

madvinegar

Wed Aug 20, 2014 1:32:32 pm

The same way. You press the PrintScreen button and you are either prompted to save your image wherever you like, or is automatically saved in your Pictures or Home folder.

chrob61

Thu Aug 21, 2014 12:39:14 am

This is SO VERY FRUSTRATING

I am in my regular Zorin, I have got the Gparted up, I push the Print Screen button, a snapshot sound is heard, then it asks me, do I want to save it in a folder (called Pictures) or do I want to save it to a clipboard. I have saved it in the folder called pictures. Now I am in here, with the full editor mode on, looking for a place that I can paste or attach this picture. At the bottom, you can see "upload attachment". When I do that I get the message it's not in the right format (the picture is a png file). See the bottom note, I was able to highlght and paste that much.[url][/url]

Now, if I choose the save to clipboard method, I have no clue how to attach the screen shot into this message.

I've done searches in google, and see commands like

ctrl + c copy
ctrl + v insert

but those don't seem to work.

Screenshot from 2014-08-20 20:24:30.png is an invalid filename.

[url][/url] Do I use these commands??

Screenshot from 2014-08-20 20:24:30.png is an invalid filename.

Screenshot from 2014-08-20 20:24:30.png is an invalid filename.

chrob61

Thu Aug 21, 2014 12:45:04 am

Screenshot from 2014-08-20 20:24:30.png is an invalid filename.

I can see the gparted screen, I can take a screenshot, but cannot paste anything!

This is just to show you about the problems I am having with my partition of my hard drive, so once I can figure out how to solve one problem, I guess we can then attack the real problem.

chrob61

Thu Aug 21, 2014 12:50:28 am

file:///home/chris/Pictures/Screenshot%20from%202014-08-20%2020:41:00.png


Does this help at all? I tried one last time, just going to the "Home" icon on my desktop, opening the picture, then right click copy, and then came in here and right click paste, and you see what copied was the link.

Now, I'll go back and use the ctrl commands and see if that might work

file:///home/chris/Pictures/Screenshot%20from%202014-08-20%2020:41:00.png[img

chrob61

Thu Aug 21, 2014 12:54:55 am

GRRR I wish I had a time machine that I could just go back in time to last weekend, before I did this install.
Too bad I don't have that as a system restore point.

SteveD

Thu Aug 21, 2014 4:38:20 am

Open the image in Gimp and then export it as a jpg then you should be able to attach it to a post.

madvinegar

Thu Aug 21, 2014 5:43:07 am

Just change the name of the picture. Rename it for example to "photo1" etc. It will then be accepted to be uploaded in the forum.
"2014-08-20 20:24:30.png" is an invalid filename.
No need to convert the png to jpeg.

chrob61

Thu Aug 21, 2014 10:36:57 am

OK here is photo 1

/home/chris/Pictures/photo1

chrob61

Thu Aug 21, 2014 10:42:13 am

/home/chris/Pictures/photo1.xcf

chrob61

Thu Aug 21, 2014 10:42:29 am

Did any of these work??

chrob61

Thu Aug 21, 2014 10:48:57 am

One more try

/home/chris/Pictures/photo1.jpg

SteveD

Thu Aug 21, 2014 11:15:43 am

Chris,

All those are a link to the pic on your harddrive, you need to attach the pic to your post

Screenshot.png

chrob61

Thu Aug 21, 2014 12:54:37 pm

OK I will try that approach when I get home from work. We'll figure this all out!!!

chrob61

Thu Aug 21, 2014 8:49:54 pm

OK here goes-

Now remember what this thread is all about, I got too much clogging up my hard drive, and I only want Zorin Lite.

SteveD

Fri Aug 22, 2014 2:07:32 am

Just to be clear, you still want to dual boot with windows, right?

chrob61

Fri Aug 22, 2014 2:19:49 am

Yes I would like to dual boot with Windows XP and Zorin Lite, but as you can see, I have both Zorin Core and Zorin Lite on my computer.

