Curious Newbie

scales · 07-26-2005, 10:46 AM

i am sure someone has mentioned this in the past, but i didnt see any posts that really could help(although i didnt look too hard). perhaps someone knows of a thread that could help.

Anyway, i am an experienced windows user and feel that i have learned just about all of windows(to some extent). i am looking into linux to learn something different and simply experiment. i tried it before, but got discouraged with redhat. i was looking into mandrake or suse because i hear they are pretty good for beginners. does anyone have any reccomendations? i would like to use linux for office applications, maybe GIMP, and if i can find a good webdesign program similar to maybe dreamweaver. also, if i dual boot, with my current windows and shrink the partition to make room for linux, which is the best method so that i can access my windows files from linux? can this be done? i think i read that linux can read and write fat formatted partitions, would i need to convert my ntfs partition to a fat32? thanks!

ctkroeker · 07-26-2005, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by scales
i was looking into mandrake or suse because i hear they are pretty good for beginners. does anyone have any reccomendations?

I would try a live CD first, to see how linux works. Like knoppix or Kanotix.

Quote:

Originally posted by scales
i would like to use linux for office applications, maybe GIMP, and if i can find a good webdesign program similar to maybe dreamweaver.

Yeah...

Quote:

Originally posted by scales
if dual boot, with my current windows and shrink the partition to make room for linux, which is the best method so that i can access my windows files from linux? can this be done? i think i read that linux can read and write fat formatted partitions, would i need to convert my ntfs partition to a fat32? thanks!

Can be done.

harken · 07-26-2005, 11:10 AM

Quote:

i think i read that linux can read and write fat formatted partitions

That's correct.

Quote:

would i need to convert my ntfs partition to a fat32? thanks!

Not necessarily. Linux can read NTFS as well, some restrictions on writing though. So you could use a fat32 partition of a few gigabytes as a "buffer" between Linux and Windows, leaving Win on its NTFS slice.

Quote:

i am sure someone has mentioned this in the past, but i didnt see any posts that really could help(although i didnt look too hard)

scales · 07-26-2005, 08:33 PM

thanks a lot! i will check into all of the suggestions and see how things go.

JediDB · 07-26-2005, 09:05 PM

Hi,

I am also brand new to Linux. The Linux Dist. i am installing on my computer is the new version of Mepis. It has a Windows feel to it and is great for beginners such as myself.
I tried various CDLive versions of different dist. but i had a hard time choosing between Ubuntu or Mepis.

There is more apps. in Mepis as well as codecs which i found out a few days ago viewing some multimedia.

I still like Ubuntu but i think i will focus on that more when i know my way around Mepis as well as having more knowledge on the commands ect.

Edited for spelling and extra content.

aysiu · 07-26-2005, 09:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by JediDB
but i had a hard time choosing between Ubuntu or Mepis.

Did you end up setting up a tri-boot? Are you dual-booting?

JediDB · 07-26-2005, 09:32 PM

Hi,

I am working on it as we speak. I had a very hard time getting Windows XP to reconise my new 120g hd. I had to use an older version of FDISK from Win98 to get a partition working. Windows is now formating it and soon it will be ready for use.

My plan is to install Mepis and try dual booting. If i get that nailed down, then ill eventually try to tri-boot with Ubuntu.

Im just slightly nervous of ediitng the files in Linux as thats something i very rarely did in all my years of working with Window...

Thanks

aysiu · 07-26-2005, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by JediDB
My plan is to install Mepis and try dual booting. If i get that nailed down, then ill eventually try to tri-boot with Ubuntu.

That's a good way to start. Neverthless, you should still carve out a small partition for Ubuntu. That way, once you get the dual-boot working, you won't have to resize partitions again.

Quote:

Im just slightly nervous of ediitng the files in Linux as thats something i very rarely did in all my years of working with Window...

