hey all, new poster here...(linux noober also)

i have settled on using my sata 250gig just for linux (Mepis). ok, as i am pulling this drive out of the box i see windows needs to add a driver to it for it to work.

ok--what about Linux? or can i just plug this sata in, pop in my bootable linux cd.

will linux format the sata, add whatever driver it needs, and then install linux? is it that simple?

thx......

Linux comes with generic drivers.

Installed over 100 of them and never had to bother to find a driver yet.

cool...! so do you think my linux cd will format my new sata?

If you ask it to... nicely... (al)most certainly

I installed a new SATA h/d yesterday, win2k wouldn`t complete the set up as it couldn`t find the h/d even though it clearly shows up in the BIOS, Win98SE wouldn`t finish installing either.

Tried Fedora Core, installed with no problems, so yes you should be able to install your SATA drive quite easily.

Both XP and Win2k need a Sata driver to fed upfront. It first message immediately after booting to CD at the bottom if "Press F6 if you have SCSI drivers...." A Sata is a variant of SCSI hard disks.

Older Fedora Core, possibly FC3 and below may have a difficulty in recognising a Sata.

In theory Kernel 2.6 supposts Sata but the implementation may be incomplete.

yea, i chose scsi as the first boot device in my bios. i was like,"i didn't get a scsi drive"!, i got a sata......! learn something new everyday.

i got a great install on my sata. one of my partitions didn't take so i only have 3. on my largest area (200gig left) it says "free"! does that basically mean that it's the "home" partition?

do i need a sepearte boot partition?

Apart from the swap I religiously use a single partition for a Linux. I do believe a home user gain more bother and benefit from running multiple parttitions for one Linux.

I am of the opinion that the multi partitions are really for the servers where the performance can be enhanced and maintaining user accounts on devoted partitions and disks can be an advantage.

I don't see an advantage of keeping a /boot partition unless you PC is so old that nothing boots beyond 1024 cylinders then having /boot below that limit helps.

Having a /boot partition and a 200Gb /home is going to be tricky if the Linux does lives up to your expectation and you want to install another one. You can use resizing program to cut down the /home size.

I put most my Linux in a 5Gb partition and only a handful needs 10Gb to reside in a 10Gb partition.

In my opinion a user is far better off to partition the disk before permitting an operating to install inside.

Free means just that: it isn't used for anything, not even a partition. If you want to use this part (or a portion of it) you'll need to create a partition first.

As for a /home partition, you don't need it, but personally I find it practical, at least for my main distro (possibly not the 'test' installs of other distros. The reason is that this is where you'll put your personal files and if anything goes wrong with your install - for whatever reason - you still have your important stuff on a seperate partition. That means you can do a fresh install without wiping the /home partition and in no time you are back up and running.

You could of course use a LiveCD to extract and backup important files after a crash (if you don't have a working or complete back-up)save them somewhere else on the HDD or on CD or DVD and then do a fresh install and copy the files back, but that's quite a lot more work

I tried to install Debian the other day and my SATA drive was detected automatically with a 2.4 kernel. I then tried JuegaLinex (Debian based Spanish gaming distro) but that appeared to recognise my SATA drive, then complained it was too slow and did not allow me to parttion it or install to it with a 2.6 kernel. I suppose there's something more to it than kernel versions.

If my memory serves me right I believe Sata was offoicially supported from 2.6 kernel onward but that does not stop some distros to incorporate Sata drivers in older kernels. Debian and Slackware can make very old kernels do everthing the new ones can but there must be a limit an old kernel can be stretched.

One should be mindful that Linux relies on generic drivers whereas each Sata controller has its own driver for feeding into Windows. Thus there must be some casualities of a few Sata not being kicked into life by the generic drivers. With time the generic drivers will improve while there will be more standardisatiion by the hardware vendors. The future life for the Linux users should be easier.

hey guys,

well being a noob to Linux (Mepis), i kinda expected errors. i will probably re-install and wipe out what i have. i had to come back into winxp(a totally seperate bios and physical drive "choice" from Linux) to make this post.

i have multiple problems already:

1-i was gonna do a snapshot of my partitions but the snapshot quit working.it won't save any type of pic anywhere.
2-i originally made a root drive of 2gigs and it constantly shows FULL. and it won't save anymore files.
3-i made a linux-swap, i guess thats ok.
4-i made a 100gig home partition---i guess. i tried installing unreal tournament on it and it said full?


5-when i boot up,my username is not seen and i have to boot into the root. is that normal?
6-my only hardware(perephial)problem is when i plug my Kodak camera in and Mepis totally freeze's and i have to re-boot.
7-and lastly, firefox won't connect to the internet(though it did the first 2 days). i turned guarddog on and off--nada.

overall, i give my first Linux install a c+, not bad but am aiming towards an B+ at least

sooo, what is a good, safe,and plenty of space partition for me now on my Sata 250gig? thx for the help guys....