Help with Installing Fedora 8

[Pinchy]

Ive currently got Vista loaded on my computer and I plan on installing Fedora 8. So, I used Acronis disk director to resize my main 115GB OS partition to a new partition called linux, being 35GB. I also made this new 35GB partition primary and active.

Just for reference, I have 5 (now 6 with Linux) partitions; C: (with vista on it), Downloads, Games, Family and Programs. This is on a RAID 0 system with 2x250GB HDD's.

Back to the point. I put in the Fedora 8 DVD, did the disk check etc and it was all good. I am now up to the screen where it is asking me to select the media to install linux on. I have four options:

1. Remove all partitions on selected drives and create default layout
2. Remove Linux partitions on selected drives and create default layout
3. Use free space on selected drives and create default layout
4. Create custom layout


All I want Linux (Fedora) to do is use the 35GB active partition I have made and NOTHING more. I have data on other partitions which I can't lose.

When I choose any of the first three options, the only hard drive I can use is the entire 500GB RAID array. I chose the fourth option (custom layout) and pressed next and it took me to a screen where I can actually choose the partitions. If I select the 35GB partition would it just partition that out/install it on there and no affect the other partitions?

Thanks in adv .

 

[xfire]

Wile E knows fedora wait for him to answer, but selcting only the 35Gb partion should do the trick.
Also is this 35Gb partion formatted? If you formatted it with NTFS it wont work, you first have to delete it. In any case its safer to keep a backup. It is for this reason I use a seprate HDD for linux eventhough this HDD is on the verge of crashing(Doesnt go well with windows but works perfectly with linux)

 

[Pinchy]

WileE looking...woot .

I had a backup of my stuff, but my external HDD recently died.

I just took a risk and tried installing it on the 35GB, but it came up with an error of some sort (something to do with /root). Probably because I did format it as NTFS lol.

 

[Wile E]

Yeah Pinchy, you're gonna wanna select the 35GB partition manually. When you built the partition, did you actually format it? If so, I would go back, and just turn it into free, unformatted space. Earlier versions of Anaconda did not like 3rd party formatted partitions sometimes. Don't know about 8 tho, as I haven't tried to install Fedora since I grabbed the second 320GB drive and built a RAID0 array. But either way, better safe than sorry. I also recommend backing up your most important data, as you never know what can go wrong. Intel RAID is supported pretty well in linux, but you can never be too careful, imho.

 

[Pinchy]

Well the Fedora setup has a delete button for the partition...so I assume thats like making it unpartitioned space. But, I will go into Windows now and backup my stuff, just incase. Now to fix my Windows install (I have an NTLDR problem because I made 2 active partitions ).

I'll post back later .

 

[xfire]

See this image here. Notice how under mount point for logVol00 under mount point there is a / . Your 35Gb partion should be formatted in ext3(use 30 GB for linux pation and format the remaining as 5Gb as swap(pagefile sort of) or use as much as you want for swap) then under mount point give the ext3 formatted one the / .(/ implies root)
edit:- this might help you http://docs.fedoraproject.org/fedora-install-guide-en/fc4/sn-disk-druid.html

 

[Pinchy]

Ok so after much headache and almost losing all my files (including years of tax and work documents) I have managed to install both Linux and Windows.

I didnt install any SWAP space (I don't think I need it as I don't even use any pagefile in Vista).

I didn't install that boot manager thing either, which I now think I should have. I loaded into Windows and installed the Acronis OS Selector thinking that it would pick up Linux and I would have the option of Linux and Windows. Wrong, it can't pick it up (even after going through the OS detection wizard, choosing the Linux partition it comes up with no OS's installed on this partition). Should I have installed the Linux boot manager thing? Is there a way I can install it without formatting Linux again?

Also @ WileE, the version of Anaconda with this fedora does support formatting an NTFS partition/drive into ext3 during setup .

 

[Wile E]

Ok so after much headache and almost losing all my files (including years of tax and work documents) I have managed to install both Linux and Windows.

I didnt install any SWAP space (I don't think I need it as I don't even use any pagefile in Vista).

