[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Spiros Kapetanakis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote on 05/09/2002 (20:34) : > > > > Initially, I have the following questions: > > > > 1. How do I resize the other operating system's partition (it's the XP > > variety) without having to reinstall? The only reason why I need to do > > this instead of just wiping out completely is so because I don't really > > want to fiddle with the other OS, I wouldn't know where to start. When I > > get everything working under Linux, I'm going to wipe the other OS anyway. > > Hmm I guess you need somthing like Partition Magic. I think there is a > GNU tool too, but I have forgotten the name. > GNUParted; I used it with Win98 and works fine for repartitioning. You can download it in two floppies. > > > 2. When the installation asks me to make a boot floppy, I _KNOW_ that > > I should do it. But, the DVD will be in the drive at the time so I > > won't have a floppy. How do I go round this problem? > on my Dell Latitude the CD was on the drive but the floppy was connected externally and had no problem in recognising it. > > Can you take out the DVD driver and insert the floppy while the machine is on? > > If not make Linux bootable and when you reboot the system do a : > > mkboot > > > 3. I typically have different partitions for /, /boot, /usr, > > /usr/local, /home, /tmp and /var. Should I do this with my laptop or > > should I stick with one big partition and a swap partition? Is it > > advisable to have multiple partitions on a laptop? > > There is no difference between laptops and desktop, but I guess you are > not going to use the laptop as a server? I never bother with making > special partitions for /boot /usr /tmp /var etc... except /home. You > must make a partition for /home as you then seperate your files from the > system. This makes it easier to backup or to avoid problems in case you > should need to reinstall later. On a server you should have a partition > for /var and /tmp so that you don't risk running out of disc space on /, > but for a non server this is not a problem. Why do you have a /boot > partition? Too many partitions makes a mess of things I think. > > > 4. Is there anyone out there that has installed Debian on an Inspiron > > 4150? > On the Latitude I got trouble with the X-windows: the screen and mouse and kb > were working ok, but i lost all the other ttyx, not being able to go back to > text mode, but it might have been a problem with the API driver.
