Okay - I have no cd writer on this computer which is making this hard. I have to use Windows all the time so cannot have only Linux on my PC. I am very interested in learning Linux. I have been in the IT field for over 5 years and know quite a bit about Windows but zero about Linux. My question is - can I install Linux without a cd but use a flash drive? Can I dual boot? I have been searching on the Internet and am getting more confused the more I look so I figured someone here could lay it out very simply for me. Hopefully this can be done.

Oh, I have 1gb memory - a very large hard drive with plenty of space and a 1gb flash drive

Thanks!

Rita

Yes, you can install linux to a flash drive. There are a couple of different programs that make this process exceedingly easy, and some linux distros have their own specific tools as well.

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
http://www.linuxliveusb.com/

Dual booting is also possible. Or triple booting, or quadruple, or...
http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_w...lled_first.htm

That guide focuses on Ubuntu, but the principle is the same regardless.

And by the way, welcome!

Thank you very much - I am installing right now on my USB - I just have a question - once everything is done with the USB drive - then do I download the dual boot files? I am totally confused and have no idea what I'm doing. I cannot ruin my XP in any way as I use it A LOT - I feel like I probably should not even be doing this as confused as I am but I really want it on my computer.

Thanks

Rita

No, you don't have to download anything afterwards. Everything will be setup during the installation process. They key thing is to make sure your partition are correct and that you don't format over your Windows XP partition. Assuming Windows is currently taking up the whole drive, you'll want to defrag the filesystem as best you can first. I'm fairly sure Mepis will have tools to resize the partition during the install, but you can also do it before hand with either linux or windows partition tools. Linux distros usually include the program gparted, which does that nicely.
http://www.easy-ubuntu-linux.com/res...partition.html
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ho...dowsPartitions

It's been a long time since I've dual booted, and I'm not too familiar with Mepis, but many distros will autodetect your Windows install and set the bootloader up correctly, so that when you reboot, you'll be presented with a choice between linux and windows. Otherwise, you'll need to manually edit the bootloader (usually GRUB) configuration file.
http://blog.firetree.net/2005/08/26/...ows-with-grub/
http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/GRUB_boot_menu

I think I'm just giving up - I've tried more than once and keep getting the message can't find mepis filesystem - dropping to a very limited shell then it just sits there. This shouldn't be so hard and if this is an indication of what Linux is like then I'll just stick with windows. I've gone through everything step by step by step - like I said I've been in the IT field for over 5 years doing helpdesk type jobs and I've never come across anything so hard!! Thanks for your help. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow.

Rita

Do you think it would just be easier to purchase the CD itself instead of trying to download this myself? I could then deal with the dual booting problem I'm sure. What do you think?

Rita

I don't know how to boot the Mepis liveCD from flash drive. If I understand you correctly, that is what you are trying and failing.

Everything else you want is easy with Mepis. But if you can't write or get a CD, I can't advise you.

The sourceforge project reed9 linked looks like it should do what you need. I've never tried that. If it didn't work for you, I don't know how to tell whether it is incompatible with your hardware or BIOS or incompatible with Mepis or you misunderstood an instruction, or what.

Once you do have Mepis booted from CD or flash, and after you have defragged the XP partition from inside XP, it is pretty easy to run the gparted partition management GUI inside Mepis to shrink the Windows partition; Then very easy to run the Mepis installer program to use the unpartitioned space to install Mepis.

That installer will recognize the pre existing Windows install and set up the dual boot automatically.

It's just new. Have patience with yourself and it will all come to make sense.

Can you walk us through how you went about installing to the flash drive?

General procedure is download the ISO -> insert the flash drive -> run unetbootin -> select the ISO file, let it do its thing -> reboot -> enter the BIOS and set to boot from USB. You did that and then it is failing to boot?

There are plenty of distros that offer live USB sticks for sale, if you wanted to purchase one, as well.

I am going to my mom's house tonight and her computer has a cd writer on it so I'm going to go through the directions on the Mepis website and make the CD and then bring it home and do it like that. Should have just done that to begin with. This PC was given to me. It's really nice HP computer with a very large hard drive and 1 gb ram. I didn't realize I didn't have a cd writer until now - LOL Can't imagine a 2 year old computer not having a cd writer.

Thanks - will let you know how it goes. Got my fingers crossed!

Rita

Remember when you burn a CD, you must burn it as an image, not copy files/folders to the CD.

Various different CD burning programs use various terminology for that choice, so it may take a careful look at the options to know which choice to make within the CD burning program.

If it is OK to reboot your mom's computer, check that the CD is bootable before you leave. Booting into the Mepis liveCD will not automatically start the install nor will it damage the system in any other way. So you can safely verify whether the CD was burned correctly.

I was just going to go by the directions on their website to put on CD - that's okay right?

Rita

Rita,

Though you don't say exactly which page of MEPIS site you are looking at, Most stuff on the MEPIS sites are correct. You also don't say which version you are trying to download, but I'll assume it is MEPIS 8.0.15, which the current stable version.

So once you get the iso file download (~638 MB) I recommend you use Section 2 of the official MEPIS 8 manual at this link: http://www.mepislovers.org/forums/user_manual8/ - Hopefully you find it very newbie friendly.
Also check the MEPIS wiki for MEPIS specific info you might need:
http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/Main_Page

If you need more help PLEASE visit the mepislovers.org forum or the MEPIS forum at LQ. Any initial frustration with Linux (and there WILL be some) is hopefully worth it in the long run.

Regarding your attempt to use the USB thumb drive, the steps reed gave:
should have worked, so I'm curious where you ran into problems. Sometime the BIOS thing might cause problems. At least once, I've also have to do the unetbootin process twice to get it to work - don't know why.

Anyway, Good Luck and Welcome.
Cheer

Since they don't know what CD burning program you will use in Windows, their instructions are no more specific than what I posted above. Lots of beginners get confused and burn the .iso as a file rather than as an image and then it is not bootable.

If you don't have a CD burning program or don't understand how to use the one you have, the free program imgburn is better than most CD burning programs and is easy to understand for that choice of file vs. image.
http://www.imgburn.com/

On the screen shot at
http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=screenshots
you see Imgburn uses "Write image file to disc" for the correct image mode vs. "Write files / folders to disc" for the incorrect (for the current purpose) file mode.

I went to my mom's house last night - I downloaded the Mepis file - downloaded Nero Lite - burned the CD - got to 100% - everything seemed to be fine. I just put in the CD and rebooted my computer and it skips the CD. I checked the boot order and it is set to boot from CD - I tried another CD and it works fine. I must have burned it incorrectly - I am using nero lite - anyone else use this? I look on the CD and the file on there is SimplyMepis-CD_8.0.1.2-rel_32.iso - is this not correct? I have been trying to get Mepis on my computer (and other distro) for 2 days now!! If not Nero lite is there a better free software I can use and if so step by step directions on how to use it. I plan on going to my mom's in a little bit and try again after I hear from you guys.

Thanks (I will never give up!)

Rita