New to linux, not to computers

So I am new to Linux but I can catch on fast. The problem is sometimes i read too deeply into things, so if I dont understand exactly how or why something works sometimes i have problems. I am planning on using Linux because I have heard it is slightly advantageous for programming, and I do a lot of Java and C++ application/web programming for fun. I will still keep WinXP, because of my TV/FM tuner card, and all the programs that i use (mathematica, matlab, adobe/macromedia creative suite, etc). Also, since in college i will be doing Biochemistry and Neuroscience research, Linux has optimized computational calculations of this sort that are necessary.

So here are my questions which seem very 'noobish'. I have read and read and read and done nothing. LOL....
I am planning on installing Slackware 11 on my computer. I know my hardware well (built my computer) so I dont forsee having any problems getting hardware to work, other than the wireless card. I have WinXP installed on my 160GB IDE HD. When I installed it it only found 137GB of space in the whole HD. So I thought I could install Linux on the unpartitioned space. I went into GParted and saw 20GB of unallocated space, made my root swap and boot, then booted from SlackwareCD. It didnt find anything, no HD's nothing. fdisk and cfdisk failed, and lspci did not show a hd....its recognized in GParted as sda1, sda2, etc...
Then when i boot back to windows i get BSOD (unmountable boot volume?) wtf? i left extra unallocated space so why couldn't it mount? anyway i deleted the new partitions in the unallocated space and winXP works fine.

so how should I partition my drives for installing slackware on my 160GB HD that I would like 100GB for Windows? I have partition magic so i can resize partitions if needed.

Welcome to the Linux World

What you did is right but probably you didn't boot the right Kernel during the Slackware DVD boot, you should boot the kernel.sata in order to use your sata HDD, anyway if you are new to Linux my suggestion is always to use a preconfigured Linux ditro like Opensuse and Ubuntu or Fedora also,it was my case since 5 years i was unable even to boot my slackware dvd (and i had a lot of problems with redhat 6 also),but once i decide to use Opensuse i had a good experience with this distribution and little by little i start learning Linux , and i became satisfied with Linux and i delete my windows partition on my laptop (because i don't need this silent OS anymore) since 6 months and know i'm using Slackware 11.0 for developments.

but at the beginning Slackware it was very difficult for me to configure since everythings in this distribution is manually, so try Opensuse first .
if you are planning to do developments under Linux you will be very happy you can use whatever assembler/compiler you like and a lot of Library under linux and you can see all the source code for your OS to have ideas to make another applications.

Slackware is very powerful it's running in my work on 16 servers computers.
if you still don't know wish distro to use take this test zegenie Studios Linux Distribution Chooser.

Cheers.

edit: and if you saw my OP i have an IDE hard drive, not sata. (thats ok though, still thank you for the help)

Hi. Thank you very much for your help and quick response. I am pretty set on running Slackware. I have seen Ubuntu and its too simple, i really don't like it, i don't think i would learn anything, and its too much like OSX :(. So I am going to use Slackware as my first Linux. Are you referring to sata.i boot kernel? Because i tried booting from that kernel, but i still dont see any HD's. I am now trying to get it to read from an 160GB IDE hard drive. What boot kernel do i use for IDE hard drives. Thanks again, in advance.

Sreenath

Ah i'm sorry i got confused :| because you said sda1,in any case you right it can be IDE and named as sda, try to boot the huge26.s kernel it'll recognize you HDD, also Slackware it's a good choice.

Well if you're set on Slack, all I can is wish you a lot of luck. Seeing as how you build your own computer, I can agree building the software system as well is a good idea. You'll end up with a personalized computer with all the faults and merits you put into it. You'll like it ;)

As to your OP, you have 60 Gig to divide. I'd do it like this:
/ partition 10 Gig
/home partition 49 Gig
swap partition 1 Gig

This should accommodate the OS with most if not all programs you intent to run, whilst leaving a lot of space for data files. I of course don't know what you're planning to do with your machine, but for most purposes this would do.

Also, this prepares you for several re-installs of the OS. Just play around with the kernel. The default kernel is of course the 2.4 (which makes Slack the laughing stock of all other distro's) but it's a dependable kernel. The 2.6 kernel is included in the package, so you may want to give it a try.

Don't worry to much though, installing Slack takes about 20 minutes. So if you want to change things, and you will, just re-install.

Remember though, that Slack is very different from other OS's you've seen so far. Ubuntu is one, OSX and M$ of course. Slack is different. Prepare yourself for this. Reading a CD, getting into graphics, moving around the file system, configuring, etcetera. There's less graphics support for many things.

If you've never mounted a CD before, you'll think it's difficult. Once you've done it a couple of times, you'll probably like the ease, flexibility and quietness of the process.

Hm, the reason I stretch these points is, I wanted to migrate to Linux and I never succeeded because there where always things i didn't understand but that really got in the way of using a computer effectively. Until I started using Slack. The first distro that understood me.

with huge26.s, it still didnt read my hard drive! how can i get my hard drive to be read!

fdisk -l returns nothing, and cfdisk says no hard disk detected. i used PartitionMagic and made my partitions, and then ran setup from boot disk. said no hard drive to install slack on.....

what am i missing?@!:confused:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by overclockerAMD

I have WinXP installed on my 160GB IDE HD. When I installed it it only found 137GB of space in the whole HD.

fdisk and cfdisk failed, and lspci did not show a hd....its recognized in GParted as sda1, sda2, etc...

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Please make sure in the Bios settings that you have the boot priority CDROM and directly after that HDD.
just press enter when booting from Slack DVD (don't choose any kernel)
try fdisk -l
in case there is nothing go to /dev and see what inode device have been registred.
ls -l hda*
ls -l sda* (post the output of these two commands please)

also try fdisk /dev/hda or fdisk /dev/sda.


this problem looks very strange to me,however there is something wrong since you said your windows recognize only 137GB from you HDD.

post if there any news

Best Regards.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aliov

Please make sure in the Bios settings that you have the boot priority CDROM and directly after that HDD.
just press enter when booting from Slack DVD (don't choose any kernel)
try fdisk -l
in case there is nothing go to /dev and see what inode device have been registred.
ls -l hda*
ls -l sda* (post the output of these two commands please)

also try fdisk /dev/hda or fdisk /dev/sda.


this problem looks very strange to me,however there is something wrong since you said your windows recognize only 137GB from you HDD.

post if there any news

Best Regards.

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right now when i boot to CD i have CD as first boot and nothing after it. do i need HDD as second?

Slack still uses the 2.4 kernel, maybe there's no support for your hardware there, it seems you want a distro made for pros. Try something like Debian or Gentoo, both use a 2.6 kernel (the same as Ubuntu, it should work) but you will need to compile the kernel for Gentoo

Basically yes ,all the bios's that i've seen in my life there in the boot priority there is cdrom,hdd,.......