Trying out a Linux distro

[Llew]

I'm presently filling up a HDD on another PC with a Linux OS ( Linux Mint/Ubuntu). I'm keeping it as a separate OS, not dual booting with WinXP - just manually swapping cables, as one HDD is SATA and the other IDE. Is there a way of booting up my choice of drive with, say, a key press or two?

It's my first try with anything other than Windows, and I'm particularly impressed with the features in Linux Mint.

I've had it working without problems for a few days, and I'm just adding stuff on the fly (printer/ DVB card drivers, VLC etc. via Ubuntu).

The only problem I had was that there's no driver yet for the latest Skycard 2 that I have ( v2.7), and I had to revert to my older Skycard 2 (v2.6) which had a burnt out choke in the DiseqC circuit. Had to rewind that with new copper wire (a common problem with this version apparently).

I'll post updates as to my progress . Any tips etc. would be welcome - the only experience I've had so far with Linux is with my Triple Dragon STB, so keep it basic!

Llew

[EDW]

I'm dual booting Xp and Mepis. I have two hdd drives one with an OS on each and grub bootloader. Very easy to set up. I guess you have to choose which OS to use by choosing from the BIOS.

I only use xp for satellite card now. Mepis is much better for general stuff esp. the internet.

When you load Mepis, it puts the bootloader on for you if you want. You only need about 3gig of space.

[dago]

hi m8's, I have xp and sabayon64, on two separet drives, witch system
I use depends on what I'm doing. on the whole I find sobayon far more
reliable. sorry, to answer you question f10 or f11 will let you select
a drive.
regards.

[Llew]

Thanks guys. I think I missed a trick when installing Mint, I should have chosen how to boot earlier during installation.

Llew

[PoloMint]

I... Is there a way of booting up my choice of drive with, say, a key press or two? ...

Does your bios have a shortcut to a change boot order menu?

I've seen this a few times, it flashes up while the BIOS screen is on, and it's something like 'Press F7 to change boot option' and F7 brings up a menu like 'HDD1, HDD2, DVD etc' but this does not change the default options so next time you power up it will be as before.

[Topper]

F12 on some makes allows you to select the boot drive for that boot only I do not think manufacturers have agreed to a specific key

[Llew]

Does your bios have a shortcut to a change boot order menu?

I've seen this a few times, it flashes up while the BIOS screen is on, and it's something like 'Press F7 to change boot option' and F7 brings up a menu like 'HDD1, HDD2, DVD etc' but this does not change the default options so next time you power up it will be as before.

I can manually change the boot options on power up PM, and I did do that originally. I think I'm just playing safe by removing the XP drive manually.

However, I'll go back doing that pending any other possibilities.

Llew

[Llew]

F12 on some makes allows you to select the boot drive for that boot only I do not think manufacturers have agreed to a specific key

Could be worth a try Topper. May be something in the mobo manual (Bios section). I'll see what happens.

[Terrydlm]

I have another suggestion for running different Linux distros on one Windows PC.

There is a fantastic product called VirtualBox which will let you run different operating systems in a virtual environment. (other virtual software is available i.e. vmware)

I run Windows XP SP2 as my main local operating system installed on my C drive. I have Virtualbox installed and i have 3 different Linux distro's installed on my D drive. When i want e.g. OpenSuse then i start the OpenSuSE distro. If i want another distro i open that etc. This is not limited to Linux, you could run another XP machine or for some weird reason Vista etc.

Worth looking at.

[Llew]

Could be a neat solution. Will check it out, although I'm still on a learning curve (cliff?) and don't want to get too involved with other add-ons until I've done a bit more research.

Cheers,

Llew

[Terrydlm]

VirtualBox is good for learning with. What you can do is to build your Linux distro in VirtualBox and then patch it etc. Once the distro is installed you make a copy of it and keep the copy (call it clean or something like that). You then use the original image you created and mess around with that (call it the live image)

If you screw up the live image you can then delete it, copy the "clean" image to make another clean image (so your back to having 2 clean images) and one of those images will become the live image again. Takes seconds to do.

Saves having to reinstall Linux from scratch as and when you screw it up.

You need to have a largeish hard drive but they are so cheap these days thats not really an issue.

Another consideraton is RAM. If you have e.g. 1GB of RAM to run your normal Windows, when you start your virtualbox image you will have to allocate an amount of that 1GB of RAM to be used for that image, so for example lets say you have 1GB of RAM total in your PC, you allocate 512MB of RAM to your Linux VirtualBox image that would leave 512MB for Windows. (Depending on your version of Linux it is unlikely you will need anywhere near 512MB of RAM anyway)

You can always change the amount of RAM allocated to your Virtualbox image from the main virtualbox screen.

