[WEB4LIB] RE: Advice on Linux

[Raymond Wood]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Charlie Irwin [mailto:cirwin at world.std.com]
> 
> I'm thinking of trying Linux on my home machine. My thought is to add a
> hard drive to my machine and run it "dual-boot". Does anyone have any
> ideas/suggestions as to what favor Linux (ie Red-Hat, Mandrake, etc.) or
> tips, hints, etc? Since this is probably not really a list discussion,
> please contact me directly at cirwin at theworld.com.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Charlie Irwin

> -----Original Message-----
> From: web4lib at webjunction.org [mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org]
> 
> Red Hat is the emerging standard but others are better for learning.
> 
> I can't decide if Mandrake or SuSE is the ultimate "For Dummies"  Linux.
> 
> Mandrake is similar to (derived from?) Red Hat so you would be learning
> the emerging standard.
> 
> I strongly recommend bootpart for the dual boot installation.  With
> bootpart you can install more than one Linux and keep Win32.
> 
> http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm
> 
> "Congratulations, you've taken your first step into a larger world."
> -Obi Wan
> 
> EC


On Tue, Jun 04, 2002 at 05:10:23AM -0700, D. Keith Higgs remarked:
> Actually, any of the Linux boot loaders should allow you to
> multi-boot not only multiple Linux installations but also any
> version of Windows.  

Yes, typically the LILO or (more recently) GRUB boot loaders.

> The one thing to remember is that the
> boot code for all installations must reside within the first
> 1024 cylinders of your physical drive.

AFAIK this is no longer a requirement.  The latest versions of
LILO have surpassed this limitation to the best of my knowledge.

> You will want to choose one boot manager for all of your
> installations and manage it from only one of those
> installations. Thus, if I install Windows 2000 and both Red
> Hat and Suse, and I choose to use Grub as my boot manager I
> would probably manage my boot menu from within the Red Hat
> installation.
> 
> One tip on multi-booting Linux with Windows: If you can manage
> to install your Windows system on a FAT32 partition you will
> be able to make use of WINE to run most (if not all) of your
> WIN32 programs from within Linux. Hard core users who are
> security freaks will scream about the security holes in
> Windows on FAT32 but, they only exist through Windows if you
> actually boot up Windows. (I'm going to have to brush my teeth
> after using the 'W' word so many times.) ;-)
> 
> One other thing to keep around would be a Windows 95/98
> bootable disk with the MS version of fdisk.  Not that you ever
> would but, if you ever decide to make that box a Windows only
> system you will need to boot to that disk and run "fdisk /mbr"
> to reset the Master Boot Record and remove the Linux boot
> loader code.

> Keith

Agreed, get as much information as possible about the system
from the windows control panel, then make a windows rescue
diskette just in case :)

Cheers,
Raymond