Please __stop_asking__ what distro is right for you!
Linux - NewbieThis Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question?
If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Originally posted by conductor Thanks for the encouragement detpenguin Actually I'd already made up my mind to try and install that baby, I just hope my system can take it. I've already tried a couple of distros (ELX & Amigo) but I couldn't seem to get them to install completely While I've got your attention for a minute I'd like to ask you about partitions. I recently repartitioned my harddrive in anticipation of installing another OS (hopefully Linux), as the new partition sits currently it's a FAT32, should I reformat it to an Ext3 and add a Swap before I attempt to install the Slackware 10.1 OS? The awaiting empty FAT32 partition is 8gb (actually 7.9).
Thanks All
conductor
It's not a good idea to use a fat32 partition for linux. Slackware will need about 3G for a full installation. I don't think you'll need more that 128MB for swap but it depends from the ram you have (512MB is really enough whatever ram you got) .
You may use fdisk or cfdisk to erase the fat partition and create the 2 linux partions you need.
Most slackware users use reiserFS instead of Ext3
In slackware forums there is a guide of how to do it all.
Actually I prefer to use Partition Magic to create and format partitions as I really don't want to take the chance of losing my current Windows OS should I make a mistake with fdisk. I'm running 512mb of ram with 32mb of it shared for my onboard video. Everything I've read thus far says that the Swap partition should be twice the physical ram. Doesn't that mean that my Swap should be about 1gb? That seems like an awful lot if that's the correct formula I think it might be a good idea to go and get that guide.
The rule of thumb is dated. It was more relevant in the old days - as perfect_circle says, 512 Megs should do it no matter what.
As for partitioning, there was a problem earlier with some distributions not being able to detect partitions created with Partition Magic. When I have to partition a system, I use Knoppix or PCLinuxOS and run the program QTPartEd. It is simple, intuitive - great
Actually I prefer to use Partition Magic to create and format partitions as I really don't want to take the chance of losing my current Windows OS should I make a mistake with fdisk. I'm running 512mb of ram with 32mb of it shared for my onboard video. Everything I've read thus far says that the Swap partition should be twice the physical ram. Doesn't that mean that my Swap should be about 1gb? That seems like an awful lot if that's the correct formula I think it might be a good idea to go and get that guide.
Cheers
conductor
The guide says to use twice the physical ram you have but trust me on this, u dont want to use 12,5% of your linux space for swap. I have 1G of RAM. If i had to use 2Gb of hd for swap i would stop using linux(well ... thats not true). If it weren't the 512 MB of swap partition fedora had created automatically when i had 256 MB of ram, i wouldn't use more that 128MB of swap. Also, if you want to be able to resize/control your linux partition with Partition Magick then don't use reiserfs. Use ext2 or ext3 (better ext3) because as far as I know P.M does not support reiserFS.
Who said newbies can't install Gentoo? If you follow the instructions you can't go wrong. You mightn't have any idea what it was you just went through but you can do it
There is no best distribution. Repeat after me: there.is.no.best.distribution. We are Linux users or Linux users to be - get used to doing a little research. Distrowatch, our search function and a number of other resources are available to help with the decision, but as with a favourite colour or which car to buy the answer is "what do you want to do with it?".
My advice to anyone who wants to use Linux is this: just use it. Try out a few different distributions and see which you like best. Make an informed decision. We are all biased here towards our favourite distros and can only tell you our favourites.
And thanks to all of you. You're all very helpful.
Yeah I understand the 2x the ram formula for a Swap partition was the rule of thumb in the past but now that's changed, that's a good thing. Anyways it's time to bite the bullet and get this Linux train on the track Wish me luck.
Originally posted by DJ P@CkMaN Who said newbies can't install Gentoo? If you follow the instructions you can't go wrong. You mightn't have any idea what it was you just went through but you can do it
No kidding. I recommend trying Slackware as well - try several distributions and learn a bit,and decide which you like. Try the harder ones, and easier ones like Suse and Mandrake as well.
If you're going to install Slack, then read up on unix system basics.
You've got to know your /usr/bin from your /dev/null.... as it where.....
There are plenty of slack how-to's out there - look in the forum here....
I would point out that Slackware is a KDE centric distro -- gnome development has stopped
I've just installed Ubuntu. And while it was easy it did screw some stuff up/the gui conifugration crashes....
even tho' i use slackware(only 'cos i couldn't be a**ed to do a 6hr gentoo install), i wouldn't recommend it to anyone anymore.Mainly 'cos there is no package manager with the default install. I've heard of slapt-get but haven't tried it.
as a matter of interest, does any1 know of a good reason why i couldn't copy gentoo from my laptop onto my desktop? I'd only have to edit grub.conf and fstab, right?
Originally posted by 0pal_t0ad
even tho' i use slackware(only 'cos i couldn't be a**ed to do a 6hr gentoo install), i wouldn't recommend it to anyone anymore.Mainly 'cos there is no package manager with the default install. I've heard of slapt-get but haven't tried it.
as a matter of interest, does any1 know of a good reason why i couldn't copy gentoo from my laptop onto my desktop? I'd only have to edit grub.conf and fstab, right?
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.