Newbie: Win98SE and Mandrake 9 in old PC...

[James Argo 0]

Hi everyone...

Linux wannabe here. Please don't be hasistate to reply my questions, despite the nature of these questions has been asked many time here. I have an old PC on my possesion.

 

Pentium 200MMX,

Intel mobo (?)

32MB EDO ram,

4GB HD only 1 partition,

Cirrus PCI VGA card + 6 years 14" monitor,

Realtek PCI LAN card,

old CDRW (4x4x24),

Old Creative SB16 ISA soundcard,

No floppy

Currently, it has Win98SE.

 

Though it considered "old", it realy powerfull for it's class! I mean, fast Win98SE starting, run multitasking without problem (Winamp 2.7, 4~6 window IE browser, Word97, realtime antivirus monitoring, etc simultaneous).

 

I got 3 CDs Mandrake 9 installation, and about to install it beside Win98SE. I knew I must devide current partition, and install Mandrake on second partition (drive D). My questions are:

 

1. What's the best way to devide partition? (Do I need to use Partition Magic in Win98se first, or will Linux allow me to do it better durring installation)?

 

2. Can I have access to my Windows' shared files (mp3, jpeg, etc) once Mandrake installed? Since it's also connected to my home network, can I share directories, files and printer with other PCs (running Win98SE and WinXP w/ FAT 32)?

 

3. Is there anything I must be aware due to my PC spec?

 

That's all for now, I'm sure I'll have so much more Qs in near future.

 

Thanks!

Jaymz

[danleff 0]

Boy, either you did your homework, or are lucky in terms of your hardware.

 

Mandrake 9.0 (not 9.1 or 9.2) specs are;

 

Pentium processor or compatible

CDROM drive

At least 32 MB RAM (64MB recommended for graphical installation)

 

Mandrake 9.1 and above require at least 64 mb of ram.

 

So, you may have to install via a text install rather than a graphic install.

 

Dapper Dan can suggest an x-windows desktop that may run better than KDE, such as IceWM. This will run much better in this system.

 

Yes, you can use the Mandrake installer the partition your drive, as long as you have fat32 for the Windows 98 partition. This will allow Mandrake to allocate partitions for you.

 

Yes, you can share files with the fat32 partition.

 

The hard drive is small, but if you don't have much on the Windows partition (did not add a slew of programs or mpg's), you should be ok. Mandrake will need at least 1 gig of free space.

 

Mandrake will use existing free space on the fat 32 partition to install for you, if you wish. One word of caution. Defrag your windows 98 drive (partition) before installing Mandrake. This will prevent any data loss on the win 98 partition that may occur during the process. This is tight, but probably will work.

 

If you have PartitionMagic, look at the drive and see how much space is used. If less than 1.5 gig is free, try removing some uneeded programs, defrag and look again.

 

You should be able to use it with your home lan, the card that you have is supported. However, this system will need to be connected through a router. More on this later.

 

Lastly, just to be sure, make a bootable floppy of Win 98 in case something goes wrong, Not that it will, but to be safe.

[James Argo 0]

It's a quick reply.

 

Thanks for enlighting me, danleff

 

Yes, I'm aware of newer version of Mandrake. I think I have ~2GB left on the HD, and I don't think I'm gonna add much Windows files. I'll do defrag the disk back home tonight, and we'll see further questions from me. Thanks again for your info, danleff...

 

 

Jaymz

[James Argo 0]

Ok...

I've defraged my HD. Then it's about installation process. I had some problem:

 

1. Set BIOS to boot from CD. I boot from MandrakeLinux CD1, but end up in DR-Dos prompt without knowing where to go. No promised "Mandrake Installation Windows" appeared. F1 took me nowhere...

 

2. Try to install within Win98SE. Run Autorun.exe from folder dosutils in Mandrakelinux inst CD1, then graphical menu appears with options to choose (Install Mandrake Linux, Install using floppy, Read documentation, etc...). I clicked on Install Mandrake Linux! Then it gave me some kind of warning window: Reboot. It says "Your machine will be rebooted now, and Mandrake Linux will be installed... etc etc..." But if I click Ok button, nothing happens... It supposed to reboot my PC and install, right? But it doesn't. I can only click Cancel to quit installation.

 

I've readed all installation documents, but it doesn't match my situation...

