Ring Master Posted February 29, 2004 Report Share Posted February 29, 2004 Gday, I'm very new to linux. I'm hoping to learn with the help of Mandrake and its great GUI, hopefully move to Debian after. I just downloaded the 3 CD's. Mandrake 9.2. When I reboot the computer it takes no notice of the CD in the Drive - boots Windows XP as it would normally. I've got a Samsung DVDROM. I have no idea how to get about this, anyhelp thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ring Master Posted February 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2004 I just made a bootfloppy so it would boot from the cdimage.img on the floppy, but didnt even read the floppy during reboot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrewski Posted February 29, 2004 Report Share Posted February 29, 2004 You have to make the proper boot sequence options in your BIOS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ring Master Posted February 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2004 How would one go about doing that Andrewski? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ring Master Posted February 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2004 (edited) Ah sorry, I figured out how to do it. I got to the bit to partition, but got confused. Im going to use Partition Magic 8.0 to create a "Linux Ext3" (3GB) and "Linux Swap" (875.1MB) for some reason want let me make a partion bigger then 3.8GB event hough i got 12gig free on HDD. Edited February 29, 2004 by Ring Master Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frosterrj Posted February 29, 2004 Report Share Posted February 29, 2004 restart your computer and hit f2 or del or whatever key takes you to the set-up screen (read the corners of the black screen and it will usually tell you what key gets you to set-up) for the bios. There you check the device boot order sequence, make sure you bios is set to check the cd-rom first, then the hard disk. If that's correct you should be ok and the machine will boot from the cd, if its a good burn. Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urza9814 Posted February 29, 2004 Report Share Posted February 29, 2004 never used partition magic...I'd say try a different prog though...I didn't have to partition when I installed linux, I got a new hard drive, but I use a program called Bootitng (I think) from Cnet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ring Master Posted February 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2004 Partition Magic is very good I must add. I've done some research and need to get a grip of this whole thing. / (root) /boot /var /tmp /home /usr /usr/local I'm seriously confused there. How do I create those, also if i was to click autoallocate would it create those root dirs uptop? If not, how? Im new, sorry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted February 29, 2004 Report Share Posted February 29, 2004 You would create the partitions and then lable them during the install. Or, if you are using partition magic, you could format and name them prior to install. I have never done that, always using the Mandrake installer to create what I need. Also, I have /, /home, /usr, and swap. I have used this setup for quite a while, and find it meets my needs. You really do not need to create all of those seperate partitions. Incidently, while I never had trouble with ext3, I am sold on reiserfs, and have survived some serious crashes (due to my comp-play B) ) and reiser has given me my system back every time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ring Master Posted February 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2004 Ah, great I didn't know you could create them during install. Could you tell me the method of doing it? I've got 10GB's for the entire Linux installations, its not partitoned. I would like to use this OS as a learning OS, to learn and play with the apps etc, Could you suggest some for me, ie /root 450mb to 600 etc? same with /home. Also can i set the amount of MB or GB for lets say, /boot while creating them through the mandrake install utility? Thanks soo much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest orville Posted February 29, 2004 Report Share Posted February 29, 2004 Ah, great I didn't know you could create them during install. Could you tell me the method of doing it? I've got 10GB's for the entire Linux installations, its not partitoned. I would like to use this OS as a learning OS, to learn and play with the apps etc, Could you suggest some for me, ie /root 450mb to 600 etc? same with /home. Also can i set the amount of MB or GB for lets say, /boot while creating them through the mandrake install utility? Thanks soo much. First I'd suggest not having so much space for Linux Swap. I'd say 512 MB is as high as you should go and even then it depends on how much memory you have. A rule of thumb is to have twice as much swap as you do memory, unless you have more than 512 mb of memory. Also i'd recommend that since you just playing around you start off simple. Just create three partitions for linux, one for the root directory (/), one for the users (/home) and one for the swap. if you've got 10 gigs for linux 4.5 for /, 5 for /home and .5 for swap is what i'd do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannonfodder Posted February 29, 2004 Report Share Posted February 29, 2004 Try this.. Boot into the install CD. When you get to a screen asking whether you want to partition it yourself (custom partitioning), select the option to partition yourself. Now click the autoconfigure button, if it offers you an /usr option, select that. Once done, you can note the partition name, size, mount point on paper. Do not save yet. If you want to change any of the partition's file systems. E.g. ext3 to reiserfs or something else, then remove each of the partitions just created and re-create them, same size, same mount point, but the file system you want. I found this useful when I was just learning as auto-configure will try to setup what it thinks the partition size should be. When ready, save and cointinue install. When you get to the lilo install, just select the default settings. It will boot the computer into the lilo boot manager and then within that you will have an option for windows. Select windows to boot into the XP boot manager and then into windows. Some notes.. 1. After doing this, never use windows xp disk manager to manipulate your partition table (modify/create/delete partitions). You may lose all your partitions. XP is not familiar with some linux partition entries.. 2. If you want to install a different partition setup later on, make sure you uninstall lilo first. lilo -U and then boot into CD1 and start the install process again to get back to the custom partitioning screen. I recommend you stay away from partition magic unless you have no choice. Mandrake's diskdrake disk manager program will do what you need it to do.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ring Master Posted February 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2004 Thanks cannonfodder, I took your advise and undid all the partition I made through Partition Magic 8.0 so now I have 20GIG of NTFS space. If I read correctly, I can do all the partition work through the install. I aslo want to leave exactly 10Gig for windows, basicly Half half. 1. After doing this, never use windows xp disk manager to manipulate your partition table (modify/create/delete partitions). You may lose all your partitions. XP is not familiar with some linux partition entries.. 2. If you want to install a different partition setup later on, make sure you uninstall lilo first. lilo -U I see, But. Could I use Partiton Magic. lets say I want to edit or delete the Linux partition, could I do it through PM 8.0 and simply resize the NTFS partiton? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ring Master Posted February 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2004 (edited) I couldn't do it that way . Didn't have an option to set amount of (MB) for a new partition. Only way I think I'll be able to do is Create a partition via PM 8.0, which I did also but I when I press done it said. "need to mount on an EXT3" or something along those lines, I dont know. Can someone tell me if this is possible. Create a 10Gig Unformatted block. boot with the CD and select the unformatted block and partition it. If that'll work, Where exactly is the option to partition certain partition and will I need each for /home etc if I was to create one Block 10Gig? Ive Partitioned my HDD today about 7+times, I can't get it too work. By-far this is the most complex OS install of my life. Please help, Thanks -Pete Edited February 29, 2004 by Ring Master Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pzatch Posted February 29, 2004 Report Share Posted February 29, 2004 Just partition half of the drive with PM and format it FAT32. Linux will find it and during the install choose expert option(its not really an expert type option its just a manual check). From there you can remove create and resize any partition on any drive you want. It even promts you with corrections if you forget something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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