XP laptop & Linux install - video garbled

[talktwo]

This is my first try with Linux, so be patient.

XP crashed using Partition Magic 8.0 to partition 80G hard drive. Reinstalled XP & drivers on 60G & left the other 20G blank. Downloaded RHEL-5-client-I386-disc5 and used magiciso to burn the file to cd for a bootable CD. When I boot all I get is a small box in the middle of the screen with colors & numbers. What do I do now?

I want to use Grub for dual boot - is it on the Redhat CD?

 

[geirendre]

As far as I know "RHEL-5" requires a lisence from RedHat
for you to use it.
If you want to try a "RedHat"-like linux, you want to download
the latest version of Fedora and burn it to a disk.
Fedora is the free community maintained version of RedHat.
You'll find lots of links to Fedora related sites here:

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=fedora

The latest stable version is Fedora7.

Other newbie friendly Linux distros that you can consider are:

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=ubuntu

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=pclinuxos

Basically, you download the .iso file, burn it to a disk
as a iso-image. pop the cd in the drive and reboot.
All of the 3 distros listed here are LiveCD's meaning they
boot right of the CD into a working desktop where you can try it out.
From there you can choose to install it permanently on your harddrive,
or power down the pc and remove the cd without installing anything.

Yes, GRUB can dualboot your system, and it's in all versions
of Linux. It will autodetect you exsisting Win install
and set up GRUB for dual-boot.

 

[talktwo]

Thanks for the help. I have a license for RHEL 5, but if I cannot use the boot CD & install (like xp) when would I use it?

 

[franklin97355]

I'm pretty sure RHEL (desktop or server?) requires more than one CD. If you have a license you also have support. Contact RedHat and ask Tech support.

The answer is "42"