Need lots of guidance

by gtelliott88 Dec 4, 2005 2:38AM PST

I am looking into adding a Linux operating system onto my Windows XP Home computer. I have been asking around and I know that I would like to partition my hard drive I want to be able to pick the OS that I will be using on boot-up. I'm asking for guidance on which Linux to choose and how to add it on without destroying my already set up windows OS. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Discussion is locked

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Why not a Live CD?

by r. proffitt Forum moderator Dec 4, 2005 2:56AM PST

If you look up KNOPPIX and LINUX LIVE CD on google, you can get a bootable CD with almost everything to test drive Linux without touching your Windows install.

If you try the SUSE LIVE CD and like it, look up OPEN SUSE on google.com, download and install it. It should offer to repartition during install.

Bob

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Which One?

by gtelliott88 Dec 4, 2005 3:05AM PST

I went to a site that I could download it from and there were tons of different versions and files I could download. I downloaded what I think was v9.2... it was the biggest one so hopefully it has everything I will need. do I need to burn it onto a cd to run it and if I like Linux is there a version of it that you would suggest? Thank you for the quick reply.

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whoops

by gtelliott88 Dec 4, 2005 3:07AM PST

sorry... I just realized that you answered my second question in your first post. Thanks again.

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I may be stupid...

by gtelliott88 Dec 5, 2005 10:52AM PST

I went to a site to download the iso file of KNOPPIX. It downloaded successfully. I uncompiled the iso file using a freeware program called Undisker. As far as I can see it was completed. I burned those files onto a disk. On bootup I pressed Esc (which is the system boot key) and when the list came up I chose the cd drive that I had the disk in. My computer completely ignores me and goes on loading windows xp. now... I may be stupid but I have no idea what i'm doing wrong... any help is greatly appreciated.

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Just so you know.

by r. proffitt Forum moderator Dec 5, 2005 10:55AM PST

If you put .ISO files on a CD, you don't get a bootable CD. However, if you used something like CDBURNERXP (free) it has a WRITE ISO menu item that would make a proper bootable CD.

Bob

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yep... i'm stupid

by gtelliott88 Dec 5, 2005 12:10PM PST

Thank you for the tip on the bootable cd. It worked up until searching for the firewire. I got an error that said

''modprobe: FATAL: could not read '/lib/modules/2.6.11/Kernel/drivers/input/evdev.ko: Not a directory'''

I think that this means that somehow something got loaded wrong and i'm missing a file, but before I spend another four hours downloading the iso file I thought I would check with you and make sure that is right.

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Try no firewire.

by r. proffitt Forum moderator Dec 5, 2005 10:17PM PST

Your posts have been very sparse about the machine, but disable the firewire port or ... try another distro.

Bob

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I don't have firewire

by gtelliott88 Dec 6, 2005 8:32AM PST

I don't have firewire so it is already disabled. I have been asking around and I found a friend that has some live distros. He has tried them and knows that they work. I will try those. Thank you so much for your help. You have been very promt and useful. I can see why you are a moderator.

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Try These

by bulldogzerofive Dec 4, 2005 10:07PM PST

Mandriva is an excellent distro for your first install. The graphical installer (especially the partitioner) is very easy to understand.

On the other hand, Ubuntu is probably (in my opinion) the easiest to use after the initial install, although some people say the text-based installer (especially the partitioner) is hard to understand; i did not have any issues, though.

Both of these are available as live CDs. You can download them at their respective sites.

You might also like Debian, the distro that ubuntu is based on. This one is my personal favourite. As far as i know, it does not have a Live CD per se, but knoppix is about the same thing.

Another Live CD worth mentioning is Damn Small Linux, which is a very minimalist CD that fits on one of those mini CDs and is lighter on your internet connection to download if you don't have a DSL connection.

If you would like to read more about different distros and read some reviews, try www.distrowatch.org.

Need lots of guidance

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