ok. I have all 3 .ISO images (for red hat) that were acquired from linux iso. org...
i know i burn them to a cd....then what do i do.....i have an extra computer that i would like to have a dual boot system(similiar to my ipodlinux) with Red Hat and Windows XP. My extra computer is a dell with 2 harddrives(1 primarily for music probably 1/4 full-and the other is the regular C:/ drive in which has hardly any thing on it besides the Windows OS. i was wondering do i just insert the cd with the <properly> burned ISO into the cdrom drive and then click install...is it just that easy?
thanks in advance.


EDIT: Change all of the Red hats to Mandriva because that is my distro of choice. thank you.

Nearly that easy.
I say do some backups first.

Look around Lq about thread about dual boot.
Do a bit of reading before going ahead, so you have some idea of what a MBR is.
Choose grub as a bootloader.

You are lucky bec you have 2 HDs.
If i were you I would install linux on the non XP HD.
Look at tuxmagazine no 7 or 8 there is a tuturial for dual boot

You will need to resize and create partitions on nonXp HD to
add linux to this HD. The installation process should prompt you for that
(most distro do)

Do not forget to create a /home partition different to the /
which will be where the OS is.
If you do not have a fat32 partition create 1 if you want to share data
between RH and XP. Linux can create about 83? types of filesystem
Zinblow only what 2 or 3 maybe... and none are linux

Choose ext3 as filesystem

PS. Redhat is really really really really old. I know you've just downloaded 3 large files but I'd recommend getting hold of something a little more recent.

Which redhat is this?

Surely you know redhat<anyversion> is depreciated now?

---
To dual boot: first you have to make space on your hard drive (drive C: right?) or get another hard drive.

Make all XP's hidden files visible then run defrag.
This sticks all your files at the beginning of the drive.

Next you repartition the drive - for this you need partition magic or qparted.

RH dosn't come with qparted, you can obtain partition magic (It'll cost ya) or you can get a knoppix or ubuntu live CD, or you can get any of the rescue CDs and use them.

Basically, XP uses the NTFS filesystem and the disk-druid which comes with RH9 can only handle vfat.

You need to give XP as little space as possible. Make the rest clear space - totally empty.

Then you insert CD1 and reboot.
You will be taken to the installer - RH uses a graphical installer so it should be plain sailing from there.

Allow grub to install to MBR and accept the default partitioning.

select an everything install at the package selections - saves time and you can uninstall things you don't need later.

And you're set!

If you go the extra HDD route - install it as primary slave, next to the C: drive. But do not tell XP about this drive at all - do not install the drive to windows, or assign it a windows drive letter or anything like that. You don't want windows messing with your linux stuff.

Then you go right to boot from CD1.
The C: drive will get called hda and the other drive will be detected and it'll get called hdb.

Install to hdb only, and accept the defaults for everything.

That was easy...

Now all you have to do is update everything ... get the latest gcc/g++/make and build the latest kernel. Don't expect any help from RedHat - except maybe through fedora legacy.

You should really use a different distro though ... if that box of yours has any USB (for example) RH9 will not easily recognise them until you get a 2.6.11+ kernel.

See http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/ for a nice test to match you with a distro. But you may be better with Ubuntu - get the live CD to test out on your system (try before you buy) first.

ok ..... so i had already downloaded a SuSE live evaluation cd from linux iso . org and i think i may need a dvd burner because it just seems like it doesn't fit on the cd. Is SUSE a good one to run. I just really liked the red hat interface when i first saw it. Is Fedora better or any other recommendations on well supported Linux distros?...thanks for your help.

ok...i just downloaded 3 ISOs of Mandrina<mandrake> linux. The linux club that they have<madrina users club?> is very expensive<120$>..is this user club thing worth it? or not? and is mandrake a good distro..it was the results from my test and linux . about. com mentioned it in one article i read on there. they said red hat and mandrake<mandrina now i suppose> is a good one to use. I dont want to buy anything though. Can someone give me some screen shots of the 2006 mandrake linux that were downloaded from the free ISOs. Thanks

I think you should just try it and dive int o it (head first)... In my opinion when you know one distro you know most of them... Differences are just little things... Mandriva is a very nice distro for a first experience (It was my first distro too)...
There comes a time when you say: "Hey I don't like this and this... i want something like such and such".... then it's easier choosing another distro.
As I said, just don't be affraid to try things.

