Hi...

I've just purchased [not installed yet] a 10.2 gig hard drive, onto
which I intend to install Linux. I'd like to keep my current 1 gig hard
drive running Win95, and have a dual boot system.

Now my dumb questions:

1) Will I be able to access my common files [POV, INC, TGA, MPEG, MP3,
HTML, etc.] from either OS? For example, could I render a .pov file that
is on my Windows drive from Linux POV, or vice versa?

2) The partitioning and formatting program that came with my hard drive,
EZ-Drive, is not compatible with Unix, according to the manual. How
should I go about preparing my new drive for Linux?

Thanks for any help! :)

Prez Midnite............... out.
e-mail:prezmid at disinfo dot net
http://netjunk.com/users/prezmid/
"I should have been a plumber." - Albert Einstein

Post a reply to this message

Prez Midnite wrote:
> 
> Hi...
> 
> I've just purchased [not installed yet] a 10.2 gig hard drive, onto
> which I intend to install Linux. I'd like to keep my current 1 gig hard
> drive running Win95, and have a dual boot system.
> 
> Now my dumb questions:
> 
> 1) Will I be able to access my common files [POV, INC, TGA, MPEG, MP3,
> HTML, etc.] from either OS? For example, could I render a .pov file that
> is on my Windows drive from Linux POV, or vice versa?
>

No question is dumb (nearly!). From Linux to the M$ world that's easy.
You can automatically mount the M$ partitions and Linux will be able to
read them and you can even write on them. I haven't heard anything the
other way round and it would surprise me knowing how much M$ tries to
ignore Linux.

> 
> 2) The partitioning and formatting program that came with my hard drive,
> EZ-Drive, is not compatible with Unix, according to the manual. How
> should I go about preparing my new drive for Linux?
> 

Depends upon the distribution. It would be normal to start Linux during
installation using a bootable diskette or if possible CD-ROM. Linux has
tools to partition harddrives and I found them to be very capable. SuSE
for example is fitted with a installation guide that helps you through
the steps. I don't know about Redhat, Debian ... I have only experience
up to 4 GB but I had no difficulties during installation.

I hope this one helps, somebody may have some more detail about the
preparation of the HD!

All the Best,

Marc

Post a reply to this message

Prez Midnite wrote:

> I've just purchased [not installed yet] a 10.2 gig hard drive, onto
> which I intend to install Linux. I'd like to keep my current 1 gig hard
> drive running Win95, and have a dual boot system.

Sounds vaguely familiar.  I have Linux, Win95, and WinNT on one of my
machines.  I'd like to add a few more operating systems when I have some
free time. ;-)

> 1) Will I be able to access my common files [POV, INC, TGA, MPEG, MP3,
> HTML, etc.] from either OS? For example, could I render a .pov file that
> is on my Windows drive from Linux POV, or vice versa?

If you have them on a vfat partition (Windows95 native), you'll be able
to see them from Linux.  The other method I use is to keep things on a
separate machine which I use as a file server.  I bought a used P-75 for
$150.  Of course, you also need networking hardware if you go that
route, but I had that stuff sitting around anyways.

> 2) The partitioning and formatting program that came with my hard drive,
> EZ-Drive, is not compatible with Unix, according to the manual. How
> should I go about preparing my new drive for Linux?

The program isn't compatible with Unix, but that doesn't mean the drive
isn't compatible.  I've found the various Linux partitioning tools to be
highly capable.  If you want to run Linux on the new drive, don't bother
with their formatting tools.  They'll set up the wrong sort of file
system anyways.  The short answer: just follow the installation
instructions for the distribution you're installing, and make sure you
don't repartition the old drive.  The partitioning software should see a
1GB drive and a 10.2 GB drive and let you partition just the latter.  If
that's the way it looks, you're in the clear.

Unix handles multiple block devices much more elegantly than does
Windows (even WinNT).  None of this c:\, d:\, e\: nonsense; you can
mount devices pretty much arbitrarily.
 
-- 
Mark Gordon
mtg### [at] povrayorg

Post a reply to this message

Marc Schimmler <mar### [at] icauni-stuttgartde> writes:

> Prez Midnite wrote:
> > 
> > Hi...
> > 
> > I've just purchased [not installed yet] a 10.2 gig hard drive, onto
> > which I intend to install Linux. I'd like to keep my current 1 gig hard
> > drive running Win95, and have a dual boot system.
> > 
> > Now my dumb questions:
> > 
> > 1) Will I be able to access my common files [POV, INC, TGA, MPEG, MP3,
> > HTML, etc.] from either OS? For example, could I render a .pov file that
> > is on my Windows drive from Linux POV, or vice versa?
> >
> 
> No question is dumb (nearly!). From Linux to the M$ world that's easy.
> You can automatically mount the M$ partitions and Linux will be able to
> read them and you can even write on them. 

As far as I know, this isn't true for NTFS partitions. Currently, there
is a read-only driver for Linux. So, if you're using NT, you should set 
up a (V)FAT partition for easy data exchange.


