Feisty Fawn pre-installation questions

[Snowhog]

I'm preparing to dump M$ Vista on my new laptop for Kubuntu 7.04. I'm already using Kubuntu 6.10 on my other laptop. I have no need to keep Vista (and use a dual-boot system), so suggestions on how to utilize the 120Gb hard drive would be appreciated.

The following is the result of fdisk -l from the new laptop:

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 192 1536000 27 Unknown
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 * 192 14594 115682304 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.

Disk /dev/sdc: 6495 MB, 6495068160 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 789 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 2 788 6321577+ 5 Extended
/dev/sdc5 2 788 6321546 b W95 FAT32

Disk /dev/sdd: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 * 1 7294 58589023+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

And from lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller IDE (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. Unknown device 001c (rev 01)
0a:04.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller
0a:04.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCIxx12 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
0a:04.2 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD)
0a:04.3 Generic system peripheral [0805]: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 SDA Standard Compliant SD Host Controller
0a:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation PRO/100 VE Network Connection (rev 02)

And my laptops driver information:

Network Adapters
Atheros AR5006EG Wireless
Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection
DVD
Mat****a DVD-RAM Uj-850S ATA Device
PCMCI Adapters
Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller
Pointing Devices
Genius USB Wheel Mouse
Synaptics PS/2 Port TouchPad
Display Adapter
Mobile Intel(r) 945GM Express (i810 driver for X)
Resolutions:
1440x900 1280x800 1024x768 800x600
Modems
HDAUDIO Soft Data Fax Modem with SmartCP
Audio
Conexant High Definition

I created the 7.04 LiveCD and have tested it on the new laptop. 7.04 loads and runs great.

Question 1. My PCMCI hard drive isn't seen when running the LiveCD. Will it be when 7.04 is actually installed?

Question 2. Is there anything that is reported in the lspci output that I should be aware of (that would/may result/create problems) before running the installation?

[DeathKitten]

Re: Feisty Fawn pre-installation questions

About the only thing I'd suggest is have one partition for home, one partition for everything else, then if wanted/needed, have some swap space.

It helps with future installs, upgrades, and everything, if all your personal data is kept separate from your system files. I've got a 30gb drive dedicated to my system files, then a 200gb drive for my personal data. I'm using a little over 4gb for my system data, and while I feel like I install a lot of junk I don't need, I also know I'm not doing any of the fancier stuff with the GUI or playing any games, so I know a lot more space can be taken up with that sort of stuff.

Maybe give yourself 10 to 15 GB for the system files partition, have a swap partition that's equal in size to the amount of ram you have, then use the rest of the space for your home directories?

The other questions, I don't have experience with laptops, so I'm not going to be any help there. Sorry.

[SheeEttin]

Re: Feisty Fawn pre-installation questions

1. Hmm... it may or may not be able to see it. You may have to play around a bit.
2. Nothing stands out. You may have a bit of trouble wit one or two devices, but they'll probably get resolved somewhat quickly.

All in all, it shouldn't be too problematic, since you've already got one laptop running Kubuntu. Draw from your experience there.

Disclaimer: Everything here is learned from the forums. I don't have a laptop.

[Snowhog]

Re: Feisty Fawn pre-installation questions

Gparted reports the following existing status of my HD in the laptop I want to load 7.04 onto:

Partition Filesystem Label Size Used Unused Flags
unallocated unallocated 1.00 MiB ---- ---
/dev/sda1 ntfs 1.46 GiB 500.07 MiB 999.93 MiB
/dev/sda2 ntfs 110.32 GiB 29.48 GiB 80.84 GiB boot

As stated in the earlier post, I want to use this drive fully for Linux, so I don't care to keep the M$ partitions.

What do I have to do in GParted to redfine the entire HD solely for Linux (ext3)?

[jankushka]

Re: Feisty Fawn pre-installation questions

the drive can be partitioned at installation time.

when you get to the partitioning step during installation,
you'll have a couple of options to choose from.

you can manually ripartition your drive, if you want.
you then delete the partitions the vendor put there for windoze
and create your own for linux. it should be easy enough.

if you want the maximum flexibility with the disc layout, you could go with LVM.
otherwise just keep system stuff separate from users' stuff, as suggested in previous posts.
on my laptop i always (at least) have: /, /boot, /home, /usr/local/mm (where i keep music, video, pictures, ...) and, of course, a ram*2.5 big swap.

very useful stuff to keep handy are the: knoppix live cd and the gparted live cd.

hth