That mandriva-users-club can be nice, but I recommend you to check whether you fall in love with mandriva... If you i.e. decide after a month to switch over to SuSE or Debian, your money is gone...

--edit: ignore below if you want to, I was too slow with my reaction ------

Maybe it's a good idea to try some Live CD's first?
If you mean by 'interface' just the looks of the GUI try a liveCD with Gnome and KDE on it (i.e. Knoppix for KDE and UbuntuLive for Gnome)

hehe I read that you downloaded 4 iso's already, but I think you picked the wrong SuSE iso. I'm downloading an 65MB iso right now ... The SuSE live evaluation i found <a href="http://www.linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=2">here</a> is about 680 MB so that should fit on a single CD...
Most distro's offer you the opportunity to choose between a Net-Install or Disk-Install...
Personally i like the Net-Install most because it fits on 1 disk, and when I (re)install it most packages are up-to-date because the installer downloads them from the web.

On your question if Fedora is better than RedHat: RedHat isn't developped anymore for about 2 years now... The ship's called Fedora now so it's newer which sometimes means better...

i also just downloaded GNU Grub from linux. softpedia. com. would that work just as regular Grub? i mainly want to use the second harddrive as a linux and have XP on the main C:\ drive. i have had that harddrive already installed..how would i know if XP knows its there. wouldn't it know it was there the moment i connected it?.

In my opinion it IS regular grub. Why did you download it seperately? Didn't Mandriva come with grub?

I don't know exactly what you mean, but XP isn't able to 'see' linux partitions... The Windows-bootloader (or how it's called officially... I don't know) can show Linux if you edit the boot.ini file in C: , but using Grub that's not needed.

Just to clarify a bit, RedHat is a company.
They currently produce 2 lines of Linux distros;
1. RedHat Fedora Core series - totally free etc
2. RedHat Enterprise Linux - aimed at commercial use and you would usually pay for it.
note that due to the GPL, it is perfectly legal to get free copies of this from eg http://www.centos.org/ or http://www.whiteboxlinux.org/ .
Fundamentally, the FC series is more bleeding edge, with more freq release. EL series is guaranteed to be supported (if you pay RH) for 5 yrs iirc. Less freq releases, more stable.

ok...so i downloaded the three mandrake<mandriva> files <iso> and plan on burning them to a disk...after i burn the 3 mandriva files to discs and put the first one in there, will it automatically pop up something that says "click here to install"?

ok...so i just ran the SUSE live evaluation disc on my extra computer and it worked great. I really liked the interface as well<looked similiar to Macintosh>. Would Mandriva linux look similiar to that-and work as well? im still wondering how to install it from the discs. do i just do the thing i did for the live evaluation<boot up-hit f12-click boot from cd-rom>? thanks again.

oh ok..so i inserted the cd and it looks like just...install mandriva linux...good...maybe ill do it on tuesday when i get off school...alright...any pointers that go through this installation<can someone please tell me> and how to get mandriva linux on my second<slave> harddrive. thanks!

many walktrough install out there
for example 2006 http://www.mandrake.tips.4.free.fr/installmdv2006.html
and 2005 http://www.mandrake.tips.4.free.fr/installmdv05le.html

it is I think easy

Do not worry 2005 is fine to start, and a lot of people /some seem to keep 2005
rather than getting 2006. I am keeping with 2005. Will upgrade only with next release.

Now then did you do your homework?
Did you find out what the chainloaded syntax was about with grub?
You might not even need it, because mandriva should find XP
and add it to the bootloader
Did you google for tuxmagazine or dual boot

You have backed up anything you should have backed up, haven't you?
Be sure to resize and install on your secondary HD
If really in doubt post here again

Remimber when you install what I said / adn /home and use ext3
If you plan to share data between OSs you will need a spare FAT32 partition
You will need to go into your bios
1) so to be able to boot from cd (1st device)
2) to make the PC 2d boot device to be the secondary HD

ok....the only problem im having with this is disk partitioning..the guy that made that seems to have no idea about NTFS...and neither do i really.. could someone help me partition this and get it ready to go. thanks!