I want to install Linux over windows XP. I have already partitioned my hard disk during my installation of Windows XP.

I have tried Yopera. After booting from the CD of Yopera I get message ‘select the disk on which you want to install the Yopera’, which shows only one disk volume. After that I stopped the installation. I don’t know whether my existing Hard disk partition I may be able to install Linux or not.

I am afraid if my existing partition gets deleted by doing so.

Please suggest me, how can I install Linux and which Linux is better, because I have seen so many versions of Linux available on internet.

I suggest you to use FC2 (Fedora Core 2) it's mine favorite...

well if your new to linux i would go with Suse, its a good beginers linux, or even before going with that you could try a linux distro on a cd. like knoppix, it will let you see what linux is like before installing it to your hard drive.

Yopera is not a distro. The closest is Yoper. Yoper is good for intermediate users, but it lacks a graphical installer. Best to go with SuSE.

xboxrulz

Mandrake is good for quick installing, but some of hear members doesn't like it so I won't talk any more. Don't know but SUSE is fine too. Install it and play with it for a while. Of coure Live distro are good (Knopix eg.).

I think after you install, the system will prompt you each time which OS you want to use to boot up your system. It won't delete anything (if that's what you're asking)

Maybe you can try mendrake to install linux whose disk partitioning uitlity is much better than yopera.
where you can select the total no of space to allocate to windows and linux.so try mendarke or red hat.

I would suggest Red Hat Linux or Fedora.
However, to install them, you need to learn a bit about harddisk partition and dual system installation. Every good book about Linux has information about it.

I would suggest Red Hat Linux 9.0 Bible or Fedora 2.0 Bible. If you buy those books, you get CDs to install Linux and Tools also.

However, if you are afraid of messing up your harddisk, you should try with some live CD distros first. The live CD distros allow you to run Linux from CD without installation.

If you have a FAT partition on harddisk, or you have some flash memory plug in to USB port, you can use it to save your configuration and home's config, and you can have your own settings such as color theme, wall paper, desktop organization ...

I use Kanotix (a different style of Knoppix) with my laptop (although on my desktop I use Fedora). I like Kanotix better, because it uses the GRUB multi boot, and save me some time at the startup, and it has some better features.

With config and home put on harddisk, some Eclipse, JBoss installations, my laptop become quite a powerfull J2EE develoment workstation running Linux. When I want to run Window, I just take the CD out and boot from harddisk.

You can download the Kanotix iso file, and burn it to CD ROM and use it (assume that your computer can boot from CD ROM).

ok i have a question of my own what is linux

Linux is a friendlier version of UNIX. A lot of nerds (no offense, I consider it a term of endearment) like it better than Windows because it's a lot faster, it almost never crashes, and it doesn't install a lot of extra features that you don't want.

oh ok i see how much does it cost and can tehy run gaming serevrs better?

I also suggest SuSe or mandrake, then fedora, I don't understand what you want, do you want to install mandrake over xp or to have it with xp on other partition, i have xp and linux, suse, and I have no problem with that sort of things

Ok here everything you need to know about installing linux:

If you want a dual boot system then install windows first then linux (assuming you are dual booting with windows), because windows will create a boot loader which will overwrite the linux boot loader (LILO or GRUB). It has a little problem sharing its space with others. But its not so with linux. Linux will happily share the hard disk with anyone, even Windows!

So partitioning with windows will not do any good since each OS has its own specific file system (FAT32 and NTFS for Windows 9X and Windows XP). So once the installation of XP is done you can go for installation of Linux.

Something to remember: Windows 9x needs to be installed on a primary partition XP and linux can go to logical drives. (if you want to know about patitions then you will have to make a new topic there is a lot to explain).

Linux boot loader will overwrite the windows boot loader but you will have an option to boot into windows. Windows doesn't allow that. (I guess windows gets in return what it gives).

While partitioning you better use the automatic partitioning tool which is available with most distros. My favourite being Mandrake. There cannot be any problem with linux if you are using mandrake. It is the most user firendly linux. But make sure you use the latter ones 9 onwards. I heard that there are problems with the older versions.

Ok, so now you are done with installing windows and you make a seperate partition for linux (doesn't matter what file system). Make sure you have atleast 4GB set apart for linux.

You start installing and the first thing that you have to do is set up your basic devices e.g., mouse, monitor, keyboard etc. Just the basics you'll find this with you hardware manual (It depends on the type of distro). If you are not able to do this then Linux in not for you. You have a long way to go before you get your hands on linux. I used windows for 5 years before installing linux and I had to prepare a lot for it. I am an Electronics student with no computer background so I had to go through magazines, tutorials, etc and learn. That's why I can explain all this now.

