Easy dual boot setup on XP X31, XGL?

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Aristotle11 · #1 Post by **Aristotle11** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 4:48 pm

Hi Folks!

I'm a linux noob, though I've installed linux Fedora Core 5 a few times on a standalone desktop, but always reinstalled XP out of frustration. I want to try again on my X31 (with XP Pro NTFS installed without hidden partition). Can I install Fedora (or another distro) right off the DVD ISO onto my X31 (via a USB external DVDR drive)? Do I need to repartition first? If i do repartition, then do I just install Fedora right off the CD or do I need to do something else.

Also, I really want to run XGL ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xgl ) and Compiz (see http://en.opensuse.org/Compiz#Using_com ... ts_plugins ). Does that only work on Gentoo, Ubutu and Suse?

Thanks,
Aris

christopher_wolf · #2 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 5:30 pm

Compile them correctly and they will work fine on all the Linux distros you mentioned.

You should be able to install off a USB External Drive as, if I recall correctly, the X31's BIOS can support it.

HTH

revolutionary_one · #3 Post by **revolutionary_one** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 6:02 pm

If you're frustrated try running VMWare until your used to Linux. I know tons of friends who have Linux running really well on the X31. Aside from proprietary hardware it works really well.

XGL is still highly experimental and buggy. Otherwise, you should be just fine with all the other stuff you described.

Although I would recommend you partition your drive to contain a 2.5GB+ /shared partition that's fat32 that contains files b/w the two OS's.

Specifically why dont you just tell us what kinda problems you're having with Linux in the first place.

christopher_wolf · #4 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 6:26 pm

The biggest problem with XGL is, not only is is still being developed, but that it takes up quite a few resources for a given addition of a feature. It is, however, perfectly fine to run it on an X31 if you don't ramp its configuration up too high.

Aristotle11 · #5 Post by **Aristotle11** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 11:22 pm

Thanks. Two questions...

1. So I should repartition to 2 Fat32 partitions first (one for Linux, one for shared files)? What program should I use to do this? I have no clue. I only know how to partition with fdisk. Is there are free program for this?

2. Then just install from the DVD ISO, and my XP installation won't be harmed and a dual boot will automatically be setup by the install DVD? I don't need to install anything else, or have any know-how? It just installs the dual boot automatically? It works through my docking station?

Aris

PS- I've googled "linix dual boot" and get no help at all. It all seems so unclear and gibberish whether I'll harm my system or not doing this, or whether I need to install a special "grub boot loader" first, (whatever that is), and whether that will mess up the boot sector for XP, etc. For example, one website said this crazy thing:

"Fedora Core 2 and other distributions using Linux kernel version 2.6 alter the partition table so that Windows no longer recognizes those partitions. This problem does not show with every installation of Fedora Core 2, and it never occurs with Fedora Core 1. The problem is annoying but fixable without data loss. This worked for me: boot to Knoppix 3.3 (Linux 2.4), sfdisk -l. Check the correct geometry: CHS Cylinders Heads Sectors. (There are also other sources to check the correct geometry, such as printings on hard disks and sometimes bios.) Rewrite the partition table to reflect the correct geometry, using your own values for /dev/hda, C H and S.
sfdisk -d /dev/hda |sfdisk --no-reread -C 16037 -H 255 -S 63 /dev/hda"

None of that makes any sense to me, except I might ruin windows and not know how to fix it.

PPS- I gave up on linux before because everything was so darn hard. Installing programs were too hard (it isn't just downloading and double clicking on an exe). How do I find drivers for my scanner, and OCR? I could never get the programs to run right (there are a billion settings that are command line only...I was trying to run server software that I knew very well on XP). Drivers were hard to find and install. It was like learning Chinese. I couldnt see the NTFS drives, and didn't know how to convert them to FAT32 (which cant format large drives into one partition). And it was slow to boot. This was Fedora 4.

