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I have installed Mandrake 10.1, on a seperate machine, simply to feel things out. So far, I really like it!!! Soooo.... I downloaded all the ISO's for Mandrivia 2008.1 and have already burnt the discs and prepared them for installation. Only problem is, I can't get it to run on the "ol' standby" machine so as to check it out prior to installing it on my current machine. I am really anxious to see what this distro looks like. On my current machine, I have Windows XP installed. I would really like to set up a dual boot. However, I do not have the Windows disc to reinstall if something goes wrong. I need to know for sure that my current computer is compatible with this distro. Here's what I have:
ASUS P4V8X-X Motherboard
Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz processor
2 Gig of ram (one more gig on the way)
40 gig WD Hard Drive
5 gig Quantum Hard Drive
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Video Card (128 mb)
Is this sufficient to run the Mandriva 2008.1 Distro?
If so........
How can I set up a dual boot system? I'd like to install Mandriva 2008, if it will fit, on the 5 gig Quantum Hard Drive. If not possible, I need some assistance partitioning the 40 gig hard drive to accomodate both OS's. A 30 gig Windows partition and 10 gig Linux partition would be ok with me. I am just worried I'll render my Windows XP useless.
I've not installed Mandriva in a long time, but *most* of the modern distributions setup a dual boot system for you pretty easily. Googling on this issue will probably turn up if there's any major issues, but I'd honestly doubt there is.
The 5gigs will be really pushing it. Since it doesn't sound like you're running Vista on that PC, I'd pass on the other Gig of Ram, and start saving for a bigger Hard drive. I don't know if you're here in the states or not, but I found this...
Thats more than enough space, and just ditch the 5gig drive. You could put Windoze on the big drive, and Mandriva on the 40gig. Also, the ATI card *could* be an issue, as ATI always runs the possibility of being a pain, but that one is pretty old, so it will probably be OK.
Sufficient? It should be more than necessary IMO...
Dualbooting is not difficult now a days...but the thing is it is easier to have windows installed first and then installing linux to have a dual boot system than the other way. I had dualboot of XP and Mandriva 2008. Mandriva (any distro for that matter) automatically detects windows and gives you a choice to go for a dualboot machine. The thing is it is better to install the GRUB bootloader on MBR. Its a better program to handle booting then windows bootloader.
* Processor: Any IntelŽ, AMD or VIA processor.
* RAM: 512MB minimum, 1GB recommended. * Hard disk: 2GB minimum, 6GB recommended.
* Graphics card: NVIDIAŽ, ATITM, IntelŽ, SiS, Matrox,VIA. 3D desktop functionality requires an NVIDIA GeForce (up to 8800), ATITM Radeon 7000 to HD 3870, or IntelŽ i845 to x4500HD.
* 3D acceleration is supported on most capable hardware. For more details, check the hardware compatibility database.
* Sound cards: All Sound Blaster, AC97 and HDA compatible cards are supported. Note: Creative Labs X-Fi cards are not currently supported.
* DVD drive required.
* SATA, IDE, SCSI, SAS: most controllers are supported in non-RAID mode, and some are supported in RAID mode.
List is not exhaustive: certain hardware not listed may also be supported. For more information, visit: http://hcl.mandriva.com
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He doesn't even meet the "recommended" minimum space. I'm all for loads of Ram, but I think on this system, and what he's doing with it, he'd be better to put that $$ towards a bigger hard drive.
A bigger hard drive it is then. I will order a Western Digital 500 GB SATA drive this week. That should fit nicely into the system. The other gig of ram is already ordered and should arrive in a few days. For the time being, and prior to transfering the current drive contents over to the larger drive, I'll give Mandriva a shot with the 5 gig hdd and cross my fingers it's big enough to let me play with it a bit. Later, I can set up a dual boot on the larger drive. This may be a silly question, but, is it possible to set up a multi-boot system? Thanks for sticking with me on this guys/gals. Much appreciated!!!
