[Durothil]

Hi Everyone. I wanted to know how I could partition my HDD to boot up to either XP Home or some version of Linux. I run Linux on my PS2 but would like an actual working copy with a nice GUI that I could run on my desktop to simplify some of the problems I'm having learning PS2 Linux. What are the best free versions of Linux out there? Thanks all and I hope to contribute alot to this site once I have this Linux thing figured out.

[GrumpyHermit]

The most popular Linux distributions (Mandrake, SuSE, Red Hat) all perform partitioning as part of the install, if you choose to let them do so. The trouble is that unless you have enough experience to troubleshoot the install process, you can run into problems and end up being unable to boot Linux or Windows.

I haven't partitioned my own hard drive yet, but I've studied this on the Linux forums quite a lot, and the same cries for help always occur: I can't get Linux to boot, I can't boot Windows now, etc. So before beginning the install process with a Linux distro, you should do a full backup of Windows, and have an emergency boot floppy available.

Another option is to partition the hard drive using a third-party app, such as Partition Magic. Then when you install Linux, all you have to do is install it to the partition you have already prepared for it. In the cases I have studied using this approach, results were usually good.

You generally don't need more than 10 or 15gb for a Linux partition.

The easiest solution, if your computer tower will accommodate it, is to install a second hard drive for Linux use; it doesn't have to be a large one. This spares you the heartache of worrying about data loss and reformatting if you mess up the Linux install.

As for free Linux distros, you can download most, if not all, of them. You can get the ISO downloads for all distributions here. The downloads typically take a half-hour or more, and should be verified by checksum after downloading. Then you must burn the ISO's to a CD, which you will use to do the install; a lot of people have problems with this step, including myself. I finally had to order some discs online because I was unable to burn the ISO's and get a bootable disc out of it.

You can find discs online very cheap, especially on eBay; the versions you'll want to get are the community versions, which are typically only a few dollars apiece, and are basically download versions verified by checksum.

A great way to experiment with Linux without installing it to your hard drive it to get a live cd version of the distro; Mandrake, SuSE, Linspire, Knoppix, Morphix and Linspire all offer this option. If you find yourself satisfied with the performance of the live CD, you have the option of doing an install of the full distro.

[JustDesi]

I've got WinXP and Mandrake 10 and took me a while but its nice and smooth now...
First of all...( i learned this the hard way )... install your win xp first... or if u don't wanna format your hard drive then back it up and create the partition.
After that install Mandrake and select Grub as your bootloader... I'm pretty sure its Grub and that should recognize both OS for you... from there you got 10 seconds to choose which one to run g'luck

[saikee]

Basically one need empty or unallocated hard disk space to install a Linux. Alternatively one supplies an existing partition to Linux to format it.

A Linux generally needs two partitions. Grumphermit is on the generous side as I don't give any of my 15 distros more than 10Gb. 5Gb works for most single-CD distro. My 200Gb drive has 28 partitions in readiness for a few more Linux.

Linux uses a scratch area called swap partition and it has to be 2 to 3 times of the size of the physical memory of the PC. The swap partition is common to all Linux systems.

The best way to find which one is better is try as many as you can because the age of the kernel and the way a distro has been packaged can react differently to your hardware. One's good distro can be bad for you if it does kick start your video card.

Installable Live CDs are best for beginners as they ask little or no question to fire up a Linux system for you in a few minutes. When you are satisfied then you install it. Some of the big guns can take up to 1.5 hours to install.

[saikee]

Justdesi,

You can make your Mandrake to wait 100 seconds by altering the statement

timeout 10

to

timeout 100

in /boot/grub/menu.lst

You should tell Linux what to do, not the other way round.

[Durothil]

Thanks guys I guess I will wait until I build the computer on my sig this weekend then turn this one I'm on into the Linux machine. I'll get back with you after I get everything done.

[saikee]

To me if you don't put Windows to go with Linux in the same hard disk, that isn't a challenge at all. As long as you put the selfish Window in the first primary partition you can rewrite the MBR a hundred time and that Window is bootable and you can always revert back by restoring the MBR using the original CD or just a DOS floppy with the fdisk.exe program in it.

For a 80Gb hdd I would have

hda1 15Gb for Windows in NTFS files
hda2 5GB for sharing common data in FAT32
hda3 not used
hda4 extended partition created automatically as soon as logical partition is formed
hda5 swap partition of 3 Gb
hda6 first Linux 10 Gb in ext3 files for big gun like FC2
hda7 ditto 10 Gb for Suse, Mandrake, Slackware or Debian
hda8 another Linux come in one CD 5 Gb each
hda9 another Linux come in one CD 5 Gb each
hda10 another Linux come in one CD 5 Gb each
hda11 another Linux come in one CD 5 Gb each
rest of the space for the rainny day.

Placing the swap partition in the first logical partition has the following advantages

(1) The first logical partition is always No. 5 (first 4 are reserved for primary)
(2) Swap partition is not bootable and its boot sector is empty and physically at the same location as the extended partition which can be made bootable. Thus one can have 4 partitions to choose for booting. MBR is the boot sector of the hda1
(3) It is easy to remember.

Have fun! and feel the power of Linux.