Re: Fedora 3 installation

From: General Schvantzkoph (schvantzkoph_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 11/11/04 

Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 17:45:30 -0500

On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 10:48:35 -0800, the marginwalker wrote:

> So I would like to install Fedora 3 on a PIII 550Mhz machine.
> Currently she is running XP pro. I am intersted in wiping the hard
> drive clean. I have downloaded the 4 iso files + the recuedcd,
> expanded these files and burnt them, respectivley, to CDRs. My
> question is about starting the installation process. I am not sure my
> bios will enable me to boot from the cd while XP is still installed.
> It is a Dell Phoenix bios that gives the option of prioratizing boot
> device when an operatig system is not present. My sense is that
> throwing the CD into the machine and restarting with Windows still
> installed will not start the core installation. I initially tried to
> run a live CD version of SUSE 9.1 un-successfully. My next sentiment
> would be to format the hard drive thus erasing any current operating
> system. I would attempt the hard drive format from Windows itself and
> then hope I can reboot with Fedora's CD1 in. Any advice on formatting
> my hard drive? Will the Fedora core installation give me the option of
> re-formating the hard drive should I get the CD1 to boot with XP still
> installed?
>
> I have two other machines (Mac/another XP) available and connected to
> the outside world if I should run into any snags (which I expect). I
> have never run a Unix or Linux platform, but I feel very comfortable
> with the Mac and Windows operating systems.
>
> Any comments on my strategy or measures I should take before I attempt
> to proceed would be much appreciated.
>
> -mw

You might need to change the boot order in the BIOS, just make sure that
the CD ROM comes before the hard drives before the boot order.

What problem did you have with the live CD version of SUSE? If the
problem was that the machine booted directly into XP then it's a BIOS boot
order issue. If it tried to boot SUSE and it either crashed or the
graphics didn't work then you might have a real Linux compatibility
problem. In general you shouldn't have any problem with a Dell Dimension
because those you standard graphics cards. I've got a couple of Dimensions
of your vintage and they work perfectly with any version of Linux that you
care to throw at them. The Optiplexes are another story. Dell has used
some unsupported graphics chips for the on board graphics on some
Optiplexes. If you have one of those you won't be able to install Linux.

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