installing more than one os on a box
people interested in trying out linux are sometimes concerned that it will disrupt, and even destroy, their existing system. this is not so. the existence of livecds even makes it possible to boot a complete operating system to memory and play with it until confident enough to try an install.
when ready to try an install, linux uses a partitioner that enables the user to shrink the windows (woze) partition to make room for linux and this is both easy and a safe procedure.
this is called dual-booting and gives the user the advantage of keeping a system that is familiar while adding a new and exciting aspect to computing life.
pclinuxos was developed with the woze migrant in mind. it is easy to install, simple to set up and beautiful to look at. thousands upon thousands of people, a number growing exponentially daily, migtrate and begin to contribute to the friendly, welcoming linux community. i can vouch for this. in linux i am eight months old and already able to help even younger "siblings" in this wonderful family of keen and helpful, caring people.
many users have at least two, and often more operating systems installed on one computer, usually on one hard disk, but sometimes spread over several. there are two boot-loaders for linux grub, the more recent and the good old standby comfy blow-up bed lilo. for most users with a small system, one or more computers in a home network, lilo does the job more than adequately. grub is designed to be able to handle more and bigger systems and i don't know enough to outline the pros and cons of using either.
my distrib of choice is pclinuxos, of which release i use the minime .93, and whenever i mention linux, that is the flavour and release i shall be referring to. there are others that have varying appeal for different people and therein lies the strength of the linux operating kernel. it is one of the few entities that can be all things to all men, not forgetting to include women.
i adore suse. it is beautiful to look at and full of lovely things to play with, but the limitations i met meant that i was unable to do the things i wanted to with it. so i pinched the wallpapers - especially that for root - and moved to pclinuxos (pclos) from which time my linux knowledge has grown immeasurably.
installing:
i start by preparing woze. shut down the pagefile function, this is equivalent to swap, and defragment the drive. this ensures that when woze starts up again with its' companion in situ, it will run as well as it ever did.
that done, there is a variety of ways of dealing with partitions. you can use a partitioner in woze, a bootable partitioner, or the partitioner included with the pclos installer. i favour booting the live cd, log in as root and use pclinuxos control centre/mount points/configure local hard disk partitions.
for a 60 gb drive, i shrink the woze partition to 30 gb (20 gb these days) and then create the following partitions to accommodate pclos:
root / - 4 gb to 6 gb, swap - double the amount of ram or as much as you like (mine is 4gb for reasons i will explain at another time) and /home - whatever is left.
on my dell inspiron 510m laptop i have root / 4.9 gb, swap 2.9 gb and /home 18 gb
boot to woze, put the pclos cd in the drive and reboot. when the black screen comes up i type livecd keyb=uk and, on one older machine xres=800x600 to make sure the screen resolution is correct, then press return.
when booting is finished, an attractive login screen invites you to enter a user name followed by the password. for installation i use root/root, and for playing about guest/guest. the graphical server will then load the kde graphical user interface (gui) and you will be transported to a beautiful wheatfield with a few icons on the desktop and a taskbar at the bottom.
linux systems come with deskspaces and usually begin with two, or four. kde allows 20. i used 6 until my requirements demanded more and now i have 10. these are great for keeping activities separate and i keep "business" on the left and play on the right. being able to work this way dispenses with the confusion and clutter of a single deskspace and allows me to have many applications open at the same time.
having logged in as root and desiring to install, an icon will be found on the desktop offering to install. double click that and the installer opens. use the dropdown to choose your language and then, if you need to, the partitioner.
click next
the next window shows the partitions to be installed and checkboxes to make sure they are formatted. lower down is the section for home, choose the partition and for good measure check the format box.
click next
a summary of what will take place is shown so that you may change your mind or make corrections, by going back.
click next
you are now committed and the system will be installed.
on my dell laptop this took 9' 54"
when the install is finished there are a few setup procedures to take care of.
click next
the new screen wants a password for root. this is a vital requirement as root is the ultimate boss of the system. choose a password you will remember and find a way of keeping it safe. enter it twice and click write root's password. you may, as i do, get a warning that passwords of less than 8 characters are not secure. i am a sole user and no-one else has access to my boxes, so i can afford to be moderately careless.
next i delete the guest account.
after that i enter the name of the user i want to use, i ignore real name (i don't know how inadvisable that is but it hasn't caused me any trouble) and then twice enter the password. click the accept box and the user is written. repeat for multiple users.
at the end of all this, you can either carry on playing, so you will notice that the reboot box is unchecked, or reboot now. as i am always keen to get to the setting up the network stage, i reboot.
when the booting process is finished, you will see an attractive login panel
the same calming wheatfield will appear and you can begin to play the best game ever invented.
there is a good tutorial for this and when i find it i shall post the url here. in the meantime you could probably find it yourself by going to www.pclinuxos.com and browsing.
