About to take the plunge - need advice

[L1nu*M0m]

I am currently running Windows 2000 on an 80GB WD drive and about to take the plunge. Adding a 20 GB WD drive to install Red Hat 9. Plan on dual booting - with Windows as primary master so as to avoid Windows freaking out. Any helpful advice for a newbie is greatly appreciated. :confused:

[ph34r]

In Windows, make a ERD. When you install Linux, make a boot disk (or two) and don't use lilo or grub.

[CaptainPinko]

read as much as you can about linux so you'll be more prepared to learn hands-on. read this http://justlinux.com/nhf/Shells/Basic_Console_Commands.html

also get a Linux book. such as Redhat Linux Bible 9. Itll will help tremendously (it also provides install CDs). I read the first half of that before i even installed it.

also try to learn about the *nix file system as it takes a bit of gettting used to.

and when given a choice between the GNOME and KDE desktop environment go with KDE as it will be wore familiar and it is morie integrated and easier to know which programs are kde (i., it starts with a k)

and you'll need to install an rpm (a good first step into the CLI) to play mp3s

[mdwatts]

Since the subject you posted does not adhere to the JL Posting Guidelines, I'll move this to /dev/random instead of locking the thread.

[twilli227]

While I agree with ph34r and CaptainPinko on most of what they posted, there are a couple of differences. I dual boot xp and RH9 using lilo with no problems. I am sure grub will do just fine also. With a 20gig hardrive, you could load up everything from the disks to learn about the different apps. including gnome and kde.
When you become comfortable using any linux distro, then you will know what you need and can remove any unwanted apps.
I have loaded up almost everything included and it took about 45 minutes on a celeron1.7, 256ram, machine.
Just my .02 worth

[ricstr]

Originally posted by L1nu*M0m
About to take the plunge - need advice

1) Make sure your swimming trunks are dry.

2) During the install you could install the bootloader to the MBR and this should sort both botting for windows and linux.

[je_fro]

Use GRUB on the MBR. It'll detect windows and you'll be able to dual boot easier. If something goes wrong, post back. The potential problems are easily fixed.

[jsbrusty2]

Here's something I just came across today searching www.google.com/linux.

http://www.xminc.com/linux/linuxcheatsheet.pdf

very useful... enjoy :D

my $0.02 on grub.
I use it to boot RH9 and Win98. Works great with grub in MBR of hda. I've had windoze f*** itself up, but not because of grub. And of course make a boot disk during install.

[banzaikai]

Howdy.

I'd like to add a little thing that'll make things a bit easier.

BEFORE doing anything, re-partition your 80GB drive into one 60GB (or 40gb, your choice) and one 20GB. PowerQuest's Partition Magic does this with ease and without losing data. Now, with your new second partition, you're going to re-format it using FAT-32. Yes, you read that right. It should look like:

Drive 1, Part 1 -> NTFS, Win2K, 40-60GB
Drive 1, Part 2 -> FAT-32, Data, whatever's left from part 1
Drive 2, Part 1 -> EXT3FS, Linux /boot, about 512MB is plenty
Drive 2, Part 2 -> SWAP, Linux /swap, about 512MB is plenty
Drive 2, Part 3 -> EXT3FS, Linux native, 19GB (mount as "/")

RedHat will take care of automatically throwing the /usr, /etc, and other directories where they belong on the last partition. Get Win2K running first, then install RH using GRUB as your bootloader on the MBR. With 19GB to play with, go ahead and install "everything" from the CDs - should be in the 4-6GB area. Also, when telling what partitions you want for RH, tell it to MOUNT the windows partitons (it won't format them, it just adds the lines in your fstab automatically and saves an extra step later).

Why the FAT-32? Well, reading from an NTFS partition is okay for Linux to do, but writing to one isn't quite ready, yet. So, we solve that by setting aside one partition for both Win2K and Linux to read/write to that both understand (fluently). Shove all your docs, mp3s, movies, and whatever on the FAT-32, and you're golden.

Hope this helps...

banzai "dual-boot" kai

[L1nu*M0m]

Thanks to all for your help. I ended up using GRUB on the first sector of my boot partition. After a minor edit to my boot.ini file in Windows I am now successfully dual-booting. So my next task is to learn RH9.

:rolleyes:

[MorphiusFaydal]

i like RH9, you made a good choice...

i agree with CaptainPinko, you probably should pick up a linux book, the RH9 Bible is a good recomendation...

I triple boot with Slackware9, Gentoo1.4 and WinXP with grub.. i like grub better, i personnaly think its easier to configure..

Also.. this place will become your best friend...

just make sure you use GoogleForLinux (www.google.com/linux) and the Search buttin here before making a new post..

good luck!!!

:D:D:D:D:):):):P:P:D:D:D

chris