Will the linux distrubtion I install have a partion program on it during installation?

ie. will i be able to create partitions during installation so I can dual boot? or is it more to it than that.

Thanks,

Stevie

in direct answer to your question, it depends on which distribution you install. some, like mandrake and redhat, have easy to use graphical partition tools for you. others, like slackware, debian, and gentoo use the typical text tool fdisk, or a similar utility. if you're asking this question, i'm guessing the distribution you're looking at had a graphical one, since you're probably looking at very ease-of-use oriented distros.

in addition to this, you should know that if you have an existing windows installation, and you want to shrink its partition to make room for linux, you MUST defragment your windows partition before installing (specifically the shrinking of the windows partition) because windows leaves some files on the end of the partition. if you have a version of windows where the defragmenter includes a graphic representation of where file pieces are, you might want to repeat this if the defragmenter leaves some files towards the end of the partition.

Why dont you use some 3rd party partitioning tools like partition magic etc in windows. and about boot loader, there is no problem with fedora,redhat and mandrake.Dont know with other distros.
I run a triple boot of win98,winXP and fc1 with windows boot loader.

Greetings.

In case you want to install a distro like Debian, and, you don't fell at ease with fdisk, you can always use a distro like Mandrake, partition your hard drive, and then abort the instalation, after that, you install your other distro. Don't forget to defrag your windows partition, if you have one.

The experience I have is, that there is no problem with the boot loaders, anyway, if anything unusual happens, have a floppy on hand, preferably with w98 configuration, boot from the floppy and type "fdisk /mbr" and you will have access to your windows partition, but you'll have to reinstall the boot loader, or even, reinstall all the linux system.


Regards

Thanks for the help!

Okay, I ran defrag about 6 times and I got the C compacted pretty well. This was what I ended up with. Is that good enough? I want to allot 5 MB to the Linux Partition and I have Partition Magic on CD.

Any help is welcome.

Thanks,

Stevie

you could probly even cut the windows partition in half if you wanted to, and use the end of the disk for the linux partion. though i hope the 5 mb is a typo, some kernels don't even fit in 5mb. i'm assuming you meant 5 gb. which there's plenty of space for.

lol. Yeah, i meant 5GB. (which I think should be plenty)

Okay, so, should I just now use Partition Magic/Linux installation to partition now?

Thanks so much!

Stevie

If you want to install a Debian based system, you can do it graphically thru Progeny's Anaconda port for Debian: http://platform.progeny.com/anaconda/index.html

I found Knoppix very user friendly. I'd try a CD install. There are several tutorials online.

So, I just need to make the partition and when the install comes up, choose the partition I made?

Thanks

It's usually as simple as that. I guess you have to decide a distro to go, and check some step-by-step review to make sure. It's a question of self-confidence, I guess

Some people use old hard drives or whole old computers.

I'm not sure where you are at on things now.

As mentioned earlier, most all Linux installers will allow you to partition your hard drive, but not all of them will allow you to non-destructively reduce the size of an existing NTFS on like you have. The ones that do include a program called ntfs-resize which is part of the ntfs tools package. I don't think gnu-parted does NTFS yet (another free re-partitioner program, available as a bootable floppy), but maybe it does. Of course if you have Partition Magic or some such commercial program, you can use it instead, otherwise you have to hunt down the free open source tools listed above (or included in an installer) to do the job.

Once you get your NTFS partition shrunk down, which is the scary part (I've successfully used resize-ntfs however), then it is a simple matter of making a big partition for your Linux root file system and a small (100 Megs or so) one for a Linux "swap" partition.

Most full sized Linux distros like to have around 3 Gigs these days, this includes a fair (but not overly generous) amount of free space.

So it sounds like you have plenty of free space for this once you steal it away from Windows.

When you install Linux, I usually install the boot loader (lilo or grub) on the Linux partition instead of the master boot record. This way Windows doesn't know anything is there, and won't mess with it. Then you just set the "active partition" to your Linux partition to be able to boot into your Linux based Windows -vs- Linux selector program (like lilo or grub). If anything goes wrong, just set the active partition back to Windows and Windows will boot just as before. Once again, Partition Magic can do this too.

Note: I don't know grub, but I do this all the time with lilo.

DANGER WILL ROBINSON...

many computers still cannot boot an OS that is more than some specific distance out into the HD; here is what I suggest:

part_1 = 70 0r 80 Megabytes, Linux format, will mount as /boot
part_2 = your NTFS, resized to your needs
part_3 = extended, containing:
part_5 = 100 Megabytes Linux SWAP format, 'mounts' as swap
part_6 = Linux format, mounts as /
Keep using Partition Magic to do all that, & then *if* linux barks at you that it does not like the / partition, use PM to delete it, and tell you Linux to create a / partition in the unused space.

I have had *many* easy instals in *ALL* sorts of setups this way !! 8)

My two-cents-worth on boot-loaders:

I have played with lilo for last two years, I recently tried grub, and I will never go back; more power, easier doings.

Put grub in your part_1 above first; may HAVE to be in the MBR; I do not know much about the Win NT/2K/XP group in a mixed environment...

Back in the day they grouped horribly. That's how I developed the habit of using separate HDs, making them both standalone, bootable HDs and then making LILO or GRUB cheat the slave HD into being secondary. This way I can install the OSs indepently, and if a HD goes South, I still have a working environment (with a working internet connection) to boot.

My other .02€

Can anyone point out a computer made in the last 6 years that has a BIOS problem where it can't boot on a partition that is out past 1024 cylinders? Is there any that have a problem past the old LBA 8 Gig limit? Anyway, unless you are using old hardware, (I have one such dinosaur) then I wouldn't worry too much about it.

The second HD idea is a good one (unless you don't have one), it is a little easier to go back to your original (windows only) configuration, if for some strange reason, you want too.

The truth is, it is well worth learning about how PC boot up, how hard drives are partitioned, etc. The lilo documentation is a good place for this information, but there is probably other documents around too. I still get surprised sometimes when I get the BIOS and bootloader confused about what and where your hard drives are. I find that booting problems in Linux are a lot easier to fix than booting problems in Windows, which is why I like to leave the Windows booting procedure alone as much as possible.