My class "UNIX using Linux" started today. The software that came with my text book will not download. I am running XP pro .. When I load the "guide to UNIX using Linux" disk the only thing that comes up is E:/ showing some files that are on the disk and then it stops and does nothing. Can anyone help?
- Ask your instructor would be the first and best way.
- Read the instructions - the book should tell you how to load the software.
As a guess, I would think you would have to boot from the cd - not just put it in while in XP. Without the instructions, it would be hard to say what you are suppose to do.
Ask my instructor .. Excellent idea! I already did that. My instructors notes send us to the UNIX discussion forum for help in downloading Linux. Apparently downloading tips are beyond the scope of the UNIX class.
Read the Instructions.. Another Excellent idea! There are no download instructions in the book. I looked at all the pages in the beginning and back of the book. There are none. I am guessing I do not have to read through several chapters to find this information.
Boot from the CD, I have not tried yet. I will do that now and let you know if it worked. Thanks for your help
Ok, booting from the CD did work so thank you for that. I ran into another problem that maybe you can help with. As I was following the steps to download Linux (Fedora), I came to a section about partitioning. The options were to choose "automatic partitioning" or "manual"
Since I do not know anything about partitioning, I selected "automatic"
when I clicked "next" the following options appeared.
- Remove all linux partitions on the system
- Remove all the partitions on this system
- Keep all partitions and use existing free space ... This is the option I chose and the resulting message was that it could not allocate required partitions, partitioning failed. This usually happens when you do not have enough hard drive space.
When I selected choice (2) the message came up and said that partitions being used by other operating systems would be removed ( or a similar message on that order)
I clicked "next" and this page had information about boot chargers or something that I would need to have a password to sign into and be able to use my other operating system (xp) This page contained more information that I understand.
If I continue with this option I think I will be lost and not have any clue what to do or how to access windows.
Any advice? Thanks again
First off, 
what a lousy instructor for not giving some info on what is on the cd and what to do. Of course, that's just my opinion.
Second, 
STOP! Before you completely blow away your XP, you really need to know what you are doing.
This sounds like it's going to load a full-blown Linux distribution on your hard drive. If you don't have the space, then you would need to re-partiton the hard drive, taking some space away from XP if you have any extra unused space.
The first thing you should do is SAVE any important files (pictures, word documents, spreadsheets, recipes, whatever...) to some other hard drive or to a cdr. Hopefully, you haven't gone too far in trying to get Linux on your system already. (I can't believe that your instructor would not have mentioned all of this or that the book has nothing about it )
Do you know what Linux is on the cd? May help in giving direction.
I agree with your comment about the instructor. I thought that is where I would get the help.
I know nothing about how to re-partition. Is downloading a full distribution of Linux a bad thing? I am trying to get hold of someone at my college helpdesk for assistence though I am not sure if I will get any. I found some information in the back of the book about accessing UNIX/Linux .. It is not helping a thing. Now that I know I have limited space, I have to fix this problem first by partitioning before I can really do anything else so I have to find out how to partition.
I appreciate that you are trying to help!
Can Linux be used in place of XP?
Again, what Linux is the cd attempting to load? Having that information is vital!
See this collection of threads or use the search function above and search for linux, xp, and partiton (if that link doesn't work).
Uh-oh.
A bad thing...no.
I know folks who do that, but they already know the ins and outs of UNIX/Linux. Not for the faint of heart.
Ok I understand, thanks
I am not pleased that your instructor expects us to pick up his slack. But apparantly, someone has to. You should not attempt to install linux on a computer with data or software that you care about until you have more expertise. Most of us have an older computer laying around. If you have something like that available, then it would make sense. What this instructor has done is the approximate equivalent of handing a student a chainsaw and saying "Go try to cut down a tree. Hey, any questions? Don't bother me, try chainsaw.com." Following the instructor's, um, "instructions" could result in significant damage. Because of that, we will suspend rule 6. We can supply this student with any information we can to prevent the impending disasterous loss of information that may result from this do-it-yourself OS install.
One solution for you Ms. Tammy, is to use Mandrake, I'm guessing that this will be a beginners course though, so the instructor may be expecting you to have certain commands available on the CLI.
The reason I suggest Manrdake is cause it has an option to install itself onto a windows partition to Co-exist with windows and you'll just boot into a different OS depending on what you pick at the boot menu
if you're going with RTM's option to backup your files and such, then the rule of thumb is to install windows first, I've had it work once, which apparently surprises some people, windows has a habit of writing to other partitions even though it doesn't understand ext2/ext3 which is what linux usually uses.
There's also the deal with how much you're suppoosed to give to the different paritions like swap, root, etc, but just for simplification, I'd say just give root about 2 or 3 gigs (4 gigs if you're feeling generous), and leave the rest to XP, if you're new you're probably not going to use a lot of space, but they will probably try to simplify things but just assuming you've installed it all.
and I just thought I'd join the chorus with RTM, this instructor does seem pretty..um...incomplete? instructions, at least even brief ones, would've been helpful here, especially if it's for n00bs who need some direction before they can possibly know where to go online to find solutions, this might be cause for alarm.
just thought I'd add my two cents while I was here...
Wow, i must give all my teachers praises for all the grief that they've gone through teaching my classes unix/linux. I found that the best way that i learned was to use a program like VMwear, which is a virtual computer that runs in windows. That way you can install linux and not have to worry really about screwing up your hard drive with partitions because well you'll be using a virtual hard drive in the program... it's hard to explain but look it up and you might like what you see.
Good luck.
Byblyk.
Don't install the Fedora Distro, Yet. not sure if your problem has been resolved yet or not, but if you do an install now you WILL end up tearing XP from the disk.
OT: Wow, this must be a really dead thread. 2 Months and no updates.
Anyways, what you would want to do is download Partition Magic from the internet and install it. You won't be able to partition XP while the disk is in use, using the standard (built-in) tool. This is Microsofts best safeguard, but isn't very convenient.
The order of things would be like this. Defrag your HD, Reboot, Start PartMag, Partition as little endspace as you can. I'd say about 2 Gigs of your HD. Install Fedora (Im assuming this is core).
OT Again: Man this brings back memories... my instructor did almost the same exact thing. 
No, I didn't follow my instructors lead and wipe my XP, common sense told me not to install when it asked if I wanted to format existing partitions.
Although this is a dead thread, I post this message in hopes that students in the future will NOT listen to their instructors when they say, "Find out how to install Linux from the website." It's most likely that he already wiped his drive, gave you the disk not knowing what he did himself, and is still ticked about losing XP.
Having just gone through a similar situation (though not in a classroom environment - I did it in order to become familiar with Unix), I would recommend getting a new hard drive and installing it fresh on that.
I used Partition Magic to re-partition my HD that had XP on it (notice the word "had" - XP stands for X-Pendable). XP does not like to give up being the primary boot OS, I was not able to beat it into submission, so it was over-written.
If you decide to re-partition, seek help from someone knowledgeable in re-partitioning hard drives. One false move, and XP can be rendered unusable.
I wish you luck in your venture, you may want to contact your student advisor and file a complaint against this "instructor".
Hello friend,
You already have Xp operating system on ur PC and you want to install Linux. Before installing Linux you check whether do you have unassigned hard disk space is there or not.
If your hole windows OS occupying all disk space means its very difficult to resolve the issue you delete any other primary partition ( D: or E:) drive. Than you take third option ( 3. Keep all partitions and use existing free space) and indicate that free space while installing Linux
Regards
Srinivas