Installation help

[Guest kn_san540]

I Have already given a query in this section and it the second of it in same regard

 

I learnt something by seeing and reading about linux

So I wanted to install Linux into my system

 

My System Configuration is

Intel Celeron 850 Mhz with in built sound and graphics

20 GB hard disk

128 MB Ram

52X CD-ROM

1.44 Floppy

A 56 kpbs Motorola Modem

 

But the problem is I want to keep Win xp as well as Linux both on my system, B'coz

some applications do need winxp

 

I have 4.5 GB free space..can I install Linux on to this partion

And

I want to get TO SEE BOTH WINXP AND MANDRAKE LINUX 10.1

At the start up may be like this

 

Choose the operating System you want to

 

1. Windows Xp

2. Mandrake Linux 10.1 Community

 

Actually my hard disk is partioned into 4 parts each of 4.5 - 5 GB Space

C:\ drive has Winxp

D:\ [EMPTY]

E:\ backup files and imoprtant projects

F:\ MP3 Songs

 

I want to install in D:\..drive of 4.5 Gb empty space and have dual boot option at the

Startup

 

Please also tell me the care I should take care while formating this D:\ drive and installing

i do not have any idea with LINUX

 

 

When during the installation I get this message which one should I select?

May be it is between the first two?? I want a confirmation on this I am very new to

Linux. I am installing it for the first time

 

Where do you want to install the boot loader?

 

* First sector of drive (MBR)

* First sector of the root partition

* On Floppy

* Skip

 

Which one should I select??????? Plz tell me

[kompact]

I am a nub as well. I have XP on a 60GB drive and Mandriva LE 2005 on a second 13.5 GB drive. Installing Linux to my second hard drive was a breeze. See this. As it was so easy you should think about forking out $40 or so on the smallest drive you can get (40GB these days).

 

The reason I say this is that you will end up loving Linux and wish you had more space to play around with. Linux also uses a partition for swap, which will eat into your 4.5GB of usable space.

 

Other then that one of these others guys who knows what he is doing will no doubt help you out = }

[AussieJohn]

Yes you could install Mandrake onto what is now your spare D:\ partition

When you commence the install, choose the "expert" choice so you can repartition that partition and thus be able to divide it so that you have approx 500mb partition for /swap and about 750mb for a /home and the remainder for root which is / . However you have / then /swap then /home in that order. All three need to be reformatted to ext3 rather than native.

When you do your install, I recommend you choose GRUB as your boot loader and choose to install the bootloader to the MBR.

When you reboot you will see your windows and your Mandrake listed and it will be just a matter of clicking which one you want to enter.

 

Note that Windows will no longer see that former D:\ partition. This is a start.

 

May I seriously suggest that you install the Mandrake 10.1Official Edition rather than the Community Edition which did have a few problems that were eliminated in the Official Edition

 

Please let me know how you progress.

 

Cheers. John.

[Arne]

Dear John,

Since I am new to LINUX after more than 20 years with windows I am scarred and curious about the 10.1 installation. I have written to Mandriva the following question, but was surprized to have to pay 30 Euros per question so I dropped it.

 

> I am sitting her exited and curious with a downloaded 6.CD of version

> 10.1. which I received from friend. I have a desktop and an old IBM Notebook (model 600, Pentium II, 266

> MHz, 128 MB RAM and FAT16) with 5 GB disk divided in two partitions: C

> partition occupied with Windows 98 SE and de-fragmented and D: Partition which earlier was

> for windows data. I have cleared (deleted all) D partition and run scan

> disk with no error's, D partition is 1.9 GB, FAT 16. The C partition is

> almost full with windows and data (ca. 10% left). Therefore I worry that

> the Linux installation will mess up my windows partition.

>

> Do you think 1.9 GB is sufficient for a start and learn period? If yes, what sizes should it be for the 3 partitions?

>

> When I start the installation will it automatically find and choose the D

> partitions? If not what option should I use under Linux partition

> installation: USE FREE SPACE or USE FREE SPACE ON WIN partition ?

YOUR COMMENT ANSWER THAT ALREADY "EXPERT"

>

> Or, in order to secure a complete installation I could combine the two

> partitions into one, before start installation and then USE free space on

> Win. Would you recommend this as better than the previous.

