I decided to install Linux!
But before I do so I want to make a couple of things sure, and since some of you people here at neowin know practically everything about Linux I decided to ask here.

This is the first time I'm going to install linux and work with it, is Fedora a good stable distribution?
I read that Fedora Core 3 Test 2 was better then Core 2 and the test version was had fewer shortcomings; Should I go with core 3 test 2 or use core 2?
Will my hardware work; Asus K8V SE Deluxe, onboard sound, integrated gigabit lan, powercolor radeon 9600pro, amd64 3000+?
Should I go with a 64bit variant or stick to 32bit? (i.e. will all software work in 64bit linux or do I need to recompile etc.)
Will a 5gb fat32 partition be enough for everything?

thanks in advance for all your answers!

First of all, Fedora is a great n00b distro, I would definitely recomend that you start on it. As for versions, I would recomend that you go with the Core 3 Test 2, but keep in mind that you may want to upgrade very soon. Your hardware won't be a problem, if anything it's overkill, as for the 32/64b query, go with 64, it shouldn't be a problem. I wouldn't recomend using a Fat32 partition... I've never tried it, so I can't give you any first hand experiances, but be safe and go for an ext format. Five gigs will be more than enough.

Hope that helps some.

which fielsystem should I use then? I'm only aware of Fat16, Fat32 and NTFS

For linux, you should be using a natixe linux partition type like ext2/3, reiserfs, xfs, jfs, etc. The windows partition types don't handle case-sensitivity which is pretty much a must in linux (or any unix).

ok next question; does the fedora install let me format a partition to such a filesystem and how does dual-booting work exactly?

Fedora will let you pick to install Grub or Lilo are your boot manager. Yes, it will format to ext3 for you.

hmm just remembered, how about my Microsoft Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer2.0... will that work out of the box or do I need another mouse when I'm installing or something?

Still looking for some answers on my above questions as well; do I have to download anything to make everything work? Like graphicsdrivers or such?

You won't have to download any graphics drivers or anything like that, as the ATi drivers for Linux suck , you're better off just not installing them. Sound will be automatically installed, et cetera et cetera ad infinitum. Really the best thing you can do is just stop worrying and install it, you'll be fine.

The mouse will work out of the box with a small caveat. You will want ot make sure that X is using the ExplorerPS/2 driver. Check the driver in /etc/X11/ the file will be xorg.conf or XF86Config - i'm not sure which Fedora is using.

lol... i'm paranoid; can't help it. I just installed Xp freshly so I don't wanna lose data

As long as you don't install onto the same partition, it can't ruin your XP install.

ok thank you guys; i'm download fedora as we speak and will probably install it tomorrow

Let me recommend using FC2, over the FC3 test release. You can update your FC2 to more current stable versions very easily, and you won't have to worry about the occasional glitch in the pre-release versions.

Also, to make sure you don't run into problems with your drive geometry (this only affects dual-booters), make sure your BIOS is set to LBA mode for your hard drive, not CHS (cylinder, head, sector) or 'auto' representation.

Whoa! I totally agree with Mark Jensen here. I just tried to update from Core 2 to Core 3 test 2 and it hosed my system. I then tried a clean install and there were some big problems with compatibility and broken apps. I have files\d bug reports with Fedora, but I would stick with Fedora Core 2 at this stage, until 3 is more polished. As far as I am concerned, the reviews on Core 3 Test 2 are not correct..

Barney

There shouldnt be a problem, but I have no idea if 32bit code will work with a 64bit os?


It should be straight forward, if worst comes worst, it will install a generic driver or something if some hardware is not supported.. But then you just manualy select in redhat-xfree86-config what grafics card etc you want...


Do you want to dual boot XP with linux on a 5gb drive? Or do you mean that the partition you want for linux should be 5gb? If so make sure you select the right partition, it will probebly be hda2 (depending on how many partitions you have)... Also read some guides to how to setup dual boot before installing linux....

and... I am not a n00b either.... test distros can be tricky. Get the stable version.

Barney

Hey guys, I have the 4 linux disc right here, but I can't seem to boot from them at all. My DVD/CD Drive is set in first position and I can even re-select it in a boot menu. But nothing happens It just continues to XP. Anything will help I don't see why it would be the discs unless I burned them wrong. I burned them as a data disc.

