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| Thread ID: 60560 | 2005-08-05 11:56:00 | Dual Booting Windows XP HE and Fedora Core 2 | thenzengineer (8172) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 378689 | 2005-08-05 11:56:00 | Hey, I have never installed Fedora Core before I did install Red Hat once but that was on a computer which did not have an OS . I am completely new to linux . Anyway I would like to dual boot Fedora Core 2 and Windows XP HE on my Laptop . I have two drives one is C which is 27 . 4 GB and windows resides on it and the other is D which is empty and is approximately 10 GB . I intend to install FC on the D drive . The thing which worries me is that I have read a lot about FC's boot loader GRUB not working properly that is not allowing to boot into XP . Would this be a problem for me, since from what I have read it has happen so far to all the people who have partioned there hard drive . Any advice? P . S Can someone explain to me what a "swap" is meant by . I have heard talked about it often . Such as "I created a primary partion (15 GB) in ext3 format and 500MB swap . " What does swap mean and what is "ext3 format"? HAVE A NICE DAY |
thenzengineer (8172) | ||
| 378690 | 2005-08-05 12:20:00 | You should install the bootloader to a floppy if your computer has one, untill you are happy and confident with linux. | Coaster (270) | ||
| 378691 | 2005-08-05 12:21:00 | What are your primary uses? Check out the Linux for laptops site (the url excapes me at the mo), to see what distro will best suit your brand amd model. IMO, Core 2 is getting a bit long in the tooth and isn't quite as friendly as later versions or other distributions. A full install of Fedora is also quite large, you can trim it down depending on your software requirements. I have a very small bias towards Mepis 3.3.1-1 (http://www.mepis.org/), which has some great tools for laptops, is dead easy to install and is a live CD which can be run from your CD drive to try it out (doesn't touch your hard drive, no grub, no files). Grub, particularly in later versions, shouldn't give you any problems. Point the install at your D and away you go. I usually install Grub (or Lilo) to the MBR (Master Boot Record) of the primary drives partition (C in your case or hda1 in Linus speak), if something goes wrong, you can retrieve your windows MBR by booting the windows CD and repairing it. Swap is a dedicated partition for caching data not able to be held in memory, virtual memory in windows terms. It's usually twice your RAM up to about a GB, beyond that there' not much point. As I suggested above, hop over to Linux on Laptops, give Mepis or some other live CD like Ubuntu, Mandrake Move or some such a test drive and, have fun. |
Murray P (44) | ||
| 378692 | 2005-08-05 12:31:00 | THANKS FOR THE QUCIK REPLIES. Fedora Core 1 was able to be installed on my laptop but I never did because it was so confusing that I was scared I would mess with WINDOWS. Fedora Core 2 seems right for me and I am installing FC 2 since I got the discs for free!. You mentioned that the later versions are more better should I rather go out and buy the latest FC version? I am only curios as to the fuss over Linux especially Red Hat. I will back up my files. |
thenzengineer (8172) | ||
| 378693 | 2005-08-05 12:53:00 | Have a llok at Distro watch (http://distrowatch.com/) for the latest updates and a bit of blurb on each distro. There's no shortage of free OSs, if you have a reasonable connection or access to one. Ubuntu will send you a set of discs for free. Your local LUG (Linux User Group) (www.linux.net.nz/) will most likely offer you any number of f;avours including Fedora for free. Then there is tricky Dicky Smiths for cheap CDs or Copy Left (http:). Just my opinion, but there are much easier and smaller distros to start out on than FC2. Not that I've used FC(3) for much more than a quick squiz at. |
Murray P (44) | ||
| 378694 | 2005-08-05 20:33:00 | I agree, FC2 is waay too old now. You're much better off holding out for a few days while you track down a newer copy. Some people are quite likely to send you it for the cost of CD's + 45c postage. Murray already said what Swap is, Ext3 is the "Fat32" of Linux - Its the most common linux file-system. Cheers Chill. |
Chilling_Silence (9) | ||
| 378695 | 2005-08-05 22:10:00 | If in New Zealand, go to Dick Smith Electronics, they may still have Fedora Core 3 for about $5 and they may finally have Fedora Core 4 which should retail for about $10. Both are 4 disc sets. When installing Fedora, I ALWAYS do a manual partition, this way I can ensure that Fedora won't try and install on a used partition. I dual boot Win XP Pro and Fedora Core 4 |
Myth (110) | ||
| 378696 | 2005-08-05 22:18:00 | I intend to install FC on the D drive . The thing which worries me is that I have read a lot about FC's boot loader GRUB not working properly that is not allowing to boot into XP . That happened to me . I ended up reformatting my Windows partition in order to get back to Win XP . Fortunately my data is on other drives but I still lost quite a few semi-important files . (Moral of the story: backup everything you don't want to lose before you start playing) . There are ways to avoid the problem, as I found out afterwards, but personally I would not risk trying it again . After that experience I got another hard drive and used removable caddies in order to play with Linux . That way it had its own HDD and could not touch my WinXP installation . Much less stressful . Good luck . ;) |
FoxyMX (5) | ||
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