gOS (Linux) Live CD ?

Question

I have downloaded a Live CD Containing gOS. I am told I can run it from the CD but I am not sure whether it will delete my existing Windows XP on my laptop. So what do I do? just pop the CD in a let the machine restart or do I make sure I have a backup of my XP. (Does this mean it will go though that annoying white and black linux kernel thing when I turn it on?)

Answer 1

Do not worry about backing up Win XP at this point. Yes you will get some colorful print on the screen as the kernel boots and configures your hardware. It is normal. A live CD runs and acts as if the cd is a hard drive and so it may be a little slower than a HDD install but given the read speeds of modern optical drives it should run relatively smooth. For a Live Distro of Linux I like Knoppix. When I boot it I load the whole kernel into RAM and it runs like the wind. So just pop in the disc and reboot your machine and wait. It usually doesn't take much longer to boot that good ole bloated windows.

Answer 2

It will not delete your XP. The purpose of a Live CD is to run without installing anything.



Yes, just restart the computer (with the CD in) and have it boot from the CD before the Harddrive.



It might boot with the black/white text mode, but you could always get a distro with a splash screen, if you wanted.

Answer 3

A "Live" Linux CD/DVD is one which will boot up and load into RAM memory and run from the CD/DVD. It does not have to be installed onto the hard drive in order to run. It is fully functional. The "Live" install just means that you can install the operating system from the "Live" session. No need to reboot just in order to install to hard disk. I am using Mandriva Linux One 2008 Spring at this very moment. It is a good distro. I usually use Ubuntu but I like to dual boot and try out different distros. The version you have is the free as in no charge version. There is a ton of software available from the Mandriva repositories after you install it. It does contain "non-free" software as in not open source. If you want to use a version which has only open source free software Mandriva has one of those too. When discussing Linux there are two types of "free" bandied around. Free as in free beer (no cost) and free as in freedom of speech or freedom from proprietary restrictions. I am having good results running Mandriva but have found a few bugs. Nothing major though. The one thing I am having a hard time getting used to is the KDE desktop enviroment. The only thing to watch out for is if you want to dual boot. Mandriva uses the UUID in it's boot loader to figure out what to boot. If you install another Linux distro after Mandriva and the boot loader uses a different scheme then Mandriva won't boot up any longer unless you go in and fix the boot loader (GRUB or LILO). Easiest thing is just to install Mandriva second.

Answer 4

You have to manually reboot after inserting the CD then you need to enter your BIOS and change your booting priorities from HDD to CD-ROM.



After that Linux will boot from the CD and yes, you will see the jargon being spit out but that's normal. It won't do anything to your Windows since it runs off the CD and loads partly into your memory (RAM) but does not at all affect anything on any of your HDD's unless you instruct it to do so.

Answer 5

you can safely boot it without backing up, it wont touch the hard drive, and yes you probly will have to look at the black and white text for a little bit (if you install it you wont see it anymore)