Re: Installing Linux?

"Buchanan, James (Jim)" wrote:

> From: "Buchanan, James (Jim)" <jambuch@...>
>
> List:
>
> I am still lurking around. I got a copy of Redhat 6.0 form the there
> web page. Now I am trying to figure out what to do next. I skimed the
> documentation direcroty but may have missed the section of how to set up
> a system. I would assume that the file system is different than DOS so
> I can't copy the files in DOS format and expect linux to read them.
> True?? In dos you Fdisk and then Format. What do you do in Linux?

First, you need to make a boot floppy, if you don't have the CDROM.
With a CDROM (if your CD drive is IDE, and your motherboard will
boot from CD) you can boot directly from it. But, if you downloaded
Linux, then you need to make a boot floppy. There is a DOS program
on a directory on the CDROM that will make a boot floppy. But, I
don't know if that is hidden somewhere in the big download file or
not. Maybe you could find the boot floppy program on the web site.
Anyway, you insert the boot floppy (or CD) and boot from it. A
primitive Linux kernel comes up, and allows you to configure and install
Linux from there. It builds partitions on your disk, installs the boot
loader program, and a bunch of other stuff (drivers, networking,
development software, X windows, etc.) as you desire. Without
the book that comes in the Red Hat boxed set, it would be REAL
hard to do this right. Even a Unix guru would have trouble without
the book.

> Can
> you dual boot between DOS and Linux?

Yes, absolutely. Linux can read and write DOS floppies and DOS
disk partitions. LILO can boot whatever image you want, DOS,
Windows, or Linux. You can run a DOS emulation window IN
Linux, and supposedly, the Windows in a Linux window program
is now available.

Jon