Mandriva One on Inspiron B130 [solved]

[scarecrow]

VERY few linux distros can install on FAT32. The issuse is not so much security/file permissions (not supported in that filesystem), but soft and hard links, which aren't supported as well, and so most distros will fail to install properly in a FAT32 partition.

Just grasp that book you mentioned, and burn it/throw it out of the window/feed it to the rats.

The usual journaling filesystems (ext3 or reiserfs 3.6) are just fine for every average joe- just use one of them.

[mbluesucks]

Now i finallt have everything together. can someone point me in the right direction on how to configure everything to make the dual boot possible.

[ianw1974]

First, you need to make sure Windows is on your machine. Then scan the disk for errors, and defragment the drive. Then use Partition Magic if you have it, to resize the drive so that you have some space to install Linux. Alternatively, if you don't have it, just boot the Mandriva installation and choose Custom Partitioning. You can then select the Windows partition (usually in blue I think) and then resize it to the size you want.

 

I would suggest however, you make sure you know exactly how much used space you have, so that you don't try to make it too small. If you just want to test Linux, then a minimum of 10GB is OK for the install and swap file, but you would probably want a lot more if you want to keep it.

 

Your partitioning should normally consist of three partitions:

 

/ - main partition
swap - swap file (512MB is usually OK for swap, unless you don't have much memory, then increase - maybe 1GB)
/home - user directories are here

 

if you choose 10GB for linux, then don't set up a separate /home partition, just do the / and swap, otherwise you're restricting your disk space too much.

 

If you're gonna do it for a permanent install, then I would suggest something like this:

 

/ = 20GB

swap = 512MB or 1GB depending on how much memory you have

/home = rest of space you have free

 

and that should do the trick. For file system type, I would recommend reiserfs.

[mbluesucks]

I did all the partitioning and went on through the installation process and it told me to remove the cd and restart my computer. i did that and it will only boot up in windows. is there something else i need to do?

[ianw1974]

Hmm, sounds like your boat loader didn't install to the MBR. What option did you choose and where for installing it? You should have chosen MBR and not any other location.

 

Suggest going through the install again, your partitions will exist, so you can just reuse them without deleting and re-entering again.

[mbluesucks]

what is the MBR?

[ianw1974]

It's the Master Boot Record. When you reinstall, make sure that when the boot loader is being installed that you choose the MBR option. I think this is why you cannot boot the system, because it didn't install it. That is why only Windows is booting.

 

Otherwise, you should have a nice blue lilo screen, to choose linux or windows from.

[mbluesucks]

I got it to install correctly and linux will boot, but it only lets me boot linux all the time or windows all the time. in other words there is no selection screen for me to choose which OS to boot

[ianw1974]

OK, can you boot Linux, and then post the contents of your /etc/lilo.conf. Need to see what it says in here, then hopefully we can change it, reinstall lilo manually, and then have a working system.

[mbluesucks]

i figured it out. I wasn't giving the boot loader menu enough time. everything works great now. Thanks for all your help.