Leo wrote:
> I have an old PC and I would like to give Linux a try on it. I make my
> living in the Wintel environment and cannot risk just jumping out of XP
> into a new OS before I am familiar with it.
>
> The PC in question is a Dell Dimension XPS R400
>
> Intel PII 400
> 128 MB RAM
> 10 Gig HD
> D-Link DFE-530-TX
> MS Wheel mouse
> Logitech Access Keyboard
> Crystal Sound (on the motherboard)
>
> What distro would run the best on this configuration? I tried Lindows
> 4.5 which I guess would probably run very well on my AMD 1800 machine
> but is as slow as molasses on the PII.
>
> It would be nice if I could get this machine zipping along and find some
> applications that are similar to what I use everyday (Dreamweaver,
> Photoshop, Outlook, Pinnacle Studio, Acoustica, Sonic Fire Pro, MS Word
> and MS Access).
>
> Looking forward to hearing what I should do.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Leo
If you are only interested in the answer to your original
question, skip the following and read 2nd paragraph from the
bottom :-) If you want some extra advice, read on...
You will want to do some serious studying and *BACK UP* your XP
installation before starting to install Linux, regardless of
distro! If something can go wrong it probably will.
You can also find some helpfull information from other people's
experience by searching Google Groups for 'dual boot' 'XP'
'Linux'. You might be able to install without any problem by
just reading the installation manual for your distro, but it is
a good idea to do as much additional reading as possible. Print
out hard copies of the most pertinant information before starting
and / or take notes.
The most important subjects to read about are dual-booting Linux and XP,
LILO, using the Linux rescue floppy, editing boot.ini, partitioning,
MBR, and XP disaster recovery. Be prepared to recover from any problems
you may have. It only takes ONE wrong tap on the enter key to trash your
XP MBR!
Do *NOT* install LILO into the MBR if this is your first time
installing a Linux / XP dual-boot system! You will almost invariably
have problems, although there are probably some who may jump into the
discussion and try to convince you otherwise. You can always use
DiskProbe under XP, or dd under Linux to save the new Linux boot sector
to a file which you then point the XP boot loader to in boot.ini. There
are a couple of other ways under Linux to save the new boot sector to a
file, too, but I haven't used them and don't have time to search for
them right now.
Here is an explanation of how to do it with DiskProbe:
(Note: assumes your Linux primary is the second partition on the first HDD).
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...a.net&rnum =9
Since Linux is more forgiving than XP when it comes to partitioning
and partition table entries, use XP to create the Linux primary and
swap partitions, but don't format them because you want to be able
to use them as Linux swap 82 and Linux Native 83 type when you install
Linux.
Since I am assuming this is your first time installing Linux / XP in
dual-boot configuration, I would use this layout for your partitions:
hda1 - existing XP installation
hda2 - Linux primary
hda3 - Linux swap
If you follow the advice from the previous poster and get another HDD
for Linux, ignore the above partitioning layout. In that case you may
want to use something like:
hda1 - existing XP installation
hdb1 - Linux primary
hdb2 - Linux swap
hdb3 - /home
*** As for which distro to use, I have seen Redhat (don't know version)
run well on a 433MHz Dell with 256MB RAM and it was pretty nice. It was
Fairly responsive, too.
You probably wouldn't want to try Debian for your first Linux system
but I would definately recommend it after you familiarize yourself with
Linux. It will even run satisfactorily on a 200MHz Pentium Pro with 96MB
of RAM.
Disclaimer: While I try to give the best advice possible, I am not God
and therefore am fallable. I accept no liability for my advice and it
may actually be totally wrong in some situations. *BACK UP YOUR SYSTEM*
and follow the "Preparing for Disaster Recovery" procedures for XP.
HTH
--
Parts of original message omitted when not needed. See thread.
M. Glenn Lewis
mlewis00@tctwest.nospam.no.com.net.wrap72