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Hi,
I was kinda wondering that I would download some installation CD of Linux (Red Hat with KDE I suppose...), subtract 2 GB's from my NTFS partition and create from them a single FAT32 partition and install Linux there. But I know NTLDR vs. Linux would be World War III

For resizing partitions I would use Partition Magic or some kind of that stuff and I would like to try Linux on my *real* machine...
Do I am risking loss of data/unbootable the new installed Linux or WinXP SP2 by creating new fat32 partition and installing Linux there? Because I have only one partition and only one OS installed on my machine...

Doesn't Linux fry my original settings making PC unbootable? (I have some rescue CDs though... ) And how can I perform multiboot? I do not know if NTLDR supports Linux and it's filesystem...

... that flamewar about hating Linux just gived me a gr8 idea ... yeah everything happens

Thanks A LOT for your hints.

Regards
inflater

I don't think you can install Linux or any Unix-like system on a FAT32 file system.. It will lack file permissions amongst other things.

Anyway, Have fun though..

Okay, I will try to grab 4 GBs from my NTFS partition, the 3 of them convert to Ext2 or ReiserFS, and the 1 GB would be FAT32 as Linux and Windows XP can access them (in case of problems).
Okay, I've chosen my favorites: SuSE 9.2 Professional, and Partition Magic 8.

What are your opinions regarding this?

//EDIT: ... 3 GBs free, for a instalation DVD?!
I thought I can fit Linux into 900 MB on that partition

inflater

I don't multiboot/dual-boot my systems, I use a single OS on my computers..

So clearly I can't help you set it up, But I recommend using QEMU during initial testing though..

Yeah you are right, I have installed Windows NT 3.51 on a virtual PC (with NTFS ) and I would like to see the whole process of instalation first

Regards
inflater

inflater wrote:Okay, I've chosen my favorites: SuSE 9.2 Professional, and Partition Magic 8.

What are your opinions regarding this?

I used Suse 9.3 Pro for a quite a long time. It's a good distro. The only complaint I have with Suse is the lack of package management. (RPM is horrible compared to, say, portage for instance.)

Note: I don't know if 9.2 supports NTFS.

Doesn't Linux fry my original settings making PC unbootable? (I have some rescue CDs though... Rolling Eyes) And how can I perform multiboot? I do not know if NTLDR supports Linux and it's filesystem...

Linux doesn't fry anything. That's some garbage idea probably put out by someone who doesn't really know what Linux is. As for multiboot, you have to use GRUB.

* Be careful when installing Linux dual boot. *

Didn't found a link to 9.2, but quickly found a (I think legal ) to 9.3 Pro. It's a 5CD distribution, it should have KDE 3.x, GNOME etc.

How did you set up the internet connection Alboin? As mentioned I have a ADSL modem and I would like to access internet from Linux, if it would install correctly...

Does YaST from SuSE install the LILO thing? If yes, I would like to know if it can boot WinXP (of course I would install Linux only to the reiserfs/ext2 partition, not the NTFS)...

//EDIT:
Yay!
http://sourceforge.net/projects/accessrunner

That's exactly my modem chipset (actually, I have a microcom modem, but in Windows the conexant driver works just fine).
Alboin, is the GCC, make, etc. things available in the SuSE 9.3 installation CDs? Or I need to download them from the net (harder for me to compile)?

Regards
inflater

GCC and friends usually (should) come with any distro by default, however, you might have to make sure you install the developer packages when it asks you to select your packages in the installer.

Does YaST from SuSE install the LILO thing? If yes, I would like to know if it can boot WinXP (of course I would install Linux only to the reiserfs/ext2 partition, not the NTFS)..

I only have experience with GRUB. (Which, IIRC, Suse comes with.) Please make sure you check and see that it will not touch your NTFS partition. (There should be some options in one of the configuration areas of the installer.)

*Disclaimer: Please backup your data! I cannot stress this enough. Playing with the partitions can, and does, go horribly wrong. I put all my information under the BSD license.*

Also, if you're installing in an emulator first (Which, I think you are, as said above.), you might want to try Ubuntu. I've never used it, but, I hear that it's supposed to be a nice introduction into the Linux world. (Moreso than Suse.)

Okay
I do not know if you know that (:D) - but, what are the minimal space requirements for SuSE to install w/ kernel, drivers, etc. and KDE (let's just put gnome and all this things away) ?

inflater

IIRC you need 700 mb for a default SuSE install. Then you need swapspace (a multiple of the memory you have) and space to store all your own stuff

In total, 3 GiB is easily filled.

I killed SuSE off my main computer a few years back when it was being an idiot with anything that wasn't provided with the distribution, and I recently replaced my server with Gentoo since it needed an update anyway and SuSE wouldn't let me install Apache. I also couldn't find a GCC package on the distro, which plain sucked. People still say it should be there though...

The only part of the distro I still use is GRUB, since I can't be bothered to fix up the configuration and host GRUB from Gentoo. Maybe I'll kick it off once I run out of disk space and I need the extra 20GB.

Ubuntu is a rather user-friendly distro, but it is an public assault at linux security norms. Xandros is also user friendly, but unfortunately payware. For starters both are ok. (I have only tried SuSE, Xandros and Gentoo, so don't count on my experience with others. Of the three I think Gentoo is the best, but its hardly a free ride for beginning linux users.)

IIRC YaST allows you to choose the bootloader, and it defaults to GRUB. Nevertheless, both GRUB and LILO can boot windows so its not a problem if it (or you) chooses the other.

BTW The current SuSE is in the 10.x, if you want better driver support I suggest you get the latest distro. (unless your hardware is at least 4 years old, chances may be that it is not packaged in the then current kernel)

Combuster wrote:Of the three I think Gentoo is the best, but its hardly a free ride for beginning linux users.)

Totally agree. I'm currently using it as well.

Well, okay, - but 5 CD seems to be unlikely big - do I need all of CDs to download only if I want a simple graphical user Linux OS with the gnu tools like gcc, make, nasm, etc. ? I have read that Red Hat Linux isn't a bad *nix OS too...

Windows 98 SE was only 129 MB, Windows XP SP2 with SK MUI around 600 MB, and SuSE Linux is 3500 MB?

//EDIT: Just finished downloading the 1st CD and I'm installing Windows NT 3.51 into the virtual machine - there will be one NTFS disk, one FAT32 disk, and one ReiserFS disk. (formatted by YaST I suppose)

inflater wrote:Well, okay, - but 5 CD seems to be unlikely big - do I need all of CDs to download only if I want a simple graphical user Linux OS with the gnu tools like gcc, make, nasm, etc. ? I have read that Red Hat Linux isn't a bad *nix OS too...

Different distros are different sizes. If you want a more minimalistic distro, Zenwalk is quite small (~450mb) and is only one CD. Also, Ubuntu is only one CD as well. (Albeit a bit larger.)

PS: Red Hat has since been renamed Fedora. Here.

I use mandriva it works great, if you have a windows partion, its find it and will let you resize the partion, and auto set it up the space you give to linux.
It will at the end of installing set it up to dual boot, with a menu at start up.

I have done this a number of times, and i have never lot any windows data.
I have just got mandriva 2007 the full boxed set, but i have not tryed it yet.

if you do dualboot with linux, (from my experience), windows will probably do a disk check next time you boot it (i dualboot with linux and windows, and i haven't lost any windows files)