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First time Linux, got a spare HDD

post #1 of 12
6/18/12 at 9:03am
Thread Starter 
Soooo, here we go!

I've got an SSD with a fresh install of Win 7 Ult 64-bit.

Now I've got my WD Rapter free (Win 7 was on here)

I'm Linux NOOB (but some friends of me "use" it)


I want to try some distro (wich on, I dunno??? --> They say Xubuntu, but I read it's for older/slower PC's. And my rig isn't that old)

But I want to try it WITHOUT risking to screw up my freshly installed windows smile.gif --> I did that years ago when I tried OpenSUSE...


But I also wanna try (first time) to use my Raptor as a backup disk (so I'll have to figure out how to backup and store it on the Raptor)


So can I split my Raptor in 2 partitions? 1 for Win backup and 1 for Linux install?

Wich FS should I use to install Linux (I remember RiserFS and ext3 or something)

It should also be able to read/write windows stuff on the Linux FS...

Should I unplug ALL HDD's and SSD, and only leave the Raptor to install Linux?

Can ALL linux work with eachother (I mean can OpenSUSE commands work on Ubuntu ones? And for the FS? --> Is Suse FS same as Ubuntu if formatted the same?)


So wich Linux to choose? And also: If I delete Linux (or don't use it anymore cause I prolly can't work with it tongue.gif) how do I remove it without screwwing up Windows...
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My PC (All info inside)
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My Girlfriends PC (All info inside)
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Hard DriveHard DriveHard DriveHard Drive
C: Crucial M4 256GB D: Caviar Black 2TB E: Spinpoint 750GB F: Raptor 150GB (Ubuntu 12.04 Dual Boot) 
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post #2 of 12
6/18/12 at 9:12am
Best advice: Download VirtualBox and install Mint or any flavour of Ubuntu that takes your fancy.

Terrible advice: Install Ubuntu via it's Windows installer (Wubi).

The former will allow you to experiment with Linux in a completely sandboxed environment. The latter will install Ubuntu using a nasty kludge that will almost certainly ruin your SSD (if installed to there) and likely break Linux in the long run too (as FAT32 sucks bad).



As for the other questions, use ext3 or ext4 as your file system (ext3 can be read by Windows with 3rd party drivers, ext4 is newer and better but not yet supported in Windows). Nearly all Linux distros will support those two file systems, but if in doubt, just do a default install and worry about the config later (if you install to a virtual machine, then it's doubly irrelevant if you screw up an install as you can always go back and do it again)
Edited by Plan9 - 6/18/12 at 9:15am
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post #3 of 12
6/18/12 at 9:23am
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If your rig has some horsepower im for the virtual box thing as well, or you could install it right on to the velociraptor but virtuakbox will let you run windows and linux at the same time making it more likly you will actully use linux. As for the distro, xbuntu isnt just for old computers, it just uses a ligher desktop. This makes it faster then ubuntu on any pc, just some people like gnome/unity better. We use light distros to either run on low hardware or to just get the most of the hard we do have. If you a compleat beginner, i recommend linux mint, either mainstream or debian edition with the desktop of your chioce. After you get used to it, you can either stick with that or move into debian/fedora level or even arch/gentoo level. With linux everything is up to you thumb.gif
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post #4 of 12
6/18/12 at 9:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jrl1357 View Post

If your rig has some horsepower im for the virtual box thing as well,

You don't need a beefy PC to run a virtual install of Linux. All you need is 1GB spare / assignable RAM and a multi-core CPU. These days that's a pretty low spec as even budget off-the-shelf PCs will be 4GB dual core - that will easily be enough to boot Win7 and run a Linux guest as well.
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post #5 of 12
6/18/12 at 2:34pm
Thread Starter 
I saw some youtube vids about virtualbox.

So it fakes a new install? But it "does" install it. And after the fake reboot it works as a Linux emulated in Windows, right?

But it does not touch ANYTHING because it's virtual?

So if I reboot my PC (e.g. for real with the reset button) all that Linux stuff and Virtual stuff is gone, never happened (like a bad dream tongue.gif)?

