[J0hn]

Redhat Fedora Core Installation

I'm a first time user to linux. I never had any experience with Linux what so ever, but I'm very eager to learn. I'm hearing so many good things from my friend saying that, "OH LINUX IS THE SH*T YOU SHOULD GIVE IT A TRY" So yea...I just want to try it out and see for myself.

Anyway, I'm getting confused on which files I'm suppose to download to get Redhat. There's so many files to download and I don't know which ones to install.

Here is where I'm at http://download.fedo...ore/4/i386/iso/

Ok now from what I'm assuming, am I suppose to download the following 4 files to get Redhat?

[ ] FC4-i386-disc1.iso 06-Jun-2005 22:54 635M
[ ] FC4-i386-disc2.iso 06-Jun-2005 22:55 638M
[ ] FC4-i386-disc3.iso 06-Jun-2005 22:56 638M
[ ] FC4-i386-disc4.iso 06-Jun-2005 22:57 630M

If so, after I download all 4 files I also want to do a dual boot with my XP and I hope that one of you can help guide me through the long process.

So yea......I'll be back with even more questions

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from my recolections of installing fedora (been a while)....that yes..you need to dl the 4 disk iso's...i think disks 1 -3 are the actuall installs and 4 is the support disk for manuals and what not....you would boot to disk one (did i mention you have to burn the isos as bootable?) and it will start the install process....fedora SHOULD give you the options to partition your drive and install the boot loader (i'd like to say fedora uses grub but it may be lilo)...after that you just put in disks when it asks for one and you're on your way...

[dsenette]

from my recolections of installing fedora (been a while)....that yes..you need to dl the 4 disk iso's...i think disks 1 -3 are the actuall installs and 4 is the support disk for manuals and what not....you would boot to disk one (did i mention you have to burn the isos as bootable?) and it will start the install process....fedora SHOULD give you the options to partition your drive and install the boot loader (i'd like to say fedora uses grub but it may be lilo)...after that you just put in disks when it asks for one and you're on your way...

[Mr.Chow]

Just a tip ...

I tryed using the dual boot .. Fedora Core 5 is what i used. When you install the gnome dual boot menu it eats windows alive. When you don't install it Windows eats Linux alive not showing you a option for a dual boot.

Good luck on the dual boot. I relized u need to edit wondows scripts to actully get it to work. I looked online for dual boot programs but for me there was no luck.

Fedora is a ok flavor. I would recomend Slax

haha proably not actully, installation may be a lil to tricky for a first time user of linux. Fedora is a good flavor to get the basic understanding.

[Kemasa]

You do need all 4 disks (depending on what you load, but you still need the disks). As suggested, you might want to consider other distros. Many people like Ubuntu, I prefer Mandrake (Mandriva).

Your friend is funny since Linux is a real operating system, used by many businesses and critical applications.

Personally, I would suggest that you start with a Live CD, such as Knoppix or Ubuntu. That way you can play with it and see if you want to learn more. There is quite a bit to learn and it is different than Windoze. At least with Linux you don't have to worry much about spyware and viruses.

For dual boot, I would suggest using Grub (comes with most distros), setting up /boot to be 100Mb (RedHat demands that much space or at least used to), then have a separate /root partition. You will need to shrink your current partition if it takes the whole disk (using the whole disk as one partition is a bad default in my opinion). This means you will need to backup and defrag your current disk.

[J0hn]

Thanks for the feedbacks and suggested distros, much appreciated. But I'll stick with Redhat.

So Dsenette, you mentioned that I have to burn the "isos" as bootable cds, well ok. I found a tutorial on the web and it tells you how to make cds bootable with Nero. The computer I'm using right now doesn't have Nero, but my Gateway XP laptop does

Anyway, here is the link to the tutorial for you all to check out and analyze.

http://www.ultimateb....com/nero6.html

^ Just in case I do anything stupid, I just want to know if this is a legit/correct tutorial because I don't want to mess up any of my iso files.

fedora SHOULD give you the options to partition your drive and install the boot loader (i'd like to say fedora uses grub but it may be lilo)...after that you just put in disks when it asks for one and you're on your way...

Ok so DURING the installation, if I DO get the option to partition my drive. Just a thought, is that the part where I start configuring my partitions for a dual boot with XP?

[Kemasa]

I don't recall if Fedora has the ability to shrink a current partition. If not, you will need to completly redo the partitions, which means reloading XP or use a program that will allow you to change the partition. What was suggested to me was qtparted, which is on the Knoppix CD (this is a good tool to have around, even if you don't have Linux at all).

