Silly Rudimentary Queries
sorry for being overly cautious, but Acronis and other software have tsunamied my machine several times before and the novelty is wearing thin.
Also, i have asked these queries on other forums -- the response was dead air; apparently many pundits need this education!
to the quick:
i have just created a 100GB partition on my (vacant) secondary hdd to accommodate a *Nix. what are the steps to install the *Nix onto this partition? -- i want to avoid blowing out Vista on my primary ["1^0"] hdd (Vista ids now the 1^0's only resident, but that will change: the 1^0 hdd will also be partitioned).
also, i want to install more than 4 *Nix'es. i understand that the allowed maximum number of primary partitions is 4, so how can i accomplish this? {I repeat: I want to partition both the *1^0* and *2^0* hdd's}
also, given that I installed DDS onto Vista, will it be possible to invoke DDS/OSS from a *Nix partition which has been created on either the 1^0 or 2^0 hdd? if not, then how can i change to another OS without rebooting?
Is OSS already installed? If so, you can still proceed as Mark suggested and disconnect the Vista drive while installing Linux to the second drive. OSS should detect the Linux installation(s) when the Vista drive is reconnected and booted.
If OSS isn't already installed, you can switch between the two drives using a BIOS Boot Menu or by changing the BIOS boot order (the menu is faster, if available).
OSS can't be installed into Linux so you can't switch directly to another OS and bypass the OSS menu like you can with Windows. (I think this may be what you mean by not needing to reboot [the computer still must reboot].)
firstly, there will be other than Linux: several *Unix*'es -- FreeBSD and OpenSolaris -- will also be installed; i don't know what effect this will have on your responses.
"BIOS boot menu" == ?
I'm vague on the Linux "swap file" concept -- is this the same "swap" as MS windows uses for swap space: if the ram size is inadequate then data is paged/thrashed between ram and hdd? if it *is* the same concept then why is it treated so differently in Linux than in Windows:I don't recollect windows making "swap space" *my* concern. so, let's assume that it *is* my concern in Linux; then *why* is Linux making it my concern rather than setting a default value, or making it dynamic? and what criteria do i employ to assign a size for the swap partition? do i understand you to be saying that the *same* swap space will be used for *all the Linux'es* installed, regardless of what partition they are on... even if they are on non-adjacent partitions, or even on different hdd's; the Linux'es will all find it?
someone told me that Linux can boot from a partition on an *external* hdd -- is this correct? why does Linux have this feature? (i think I'm asking these heavily-Linuxed-laced questions in the wrong forum; i should be posting these in the Linux forum)
Neal:
I don't have any direct experience with OpenSolaris / FreeBSD, but I'm fairly sure that the popular Linux boot manager GRUB can handle booting them.
Some PCs have a "BIOS boot menu". On my Lenovo laptop it's activated by pressing F12 when the BIOS splash screen appears. Then menu then lets you select the boot device (DVD, HDD1, HDD2, USB, etc). A PC with this feature makes it easy to select the disk to boot from without entering BIOS setup and changing the boot device in CMOS memory.
Linux decided long ago to use a separate partition for swap space instead of a swap file like Windows uses. An advantage of this approach is that several Linux/Unix installations can share the same swap space and the swap partition can be on a different physical disk for speed. It's just a different design decision than Windows made. Most Linux installers handle the details of setting up a swap partition and if one already exists, will happily use it. The normal recommendation is to let swap partition size = RAM size. Yes, the concept is the same as Windows. Swap space on the disk is used for temporary storage of RAM pages, and is also used when the machine hibernates.
Yes, Linux can boot from a USB external hard disk or flash drive. Windows cannot because it was specifically designed NOT to (probably to prevent piracy).
Some PCs have a "BIOS boot menu". On my Lenovo laptop it's activated by pressing F12 when the BIOS splash screen appears. Then menu then lets you select the boot device (DVD, HDD1, HDD2, USB, etc). A PC with this feature makes it easy to select the disk to boot from without entering BIOS setup and changing the boot device in CMOS memory.
mudcrab states: "OSS can't be installed into Linux so you can't switch directly to another OS and bypass the OSS menu like you can with Windows. (I think this may be what you mean by not needing to reboot [the computer still must reboot].)" i vaguely recollect that OSS *can* change the OS on-the-fly; i'll have to investigate the manual more deeply, and ask Acronis if necessary.
Most Linux installers handle the details of setting up a swap partition and if one already exists
then what i said is correct? : that the Linux installer *will* be able to seek out whether a swap space, for another Linux installation, exists, regardless of where that swap space is located? what is the difference between the swap file (MS) and Swap partition (Linux)?
Most Linux installers handle the details of setting up a swap partition and if one already existsthen what i said is correct? : that the Linux installer *will* be able to seek out whether a swap space, for another Linux installation, exists, regardless of where that swap space is located? what is the difference between the swap file (MS) and Swap partition (Linux)?
I can't vouch for what every installer will do but they should be able to detect a swap partition and use it. But the beauty of Linux is that you can fix that up later if the installer doesn't do it correctly.
Functionally, the MS and Linux swap concepts are the same. MS decided to use a file and Linux decided to use a separate partition.