Quick Newb Linux Questions

[MarlboroJones]

I downloaded Mepis, and loaded CD at boot - I am hoping to learn about linux and move to other distros over time.

After playing with it in demo, I re-booted to XP and it appeared the time on my computer had changed, and my zonealarm was somehow also slightly affected (my home page would come up without my granting access.) These were the only issues I noticed.

Questions:

Would I continue to have these type of problems if I setup dual boot, and is this typical?

Is dual boot safe vis a vis access to xp data on another partition while using linux? (I have work files on my computer and would not want to jeopardize their itegrity.)

Besides setting up admin password, are there other security settings to worry about?

Are there any reasons (beyond installation) why using a separate hard drive for linux may be useful (versus dual boot - although I am not sure how this would resolve the time issue I discussed)?

And, while I constantly defrag my computer, it appears a block of data resuides (when looking at mapping) in the middle of the HD. Can (and if so, should) this be moved? Would this be an issue if I do decide to go dual boot (i.e. could I endup screwing up during partitioning and losing any info?)

Thanks!

Sorry if any of this has been (probably) asked and answered.

 

[Batti]

I'll take the first one - Mepis defaults to the locale of the author. You need to set the locale in the Kontrol Panel to your location, and the time change will go away. I don't know what's with Zone Alarm, since you had CD booted, Zone Alarm would not have been changed.

IMHO, disks are cheap, and separating OS'es makes much sense.

 

[silverpig]

Yeah it's just a time locale setting. I don't know how mepis does it but there's a config file in gentoo /etc/rc.conf I think that has a section for the time locale. It defaults to GMT and I had it messing up my windows time, so I changed it to local and it works nicely now.

 

[MarlboroJones]

Thanks for the replies. Gonna add a new HD. Appreciate the help.

 

[bersl2]

Timezone is set by copying one of the files located somewhere in the /usr/share/zoneinfo structure as /etc/localtime. I think. But you should probably use the frontend anyway.