Windows 7 or chance Windows 8.1?

[Quarky]

Oddball,

A quick comment, more to follow later. Linux does not need three partitions for an installation. Two is OK. One for swap, and put everything else in a second which is mounted as the root partition (not the same thing as the root user) and is shown as "/" in images you might see of the MINT installer steps.

It's your call which laptop you want to use, the "32 bit BIOS, one 64 bit legacy bios" ones should be straighforward. But if you are going to install Linux on an external HDD use the installer to create the partitions you need, this should not limit your freedom. What you're seeing re: "partition manager will only let me create 4 partitions" is difference between using all primary partitions, which is limited to four under the traditional DOS/MBR scheme, and a mix of primary and an extended partition An extended partition is just a container which itself can be sub-divided into logical partitions. Hence you get past the 4 partition limit.

More questions for you. Which partition manager were you using? Why would a 4 partition limit be a problem on your external HDD? Do you want to have more than one version of Linux at a time installed on your external HDD?

Even if you used 4 primary partitions you could have three different version of Linux on the external HDD at once, sharing one swap partition. To maximise the number of possible partitions under the DOS/MBR scheme use three primary partitions, make the fouth paritition an extended partition, and then divide the extended partition into maximum 12 separate logical partitions. That's a maximum of 15 usable partitons. Unlike Windows, Linux doesn't care if it's installed on a primary or logical partition.

Many thanks Pegleg.

Making progress, millipede-like. I decided to install Antix,a simpler linux version. This I have done onto my external hard disk, having created an extended partition with root and swap sub-partitions. The grub bootloader went into the root partition.

However on attempting boot up from external hdd, I get a message saying Error 15 "File not found" ........ vmlinuzquiet or something like that. It will also not boot Windows or mint on my internal HDD, from external hdd.

Do you think I ought to reinstall - or may be there is a simple fix? Or may be I'm at the point where I ought to post a query on a linux forum?

As always any comments gratefully received.

[Frances_iom]

you would be better off asking on a Linux forum but look for one aimed at new users - can you run a CD ROM based (ie live CD version) on your laptop - if this works then there is usually an option in the boot menu to allow booting from a USB memstick - there are many online tutorials as to how to set up these

[Pegleg]

Many thanks Pegleg.

Making progress, millipede-like. I decided to install Antix,a simpler linux version. This I have done onto my external hard disk, having created an extended partition with root and swap sub-partitions. The grub bootloader went into the root partition.

However on attempting boot up from external hdd, I get a message saying Error 15 "File not found" ........ vmlinuzquiet or something like that. It will also not boot Windows or mint on my internal HDD, from external hdd.

Do you think I ought to reinstall - or may be there is a simple fix? Or may be I'm at the point where I ought to post a query on a linux forum?

As always any comments gratefully received.

I would say you needed to install GRUB on the MBR of your external hard drive and nowhere else. I don't know if the Antix installer will make the necessary GRUB entires to boot Windows, etc, that may be on your hard drive. Before I say anything else can you please confirm that the version of Antix you installed and the steps used were as shown in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIN3A...pXukQ&index=18

AFIAK, AntiX is still using legacy-grub so there may be an easy fix, but it does depend what else you did during the install and the disk layout you ended up with. It might be simpler for you to re-install. I could suggest what to do at the critical steps to avoid errors, using the video as a reference. But I'm wary of turning this thread into a linux support story so perhaps you could send me a PM to discuss this.

[Frances_iom]

surely Grub on an external harddrive cannot know of winX on another harddrive thus I can't see how you could expect it to boot winX

[Pegleg]

Well, assuming there are no limitations in the machine's BIOS, getting the right entries in the the legacy-grub men.list file combined with a device map file ought to get Windows to boot even if it's not on the first partition of the first hard drive. I've done this in the past when using two internal hard drives, and I'm pretty sure I've done this with an external HDD as well. If it's of interest, this is a pretty comprehensive legacy grub tutorial: http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/g...mozTocId901389

These days I use a separate legacy grub partition to boot any OS I may have on the hard drive using chainloading. The Pc doesn't have the UEFI complications.

[Quarky]

I would say you needed to install GRUB on the MBR of your external hard drive and nowhere else. I don't know if the Antix installer will make the necessary GRUB entires to boot Windows, etc, that may be on your hard drive. Before I say anything else can you please confirm that the version of Antix you installed and the steps used were as shown in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIN3A...pXukQ&index=18

AFIAK, AntiX is still using legacy-grub so there may be an easy fix, but it does depend what else you did during the install and the disk layout you ended up with. It might be simpler for you to re-install. I could suggest what to do at the critical steps to avoid errors, using the video as a reference. But I'm wary of turning this thread into a linux support story so perhaps you could send me a PM to discuss this.

Pegleg:Couldn't get this image to upload to a private message for some reason.

sdb is external hard disk: /4 is extended partition, /5 is antix, /6 is swap.

[IMG][/IMG]

[Pegleg]

Image seen , you have a PM.

[Quarky]

Many thanks again Pegleg, for your magnificent help with Linux boot.

I think we will have to elect you as chief technology guru (although there might be one or two that would dispute that title)!

[Pegleg]

Many thanks again Pegleg, for your magnificent help with Linux boot.

I think we will have to elect you as chief technology guru (although there might be one or two that would dispute that title)!

Happy to help, but that's a dangerous epiphet to bestow on anyone. I know a fair amount about Linux, having used it for around 10 years, but I'm no guru. Enjoy your Linux exploration.

[Old Grumpy]

I bought a new laptop earlier this year and it came with Windows 8 already installed. It replaced an XP
laptop. Windows 8 has a poor interface, but appears to be more stable. It would probably work well on
a touch screen device, but it does not suit a normal laptop. It does not have a "Start" button.

You can download free software from this site to bring back your Start button:

http://www.classicshell.net/

I have just "upgraded" from XP to a Windows 8 machine. Thanks for this piece of advice - much better with Classicshell. I can actually do stuff!

OG

[Lento]

At least Windows 8/8.1 has a reinstall/refresh feature, so that if things go haywire it is very easy to reinstall and still keep your files, if you wish (though third party software is uninstalled in the process). I think many of us use mainly the desktop option and tend to ignore the "Metro" tile screen, which is more suited to touch devices. So not much change, really. I would have thought upgrading a computer that already has Windows 7 would be a waste of time. Given the choice on a new PC (if this is still an option), I would still go for the newer OS.

[Ariosto]

Better still get a Mac instead.

[Lento]

Better still get a Mac instead.

I am new to Macs but one of the things I like is that there seems to be less song-and-dance with OS updates (Windows ones seem to get "stuck" sometimes, I find). Pity there's no single "delete" key, though, but function-backspace is OK, I guess.

[neiltingley]

Mac OS or Ubuntu linux. I'm totally off windows now. I hate it for home use and even more at work.

[Pegleg]

I suppose you could alawys try BSD - just kidding. It's Linux for me because you can do stuff on a server, desktop or ARM based device like the RPi and, for example, could take this project http://www.communitysqueeze.org/ and turn an old laptop into a "squeezebox" applicance which runs squeezelite with, or without LMS, and auto boots to a jivelite screen http://www.communitysqueeze.org/jivelite_about.jsp.

It will be interesting to see if the "Ubuntu phone" is a success.