Re: Debian on a Dell 4150?
bounce-debian-laptop=flores=ieee.org@lists.debian.org wrote:
> Spiros Kapetanakis <spiros@cs.york.ac.uk> wrote on 05/09/2002 (20:34) :
> >
> > Initially, I have the following questions:
> >
> > 1. How do I resize the other operating system's partition (it's the XP
> > variety) without having to reinstall? The only reason why I need to do
> > this instead of just wiping out completely is so because I don't really
> > want to fiddle with the other OS, I wouldn't know where to start. When I
> > get everything working under Linux, I'm going to wipe the other OS anyway.
>
> Hmm I guess you need somthing like Partition Magic. I think there is a
> GNU tool too, but I have forgotten the name.
>
GNUParted; I used it with Win98 and works fine for repartitioning. You can
download it in two floppies.
>
> > 2. When the installation asks me to make a boot floppy, I _KNOW_ that
> > I should do it. But, the DVD will be in the drive at the time so I
> > won't have a floppy. How do I go round this problem?
>
on my Dell Latitude the CD was on the drive but the floppy was connected
externally and had no problem in recognising it.
>
> Can you take out the DVD driver and insert the floppy while the machine is on?
>
> If not make Linux bootable and when you reboot the system do a :
>
> mkboot
>
> > 3. I typically have different partitions for /, /boot, /usr,
> > /usr/local, /home, /tmp and /var. Should I do this with my laptop or
> > should I stick with one big partition and a swap partition? Is it
> > advisable to have multiple partitions on a laptop?
>
> There is no difference between laptops and desktop, but I guess you are
> not going to use the laptop as a server? I never bother with making
> special partitions for /boot /usr /tmp /var etc... except /home. You
> must make a partition for /home as you then seperate your files from the
> system. This makes it easier to backup or to avoid problems in case you
> should need to reinstall later. On a server you should have a partition
> for /var and /tmp so that you don't risk running out of disc space on /,
> but for a non server this is not a problem. Why do you have a /boot
> partition? Too many partitions makes a mess of things I think.
>
> > 4. Is there anyone out there that has installed Debian on an Inspiron
> > 4150?
> On the Latitude I got trouble with the X-windows: the screen and mouse and kb
> were working ok, but i lost all the other ttyx, not being able to go back to
> text mode, but it might have been a problem with the API driver.
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