Newbie Questions

[Timothy Brooks]

Hello,

I am about as new as they come.  I have downloaded Fedora and am about to
install.  I have a Windows 98 machine and am not sure if I want to set up a
dual boot or just put Fedora on this computer.  It is an older machine
(500MHz, 128 RAM) but I would like to see what Linux/Fedora is like.  What
would you recommend?

I need some instructions on installation of Fedora from a hard drive.  The
instruction with Fedora are too limited for me.  Can someone please direct
me to a more detailed source.

Do I need to burn the .iso files to CDs?  I understand you cannot just copy
these files, that they need to be copied as .iso images, correct?  What does
what I just said mean?  Copy as an "image".  Is there a setting in my CD
burning program that I need to use?

I think these questions help the group understand my level, which is very
Newbie.

Does Fedora have programs with it?  Does it include a browser or program to
check email?  Word processing?  Or will I need to find Linux software for
this computer?

Sorry for the simplicity of my questions but as they say, you need to start
somewhere.

Thank you for any direction.

Tim Brooks

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[Sam Varshavchik]

Timothy Brooks writes:

>  Do I need to burn the .iso files to CDs?  I understand you cannot
> just copy
>  these files, that they need to be copied as .iso images, correct? 
Correct.

>                                                                   
> What does
>  what I just said mean?  Copy as an "image".  Is there a setting in my CD
>  burning program that I need to use? 
There is, but, obviously, the exact name of the setting varies from program 
to program.  Look for any option in your CD burning software that refers to 
a "raw image" or an "iso image".

>  Does Fedora have programs with it?  Does it include a browser or
> program to
>  check email?  Word processing? 
Yes, but 128MB RAM is going to be a tight fit.

You'll need at least 4GB space to install Fedora.  Fedora itself takes up 
about 1.5 gig, and you need some breathing room.

If your existing Win98 system takes up the entire hard drive, you'll need to 
use some Win98-based software to resize your Win98 partition and free up 
some hard disk space, before attempting to install Fedora.

Once you install Fedora you will have a menu come up at boot that will 
prompt you to boot Win98 or Fedora.

There's always a small chance, especially if you're a newbie, and especially 
with oddball hardware, that something can get screwed up during the install 
and you won't be able to boot anything.

Therefore, I suggest that you copy all files you valu, and save them 
someplace else.  Newbies are always better off playing with Linux on a 
disposable box that they don't mind blowing away.

[Timothy Brooks]

Thank you.

Let's say I copy Fedora to CDs and format the Windows computer I am using
(it's a spare for 'learning').  Is CD #1 bootable or do I go in through DOS
and install?

Is there a boot diskette (1.44) that I should have?


-----Original Message-----
From: fedora-list-bounces(a)redhat.com
[mailto:[e-mail]]On Behalf Of Sam Varshavchik
Sent: Monday, February 27, 2006 5:55 PM
To: For users of Fedora Core releases
Subject: Re: Newbie Questions


Timothy Brooks writes:

>  Do I need to burn the .iso files to CDs?  I understand you cannot
> just 
copy
>  these files, that they need to be copied as .iso images, correct?
Correct.

>                                                                   
> What 
does
>  what I just said mean?  Copy as an "image".  Is there a
> setting in my CD
>  burning program that I need to use? 
There is, but, obviously, the exact name of the setting varies from program 
to program.  Look for any option in your CD burning software that refers to 
a "raw image" or an "iso image".

>  Does Fedora have programs with it?  Does it include a browser or
> program 
to
>  check email?  Word processing? 
Yes, but 128MB RAM is going to be a tight fit.

You'll need at least 4GB space to install Fedora.  Fedora itself takes up 
about 1.5 gig, and you need some breathing room.

If your existing Win98 system takes up the entire hard drive, you'll need to

use some Win98-based software to resize your Win98 partition and free up 
some hard disk space, before attempting to install Fedora.

Once you install Fedora you will have a menu come up at boot that will 
prompt you to boot Win98 or Fedora.

There's always a small chance, especially if you're a newbie, and especially

with oddball hardware, that something can get screwed up during the install 
and you won't be able to boot anything.

Therefore, I suggest that you copy all files you valu, and save them 
someplace else.  Newbies are always better off playing with Linux on a 
disposable box that they don't mind blowing away.



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[Ian Malone]

Timothy Brooks wrote:
>  Thank you.
>  
>  Let's say I copy Fedora to CDs and format the Windows computer I am using
>  (it's a spare for 'learning').  Is CD #1 bootable or do I go in through DOS
>  and install?
>  
>  Is there a boot diskette (1.44) that I should have?
>  
>   
The first disc will be bootable if the computer can boot from CDs.

