Linux users &hardware people- Thank you!

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Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2015 7:54 am

I was just coming to update the post, I used the tool that I linked from above and it took care of everything for me. I will keep the other tool in mind in case I need something else! Razz

Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2015 9:09 am

I am writing this post on my Linux partition. (Mint - Cinnamon edition). YAY!

I could not have done it without you guys, I really appreciate all the input and advice along the way. I am going to start the linuxcommand.org tutorial and find my way around. The first thing I have to do is increase the fonts! I am half blind and can hardly see what I am posting. Sorry for any misspelled words.

Again, Thank you! jump_4_joy

ETA: One last question ( I won't swear to it though), I really don't like the interface of the boot loader where I chose the OS I want to boot to. The writing is very small, is there a "more better" GUI interface for this? When I had a Win8 & Win7 dual boot, the OSs were clearly visible. I am just playing around with this drive, so if mistakes are made, not much of a big deal. I checked the satus of the shipping for the SSD and Optial Bay Drive Caddy and they're both at the post office, so I won't be able to pick them up until monday. (We don't get home mail delivery where we live. That is the only negative of living out in the middle of a forest.) Laughing

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2015 11:34 pm

I just received my optical drive caddy and SSD. I am getting ready to tear apart my laptop, take out my DVD and replace it with the old hard drive that locked up on me. I will then be able to see if I can get to the files on that drive and confirm it's just the MBR that became corrupted or if the HDD is just shot. If it's shot, then I will take this HDD that I am using now, and use it for a temp extra drive until I can buy a new one.

After that, I will install the SSD and install both Win 8.1 and Linux Mint. I am still undecided if I want Cinnamon or KDE.

I do have a question on the boot loader, is there something different I can use besides what I have now? I have bad eyesight and when the boot loader comes up, I can barely see what it says. I have to have the font size on my browser set to, at minimum, 200-250% for me to even read this forum, so you can imagine how hard it is for me to read what the boot loader says. I can always memorize what it says (I know Windows 8.1 is the last choice) but there are 3 other choices and I always just choose the first one, and that boots to Mint, but what the heck are the other 2? I liked the boot loader for when I have a dual boot with both Win 8.1 and Win 7, the choices are easy to read.

When I install Mint, is there any place that I can choose some other boot loader, or am I stuck with grub?

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2015 12:24 am

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1555358
I don't know what's in your Grub menu, but mine has a regular boot, a safe mode or something like that, and a memory tester.

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2015 2:15 am

Thank you vonpaso. that sounds like the choices I read in grub.

When I installed Mint, I just did the first choice of installing Mint alongside Windows 8.1, which was fine since I am going install a new SSD for the operating systems and programs with the files stored on another internal drive (cross fingers that the drive isn't dead), and poked around Linux, but no in depth.

Besides "Install Mint along side Windows 8" there were other choices such as:
Encrypt the new Linux Mint installation for security
Use LVM with the new Mint installation
OR
Do something else.- You can create or resize partition yourself or choose multiple partitions for Linux Mint.

I looked at the tutorial for "Do something else" and it shows how to create the partitions etc. Reading through it, and since I don't understand the file system for Linux (it shows /dev/sda along with /dev/sda6 etc) heck, let me just link to the page

Since I am going to have 2 drive, I would like to put the, I think it's called /home , to store my files on the second HDD and only run the OS and Application on the SSD.

So, instead of going through a complicated install and create partitions that I have yet to learn their meanings, is there a way, if I do the install as I did before, to move the /home directory to the second HDD at a later time? I could just install Mint the way I did before, learn about the file system and Linux in general and re-install it at a later time. I found quite a few websites that describe the file system and other Linux material that I want to study, but for right now I just want to get my computer up and running. I have a client that I need to finish their application, so I might just go the easy route, learn more about Linux and then go from there.

I appreciate all your help. Everyone has written in clear and easy to understand instructions. I am very grateful to you all.

Funny thing that I did discover. In Windows, I cannot "see" the Linux partition, but when I am in Linux, I see the Windows partition and can access the files (and save them, too) from Linux.

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2015 3:20 am

/dev/sda is a drive (the SSD, I suppose). /dev/sda6 is the 6th partition of the drive (or a logical partition in the extended partition, if I'm not mixing up the terminology, if you have an old-style MBR). The HDD could be /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc (the other one being the optical drive, depending on how they are wired in the computer). You don't put a filesystem on /dev/sda; you put it on /dev/sda3 or /dev/sda5 or the like.

