Software - Support > Installing Linux Lite
Dell Media Direct and Linux
gold_finger:
Not sure what's going on. You're two attachments are showing two different setups. The one with the GParted screenshot is showing a 500GB HD with GPT partitions. It looks like you've got Window installed in EFI-mode and a Linux distro (possibly Mint) installed in CSM/Legacy-mode on that drive. It's also got two separate EFI System Partitions, which is rather strange. Are you able to boot up Windows on that HD if computer is in EFI-mode? If you switch mode to CSM/Legacy, can you then boot Mint?
The second attachment looks more like what you described in your first post. There is /dev/sda, a 250GB HD with the partitions you described and two other HD's that are 320GB. For this /dev/sda, can you boot into Windows on this one? If so, go ahead and do that. Then open Windows Disk Management and take another screenshot of the drive from there. Post the screenshot at a pastebin site like this: http://imagebin.ca/. Then post the link produced for it back here for us to use to get to your pic. (I don't remember how to post a pic directly here.)
P.s. The first 500GB HD above sounds vaguely familiar to me. Did you post a question about that on a different forum (possibly Mint's) and did I try helping you with that before? If you're still trying to resolve that drive's boot problem (I'm guessing it's not working right), can you post a link to that forum post of yours to refresh my memory of what's been tried already?
br1anstorm:
... and here is part 2, a copy-and-paste into a .docx of what came up in the "terminal" after I had entered that command.
[attachment deleted by admin]
br1anstorm:
Hello gold_finger, and thanks for taking the trouble to look at this.
I have followed the first sequence of steps so that you can see what GParted reveals about the hard drive on this Dell Inspiron 1520 laptop.
I think - and hope - the screenshot is attached. I can't insert it as an image and I can't attach a .png to a post in this forum, so I have pasted it into a document and am trying to attach that!
[attachment deleted by admin]
gold_finger:
--- Quote from: br1anstorm on April 19, 2014, 05:13:37 PM ---But (there seems always to be a but...) I have looked at the disk partitions on the laptop. It seems already to have four partitions: a 118MB FAT "EISA" (which I believe has something to do with Dell's Recovery/Restore); the C drive of 227GB NTFS which is the system partition and is doubtless where Windows XP resides along with all my files; then an "Extended Partition" of 2.50GB FAT32 which has no drive letter but is labelled Media Direct and logical drive; and finally another 3.00GB FAT32 partition labelled "unknown".
--- End quote ---
I've never heard of that "Media Direct" partition before, so I looked it up and found this description. According to that site, this is the purpose of the Media Direct partition:
--- Quote ---MediaDirect enables you to watch DVD movies, slideshows, or listen to music without having to boot the complete XP operating system.
--- End quote ---
I don't know about anyone else, but that sounds like a relatively useless and unnecessary thing to install on a hard drive. You apparently never use it, so you obviously won't miss it when it's gone.
--- Quote from: br1anstorm on April 19, 2014, 05:13:37 PM ---This button apparently messes with, or bypasses, the Master Boot Record.
--- End quote ---
The basic understanding of it that I get is that the button is just programmed in a way to skip to directly booting that partition.
--- Quote from: br1anstorm on April 19, 2014, 05:13:37 PM ---The good news is that if you are really VERY clever with Linux, you can tweak a dual boot arrangement so as to use that special button instead to boot up Linux.
--- End quote ---
While that may be possible, it's completely unnecessary.
--- Quote from: br1anstorm on April 19, 2014, 05:13:37 PM ---The bad news is that it is hard if not impossible to remove Dell Media Direct cleanly and totally, and if it remains and you aren't careful, that button can mess up the MBR and/or the "grub" and you end up in infinitely deep trouble.
--- End quote ---
I'm fairly certain your worries here are overblown -- almost certainly caused by reading accounts by people who had no idea what they were doing. I'm relatively certain that you'll be able to get rid of the partition and equally confident that once that is done, pushing the button will do absolutely nothing from that point forward. The button is set to look for and boot from a specific partition. If that partition is gone, it won't find anything to boot from and that will be the end of it. (Now that I've said that, your computer will probably make a fool out of me and self destruct instead. :o Hopefully not.)
