[97216] in RedHat Linux List
Re: Newbie questions...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lance Cummings)
Sun Nov 1 23:31:27 1998
From: "Lance Cummings" <lance@tky3.3web.ne.jp>
To: "spooker4u" <radar@cyber-wizard.com>, redhat-list@redhat.com
Date: Mon, 2 Nov 1998 13:30:41 +0900
Reply-to: lance@tky3.3web.ne.jp
In-reply-to: <000001be0601$504844c0$cb09e9d0@steve-s>
Resent-From: redhat-list@redhat.com
On 1 Nov 98, at 20:37, spooker4u wrote:
> greetings, I am a disgruntled win95 user
Gee, we've never heard of that before. ;-)))
> couple of questions that may seem pretty stupid to most of you, but here
> goes...
Probably the same ones I asked when I was new . . . or will ask again
next week. :)
> I have more than 1 HD installed w/i my computer, and although I am unhappy
> with win95, I am unable to 'cut' myself off from its OS yet. how can I
> install my basic Linux partitions to a HD other than C: (ie. E:\)
First thing to do is forget about the C, D, etc. nomenclature. Welcome to
Linux. Are your drives EIDE, SCSI?
What you want to do is very easy to do. I have one EIDE and two SCSI
drives. Linux' root lives on the first SCSI, in an extended logical that
comes after a huge FAT32 extended logical. Try *that* with any MS
product. :))
> the partitions now made
How many? How are you installing -- from a cd, hard drive, FTP?
>, is the only way to "boot" into E:\ drive through
> the floppy disk, then loggin into the partition? is that possible, or am
> I looking at all this the wrong way?
Yes, you're looking at it the wrong way -- I think. When you install, or use
Linux fdisk, which you have an opportunity to use during the install, you'll
see that your partitions are not referred to by drive letters as they are in
the MS world. Instead, they are labelled /dev/hda for the first non-scsi
hard drive, /dev/hdb for the second, and /dev/sda, sdb, etc. for scsi
drives. The first primary partition on the first EIDE drive will be
/dev/hda1. Doesn't matter whether Bill Gates or Linus Torvalds is living
there; that's how it's identified in Linux.
As an example, my Linux root is in the second logical partition on the
first SCSI drive, so that's /dev/sda6. (Numbers 1-4 are reserved for the
4 primaries, or 3 primaries plus 1 extended, that you are allowed on a
drive. Logicals get numbers 5 and up, and there's no limit to the number
that I know about. I have no primaries on that particular drive, just one
huge extended with 6 logicals.)
So, when you run Linux fdisk, you'll discover what the *real* identifiers
<vbg> for your partitions are. Then choose the way you want to re-
partition your free space, and where you want Linux and its swap
partition to live. Most people -- I believe -- use multiple partitions for
their Linux installations. For example, my "/" partition (root) is /dev/sda6,
swap is /dev/sda7, /usr is /dev/sda8, /home is /dev/sda9 and /usr/local is
/dev/sda10. You'll have a chance to set your partitions up like this during
the install (assuming a CD, here), using Linux fdisk, and I'd suggest that
it's a good idea not to dump the whole installation into one partition.
Just make sure you have about 500 mb of free space available (more is
better, of course, but you can get by on less), and dive right in. That's
what most of us did. When you get to installing LILO (the LInux LOader),
be sure enter a line allowing it to boot Bill's product off of, I am
assuming, /dev/hda1. Then you can use LILO to boot to either system.
One small tip here that can make your life much easier in the future.
Something I had to learn the hard way. Keep a written log of what you
do. Keep a log of how your drives are laid out, and write down every
mod you make after you're up and running. I mean write 'em *all* down.
Should you ever have problems, such a record can prove to be
invaluable. You'll keep your hair much longer if you've got one. I'm bald
now because I didn't know this in the beginning. ;-)
HTH,
Lance
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