Guh! Hate the dual bootin probs...
 

Hey, I've decided to get into Linux by installing Red Hat 9 along side my Windows Server 2003. Well, I installed Red Hat but to boot into it, I was told to make a boot disk with my floppy. Well, that's unfortunate because I got rid of my floppy drive so I just continued thinking that a custom boot menu would be created and that I'd be able to choose from 2k3 and Red Hat when I restarted my computer.... Well, I was wrong. Anyway, I was wondering if there is a way to boot into linux without a floppy boot disk. Maybe create my own boot screen or something. Anyone have any ideas?

There are boot managers available - LILO (Linux Image LOader or I might just invented the anagram interpretation), and GRUB (GRand Unified Boot manager), read up on these and also google around for dual boot how-tos

I'd try booting in from the CD, w/ Mandrake 9.1 if you press F1 and type rescue, it will reinstall LILO for you, maybe the kernel too, I'm not sure...

mcd

Thanx, I decided to just reinstall Red Hat 9 on it's own and select LILO. But, like an idiot, after putting in Disk 3 and letting the setup run, I left to go to work and let it go. Well, the LILO screen works (although it says DOS instead of Windows Server 2003 but not a problem) but it's only letting me use the text based login and seeing as I'm not too Linux command savvy yet, I'd like to use the visual login GUI. Is there anyway to do this? Change the parameters of LILO or something?

After you ve loged in in console mode type

startx

When your in Graphical Red Hat - open a terminal

su
root password

kedit /etc/inittab

change the 3 to a 5 in the line

id:x:initdefault:

re-boot and youll be able to log in in Graphical mode

Thanx a lot. I'll try that out.

lol.. I know, complete Linux noob here, but I gots a problem. When I use the start x command, I get the following error:
Any thoughts? (Specs below)

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2000+
MOB: Asus A7N8X-Deluxe
RAM: 512MB PC2100 DDR
VID: ATI Radeon 9500 (softmod to 9700)
3 HDs: (1) 40GB Seagate (2) 60GB Maxtor (3) 160GB Maxtor
MON: Sylvania F53 (probably not important but whacha gonna do?)

in your install, u should have selected your video card model and that should have configured x windows for you

if not, either reinstall (which i don't think should be necessary) or run xf86config at the command prompt (correct that command if it is wrong) do not be afraid of it, it is text-based but very easy to use (and overwrite whatever file was already made, this is asked at the very end)

u should also be able to go back into your windows 2003, download the radeon 9500 driver for linux and install that (make sure u read whatever readme is included with that driver)

worst comes worst, install redhat and watch it as it installs

My advice to you is to stay in the text based console for a little while. Most newbies think that it will be easier for them to learn linux by using the gui. Which, in my opinion, is the exactly the opposite.

Trust me, even when you do get in the gui of your choice, you will find yourself typing commands in the console just as much as clicking on them.

- X doesnt give very good error messages and if a program crashes it will output data to stdout(most of the time) which you cant see unless you start the prog from the console.

- the majority of you configuration and maintenance will be done from the console so you dont need X.

So in my opinion you will learn faster and be able to fix problems more quickly if you dont use X initially. Its also one of the more difficult things to get working in linux depending on your hardware configuration.