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Old 11-15-2004, 11:04 PM   #1
3mu180r
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Registered: Nov 2004
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so new, need major advice


hey,
I am really new to linux installations.. I have used linux and unix and cygwin and can navigate in text mode and I kind of understand the logic of the hierarchy, but I am confused as to which package I should install..

I have red hat 9, and it says desktop, workstation, server, or custom.. I am wondering with the desktop install, will I have access to the Internet?

Also, with the workstation, since I do program in VB and C++, will this install be better for me?

I don't have a need to install the server addition, so I am most curious about desktop and workstation installs..

Also, right now I have XP on my HDD and it is formatted in NTFS, will I need to reformat and start clean? Or can I just overwrite XP and not worry about the NTFS file system?

I hear that windows and linux like to fight, but I do want to dual boot, so I can make use of MSVB6 and MSC++.. so I will most likely install XP second since I also hear that linux is best to be on the primary.. so if I do decide to dual boot can I still enjoy NTFS on the secondary and keep FAT32 for Linux..

It would be very nice if I could just overwrite my current XP with Linux because I built this PC and everything will have to be reinstalled one at a time, which is something I really want to avoid.. but since I intitially formatted my disk with NTFS, I am kind of in a bind as to what I should do.. all help is very much appreciated.. thank you


My Specs:
- 80 GB HDD
- Abit MB
- AMD Atholon 3000+ processor (2.16GHZ)
- RCA external Cable Modem
- Sound Blaster Snd Card
- Nvidia GeForce Vid Card

Please let me know if I left out anything or may have a problem later down the road.. thanks again

Last edited by 3mu180r; 11-15-2004 at 11:10 PM.
 
Old 11-15-2004, 11:28 PM   #2
goofyheadedpunk
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The file system of a drive doesn't matter at all if you start to format. Nothing will go wrong if you completely format your Windows drive and plop a Linux down on the top of it.

You want to dual boot? Well, if you're going to format the drives anyway I, personally, would install windows first, making sure to leave enough space for a Linux system on another partition. ( You can then later split this up with the Linux install partitioning tool. I haven't used Red Hat in a while, but that should all be fairly easy and graphical to do { unlike what we morlock/Slackware users enjoy }. ) This is so the Windows bootloader won't trump the Linux boot loader.

But if you don't want to wipe out your current XP you could always just use a partition resizer to make room for Linux, at the back or front of your drive. It matters not.

As for what the whole desktop, workstation, server things mean I have no idea.

I do believe, though, that you won't be able to code VB under Linux, what with VB being a proprietary Microsoft language and all. I'm sure there are projects out there that will allow it to be developed on Linux boxen, but I don't know of any. I'm sure people will point them out if there are ( or give a more definite no ).

C++, C, Perl, Python, Lisp, Assembler, Java ad nausium will be easily played with, however.

Last edited by goofyheadedpunk; 11-15-2004 at 11:29 PM.
 
Old 11-16-2004, 12:05 AM   #3
IBall
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Location: Perth, Western Australia
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I have red hat 9, and it says desktop, workstation, server, or custom.. I am wondering with the desktop install, will I have access to the Internet?
Yes. I would say that your best bet is to do a custom install. Deadrat 9 is a bit old though - maybe Fredora Core 2 or 3 would be better if you can get it.

I hear that windows and linux like to fight, but I do want to dual boot, so I can make use of MSVB6 and MSC++.. so I will most likely install XP second since I also hear that linux is best to be on the primary.. so if I do decide to dual boot can I still enjoy NTFS on the secondary and keep FAT32 for Linux..
Install Windows XP first, and leave enough spare on the drive for Linux. When you partition you disk with the windows installer, leave the remaining space as unpartioned. It is actually Windows that needs to be First on the drive, Linux can be anywhere. When you install Linux, you can partition the space you left free into Linux partitions. These will most likely be ext3, (FAT32 is a Windows format). The linux bootloader will install itself over the NT Boot loader, but should pick up your windows install.

When you select the packages, make sure you select development tools, since you will need access to the gcc compiler as well as make and all that.

It would be very nice if I could just overwrite my current XP with Linux because I built this PC and everything will have to be reinstalled one at a time, which is something I really want to avoid.. but since I intitially formatted my disk with NTFS, I am kind of in a bind as to what I should do.. all help is very much appreciated.. thank you That doesn't matter, you can easily wipe out the initial formatting with the linux installer.

I hope this helps
--Ian
 
Old 11-16-2004, 12:11 AM   #4
3mu180r
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oh ok, thanks alot
 
Old 11-16-2004, 01:49 AM   #5
3mu180r
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hey, ran into another problem.. I went to throw it on some free space and it looks like I never imagined I would install linux and I gave XP the whole thing.. what windows program for taking back some space with would you guys recommend I use? And how much space do you think I should leave to XP, I have 80 GB's worth and I do tend to download alot of music and movies, plus I do script and program and tend to use alot of space.. how much space would you reccommend I leave for XP and give to linux? Maybe 40/40? Thanks in advance..
 
Old 11-16-2004, 02:20 AM   #6
IBall
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When I dual booted in the past, I had a windows XP partition, the linux partitions (Swap, /) and a separate FAT32 partition for files.

Then I set "My Documents" in XP to point to this FAT32 partition, and created a directory /mnt/files to mount to the same partition. Don't have /home mount to the same partition, since then you will have all sorts of "strange" linux configuration files visible in Windows. This means that my files and music, etc could be accessed from both Windows and Linux. Linux can read and write to FAT32, but I am not sure about writing to NTFS. Windows can not see Linux Partitions.

If this is the way you want to go, leave a good chunk for the FAT32 partition, and divide the rest up equally. Leave a good size partition for this, such as 40 or 50GB, because you only need (at most) 15 or 20 GB for Linux and 15 or 20GB for Windows.

On a side note, your linux swap partition should be the amount of RAM you have times 2, up to 1GB. Eg 256MB ram - 512MB swap.
 
Old 11-16-2004, 02:49 AM   #7
3mu180r
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thats quite a brilliant setup.. and, thank you for taking the time to give me the specs on how much to allocate, I figured 40/40 would be good but I wasn't sure..

though I don't know a lot about linux right now I do know that linux can not read an NTFS file system. I tried booting up knoppix and it said that it couldn't load on NTFS, so that's where my knowledge of that came from.

I really like your idea of mounting to the MY Documents folder, on a seperate FAT32 partion so that Linux and Windows could share files, that would be very convient and would be great for me since I would be jumping back and forth quite often otherwise.

thanks again

Last edited by 3mu180r; 11-16-2004 at 03:00 AM.
 
  


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