hey im trying to install linux-mandrake 8.2 "for" win xp pro. I boot the installation with a floppy (i cant boot cd-rom) and i press F1 takin me to that command line thing and i put lnx4win and it cant find it! Some1 help please!

i think maybe you don't hit f1, you just hit enter
or you type
linux lnx4win
then hit enter

just wild guesses

I'm guessing that you are trying to put Linux and Windows on one computer. Well, why don't you just type in "linux" after hitting F1 for more options for standard graphical installation. Just a thought.

Nothin. It still doesnt find anything. i heard that linux is a great distro-os but its installation is a bitæh!

Check your computer hardware and compare it to the base system requirements of your distro. I happened to try to put linux on my P-90 with something like 16-32 RAM and 1GB hard drive, but it would never make it past the first stage install on to the graphical installation.

my specs are:
P3 800mhz
80gb 7200rpm HD
10gb HD
128 RAM
4mb video card
cd-rom 48x
dvd-rw 2.4x 2x 12x 10x 32x

What of these specs dont meet the disrto? The sys requirements says:

32 ram
CD-ROM

nothing else and from my specs i have that already

I don't know what else to say, except that 32 mb ram may be too little

why can't you boot from the cdrom?
it might be called lnx4win for xp pro, but
i bet they won't write to a drive thats formatted
with ntfs. lnx4win usually runs best running
it from your booted windows anyway. I haven't
run it since mandrake 6 or so, so keep that in
mind.
i was just thinking that there are several companies
that have those nasty agreements with microsoft, so
they got the specs to handle ntfs. winternals, partition
magic, and so on. why don't they write and sell a binary
that allows you to mount and write to ntfs. a lot of
people would pay for that. maybe the microsoft non
disclosure agreement doesn't allow that purpose?

Im not sure about Mandrake 8.2
But in 7.2 and slightly different but similar in 8.0
When I used to use either of those version of Linux
Lnx4win was a way of starting linux from the Dos Command Prompt

You use to specify it the kernel even loaded as a boot option before installation and after the whole thing installed you used to boot off a boot cd or disk to a command prompt
change to drive c:
then cd lnx4win
and type linux

That all I usually had to do

However the paritition its on has to be Fat16\32 not NTFS