Ok here goes. I am an experienced PC user. I've been into it since the days of 486SX chips. I have had in interest in Linux for quite some time, but have always hit serious walls when trying to get it set up. I have tried Caldera's distro, about 2 years ago on a 486 and found it basically useless. I've tried Corel's distro, but got so ticked trying to get X running properly that I gave up. Now for the first time I am trying Debian. I now have a cable connection to the internet, so winmodem support is no longer an issue as i can just use direct TCP/IP.
I have partitioned a separate physical disk into 3 partitions: /hdb1 is 3GB for my root. /hdb5 is 800MB for /usr, and /hdb6 is 128MB for swap. My primary OS is Win2k Pro. I want to be able to dual-boot when it's all said and done, which is why i've used 2 physical disks to try to keep things sep. and clean. I have downloaded the latest disribution and burned it to CD. When i try to install debian however (after the partitioning/keyboard steps) it says it cannot find the files it needs on the CD in /images-1.44/. the directory exists, and the files should be there as i have not modified the structure. My rescue and root disks work ok. I'm using the "vanilla" package. First: is this partition scheme OK before i continue? Second: will dual booting be easy to accomplish? if so, how? Third: Why can't it find the files? I'm sorry if these are simple dumbo questions, but the documentation has not helped me in these areas. BTW my system specs are: PIII 500 (DELL) 128MB RAM 12GB drive (Win2k) 4GB drive (Debian-to-be) Xitel PCI Sound SMC Network GeForce2 GTS Video Thanks so much for any help! -C