You will have the same sharing issue with the processor but you cannot control how much processor resource is allocated to your virtualbox image.

The best bit about virtualbox is its free! Also it is only a small 17.4MB download.

[2cvbloke]

I'm now using Kubuntu linux while my laptop's out of action, and I love it, although I think I've broken it already!!! Anyway, as for dual-booting, Kubuntu and other distros I think come with GRUB boot loader (as EDW mentioned) which allows you to run multiple OS' on the same machine, it installs automatically and detects any other OS' on your drives, but it does need to modify the main hard drive's boot sector in order for it to work properly, but if it's done correctly it shouldn't be any problem...

Also, you'll need fast fingers as it gives you 3 seconds to choose your OS...

[Llew]

Yes, I think I'll do a fresh install and sort out the bootloader options ( I was impatient to get it working).

Meanwhile, this W/E I'll try Terrydim's VirtualBox suggestion.

Llew

[2cvbloke]

How did you get on?

[Llew]

Well 2CV, I've done a fresh install of Linux Mint on the new drive (this time making sure I can boot to Win XP if necessary over on the other drive on booting up the PC.)

On the Win XP drive I added VirtualBox if at any time I want to try another distro there, although I can add one to a partition on the Mint drive if I want.

The Mint distro is excellent. I can bring files over from Win XP as easy as pie, and the software update facility from the Ubuntu source files gives me loads of applications to try. Firefox is much quicker too than on Win XP.

I'm using Kaffeine as my DVB tuner ATM, looking now for an emulator plugin.

I hope in time to use this as an alternative to XP when I get going properly.

Llew

[2cvbloke]

Well 2CV, I've done a fresh install of Linux Mint on the new drive (this time making sure I can boot to Win XP if necessary over on the other drive on booting up the PC.)

On the Win XP drive I added VirtualBox if at any time I want to try another distro there, although I can add one to a partition on the Mint drive if I want.

The Mint distro is excellent. I can bring files over from Win XP as easy as pie, and the software update facility from the Ubuntu source files gives me loads of applications to try. Firefox is much quicker too than on Win XP.

I'm using Kaffeine as my DVB tuner ATM, looking now for an emulator plugin.

I hope in time to use this as an alternative to XP when I get going properly.

Llew

Sounds great, I'm getting on well with kubuntu myself, getting used to using the Konsole thing (like a DOS box but uses different commands and does a hell of a lot more!!!) and have access to my files on my Laptop's drive, had to manually mount them cos of my laptop's cutting out problems, but it works perfectly, all I need to do is upgrade the RAM cos 256mb isn't doing well...

Wine on the other hand, I try to run it and it locks the system up, typical, try and use anything to do with Windows and it crashes!!!

I'll be using Firefox as soon as I pull myself away from Konqueror, mainly cos YouTube doesn't work properly in Konqueror, but everything else works fine...

[2cvbloke]

I've just discovered a problem, I can't get access to my Outlook .pst files...

That's mucked up my repeat prescription for happy pills....

[Llew]

Yes, haven't touched on the commands much yet, only /apt get install and a few others

Most of what I need can be obtained anyway from the GUI.

Just downloaded Filezilla for FTPing to my TD.

[2cvbloke]

Yes, haven't touched on the commands much yet, only /apt get install and a few others

Most of what I need can be obtained anyway from the GUI.

Just downloaded Filezilla for FTPing to my TD.

The commands are a nightmare when you're new to this, luckily though some developers have included instructions with their software, but in most cases they can be installed using Adept (or using the "apt-get" command)...

I got gFTP (through Adept) for my FTP needs, took a little while to get it to connect, but again I got there in the end...

[Llew]

I've now installed the Mandriva Power Pack 2008 that came with a recent Linux mag, and I'm having dual booting problems again

First time, I installed the boot with Grub in the MBR of the XP drive, but soon realised that it apparently doesn't take kindly to the Linux boot version there.

Second install, the boot went into the first SDA partition on the SATA drive, but Mandriva hung on the splash screen...

I've formatted a couple of extra partitions on the second drive to take the Mint and possibly another distro, but I reckon I'll still have problems booting to either Mandrake or Mint.

So I'll stick for now with taking out the power plug of the XP drive to allow booting up Mandriva, as I prefer the KDE desktop, and can access the .kde Kaffeine folder for updating satellite channel lists (something I can't find in the Gnome version of Linux Mint).

Llew