Can I install linux on blank half of Hdd?
 

Currently I am running win98 on a soyo 6BY+IV mobo, PII350 MHz
maxtor 20GB hdd ATA66, two floppies, magic spin 40x CDROM, Plextor Writer 9/4/32A . I have my hdd divided in half - and now want to install Linux v1.3 on the blank half of the hdd. I want a dual boot sys that allows me to keep Win98 on its existing 10GBs and install Linux v1.3 on other 10GBs of my hdd. Linux is a personal learning proj. for me and need to keep win98 as my functional sys. What do I have to do?

sounds like you've already taken a few steps in the right direction. i'd highly recommend that you purchase a linux distribution from pretty much any computer store - i'm not sure what linux version you're refering too with 1.3, but here's a list of ways to install, in order of ease (IMHO):

mandrake
redhat
suse
caldera
debian
download an iso
linux from scratch

so... if you want a REAL learning experience, go with linux from scratch ;). however, i wouldn't genuinely recommend that to anyone i didn't hate. so, if you want something easy to setup, any of the first three are pretty easy. debian can go smoothly sometimes, but it's the distro that stays the closest to a purist's linux, so installing it can be a real learning experience. i started out with suse 6.4, but i've downloaded and upgraded so much that it's not anything close to a pure distro version. also - DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES INSTALL FROM A MAGAZINE CD!!! those things are evil.

Magazine CD?
 

The CD I have came with a SAMS How to Use LINUX book. I thought I cld install this older version and learn then upgrade as I learn how to. What I am not clear on is how do I designated the clean half of hdd for Linux to install onto? Thanks isajera

Caldera is usually ok. i've honestly never heard any reviews of linux from books... so i couldn't say one way or the other. but, the first step is going to be to partition the hard drive up. i don't know if caldera comes with an program to partition the hard drive during installation. i would assume that it does, but your book would probably have more information on it. read everything you can find in the book on partitions and partitioning- particularly the installation sections.

if you've already paritioned from DOS using fdisk, then you've got your drive sectioned up, but the DOS fdisk can't create the correct format for linux. this isn't a big problem... the second partition just needs to be reformatted. - don't say yes to any format questions if you're not sure that you're not formatting your windows paritition.

the installation program should ask you what part of the drive you want to designate for linux, so, if you've already partitioned your drive, then i'd suggest sticking the cd in and seeing what happens. if you have any questions, or you're not too sure whether you should proceed past a certain step, just post here again. i'm going to sleep now tho... i'll check back again tomorrow.

thanks...
 

Good night isajera, till later

Install Linux on the last 10GBs of a 20GB drive? Hmmm....
 

I may be totally off base here but I think you must have your bootloader installed within the first 8GB of your drive. If you install all of Linux in the last 10GB of your drive LILO won't be able to boot Linux for you. I HIGHLY recommend getting PowerQuest Partition Magic before trying your Linux install. This utility allows you re-size, move, re-name and diagnose your HDD and its partitions. Partition Magic allow includes a really cool boot manager.

Here's how I would handle your situation:
1) Get and install Partition Magic.

2) Create an extended partition in the free space of your drive, say 10GB in size.

3) Create a 5GB logical volume (Fat32) within your new extended partition. Windows will now show that you have two hard drives, C and D.

4) Move what you can to drive D thus creating free space on C. The point here is to make your Windows boot partition small enough to allow for a bootable Linux partition that starts below the 8GB boundry. Windows 9x must boot from a primary partition and it must be the first partition after the MBR. Linux can boot from a primary or an extended partition and it doesn't care if its the first, second or fifth OS on the drive! It's very multi-boot friendly.

5) Install the boot manager on Windows. Now when you boot you'll get a menu to select the OS you want to use. Since Linux is not yet installed there will be only one choice, i.e. Windows

6) Using Partition Magic, re-size Drive C so that it is at most 6GB in size.

7) Now resize the extended partition so that its lower boundry starts right after the C partition and within the first 8GB of the physical drive.

8) Move the logical FAT32 volume to the end of the extended partition. Now you have space for Linux that begins below 8GB.

9) Make a Linux ext2 partition of suitable size and a Linux swap partition within your extended partition.

10) Now install your choice of Linux distro. WARNING. Be sure that LILO is NOT -repeat - NOT installed in the MBR (master boot record). If you put LILO there you'll probably hose Windows.

