Creating partitions on Linspire computer

How do I make four partitions

[aijohn]

Bought a Linspire computer with 40gb.

Would like to split it into four partitions
so I can try ubuntu, mepis, etc.
Can I do this without trashing Linspire?

I'm new at this so I need very specific instructions.

Thanks

[wheel]

In my limited experience, I'd say you likely will need to reinstall linspire to do this. You need to create the partitions for the various distributions before you install the OS, not after.

[StupidScript]

Linspire ain't too friendly to "normal" operations.

How about you go ahead and trash Linspire, install the other OSs ... and use them instead of Linspire? Do you have Linspire users to support?

Linspire isn't a "normal" Linux distro: you're not really "root"; even free downloads cost you money because you need to do everything through their .. CSR(?) or whatever interface ... you can't download a normal tarball and install it; and lots of other stuff.

During the installation of any of the other OSs, you can easily partition your drive as you like. They all have an early-on install routine that offers partitioning capability. Just split the drive into 4 equal partitions (plus the boot partition). After you decide what you want to do, come back with the OSs you will be installing and we'll help you get the multi-boot situation set up. Probably plenty of helpful hints about your boot configuration, too.

My 2 cents. (Is this one of those Fry's systems? ;) I like 'em ... )

[aijohn]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm running ubuntu on another older computer. I'm planning to install something else on the new one when Linspire crashes but was hoping I could look at two or three others while I was waiting.

ubuntu looks pretty good and debian but apt-get just failed on installing opera, package doesn't exist.

Shouldn't ask, but any strong feelings pro or con about any other linux distos?

Yep, I though $179 at Fry's was pretty good.

[wheel]

Stick to the big names and you'll be fine. Redhat, Suse seems to have a really good name, ubuntu of course is coming on strong. My personal fave is Mandrake, I run it on all my servers and desktops - but that's partly because I've been using it forever and I'm used to it.

[brakthepoet]

Shouldn't ask, but any strong feelings pro or con about any other linux distos?

Thems is fightin' words. :) Many a flame war started with that simple question.

*nix users get pretty attached to their favorite distros, but wheel got it right above. If you're just starting , stick with the bigger distros. They generally have better hardware support and bigger communities to draw upon if you run into problems.

If you are primarily wanting this for a desktop, you might also take a look at Mepis. It's Debian based, but with some well written config scripts. The Mepis community may not be as large as some of the others, but it looks very helpful and friendly. When you feel a little more comfortable, you might try Gentoo just for kicks. It forces you to learn things that you might not learn otherwise. Be sure you have a fast machine before you start with Gentoo, though, as most people go for a Stage 1 install where everything is compiled from source.

I've just started playing around with Slackware, and so far it's been great. Probably worth a look as it's the oldest still-active Linux distribution and it has a great community behind it. I've never seen anyone more distro-attached than a Slack user.

Report back and let us know what you settle on. I always like hearing about what people choose and why.

[claus]

I'd advice you to try out a few of those Live CD's. That's a complete Linux system that will run from a CD-ROM. That is: No need to partition as you don't even need to install.

There are all kinds of flavours: Knoppix, Gnoppix, Mepis, Ubuntu, Slax SuSE, and so on. Go to DistroWatch [distrowatch.com] for a nice list.

Oh, I almost forgot:

Once you've got one of those powered up, just find the program "QTParted" in the menu. That one will allow you to partition the disk.