Stupid Newbie with simple question...
 

Hey,
I am BRAND new to Linux, although I have always wanted to use it and learn it. I am just starting. I am trying to load FC3 on my newly wiped machine, but I want it to dual boot. I have already installed a fresh copy of XP on there(i need it for certain programs) but have taken no other steps. I am on the disk setup screen where you pick where to install /root and /swap? (you understand i have no idea what the hell i am talking about). I was told to partition a 120 gb drive like this. (10gb, 8gb, and 2gb) for FC3, and the rest for Windows. So I guess my question is where(what partitions) and what(/root and all that good stuff) do i have to install to make this work correctly. hope that makes sense.
Thanks in advance to those who will help,

tufkid
:newbie:

Dont you worry mate, we've all been there :). Here is some docs that you may want to read. It will help you immensely, teaching you the basics of partition to configuring and securing your machine:

http://www.linux.org/docs/beginner/install.html

Good luck!

you are going to need to partition your drive before installing XP. Personally i would suggest that with a 120gb drive, use 60gb for windows and 60gb for linux.

when i install a dual boot with fedora and XP, i installed fedora first, and then XP.

HI

120 GB - 60GB -linux
60GB- windows


1. First install the windows with windows partition as 8GB - 10GB
2. Then install Linux with partitions as you prefer for 60GB . Do have a /boot partition
3. Format the remaining partition for windows

NOTE: please note that linux needs to have the root partition within 1024 cylinders


Tell the experience after installing the dual boot


Regards
Sumithra:)

I am not that advanced....
 

I dont think you guys understand how inexperienced I am with this. Installing the /boot within 1024 cylinders? Yikes. One person is telling me install XP first and the other is saying Fedora. I did do some reading that said not to install XP second because it writes funny stuff to your boot record and it's not very friendly with dual boot that way. What are the different selections in the disk setup? / , /boot, /home, /tmp, /usr, /var, /usr/local, /opt? I am a lifelong Microwhore user so all i can assume is that these are like directories? boot, home, temp, user, var(iable?) /user/local, and /option? I have no idea. And the last thing is, I will only be using Fedora to learn how to navigate a linux system and learn commands. So is it neccesary for me to have a 60 gb partition for linux? I mean I really need that space in windows otherwise. The more i type the more questions i have. What are the differences between partition formats, ie: ext2, ext3, swap etc? This all has to do with where i am stuck right now. On the disk setup page. I have currently set up the 8gb drive as ext3 with the /(blank). The 10gb as ext3 also with /usr, and the 2 gb as a swap. I hope this doesn't sound like i know what i am doing. ;-)
Thanks again,

tUFKid

For me, I only gave linux 5GB :) so you don't really have to leave linux so much space. I think you should install windows first. In linux, everything is in a directory tree. The top most is /. In /, there are all the subdirectories that you mentioned. Linux does not have drive letters. You select where to mount your drives on the directory tree. Most commonly, they are mounted under /mnt, but it really depends on where you want.

I recommend you use ext3. It is the same as ext2, except it has journalling, so if you have a power failure or anything that your computer is not properly shutdown, ext3 is more likely to recover than ext2. Swap is not where you put files. It is not accesible by us. It is an alternative to RAM memory. It is virtual memory. The computer swaps files within memory and puts it into the swap partition temporarily, so as to increase the amount od physical memory(RAM).

Another thing: give / at least 2GB, the amount od swap twice your RAM, and include /home on a separate partition, in case your / partition fails, you still have your data back in /home partition.

/- 7 GB
/home- 30GB
/usr - 10GB
/var-7GB
/opt - 5gb
/swap - twice the RAM

1. first install the windows of 8 gb for windows root partition c:\
2. Then install the linux with the above partitions
3. select the LILO boot loader
4. boot to windows later after the installation of linux
5. Format the remaining partition to windows partitions


Regards
Sumithra

On a drive so big, I would suggest you make 3 partitions for your windows install. ( C, D, & E drives ). Load windows and your programs into C:, All your working data into D:, and your E Drive for backups - all your windows cabs, video and sound drivers etc etc.
That way if windows needs to access a driver you can point it to D:/ whatever . And if you ever need to format C: then you wont lose your stuff in D and E.

hope this helps
floppy

hmm, do you REALLY need swap twice your ram?? For example, my computer, i have a gig of ram but 96 megs of swap. In my exeprience with running linux, the most swap that was ever used was around 5 megs..

The SWAP space is used when u use a heavy applications . Say for example you use weblogic , it is a heavy application and it needs hell lots of memory and you have some more applications opened and is inactive . The 1st half of the memory is used for weblogic and other 2nd half memory in the swap is used for the inactive applications .

Regards
Sumithra

This is a general rule of thumb from when RAM was so expensive, it was illogical to think that a home PC could have > 128mb RAM
If you have a gig of ram, I think ~500mb of swap should be fine, and thats if you utilize very intensive applications.
BTW: I still use the 2xRAM method - although, I have 128 mb RAM