[NTLUG:Discuss] Installation questions from rank beginner:

[Mark Bickel]

> From discuss-admin at ntlug.org Sat Mar 10 13:26 CST 2001
> Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001 13:23:28 -0600
> From: Dan Lobb <danlobb at swbell.net>
> X-Sender: danlobb/postoffice.swbell.net at 127.0.0.1
> To: discuss at ntlug.org
> Subject: [NTLUG:Discuss] Installation questions from rank beginner:

Dan Lobb wrote:
> I would like to install Linux to one of my computers.  I have a 486 machine 
> which has no operating system on it at all, and I have a Pentium which has 
> an early version of win95 on it. I do not wish to make it a dual boot system.
> 
> So, I would like to know how to install to either a operating less system 
> or how to remove the other system once I have installed Linux.

Any mainstream distribution will provide an easy way for you to setup your
hard disk partitions for Linux. Linux uses the ext2 type of filesystem
(as a default) rather than the FAT/VFAT/FAT32 filesystem types in DOS/Win.
So If you don't want to dual boot, when the installation program prompts you
to modify/setup your partitions then delete your old partitions and create
at least two partitions: a swap and a root partition.

One warning: If you have a Compaq and find a non-FAT partition with some
funky type listed: DO NOT DELETE IT! It may be needed by the BIOS to boot. 

An old rule of thumb was to make your swap double the size of your physical
RAM. So if you have 32MB of RAM you might set your swap partition to 64M.
Now if you have a large amount of RAM - say 256M this probably would not
make sense for a typical desktop/workstation.

Now there can be advantages to using multiple partitions for different
branches off the root filesystem tree. Setting up /home as a separate partition
has the advantage of not losing all your user files if you decide to
reinstall/change/upgrade the distribution. Having /var on its own partition
has the advantage that if you accumulate a large amount of log files it won't
fill up your root filesystem. This is especially important for servers.

There are specific HOW-TOs on these issues which I won't link to here, but 
see below for general URL for this type of documentation. It's important
for you to learn where to find this information yourself, then you will only
need to post questions that are not already answered in a manpage, FAQ, HOWTO,
comp.os.linux.* newsgroup archive or discuss at ntlug.org mail-list archive.

> Additionally, my copies of Linux are on cds, and I believe that neither of 
> these computers has bootable cd drives. What is needed to allow me to 
> create a bootable floppy to run the installation from the cd?

There will be a directory (folder) on the CD containing one or more boot
floppy disk images. There will also be a directory containing DOS utilities
(propably called dosutils or somesuch) and possibly even some Windows
utility programs. The DOS program RAWWRITE.EXE will allow you to make the
floppys from a DOS command line. Read the README files in the dosutils.

> If you have a recommendation or can direct me to an article on the web that 
> will answer these questions, I would appreciate it.

Teach a (hu)man to fish:
 
http://www.linuxdoc.org/
http://www.dejanews.com/groups?group=comp.os.linux
http://www.google.com/linux/
http://www.ntlug.org/pipermail/discuss/
http://www.linuxhq.com/
http://www.linuxjournal.com/
http://www.linuxmagazine.com/
http://www.linuxworld.com/
http://www.freshmeat.net/
http://www.rpmfind.net/
http://www.linuxberg.com/

Also, as a general recommendation if you want to use Linux as a desktop 
machine I would go for the Pentium. For a basic file/print/intranet-web server 
the 486 may be all you need.

Mark.Bickel at ericsson.com