[born2c0de]

I'm currently using Windows XP on my laptop and I want to install Fedora Core 8 on it. (Actually I just need a distro which has all the dev tools, I'll just be using it for C++, PHP and Java. Is Fedora the right choice?)

I've got 19GB free space on my system partition, and I was wondering if I could use that free space for my Linux partition.

Should I use a third-party tool to create a partition or will I be able to do that during the setup process?

How many partitions are required for Linux and what is the minimum space requirement for each one?

What's the procedure to remove Fedora Core from my machine? I'd like to know just in case I'm not happy with my setup.

I know I'm asking too many questions, but I'm afraid I might mess this up.

Thanks.

[no2pencil]

born2c0de, on 10 Jan, 2008 - 02:12 AM, said:

I'm currently using Windows XP on my laptop and I want to install Fedora Core 8 on it. (Actually I just need a distro which has all the dev tools, I'll just be using it for C++, PHP and Java. Is Fedora the right choice?)

If Fedora doesn't have it (but I think that it should), you can download the tar-ball right from php, mysql, or Java, & install them from source.

born2c0de, on 10 Jan, 2008 - 02:12 AM, said:

I've got 19GB free space on my system partition, and I was wondering if I could use that free space for my Linux partition.

Yes, Linux is not required to be the 1st partition.

born2c0de, on 10 Jan, 2008 - 02:12 AM, said:

Should I use a third-party tool to create a partition or will I be able to do that during the setup process?

You will need a 3rd party tool if your extra 19 gig is part of your windows partition. If it is a blank partition, then no.

born2c0de, on 10 Jan, 2008 - 02:12 AM, said:

How many partitions are required for Linux and what is the minimum space requirement for each one?

2 are required, but you can have as many as you want over that.
1.) Base directory for the OS
2.) Swap space.
The swap partition is used like the windows paging file. You want to make this partition twice the size of the amount of ram that you have in your system.

On Unix systems, a standard install will make 5 paritions, one for each of the system directories. User's home, var, lib, base, & swap. I think that this is if you run out of space, you can add another hard disk, copy over the data, unmount the partition, & remount the new drive in it's place.

born2c0de, on 10 Jan, 2008 - 02:12 AM, said:

What's the procedure to remove Fedora Core from my machine? I'd like to know just in case I'm not happy with my setup.

You'll need to replace the MBR (Master Boot Record) to boot only to Windows, & then just simply blank out the partitions you setup.

born2c0de, on 10 Jan, 2008 - 02:12 AM, said:

I know I'm asking too many questions, but I'm afraid I might mess this up.

Thanks.

This post has been edited by no2pencil: 10 January 2008 - 04:51 AM

[born2c0de]

Thanks, that helped a lot.

Quote

2 are required, but you can have as many as you want over that. 1.) Base directory for the OS2.) Swap space.

Is 5 GB sufficient for the main partition (Base directory)?

Quote

You'll need to replace the MBR (Master Boot Record) to boot only to Windows

How do I do that?

[no2pencil]

born2c0de, on 10 Jan, 2008 - 05:21 AM, said:

Thanks, that helped a lot.

Quote

2 are required, but you can have as many as you want over that. 1.) Base directory for the OS2.) Swap space.

Is 5 GB sufficient for the main partition (Base directory)?

Should be more than enough. The size ultimtly depends on what you install. Most full installs used to be under 2 GB, it's been a while since I've checked. I usually just do server installs, so I don't have X-windows, & all of the graphical libraries.

Quote

Quote

You'll need to replace the MBR (Master Boot Record) to boot only to Windows

How do I do that?

I believe that there is a command for windows called fixmbr.

[lockdown]

fixmbr is correct atleast from when I remember doing it last.

[MorphiusFaydal]

lockdown, on 10 Jan, 2008 - 07:37 AM, said:

fixmbr is correct atleast from when I remember doing it last.

You have to do it from a Windows XP recovery console. Boot the Windows XP CD-ROM, and go into the recovery console. From there, it's either fixmbr or fix /mbr.

Also, the Fedora installer sets up partitions using LVM, which can be confusing for a first timer. I would recommend Ubuntu, but it's your choice.

[born2c0de]

Perfect.
Thanks a lot guys