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GNU/Linux Desktop Survival Guide
by Graham Williams
Google

19 Apr 2005


Standard install. Choose boot media with F12 on boot. F2 to edit the BIOS, needed for 2.4 kernel (no support for AHCI so select Combination under Drive). MS/Windows XP already installed, so use the Debian GNU/Linux installer to reduce the NTFS partition size, but keep it, and repartition the remainder, ending up with a dual boot machine.

Install: lang=English, location=Australia, kb=American English, network through DHCP, hostname=belinos, resize NT partition and partition remainder as a desktop, write partition changes, install grub, reboot.

The repartitioning of the pre-existing MS/Windows NTFS partition is now handled directly by the Debian GNU/Linux installer. At the partition step select:

  \#2 primary 159.9GB ntfs

We want to keep this but make it smaller. Choose the size (40GB) and write changes to disk. Then partition the new free space as a Desktop Machine.

Default Desktop partition was:

/ 7G sda3
/home 110G sda6
swap 2.8G sda5

Grub automatically noticed MS/Windows XP and added an appropriate entry for booting.

Root passwd, user account, apt install.

Install sudo for wajig.

Package installs: exim4 (smarthost with no local delivery).

StartX (choosing defaults for setup) has no problems (initially vesa, then install the non-free fglrx driver).

Install kernel-image-2.6.11-1-686-smp. Set BIOS back to AHCI and in /etc/fstab change the /dev/hda to /dev/sda. Tell Grub to boot from /dev/sda3:

  \# kopt_2_6=root=/dev/sda3 ro

With the BIOS back to AHCI we can now boot MS/Windows XP and GNU/Linux.

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