Going to install Linux on my desktop

[dverma75]

I have a spare pc.
PII 400mghz, 160ram, 50gig.

I wanna pick between suse and Redhat. I have suse ver 8.1 prof.

Or is there any other distro you will recomend.

[zaphodiv]

Try several distributions, see which one you like.

Personally I'v used SuSe for years. I'm a bit disapointed with 8.1, they
shipped a just released version of the KDE window manager that is
annoyingly slow.

I think redhat trys too hard to look like windows but may people prefer that.

Whatever you choose, remember to run the online update to patch security holes
as soon as you connect it to the internet. Redhat has got slightly better
in reccent versions but you should expect a default install to be hacked,
r00tkitted, acting as an IRC bot and a DDoS zombie within 12 hours of being
connected to the internet unless it's behind a connection sharing/NAT device.

[nasrules]

i tried installing mandrake 9 on my other puter but it wouldnt let me, something to do with the mount point of my partitions (?!)

[zaphodiv]

>something to do with the mount point of my partitions

You will have to give more information than that if you want help.

Describe what you did step by step.
What was the _exact_ error message?
What drives are in the computer?
/What existing partitions are on the drives?
Are you trying to keep an existing windows installtion on
the machine?

[fernandez]

If you already have SuSE, I'd go ahead and give it a try. I've been using Mandrake for a while now, next I'll attempt a Debian install using a minimal boot image. I hope I won't mess up. As zaphodiv said, I believe you just have to try out different distributions.

[dverma75]

Originally posted by zaphodiv

Personally I'v used SuSe for years. I'm a bit disapointed with 8.1, they
shipped a just released version of the KDE window manager that is
annoyingly slow.


Which ver. of Suse would you prefer

[MoonMan]

I personally prefer Mandrake 9.0 or SuSe (any latest version) because of the ease of use and stability (but hey let's face it, all linux distros are stable.). As zaphodiv said, once you install it, go on the internet ASAP and download security patches to fix any crap that was messed up in the original distro.

[Aaron73153]

I recently installed mandrake 9 on my other pc and had already partitioned my second hard drive to install it to. The problem I had was that It would only boot LILO and not allow me anywhere to choose which OS (my other is XP) to boot. Is there something I need to do differenly with windows or is it with Mandrake? I loved using Mandrake, but the other users of the PC needed XP to work. Thanks for any help.

[RJ5500]

I prefer OpenBSD myself. It's not really a version of Linux at all, rather it's another offshoot of Unix. It's very secure by default, but it is not that user-friendly.

There is KDE in this too (and other GUI desktops).

[free_rider29]

I've had Mandrake 9.0 for several months now. So far, I really like it.

[zaphodiv]

>Personally I'v used SuSe for years. I'm a bit disapointed with 8.1, they
>shipped a just released version of the KDE window manager that is
>annoyingly slow.

Oops, brainfart, I'm actually using SuSe8.0
I changed my connection sharing machine to slackware8.1
and got the two mixed up in my mind. I realised when
I got the boxed set out to install some libraries.

I just installed the kde 3.1 and xwindow seems smoother.

>Which ver. of Suse would you prefer

Since you have 8.1 you might as well give it a go.
If you have broardband KDE3.1 is probably wirth the 125meg
download.

[nasrules]

Originally posted by zaphodiv
>something to do with the mount point of my partitions

You will have to give more information than that if you want help.

Describe what you did step by step.
What was the _exact_ error message?
What drives are in the computer?
/What existing partitions are on the drives?
Are you trying to keep an existing windows installtion on
the machine?

Well i wasn't actually looking for a fix but any help would be appreciated.

HD Drives: 1 HD partitioned into three

C:\ Windows NT4 (NTFS)
D:\ Windows XP Pro (NTFS)
E:\ This is where I want to install Mandrake (NTFS)

I need to have NT4 on because the comp is 'on lease' from my Mum's work, and that's the OS they use. I could take XP Pro off, it was a test to see if I liked it before I installed it on my main comp.

Exact message:

You must have a root partition.
For this, create a partition (or click on an existing one).
Then choose action "Mount point" and set it to '/'

So, I tried changing the mount point of E:\. Then I get this message:

You need a true filesystem (ext2/ext3, reiserfs, xfs or jfs) for this mount point

What do I do now? Create a new primary partition?

