Introduction

Hi, My name is Bernard Tyers, and I have been using Linux for about 2/3 years. I still consider myself as a newbie. I am a electronics student in Waterford Institute of Tech.
I wrote this for my own need really. I wanted to have something that I could use as a question answerer. If it is useful, you use it. If you want to add/change anything, you can. Just let me know first, and make sure those involved get a mention.

Ok so, you have heard so much about Linux, it's faster, more stable, cheaper, more efficient. You say, " I want to learn more but I don't want to loose my Windows files and applications... Well good news. Don't despair. You can have both Linux, and Windows9* (and other operating systems as well, see farther down) living on the same computer, even better, living on the same hard drive. This is really useful if you *DO* want to learn, and take the bother of switching to a better OS.

Windows and Linux can live comfortably on the same the same machine, even the same harddrive. The choice of operating systems can be made at the boot-up sequence when you thro the power switch. This configuration is known as the "dual-boot" configuration. This is how most linux users start off. Unless you're a BOFH of course *grin*.

Ok, so what type of a machine do you need? Well it depends on what type of installation you want. Well, my current machine is a Pentium 166MMX, 32MB memory, hda = 2GB, hdb = 2GB (both IDE. hda is the Win95 drive, hdb is the Linux drive), a logitech wheel mouse, two floppy drives (1.44MB), a 32X CD, and a 100MB parallel Zip, and an external 56K modem.

The configuration I am going to show here will be installing Linux on the same physical drive as the Windows drive. I will later, (when I get a chance) write an install faq/manual thingy for a two physical drive installation.

Ok, are do you have your seat-belt on? Here we go. Anything typed inside these ' ' is a command. Type what's inside them.

Partition and File System

So, the first two terms that you should be conversant with are: 1) partition, and 2) File System. The physical disk can be divided into smaller, seperate pieces which can belong to different owners, and have different systems on each.

For a dual boot, Windows * will own some and Linux will own others. The word "partition" does not refer to the wall, the "partition", but the actual space that is seperated. Therefore we can say that Win will be installed on the first (second, etc) partition.

The file system is the method of organiation, the system uses. For example on CDs, the file system is the ISO9660 file system . Regarding the operating system, the hard disk can have different file systems located on it. The operating system provides the directory tree (like the *nix tree analogy) as a file system, catalog of available files.
Each operating system has its own file system. One advantage of Linux over Win* is it can read both file systems used by Win95 and Win98.

Move over Windows, here comes Linux.

Most Linux distros come with a tool to allow you to resize/repartition your drive. The most popular/widely distributed tool is called FIPS. The First (non-destructive) Interactive Partition Splitter, it is usually found on the Linux distro CD.

It normally resides in a /dosutils directory. You should also have a blank formatted floppy at hand for use as a boot disk. I have found it is handy to do a full format, scandisk, and defrag the harddrive. The one thing you don't want happen in an emergency, is you "backup" boot floppy be fragged or have bad sectors. Not nice! For Win95, 3.XX that should be enough.

If you have Win98 installed or a more recent install of Win95 with a large hard disk (bigger than 2GB), you probably need to add some tools if you are using a FAT32 file system.

In this install I have used partition magic dos version (pqmagict), a little dos based version of PQMAGIC. If you want this little disk, you can download it from my website. At http://snet.wit.ie/bbt/downloads. It should be there. The whole thing fits on a 1.44MB (dos) floppy, with about 300K free. It is a very useful, and easy application to use.

FAT32 Support Requirements

To have access to your Win partition from Linux (file sharing between Linux and Win), which is useful, think of all those MP3s... you will also need a version 2.0.34 of the Linux kernel or higher. Below is a list of recent Linux distros and the kernel build versions (2.0.34 or higher!) that support FAT32.

If your kernel version doesn't support Fat32 you will have to upgrade the kernel. I'm not too hot on kernel upgrades, so I'm not going to say too much on that. As ever RTFM!

Distribution:
		Earliest Version with FAT32 Support
Red Hat 
		Version 5.1 (with kernel 2.0.34)

Red Hat
		Version 6.0 (with kernel 2.0.36)

SuSE
		Version 5.3 (with kernel 2.0.35)

SuSE
		Version 6.0 (with kernel 2.0.36)

Debian GNU/Linux
		Version 2.0 (with kernel 2.0.34)

Doctor, shall we prepare the patient?

OK, you have PQMAGIC, a floppy? so we can begin.

So, we want to create two partitions, 1 for ROOT (/) and 1 for usr information. Firstly, select a new drive(d). Choose you LINUX drive, (here I choose drive 2).
Then, options (O). We create the partition (T).
We then get the messgae :" Seletced Free space crosses 1024 cylinder boundary FAT partitions will be limited to 504.0MB.

You must limit other partitions to this size and place them at the start of the free space for the partitions to be bootable. "
We can ignore this. Just press any key. So, we are going to create the PRIMARY partition.
We can choose an unformatted type (5), since it doesn't give an option for any LINUX type.
We are then asked to enter the new partition size. We are given a valid range value.

For my SWAP partition, I am going to give 80MB. Quite often you'll read:
"Swap should be at least as large as physical RAM." This quote is a relic of times when 8MB was regarded as alot of RAM.
Applications that need considerable memory have shifted this value up. Generally, 64MB of virtual swap should be sufficient. Don't be a scrooge. SWAP can help when your physical mem is used up. If you compile a kernel under X and want to look at man pages in HTML and have a heavy-duty editor (like EMACS running you'll eat up that 64MB very quickly.
To be safe opt for about 96MB of SWAP. Never not assign SWAP. Even on a 256MB RAM machine give a SWAP.

