installing redhat 7.3 on Laptop

[Omar Alvi_1]

Hi,

I am trying to install RedHat 7.3 on a laptop. After booting from the cd I get the first screen with the various options for boot and recovery.

Once I enter boot, I get a blue screen which in the middle has a smaller screen saying "PC card initializing ..." and it goes no further than that.

Any help is appreciated.

One other thing is, how can I make Linux dual boot with an already installed OS (Win XP). On a previous installation when I selected the option to retain all information on hard disk, I was told that I have no space, ... although I had at least a few gigas unused.

Thanks

-Alvi

[Alexander Chuzhoy]

First of all -just a suggestion-use RedHat 9... Your laptop's hardware might not be supported by this version of RedHat.


The simplest way to install dual boot is (if of course you have free space on hard drive)
to install the boot manager of Linux (GRUB or LILO)on MBR -you have such option during LINUX's setup-and it knows to boot both WinXP and Linux.

[Vitaly Karasik_1]

I suggest you to read about your laptop model & linux in

http://www.linux-laptop.net/


Regarding dual boot - see

http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue38/veselosky.html

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Linux+Win9x+Grub-HOWTO/index.html

http://linuxdocs.org/HOWTOs/mini/Multiboot-with-LILO.html

Rgds,
Vitaly

[Huc_1]

Alvi,

I would follow Alexander advice and try to use RH 9.0 it has got more recent drivers , so chance are this will find/identify more your of your hardware, also when you boot from installation cd you can enter like ex:

Linux nopcmcia nousb

this would in some case allow you to go a bite futher in the install (often you dont need pcmcia or usb at this stage but the auto detect get's stuck this is a way to by-pass this).

There are many parameters you can pass on the linux prompt, the list is to long to enter then all here , the best source of information I know of is http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/install-guide/

Tell us how you get along

J-P

[Martin P.J. Zinser]

As for the space...
Just a "few gigas unused" does not cut the mustard, you also need to have them in a separate partition of your harddisk, so Linux can actually manage them.

[Steven E. Protter]

You will find it best to follow this advice. There are ways to get your setup to work, but Microsoft designed XP to prevent you from doing dual boot.

1) copy your data files off the laptop.
2) fdisk and destroy the entire installation on the c: drive. Make sure you have proper XP CD and codes at hand.
3) Install Linux 7.3 with grub. When the disk druid portion comes up, reserve a NTFS area large enough for an XP install.
4) Install XP in that NTFS partition and use grub to manage the boot.


SEP