I highly recommend LVM. With LVM, you can resize your volumes later, or move them from one disk to another. I leave some extra space in a volume group when setting up LVM.

The way LVM works is, you set a partition on each disk (say /dev/sda6 and /dev/sdb2) for LVM, then you make "volumes" (which are like partitions in that they can hold filesystems) like /dev/mapper/sda6-usr and /dev/mapper/sdb2-home, and you format them. If the installer puts all the LVM volumes on sda, you can then move /home (which will be nearly empty when you have just installed) to sdb, and resize both /var and /usr to use the space /home took. The latter would be impossible without LVM.

All the info about what filesystem is on which partition is in /etc/fstab . It looks like this:
/dev/mapper/aoeu-root / reiserfs defaults 0 1
/dev/sda1 /boot ext4 defaults 0 2
/dev/mapper/snth-swap none swap defaults 0 0
where aoeu and snth are two LVM volume groups and /dev/sda1 is actually entered as its UUID (big hex number) in case I switch the drives or something.

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2015 7:01 am

Thank you Von, I have brought up information on LVM, but haven't had a chance to read them, yet.

I did install the optical drive bay caddy with my old HDD and my system didn't recognize the HDD, so it might be crashed or it might be the caddy. I haven't installed the SSD drive, I am saving that for tomorrow. After I install the SSD drive, install the OS, then I will take the drive I am using now, put it in the caddy and see if my computer recognizes the drive. If it does recognize the drive, then I think the old HDD is shot and will take steps to see if I can recover some of the data/files on it. Someone posted a link to something that might help, but I want to make sure it's the HDD and not the caddy. I have 98% of the stuff on the old drive backed up, but 2% of it is extremely important files that I would have backed up the day my drive crashed. Oh well. Sad

I am going to read up and do some tutorials on linux tonight. (which I am using right now!) I would like to make a decision of Cinnamon and KDE.

How large are the application files for linux? I am trying to figure out how to partition my SSD drive for both Window and Linux.

I am really bummed that my drive is shot. Crying or Very sad

I have a client who is being very patient, thank goodness. But I need to get it the project done so I can get paid, I want to build a new tower and the money for this job I will be able to invest some money into the new tower. .

Thank you again everyone. If you can all send positive vibes for rebuilding the laptop tomorrow. It will be a long day installing all the applications that I need for development.

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2015 1:39 pm

What do you mean by "how large are the application files"? See my post above about the size of filesystems.

Binaries (executable non-script files and, sometimes, non-text data files are called "binaries") essential to booting the system are in /bin and /sbin, which must be in the root filesystem. Application programs are in /usr/bin and applications run by root are in /usr/sbin, which are often in a separate /usr partition. Files you create with applications go in your home directory, which is /home/sbah or the like.

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2015 7:29 pm

Sorry I wasn't clear about application size. For instance, one of my applications that I use for development is Visual Studios. That application, when installed is around 13-15GB and another program, SQL Server is about 20GB installed. I was just wondering how large the application sizes are in Linux. For example, how large is Code::Blocks when it's installed in Linux? (I fell asleep right after my last post last night, so I haven't gone through the tutorials on how to install applications on Linux- I am getting ready to do that now)

Before I put in my SSD, I want to make sure I set up large enough partitions on both Linux & Windows for me to set up development environments. All the files created with the applications will be stored on another drive (either internal or external HDD or in the cloud).

The SSD is only 256GB and I can fill that up in a heartbeat. I just want to make sure I do the right size partitions the first time. I am thinking 166GB for Windows and 90GB for Linux. Linux I will be installing a development IDE (probably the one you mentioned earlier, if not that one, then Code::Blocks) mySQL and Oracle. Then any other little programs I want to play around with.

I appreciate all the hand holding you've been giving me. After I get everything set up on my SSD, I will be okay. I have gone through and saved links to tutorials, forums etc to teach me how to use Linux, it's just the install and learning the file system that is a bit confusing for me. I am sure in a month or two I will 'get it', it's just all new to me and in a way I have to un-learn Windows to understand Linux. Wink

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2015 7:53 pm

Code::Blocks is 18.4 MB, says the Synaptic package manager when I select it for installation. That's including two other packages I'd have to install along with it.

Databases are stored in /var, so leave some room in your /var partition for them.

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2015 8:10 pm

Thanks!

I found this tutorial and I am going to go through it today. I think I will feel more confident/comfortable in what I am doing. Then I will install the SSD and figure out if it's the Optical bay that is not working or if the old HDD is just shot. I am going to check the connection on the bay and see if it's connected correctly before I do too much. If it's the HDD I will have to order a new one as the HDD that I am using now is only 140GB and that is NOT enough drive space for me.

