Ok, so I decided, after years with Windows, to play a little with a Linux distro. So I grabbed virtual PC, downloaded a Kubuntu .ISO and installed it just fine. However, from there on I can't do pretty much anything. I downloaded the NVidia drivers for my card, run them and got a message saying that I don't have binutils installed, or they're not in my PATH. I check a tool named Adept, and binutils(along with hundreds other packages) are in "install" status. Yet I can't figure out where they are. For example, executing 'ld' from the Konsole returns an "uknown command" error. I tried things like 'sudo apt-get install binutils', but I always get 'E:couldn't find package binutils'. I imagine that all those packages will be needed when I later want to install a C++ development environment, so I need to figure this out. I'm pretty much lost here, and I can't find anything at the net to help me. Care to help a Linux newbie? Thanks in advance.

Hrm. Binutils is called something else in ubuntu, search the Packages site. You can also use apt-cache search.

Moving to Everything Unix in the meantime.

Edit Buh? it is called binutils and binutils-dev. Try apt-get update. Also, Virtual PC doesn't support 3D acceleration, you'll get no benefit from installing the drivers for your physical card.

Quote:
Edit Buh? it is called binutils and binutils-dev. Try apt-get update.

Already tried that, it says "Reading package lists...done" and nothing changes.

Quote: Original post by mikeman
So I grabbed virtual PC...I downloaded the NVidia drivers for my card.

Virtual PC emulates an S3 Trio video card, so you should be trying to install drivers for that card. You cannot access the nVidia card in your host PC from within the virtual machine.

[Edited by - bakery2k1 on July 18, 2006 4:38:58 PM]

Why not just install the drivers from Ubuntu's multiverse repository? Run synaptic as root, select Settings->Repositories from the menu, check the entries for "universe" and "multiverse" (if they're not already checked), close that window and click Reload in the toolbar. Once that finishes, search for nvidia-glx and install it. You can also search for and install binutils this way if you wish.

Quote: Original post by bakery2k1

Quote: Original post by mikeman
So I grabbed virtual PC...I downloaded the NVidia drivers for my card.

Virtual PC emulates an S3 Trio video card, so you should be trying to install drivers for that card. You cannot access the nVidia card in your host PC from within the virtual machine.

Oh, in that case it's not worth it, I wanted to try how my GL apps would run in Linux, and I don't want to do a real installation. Thanks for the info though.

Quote: Original post by mikeman
I don't want to do a real installation. Thanks for the info though.

Why not? Just salvage an old HDD from some junk PC (or shrink yout NTFS partition by a few Gig) and install in there. It's not like Linux needs as much GB to install as Windows.

Quote: Original post by mikeman

Quote: Original post by bakery2k1

Quote: Original post by mikeman
So I grabbed virtual PC...I downloaded the NVidia drivers for my card.

Virtual PC emulates an S3 Trio video card, so you should be trying to install drivers for that card. You cannot access the nVidia card in your host PC from within the virtual machine.

Oh, in that case it's not worth it, I wanted to try how my GL apps would run in Linux, and I don't want to do a real installation. Thanks for the info though.

You could run a decent dvd / cd based distro - with dev tools and stuff. If you have a Fat32 partition, floppy disk or usb key thing then you can save files on that between sessions. That way you get linux, but nothing messing with your hard disk.

Btw, I found out what was wrong. Linux just can't connect to the mirrors were the packages are. I don't know why, but even though I can access them just fine with my browser, to apt-get they all seem as "1.0.0.0". I tried also installing the minimum base for debian just for testing with another distro, and again the same issue, when it tries to install the packages it tries to connect to "1.0.0.0". It does succeeds to connect to some(not all) ftp mirrors from my country, but when at the end attempts a connection to debian.org for security, again "1.0.0.0". From what I understand, this has something to do with DNS but don't relly know how to fix it though. There are other people that I see are having the same problem but I didn't see any clear solution to this.

Btw, I meant I don't want to do a real installation *yet*. I use Virtual PC to check out what's out there, once I find a distro that suits me I will install it properly. Of course I have to resolve issues like this one first. Btw, what disto(s) would be best for a development environment?

Quote: Original post by mikeman
Btw, I found out what was wrong. Linux just can't connect to the mirrors were the packages are. I don't know why, but even though I can access them just fine with my browser, to apt-get they all seem as "1.0.0.0". I tried also installing the minimum base for debian just for testing with another distro, and again the same issue, when it tries to install the packages it tries to connect to "1.0.0.0". It does succeeds to connect to some(not all) ftp mirrors from my country, but when at the end attempts a connection to debian.org for security, again "1.0.0.0". From what I understand, this has something to do with DNS but don't relly know how to fix it though. There are other people that I see are having the same problem but I didn't see any clear solution to this.

Btw, I meant I don't want to do a real installation *yet*. I use Virtual PC to check out what's out there, once I find a distro that suits me I will install it properly. Of course I have to resolve issues like this one first. Btw, what disto(s) would be best for a development environment?

I would say Gentoo - but it's certainly not to everybodies taste.