dual boot

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phpScott
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dual boot

Post by phpScott »

If any one can give a gentle nudge in the right direction I would be most gratefull.

I can get windows xp running on my laptop quite happily(suprise, suprise);
I can get Suse 9.1, or 9.2, mandrake 10.1 and slackware( version something recent) running quite happily buy themselves(installing over windows completely).

When I load windows and leave room for a nix o/s the install goes smoothly using basic setups but when I go to reboot after the install if I am using the grub loader I get a big GRUB on the screen and the computer freezes. If I use lilo loadier I get a big L on the screen and the computer freezes.

I don't think it is hardware compatabilities as nix will run but not in dual boot mode.
If the laptop was for my own use I would just nix it and call it happy but the wife uses it as well and doesn't want to move from windows yet.

Any help would be great.

Thanks.
phpScott
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smpdawg
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Post by smpdawg »

Instead of dual booting, how about running Linux inside of VMWare or some other tool like that? That way you have a Windows machine that can run Linux simultaneously.
thegreatone2176
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Post by thegreatone2176 »

i hear vmware is slow and i am far from expert with linux and i have managed to dual boot to distros with xp


with both the distros i installed (ubuntu and slackware) before anything was really installed it made me setup a partiion to install on and so i just took the free space i had after windows and made one.

You need leave the windows partition as the primary one and have it boot and either on boot have the linux distro ask you which you want to boot or with slack you can make a bootdisk that will make the comp boot slack if you have it in.

also with slack you dont have to install lilo and i didnt and it boots fine

that may not of been any help, but i never used SuSe or mandrake
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phpScott
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a little research

Post by phpScott »

I think the problem might be from a few articles I have just read is that the intial boot sector is too large(mine be windows) something about it needing to be under 8GB or something.
Will try playing tommorrow if no one can come up with a better solution for me and put windows on a smaller partition with windows programs and files in another, that should make the primary partition small enough to deal with the 8GB limit thingy.

Something like
4GB for Windows
30GB for the rest of Windows based apps and files.
Then let linux use the rest for what it wants about 30GB worth.

Will let you know how it goes.

phpScott
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smpdawg
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Post by smpdawg »

VMWare runs very well.

I have one computer that is running Windows XP and has Mandrake Linux and FreeBSD running inside VMWare. And the computer that I am using right now has Fedora Core 3 and Windows XP SP2 running inside of VMWare.

If VMWare is properly configured, it will run well and the fact that you can hibernate an OS and switch from one OS to another without a reboot is very handy. I never reboot my computer and yet I can do Linux development and in 20 seconds I can have XP running and do compiles with Delphi.

As far as installation goes, it is just as easy to configure VMWare with Linux as it is to mess around with a dual boot. On top of that you don't have to worry about setting up partitions in Windows and worrying about the two colliding since VMWare runs its partition inside of a Windows file.

I told a guy with no Linux experience about VMWare and he had the Fedora Core 3 running in Windows XP SP2 in an hour so don't write VMWare off so quickly.
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phpScott
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Post by phpScott »

that's all lovely but where can i get vmware? any other name to go by, any $$$$ invovled
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smpdawg
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Post by smpdawg »

If you don't want to spend the money, try the trial version. They will give you a key for 30 days and you can just keep requesting a trial key. You won't have to reinstall, just enter a new key. There are always ways to solve problems like this..
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Post by timvw »

i don't think the 8gb problem still exists....

just read the lilo/grub manual and make things work :)
usually a LI.. LI........ means that your kernel isn't happy. this means you'll have to look into that :)

fe: try a livecd first.. and if that kernel works, use that one...
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Pyrite
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Post by Pyrite »

Usually this kind of problem occurs when installing your boot loader to the first cylinder of the HD partition. I always install my boot loader to the MBR and have never had problems.

Alternatively, you can use the Windows XP boot loader. Google about it. You basically modify your c:\boot.ini file to allow other partitions to be booted.
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