hi,
im a total newbie to linux and want to start using linux. one of my friends suggested suse and im gonna get suse 10.1 x86_64 for myself. i would appreciate if someone could give me a detailed description of how to go about installing and using it.
i dont know any linux commands or how to use it at all, but i know to use winxp comfortably.

first of all here is my sys config
Proc : AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice E6
Mobo : Asus A8N-VM CSM with NVidia Geforce6150 + NForce430. (i know that this board has some issues with linux, but i flashed the BIOS to the latest one, 1001, so i guess that solves the problem)
RAM : 896Mb Physical + 128Mb shared video ram
HDD : 1. 160GB seagate sata
2. 40GB samsung IDE
Optical : 1. sony dru 810A dual DVD RW
2. samsung 248x CD RW
Printer : 1. HP deskjet 610C
2. Samsung MFP SCX4100

i need to use winxp 32 bit so i guess i'll have to dual boot the system. i wish to use the following partitioning config with a fresh format.

HDD 1 (seagate 160 SATA)

Part1(32gb) : winxp32 ntfs
part2(25gb) : data ntfs
part3(25gb) : data ntfs
part4(50gb) : data ntfs

part5(+whatever needed)(20gb) : suse whats the best FS?

HDD 2 (samsung 40 IDE)
part1(40gb) : data FAT32

now im gonna put all my data on the 40gb ide drive and remove it during installation to keep my data safe. then the 160 can be clean fresh formatted.

which os should i install first? winxp i guess

if winxp, then i'll have to make 4 partitions that are ntfs, then should i make a 5th partition RAW before installing suse? or should i leave 20gb as unpartitioned?

i've heard linux needs 3 partitions so how do i go about with dividing that 20gb between these 3 parts?

ok once i understand all this partitioning stuff, how to go abt installing? and which FS to use for suse?

whats better Gnome or KDE?i dont mind learning a new UI so i'm not hung up with an xp look alike.

when install done how to load device drivers?
should i download the linux drivers for geforce and nforce and keep them ready on a CD for that?
what about printer drivers?
what abt network and sound drivers?
i have heard that my board has some issues here. if i encounter them then how to go about solving these?

since i have never used linux b4 i'd really appreciate if ur answers are detailed and dont expect me to know how to go abt linux procedures.

thanks a lot.

Linux is great and easy to install. Just change your Bios to boot your CDrom first. Put in the instllation cd, reboot and follow the instructions...

Leave the extra Gigabytes unpartitioned.

3 partitions are / /home and the <swap> or boot (not sure whichn one)

Doesn't matter which OS you install first, I would say Windows first then linux just so Linux can mnt windows to you automatically.

Linux will make the needed partition for you, but it's often wise to make the root partition larger then 5gb. More like 10 is ok, /home is where verything you download will go... games and programs will go into /root.

The suse file system I belive the most used is ext3 if its the same as mandriva linux.


Depending on which version of suse (any of the newer ones) will install all your devices and have all your drivers that you need on the cd's or cd.

Just reboot and follow the instructions.

ok, got it on the partitioning, basically put windows, and leave space unpartitioned for linux. i need total 20g on that as i said earlier.

now is suse gonna ask me how i want linux partitions sized? and what FS? (u're saying ext3 is a good FS, what abt ReiserFS?)

also since i wanna put everything thats there on the dvd shouldnt "/root" as u call it be large?

now as far as drivers go, i've read these scary things like "recompile the kernel" "come out of 3 mode" "run these commands" and so on which i have no clue about on the nvidia website and some install guides? so u sure they will be done automatically off the DVD, assuming that v10.1 will have all that since its new?

no, suse will not but there are howtos that give detailed installation help for the nvidia drivers. There are some on this site to be exact.

BTW, you cant make 5 primary partitions. You can only have four on one disk. However, you can make an extended partition and house other partitions in that so you can have more than 4 partitions.

I just wanted to chime in here to get some clarification. When you say programs and games usually go on the '/root' partition, are you referring to the '/' root partition, or the actual '/root' as in the root users home directory. I don't know if this is common for SUSE, but I wouldn't put anything in the '/root' directory that you plan on giving access to non-root users. The only thing I use my '/root' folder for is for "root" related stuff (back up of configuration files, root specific perl scripts, etc.). In my opinion, I would leave the '/root' folder as just part of the '/' root partition (man I'm getting confused) and donate the diskspace to a larger '/home' partition. DO all your software building in the non-root users home directory, then 'su' to root when you are ready to install it to the '/' partition (if not the users home dir)

Please don't think I am saying other methods are wrong, this is just what I have always been taught. Just be careful not to create any security problems if you decide to use the '/root' more extensively.

regards,
...drkstr

The phrase "root directory" can be slightly ambiguous. Typically "root" refers to the absolute highest level directory, namely "/". ALL other directories live under "/", and none are above it. It is roughly equivalent to "C:\" in Windows.

