>
> Why use System Commander? LILO will allow you to dual-boot right out
> of
> the box.
>
> (Russ)--------------------
> System Commander (and it's evil side kick Partition Commander) are
> suppose to be graphical and easy. I also like the idea of being able
> to repartition on the fly.
> --------------------------
>
==========[John]==========
I tend to agree with Steve (?) in saying you should just
use LILO and manually type in "dos" (or whatever you've
labled it) if you want Windows or "enter" for Linux (or
wait for the timeout <G>)
======================
[me again <G>]
> Since you have System Commander
> (and Mandrake 6) you may also have Partition Magic. If so, use that
> to "squeeze" down your Windows partition, then create two more
> partitions (at least): 1 partition of around 50-100 megs for "swap"
> space, and the rest for Linux.
>
> (Russ)---------------------
> System Commander comes with Partition Commander and it supports drives
> bigger than 8 gigs (I have a 13). The programs that come with Caldera
> and RH only support drives up to 8 gigs. Anyway, System Commander (in
> cohoots with Partition Commander) is suppose to automatically divy up
> the drive. It appears to do this but I am doing something wrong
> further down the line (I think).
> ---------------------------
I would MANUALLY repartition and not screw with System
Commander. Having started out as a DOS person, I never
really got so hung up with the GUI portion of Windows.... I
think a mistake a lot of "newbies" have is getting too
dependant on the GUI-based install. Seriously, try manually
repartitioning. I just stuck the Mandrake CD into my drive
on my specially-built Linux box (ie dedicated Linux box)
and booted from the included boot disk. I've also
installed Linux on an existing Windows machine three or
four times now with no difficulties. The main problem lies
in creating a partition for Linux that's compatible with
Windows. Another thing you should look for is the check-box
for "make partition growable." You should NOT check that
box if you intend on keeping an existing Windows partition
active....
>
> Once you've done the re-partitioning, choose "custom" install. For
> custom, installing "everything" except the foreign-language "how-to"
> files, I found the drivespace requirements to be right at 1 GB. If
> you choose to install less, of course, you will use less space.
> Also, you should choose something OTHER than the primary Windows
> partition for your Linux install. Choose the other large partition
> for Linux (again, at least a GIG of drivespace would be highly
> adviseable.)
>
> (Russ)-------------------
> I want to allot 4gigs for Linux but System Commander only wants to
> give me 2 (I made the swap partition 128megs since I have 128megs of
> ram)
> -------------------------
>
[John]
Yet another reason for manually repartitioning. OTOH, you
MAY want to create a partition for /home (500 megs or
so???) and one for /usr, and maybe one for "raw storage"
under Linux. One advantage to this is that it won't require
a reformat of /home if you have to reinstall or upgrade.
> You may also want to squeeze a partition in
> BEFORE Windows of about 10-25 megs for "/boot" (more
> about that later.)
>
> (Russ)-------------------
> Now this is where System Commander comes in. It says it will take care
> of that so I don't have to as long as Linux is in it's own partition,
> which I am trying to do.
> --------------------------
>
Again, I wouldn't use System Commander.... IMNSHO there's
no need for that with LILO.
>
> (Russ)-------------------
> Fair enough. I have had all three flavors running (recently RedHat). I
> really really liked Gnome.
> --------------------------
UGH! :-) Oh, well...to each his own. :-) The main thing I
didn't like about GNOME was that there were no "hard edges"
on any of the desktops by default. :-)
>
> (Russ)--------------------
> Actually it is so System commander can take control of the boot up
> process. Basically I choose "Linux" from the list and it tells the
> computer where to go to fetch Lilo (which is on the Linux partition).
> --------------------------
Ahh....again, I'd skip System Commander and just use LILO.
It's not that hard....the only reason I can think of to use
System Commander is so you can boot from within Windows or
if you've got an existing install of NT / 2000.