You should be able to get rid of that partition and install Linux Lite. If you already have or have created a Windows recovery CD/DVD (normally there's a way to do that from within Windows), then you can even get rid of the recovery partition if you want to.
To give us a better look at the drive and the partitions, boot up with LL DVD. Open GParted -- Menu -> System -> Partition Drives. Let it load picture of the hard drive and take a screenshot of the window. (Use "PrtScn" button or go to Menu -> Accessories -> Screenshot.) Post that screenshot back here for us to see. Close GParted when done.
Then open a terminal -- forth icon to right of Menu button. Enter the following command, then copy/paste the output back here for us to see:
--- Code: ---sudo fdisk -l
--- End code ---
We'll be able to give precise directions on how to proceed from info shown by both of above.
While waiting for response back, to prepare for installation do the following:
* Create Windows recovery disk(s) if you don't have them already
* Defragment the C: drive
* If Windows XP has the built-in ability to shrink the C: drive after defragmenting is done, then shrink it to make room for the LL installation. Don't create any partitions -- just shrink C:. If you can't do that in Win XP, don't worry about it -- we'll do it with GParted later.
* Make backup copies of any important data files you don't want to lose. (Precautionary measure just in case you make a drastic mistake or something like a power outage happens while you're in the middle of installing.)
P.s. If, for some reason, you want to keep the Media Direct partition, that may be possible but I can't say for sure how well the procedure will go and that LL will be able to boot properly. I say that not because of the Media Direct partition itself, but because we will need to enclose the LL installation within the Windows created extended partition that Media Direct is on. Have read about possible problems with trying to install Linux on partitions created by Windows.
br1anstorm:
I am still in exploratory mode before taking the leap from Windows XP to Linux, and have just encountered another interesting issue.
I have two laptops, both currently running Windows XP. I'd like to set up either, or both, to dual boot with Linux Lite (or maybe another distro like Zorin?). So for the moment I thought I would try things out from the Live CD. But there seem to be issues with both.
The newer of my two laptops - and the one I use daily - is a Dell Inspiron 1520. It has an Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz processor. I can run Linux Lite or Zorin on it in trial mode from a Live CD, and have done so just to see what they look like.
But (there seems always to be a but...) I have looked at the disk partitions on the laptop. It seems already to have four partitions: a 118MB FAT "EISA" (which I believe has something to do with Dell's Recovery/Restore); the C drive of 227GB NTFS which is the system partition and is doubtless where Windows XP resides along with all my files; then an "Extended Partition" of 2.50GB FAT32 which has no drive letter but is labelled Media Direct and logical drive; and finally another 3.00GB FAT32 partition labelled "unknown".
I have researched Dell Media Direct, and it seems I have version 3. I have never used it. Although I don't understand the jargon, it is apparently on a 'logical drive' so that it can be booted directly (from a special button on the keyboard) without having to fire up the main OS. This button apparently messes with, or bypasses, the Master Boot Record. The good news is that if you are really VERY clever with Linux, you can tweak a dual boot arrangement so as to use that special button instead to boot up Linux. The bad news is that it is hard if not impossible to remove Dell Media Direct cleanly and totally, and if it remains and you aren't careful, that button can mess up the MBR and/or the "grub" and you end up in infinitely deep trouble.
So I am shying away from installing Linux Lite on this laptop for two reasons. As there are four partitions on the hard drive already, I'm not sure whether or how Linux can be installed alongside XP as a dual boot. Is there scope to create the two more partitions (a system one and a swap one) needed for the Linux OS, and can the auto-installer do this? And even if it can, I assume I would still be left with the Media Direct partition; and the special Media Direct button on the keyboard then becomes like the nuclear button - press it and the screen goes black or the system seizes up. Not nice.
Can anyone offer advice (in plain English, please) on whether or how to successfully install Linux Lite as dual boot on a machine which has this Dell Media Direct thing lurking on the hard drive?
Meanwhile, I thought about option B - trying to install Linux as a dual boot on my other, even older, laptop. That's when a curious thing called "pae" (or rather the lack of it) reared its ugly head. As that's a different problem, I'm posting it in a separate thread.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[*] Previous page
Go to full version