> > 2) The partitioning and formatting program that came with my hard drive,
> > EZ-Drive, is not compatible with Unix, according to the manual. How
> > should I go about preparing my new drive for Linux?
> > 
> 
> Depends upon the distribution. It would be normal to start Linux during
> installation using a bootable diskette or if possible CD-ROM. Linux has
> tools to partition harddrives and I found them to be very capable. SuSE
> for example is fitted with a installation guide that helps you through
> the steps. I don't know about Redhat, Debian ... I have only experience
> up to 4 GB but I had no difficulties during installation.

There are some limitations of the BIOS where to place the kernel. My
knowledge about this problem is purely theoretical, because my hard discs
are 1 and 2 GB large. Probably, you will buy a Linux distribution. Read
the sections about partitioning in the documentation that comes with it 
_very_carefully_. This will probably save you a lot of time and prevent 
you from reinstalling linux several times.

Thomas

-- 
http://www.fmi.uni-konstanz.de/~willhalm

Post a reply to this message

Hi!

I just wanted to thank ya'll for answering my questions. I finally got
Red Hat Linux 5.0 installed! (Now I've just got to learn how to use it!)
The dual boot works great... When I boot to Windoze, it behaves exactly
the same as it did before... the Linux partition is invisible. I created
a separate partition just for files that I want to access from both
OS's... I'll find out if I can get to that from Linux once I get to that
chapter in the book... or maybe I'll just flip ahead a little bit... ;)

I went with Red Hat 5.0 because it came with the book I bought... Only
now, I've noticed that the current release is 6.0... Should I upgrade
before I do too much learning/configuring? Is there an "easy" way to go
from 5.0 to 6.0, without buying a CD? Which GUI is the most fun for
someone who is artistically minded? How do I install it? ;) Will it
recognize my Voodoo3 2000 card?


Prez Midnite............... out.
e-mail:prezmid at disinfo dot net
http://netjunk.com/users/prezmid/
"Some guy is in the shadows grabbing empty air;
 He could be catching butterflies is there were any there." - The
Residents

Post a reply to this message

On Wed, 07 Jul 1999 19:25:43 -0500, Prez Midnite
<pre### [at] NOSPAMdisinfonet> wrote:

> I created
>a separate partition just for files that I want to access from both
>OS's... I'll find out if I can get to that from Linux once I get to that
>chapter in the book... or maybe I'll just flip ahead a little bit... ;)

No need for a separate partition.  Although I am a Linux newbie also,
I find that mount -t vfat <winsux partition> <mount point> works fine.
Interestingly, I installed a drive from my old computer into the new
one in order to transfer some important (i.e. pov related) files and
nothing I could do would get winsux 98 to recognize that drive.  Too
old, I guess.  On the other hand, Linux read that old winsux 95 drive
easily and transferred the stuff to the winsux partition, thus saving
the winsux data that would otherwise have been lost.  Put that in
Bill's pipe and smoke it.

Jerry Anning
clem "at" dhol "dot" com

Post a reply to this message

Prez Midnite wrote:

> Hi!
>
> I just wanted to thank ya'll for answering my questions. I finally got
> Red Hat Linux 5.0 installed! (Now I've just got to learn how to use it!)
> The dual boot works great... When I boot to Windoze, it behaves exactly
> the same as it did before... the Linux partition is invisible. I created
> a separate partition just for files that I want to access from both
> OS's... I'll find out if I can get to that from Linux once I get to that
> chapter in the book... or maybe I'll just flip ahead a little bit... ;)
>
> I went with Red Hat 5.0 because it came with the book I bought... Only
> now, I've noticed that the current release is 6.0... Should I upgrade
> before I do too much learning/configuring? Is there an "easy" way to go
> from 5.0 to 6.0, without buying a CD? Which GUI is the most fun for
> someone who is artistically minded? How do I install it? ;) Will it
> recognize my Voodoo3 2000 card?

Well, considering that 5.2 had been out for quite a while, you probably
should not waste too much time on 5.0.

I am using 6.0 (was 5.2) and the configuration is quite simple compared to
earlier versions.  6.0 also has a lot of the newer stuff, and has the 2.2
kernel. If you don't want to pay a lot of money, you can do what I and my
co-workers did. We just got together and ordered a lot of CD's from
Cheapbytes and split the shipping and handling. The have the free version
of 6.0 for $1.99 + S/H (I think my final cost was about $2.60).

BTW, 5.2 and 6.0 handle FAT and FAT32 volumes just fine, so on my
configurations Linux has access to all drives on my computer (I'm dual boot
also).

If you're artistcally minded, I'd also recommend checking out the
Enlightenment window manager. Also, on principal I suggest using GNOME for
the desktop and not KDE. (they are all on the RH 6.0 CD). Oh, and be sure
to check out the themes for GTK and Enlightenment.

http://www.enlightenment.org/
http://e.themes.org/
http://www.gimp.org/
http://gtk.themes.org/
http://www.linux.com/   ***** be sure to check this one out.

Post a reply to this message