installing/partitioning/etc....

[K-9]

I have another distro running an XFCE I believe on an old dell inspiron in my shed.  has 256 ram only.  wireless works most of the time.

I really was interested in either Gnome or XFCE linuxpc OS.  when i run live Cd as usual - it is terribly slow.  kind of got the wireless working on the XFCE.

questions are:  it took a lot for me to set this up now as it is.  How can i install your distro on the dell and keep the other linux OS just in case there is issues with this distro?  I figure running off the HD is ideal and will speed stuff up more than the stupid live CD that is so slow.  I could get a much better experience and test done this way.  I do not know anything and NEVER could Get It re: partitioning in linux.  I install the other as a 1 partition defualt install.

thank you so much.  I would love to get gnome going.  :-)

[Old-Polack]

K-9:

Obvious first question; is there empty, unpartitioned space on the hard drive on which to create any new partitions?

[K-9]

All I can say is that the distro takes all of the space.  However - not much info on there and technically there is free space that is withing the current linux distro.  does this help?  Thank you.

[Old-Polack]

All I can say is that the distro takes all of the space.  However - not much info on there and technically there is free space that is withing the current linux distro.  does this help?  Thank you.

Actually not, unless it is a lot of space. If it's in the 100 GB range no problem, If it's in the <10 GB range, shrinking the current partition to make room for a new installation could leave you with two overly crowded installations, that could easily lock up running any process that uses /tmp. Also it makes a difference whether the existing partitions are primary or logical, and their placement on the hard drive. From a root terminal, could you post the results of;

# fdisk -l          <Enter>        <-- That's a lower case L not a number 1

[K-9]

OK --- I will post back in a couple of hours when I get my work done and go out to the shed to get on the laptop.  I have a work area for woodhop, garden and vineyard.  Use the laptop for various things,  and was going to try to run live cd of Gnome to try it.  will run the command and post it back to you asap.  Thank you again.

[K-9]

sorry - just tried but not in root and cannot figure out how to do it.  I am that dense...

[Old-Polack]

sorry - just tried but not in root and cannot figure out how to do it.  I am that dense...

When you open the terminal, at the prompt, type su then press the Enter key

You will see a prompt;

Password:

Type the root password, then press Enter again. Nothing will show as you type the password, (a security measure) but it is being registered internally.

The prompt will change to;

[root@localhost ~]#

From which, you can enter the command from my previous reply.

[K-9]

Ok :
fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 20.0 GB, 20003880960 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2432 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000080

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        2341    18804051   83  Linux
/dev/sda2            2342        2432      730957+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5            2342        2432      730926   82  Linux swap / Solaris
zen zen # # fdisk -l
zen zen #


thank you.

[Old-Polack]

Ok :
fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 20.0 GB, 20003880960 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2432 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000080

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        2341    18804051   83  Linux
/dev/sda2            2342        2432      730957+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5            2342        2432      730926   82  Linux swap / Solaris

With only 20 GB total space, I'd be leery of trying to split the existing sda1 partition. There wouldn't be enough space to do much of anything, and you'd always be in danger of locking up the system by filling the partition with temporary process data. You'd be much better off with just one installation. Whether you choose to have that one be the one already there, or a new one, is up to you.

[sphinx]

Since the inspiron only has 256MB RAM I think that's why the livecd is slow, it may be swapping a lot.

Also you might look into buying a larger drive for the inspiron, that way you can have two installs (or more).

[K-9]

Ok thanks - I will stick with what I have then.