Help with Linux

[hitboyqt]

I'm sure some of you probably have messed around with Linux. I want to dual boot my laptop with Linux (probably Mandrake, unless otherwise convinced in this post) but I need to know the easiest way to Dual Boot (partition) my laptop without f'ing it up. I remember using Partition Magic before and it was easy but it cost $$, anything else out there like that but free? Anyone have a tutorial?

 

[Jannus]

I want to dual boot my laptop with Linux (probably Mandrake, unless otherwise convinced in this post)

Hopefully, dfwjacker or one of the Linux gurus will post here.

Best I could do was find this old post from T-Rexx comparing some of the distros.:

http://www.justusboys.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3069313&postcount=10

I need to know the easiest way to Dual Boot (partition) my laptop without f'ing it up. I remember using Partition Magic before and it was easy but it cost $$, anything else out there like that but free?

I use ubuntu but I don't know that much about it. Ubuntu included the partitioner and automatically partitioned my hard drive and set up the dual-boot with XP. I didn't have to do anything except tell it to go! And Windows still works just fine. Very easy.

I'm pretty sure most Linux distros will take care of partitioning your disk and will save any Windows partitions they find. I'm not sure if they can dual-boot Vista, though.

 

[davy]

and operating system lives in a computer's harddrive. if you only have windows, it probably means that windows is taking up all the space on the harddrive. you can either try to make windows free up some space and partition your drive so you can install a linux distribution or if you only want to mess around with it: use a live distribution like knoppix.

live distributions run completely on your cd drive and ram memory, so it's never affects or changes anything on your laptop.

on the down side: it runs a little bit slower because it is running off your cd drive and your cd drive is a LOT slower than your harddrive.

once you start to get more comfortable w/ your linux, then you should think about putting it on your harddrive.

 

[SantaCBear]

If XP (not sure about Vista) is your OS then Ubuntu will do it all for you during install. Will load Grub and it will recognize WinXP

 

[hitboyqt]

I'm using XP.

Can someone give me steps? like

1. download Ubuntu (assuming this is partitioner)
2. run it, partition drive
3. install linux on the partition =/

p.s. read some bad reviews on Mandrake, so I'm prob going to go with red hat.

 

[SantaCBear]

DL Ubuntu,

burn it to a cd,

run it as Live (running off of CD),

you will see an install button on the desktop,

Then it will ask you for a few parameters then let it go.

Good Luck

 

[mike_n_herrin]

Ubuntu is another form of linux, like mandrake. i prefer Knoppix, but a lot of folks like Ubuntu these days.

as SantaCBear said all you need to do is download the ISO file of Ubuntu and then burn that to a CD or DVD depending on which version you download. if there is a DVD version, then it will have more software included with it. when you install ubuntu it will automatically configure you computer to dual boot with windows XP and it will partition and setup hard drive without destroying what you already have.

the best thing about many of the linux versions out there now is that many will run as a "live" version off a CD or DVD so you can try it out before installing without doing a durn thing to your existing system. they run slower that way, but it gives you an excellent idea of what will work and what wont.

here is a good web site with many different linux versions (called distros) on it. you can usually follow the links to the download site, or you can often order several version from the same place for just a few bucks per CD.

http://distrowatch.com/

ubuntu is up to version 7.10 and can be downloaded from here: http://releases.ubuntu.com/7.10/

you would most likely need the PC (Intel x86) desktop CD version.

if you want to try my favorite linux distro, download Knoppix version 5.10 here: http://archive.cs.stedwards.edu/knoppix/KNOPPIX_V5.1.1CD-2007-01-04-EN.iso

another excellent distro is called PCLinuxOS: http://www.pclinuxos.com/index.php?option=com_ionFiles&func=download&Itemid=40

don't forget to look at distrowatch.com first because you can click on the various linux distros and read about them and see screen shots and stuff.

to run something "live" you just put the CD/DVD in your drive and restart you computer. If your computer is set to boot off the CD/DVD it will start up automatically. if not check back in here and we maybe able to explain how to set your computer to boot off a CD/DVD. Although some much older computers can't do this.

 

[3nipples]

Before you repartition, you should clean up your hard drive and then run a good defrag program to push all your files into the same section of your hard disk (and therby free up a contiguous section for LINUX).
The one that comes with XP isn't adequate. I used the one from O&O. You can get the not-latest version for free:
http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/download/archive/oodefrag86pro

I tried different distos on my old laptop, finally settling for Ubuntu. I kept the dual boot for over a year, but hardly ever used it and finally re-installed Ubuntu as stand alone.

I still have XP on one of my PCs, but it's only a question of time until I get rid of it for good

 

[Jannus]

^ I had the same experience. Once you've got Linux on your PC, you hardly ever boot into Windows.