new to linux

[MNuTz]

Ive got a 20GB HDD sitting next to me here that im going to stick Linux on.

But, which one?

Ill be connecting to a Windows network to access the net and id prefer one with really good noob support/documentation built in.

Any suggestions?

 

[BillytheImpaler]

Can't go wrong with Ubuntu/Kubuntu. I'm a Mandriva fan personally.

 

[uk_viper]

ubuntu is meant to be the favourite, particulary for people who never used linux, personally i would go fedora, but thats me

 

[cb_linus]

And I would probably go Suse for ease of setup Guess you have to decide for yourself

 

[Hades]

I'd say try Ubuntu. I love it (used Red Hat/Fedora and SuSE in the past and settled on this instead).

 

[BillytheImpaler]

Yeah, if I were you I would start with Kubuntu. I think that the KDE environment is a little more friendly to a Windows user than Gnome.

 

[FirebarUK]

SuSE / Mepis imo.

 

[Mikesoft]

SimplyMepis is far more user friendly compared to all distros for installing and uses KDE, Gnome can be installed though.

 

[MNuTz]

Right ive downloaded Ubuntu and installed it to the 20GB HDD.

My setup is:

2 Sata Drives (80GB PRI & 250GB SEC)
1 x DVD-RW (set to primary)
1 x 20GB IDE (on same cable as DVD-RW and set to secondary)

On start up i dont get an option of which OS to boot up, is this because the HDD is set as a secondary??

Reason its like this is because i can be bothered to walk the 10mins home to get another cable

Or is it something else??

 

[BillytheImpaler]

Did you install a bootloader to the MBR (master boot record)? It would likely be called Lilo or Grub. A bootloader will replace the Windows one that is already there and give you a screen on which you may select the OS you'd like to boot. You can change the default OS in /boot/lilo or /boot/grub, as the case may be. On a dual boot machine I like to have the default as Windows and most installations of Linux make themselves the top dog by default.

 

[MNuTz]

yes it automatically installed a bootloader to the MBR (GRUB i think)

 

[BillytheImpaler]

So all it will let you do is boot Linux? First, try unplugging the Linux HDD and see what it does.

 

[uk_viper]

does it say "booting OS" if so there should be an option to press something like escape and then select the alternative OS,

if you remove the LINUX HD like Billy said, it will just give you minimal GRUB because it cant find the bootloader config file, so thats not really a good idea, unless your removing linux

 

[ACPCUP]

Going to try Ubuntu

 

[BillytheImpaler]

if you remove the LINUX HD like Billy said, it will just give you minimal GRUB because it cant find the bootloader config file, so thats not really a good idea, unless your removing linux

The intention there is to make it stop at the bootloader. From the sounds of it he wasn't seeing any options at all. That might mean that the Windows partition was nuked or something else. At least you can verify that the bootloader is there and working when it spits out an error.

It's probably not the best way to test like that, but it gets the job done I suppose.

/goes to hide in cave

 

[MNuTz]

sorry, i should have said. It automatically boots into Windows XP and doesnt give the option to boot to linux on the IDE HDD

 

[BillytheImpaler]

Does it not display any options at all? Does the GRUB screen show up between POST and the black XP boot screen?

 

[uk_viper]

sorry, i should have said. It automatically boots into Windows XP and doesnt give the option to boot to linux on the IDE HDD

does it give a sort of timer with the OS its about to load up?