11) Reboot. The boot manager will come up with only Windows available to boot. Start Windows and go to the Boot Magic Configuration Utility. Add Linux to your boot menu. Reboot. Choose Linux. Viola!

Seems to have cropped up a lot recently.... this 1024 cyl thing.

All the above is fine, but if you have an distribution with lilo version > 21.3 then you shouldn't need to worry about that. such distros are rh71 and mandrake80

Newer LILO version. Please elaborate...
 

This newer LILO, does it allow Linux to boot from any cylinder? Or do you mean that LILO can be safely installed in MBR. Or both?

Well in hteory lilo has always been safe on the MBR, the new chanes just properly support LBA32 drives fully, so the 8.4gb limit is theoretically totally removed

Confused???
 

So can I reformat using support for a large disk using 32FAT install Win98 and still be able to install LINUX Ver 1.3 not 21.3 Chris. See some of the literature says u cannot install a second OS onto your system if you have installed windows using the large disk support? Please clear this part up for me and I will be able to get the rest. Thanks for all your support :)

OK, right. Linux 1.3 does not exist. You don't buy the new version of linux. You buy (or rather borrow / download etc.. ) a distribution which is compliant with a defined linux system. Redhat, Mandrake, SuSe, Slackware, Corel (ahem), Peanut, Phat etc... all piece together there own set of programs, which constitutes a linux operating system.

not a very good definition but it's the best i can think of at the moment.

lilo is just a VERY VERY small part of linux, even though it is generally pretty important to get the thing loaded.

A very brief check list for installing a dual boot system would be...

1) boot to DOS from floppy.
2) Partition new HDD using FDISK: create a Prmary Fat32 partition, taking up as much as you want. This is where the lilo thing comes into play... redhat 7.1 and mandrake 8.0 and otehr ones i don't know shouldn't care how big this partition is. older ones may well get rather miffed at it. I've personally played it safe and have a 4gig windows OS drive, and a second larger Fat32 partition filling the rest of the drive after linux. I think it helps to keep things under control.
3) Install windows.
4) Play Minesweeper for 9.7 seconds on easy setting.
5) Install linux in the free space on the HDD. Mandrake and Redhat etc.. allow you to easily define how much size you want.

all there is to it, at a simple level. I've had troubles creating the second fat32 in teh extended partition, I ended up defining it with linux fdisk.

<edit>
Ahem... ok so it's Caldera OpenLinux... I don't know a thing about it over any other distros. If you're a newbie, i'd recommend leaving that to gather dust and get some mandrake 8.0 disks.
Actually looking at caldera.com... OpenLinux 1.3 came out like... 3 years ago... i think. Seems to be on version 3.1 by now. Definitely not somethign you want to install. Redhat 7.1 or Mandrake 8.0 it's up to you... If you've not got a fast net connection, you can buy cdr's on the net for next to nothing. Well worth the extra few days wait.
</edit>

Can an older ver. be upgraded?
 

Chris, Panzergrenedier thank you. But can I install an old ver and then upgrade the kernal to newer ones? Or is that limited between distributor.

Upgrading the kernel is supposed to be fairly simple. Real Linux hacks do it all the time. Me, I just get a whole new distro and re-install. It's cheap. My first Linux install was on a PowerMac 7500 using FTP. Later, I bought a teach-yourself-Linux book that came with a Caldera distribution for Intel and installed that. Not too long after that I saw Mandrake 6.5 sitting on a shelf in box that promised lots of goodies so I plunked down $29 and installed that, junking the Caldera distro in the process. My advice: Don't sweat it. The best way to learn Linux and learn how to OPTIMISE the installation is to install it, play with it, junk it, install it again a different way, junk that, etc.

However, if you're going to run Linux in a dual-boot environment with any version of Windows you'd be better off if you get Partition Magic first. (I don't work for PowerQuest or sell software so I'm not shilling.) Just to be able to see a graphical representation of your partitions, color-coded by file system is worth the price of admission to a newbie. PM has saved my bacon more than once and is worth every penny.

Panzergrenadier
 

Is Partition Magic Ver 4.0 alright or do I need a newer version?

It is possible to install an older system and upgrade. But you are going to get countless dependencies failing left right and centre as soon as you start installing downloaded programs. Linux only started in 1991 so 3 software from 98 IS relatively old and outdated.

As far as partitioning goes Mandrakes DiskDrake is extremely powerful, and does all you would really need to install linux, when resizing partitions etc..