Name My Rig!

[deadly7]

Because everything is compiled from source, Gentoo supports 64-bit better than any other OS. You can tailor everything to exactly what you want in terms of libraries, architecture, etc.

I see. Well I'll consider it. I hate compiling from source though. It gets tedious and becomes a PITA very fast...

Nope. I actually don't understand your problem. Can you explain it in more detail?

So I have a 320gb hard drive. Of that space, only some 200gb (max) is being used. The other space *should* show up as unformatted space, but I can't seem to access that unformatted space in either Windows 7 or Slackware 64-bit. The point of that unformatted space is just so that I can have a shared space between *nix and Windows, without having to worry about accidentally modifying the Windows partition. cfdisk SHOWS the unformatted space, it just won't let me write to it. fdisk also has that issue. Windows 7 doesn't even register that there is unpartitioned space on my HD.

[Newby]

Because everything is compiled from source, Gentoo supports 64-bit better than any other OS. You can tailor everything to exactly what you want in terms of libraries, architecture, etc.

I see. Well I'll consider it. I hate compiling from source though. It gets tedious and becomes a PITA very fast...

It's more like, instead of a package manager, you have a package source manager. It handles everything for you. The only PITA you can complain about is how it takes forever to set up your system.

[deadly7]

It's more like, instead of a package manager, you have a package source manager. It handles everything for you. The only PITA you can complain about is how it takes forever to set up your system.

Ah. If you ahd to compile everything from source manually I would hate doing that after about 3 minutes of installing..

The nonpartitioned space is showing up as "unusable" to cfdisk, fdisk, and parted. I don't understannnnnnnnnnd. Should I try partition "nuke your machine" magic?

[deadly7]

Update!

So Windows, in all its infinite wisdom, decided that when I wanted to take the unpartitioned space and make a partition out of it, it would instead pick the slackware install drives. -.- Thank god I put LILO on the MBR and not the partition!

Reinstalling shit sucks.

I still don't know why the partition didn't show up in Linxu, but that's alright I guess.

[Joe]

Always install Windows first and let Linux clean up it's mess.

[deadly7]

Always install Windows first and let Linux clean up it's mess.

I think you misunderstood. Windows install: partition X GB for NTFS and Windows boot partition. THEN Linux install: partition Y GB for ext4 & swap. THEN: wanted to take the unpartitioned space (~80GB) and format that to NTFS using Linux. Linux didn't even see the damn unpartitioned space, and once I got it to do that, it didn't let me write to the partition table no matter what I did. Windows let me write to the table... and also decided to overwrite my Slackware partition. Win.

[Sidoh]

Always install Windows first and let Linux clean up it's mess.

its *

Sorry for being a grammar Nazi, but I saw you make that mistake on facebook too.  Maybe I'll save you a red mark or two on your next English paper. ;)

[deadly7]

More fun: windows (or my slackware CD) randomly destroyed the boot partition! I had to fix it with an Ubuntu livecd ... I'm wondering if I'll ever get this dual boot thing working again. Son of a bitch.

[Joe]

Always install Windows first and let Linux clean up it's mess.

its *

Sorry for being a grammar Nazi, but I saw you make that mistake on facebook too.  Maybe I'll save you a red mark or two on your next English paper. ;)

Really? Cause the mess is a possession of it. :-\ Stupid Engrish.

[Sidoh]

Always install Windows first and let Linux clean up it's mess.

its *

Sorry for being a grammar Nazi, but I saw you make that mistake on facebook too.  Maybe I'll save you a red mark or two on your next English paper. ;)

Really? Cause the mess is a possession of it. :-\ Stupid Engrish.

Yeah -- I'm not saying it makes any sense, but its is possessive and it's is a contraction for "it is" or "it has".

[deadly7]

Well, another update: windows sucks at partition recognition and management. When it set up that new partition for me, it deleted the linux partition. But then, when it "deleted" the partition, it still left it written to the table! I just deleted it with linux and am proceeding to install slackware.. I have a feeling this is going to break windows though. :(

[Sidoh]

Well, another update: windows sucks at partition recognition and management. When it set up that new partition for me, it deleted the linux partition. But then, when it "deleted" the partition, it still left it written to the table! I just deleted it with linux and am proceeding to install slackware.. I have a feeling this is going to break windows though. :(

I think iago has infected everyone with Slackwaritis.  Why would you make it more painful for yourself with no noticeable benefit?! :(

[deadly7]

I think iago has infected everyone with Slackwaritis.  Why would you make it more painful for yourself with no noticeable benefit?! :(

?? Regardless, I was right. Installing linux broke Windows. Fucking Windows. -_- Now to do a clean format of my HD and retry all this shiz. I want linux cause I intend to do some programming for some servers/other systems that run linux.

[nslay]

I think iago has infected everyone with Slackwaritis.  Why would you make it more painful for yourself with no noticeable benefit?! :(

?? Regardless, I was right. Installing linux broke Windows. Fucking Windows. -_- Now to do a clean format of my HD and retry all this shiz. I want linux cause I intend to do some programming for some servers/other systems that run linux.

It was the Linux installer's fault.  It should have asked you whether you wanted to modify the MBR or not.
The FreeBSD installer sucks (well it's not pretty), but it gives you the option to leave the MBR alone.  It didn't clobber my Windows boot loader and they coexist happily.  I'm sure most Linux distributions provide this option too.

Why Slackware?  You want to do hardcore development?  Gentoo is a pure developer's system.  All third party software is compiled so you can rely on all the headers and development tools being there ... and being where they're supposed to be!

[deadly7]

It was the Linux installer's fault.  It should have asked you whether you wanted to modify the MBR or not.
The FreeBSD installer sucks (well it's not pretty), but it gives you the option to leave the MBR alone.  It didn't clobber my Windows boot loader and they coexist happily.  I'm sure most Linux distributions provide this option too.

Why Slackware?  You want to do hardcore development?  Gentoo is a pure developer's system.  All third party software is compiled so you can rely on all the headers and development tools being there ... and being where they're supposed to be!

Long story short: writing my linux partitions to my hard drive was what broke Windows. I know this because my linux install failed halfway throughout (before any MBR was touched) but Windows was corrupted at that point.

Re: Slack vs Gentoo .. familiarity, not having to compile everything from source, widely supported, etc. I'm not saying it's the best distro or the worst distro. It just works for me, and that's really all that I want. Linux that gets out of my way and lets me do whatever I want.