about to install mandrake....
 

I just finally downloaded the three cd iso's for mandrake 9.0. Before i install it i was wondering if i have to partition my drive? which utility should I use to make a partition for it? The hd already has windows on it, am I going to lose everything on the computer? sorry for so many questions but the few searches i tried didnt bring up what i wanted. :(

Before you go any further... did you do an md5sum check to verify that the ISO files you have on your harddisk are identical to those on the server? It is a very important step that is often overlooked!

Once you've done that, then we can go on. If you already have some unpartitioned space on your harddisk (i.e. stuff that Windows can't see yet), and you're quite happy to use that, then no... you can just load up the Mandy CD and select that partition. If, however, your current setup is Windows taking over the whole harddisk in one way or another, then you will need to scandisk and defrag your drive(s) prior to doing anything! You can, if you have the money and inclination, use Partition Magic to resize your Windows partition(s) down to free up some space, and perhaps this is the best option. If you're happy to potentially risk your data (you did take a backup, didn't you?), then you can let the Mandrake disk utility do it for you... but there have been a few scare stories on that front. As for losing everything on there... there's no reason why you should, unless you do the install wrongly! I would advise you to always use the Expert mode when installing as it gives you much more control over what is going on... and it really isn't that hard - you only need to have a little information about your system, all of which you should be able to get from looking at your System Propertied in Windows.

Hope this helps, and good luck. See you soon on the other side... the Linux side!

how do i run a md5 checksum from windows? i downloaded a utility and it crashed evertime i tried to use it :(

You need to download MD5SUMMER.

cool thanks, all the sums checked out so what now? I only have the one main windows partition :( Is that bad? I dont have partition magic or anything like that :(

Mandy comes with graphical Disk Druid that lets you resize partitions. But before you do, back up all critical files, do thorough scandisk & defrag.

Some other things to consider ...
 

The Mandrake disk druid thingy will only be able to resize your windows partition if its FAT32 (version =< ME) ... if it's NTFS (XP or NT), you'll probably have to format.

Good luck - I've just been through all this and come out with a lovely system =)

Or use a commercial product like Partition Magic to shrink the NTFS space.

Once space is available, the installer will use its tools to build and format the required Linux partitions and filesystems.

ok i figured it out how to get to the installation and the partitioning. Ive made my fat partition smaller, now which type of partition do i pick for linux? linux swap, linux native........... someone please tell me how to set it up :(

When you come to that part of creating new partitions, you should see in the may options, a button called "wizard" unless they changed it in 9.0. That should automaticly set up a swap partition-should be around 1-2Gigs and a navtive ext 3 file partition if i recall right that should be the rest of the unformated space.

there was a button that said auto somethin, i used that and it set up a swap, a root and two others i cant remember, but it said i only had about 2.4 gigs and i had allocated about 6gb's for it.....

Well, you'll figure out the final setup after playing with it and reinstalling it. It took me three times of installing 8.2 before i got the partitions the way i wanted them. The most important thing right now is to be able to use Mandy and start learning commands and the basic things that allow you to do your work. :)

When I instaled it it gave me a few xfree versinos one that had experimental 3d acceleration and i chose that was i wrong? Also i cant seem to get my dsl working right :( I chose the pppoe option and i wasnt sure how to set it up. I use earthlink if that helps for anyone who knows how to set it up

So, you have Mandy installed corrcect? If so, when you were installing it did you try setting up the internet conncetion? If so, it is it not conecting usign POPPE, or you haven't tried at all yet, and are wanting to set it up?

I have it running up and fine but the internet setup didnt work right. I selected ppoe and put in earthlink.net as the provider dont know any of the dns or whatever else it asks for but then put my user name and pw and it didnt work.