Thinkpads Forum

Hello all,

Havnt posted for a while but I need some advice. Its that time again whereby I want to reinstall windows and start afresh. Only this time there are going to be the following changes:

a) I do not want the IBM partition
b) I would lhowever like to have my hardisk partioned off for windows and linux.

Regarding a) i have the cds from IBM in order to do this; I got them a year ago just in case. Since i have never done this before I would like to know if it is just a case of running the cds one by one and how they are run - from boot?

Regarding b) i have never used linux before and would really appreciate some advice on how best to install it and which version is the most user friendly and IBM compatible. I intend to use Linux for web browsing only for security purposes.

I am writing a checklist of stuff i need to do before i do the reinstall. Here is what i have so far:

backup all my needed files
d/l all updates/drivers etc from IBM
Have windows SP2 etc at the ready
have all security apps and all other apps at the ready

Anything major missing? I have wanted to reinstall for quite some time now as i want my wasted gbs back and also i want to remedy some issues that i just cannot fix, mainly - i have an issue with MSXML (parser) which is not allowing windows updates and various other things - please see my thread in the OS section (noone as yet has a solution to this problem, but then again, this is the TP forum!)

I am sorry if this is long winded but i would appreciate as much advice on this as possible; regarding the reinstallation from the cds, a step by step walk through would be great!

thanks all,

J.

hmm...I dont think it was fair to move the thread here as most of the thread is concerned with the reinstallation of windows.

J.

Check this thread for linux recommendations.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=
How big is the restore partition?
If is at least 4GB you could just install linux there.
Be sure to install windows first and linux second.
Both install by booting to the cd and installing from there, even restore cd's. The recovery/install process should walk you through from there.

thanks for the response Carbon. I am currently interest in Mandrake to start me off, althought i might run Knoppix from a livecd (DVD) just to see what Linux is like. I would mainly be using Linux for web browsing as it is way way way more secure.

Regarding the installation cds from IBM, is it better to create a fresh xp install cd, or do the restore cds do the same thing - i assume they do not put the partition back right? Also i dont know how big the IBM restore partition is, i recall is being around 9gb but im not sure, how do i check?

Lastly (sorry of i am going on!), i am an AOL user, do you know if i would be able to access my dial up connection through linux? As i would need to use the aol dialler, even if i dialled in with the firefox browser.

thank you.

J.

I would also like to try Knoppix as I got it reccomended and wish to know where to get it. Is there a mirror site for dvd (live dvd)?

www.cheeplinux.com , they sell the cds and dvds for a good price, or you could go to www.frozentech.com to d.l the ISOs for free - they are huge, approx 700 mb.

J.

Yes I am aware of these sites. But can I DL free live DVD ISO from any site? The knoppix.org says the DVD should be available on their mirrors but I cant find one.

I dont know. I would appreciate it if you could stick to the subject of this thread and at least contribute something to it.

J.

If you run the IBM CD's one by one (which is how you do it), they will create the HPA (PARTIES) and then create one large partition for Windows. At that stage, I think you would be best served to use Partition Magic (or some such) to make the main partition smaller, and then install Linux in the other partition.

Now, since Linux is an OS, and Windows is an OS, you will have to restart just to web browse in Linux. Given the recent advancements in Windows security couple with good antivirus and spyware tools, it is highly (very highly) questionable whether Linux is way way way way more secure.

You might wish to consider VMWare so as to be able to run and learn Linux at the same time as Windows is running.
... JD Hurst

If you want to use linux just for web browsing maybe you should just use a live cd like knoppix, Suse Live eval, simply Mepis or others listed here:
http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=cd
Live distro's tend to boot a little slower but once you get the browser up and running you will not be able to tell the difference between a live cd and a Hard drive install. Most live cd's make a file on your hard drive or a USB key to store settings, bookmarks, cookies and whatever else you want to save. AOL compatibility will require some research.

This way you don't have to do anything to your windows installation and you can painlessly try different distro's until you find one with a personality that you like.

JdHurst and Carbon_Unit thank you for your suggestions. I am gonna order knoppix soon to see how I like it, if i choose to install it to my hd there is a program that allows AOL to run called PengAOL Dialler. As of now, i cannot find any live cds that incorporate this program.

Also i think i will perform a fresh install of windows unless anyone can point out why using the IBM cds is as effective. I am still unsure which will lead to a speadier computer.

thanks again all!

J.

You should also give Ubuntu Linux a try. They also have a Live CD on hand. A new version (Breezy) is comming out soon but it still is in beta so you should try stable first (Hoary).

As per your AOL dialer. While this may not be the case anymore, AOL broke all Linux dialers on purpose some time ago so it may or may not work for you. Find the homepage of that dialer and read up, maybe it works again.

Maybe you could switch to a real ISP that lets you dial up using your own program instead of locking you in?

Is the AOL-Dialer really needed? At least for Broadband they allow you to connect without a AOL-Dialer AFAIK. AFAIR Dial-UP should also work without this crappy piece of software.

Although AOL may have changed (doubt it), AOL used to require you to use THEIR software because they did not use standard dial-up protocol. They modified it to lock everyone out that did not use AOL software. Their servers checked for special tags. That's why PengAOL was created: because regular dial-up software would not work with AOL.

it was.
i found a German HowTo for Setting up a Dial-Up-Connection within Windows. You should be able to rebuild this settings under linux.

edit: Forget it, for Modem Dial-Up you will need Peng. Only Broadband-Access doesn't need special software. BTW: PengAOL was last called Penggy.
http://freshmeat.net/projects/penggy/