Installing Linux from ISO
 

I am a noob-and-a-half. I need MS out of my veins.

My meager system is a 2001 Compaq "Pre-sorry-o", 5000 series. Intel Celeron, 1GHz, 512 RAM.

I have the following ISO's waiting for me on my XP desktop:

debian-503-alpha-CD-1

gnewsense-livecd-deltah-i386-2.3

My current hardware issues are:
No USB boot option in BIOS.
CD unit only reads, does not write.
DVD unit sticks out the side of the machine, like a colostomy bag.
It reads and writes DVDs just fine, and will read CDs just fine, but just will not write CDs, for some reason. I think I need a bigger hammer.

Should I make a Linux partition on my HD?

I seek to wipe out and never again use MS. How can I do this? Am I Phuked?

I am utterly, hopelessly lost when I read forums such as the following:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...or-nic-749320/

Who can help? Who will put up with all my questions?

Hello and welcome to LinuxQuestions,

One idea comes to mind. Why not download the Debian DVD iso, or any other distro DVD for that matter, burn that and boot from that, since you're stating that your CD/DVD does write DVD. Then you can take it from there and most likely once you get one Linux system up and running we can get your hardware functioning at a hopefully better level.

And I'm sure that all here at LQ will be glad to help you out with all your questions.

Kind regards,

Eric

Ok, I failed to mention:
My BIOS does not allow boot from USB OR DVD. It will not recognize the DVD drive, for boot.

Ok, that limits the options. Have you tried to disconnect the CD drive and connect only the DVD drive (in master mode), change the harddisk to slave, in order to see if the DVD drive gets detected by the system at bootup? In other words, swap the DVD and CD drives but leave the CD disconnected.

Kind regards,

Eric

Also before switching the drives, with what program have you tried burning the CDs in the DVD drive? I assume you have some burning program installed on your Windows. Is this computer the only one you have in the house or do you have the option to take out the harddisk and connect it to another computer with a working CD/DVD drive?

Kind regards,

Eric

Hello Lorax,

I may have found a possible solution, at least it's worth the try. This way you don't have to burn anything, no need for changing drives or nothing, that is if it works ;)

Read this Install any distro directly from harddisk.

Let us now if it works out for you.

Kind regards,

Eric

Would I be correct in assuming that is the machine that has Windows on it AND will the machine you want to install Linux on?

It sounds like a bootable CD is really your only choice. You could ask a friend to burn off the image for you. Or if that's inconvenient it is possible to buy Debian CDs (as with other distributions).

CD details for Debian;

http://www.debian.org/CD/vendors/

If you have enough room for it and you're comfortable doing so then I would say yes. While I think Linux (and specifically Debian) is a great choice for an operating system, some people do end up feeling like it's not for them. If that's the case, with second partition you'll be able to go back to what you know.


If you delete the existing Windows partition and install Linux ... then it's gone! A lot of people find the transition awkward to start with. There's nothing wrong with that. So as above try and add a second partition if you can. Try and use Debian for your day to day stuff (email, web, etc) and see if it fits your needs. If you dump Windows, go over to Debian and then discover there's a critical thing you can't do under Debian you'll just be annoyed. Make life easy for your self and move over slowly.

It'll all still be there next week :)

Many people on sites such as Linux Questions and forums.debian.net will try and help. But as always they're only doing so in their spare time. So don't be disheartened if you don't get a response. It's nothing personal.

Good luck.

Lorax,

Your resources are just enough, in my experience it can run a one (1) or two versions backward of any popular distros, like Linux Mint 5 or Ubuntu 7, without any trouble.

gnewsense is good but this time not much people are yet familiar with it, so when you come here for "help on the way" maybe only few can readily respond. You may install gnewsense later on when you have become familiar enough with how linux works. The mean time go visit distrowatch.com and there make your choice from among the top five (5) ranking on the right side column of the site page; you'll have Ubuntu, Suse, Fedora, Mint and Mandriva, these are the mostly used today, easier to install and learn from using.

Nothing of these can deny you from installing a Linux through a CD. Only that, be sure the installer is on a CD if you want to use the CD drive on the install.

You should provide at least an ext2 or ext3 formatted partition if you don't reformat the entire disk. Using Linux Mint installer CD I had no problem in partitioning my drives. Very easy. You can repeat redo alter as many times you can before finally installing the OS.
BTW, if you have data on an "ntfs" or "fat32" drives you can leave them alone or move them to a safe partition during disk preparation. Linux can read from that format anytime. Aside from an ext2 partition to house your linux files you should provide at least a Linux Swap partition to a size of about 256MB; linux system will need that to move faster as you have only 516mb of RAM.

