First linux system; what do you think? Compatabilty & more.

[thatrandomn00b]

@oldfred

Thank you, I think I've got it. Separating /data from /home will probably give me some trouble, but hopefully I'll manage.

One last thing, we does everyone seem to favor installing from a CD over installing from a USB, is there a problem with doing that?

[oldfred]

Some have issues with either one.

I used to use CDs but I like to have a repair disk or two or three and was going thru many CDs on every update. So I converted to flash drives. Flash is usually quicker, also. I still make one CD, have several repair ISOs on flash drives, but then I can update to the newest versions easily without wasting CDs.

I have gone one step further (A bit advanced and you need grub2 as your boot loader) now that I know grub2 can loopmount the ISO directly. Or you can install from a rotating drive to your SSD. When I did that I never saw an install go so fast even with the extra downloading of the updates.

[thatrandomn00b]

I have gone one step further (A bit advanced and you need grub2 as your boot loader) now that I know grub2 can loopmount the ISO directly. Or you can install from a rotating drive to your SSD. When I did that I never saw an install go so fast even with the extra downloading of the updates.

It does sound advanced, but I'm curious, so, do you have any links going into more depth? Also, what program would you suggest using to "burn"(can't recall the right term) the .iso to the USB?
Or, maybe I should make a new thread for this?

Edit: I've been rereading your suggestions and I don't understand something: If I use gparted to partition my disks and create both esp and bios-grub, which one should I give a boot flag?

[oldfred]

The esp gets the boot flag or in gdisk it is ef00. A bios_grub is ef02. Other codes for data partitions in gdisk. But I use gparted to create, but gdisk to review and if need be repair gpt partitions.

There are a bunch of links to ways to directly boot ISO. I did it before there were scripts. Learned from one early script, drs305's instructions, and Herman's site on many boot issue with lots of detail.

This will boot an ISO from a hard drive.
ISO Booting with Grub 2 from Hard drive - drs305
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/ISOBoot
Examples - you may copy & edit for your path & ISO version
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Gr...OBoot/Examples
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1549847
Boot ISO from harddrive. To install it would have to be different partition
[SOLVED] Using grub 2 to boot an iso off hard drive old examples
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1535864

Pendrive also has page on booting ISOs
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/

These are scripts to install many ISOs. Some that will not loopmount by installing a kernel and boot image.
MultiBootUSB - Install and boot multiple Linux from Pendrive / Flash drive / USB disk w/grub2
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/In...shDriveUSBDisk
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1518273
http://sourceforge.net/projects/multibootusb/files/
MultiSystem Another LiveUSB Multiboot French(translate) w/grub2
http://liveusb.info/dotclear/

MultiBoot USB with Grub2 (boot directly from iso files)
Basically you just install grub2, create a folder for the isos and edit a grub.cfg to loop mount the isos.
HOWTO: Booting LiveCD ISOs from USB flash drive with Grub2
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1288604
http://ubuntu-ky.ubuntuforums.org/sh....php?t=1535864
Install grub2 to USB -general info
http://members.iinet.net/~herman546/p20/GRUB2%20Bash%20Commands.html#GRUB_USB

Also instructions for CD or USB
http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download
Write image or burn image not copy ISO as one large file to CD.
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/help/...-cd-on-windows
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/In...n/FromUSBStick
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootFromCD

Also
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
If that does not work
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/univers...easy-as-1-2-3/

[thatrandomn00b]

I think I've understood as much as I possibly can before getting my hands on the system and trying to install. There may be a couple of things I need to read on, such as optimizing partitioning for a system with both HDD and SSD and on how to use gdisk, but I guess if I run into problems, I'll ask on a thread dedicated to partitioning.

Thanks to everyone who replied, and especially to oldfred for all your help and useful links.

(Will be marking thread as SOLVED, in a bit.)