[A few questions] -


A few questions

Discuss A few questions


Posted by: Emily

I'm going to try installing redhat on a computer that's sitting unused in my closet, but I'm not quite sure that I know everything that I need to know. (This is my first Linux installation, in case you can't tell.. actually, my first time installing any OS :confused: ) I've got Redhat burned to cd and I'm planning on using PartitionMagic to partition the drive, but is there anything else I need to know about partitioning or the installation? After I've partitioned it, I just boot from the Redhat cd, right? Any other suggestions or tips or anything?

I've got a few tutorials bookmarked so I'm not at a complete loss, but basically they all say to partition the drive and boot from the cd. Is there anything that I'm missing?

Thanks so much for your help and please bear with me because I have no idea what I'm doing (which is probably very obvious). :p :)


Posted by: mikesgroovin

The setup is pretty intuitive. Make sure that you choose the easiest installaton.
As for partitioning, make sure that you are creating a ext2 or ext3 partition for the operating system itself and then a smaller parition for the linux swap partition.
Are you installing Fedora Core 1 or Redhat 9? They are the same (Redhat there is a choice of install types and Fedora Core 1 is simply a client w/s) and the setup is virtually the same as well.

-Mike


Posted by: gruntwerk

depending on the version you are installing, and the type of setup you choose, it may automatically partition your drive(s)...
you dont need partition magic as Red Hat has tools to partition drives in the install...


Posted by: Emily

Alright, thanks mike. :) Sounds manageable so far.

I'm installing Redhat 9, which was pretty much a random choice except that I heard somewhere that it's a good server platform and I might want to mess around with setting up a server somewhere down the line. Is Fedora also a good server platform, then?


Posted by: Emily

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by gruntwerk [/i]
[B]depending on the version you are installing, and the type of setup you choose, it may automatically partition your drive(s)...
you dont need partition magic as Red Hat has tools to partition drives in the install... [/B][/QUOTE]

Really? I read somewhere that Mandrake has a partition tool built in, but Redhat doesn't. :confused:


Posted by: mikesgroovin

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Emily [/i]
[B]Alright, thanks mike. :) Sounds manageable so far.

I'm installing Redhat 9, which was pretty much a random choice except that I heard somewhere that it's a good server platform and I might want to mess around with setting up a server somewhere down the line. Is Fedora also a good server platform, then? [/B][/QUOTE]

Until Redhat 9, Fedora didn't exist. Redhat, when installing, gives you a choice for a workstation, enterprise server and a couple of other options. After Redhat came out with Redhat 9, they started to charge a little for the Redhat "Server" operating system but they wanted to continue to keep the workstation version of Redhat free so Fedora Core 1 was made available for free download. Fedora is only a workstation platform. But if you have a copy of RedHat 9 then you can install the server version off of those CDs. Hope this helps...

-Mike


Posted by: mikesgroovin

Redhat also has a paritioning tool embedded.

-Mike


Posted by: Lostman

Just make sure you have a "/", swap and "/home" partition. Swap only needs to be about 500meg, but "/" root and "/home" need to be bigger because that's where your programs and settings go.

If you have any problems, you might want to think about movfing over to Mandrake 9.2 insted. It's real user friendly. Also, you'll need to pick a GUI, I suggest Gnome or KDE. KDE is better looking but takes more to run it. Gnome is now my GUI of choice because it's faster and lighter.


Posted by: Emily

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by mikesgroovin [/i]
[B]Until Redhat 9, Fedora didn't exist. Redhat, when installing, gives you a choice for a workstation, enterprise server and a couple of other options. After Redhat came out with Redhat 9, they started to charge a little for the Redhat "Server" operating system but they wanted to continue to keep the workstation version of Redhat free so Fedora Core 1 was made available for free download. Fedora is only a workstation platform. But if you have a copy of RedHat 9 then you can install the server version off of those CDs. Hope this helps...

-Mike [/B][/QUOTE]

Ooh I see... so Redhat is what I should use for a server then.

[quote][b]If you have any problems, you might want to think about movfing over to Mandrake 9.2 insted. It's real user friendly. Also, you'll need to pick a GUI, I suggest Gnome or KDE. KDE is better looking but takes more to run it. Gnome is now my GUI of choice because it's faster and lighter.[/quote][/b]

Yeah, I was thinking about installing Mandrake on this computer (my newer computer) if the Redhat installation goes well on my old computer and I don't blow anything up.

As for GUIs, is it possible to pick both and switch between them? (Just so I can try them both out?)

Thanks so much for all your help, guys. :)


Posted by: Emily

Ok, I've got another question. Someone told me that Linux has to be installed on a partition that is the first 8 gig of your hard drive, so everything on the first 8 gigs gets erased. That sounded very fishy to me, so I thought I'd ask if that's true.


Posted by: nomad

i was able to install it on the secondary partition of my hd so i don;t think so but wait untill someone more well versed comes along and confirms this


Posted by: Emily

Ok great, thanks guys. :)


Posted by: ESmandrake

As Oberjaeger says, the 1024 cylinder issue is no longer a problem with recent hardware.

Going back to your GUI question, you can install both Gnome and KDE and switch between them when you log in. Gnome's display manager, GDM, supports KDE sessions, and I imagine the reverse is true of KDE's manager. When you log in you just select the GUI you want to use.

~~~
Steve