On 10/05/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
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Today's Topics:
1. Re: I'd like to know... (david)
2. Re: I'd like to know... (Ken Wilson)
3. Re: recommendations for SATA RAID controllers? (Howard Lowndes)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: david <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [email protected]
Date: Thu, 10 May 2007 11:25:29 +1000
Subject: Re: [SLUG] I'd like to know...
On Thu, 2007-05-10 at 09:52 +1000, Howard Lowndes wrote:
>
> P. G. Schmitt wrote:
> > Looking at installing for the first time. The drive is currently NTFS.
> > Will Linux install to this or do I need to redo it as FAT(32)?
> > Will Linux read NTFS formatted partitions?
>
> I assume you will be wanting to do this installation on a machine that
> is currently running XP Pro, which by default formats the disk as NTFS.
>
> You need to decide if you want to retain XP and install Linux as well so
> that you can dual boot, or if you are going to flick XP and only have
Linux.
>
> Linux does not use NTFS as its base format, it usually uses ext3
> (depends on the distribution). If you want to have both XP and Linux
> then you can ntfs-ng to access the XP partition.
This is what I do:
* reboot the machine from Ubuntu 7.04 live CD (other distros work too)
* go to System/Administration/Gnome Partition Editor
* Shrink the NTFS partition according to need (50% ?)
* create a new Linux swap partition (twice your ram size? about 2 gig)
* create a new Linux ext3 partition in the remaining space
* leave any hidden Windows recovery partition as it is
* apply changes
then use the installer function you will see on your desktop and let the
very clever system do the rest.
You will have to make some decisions, but mostly the system does it for
you, including creating a nice dual boot menu that works perfectly.
>From recollection, the NTFS file system will be available "read only" in
the default set up. If you aren't sure what you are doing, that is
probably a good thing, because it reduces the chance that you will stuff
up your Windows set up. Linux is much more forgiving, and in any case
Windows can't read ext3.
A flash drive or external drive will transfer Windows <-> Linux. There
are other ways of doing it (see above), but that's the simplest.
I made the mistake of deleting windows entirely on one laptop. I don't
recommend that. For one thing, if you go to sell your laptop it scares a
lot of potential buyers away. Of course once they realise that Linux is
mostly better, they may well become converts but there is no point in
scaring them off. Also there are unfortunately SOME things that still
require Windows (eg: my 4 year old grandson's car racing game).
One important caveat: Make sure you backup your data before changing
partitions. Personally, I've never had a crash or problem with this
procedure, but I wouldn't bet my next great novel or my PhD thesis on
it. But then again, you back up everything anyway, don't you???
Oh, and don't forget to plug in mains power if it's a laptop. I hate to
think what happens if you lose battery half way through a partition
change. Does anyone know?
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ken Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "P. G. Schmitt" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Thu, 10 May 2007 11:35:16 +1000
Subject: Re: [SLUG] I'd like to know...
P. G. Schmitt wrote:
> Looking at installing for the first time. The drive is currently NTFS.
> Will Linux install to this or do I need to redo it as FAT(32)?
> Will Linux read NTFS formatted partitions?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Paul.
If you want to keep windows and have a desktop,then the simplest is to
install another drive. then there is no danger to your existing install.
Make backups, especially if you have to repartition the only drive on a
laptop. Partition the drive and format with ext3 for Linux (whatever
your partitioning requirements are, but a separate /home partition is
good for a home user), with another partition formatted as fat32 for
data sharing between windows and Linux.
Linux reads and writes to fat32
Linux reads ntfs but write is not good (experimental)
Ken
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Howard Lowndes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To:
Date: Thu, 10 May 2007 11:36:44 +1000
Subject: Re: [SLUG] recommendations for SATA RAID controllers?
Amos Shapira wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Does anyone have recommendations on which SATA RAID PCI controller cards
> should I look for a 4-disk mirror array?
>
> I got a recommendation for LSI Logic MegaRAID SATA 150-4 64-bit PCI (
> http://tinyurl.com/2zkljw) but need to find an explanation why that
> controller and not something other (cheaper? better?).
>
> I remember one of the (PostgresQL?) people at LCA-2007 mentioned a good
> RAID
> controller but can't remember which (some Diamond card?) and how it
stacks
> up against the LSI above.
>
> The intended use right now is for some file-archive server with
important
> files on it (hence the redundancy requirement). I was thinking of using
> Linux software RAID (Debian Etch) but was very sternly warned not to do
> that
> on a production system.
I don't know why not. I have had far more problems with SATA, esp mobo
integrated, when running in RAID mode than when running in IDE mode and
using software RAID.
>
> Thanks,
>
> --Amos
--
Howard.
LANNet Computing Associates - Your Linux people <http://lannetlinux.com>
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When you want a computer system that works, just, choose Microsoft.
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