Thanks again for all your help! jump_4_joy

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 3:58 am

Good news and bad news.

I took out the optical bay caddy, re-inserted my old HDD, plugged it in and BIOS didn't detect an optical drive. Took it out and instead of installing my SSD drive and re-installing the OS, I just stuck it in the caddy to see if maybe it was the caddy that wasn't working. Booted up into BIOS and it recognized the optical drive (meaning it's not the caddy that's not working, it's the old HDD), but when I booted into Windows 8.1, it did show the drive, but when I booted into Linux, I can see the drive, well, I forget what the path was, but I did see the drive, but don't know how I found it. (I must be getting tired because I can't find it again). Nor do I know how to mount it. Can someone tell me where I might look? I thought the path started with "::/Computer" or something like that. I don't know enough about Linux to find anything, but I am learning!.

So, the good news? Caddy works
Bad news? Have to buy a new HDD as 256GB (SSD) + 160GB (this HDD) just will NOT cut it. So glad storage is cheap these days.

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 5:19 am

Okay, I found where the SSD that's in the optical bay caddy. It's at computer:/// there are 5 entries. 1 is windows partition on this HDD (99GB), 1 is my external HDD, a filesystem that is the Linux partition, a generic mulit-card (I believe this is the usb device for my wireless trackball) and then the SSD that is in the caddy. WHEW! I have been pulling my hair out trying to find it out and all I had to do was click the "computer" icon on my desktop. I have been trying to find things using the terminal and looking for the files that way.

I am such an idiot sometimes. I am going to do a bit more reading on linux and then call it a night. I am going to install the SSD and get my development environment going.

What is odd that I can't see the optical bay caddy in Windows.

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 7:44 am

1. Look in /dev for a drive you didn't see before (probably /dev/sdc). It'll have partitions, such as /dev/sdc1.
2. Create a mount point (e.g. /mnt/disk or just /mnt or /media — I have a /mnt/camera which holds the memory card of my camera when I want to copy pictures from it, so I used that the last time someone handed me a thumb drive).
3. Mount it (mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/camera). You have to be root (sudo su), since it's not in /etc/fstab. If it doesn't recognize the filesystem, add "-t ntfs" or whatever to the mount command.
4. Copy files from it.
5. Unmount it (umount /dev/sdc1). Note the missing 'n'.

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 9:22 pm

You know what I did? There is this little item at the bottom left hand side called "menu", I clicked on that and it brought up a whole bunch of stuff. Well, I went to "All Applications" and there was a menu item called "Disks", I clicked on that and waa-laa it showed all of my disks and their settings. When I right clicked on the SSD, it had an option to "mount".

Who knew there was a little item called "menu"?! (I told you all I was half blind!!) I did find the synaptic package installer and installed some packages just to see how large they were. Dang the file sizes are small! I think 80-90GB will be more than enough room for the OS and their applications!

I am liking linux. It's not Windows, totally different structure so it's a bit confusing. I like I said earlier, I need to "unlearn Windows to learn and understand Linux.

Thanks everyone. I will post when after I have my hard drives swapped and OS's installed.

I appreciate everyone who posted and gave me advice. jump_4_joy

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2015 1:45 am

Everything up and running.

Installed the SSD and HDD in the optical drive. Everything went smoothly. Installed Windows 8.1 but had to do some customization as it was reading the install on Drive D:\ so I had to do a custom install with the new drive. Went to wipe out the HDD and of course Windows doesn't allow you delete the recovery partition, even though it's not needed. Downloaded another partition manager, formatted the drive and was good to go with installing Linux. I decided to go with the KDE, but it wasn't as intuitive with the dual boot, so I had to look up what types of partitions I needed, but figured it out.

Now I need to install all of my development tools and other software on the Windows partition as I need to get some work done for a client. I will get the software loaded and play around with Linux tonight as tomorrow I am going to be busy working.

I want to again thank everyone for their help, especially vonpaso xlura, you were a great help to me and cleared things up when I was confused. I think I will get the hang of Linux in a couple of months of trial and error, but I will get it. I was able to master DOS, so I think I can master Linux. Just will take some time and dedication. I just wish I had saved all the links I had found on tutorials for Linux. Live and learn I guess.

Again, Thank you all! jump_4_joy

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 13 Jan 2014 Posts: 698

My God! You guys are S-o-o-o-o confusing. Think I'll go for a rub-down with a cold towel! Laughing

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