mandrake screwing linux up?

[apu95]

ive been reading up on all sorts of guides to install linux (im looking into mandrake 10) and i came across a post in a linux message board which has several users reporting problems when trying to install mandrake in the same HD as windows xp. they say that they can install mandrake perfectly and it boots perfectly but then when they try to boot into windows again theyre locked out of it because of a partition problem. apparently mandrake screws the partition up....its only a problem in the rc2 edition of mandrake 10, is this error still in the version listed in the MDK website? oh, and more importantly, if i use partition magic to make a linux partition and then i install mandrake without letting it do partitioning, should it work?

thanks!!
Apu

 

[dom02]

I didn't have that kind of problem when i installed mandrake 10 community, the current version. You can use partition magic, i just made a 10 gig partition for linux and installed it on that. Mandrake does have it's own partition tool though.

 

[ming]

I've noticed that when installing Linux, it creates 3 partitions. OK, I'm a noob with Linux, never used it before (or at least had only 10mins of experience with it). But I find this strange. Is it my imagination, or is this actually true?

 

[vern]

I don't think it's a Mandrake problem as much as it is a user-error in configuring the boot record or partitions.

I've noticed that when installing Linux, it creates 3 partitions. OK, I'm a noob with Linux, never used it before (or at least had only 10mins of experience with it). But I find this strange. Is it my imagination, or is this actually true?

Linux only really requires 2 partitions. One for swap and one for the root partition at /. You can have separate partition for every directory since partitions are mounted as directories anyway. In one of my boxes I have a separate partition for / /home /var /usr/local.

 

[apu95]

oh ok....while were on the subject, whats the difference between mandrake 10 community and the non community?

 

[melon]

MDK 10 "Community" is a fancy name for MDK 10 "Beta," IMO. The final release is now out, with free downloadable ISOs coming later this month. I won't install MDK 10 until I can download the final release ISO.

Melon

 

[trackrat]

. I won't install MDK 10 until I can download the final release ISO.

Melon

I have tried several of these Beta down loads and had trouble with every one. So I will wait for the official release.

 

[Unleashed]

Im sticking with 9.2!

 

[Geffy]

I've noticed that when installing Linux, it creates 3 partitions. OK, I'm a noob with Linux, never used it before (or at least had only 10mins of experience with it). But I find this strange. Is it my imagination, or is this actually true?

As was said before about the 3 partitions they would probably be
/
SWAP
/usr

those are the only ones I can think of that it would logically create separate partitions for. The SWAP one is basically like the Windows Pagefile, its given its own partition so that other things dont interfere with it.
If you wanted to you could create a separate partition for just about any folder on your linux system, BSD for example has partitions for /, SWAP, /var, /tmp and /usr by default, but you could if you wanted to keep all the users home folders on a separate drive/partition and so make a partition for /usr/home