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]-Black-Ice9-[
07-20-2001, 09:47 AM
Im A Newb...
OK now after we have established that I can ask my question. I am currently working on my families Dell PC running M$ 98. I want to try and run Linux but I dont have the space time or skill to parition my harddrive. Anyway, if I buy another 20g, can I put that into my tower and run linux off that. Also how would I do that. And if linux doesnt work out, could run 98 OS from my new harddrive and have it be seperate from my families. Basically like a "new" computer. And how do I put access codes on the drive? Can I start the computer up using that drive and OS?? I know I have a lot of dumb quetions, btu answer them please!
Timbo
07-20-2001, 10:37 AM
Yes, you could run linux from a new drive you install. Just install it there ;) As for access codes, the easiest way might be to use a password in Lilo when dual booting. But you shouldn't need them. If your family is at all tipical they most likely wouldn't know what to do after Linux boots. This might not be the best place to ask about having two 98 installs though. good luck.
You might also want to consider something like Redhat 7.1 where you can do a 'partionless install' - you can install Linux onto your existing windows partition. Your family won't be able to get to it without booting into Linux, it stores two image files on your disk (one for the linux 'partition' and one for swap 'partition').
That is providing you have the disk space of course... (you'll need about 4GB free I think).
As for dual booting Linux / Windows, I have one *big* tip for you from past experience. Beware of booting from LILO - it has *never* worked for me yet!! If your system dies horribly after you install linux, booting off your windows boot disk and typing:
fdisk /mbr
will restore your windows system (you can now, knowing that LILO won't work, boot Linux from either the boot disk it made you or by using Loadlin (loads linux from windows, i use it) see the NHF on this site.
This has turned out to be a pretty long winded post, but I hope it helps!!
jim beam
07-20-2001, 04:01 PM
Originally posted by ]-Black-Ice9-[:
Anyway, if I buy another 20g, can I put that into my tower and run linux off that. Also how would I do that
a few ways... you can just use a Linux boot disk floppy but that can be a pain . if you use LILO then you have to manually repartition your primary hard drive and put the linux /boot directory on it so LILO can boot linux. you can also look into other bootloaders
That is the way the NHF tells you , it might also be possible just to edit lilo.conf and tell add: boot=/dev/hdb
however i cant confirm if it works because i do not have 2 hard drives
[ 20 July 2001: Message edited by: jim beam ]
]-Black-Ice9-[
07-20-2001, 05:09 PM
LILO? im REALLLY new. Anyway, so if get 20gigs, where can I download linux from? When I download it, do I save it on to the other drive? Im confused, can someone do a "step by step" after I get the new drive. Like where to get linux how to install and how to boot it up?
Panza
07-20-2001, 07:47 PM
You could get yourself phat linux web page (http://www.phatlinux.com/).
It comes with a lot of stuff, perfect for a newbie, because there is little to configure. Basically you download a zip file (242 MB) which you unzip to windows drive and -at least in the older version I used- boots through a MS-DOS batch file using 'loadlin.exe'. This had the added advantage that you don't have to confuse your family with lilo or grub when the computer boots.
You don't really need a new drive for Phat (takes about 600 - 700 MB) unless your C: drive is totally full.
Another distro you might want to give a look is mandrake http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/
This too is a very user friendly distro, but needs a bit more configuring. You'll need to partition your new drive, configure a couple of things and install lilo or grub. I believe mandrake can also be installed on top of a win partition - like Phat web page (http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/)
The following link has more info about linux distributions: web page (http://www.linux.org/dist/english.html)
Originally posted by ]-Black-Ice9-[:
<STRONG>LILO? im REALLLY new. Anyway, so if get 20gigs, where can I download linux from? When I download it, do I save it on to the other drive? Im confused, can someone do a "step by step" after I get the new drive. Like where to get linux how to install and how to boot it up?</STRONG>
A) Lilo is one of the multi-OS boot programs for Linux. Personally, I've been using it to dual boot between two hards drives without a problem, but others have had bad experiences with it. A lot of the bad rep that Lilo has is due to problems in older versions (such as the dreaded "1024 cylinder limit"), which have been fixed now. Grub is another multi-boot program that some distros use.
B) A a newbie, your best bet would be to buy the CD's for Redhat 7.1 or Mandrake 8.0; those two distros are usually considered the most "Newbie-friendly". As for downloading, the files are large, so unless you have a fat pipe, plan on a looong weekend ;) After you get the files on disk, you'd still have to burn the ISOs to CD anyway. (Yes, you can install straight from a hard drive, but its not as straight-ahead a process)
-Just my $0.02
[ 20 July 2001: Message edited by: DMR ]