 

After I have read a lot in this forum, I wonder if 1.9Gb is really enough. Since I have my Desktop PC with everything I hardly use my notebook at all and therefore willing to scrap windows on this notebook. Do you think this is the best solution?

>

I will be ever grateful if you could give your advice.

Have a nice day

Arne

[AussieJohn]

Sorry Arne, but the size of the partition you have available really wont be anywhere near enough for a normal Mandrake/Mandriva install.

This does not mean it can't be done because a Linux user of reasonable experience could do it easily but a beginner has to know what and where to leave out to obtain a skinny system.

If you want to have a crack at it by all means do so.

You will need to subdivide that partition into 3 partitions. One at least 250mbs for /home (where your personal account will reside). One at least 300mbs for /swap (pseudo memory).

That would leave you with approx. 1.35gbs for / (which is the root partition and the heart of the system). Remember my other suggestion in the earlier post as well.

There is no need to interfere with your Windows at all.

But before starting to try the install which is not hard but is not the same as a Windows install,

please visit an excellent web site where its owner has set up a complete tutorial on installing Mandrake in particular. He walks you through the entire procedure with graphics screen shots as well. http://www.mandrake.tips.4.free.fr/install101.html

 

Sincere big welcome to our Mandrake/Mandriva world and our users board.

Keep in contact and let us know of whatever difficulties you encounter. You won't get the RTFM treatment from our members.

 

Cheers. John.

[Arne]

Sorry Arne, but the size of the partition you have available really wont be anywhere near enough for a normal Mandrake/Mandriva install.

 

 

Thanks for your advice John,

You overlooked my third option. To give up Windows in the Thinkpad, since I have my Desktop with XP.

That means the Notebook with 5 GB only for Mandrake Linux 10.1

I have decided to do that. Can I still use expert mod to use file format ext3? or is it simpler to install the default? I have read in this forum that ext3 is faster than ext2.

 

Thanks again

Arne

[AussieJohn]

I am not at all familiar with what a Thinkpad is or even looks like.

 

I am not sure whether there would be any difficulties with that idea.

 

It is recommended that you use the ext3 nowdays. It has more to do with the ability to protect files better rather than speed. It is now the default as far as I know.

AdamW could tell you more about the importance of ext3 than I can. I just use it.

 

Hang in here and I am sure others may have some help advice for you as well.

 

There is nothing to be scared about trying Linux.

I have only been using computers for the past 5 yrs (Mandrake for the past 3yrs and Win2000-Pro for 4.5yrs and Win98Se before that) and am self taught by trial, error and helpful people here at MUB and elsewhere. I am no geek I can assure you but I enjoy using and experimenting with Mandrake/Mandriva and so will you. Before long you will be dumping Windows altogether as I have practically done to all intents and purposes.

I maintain a fully up to date Win200-Pro which I paid for, only for the odd thing that can only be done in Windows ( not into games) to help some friends from time to time.

 

Cheers. John

[arctic]

umm.. john, it IS possible to install mandriva on a 1.35 gb partition. you simply need to adjust the package-installation manually. there will be a lot of stuff installed by default that joe average NEVER needs. and if he skips kde and gnome as desktops, the system will only need rougly 700 mb with standard apps installation.

simply make your choice and install the stuff you need. it IS possible. (i had a mdk 10.1 installation on less than one gb for testing purposes once... with icewm as default desktop, of course)

[arctic]

I have decided to do that. Can I still use expert mod to use file format ext3? or is it simpler to install the default? I have read in this forum that ext3 is faster than ext2.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

ext3 is imho the best solution concerning file formats. it is the journalized version of ext2, thus it is slightly faster but the important thing is that it is safer for your system as it can automatically rebuild system trees and journals once you manage to crash your box. also, ext3 has some advantages to reiserfs if you need to tweak some system-files, but that would be too much geek-stuff now...

i have all my linux-boxes running on ext3 for years and i never experienced any problems with it. all files are safe, the systems are fast and rock-stable. :)

[AussieJohn]

Hello Arctic.

I realised that . That is why I said that he would need to experiment in what not to load but a newbie would not know what initially. I did not say it could not be done. You and I would know, but our new friend would not, as shown by his questions and I suspect he does not want to experiment too much for fear of damaging his Windows OS. If he leaves out Gnome and or KDE he will really feel all at sea and that is not a good feel for a newbie. I am guessing Arne may be an older person like myself.