Your first email said "installation of Fedora from a hard drive",
did you mean "to a hard drive", both are possible.  To a hard drive
from DVD or CDs is the most common way of installing Fedora.  From
a hard drive (usually to another hard drive on the same machine),
is possible with some distros (I can't remember if Fedora can do it).

There used to be 3 1/4 inch images for computers that couldn't boot
from CD, but I don't think that's possible anymore.  A more complex
method is available, someone else can probably give you a link if
you need to do this.

BTW, the most common format for replies on this email list is to put
them below the part of the text you're commenting on, and cut out
parts that aren't relevant.  The rational is that people joining in
the discussion will be more easily able to follow what's going on.

-- 
imalone

[Mike McCarty]

Timothy Brooks wrote:
>  Thank you.
>  
>  Let's say I copy Fedora to CDs and format the Windows computer I am using
>  (it's a spare for 'learning').  Is CD #1 bootable or do I go in through DOS
>  and install?
>  
>  Is there a boot diskette (1.44) that I should have? 
It is better if you do this on a machine *other* than
the one use for Net access, especially e-mail.

If you're unsure about all this, then I suggest you
try running for a while from a LiveCD. There is not
(AFAIK) a LiveCD for Fedora Core, but several are
available. I have used Knoppix, Kanotix, Puppy,
DSL and several others.

Step-by-step here is what you need to do...

0. Back up your machine as it is now.
1. Decide whether you want to retain the ability to
    boot Windows while running FC.
2. If the answer is "Yes, I want to dual-boot." then
    make room on that computer for FC. Make sure you
    can still boot Windows before continuing.
3. Download and burn all the FC4 discs to CDROMs.
    Be sure that when you are through you don't see
    a single file named SOME_FILE_NAME.ISO on there,
    but a whole bunch of files.
4. Boot your first CDROM. If your machine will not
    boot from the CDROM drive, then either you didn't
    make the CDROM properly, or you haven't enabled
    boot from CDROM drive in the BIOS, or your machine
    is too old to boot from CDROM or you have a hardware
    problem. If your machine is just too old, then I
    suggest using Smart Boot Manager, and boot from
    floppy. SBM will allow you then to boot from CDROM.
5. Go through the installation procedure.

Mike
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[Claude Jones]

On Mon February 27 2006 7:50 pm, Mike McCarty wrote:
>  There is not
>  (AFAIK) a LiveCD for Fedora Core, 
There is a Fedora LiveCD - it's called
BerryLinux
http://yui.mine.nu/berry/eberry.php
It's a bit mongrel, in that it includes elements of knoppix as well as Fedora 
Core 4
Works quite well
-- 
Claude Jones
Bluemont, VA, USA

[Tim Alberts]

Timothy Brooks wrote ..
>  Hello,
>  
>  I am about as new as they come.  I have downloaded Fedora and am about
>  to
>  install.  I have a Windows 98 machine and am not sure if I want to set
>  up a
>  dual boot or just put Fedora on this computer.  It is an older machine
>  (500MHz, 128 RAM) but I would like to see what Linux/Fedora is like.  What
>  would you recommend? 
Not really a recommendation, but I usually run windows and linux on different hard drives.


Dual boot is not all that difficult.  If you have only one hard drive and that drive has
only one partition (if you know what that means), I would recommend just running linux for
simplicity.

If you have only one hard drive and it has only one partition (which windows always does),
get a second hard drive or partition the drive.  Partitioning a drive usually results in
the data on the drive being lost.  I've heard you can repartition without loosing
data, but I never tried it.

My STRONGEST RECOMMENDATION is to have 2 computers one linux and one windows so you can
keep your windows system running in order to get email and get help from this email list
if you have troubles installing/running linux.  That is, until you are comfortable with
Linux.

>  
>  I need some instructions on installation of Fedora from a hard drive. 
>  The
>  instruction with Fedora are too limited for me.  Can someone please direct
>  me to a more detailed source. 
I think you should burn the images to a CD and install from CD's.  I honestly
wouldn't try it any other way.


>  
>  Do I need to burn the .iso files to CDs?  I understand you cannot just
>  copy
>  these files, that they need to be copied as .iso images, correct?  What
>  does
>  what I just said mean?  Copy as an "image".  Is there a setting in my CD
>  burning program that I need to use? 
Most windows CD burning programs will recognize a ISO image file and automatically
configure themseles to write the data to a CD.  Programs like Nero running on windows can
do this.


