Unix/Linux installation

halo2_god

Hey, everyone well i have a slight problem im trying to install a unix or linux based OS on a HD 2GB which isnt built into my PC. But im using an IDE cable to hook it up my PC has the option to boot from an IDE cable but all i have to do is install eatheir linux or unix im not sure which one to choose. Or even boath i split the HD into two 1 GB partitions i know unix only takes like 20 MB il give it like a good 200 MB and the rest for linux i guess. But i dont know how i would do this.

kryyst

Is there a reason you want both unix and linux on it? Unless there is a need for Unix, I'd stick with just installing linux. It's more friendly and accessible for normal use.

As for installing both you'd probably want to go with the single partition method otherwise it could get really screwy between the two OS's.

halo2_god

kryyst wrote:

Is there a reason you want both unix and linux on it? Unless there is a need for Unix, I'd stick with just installing linux. It's more friendly and accessible for normal use.

As for installing both you'd probably want to go with the single partition method otherwise it could get really screwy between the two OS's.

No i guess il just use linux i have some boot disks but they dony configure with my eathernet cable or i cant save things to them. soo i guess il just go with linux. (But The reason i was going to have a unix partition was to mess around a little but it doesny really matter).

kryyst

There is little reason to learn unix, unless you need to learn Unix and even then the stuff you need to know, is seldom what you'd learn from just messing around. If you mess around in Linux that will give you enough of a transferable knowledge to use Unix at some level.

If you want to learn a unix for the business world then I'd recommend learning AIX Unix. It's what powers most IBM servers (nix servers that is) it's extremely powerful and shares some similarities with Linux for your normal commands and where files are. However it's in the power of it's smits utilities and universal database engines that the true power of AIX and the skill set really comes to play.

halo2_god

OK... lol back to my topic how would i install linux ubuntu or something like that on to the HDD over an IDE cable?and also how would i set up ther eathernet cable to be compatible with it?.

kryyst

The cable has nothing to do with it, actually having it on an IDE cable makes it simple since you don't have to worry about sata issues that linux occasionally has. Setting up your lan to work with it is also pretty basic for the most part.

Here's the lowdown though. This is as simple as it gets, if this doesn't work, then we worry about it from there.

First I'm making one assumption. I assume this current machine is a windows machine and you've just slapped this 2gb hdd on it so you could put linux on it to do a dual boot sorta thing and check it out. Now that, that's out of the way. I also assume that you can see this hdd from your bios (or windows which is better in ensuring your computer makes happy with it). It doesn't have to be formatted, just as long as your computer knows it's there.

Obtain an Ubuntu Live CD, there are other options, but I'm most familiar with this one and it's about as dumbed down as it gets. If you don't have an ubuntu live cd you can download an iso and burn it to a cd.

Put the ubuntu live cd in the drive and boot up your computer. The cd will startup from the cd and give you some options. The first option you want is to just boot up into the live cd. This will load into linux and see if it likes the hardware on your system, from graphics cards, network cards, sound cards etc.... If it's all not working that's not a big deal, but if your video card isn't liked, you could be in for a headache. Once the live cd is booted up you can surf the net through firefox and just generally check out Ubuntu.

Once it's up and running there is an icon called Install. Click the icon and it'll startup the install process. Now the key here is that you want it to install onto the 2gb hdd. This isn't a tricky thing to do. You just have to pay attention that you are selecting the right drives. Once it's installed it'll put on a boot loader and then basically your good to go.

Next time you reboot it'll go into a new screen that asks which operating system you want to use, Ubuntu or Windows. That's basically it in a nutshell.

halo2_god

Do you think its posible that i could get dameon tools and install that way?

drasnor

Note: Ubuntu requires a minimum of 2GB hard drive for a full installation. You won't get very far in typical desktop usage with that little free space. You can get some of that back by reducing the size of your swap partition (memory paging partition) but your performance will be degraded. Actually, it will likely perform like a dog anyway since you're using a disk that doesn't support anything above ATA33 if that. Many drives that old are accidents waiting to happen due to bad sectors and failing bearings. Do yourself a favor and get at least a reasonably modern hard drive. A 40GB ATA100 drive can be had pretty cheaply on eBay and offers plenty of room to grow in. Alternatively, you can play around in the LiveCD environment if you don't plan on saving anything.

-drasnor

halo2_god

it doesnt have to be ubuntu i have the version i want to use on a boot cd lieing around here but would dameon tools be able to install it onto the HD

drasnor

What exactly do you want to do with Daemon tools? Be specific.

-drasnor

kryyst

You can't use deamon tools to install it. Daemon tools only works from inside of windows. You have to install linux from the native cd for whatever version you are using. Poney up the $.59 and burn your iso linux image to a cd. But you have to burn it as an iso image you can't just burn the .iso as a file to the cd.