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Old 01-18-2005, 10:47 PM   #1
manas_shukla
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Talking everyone wants XP dual booting i need dual boot with WinMe?


well, i dont need to tell you that im a newbie.after trying linux im sure i dont want to go back to windows unless its absolutely necessary.however im a newbie, ive decided to use fedora core 3.i have some questions:
1) I have also used Knoppix, and it seems to be full of eye candy, but admittedly the desktop is quite user friendly. How is Knoppix compared to Fedora? Which should I choose?

Dual Booting
2) As I said I only want to use windows when it is absolutely necessary, so I would like to partition my 40gb Hard Drive with Linux ( fedora?) and Windows Me ( XP Trashes my meagre 128 mb RAM ) .
I would like to know if somebody has written anything to help me DUAL BOOT my HD.
3) There are some very good articles that provide instructions and help to partition the drive and dual boot it but I cant seem to find an Article in which they've used Fedora Core 3 and Windows Millenium. The articles I find always use an older core and Windows XP or 2000.
Is there an article or a person who can help me out?

thanks, manas.

Last edited by manas_shukla; 01-18-2005 at 11:18 PM.
 
Old 01-18-2005, 11:28 PM   #2
Fredstar
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Personally i would say try Fedora.. i started with linux a few months ago and i have played around with my share of distros and i find fedora to be very user friendly especially to newbs.

As far as dual booting goes when your installing fedora it will install grub (boot manager) just make sure that while installing you choose not to destroy all partitions.

hope that helps
 
Old 01-18-2005, 11:54 PM   #3
manas_shukla
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Thumbs up hard drive compatibility, playing mp3's from win partition

i've read about the GRUB boot manager...so it doesnt matter wether its XP or Me...the procedure is the same?
also, i carry my hard drive around a lot and copy stuff out of other ppls comps, will installing fedora lead to other ppls windows run computers not detecting my hard drive?
thanks for the reply, i know its a very common question!


oh and one more thing, is it possible to use files ( such as mp3's ) residing on my windows partition and using them ( playing mp3's for example ) while running fedora?

Last edited by manas_shukla; 01-18-2005 at 11:59 PM.
 
Old 01-19-2005, 12:00 AM   #4
Fredstar
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i have asked it before like a lot of others.

As i know it the windows will see the other ntfs drive (like c or any other partitions created by ) however windows does not see linux partitions. So anything u download or have sitting around on your linux partition will not be seen without 3rd party software.

About the mp3 .. at first linux ( Fedora Core 2 - not all distros) does not support mp3. However, like anything else there is a lot of help to get around this.

Last edited by Fredstar; 01-19-2005 at 12:13 AM.
 
Old 01-19-2005, 12:05 AM   #5
manas_shukla
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what if windows is on FAT32 ( the other person's)?
can you share txt files btween linux/win?
 
Old 01-19-2005, 12:08 AM   #6
Fredstar
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Im not sure if u can by default but im sure u can with 3rd party software but im not 100% on that. i know it can be done with ntfs so i do not see why it couldn't be done with FAT 32. (not 100%)
 
Old 01-19-2005, 12:11 AM   #7
student04
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Quote:
Originally posted by Fredstar
About the mp3 .. at first linux does not support mp3. However, like anything else there is a lot of help to get around this.
"linux" is incorrect here - some distributions don't include it. Redhat and Fedora are the only ones that i can think of at the moment. Mandrake has support for it "out of the box", for example.

And i have a link stored somewhere to a thread on this site that tells you exactly how to make it work

KDE is not the default desktop environment for Fedora; it uses GNOME, which is not as "bloated" as KDE, has fewer configuration options, but is sleeker, possible a bit faster, and looks more like windows (not quite, though).
 
Old 01-19-2005, 12:16 AM   #8
student04
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Quote:
Originally posted by manas_shukla
what if windows is on FAT32 ( the other person's)?
can you share txt files btween linux/win?
Almost all distributions already support reading and writing to the DOS, FAT16 and FAT32 filesystems. Many support reading from NTFS, even, but writing to NTFS is not 100% supported, as the source code for the filesystem is kept locked up in Microsoft's buildings, and reverse engineering is a difficult and long process.

So yes you may share (reading from and writing to) files on a FAT32 partition. The FAT32 drive will both show up on the windows OS and the Linux OS. What you save in that partition will be accessible and writeable by both OS's.

Last edited by student04; 01-19-2005 at 12:17 AM.
 
Old 01-19-2005, 12:17 AM   #9
Fredstar
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Student04

:: Location = RIT

( Rochester institute of technology ?)

Last edited by Fredstar; 01-19-2005 at 12:30 AM.
 
