Installation prog won't partition!
 

Ok, I am trying to install Linux, and when I get to the partition step, I try to autopartition, and it gives me the error message: "Error Partitioning. Could not allocate requested partitions: Partitioning failed: Could not allocate partitions as primary partitions." I tried partitioning it manually w/Druid, and got the same result. Also, my installation program looks like a crappy DOS-based program, how do you get the spiffy GUI that is shown in the installation instructions on redhat.com? Any help is appreciated. Oh yeah, I'm trying to install a dual boot on a machine with XP. Thanks.
:smash:

if you have the older system with less than 64 Megs of memory, and old video card you will only get the text install.

Oh, I didn't read your thread completely you're installing dual boot with XPants (someone has dissed it before on this forum) I assume you have a newer system with 128Mb RAM at least, right? If so then Redhat during the first step of install detects your video card and if it thinks there is no driver it could use for it the installation would go to text mode process.

Yea, that must be it, because when I tell it to run in text mode I get the same crappy display. Is there anyway I could get the installation prog to recognize my vid card? Or do I have to wait to install Linux and then manually install a driver for my vid card? And does anyone have any idea why I can't partition my drive? It's hella frustrating because I don't know what to do! Can I partition my drive from windows, or is that not an option? Please help, I realllllllllly want to get Linux up and running on my system. Thanks for your replies, and any future help.

try to download the latest installation updates disk image. and issue "linux updates" at the prompt...

Ok, I figured out how to run the installation prog in graphical mode. The problem is, it still refuses to partition! This is driving me nuts. Does anyone have any idea why this is happening? If not, is there anyway I could partition from windows? Thanks in advance for any help!

Obvious question... did you run the Defrag program in windows? This moves all your existing data to the front of the drive to give you an empty bit at the end which you can re-allocate. If there is data at the end you can't change the partition size.

Oh. Watch the options on defrag... one gives the choice of 'improving performance' but actually spreads your files out.

Joe

Yup, ran the defrag prog. I didn't see an option for improving performance, but I'm assuming it isn't on, because after the drive defrags there is a huge chunk of free space at the end. Isn't there some way I could partition the drive from windows? Or is that not possible?

Programs
 

Lo:

The real easy answer is to buy either PartitionMagic (my recommendation) or the System Commander program (also good) that assists with partitioning of hard drives without damage.

For about 40 bucks USD, you get a prog. that will allow you to format your hd in almost any way you could imagine as well as provide you with suggestions (like put your linux /, etc... in a logical partition).

The 2 programs run under windows, so you should be real comfortable.

Although confusing, I have had no probs with fdisk in the partition process (but that, they say, is the most confusing one to learn...).

Good luck!

James

First off, I'd like to thank everyone who's given me advice in my quest to install linux. I just got partition magic, and I'm right in the middle of slicing up my drive and since I've never really partitioned a hd before, I figured I should make sure I'm doing it right before I mess something up. What I've done so far is create a ~10 GB partition that I'm going to put linux on. I partitioned it as a "primary" partition. In that partition, I created a swap partition (logical) of 512 MB (2x my RAM). The rest is going to be my "/" directory (also logical). But I understand I also need a "/boot" directory. I don't really know how I should do that in partition magic, because it wont let me slice up the linux chunk anymore. So I guess my two questions are, how do I make a /boot directory, and is everything else ok so far?

Thanks in advance for any help.