Need advice about Linux!

Hello,

I am planning to install linux on my laptop in a dual boot environment with win xp. i want one single partition for linux and win xp. i have an hp pavillion 5040 with 512 mb of ram, dvd-rom/cd-rw drive, 55 gig hard drive with 34 gig free space. I also would like it to be free.

THank You for any help!
Joseph

Try using Fedora Core. I've been using it for a while and it's by far the best distro for me. If you're a first-timer and are looking for an easy-to-use distro with all the essentials included try Mandriva (ex. Mandrake) or Suse.

You cannot install two OS's on one partition (short of DOS 3.11, but I digress into Window managers)... that would defeat the purpose of a dual boot.

Ubuntu is pretty straight forward too, and have a Live CD option.

tenjeangosi, as C:Amie mentioned, you cannot put two (full-fledged) OS onto one partition. More or less. There are special cases, but let's deal with the normal ones first.

If you want dual boot environment, you may use qpart found in most some *nix distros and resize your harddisk and create a new partition if you currently have only one partition. Be Warned that resizing partitions can somethings really mess things up ... as I learned the hard way with Mandrake (now, Mandrivako or whatever! )

You can also use PartitionMagic to resize it, but it cost $$.

Many *nix distro allows you to order CDs instead of downloading the ISOs and burning your own bootable CDs with it.

And yes, most *nix distros are free, except for shipping/handling fees, although some like lindows charge a certain amount. I tried SimplyMepis and I find it very simple to use. Pop in the CD and boot up into SimplyMepis without even installing it. Try it for a while and surf the web. If you are happy with it, then click on the install icon on the desktop and a wizard will run you through the install routine.

A few linux commands that will come useful for you ...

*nix DOS
ls <-> dir
fdisk <-> fdisk
mkfs <-> format
mv <-> move
cp <-> cpy
ren <-> rename / ren
del <-> del


Footnote: *nix refers to those distros that run on x86/i386 machines and not the commercial UNIX OSes running on commercial machines, although *nix also runs on many commercial machines! ... ok ok, by *nix, I meant linux, BSD, FreeBSD, etc

PS: and btw, Linux and BSD are based on different kernel base. While one can prob run KDE on either kernel, and hence they may appear to have the same GUI/look and feel, they are considered different OS/distros.

I would just try the LiveCDs or ....

CoLinux, previously mentioned in the H/PC Linux forum, is actually quite usable. I've got Debian Sarge running inside of XP with pretty darn good performance. Even got XMMS to stream it's sound to the windows box. I've apt-get'd a ton of stuff and all seems well.

I would say give that a shot, sure beats possibly losing all your data.

www.colinux.org

If you want to dual boot, the only way to do it safely is to start over. That means backing all your stuff up, maybe the entire windows installation, to some sort of media - i.e. dvd or other hard drive, and then start by installing windows first, in a partition size you choose (if you want to keep windows as your main distro, just leave 4-7gb free for *nix), then install *nix in whatever space is left, and then leave a few hundred mb for swap. Generally it will go as follows - start the windows install, clear all the partitions in its partition manager, make a partition in the size you choose, and install. Next install whatever linux distribution you choose. Although I do not use it, all Red Hat based distributions are good to start with, as they do a lot for you. This includes Mandriva (though it is partially Connectiva ), and Fedora Core. So I would actually suggest Fedora as an experimenting distribution. At the install, make a partition that fills the rest of your hard drive space, but leave 512mb free. Then turn those 512mb into a swap partition. Continue with the install, load the bootloader onto the MBR (master boot record), and you have a dual boot.

These are probably a lot of things that you have never heard about, but if you have a good backup (don't pass on the backup), a little experimenting won't hurt. A simple google will answer most linux questions - unless if they are why my 720 will not allow user logins! ARGH!

-There are also many great linux sites out there - the one I personally like is www.linuxquestions.org , it also has a forum that you can search through.

--If you have any install questions, feel free to post on this thread, or PM me for help.

Thanks Guys!

Could I possibly install Linux on an IEEE 1394 6 gb Hard Drive?

Joseph

If your bios is able to boot to that drive, then absolutely.

I am not as experienced with linux and external drives, but if your drive is bootable, and you start the Fedora installation (or w/e you want) it *should* show up as one of the drives that you can install too. Modern distributions should work fine. Just make sure that you can boot to it first.

Slim chance ... USB booting is supported with most new bios. Firewire is barely native in most mobos, so booting from firewire is prob a slim chance.

Thank You!
Joseph