could do with some help getting linux onto my machine
 

hello, i guess ill start off saying yes i am a total 'noob' when it comes to this, but i learn fast and could do with a helping hand here basically..

ok so i want linux on my machine for various reasons (hatred of microsoft a good enough one?) but i want to keep windows because i do use it an awful lot and have programs i dont know if i could get on linux (dreamweaver, photoshop, along with world of warcraft :P)

so here what ive done so far but failed:
first of all i downloaded red hat linux from somewhere or another.. cant remember where sorry, there was 3 .iso files, one for each disc. so i extracted those using WinRAR and then burned them to CD's using pinnacle instantcd/dvd.
then i partitioned my hdd using NTFS.. now i have 80gb each side.. one has windows on, the other is empty. i tried rebooting my machine with CD 1 in, and i have it set to check the dvd drive first, but it just booted windows anyway so i dont know what went wrong there...

i thought it was because of the fact i extracted the files maybe? so anyway i downloaded the fedora project using the torrent from their site. i now have a file called FC4-ppc-DVD.iso along with a 1kb file called SHA1SUM

i burned the .iso to a DVD in nero 6 by choosing 'create disc from image' or whatever it is, and i thought this one was going to work, but again, it just booted windows without detecting a boot disc. is that because the SHA1SUM file wasnt there too? oh by the way, im on windows version XP pro. so now ive been looking into installing it from the one partition to another but that's been pretty confusing, i keep reading about this GRUB but im not sure what it does and havent touched it yet.

basically, this is as far as i have gotten and realised i can't get any further without some help of real people.. articles haven't really aided me much so far, maybe i'm just not looking hard enough. i was wondering if anyone can help me at all? know what my problem is? how to solve it? any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks. sorry if this isnt in the right place, i read the 'read this first stuff' but im not sure still.. *sorry*

if it's any help, my pc specs are as follows:
160gb hdd partitioned 80 each way using NTFS (does it have to be VFAT?)
1gb RAM
GeForce 4 64mb graphics card
DMX 6fire sound card (its some fancy recording one i bought with guitar jack ins and whatnot)
a cv/dvd rw
a floppy drive that ive never used, and dont own any floppy discs
intel pentium 4 3gig CPU
windows xp pro with service pack 1 (i hate 2 too much)

thanks again, bye for now

EDIT: just realised, if this helps at all then i have a cable BB connection going through a netgear wireless router with NAT

Re: could do with some help getting linux onto my machine
 

IF your unable to boot the install CD then perhaps that may be what is the problem to start... Did you D/L the CD-Rom .iso's or the DVD iso's there is a difference in how the install reads the different formats...

I would first suggest choosing one or the other first and making sure it has been burnt as an image properly checking the MD5SUM... I don't usually check it unless there is a problem but it seems that maybe you burned the disk improperly and it is not bootable or you don't have your BIOS set to boot from the CD...

I would first check the CD you have burned and see if there is more then one file... If not then you have just copied the .iso to the CD in which case would not boot... Check that first and get back to us...

KC

Hey shackle,
So you've probably figured out extracting it was a mistake. You should've used Nero to burn a disc from image.The only reason this didn't work is because you downloaded the version for a power PC. You need the i386 version.

HTH
Baldrick

!!! so i extracted those using WinRAR and then burned them to CD's using pinnacle instantcd/dvd.
then i partitioned my hdd using NTFS...!!!
You don't need to extract *.iso images
*.iso images need to be burnt as is to the CD
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...ge&btnG=Search
FC4-ppc-DVD.iso - try to GUESS what does "ppc" means in the name of the file???
-a hint - ppc is an abbreviation from PowerPC
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search

as I can see you've spent a huge ammount of your traffic to NOTHING usefull
so the only advice in such situation - order a distro on CD or DVD (Mandrake or SuSE) for x86 PC

Linux doesn't have stable write support for NTFS, although it can read NTFS (I don't know if Fedora comes with NTFS read support enabled, however). I'm not sure if it'd be ok to use vfat for your Linux system, maybe it would be best to use a Linux filesystem like ext2 or ext3. Also, you'll need a swap partition for Linux, which is kind of virtual memory I think (or the equivalent of a "page file"? Not 100% sure on this).

ok so i guess i just dont know what i need :P
but yeah my BIOS were set to read from the cd, and yeah they were cd .iso's when i put it to cd, and then a dvd .iso when i put it to dvd
and.. when i put it to dvd i used nero and burned it properly, like i said in my original post
'checking the MD5SUM'... ??? yeah i dont really have a clue what that means sorry.
as for ntfs.. vfat.. when you use a linux boot disc does it give you the option to format it using another method or something? i really am a noob hehe, sorry if this is testing your patience..

so which one do i want then? there are:
FC4-i386-DVD.iso which is 'For x86-compatible (32-bit)'
FC4-x86_64-DVD.iso which is 'For x86_64 (64-bit AMD64, EM64T)'

and then the ppc one which obviously i now know i dont want.

so i think my problem is i just got the wrong thing.. which of those two do i want? hopefully itll work then

arg sorry i was looking at the wrong page :S
i basically need to know wether i need the .iso for 'x86_64' or for 'i386'
thanks a lot for all this help by the way, it is appreciated

EDIT: i dont have any blank dvd's to spare so ill have to put it to cd.. do i need to d/l the binary .iso's? or the source ones?

Use i386 as Baldrick said, since you don't have a 64 bit CPU.

sorry baldrick, i missed that :P
thankyou all ever so much for your help, youve been great. er.. you can lock post or whatever now, im done here. hehe ill probably see you when i get back from my holiday and am having problems with something or other :P

thanks again, youve earned yourselves a happy visitor and a bookmark in my bookmarks page :D

adios!

err one last thing.. binary or source?

I'd download these ones.

HTH
Baldrick