OK, you are ready to try Linux; Great!! It is a powerful, stable and free operating system that you can do a lot of work with while avoiding the licensing nightmares (and costs) of dealing with Microsoft. Let\'s face it, if all that you need is a file server on your intranet, why would you pay Microsoft a ton of money for a bloated operating system that you would not be utilizing most of? The same goes for DNS servers and, the world\'s most popular web servers, Apache servers. These can all be integrated, rather painlessly, into a Microsoft network. The Problem is that you only have one machine to utilize and you do not know a whole lot about Linux. How are you ever going to familiarize yourself with Linux? That is easy, dual boot it; Windows and Linux both on one machine.
Also, after the original publication of this article I received some mail regarding some points that I should have mentioned and/or made more clear in the article. My thanks go to Obid Juraev, Jeff Klawiter and MAJ David W. Laflam for their input!! In response I have put a text version of the points that I should have mentioned along with a link to some useful and free partitioning utilities that may help some of you Windows 9x folks keep from having to do a new install of Windows before installing Linux. If you thought something was unclear in the original article, be sure to check this addendum.
Best Wishes,
Jay
Now that you have decided to take the plunge, let\'s see what needs to be done. First of all, backup all of your important data. Ahem, BACKUP ALL OF YOUR IMPORTANT DATA!! Now, verify that the backup is good. Please do not email me regarding, or in any way assume that I am responsible for, lost data.
I am going to assume that the installation is going to be on one disk. I am also assuming that if you have multiple disks in your machine, you are using them for storage (be it program files, data, or what have you), and that the only disk to be used for operating systems is the first one. If you are familiar with hardware and hard drives specifically, you will be able to figure out how to set up a machine with more than one disk without much trouble. I am also assuming that if you are using scsi drives, that you already know how to configure them. There are too many types of scsi controllers available for me to attempt to describe how to configure them. Suffice it to say that you will need to be able to boot to the drive to which the operating systems are to be installed, or be prepared to use a boot floppy designed specifically for that task.
A quick note on Linux distributions; if you are not a Linux expert I would advise steering clear of the distributions that are designed for programmers such as Slackware, Debian etc. Stick with a well known RedHat based distribution (distro). RedHat is the closest thing Linux distros have to a standard, and most tutorials are written for RedHat before any other distribution. If you want to use a distro other than RedHat, check out SuSE and Mandrake. SuSE boasts 100% RedHat compatibility as does Mandrake, however Mandrake focuses on being an easier operating system to install and use while SuSE is one of the most complete distros available. When I say complete, I do not mean that other distros lack any thing in regards to the operating system, rather that SuSE is very large with software; a complete install is over 6GB while most other distros are typically around 2.5GB. If you are truly new to Linux, Mandrake and RedHat are probably your best choices.
Familiarize yourself with your hardware. If you are currently running Windows on the (victim) machine, you should have it easy. Just go to Device Manager (right-click My Computer, select properties, select the Hardware tab and you will see a button for Device Manager if you are running Windows 2000) and write down everything that you see (be sure to expand all of the entries). For you Windows NT guys, you have a bit more work, being that you do not have Device Manager. Go to Control Panel and check out all of your devices there- ie. \"Display\" will contain information on your video card and monitor. You NT folks can also find some info on memory and processor if you right click My Computer and select properties.
Another thing that is vital is that you know what type of monitor you have and the refresh rates that it supports. Most of the Linux installer programs (which will vary between distros) will determine a default setting for your monitor. If you have no idea about your monitor, you may be best leaving the selection that the installer has determined is best. Most modern monitors can be selected during the installation of most distributions of Linux, however, in event that yours is not listed, you can get by by selecting a generic monitor, the resolutions that it will support (which you should know from investigating in Windows or from the owners manual or website), and most importantly, the refresh rates (both vertical and horizontal) that it will support. The monitor\'s manufacturer\'s website should have all the info that you need regarding refresh rates. Please be *very* careful with refresh rates. You can *destroy* your monitor if you select refresh rates that it does not support. \'Nuff said.
Boot disks. You probably won\'t need them, but in event that you do, I will give a little \"how-to\". I say you probably won\'t need them because most machines made in the last few years support booting from the CDROM. If your machine is newer and does not boot from the CDROM, check your BIOS settings to verify that your machine is configured (in BIOS) to boot from the CDROM. If your machine does not boot from the CDROM you will need to make two sets of boot disks; one for the version of Windows that you are installing and one for the Linux distribution that you will be using. A good resource for ready made boot disk images is
http://bootdisk.com ;check them out if you have no other alternative. If your machine boots from the CDROM, skip the next 4 paragraphs.
