ok I'm a TOTAL linux noob, but I really want to get into it. I tried redhat 8.0 (with windows XP) but I had a few problems.

but anyway I have a few questions
1. How many partitions do I need for linux! and whats the difference between the type of linux drive that ends with a three and the one that ends with a two?

2. How much space do you guys recommend for all of the partitions? here are my specs

P4 2.25 ghz
512 RD ram
120 gig western digital HD
Geforce 4 ti 4600 (its OCed a little)
Audigy gamer

3. I have one kinda scary problem when I install. When I choose my partitions with disk druid it gives me this error "partition / or boot/ may not meet booting constraints for your archetecture, creation of a bootdisk is encouraged" WTF does this mean? and how do I fix it?


4. I installed albiet the error but I got the infamous error 28 (cannot fit the item in your memory) but I have so much memory and SOOOOO much HD space. Does anyone know how to fix this error?

5. RE the error above, I tried switching to LiLo but grub boots in FULL TEXT MODE (instead of LiLo) and it doesn't help (because I dunno how to work it) Remember I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO INSTALL ANOTHER BOOT LOADER! Oh and I can't log into linux because of the error

6. I booted with a boot disk, and I get to full text linux mode, I tried one of the few commands I knew "startx" and it looks like X was starting but it returns to text mode with some mumbo jumbo followed by an error that also looked like mumbo jumbo.

Oh BTW my windows works through all of this


So can anyone help me (keep in mind I can't use the linux other than by boot disk, and I think its a little fishy, plus I would need step by step instructions because I don't really know what I'm doing) Your help will be GREATLY appreciated


THANKS IN ADVANCE! from at total

Partitions -

I believe you can have a single / partition just to get things going. I have a /boot partition at 70 mg, /usr at 9 gig, / at 9 gig as well, and then /home with the rest. Please keep in mind that I'm a newbie as well - so this is not hard-core advice , just what another newbie did.

The reason people divide up partions is to protect themselves in some way or another. For example, if you had a web server, you could put /var on a separate partion to keep a cracker from corrupting the rest of you drive.

You can put /usr on its own partition, and then you can mount it read-only. And if you have multiple users having /home can keep folks from filling up your drive - although I believe there are other ways of preventing this.

As for as the other errors, some else will surely help there.

RedHat was pretty good at configuring X when I installed it. I don't remember exactly how it is configured in Redhat, but a search on this forum gave me " 'Xconfigurator', located in /usr/X11R6/bin on my RH 7.2 install."

you usually need two partitions one that you mount as / and then a swap if your a newbie and are just starting you probly dont want to bother with all the other partitions and just keep it simple with the two...your main partition (/) should be whatever you can spare at least 10-15 gigs for me you probly dont need much swap space cuz of how much ram you ahve but since you have plenty of hdd space you might want to allocate a gig as far as ext2 or ext3 either one works ext3 is a jounalized fs and likely its the one that you want but you probly wont be able to tell the difference anyways

thanks guys!

But unfortunately I can't do anything until I fix those errors

one way of tackling the lilo/grub problem is to reboot with the setp cd in
choose upgrade existing system and change the bootloader to Lilo when you get to that part
Everytime I have tried to use Grub I have had that "Error 28: Cannot fit inot upper memory" message, Lilo works just fine.
I have also had that bootloader warning and continued anyway and had no problems. (more experienced users may have something to say on this)

I keep messing Linux up, I think this is to be expected as a newbie, expect it and don't worry when it happens.

If you set your partitions roughly as follows:
Boot <100MB,
Swap:750MB,
Home:3 or 4 Gig and /(root) 15+Gig.
If Home is set on a seperate partition then all your desktop settings, e mail addresses etc are kept. They are stored in hidden folders in the Home folder. This makes resintalling easier as you only have to formatt the / partition.
Linux will respect your XP partition (unless you choose "remove all partitions).