How do I install from a Torrent file?

[alexham36]

I was tempted by Johnnybee's recommendation to try Sabayon, but it was a large file, so I downloaded and saved a torrent file.
The problem is that Windows "does not know what to do with that file", so can you tell me how to install from torrent?

Many thanks,

Alex

[merchant42]

Can you tell me what it came down as ? ie exe, iso ?

[merchant42]

Just had a look and if you downloaded it, it probably came down as an iso file, if this is the case you can burn it to a DVD, then install from that.

If you wish you could get one of the free iso to USB programs (google)and burn it to that, then install that way

[mikkh]

You maybe haven't got a torrent client installed, I used to recommend uTorrent but it comes with so much garbage now (toolbars and unwanted extras) that I've gone off it and refuse to recommend it now.

Try this one instead

qbittorrent.sourceforge.net/download.php


Nice clean install, no extra guff added and you can leave all the defaults ticked

[alexham36]

The "Torrent" file was iso and it had a suffix "part"! I decided to download another copy of Sabayon.13.08_AMD64. It took just under an hour from DistroWatch.com. I burned a DVD and tried it this morning, but it was a disappointment. It did not recognize my NVidia display, so it booted with a lower definition (mine is 1920X1080) and the wrong format. Everything was too large and squashed from top to bottom. Also the desktop had a large gap at the top, so that the ikons at the bottom were only half showing. I could not find a way to adjust the definition and format. Some of the applications appeared to be rather basic. On the plus side, it could see the floppy, which PCLinuxOS does not.

I think that PCLinuxOS is a better OS on my computer, unless I find the way to adjust the display.

Thanks again for all your advice and patience.

Alex

[johnnybee]

I didn't get any problems with V.10 Alex - it worked straight off the cracker, so I guess the driver base in V.13 has missed out the drivers for some older GPU's; the best I can suggest is to go onto the Sabayon site and use synaptics manager to download/install the driver cache for an earlier version - say V.6 or V.8.
First time I used Sabayon - going back quite a while - there wasn't a driver on there for the sound system - one of the first ALC882 chips - but in a matter of weeks, someone had posted it on the website. Worked a treat after that.
Let me know how you get on?

[alexham36]

Dec 5, 2013 0:39:23 GMT johnnybee said:

I didn't get any problems with V.10 Alex - it worked straight off the cracker, so I guess the driver base in V.13 has missed out the drivers for some older GPU's; the best I can suggest is to go onto the Sabayon site and use synaptics manager to download/install the driver cache for an earlier version - say V.6 or V.8.

I could not find Synaptic on Live CD and I don't have a spare HD to install Sabayon. The splash is too fast to read (what is the point of having it?) but I managed to catch that "Error Correcting Code disabled in Bios"! I don't know what that means and how to enable it. Nothing even remotely similar in my BIOS.

If this is too advanced for older computers, I can tell you that the Scanner app is positively from the age of steam. Similarly the email client. I cannot understand why is the OS such a large file, yet it has nothing that I need to use: Thunderbird, Firefox, XSane, Gimp ......etc.

Thanks you your help, but I doubt that this OS is what I need.

Alex

[johnnybee]

All of those apps you mention are freely available from the Distrowatch site, Alex, and a few hundred others besides; the reason why Sabayon is heavier than most is the extraordinary range of visual and audio apps that come with it - and that's why I like it better than most others.
If you only want the usual day-to-day stuff then DSL is as good as any, and it's a piffling installation, size wise.
Y'know summat, going back to the Win 2K days, I could get a full load of the os AND all my favourite programmes on one 2.1Gb hard drive, AND have free space for my docs and pics.
How the world has changed, eh?

[vikingken]

I have still got a working Olivetti laptop with a 500 Mb drive John and thats devided into 2 partitions, E:/ to restore W98 to C:/. It was W95 originally, because you couldn't compress W98 in the beginning. I think it would be easier to get my toaster online, athoughI have got an old wireless card somewhere that might fit. Virgin say you cant do it, but from behind my router they dont know what the hell I'm running.

[mikkh]

Sabayon is a reworked version of the ultra geeky Gentoo Linux. I remember passing my geek credibility exams by installing it many years ago, then thinking - why did I bother! It's a source based distro where you have to compile from scratch every new program you install. This is supposed to make it uniquely tailored to your machine and optimised for speed. On the machine I was using at the time, it needed every bit of help it could get, but when a fairly small program like Firefox takes literally all night to compile, I thought life is too short for that nonsense and I didn't notice any speed boost either.

Sabayon uses pre-compiled binaries (like most distros) and while it hides it's geeky roots quite well, it's still the most difficult one to change things on at a command line level. The developers (no doubt remembering the pain of installing things on Gentoo) have gone for the everything (including the kitchen sink!) approach to software and there is a LOT of it on there, which is nice at one level but confusing on another.

I guess what I'm saying is, don't bother with Sabayon.

[alexham36]

I have a working Amstrad 2086 bought in 1990 without a hard drive - just twin floppy. I later installed 30MB HD on a card. I have my Christmass card addresses on it, using Mygent Ability Plus, which I print once a year on a 24pin Dot Matrix Epson LQ (Letter Quality)400 on a 89X36mm address labels. I have not yet found an application that could do that on a more modern machine/software. So, when the tape cartridge on dot matrix printer becomes unusable I will not be able to send Christmas cards.

Thank you for your thoughts on Sabayon, Mikkh. I thought that Johnnybee was enticing me into a complex programming nightmare.