lime Posted February 7, 2004 Share Posted February 7, 2004 ok here's the story, i want to dual boot xp pro and mandrake 9.2. my xp pro is on one big partition on an 80gb wd hd, so it's on a 74.5gb partition. i got the iso's fine and booted off the first cd and everything, got through the security thing and mouse and then it went to the partitioning part. i selected use free space on windows partition and i put the slider in the middle assuming it was like the half way point of the partition, then when i got to the packages part it said i only had 480mb to install packages on so i couldn't really put anything on it. i decided i had messed up somewhere and rebooted.....i can get into xp pro fine but if i boot off the linux cd and try to restart the installation i get to the mouse test screen and when i press next it freezes and wont go any farther....what should i do? i thought about reinstalling xp after wiping the hard drive and just making two big partitions, one for xp and one for mandrake. i have everything backed up but before i do that i want to try anything else to get it to work without reinstalling windows....anyone have any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kongit Posted February 7, 2004 Share Posted February 7, 2004 I just installed mandrake this morning on a system with xp pro. I let the setup do the work and didn't really fool around with anything and I have a perfectly operable dual boot system. Try reformatting the non windows partition and then install linux again. I believe that you need another partion to boot off of if you are doing a dual boot. I have 4, the windows and the linux setup made 3: 2 large and one very small one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted February 7, 2004 Veteran Share Posted February 7, 2004 It sounds like you should have enough space to put Linux. Though you really didn't say how much HD space you allocated. One thing to check for is to make sure that your auto-setup is doing a good job on space allocation. It usually does a good job, but sometimes it can make mis-judgements. Look to see that your swap partition is reasonable (100-300MB should be a good start point). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lime Posted February 7, 2004 Author Share Posted February 7, 2004 well i looked in windows disk management and it appeared to be messed up so i just formatted an area that is 1.16gb to fat32 to use as a swap eventually....but even after that the mandrake install will freeze right when the mouse picture comes up when you're supposed to test your mouse. i have one partition that is 73.36gb formatted with ntfs, which xp pro is on right now, and one partition that's 1.16gb fat32 that has nothing on it at all. i thought maybe after i did that it would let me install mandrake but it still freezes. what should i do ? should i just wipe the hard-drive and start all over? if i do that should i have like one bigger partition for xp pro, one fat32 for swap and one partition for the mandrake ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted February 7, 2004 Veteran Share Posted February 7, 2004 Ok... I think you are confused. Or I am. Or both, more likely! :rofl: If you are fdisking or using other partition managing software, you will want to clear out maybe 2GB for Linux. If you can spare 4GB, that would be better, as the different apps and WindowManagers take up some space. If 2 is all you got, then we can de-select a few options. Keep in mind that a typical Linux distro comes with several full Window Managers (GUIs), and a couple of Office suites, many email programs... You get the idea. It's like 3 (or more) copies of Windows. For a newbie, it is a good idea or a bad idea to install the many varieties of packages. Some people get that "deer in the headlights" thing going on when they see the abundant choices. :blink: Sort of a shock when coming from the "Microsoft Programs Only" world. Other people (like myself) rather enjoyed trying the different choices and finding one that best suits. Back on-topic, though. If you have limited space, we will need to start un-selecting options for install. That means installing only Gnome, and not KDE, or vice-versa. And back to the partition thing. I would NOT make a special FAT partition for 'swap'. A Linux swap partition is not formatted as FAT, or ext, or anything (as far as I know). It is specially reserved space for dropping off and reading data when needed. Just make as much "unallocated room" as you can (up to 2 to 4 GB). If you are stuck below 2GB, we can still make it work OK, we will just have to start trimming more things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lime Posted February 7, 2004 Author Share Posted February 7, 2004 space is not a problem, my xp pro on the main partition is only like 25gb....so that leaves like 50 unused....so i was going to go like 15-20 for linux....how can i get rid of that fat32, i know i can just change it to something else like ntfs....i used the disk management thing to do that....but the mandrake install freezes, why would that be ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted February 7, 2004 Veteran Share Posted February 7, 2004 The way that *I* would delete it would be to use fdisk. That way you know it is unassigned. As for the install not going well, there are two things I would suggest: 1. Try running Knoppix from your CD-ROM. It will run Linux without installing on your hard drive. 2. Try installing a "minimal" Mandrake installation. Absolutely nothing that isn't needed. No GUI and none of the extra programs. The first one will see if a typical Linux GUI can run on your system, or if there might be compatibility issues. The second option will make sure that the Linux kernel can even RUN on your machine. I am guessing that #2 will install, and #1 might have problems. If you try #2, and it craps out on you, you may have hardware that is killing the install. You can pull some cards at this point. (let's hope we don't get there) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lime Posted February 8, 2004 Author Share Posted February 8, 2004 ok i got it installed last night but i didn't post earlier because i had a track meet today.... anyways.....i got to the partitioning and what not and played with the slider bar and on the packages it still said only 480mb, so i only installed kde at this point. in windows disk management i have the main ntfs partition with xp pro on it, then three small partitions that were created by the linux install that are only 588mb, 118mb and 478mb....how can i steal more room so i can install more things? thanks for all the help... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted February 8, 2004 Veteran Share Posted February 8, 2004 anyways.....i got to the partitioning and what not and played with the slider bar and on the packages it still said only 480mbhow can i steal more room so i can install more things? thanks for all the help... With the slider not being able to move, it sounds like you are running into an issue where your NTFS has data stored near the end of the drive, and the program may not let to move past that, as it would lose the data. A defrag before resizing might help. When you boot up WIndows, what does it report for freespace on this drive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lime Posted February 8, 2004 Author Share Posted February 8, 2004 in windows it reports lots of free space, before i ever tried installing mandrake the windows only used like 25gb... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted February 8, 2004 Veteran Share Posted February 8, 2004 in windows it reports lots of free space, before i ever tried installing mandrake the windows only used like 25gb... Did you try the defrag like I suggested? I think that some data is stored near the end of your divespace, and that may be why it won't let you shrink it more than it is currently doing... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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