CONGRATULATIONS. You have a made a wise decision. An evidence of maturity.

There are in fact better posts than this that could satisfy your need. If you try to Search effectively LinuxQuestions have already made solutions similar to this problems you present here now. Anyway, get familiar by frequently coming here.

You will put up all of it, with the help of good fellows around here in LinuxQuestions. You can do it. We can.

Good luck.

ericTRA, redgoblin and malekmustaq,
Thank yous for your help so-far.

Before I get into nuts-n-bolts, redgoblin spawned another question. If I can create a partition for Debian, can I also create a parallel partition for gNewSense? And another for Ubuntu? And another for...
Will multiple OS's, beyond the typical MS/Linux duo, cause any problems? If it's possible, I'd be able to ween off the toxic teet of MS, while exploring other OS's simultaneously.
The HD hosting my C: drive is 60GB. So, I'd be inclined to chop it 20/20/20, no?

What is "alpha"? Can I use it?

EricTRA, even as a Linux noob, I am aware of the master/slave pins. In this case, I failed miserably, to switch em... Feeling like an unitelligent donkey...

So, finally this brings me to the next important q: should I install diskless as per the link provided by ericTRA ( http://www.instantfundas.com/2007/08...ctly-from.html ) , or swap Master/Slave - HD/DVD?

Like I said, noob n a 1/2 !
(My computer isn't the project. I AM the project!!!)

Hi Lorax,

You can create partitions as you need or course, keep in mind though that for Linux, with your amount of memory it's bet to put some HD space as swap, say like 1Gb. The rest you can split up in three parts and install 3 different Linux flavors of course. When in trouble, just SCREAM.

Furthermore, I'd go with the option of trying the swap drives first. This only to check if that way the DVD gets detected at boot. If it doesn't you can still go for the CD-less install with Grub4Dos as explained in the link.

Small question, not to worry you but so we know, is this the only computer with internet access you have at home? Meaning, if you are able to install it with Linux but for example unable to connect to the internet, do you have a backup option at hand to post any problems?

Kind regards,

Eric

HA! No backup plan!
She-Beast here is my only computer.

To make the story ever-more interesting, my XP is a 30-day trial! I have been re-installing monthly for years! I call it, She-Beast's Monthly! All this work just to not shuck a few hundos to that billionaire!

So, I will go now and re-install. Yes, it's "that time of the month". During which process, I will partition 3-way, She-Beast will have a 3some.
Eric, my resulting configuration should approximate:
19/19/19/01 (with some leftovers)???

I will wait for the next reply, then run the re-install.

Thanks for all the help so-far. Don't run off to far, I'll need yous in a few hours! HA! Hey, if I can nail down all this Linux, I can do my part to spread the word, and the ISO's!

Peace!

Great, jump in the pool at the deep end at once!! I like that spirit, hope you can swim. :D

Just kidding, it'll work out.

That should do it what the partitioning concerns, three partitions of 19, a swap of 1 and some leftover for the beast.

I'm sure that with the animo you've got, you'll have Linux under the control of your fingertips in no time.

I'll be here for another two hours, then sleep for six and be back online around nine hours from now (from work on my Windoze laptop).

Good luck and hope to hear from you soon.

Kind regards,

Eric

Ok great Eric! Thanks for the help. I most likely WILL find you on your next shift (midnight, EST)
Ciao!

I'll be here, keeping my fingers crossed. Best of luck.

Ciao, va bene

Kind regards,

Eric

I think Debian will be the easiest Linux distro for installing from hard drive for a newbie.

You can find the kernel (linux) and initrd (initrd.gz) to be used for your menu.lst and grub4dos here:
http://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian/dist...nstaller/i386/
Don't worry about the pxelinux.0 for now.

Your menu.lst will look similar to this:
title Install Linux
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/linux
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.gz

Install only the base system just to see if you are able to do the install. Otherwise, install everything.


for Ubuntu
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dis...nstaller/i386/


Aside:
Instead of having a master and slave, I recommend you setup two separate master hard drives. Partition both the same way. Install MS Windows on both. Install Linux on one of them. This way, you have one hard drive to always fall to for a rescue boot in order to check in with Linuxquestions.org.