Linux Newbie

[chameleon239]

Hi I am net to AT and wanted to get into Linix. I want to set up a dual boot machine with Winxp(already installed) and Linux. What is the best distro for me and is it possible to have a dual boot such as this? I already have Fedora downloaded. Should I install that?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Fedora shouldn't be too bad. I recommend installing Linux and Windows on seperate physical disks.

 

[eigen]

I would go with Fedora Core 2. It will be a nice cozy install. I agree with Nocmonkey on the physical disk issue (Being new to AT you will soon learn to always agree with NOc as he is prolly the most knowledgable person on the board. IMHO).

Either way you should learn to use the search function or at least look as the stickies as this has been covered. PM if ou decide to go with Fedora and need help........

 

[silverpig]

You have fedora.. might as well use that. Mandrake and SuSE would also be easy to do.

 

[Monoman]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Fedora shouldn't be too bad. I recommend installing Linux and Windows on seperate physical disks.

defualt slack usin lilo doesn't like seperate disks 🙁 tho still workable 😉

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Monoman

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Fedora shouldn't be too bad. I recommend installing Linux and Windows on seperate physical disks.

defualt slack usin lilo doesn't like seperate disks 🙁 tho still workable 😉

It worked just fine for me.

 

[silverpig]

The distro shouldn't care about seperate disks... it's all bootloader stuff on the boot and that really isn't a big deal either. You just gotta put the right entries into the lilo.conf file and it'll work.

 

[pitupepito2000]

Hi,

First of all welcome to AT. I would say, that Fedora is a fine choice. I would say that dual booting Linux and Windows is fine, it's not too hard. Just be patient and willing to learn. "May the force be with you" 😉

 

[pitupepito2000]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Fedora shouldn't be too bad. I recommend installing Linux and Windows on seperate physical disks.

n0cmoney, why do you recommend installing on separate physicals disks? It's not too hard to put it in the same hard drive. For example:
1. install windows
2. install linux
3. don't install lilo in MBR
4. make boot floppy for linux
5. boot to linux using floppy.

the first time I installed Linux, at the time Red Hat 7.3 I didn't find it hard at all to make a new partition, and creating a linux boot floppy since RedHat installation did all that for me. 🙂

 

[pitupepito2000]

Originally posted by: Monoman

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Fedora shouldn't be too bad. I recommend installing Linux and Windows on seperate physical disks.

defualt slack usin lilo doesn't like seperate disks 🙁 tho still workable 😉

true, but if you were a newbie, you probably are not installing slack. We have to learn to set up things, that are going to give us trouble sometime.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: pitupepito2000

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Fedora shouldn't be too bad. I recommend installing Linux and Windows on seperate physical disks.

n0cmoney, why do you recommend installing on separate physicals disks? It's not too hard to put it in the same hard drive. For example:
1. install windows
2. install linux
3. don't install lilo in MBR
4. make boot floppy for linux
5. boot to linux using floppy.

the first time I installed Linux, at the time Red Hat 7.3 I didn't find it hard at all to make a new partition, and creating a linux boot floppy since RedHat installation did all that for me. 🙂

I personally think it's safer. I've accidentally screwed up Windows installations because I didn't pay enough attention to what I was doing. Having to think about selecting the second disk makes me think about it more.

Plus, you can unplug the Windows disk to ensure that you don't screw anything up. It's just a safety thing.

And Linux doesn't understand disklabels very well. So I don't like mizing OpenBSD and Linux much. Well, I hate dualbooting. I think it's almost useless for most people. 😉

 

[pitupepito2000]

You got a point there n0cmonkey. It does give you an extra safe lock. What I do personally is I get everything ready, but before committing anything I take a 10 or 15 minute break, and double check things later when I have fresh eyes. Also not everybody can afford to have two separate drives 🙁

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: pitupepito2000
You got a point there n0cmonkey. It does give you an extra safe lock. What I do personally is I get everything ready, but before committing anything I take a 10 or 15 minute break, and double check things later when I have fresh eyes. Also not everybody can afford to have two separate drives 🙁

Everyone can afford it, some of us just don't. Don't limit yourself. A spoon full of sugar, and all that disney crap. 😛

It's not a requirement, just a tip. Especially for newbies, and people like me. :moon:

 

[groovin]

i dual boot my laptop windows xp and gentoo. i agree with the seperate physical disk thing, but my lappy can only hold one hard drive.

 

[silverpig]

If you unplug your windows disk then yeah it's safer, but then you have to do some manual edition of the fstab file ater if you want to be able to access it from within linux. If it's plugged in during the install of fedora, then you'll get an entry in the fstab for it automatically...

Second, if you're doing it up by hand, messing up a number is just as easy as messing up a letter.

2 disks:
win - hda1
linux - hdb1

1 disk:
win - hda1
linux - hda2

I'd actually think the first one would be easier to screw up. The scariest part for me is resizing partitions... but I don't ever worry about that as I partition before anything is on 🙂

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: silverpig
If you unplug your windows disk then yeah it's safer, but then you have to do some manual edition of the fstab file ater if you want to be able to access it from within linux. If it's plugged in during the install of fedora, then you'll get an entry in the fstab for it automatically...

You shouldn't have to. Linux has been pretty good about that. One of the few features I like. If the disk is the primary slave, no matter how many disks are in the system, it is hdb.