About to dive into this fun world of Linux!

[CrAz3D]

I think I'm going to go with Fedora Core 5.
I've talked with MyndFyre a tad bi about it, but he is off at work and I'm lookin for some info, if y'all could help I'd appreciate it.

As I understand it I need to create a partition on my hard drive (I have 30gb of free space right now on my 80gb drive, on my laptop).
I assume I want to download the x86 64 isos since I have an AMD 64bit processor? (just trying to be very sure of everything I'm doing as I have never even used a Linux OS)

What size would you suggest for the partition?  After partitioning (with Partition Magic, as MyndFyre has suggested & I downloaded) just download the 5 discs and then boot from disc1?  I assume it ought to be rather self explanitory after that, but I just want to make sure.

Any info/suggestions/help you might be able to offer would be greatly appreciated,
     Thanks!

[rabbit]

You are actually required to have 2 partitions: Linux and Linux Swap.

The swap is generally small (mine is 2gb or 30), with the rest being for Linux itself.  A few people (like iago) make other partitions for different folders and the such.

If the 30gb free is already allocated, you'll have to shrink it with PM, otherwise I suggest cfdisk.

Lastlyness, I'm not sure how FC works, but odds are you just start with disc 1.

[CrAz3D]

That 30gb I mentioned is just apart of my main drive C:.
Would I still use PM?

[Ergot]

You don't have to use PM if you use cfdisk... but I'd go with a 1 or 2 gig swap... (That twice your RAM rule or w/e)
Also you aren't really required to have a swap partition, but it's better that way. When I was on RH9 I used a swap file similar to what Windows uses.

[MyndFyre]

I'd go with 10gb devoted to Linux for right now.  Meaning:

1.) Resize (using ParititonMagic) your Windows drive to whatever it's at minus 10240MB.  You can do this by right-clicking on the partition in PartitionMagic, selecting Resize/Move, and in the "Space After" box, specifying 10240.00mb.  (Megabytes should be the default unit in the dialog).
2.) Create a new FAT32 partition using PartitionMagic (this partition will be accessible to both installations for read-write mode).  Make it a moderate size, but not very big; 256mb or even 512mb should be plenty of room.  Make backup floppies the way PartitionMagic lets you.
3.) Tell PartitionMagic to apply these changes.  You will have to reboot, and ParititonMagic will do its work before Windows boots (the same place it would run chkdsk on startup).  This will take quite a while, because if there's any data on the end of your disk (there is), it needs to be moved closer to the front of the disk to make room for the new space.  I suggest leaving this to happen overnight, or doing something constructive in the meantime, like playing Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (which is for Windows or Xbox 360, as it turns out -- not Linux ). 
4.) Once you've done this, verify that the changes have been performed, then reboot with the Fedora Core CD 1 in the drive (I was pissed that it wasn't a DVD image).  Anaconda, the FC5 installer program, will load and walk you through the installation.  There are a lot of features if you do a custom install -- it's pretty thorough.  I suggest you stick with GNOME as your window manager and go from there.

I just got it installed on my laptop, a painfully slow 2 hour process (of course I added a lot of packages, like NmapFE (yes I know iago, using a GUI for Nmap is like blasphemy) and the spread of the CD usage was not consistent), but all told it did well.  Despite the claim to support Broadcom WiFi cards, unfortunately it does not have drivers for mine, so I need to hunt down instructions for compiling NDISWrapper for FC5.  However, it did detect my sound card this time, as opposed to last time, when it just crashed my notebook. 

It looks good, runs faster than before.

[Ergot]

You have a Broadcom chip too?! GL with that. If you get it to run help me
What's the FAT32 partition for?

[rabbit]

You don't have to use PM if you use cfdisk... but I'd go with a 1 or 2 gig swap... (That twice your RAM rule or w/e)
Also you aren't really required to have a swap partition, but it's better that way. When I was on RH9 I used a swap file similar to what Windows uses.

cfdisk can't shrink allocated space, IIRC.

The FAT32 is so that you can share stuff.  NTFS is hard for non-Windows OS's to support because Microsoft is a tightass with their specs, and Windows refuses to read Linux partitions.  Both, however, read FAT32.

[Ergot]

You don't have to use PM if you use cfdisk... but I'd go with a 1 or 2 gig swap... (That twice your RAM rule or w/e)
Also you aren't really required to have a swap partition, but it's better that way. When I was on RH9 I used a swap file similar to what Windows uses.

cfdisk can't shrink allocated space, IIRC.

The FAT32 is so that you can share stuff.  NTFS is hard for non-Windows OS's to support because Microsoft is a tightass with their specs, and Windows refuses to read Linux partitions.  Both, however, read FAT32.

I see... I don't use NTFS so I never had that problem

[CrAz3D]

1) When I change "Free Space After" it sets the number to 1027.6, MUST I have it at 10240.00, or is the 10244.6(or slightly lower) acceptable?

2) I have no floppy drive on my laptop

I downloaded the lovely library of CDs, do I want to download the DVD instead?

I guess I'll try the whole reboot thing when Im done backing up my few VERY important items onto my flash drive

[MyndFyre]

1) When I change "Free Space After" it sets the number to 1027.6, MUST I have it at 10240.00, or is the 10244.6(or slightly lower) acceptable?

LoL, 10244.6 is acceptable. 

2) I have no floppy drive on my laptop

I would do something to emulate it so that you can burn the floppy image to a CD or something!  You don't want your partitition table gone forever!  (That's a very small risk, but it's one that is easily avoided also).  USB floppy drives are like $10.

I downloaded the lovely library of CDs, do I want to download the DVD instead?

I didn't see a DVD download, DVDs go faster, but if you don't have a DVD burner that's a moot point.

I guess I'll try the whole reboot thing when Im done backing up my few VERY important items onto my flash drive

GL HF

You have a Broadcom chip too?! GL with that. If you get it to run help me
What's the FAT32 partition for?

I have had the Broadcom chip running on Linux before using NDISWrapper and the drivers that came with my laptop.

As rabbit said, NTFS isn't writeable in Linux, and Windows doesn't read ext2/3 without a special program, so the FAT32 space is to be shared between Windows and Linux in a dual-boot environment.

[CrAz3D]

1) kool
2) crap, i DO have a USB floppy, my dad just bought it like this past weekend, I hope I have a floppy
3) no dvd burner, oh yeah 
4) re: GL HF....& may God be with me


just finished burning the 6 CDs, took about 1.5 hrs to download, VERY quick, I liked it.

re: new Partition....
Size 10244.6
Label???
Create As??? (logical is deafult)
File sys type FAT32
DriverLetter E

label & create as

[MyndFyre]

1) kool
2) crap, i DO have a USB floppy, my dad just bought it like this past weekend, I hope I have a floppy
3) no dvd burner, oh yeah 
4) re: GL HF....& may God be with me


just finished burning the 6 CDs, took about 1.5 hrs to download, VERY quick, I liked it.

re: new Partition....
Size 10244.6
Label???
Create As??? (logical is deafult)
File sys type FAT32
DriverLetter E

label & create as

Nono, size = 256 or 512, Create as Primary.

[CrAz3D]

Well, this is fun, I just realized I had a DEMO VERSION of Partition Magic, aw:(
...no Linux for CrAz3D

[Blaze]

I might have a (backup... yes... backup ) copy that I can let your store....  CD or Floppy version? 

[MyndFyre]

I might have a (backup... yes... backup ) copy that I can let your store....  CD or Floppy version? 

Uh, it's been... resolved.