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Red Hat 8 & Partitioning

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Matto:
Hello. I am completely new to Linux, and I decided to download Red Hat earlier. I am currently using Windows XP, 256 RAM, 19GB on 2 hd (15GB on one, and 4GB on the other).

Ideally I would like to have both Windows XP, and Red Hat on the same computer, and have the option to choose between the two when I turn on the computer.

I was installing Red Hat earlier today, and it got to the point where it asks you how you want it to handle the partitions. Fair enough, I selected the 'Keep all current partitions and use existing free space' (or words to that effect). So I click next and I got the following error:

Error Partitioning:

Could not allocate requested partitions.
Partitioning failed: Could not allocate partitions as primary partitions.

Fair enough, I click OK and I get the following message:

You have not defined a root (/) partition, which is required for..... (the message goes on)

So I click back, and I choose the Disk Druid option. I refer to the installation guide and it explains I have to create a 'swap', '/boot' and a 'root' partition.

At this point, the screen looks like this:

 > Hard drives
   >/dev/hda
       /dev/hda1
      >/dev/hda2
          /dev/hda5

So I've clicked 'New', and filled in the boxes required, in relation to what it says in the installation guide.

I click OK, only to get the message:

Could not allocate requested partitions.
Partitioning failed: Could not allocate partitions

I've now tried various different things, but only to get the same message every time. Can someone shed some light on this? I get the feeling that it's probably something simple.
As of yet, I haven't used FDISK because it says for 'experts' only, and well, I'm far from an expert. :)

Thanks,
matt.

voidmain:
First of all, have you read over this section in the RedHat installation manual?
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-8.0-Manual/install-guide/s1-diskpartitioning.html

Second of all, do you *have* free space on your drives? "Free Space" does not mean having a 20GB NTFS partition with only 10GB used. It means having a 10GB NTFS partition with 10GB of unpartitioned space on the drive so you have space to create more partitions (the sizes I used are just examples).

Matto:
Thanks for your help VM. I created various partitions, and red hat installed just the way i wanted it to...however ive now stumbled across another problem:

whenever I choose red hat to boot up from boot up list, it loads various things up, and then asks for a login. This login screen isnt in a graphical format, its just normal text with a black background (similar to DOS). So I enter in my login details that I supplied prior to the installation...and it comes up with all the command stuff...and something called '-bash'?

For a moment I thought it could be something with red hat logging onto my cable network, but I've tried my login details for that and it says 'wrong login'.

So far I haven't seen the desktop or anything...hopefully someone can help me.

Thanks.

voidmain:
That is the normal non-graphical login. During the installation you should have been asked to configure Xwindows and check a box whether you wanted a graphical logon prompt as the default. If you selected no to that prompt or if there was a problem configuring your graphics hardware you will be presented with a text based logon. Not to worry, this can easily be changed assuming your display is configured properly.

First you want to log in at the text login. Then type "startx". If you get a graphical desktop then you can change your startup behavior. You can do this from the "System Settings">"Login Screen" menu but I prefer to edit the /etc/inittab file. There will be a line in that file that looks like this:


--- Code: ---
--- End code ---

Change the "3" to a "5" and the next time you boot you will get a graphical login. Take *extreme* care not to change anything else in that file or you will have big problems.

If "startx" does not get you to a nice graphical desktop let me know and we'll have to look deeper into it.

[ November 25, 2002: Message edited by: void main ]

Matto:
Thanks again VM! Although I'm not quite there yet...

Restarted the comp, and the screen flickers on and off, and then it asks for the root password in order to configure the screen because of a problem. It wouldn't let me choose 1024x768 (800x600 comes up all blurred on this laptop). So I've settled with 800x600. It then begins the time setting, speaker test, etc...and then finally lets me login (in graphic format). Fair enough, it accepts my username and password, and brings up the Red Hat welcome picture.And then everything just stops. Mouse wont move; completely frozen...have tried same thing about 3 times since my last message.

Sorry to pester you with such useless nonsense, but I just want to sort it out.

Thanks.

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