Hi,

I want to convert my dad to Linux, and he wants me to install linux on his laptop. However, I need to dual-boot XP and Linux (this is necessary because he has office and work documents, etc. on windoze). I need to partition the hd (It is 18 GB and has 11 GB free) and configure the bootloader to boot both, because I only have experience having my OS's on seperate HDs.

It is a pentium 3, 256 megs of ram, and a wireless-g Microsoft MN-720 pcimcia card (i bought the M$ card before I discovered linux). The wireless card is reported to work with driverloader/ndiswrapper, and that's what i'll be trying initially (Does anybody know of a wiki or how-to using this card?).

I want to install Mandrake 10, simply because I have the disks and it's what I've been using on my Linux desktop. If there's a better distro for notebooks, and doesn't take like 6 disks, I could get another one...

The hardest part of this is the format/parition/bootloader stage. It wouldn't be good at all if I screwed over the Windows partition, as it isn't my computer.

I've also heard to use the 2.4 kernel w/ Mandrake 10. Is there any benefit to the 2.6 kernel, possibly regarding wireless?


Thanks for your help!

about the boot loader........you shouldnt have any trouble. mandrake should configure grub to allow you to boot into both. also you will need a swap partition for linux. in the past i used partition magic to do this, although mandrake might do it for you. the chance of messing up the windoze partition is very low but i would back up all data anyway. make sure you know which hda* listing is the windoze partition so you dont install linux over it

i believe you will need the 2.6 kernel for the pcmcia card, i could be wrong.

thanks for your help...

Turns out he decided not to go through with it and install linux. He's somewhat computer-illiterate and doesn't want to *risk* installing linux...but it's his computer and I can't do anything about it.

Well, I am using a notebook with the latest Centrino Processor, and Wireless card, which isn't (not already) supported by Linux. But I am using the Ndiswrapper, which works quit fine, if you are using the 0.7 version. I tried other version, but they just freezed my desktop after a short while... So you should get your card working .

yep, you are! no offence, but i had a pcmcia-card with my old notebook and a 2.4 kernel and it worked fine

About a better distro... have a look at this.
In the end it depends on how much you want to do do on your own, and how much you understand Linux.
BTW: SuSE and Debian are available on DVD

Greets
G.