Thanks

you probably burned it wrong. use nero and select the burn disc image (.iso) in order to burn it. Data format won't work, Only burning it as an image. When you select it and nero lets you browse to the file, it should have as default to only view .nrg files. Change this to .iso,.cue,.bin and then select ur .iso file. Hope this helps some.

what your saying makes sense and is probably what I want to do, but I don't understand what I should click on to make the disc I have Nero and it looks like I can make a bootable disc in expert mode however shoudl==ld I just copy those discs right over or is there something else I need to do?

What your saying makes sense but when I open the discs all I see are 4 or 5 files out side of a folder then a good 50 inside the folder.

I don't know nero, but this might help...
http://members.home.nl/lsnoek/iso.htm#Nero%20Burning%20ROM



EDIT:Oh, nevermind, then. It sounds like you burned them correctly.

Did you do an md5sum on your downloaded files to make sure they got downloaded OK, and again on the CD to make sure they burned ok?

what you are saying makes sense................................... hahaha I can't believe that.

I have no idea how to do that.

Now I can make a boot disc shoudl i re-burn everything and try again booting? Another thing is that there is no accual ISO file, just a bunch of rpm files and a couple of unkowns.

Ok well here is the retarded part, my teacher did the burn and download for me, he is the supposed linux guy I just took advantage of the T1 line. I assumed he knew what he was doing. However I too would have downloaded the ones you recomended.

Now that I know what to download, how do I burn it? As a boot disc or what? I wish I could just go buy pre made cd's for 5-10 bucks somewhere jeez.

I'll burn FC2 and mail it overnight to ya for some $, just PM me.

Can you guys post some links for reviews on FC 3 Test 2?

That would be cool mark, I live in Spokane Washington, oposite side of Seattle. I wonder if there is a linux group here... There appears to be one that is meeting this week. If the site is up to date I will look into it....... Thanks for the heads up. Maybe they can help install this thing, I can also really use the beginners help too.

if you have the ISO files downloaded now, you just start nero.. Close the wizard (the box that opens), press file open... Change the bottom drop downbox that says "All nero compilations and Images" to "Image files (*.nrg, *.iso, *.cue)"... The you select the downloaded ISO file... And Press open, now just press burn.. Now you are ready to go....

Lots of reviews here:

http://www.google.com/search?q=fedora+core...=utf-8&oe=utf-8

(Copy and Paste to your URL Window)

good websites for ISO downloads and instructions:

www.linuxiso.org

Barney

Fredde yeah I know, but I think I have a different version of Nero than that, I have Nero StartSmart or Nero Xpress 6, none of which even have even a file bar on them. THe only choices that seem relivant is Data Disc or Bootable Data disc.

lol.. nice hijack DAaaMan

anyways; i found this tutorial on google; http://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/dua...t_fedora_xp.php
and on page three it says something about formatting hda / hdb and so on.

Well I've got one hard drive and I partitioned it in 3 partitions. C, D and E. C is 15GB and had WinXP Pro on it. D is 5GB and the partition I want to install fedora to. And E is 100GB and is the place for my media, backups and games.

In the guide it says "format all partitions" or something like that, does this mean it's going to format everything on the physical harddrisk or does it recognize every partition as a seperate HD... like C = hda and D = hdb etc.
I need some help there please ^__^

(yes I am the uber-n00b ) Thanks in advance!

sorry about that we all had the same subject...............

IMHO, get yourself a 2nd hard drive and a removable HD enclosure and swap in and out... that way you won't have to dual boot.

Learning the *nix way of identifying drives is a good first step! And, it makes more sense than the Windows way, where drive letters seem to get shuffled when you add in a new drive.

When you are in Linux, a drive = a disk (the whole drive unit). Every partition in there is just that: a partition. No 'drive letters' are assigned to try to persuede you it is a full separate drive on its own.

So, /dev/hda1 is the first partition on your master drive on your primary IDE channel
and /dev/hda2 is the second partition on your master drive on your primary IDE channel
and so on.

A slave drive on the primary IDE is /dev/hdb, and the partitions are numbered 1-x on there.

