tlug: How to install Linux (Part 1) ...

[Ulrike Schmidt <798a5047@example.com>]

Hello,

for the fist time in my life I want to install an OS on a computer, just
to prepare you for the questions which will follow.

I want to install Red Hat 5.0 with a CD on a Japanese Aptiva. On the
CD it says "Under Windows 95 you should shut down your computer into
MSDOS mode then type in the letter of your CDROM driven then type
'view'." There is no Windows 95 on my computer at the moment, just a
little bit of MSDOS and the CD driver (besides command.com et al.). When
I enter view, I don't see anything anymore. :-(

After reading the documentation I consulted with a friend, and he told
me to make a backup of my few files, to use fips to partition the the
disc into two: 100 MB for swap and the rest of about 1,6 GB, then to
make 2 boot discs using rawwrite und BOOT.IMG and SUPP.IMG, and then
boot with the first one.

Upon reading the documentation again and trying to backup the few files
on the harddisc I had the following questions, which I cannot ask my
friend, since he is not reachable at the moment:

1. Currently there is only a little part of DOS on the harddrive and the
CD-ROM driver. I made a system disc (or how you call it, "sys a:"), and
on another disc I copied autoexec.bat, config.sys and the content of the
dos and the cdrom directories, since it would not fit all on the system
disc.

Are these two discettes enough to reinstall DOS when neccessary? Can I
just boot with the system disc and copy everything to the harddisc with
"copy"?

2. I might reinstall Windows 95 on this computer and install Linux on
another one in some weeks.
Should I leave a DOS partition on the harddrive, or should I just make
partitions for Linux? Would this effect my attempts to reinstall DOS?

Fips seems to need a DOS formatted partition to work,: "If you want to
split the new partition again in two smaller ones, you must first format
it under DOS, otherwise FIPS will complain."

So can I just later format a Linux partition after booting with my
system disc and with format.com, in order to make it a DOS partition
again?

3. How many partitions should I make for Linux using fips before
starting the installation?

In the documentation they recommend the following partitions:

- A swap partition
- A root partition
- A /usr partition
- A /home partition

and additionally maybe:
-  A /usr/local partition
-  A /usr/src partition

Regarding the root partition they mention some Lilo constraints, of
which the following will apply: "the partition that holds /boot must be
located entirely below cylinder 1023."

My friend on the other hand told me to make two partitions:
- one swap partition with 100 MB
- and another one with the rest of the harddrive (about 1,6 GB).

Is there a danger, that the other partition would be too big for Lilo,
beyond cylinder 1023?

My friend told me to use fips for this partitioning, and then to start
the installation. So in this case the partitioning would be before the
installation instead of: "During the installation process, you'll be
given the chance to create partitions for Red Hat Linux." as the
documentation says.

Should I just make one partition for Linux before installation and then
do the other ones during installation? Or should I make two partitions,
as my friend told me, before installation and forget about additional
partitions during the installation process?

4. Regarding fips they write "At the present time, the fips utility
cannot resize the new FAT32-style partitions found on many newer
computers. If your computer has a FAT32 partition, you can either use
destructive repartitioning, or purchase commercial disk management
software capable of shrinking FAT32 partitions."

How can I find out whether my computer has a FAT32-style partition?

I found in the system information the following, of which I don't
whether it is of any use:
    Rapid Resume: APM BIOS MODE 32 Bit Protected

Or will I find out when I try to use fips and it does not work? On the
other hand, if I don't leave a DOS partition on the computer, I might as
well just use destructive partitioning, I guess, instead of fips ...

These are my questions.

Someone who is really eager to get this running the day before yesterday
...

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