Started Over

[kenc3]

I have lost all of my presets and installed programs.
I rebooted the computer using my original windows disks and put windows XP back on. Then I repartitioned my 80 Gb drive with 4 sections.( /,/media,swap, and a fat32 for the remainder.)
Installed Mint6 on the / partition.
Got a good night sleep.
Now I will put most of the things back into XP and then go to Mint6.
I am going to work with the 800x600 screen resolution for now. I would like 1024x768 but, I have spent a week trying to get that and until I know more about what I am doing, it will have to stay there.
For now, I must get my fax and phone working and get my business back online.
I have not given up on Linux yet and am convinced it is the way to go, just not right now. I need a small break from it.

[Jonathan183]

I have lost all of my presets and installed programs.
I rebooted the computer using my original windows disks and put windows XP back on. Then I repartitioned my 80 Gb drive with 4 sections.( /,/media,swap, and a fat32 for the remainder.)
Installed Mint6 on the / partition.

I suggest you create a separate /home partition, that way user settings are kept if you need to re-install the OS or do an upgrade/replace ... you just need to be careful to ensure you don't have format home partition selected during future installs.

[kenc3]

I think the home partition if the one I labeled /media. I got that out of a manual I have for Mint6. I can rename it to /home if I need to (I hope).
I am resigned to keep the 800x600 resolution for now. I won't be able to get back to Linux today anyway unless the current download finishes. It should take about 12 hours.(1.5 GB).
I am going to look at Vim and Gvim, also I found a program called Crimson Editor. I have a book to study for that one.

[Jonathan183]

No ... don't try renaming, a reinstall is the best option to sort things ... suggest partitions for Linux
/ (root)
/home
swap

... you can stick with what you have at the moment - it just means you either copy home partition information before you reinstall or backup and restore /home folder information.

My reason for suggesting you reinstall now is that you don't really have data to lose ...

[elija]

For anything that says use vim or nano or any of the other command line editors, you can simply press Alt + F2 and type "gksu gedit" (without the quotes) to run gedit with root privileges or select Menu -> Accessories -> Text Editor to run it as a normal user. If the command given is prefixed with "sudo" (without the quotes) then then you will need the ALt + F2 way.

Root privileges give you admin rights and allow you to alter files outside your home directory.

You may find gedit a bit friendlier than the command line editors and vim in particular. I love vim but it is very different than the more usual editors to say the least

[edit]This is based on Mint, which is the distro I use on a day to day basis[/edit]

[kenc3]

And now. . .
I have been waiting all day for a download to complete. In the meanwhile, I have been trying to get my printer driver to work in XP. It seems to be hung up right now and I refuse to restart my computer to fix it because it would take another 12 hours for the download to do over again. It is almost done now.
Playing Solitare and sleeping a bit.