no21 Posted March 18, 2004 Report Share Posted March 18, 2004 I am a total Linux newbie getting ready to attempt installing Mandrake 10 on my PC. I will have a second drive installed as a slave later this week, and that is the drive I plan to install Linux on. (Don't want to mess up my original drive/data.) I downloaded all three .iso files and burned them to CD's. Are there any tips or pitfalls I should look out for before I take the plunge? Do I need to partition my new slave hard drive before I attempt to install Linux on it? From what I've read I just set my machine to boot up with the CD-ROM (with Disc1 in it already), and that starts the installation process. I guess I'm wondering if I'm given drive partitioning options during installation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted March 19, 2004 Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 (edited) Welcome! http://www.mandrakeusers.org/index.php?showtopic=12423 https://qa.mandrakesoft.com/show_bug.cgi?id=7959#c21 If you do an expert install by pressing F1 at the first screen, typing expert, and pressing Enter you do have complete control over partitioning. I can't say about the other installs becasue expert is all I've I've done for 2.5 years. I't's not hard and I recommend it. Oh, and with 10-CE you start with cd2 and insert cd1 when prompted. It's a bug Edited March 19, 2004 by bvc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pipplo Posted March 19, 2004 Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 I didn't have to start with CD2? What is this about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted March 19, 2004 Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/errata.php3 seems to only be some cdroms...random and unknown. So try cd1 first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frosterrj Posted March 19, 2004 Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 My cd1 worked ok as well, just a little slow to load the initial image, and one of the first things it asks for is to insert the the 'additional driver floppy'. Of course it cant find is since there isnt one, and I just ok or cancel through and eventually get on my way. To me this is a much improved situation over 9.2 cds since I couldnt eve boot from cd1 and even had to use the alt1 kernel to get anything going, only to have funny error messages about no PCMCIA drivers being available, update your kernel. But all seemed to be ok after rebooting. A good practice to follow is to put your swap at the beginning of the disk for extra speed, and make yourself a separate /home partition so you dont loose everything (docs, desktop stuff) if you need to reinstall. Definately make sure you select "advanced' or "expert' buttons if they are presented - the good stuff is usually there. Good luck. RF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
no21 Posted March 19, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 Great info so far. Thanks a lot. You answered my main question of whether or not I would have partitioning options during the installation. So should I just physically install my slave hard drive and let my PC recognize it before I try to install Linux to it? I guess I don't understand whether or not I'll have to let Windows recognize the new drive and then will I need to format it, etc, etc. Or can I just physically install the drive and immediately begin the Linux installation? (Thanks for being patient with me.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveAmbrose Posted March 19, 2004 Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 Do I need to partition my new slave hard drive before I attempt to install Linux on it? The simple answer is no, you do not have to partion the slave drive before you begin the install. I am not using 10, but 9.2 and it should be the same. When you insert your cd, and boot the system, the cd rom will boot your installation process. It will come to a point in the install process where it asks you about partioning. The thing to make sure is that you install linux on hdb and not hda. Hda == your master drive and Hdb == your slave drive. (I am a linux newbie also and believe this to be correct information.. if I am wrong, I am sure someone will correct me) Welcome to linux!! Regards, Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarissi Posted March 19, 2004 Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 (edited) You should have a Minimum of 3 partitions for Linux: Root, Swap, and Home (/, linux swap, /home). Don't skimp on / space, since /temp and /usr are in there and /usr is the big one. Make your swap partition to be 2 GB in size. Use the rest of the drive for /home. ReiserFS is what many of us use. You do have to use 'Manual Partitioning' option and don't forget to format the partitions. Edit: You are going to need more than an 8 GB hdd. :D It takes about 2 gigs for linux itself, plus you need space for addon programs and such in the root partition, not to mention space for /tmp and /var. For a 20 GB hdd, I would recommend 8 gigs for /, 2 gigs for swap, and the balance for /home. My primary linux hdd has a 20 gig /, 2 gig swap, and 120 gigs for /home. My mixed OS drive has a 2 gig swap and a 12.xx /tmp. My drives: hda is windows only, hdb is fat32 and linux, hdd is linux only. (hdc is my DVD/CD burner). Edited March 19, 2004 by Sarissi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
no21 Posted March 19, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 I'll need more than an 8 Gb hard drive to install Linux? Really? It seems like I've read that it doesn't need more than 8 Gb, but I'm pretty new to this so I don't really know for sure. I've also read enough to know that different people have different opinions on how much space to allocate for the swap partition (as well as the other paritions, too, I guess). Anyone else able to verify that I'll need a hard drive bigger than 8 Gb for my Mandrake 10 installation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sitor Posted March 19, 2004 Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 You can install Mandrake on much less then 8GB, but that of course depends on what of Mandrake you install, the amount of space you want to foresee for your own data, ... The amount of space required for SWAP is something you need to decide however. 2GB seems very much too me. There seems to be no clear cut answer as to what is the correct figure. Up till now the rule of thumb I have seen used most is to have the SWAP about the same size as the physical memory of the machine (don't know where that rule comes from, or what it is based on though). I can testify however that 512 MB lets you have a machine running very OK. Depends naturally if you use a lot of memory hungry apps or not. A lot of success! Ciao, Sitor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted March 19, 2004 Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 I was simply trying to point out that from what I've seen, if you have xp, partition first. I do not know if this applies if you have and are installing to a 2nd hd, which is why I posted the links. 2gb for swap? For normal use and 98% of the machines out there that's overkill, bigtime. On my old Celeron 600 w/ 192mb ram and 10gb hd I never used more than 400mb and that was extremely rare. My swap was 500mb and uually only 100-200mb was ever used. You're safe with 500-750mb unless you're devel. You can install everything on all 3 cd's to / 4gb and that includes /home. Space will be tight not long after install though and you'll need to keep an eye on it. You'll never install everything on all 3 cd's though, well it's highly unlikely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
no21 Posted March 19, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 Thanks for all the feedback. I'm shocked at how quickly everyone is responding. It's great. Well, the slave drive I keep referring to is only 6.4 Gb, so I'm happy to hear that it sounds like 6.4 Gb will be big enough for the installation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antoniofh Posted March 19, 2004 Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 I'm not sure about everyone else but during my partitioning section of the install I had the option to "auto allocate". I just clicked on the drive I wanted to use, clicked on the auto allocate button, and that was it. Oh and if you have a USB mouse, you may lose it during install. It happened to me and I've heard a lot about it happening to others as well. There are fixes for this though, so if you have a usb mouse try reading up on them before you start the install. I was able to fix mine, but I have no idea how. It just decided to work after have a dozen reboots :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frosterrj Posted March 19, 2004 Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 I installed with USB wheel mouse and never lost it. It does get "lost" after awaking from a suspend, though, and only re-booting brings it back. R Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
no21 Posted March 20, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 So do I need to format my slave drive as NTFS or FAT32? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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