I have always been a Windows user but have been wanting to give Linux a
try after hearing good things about it on Call For Help on G4Tech TV
here in Canada. I have downloaded and burned onto 3 CD-R's the ISO
images for Linux Mandrake and was going to load it on an older P1
computer I had laying around. I wanted to load it on the 2.5gb hard
drive in this machine but couldn't get the CD drive to be recognized in
order to load Mandrake from the CDs, even after changing the BIOS
settings. The machine is really old and has nothing but basic &
outdated hardware installed in it, but I thought it might be okay for
trying out a new OS.

I am just wondering if I wouldn't be better off taking the 2.5gb hard
drive out of this crappy computer and putting it in my main system and
loading Mandrake on it there. I have a P4 1.5mhz system with an 80gb
hard drive with lots of hard drive space to spare and an excellent
sound and video card, but was thinking that I might be better off
loading it on its own seperate hard drive in case of conflicts or
complications.

Does this sound like the way to go or am I better off partitioning my
main hard drive and installing it on there? Is there any advantage or
disadvantage to putting another OS on a machine on a seperate hard
drive (if I run into problems with Linux on drive D, can XP be affected
on drive C)? Will WinXP and Linux play well together in this
environment or am I just asking for trouble?

Any thoughts, recommendations, or personal experiences would be much
appreciated!

TIA,
Mike

Mikester71 wrote:
You will be hard-pushed installing and running Mandrake on a 2.5 Gb HDD.

--
Registered Linux User no 240308
Ubuntu 5.04 and Open Office
Was Windows XP SP2 and Office 2003
gbplinuxATgmailDOTcom

Hi,

1) In order to be able to select the required OS during the boot process you
either need a BIOS which allows you to select the Disk you would like to
boot from or you make use of a boot manager like LILO or GRUB.

2) Placing Linux on an old 2.5 GB Disk is not the very best idea as you
might have only 2GB for Linux data left after assigning a 500MB swap
partition. Depending of which kind of services you would like to run this
is way to less for a graphical based Linux.

I would suggest you use your existing disk (dual boot with GRUB) and maybe
just use your old disk as swap partition for Linux. If you just like play
around with Linux without really installing it you can use KNOPPIX. You can
find a download site at http://www.linuxiso.org/. If you really like to
install Linux

I would recommend to use the latest SUSE beta4 version 10 (easy to install
latest available code, pretty fast). You can download this version from
"ftp://ftp.opensuse.org/pub/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.0-OSS-beta4/iso/"

HTH

Klaus


Mikester71 wrote:

On 12 Sep 2005 23:15:41 -0700, Mikester71 wrote:

a CD boot floppy from www.bootdisk.com

a live distro Linux, lets you boot from CD without installing anything.
There are many to choose from.
(you may need to set the BIOS option to boot from CD and / or buy a
newer CDROM drive)

There are many 'tiny' linux distros for low end systems , like a PI with
192MB RAM, or booting from memory sticks.

Try
http://groups.google.com/group/24hoursupport.helpdesk?
for previous info on the subject.

<snip>

Me

On 2005-09-13, Mikester71 <mpower71@gmail.com> wrote:
2.5GB is really too small to do anything useful with any current 'big'
operating system; but the rest of the hardware on that machine would
probably be fine for Mandrake (now called Mandriva), so could you fit a
larger HD? 4GB would be 'enough', if the BIOS can cope with something that
big. Bear in mind that things will run slowly if you use a 'big' desktop
environment such as KDE or Gnome, but there are several 'lighter'
alternatives that run more quickly on less powerful machines; I like
"XFce".

Try looking up whatever 'error messages' you got when trying to install
Mandrake, to see if there is a solution. The newsgroup
alt.os.linux.mandrake is an excellent resource (and there's a new group
reflecting the changed name: alt.os.linux.mandriva).

If the BIOS doesn't have a setting for 'boot from CD' then you could try a
'boot manager' program such as "GAG" <http://gag.sourceforge.net/> - which
I also use to manage my 'dual booting', with the 'boot loader' for each
operating system installed in its own partition instead of using one of them
as a 'boot manager' in the MBR.

There is no reason for not putting Mandrake on both machines; it's perfectly
'legal' - this isn't Microsoft!

Unless you use it just for swap space, or data storage, I don't think
there's much point putting the old HD into the newer machine.

