Intalling Linux

[Balaji Loganathan]

Hi,
I would like to install Linux and play around with it.
At present i have 6 gb free space on my C drive - no partition - running windows 2000 professional edition.
Please tell me which version or model of Linux should i download escp for testing java based web development,apache etc.,
Any precautions before i install.
some documentation URL ..
thanks.
Regards
Balaji

[Ashok Mash]

There are a number of things that you need to do before even inserting Linux disk in your CD Drive. They are basically backup of your existing valuable data, settings, recovery disks etc, preparing a complete hardware list of your machines (devices, drivers, graphics card, screen resolution, refresh frequency etc etc). There are numerous sites explaining installation, and there are actually different pages for different machines.
For example, This page for Dell Inspiron : http://ucsub.colorado.edu/~morgane/
I would suggest you trying out RedHat or Mandrake because they are relatively easy to install, configure and master. There are loads of resources available online for these two most popular distros.
First of all, you might need some tools like Partition Magic to resize your existing hard disk partition and free up some space as 'unpartitioned' so that linux installer can make it self home
Also, if you are really a newbie, I would suggest trying VMWare, which basically simulates a virtual machine (complete with CD, floppy, memory etc) so that you can play around installing/testing everything with out actually having to even restart your existing Windows 2000 box.
Hope this helps,
Ashok.

[Balaji Loganathan]

Thats quite helpful.
I would like try Redhat first,but i'm really afraid to try these installation procedures,backup etc., ,its not like installing tomcat

Do you have suggestions on installing "Dragon Linux v 2.1.0" I found this from www.linux.org site ?
Thanks again.

[Ashok Mash]

Sorry I wouldn?t know much about Dragon distro, I am afraid.
May I ask you what makes you pick that distro? If you want to try Linux with minimum hassle, I would suggest you try KNOPIX distro. You can burn a (single) CD of KNOPIX distro, boot from the CD and work away as a normal machine. No installation, no mess-ups, only configuration and more configurations, which will be very helpful to learn different aspects of Linux.
KNOPIX - http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/
Good luck.

[Balaji Loganathan]

Hi Ashok,
I'm not allowed to make partition,that the reason i opt for dragon.
Knoppix is more interesting than dragon..Thanks for the info. I wil try it soon and comeup with more qustions.
thanks again Mr Linux savvy.
Regards
Balaji

[Marilyn de Queiroz]

Moved to Linux/Unix forum

[Tim Holloway]

Knoppix is what they're using to teach Linux at the local Junior College. As I understand it, it's RedHat-like except that you don't have to destroy your existing Windows setup to use it.
Of course the downside is that you won't have a "permanent" Linux filesystem either, but for learning purposes, it's great. And since it's based on a real-world Linux model, once you get brave and go for a full-blown disk-resident Linux, you'll pretty much know how to work with it.

[Ashok Mash]

Knopix is based on Debian Linux. But scoring point with beginners would be that Knopix comes with KDE instead of not-that-user-friendly GNOME.

[Balaji Loganathan]

Hi,
Yes I was successfully able to run the knoppix from a CD. Gots lot of utilities,the look and feel is really nice.
Ashok!,Thanks for pointing me this great link .
Trying to explore it now. .
Regards
Balaji

[Sonny Gill]

hi,
if you just want to play around a bit, have you considered something like cygwin, www.cygwin.com i am not aware of relative merits or dismerits but it is a bit less intimidating for someone coming from a Windows background

[Balaji Loganathan]

Originally posted by Sandeep Gill:
if you just want to play around a bit, have you considered something like cygwin, www.cygwin.com

hi,
i'm happy with knoppix now,but plz tell me how cygwin wil look like when installed,that is when i click from start menu,does it will totally take me to new unix like windows layered over "windows 2000 desktop" or a command prompt,does it comes with utilities like browsers,http server etc.,
My intention is test my web application in various platform and learn as well.I have some exp on working with Solaris 8 OS.
Regards
Balaji

[Frank Carver]

Cygwin is something different, really. Cygwin is an implementation of a bundle of the common unix tools on a Windows system. It's great if you need to use Windows but really miss the powerful scripting and network tools which come with unix systems. If you maintain a web site and have never used "rsync", for example, you should really check it out.

[Balaji Loganathan]

Hi Again,
My knoppix have detected all the devices except Modem. I tired to make a dial-up connection with knoppix,but " it says modem not found error ",
I'm using an internal Modem ESS E356CVM-PI Data Fax voice modem.
Please help me on how to mount it.Once its done then i will totally turn into Linux life.
Frank thanks for your reply.
Regards
Balaji

[Balaji Loganathan]

Can some one please point me to some step by step document on installing MODEM on Linux OS.
I guess first I need to have ESS MODEM driver files for Linux,then use the mount command ??
Pleae give some tips.
Regards
Balaji

[Ashok Mash]

Did you check this link? http://andrew.cait.org/ess/
I have never done this before, and it looks pretty scary, to be frank! But since you don?t have a permanent Linux file system in place, I am not really sure how effective these compilations and configurations would be.
Have fun!
Ashok.

[Balaji Loganathan]

Thanks for replying Ashok,
I tried them before and it says the modem files were complied for previous of kernel,please re-compile them and try again.
I don't how to do it,but will try it soon.
Thanks again
Regards
Balaji

[Ashik Uzzaman]

I installed Red Hat 7.3 in my Pentium 4 machine without any trouble. I was afraid about my 17" monitor and got that the monitor is not in its list, but Red Hat itself provided the alternate proposal that is working nicely.
A few months earlier I installed Mandrake 8.x and it also did not give any trouble to my Pentium 1 233 MMX!!

[Ashik Uzzaman]

One thing is that when I have upgraded my PC from O/S from Red Hat 7.3 to Red Hat 8.0, I removed previous linux partition and installed 8.0 anew. When installing I chose only my necessary packages and disselected all devel packages. It did not hamper my installation.
So I came to the decision that no package has dependency with devel and man pages if I do not will to use them. Is it wrong?
---- Ashik
Red Hat 8.0 is enough!

[Ashok Mash]

Package dependencies will be sorted out in the dialog next to the one where you select the packages you want to install. That is if package 'A' that you have selected install requires another package say 'Asub' to be installed, RedHat will notify you that 'Asub' is required as well, and so selected to install. All you got to do is press 'Next'

[Bruce Jin]

morphix is better:
http://www.morphix.org/modules/news/

[roy joseph]

Morphix looks great however....
you have to choose which morphix you want. its bad enough to choose which linux to choose???
1. can you suggest which morphix version i should use for learning java in linux?
2. does it come with java sdk? or do i need to download it too?
3. will i be able to save my files to my hardisk?
4. if i dont need to create a linux partition then how will be able to save files?
5. im gonna install it on my compaq laptop, is this wise?
6. what about tomcat and eclipse? will there be issues when using them?
7. recommended books?

I am a complete newbie. all i know is 'ls' is equal to dir in dos. I could really use some handholding here. all i really want is just install linux as painlessly as possible and then do some java stuff on it.
Thanks,