Setting up a dual boot machine is done is stages. First you need multiple partitions which you can boot from, then you need to have a means of booting those partitions. Selecting the bootloader is done at the end of the install. At that point the XP partition should automatically be listed as an option.

The tutorial looks like what you want to do.

Edited by Kemasa, 23 May 2006 - 11:21 AM.

[J0hn]

When you say qtparted, do you mean this?

http://www.redhat.co...oot-parted.html

If so then ok cool

The only thing that I'm not too sure about is how much to resize/take away from the partition. Anyway, I'll check back later. Thanks for the help guys/gals.

[Kemasa]

Different program, same function, so you can use that. Just make sure that you do a backup first, then a defrag second.

The sizes of the partitions vary by who you ask. My personal opinion is that the OS partition should be as small as it can be, but you have to include space to do installs, patches, etc. Some programs have a hard time being installed on a second partition, so you need to account for that too.

For me, around 5-10Gb for XP works. Around 4-5Gb for a root Linux partition. Swap around 512k-1Gb, more if you have less memory or depending on what you do. 100Mb for /boot. Around 4Gb for /home. A Windoze partition for extra space of around 5-10Gb. A second root partition for backing up the existing root partition and/or installing different versions/upgrades/testing. Then the rest of the space broken up in chunks, depending on what you need/do.

A lot depends on the size of the disk. One reason for the separate OS partition is so that you can reload without losing your other data. Also, if there is a problem with a filesystem, it limits the overall effect.

[J0hn]

As of right now this very moment, I'm installing Redhat as we speak and I need some guidance.

Here is where I'm at. Basically I'm going through the following steps that's on redhat's site which is here:

http://www.redhat.co...oot-parted.html

If you go there, you will read the following:

"At the prompt, type parted /dev/hdX or parted /dev/sdX (for whichever drive you want to repartition), where X is the partition number of that hard drive"

^ I have no idea what the above means. So yea, I'm stuck right there and I don't know what to do. Please reply asap, thank you.

[dsenette]

if you only have one hard drive then you want hd0

[J0hn]

Yes I have only one hard drive. (Local c:Drive) = 33.6gb

Anyway, right now I'm installing Redhat as we speak. If only I could transfer the screenshot I took from the other computer to this laptop I would be easier, but oh well. I'm at the prompt right now and this is how it looks like:

When finished please exit from the shell and your system will reboot

-/bin/sh-3.00#

After typing parted /dev/hd0 I get the following:

-/bin/sh-3.00# parted /dev/hd0
Error: Could not stat device /dev/hd0 - No such file or directory. 
Retry/Cancel?

^ The above is what I get. I guess I'm still stuck. I don't know what to do.

[Kemasa]

The device is most likely /dev/hda, the partition would be /dev/hda1. If is was a scsi device, it would be /dev/sda.

If you have booted Linux, you can look in /proc to see what you can see, such as "partitions" (might be different on RedHat than Mandrake).

You can use dmesg to see what was found at boot time.

[dsenette]

*dsenette really needs to either stay out of the linux threads or start working with the stuff again
sorry for medeling in this thread...i've obviously gotten rustier than i thought

[J0hn]

That's ok dsenette, don't worry ;D I appreciate your help, thanks.

So Kemasa, at the prompt, should I type in part /dev/hda1?

Edit:

Wait let me do something real quick, no replies just yet because I want to keep this running smooth. I'll be right back with questions, maybe.

2nd Edit:

Ok after typing parted /dev/hda1 I get the following:

-/bin/sh-3.00# parted /dev/hda1
GNU Parted 1.6.22
Copyright etc etc.....
This program is a free software etc etc....These lines just explain there warranty and stuff.

Using /dev/hda1
(parted) _

^The above is what I got right in front of me. I don't know what to do next.

Edited by J0hn, 25 May 2006 - 03:12 PM.

[Kemasa]

In looking at the link you provided above, parted wants the disk, not the specific partition, so it would be /dev/hda. You will give the partition information when the program is running.

In one reference to parted, it says that it can not resize NTFS partitions. It may not be the same as the current program. You may need to use another program.

http://qtparted.sour...eatures.en.html

dsenette: Not sure of why you said that you were medeling in this thread since you were the first to answer the question. Nothing to be sorry about, just an opps.