A bigger hard drive it is then. I will order a Western Digital 500 GB SATA drive this week. That should fit nicely into the system. The other gig of ram is already ordered and should arrive in a few days. For the time being, and prior to transfering the current drive contents over to the larger drive, I'll give Mandriva a shot with the 5 gig hdd and cross my fingers it's big enough to let me play with it a bit. Later, I can set up a dual boot on the larger drive. This may be a silly question, but, is it possible to set up a multi-boot system? Thanks for sticking with me on this guys/gals. Much appreciated!!!
Well, 500 is more than enough.
I don't know if it will help you any, but here's how I set up my dual boot systems on a 500gig drive with Ubuntu 8.10. This is all on one drive, not spread across two drives.
Partition 1 25-30gigs NTFS Win XP
Partition 2 2-4gigs swap Linux Swap
Partition 3 50 Gigs ext3 Ubuntu with a mount point of /
Partition 4 400gigs NTFS Media share... I put all my mp3s, pictures, videos, office files, etc, anything I want to share between the two OS's on this partition. Ubuntu(and probably Mandriva), can read NTFS, but Windows can't see your Linux partition. So anything I want to use on both systems, goes on this partition. It works well for me... If for some reason Mandriva won't read NTFS, you could make this partition fat32.
You can setup a multi boot system pretty easily. Install Windows, then install Mandriva and it should see the Windows install, and make an entry for it in its boot menu. I think Mandriva uses Lilo as opposed to Grub, so it should work fine. There's many people who dual boot Windows and several other Linux distributions. Just make sure before you go partitioning drives, etc, that all important data is backed up, just in case something goes haywire.
A bigger hard drive it is then. I will order a Western Digital 500 GB SATA drive this week. That should fit nicely into the system. The other gig of ram is already ordered and should arrive in a few days. For the time being, and prior to transfering the current drive contents over to the larger drive, I'll give Mandriva a shot with the 5 gig hdd and cross my fingers it's big enough to let me play with it a bit. Later, I can set up a dual boot on the larger drive. This may be a silly question, but, is it possible to set up a multi-boot system? Thanks for sticking with me on this guys/gals. Much appreciated!!!
Also, if you just love spending money, I'd get an Nvidia chipped card if the ATI doesn't perform to your liking. I got a 512mb AGP BFGTech 7900, for around $90 last year, and its fantastic.... Again, on Ubuntu.
Well....... I loaded Mandriva on the 5 gig Quantum Drive. Installation went fine, however, it will not boot. It hangs up. I also tried the "safe mode" option on the start menu as well. No luck there either. Any suggestions? I'm at a complete loss on this one. The last line of text in safe mode reads:
Starting udev
This is where it hangs. ???? Two lines prior to that, it set the default font. Am I looking at a video settings error here?
Last edited by Theoutdoorsman; 12-18-2008 at 02:02 PM.
Oh well.........I decided to wipe the drive clean and install the Mandrake 10.1.......... All went well. I have the internet network connection configured and am viewing the forum via Mozilla. I did notice one difference between the two installations however. Mandrake 10, which is up and running fine, has detected my video card as an ATI 9500 instead of ATI 9800pro like Mandriva did. Maybe that's the catch. I don't know. If I do an upgrade to Mandriva, can I keep using the same driver as I'm using now?
I'm not 100% sure, but I'm guessing the 9500 and 9800, use the same driver. Mandrake 10.1 is pretty old. Not really sure why you'd have such a problem w/ Mandriva 2008, but go figure.
Video drivers are the weak spot of mandriva in my experience. Every other release has a tendency to mess up if you have either an older or a very new type of video card.
As for the drivers, yes, nvidia puts them all in one bundle and mandriva tends to pick the wrong model. Iit identified my 7600 as a 7900 and mya 9600 as a 9800 - but neither caused any problems.
