Now, I think I'm well into information overload. So much so that I can hardly remember what I read or looked into on the net at the beginning. Much of what I've run into has been fairly basic which was extremely

helpful

in my case! But...there are many references to things having to do with Linux that I really have no idea what they're talking about and it starts becoming frustrating.

Sounds about right. Frustrating ain't It! :o)

OK, a little bit off topic but... have you ever come across the ideas of learning theory? My 1st intro was in the Charles Handy book "The Age of Unreason", which I very much recommend (I look back on reading it in the early 1990's as one of the key events in forming the way I saw things). The idea is that learning is the process of converting information into knowledge. We do this by gathering infomation in some way, e.g. reading, experiments, practical activities or a mixture of the 3, and then a period of reflection where we assimilate what we've learned (which isn't neccessarily a conscious activity). Until I took this idea on board I always used to get very worried that I was reading a lot but didn't feel I was actually learining anything (probably true in my case!).

So what has this got to do with the price of fish? I suppose is a long winded and less offensive way of saying "Throw enough mud at a wall and some of it will stick!". And it's the strategy I now adopt (with varying degrees of success :o) ) Don't worry about converting all the information you're reading into knowledge. Do as much research as you're happy with then stop. Do something else for a bit, then go off and try and apply what you've been researching. It's amazing what suddenly pops up into your mind at the right moment. Even if you don't have the info you need to hand often you'll know where to go to find it. This is where having access to the web really pays dividends.

So, I'm thinking of backing off for a day or two and then doing a quick run-through of the info I have, and then finally installing on Saturday.

I

d just like to know if I'm going about this install the right way or

should

I delve even deeper into this foreign world *g* before even attempting the install??

Right!, see above :o)

I've backed up everything I can think of to back up as I've had to completely re-install my system twice in a years time and wouldn't look kindly to having to do it again.

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt!

I've another question...will Mandrake show me the drive sizes so I know the difference between hda and hdb? The drive I have solely for Linux is 20GB completely empty and as of this moment, unpartitioned.

Mandrake was the distro I installed 1st time (in fact it's the only distro I've ever installed!) because I got a free copy of 7.0 (and recently got a later copy at the latest ALUG meeting). I found the install front end quite friendly. It will go through a whole bunch of initial stuff like what sort of install do you want; Desktop User, Developer, Expert, what sort of keyboard do you have; US or UK, etc. and at some point should throw up a graphical display for partitioning your disks.

Like you I have 2 drives hda and hdb. Ignore hda and bring up the display for hdb and let Mandrake select an appropriate partitioning scheme. If you've got a large disk it will probably set up 2 or 3 partitions. A small /boot partition near the front of the disk (see the Large Disk How To) that will contain the kernel image and where you might want to put LILO (e.g. hdb1) and then a root '/' partition and possibly a /usr partition (oops almost forgot it will also create a swap partition as well :o) ).

At this point you're still OK as you haven't applied the changes yet. When you're happy enough to proceed select the OK option (or whatever it is) and it will go off and partition your disk and format the partitions. As long as you've not told it to do anything to hda, it won't (hopefully :o) ). Being paranoid I used to disconnect my hda at first, but once I'd got familiar with the software I left it connected.

Then just continue through the install answering the questions. A note of caution, at some point it will give you a list of packages you might like to install. It's tempting to select the lot! I did and then sat there for over 2 hours while it unpacked and installed masses of software. Keep your sights low initially until you are familiar with the process.

Near the end it will ask you about the boot loader install.

This is where it gets 'interesting' as you have 2 hard disks. Presumably, until you are fully confident in GNU/Linux (note the GNU prefix to keep Richard Stallman happy - not that he'll probably ever read this), you'll want to boot Windows by default and have the choice about booting Linux. So you'll need a boot loader on your hda drive that will allow you to choose between booting Windows on hda or invoking LILO on hdb(1). You can use the Windows boot loader but I had problems getting it to invoke LILO (anyone got this working?) so I got a third party boot loader (BootMagic from Powerquest that comes bundled with PartitionMagic, I didn't buy it, I got a freebie copy with something else), there's a lot out there, I'm sure other ALUGers will be happy to advise :o).

For me, at present, this means that starting GNU/Linux is a 2 step process; run the boot loader on hda and from that select the boot loader (LILO) on hdb and from that select the version of Linux I want to run (I've currently got 3; Mandrake 7.0 + 2 home brewed).

I think there's a How To that covers this scenario.

Still with me? (Yes, but I wish I wasn't!)

Good, there'll be a test tomorrow!! :oD

Regards, Keith ____________ The natural order of things includes us, and its laws are our laws. We are an endless moving stream in an endless moving stream. Jisho Warner