Re: [gentoo-user] remove suse, install gentoo

[Steve Wilson]

On Wednesday 11 January 2006 08:04, Michael Kintzios wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Steve Wilson [mailto:stevewilson@××××.com]
> > Sent: 11 January 2006 12:42
> > To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
> > Subject: [gentoo-user] remove suse, install gentoo
> >
> >
> > box: Prostar 2.8Gig ProStar Laptop  w/60 Gig, 7200 rpm hard
> > drive, 1 Gig Ram
> > Current configuration:
> > XP factory installed on 30gig partition
> > Suse v9.0 installed on 20gig partition ext2,  1 Gig SWAP
> >
> > Goal:
> > 1. Remove Suse.
> > 2. Format 20 gig with Reisersf
> > Leave Grub
> > Install Gentoo
> > Install VMware.
> >
> > Question:
> > Can I install Gentoo over Suse or should I start over on a
> > clean hard drive.
> >
> > Option I am considering:
> > Start with a new hard drive, install Gentoo, VMware and then
> > run XP as a
> > virtual machine.
> > Please advise.
> >
> > Background:
> > I have installed Gentoo from Stage1 on a P3 600 Compaq Deskpro EN and
> > Kubuntu on another Compaq Deskpro EN.
> > But consider myself a Gentoo novice.
> >
> > This is my first email to the list.
> > Thanks in advance for any help,
>
> Welcome to the list Steve!  :-)
>
> As you probably know there's more than one ways to skin a cat, so I only
> express my preferences here;  yours could be entirely different.  I
> would leave the factory installed WinXP alone.  Back up and thereafter
> remove all personal files and data from My Documents/Music/etc.  Use
> Qtparted or Partition Magic, or whatever to shrink it down to 10-12G.
> Make sure that you defrag it a few times (before each successive
> shrinking).
>
> Then install Gentoo in the remaining space - preferably in primary
> partitions (it may give you an infinitesimally small increase in drive
> access/read/write speed).  Assuming you are using the default three
> partition installation, then have swap first, root second, then an
> extended partition and in logical partition(s) you can fit home if you
> want it separately and boot last.  Bringing Grub up could take an extra
> second but running the rest of the system should benefit
> proportionately.
>
> You can also create a vfat partition (personally I would put it on the
> second drive) and map all applications in WinXP to use that to save My
> Docs/Music/etc.- This would be your shared partitions to be able to
> access files from all OS'.
>
> With 1G RAM I would not have a swap partition any larger than 120M.  As
> a matter of fact even that could be an overkill, but you never know.  A
> single swap partition would do nicely for both Linuxes (change your
> /fstab accordingly).   Size:  a lot depends on what you use your system
> for, how often you reboot/flush your swap, logs and how many buggy
> applications you're running.  Just as an indication on a 256M RAM box I
> am using a 145M swap partition which I have never seen filling up more
> than 75M.  Even that only happened when Opera was caching all sort of
> chinese type fonts like mad and OOo was compiling at the same time.
> Otherwise even large compiles (KDE monolithic) struggle to use more than
> 65M.  For reasons mentioned above your mileage may vary.
>
> Of course if you want to go multi-partition insane you could do what
> I've done and install Gentoo spread across multiple partitions on two
> drives/separate controllers to allow parallel access/processing by the
> CPU.  A pain to back up but entertaining all the same if you like that
> sort of thing!  8-D
>
> Good luck,
> --
> Regards,
> Mick
Thanks for the help.
The route I took was;
1. purchased another hd of same mfg/mdl
2. install gentoo (stage1 install).
3. install vmware 5.5
4. install win2k  as a virtual machine.
Had some wonderful help from someone in our Chicago office that guided me 
along via ssh and later vnd.
Things are working fine EXCEPT FOR:
1. Printing: from Linux (win2k is ok)
2. Mounting USB drive and flash card reader.
Will post to list as a separate questions if I do not figure it out.
-- 
Steve 
-- 
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