-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Tuesday 18 November 2003 1:07 pm, Melissa Reese wrote: > Hi Bryan, <snip> > This is a custom built computer, so I'll have to ask the guy who built > it if he can explain what the MDK installation was seeing. > > As long as I can be very sure that I'm only messing with my 20 GB > drive, I'll be happy to stumble through some more trial and error > myself, because if all I mess up is the fresh drive with no essential > data on it yet, I can always just start over. However, there's another > thing I'll have to decide with regards to how worried I should be > about performing the installation without expert supervision...
hda would be the "primary" or master on the first IDE channel Melissa. If you're looking at hdb you're looking at the second disk on the first IDE channel. Your 20 GB drive in other words. hda is the first on that channel, hdc is first on the second channel, hdd is second on the second channel and so on. > The starter guide also suggests possibly changing a setting or two in > the BIOS in order to make the installation smoother for MDK. Since the > BIOS is, as far as I understand it (which may not be very far), a > system wide setting (affecting both hard drives, no?), I want to be > especially careful messing about in there. At this point, it is this > BIOS thing as much as anything else that concerns me. The BIOS is where the system gets it's first initialization settings. Most "modern" operating systems don't use much they find there but it still needs to be there. Just turn off "plug'n'play aware OS" since neither XP or any recent distribution needs plug and pray anyway. I'd suggest setting the boot order to CD-ROM, then IDE0. You should be fine then, just remember not to leave any disks in the CD drive on reboots. > The adventure continues... As far as all the advice on partitioning etc, does it really matter? Most new converts find things they want to change on their second install. There will be a second install Melissa, _everyone does it._ I usually start all freshly caught victims...errrr...converts with basic partitioning by suggesting that you allow diskdrake to do it after choosing custom partitioning at that install stage. There's a button in diskdrake to clear the whole disk after selecting the second tab/disk (20 GB, aka hdb in your case) and start fresh. That would be a good place to start IMHO since you've already stated that you don't have anything on that disk that you want; and that it will be dedicated to Mandrake Linux. Once it's all cleared just use the "Auto Allocate" button in diskdrake and let the tools the developers built into the distribution take care of it. Won't have to figure swap size, root (/) size, or any of the other technical things. It should auto-magically make a separate /home partition for you and at first that's the only one you'll care about since all your personal "stuff" will be there. You can learn about custom partitioning later, right? (-; Just some thoughts. Welcome to the world of unlimited choices. Have fun! Charlie - -- Edmonton,AB,Canada User 244963 at http://counter.li.org Mandrake Linux release 9.2 (FiveStar) for i586 kernel 2.4.22-21mdk 13:23:02 up 49 min, 1 user, load average: 0.42, 0.32, 0.27 How wonderful opera would be if there were no singers. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE/uoQuG11CaRuZZSIRAg/zAKCou2L1V+qdHt3sh9lRkH2z9f17pQCgpLm+ OPptNy1Lgg8Qneedh8plZlc= =wOdM -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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