How to do a clean installation of unix?

[Sid Alam]

I want to install Linux on a hard disk.
I have set the system up so it recognises different swapped hard disk by using a caddy system set-up.

At present this hard disk has Win98 installed, I want to install Mandrake (a flavor of Unix). What is the best way to do this?

Note the disk is empty apart from the OS tools so consequently no backup etc is required. It is a small hard disk and I would therfore like to utilise all the disk space and ergo not want to do any partitions (also this is one of the reason I have set-up the caddy style set-up).

I would prefer a clean installation something like formatting the disk and doing the Unix installation.
I have "Windows start-up disk" I guess this is useless?

[john5211]

Hey Sid,

As I understand it, you would like to install Mandrake Linux 8.2 as the only operating system - no windows at all.

The best way to proceed will be determined by weather or not you can boot from the CD-Rom. First, make sure that you have all 3 of the CDs for ML. Next, start the computer and go into the BIOS - see if you can boot from the CD drive.

If you can boot from the CD drive, do that with the first CD in the drive. The installation program should start and will guide you through the rest of the installation process.

If you cannot boot from the CD drive, start windows 98, move to the dosutils folder of the first Mandrake CD Rom, and use rawwrite to create a linux boot floppy from the file '/images/cdrom.img' (more details should be in the readme files on the CD Rom). Start the computer with the boot disk you just created in the floppy drive and the first Mandrake disk in the CD-Rom drive.

You will get to a section of the installation that lets you set up the partitions that you want where you want them. If you don't want the windows partition, just delete it. Other than that, I think that Mandrake suggests you go with several partitions (you need at least one separate partition for the swap file), but you can choose to do whatever you want. You will also be given the option to format all of the partitions you create.

Good Luck

John

[Sid Alam]

> My version is Mandrake Linux 8.1 it spans only two CD-ROM.

>as the only operating system - no windows at all.
Yes

>... you can boot from the CD-Rom. ... start the computer and go into the BIOS - see if you can boot from the CD drive.

I am in the BIOS feature setup. I can change the boot sequence to "CD-ROM, C,A" Does this mean I can boot from CD drive?

Again I would like to do a clean installatin. The HD at present starts up with Win98. What shall I do to delete this?????????????

There are many reasons for me to do a clean installation:

1) I do not want problems with dual boot problems (i.e I think Wunderdog is suffering from in the post prior to me)

2) Clean boot prevents problems with file system, I had problems with WinXP NTFS and Fat32. I could imagine a bigger problem with unix file system.

3) OS are totally isolated

4) etc...

[Sid Alam]

I went ahead it did it.

I formated the hard disk.
I went into the bios and changed the boot sequence to "CD-ROM, C,A" saved the setting and exited.

computer found cd-rom, hard disk etc.

Took me to a black screen with this inforamtion at the bottom of screen.

verying DMI Pool Data .......
Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM:

I can't do anything
Helppppppppppppppppppppppppppp

[john5211]

Hey Sid,

OK, first, you are using an ATAPI CD-Rom, correct? (If you have a SCSI CD-Rom then you should set the BIOS to boot from SCSI devices, although I'm not sure the CD-Rom will boot; if you have an older CD-Rom that interfaces through the sound card then you cannot boot from it). If so, with the Mandrake 8.1 disk one in the drive, boot the computer. After the screen says 'Boot From ATAPI CD-Rom:,' you sometimes have to press enter. It should then start loading.

If you can't get the CD-Rom to work, make a boot disk using the rawwrite program in the dosutils subfolder of the first CD-Rom. Then switch the boot order in the BIOS to boot the floppy first and restart (with the floppy in the drive).

Good Luck

John

[Sid Alam]

>After the screen says 'Boot From ATAPI CD-Rom:,' you sometimes have to press enter. It should then start loading.

Verying DMI Pool Data ...
Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM: failure <<return>>

invlaid system disk
replace the disk, and then press any key
boot from atapi cd-rom: failure <<return>>

... same message as above

>If you cannot boot from the CD drive, start windows 98, move to the >dosutils folder of the first Mandrake CD Rom, and use rawwrite to >create a linux boot floppy from the file '/images/cdrom.img' (more >details should be in the readme files on the CD Rom).

I am viewing the CD-ROM for Mandrake.
There are no folders, just one file, I have clicked on this file called: Mandrake81-cd1-inst.i586.iso
it opens an "Open With dialog box"
What shall I do?

[john5211]

Hey Sid,

The problem is with the way that the CD-Roms were made. Presumably the files Mandrake81-cd1-inst.i586.iso and Mandrake81-cd2-*.i586.iso were downloaded and then copied onto CD-Roms. The iso files, however, are somewhat like zip files in that they need to be 'unpacked' as they are put onto the CD-Rom.

