Want to install Linux, not sure of way to go...

[CrazyDave]

Okay here goes, I want to reformat my HD and reinstall Win 2000, and install a version of Linux.

What version of Linux will work for me if I have absolutely no experience with it? I'm looking for something that has ease of installation and preferably something that is going to setup the partitions automatically.

One question, can 2000 and Linux share the same file system such as NTFS? Just curious on that part, I only have a 40 gig HD. (wow... Only 40 gigs, would never have said that 5 years ago)

Any help, pointers, links would help... what I would prefer is an image I can burn to cdr and boot from. (please no "damn you are lazy posts")

Thanks a ton!

[Thelemac]

Well, from what I've heard Mandrake 8.0 is the easiest distro on the block.

[sfa ok]

Linux needs it's own EXT2 partitions, from what I've heard, it can read NTFS, but isn't too good at writing to it.

[CrazyDave]

Originally posted by sfa ok
Linux needs it's own EXT2 partitions, from what I've heard, it can read NTFS, but isn't too good at writing to it.

So if I reformat, go with a 50/50 partition setup. Setup 2000 and mandrake, chances are I'll probably be okay?

I am downloading the ISO's right now... gonna take a few hours :cool: Hopefully I can take a stab at it this next weekend...

I guess I can let 2000 and Linux play tug of war! But that is one buff looking penguin!!

If all goes well, maybe you'll be looking at a Linux convert soon... but lets not be hasty. One more question, am I going to have to go nuts all week finding drivers for everything? I thought I saw a post about Linux not liking the GeForce2mx I've got.

Thanks...

[ken257]

The best way to go about this is to first partition your drive using fdisk. Make a single partition of say 25gig for W2K and make it fat32 leave the remainder of the drive blank.
Linux reads and writes fat32 with no problem at all so since it is desirable to have a common space both OS's can access go with fat32. Fat32 also is the easiest to dual boot.


Next format the partition /s so it will be bootable to a dos prompt. The reason for this is W2K will put its boot manager in the partitions instead of in the mbr, we need the mbr for linux's boot manager.



Install W2K



Install linux and let it's boot manager use the mbr



When you boot the machine you will have a choice of going to either linux or windows if you did it right.

[CrazyDave]

Originally posted by ken257
... When you boot the machine you will have a choice of going to either linux or windows if you did it right.

Thanks for the info! hopefully I can start this weekend (no promises) I'll keep everyone posted on my progress (or lack thereof)...

[David]

As long as you have XFree 4.0.1, 4.0.2, 4.0.3 or 4.1; get the NVIDIA drivers (in rpm form) and install them with:

rpm -Uvh <package> --nodeps --force