Changing OS

I have an old Pentium 3 all in one computer. This computer will have one dedicated use, which is to watch video streamed over the network from a Slingbox type device. My only requirement is that I can run VLC to play the MPEG2-TS stream. I also want VLC to automatically paly and audio CD when it is placed in the CD drive. Therefore I really don’t require many codecs. My only other requirement is that I will need to load drivers for a wireless remote or something so that I can control VLC.
At the moment the PC does the above with windows XP, but it takes far too long to load. As I only want the computer to perform this one task, what Linux distro would people suggest for the quickest boot? I have so far tried puppy but it still takes a while to load. Does anyone have any suggestions where to go from here?
I am very new to Linux so will need something which is not too hard to setup.

Just dual botted Linux mint with elementary OS just because I wanted to try it out to. I use a USB mobile broadband connection in my linux mint 17 and it work fine but doesn't work in elementary OS. I can't get wireless connection to work either. Everything works fine in linux mint but when I plug the USB mobile broadband modem in elementary OS, it wont even detect the USB modem. I guess I just need to install some drivers and update to ge my connection to work but I can't do that without an internet connection. Please help me. I need to also try out this linux destro.

Applogy: I'm also sorry about my English. I'm AFRIKAN!

Best Regards.
Isa

Hello All. This is my first post here. I am worse than a newbie; I'm a PC dinosaur! Not joking either.
Recently got a Dell Inspiron 3048 with Windows 8.1 pre installed. As I am a die hard XP user (my other PC is a Dell Dimension 2400), and seeing that PC's days may be numbered, I want to start using Linux, and decided Mint 17.1 would be first on the list.
Ordered a Linux Mint 17.1 boot disk and went to install it. At the option for a dual boot with Windows, I got lost, and did not understand the "other" choice versus making Linux the only OS on the PC. I wound up wiping my HDD and lost contact with Windows 8.1. Fortunately, the Dell Tech I got at Dell Support was able to walk me through getting Windows back up, but the only way I can now access Mint 17.1 is with the boot disk, but there is no set up options as it is already set up, even though incorrectly for a dual boot.
How do I wipe out Linux without losing Windows 8.1 as well so I can re install Linux and this time make the correct selection for a dual boot?
Anyone willing to respond please do so small and slow so I can follow.
TIA.
BTW, I have tried installing Zorin OS 9 Ultimate on my XP machine via DVD and USB, but I can't get past the f1/f2 loop, even though I have reconfigured my boot sequence according to the drive I'm installing from. Zorin support has been MIA on this. Anyone having a similar problem?
Cheers

What I have here is a Dell Optiplex GX620 (stock) with a new install of Xubuntu as of May 18. It works fine except that I am having trouble printing.
The printer is an HP Deskjet 832c hooked to a Linksys BEFW11P1. The Linksys box is an old internet router/firewall/wi-fi/printserver. I am using it as a network printserver with all the other functions disabled. It's a strange setup for sure. But, over there I have another computer running Lucid Puppy 5.3.2 and it prints just fine.
This machine running Xubuntu only will print the simplest of documents. The printer setup will print a test page, Text files will print, AbiWord files will print, PDF files and HTML pages displayed in Firefox do not print.
I have been taking some stabs at trying to fix this problem by changing some settings. but no joy.
Has anyone seen an issue like this? Any pointers/ideas on where to actually look for the problem.
It seems to me that Xubuntu does not use CUPS to manage it's printers? True? Would installing CUPS be a good idea?
Thanks

I'm just getting into the more technical side of things.
As I like to say, I am not a complete idiot, some parts were surgically removed..
Anyways, I have a Dell Inspiron 15 N5050. I was increasingly unhappy with Win7, read what I found on the forum, took a crack at switching the OS to Ubuntu. Fail. Had a free offer for Win 8.1 Developer...
I'm already calling it the bad move of '15.
So. Further investigation. Turning off the RAID0 at boot is easy enough. But there is an Intel driver that I have to disable before I turn off the RAID0 in the BIOS. I'm having no luck on my own with that. Suggestions/help?
Or, advice on getting around the new Win 8.1 Sec Protocols to do a dual boot setup? I already have a partitioned drive set-up, etc. Win8 is trying to disable all new software and seems to ignore partition.

