Re: Two new installations

From: Colin Bearfield (cbearfield_at_ntlworld.com)
Date: 04/01/05 

Date: Fri, 01 Apr 2005 10:48:04 GMT

On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 18:31:20 -0700, Kevin Nathan
<knathan@project54.com> wrote:

>On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 10:48:06 GMT
>Colin Bearfield <cbearfield@ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
>> The main way in which I disagree with your on the fly assessment is
>> that I had decided not to pursue the boot up problem because no was
>> was able to offer a solution. I had decided to try a different
>> hardware set up. That's why I asked a different question.
>
>Here's your OP in this thread, (much snipping to get to the actual
>question):
>
>"The slave hard drive is now the unformatted 160Gb Maxtor. I intend to
>partition it into about half a dozen partitions of Fat32 and have Linux
>as the only O/S. XP is already running on the master hard drive which is
>40Gb with the primary partition being 20GB."
>
>And *that's* the question I answered in my last few responses to you in
>the 'Setup' thread. _*FORGET ABOUT FAT32, NTFS, WINDOWS! Just simply
>FORGET ABOUT THEM!*_ I cannot shout it any louder. If you are using a
>disk partitioning tool that is so brain-dead it *has* to put a file
>system on a created partition (and doesn't understand Linux filesystem
>types), then wipe the entire disk and, after installing Linux, use
>*it's* partitioner (as well as using it during install). By 'wipe the
>disk' I mean absolutely *NO* partitions on it.

Great. That's what I was hoping for. Succinct as always, Kevin. You
ought not to expect more of me. I'm a pensioner and this O/S is
nothing like what i remember from C/PM, DRDos, PCDos and all the
varieties of windows. It's a huge learning curve.
>
>
>> I
>> reproduce you offerings (which were good) below to demonstrate that it
>> was a very different situation. If you check it out you will see that
>> you were talking about primary partitions and extended partitions for
>> a mixed set of O/S's on the same hard drive. I was planning a single
>> O/S on a much bigger hard drive.
>>
>
>There is absolutely no difference. Partitions are partitions. My main
>advice in the earlier thread was 'one primary, the rest in extended'.
>The only time there is a problem is if you want to use an OS that cannot
>boot from an extended partition and that doesn't apply to your situation
>since you are going to install Linux.
>
>
>> I do value your expert advice and if you have any pertaining to
>> installing as the only O/S on a 160Gb hard drive I should be glad to
>> hear it.
>
>It won't change from the previous thread (my last few responses). Since
>you still have WinXP on the other drive, you will also want a partition
>for sharing data, so the shared data partition (FAT32) is still viable.
>If there will be *no* Windows of any kind on this box on *any* hard
>drive, _then_ you can forget the shared data (FAT32) partition.
>
>
>> This was my original question in this thread.
>
>Not really. It was the question I quoted above and this one:
>
>"Should I just go ahead and install Linux into a single partition on
>the entire drive?"
>
>In your case, the answer is 'yes'. Of course, the install should also
>create a swap partition. If you simply install SUSE and tell it to use
>defaults, this will all be automatic. (But be sure you do not have your
>Windows drive plugged in!)
>
>Half of your questions would go away if you'd just remove all Windows
>drives, keep the lone blank drive in and start trying different things
>during the install. Selecting a minimal install will take only minutes
>(maybe half hour by including X) so you can re-install to your heart's
>content until you've proven to yourself just what can and can't be done.

That sounds worthwhile. I hope that I have not made you feel too sore
(I believe that is an American expression). One more thing, If you
insist that this is the best way forward that's what I shall do, but I
was hoping to dedicate only about 60Gb to Iinux, that's why I shoved
in 20Gb partitions on spec. I've read several times pp17-19 in the
manual and it all seemed more complicated than that.
>
>
>> It is partly
>> answered so far. Thank goodness some experts are more concerned with
>> giving advice than criticising newbies for not knowing enough.
>>
>
>When you start out criticizing Linux, don't expect helpful answers to
>follow. It's understandable that you would receive criticizing answers
>to a msg that starts out critical (with no real proof). BTW, I've been
>working with computer hardware since 1979 and have *never* seen an OS
>affect the BIOS without you running a program _designed_ to 'flash' the
>BIOS. I *have*, however, seen similar problems with a dying battery.
>
In fairness, I have to say that I see it differently. I didn't
criticize Linux. Au contraire I urged people dump windows, my own
son included. He's been lost to Linux now and he could have been a
great ambassador among British medics. I tried hard to find an
explanation that fitted the facts. No one has come up with an
explanation. There might be one, just like there might be the Holy
Grail, or a link between the MMR jab and autism. I offered a challenge
to experts who were wiser than me to come up with an explanation. I
hoped one would turn up. Even now there is no explanation that fits
the facts.

I am old now but I started in computer even earlier than you. By 1981
I'd built my own and my electronics construction was fast on the wane.
I did it purely out of enjoyment. I am a classicist by education but
I recently took a degree in IT. I hope that you will settle at this
moment. I repeat the truth you advice is good and it must help plenty
of others.

>
>>
>> The extracts follow:
>>
><extracts snipped>
>
>The extracts you quoted are exactly the ones to which I was referring.
>Follow them (removing any refs to Windows if you want) and report back
>with any errors or questions _found during installation_. All this
>theoretical meandering (and useless legal discussion) is going nowhere.
>
>IOW, give us something empirical with which to work.

I don't know what to say I am not pursuing the problem of non
detection. That's why I started a new thread about the different
computer and a new approach.

To review: One five year old computer, rock steady. never a problem.
I installed Sure to the 12Gb partition which was the second partition.
On boot up it failed to detect the hard drive and failing to find a CD
in the 3rd boot up device it said "Disk failure". A warm boot got me
going again. This was almost every start up, maybe all of them. I
just did a warm boot whenever it failed. Recently I removed Lines by
removing the hard drive. Perfect booting started immediately and has
continued. At no time was there any change in any other of the factors
in the equation. The only suspect that hasn't been eliminated at this
stage is Linux, that's why I said "chief suspect" and was called
stupid.

You know flat earthers reacted like that when they heard that someone
was saying that they had sailed all round the world because it was
er... round.

Many thanks for your help.

Colin

I live in Manchester in the North of England. If any of your experts
had called Mancunians stupid to their face they would have been
dragged out of some canal the following morning. We don't like it.

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