The true newbie...

[cderst]

Okay, I'm real new to Linux but I did manage to help get RedHat 6.2 running earlier this year on a friend's system. I didn't like it much, so I'm looking around for a new distribution. I've heard good things about Mandrake 7.2 and SuSE 7.0. All I need is a distribution that runs fast, is is stable and doesn't eat a lot of system resources (mem, cpu, cpu, etc.)

SO my questions are as follows:

1. I've downloaded the latest version of Linux Mandrake of their FTP. So now, all of the files (including RPMS) of the /Mandrake and /images are on my single-partitioned FAT32 20GB Hard Disk. How do I start with the Hard Drive installation...I know I have to have hd.img file used on the boot floppy, but do I have to partition anything? I want to keep my current OS, Windoze 98 SuckyEdition as well. I have Partition Magic 5.0...so do I have to create a FAT16 partition? How can I do this w/o losing my data (I really don't have time to backup 8GB of stuff)??

2. Which is better? ReiserFS or ext2? I want which ever one is faster and stable. ALso, is it possible to have ReiserFS after installing linux on ext2?

3. I heard that KDE2 takes up a lot of sys. resources like RAM (I only have 96MB). Ive heard of things like BlackBox and it seems pretty cool. How can I install that? I want KDE and blackbox and be able to switch between the two (like gnome and kde in RH6.2).

Thank you!!!!!!

[Derango]

Originally posted by cderst:
Okay, I'm real new to Linux but I did manage to help get RedHat 6.2 running earlier this year on a friend's system. I didn't like it much, so I'm looking around for a new distribution. I've heard good things about Mandrake 7.2 and SuSE 7.0. All I need is a distribution that runs fast, is is stable and doesn't eat a lot of system resources (mem, cpu, cpu, etc.)


SO my questions are as follows:


1. I've downloaded the latest version of Linux Mandrake of their FTP. So now, all of the files (including RPMS) of the /Mandrake and /images are on my single-partitioned FAT32 20GB Hard Disk. How do I start with the Hard Drive installation...I know I have to have hd.img file used on the boot floppy, but do I have to partition anything? I want to keep my current OS, Windoze 98 SuckyEdition as well. I have Partition Magic 5.0...so do I have to create a FAT16 partition? How can I do this w/o losing my data (I really don't have time to backup 8GB of stuff)??



do you have a CD Burner? It might be easier to download the ISO image and burn that to a CD. That way you don't have to force the mandrake install to do somthing it realy dosen't like doing.

Originally posted by cderst:


2. Which is better? ReiserFS or ext2? I want which ever one is faster and stable. ALso, is it possible to have ReiserFS after installing linux on ext2?


Well, I don't believe theres any speed increases between the two. However, ext2 does have some problems if the power to the system goes out unexpectedly. ext2fs does not save data directly to the disk. Instead, it caches the most recently used information in the system RAM. If that ram space is needed for somthing else, it takes the data held in the RAM and writes it to disk, allowing faster access to recently used files.


Originally posted by cderst:



3. I heard that KDE2 takes up a lot of sys. resources like RAM (I only have 96MB). Ive heard of things like BlackBox and it seems pretty cool. How can I install that? I want KDE and blackbox and be able to switch between the two (like gnome and kde in RH6.2).


Thank you!!!!!!

with 96MB of ram, you should be ok, but 128 might be better. Helix Gnome will run fine in 96MB of ram though.



------------------
This space For Rent

[bobarian]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by cderst:
[B]


SO my questions are as follows:


1. I've downloaded the latest version of Linux Mandrake of their FTP. So now, all of the files (including RPMS) of the /Mandrake and /images are on my single-partitioned FAT32 20GB Hard Disk. How do I start with the Hard Drive installation...I know I have to have hd.img file used on the boot floppy, but do I have to partition anything? I want to keep my current OS, Windoze 98 SuckyEdition as well. I have Partition Magic 5.0...so do I have to create a FAT16 partition? How can I do this w/o losing my data (I really don't have time to backup 8GB of stuff)??


2. Which is better? ReiserFS or ext2? I want which ever one is faster and stable. ALso, is it possible to have ReiserFS after installing linux on ext2?


3. I heard that KDE2 takes up a lot of sys. resources like RAM (I only have 96MB). Ive heard of things like BlackBox and it seems pretty cool. How can I install that? I want KDE and blackbox and be able to switch between the two (like gnome and kde in RH6.2).


As to partitioning, hopefully you have read some install docs and have realized you need at least one partition for linux. If you want to dual-boot linux and windoze, (I recommend it if you have a problem with your install and can't get to the net http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/wink.gif, you'll have to use a prog called fips (I think that's what it's called, or something similar). It's in the dos tools directory as a zip file. Unzip it, read the docs, do what they say, and that will create two FAT partitions on your hard drive, (in linux) /dev/hda1 and /dev/hda2.
Then you copy the hd.img to a floppy, preferrably using rawwritewin, and then boot. Put the Mandrake directory at the root of your c:\ drive, and then when the install prog asks for the directory where the rpms are, you don't have to type in anything (as long as it finds the correct partition, almost always hda1).Then you copy the hd.img to a floppy, preferrably using rawwritewin, and then boot. When it comes to partition formatting, delete the /dev/hda2 partition and make a new one (or a couple) for linux. For more info you should read the install guide. http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/wink.gif

[cderst]

Hey thanks for the info! Unfortunately I don't have a CD burner, but I think I'll give the hard-drive installation a try...if it doesnt work, I'll just get the CD copy for $5...ahhh, isn't linux wonderful!