What up all,

K gotta new project here. I've more or less gotten the basics of linux etched into my head now. Finnaly gotten to the point where I am comfortable enough navigating around and tayloring the layout/operation to my desire. I started off with Mandriva 2006 (free d/l) which came packaged with KDE 3.5 which I dislike actually now that I have had a chance to explore around on Gnome.
I am planning on wiping my system ckean and starting with a clean slate Using a tri-boot system.
1st Install (ughh), Windows 98 on primary 40 gig hard drive (full partition - for my girlfriends games and Music/Video storage).
2nd Install, Ubuntu w/ 60 gigs to work with out of 120,
and last install, Mandriva 2006 (until i decide on another) w/Gnome instead of KDE on the remaining space. It's in the software packages, so I could just install right (gnome that is..)?

I was going to use my RescueCD to prepare for the setup ( www.sysresccd.org , for those of you that don't already know )

1. qtparted to wipe all partitions on disks back to single. I'm thinking its best to leave the disks unformated and let each OS do its own thing with the disk during install. I've installed linux twice now, the second time seemed to go a bit smoother when you just point it to the desired install location and let it do its own thing...figure cant be much different in Ubuntu...please correct me if I am wrong.

2. Install Win98 on primary master disk, get that completely up and running to my tastes (custom install which I end up making smaller than the minimal by scrapping all the useless software(s) that come with windows.

3.Heres where I am torn as in what to do:

a. Which Linux distro to install first...!
Should I go with Mandriva simply because I am familiar with its install process. Possibly avoiding any complications I might run into. I've heard the Ubuntu install process is a little less eye candy (which I really couldn't care less about), but breezes trough setup...I just want to make sure its going to give me the option to edit/create hard drive partitions.

Thats my basic game plan for the system setup.
Now the boot loader...which I know is a mundane part of the system experience...but hear me out.

I want the boot loader to display a custom setup and Menu list...Im ready to read if this is a difficult task, but if there are easy ways of going about this...please let me know.

After years of computer tinkering starting with atari/apple IIC/**skip ahead**/etc.
I think with this system setup, not only can I customize and mold my system into MINE...I have 3 systems in one to play with!

Lemme know what You all think, thanks Hagop

- install doze first or it will ruin your life.

- use cfdisk.. forget about qtparted.. it's for noobs or when you need to 'resize' partitians.

- dont EVER let the program decide on it's own what should happen!!

- on boot, just get the bitch working first.. then worry about preddy.

* ahhnd, when you got your desktop just the way you want, and your sys.. then check out: bootcd .. it lets you create your own livecd of your current running system.. and it's installable :]

I left a 55 gb partition for my ubuntu install. Yes, i know, 2 "newb/noob/nub" systems.

Anyhow, I was wondering if there is a way to omit the boot loader install. I figure I could simply install it, get it updated, set up how I want and such. Next boot back to mandrake, set lilo up with the new dist and sails away. Why does it sound so easy and I have a feeling it wont be so.

any help apreciated. Ha, I had to boot into windows to do get my taxes done and get some streaming video pages, now got a personalized play list in totem, video not quite as clear-but hey, i have never watched a buffer stay so stable and high. Something even winamp didnt do (not that it couldn't, it just didnt, thank you advertising...*spit. Feh.)

Wow, go back and read that again, it was all over the place wasn't it.

you could of had one of your linuxes on one of the 'other' drives and did your taxes on the web at turbo tax... but no biggy.

lemme get this straight, 98 is going on a completely seperate drive.. this is VERY good.

you are putting 2 lins on another drive..

allow the boot loader to 'do' it's thing, but just dont' trash 98's mbr or you will have to do extra work in grub/lilo to acess it (unless you boot with one hd-- the 98 one, whenever you need to acess 98).

it sounds like your making & progress and having fun.. qool

let us know

K, got all three OS's up and working. Lilo good, now for the fun to start.

1. I run into trouble trying to set up my network connection in ubuntu. I search and cannot find the proper app to setup a net connection. Weird too, i go to the device manager under menu sys/admin, the only device listed is "computer" and there are no details available. So obviously I cannot update or even connect to the net for that matter. I'll keep looking and browsing web pages, but any help would be greatly appreciated of course.

2. Trying to install Firefox 1.5 (update from v 1.0.6).
I'm not quite to the point where I understand how everything is stored within the ext3 filesys. I need to uncompress the install file(s) to the existing firefox diretory and run the tar. Yeah, can't even do that. I explore aimlessly looking for the firefox directory.
Still working on debriefing my brain on the windows explorer setup.

In the meantime, I have the install package saved, and I'll explore the forums, but again, any help...

Thanks all

keep all 'YOUR' programs that you install personally (like firefox or whatever from the net) into a seperate folder called "my programs" -- or whatver you wanna call it.

then right click on the tar, and say 'extract here'.

then goto command line (of the exact same directory)and follow the instructions for installing, or just click the binary in the folder.. if there is one. read the: readme or install files first.

good luck.

