I need help to instal Linux... Please help

Hi to everyone out there. I just bought redhat linux 8.0 personal operating system and tried to install it and it didn't started to download automatically. Right now I am running window xp home edition. Would anyone help how should I install it in my computer? I tried to install it through clicking on the cd-rom drive and when I click on my E drive it opened up all the folders but none of them says setup and half of them has a IE logo on them and rest of the folders I can't open because everytime I click on any of those folders it prompts me with "This file cannot be open use the web services to open.
I would really appriciate all of the useful tips. Please guys save me I am asking for help on this site because I love you all and I know this is the very first place I will get useful help.

The installation disk will have some web page (may be index.html) which will send you through series of steps to install it.
Insert the cd, browse for some web pages in the cd drive and read it.

You can't install Linux from windows OS. When you boot your computer go to setup by pressing DEL key and make CD drive, your primary boot option(1st boot device) instead of c drive. Reboot and you can install linux. The installation procedure will let U go through the series of steps.

After installing, set ur 1st boot device back to c: from cdrom

But before U start installing, read how to install from Ur CD

Thanks Sun but If you don't mind can I ask you where are you from in India? I think I should post a thread to see how many people here from India. I am from New Delhi but right now living in California.

hello owls.

well, i use redhat linux 8.0,too.so let me tell you some things about it
first of all linux is an OS just like windows.so it needs to be installed on a clear partition or on another disk(it would be better)
Redhat linux cosists of 5 cds.the first one is called "setup disk".well the only thing you have to do is to make your computer boot from the cd rom.as SUN mentioned before me go to the bios and change the boot sequence.we want cdrom as our 1st boot device.then insert the setup disk into the cdrom device and restart the machine.then the installation starts and you can take part in every step.some things you have to pau attention to:
a)you have to make a swap file.the size of it depends on your machine's physical memory ammount.300mb would be nice.
b)it is recommended to install lilo on a floppy disk.(you don't want to have your master boot record messed!!!).
c)one more thing:LINUX MEANS EXPERIMENTATION

Being a linux newbie myself, I've only been using it for about 2 months now, I feel your pain cause it wasnt that long ago that i was installing RedHat for the first time. You could do one of two things, depending on whether you wanted to wash away the sins of M$ or wou wanted to dual-boot until you got comfortable with linux.

1)You could get a copy of Partition Magic and create a ext2 along with a swap partition on your drive and have XP on another partition.If you went with this option be sure you read all the doc's that Partition Magic comes with regarding dual-booting with linux though cause you could make a mistake that would not allow you to boot into your comp at all.

2)Open your CD-Rom and put the disk in but dont close it and then restart your comp and let the comp close it as it restarts and assuming that your BIOS is configed to boot from a ROM drive first it will boot from the CD and then just follow the instructions as far as linux formating the drive for you and installing afterwards.
I hope this helps, take it easy and enjoy linux.I personally am very pleased with the switch to linux, I'm sure you will be too.

Thankyou hatebreed and amon for your tips. I am sorry for this delay message because I've been busy lately. I will try to get partition magic. And Install the Linux.

Quote:

---

Originally posted here by owls
Hi to everyone out there. I just bought redhat linux 8.0 personal operating system

---

One of the best things about Open Source is that it's free. :rolleyes:


No offence, but there must be dozens of threads here at AO that cover this topic. There's even a couple of tutorials. :o

Also, if you don't want to blow away or disturb your XP install, look into a product called VMware. You can create a virtual partition within your Windows environment and run RH as if it were booting from it's own partition. I have it and it allows me to keep XP, 98, 95, FreeBSD, Linux, SolarisX86 and a few other OSes all on my laptop.

Hope this helps!

why ext2 "HATEBREED2000"?he could use ext3 instead....i mean its like using fat32 file system instead of using ntfs.so try partition magic 8(it supports the ext3 file format)!!

Tell you what if you use Partion Magic then you will land on your 'B U M PS'
STEP1) Make a partion for the booting (Within 8 GB limits) This will ensure stability for the Linux n XP.Install GRUB or LILO on it

STEP2) Install Linux on to the other partion (ext3)

STEP3) Make a Swap Space Twice as much of your Ram (256 ram -> 512mb Swap)

STEP4) When you Login XP wil disappear HEHE! Dont worry, go to the windows partion using Konqueror n there edit the boot.ini which will have something like:
multiDiskPartions(5)
+ i.e you have 5 parts(just an example) reduce it by one n there you go


if YOU FOLLOW STEP4 THE YOU CAN SKIP STEP1

Tell you what if you use Partion Magic then you will land on your 'B U M PS'
STEP1) Make a partion for the booting (Within 8 GB limits) This will ensure stability for the Linux n XP.Install GRUB or LILO on it

STEP2) Install Linux on to the other partion (ext3)

STEP3) Make a Swap Space Twice as much of your Ram (256 ram -> 512mb Swap)

STEP4) When you Login XP wil disappear HEHE! Dont worry, go to the windows partion using Konqueror n there edit the boot.ini which will have something like:
multiDiskPartions(5)
+ i.e you have 5 parts(just an example) reduce it by one n there you go


if YOU FOLLOW STEP4 THE YOU CAN SKIP STEP1
by the way i am an INDIAN too

Quote:

---

Originally posted here by owls
Thankyou hatebreed and amon for your tips. I am sorry for this delay message because I've been busy lately. I will try to get partition magic. And Install the Linux.

---

There is no reason you need to buy partition magic. Are you planning on getting rid of xp? If so, you do not need any program to help partition, linux install will help you do that.

You don't need partition magic 8, RH 8.0 comes with disk druid which is easy to use, you are gonna be prompted during installation about this, just choose to partition with disk druid:
-Choose the ext 3 file system.
-Swap space = 256 mb if you have this or more RAM. Your swap space should be double your Ram size if you have 128 mb or less.
-mount point /


Partitioning is the only dangerous part of the installation the rest is pretty much pressing next.
I installed RH 8.0 last week and didn't have problems with the installation.
Here you can find how to put LILO on a floppy if you want.

i think that by using partition magic things would be much more easier for him.i mean he is a newbie just like me and it is better having your disk partitioned before you try installing linux.
i mean that you can easily get confused when trying to format the hdd during the installation.
if you are planning to keep the xp partition,i would suggest you not to install lilo on your mbr.just have it on a floppy.cya all!

Thanks everybody I think I am going to get partition magic. I looked already for it and the cheapest one I can get for 40 bucks. I actually tried to install linux with the disk druid and I messed all of my computer. Thank God I backed up all of my important stuff before I started to get all smarty with my computer lol.
Thanks amon and all of other respected member of this priceless site for all of their efforts to help me.

I really appriciate it.

Hi everyone I just downloaded successfully linux and I have another question. I thought to post it here. My question is how do I get online with linux? I know it comes with mozilla and when I click on internet icon it opens up the RH linux home page but I can't get connected.

Thanks in advance and thank you all of you out there who helped me to install linux.

How are you connecting to the Internet? The answer will be different depenending which way you connect. And If its Broadband, are you connecting through a router?

I have 56k modem and I am going to connect through telephone line. But I got another problem when I reboot my machine it takes me to grub> prompt and not to the screen where I can choose the operating system I want to boot up with. Any idea what is going on?

Modems can be a bit of a challenge to get to work with linux.
Check this site to see if your modem has a full modem chipset. If your modem is not on atleast under "linmodem" it prob wont work with linux. Cant help with grub, never used it.
-Stephenmg