dual booting windows XP (home edition) and Linux

Shrykull · Post by **Shrykull** » 2002-07-09 10:38pm

How exactly do you do this? I heard there are problems doing it that Windows XP (and microsoft just don't like Linux, and don't get along with it) As far as partitioning goes, I guess when I first get my new system I'll use FDISK to set the partitions, but how exactly do you tell the computer that you want this operating system on this partition, and that operating system or that partition, and you have to set the MSDOS sys multiboot command don't you. I remember reading that Mike has three OS's installed on his computer a while back, He hates windows but needs it because so many programs are only available on it. I've never used to Linux before but I want to start exploring seeing what it's like, can anyone recommend a good version, and a good book to buy to learn about it.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2002-07-10 05:30pm

There should be a few FAQs or HOWTOs on the 'net if you search around. LILO and NTLOADER can peacefully coexist.

Another possibility is to use a bootloader such as XOSL - I used it long ago to boot between Windows NT 4, Windows 98 and Red Hat Linux

BlueExcalibur · Post by **BlueExcalibur** » 2002-07-10 10:57pm

Most versions of Linux come with a bootloader called Lilo. This would be done automatically by it just adding all your other bootable partitions during the install.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2002-07-10 11:09pm

I did this about a week ago. I found that if you install XP before Linux theres no problem, linux has Lilo (or Grub) do the boot selection. If you've installed linux THEN XP you need to pop the linux disc in the cd drive again and this time instead of installing choose upgrade.

Singular Quartet · Post by **Singular Quartet** » 2002-07-11 12:44am

I always thought NT just nuked Linux partions on the Hard Drive.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2002-07-11 07:21am

Nope your thinking of 95(Thats NOT a fun system to dual boot with anythign)
98 Orgional did the same thing occisonaly but SE and XP fixed the problems

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2002-07-11 10:43am

kojikun wrote:I did this about a week ago. I found that if you install XP before Linux theres no problem, linux has Lilo (or Grub) do the boot selection. If you've installed linux THEN XP you need to pop the linux disc in the cd drive again and this time instead of installing choose upgrade.

You can use NTLOADER to boot instead if you want.

Doomriser · Post by **Doomriser** » 2002-07-12 12:10am

I'm running Winblows XP right now and the only dual-booting its going to get are my feet kicking the CPU tower.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2002-07-12 01:00am

Mr Bean wrote:Nope your thinking of 95(Thats NOT a fun system to dual boot with anythign)
98 Orgional did the same thing occisonaly but SE and XP fixed the problems

No, 95/98 Original & SE did not nuke the system partitions. All it did was overwrite the MBR, which can be fixed if you have a Linux bootdisk.

If you have to partition a blank drive and you have Mandrake 8.1/8.2, just use DiskDrake. It works far better than FDISK. (I had a strange situation with my 60GB drive where DOS partitions beyond D: would inexplicably vanish. The problem was rectified when I used DiskDrake to create the partitions (although I still can't see them in real-mode DOS...)