[fraggle]

I have a copy of Mandrake 7 on disk and was planning on running it in a seperate partition on my hard drive, I have Partition Magic but it claims not to work properly with Win ME (which I'm running), only 3x & 9x.

How hard is it to set up the partition using Fdisc from DOS?
Is Mandrake 7 ok for starters?
What problems will I encounter?
What's the best Linux book for newbies?

Sorry about the large number of questions but I've been looking forward to this for ages

[pvc9]

How many partitions are there on the harddisk?

About 'preparations', there are no special preparations for this. The most important one is allocating the space on the HDD to the OS i.e., disk partitioning. This is the step where most of the users can cause a HDD crash or total data corruption.

The easiest way would be to free a partition and then delete it using the fdisk from DOS. Moreover if you want to install the minimum req then say 2.5-3 GB of space would be more than enough. After deleting that partition start the installation and at the time where the installer would ask you about the disk space use the option Auto Allocate(could be a different title too). So auto allocation of space would be the task to do if you are a newbie. About all this I would suggest you to go through the Installation Manual for best results.

Mandrake is a pretty good distro for newbies.

You'll not encounter any problems

About the book! Check this linl - www.linuxnewbie.org

PS : If you can wait, lynch and other Linux advanced users can help and suggest more

Hope the installation completes successfully

[fraggle]

So you're saying create a suitably sized partiton and then delete that partition ? Cool, I'm guessing that this just ensures that there is enough contiguous space on the drive and in the right place and that Mandrake will create it's own partitions when I install...that makes sense.

I have 40 gig on my HDD and was thinking of giving Linux 10 gig.

I'm not going to rush into it headlong and stuff it up and will take all advice I can get on the subject.

Thanks for the link it looks well useful and thanks for the reply!

[pvc9]

You're very welcome.

Yep, that was what I meant, exactly

Its much better to install Linux on the free space on the HDD rather than delete a partition during installation! IMHO...

About the size, I think 10 GB is a lot of space for Linux. Now that you're just a newbie you wouldnt need all the programs that linux will offer. So a 4-5 GB will be more than enough!

So, if you're planning to install only Linux then a max of 5 GB partition will do it!

[fraggle]

...I can afford to be extravagant, besides I'm not planning on being a newbie forever, I want space to play!

I'd like to try coding for the platform if I can get my head around it so a bit of development space won't go amiss, I have OK C++ & Java & a little C & assembler knowledge but I'm not even starting to look for the tools for any of that just yet!

Cheers!

[pvc9]

You wouldnt have to look for the developtment tools in Linux

During installation select the Development package and all the programs/libraries and other needed files will be installed. Though I'm not sure about Java, the other languages should be installed!

Oops, sorry about the newbie thing

Ok! If you can allocate 10 GB then np at all. Do that and install Linux and hope you've a wonderful time with it...

Have a great day!

[fraggle]

No man, I am a NEWBIE and am perfectly happy being addressed as such!

I only have exposure to the 'Dark Side' (Microsoft) at present and am looking for a way to escape their tyranny.

Nice to see an OS that caters for the needs of programmers from the outset rather than one that obscures it's workings from all who aren't prepared to pay through the nose.

[pvc9]

Ok! If you dont mind it then guess I'll call you newbie

I feel so bad that I'm not using Linux right now and I've to use Win 98SE only, but will install Linux in a few days and then have fun

M$ is surely the DARK SIDE as you said! I've read that they are no more providing support for the older versions of the OS and they would provide 100% HELP AND SUPPORT for XP!

Well whatever, you've taken the right decision, LINUX is the OS to use!

[fraggle]

Vive la revolution!

If I can get my head around it then I'm going to try and persuade non-geek friends to let me sort it for them on their systems, I'd like to see open source become the norm.

I've been saying I'll try it for a while and now I can!

[pvc9]

Sure,
New age revolution...

Not sure of this but, I've heard that the new Dell/Compaq PCs are being sold with the Linux OS and not the usual M$ ones. Well, need to see if its true!

Hope you install the OS perfectly without any problems at all

Have a great day and thx for the little discussion...

[lynch]

Before you do anything go into the bios and disable Plug n Play.You dont need it for Linux (or Windows,for that matter) and it helps with hardware detection.
My first experience with Mandrake was 7.1 and thier installer hasnt changed much and is very user-friendly.
pvc9 said it pretty well.When you get to the partitioning part of the installation select the option to use free space.And when it asks where to put Grub or Lilo(I think it will be Grub) choose to install it on the MBR.
Depending on your hardware you might notice things arent configured or reporting less ram than there should be.This is normal for a version that old.
I come here everyday so if you get stuck I'll try and help.
lynch

[pvc9]

Thx for the update lynch

Just wanted some expert's suggestions too

[lynch]

No problem
lynch

[fraggle]

Cheers guys!

I know v7.1 is quite an old distro, would it be worth me downloading and burning the latest ISOs (v9 I think!) and installing from scratch with them or is upgrading relativley easy at a later date? I've only got a 56k line at present so big downloads need some forward planning!

Also, I'd like to go GUI in the not too distant future (like I say, if it's user friendlyish then maybe I can become an evangelist!), Gnome looks good. Can I run it with the Mandrake installation?

Hope you're not all getting too bored with the 1001 newbie questions, no more until I hit the hardware, I promise!

[pvc9]

About the version, its all upto you, really I mean it! But if you'd ask me ver 7 is enough for now

The installation, covers the GUI configuration as well. So you can install GNOME and if you want to the KDE too! So GUI is a part of the installation

About the last one, no we're not