totaly ignorant

[ifix]

hi folks
as the title states i'm TOTALY ignorant about linux but i'm downloading it now, i'll be playing with it in a few days.. To start with, does it run on a dos partition? do i fdisk and format as usual?

THANKS for any replies!!

more ?'s to come i'm sure, thanks again
1 more thing: the site i'm downloading from shows the file sizes as
disk1 638mB
disk2 646 mB
disk3 485mB
is linux that big?

 

[Nothinman]

does it run on a dos partition?

No, it runs from it's own partition. There are hacks to get it to run from a FAT partition, but they're not recommended.

do i fdisk and format as usual?

No, just boot from the CD and run the install, you can do any partitioning you want in there.

is linux that big?

Linux is as big or small as you want it.

 

[ifix]

Thanks for the reply Nothinman

 

[pitupepito2000]

If you are a total linux newbie. I would suggest you to burn a copy of knoppix, go to www.linux.iso.org and download the iso image, and then burn a cd of knoppix, and just boot out of the cd, you don't have to install anything, knoppix, will run completely from ram.

I hope this helps,
pitupepito

 

[ifix]

thanks for the suggestion pitupepito..i'm looking over these image files and the only thing i see familiar is an autorun no exe's anywhere,but hay i just put a computer up on my bench(i have an old p2) fdisked it but created no partition so i'm going to try installing redhat now anyway..I will go get the knoppix as you suggested..

THANKS again for your reply

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Originally posted by: ifix
To start with, does it run on a dos partition? do i fdisk and format as usual?

Yes, you can install on a dos partition, but it would defeat the inbuilt security. ext2 or ext3 are usually the default files system, but you can choose from many others. Stick with the default until you are more familiar with Linux. I recommend a seperate partition for "/home", so anything you save to it is available if/when you reinstall linux.

1 more thing: the site i'm downloading from shows the file sizes as
disk1 638mB
disk2 646 mB
disk3 485mB
is linux that big?

No, Linux is not that big. The images you are downloading is a "distribution" (distro), which includes the Linux kernel, drivers, documentation, installer/s, and many pre-compiled packages (of which you can decide to install only the basic few or all).

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Originally posted by: ifix
i'm looking over these image files and the only thing i see familiar is an autorun no exe's anywhere

"exe" is for Windows. The most common executable file extensions for (RedHat) Linux are rpm, sh, and bin. Make sure you read the documentation included with the distro to get a better understanding of the difference between Windows and (your specific distro of) Linux.

 

[ifix]

THANKS for the advice anon

 

[Nothinman]

The most common executable file extensions for (RedHat) Linux are rpm, sh, and bin.

Technicall RPMs aren't executables, they're packages that contain files to be installed, more like zip files only more.

Most executables in Linux have no extenstion, they're deemed executable by the rights on the file.

 

[ifix]

linux is realy slow opening things. i found that it is useing 236megs of ram and i only have 256, it's only putting 1.5meg in the swap file.. is this normal? i can't find anything that would allow me to free up some ram.. any suggestions?

also, is it normal to get a word processor and other such apps with the os?. the mirror site i downloaded from was a school (.edu) ..i will say one thing it was very easy to install

thanks for your replies and future replies

 

[Nothinman]

You will always have almost all your memory used by the filesystem cache, NT does this too. Forcing memory to be not used at all would just slow things down more as less would be able to be cached.

You never said which distro you installed, it could just be something that distro does.

For example:

$free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 1261 1224 36 0 0 979
-/+ buffers/cache: 244 1016
Swap: 1035 84 951

I have 1261M memory with 1224M currently used.

 

[ifix]

the only info i can find is, Nautilus 2.2.1 is the graphic shell for gnome.. i found this where you would find it in windows the help/about tab...

i'll have to look for a tut on this thing

THANKS for all your help!!

 

[Nothinman]

You don't know whether you installed RedHat, Mandrake, SuSe, etc?

 

[ifix]

yes,I installed redhat
after looking around some more. i found out that what i have is "gnu" it's not linux. it does use the linux kernal though. when it boots up it does show the redhat and says redhat..
i'm going to play with it for a few weeks and see if it grows on me, one thing i will say about the version i'm useing is, it had the drivers for everything on this 5 year old computer including the modem which xp doesn't usually have..then again maybe that's my speed problem with this os (generic drivers)

 

[Nothinman]

I've heard people say that RH is slower than some distros on their systems, if it's really that slow you could try installing Mandrake or SuSe and see if they work better for you.

 

[ifix]

i'm downloading mandrake 9.1/586 now i'll install madrake tomorrow if i have time after yard work

THANKS AGAIN nothinman

 

[Nothinman]

No problem, just remember most Linux intruductions start with a lot of reinstallations as you fumble around figuring things out and inevitably breaking something important.