n00b alert!!!

First time I'm really getting into linux. Red Hat was recommended so I downloaded 3 iso's. I've got a 80GB here ready to be partition for linux and 2k3 (I'll get that later). Anything I need to know for the partitions? How many do I need? Do I need a seperate partition for swap (if applies)?
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I assume you want to dual or triple boot with 2k3 installed. Here is a suggestion, install all other OSs first, then RH. RH will autodetect any other bootable partitions and add them to the boot menu, you shouldn't have to do a thing. Also, Grub (the boot loader) is realitively easy to configure anyway while a Windows boot loader seems like it would be a pain in the rear end.
/me needs some help
Could somebody contact me via IM (contacts are in profile) so they can help me with the installation using Virtual PC (yes that's un1337 but I've never done this). Pretty please!!!
Here's a safe way of trying RH 9...
Create 3 partitions with Partition Magic
80mb - Ext3 (label it boot)
1024mb - Linux Swap (label it swap)
Whatever you wanna give to Linux (15/20gb???) - Ext3 (label it root)
When you are in the install of RH9, when it comes to partition, select "partition manually with disk druid".
You will see the 3 partitions you have created and select each in turn and hit edit each time. On teh dropdown, you can select the type it is...
80mb - /boot
1024mb - leave it as swap
Other partition you made - /
Then when you get to installing a boot loader. Select no bootloader. You will need to make the rescue floppy disk later in the install when prompted. If you DON'T, you won't be able to boot into your system. Whenever that is the floppy drive, you can boot into the system, when it isn't... you can install other OS's (2K3) and boot them without interfering with Linux. Sure.. it will boot slower than if it was off the HDD.. but if you bork ya Linux.. PMagic them and start again, without having to rescue a later installed Windows master boot record.
Need more help, email me on the usual
I have a 50mb boot partition at the from of my drive C: will it use that? Thats what I made if for after reading MMs HDD article.
So I should just leave it unpartitioned and let it do it all?
I couldnt see the partition once I botted up in my XP OS. I thought I clicked where they could both see all the files but I guess I didnt.
Don't ask me how though :O best read one of those linux manual things
My Card was also listed but it didnt work at all, so its all going to be fun fun fun by the look of things.
NS
First, only way Linux will get to the stuff right is for it to be in FAT32 file system. In theory you will be able to red NTFS but not write to it, so easiest thing is this:
Stuff gets moved to a logical drive in a secondary partition, then converted to FAT32 if needed.
Open up space toward beginning of drive.
Essentially you will need to do soemthing RedHat does not like newbies to do-- manually set up the parts in the RH installer, as below:
/boot 256 MB -- first partition.
(leaves room for alternate kernels later, among other things-- my boot has 2 enterprise, 1 SMP, a Win4Lin, etc in it right now)
SWAP , 2 times RAM in computer, second partition
/
(no, nothing after) remaining open space between end of SWAP and beginning of Extended partition.
The way RH will then install is that /boot will be happy and in first 1024 portions of HD that it favors, SWAP will then never run very low even if you game in Linux while surfing and doing webdev and editing graphics at once, and / will hold whole rest of file system until you outgrow the harddrive or move your stuff off HD to make room for more Linux.
Mandrake will take this part structure and live with it also. I have not tried to see what the best sizes are for Slack yet.
Because Linux likes to know what part number has what data on it. RH and PM number the extended part different. If you keep Linux in primaries then you can have no issues with part number getting changed by PM. If you ever set up new parts, numbers change.
CD 1 of Mandrake and RH are also rescue disks.
You can boot from them, go into Linux single mode, mount your /, go to /etc/fstab and change to match new numbers, your linux will then find what it needs and boot fine. (That is the way out of that number thing, the easiest one.). Boot from CD1 of distro you installed, and if get into that fix of Linux not being able to find anything but /boot then ask before trying as the details are longer to post.
Any way to keep RH only to those 10gb? All other drives are NTFS so I cannot go back to FAT32 and keep my XP boot files on C:.
You should just alot about 500 -1000 mb of linux swap in your 10 gb area depending on how much physical memory you have. Then (as I did it), make the the rest of the 10 gb area /, the root directory.
The thing I don't understand, and someone could probably answer this for me. When you are partitioning your disks with a tool like cfdisk. You have a windows partitoin first and you leave it untouched, then just play around with the end of the disk which is still RAW. You write the table, does that rewrite your windows table, thus deleting all the information, or does it only add the tables at the end of the disk?
Linux has lilo or grub. Both can go to a second bootloader-- second bootloader can be XP's bootloader. XP cannot see Linux. XP does not KNOW it is not on C if the other parts are not a file system XP can see(and XP does not know that Ext2 or Ext3 are valid file systems).
mmonnin, you are simply incorrect.
tried grub and lilo already, no go
Actaully, the slave drive was totally clean and RAW. It wouldn't install to slave, oddly enough, if you clean off linux it will install to the master. I did not want it on my faster harddrive though so I switched the drives around. It again worked with master and not slave. I think microsoft will not settle for anything but a primary master harddrive.
PS I am pretty sure linux can use FAT32 and FAT16
To get a Linux boot loader to work you use an 'other' stanza to point to the Windows XP boot loader, or point the XP boot. ini to lilo on the other drive. Chaining the bootloaders is the easiest way with XP.
Here's a helpful place for those wanting links to bootloader docs.
http://www.rocklinux.org/people/ripclaw/links/boot.html
The GRub manual is here:
http://www.gnu.org/manual/grub/index.html
LILO Basics are here:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/LILO.html
For a FUBARed install of a bootloader, decent info is here:
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/other-formats/html_single/LILO-crash-rescue-HOWTO.html
Yes, XP wants primary master drive, BUT it need not have the primary partition to run-- I have done otherwise 10-15 times on my and other friends systems. Typically, the easiest way (to fool 2000 and XP as to which physical drive is which, if you want to have Linux on all of the primary master drive and another O\S elsewhere) is a BIOS code swap of HD orders in bootloader-- done as needed.
Linux can be quite happy on a slave drive if you tell it where to install at install time or make a boot floppy, move drive, and edit /etc/fstab and possibly /etc/mtab (depending on how your distro scripts changes in /etc/fstab to /etc/mtab) from a rescue boot.