Hi guys,

I'm new to this forum and linux too.
I thought of installing a lightweight distro of linux and did some research on the net where I found people recommending Puppy Linux. Plus it is (theoretically speaking) possible to run it from a USB (flash) drive which I decided to try out but it seems like it's not that simple a task as a lot of people (all over the internet) say it is.

What I tried so far is this: installing it into a thumb drive using unetbootin follwing a youtube tutorial (which basically showed how to download an iso of puppy, use unetbootin to make the thumbdrive bootable and install puppy on it). It didn't work. The USB wasn't recognized as a bootable device. I know for sure it can be booted from it since I tried ubuntu from the same USB and the same Laptop (which is able to boot from USB).

I thought that something with the Flash Drive not OK so I tried to use a windows installer to install puppy like other windows programms but this didn't work either. This time Puppy was recognized because there was an option to boot either Puppy or Windows 7 but when I chose to boot from Puppy nothing happens just a screen flash, some letters in the top left corner saying something like NTSC or NTSF (I can't read it properly because it goes away too fast) then after the screen flash the whole thing again (boot from win 7 or Puppy I choose Puppy again the flash... basically a loop).

Any ideas what I'm doing wron or what the problem is?

Thank You for any replies.

Hi I've been trying to get my atheros wireless card (Mini pcie) to work but with no luck. I'm currently using Kali linux. Do I need to install a driver or is there any other way for the chipset to work?

Any help is appreciated.
Thanks

Hello,

I'm a new Linux user (Mint 17.1 Rebecca Mate) going through the learning curve. It's a challenege. Dual boot with Windows 8.1, which provides the motivation!

I have an older Dell Dimension PC with XP. It's old and cranky, but I do love my XP. I want to wipe the hard drive and install a user friendly simple version of Linux that I can reinstall XP into as VM.
I am clueless where to even begin to figure out which version of Linux is best for this aside from the two mentioned below. The PC operatest 2.17 GHz, has 1.25 GB RAM, and a 156 GB Hard Drive.

I tried installing Zorin, both by DVD and USB, but could not get it to install or even work live. Just kept getting the F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup ingfinte loop. Spent a week trying every which way, short of a format, to install Zorin but I just refused to work, despite their excellent suopport.

Also tried every which way to install Robolinux ( all three versions), and again could not get it to install, although I was able to do the Xfce and KLDE versions live. Just went to them for support and it requires a $5 donation per case. Knowing how much supoport I could need, that could really add up.

Any advise is greatly appreciated.
TIA.
Cheers!

I just built a computer and decided to give ubuntu a shot. It's a desktop, and hooking it up to Ethernet is a tad bit inconvenient as things stand, so I'm really reeling to figure out how to get this Netgear adapter to work. It's an AC1200, got it at Best Buy, and it comes with a CD with drivers for Windows. I don't seem to be able to install it.

This is my first post here and my first computer that I built, so I really have no clue if I've messed up somewhere down the line. That being said, I'd really appreciate if someone could help me with this one.

It looks like my kernel version is 3.13.0-32-generic and my Ubuntu version is 14.04.1, if that's important. I haven't messed with the settings at all yet, so pretend you're talking to a monkey that just installed Ubuntu with no idea what he's doing.

My atheros wireless cards (ar9580) regdomain is 0x0 (us) which doesn't match my current location, so I can't see the frequencies that I'm actually allowed to see. I've tried changing the eeprom regdomain with no luck (http://blog.asiantuntijakaveri.fi/20...cie-cards.html). Is there another way that I can change it? Or should I modify the ath9k driver?

Any help is very much appreciated.