Hi everybody--
I am looking for some help in planning.
Specific goal: Set up a Dell 4400 with WinXP-Pro in dual boot with Debian.
More general goals: I want to develop saleable support skills in Linux, at the level of writing office automation scripts, providing user training, etc (I have >10 yrs experience with this in win/dos, including a good bit of Perl work, but none as yet in Linux). I'm going with Debian because the community I'm most likely to be working with is heavy into Debian. I also want to explore the GIMP (I'm at the semi-pro level with graphics work). I expect to be working with OOo, the birds for internet access, and possibly GNU Cash for accounting.
I want Linux access to the internet and to files and printer resources on my second computer (a win98 box). These are currently linked with a hub, Linksys NICs, and peer to peer Windows networking.
I want access to the internet through the existing NIC (another Linksys card), a housemate's router, and cablemodem.
The Dell's HD is currently like so:
Code:
PARTITION | TYPE | SIZE | DESCRIPTION
----------+------+------+------------
boot | FAT | 31Mb | EISA (Dell?)
----------+------+------+------------
| | 7.4Gb| unallocated
----------+------+------+------------
C: | NTFS |11.7Gb| winXP
The boot partition is proprietary to Dell I think. It was there in the beginning, and others who have removed it from their systems have reported boot problems. I want to leave it alone.
The empty partition was done with Partition Magic v7.02 a couple of years ago. I believe I can use PM to revise this if need be.
I want to split the empty partition into three logical drives like so:
Code:
Debian: 2 Gb or less
swap: whatever makes sense
shared: 5 Gb or more (as FAT32)
I see a big advantage in a large shared partition, where I can put images that I can get to either with GIMP or with the Windows graphics tools I'm already skilled in (PSP, POV-Ray).
Are there any obvious "you can't get there from here" problems in the above plans?
TIA,
emgee