I just downloaded dragonlinux full ver. zipped. I'm running WinMe and I need to find out how to unzip and install this.
Any help would be appreciated.
flatcat

If it's a true zip file with for example filename.zip, you'll need a program that will unzip it like Winzip. At that point you would just double-click on the file and click extract and tell it what directory. Chances are that the zip will already contain the directory structure it wants so you could just unzip it to C:\
Winzip and most other good zip programs will extract tar'd files also i.e. filename.tar.gz , filename.tgz if it's one of those, but I imagine not. Once it's unzipped, make sure to read the install or readme files to find out what to do next as to install.

Thanks for the reply Taz.
I just learned a program called freezip will unzip everything into the required directory format and it does not require parameters. Supposedly I can just go to google and type the name in to locate it.
flatcat

Yeah freezip is another freeware zip program that'll work just fine. Write back if'n you run into anything.

Taz
I got it opened and it set up the setup file,kernal file, and packages file on my desktop. I forgot to extract to C:Linux when I started the unzipping and now I don't know what to do. Plus I clicked on the setup file icon on my desktop and a box wanted to know what program to use to run the file and I clicked on Internet explorer. Another mistake I'm afraid. I still had another icon of the zipped dragon file , so I started to extract it properly, but it said their was an error in file #93: bad zip file.
Maybe I should just delete all of the dragon and start over. What do you think?
flatcat

Sounds like a good idea.

Make a directory/folder in C: called 'Dragon' (or whatever you want). Unzip everything to this. Read the readme files as you will probably need to change some parameters somewhere before you can run it nicely.

Thanks for the reply Thymox. A new download would probably be best. Since I'm using dial-up, it took me 18 or so hours to download the first time. I have easy cd creator and wonder if it could be downloaded to a cd. I'm not really sure how to use the cd/rw as I've never used it before, but having dagon/linux copied might save time if I needed to d/l again.
flatcat

Hello flatcat. i have played around with dragonlinux also. Here are the steps to install.

First you need to make the directory you are going to install dragon into. Then you need something like freezip or ultimate zip to unzip the compressed file.

Once you have uncompressed the file you need to reboot your computer into MS-DOS mode. Dragonlinux will work on a fat32 partition but it will not run under a DOS window.

Reboot and go to c:\dragon\setup
type setup to start the install and then it will ask you to login as root. type root and at the prompt type setup again.

It will ask you how much swap space you want. They suggest the same as you ram.

Then it will ask you to pick the packages you want to install. All packages are picked as default. (740mb)

Next you need to allocate space for your DragonLinux. The packages are 740mb so you need at least that, but remember to add more. The maximum amount of space supported by dragonlinux is 2gb(2000mb) so don't go over that.

Now wait for it to creat the file system. Depending on your computer this could take a long time. Even on my 1.7 PIIII it took a while.

Then it will install the pacakages. This takes a while also.

Now it will ask you to reboot.

After rebooting go to c:\dragon and type dragon.

Login and now you need to setup your Slackware. (All of this is on your screen walking you through the setup.)

To run the Slackware setup type SETUP at the prompt. Remember to skip the LILO and bootdisks in the install.

Also when you are through seting up your slackware you will need to configure you Xwindows if you are going to use a GUI interface.

If you need help with setting up Slack there are alot of Very Good people here that can help you with that. Sorry, but I not one of them. I have gotten you as for as I can.

Good Luck
ddpicard

Thanks ddpicard I will save your instructions. It seems like such a hassle running dragon, especially on WinMe. I'm tempted to just download mandrake 8.1. I have about 13 gigs of hdd free and diskdrake sounds like partitioning my harddrive wouldn't be a problem. I would have run a typical linux distribution at the getgo except that I don't have partition magic. Being a virtual newbie I didn't feel comfortable using fdisk. Do you have any experience with mandrake? I was just thinking about downloading it and not using the commercial disks. Any opinions?
flatcat

When I first started I used Mandrake. I think for a very newbie it is good to start with. It will setup the partitions for you and is a very easy install most of the time. Don't know what the specs of your system is but if it can handle ME you should be ok. I used Mandrake for a while but wanted to try others. I am currently using Suse 7.2 and have a copy of Red Hat 7.2 running also. Now days most versions have graphical installs without the hassles you would be facing in Dragon. When you get more experience with linux you can always try different versions like Slackware to really get a grasp of how linux works. But that is just my opinion. Some people like learning the hard way. Good luck and have fun learning a very COOL operating system.

ddpicard

ddpicard,
Installation is the main reason I think I ought to run mandrake. I am running an AMD1.2 proc., 128megs ram, 20gighdd. I have 14 gigs of free space so I think this system can handle it no prob. The only thing I am worried about is that I will have to use a downloaded dist. Will the disk partitioner included with mandrake create any probs with the WinMe OS I have running.
I'm reading everything I can find online about it, but hearing from someone who has been there is best.

flatcat

Mandrake uses a good program called DiskDrake. It should be no problem setting up the partitions and dual booting with WinME using LILO. It's always better to go for the full meal deal than a Windows install distro. You'll get better performance and it'll truly be another OS. Especially if you are going to d/l the iso's you might as well get Mandrake.

OK, with Diskdrake (Mandrake's partition tool) you'll find that the partition types (ext2/swap/fat??) are colour coded!
Red = Linux ext2 (dark red = ext3, but don't worry about that yet)
Green = Linux swap
Blue = Windows

You can have the option of actually using Diskdrake to partition it yourself, or you can select the 'use empty disk space' and it will automagically sort out the sizes, but it won't touch the Windows partitions.

Later on you will be given the option to install a boot-loader, either Grub or Lilo. If you d/l Mandy 8.1 (that's the latest version) then you can have a nice graphical boot menu, allowing you to select Windows or Linux. It's all very easy to set up and get running.

Here's a little something on actually installing/uninstalling Mandy.

Thanks Taz. and Thymox I have decided to go with manny 8.1 and let diskdrake take care of the partitioning. I agree that putting the whole dist on its own partition is the way to go. You all do think downloading man. 8.1 and then installing would be the way to go, right.
Thanks again for all the help.
flatcat

Yep, that's what i say...Go for it. I'm sure you'll be pleased with Mandrake. Most people are. They've made a very nice distro.