The format may be messed up, but here is something that might help.
The new laptop owner has a decision to make: dual boot or not. For those
not âin the knowâ about Linux, modern versions of Linux can be installed
such that the user has the option to select which OS he desires to run:
XP or various versions of Linux.
While it is more work to set the laptop up in this manner, the
advantages to a dual boot system are several:
a) Windows software can be run on the same machine in its native OS
(versus running it under wine in Linux)
b) One can boot back and forth into Windows and Linux while one is
working out the hardware issues with setting Linux up. This can be
extremely helpful if the laptop is your only computer.
i. One can allow a user not familiar with Linux to use the laptop
without having to educate them.
There are some downsides:
a) it is somewhat more work to set up a dual boot system.
b) the XP partition takes up valuable hard drive space.
i. one has to watch that the use of XP doesn't introduce viruses
onto the laptop, ie XP viruses running under XP that do damage
to the boot image or to the Linux partitions. Luckily Linux is
relatively immune to such viruses, but partition damage <from a
Windows virus to the Linux partition> is partition damage.
d) if one is just learning Linux, one has a tendency to stick with using
Windows. If you want to learn to use Linux, I recommend NOT installing a
dual boot system. Some people disagree with this mentality. I guess it
depends what on your patience level, Unix knowledge, how critical your
system is to you, etc. as well as your pain threshold.
I needed my laptop for a project that had both Linux and Windows
components, thus I chose to set up a dual boot system. This is my first
dual boot system and it works great. I almost never boot XP up, save for
work on a project that requires Windows software development.
BTW: If you install a dual boot system and want to uninstall Windows at
some point and regain the hard drive space for Linux, you can. Linux has
a tool that can repartition NTFS (and other) file systems such that the
Windows partition can be removed and the space used by Linux, WITHOUT
THE LOSS OF ANY LINUX DATA. WOW !
Obtaining Linux Software and Tools.
The first thing you will need to do is obtain the required software, ie
a Linux OS.
You can obtain Fedora Linux ISO files from www.redhat.com/fedora. Click
on the download icon at the top of the page, select a mirror site and
start downloading. I typically download the ISO files necessary for a
complete installation. I do not download the source RPMs unless I have a
specific use for them.
BTW: I recommend that you do NOT download development or project ISOs.
While it can be fun to work on Fedora development projects, unless you
are quite experienced with Linux this is a mistake. As one developer put
it: ânothing in a test release should be expected to work without
problemsâ. It is not unusual when running a test release to spend as
much time debugging and documenting âissuesâ as using the software
productively.
Once you have the install ISO files, you'll need to burn them to CDROMs.
For those not familiar with ISO files, they are a file system image.
When an ISO file system is burned to a CDROM, the file system image
should be expanded into the real file system, resulting in a bootable,
ready to use CDROM.
It takes special software to burn an ISO file onto a CDROM such that it
results in a usable file system. If the CDROM has one file on it named
<file>.iso when it is done, the burner software did NOT correctly burn
the ISO file. A correctly burnt CDROM will have a complete file system
on it, with the files, holders, hidden files and links that were
represented in the ISO image.
Windows typically does not include CDROM burning software capable of
correctly burning an ISO image. A Windows user must typically procure
and install software capable of burning an ISO image. Luckily the ZD7000
machines ship with the Sonic CDNOW software installed, an application
that can burn your ISO files to CDROMs or a DVD.
Linux has several applications capable of burning an ISO image file.
Xcdroast and cdrecord are just 2 applications that will burn an ISO
image. My favorite Linux CD software is k3b.
To install dual boot Linux from CDROMs:
1) Remove everything you donât want on the Windows hard drive. This
allows you to make the Windows partition as small as possible.
2) Download the Linux ISO files and burn the ISO disks. Youâll need to
find a Windows app that understands the concept of ISO files !
3) Download a Linux Rescue Disk ISO and burn it to CDROM.
http://www.sysresccd.org/
1. Boot with the Linux Rescue CDROM. I disabled network
functionality and automatic device searching finding. Run
ârun_qtpartedâ. I resized the Windows partition from 75 GB to 16
GB, leaving 59 GB for Linux. Donât forget to commit the change !
(See the Actions menu.) Exit out of the rescue disk.
If run_qtparted returns a file accounting error when you resize the
partition, you'll need to boot Windows and run the disk fix utility.
<PUT THE NAME HERE> Once the disk error is fixed, reboot the Linux
Rescue CDROM and resize the partition.
NOTE: Normally there is no data loss when the partition is resized. This
assumes that you are resizing the Windows partition to a size larger
than the volume of data on it.
While you are running the rescue CD, get the number of cylinders,heads
and sectors for the hard drive by running
fdisk -i /dev/hda
Record this information as you'll need it in a few steps.
5) Reboot Windows. When it fires up, you will probably get a disk needs
scanning message. Let it scan it. It shouldnât find any errors, just
that things have changed, ie the disk size.
1. Boot the first Linux install disk. There is a bug in Fedora Core
2 installer. If you are using this ISO, boot with âlinux
hda=cylinders,heads,sectorsâ at the command line so that the
Windows partition isnât messed up.
ie:
boot: linux hda=11389,255,1024 (These are fictitious numbers, used for
illustration only.)
You won't need the hard drive parameters for installations other than
Fedora Core 2. BTW: if your laptop is acting up during the boot stage
(no keyboard, no USB devices, no mouse, no monitor, etc.) there are a
very large number of work arounds to these problems documented in âThe
Linux Troubleshooting Bibleâ. In this day and age I highly doubt one
could find a laptop that Linux couldn't be run on, let alone the zd7000
which runs it very, very well.
1. Run through the usual pre setup stuff. When it comes to
partitioning, I did it manually with disk_druid. Add a 100MB
partition for /boot, a 1 GB partition (or as big as the RAM is)
for swap and the rest for / (root). Select your installation
options and let Linux install itself. I use grub as my boot
loaded and have since Redhat 8. It works great.
1. When it comes time to select the packages to install, I
recommend installing the basic software development tools such
that you'll have the right packages on the machine to build
applications and kernels. You can always add these packages
later via the install disks, but having them installed in the
first place will save you work later on.
Simple configuration tasks such as installing the wireless
network driver are going to require these tools.
Note: packages not installed now can be added later with
Add/Remove Programs or Synaptic (or Yum for that matter.) Some
people say that adding programs now is easier as using
Add/Remove programs can require a lot of CDROM swapping as it
solves dependencies for each application added separately.
Nevertheless it works quite well.
Post Install Cleanup
Once your Linux (and XP) partitions boot properly, you can start the
longish process of optimally configuring your Linux laptop. Because
Linux installations do not contain the correct video driver or
appropriate monitor specs for the ZD7000s, you'll probably have a
terrible looking display when you first boot Linux. This is probably the
first thing you'll want to fix when you get running.
On Fri, 2005-01-28 at 10:21 -0800, Charles Li wrote:
> I was trying to install core 3, but the installer
> saids not free partition. The laptop has a 80GB
> harddrive formated by XP, it had around 40GB of free
> space. What are my options.
>
> Thanks.
>
>
>
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--
Kim Lux, Diesel Research Inc.
