Installing Linux for the first time (& dual boot)

kevinsprague said:
hopefully someone will see this here. i just tried to install rh9.0 to a system already using win xp. it is a dell 8300 system with a 17inch dell flat panel moniter. i tried with this moniter and a hdtv projector, and everytime i try and use the moniter to display linux, it tell me that it cannot display this video mode. i had to install linux with the text install because it would tell me the same thing if i tried to install with the window version. it would also not work in lowres version. i did get linux to install and the boot disk to work, but it still will not like my monitor or graphics card. i don't know what to do from here, so maybe you guys can help. thanks
-kevin
Click to expand...

What Graphics card do you use? We need Hardware info to help you out with your install
 
i believe it is a GForce FX5200 with 128mg memory and a 17" E171FP Flat Panel Display. i know it recgonized the monitor and i am pretty sure it recgonized the graphics card initially, but it order to get something to show up, i have to tell it not to search for the monitor or card, it just uses the defaults. When i do have it search for a graphics card because it tells me i have an error with displaying X Something, i can't remember what it was, the screen goes blank then it the monitor tells me it does not accept the video mode. if something doesn't sound right about anything i say, tell me. This is my first time installing a other than microsoft operating system, and expecially the first time i tried to use a dual boot system. i got the computer from dell about a year ago and all i have done is add another 200gig hd and a wireless card, so i don't know the specs of it too much except from what i read on dells website about what they put in my series of computer. Thanks for any help.
-kevin
 
You can try installing the video drivers from nVidia. The generic nv driver that comes with RedHat doesn't actually shine.
 
This is an awesome thread but I am still having problems. I tried to follow the step by step tutorial but had a couple things go wrong. First of all, my screen goes blank every time I try to install Linux (Redhat) with the GUI. I end up using text mode which is much harder to navigate. I ended up getting it installed but I do not get a screen when I start the computer asking where I want to boot to - it just goes straight to XP. I changed my boot order to the hard drive (separate from XP) that Linux is on and it just says "GRUB" (i think, can't exactly remember) and locks up. I tried to reinsall Linux using the guide posted on the first page of this thread but my Windows XP partition uses NTFS instead of FAT32 and I can't give it a mount point. So when that didn't work I gave up and decided to get help.
 
Hello. You will probably need to fix your mbr before you reinstall ( ask around before you do). If you want to access NTFS, then you'll need to patch the kernel. However, NTFS support is experimental at best, and if you have anything very valuable on your NTFS drive I wouldn't bother. Partition your drive so that you can put any files you need to access on the FAT32
 
What if I don't need it to dual boot. Can I install it somehow so I can just change the boot order of the hard drives to get Linux/Windows to boot. I just want to get Linux working.
 
Then set boot order to first disk first, boot to Red Hat CD's rescue mode, and start grub (with command 'grub').

If the Linux installation is on the first partition of second disk, type

root (hd1,0)

If it was correct, it should say "Filesystem type is ext2fs (or whatever you formatted it as), partition type 0x83".

Then type

setup (hd0)

to install grub into master boot record of the first disk. Finally,

quit

exits grub.
 
Thanks! I get a boot menu now and XP works when I select it. When I selected Linux for the first time I went through a bunch of stuff that all said OK and then my screen went blank. My screen would also do this when I tried to install Linux using the GUI instead of text mode. Now what do I do? I feel like I am so close!
 
Highlight Linux in grub menu, hit e to edit the boot commands, append 'S' to kernel boot line (ie. kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb1 S), enter and hit b to boot. That'll boot Linux in single-user textmode.

Then edit /etc/inittab and change line

id:5:initdefault:

to id:3:initdefault:

If you don't know which texteditor to use, try

vi /etc/inittab

Hit insert to enter text (or twice to replace), esc to exit that mode, then :wq to save & quit.

Apparently your graphics card or monitor wasn't detected correctly or you don't have proper drivers installed. Which graphics card do you have?
 