 

Can somebody please help me what to do (instead of telling me to stick with 98! ) ?

 

Thanks!

 

Jaymz

[danleff 0]

One of three possible problems.

 

I suspect that the system hardware may not support Mandrake.

 

1. You get a text type screen when you boot the cd with no welcome screen? What specific video card do you have? Any idea how many megs on the video card? 8megs...

 

2. Your hardware may only support a text install. At the "dos like screen" (really a install prompt screen) what happens if you just press the return key?

 

Or, what happens if you type in text and hit the return key? Do you get a prompt at boot, or can you type anything in (is there a prompt at all)?

 

3. Where did you get the Mandrake cd's? Are they on a cdrw cd or cdr media? If you burned them yourself, what speed did you do the burn at? More than 4X or 8X?

 

Older cdrom drives may not like the burned cd's, especially if they are burned on a newer cdrw drive, at too fast a speed, or on cdrw media. Older cdrom drives do not like burned cdrw disks.

[James Argo 0]

...Aaah, Thank you, danleff! I finaly found the answer after days of strugling!

 

It turned out that the CD has been burnt with incorect boot image file (.ima) Instead of CDROM.IMA, he (my friend who copied the CD for me) had choosen FLOPPY.IMA. So whenever I boot from the CD, it brought me to Dr.DOS prompt. It's realy like regular Ms-DOS with command prompt A:> or C:>.

 

Anyway, then I re-burn the CD #1 with corect IMA, and now it boots to MandrakeLinux 9.0 installation the way it should.

 

When it comes to make partition, I choose make partition on unused space, and custom partition, but hey... It doesn't allow me to resize the partition... it says "The partition is not re-sizeable". :x

 

What should I do to devide/resize the partition? Do I need to boot to Win98 and re-partition from there? I don't have PQ Partition Magic. Any suggestion on free partition/disk utility works the best for this matter? Thanks in advance!

 

Jaymz

[danleff 0]

You can't use unfree space, as this is designed for systems that have some unformatted free space on the drive. In your case, you will need to use free available space on the win 98 partition, or resize your win 98 partition (as you whole disk is formatted for win 98). Since you have so little disk space to begin, either you need to use PartitionMagic (try to grab a copy from a friend) or allow Mandrake to take the rest from the win 98 partition. Take a look at the instructions here.

 

Note the following;

 

Use the free space on the Windows partition: if Microsoft Windows is installed on your hard drive and takes all the space available on it, you have to create free space for Linux data. To do so, you can delete your Microsoft Windows partition and data (see “ Erase entire disk” or “Expert mode” solutions) or resize your Microsoft Windows FAT partition. Resizing can be performed without the loss of any data, provided you previously defragment the Windows partition and that it uses the FAT format. Backing up your data is strongly recommended.. Using this option is recommended if you want to use both Mandrake Linux and Microsoft Windows on the same computer.

 

I don't use anything else and have not found a free partitioning utility, except for those that come with linux. 8)

 

Perhaps someone else has a solution they have used, but I will look around.

 

OK, I found something. Take a look at MajorGeeks. It has a tool called 7Tools Partition Manager 2004

here.

 

It is shareware, but it should work for your needs without paying. But, be aware, make sure that your data is backed up and that you defrag. the drive before you begin.

 

Realize, if you choose this option to allocate your partitions, I have not used it, so I can't really recommend it. It installed fine on my system, but I actually did not do anything with it.

 

I still suggest using Mandrake's tools. Read the documentation.

Mandrake will auto allocate what it needs, which in your case is preferred, unless you know what you are doing setting up linux partitions.

 

So, in summary, you can;

 

1. Try and let Mandrake take your existing free space to install, following the directions on the link provided (recommended).

 

2. Try to resize the win 98 partition with Mandrake, back out of the install once the partition is resized (without installing Mandrake itself), then restart the install and tell Mandrake to use the free unformatted space.

 

3. Use the partitioning utility to resize the Win 98 and leave about 1.5 -2 gigs for Linux, then allocate 100 mb for swap and the rest as ext2 (not recommended).

 

The issue is that Mandrake's installer and partitioning tool will use you free space to allocate what it needs, including calculating what swap space that it needs. No fuss, no muss.

 

[Edited by danleff on 2004-08-31 05:38:38]

 

[Edited by danleff on 2004-08-31 05:39:17]