Within "/" however, there is a "/root" directory, which is the home directory for the root user. In other words, in every Linux installation there should always be at least two user accounts set up: a single root user (which is only used to perform admin tasks such as installing new software) and then a regular user account, which is what you should be using probably at least 95% of the time. To demonstrate, if your regular user account was called "myname", its home directory would be "/home/myname", and the equivalent of that directory for the root user is "/root".

Regarding setting up your dual boot, the advice given already is good. My suggestions would be:

1. Do the partitioning first. I find it's much easier to deal with the partitioning work as a separate task, rather than a step within the installation process. If you plan to give Linux 20G, then I'd suggest basically spliting the space between root "/" and /home. Define the partitions, but don't format them (that will be done as part of the Linux install). I'd give 10G to "/", 256Mg to swap, and the rest to /home.

2. Install Windows first. Windows expects to be in the first partition on the primary master drive, and if you put it somewhere else you'll need to jump through some extra hoops to get it to work properly. It's just easier to get Windows out of the way first.

3. The default FS in SuSE is reiserfs, which is a journalled file system (ext3 is another journalled FS). Journalled FS's are more modern and much better than non-journalled FS's, for example ext2. I'd just go with the default of reiserfs.

4. Gnome or KDE is a matter of personal preference. Whichever you choose, you can always change it later

5. Most hardware detection these days is pretty good, and I wouldn't be overly concerned with it at this point. I'd suggest doing the installation, and if any issues surface, they can be dealt with at that point.

6. Personal opinion only: I'm using SuSE v10.0 x86_64 on my Athlon 3200+, also with an Asus mobo and nVidia graphics card, and it's just excellent. This week I tried to install SuSE v10.1 on my x86 Pentium 4 box, but after running into numerous obstacles/frustrations, I abandoned it and just went with v10.0 Not to be negative, but if you are new to Linux, I don't know that I'd recommend v10.1 Go with v10.0 instead. Strictly my 2 cents, but based on two days of wrestling with v10.1

Either way, good luck with it and Welcome to LQ

thanks all for the great help, even though some of this root and / stuff went straight over the head, i'm sure its in the best of intentions, and i hope u guys will keep advising bumblimg newbs like me. lol.

what i have understood so far (firstly i would rather go with 10.1 contrary to J.W.'s otherwise great help coz i have heard a lot abt 10.0, A8N-VM CSM, and black screen which i havent seen since 98-blue)
coming back to what i got so far

1. install windows - 32gb + 25gb + 25gb + 50gb (all ntfs) and leave the rest of area unallocated.

2. boot thru suse DVD - partition with 10gb "/", 256mb swap (wouldnt 512 be better or something) and remaining to "/home". all this part of GUI or will i need to learn commands? best u say is ReiserFS?

3. hardware should be easily detected or i can always come back here. lol.

4. what to do abt setting options while booting for selecting OS and stuff?

thanks a lot

The above seems sound enough, point 4 though, dont quite understand what you mean, do you mean configuring the part which loads either OS? in tha tcase it's called a bootloader, SUSE will either use GRUB or LILO, you can google both of these for plenty of info, but the installer will configure this towards the end of the install, and they are quite simple to change afterwards.

Just a quick point on the boot loader;
I don't know what the SUSE install looks like but if it gives you an option of where to install the boot loader, make sure you put it on the MBR This makes it easier to dual boot to different OS's.

regards,
...drkstr

The SuSE installation is done via GUI, and you will not have to manually run any commands. The boot options are to either use GRUB or lilo as the boot manager; they both do the same thing, so it doesn't particularly matter which one you choose. (GRUB is the default in SuSE)

Good luck with v10.1, post back with an update later

grub and lilo (insect food) sounds easy to configure, but i ddnt quite understand what does "put it on the MBR" mean?

thankfully its GUI and i dont need to start sweating over commands

MBR=Master Boot record. It just means that you install it on the beginning of the hard drive instead of the beginning of the partition. YOu don't really need to know a lot about it, just that if you see anything like that when asked "where to install <grub/lilo>" pick it.

regards,
...drkstr