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What to do with .deb file?

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I'm using a Windows 98 system.
I want to make it Linux dual-boot.
This will require a repartition of my primary DOS partition.
I read that parted does this pretty well.
I need to create a parted boot disk.
I found a parted book image on Demian and downloaded it.
I now have a .deb file on my Windows 98 box.
Windows 98 does not know what to do with .deb files.
I download the parted documentation, but it too is a .deb file.
After scouring the Debian site VERY THOROUGHLY for an hour -- tried to read the FAQ (which is a broken link), read the Wiki, the FAQ that the Wiki points to, skim the online manuals, search the manuals (no reference to .dem at all), skim DebianHelp topics, search DebianHelp -- all to no avail.

How do I get from my .deb files to a boot disk for my PC?

Thanks!

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Close, but no cigar!

Submitted by cammoblammo on Sun, 2006-07-30 06:32.

You've almost got the right idea, but not quite. Any executables you find in the .deb won't run on Windows, so you'll have to try another tack.

The best way to do this is to simply start installing Debian from the installation CD. That has parted (or something similar) on it and will ask you if and how you want to partition your disk. Most versions of Gnu/Linux will do this for you.

If you go with Debian, it might be an idea and tell us how you plan to partition your disk (how many partitions, their sizes and so on). It's the sort of thing you want to get right, because it's a pain in the bum to fix it afterwards, believe me!

For what it's worth, .deb files (AFAIR) are tarballs and may contain other compressed files. Most Windows (de)compression tools should be able to cope with them. Try changing the extension to 'tar' and see what happens. If it works, you may also need to decompress the files inside. (I could be wrong though! It's been a while since I did this sort of thing.)

--
A tidy house is the sign of a stolen computer.

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Thanks Cammo. I had already

Submitted by nfurlong on Sun, 2006-07-30 12:11.

Thanks Cammo. I had already created a DVD image of Fedora, so what I'm hearing is that I need to interrupt the boot sequence in BIOS and raise CD-ROM in the order so it will boot CD, with my Fedora image in the CD (DVD) drive.

Unless you think there's some compelling reason for me to ditch Fedora in favor of Debian? I'm interested in running a UNIX-based Fortran program.

THanks

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defrag first

Submitted by Matt on Sun, 2006-07-30 20:14.

I don't know how advanced partitioning software is these days, but in the past you had to run defrag in windows before splitting a partition. That should result in all of your free space being consolidated at the end of your existing partition.

If you really only need to run a Fortran program, you might get by with installing cygwin. That is a unix environment produced by Redhat that installs in Windows (no partitioning necessary). But if this is an excuse to try Linux, by all means install Debian or Ubuntu and come here for help! Fedora may be fine, but most people here run Debian.

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If you really only need to

Submitted by pinniped on Mon, 2006-07-31 17:49.

If you really only need to run a FORTRAN program (and I assume you're compiling from source), you can do it even on WinDos:

1. Get the Intel Fortran Compiler from Intel. For personal and academic use you get the slightly older version but don't pay a cent. It is one of the best single-processor compilers on the planet.

2. Install a nice editor like "eclipse" (www.eclipse.org). I find it very useful as an editor, even if I think it's almost impossible to set it up properly to invoke the compilers etc.

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