I really do want to make the switch. I like Mandrake 10.1, don't get me wrong, but I really want to check out Mandriva 2008 Spring. The differences between the two are most likely day and night. I already have my mail program configured, firewall up, and an internet connection with Mandrake 10.1. Can I opt to keep using the video driver I'm using now, or will updating NOT allow it? Thanks again for hanging with me on this guys. If you have any ideas, certainly put them out there. I'm up for anything at this point.
Also, if you just love spending money, I'd get an Nvidia chipped card if the ATI doesn't perform to your liking. I got a 512mb AGP BFGTech 7900, for around $90 last year, and its fantastic.... Again, on Ubuntu.
IGF
I think I might loose this ATI card. I'm having a heck of a time getting Mandriva 2008 up and running. Most likely it's the cause. But, for one last attempt, I have downloaded the propriatory linux drivers for the card. I just don't have any idea how I'd load them during an install. Does it even meet the requirements for Mandriva 2008? Again, its an ATI 9800 Pro 128mb video card. Any help out there? I DO have a USB flash drive that I could store the driver package on, but I haven't figured out how to mount it yet.... :-(
Last edited by Theoutdoorsman; 12-20-2008 at 03:22 AM.
I think I might loose this ATI card. I'm having a heck of a time getting Mandriva 2008 up and running. Most likely it's the cause. But, for one last attempt, I have downloaded the propriatory linux drivers for the card. I just don't have any idea how I'd load them during an install. Does it even meet the requirements for Mandriva 2008? Again, its an ATI 9800 Pro 128mb video card. Any help out there? I DO have a USB flash drive that I could store the driver package on, but I haven't figured out how to mount it yet.... :-(
Have you been able to boot other live distros? If your PC can boot a thumb drive that is at least 1gig, you can try some other distributions, that way you're not burning through CD's constantly. Ubuntu is pretty easy, I don't know if you've tried it or not. It *should* start w/ a generic driver for that ATI card that will work. You could also try setting up Mandriva on the thumb drive, see if for some reason this is a media issue.
This is the easiest way to make a bootable thumb drive.
When I first tried using Linux, the only version I could get to boot right, was PCLinuxOS. Suse, etc, none of them would boot, could never figure out why. Later figured out, it was the ATI card that was causing it. When I bought an Nvidia card and installed it, all of them worked w/o issue...
YMMV.
IGF
Last edited by IndyGunFreak; 12-20-2008 at 05:24 AM.
Have you been able to boot other live distros? Ubuntu is pretty easy, I don't know if you've tried it or not. It *should* start w/ a generic driver for that ATI card that will work.
When I first tried using Linux, the only version I could get to boot right, was PCLinuxOS. Suse, etc, none of them would boot, could never figure out why. Later figured out, it was the ATI card that was causing it. When I bought an Nvidia card and installed it, all of them worked w/o issue...
YMMV.
IGF
Yes....... I've tried PCLinuxOS to no avail. I don't have a thumb drive, so I suppose that's out. I'll give the Ubuntu a shot and see how it goes. I have to be careful of the video card I select. This ASUS P4V8X-X motherboard will only accept certain video cards, I think. If anyone knows for certain what Nvidia card is compatible with my motherboard, and meet the requirements of Mandriva 2008 Spring, I'm all ears. I know it will support AGP X8. But the voltage, I think, is where the problem lies.
Yes....... I've tried PCLinuxOS to no avail. I don't have a thumb drive, so I suppose that's out. I'll give the Ubuntu a shot and see how it goes. I have to be careful of the video card I select. This ASUS P4V8X-X motherboard will only accept certain video cards, I think. If anyone knows for certain what Nvidia card is compatible with my motherboard, and meet the requirements of Mandriva 2008 Spring, I'm all ears. I know it will support AGP X8. But the voltage, I think, is where the problem lies.
This is probably beginning to go off track for Linux support, I've built PC's for a long time, and have used Asus motherboards for almost all that time (oddly, never that board), and never heard of the voltage issue w/ that board. However, I just googled the manual for that board, and it looks like it has to be either .8v or 1.5v only. Probably switches which you can use, via a jumper... Here's the manual.
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