The next and the most important part of the installation is the partitioning. Now you already partitoned your hard drive (with fdisk may be) but that is useless because for linux you need a different file system. This is very easy actually but the most critical. Now remember the partition you had kept aside you might have a drive letter for that but it doesn't matter here. In linux hard disks are named a hda1 hda2 hdb1 hbd2 etc. Your C drive will be hda1 usually. If you find it confusing to find out which one is you lnux drive then listent to this carefully. I had earlier to you to make a 4GB drive so you must know that the 4GB drive is your linux drive (provided you don't have another 4GB drive. 4GB=4096MB). That's what I do and I never make mistakes.

So select that drive and partition it using the automatic patition option. Manual partition is not a choice for you if you don't know about partitions. It is safer and belive me it is a lot easier and I use that same thing).

Ok, you're done just a few more setting and you are in the club. Welcome.

You'll have to do a few setting now which vary widely and if you need any help just ask. I'll always be here.

About the type of distro, everyone has their own taste or have used something and they like it so they recommend it. The best to start with is live CD's you don't need to install them. They boot everytime from the CD-ROM and don't take up space on your drive. No partitioning problem with live CD's. Once you like it and know around you can go for a full install. I started out with Mandrake and now I use Red Hat. Red hat is not for beginners, believe me. Most people hate linux because they just jump into it and get burnt. Use the right type of distro and it will be your friend for the rest of your life.

For beginners I recommend Mandrake, for power users (Windows) can use SuSe or Linspire if you are not sure. Linspire is good for beignners too.

The best thing to go if you want to get a taste of linux is ask you dealer to install it for you. No headache.

I love linux, my distro is a Slackware 10 running a custom 2.6 kernel. If you want to start, I would Suggest a distro like Mandrake cause it's incredibly easy to use

We must think about that that we have many programs on linux who are like comercial one for windows but we don't pay anything fot them
OpenOffice like MS office you need to pay, except WIn, for MS Office and then for photoshop and for everything if you want to do something, and on linux you have all programs alredy for install or installed with no additional cost SO is much better You can't do anything with installed windows xp for example, if you want to crate some photos you can s*** on paint you need to pay for one program and on linux is enough to install it and you are ready to go

yup, Linux has alot of plug and play programs

xboxrulz

(Xbox is really god but the biggest problem here in croatia(my city) is that the games for xbox are really expensive and here is only one store with Xbox games, but in Zagreb there is more games but like I say it's expensive and there is almost no way to get it ilegal to my city SO I will download all games trough wireless )

Someone, please don't go off topic

xboxrulz

Binod Singh,
First question is, what exactly are you wanting to accomplish with Linux? Are you wanting to just try Linux, are you familiar with Linux? If you are wanting to see what Linux has to offer and just "kick the tires, and drive around the block" to test it, then as others in this forum have suggested, use Knoppix. Knoppix runs straight from the CD, and it will also give you a heads up if Linux is compatible with your hardware. There is nothing more aggrivating than installing Linux and fighting with hardware incompatability, winmodems for one example. Other distros suggested in here are good as well, such as; SuSE, Mandrake, Redhat, and Fedora Core. One issue with SuSE and Mandrake is that you have to pay for those distros. However, thay are inexpensive as compared to Rehat now. Redhat has turned their community project over to Fedora Core. So, in order to get RedHat, or the Redhat name, you would have to purchase the Redhat Enterprise package which can go up as high as 1300 dollars(US). Now, Fedora Core 3 is supported by the community, it is free, and it is really Redhat under a new name. I have used Redhat, Mandrake, SuSE, and Fedora. They are all good distros, and fairly easy to set up.

As for setting Linux up, I usually partion the Linux drives manually. A quick run through on how I set it up.
1.) Set your Swap partition 2 * your RAM. (Ex. if you have 512 Mb of RAM, then 2 * 512 = 1024mb)
2.) Set your /boot partition to 100mb
3.) Set your /root to the rest of your free space

This allows you to have more control over the partitioning. I used to let the distros set mine automaticly, but it became really insufficient after a period of time. It was like my partitions were not allocated correctly, and I would somehow run out of /tmp space.

For SUSE, you can download legal BiTTorrents here:

http://www.knetdome.com/bt/?torrent=suse93

It's free since the SUSE License grants it.

xboxrulz

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