It's certainly possible to arrange a 'dual boot' between Windows and Linux;
that's how I got started in my adventures outside the Microsoft bubble, and
many people do the same. There's a lot of information 'out there' about
doing this, and the Linux installation CDs usually give you the option of
doing it automatically - Mandrake/Mandriva certainly does; its installation
is particularly user-friendly. There can occasionally be a problem with the
Windows XP boot-loader after Linux is installed, but it's not insoluble and
you won't lose your Windows system unless you tell the Linux installer that
it can be wiped (but do make sure you have working back-ups before doing
anything else; you know it makes sense).

--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for the great info and advice guys. I think I may just put Linux
on my WinXP Home system after hearing that they can co-exist peacefully
together from you guys. The older system I wanted to try it on was a
piece of junk I found at work and thought it might be good to put to
use for something (don't think it would be worth even trying though
really).

One last question on the subject then. If I want to put Mandriva or
SUSE, etc. on my existing XP Home Edition system, do I just put the
CD's in and reboot (after changing the boot sequence to see CD-Rom
drive first of course) or do I have to partition my existing C drive
first to make room for the new OS? I have 40gb free on my current
system.

Thanks again guys for your Linux wisdom!

Mike

Mikester71 wrote:

On 13 Sep 2005 09:01:18 -0700, Mikester71 wrote:

There is an MS article(s) about removing Linux
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;247804
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;314458

Then one of the tiny versions and make it a firewall.

Look for Live CD versions of those, this will let you boot and run Linux
off the CD/DVD and see if it detects your hardware, before doing an
install.

Partition(s) are required , IIRC at least 2

linux everything (2-6GB)
and
linux swap (say 256/512MB)

If that free space is in the Windows partition, it's
backup files
any ISP data
any important data
backup again
test backups doing a restore
resize partition

Be prepared for the worst.

During the Linux setup be careful when selecting partitions / setup
options , don't pick the erase all partitions option :-)

There are lots of notes and Mandriva / SuSE forums, do some browsing
through the questions / answers beforehand.

Another option is add a 2nd hardisk for Linux.

Or even maybe, backup your current HD , to another HD , DVD using
something like Norton Ghost (remember to test it works) , then if
anything goes wrong you can restore.

One thing that appears to be an issue is after having used Linux for a
while is removing it, rather resetting the MBR to boot with Windows
without the Linux boot menu. With RedHat versions it's was possible to
install without the boot loader, this way the PC always booted Windows
as normal, unless you use the Linux boot floppy (having made 3 or 4
copies of the floppy for safety), a bootable USB dongle should also
work.

Linux has a great set of documents called HOWTOs, on the LDP
The Linux Documentation Project
http://www.tldp.org/
the Mandriva set is mentioned
http://mandrivalinux.com/en/fdoc.php3

<snip>

Me

On 2005-09-13, Mikester71 <mpower71@gmail.com> wrote:

snip

You should do some 'housekeeping' on your Windows system first; remove any
'junk', and use your usual tools to 'clean up' and 'repair'. Then, if your
Windows is on FAT32 file system, defrag so as to move all the files to the
'start' of the disc. If you have tools that you trust for repartitioning,
make the Windows partition smaller so as to leave some empty space for
Linux. This is the part of the operation where your back-up is most likely
to prove its worth.

If your partitioning tools refuse to leave any empty space, then by all
means create a new partition in the new space. You don't need to do that
for the Linux installers to work though (they can remove it anyway).

Windows-based tools cannot be relied on to create or maintain non-Windows
partitions; the Linux installer will offer to 'use the empty space' or
'replace an existing partition' (or words to that effect), and you should
let the Linux installer create and format the partitions for itself.

The Linux installer will include tools for re-sizing a Windows partition to
make more room, so it isn't essential to do that from Windows.

Linux can read, write, and format, FAT32 file systems, and can read NTFS
file systems (but don't depend on Linux to write to or format an NTFS
partition; Microsoft keep changing the detailed specifications and no-one
else can keep up). Windows operating systems normally can't work with, or
even 'see', non-Windows file systems, although there are apparently third
party tools that can get Windows to read Linux file systems.

You will need at least two partitions, one called / and one called swap;
the Linux installer will probably default to that arrangement if you choose
'automatic' or 'default' options. Linux usually has a separate partition
for swap, and the recommended size is usually 'twice the installed RAM'
although some say '1MB' - I say, better too big than too small, if you have
the room ) A big swap partition won't slow anything down, but one that's
too small certainly will.

--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~