So it never happened and windows won't notice a thing, thus NOT causing bootfailure issues? Not reconfiguring MBR stuff and all that (because of some bootloader not uninstalled properly?)

I'm just trying to figure it out for myself, so is my thinking correct?!

Thx in advance...
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C: Crucial M4 256GB D: Caviar Black 2TB E: Spinpoint 750GB F: Raptor 150GB (Ubuntu 12.04 Dual Boot) 
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ASUS BD Thermalright Silver Arrow Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit ASUS VW266H 26" 
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C: 1x Raptor 150Gb & D: + E: 2x Samsung 750Gb ASUS DVD + DVD(RW) Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit Iiyama 19" Vision Master Pro 454 
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post #6 of 12
6/18/12 at 2:57pm
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It'll be nothing more than an 'x'GB Virtual Machine file on the hard drive. Doesn't touch Windows at all. It won't be gone if you restart, but it will if you delete the VM file for it.

As for MBR issues, those are always easily fixed, and just so you can always have it handy ( in case you get to the point where you want a real install );

- Insert Windows install disk
- Repair
- Command line
- Type: bootrec /fixmbr
- Type: bootrec /fixboot
- Type: bootrec /rebuildbcd
- Done, and you can reboot into Windows normally again, like nothing ever happened.

Really quite easy.
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post #7 of 12
6/18/12 at 4:21pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Plan9 View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by jrl1357 View Post

If your rig has some horsepower im for the virtual box thing as well,

You don't need a beefy PC to run a virtual install of Linux. All you need is 1GB spare / assignable RAM and a multi-core CPU. These days that's a pretty low spec as even budget off-the-shelf PCs will be 4GB dual core - that will easily be enough to boot Win7 and run a Linux guest as well.

not true. poor graphics will make an vm choke. the op great graphics, so everything will be fine. but on a pc like mine with an igpu, even debian with gnome + arch with lxde will be sluggish. what i ment was his rig has some great graphics horsepower, and therefor what ever his choice virtualbox should run fine.

@op virtualbox is completely sand boxed unless you use shared folders, which you don't have to and most people never use. it is useful if you want to access all your vids in linux as well as windows. the virtual machine runs on a virtual hard drive- you give the max amount, and the os thinks its on a real hard drive of said amount. you set up how many cores the virtualbox has, and what % of your cpu cycles the virtual cpu can use per core. for example, i have a phenom ii x4. if i give the virtual cpu two cores at %100, that means the virtual machine can have up to what would be a phenom ii x2. you also set the amount of ram, which is set a side out of the hosts (your real rigs) memory. theres also usb ports, networking and tons of other things to play around with in virtualbox.

I would suggest installing mint inside a vm, then using windows for gaming and try, really try, to use linux for everything else.
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post #8 of 12
6/19/12 at 2:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jrl1357 View Post

not true. poor graphics will make an vm choke.

I have a 1GB RAM single core KDE4+ compositing VBox image running at the moment that says otherwise wink.gif

Your hosts hardware graphics card won't make much difference at all. Graphics memory can all be hived off to the shared memory without any problem (in fact there's very little to cache in VRAM for normal desktop usage anyway) and graphics acceleration will all be 2D unless your gaming (and pretty much any GPU of the last 15 years will support 2D acceleration)

What makes the real difference is free RAM, CPU cores and CPU virtualisation extensions (eg VT-e), but any multi-core CPU will be new enough to have VT-x anyway.

As for your rig, if it's sluggish then I'd recommend having a look through your VM configuration. Check that you have your hardware extensions (VT-x / AMD-v) enabled. Make sure you have given your VM ~1GB RAM (if your host can spare it) and in the guest OS, make sure you install the appropriate kernel modules for that virtualisation environment (eg Virtual Box guest additions)
Edited by Plan9 - 6/19/12 at 2:34am
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post #9 of 12
6/19/12 at 2:41am
My vote goes for linux mint.
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post #10 of 12
6/19/12 at 2:46am
I would say debian over linux mint. Linux mint, as I am using it right now, has some issues. I started with a debian base install and built my gui from ground up. Gave me a great look at how the linux OS is designed and how my gui actually functions.
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