Dual Boot - XP Pro & Linux

Devilfish

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Hi folks,

Just ordered a new hdd and want to dual boot linux and XP Pro.

Just starting to search for instructions on dual boot so that I know what I'm doing when the hdd comes.

All I've found so far is, dual boot when you already have XP installed or dual boot when you already have linux installed. I'll have a blank disk to work with.

If anyone knows any good sites that I can read up on, or any advice, I'd be greatful.

I've used Ubuntu on VMware so will probably go with that and download Ubuntu 7.10 from their website.

Cheers
 
So are you wanting both Windows and Linux on the same disk? If so, then I'd definitely install Windows first. AFAIK it's not possible to stop windows overwriting the MBR (I could well be wrong, as people are dual booting XP and Vista), but most Linux installers are very good at detecting windows and taking the appropriate steps.


I've never installed ubuntu, so I can't tell you specifics, but a search around the Ubuntu forums is going to give you loads of info (as you've probably already found).


At an absolute minimum, you'll end up with just 2 partitions on the disk, one for windows, one for linux. However, most installers I've come across like to have a separate /boot partition.
One thing to watch out for is where the installer puts the bootloader. In Fedora at least, by default it will install it on the MBR of the hard disk, overwriting the one from windows, which can cause troubles. You will probably want to put it on the boot partition. You then use the Windows bootloader to start up the linux bootloader in a chain. I've found this easier than trying to get windows booting directly from Grub (the linux bootloader), although it's certainly possible to do it both ways.


I've just read back through my post, and even I'm a bit confused by it. Don't worry, read a few howto's and you'll get it. The main thing to remember is to install windows first. While it's recoverable later, it's also easier to make sure when you install windows that you don't partition the whole disk. Leave some space free for linux.


Good luck,

edit: One more thing. If I were you, I'd go for the 32bit version over the 64bit (much like you need a good reason to choose 64bit XP over 32bit). The reason is there's a few things that don't work well in 64 bit. The main one is Flashplayer, as adobe won't release a 64bit plugin :(. You can get around it by using a 32 bit version of firefox, but it can be a bit of a pain to set up. Also, a couple of drivers (such as some usb wireless sticks) don't play nice with a 64 bit kernel.
 
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have you considered running linux in vmware? the server version is free and this will handle linux for you.

I have a number of linux vm's on my desktop - its a lot easier and much more convinient to use tha dual booting, mainly because you dont need to reboot to get another os.
 
I've wanted to do this for a while and I finally bit the bullet and I have now got it sorted, here's an overview and some comments.

I did a Sony Vaio PCG-GRT795MP with XP and Ubuntu

I used a fresh hard drive for simplicity. If you want to use your existing drive it may cause problems. This is because the XP install has been using the whole drive for it's files and will usually have file fragments scattered all over the drive.
The Dual-boot process will divide up the drive and re-partition some of it and use it for the second OS install. A heavily used NTFS/FAT drive's fragments may cause problems. This is why most user guides will advise you to defrag the drive FIRST. A fresh drive negates this issue and they are now cheap enough to buy several, along with some 2nd hand caddies and you can have a multi-purpose laptop with as many caddies/drives as you want.

So, a fresh drive and a standard install of XP is first.
Second is a bootable ISO CD of your second OS my choice is Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy.
Boot from the Ubuntu CD and select install option from menu
Ubuntu will then reconfigure the hard drive with a new EXT3 partition for Linux and a grub boot thingy for selecting your boot OS.
Voila a dual-boot XP+Linux laptop.

Easy innit ?

fresh drive and fresh installs is the key to success - trying to re-use a 2 year old XP installation is likely to fail is seems hardly worth the bother, just keep this drive as-is and slip it in when needed.
 
I agree with karym6. VMware server is a great way to run multiple OS's on the same machine. VMware have released VMware Server 2.0 Beta which has some nice new features. You also get the added bonus of being able to snapshot the virtual machine. This is really usefull for windows's VM's. I'm sure everybody has applied a service pack or hotfix that has killed your machine. You can snap the VM before applying the patch and if it all goes horribly wrong you can quicly revert to the original.
I used to run dual boot systems but after using Vmware I never went back.
 
i would always recommend trying a new os in vmware - its such an easy thing to set up and is incredibly flexible
 
If you want to dual boot linux and windows....

the simple way is to install windows then install linux and use the linux boot loader:)
 
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