I have a NVidea FX5200. The login screen came up but I did not create a login. I did a quick search and it said to login as root and use the PW i put in. I did this and the following came up:
[root@localhost root]#
Now what?
 
no fear, i have figured out our problem. the graphics card driver for our card is not up to par with what it should be. go to http://nvidia.com/object/linux_display_ia32_1.0-4349.html and download the driver. i made it simple, and downloaded it in windows and burned it to a cd, cause it is too big for a disk. then start up linux in text mode, as described earlier( addin S tin grub after command line), mount the cd drive to the hard drive("mount -t auto /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom" if the directory is not already created, which is was on mine, thenyou need to make the directory with "mkdir /mnt/cdrom" in the offchance that cdrom is not your cdrom drive, you need to mount whatever then name of the drive is) , then run the install program. after you install the drivers, open up the readme for the drivers and it will describe to you what you need to do to modify the xf86config(i think that is the name. i may be off a letter or sumtin, read the manual to get exact information. i used pico to modify it cause i like using pico from when i program in windows(it is what my cs classes used)) file, and where to find it( i believe it is etc/X11/). Once you modify that file, ie change Drive "nva" or whatever to Drive "nvidia" and add Load "glx" , then delete (load "dri") and (load "glore") , then you just restart into linux. make sure grub doesn't have the s after it now, which it shouldn't, and then everything should work. i am on linux now, so it worked for me. let me know if you have any problems. The readme file is in USR/share/NVidea(can't remember this directory, just hit NV then tab and it will fill out the name for you)/then the file name is Readme . open it with a text editor or sumtin, again i used pico. If i went into to much explaination, sorry, or not enough just ask.
-kevin

::edited 12/15/04 2:00::
 
Thank you so much for the help Kevin. I did everything you said and got the driver installed. I tried to StartX but got an error:
(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA kernel module!
(EE) NVIDIA(0): ***Aborting***
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

Fatal server error:
no screens found

I am getting close but what is the problem now??? Thanks!!
 
I am posting this message from Linux. Thanks so much for everyones help! For some reason my keyboard still does not work in text mode but I went back and changed id:3.... to id:5... and it booted up. I have yet to reboot the machine but at least I am running Linux right now. What is the difference between the Linux and Linux-up on the boot screen? I think I am on Linux-up right now.
 
Hello.

First of all, the guide at the beginning of this post was great. I installed Feodora Core 3 with no problem. However, shortly after that I decided to reformat Windows. When I did, the boot loader went away.

To get it back, I tried booting for CD1 again. At the install screen, I chose to upgrade the package. I selected "Create new boot loader", configured it, and applied the "upgrade". After it prompted me for Disc 3 and was complete, it said that something was not installed and that the boot loader was left untouched.

Why is this? How do I get the boot loader back?

Thanks!
 
Did you use the GRUB bootloader originally or the Windows one?

You have to use the Rescue mode from the Linux CD to restore GRUB or LILO.
 
Nodsu said:
Did you use the GRUB bootloader originally or the Windows one?

You have to use the Rescue mode from the Linux CD to restore GRUB or LILO.
Click to expand...

Yes, I was using GRUB. I have tried rescue mode, but I do not know what exactly to do there to restore GRUB. Any ideas?
 
Boot into rescue mode.
It tells you that your Linux system has been mounted under /mnt/sysimage or something similar.
Run "chroot /mnt/sysimage"
Then "grub_install /dev/hda" to reinstall the GRUB bootloader.
 
Nodsu said:
Boot into rescue mode.
It tells you that your Linux system has been mounted under /mnt/sysimage or something similar.
Run "chroot /mnt/sysimage"
Then "grub_install /dev/hda" to reinstall the GRUB bootloader.
Click to expand...

I went to do this, but I got an error saying that the command grub_install was not recognized. When I came back I saw Phantasm66's post, which had the proper command. I am back in Fedora and it is working great. Thank you both!

For future reference:

chroot /mnt/sysimage
/sbin/grub-install /dev/hda
Click to expand...
 
hey guyz i decided to give Red Hat a try , but i got a lil question before downloading it , i found this site which gives me lotsa links for downloading Red Hat but in brackets it says Valhalla , shrike , and just 7.2 so what do u think which one should i download ,heres the link : "http://www.linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=7" , and Phantasm66 when i need your help i want to make a dual boot have 2 hard's #1-80gb-2-partitions(c;d), #2(backup harddrive i just want to leave it alone, im probably gunan disconnect it while installing so noone of my precious files would be erased by mistake) .........okay so my win xp is on c drive and i have all my software installed on d which is 70 gb partition , so what i want to do is make d drive smaller and without formating anything install linux, btw all hard's are formatted with ntfs, hmm my pc specs are

--------------------------------------------
OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Manufacturer Seanix
System Model AWRDACPI
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 9 GenuineIntel ~2500 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Award Software International, Inc. F7d, 11/17/2003
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 125.99 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 738.03 MB
-----------------------------------------------
 
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