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Thread ID: 14549 2002-01-12 01:01:00 installing redhat 7.1 with Win Me Guest (0) Press F1
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30856 2002-01-12 01:01:00 I am about to start installing Linux, what steps should I take first, I have read the manual but am still unsure about disk partitioning I have defragged my c:\, and I don't currently have any partitions, how do I set up a partition for linux, and eventually when its all set up and working how do I get the system to come up with a prompt on bootup asking whether I wish to use linux or windows.
I hope this is clear and makes sense to someone, and any suggestions would be much appreciated.
NT 		Guest (0)
30857 2002-01-12 03:07:00 It just so happens that there is a new site called

www.startlinux.co.nz/

which has a series on dual booting linux and Windows.

The other manual which you should read is 'Getting Started' which is part of the Linux Documentation Project, referred to as the LDP. You will find that in

dunedin.lug.net.nz

But here's the basics: You have defragged the disk. You must not use DOS/in FDISK. On your RH7.1 install disk there is a directory called 'DOSUTILS'. Make a Me Emergency repair disk, whicjh will give you a bootable DOS.

Use something in Windows (notepad?) to read the documentation for the programme 'FIPS' in that directory.

Yu might want to defraag again ... everything in Windows has to be compreswsed down into one end of the disk.

Then you can boot DOS off the floppy and run FIPS to give you a unallocated area of disk greater than 500MB (for RH7.1). If you've got lots of disk, give it a GB or so. Don't make any Linux partitions ... the installation script will do it for you.

If you can boot off the CD, you are ready, otherwise you will need to make two installation floppies. Just make sure that you have good floppies for this. (If you ever get an 'Error 10' while booting a Linux floppy, it's a bad floppy).

Check the HOWTO-Hardware file.
Have good browse through the HOWTOs. They are all useful.

The dual-booting is LILO, and that's a stnadrad part of the installation.

Make a boot floppy for linux when prompted for it (have an extra couple of known good floppies ready).

Make a user account to do most things. Use the root account only when essential. In fact you should never log in as root -- use the 'su -' command to do privileged things.

Go to it, and give a yell if you have problems. 		Guest (0)
30858 2002-01-12 04:36:00 I would reccomed you go with mandrake (or suse) for your first install.

Redhat isn't really targeted at new users.


Mandrake will do your partitioning for you and install lilo to let you pick windows/linux at startup.

Redhat will do both but not as easily. 		Guest (0)
30859 2002-01-13 03:09:00 RH is no harder than any other distribution. It has been around a few more years than most.

It is a Good Idea to have the disk split before installing Linux. If it is not, Linux will happily format the whole disk for Linux. This has happened to people using Mandrake. They have said so, on this site.

All distributions ASSUME that they are installing standalone Linux on a computer. Multibooting is an option. If you have Windows installed, and enough of the disk is unallocated, Linux will partition and use that unallocated space. If the whole disk is allocated to Windows, I would expect to lose the Windows if I used an easy install. 		Guest (0)
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