[Ghost 23]

Does anyone have a Linux boot disk that they are willing to share b/c I was trying to install Red Hat 8 and I'm pretty sure that I had the partitions done correctly and when it got to 88% installed it just froze and didn't install correctly. I would like to know if you anyone could help.

[Ashitaka]

Originally posted by Ghost 23
Does anyone have a Linux boot disk that they are willing to share b/c I was trying to install Red Hat 8 and I'm pretty sure that I had the partitions done correctly and when it got to 88% installed it just froze and didn't install correctly.

Ouch. Try tomsrtbt (http://www.toms.net/rb/) and see if you can recover it; however, I'd just try a reinstall, because 88% of an operating system isn't very useful.

If you give up on Red Hat, well, I like Debian :)

[Ghost 23]

Originally posted by Ashitaka
Ouch. Try tomsrtbt (http://www.toms.net/rb/) and see if you can recover it; however, I'd just try a reinstall, because 88% of an operating system isn't very useful.

If you give up on Red Hat, well, I like Debian :)

Is that link for a boot disk or this a link to a program similar to cygwin?

[Ghost 23]

I'm having all sorts of troubles with installing the open bsd 3.2 software on my system, i'm specifcally have problem setting all the partitions it needs... can anyone help me out.

[PowerMan57two]

are any Linux systems compatible with StarBand satellite, i would like to get some kind of linux os. but i have had no luck because the ony thing that holds me back is my modems i have gotten none ever work with linux. well i hope my new starband satellite will when i receive it in two weeks

[Ghost 23]

Well, I finally got Linux installed on my of my PC's. I installed it as a workstation and I when through the long ass install and got through it OK... But after I got the system loaded and I tried to boot to the desktop it said welcome to localhost.localdomain and login... that where i'm stumped b/c i never supplied any form of a user id for me to load, though I did supply a passowrd but that was for gnome but I can't get into the system... I install 7.3 redhat ... plz help...thx

[multi]

the mount point is usualy "/ "
try use the pass word u put in with the user root..
if that works create a user apart from root
and use that and only use root for configuring stuff..

[Ghost 23]

Originally posted by multi
the mount point is usualy "/ "
try use the pass word u put in with the user root..
if that works create a user apart from root
and use that and only use root for configuring stuff..

Thanks for the help but I actually loaded red hat 8.0 and i got in with no problems and thr install was nice and user friendly... the install takes a while but it works nice.

[Monyak]

Use REDHAT and try to get version 8.2 - they have a cool windows type shell interface and its easier to build the kernel.

[Ghost 23]

Originally posted by Monyak
Use REDHAT and try to get version 8.2 - they have a cool windows type shell interface and its easier to build the kernel.

I didn't even know that 8.2 was out already but I still learn with what i have now so i think i may stick with it but any tip and/or trick that you can help me out with is alwayz appreciated.

[tecker]

Originally posted by nasrules
E:\ This is where I want to install Mandrake (NTFS)

Exact message:

You must have a root partition.
For this, create a partition (or click on an existing one).
Then choose action "Mount point" and set it to '/'

So, I tried changing the mount point of E:\. Then I get this message:

You need a true filesystem (ext2/ext3, reiserfs, xfs or jfs) for this mount point

What do I do now? Create a new primary partition?
OK nasrules, the problem lies in this partition you are attempting to install to. No linux distrobution i know of will install to NTFS. What you need to do is delete the ntfs partition (be shure this is the right partition to) that you wanted to install the linux to. Then if you just want to do some experimenting and not woried about security then just make one big "root" partition there. Use about 80% - 90% and make it an ext3 filesystem (Ext2 will work but i like ext3 for speed) with the mount point '/ '. After doing that, take the remaining space and make a linux swap partition. Note on the swap. anything over 512 mb is a bit redudant. Then go on with the installation.

I noticed that you are using Mandrake 9. the installer has a button called auto alocate and will create a bunch of partitons automaticaly depending on the space you have.

[eizo]

really depends on what u gonna do with ur spare pc, mandrake9.1 for user friendly shit and debian or rh should for server use. oh yeah, u might also wanna try freebsd if u've got da time. also dont forget sambar, google it to know what it is.