On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 07:33:19PM -0400, max bianco wrote: > On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 6:26 PM, Tim <ignored_mailbox@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > On Tue, 2008-04-29 at 17:29 -0400, max bianco wrote: > > > I'd say get a Dell, everything worked on the F8 install I did but they > > > have that stupid dell media direct button which will hose your install > > > in seconds..... > > > > If you remove the hidden restore partition, does that button still cause > > self destruction? > > > I haven't tried it again but I used the whole drive on install of > fedora originally and again to reinstall, so best guess is its in some > sort of built onto the board mechanism, i'd try it again but my gf > probably wouldn't appreciate me doing that on purpose a second time > just to test a theory. I am pretty sure its built into the MOBO > though. It's not about the restore partition, but about the hidden partition that contains MediaDirect, and the swizzling that occurs when you press the MediaDirect button to un-hide that partition, boot from it, hide it again, etc. The best answer to this is to wipe the initial hunk of the disk (or the whole disk if you're really paranoid) with zeros prior to installing Linux. This is easily accomplished by booting a LiveCD in rescue mode, then doing a: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M count=100 or thereabouts. MediaDirect is a useful feature, but the authors never anticipated dealing with Linux in a dual-boot scenario. They are actively trying to figure out how to keep MD from messing up your partition table when Linux is installed. I expect that to be fixed in a future version of MD. Until then, wipe the initial part of the disk before installing Linux. <shameless plug> As for "what machine should I use?" Given what you describe as your needs, I might recommend the Dell Precision M6300 which happens to be certified with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 already, so you know it'll work with CentOS. </shameless plug> Thanks, Matt -- Matt Domsch Linux Technology Strategist, Dell Office of the CTO linux.dell.com & www.dell.com/linux -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
