Linux or not...

the ARK · Post by **the ARK** » Sat Sep 20, 2003 4:35 pm

I've been hearing good things about Linux, but I need Windows in order to run a lot of JP stuff I have (OG, emulators and such) Yet, since Linux is so cheap. I was wondering if there are any adventages to installing both with a partition. If so, which version should I get?

Post by **Dapper Dan** » Sat Sep 20, 2003 6:16 pm

the ARK wrote:I've been hearing good things about Linux, but I need Windows in order to run a lot of JP stuff I have (OG, emulators and such)

Could you tell me more about OG, emulators and such. I don't know what that is. Also, I think you might find this thread very informative as it is on the same subject:

http://dynamic5.gamespy.com/~trescom/bo ... .php?t=904

When you get ready to do something, let us know. I'm sure I speak for Troodon and Sky when I say we'll be glad to help.

the ARK · Post by **the ARK** » Sat Sep 20, 2003 7:35 pm

OG: Operation Genesis. Emulators that allow you to play console games and other little programs I need to be able to run.

Post by **Dapper Dan** » Sat Sep 20, 2003 9:36 pm

Seems like I tried to get the Operation Genesis Demo working under Wine but had no luck. Some of the other games you play, may work with Winex, but I think you might have to dual boot between Windows and Linux.

the ARK · Post by **the ARK** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 12:56 am

Would I need anything special to do so?

Post by **Dapper Dan** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 1:34 am

You would need to partition your hard drive.
Before dong any partitioning though, I would highly recommend having a look at Linux in a safe and easy way by downloading Morphix Heavy-GUI. Then you'll have a complete OP on a cd you can explore, that will pose no danger to your Windows.
IF you then decide you are ready to "dive in" , Troodon and I suggest going with Red Hat 9.0. for reasons outlined in the other post. Red Hat 9 also includes a really good partitioning tool to set up your Linux partitions that can do everything for you automatically.

Although this is the partitioning tool from Mandrake 8.1, here is something to look at to give you an idea of how your hard drive will have to be set up.

the ARK · Post by **the ARK** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 2:18 am

Would I have to duplicate data on each partition to access it?

Troodon · Post by **Troodon** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 2:20 am

First off, you need to know that under Linux there is no Drive C: and such, but a single file system with a root directory named "/". When you want to read a floppy or a CD-ROM you can manually or automatically mount it (=make its directories and files available) in a directory of your choice, e.g., /mnt/cd-rom. The advantage of this is that you can mount any media in any directory you wish and set custom access rights to it. Hard drives are named hda, hdb, etc. SCSI drives are named sda, sdb, etc. Floppy drives are named fd0, fd1, etc. But these names are only used during the installatrion process.

There are a number of standard directories under Linux, such as /usr, /home, /tmp, etc. When you partition your hard drive(s) (that is, create partitions, like under Windows), you can choose to automatically mount any of the created partitions to any of those directories. For example, the /home directory contains user data files and you may wish to mount a separate partition, or even a separate hard drive, to /home. Sounds a little complicated but, once you understand how it works, you can see the advantages. In this last example, if you mount a second hard drive, hdb, to /home and the first drive, hda, fails then all of your user files in /home are safe. It's completely transparent, when you operate under Linux you neither see, nor need to think in terms of, multiple partitions or hard drives.

If you try to "read" DDs example above you will notice the first partition on the first hard drive contains Windows files, which are accessible under linux in the /mnt/windows directory.

Anyways, don't bother with this -- the RedHat 9 installer will ask "Do you want me to automatically partition your drives?" -- just say yes and that's it.

Post by **Dapper Dan** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 2:49 am

An added advantage with Red Hat 9 is that Trespasser installs and operates easily with Winex3!

the ARK · Post by **the ARK** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 4:00 am

Post by **Dapper Dan** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 5:38 am

Troodon wrote:Anyways, don't bother with this -- the RedHat 9 installer will ask "Do you want me to automatically partition your drives?" -- just say yes and that's it.

Troodon, come to think of it, does the RH 9 partitioning tool automatically detect and resize an ntfs partition to make way for the new Linux partitions? Also, does RH 9 automatically find and automount existing fat or ntfs partitions once the installation is completed, or do you have to do it yourself by editing /etc/fstab as with RH8?
Since I don't have a Windows partition on my RH 9 box I don't know the answer to either of these questions.

ARK would you give us a fairly detailed list of the hardware on your box? Thanks.

the ARK · Post by **the ARK** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 5:51 am

Well, this is an estimation of the HD on the computer I'll be building soon...

Asus iP165 motherboard which supports most everything.
80-100 GB HD
P4 2.6 Ghz 800mhzFSB HT
Ti 4800 Graphics Card
512 MB Dual Channel DDR-RAM

That's the gist of it.

Post by **Dapper Dan** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 6:18 am

ARK, I read somewhere once that if you have more than 256 mb of ram, a Linux swap partition becomes unnecessary. Sure enough, with my new Dell I went from having a swap partition with Linux to no swap partition and everything is noticeably faster! This box I'm using right now has 512 mb ram and no swap partition and is lightening fast!

Refresh my memory, the Ti 4800 is Nvidia right? Linux loves Nvidia.

Will you be using high speed internet connection? If so, what type card?

Soundblaster?

So far, it sounds like a pretty mean box!

Troodon · Post by **Troodon** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 12:59 pm

Dan, you're right about not leaving the installer make decisions for you on fat and/or ntfs partitions, they're too important if you have Windows software installed. But I would be extremely careful with resizing partitions.

About swap partitions, I always thought it's best to have a swap partition, but maybe it's not necessary if you have enough RAM. However, 256MB is not "a lot", IMO 512MB would be safer (these days RAM is quite cheap).

Post by **Dapper Dan** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 3:57 pm

What I did on the several occaisions I installed Linux on the same HD as an existing Windows installation was to first, install partition magic 8 on Windows and use it to resize the ntfs or fat partition, creating a blank space on the other half of the HD. I would then do the Linux install which always locates the newly created empty space and automatically configures and formats it.
I agree about the swap space. If ARK decides to do this, he should use one to begin with. If he has 512 like he anticipates, he could always eliminate it later, if he so chooses.
I was a bit skeptical about not having a swap space on this 512 mb box, but when I actually tried it, it did indeed make things noticably faster!

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Linux or not...

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