The key thing is to back up everything. For example, if you decide you need to edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file, first make a copy of it and call it menu-backup.lst. That way, if something goes wrong, you can always boot the Mepis live CD and replace the revised menu.lst file with the old menu.lst file.

Luckily, with Mepis, you don't have to do a lot of direct editing of files. Even the /etc/apt/sources.list file you edit through Synaptic Package Manager.

JediDB · 07-26-2005, 10:19 PM

Hi,

For my first attempt of installing Linux, my HD setup looks like this-

40g Drive:
hda0 40g WinXp NTFS

120g Drive:
hdb0 10g Mepis ext3
hdb1 1g swap
hdb2 100g FAT32

Ok, what is confusing me now if the difference between when it asks to be installed to /home and /root.

What exactly is it asking me to do as i just left the settings on how mepis wants to be installed with ne selecting the partitions.

As far as i can see, /home and /root are been installed on the 10g partition but i got the feeling i may have messed up my installation allready.....

What do you think?

aysiu · 07-26-2005, 10:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by JediDB
120g Drive:
hdb0 10g Mepis ext3
hdb1 1g swap
hdb2 100g FAT32

You should set aside another 10 GB for Ubuntu or another test distro. That doesn't mean you have to install that test distro--just set the partition aside... it can be blank partition, just as long as it is a partition.

Quote:

Ok, what is confusing me now if the difference between when it asks to be installed to /home and /root.
What exactly is it asking me to do as i just left the settings on how mepis wants to be installed with ne selecting the partitions.

/root is actually just /
It's the base of all the directories, kind of like C:\
The only difference is that in Windows C:\Documents and Settings lives in C:\ and has to live in C:\
In Linux, /home can be a subdirectory of / or it can be a separate partition that only appears to live as a subdirectory of /
The advantage of having a separate /home partition is that if you reinstall or upgrade Mepis (or install a new distro), all of your settings will be completely unaffected.

JediDB · 07-26-2005, 10:45 PM

Hi,

So, what did i do wrong when it came to not making a seperate /home partition? and how owuld i have done this?

Also, whats it mean by mount and unmount? deivces mounted on your dekstop?

tuxdev · 07-26-2005, 11:00 PM

In linux, you have to tell the computer when you want to use a particular device as a part of the file system. That is "mounting". You also have to tell the computer when you do not want to use it anymore. That is "unmounting". This can be automated using automount, like how Mepis does it.
The seperate /home partition is so that when you reinstall linux for whatever reason, your user settings and data wil not be wiped out as well.

jrdioko · 07-26-2005, 11:21 PM

It can be helpful to have a separate /home partition, but it's not the end of the world if you don't. It's relatively easy to make a backup of it, install/reinstall, and restore. The nice part is that Linux isn't like Windows. You don't have to assume that you'll be reinstalling over and over when things go wrong.

aysiu · 07-26-2005, 11:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by JediDB
So, what did i do wrong when it came to not making a seperate /home partition? and how owuld i have done this?

You didn't anything wrong. The reason they prompt you is because sometimes when they make a new version of Mepis people prefer to reinstall it completely instead of doing a dist-upgrade via Synaptic/apt-get. If you have a separate /home partition, you can do a reinstall and still keep your settings by saying to the installer program "Don't reformat this partition when you reinstall Mepis, and make sure it's mounted as /home."

I don't keep a /home partition. I find it much cleaner to just back up my preferences and settings and then copy my .thunderbird and .mozilla folders into the new home folder. Everything else I don't mind redoing if I'm installing a new distro.

It's just another option. If you didn't do it, don't worry. It's a convenience that's available if you want to take advantage of it.

JediDB · 07-26-2005, 11:31 PM

Hi,

Another issue i just ran into is that as the 'root' user, i can not change my screen resolution and that it says i need to install something but yet, on the CDLive version, i could change the resolution freely.

Also, for the Weather program on Mepix, no matter how hard i try, i wont give reports or current temp from where im located.

Any ideas?