New to linux? Step inside ;) (1 Viewer)

[gray]

Okay, I'm about to format and fire up Fedora, but I'm getting the pre-partition jitters, and I wanna make sure everything's just right the first time I use Linux

Currently I have 5 partitions:

C: Windows
D: Games and Programs
E: Downloads
F: Temporary Files
G: CD Images and swap file

Now when I format and repartition my drive, what should my partition structure be like? Do I make a seperate bunch of partitions for Linux to operate in while also having my existing partitions in place?

 

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[gray]

Okay I'm (really) about to format and install Windows and Linux. Wish me luck, hopefully I'll be back in a few hours time :nervous:

btw, new avatar in celebration of my breaking out after 18 long years :stress:

 

[Martin]

You look so handsome in that new avatar

Your Windows partitions will be accessible from linux and you'll have to pay attention not to kill them while you're playing around. It's a little confusing at first but here is how your partitions look in fdisk (probably).

c: primary - /dev/hda1
d: logical - /dev/hda5
e: logical - /dev/hda6
f: logical - /dev/hda7
g: logical - /dev/hda8
linux: logial - /dev/hda9
linux swap: logical - /dev/hda10

/dev is the node of the filesystem that gives hardware access. The device names may look a little intimidating at first but it's a simple naming scheme.

hd - harddrive ide channel
a - first ide device

hda1 - primary ide channel, master disk, first partition
hda2 - primary ide channel, master disk, second partition (probably an extended partition containing logical partitions in your case)
hdb4 - primary ide channel, slave disk, 4th partition
hdc - secondary ide channel, master disk
hdd - secondary ide channel, slave disk

same for scsi drives

sda - first scsi channel, master disk
sdb - first scsi channel, slave disk

 

[gray]

:fero: I'm having a bit of trouble installing the bastard

I downloaded all the ISOs and burned them, and my first problem was that the first CD wasn't bootable. Upon inspection, I realised that there's an bootdisk ISO that you're either meant to burn step-wise, or rawrite it to a floppy. So I did that, and got to the Fedora installation screen. I chose my language etc, and it asked me where the volumes are that I'm gonna install from. I chose Local CD-ROM, and it tells me that there are no drivers for that device.

I looked around and found a few driver images (drvblock, drvnet), but i tried writing the image onto floppies, and none of the drivers seem to help. :irritate:

 

[Martin]

Hm weird. The first iso is supposed to be bootable, I tried version test2 and that worked like a charm. Sure you burnt the images right? I'm downloading test3 right now myself, will tell you if it doesn't work.

 

[gray]

Well the bootability (word?) isn't an issue anymore, because I burned the image of the boot.iso that was on the first CD, and it booted from that CD and took me to the installation screen. Now I just need a driver for my CD-ROM drive so I can install from the CDs. There's meant to be a bunch of ISOs containing the drivers you need, but none of them have worked for me :irritate:

When you installed from the CDs, didn't you need to provide seperate drivers? I find it kind of stupid, because it boots the installer program from CD, but needs drivers to be able to read from my CDR drive

 

[Martin]

Not at all, all distros boot fine from cd, booting from floppies to load cdrom drivers is definitely passé since ca. 1996. If you can't boot from the cd then there's something wrong. Have you tried booting from both cd drivers?

Booting from cd is standard and it's also the best method seeing as it's easy to repeat if something goes wrong during the install process.

 

[gray]

I heard that you have to burn the first CD step-wise, burning the boot.iso seperately and then the rest of the image. Right now I've wasted a CD burning a 4MB boot image, and it boots to the Fedora installation program but at that point forgets what a CD-ROM drive is

I'm reading some FAQS right now, lemme know if u think of a solution. Thx

 

[Martin]

The keyword is RW, dear Graham. Stops you from wasting a ton of cds on images on that don't even work. I only have two of them so I used two more DVD+RW discs to burn the whole suite.

Will do, gonna burn the first image once I get it, should be 30min if my Icelandic mirror keeps it up.

 

[gray]

Yeah, I went sniffing around for the only RW I own :sob:, but couldn't find it.

Okay what I'm gonna try now is to boot from the boot.iso CD, then switch to FC2-test2-i386-disc1 at the first prompt. Wish me luck :nervous:

 

[Martin]

You're using test2? Then it definitely should work cause I tried that myself a few weeks ago. Should be able to burn the iso in one session on a cdrom.

You can't swap cdroms like that in linux... a cd has to be mounted to access, unmounted to eject. If you boot from a cd, I don't think it'll let you umount it.

 

[gray]

:stress: It worked, I booted from the boot.iso CD, then slyly switched the disks halfway through. I think that worked because the boot.iso was meant to somehow be integrated into the FC2-test2-i386-disc1. It started installing and everything

BUT

There was a corrupt file on disc 2, the GNOME control centre or something. Now I'm mooting over whether to download the ISO again or just choose not to install GNOME and use KDE. I don't know shite about Linux so what would you advise?

 

[Martin]

Ouch.. Fedora is based on gnome mostly, KDE won't be as nice. I take it you didn't bother check the md5sums of the images? You really should when not using rw discs.

 

[Martin]

If it makes you feel any better, I've had problems like this in the past, trouble with stuff that seemingly has no reason not to function properly but alas..

 

[gray]

Damn, I was too excited about it finally working and I didn't bother checking the md5sums

Ahh crap, I tried rebooting and doing the same thing, and now the bastard won't even go to the installation screen. How the heck do I start from scratch!?

 

[Martin]

1. verify the iso's
2. burn them the classic way with nero or whatever, it really should work (you can try just the first one for starters)

 

[Martin]

Well what do you know, downloaded the first iso, burnt it, boots up fine just like always.

 

[gray]

Phew, now it lets me get to the install screen.

Okay, what I'm thinking of doing now is just installing it without gnome initially, then just installing it afterwards. I hope that's possible and I don't sound like an idiot

 

[Martin]

Not sure how successful that'll be, my experience with these distros is that it's so much easier to install from the cd, hard to even find out how to install stuff off the cd afterwards.

 

[gray]

Hmm already done, I´m on Fedora atm

I feel so stupid; first problem: My wireless mouse isn workin... wireless keyboard works fine though :undecide: