Operating Systems > Linux and UNIX

my name says it all please help me

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emh:
If I recall correctly, if you insert the Mandrake CD1 into the CD-ROM drive under Windows, there's a Windows program that creates a boot floppy disk that goes straight to your CD.

You might want to give that a shot.  (of course, you'll need to change the BIOS back to booting from the floppy)

I also recommend downloading CD3, as it has several things you might need.

Copperhead:

quote: I have the 1985 version of Mark Sobell's book (A Practical Guide to Unix System V) and found it provided me with a lot of insight into Unix and Linux.
--- End quote ---


*THAT* is an excellent book (I have the fifth edition), and I highly reccommend that book to anyone interested in "getting under the hood" regarding Linux/UNIX systems.  The Shell scripting sections are written excellently. You can find it on any of those "used book" sites for about $10 - $15 (US). That book is one of the reccomended text readings at a great deal of American Universities that have an emphasis on M/CIS and Computer Science (Maryland, Rutgers, Cal, Washington, and USC, to name a few)

"Foolish"..:

Are you, by any chance, using one of those PCs that keep a hard drive cached version of your BIOS (Compaq was notorious for this BS)?  If so, you just need to keep resetting them (BIOS) upon every boot.  A lot of OEM vendors like to keep a cache of your BIOS on an 8MB partition on your harddrive to allot for a "system restore", permitting the case where you actually decide to try something different with *your* computer to reset to "default(m)s", barring an error. If this is the case, you just need to hit your F(x) key (where x = an integer between 1 -12.. or Del) and manually reset your BIOS upon every boot.  Yeah, it is a pain in the ass, but you have two options:

1) Do the affore mentioned everytime, until you get Linux straight, and have LILO installed, or

2) 'Flash' your BIOS to a generic version that doesn't have the "idiot-proofing."

If I were you, I'd just stick to number 1) until you got it down.  You can always get Linux installed, use (Linux) fdisk, make a partition, back up the Windows drive (onto a directory on the Linux partition, or a separate FAT32 partition), and if you have a boot problem, reinstall Windows. You have Knoppix already (which is more like a recovery tool than it is an operating system) you will be fully equipped to do anything that I am suggesting.

You are using XP, correct?

XP "got smart" on us.  I have tried every method to get a peaceful coexistence between Red Hat and XP on my laptop, and nothing worked (installing LILO and Grub in the MBR, and both in the Linux partition.) Bootpart did work, however.  Bootpart is easy to use, and free. If you need them, I will provide you with images to help you through the setup.

If I were you, I'd try out the Knoppix harddrive installation. It uses Debian/Sid (unstable), but once you load up your sources (/etc/apt/sources.list) file, you can run a program similar to Apple's OS X software installer. Keep posting, or PM someone if you need more help. That is why this place is here. We all hate Microsoft, we have that much in common, and we will assist anyone who is willing to escape.  

Calum:

quote:Originally posted by foolishpersonwhoknowsnothing:
thank you all for helping me , so much i appreciate it, my xp gets slower and slower by the minute.... billy bill know's wats up eh? as i speak im using nero to try burning the knoppix iso again, maybe i didn't do it right last time. also i'm gonna fuck around with bios now and tell it to boot from  c d instead of booting from disk. can i partition half the HD so i can half linux running 1 side and y'nknow xp on the other. is that possible? if so please please tell me how to - and is all this bios-fucking-around-with going to be reversible?
--- End quote ---


wait wait wait!!!!!!
just follow these instructions and see how you get on:
http://linuxiso.org/viewdoc.php/howtoburn.html
i knew nothing about burning isos and would have wasted a lot of CDs if not for that page.

I suggest trying red hat or mandrake or slackware or as you say get knoppix also, just stick the CD in and reboot. It will ask you a lot of questions so perhaps find a nice easy looking and up to date "what to expect when installing mandrake/redhat etc" type of document and print it out first, eh?

here's another link of the general info type:
http://linuxiso.org/viewdoc.php/introtolinux.html

Calum:
gak!
i'm really playing catchup here! sorry about my previous post if it was unnecessary, but what emh says here:
quote:Originally posted by emh:
If I recall correctly, if you insert the Mandrake CD1 into the CD-ROM drive under Windows, there's a Windows program that creates a boot floppy disk that goes straight to your CD.

You might want to give that a shot.  (of course, you'll need to change the BIOS back to booting from the floppy)

I also recommend downloading CD3, as it has several things you might need.
--- End quote ---


is totally true, although i haven't tried it in XP. just boot to XP, stick the mandrake CD in the drive, put a blank floppy in as well and you should see a button offering to make a mandrake bootdisk. make one, then reboot (leaving the floppy and the CD in the drive) and it should go fine. If it doesn't, the next step is to enter the CMOS setup of your machine. this involves rebooting and then quickly checking to see what key you need to press to enter setup. it will be tab, or f2 or f10 or space or something. it'll tell you for an instant and then it'll boot up as normally. you need to catch it before it does that by pressing whatever key it is manically till you get the CMOS setup screen. now LEAVE everything set the way it already is, except make it so the machine boots from the floppy first, the cd drive second and the hard drive third. This is the corerect order for ANY computer in my opinion. reboot and bob is now your uncle, while fanny is indeed your aunt.

Calum:
aha, here we go:

Installing Linux is blindingly easy.

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