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General discussion (archive)Linux help request(22 posts)solved(22 posts)solved
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Posted September 08, 2012
So Trine 2 happens to be DRM-free for Linux, plus Windows Explorer keeps crashing since SP1, so I guess it's time to partially migrate to a superior OS.

I have a Vista laptop with 2 320 GB drives, one of which is divided into three partitions (150 GB for the system and software, 150 GB for media, 20 GB for that inbuilt system recovery thing). The other drive is not divided and used for other software and Windows games.

So, where should I install Linux to optimize performance (I want to run Trine 2 on this thing) and follow basic safety precautions?

Thanks!
This question / problem has been solved by orcishgamerimage
Posted September 08, 2012
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Starmaker: So Trine 2 happens to be DRM-free for Linux, plus Windows Explorer keeps crashing since SP1, so I guess it's time to partially migrate to a superior OS.

I have a Vista laptop with 2 320 GB drives, one of which is divided into three partitions (150 GB for the system and software, 150 GB for media, 20 GB for that inbuilt system recovery thing). The other drive is not divided and used for other software and Windows games.

So, where should I install Linux to optimize performance (I want to run Trine 2 on this thing) and follow basic safety precautions?

Thanks!
Easiest is just to use a whole drive install. The bootloader will let you keep a dual boot with Windows if you want. But if you're not doing anything fancy just installing on a single partition or drive is easiest (later on you'll find out why some of us use a different partition for /home).

If you have an up to date vid card Ubuntu or Debian is probably going to be the easiest. If your vid card is over 5-6 years old I'd steer clear of Ubuntu in general.
Posted September 08, 2012
If this is you first linux instalation I also recomend you to use the whole drive. Depending on the distribution, the installation process can create more than one partition.

So I would backup the information from the second disc, delete the partition from windows, and then select this disc in the installation of the distribution.
Posted September 08, 2012
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orcishgamer: But if you're not doing anything fancy just installing on a single partition or drive is easiest (later on you'll find out why some of us use a different partition for /home).
If it's for the same reason as with windows - to be able to do a reinstall and not have to back up user data - I'd rather have a separate /home.

Stability- and performance-wise, should I
1) keep all things Linux on the other half of the Vista system physical drive (easier)?
2) give Linux its own physical drive?
3) create several Linux partitions on both drives?
Posted September 08, 2012
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orcishgamer: But if you're not doing anything fancy just installing on a single partition or drive is easiest (later on you'll find out why some of us use a different partition for /home).
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Starmaker: If it's for the same reason as with windows - to be able to do a reinstall and not have to back up user data - I'd rather have a separate /home.

Stability- and performance-wise, should I
1) keep all things Linux on the other half of the Vista system physical drive (easier)?
2) give Linux its own physical drive?
3) create several Linux partitions on both drives?
You can go about this a couple of ways:

If you have a really fast external drive, then you can install a persistent installation of Linux on it and not even touch your internal hard drives. Unfortunately, I don't know of external drives that have a fast enough read/write rate that would enable you to play games without significant lag :D

Depending on how many games you wish to have installed, you can easily give your Linux distro around 20 GB of space and have plenty of room left over.

A co-worker of mine really likes the Xubuntu version of Ubuntu because, as she says, it uses very little system memory.

If you want to have an easy time with your Linux install, you can use Linux Live USB Creator to create a USB installer for whatever distro you are planning on using. Website is here: ww.linuxliveusb.com/
Posted September 08, 2012
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JudasIscariot: You can go about this a couple of ways:

If you have a really fast external drive, then you can install a persistent installation of Linux on it and not even touch your internal hard drives.
Do you mean an external USB drive? I was sometimes wondering about this, ie. is it possible to install an OS on an USB hard drive, by just setting the machine to boot from USB (if that is possible in BIOS/UEFI)? Just to e.g. try out different Linux distros without messing up with internal hard drives, or virtual machines.

I might try that, albeit I was thinking of trying to use the second internal HDD for the same, by setting it as the booting HDD and hiding the Win7 HDD from the system. For now, I don't want to set up Linux beside Win7 with a bootloader, but rather keep it completely separate from Win7. Just so that I don't mess up anything. I still remember how I tried to get rid of the Linux bootloader on one machine...
Post edited September 08, 2012 by timppu
Posted September 08, 2012
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timppu: ...
Here. You just need to set how much space do you want to used on your flash drive as "harddrive" of your Linux installation and you can actually do persistent changes (as opposed to live CD which would delete them after every reboot.) I actually have a flash drive that I carry on myself with my fairly simplistic Linux Mint config, and if I need my toolsets on any computer fast... Well, this makes it possible. Handy.
Posted September 08, 2012
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JudasIscariot: You can go about this a couple of ways:

If you have a really fast external drive, then you can install a persistent installation of Linux on it and not even touch your internal hard drives.
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timppu: Do you mean an external USB drive? I was sometimes wondering about this, ie. is it possible to install an OS on an USB hard drive, by just setting the machine to boot from USB (if that is possible in BIOS/UEFI)? Just to e.g. try out different Linux distros without messing up with internal hard drives, or virtual machines.

