LINUX Install

[Zygomorphic]

Hello again, everyone. It seems that we haven't discussed LINUX here in a while. I thought it is about time to change that, since summer is here, and I am nearly done rebuilding my laptop. Considering what I said above, I figured I would go ahead and share my experiences with the system.

I had mentioned previously that I was planning on putting Windows in a VM, and going Penguin all the way. :)Well, my friends, that has happened, and I am running LINUX Mint 14 on my Seagate Hybrid drive (15 sec boot time :)). I have Windows 7 in a VM now, and it seems happy there, and is easier to manage than Windows on a drive with LINUX. I have to say, getting rid of Windows made things easier, since only Windows doesn't respect other people's bootloaders, and is arrogant enough to think that it is the only OS you want. :mad:

I did some research on the best partitioning scheme for LINUX, and which filesystems to use for which partitions, and so this is the partitioning scheme that I chose, given that I am planning on having multiple VMs on this machine, so the maximum storage is ideal.
/dev/sdb2 /boot 255 MB ext2
/dev/sdb3 Extended partition
/dev/sdb6 / 50 GB ext4
/dev/sdb7 /home 418 GB ext4
/dev/sdb5 swap 32 GB swap

I have 16 GB of RAM, and so went with the rule-of-thumb 1.5-2x RAM for swap space. I don't tend to hibernate my system, but if I ever do, I want the option of doing so. I could probably have gone with 16 GB, and if I were more pressed for space, I would have.

I've heard that some suggest splitting /boot and the / partitions, so I decided that it can't hurt, and it can keep some of my other stuff separate. If you guys don't think that this is necessary, I'd like to know that for the future.

I'm a firm believer in separating the /home partition from everything else, especially since I sometimes change LINUX distros, and this allows me to preserve all my files. 🙂 For someone who just wants to try LINUX out, I go with the simple partitioning scheme of (/ and swap), but since I use LINUX for my daily tasks, I wanted a better system.

TODO:
* Install nVidia drivers to obtain better graphics performance and power management.
* Download LINUX kernel sources and learn more about building LINUX kernels.
* Try out other distros and configs in VM - more learning.
* Upgrade to LINUX Mint 15 when it comes out.

Any thoughts and/or suggestions? I'm happy to have feedback, and would like people's thoughts. I'm particularly interested in starting a flame war about distros, as well as filesystems. :cool:

[Nodens]

Not sure how Xubuntu behaves but some of them just switch to the native monitor resolution.

@Zygomorphic: Perfectly understandable. You can't always choose what to work with at work. And once you're employed to work with an existing infrastructure it gets even more limiting:/

@billyray: You know you can always install in text mode and setup X conf manually to whatever you want. It's a little more involved to do so but I get the impression that you like tinkering!

[Zygomorphic]

Nodens wrote:
Not sure how Xubuntu behaves but some of them just switch to the native monitor resolution.

@Zygomorphic: Perfectly understandable. You can't always choose what to work with at work. And once you're employed to work with an existing infrastructure it gets even more limiting:/

@billyray: You know you can always install in text mode and setup X conf manually to whatever you want. It's a little more involved to do so but I get the impression that you like tinkering!

I've never been able to get X.conf working manually. 😞 I need to tinker more. Should be something to do when I get time. 🙂

[Nodens]

That conf file is a little tricky. Your best course of action is getting the latest default conf and edit that while reading the man pages for options. With nvidia driver installed it gets even trickier due to lack of proper and current documentation, specially if you're doing a two+ monitor setup. Sometime ago, autoconfiguration was working rather bad. What I used to do is edit default for screen modes etc, then install nvidia and let it tweak it and lastly fine tune any other options with the nvidia GUI tool. I have not done that in ages though on Fedora..I just install the akmod and I'm done.

[billyray520]

@billyray: You know you can always install in text mode and setup X conf manually to whatever you want. It's a little more involved to do so but I get the impression that you like tinkering!

You got that right! 😉 Now my Windows 98 computer can't get through the POST. It functioned normally for a couple of weeks after the Xubuntu debacle. Then one morning, I turned it on, and it gets stuck right before the fdd gets checked. IOW, the Post gets through the memory check, and detects the keyboard, mouse and 2 hdds and just when it would normally buzz the fdd, beep and load windows it is hanging. So I'm tinkering with hardware again. Arrrrr. 😛

This is an Intel SE440BX-2 mobo with 768 MB of ECC Ram, Pentium III @450 mhz. All fans are working. The weird thing is that the BIOS isn't triggering any error messages during the POST. The screen works fine, sound ok, keyboard and mouse good. The fdd and cable are good (swapped both) I'm getting a POST card to see where it is sticking. It might be a mobo problem. (I'll blame Xubuntu for that too.. 😮 )

[Nodens]

Lol! Try removing the fdd drive to see if it will post. Hard drives can also cause this behavior..I think that system is slowly telling you that it needs a retirement. Maybe it just had a voltage spike too many 😕 Memtesting the RAM is also a good idea.

[LVKILL]

Hello everyone, I'm G55VW with 12GB ram. I tried to install the OS and Sabyon elementary, but still can not choose the system after boot. So even Windows8 loads that came with the notebook. I will still insist on Linux. Liked the partitioning scheme suggested in the forum by super moderator zygomorphic:
/ dev/sdb2 / boot ext2 255 MB
/ dev/sdb3 Extended partition
/ dev/sdb6 / 50 GB ext4
/ dev/sdb7 / home ext4 418 GB
/ dev/sdb5 32 GB swap swap


But first I need to address this issue await the boot helps everyone. I would like to try the dual boot sabayon with the existing system on the notebook (Windows8 pro).
Tks for help.

[Zygomorphic]

Welcome to the forums, @LVKILL! 🙂

OK, here is some advice. I was wrong about some of the stuff. Here is a better partition scheme:
62 GB / ext4
418 GB /home ext4
16 GB swap swap

The separate /boot partition is good if you are running a server (Can be mounted read-only for security), but since Sabayon ships newer kernels so often, that partition would quickly fill up, causing problems. It's better for most cases to leave it inside the / partition, since all your data resides on the separate /home partition.

Swap doesn't need to be so big, just larger than system RAM if you want to be able to hibernate. I never do with 16 GB of RAM, since LINUX boots so fast that it doesn't need it, and sleep lasts long enough for those times when I don't want to close out all my work. 🙂

All the best! 🙂

As to Sabayon, which version are you using, and have you disabled Secureboot and enabled Launch CSM? Oh, and when you install Sabayon make sure to tell it to install the boot loader to the appropriate drive if you happen to have two. It will enable dual-booting by default. 🙂

[Nodens]

Not sure if its possible to do on Sabayon but with RPM based distros you can set a switch to keep n amount of kernels. Something to look up I guess:)

[Zygomorphic]

I thought I should share that ASUS is now installing Ubuntu on netbooks! 🙂
http://www.ubuntu.com/partners/asus

[billyray520]

Good for Asus! Ubuntu is very good on netbooks. I have an Acer netbook with Ubuntu. It originally came with Windows 7 starter edition, but no one seriously would consider that a viable option! 😛