SteveD

Fri Aug 22, 2014 4:23:56 am

Use this method to install Zorin Lite viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4848 but use sda7 as your / and sda5 as your /home partition.

chrob61

Fri Aug 22, 2014 11:36:08 am

Thank you I will try this, hopefully it will free up my hard drive space.

FIrst step though, it says start the installer icon, where is that?

Or am I installing from a disc? I have made install discs for both Zorin Core and Zorin Lite.

After installation is complete, I restart in recovery mode? I don't really understand that part. Run dpkg?

This looks confusing for a newbie like me.

SteveD

Fri Aug 22, 2014 2:58:45 pm

When you first boot from the disk you get two options, Install or Try. Forget the Zorin Core one for now, boot from the Zorin Lite disc you made.

chrob61

Fri Aug 22, 2014 7:56:00 pm

OK I'll try this, but I don't know whether this will get rid of the extra Zorin that is on my hard drive??

SteveD

Sat Aug 23, 2014 5:41:28 am

Because Gparted will format the partition with the old Zorin install in before installing the new one :)

chrob61

Sun Aug 24, 2014 3:15:57 pm

Update- I tried the step by step instructions, but had a problem-

At the first step, where the mountpoint is just /, I was told to select sda7

I did that, clicked "change" then the pop up window I selected "use as" ext 4, format, I clicked the yes box, mountpoint I did /

Then I clicked OK

I did NOT get the write previous changes to disk and continue button, it went past that to the install, which I did.

It went thru another complete install process, where I waited until it told me to remove my dvd and restart my computer.

I still have the following as my gparted.

Here is my question. You can see the allotment for my Windows XP is only 78 GB out of my hard drive that is supposed to have 150 GB on it.

The Zorin Lite version is supposedly not that much space used up.

Can I simply highlight the unnecessary partitions and just delete them? I want my hard drive back and the Core Zorin is clogging everything up. I am a computer newbie (as far as swapping partitions is concerned).

I need help for this problem. See my current gparted below:

Swarfendor437

Mon Aug 25, 2014 12:02:20 pm

Hi, assuming you have your Windows XP disc I would boot from that and go into repair mode, log in to the Windows drive - you will need the administrator password and at the command prompt enter:

Code:
FIXMBR


This should remove GRUB if you installed it over your Windows MBR - Then use Zorin in Live mode, run GParted from that and get rid of your partitions that way and start over. If you intend installing any GNU/Linux on the same drive as Windows I would stick with the 'Matthew Moore' Method by installing Easy BCD 2.2 Community Edition from Softpedia.com - that way your Windows MBR never gets corrupted and you can remove the Linux partitions through Windows Disk Management tool! :D Just remember to backup any crucial data that you might have in your /home folder.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6075 - video link to Matthew Moores demonstration of installing Linux aloongside Windows 8 - would be exactly the same for XP.

chrob61

Mon Aug 25, 2014 4:51:14 pm

Thanks for the information- unfortunately I don't have my Windows XP startup disc anymore.

Swarfendor437

Mon Aug 25, 2014 5:10:04 pm

Hi, I would be tempted to get hold of HIren's boot CD - that comes with a miniXP interface and I think 'fixmbr' or 'fdisk /mbr' is in there somewhere.

chrob61

Mon Aug 25, 2014 6:45:10 pm

I will check for a re-boot CD.

Thanks to everyone for this information on formatting my drives. But, I think my brain is about to explode with all these suggestions. I don't have the confidence to do any more tweaking with my system as it is.

I think when I started this whole process, I thought I could pull it off.

I think that Zorin is a good system for someone to use who knows how computers are built, etc. And that is just not the type of person that I am......when I get on to my computer, all I want to do is go to my yahoo page and surf the net. The appeal of the Zorin for me was the sense that it was a more secure system. Now that I have mis-installed it, I just can't seem to un-do it.