We are then asked where we want to create the partition, at the beginning or at the end. We will choose to put the SWAP at the beginning.
We then get a confirmation, of how big the partition is going to be, what type, and where it will be. We then press T to create it.
We then choose the D again to select a new drive.
We again choose the LINUX drive. We choose the final partition that is left. We create another partition. (T).

Again the cylinder boundary message comes up, ignore it.
We the choose the unformatted version again. I only want to have 2 partitions on my drive, so, I make the last partition the full size of the remainder. (In my case 951.9MB), this is pretty much up to yourself. It is better practice to create:
one partition for SWAP, one partition for personal data (something like /usr/) and one for the actual root dir, ( ' / '). This does help, if you accidently do a 'rm -rf', and delete all your system /personal information. But since its only a standalone, home usage, I just keep it all on the one partition.

Again I create this partition at the end of the drive, and hit T to create.
The we can exit PQ Magic.We then change our BOOT sequence in our BIOS to CR-ROM first. This is to allow your machine to detect the LINUX install medium, which will be more-than-likely from CD-ROM. Then reboot your machine.

On my machine at the boot stage I hit delete key and it allows me enter the BIOS. Hit the Advanced Boot setup, and it will show the current sequence. Change it and reboot. (This information will change from pc to pc, have a look at your BIOS before you begin the install). When the machine reboots, it should pick up the CD-ROM. In my case it was S.u.S.E 6.
The pc then tells me that it will use LILO-Boot from CD. It then loads the setup sequence, and presents you with a black/white screen, and a list of lanugages.

Choose ENGLISH, unless your feeling adventrous, and want to try installtions in French. The colour display. The Keyboard MAP then (UK). You can pick the primary ENGLISH setup.
Then MAIN menu.
You have a choice of Settings (which is just what you were at)
System INFO, whioch consists of Kernel messages, Harddisk /ROMS found.
Modules already loaded.
PCI info
Processor
Memory
I/O PortsNTS Devices
Network Card
DMA
Kernel Modules.
You are given a choice of Loading
SCSI
CD-ROM
NIC
PCMCIA
Show loaded
Unload
Autoload
modules. The easiest way is to autoload the modules, if you don't know what hardware you have installed in your machine. One thing is if you have a ZIP drive, you will have to hand install the module. Another strange little thing is the module for the ZIP is in the SCSI list.

You then choose that you want to install LINUX from scratch.
Select the destination hard disk.
Choose your target drive, mine is /dev/hdb.
Choose the partitioing choice then

/dev/hdb1	1	183	92200	type 82 swap
/dedv/hbb2	184	2097	964656	83 native

You change the type with F3. We then continue.
We must select swap partition.. in my case /dev/hdb1 92200
You will then get the message "your swap seems to be valid". YAST then configures the swap

We then create filesystems
"An inode is created for every file when it is created. They are stored AFAIK in linked lists on the disk and are used to describe the directory , owner and access rights of a file. It also stores file type , creation ,access and modification times. Files are mapped to inodes using their directory files and all file access is carried out through the inode via a direct or indirect data block pointer.
Inodes may be listed using ls -lai."

We must change the INODE dentisy to 1096.
"The INODE density gives the average size of a file on a particular partition. The number of inodes determines how many files can be created on a given partition. If this number is too small, it can happen that a partition seems to be full although there are still some blocks left. Eg, if you choose 4096 bytes pre inode, it means that onb average you expect each file to have a size of 4KB. Imagine you put only small files(1KB) on this partition, you will only be able to use a quarter of your HD since the partition will seem to be "full"."
4KB seems to be an adequate size in most cases. More INODES per partition means there is less net data space, since inode tables also have to be written on this partition.

Pressing F4 lets you choose where you want to mount the partitions.
You HAVE to assign one partition as the root partition, put in mount point, which is ' / '
Then continue. If you need HELP, you can press F1.
It asks you do you want to create the SWAP filesystem.
"Do you want to create the /dev/hdb2 partition. All data will be lost."
It then creates the filesystem.

Thats about it, when it comes to the actual setup of the install. After that it is up to you what packages you want to install.
Once you have chosen which packages you want to install you can choose the install packages command. You have to have all the CDs at hand, because it will ask you to change CDs during the install process.

Kernel and Boot Configuration.

You can choose to install any of the precompiled kernels on the SuSE CD. TaST will suggest to write the kernel config file (called .config) to /usr/src/linux.
As soon as you have set up the distribution, you should build a customized kernel which is perfectly adapted to your system.This kernel will be suited exactly to your machine and faster then any on the distro CDs.
You can also create a BOOT disk for your system, which is VERY important, since you will be able to boot your entire system even if something goes wrong while installing LILO or you can't boot from the harddrive for some reason.

Configuring LILO.

YaST also allows you to configure LILO. You will be using LILO as your boot-manager, to boot between your two (or more) OS installs. One thing BE CAREFUL WITH WINDOWS NT. For reasons( not yet known to me) NT seems not to like to share the boot management with anything.
It will ask you "where to install LILO". If you plan to start Linux in a dual situation (you should be, or why are you reading this!) you should install it in the Master-Boot-Sector.
Then choose a reasonble time for the "Timeout time". This is the time it takes for the boot sequence to wait for you to choose which OS you want to boot.
You will have to create a new configuration, use F4. Give your new config a name. It has been proven to be a good choice to name this linux. You can change the config by F5.
"Which operating system?". Here you have two alternatives, Boot Linux, and Boot DOS.
To choose the root partition press F3.
When this is all configured. Reboot your machine and pray to the great tux in the sky.

How to boot with LILO

	boot:

Ok, thats it. If anyone wants to mail me you can get me at: btyers@snet.wit.ie.

One more thing, thanks to:
Shane Dempsey for the information on the INODE problem
Linux Journal for giving alot of useful information
And the SuSE team for producing a well readable manual.