New Linux User

Around 9 hours actually.

 

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Or he could just download a Linux distribution that fits on less cd's. Like Kanotix - 1cd.
Or you can always buy the newest here - http://www.linuxcd.org/

p.s. For a starter I advise "Mandriva 2006" (3cd)

 

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You should have done all that after getting a bigger hard drive

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. Come on - 76GB?? You need at least 120 nowadays. Hmmm.... I guess you could always add it as a secondary drive. Out of curiocity, if you did do that, would it also have to be formatted with FAT32? I wouldn't imagine you could even access an NTFS drive through linux, let alone boot from it.

While you are on your big OS streak, so to speak, you might as well update your Windows. Service Pack 1?! I really hope that was a typo. :bugeye:

I thought about doing a dual boot for a while, but then I realized I would have to reformat my drive, and it just wasn't worth it. That, and I just don't really like using linux.

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Actually you can read NTFS fairly well these days, but writing to NTFS is still quite experimental and not safe.

For dual booting with windows, I advise to install windows on a seperate NTFS partition together with space for any software you might wish to install.
Anyway, do it either way, because, if windows breaks and you need to reinstall it, then at least the other partitions should be safe.

 

If you want to transfer files between the two OS's you can also create a small FAT32 partition - this is what I have on my system.

 

question
i have winme with fat32
i would like to dual boot beteween windows and the outdated linux i came across.
i have 1 drive partitioned into 2 6gb drives and 2 1.5gb drives and 4 or 5 800mb drives.
i have winme on a 6gb partition.
i could put the linux on the other 6gb partition
now the questions
it doesn't say the linux i have is for intel celerons or not.
it also doesn't say my chipset is supported (i82810)
what about my modem (ethernet) and sound (ac'97)?

 

Can I create a FAT32 partition on my main drive without having to reformat it? It's a 250Gb drive, with 187 being used. I've only ever messed with partitions on new drives, straight out of the box.

 

You can, there are various tools,
I myself prefer QTParted on Linux.
If you use Windows, there's Partition Magic for that.

edit: corrected mistake - not gt, but qtparted

 

I strongly suggest you don't install the old Linux. Linux back then was in its' Desktop user infancy. You'll have a very unfriendly system, nothing compared to a new and shiny Linux release.

As for the Celeron - it's all the same, you can put Linux even on systems you can't put Windows on.
There should be no problems with either sound or modem, but there might be problems if you install the old Linux.
Seriously, it can mess up, don't install it, compared to new releases it's like installing Windows 3.1 instead of XP

 

allright. i guess i'll have to download from the link you gave earlier.

 

Hmm. I'm inspired! I think I might like to set up a dual boot also. I downloaded the Fedora Core 5 ISOs. Should I choose something else instead?

Second question: I have a spare 120Gb drive that I'm not using at the moment. Can I install my linux on that, or does it have to go on a separate partition on my primary drive?

Another question: If I decide I don't like linux, and I want to free up hard drive space, is it easy to uninstall it without messing up Windows XP? I'm still not completely clear on how it installs the bootloader. The last thing I want to do is mess up my boot sector and have to reinstall Windows. Since I plan on using Linux far less than Windows, I figured maybe I should not use the GRUB bootloader, and instead use the NTLDR. Is this easy to do?

 

Fedora Core is a good, but not necessarily the most newbie friendly distro.
If you'd like something easy, but not dumbed down, I suggest Mandriva 2006,
but if you have some experience with Linux or take it a bit more seriously then Fedora Core 5 is an excellent choice, and I myself use it.

Yes, you can, as far as I know. Linux will install its' own bootloader which will know what partition to boot.
Anyways, it won't be one partition, but at least two, but 3 are strongly advised.
1. / also known as 'root', there all the system will be stored, second is swap which is cache, like the page file in windows. 3rd usually is /home, there all your user settings and documents will be stored, so, if you have to reinstall or install a new Linux, all the settings and documents from the previous install will be untouched and usable.
For example, if you have an ftp prog with set up options and bookmars, then on reinstall all the settings and bookmarks will be in place.

Yes, but I have never done that.

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You just remove the Linux partitions with some windows or Linux live cd tool.
I'm not sure how you get rid of bootloader, but it also can be done, I just don't know the specifics, at any Linux forum someone will tell you how to do that. http://www.mandrivausers.org
has a friendly community.

