Linux Mandrake

Kawaii

Kawaii

Well-Known Member
I'm currently downloading Linux Mandrake and i'm planning on using it side-by-side with XP. Are there any nasty side effects or tips i should know about? Do i have to reformat? Any general advice?
All help is greatly appreciated.
 
Piece of cake. I'm currently using Redhat, but I started out with Mandrake. You could run it on a windows partition, but I like to give it it's own. Check out linuxnewbie.org. They're really helpful. PC builder has been fooling with it lately, and I think tommyj is the resident linux expert. Ask lots of questions, they'll get answered. I also like using the Windows bootloader rather than grub or lilo, but it's more complicated to set up that way. I have instructions if you want them though.
 
Just make sure to have enough room to create at least 2 partitions (swap and root). 2 or 3 GB would do fine.
 
shouldn't have any problems with mandrake, i haven't touched it since version 6 or 7 or something, but i've heard that the new 9.1 is very newbie-centric. i don't know much about mandrake, IMHO it's a good place to get your feet wet, but ask away, i can at least point you in the right direction. you may want to give yourself more than 3gb if you've got plenty of space. as i recall, mandrake is a pretty big beast, especially if you install everything.
 
Haven't used Mandrake since 7.3 days...what kernel does it come with?

The only problem that may arise is if you're running NTFS. Last I checked there's read-only support for it. I've seen support for writing to NTFS, but it was very experiemental with cases of it messing up the NTFS version of journaling. :shrug: Separate partitions would fix this, but keep it in mind if you want to access files in both OSes.
 
AFAIK ntfs support is read only, there's a kernel option for write support with the warning that it will almost certainly destroy data.

[mandrake rant] whatever kernel it's running is probably so customized that building a vanilla kernel would break the system.
 
Ouch. Both my HDD's are using NTFS. Damn.:banghead:
Ok, so are there any Linux versions that are compatible with NTFS? I'll take mostly anything.
 
Kawaii said:
Ouch. Both my HDD's are using NTFS. Damn.:banghead:
Ok, so are there any Linux versions that are compatible with NTFS? I'll take mostly anything.
Click to expand...
Well, any distro is going to have that problem. See, its the kernel thats holding you back, not necessarily the distribution. 2.6 is nearly official, so there may be hope soon. I haven't heard if they perfected NTFS support or not, but anything open source dealing with MS is usually buggy or temporary at best.

Your best bet would be to either get another machine or chill for a few months and see what distros put out with 2.6 (when it becomes official). Then see what you can do about NTFS.

Read-only is here, but I wouldn't try writing. Maybe try something like Knoppix (CD-bootable) and see what you can do?
 
I must be missing something, or doing something wrong.
I can't see a very big performance difference between ntfs, and fat32.
I know there is a diff, in the security I guess, but for me
I like to run fat32 on everything, concerning windows.
It just seems to make life a-lot easier for me.
 
catocom said:
I must be missing something, or doing something wrong.
I can't see a very big performance difference between ntfs, and fat32.
I know there is a diff, in the security I guess, but for me
I like to run fat32 on everything, concerning windows.
It just seems to make life a-lot easier for me.
Click to expand...

Yeah, i agree, thou, when you have to share your computer with your sisters, the ntfs helps you to protect your data.
 
catocom said:
I must be missing something, or doing something wrong.
I can't see a very big performance difference between ntfs, and fat32.
I know there is a diff, in the security I guess, but for me
I like to run fat32 on everything, concerning windows.
It just seems to make life a-lot easier for me.
Click to expand...
I notice startup times stay lower in NTFS than FAT32. But NTFS makes file recovery/virus removal a royal pain.
 
Maybe i could do a reformat and instead go FAT32? But backuping 200gb of data, formatting 80gb + 120gb, installing XP again and restoring 200gb would be a very royal pain in the ass. I think i'll just wait and see what comes out. Thanks guys.
 
Or you could use a "cross over" fat32 partition (readable and writable to both OSes).
 
I don't understand. You have an 80gb and a 120gb drive. Why would you have to reformat both? Besides, you can see an ntfs drive, you just can't write to it.

I notice startup times stay lower in NTFS than FAT32. But NTFS makes file recovery/virus removal a royal pain.
Click to expand...
That's the truth. I use it for the security, though.
 
chcr said:
I don't understand. You have an 80gb and a 120gb drive. Why would you have to reformat both? Besides, you can see an ntfs drive, you just can't write to it.
Click to expand...
I want to be able to use both in Linux, the 80gb for apps, OS and games, and the 120 for anime, mp3s, ISOs and movies. So i'd have to reformat both in order to be able to use both in Linux.
 
if i'm understanding things right, the 120 wouldn't have to be reformatted, linux can still read it just not write to it. the reason, as i understand it, is that ntfs uses some sort of encrypted database to organize the filesystem, obfuscating how the damned thing works, and making write operations risky since the linux kernel can't decipher where all the data is located.

the way i would partition your drives, given your situation:

80gb:
|==windows(ntfs)==||==linux swap==||==linux*==||==fat32(common writeable space)==|
*if you want to make multiple partitions for linux, you'd need to create logical partitions

200gb:
|==ntfs==| leave it as is.
 
I'd have all kinds of partitions on those sucker.
Keeping the data separate from the system.
I'd have ...
1=win sys and installed reg progs
2=games
3=music
4=linux
5=linux swap
6=2 or 3 ntfs parts
and maybe a few others

I like to keep my system partition fairly small, say 8gig or less.
 
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