Okay, I have am trying to switch from Windows to Linux, however, I keep running into obstacles.

First, I tried and tried to install both on the same harddrive, that did not work. Finally, I used two seperate harddrives. That worked only a short time. I even had GRUB bringing up both Linux and Win XP as an option as well as working.

So here I am forced to work off of a laptop, which doesn't work quit the same as my humble pc.

I would like to inquire of someone to help me in getting both OS's working, as well as maybe helping me through Linux enough for me to shoot off on my own.

Here is what I have to work with:

3 harddrives (2 x 40G, & 1 x 10G)
Linux 9
WinXP
Win98
Win2000

My biggest thing is I need to be able to do presentations in either Windows or Linux, work with Flash, and be able to run the presentation on two different monitors (I have a capable video card).

So if anyone out there can be of major assistance, I am all ears.

ajunt_ornj

What I did, I already had Windows XP installed, so I partitioned (making a Linux Ext2 Partition with Partition Magic 8.01 and a Linux Swap of 128 MB) and then installed Slackware, which automatically detected the Linux Partition I had created. From there it worked until I encountered my problems The key is to know all your hardware (I didn't need to, but you might). Oh yes, the Linux Ext2 Partition I made was roughly 5 GB's.

It might help others to help you if you could list the difficulties you ran into (what errors, etc.)

Likewise I first had XP installed. I had much trouble trying to use one harddrive, so I got the idea to seperately install both on different harddrives. I read a forum of how someone else had done it, inlcuding changing the GRUB loader to display and properly start XP. Actually at that point I thought I was doing well.

My friend and I were trying to figure out how to install programs, and somewhere along the line screwed the whole thing up. I don't remember exactly what error messages I got, I just figured it may be easier to start from scratch. So here I am with nothing at the moment. I figured it may be easier for someone to help me if they could bring me up from scratch so as they may know exactly what I have done.

ajunt_ornj

Well, if you have XP installed on a hard drive, most new distributions will guide you right through partitioning and installation. I know that with fedora, it looked really straightforward. The easiest installation I have ever seen, even if XP is already there, was Mepis

mepis.org

It is a stupid-easy way to install Debian.

If you were able to follow the instructions for installation on separate hard drives, you know enough to easily install knoppix:

knoppix.net

It is also Debian-based. Both knoppix and mepis are live-evaluation CD's, so you can just pop them in the CD drive, boot up, and see if they auto-detect all your hardware. If so, there is a mepis installation button on the desktop which takes you through a 4-5 mouse-click installation. With knoppix you bring up a terminal window and enter

knx-hdinstall

With knoppix, you have to specify how much space to reserve for various things (XP, boot, swap, root, home, etc)

You're right...if you screwed things up installing somehow (doing something ill-advised while logged in as root), and you haven't invested too heavily in your current linux installation, it would be easier just to reinstall rather than fix.

i was runnung XP on a partitioned 120GB drive, i decided to do a redhat 9 install. this was very easy. if you leave your partition or drive unalocated, linux will pick it up and do all the partitioning it needs by itself. it will even make it into extended if needed.
i recommend using mandrake if your new as it is the easiest step from windows. if you run mandrake or redhat, they support rpm files which are really easy to install - its a simple rpm -i and the filename, no messing around.
the only thing more i can say is try not to install windows after linux because it thinks it rules your computer and rewrites the MBR so you have to play with your boot disk a lot!!!
good luck and have fun.

Okay things are getting more difficult for me.

I Took one of the harddrives and decided to just use it and one operating system (Linux), and when I need to use windows, just run off of the laptop. I followed the advice and checked out the distro's previously mentioned. I actually thought Knoppix to appear to be very nice.

I installed knoppix, and realized I had some issues with the previous Red Hat 9 installation. Actually, I still had the old GRUB loader popping up. So brilliant me decided to use the QTpart off of Knoppix and wipe out the whole hard drive and start from scratch. I did that and it still was having problems. So I pulled out the diskette that came with the hard drive (Western Digital) and used it to write zero's. No I have a 40G hard drive that reads 103699MB. It reads this in any disk utility I use. I even popped in WinXP and seen what it said, which was the same thing 103699MB.

So what I am going to do, is quit touching things untill someone can help me get going. What I really need help on is just getting Knoppix 3.3 up and running (installed on the hd).

I have decided for the moment to skip the duel OS deal and just go with Linux.

Thanx,

ajunt_ornj

so have you tried using the knoppix installer on the zeroed-out drive?

iirc, there is a newer installer in addition to the knx-install script ehawk mentioned. don't know specifics on it -- run a search at the forum at knoppix.net to get the details (note .net, different than the homepage at knoppix.org). there are also some knoppix HD install tutorials there.

I don't think you need the hard drive to begin running knoppix. Just pop it in the CD-ROM. Once it has booted up, you can install it to the hard drive. Check out the knoppix.net site, do a search and see if they have an easier way to do the installation. If not, you know enough to simply bring up a terminal window and enter knx-hdinstall. Don't use the qtparted or whatever it is, you will be guided through using fdisk. Hopefully you haven't screwed things up using your hard-drive included software (rezeroing). I dont' think it should be a problem.

Did you try running fdisk on this drive? At the very least do an fdisk /mbr.

If it were my HD I'd use a real disk partitoining utility such as Partition Commander (I'm not too keen on Partition Magic). I would go with Ext3 partitions.

Also check your motherboard's BIOS settings to make sure LBA is properly set up.

Okay, here is where I am at.

I have moved from using Redhat or Knoppix and went with Mandrake 10. I have two 40 g hard drives, one with WinXP Pro and one with Mandrake 10.

Currently I am using Mandrake 10, however I would like to move from shutting down and swapping hard drives to just going with a dual boot.

Here are my first two questions:

1: What is the appropriate way of setting up the dual boot?

Currently I have both OS's (WinXP.Pro & Mandrake 10) and they work just fine independantly. I would like to use them both as I still am slightly Windows dependant. Not sure what bootloader I have, it is the default boot loader that comes with Mandrake.

2: Mandrake seems a bit on the sluggish side. I have searched through the forums and read a bunch about services. But I could not find any information telling me which ones were safe to turn off. I did however, by trial and error find that one is not supposed to be turned off as you kill the internet connection. But the rest I don't know about. Past something that defines which ones I can eliminate what else can I do?

My hardware info is:

2.0 Celeron
128 mDDR Ram
NVidia 128m GeForce

Also, being the "new guy" I am not at all above anyone chipping in their 2 cents worth. So if you have any other info that may not relate but be very useful I am all ears. I think I will be around these forums for awhile.

ajunt_ornj

Like yourself I am a newbie, but I found it hard to use RH9 with WinXP, so what I did was use FC1, and had no problems, like you I use to seperate HDs both are WD 120gig's, the bootloader I used was Grub, at install I was asked which OS I wanted to be the default and I picked WinXP, I dont have any experience with ManDrake or any of the other linux Distro's, the only reason I know about RH9 is because I'm currently taking a class to get my Linux+ certification and my instructor felt comfortable with it. I am currently using FC3 which also install simply with WinXP, you just have to make sure you install WinXP first, and use it to wipe out the partition on your second drive, and remember that when you start installing Linux that you will be installing it to the hdb drive, with winXP being on the hda drive. hope you find this helpful.
Sincerely yours ,
Dr.Bombay,
AKA
(Linux Newbie)