[usgator]

Thanks.  So, I should do the partitions on (hdb2) in this order?
/boot (125m) /swap (512m) /usr (remainder or partition 30 gigs)
/hdb5           /hdb6 /hdb7
The other partition is a Fat32 partition with remainder of the 120 gig drive.

When I copy the boot.lnx using dd if=/dev/hdb2 of=/mnt/boot.lnx bs=512 count=1, the boot.lnx file contains a bunch of gibberish with something to the effect of "disk not bootable" embedded inside.

Any ideas?  This is driving me crazy.  I've been trying to get Linux to boot for like 2 weeks or more.

[N3WBI3]

Well US note that hdb2 is itself a partition, (the second partition on your second IDE harddrive). What you want to do is create three partitions

hdb2: 125M
hdb3: 512M (type Linux swap)
hdb4: Whatever is left..

you have a mandrake CD and you cant boot and set up off of that?