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Original post by CProgrammer
Gentoo allows you to download a processor chip optimized version. If I download one for p4, would it still run on p3 or p2 without any damage?
-CProgrammer

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If gentoo is the route, then one option is to get the x86 version, and that would work on all pentium processors or higher. Although if you are using a low-end system with gentoo, it may be beneficial to place the HDD in a better computer, and compile using the better machine.

http://ftp.idilis.ro/linux/RedHat/9/iso/i386/

Those are the .ISO''s for redhat 9. You need cd burning software that can burn from an ISO source...

Once thats'' done, just pop in disk 1 and reboot...

Tony

Moved.

Ok thanks. Well now that we''re at it some more questions:
1.) As before. Does debian really have 9 cd''s or is each binar(1, 2) just another version. Its unclear on there site.

2.) Whats your experience with running linux and winXP on one system with one harddrive. Should I do it or avoid it and put Linux on another slower system?

-CProgrammer

I think your debian question is answered here.
As for linux and windows on 1 hard disk, I do it all the time, and it doesn''t really matter that much, just use a boot loader, and have the partitions ready, and all should go over smoothly(Either Lilo or Grub would work nicely, or if you want to work a little, you can also dual boot using the NT boot loader.)

>> 1.) As before. Does debian really have 9 cd''s or is each binar(1, 2) just another version. Its unclear on there site.

AFAIK, you download the first two CDs and install from those. The rest can be downloaded from the internet using the packaging systems that comes with Debian.

>> 2.) Whats your experience with running linux and winXP on one system with one harddrive. Should I do it or avoid it and put Linux on another slower system?

It works fine for me. If you do everything carefully and correctly, both systems will not feel each other and there will be no conflicts. On the plus side with Linux: You can access your Windows partition (there has been FAT32 read/write support for some time now, but the 2.4.6 kernel has recently started to support reading NTFS partitions and writing is still experimental.) If you know you will be careful, then use one disk. It is pretty hard to screw something up if you follow the documentation.

Yes how is it with accessing files in the other os''s partition. I mean that would be usefull. Say I use Gentoo. How is it there. Would I have problems accessing eachothers data. Plus why cant I use the same File Format for both partitions. If not why doesnt Linux support the other file system?
-CProgrammer

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Original post by CProgrammer
Yes how is it with accessing files in the other os's partition. I mean that would be usefull. Say I use Gentoo. How is it there. Would I have problems accessing eachothers data. Plus why cant I use the same File Format for both partitions. If not why doesnt Linux support the other file system?
-CProgrammer

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All partitions have a "device" associated with them. You can access the device nodes in the /dev/ directory. When Linux sees your hard drive, it creates nodes in the /dev/ directory so you can work with them. The device node /dev/hda1 is the first partition on your first physical disk; /dev/hda2 is the second (most likely extended) partition on the same disk; /dev/hda3 is the third partition; /dev/hda4 is the fourth. If you have more then one disk installed, then there will be nodes created with a different letter like /dev/hdb1, /dev/hdb2, /dev/hdb3.

Linux accesses data on partitions by mounting it to a mount point (a directory, basically). Once you mount a partition to a mount point, then the contents of that directory will be the contents of the hard drive FOR THE TIME IT IS MOUNTED. Once un-mounted, the directory will point to its previous mounted device. Someone correct me if I am wrong, I have never done this but read that is how it is done.

So to access some FAT32 partition, you would need to do the following:

Create a directory to mount it to:
mkdir /mnt/windows

Mount the partition to the directory (mountpoint):
mount -t msdosfs /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows

the -t tells mount what type of file system the partition has. You can use "auto" as the type, it will try to guess.

After you mount, then /mnt/windows should have all of the contents of the partition. You might need to play around with the mount flags to get exactly what you want (like read/write flags.)

You can install Linux on a FAT32 partition, IIRC, since the FAT32 file system is completely supported in the Linux kernel.

[edited by - aftermath on April 20, 2004 1:16:21 AM]

I would vote for either knoppix or mandrake (but wait for the official release of 10.0 next month)

As for gentoo - one of the moderators on the gentoo forums told me to compile everything with -march=pentium3 instead of pentium4 because its less buggy still, so I imagine if your going for installing gentoo from binaries getting the P3 version is your best bet if you have a pentium3/4, but I wouldn''t recommend using things optimized for newer processors (be warned though, with gentoo you are limited with what you can install easily without connencting it to the internet (which may be easier said than done depending on what modem you have))

metal leper: Hey thanks for the tip. I was gonna use the p4 package.
While were at it am I right in the assumption that the packages(ie for p3 and p4) are an add on to the universal cd?
Meaning you cant install without the universal cd.
Just making sure, cause its an awful lot to download, to just be testing around.
Oh as for the connection. I dont have a modem. I have adsl.

-CProgrammer

[edited by - CProgrammer on April 20, 2004 11:02:54 AM]