Advise...

[Radgam]

I'm thinking of installing Linux just out of curiosity. I've never bothered before as just about everything i do on computers revolves around windows programs and while i could emulate them all, it's rather pointless if you actually own windows already so I’m just installing Linux as a 'playground' of sorts.

I've already got a Linux SOT distro on a DVD but to be honest i don't know what I’m doing. I'm going to create a Linux Partition using partition magic but i don't know how to install it to that partition, and i don't know how to dual boot so i can switch between XP and the Linux setup. And what about drivers for my hardware? Last but not least, can Linux view NTFS or at least FAT partitions so i can copy a few dlls over for emulation tests?

Thanks

[ssahl]

I just installed Red Hat Linux 8.0 on my system which already had win98 & winXP on it, you dont even need partition magic, now there is a auto disk partition tool within the Linux setup/install cd and the only thing I needed was some empty space, after it was done I had/have a multiboot setup. first the grub boot loader will come up and ask weather I want to boot to Linux or DOS (windows) if Linux is picked then of coarse you would boot to Linux, if DOS is picked then the normal winXP boot loader comes up asking me weather I want to boot to win98 or winXP. If you have a network (even a small one) I would say for sure install Linux and check it out, and that's alot of good software for a very little amount. I had no problems putting Linux on my system, and before that I had never used Linux at all, so you should check it out, I'm still doing that, in answer to your question, Linux sees drives different all together, I couldnt really explain it to you, but I'm sure others around here can, but you really should see for your self.

[jglen490]

1) It is not necessary to use PM to make a Linux partition. The best way to set up your system for Linux is to leave some unpartitioned space.

2) If you can make your DVD drive the first bootable device within the BIOS, then do so. Put the DVD in the drive and re-boot. I'm not familiar with your specific distribution, but presumably it has some sort of interactive installer, and there may even be some instructions on the DVD. If your DVD drive cannot be designated as a bootable device, then look for install instructions on the CD (usually a text or .pdf file) that will tell you how to make a bootable install floppy. This usually involves using rawrite.exe, or rawritent.exe, to write files (not copy) to a floppy diskette and then booting with that and the DVD in their respective drives.

[Karnevil9]

Did you ever get SOT linux installed? If so how do you like the system. I am thinking of trying SOT but I don't know anything about them.