Tedi Heriyanto
December 14, 2004
I got a chance to test Fedora Core 3 (FC3) in a brand new AMD 64bit computer system. The computer system has the following specification :
I downloaded the FC3 ISO for AMD64 at Planetmirror then I burn them to 4 CDs.
Before installing the operating systems, make sure you have a general scenario about your harddisk layout, and put your FC3 and Windows Server CDs within easy reach. Trust me, it's not a nice job to search the CD in the middle of installation process. :D
I partitioned my harddisk to 3 major partitions, they are:
Here is my harddisk layout according to fdisk :
Disk /dev/hda: 41.1 GB, 41109061120 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4997 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 * 1 1300 10442218+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda2 1301 1313 104422+ 83 Linux /dev/hda3 1314 2205 7164990 b W95 FAT32 /dev/hda4 2206 4998 22434772+ 5 Extended /dev/hda5 2206 3034 6658911 83 Linux /dev/hda6 3035 3416 3068383+ 83 Linux /dev/hda7 3417 3798 3068383+ 83 Linux /dev/hda8 3799 3989 1534176 83 Linux /dev/hda9 3990 4054 522081 82 Linux swap /dev/hda10 4055 4997 7574616 83 Linux
Before installing operating system from the CD, make sure you have set the BIOS to boot from the CD. You can go to BIOS Setup by pressing "Delete" button on the keyboard. Beware it depends on your BIOS Vendor, mine is Award Software.
While you were on BIOS Setup, don't forget to disable IDE RAID and Serial ATA setup. In my BIOS you can get there by choosing Integrated Peripherals :
Integrated Peripherals
|
|
IDE Function Setup
|
|
IDE RAID [ Disabled ]
Serial ATA 2 [ Disabled ]
After that, save your BIOS configuration.
I have experienced a strange problem after rebooting FC3 when the installation process is done. The problem is :
56
ide : failed opcode was unknown
ide0: reset success
hda : read_intr : status = 0x59
DriveReady: SeekComplete
DataRequest Error
...
Next, you need to install Windows operating system. Just put the installation CD and follow the onscreen instruction, go get yourself coffee, snack, to accompany you during Windows installation. It will take about 1 hour to complete the Windows installation. :D
Make sure you only install Windows on a 10GB partition.
After successfully install Windows, you can go to install Linux. Just put the FC3 CD 1 on the drive, boot and follow the installation screen.
Be very careful in the disk partitioning menu, make sure you DO NOT CHOOSE "Autopartitioning", or it will erase your Windows partition. :D
The installation's time will depend on how many software packages you choose to install. Choose wisely. :D
Installing Windows Server and Fedora Core 3 64bit on an AMD64 based machine was quite a challenge for me. Because I don't know what problems lies ahead. I am quite satisfied with this machine, it's very fast on compiling software, I've test it to compile Python-2.4.0. It takes only 1.5 minutes to compile it.
But there are some problems that I must solve :
Let's hope that I will solve these problems ASAP.
If you have any questions or suggestions for my problems. Please contact me. You know where to email me, tedi_h(nospam) at gmx dot net, (remove (nospam)). :D
Thank you for reading my article so far. See you around.