I can advise you about a couple of items. My program specific comments
are from Mandrake-Linux 7. I do not have experience with other versions, so
adjust accordingly.
BIOS The first problem is to get in. <DEL>, <F1> or <F10> are the most
common, and you have to do them early enough. If worse comes to worse
removing the hard drive signal cable will get you in. When you are in, the
first thing to look for is two ways to exit-- one saving changes, and one
NOT< if you are not SURE about everything that you've done exit without
saving and try again. Next look for an option about "peripherals" or perhaps
"advanced (since there are something like 12 various CMOS BIOS it's a little
hard to tell you what to look for). Stay away from the drive page. On this
page (that usually has information on COM and printer ports and
configurations) find something about PnP aware O/S, Windows 95, or initialize
PnP devices> you want the choice that lets the BIOS initialize these devices.
This should not cause an installed Windows system a problem.
If Windows is not installed, use the Windows FDISK to allocate the amount
of space you want your Windows section to have, and go ahead and install
Windows so your dual boot will be properly configured (at the very least
format it the partition). If Windows is installed you can use the included
fips to reallocate space as needed (read the documentation first, of
course!). Do not make any other partitions with the Windows FDISK. Delete
everything else, let Linux take care of itself. The Linux install will find
and use the unallocated space, and I found it safe to let it auto-allocate
partitions for Linux. Note that the instructions that came with my Mandrake7
emphasized to begin the install with a boot floppy if Windows was installed,
or the hard disk would be taken over by Linux (if you were to boot from the
CD). After the install has auto-allocated disk space it will wait for
confirmation before writing the partition table.
Expect that Linux is a system that you will take more trouble to install
and less once it's up and running. I'm changing over from Windows because
it's easy to install but ongoing trouble. Nothings perfect, though computers
are supposed to be.
-Gary-