>  
>  I think these questions help the group understand my level, which is very
>  Newbie. 
We all started somewhere.  Congratulations on at least starting.


>  
>  Does Fedora have programs with it?  Does it include a browser or program
>  to
>  check email?  Word processing?  Or will I need to find Linux software for
>  this computer? 
Linux comes with so many programs you won't know what to do with it all.  Typically,
firefox is used as the web browser and OpenOffice is my personal preference for office
programs that come with Fedora linux.  Both of these can also be run under windows.

Also included are development tools, games, and multimedia for listening to music and
watching movies.


>  
>  Sorry for the simplicity of my questions but as they say, you need to start
>  somewhere.
>  
>  Thank you for any direction.
>  
>  Tim Brooks
>  
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[Dan Book]

Tim Alberts wrote:
[snip]

> If you have only one hard drive and it has only one partition (which
> windows always does), get a second hard drive or partition the drive.  Partitioning a
> drive usually results in the data on the drive being lost.  I've heard you can
> repartition without loosing data, but I never tried it.
>  
I've repartitioned two normal hard drives and two hard drives in a 
NVRAID 0 array through dmraid, using parted, ntfsresize, and dd for 
backup. Knoppix comes with ntfsresize enabled for qtparted, which makes 
it a very easy-to-use GUI for shrinking NTFS drives; fat32 should be no 
problem to shrink with parted / partition magic / whatever else. I've 
only lost data on one of the NTFS partitions I resized, fortunately it 
wasn't my main OS but my 64-bit windows install (ironically the only OS 
i didn't have backed up); it just went bonkers so i reinstalled that 
partition. I now have a backup of that partition also. However, it is 
true that other than a simple shrink of one partition to make 
unpartitioned space, repartitioning should really be left alone until 
you know what you're doing AND have somewhere to backup your important 
stuff.

[snip]
-Dan

Newbie Questions - Thank You

[Timothy Brooks]

With the help of the group I have graduated from Newbie to Novice.
Within about 4 hours I formated the old computer (Former Win98),
installed Fedora Core, and am sending this email from Evolution.  The
process with without any glitches and I am amazed at the programs
provided.  I will continue to participate in this group as I learn more.
Thank you.

Tim Brooks

[Ian Malone]

Timothy Brooks wrote:
>  Hello,
>  
>  I am about as new as they come.  I have downloaded Fedora and am about to
>  install.  I have a Windows 98 machine and am not sure if I want to set up a
>  dual boot or just put Fedora on this computer.  It is an older machine
>  (500MHz, 128 RAM) but I would like to see what Linux/Fedora is like.  What
>  would you recommend? 
As mentionned elsewhere, 128MB is cutting it fine, but will do.  HD
space is important, I managed to get a very trimmed FC3 working in under
800MB a while back, but it had no X (ie. text/console all the way),
which I'm sure is not what you want.  If you're going for dual boot and
repartitioning the hard disc you really need to make backups anyway, so
depending what you want to do and whether you'd use this machine
otherwise a Fedora only install may be easier.

>  
>  I need some instructions on installation of Fedora from a hard drive.  The
>  instruction with Fedora are too limited for me.  Can someone please direct
>  me to a more detailed source.
>   
Afraid I've not done this, sorry.

>  Do I need to burn the .iso files to CDs?  I understand you cannot
> just copy
>  these files, that they need to be copied as .iso images, correct?  What does
>  what I just said mean?  Copy as an "image".  Is there a setting in my CD
>  burning program that I need to use?
>   
Almost certainly (again, see Timothy Brooks's reply).  "Burn image" is a
pretty common one.

>  I think these questions help the group understand my level, which is
> very
>  Newbie.
>  
>  Does Fedora have programs with it?  Does it include a browser or program to
>  check email?  Word processing?  Or will I need to find Linux software for
>  this computer?
>   
It does have programs with it: web browser, email client, office
software, graphics programs, some games.  Applications make up most
of what's on the discs (in a way, what distinguishes different flavours
of Linux is the choices they make for their applications and how you
maintain them).  There's other stuff on there (compilers, webservers),
and multiple versions of most of the basic things, but go with the
defaults if you just want to try it out.

>  Sorry for the simplicity of my questions but as they say, you need to
> start
>  somewhere.
>   
Yes you do, have fun!
(Now, if you'll excuse me, I've just discovered I have KTurtle
installed...)

-- 
imalone