I didn't install that boot manager thing either, which I now think I should have. I loaded into Windows and installed the Acronis OS Selector thinking that it would pick up Linux and I would have the option of Linux and Windows. Wrong, it can't pick it up (even after going through the OS detection wizard, choosing the Linux partition it comes up with no OS's installed on this partition). Should I have installed the Linux boot manager thing? Is there a way I can install it without formatting Linux again?

Also @ WileE, the version of Anaconda with this fedora does support formatting an NTFS partition/drive into ext3 during setup .

Just because it supports it, it doesn't mean it works well. lol.

Anyway, yes, you should've installed GRUB. Furthermore, you NEED swapspace in Linux. Many things require it to run.

I made the no GRUB mistake before, but I don't remember how I remedied it. You can try to boot from the Fedora disk again, and see if you can install it without redoing the whole install. For any other help with GRUB, try here: http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/grub/grub.htm

 

[Pinchy]

It's probably easier if I just format it again . Do I need seperate lots of unallocated space/partitions for SWAP and GRUB or can I do it all on the 35GB unallocated?

 

[Wile E]

It's probably easier if I just format it again . Do I need seperate lots of unallocated space/partitions for SWAP and GRUB or can I do it all on the 35GB unallocated?

You can do the swap and / on the 35GB. I suggest putting grub in the MBR.

 

[Pinchy]

The MBR is just my C drive isn't it? I won't lost any data if I put it on aye . (Sorry for being a total noob ).

 

[Wile E]

The MBR is just my C drive isn't it? I won't lost any data if I put it on aye . (Sorry for being a total noob ).

No you shouldn't, that's where the Vista bootloader resides as well. Even if it screws the Vista Boot loader (which it's not supposed to), you can pop the Vista disk in to repair it, but then you lose Fedora again. lol.

It can get tricky, but these newer distros are all supposed to work with the Vista bootloader.

But as with anything Linux, there's no guarantees. lol.

 

[Deleted member 3]

Obviously you're just installing to see how it works. I would recommend trying it in VMware first.

 

[xfire]

Vist's boot loader can be made to show Linux partion, also try getting super grub. You have to make a swap partion check my above post. Did you back up all your data?
Its better you reinstall fedora, as Wile E said install Grub in the MBR.

 

[Pinchy]

Well its all up and running. Currently in Linux now. I re-installed it and added 5GB of SWAP (through acronis and then again through setup) as well as installing GRUB but leaving Vista as the default OS.

Thanks for all the help

Obviously you're just installing to see how it works. I would recommend trying it in VMware first.

Na, if it was just to see how it works I would have kept Ubuntus live DVD, but I have installed Fedora as this is what we are using at Uni .

I know little bits of Linux, its just this was my first time installing it.

Vist's boot loader can be made to show Linux partion, also try getting super grub. You have to make a swap partion check my above post. Did you back up all your data?
Its better you reinstall fedora, as Wile E said install Grub in the MBR.

Yep all data is backed up onto my other computer, until I get a new external hard drive. I literally had to pull out my two hard drives from this computer, plug them both into the matx comp (therefore having both RAID arrays loaded at the same time) and transfer everything from one RAID array to the other. Reason is, I couldnt boot into Windows on this computer as it was missing some boot files (stupid me made a second active partition with nothing on it, which the computer was trying to boot to ). I attempted to get around the NTLDR with no success...so I put in my Vista DVD and tried to repair the OS which only made it worse; it actually made one of the hard drives in the array have a member disk error (although still bootable).

So luckily, once the two hard drives were in the other comp, I saved all my files onto the main computer, loaded acronis, deleted the empty 35GB "active" partition and fixed the raid array with the intel matrix utility so now it only had Vista. Then I did the Linux stuff again and now it all works fine. Although, I had quite the stress attack for about an hour, thinking everything was gone .

 

[xfire]

Now enjoy that hard earned linux installation.
Here is a good site for themes and wallpapers www.gnome-look.org
Also for widgets in Gnome get gdesklets.