Linux N00B, Help needed

Forum: User Feedback
Topic: Linux N00B, Help needed
started by: crazyjazy

Posted by crazyjazy on Dec. 29 2005,12:59

I am trying to enter the Linux world but have zero linux skills nor partitioning skills. I did however download the ultimatebootcd, which has several HD partitioning apps. Can someone provide a step-by-step guide to loading DSL on this machine:

eMachine 533i
Intel Celeron 533Mhz
160MB RAM
40GB HD

I ran the DSL Live CD and it worked fine. My HD works fine, but I have tried to format / partition it for Linux so much it won't boot. I need to know how many parititions to create, sizes, MBR, all that good stuff.

Can anyone assist me?

Thanks

Posted by doobit on Dec. 29 2005,13:58

Setting up a dual boot is the first, and often the trickiest part about a newcomer-to-linux's introduction to the process. Fortunately, many good tools exist to make the process easier. Some of the larger distributions automate the process. Mandriva does it about the best, in my experience. With DSL, you need to learn to do it manually. Actually, I noticed you already have probably removed whatever is already on your drive, so it's no problem to create new partitions and start over.

1.Boot from the Live CD
2. Open a terminal
3. type sudo su
4. type cfdisk /dev/hda

at this point I will defer to a link to some detailed instructions for making and formatting Linux partitions:

< http://users.linpro.no/ingvar/43p/1999/cfdisk.html >
Or

< http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/Partition.html#PARTITION-5 >

Posted by doobit on Dec. 29 2005,16:16

Also, here is some basic info that's relevant to DSL.
1. a DSL frugal install only needs around 50 MB for the root partition to store the DSL image. Make it about 250MB just in case you want to put a few extentions in there to start at boot. That should be your Primary and Boot partition in a Linux-only install.
2. You can only make 4 Primary partitions on an x86 based machine, but no problem, Linux likes logical partitions. The other advantage of logical partitions is they begin at hda5 which keeps them separate from your Primary partition(s). That's why I like to make one Primary boot partition and the rest logical. For DSL, you can have two logicals. The first should be a swap partition that's twice your RAM size. The second can be /home and /opt and should be your largest partition.
3. All of them will need to be formatted before you can use them. That's a separate process for your logical partitions, but DSL will format the boot partition for you when you install, if you want it to.