dual booting. And what distro should I get?

[Daniel Dalton]

On 31/10/2007 11:59 PM, Geoff Shang wrote:
> A message like the one you posted is very daunting to answer and you're 
> likely to see it either go unanswered altogether or only get answers to 
> some questions.  But I will try my best to cover them all.

Thanks and sorry about all the questions.

> Daniel Dalton wrote:
> >> What is required to setup a dual booting system?
> 
> Most if not all Linux installers will give you the opportunity to 
> partition a drive, so there is no need to do this before starting the 
> install. However, if there is a partitioning tool that you're used to, 
> you may choose to use it instead if you'd prefer.  such a tool probably 
> can not make the required filesystems for the partitions, but this can 
> be done by the installer.

So the debian installer's partitioner can handle the windows file 
system? (ntfs one)?

> A Linux installation manual I read once said that there are probably as 
> many partitioning schemes as there are system administrators.  But you 
> will need at the very least a root partition and a swap partition.  You 
> can use a swap file but this is inefficient and not recommended.  Swap 
> is often twice the size of the available RAM, though if you have a lot 
> of RAM then a smaller size may be enough.  You may also want further 
> partitions for things like /home, /var or /usr.

So how many partitions should I create as a beginner to linux?

> 
> Linux will install a boot loader, and it is this which allows you to 
> choose which OS to boot.  Note that the boot loader will need to be in 
> the first partition of your first drive, even if this is the Windows 
> partition, as the system needs to find it when it boots.

Oh ok. So can the installer do that for me?

> 
>> Is there any chance of breaking something?
> 
> Absolutely!  Most installers will usually warn you if you are going to 
> break something, but it is definitely possible to do so be sure to pay 
> attention.  Usually though this is nothing that can't be solved by again 
> booting your boot CD.  Using this to fix problems can take a bit of 
> advanced knowledge though so it's best to pay attention when you first 
> do it.

Ok and if I am getting help from linux guys on irc I should be ok? Is 
partitioning the most risky part?

> 
>> Will my system always be bootable?
> 
> NOt if you mess up the partitioning, the boot loader configuration or 
> your kernel.  But as I say, if you really get stuck you can always boot 
> your install CD and get into the system that way and fix whatever you 

Oh ok so if the system got wiped I could just run the debian installer 
again from the cd?

> broke. It's generally a good idea to have an alternate way to boot your 
> system anyway, in case of hardware trouble or in case you mess things up.

What do you mean exactly?

> 
>> And how hard is it to get it working.
> 
> If you use an official release of a distribution and you don't have 
> exotic hardware, providing the installer runs in the first place it 
> should be relatively easy to get a working system.

ok

> 
>> What distro should I use?
>> I was thinking debian or fedora. I tried the ubuntu livecd but don't 
>> think I need a gui.
> 
> Distribution really is a personal choice.  The Debian users will 
> advocate Debian.  The fedora users will advocate Fedora.  If you don't 
> want a GUI then you probably don't need Ubuntu.  You can use Ubuntu 
> without the GUI, but a Debian install (Ubuntu is based on Debian) is 
> more straight forward if you don't want to use a GuI.

Is it possible to test debian on a livecd?

> 
>> So is debian a good choice?
> 
> Personally I believe it is the best choice, but I have been using Debian 
> for nearly 9 years as my primary operating system so I would say that.  
> It is certainly not a poor choice.

Ok good.

> 
>> How hard is it to patch speakup in to the debian kernal? And how hard 
>> is it to dual boot debian with windows?
> 
> It is no more difficult to dual boot Debian with Windows than it is to 
> dual boot any other Linux variant.  As for Speakup, there are packages 
> for using Speakup under Debian and it is in fact  possible to install 
> Debian using Speakup.

Should I use speakup for the installation? Or can I use brltty?  I don't 
have a hardware synth.

> 
>> And what would I need to do to get brltty working with debian?
> 
> Just install the brltty package and configure it for your display.

oh ok. Because I typed sudo brltty from a terminal on the ubuntu livecd 
and it just printed BRLTTY linux braille driver software. Or something 
like that. Then exited. Is that what should have happened?

> 
>> BTW Does debian use apt-get install?
> 
> Yes.  If you are familiar with Apt then you should probably go with Debian.

I think I will.

> 
>> And can I just choose to install the debian console? (No gui?)
> 
> Yes you can.
> 

good

> If you have a hardware synth that works with Speakup, you can install 
> Debian Etch using the net install ISO available at 
> http://people.debian.org/~shane/netinst-speakup/
> 
> The only warning I have is that when I  installed with it, I found 
> myself in a position where no kernels were defined in the boot loader so 
> Linux wouldn't boot.   I wrote to the maintainer about this but I see 
> the ISO image is still the same one I used.  The message I got back 
> seemed to suggest that mine was somewhat of an isolated case.
> 

I don't have a hardware synth. Does this mean I will need sighted help 
for installing?

> Best of luck,

Thank you very much for your help. This is all great info.
I'll go and do a bit of research and see what I can find.
Thanks.

-- 
Daniel Dalton

http://members.iinet.net.au/~ddalton/
daniel.dalton47 at gmail.com