eliander

Hi,
I am a fairly experienced user but new to the forum. Forgive me if this has been posted before.
I remember the days of DOS and hope to begin learning LINUX. In order to do so I´d like to install LINUX on my XP machine and have it dual booted. Have herad rumors that once installed Linux cannot be removed for several reasons:
1.Linux puts info in the processor´s memory cache and you need to change the processor if you ever need to uninstall it
2.Linux changes chip configuration and chipset drivers on the motherboard in permanent form
3.Linux makes changes to the MBR of the hard disk and there is no way to remove it permanently
Please help me, is any of this true and do I run any risks (I have absolutely no experience in Linux) in trying to install and learn it.
Thank you in advance,
---------------------------------
Madrid, Spain
20ºC and the sky is clear

batty_professor

I'm getting ready for work at the moment and wish I had more time to go into detail. Reference to #1, NO the processor cache is volatile memory the processor uses to do it's "housekeeping" and work it's calculations and routines. #2 every operating system must have access to the bios to make changes as needed, and more importantly to configure plug-n-play devices. #3 Every time you shut down an operating system, the MBR is re-written to include all the changes that occurred to the file system during the session. This is why it's so important to shut down a system properly, and not just "turn off the switch".We need to address GRUB and LILO. More on this later.

eliander

Thanks for your prompt reply, what are the permanent changes to the hardware that Linux makes then?

gotissues68

Linux does NOT make any permanent changes to ANY hardware devices at all.

Volt-Schwibe

not only does it not make changes, i'd like to hear where you heard this mis-information... (i'm thinking that mr gates needs to shut down his mis-information campaign, it's getting tiresome.)


i have a few machines here that i can't decide what to use them for, and about once a week, they get reinstalled, half the time, it's linux, and the other half of the time, it's 98 lite.


basically, it's like this....

when you install linux, it will change the format of your hard disk.

this is no big deal if you know what to do to change it back.

to change it back... you simply put a windows boot disk in there and start the pc, and then delete all partitions that are NON-Dos.

then you will be able to reinstall windows.

this is the only change it makes to the pc, and a hard disk format isn't a big change, considering that windows already covers three different hard disk formats, just think of this as a 4th format type. (ETX3 i think it is)


other than that, you can switch from windows to linux in less than an hour...

eliander

Hi,
thanks for your replies,
I have a copy of Linux SUSE 9.0 which includes OpenOffice,
does it sound good that I make a new partition and install it there? Is this version of Linux good enough for a beginner?
Thanks,
eliander

Skie

The only changes Linux will make to your computer is to the hard drive when you install it. It will need a dedicated partition which is formated using a proper filesystem. It may make changes to the BIOS, but mainly to the system clock if you update it through Linux. Other then that, it only reads the BIOS to find out what kind of hardware you have.

I'm not an expert on low level processor details, but to my understanding, only the processor itself can access/modify its own cache. I could be wrong about this, but even so, all you need to do is shut down the computer and the cache is cleared as it's only able to store any data while the power is on. I don't know of any chips/chipsets/etc that Linux can change/modify.

I too want to know where you heard this from. This information is about as true as saying that the Sun is blue with pink and purple pokadots. (As seen with the naked eye, not through some weird color filters ). I've also installed Windows and Linux on top of each other without any issues. You just need to delete the unneeded partition and recreate it. If you want to dual boot, then just make sure you defrag your Windows partition and then have Linux resize it to use the unused space to create the new partitions.

SUSE 9.0 is good, although it's about a year old. However, you shouldn't have any issues with it. And yes, just create the partition using the unused space from the Windows partition and you should be set. Also make sure to create a swap partition. If you let it suggest a partition scheme, in most cases, it should be good for you.

eliander

Can you please tell me what is swap partition? Is it an option during install?
and how do I suggest a partition scheme (and what is that)?

Skie

A swap partition is just like the Virtual Memory/Page File that Windows uses. Except instead of using a file, Linux uses a dedicated partition. The size of the swap partition depends on how much memory you have. If you have 256MB of RAM, then make a 512MB swap. You can assign the rest of the space you'll be using for Linux to the "/" partition. When you see "/", it's read as "root". You don't really need a seperate /home or /boot or any of the other types of partitions. I would use at least 2 - 5GB of space if you can afford it. This should give you enough room to install Linux and to have room to play with.

LoneWolf071

I tell you now of a tale...
I myself have had FC1 on a seperate HDD and wanted to use the HDD for seperate space, so i uninstalled linux. My recommendation is to download BOOTIT and backup your MBR and then set your Windows HDD to the main Boot and take off any MBR comment on your linux or GRUB configurations. I had about 2 hours of trouble doing it, but uit works.

eliander

Does BOOTIT come with instuctions?
I get the following problem during instalation, My logical partition is of 30 GB all free, SUSE 9.0 wants to use about 12 GB (space that is not fragmented I suppose) to install LINUX, and I dont see any option during install to change the size of the partition in which LINUX will be loaded.
Any suggestions besides using PartitionMagic?
Does the bootable Linux partition need to be on the primary HDD?
Thanks for your help,
eliander

batty_professor

If you get to the GUI for the partitioning, you'll see a button at the bottom that says "expert" click it for full options. Be careful setting partitions!

This is for the Linux GUI.