Right on

All three OS installed, running, smooth.

Got ubuntu just about how I want it visually...now for the configuration and such. I already installed the Nvidia GLX driver...which seems to be a bit better than the os driver, but not quite up to par with the performance I've seen from my card.
(GeForce FX 5600 Ultra128mb). I know its not the highest end card, but I also know I shouldn't bet getting only about 40-50 fps with the whale screen saver in Ubuntu. At least I know more is possible now. Does anyone know if this GLX driver, which is available in the synaptic package manager, is the same offered at the Nvidia driver page?
I do have the nvidia utilities now, and the util is amazingly similar to the one in windows right down to the thermal guage.

Mandriva is going to become my Linux learning platform until I get to the comfort stage to move on to a more powerful system. I actually haven't even used it in about a week. Its been all Ubuntu config and setup since I finnaly got everything working.

Which reminds me, to fix the network/sound problem I was having...I simply re-partitioned the space and reinstalled the sys. It seems when I drop the option to install Grub, it has a fit and I end up loosing a bunch of hardware devices. I don't get this at all and if anyone may have an answer, by all means let me know please.

Windows, is kept in its kenel on another disk. I know it feels segregated, and thats because it is. It a boring system with meager capabilities and poor support. As soon as I saw previews for vista...I thought to myself "hey, you've already used that system, on that Mac at the store.", if any of you have seen it, you will realize it is a complete rip off as with any windows GUI (that was meant in both fashions of the art of rip-off).

My next move is to finnaly get another 500mg of crucial memory to get my dual channel DDR going and if I can find it affordable enough somewhere, Ath XP 3200+. Kick this bitc* outta cruise control.

Again, always, thanks for all the help.

good idea to just keep doze on it's own disk.

lilo is 'supposed' 2b better at handling windows for boot up.

i'm not sure why/if grub is causing your hardware to 'not' be recognized properly... but that doesn't sound like that is the cause.

are you talking about that 'network - sound' issue you mentioned?

is that with ubuntu?

if so you need make sure the proper drivers are installed, & initiated with both items.

i'm not too familiar with ubuntu, but i am with debian, which is a distant cousin.. which means for sound you need to run alsaconf (from cmd line is ok) for it to recognize your sound card initially.

with networking, again you need to go to 'network-admin' (on the command line if you'd like) and activate your card, probably for dhcp.

keep us informed.

Sorry, wasnt too clear. yeah already fixed the sound network problem.

This time, this time I think I figured out whats wrong.

I tried to boot back into Mandriva last night. after I installed ubuntu, i had to resetup the boot brocess so i could use the custom boot progrss screen I had spent a bit of time figuring out how to to. Seems when I do this, mandriva reinstalls lilo over grub in the mbr. When I try to boot to Ubuntu, several processes fail. The only think I can really get clear is something MODPROBE: TEXT I CANT READ CAUSE IT FLIES BY TOO FAST. Now herein lies my major problem, my attempt at what may be causing this is as follows.
K when ubuntu installed, it installed with the kernel version on the CD, after install complete, it automatically found a new kernel and installed it. I noticed after each kernel update ( this is 3rd install of Ubuntu), there was a new Ubuntu selection on the grub screen. I figured one was the new kernel, and one was the old. I think I may even had tried to boot the old one just out of curiosity and got nearly all the same errors.

My question to you great ones, is it possible that lilo/grub installed from mandriva is set up to boot the old kernel? if so, how do I update the kernel img to boot?

Please tell me I need to go terminal, I'm likin that more n more.

********Same day edit: Just for more info from my side

Okay I also think I found what needs to be changed if I am at all correct in my assumptions.

I have the ubuntu entry aimed at the correct partition, this I know for a fact because I set up all partitions manually and remembered/wrote down where everything was.

GRUB:

Mandriva entry (/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-12mdk)

Ubuntu Entry (exactly the same. It should NOT be right??)

Not to mention, the kernel doesn't look right, before mandriva overwrote the grub install from ubuntu (which worked perfectly for all three systems until I used it to boot to mandriva.), the grub menu listed the kernel next to the name, and displayed what seemed to be the entries I had made for lilo in mandriva.

Using Mandriva kernel as example only 2.6.12**-12mdk
It was something like that but there was a 9 in the general area of the stars, "-" before and after with the first ubuntu kernel, and after the upgrade was a "10". Meaning I had both listed, i dont yet know how to or even if should remove old kernels.

I was (as in just before I got on to add this) looking around at the entries before I booted into any system in the grub conf. I looked at the path for Ubuntu, again the drive/partition was right but the kernel entry seemed off, as if mandriva overwritten that too.
Maybe I am completely wrong, but I really hope you guys have some help to bring.

This was just an update, not trying to bombard you guys with stuff. sorry