Aristotle11 · #6 Post by **Aristotle11** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:35 am

I think I'll have to give up on Linux for now. When I installed it earlier, it was on a machine that didn't have important data on it. I have read about 1000 articles on people having trouble with dual boots and corrupting their MBR, etc. The "Grub/lilo install how-to" articles are not written in a way I can understand; they tell you to type in all sorts of weird commands before you install, but don't say how to do so (if it was an MSDOS command I'd get it). I wouldn't even know where to type the command. The how-tos just assume too much Linux know how.

It seems too risky to dual boot. Even a 1% chance of ruining my windows is too risky for me; its far too valuable. The "noobie" problems and solutions from http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... ning+linux look very confusing and dangerous. People seems to have major problems with dual boots at http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... ning+linux .

revolutionary_one · #7 Post by **revolutionary_one** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 12:28 pm

Honestly, the best advice I can give you is to use vmware or a live cd before you give up. Otherwise, live help is a godsend when using linux, so hit us up on #lfd or #linuxhelp or #[your distro here].

I've been meaning to get someone to start a #thinkpads.com channel on irc.freenode.net for a while now, maybe I should just do it myself.

Live help on linux is invaluable, maybe you should just try using cygwin for getting accomodated to the command line.

Aristotle11 · #8 Post by **Aristotle11** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 1:42 pm

Thanks! I didn't know about the live help stuff. Unfortunately, my ISP blocks all outgoing IRC traffic. I've tried Cygwin and the live CD, and [censored] small linux embedded; maybe I'll try VMware (I went to their website and it looks difficult and expensive, and I can't tell which of the 10 products to use). The problem is that I'm on my own, and the website forums seem way too confusing.

revolutionary_one · #9 Post by **revolutionary_one** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 11:50 am

That's unfortunate, although there a number of options concerning bypassing your ISPs restrictions.

1) Use a CGI Irc client in your web browser which basically just uses port 80.

2) use a proxy, easy enough

3)use an anonymizer program like tor.

Cheers

revolutionary_one · #10 Post by **revolutionary_one** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 11:52 am

That's unfortunate, although there a number of options concerning bypassing your ISPs restrictions.

1) Use a CGI Irc client in your web browser which basically just uses port 80.

2) use a proxy, easy enough

3)use an anonymizer program like tor.

Cheers

Aristotle11 · #11 Post by **Aristotle11** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:59 pm

Well...I installed Fedora 5, could not figure out the partitioning part at all (wanted lots of partitions to install lots of distros), but gave up and used default partitioning. Now when I boot the machine it just says "GRUB" (maybe becuse I installed it to the root and not the MBR). I can't type in anything, or get it to boot. I tried a few things I read about, but no go. Linux is hard without having a friend to walk you thru the first few days. It reminds me when my grandpa got his first computer...he didn't know anything. Well, I'm grandpa now, but I don't have any grandkids to help.

revolutionary_one · #12 Post by **revolutionary_one** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 12:17 am

LOL

O man I know exactly what you mean. The only way I could possibly use Linux was if I had an internet connection, and the way this house is wired, I had to find a way to use linux on wireless (proprietary netgear chipset) in my first 3 days with Linux. So I spent a good 3 hours a day downloading and using a USB flash drive to transfer over ndiswrapper hacks for SMP kernels.

Now I spend less time on windows gaming and more time on Linux working. It's a nice trade off if ya ask me. I think the (K)Ubuntu Live CD's or cygwin with an X server running might be just the thing to get you more acquainted with the Command Line, don't give up.

Aristotle11 · #13 Post by **Aristotle11** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 1:53 pm

Thanks revolutionary. I reinstalled Fedora, and skipped the user step. I later found that I needed to go into the root and add a user. Took about an hour to figure that one out... how to get into terminal without loading gnome, type in root, [password], then add a user, etc.

Now I've tried KDE and Gnome and both are pretty cool.

Easy dual boot setup on XP X31, XGL?

Easy dual boot setup on XP X31, XGL?

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