This should be simple and I must be the dumbest individual on the planet!

How do I boot Linux?

My setup:

120 Gb disk initially carved out as below. The two primary partitions were created using fdisk from a DOS boot. The extended partion and it's contents (one NTFS and one FAT32) were later created with Partition Magic 8.0. This is a new disk, not a repartitioned old one.

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Primary, NTFS, Hidden, 40Gb, W2K installed
Primary, Active, NTFS, 6Gb, W2K installed
Extended Partition, containing:
__ NTFS 57Gb
__ FAT32 1Gb
__ Unallocated 10Gb remaining at the end of extended partition
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Installed Fedora Core 3, allowing it to automatically partition in the unused space. Install went flawlessly, except mediacheck failed on 2 of the 4 discs until I added "ide=nodma", and then all 4 discs passed mediacheck. Prompted me to reboot after install, and subsequently rebooted into W2K, as expected. Viewed new partition info, and noted a new 100Mb EXT3 partition immediately after the FAT32 one, and then another "Type 8E" partition of 9.9Gb immediately after the EXT3 one. I did NOT install Grub to the MBR. I was actually expected more partitions for Linux than this (/swap?) but since I don't know exactly what I'm doing here I guess what the install did automatically is OK.

Now I'm trying to guess how to boot this thing from the install (disc 1) CD. From the "boot:" prompt I have unsuccessfully tried all of the following. Obviously I'm clueless. HELP!!!

linux boot=/dev/hda5
linux boot=/dev/hda6
linux boot=/dev/hda7
linux boot=/dev/hda8

I've also tried each of the above, except replacing "boot" with "root".

No matter what I do it goes to the rescue stuff, asks for language and keyboard choices, and then asks from where (CD, HDD, HTTP, FTP, etc.) I want to install packages. I don't want to install any more packages. I just want to boot into the installation I should already have! There's no way that I can find to get out of the "install packages" area, short of a front panel button reboot.

I can find all kinds of info on the web regarding how to configure and install Grub, but it's all based on doing stuff from the Linux command prompt. I'd love to see that prompt ... but I can't seem to boot up to it.

Thanks for any help you can give this newbie! I've been a Unix (Solaris, SunOS, HPUX, etc.) user/developer for many years, but this is my first attempt at installing Linux on my home PC.

Do you want to always boot from CD, or actually install GRUB?

Samsara

I hope these two aren't mutually exclusive. For now, I only want to boot from a CD. That's not to say that I might decide to go ahead and install Grub in a few days. I guess I'd really like to know all the options for booting. CD, floppy, Grub, other boot loaders, etc. I'd rather keep a standard MBR initially. Also, if there is a way to install Grub on a bootable CD (or a floppy) so I can play with it and see if I like it before dedicating it to the MBR, that would be ideal. I believe I've seen instructions on how to do that (didn't read that in detail though), but I seem to remember that all the instructions assume you can boot into Linux to do the Grub install in the first place. Something I currently cannot do.

Thanks

OK. I finally figured out how to boot off of CD. The trick was entering "linux rescue" at the boot prompt. That was the missing piece of the puzzle for me. So I'm off and running as root on the command line now...

You should note that the rescue system is a stripped-down set of tools allowing you to recover a hosed system. It's not a real indicator of the power of Linux (and probably quite intimidating for a newbie). You might want to make a boot floppy and use it.

What is the official way for one to make a boot floppy? The command line does not intimidate me. I'm quite familiar with using Unix operating systems. Just never set one up from scratch like I'm trying to do now!