Old 01-19-2005, 12:20 AM   #10
student04
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As for partitioning the drive for linux, I'd say use Partition Magic, because it can resize NTFS safely, and i don't think any linux OS can do that yet (they can shrink them when almost nothing has been written to).

When you install a linux distribution, you will (with the mainstream ones) be given a graphical user interface for visually modifying the partition table. You will also be given configuration options for the boot loader (GRUB for Fedora) which will allow you to select which operating system you would like to boot up into when you turn on your computer.
 
Old 01-19-2005, 12:27 AM   #11
student04
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Quote:
Originally posted by Fredstar
Student04

:: Location = RIT

( Rochester Business institute ?)
You got the R correct.

RIT = Rochester Institute of Technology
 
Old 01-19-2005, 12:30 AM   #12
Fredstar
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roflmao sorry its been a long night

r I= institute T= technology

ya well u know what i was aiming for sorta had a brain fart.
 
Old 01-19-2005, 03:39 AM   #13
Electro
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Quote:
1) I have also used Knoppix, and it seems to be full of eye candy, but admittedly the desktop is quite user friendly. How is Knoppix compared to Fedora? Which should I choose?
Those two are Linux. Picking one depends what you like.

Quote:
2) As I said I only want to use windows when it is absolutely necessary, so I would like to partition my 40gb Hard Drive with Linux ( fedora?) and Windows Me ( XP Trashes my meagre 128 mb RAM ) .
Software does not ruin hardware like memory. Windows XP is very eye candy when you first boot into it. It is possible to tone down the eye candy, but you are still left with bad memory management. You have to optimize Windows XP for your system.

Before partitioning, I suggest backing up your data using image tools like Norton Ghost. You will need another hard drive drive to store the image. With Partition Magic, you will have to split the primary partition which is storing Windows. Depending the use of the computer, I suggest making the Windows partition about 8 - 16 GB. This will be only for Windows applications and games. The FAT32 partition or D: drive will be for you to store your graphics, sound, video, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, database, mail, etc. I suggest moving this files from the C: drive to the D:. Then make an extended partition for the rest of the unused space. Next add two logical partition in the extended partition. One logical partition will be formatted as FAT32 and the other will be formatted as nothing. First start to create a logical partition with no filesystem. Then create a logical partition that will be formatted as FAT32. What you should have is shown in the visual below:

|---------- Primary --------------|------------------------------- Extended --------------------------------------|
|---------- C: Drive -------------|--- Unformatted partition ---|--------- D: Drive (FAT32) ----------------|

The unformatted and D: drive partition are logical partitions that are create in the extended partition. Sorry, that I can represent that in the visual. For the unformatted partition, make the size be around 2 to 8 GB. The D: drive can be the rest of the unused space in the extended partition, but it should be larger than the C: drive.

Apply the changes and Partition Magic will do the rest. After Partition Magic did its work, you should see to drives listed in My Computer. It may ask you to format the unforatted partition. Just say no. Make a Windows boot floppy and the reboot the computer. Set the BIOS to boot off the CD disc and also it could not hurt to enable the fail-safe settings. Insert the Linux installation discs. You should see a bunch of greek language going by and then it will bring up a graphical installer.

In disk druid (I think), delete the unformatted partition and add two partitions. One will be a swap partition and the other will be the root partition. For swap you can make it be 256 MB to 1 GB using the swap file system. The root partition will be the rest of the partition. You can pick from ext2, ext3, reiserfs, xfs, jfs for the root partition but I think disk druid sticks with either ext2 or ext3. If reiserfs is shown in the pick it, It is better than ext2 and ext3. Though ext2 and ext3 can be access in Windows through a program called explore2fs. Again below is visual representation of what your partitions may look like.

|---------- Primary --------------|------------------------------- Extended --------------------------------------|
|---------- C: Drive -------------|- Linux swap -|- Linux ( / ) -|--------- D: Drive (FAT32) ----------------|

Read the on-screen instructions and select the desire packages to install. Use GRUB as your bootloader to make it easier to fix it later if need to.

There is a possiblity that you may never boot into Windows. The Windows boot floppy that I suggested to make earlier will help you boot into Windows after installing Linux. If this happens, you will have to figure out how to edit grub bootloader and change or add a few lines.

Quote:
3) There are some very good articles that provide instructions and help to partition the drive and dual boot it but I cant seem to find an Article in which they've used Fedora Core 3 and Windows Millenium. The articles I find always use an older core and Windows XP or 2000.
Is there an article or a person who can help me out?
oops! I did them for question number 2.

BTW, do not use Partition Magic to format partitions for Linux because in certain situations it can screw up Linux programs.
 
  


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