Re: Newbie set of questions.

On Mon, 14 May 2007 21:45:54 -0500, William wrote:

First some background, I started my pc experience with a 286 and dos
3.x. I learned how to build and install and repair by part failure, sw
failure and simple curiosity (what would happen if I delete this?)
hehe. you sure learn a lot that way!!! Anyway, with no formal
education, book learning or anything I can build/tear down desktops and
laptops any ms os or program. But as of mandrake 9.x I can't seem to
figure out how to even get Linux to work after the first reboot...

Now my questions..

I would like to find a distro that would allow me to:
1) boot up,
2) partition a drive,
3) format the partitions,
4) and (dos sys c: equivalent) make boot able hdd
5) Then from the command prompt load 1 program at a time by either man
pages or internet assistance

My goal is to understand what I am doing by the time I get to the Gui.

Any advise is greatly appreciated

In order to boot there must be a minimal system installed on your hdd, a
text based system. You're aware of this since you want internet access and
man pages. Most major distributions allow for this type of installation,
since they may be used as a server. An example would be Debian. Starting
in text mode, adding X, and then choose Fluxbox (or KDE / Gnome...) Now
the thing is that any modern distribution will make this as easy as
possible if you use it's tools. If you really want to test and try, you may
want to go to the source, like http://www.x.org/ but be aware that this
may be the start of a long journey.

--
Ehrman's Commentary:
(1) Things will get worse before they get better.
(2) Who said things would get better?
.

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