Tired and Brain Fried

[Yombute]

Holy Moly! I've tried different versions of linux about three times over the past few years but always got frustrated and bagged 'em. So...I've been reading up on Ubuntu and thought I'd give that a try this AM. The install program is not as easy as one might hope but I gave it a shot anyway. Sure enough, I had GRUB errors and couldn't boot - to anything. My problem was either in not knowing where and how to set the partitions...or in the fact that I'm using one ide and one sata HD with the sata being my current boot disk with Win XP - or both. Or maybe it's just buggy.
At any rate, I finally got things removed/formatted, etc. (Thank the Big Guy for Acronis Disk Director and True Image) but it bugged me 'cos I'd really LIKE to learn this OS.

So...what do I do next? I pull out my last year's store bought Suse 9.0 PERSONAL disks and decide to try that again. (After all, it was frustrating, but mostly because I could never get any sound from my old SB live.) I have a new, home built box now, so I start the installation and it seems to go Sooooo smoothly. After it's finished and begins to boot up...I even HEAR SOUNDS (Gadzooks!) coming from my speakers. Unfortunately, when the GUI comes up (if you can call it that) it is extremely "fuzzy" and almost static-y-like so I can't even see it. I thought my monitor was gonna blow. No matter what I tried through "repair" and "re-installs" I could not get it fixed. Anyway, I'm sitting here, tired as hell (but having fun in a masochistic sort of way) wondering whether I just bag linux again or keep wading through the forums in search of the elusive "fix".

Anyone have any suggestions for a newbie who has tried quite a few times and is now at the crossroads? If not, is there another way to just uninstall this Suse distro besides formatting?
K8ne-deluxe mobo
AMD 64 3200
1 gb ram
160 Gb Samsund ide had
120 gb Samsung sata hd
nvidia 5700 optima graphics
sony Multiscan E540 monitor

Thanks for any help....
Yom

PS: The funniest thing I've seen all day on forums is the "How to re-install Windows" guide under your installations guide section! Bet there's a lot of that!

[thedreampolice]

Yes try Ubuntu again with only the IDE drive, then put grub at the MBR. That sould get you up and running. Changing distros to solve a problem is really not the right way to do things, you never really learn. I really think those new to linux should stay with debian based distros (Ubuntu is) that and mepis linux seem to be the best ways to get started. So take a deep breath, calm down and start reloading. Ask all the questions you want!

[unknown_rules]

plz don't change distros at will to think it will make ur way easy.read the installation guides here as the basic concepts of linux is the same everywhere.remember text based installations are a little difficult for newbies so go for graphical installations .linux supports sata and can easily dual boot with xp

[Parcival]

PS: The funniest thing I've seen all day on forums is the "How to re-install Windows" guide under your installations guide section! Bet there's a lot of that!

I added the link to the "how to reinstall Windows guide" because Linux is about freedom, so freedom consequently includes the freedom to give up Linux and run Windows again.

I am going to lock this thread because it's very fuzzy and violates our posting guidelines (there's a link to them in my signature). Please open a new thread with a descriptive thread title in the forum that matches your problem best. Please decide on what you wanna do, i.e. if you want advice on what distro to use (iso-confused), help with installing Ubuntu (installation), etc. We will be able to help you much better if you post one problem at a time. :)