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#1 2006-07-31 23:39:31

Cronanius
Member
From: Alberta Canada
Registered: 2006-07-31
Posts: 15

Phase in process via Live CD?

Hello everybody. I'm very new to Linux and the opensource community. I've been using Windows ME for the last 7 years b/c I refuse to switch to XP (and I won't switch to Vista) and I've been poking around Linux forums and info databases for a few months now. Not that I still really have a grasp at how Linux works, but I'd like to phase myself in slowly... I have a month before I head off to university, and want to be mostly familiar with the new computer/OS that I get before I actually get there. Arch seems like the kind of build that would suit me (I like quick, flexible systems of any type that can still run a number-crunching program) but I want to phase myself into using Linux before I actually go and buy a laptop for school. I know that some Linux distributions can be run off of a CD from the CD-ROM drive w/o messing up Windows. At least they can if I was paying attention while reading tongue. Can somebody point me towards one that would be similar to Arch, so that I could get started at learning Linux?
Thx a lot for your time, I greatly appreciate it.


Perpetually an Arch Newbie. I'm here for the operating system, not the philosophy.

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#2 2006-08-01 00:08:37

rayjgu3
Member
From: Chicago IL usa
Registered: 2004-07-04
Posts: 695

Re: Phase in process via Live CD?

wow 7 years with win ME . im impressed it took me bout 3 months if that to realize ME was crap it didnt like just bout anything i did with it . like install other programs . it lasted bout 6 months i down graded back to win 98 cause it worked with the stuff i was using . then i did get xp from there i went linux
if you wanna try arch by all means do so if you want you can install it on your current machine since your running win ME it should be a 686 class machine
to resize your partitions (make room for arch) check this out http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Res … _partition
resize giving a few gb's for arch . im guessing its a 40 gb hard drive so try giving 5-10 gb for arch you can go less but if you can spare the space , why not
make sure you read up on your boot loader for arch you got lilo or grub by default or you can find some 3rd party windows program to handle your boot loader but you may need to spend $ for that.
unless you tell it to it wont touch your windows partition just resize it but be sure to back up all wanted data just to be safe cause we all make mistakes
if your a little leary of doing this then you can grab archie http://user-contributions.org/archie.html
its a little out dated but it is built from arch .
you can even install packages to it, or create a user , although youll need a usb pen or some kind of removable media to store the added info

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#3 2006-08-01 19:53:20

Cronanius
Member
From: Alberta Canada
Registered: 2006-07-31
Posts: 15

Re: Phase in process via Live CD?

Well. Success. Archie is up and running (I'm using it right now, actually). What I'm wondering now is if there's a command I can type into the terminal that will display most or all the other terminal commands... the simple "do this, do that" terminal language seems easy enough (I already have a small list of useable commands, but I want to know really how many base commands there are). I would also really appreciate it if somebody would point me towards a simple program or website that could tell me how to check the status of things like my sound card and video card. Being a Live CD, I don't have any sounds to test with, and if I download them I won't have a place to put the files (I don't think... I had kinda wanted to keep this computer in one piece tongue).
Thanks a bunch!
[edit]: Oh, I'm also a huge fan of computer gaming... I haven't managed to find any files on how well games and/or wine/cedega run on Arch. Or should I just partition the hard drive and throw windows 2000 on there as well and bypass any potential difficulties? Thx again.


Perpetually an Arch Newbie. I'm here for the operating system, not the philosophy.

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#4 2006-08-01 20:54:16

rayjgu3
Member
From: Chicago IL usa
Registered: 2004-07-04
Posts: 695

Re: Phase in process via Live CD?

well for a list of commands , in a terminal hit tab 2x pick a command type it in with --help at end will tell you a bit bout the command
i dont remember/know if archie has the manpages installed , if it does try
man command_you_want  will tell you more bout that command

as for sound / video /hardware in general
in terminal type hwd -e then hwd -s then hwd -h
the last one will show you info on some of your hardware
an lspci command will tell you what hardware is in machine but thats bout it

as for where to point you for guidance try
http://www.google.com
or for more specific to arch
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Main_Page

linux is for people who arent afraid of learning , which involves alot of reading , & entails thinking

you got a taste of what linux is now get your feet wet push windows over to make room for linux or splurdge & buy a 2nd hard drive to put it on
you can get them fairly cheap http://www.pricewatch.com/hard%5Fdrives/
you can get a 10gb for under $20.00 us maybe be a bit more where you are

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#5 2006-08-01 22:28:04

dtw
Forum Fellow
From: UK
Registered: 2004-08-03
Posts: 4,439
Website

Re: Phase in process via Live CD?

We're doing some major updates on Archie at the moment so I hope you'll see some improvements in the next release smile

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