Operating Systems > Linux and UNIX
Trouble installing Mandrake 9: It won't
Dai_Maxwell:
When you have experience doing something, it's easier to be brave about doing it the next time. Last night when I first tried to install it, I froze at the rather ominous notice that it might overwrite my partitions and since I have over 30 gigs of stuff on the other partitions, decided it was just better to be safe than sorry.
As far completely forgoing winblows, while it may be true that many of the common apps are available in the Linux world, I use a couple of programs that as far as I know are not. Now, they may turn out to be, but until I know for certain, I can't completely forsake this cursed os.
On a slightly unrelated note, I have a 486 DX66 machine. Do you know if I can install one of the versions of Linux for it and be able to play mp3's? Currently, it won't with 95 and it's either give it away to get rid of it or make use out of it.
Dai
Calum:
quote:Originally posted by Dai:
When you have experience doing something, it's easier to be brave about doing it the next time. Last night when I first tried to install it, I froze at the rather ominous notice that it might overwrite my partitions and since I have over 30 gigs of stuff on the other partitions, decided it was just better to be safe than sorry.
--- End quote ---
you are correct. no partitioning tool is totally foolproof, so i would advise you to backup all your data first, although it should not be necessary.
quote:As far completely forgoing winblows, while it may be true that many of the common apps are available in the Linux world, I use a couple of programs that as far as I know are not. Now, they may turn out to be, but until I know for certain, I can't completely forsake this cursed os.
--- End quote ---
you misunderstand me completely. what i mean is that you should install linux as a seperate operating system on a seperate partition from windows. Your windows installation will not have anything different from what it currently has except that it's partition will be smaller, since you would have shored it down to make way for a few Gigs to put linux on. you do not need to forsake anything. you just install linux as a dual boot and you will get linux IN ADDITION to your current setup.
quote:On a slightly unrelated note, I have a 486 DX66 machine. Do you know if I can install one of the versions of Linux for it and be able to play mp3's? Currently, it won't with 95 and it's either give it away to get rid of it or make use out of it.
--- End quote ---
i think that most versions of linux up to about last year will run on it, and should be able to play mp3s using such programs as xmms, noatun and mpg123. Do check if a particular version supports 486 as i know that the latest mandrake 9.0 does not, not sure about current versions of red hat (mandrake 9 supports pentiums and up). Otherwise, i'm actually after an older laptop, maybe you could offload it onto me! on the other hand, it might cost a lot to ship it, depending on where you are. Nevertheless, give me a shout on the private messages if you feel like it...
Dai_Maxwell:
Right now, I feel like I've just arrived in another country in a language immersion program and have gotten separated from my host family... :D It's going to be cool though, just goign to take time and resolve. And I think I have it.
Dai
voidmain:
You mentioned that you put in a separate drive to install Linux. That's a good idea. Install Linux on that drive. You will be able to boot into either Linux or Windows as Calum said. You will also be able to access your Windows partitions from Linux if you need to get to some files. After getting Mandrake installed we can help you with this part if you need it.
I would suggest not rushing in to it though, please read over the installation manual on Mandrake's web site and figure out the best approach for you. You might want to do a custom install. In fact you can practice on your old machine so you can feel confident on your primary machine.
Also, you might have trouble installing on a 486 with a newer distro (especially if you have very little RAM). The latest distros are optimized for newer hardware than that. You could find an older distro that would work fine on it but I would suggest your good machine for best results.
Also, playing MP3's require a certain amount of processing power (on any operating system) because MP3's are compressed. Decompression takes far less CPU than compression, but it still may not play well on a 486 class machine.
[ November 15, 2002: Message edited by: void main ]
voidmain:
repairing...
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