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Linux Problem solving for all open source distributions of Linux, such as Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora, RedHat, Suse, Mandriva and other proprietary unixes such as Solaris, SGI Irix. Newbie friendly too! |
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#1
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A Few Linux Questions
Hello,
I run XP but was thinking of giving Linux a go, after hearing such good things about it. - I'm aware there are many distributions available and this is my first stumbling block - which one is the best or offers the most 'stuff'? I've heard of RedHat a lot but bar that, I know little else. - I'm aiming to run a dual boot system. This question isn't so much how to perform this (as I'm sure the question has been asked a million times before) as opposed to wondering if Linux requires a totally clean slate for which to install? I have two 80 gig drives and the primary holds XP and most of my applications and pictures, music, videos etc... - Then on the slave drive I have about 20 gigs worth of games - would it be possible to add Linux to this hard drive as it is, or would I need to : a) Partition a section on the slave, for Linux or b) Transfer all the folders from the slave drive to the primary - And finally, how hard is it to set up? I'm by no means an expert at coding and all of that kind of stuff - but I thought I would give this a go, more so for fun and/or learning purposes than anything else. Thanks for any help. |
#2
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which offers the most, check out suse linux - its one of the most popular.
I would suggest backing up anything you cannot afford to lose in your xp no matter what version of linux you use. sometimes there can be problems. |
#3
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Cheers, renegade.
How do things work in regards to applications. For example, will my home internet network still work in Linux and will my games work etc..? |
#4
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Furthermore, how the hell do you download a FULL version of Linux?
I keep seeing what looks to be like bits and pieces of a Linux distribution that I have to piece together myself in some sort of brilliant jig-saw. |
#5
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Quote:
Quote:
http://en.opensuse.org/Welcome_to_openSUSE.org - you can download suse from this site A few others you might want to look at... http://www.ubuntu.com/ http://www.mepis.org/ These three distros are all pretty good to start with. Also take a look at www.distrowatch.com |
#6
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Slogan, the linux installation cd's/dvd can be downloaded as a '.iso' image. For example, here you can download the 5-cd iso set to install OpenSuSe, or you can download the single DVD iso image. Either way, you burn the iso to disk, and will boot from the first cd in the series or the dvd, depending on which set you use. There is also an ftp-installation disk you can use, it is a single cd that installs the system over ftp/http after booting the live-cd installer.
Another option if you choose not to use SuSe is Ubuntu. The mirror page is located here. After choosing a mirror you will see a page like this, where you will want to choose the install cd for your architecture. The iso image will download, and as with SuSe you will need to burn it to a disk and boot from it. Unlike SuSe, Ubuntu is a single-cd install only, all the packages are installed after the system is installed and booted for the first time via the apt package manager. For informtion on how to burn a .iso image correctly, see this page. |
#7
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Cheers both Kage and Joe.
In regards to these option under downloads, does it matter which row I choose? ppc x86-64 x86 Can't for the life of me figure out what they represent - no doubt something easy and totally obvious. |
#8
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Most likely you should choose the x86 version
ppc is for apple computers x86-64 is for 64-bit cpu's |
#9
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As for partitioning:
If is easy enough, i would clear out your 2nd 80gig and partition while installing your distro of choice on it. That way you can have a large chunk of it (say the last 60gigs) in FAT32 (VFAT) so that both Windows and Linux can read and write to it. You can leave your disks as is and re-partition the 2nd 80 gig with either 1) Mandriva's installers offers a partition re-sizer or, 2) use a seperate product like Gparted liveCD (with its list of features here or a comercial product like Partition Magic. My vote for Distro would be either Kubuntu or Mandriva (KDE all the way ;-) ) |
#10
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Cheers gentlemen.
I eventually got it downloaded this morning around 6am - a computer on all night job but worth it, hopefully. My main drive at the moment is NTFS - is it possible to run to run the master drive as NTFS and the slave as FAT32? I assume it's perfectly possible - but not sure if it'll lead to any complications having two different types of drive on the system. Furthermore and this is where my inexperience will shine through (like it hasn't already) - What sort of practical software must I get for Linux? I assume I'm going to need the regular firewall/virus scanner and spyware stuff? |
#11
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So I would go for the 2nd 80gig: / = 10gig ext3, swap = 1gig swap, /home = 10gig ext3 and /storage = 59gig VFAT. Quote:
The Linux kernal hasa built in firewall. I would get 'Firestarter" to use to control the firewall rules you might need. Is this system connecting direct to the net or behind a network ?? If the later, then no need to have any firewall rules in place anyway. |
#12
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Cheers once again, Dave. Greatly appreciated.
Should the partitions be primary or logical - or varied? Last edited by Slogan; May 25th, 2006 at 01:03 AM. |
#13
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No worries.
Ok, good question. As long as the boot partition is primary, the rest is ok as extended. So we can have: hda1 = primary , / hda2 = extended hda5 = extended-logical , swap hda6 = extended-logical , /home Alot of my systems are like that. This is fine also: hda1 = primary , / hda2 = primary , /home hda3 = extended hda5 = extended-logical , swap Or you could do like Red Hat hda1 = primary , /boot hda2 = primary , / hda3 = extended hda5 = extended-logical , swap hda6 = extended-logical , /home I think you get the idea. |
#14
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I got the dvd to boot, which I was quite pleased about...
Specified settings and such just to see how far I could get before doing any damage - things seem to working well. However, where do you specify where the OS installs into - all I can remember is something about shrink Windows ...or something. I haven't partitioned the second hard drive yet - because I can't find a tool to do so...PartitionMagic demo lets you see what it does - but doesn't actually do anything and Partition Logic just didn't work... |
#15
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Thats my choice. Where you have the Shrink Windows option, you should be able to choose manual or advanced. |
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