[Lvlug] Help Rich install Linux

[heart legs]

I'm going to throw my 2 cents into the mix.

I feel everything RK said was right on the money.  I
will emphasize, before you begin anything, back up
your files that you cannot restore.  The files you
created in programs like Word, your photos, mpg's,
mp3's, and saved games.  Anything you have dl'd from
the internet and do not feel like dl'ing again, back
that up too.  The programs you installed from cd and
even your OS are all recoverable.  It is your own
documents you want to save.  If you loose the OS, this
is not a bad thing.  Heck, it could be good since
Windows should be (in my opinion) wiped out and
reinstalled on a clean partition on a bi-anual basis. 
Too much garbage builds up.

If you do not have any free space, get a partition
resizing programs like Partition magic or ranish.  The
latter is free.  For an even easier acquisition of a
partition resizer, use fips, which is on the RH 6.2
disc and is probably on the SuSE 7.0 disc.  I have
used fips successfully in the past.  Make sure you
defrag and scan disk the windows partition you are
resizing before you run fips.  To be on the safe side,
make a backup copy of your partition record, which
fips will do for you, on a floppy.

I think you will find the Linux install pretty easy,
once you get going.  Partitioning your drive will be
the most difficult aspect, but this is made relatively
easy with RedHat's Disk Druid and SuSE's YAST. 
Partitioning for Linux is a hot debate, but since this
is your first time, you can easily get away with a
root partition and a swap partition.  Later, if you
want to change things, you will have the skills to do
so.  Size wise, make the swap partition at least 16
mb's but no more than 128 mb (>128 mb tends to be a
waste of hd space and at that point you would probably
do better with another swap partition or swap file). 
Most sources recommend a swap partition 2-3 times the
amount of RAM you have.

Since I seem to be the biggest advocate of SuSE on
this list, I will not waver now.  SuSE is by far one
of the easiest, most complete, and most accurate Linux
distros I have every used.  I have never been
disappointed or left having to reconfigure something
necessary (I am not counting tweaking better
performance) after the install.

Dual booting an OS is not that difficult of a task. 
Unless you specifically tell the partition program too
wipe out or fiddle with the partition(s) holding your
other OS data (and you are not using Corel Linux), you
"should not" have any problems.  Of course, there is
alway a risk, but this comes with the territory.  I
recommend not choosing to mount other OS partition
during the install.  

I have never lost any other OS data when installing
Linux.  I have restored a Window MBR with ease,
Win2000 MBR, reinstalled Win and Win2000, all without
messing up the Linux OS I had on the system, and never
did Linux mess with these partitions.

The only caution I have is with using Lilo and the
location of your /boot partition or directory.  On
versions of Lilo before 21.1.4, Lilo had problems
booting OS's with kernels beyond the 1024th cylinder. 
This is a bios issues that has been worked around in
21.1.4 and above.  RH 6.2 is not using 21.1.4 and I
cannot vouch for SuSE 7.0.  Therefore, make a boot
disk during the install (there is an option) then grab
the latest lilo form the web or our ftp site.

Daniel S. Washko

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