Desktop looks great on Live, but not when installed

[Jeremy.Bailey]

After downloading the Live CD and rebooting the system, I was able to see the desktop just fine.
When it came to install it, after all was done, the desktop looked all messed up.
The background basically consist of two color blocks, and I think the widget or something was VERY VERY TINY.
I'm going by memory, this was maybe a month or less back. I'm planning on trying this again.

Is there something I did wrong during the installation?

[menotu]

Try downloading the latest 2010.7 iso from here:

http://pclinuxos.com/?page_id=10

Once you've downloaded it do an md5sum check and a CD Media check - that will make sure the iso is good and that the burn went well.

When burning, do it the slowest speed your burner will do - 4x if possible.

What are your system specs?

Oh, and big welcome to the PCLinuxOS forum - if you need further info just post back.

Hope it goes well.

[marian]

"I'm going by memory, this was maybe a month or less back. I'm planning on trying this again."

Go on. Give it a try and refresh your memory with a new installation. If the Live CD is fine the installed system must even better. 

And Welcome.

[Jeremy.Bailey]

Thanks for the welcome!

I am downloaded the latest one, not quite complete yet. I'll try the slower burning speed and check the md5sum. I have noticed a slower speed tends to work.

I wish I knew my specs. I bought a laptop and saw a few things about it I liked and grabbed it. It does work with Linux, been using Mandriva on it and it works great.

It it helps, it's an HP G60.

According to the control center, I see:

Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU       T4200  @ 2.00GHz
‎Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller - Media class: ‎VGA compatible controller

Are there any specific specs you need or a code in the konsole to bring them up?

[menotu]

Memory is always a vital component and the graphics card.

When you are running your LiveCD you can always open up a Konsole and enter:

#free -m <press enter>

Mine shows

[menotu@localhost ~]$ free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:    3876       1259       2617          0         50        597
-/+ buffers/cache:        611       3264
Swap:        10315          0      10315

So mine shows I have a total of 3876 (= 4GB total) and 2617 of that is currently free.

I just did a web search and a lot of the HP G60's appear to have 3GB of ram and the graphics may be an Intel GMA 4500M - so both of those specs should be fine.

[Jeremy.Bailey]

How do you check the md5sum? sorry, i have the mandriva code.

[djohnston]

Jeremy.Bailey,

Welcome. To verify the iso file before you burn it to a CD, open a console in the directory containing the downloaded file. Type

md5sum PCLinux-version.iso

If md5sum isn't on your Mandriva install, get it from Mandriva's repository. The filename you downloaded will be something like pclinuxos-kde-2010.07.iso. (I don't know which version you are downloading.) The result in the console will be something like: 7413d998641e28e2a5688fd75f6eeea8  pclinuxos-kde-2010.07.iso

Compare the value you received to the correct MD5Sum listed on the download page where you got the iso. The values should match. Once you are satisfied, burn the iso image to CD at 4X. When you first boot the CD on your computer, select the Media Check. This will again verify the integrity of the CD image.

[Jeremy.Bailey]

[guest@localhost Downloaded Files]$ md5sum pclinuxos-kde-2010.07.iso
7413d998641e28e2a5688fd75f6eeea8  pclinuxos-kde-2010.07.iso


[guest@localhost Downloaded Files]$ free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          2973       1700       1273          0        100       1320
-/+ buffers/cache:        279       2693
Swap:            0          0          0
[guest@localhost Downloaded Files]$

Looks right, from what I know.

[DBobb]

K3B will also display the MD5sum of the file right before you burn the ISO.

[menotu]

[guest@localhost Downloaded Files]$ md5sum pclinuxos-kde-2010.07.iso
7413d998641e28e2a5688fd75f6eeea8  pclinuxos-kde-2010.07.iso


[guest@localhost Downloaded Files]$ free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          2973       1700       1273          0        100       1320
-/+ buffers/cache:        279       2693
Swap:            0          0          0
[guest@localhost Downloaded Files]$

Looks right, from what I know.

Yup - if the md5sum tallies thats fine.  And it looks as though you do have 3GB of memory which is absolutely fine.

One suggestion I would offer is to install your system into a clean and formatted /home partition (i.e. don't use your "old" /home especially if it has files/folders from your last OS installation).  I personally find that when changing to a different OS its best to start with a "virgin" setup and that way it optimizes your system, and as PCLinuxOS is a "rolling distro" whereby its only installed once and then simply kept upto date via the regular Synaptic updates, BUT this is a personal take on things.

And as Zero Angel quite rightly says, k3b (burning app) can check the MD5sum prior to burn.

Go for it my man  

[Jeremy.Bailey]

Yeah, I typically do a clean installation before ever installing a Linux system; which is why I am a little more cautious this time, being I wiped out my Mandriva distro and ended up staring at a desktop that really didn't even exist.
Yikes. I want to see if I can get a few more things in order first, to make sure it's going to work and looks all nice.
So far, I am seeing some nice pro's.

[CaptainSarcastic]

It's possible you were seeing issues with the video drivers.  Looks like that model has Nvidia graphics, so it might take some setup to configure video the way you want it.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01533413&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en

I had to mess with it some on a desktop with an Nvidia card and fairly rare display (widescreen Sony CRT monitor) and if I remember correctly had success by choosing the proprietary driver in PCC, then running the Nvidia config tool in a terminal with root privileges.  Worked fine after that.  Seeing that the screen resolution on your model of laptop is odd then you might have to follow similar steps.

[Jeremy.Bailey]

All looks good so far. Been using PCLinuxOS for a couple weeks I think now, not sure, maybe a good week and a half.

Linux is puzzling.

You can install a distro once, and have certain issues. Reinstall it the SAME way, and it works great. 99% of the time, it comes out great.
You can have one system have issues with a software, and another loads it without a single flaw.

I was told KDE (or gnome) is part of it. But if it is, why work on one distro and not another?

Still, I love Linux! It's been quite a few years since I really touched Windows, and I'm not missing it much at all.
I'm not against Windows, just got tired of the viruses, and lack of apps or software, lack of features in them.

I thought it was luxury to have spell check in email, web browser and word and not spend tons of $ doing it.