(Arne if you are not, then I hope you will not be offended for my thinking so)

 

A good explanation of the ext3 aspect. Thanks.

 

Cheers. John.

[Arne]

Hello John,

You are perfectly right I am an old/young guy of 66. Thinkpad is a high quality Notebook/Laptop made by IBM. Previously rated as 100% IBM compatible among window and DOS users. As far as I know it still is.

 

Yes I am looking for a system with a graphical interface because I left down DOS for MSWindows version 1 in the 80 ties and have been trough all windows version until XP now with service pack 2.

 

Concerning ext3, Is it default in Mandriva 10.1 official with 6 CD Distribution downloaded in April last month?????????. Where in the forum can I find a detail a explanation of ext3?

 

The third option means I delete and format the whole disk (5 GB) with the Linux installation to use only for Linux. I think this is much easier and I still have my Desktop for Win intact.

 

Take care

Arne

[Arne]

Dear John and artic,

Installation done but the notebook will not boot.

 

Rescue gives the following resume:

 

Installing driver yenta_socket (for "Texas Instruments!PCI1250 PC card CardBus Controller")

Installing driver usb-uhci (for "Intel Corp. |82671AB PIIX4 USB")

------"---------- usbkdb

------"---------- keybdev

Packdrake: unable to find file keybdev.ko in archive /modules/modules.cz

Can't find module keybdev

failed

Installing driver sonypi (for "Intel Corp. |82371AB PIIX4 Bus Master IDE Controller")

Packdrake: unable to find File sonypi.ko in archive /modules/modules.cz

Can't find module sonypi

failed

 

Please wait, trying to find your root device....

-- found a mandrake root partition on /dev/hda1

-- type ext3, version 'Mandrakelinux release 10.1 (Official) for i586'

 

Mounting other partition from fstab on /mnt.....

/dev/hda6 on /mnt/home type3

 

Your system is ready on /mnt.

 

/mnt/etc/lilo.conf isn't readable, exiting

 

quote ended

This is a total transcript of the screen text after using "Rescue"

 

Sorry have I done something wrong or what????????

Can anyone help me.

If yes please be very specific in advice on how to solve it since Linux is totally new to me.

Please hurry up.

 

Thanks Arne

[ianw1974]

Sounds like you have some partition problems!

 

This is what I suggest you do, since the system won't boot and it can't read your lilo.conf.

 

First, boot from the Linux 10.1 Official CD up to the point you can start to install. Go through this, and then when you come to configuring disk, choose the option that allows you to change it (I can't remember the wording).

 

Are you wanting to just use Linux on the laptop? If so, delete every partition that exists. Then you want to choose EXT3 and set the required size for the partition. You will need to leave some spare for your swap partition, which is normally your memory x 2. So, if you have 128MB ram in the laptop, set the swap to 256MB. Also, you don't need to set a HOME partition. This is just to keep your user files separate in case you upgrade the system at a later date. I only have two partitions, one for / which is 3.5GB and SWAP which is 512MB.

 

Then continue through the installation. If you get asked about where to install LILO, make sure it is in the MBR and not the other options. This may be why you have boot problems now.

 

Give that a shot, and let us know how you get on. Since the install only takes about 30 minutes, this is your easiest route to fixing it as it stands.

Edited May 6, 2005 by ianw1974

[ianw1974]

As another note for file systems:

 

EXT2 is similar to EXT3 except no journaling. This means if your system crashes it will be harder to recover from.

 

EXT3 is the same as EXT2 except has journaling meaning that if it crashes, it can run checks on your system and sort itself out.

 

There are other journaling file systems like Reiser and XFS of which all have different advantages and disadvantages. Stick with EXT3 it'll do all you need anyway.

[AussieJohn]

Hello Arne.

 

I think you need to follow ianw1974s suggestions. And thanks for coming in on this IAN.

As much as I would like to, I cannot help you with a laptop style problem because I only have experience with PCs. The laptop type world is quite different.

However I will still follow things and help where I can.

 

Slow down Arne, I know you are itching to try out your Mandrake10.1. You will get there soon enough. :D :D :D

 

Cheers. John.