The "hd" in hda stands for "hard drive", and is always an IDE device.
There are also "sd" drives. They originally stood for "SCSI drive", but now relate to any serial interface (think "serial drive"). SCSI drives, SATA, USB thumb drives, FireWire hard drives are all /dev/sd_ types of drives.

Does that help?

clears things up markjensen, but i'm still wondering how fedora will act when i install it and tell it to go and install itself on my D: partition (which'd be /dev/hda2 or something)

Currently that partition is formatted to FAT32, and I don't know how to get it to ext3 or whatever Fedora uses ^^; So if someone could tell me how to prepare that partition for a fedora install and what I have to choose when installing that'd be all, then i'd be off rebooting with CD1 in my drive

[edit]
I just read some things about a nasty bug in Linux distro's using the 2.6kernel, it somehow f's up your partition table or something. It said saomething about recovering such things with "sfdisk"... can someone explain what that all means. Is it really that bad to install Fedora and Windows on the same drive in direfent partitions? Those kind of articles always make me change my mind about installing Linux ...

Let's say I do have another harddrive, then it'l be hda and hdb, and i could install linux to hdb, but how will dual booting work, to what drive do I have to install the boot manager and if somethings fails and I unplug hdb, what'll happen then?

Thanks again for all answers... (/me feels like uber-n00b)

The best way to make sure that you don't make errors when telling the Linux installer to use a specific partition is to manually remove that partition with whichever tool (Partition Magic, fdisk at the command line) you are comfortable with. Then tell the the installer to use the 'unparitioned' or 'unused' space on the drive.

As for the problems dual-booting with a 2.6 kernel, this can be fixed ahead of time by setting your BIOS to use LBA mode on your hard drive. This is newer than the old CHS (cylinder, head, sector) method. The problem is that in calculating a drive geometry, Linux may use more than 255 heads. Windows does not like this number (apparently they use a byte for this data). CHS is arbitrary anyhow, as new drives don't really have 63 heads, but the capacity has exceeded the point where CHS is a valid representation of the physical characteristics of the drive.

It is safe to install. LBA will prevent problems. And, even if you run into this, you can force a number in the Head value that Windows will be happy with.

When it comes time to install LILO or GRUB (your boot managers), let it put it into the Master Boot Record (MBR) of your boot/first drive. It will be the default selection. If you choose any other option, you will have to set up the dual-booting yourself.

Ok, last question and I'm off to install

The situation is as following; I want to install linux to a partition I already have, I suppose I could merge it with my other partition (non-winXP one) but if I tell linux to make a partition of the big one, it'll cause me data-loss I guess... So is it possible to just tell fedora to install to that single, existing partition... and most importantly; wil it format it to the right filesystem?

This is what I normally do. I create empty space in Windows with Partition Magic, so no EXT2 or 3 partitions, but just empty space, right after my Windows partitions. Then I pop in the Fedora DVD and reboot... now just choose to auto partition when it asks you and tell it to use the empty space... easy as 1,2,3.
Installing Fedora is as easy as installing Windows, every idiot can do it.

that means I either have to create a 4th partition or somehow delete the old ona (or morge it with the biggest one) and the seperate something again right?

/me goes off to find a demo or something of partition magic

Huh?

Instead of telling Fedora which existing partition to use, just clean a partition out yourself (move files, if needed, then remove the partition using fdisk or something, so it is not even partitioned).

When it comes to installing, tell Fedora to use "unused/unparitioned" space for installing, and it will set it all up (including formatting) for you automatically.

It will make three partitions.

A root partition, designated by a slash, "/". This is where everything is referenced from.

A 'boot' partition, designated by "/boot". Technically, this can be left as part of the root parititon, but Fedora defaults to separating it out. This makes sure that you cannot over-fill your working drivespace (root, home, whatnot) with so much data that it no longer has room to store your kernels (which are put into /boot). Don't worry about this now, just let it do its thing.

Finally, a swap partition. Linux typically uses a full separated partition for memory swap operations. Just different from Windows.


As for the questions...

Many first-timers are most concerned about the install, but it usually is very painless, as long as defaults are used, and no manual 'tweaking' is done (like removing the swap, thinking it isn't needed, or installing GRUB to the Linux partition, instead of the MBR).

thanks,this is very useful to me