Installing Linux for the first time (& dual boot)

OK, all done well, but to edit fstab I need to be root. How exactly do I login as it?

you use the

su

command as i said.

Just one more question, where is the logon sound for the KDE desktop located? I'd like to use that for my XP logon, sounds pretty neat.

Check in control center.

Where abouts in it?

success story-- for all those n00bs out there

ok first post and although this thread is a year +5months old i have to add something to it after readnig all 16 pages!

just want to say taht my linux installation of a few weeks was completely seemless........ no glitches at all. im running slackware 9.0.0 with gnome as my desktop -- obviously not the prefered choices here! o well, now ive been too lazy to use it much but now that ive got waaaay too much free time on my hands i might try to use it some more, especially with a comunity as nice as this (as far as i can tell--i've only read one thread!)

hope i enjoy it here, but by the looks of things i prob will :grinthumb


moon

Most linux distributions have got easier to install in the last 18 months, especially Red Hat and Mandrake.

Slackware isn't generally perceived to be the easiest distro for newbiez, but its a fine linux distro and I have it installed as one of the 5 operating systems I have installed here.

However, each to his own. Opinions differ even amount hardened Linux users as to best disro, windows manager, etc. Its best to go with what feels right for you, and stick with it if its going well.

I am glad your first venture into the Linux world has gone so well, and I am also glad to have you on the forums.

Are these RPMs the source for the OS itself, or for applications? What I am asking is if I need/want these.

These CDs contain all "OS" and "apps" binaries. You will want all 3 CDs.

You NEED these three disks:

shrike-i386-disc1.iso
shrike-i386-disc2.iso
shrike-i386-disc3.iso

The other disks are to add the source code, so that you could look at how the OS and all apps included were programmed, perhaps contribute something yourself.

These I have already downloaded via binary ftp transfer and verified against the included md5sum.

shrike-i386-disc1.iso
shrike-i386-disc2.iso
shrike-i386-disc3.iso

These, however, I guess I don't need quite yet, as I am a novice and won't have anything to contribute quite yet, correct? There are no additional features on these discs, right?

shrike-SRPMS-disc1.iso
shrike-SRPMS-disc2.iso
shrike-SRPMS-disc3.iso

Thank you, by the way, for all the valuable information. This website is a great one.

It seems that I installed LILO to the MBR instead of to the lilo partition. I've read this thread and found how to correct that. Here's my question.

I am able to view my NTFS partition of WinXP as read-only, so I used the DD command and sent the bootsect.lin to a floppy, and then rebooted into winXP and copied that file into the root of C:

Is that acceptable?

Also, what is the advantage of using the windows OS selector as defined in boot.ini to select your OS as opposed to installing lilo into the MBR, as I have inadvertently done? As soon as my PC boots, I am getting the LILO screen and am able to choose DOS or Linux.

Everything seems okay with the exception of xwindows periodically locking up. Nothing will respond and I have to just turn my box off.

Also, in fsab, why are the drives set for noauto? It is bad to automatically mount all your drives upon boot up?

To recap, here are my questions:
1. what is the advantage of using windows to select the OS to be used, as opposed to installing lilo into the MBR?

2. Since my ntfs partition of XP is read only, I used that dd command and sent the output file bootsect.lin to a floppy formatted as fat, and then rebooted into windows and copied it to my root of C. IS that okay?

3. any idea why my box is locking up?

4. why not have fstab mount all drives upon boot?

Thank you much.
Gregory.

Yes. Of course it is.

That's fine if you are happy with it, however you will now have to live with LILO as your boot manager.

Try upgrading your graphics drivers.

That's just the default. You could save the original fstab file and then change these options if you want, experiment with them.

Thank you for your help, Phantasm. Your guide has been excellent.. one more question (for now)

I followed the instructions here http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/info/redhat.html for installing what I gues is the "ntfs kernel module." I followed them exactly, but I'm not sure if it was necessary. Could this have messed up my system, causing the lockups?

I did this because I was having trouble mounting my ntfs partition, but I don't know if it was really necessary. Also, should I install the latest kernel from redhat, 2.4.20-20.9 ? After my first linux install, I ",ucked around" as you call it, quite a bit, and I'm worried I might have messed something up.

Unless you suggest otherwise, I am planning on reinstalling redhat 9 after work, and installing the latest kernel.

you may have introduced some problems. you might want to think about recompiling your kernel. Only use ntfs read support, not write, as it does not generally work properly and can cause data loss.

You can get the kernel from red hat but also there is no reason not to download it directly from www.kernel.org

Again, thanks for your help. I will recompile my kernal when I get home, using the rpm.

IS there a conventional place to save the rpms and other installation files I download? I created a directory /root/downloads but I'd like to be as conventional as possible.

Also, what GUI are you using in the screenshot at the beginning of the thread? I like the looks of it.

You can really just save wherever.

The screenshot is from XIMIAN GNOME. www.ximian.com

XIMIAN DESKTOP 2 is out, its very good but its a 400MB download so you will have to have patience and broadband.

RedHat keeps its own RPMS under /usr/src/redhat/* there are directories SOURCES, RPMS, SRPMS there. I put my own non-RH rpms and tarballs just in /usr/src. This is for the installation files I actually keep. Those things i'm trying out just live in /root