Red screen when loading Ubuntu normally? + other noob Q's

[Trifid]

Its a rainy day and I have wanted to try Linux for a while and I finally cracked after someone mentioned Ubuntu and noob friendly in the same sentance.

Anyway, I downloaded it and burnt the image to a cd and put it in on restart to try. I selected the first option to boot from CD or install and after it does all the checks it goes to a red / brown screen and stays there. I then tried checking for errors on the disk and came back good, but it still does it. I then tried on safe mode version and I am now in Ubuntu . Is there something I need to do to get it working normally?

Also, I had a look on the add/remove applications but I can't find SATA drivers. Is there something I need to do to be able to access my hard drives?

This is the error I get:

error: device /dev/sda1 is not removable

error: could not execute pmount

How do I set the resolution to a decent one and the refresh rate? - before I get a headache. I have found it under system but it is not applying.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Law]

This is dapper right? You're in the live CD and haven't install yet? Is sda1 your windows partition right?

 

[Trifid]

SDA1 is XP on 80GB sata (15GB partiton)
SDA2 is NewVolume on 80GB sata. (60GB)

SDB1 is Vista on 250GB SATA (20GB)
SDB2 is New Volume 2 on 250GB sata (214GB)

I think I will knock a 20GB partition off SDB2 and install it there, but before so, how secure is the partition manager? Will my data be safe?

 

[The General]

1. What versino of Ubuntu is this? Dapper?

2. What are your computer specs? (model numbers, etc.)

 

[Trifid]

I believe it is Dapper, it is the latest version.

Specs,

AMD 64 3000 @ 2.2ghz
1536Mibs of RAM in dual channel
BFG 7800gt OC
ASUS A8N-SLI
80GB Seagate SATA
250GB WD SATA2
Hiper Type R 580w
CDRW-DVD ROM

 

[Trifid]

I have installed it (after a bit of confusion with the partition thing in the installer.)

Couple of points:
It can see and view my NTFS formatted drives, how?
MP3's will not play even though I installed the installer. A .WAV does though.

 

[The General]

sudo apt-get install mpg123

Can't help you on the NTFS thing, I have no idea.

 

[Law]

I have installed it (after a bit of confusion with the partition thing in the installer.)

Couple of points:
It can see and view my NTFS formatted drives, how?
MP3's will not play even though I installed the installer. A .WAV does though.

You want to know how it can view your NTFS partition or you want to know how to do that?

Most Linux distro already have read support for NTFS partition, it's just a matter of if your distro automatically mount your NTFS partition for you, some distro you have to do it manually. I donÂ’t believe you can write to it, you need write support and thatÂ’s done manually. I believe older version of Knoppix had NTFS write support already build-in but they took that out since it was not safe.