Question

Dual booting Mandrake with XP Pro

Asked by: OmegaProgrammer

I am currently running XP Pro and have recently discovered Linux.  I want to set it up so that I can dual boot into Mandrake 10.  I have a 60 GB primary HDD and a 200 GB Slave HDD.  Using PartitionMagic I have reduced my NTFS partition to 50 GB and have created a 10 GB Linux Ext3 partition.  Now I want to install Linux on this 10 GB partition.  

What is the best way to do this?  I would like to be able to pick an OS when the computer boots up, but have it default to Windows.

Thanks

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Asked On
2004-09-12 at 19:41:51ID21128281
Tags

mandrake

,

dual

,

boot

,

xp

Topic

Linux Setup

Participating Experts
3
Points
125
Comments
5

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Answers

 

by: kmcgonigalPosted on 2004-09-12 at 22:50:19ID: 12041403

You have most of the hard work out of the way already. Just boot into the installer program go through it until you get to the boot loader section. Choose Windows XP as the default operating system and Grub as the default boot loader. You may give it a label here ie. WinXP or Windoze are good names. :)  When the partitioning section comes up choose to use the existing Linux partition and auto partition. Linux still needs swap space which is typically double your RAM. The auto partition should take care of this for though.

Happy computing!

 

by: theruckPosted on 2004-09-13 at 01:00:12ID: 12041937

fortunatelly you have chosen the easiest distro and it will make everything automatically. anyway i would recommend using LILO as a boot loader which has a nice GUI and is easy to setup

you can allways add the windows OS to your boot option editing the /etc/lilo.conf file you can also add password to boot an option

this is how would it look like

boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/System.map
password=lolek
prompt
timeout=50
default=Gentoo_2.6.6
vga=791

image = /boot/linux-2.6.6
        vga=0x318
        root = /dev/hda4
        label = Gentoo_2.6.6
        initrd=/boot/initrd.splash
        append="splash=silent video=vesafb:ywrap,mtrr"
        read-only # read-only for checking
        restricted

other = /dev/hda1
        label = Windows
        password=password


where /dev/hda1 is the first partition of your Primary Master Disk /dev/hdb2 is the second partition of your second partition on your Primary Slave Disk etc.

this all can be set up during the mandrake instalation easilly without knowing the syntax anyway you can change it later to boot another OS if you want to add a 3rd OS to your PC

 

by: paullamhkgPosted on 2004-09-13 at 01:35:54ID: 12042093

Lilo is one of your choice Grub also good take a look on this  http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux/grub-w2k-HOWTO.html and http://www.geocities.com/desktopmandrake/linuxwithxp.htm

You can also thinking of using the NT boot loader as the boot manager which I think it familiar with you http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Linux+NT-Loader.html

Again I'll suggest to use the GRUB or LILO, which one it's depend on your choice.

you said you partition ext3 by using the partition magic, it may/may not have problem during installation, if there is/are any problem, try to remove the ext3 partition and let the mandrake to create the partition for you.

Also, try to create a FAT32 partition for both OS to share use, since it's risky to access ext3 FS from WinXP or access NTFS from Linux, but it's save to access FAT32 in both OS. so that you can have share files in both OS.

Hope this can help.

 

by: OmegaProgrammerPosted on 2004-09-13 at 10:43:49ID: 12046390

I tried just letting the Mandrake install handle it and it told me that it had to delete all partitions on the primary drive.  Then it asked if this was okay.  Of course I said no.  Partitioning was the 4th step, but I only made it to step 2.

 

by: theruckPosted on 2004-09-13 at 12:48:04ID: 12047971

you just run partition magic and delete the ext3 partition and let it just unpartitioned space then run the mandrake setup again and choos to install into the free space on the disk

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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