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The disk is asking for the disk partition and directory that the image files are on.
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I don't recognize that question, exactly. (It's been a few years since I booted with a floppy with any regularity.)
I can only think of two things it might be asking for.
One would be a SCSI driver disk, which it should only ask for if you told it you had SCSI devices. The answer in that case would be /dev/fd0, but unless you made a separate floppy with SCSI drivers on it, that won't do you much good. (And if it's trying to write something, rather than read it, it might wipe out your boot floppy if it's still in the drive.)
The only other thing I can think of where there would be "images" is on the CD, but it ought to go look for those itself.
Hmmm, did it ask you where you wanted to install from and you said "hard disk" by any chance? Change that to CD-ROM and it should go find things on the CD.
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What do I put in the box? I am unsure as I don't recognise the following:
/dev/hda1
/dev/hda5
/dev/hda6
What does this refer to? I fig' that hda1 is the "c:" drive partition...I want linux on the "e" which is empty...do I need the images on "e" if I am to dual boot linux from there???
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Ok, brief tutorial on how Linux refers to disks, partitions and such.
For a standard PC (no SCSI or other oddball stuff), the disk drives (and CD drives) are laid out like so:
/dev/hda -- master drive, primary controller
/dev/hdb -- slave drive, primary controller
/dev/hdc -- master drive, secondary controller
/dev/hdd -- slave drive, secondary controller
A common scenario is that your hard drive is the master on the primary controller (which means it's hda), and the CD-ROM drive is the master drive on the secondary controller (hdc).
Partitions are very straightforward in small numbers:
1st one is 1
2nd one is 2
3rd, 3
4th, 4
Life gets complicated a little when you use an extended partition (which you are, because it made references to hda5 and hda6).
When you use an extended partition, one of the primary partititions get used to make the extended one, and then all the partitions get numbered one-up from then on, but starting from 5, not from 1.
So you probably have something that looks like this:
/dev/hda1 -- C drive to Windows
/dev/hda2 -- Extended partition
/dev/hda5 -- D drive to Windows
/dev/hda6 -- E drive to Windows
One other thing to get straightened out: Linux can use empty space on a drive (space that's not in any partition). It cannot use space that "belongs" to Windows.
When you say "drive E: is empty", you really mean drive E: (also know as partition 6, here) is allocated to Windows, and Windows isn't using it for anything.
You're going to have to delete that partition in order to give Linux room to put
its partition(s).
The install stuff will give you the option of doing that, but if in doubt, double and triple-check things. If you accidently blow away your Windows installation, it's likely to sour you on Linux for years. With a little luck all of your partitions are different sizes and no matter which "world" you're in, you can be confident which one is which.
If this isn't enough to get you past all your problems, feel free to ask more, but please give us as much info as possible: the exact text of questions it's asking you, what step of the install you're in, and what you chose/answered/did in previous steps, that kind of stuff.
Good luck,
CHL
