linux installation

Woden

Hi not sure if this is the right place but want to install an old enough version of linux mandrake that was being sold off, onto my computer which is running on windows xp, just want to run this by you's first to see if it is ok. I have to resize the main NTFS partition of containing windows to make some space for a new partition? This new partition i want to format to FAT32 and then install linux on it? does this seem plausible to anyone? i hear that i will need some software such as partition magic 8 to achieve this? does anyone one have any experience with this software or know of any specific problems with it?

Thanks Data

Also if anyone knows of anyone getting trying to get rid of a hdd in the 4-10gb range i might be interested in taking it off there hands and installing clean on that

zAbbo

This thread will be moved here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?forumid=32

soon

The best thing to do is leave the linux partition unformatted. depends on the ver of drake tho

Woden

well it was all a bit of a god awful-mess that in the end i probably could have easily fixed, ran partition magic last night and went for a bit of sleep woke up to find my monitor on stand by and couldn't wake it up, restarted the computer and i got an error loading o/s message, popped in the linux disc and it installed fine using a full install, however i couldn't get windows to boot as it was not on the boot option, added it to the boot options through linux but it still wouldn't boot, used the windows xp cd and it told me the paritition was inactive or something, so didn't know what to do so parititioned the hdd in to 15gb and 4gb for windows and linux respectively after deleting all other partitions, reinstalled windows and then installed linux however in linux i had to go into expert mode and further partition the 4gb one for something known as the root, the swap and the home directories or something, linux installed with only minimum installation (no choice for some reason?) again windows wouldn't boot so i used to the windows cd to repair, using the fixboot command which said the boot sector was corrupted, so at the end of the day i may have been just able to do that in the first place and didn't know it, however the computer now dual boots xp and mandrake, (and a few other options for linux that i don't know what they do) i'm off to redownload sp 1 for xp

question though if anyone has bothered to read all the way down

does anyone know how i can install all the other components in linux so i can get a full install, i only have kde at the moment and a few applications (tried to use the disc at boot up and upgrade but it didn't do anything) thanx very much

Data

Ant

Originally posted by Dataisgod
well it was all a bit of a god awful-mess that in the end i probably could have easily fixed ...

... does anyone know how i can install all the other components in linux so i can get a full install, i only have kde at the moment and a few applications

Congrats on succesfully completing your first Linux installation.

I'm not a Mandrake user myself but there should be an option in the K menu to run a program called 'RPMDrak' or something like that. You can use that program to install all the other packages that you want to use.
In Linux, the OS components are called packages and in the Mandrake distribution, the packages are contained in files with the extension ".rpm". A command line program, called 'rpm" which is used to install, upgrade and remove software and other packages from your system but as a new user, you're probably better off using a program with a graphical interface such as RPMdrak.

Best of luck with your new OS.

Woden

hi ant thanx, your right about that rpm thingy, i decided to give the manual a bit of a read (lol a veritable fountain of information) tried to install all the packages but was having difficulty some files couldn't be found etc. on the four cd's that came with it. I'mthinking of removing linux and installing it again, and trying to get an install like the first time, when gnome and all the packages where installed at setup. Also i read that winmodems aren't supported in linux bearing in mind that my version is about 2 years old has this been rectified to your knowledge?

Kali

Do a search for "conexant linux" in google.. you'll find a heap of information on running winmodems in linux, there are drivers available and they generally work well to a varying degree.

Woden

thanking you kali

as a general update i uninstalled linux by deleting the partition, then reinstalled but this time it gave me an option to use the free space which i didn't have last time, installed no bother and was able to get a complete installation and it didn't affect the booting of XP either.

leeroybrown

This new partition i want to format to FAT32 and then install linux on it?

Nah, not FAT32. The best file system to use is ext2 (the second extended file system) and upgrade to ext3 (ext2 with a journal). Ext2(3) should be the default file system used by your linux distribution for the install. Judging by the way you say "old enough version of linux mandrake", you'll probably only have ext2 as an option.

As a file system ext2 is vastly superior to FAT32.

Woden

should have been more specific its mandrake 7.2, it was selling cheap in a bookstore in dublin, sure thing i installed it initially with ext2 as this was what partition magic suggested, if i remember correctly when i did it manually i used ext 2, but ext 3 may have been an option. however last time round i just let the installation wizard take care of it so i presume it is on ext2 now.

zAbbo

Hope it was very very chep, didnt know that you can commercially sell something that is free anyway.

Oh and you can order the SP1 cd from microsoft for free, just follow the sp1 links down and look out for order cd.

What boot loader are you using.

Woden

picked the whole thing up for a tenner, figured it would be cheaper then having to download everything and it came with star office and other bits and pieces, more user friendly also as it is a commerical package with manual and stuff, as regards to them selling i'm sure they can sell there own version of it, the shop also had versions of redhart for forty quid which i've seen for a lot dearer elsewhere, they also had a powerpack version of the mandrake i got for 20 quid,

thanx for the sp1 tip but i ended up downloading all the windows updates yesterday,

as regards to the boot-loader i think it is grub, i have the option to boot on windows, linux, failsafe and floppy and i think perhaps one other

SouperComputer

i have a couple of 3 and 4gb lying about in IDE and SCSI, lemmie know if ur interested.

the other option would be to use a virtual PC prog. usuing one myself and i must say its pretty cool. onnly problem is that they cant get the soun dto work with linux hopefully theyll fix it

www.conectix.com