Coexisting Debian with FC1 and Windows
Gentle(wo)men:
Greetings from eParliament.org and this troubled section of the
Himalayas!
I am quite confused about the Debian 3.0rc3 installation (which was
borrowed to me by someone in 7 CDs). Therefore, I am giving you details
about what and why do I need to go for Debian.
MY ENVIRONMENT:
Currently, I have a borrowed PIII 1GHz with 256MB and 40 GB hard drive
(the hardware and harddrive details are beneath my signature below). And
this is the ONLY PC that I have and in production environment (yet I do
only own HDD!)
It has Win98 in C:, WinXP in D: and Fedora Core 1-based PCQLinux2004
(from pcquest.com) in hda7 which uses hda6 as swap space. It has got the
WinXP's NTLDR installed on MBR which leads to GRUB which is installed on
hda7. So, I can't take a risk.
MY PROBLEM:
Now, I would love to install Debian in my machine without disturbing the
existing operating systems (win98, winxp and pcqlinux2004) as well as
the boot loaders.
Therefore, I inserted the CD1 of Debian distro and I have seen a whole
range of options which I am not aware of as to which option allows me to
satisfy my condition above. Thus, I am writing to this list with an
incurable optimism.
WHY DEBIAN?
I have been trying to install Slackware since its early v2 (I think) and
RHv5, but could not. About a year back, I installed RH7.2 just for the
sake of installation. And I upgraded to RH7.3 but it was very much
unstable. Therefore, I upgraded to FC1-based PCQLinux some four months
back.
But some of the problem I faced after the installation of the FC1-based
distro are:
1) I could not make my old HP LaserJet 4L printer work despite I roamed
around the net and applied everything. The configurations are all okay
but, with ljet4 driver it just sends some blips to the printer and
nothing gets printed.
2) I could not print anything to ps from the browser. It seems printed
but the pages used to be blank even after converting to pdf using
ps2pdf. I wished there is some utility in linux which resembles with
fineprint for windows (fineprint.com).
3) Most importantly, I have working on creating a FourHead console as
instructed at http://www.c3sl.ufpr.br/fourhead/ for about two weeks. I
got several errors while installing the 2.4.25 kernel and finally the
people at http://linuxconsole.sf.net informed me that it won't be
possible with RH/FC1! The only reason I need FourHead console is the
financial constraints and also a desire to experiment.
Due to the above 3 pertinent reasons, I though of evaluating
and then migrating to the Debian. I hope you will welcome my steps?
WHAT I DID SO FAR?
1) I acquired the 7CDs Debian Distro ( I don't know which are the most
pertinent packages to go for a ride and which CDs contains what?)
2) I created a separate swap space of 518MB at hda9 and Ext3fs space at
hda10 (but from windows).
3) Tried to boot with the first CD but exited due to the confusion. Gone
through all help form F2 to F9 and could not take risk as it was a
production machine. Therefore, I am writing to you this query for a
comprehensive step-by-step reply how to go ahead:
A. First, with the Debian installation without disturbing others.
B. Second, to configure my printer
C. Third, to create a FourHead Console (as specified at C3SL site)
D. Fourth, to make my machine secure enough to act like a server.
Now, I look forward to your comprehensive and categorical reply.
Thanking you for your time and coooperation.
May all of you, your team and your family be successful in your
mission, prosperous, healthy, happy, free from sufferings and in
peace, always!
Webocratically yours,
Dr. Sichendra Bista, Chief Architect and Founding Secretary-General
eParliament.org: The Pioneering OPERATIONAL Model of Webocracy
Address for correspondence: C/o GIIS, GPO Box 10422, Kathmandu, Nepal
Tel: +977 (1) 478 1160/478 2321 Web: http://www.eParliament.org
Fax: +977 (1) 478 2321 Email: NetJustice@eParliament.org
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SYSTEM INFORMATION:
# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 8
model name : Pentium III (Coppermine)
stepping : 10
cpu MHz : 996.781
cache size : 256 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 2
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca
cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse bogomips : 1985.74
HDD INFORMATION:
# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40037760000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4867 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 1139 9148986 c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda2 1140 4867 29945160 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 1140 2444 10482381 b Win95 FAT32
/dev/hda6 2445 2509 522081 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda7 2510 3529 8193118+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda8 3530 3940 3301326 b Win95 FAT32
/dev/hda9 3941 4006 530113+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda10 4007 4867 6915951 83 Linux
DEVICES INORMATION:
#lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82815 815 Chipset Host Bridge and
Memory Controller Hub (rev 02) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel
Corp. 82815 CGC [Chipset Graphics Controller] (rev 02) 00:1e.0 PCI
bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BA/CA/DB/EB PCI Bridge (rev 02) 00:1f.0 ISA
bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BA ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 02) 00:1f.1 IDE
interface: Intel Corp. 82801BA IDE U100 (rev 02) 00:1f.2 USB Controller:
Intel Corp. 82801BA/BAM USB (Hub #1) (rev 02) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp.
82801BA/BAM SMBus (rev 02) 00:1f.4 USB Controller: Intel Corp.
82801BA/BAM USB (Hub #2) (rev 02) 00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller:
Intel Corp. 82801BA/BAM AC'97 Audio (rev 02) 01:08.0 Ethernet
controller: Intel Corp. 82801BA/BAM/CA/CAM Ethernet Controller (rev 01)
01:0a.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]
82C204 (rev 21) 01:0c.0 Communication controller: Analog Devices SM56
PCI modem
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