If you are installing Windows 9x/ME make your typical boot disk. Go to Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Startup Disk. If you need to, you can download images of bootdisks from the internet. Make sure that no matter what type of bootdisk you get, you get one that will offer CDROM support once booted.
If you are installing Windows NT/2000 you will need to make a set of 3 or 4 floppies. For NT, insert your NT CDROM and switch to the \"i386\" folder using the command line. Next, simply run the command \"winnt /ox\" and follow the instructions provided. To make boot disks for a Windows 2000 installation, go to the \"Bootdisk\" folder and run either \"makeboot.exe\". You will be provided instruction from that point on.
Linux boot disks are made in much the same way as Windows NT/2000 boot disks except that you will not need as many. Typically, to get the install rolling, one disk is required. If you have drivers that will need to be installed before installation is begun (ie. SCSI drivers) you will need a second disk. Every distro that I have seen will have a folder on the root of the first installation disk called \"dosutils\". In that directory, you will find a \"README\" that will cover what you will need to do. If the README contradicts anything I say here, follow its instructions. Linux evolves very quickly and what I say now could be changed later. On a side note, this is very typical in Linux; most documentation is included with any software packages that you use and will have the most current information available.
In order to make the Linux boot disks, first find the rawrite.exe utility. It will be in the dosutils folder. Next you will need to check out the Images folder on the root of the CD. This will have different versions of boot disks. Typically the one that you will use will be called boot.img . Now open up a command prompt (DOS box) and go to the dosutils directory and run rawrite. It will ask for the location of the image you would like to create. If your CDROM is drive D: the path will look like this: D:\\Images\\boot.img.
Microsoft, being Microsoft, makes it next to impossible to install Windows if the setup program detects another operating system. That having been said, install Windows first, in the same manner as you normally would, being sure not to use the entire hard drive. Normally I will use fdisk from the Windows 98 boot disk to make a partition on my hard drive for Windows to reside; although you will have the option to partition your drive however you like during install. Another thing that I have noticed, and I can\'t remember if it was Win 95 or 98 or 98SE, is that some versions of Windows will automatically partition and format unallocated space regardless of what you actually want it to do, or not do as is the case here. If this happens to you, do not worry, you will be able to delete that partition during the install of Linux (it is just a waste of time to wait for it to format). I would recommend leaving a minimum of 4GB space unallocated to be used by Linux. If you are planning on installing a larger distro (ie. SuSE), you will need to leave more room free.
You are now ready to install Linux. The distros are advanced enough now so that the installers that they use are pretty much self explanatory. If you do not understand an option, leave the default. The only place that you will have to select something other than the default is in regards to partitioning the disk. I prefer Disk Druid over fdisk. If you are new to Linux (and if you are reading this article, I am guessing that you are), avoid fdisk. fdisk is for the experienced user.
This is the time that, if Windows took it upon itself to partition and format space on your drive, you should remove that partition. (NOTE: be careful not to delete your Windows installation) Now simply click \"add\" and add a partition with a mount point of \"/boot\" and using EXT2FS as the file system; make it about 24MB. Next you will want to make a swap partition. The rule of thumb is to make it double the size of your system memory. I have experimented, and if you have large amounts of memory (ie. 256MB+) the swap file is hardly used, therefore I make the swap file the same size as the amount of memory in my machine, if I have more than 256MB. If anyone has some good info on swap files and how big/small they should be, do not hesitate to let me know and I will keep all of you readers updated. Lastly, you will need to make one more partition for the system. You will want to mount it as \"/\" and format it with the EXT2FS file system. Normally you will use the remainder of the unallocated space. If you anticipate having many different users or users that require a lot of disk space you may even make a separate partition for the \"/home\" directory.
Later in the installation you will be prompted by the installation program to configure LILO (LInux LOader) or GRUB (I have no idea where that comes from but it is similar to LILO). Verify that the installer recognized your Windows Installation and has placed an entry in whatever boot loader it uses (LILO or GRUB). Make sure to make a boot floppy when prompted. You can fix quite a bit more from the command line with one of these than you might imagine.
That is it, continue on with the Linux installation. Once you have completed the installation, if you have done everything correctly, you will be able to boot into either Linux or Windows.
If, for some reason, the Linux installation fails and you can no longer boot to Windows, try booting from a Windows 98 boot disk and running \"fdisk /mbr\". This will restore the Master Boot Record which the Linux loader program, be it LILO or GRUB, will have over-written.
If this article left some questions unanswered, check out this addendum.
Good Luck and enjoy!!
We at the Editorial Team would like to thank all our readers for reading NetworkNewz. We hope you find this information useful.
Sincerely,
Jay Fougere
NetworkNewz Editor
Ny bruger
Nybegynder
Opret
Preview
