[Sussex] thanks and questions

[Steve Dobson]

John

On Sat, Apr 26, 2003 at 05:00:46PM +0100, john davis wrote:
<snip>
> which gave me 
> 
> /dev/hda1   *         1      5663  45488016    7  HPFS/NTFS
> /dev/hda2          5664     14589  71698095   83  Linux

Okay: so a "small" windows partition and a bigger Linux on.

> So I thought in the short term, I'd go for option 1 and
> 
> <snip>
> >   1). Live without swap - given the 750MB of memory your system has
> >       this is a possiblity as long as you aren't running any big
> >       applications or lots of little ones.
> </snip>

That's fine.  There is a strong argument for "If it isn't broken don't
fix it" :)

> as I am currently waiting for the mandy 9.1 powerpack dvd that I have ordered 
> and then install that over the top of the 9.0 install (the prevailing advice 
> at mandrakeusers.org being install is less stress and preferable to upgrade - 
> well for nugget's like me anyway)

I'm no mandrake expert - never installed it.  But I would agree for most 
distros upgrade is more stressful than a clean install.  The exception is
Debian, where the package system is just a god send; but Debian is not for
the newbie - it does require a little understanding of Unix SysAdmin.

> With that decided, I am presuming that when the dvd arrives, I should kick
> the system into partition magic 8 and chop a little bit off one of the
> partitions and format it as "linux swap" (with 768mb of physical ram, I
> thought a "gig" would be a nice round number) and then carry out the 9.1
> install, does this seem like a sensible move?

As you're doing a clean install then you shouldn't need Partition Magic.
There must be part of the Mandrake install that lets you partition the disk
[help from Mandrake users here] - just delete the existing Linux partition
and create the two new ones you'll need.  I've heard problems with Partition
Magic and I am not one of its fans.

A Gig is a nice round number;  John C is right in the general rule of thumb
being twice physical.  That rule was in the days when memory and disks were
expensive - its a guide no more.  The end of the day how the system is to be
used should determine the amount of physical ram & swap space it has.  For
most home users one just buys as much as one can afford.
 
Happy hunting
Steve