To do this correctly, go to a machine that has a CD-Rom burner and make sure that the iso files that you want to burn (the 2 Mandrake disks in this case) are on the hard drive of said machine. Next, open up the CD writing software and look around for an option to make a CD from an image. I use Nero software, so I would go to File -> Burn Image; other software will have similar selections.

Once you select the option to create a CD using an image, you will have to specify the image file to use - choose the file Mandrake81-cd1-inst.i586.iso for the first CD Rom, and the other file for the second CD-Rom. By the way, you should also select the option to close the disks, if it is available.

After you have created both the CD's, you can check to make sure that it worked by looking at the contents of the first CD and making sure that there are a bunch of files and directories, and not just one big file.

Once the CD's have been made, go back to the computer that you want to install linux on, and boot it the way you did last time. This time it should be able to boot directly from the CD.

Good Luck

John

[Sid Alam]

Johnny is the man,
Hi this website should have a rating or nomination for giving advice/Tip for example Java programming discusion forum by Sun has similar thing they call it duke dollars (fake money) "Duke Dollars as incentive and rewarding it to participants who post helpful responses"


Perhaps I should tell Pete.

Question:
How big hard disk do you need to install all toools of Mandrake Linux?
I am installing it on a small hard disk just over 1 GB. (I know get rid of it). I was unable to choose all the program tools.

I was actually trying to install it on a 50 GB brand new hard disk but had problems (I posted help request at pcguide forum http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15357). Any way I sent the disk back, they said they would accept it although it is much over the 28 standard days for returns.

Hopefully they will return to me a working hard disk??

[Sid Alam]

Problems again:mad:

The installation process completed and asked me to reomove cd-rom becuase it was going to reboot so I did. It went through motions of setting up and then got to stage:

"Current state: X windows System
Starting numlock:"

It stayed on this screen for more than 5 minutes
I lost patients so rebooted. It had to do the boot again did all this file setting up etc and again got to

"Current state: X windows System
Starting numlock:"

This time I pressed return

At the botom of window got message

Checking root filesystem
/dev/hda1 was not cleanly mounted, check forced.
/dev/hda1: lnode 1817 has illegal block(s).

/dev/hdal: Unexpected inconsistency; run fsck manually
(i.e., without -a or -p options)
e2fsck 1.24a (02-sep-2001)
/dev/hda1 contains systems with errors, check forced.
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
inode 18917 has illegal block(s) clear? yes

return does not do anything
What shall I do?????????

[john5211]

Hey Sid,

Well, thanks for the compliment (however short lived :) ). Let's see if we can get this sorted out.

First of all, regarding the question on size, as you have seen, with disks below 2-3 GB in size, you have to start paring down the size of the installation and picking and choosing the components that you install. I would think that with a 3.5 GB disk you can install everything from the distro using the install everything option and still have some room to save files/upgrade packages/etc. But of course more free space is always better and allows for future expansion.

On to your difficulties. It looks like the system hung trying to turn on the numlock on your keyboard; the resulting reboot caused some file system errors. This is one of the 'features' of Linux that is not very well know; it almost never crashes to the point of requiring a reboot, but when it does, it is easier (in relation to windows) to damage the file system.

Anyway, at this point you have two options. Option one is to boot from your rescue disk into expert mode and try to repair the file system using fsck (a filesystem utility). This is what you would normally do if there are serious filesystem errors (once you get to the console, type 'man fsck' for the options that you will need to run, I think it is something like 'fsck /dev/hda*' where * represents the partitions 1,2,..., but you might need a couple of parameters to get it to do what you want).

Option two (because you are just starting) is to reinstall Linux. If you do this, just boot from the CD and go through the setup routine again, making sure that you choose the format option for all the partitions. Also, pay very close attention to your choices for the keyboard, and make sure that you choose an option corresponding to the hardware that your system has.

Also, if you go this route, I suggest that when you get to the stage where it asks you whether you want a graphical log on, choose NO. You can always start the X server once you have booted into the text console, and there is generally less that can go wrong if you boot strait to a console.

Good Luck

John

[Sid Alam]

what is the best way to shut down.
I have chosen halt, and then shut down
It gives me screen with linux penguin
... kill signal etec
...
Power down.



Has this been shut down?

[john5211]

Yes, that has been shut down. In general, I think from the GUI if you choose Log Out -> Shut Down (or reboot) then everything shuts down as it should.

I usually log out of the GUI if I am running it (Choose Log Out -> Log out or whatever), switch to the superuser ('su') and then execute '/sbin/shutdown -h now' to shut down or '/sbin/shutdown -r now' to reboot.

What I meant in my previous post was that pressing the reset button while Linux is running should be avoided if at all possible. The resulting damage is potentially worse than if you press the reset button while your typical Windows OS is running.

John

PS, after looking at your disk problem from a couple of posts ago, you might be able to get by entering 'y' or 'yes' when you are prompted to fix the inodes.

[Sid Alam]

thanx