I might try that, albeit I was thinking of trying to use the second internal HDD for the same, by setting it as the booting HDD and hiding the Win7 HDD from the system. For now, I don't want to set up Linux beside Win7 with a bootloader, but rather keep it completely separate from Win7. Just so that I don't mess up anything. I still remember how I tried to get rid of the Linux bootloader on one machine...
Yes. With Linux Live USB creator you can install Linux on anything USB. I think I even managed to install a distro on my PSP's memory card but the transfer rate is atrocious as far as the PSP goes so I had to scrap it :D

Linux Live USB creator lets you create persistent installs that, as Fenixp has written above my post, allow you to run the entire OS on the USB stick/drive without touching anything on the PC's hard drive(s).
Posted September 08, 2012
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JudasIscariot: Yes. With Linux Live USB creator you can install Linux on anything USB. I think I even managed to install a distro on my PSP's memory card but the transfer rate is atrocious as far as the PSP goes so I had to scrap it :D

Linux Live USB creator lets you create persistent installs that, as Fenixp has written above my post, allow you to run the entire OS on the USB stick/drive without touching anything on the PC's hard drive(s).
Ah ok, but you still need a separate utility to make it happen? I was more like thinking whether it is possible to just tell in BIOS "boot from USB", and after that the PC would simply consider the USB HDD as a normal HDD. So just install any Linux distro normally, and it goes to that external HDD, etc...

I'll probably try the Live USB creator, thanks.
Posted September 08, 2012
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JudasIscariot: Yes. With Linux Live USB creator you can install Linux on anything USB. I think I even managed to install a distro on my PSP's memory card but the transfer rate is atrocious as far as the PSP goes so I had to scrap it :D

Linux Live USB creator lets you create persistent installs that, as Fenixp has written above my post, allow you to run the entire OS on the USB stick/drive without touching anything on the PC's hard drive(s).
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timppu: Ah ok, but you still need a separate utility to make it happen? I was more like thinking whether it is possible to just tell in BIOS "boot from USB", and after that the PC would simply consider the USB HDD as a normal HDD. So just install any Linux distro normally, and it goes to that external HDD, etc...

I'll probably try the Live USB creator, thanks.
You should be able to tell BIOS to boot from USB as long as that option is ahead of boot from HDD in the setup menu for your particular BIOS. IIRC, the BIOS gets checked first and and any instructions as to what should be booted first are executed. That's me speaking from experience mostly. As far UEFI-style BIOS systems, I haven't had experience with them as of yet so I can't speak much about them :D
Posted September 08, 2012
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JudasIscariot: You should be able to tell BIOS to boot from USB as long as that option is ahead of boot from HDD in the setup menu for your particular BIOS.
Yeah, I was more thinking that after I have enabled it in BIOS (e.g. DVD-ROM drive first, USB second), can I install Linux normally, without any Live USB creators etc. I guess I'll just experiment with it.

I have used the USB boot option many times in BIOS... just not with PCs. I've used it constantly at work, mainly booting certain systems (not PCs) from external USB CD-ROM drives. So I figure it should go pretty much similarly on PCs. Maybe. :)

EDIT: Oh yeah, now I think I get it why it probably won't work just like that... how can the Linux CD, from which I've booted, see the USB HDD during installation? That is probably why the USB Live creator is needed anyway...
Post edited September 08, 2012 by timppu
Posted September 08, 2012
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JudasIscariot: You should be able to tell BIOS to boot from USB as long as that option is ahead of boot from HDD in the setup menu for your particular BIOS.
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timppu: Yeah, I was more thinking that after I have enabled it in BIOS (e.g. DVD-ROM drive first, USB second), can I install Linux normally, without any Live USB creators etc. I guess I'll just experiment with it.

I have used the USB boot option many times in BIOS... just not with PCs. I've used it constantly at work, mainly booting certain systems (not PCs) from external USB CD-ROM drives. So I figure it should go pretty much similarly on PCs. Maybe. :)
The one reason I like LiLi USB is that the distro profiles or settings are constantly added or updated and it makes installing a particular distro to USB a snap. Usually, all you have to do is point it at an ISO image of your distro and it will recognize what distro it is and whatnot :D It takes some of fright out of installing Linux for me.
Posted September 08, 2012
I'm using Linux myself right now but I would still say if you're looking for superior gaming performance this isn't the place to be.

If your only complaint is explorer crashing just reinstall Windows.
Posted September 09, 2012
bump for question:
Stability- and performance-wise, should I
1) keep all things Linux on the other half of the Vista system physical drive (easier)?
2) give Linux its own physical drive?
3) create several Linux partitions on both drives?
Thanks everyone!
Posted September 09, 2012
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Starmaker: Stability- and performance-wise, should I
1) keep all things Linux on the other half of the Vista system physical drive (easier)?
2) give Linux its own physical drive?
3) create several Linux partitions on both drives?
It's much better to install Linux on its own drive, and specifically on the beginning of the hard drive (the closer to the end the slower I/O). I would recommend creating two main partitions — one for the system (something about 10-20 GB, I use 2 GB myself :) ) and one (all remaining part of HDD) for /home (analogue of Windows' «Users» directory).
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General discussion (archive)Linux help request(22 posts)solved(22 posts)solved
(22 posts)solved