Use either GRUB or LILO, those are standart and will less likely mess something up than any other bootloader. They're in use by millions of Linux users world wide - they're safe. And I've had no problems with them in the past, including dealing with Windows system partitions.

 

Fedora's fine (s'wat I've got). Out of the box it has limited multimedia support so you'll have to download a lot of multimedia players, libraries, codecs, etc. afterwards. You might also have to worry about getting drivers if you have a winmodem.

You should be able to put most of your installation on a second drive, though you should probably free up 100 MB or so on your first drive for the Linux /boot partition (it's simpler if the boot loader goes on the first drive).

Just reformat the linux partitions as NTFS from Windows XP.

Use GRUB - I don't think the Windows boot loader can boot anything that isn't windows, so if you use that you'll need to boot Linux from a boot diskette. If you want to switch back to the windows boot loader, you can use the windows installation CD to start the recovery console, and restore the windows boot loader to the MBR from there - I think its the FIXMBR command, or something similar.

 

Well, I had to become quite proficient in UNIX for school. I've used several flavors of UNIX and gnome, and whatnot. I've used enough OS's that I'm not too worried.

Oooh! That's what I was worried about. That's why I thought it might be easier to use NTLDR, because I know that can be configured with Windows. With the GRUB bootloader, can I set which one is my "default" OS, and load it automatically after 'n' number of seconds? Well, if I do have to reinstall Windows, I guess it's ok, because all my important data is on a separate drive, and I still have all the installers for my applications. And thanks for the link, I might need that later.

Ok, cool! So as soon as I get another SATA cable and a molex to SATA power adapter, I will install linux. How exciting! (linux doesn't have a problem with SATA, does it?)

 

OK, thanks. That shouldn't be too hard then.

There is plenty of free space right now. Do I actually have to make a separate partition, or will it do it when I install linux?

Are there special codecs that only work with linux? Or are they compatible with anything? I have an onboard ethernet card, will that be a problem to use it?


EDIT: So the 120GB drive that I want to use for linux - I want about 50GB for use with my Windows OS. Can I have a separate NTFS partition, and then use the rest of the space for my linux partitions? Or will that get weird?

 

There won't be any problems with Grub, but there might be problems if you use the windows boot loader. And I know people who've got rid of Grub with no problems at all, I just have never needed to do that, so I don't know.

If you decide to use NTLDR, then don't ask me for any support later.

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I wash my hands.

 

przyk told everything in a bit darker colours, because it's really a matter of a few lines in console or a GUI downloader tool.
For mp3, just type "yum install xmms-mp3", that will install the xmms player with mp3 support.
For video, there are w32codecs, so "yum install w32codecs", and install "yum install mplayer",
mplayer has integrated codecs for most stuff.
typically and practically you'll have a lot less problems with codecs than on windows, after the first player is installed. everything else is left to software updates, which on Fedora can be set auto (updates system every night) or just type "yum update" now and then, which will update all software and system to latest versions, security and bugfixes.

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Linux installer ("Anaconda" for Fedora) will have a handy tool to make all the changes in partitions and creation of them.

You should have no problems with ethernet, the only problems are with winmodems, because MS hides the driver specifics.

 

Yes. All the GRUB options are saved in the /boot/grub/grub.conf text configuration file. I remember an annoying default setting when I first installed Fedora - you had to press space within 3 seconds to see the OS menu, otherwise it booted Linux (the default).

Once you have it installed, there's a line that says:

default=n [where n is the default OS (0 is the first on the boot menu, 1 is the second, etc.)]

and another that says:

timeout=n [where n is the default no. of seconds to wait before booting]

You can change the numbers in both lines to whatever you want them to be (you need to be logged in as root to save the changes).

 

Here's an example of a typical system update I did today:

 

The installation will take care of creating the partitions you need.

Don't have much experience with Linux and multimedia, but it seems about as capable as windows is once you've got everything you need. At the moment I haven't taken the time to get my Linux system to go online, as I haven't got it to detect my modem yet. This means there's stuff like multimedia and softare updating I don't know much about yet. During the summer I'll have access to ADSL, so I'll be able to turn my installation into a far more usable system (the installer detected and configured my ethernet automatically - I've already seen it use ADSL once or twice without any problems).

You can do whatever partitioning you want - you can set everything up during the installation. By default it'll want to format all the free space for use for Linux, so you'll have to look for an option to do the partitioning yourself - then you specify the partition sizes and mount points, and you're ready to install.