Whoever said Linux has become "user friendly" must probably be an all time Linux geek who cannot place himself in the shoes of a new user. I have thus downloaded about 5 gb of Linux text software and two full operating systems.

My issue is with Fedora Core 3. It seems it does not want to install to my system. The installation CDs checked out in the self-test and so there should be no problems with those.

What is my problem... the installation keeps popping up a window labeled "BUG" telling me that a code assertion has been activated.

I have two hard drives partitioned in the following way:
1. 80 gb split evenly in two FAT 32 partitions, the home Windows 98 and Windows 2000 respectively.
2. 40 gb split as such: 10 gb reserved for a future Linux partition, 30 gb FAT32 for extra media content (music, movies, etc.)

At boot the user is prompted between starting Windows 2000 or Windows 98. It is in effect a Windows 2000 boot sector that also allows you to use Windows 98.

Now, from what I could tell, the assertion failure had something to do with the number of heads on the hard drives.


Upon the installation failure Fedora did allow me to record the state of the system at that time, which I have attached to this...



As a secondary question... If I have since then installed another Linux, with which I had been utterly dissapointed (Unbuntu), I want to remove it from my system and reserve the 10 gb off the second hard drive for a new linux. The problem is that Unbuntu already modified my MRB: it prompts me to chose between Unbuntu and Windows 2000(*). I want to return to my old Windows 2000 boot sequence and start over. How do I do that?


(*)Windows 2000 in turn prompts me between Windows 2000 itself or Windows 98.

Here is the system status report that Fedora produced, along with the errors and bugs encountered.

http://aphextwin.goldeye.info/anacdump.txt

Tell me if you can get the file.

Boot using your Win2K installation CD, select “repair” and run “fixmbr” from the recovery console to get windows to boot directly.

Since you are having so much trouble with the free versions of linux, why don’t you buy a version that comes with installation support, like RHEL4 or SuSE 9.3.

BTW, your problem with FC3 is easy to fix. If you had just searched this forum for the answer, instead of venting about you problems, you would be up and running.

Thank you. If I might impose a little further... can you direct me to the thread that reveals the fix. I don't have a clue WHAT to search for.

I'm sorry for the rude behaviour.


Edit: Buying is out of my league currently. Not only are internet transactions difficult to do from a backwater country, they are often as expensive as Windows XP (which would partially defeat the purpose). Besides, I don't want to remain an idiot in reguards to Linux.

Putting back the stock MBR:
And if you don't have a Win2k CD handy or its repair console doesn't work for you, you can do the same thing by booting win98 command prompt only (press F8 at its "Starting Windows 98..." or boot it from the cd/boot disk) and do FDISK /MBR

Mind if I ask what disappointed you about Ubuntu? I'm a fan of Debian (the non-corporate-managed distro that Ubuntu is based on), and I've been meaning to try out Ubuntu, but haven't gotten around to it...

It doesn't come packed with mp3 or mpeg support and it doesn't have a C compiler. Though this should be no problem for an experienced Linux user.

ok in your windows directory c: or whatever click tools>folder options, scroll down to where it says hide operating system files, uncheck the box, windows will prompt saying if u really want to do this, then click apply, you may have to do this to show hidden files also,

then back in your root directory, you will see a file that says boot.ini faded because its hidden yet visable, right click on it>properties, uncheck the box that says read only.
open boot.ini with wordpad
BEFORE ANY CHANGES SAVE IT AS boot2.ini JUST IN CASE IT LOCKS THE SYSTEM
its a slim chance it would lock your computer but its still there

Now there may be a line that says
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
leave that one alone
if you see a line after or before that that says, or close to it
multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="linux distro "

then delete that line

another way u can get to boot.ini and save changes is
start>run cmd
in the dos prompt type c:
then type attrib boot.ini -s -r -h
which means attributes minus Hidden minus Read only and minus system file
use a + in place of the - to change it back
then back in your root directory click on boot.ini and wordpad should open up


however u must change this back to hidden and read only after you modify it
peace good luck and hope this helped

oh and fdisk/mbr for windows 9x and fixmbr for 2k and above has nothing to do with dual boot options
just got comptia a+ certified, not an expert but im still good

EDIT---sorry just got told by a friend that lilo and grub do change the master boot record...mbr, so boot.ini will most likely NOT be the problem, HEY at least I'm an idiot that corrects himself