have a lot of fun!
when ready to try an install, linux uses a partitioner that enables the user to shrink the windows (woze) partition to make room for linux and this is both easy and a safe procedure.
this is called dual-booting and gives the user the advantage of keeping a system that is familiar while adding a new and exciting aspect to computing life.
pclinuxos was developed with the woze migrant in mind. it is easy to install, simple to set up and beautiful to look at. thousands upon thousands of people, a number growing exponentially daily, migtrate and begin to contribute to the friendly, welcoming linux community. i can vouch for this. in linux i am eight months old and already able to help even younger "siblings" in this wonderful family of keen and helpful, caring people.
many users have at least two, and often more operating systems installed on one computer, usually on one hard disk, but sometimes spread over several. there are two boot-loaders for linux grub, the more recent and the good old standby comfy blow-up bed lilo. for most users with a small system, one or more computers in a home network, lilo does the job more than adequately. grub is designed to be able to handle more and bigger systems and i don't know enough to outline the pros and cons of using either.
my distrib of choice is pclinuxos, of which release i use the minime .93, and whenever i mention linux, that is the flavour and release i shall be referring to. there are others that have varying appeal for different people and therein lies the strength of the linux operating kernel. it is one of the few entities that can be all things to all men, not forgetting to include women.
i adore suse. it is beautiful to look at and full of lovely things to play with, but the limitations i met meant that i was unable to do the things i wanted to with it. so i pinched the wallpapers - especially that for root - and moved to pclinuxos (pclos) from which time my linux knowledge has grown immeasurably.
installing:
i start by preparing woze. shut down the pagefile function, this is equivalent to swap, and defragment the drive. this ensures that when woze starts up again with its' companion in situ, it will run as well as it ever did.
that done, there is a variety of ways of dealing with partitions. you can use a partitioner in woze, a bootable partitioner, or the partitioner included with the pclos installer. i favour booting the live cd, log in as root and use pclinuxos control centre/mount points/configure local hard disk partitions.
for a 60 gb drive, i shrink the woze partition to 30 gb (20 gb these days) and then create the following partitions to accommodate pclos:
root / - 4 gb to 6 gb, swap - double the amount of ram or as much as you like (mine is 4gb for reasons i will explain at another time) and /home - whatever is left.
on my dell inspiron 510m laptop i have root / 4.9 gb, swap 2.9 gb and /home 18 gb
boot to woze, put the pclos cd in the drive and reboot. when the black screen comes up i type livecd keyb=uk and, on one older machine xres=800x600 to make sure the screen resolution is correct, then press return.
when booting is finished, an attractive login screen invites you to enter a user name followed by the password. for installation i use root/root, and for playing about guest/guest. the graphical server will then load the kde graphical user interface (gui) and you will be transported to a beautiful wheatfield with a few icons on the desktop and a taskbar at the bottom.
linux systems come with deskspaces and usually begin with two, or four. kde allows 20. i used 6 until my requirements demanded more and now i have 10. these are great for keeping activities separate and i keep "business" on the left and play on the right. being able to work this way dispenses with the confusion and clutter of a single deskspace and allows me to have many applications open at the same time.
having logged in as root and desiring to install, an icon will be found on the desktop offering to install. double click that and the installer opens. use the dropdown to choose your language and then, if you need to, the partitioner.
click next
the next window shows the partitions to be installed and checkboxes to make sure they are formatted. lower down is the section for home, choose the partition and for good measure check the format box.
click next
a summary of what will take place is shown so that you may change your mind or make corrections, by going back.
click next
you are now committed and the system will be installed.
on my dell laptop this took 9' 54"
when the install is finished there are a few setup procedures to take care of.
click next
the new screen wants a password for root. this is a vital requirement as root is the ultimate boss of the system. choose a password you will remember and find a way of keeping it safe. enter it twice and click write root's password. you may, as i do, get a warning that passwords of less than 8 characters are not secure. i am a sole user and no-one else has access to my boxes, so i can afford to be moderately careless.
next i delete the guest account.
after that i enter the name of the user i want to use, i ignore real name (i don't know how inadvisable that is but it hasn't caused me any trouble) and then twice enter the password. click the accept box and the user is written. repeat for multiple users.
at the end of all this, you can either carry on playing, so you will notice that the reboot box is unchecked, or reboot now. as i am always keen to get to the setting up the network stage, i reboot.
when the booting process is finished, you will see an attractive login panel
the same calming wheatfield will appear and you can begin to play the best game ever invented.
there is a good tutorial for this and when i find it i shall post the url here. in the meantime you could probably find it yourself by going to www.pclinuxos.com and browsing.
have a lot of fun!
posted by Anon at Thursday, June 08, 2006
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