PM/linux madrake!

[pink skitz]

Ok well c the thing is even though im not a new b to windows the whole concept of creating a multiple boot system is kinda alien to me (well I kinda understand whats going on but im not that confident just yet) :)
C ive installed PM v6 onto my computer –im currently running win 98 and at the moment when I run PM I have one disk in view (fat 32 type , size is ‘bout 19.5 MB and out of the total nearly 7MB is used and 13 MB is unused). And I’m not sure as to how im supposed to go about portioning my drive...do I resize my current drive-have a 7.9MB partition for win98 and then with the left over space install linux???
(I’m want to be on the safe side and ask some one rather then make a total mess out of things)
:)
Ps:what totally leaves me confused is that once ive partitioned my drive using PM how do I go about installing Linux Mandrake as mndrke uses Diskdrake so... :)

[lm72]

Could check the partition and free space because i think may mistyped amount space you have.

Or just post screen shot PM Magic screen if possible.

Alex :)

[d23]

Yeah, you probably partitioned the whole drive to be FAT32. In PM6 I think that's a dark green. If it's filling the whole length of the drive, the whole 20 megs is FAT32. Right-click on it, choose Resize, drag and drop it down to about 10 megs or something (you gotta leave some space for Windows to breath and such, swaps and all). Then you'll have 10 megs of empty space which you can then partition from the linux install process, which has a partition tool that'll know which partition is windows and which parition is un-partitioned space (ie.empty). Remember you'll have to create a small swap partition as well as your native linux partition somewhere in that space, so make the swap first.

Lastly, defrag the drive before you resize it in PM6. When PM6 has to move any data around to squish it into one area, it's slow as hell, yes, even slower than windows defrag.

[pink skitz]

*GB :)
Yep it’s the dark green.
Ok can I ask once ive resized my windows partition , do I continue to create a partition for linux using PM or shall I just insert my Linux installation CD in and follow the steps through (and use diskdrake provided to create my Linux partition)... :)
:confused: ?

[d23]

You could do it with Parition Magic, but it's probably a better idea to use the partition manager that comes with Linux. Sure, there won't be any nifty resizing bars to play with, but you'll get the picture. Just make a swap partition first (generally about twice the size of your RAM I think - my RAM was 256 so I made mine 512 in size) then a native linux parition to mount the root directory in. You can make partitions for lots of other areas like /usr, /var, or whatever you like, but since you're checking it out, just mount the whole damn thing in the root of the native partition and start installing to that partition. Just be careful when installing that the parition manager that comes with Linux doesn't want to format the non-linux partitions. It'll want to do the linux ones though, so just keep your eyes peeled for what's being formatted or you'll lose windows. Parition Magic also has a boot manager. It's cute, but use whatever comes with Linux (probably LILO) or install it with the option to boot off floppy so you can re-install Windows if you have to. Re-installations of Windows will destroy LILO.

[pink skitz]

Gonna be a pain again but like I have 511mb of RAM on my comp so should I just double that amount for the linux swap partition, use about 5-6 GB for root +++ as long as im carful after installation using LILO I should be able to boot to windows right :)

[DMR]

With 512M of RAM, your swap partition probably isn't going to get hit much. The "double the amount of physical RAM" rule for swap size is kind of outdated, at least for a home box. I'm running with 256M of RAM and I only use a 128M swap, most of which has never been touched.

If you go with a two-partition scheme (root and swap), plan for the future by giving root as much space as possible.