how to dual boot - Dell laptop - XP & Linux

I have a trusty old Dell laptop - Latitude C610 -
that has been running XP/SP3 just fine.
Recently, swapped out the 60GB disk for a 120GB
that I partitioned into 80GB for XP, and 40GB for ??

I've booted the Knoppix CD every so often to tinker
and let my son see what a Linux world looks like, etc..
Even read about and looked at installing the Knoppix CD,
but didn't go thru with it just yet.

I'd like to install some distribution on my open partition,
but am concerned about issues like the dual boot loader,
stepping on the XP partition,
or physical/logical sector issues with the 2nd partition, must be under
xxGB, etc,
or just generally installed Linux and not have it do bad things...

Any really simple cookie cutter approaches to installing Linux
onto a perfectly happy XP/SP3 laptop with an extra partition...

--
----------------------------------
"If everything seems to be going well,
you have obviously overlooked something." - Steven Wright

"ps56k" wrote in message
...
I have a trusty old Dell laptop - Latitude C610 -
that has been running XP/SP3 just fine.
Recently, swapped out the 60GB disk for a 120GB
that I partitioned into 80GB for XP, and 40GB for ??

I've booted the Knoppix CD every so often to tinker
and let my son see what a Linux world looks like, etc..
Even read about and looked at installing the Knoppix CD,
but didn't go thru with it just yet.

I'd like to install some distribution on my open partition,
but am concerned about issues like the dual boot loader,
stepping on the XP partition,
or physical/logical sector issues with the 2nd partition, must be under
xxGB, etc,
or just generally installed Linux and not have it do bad things...

Any really simple cookie cutter approaches to installing Linux
onto a perfectly happy XP/SP3 laptop with an extra partition...

--
----------------------------------
"If everything seems to be going well,
you have obviously overlooked something." - Steven Wright

This should help:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=dual+boot+xp+linux

I have not tried this myself but I recently did a dual boot with Vista
and XP using instructions from the following website. The
instructions were layed out very well.

The link below is for XP users adding Linux

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_w...ed _first.htm

ps56k wrote:
I have a trusty old Dell laptop - Latitude C610 -
that has been running XP/SP3 just fine.
Recently, swapped out the 60GB disk for a 120GB
that I partitioned into 80GB for XP, and 40GB for ??

I've booted the Knoppix CD every so often to tinker
and let my son see what a Linux world looks like, etc..
Even read about and looked at installing the Knoppix CD,
but didn't go thru with it just yet.

I'd like to install some distribution on my open partition,
but am concerned about issues like the dual boot loader,
stepping on the XP partition,
or physical/logical sector issues with the 2nd partition, must be under
xxGB, etc,
or just generally installed Linux and not have it do bad things...

Any really simple cookie cutter approaches to installing Linux
onto a perfectly happy XP/SP3 laptop with an extra partition...


Most of the modern distros will do exactly what you want. Just pay
attention when you get to the step about partitioning. If the automatic
option does not seem to be what you want, click back to the manual option.

Linux will not hurt Windoze at all. It will continue to function
normally. At boot time, you will be presented with a selection menu
that lets you decide whether you want Linux or Windows.

I have been running my home machine, a Dell 400SC and my laptop, a Dell
D600 dual-boot XP and Linux for a few years.

Ubuntu is rumored to provide the most user-friendly experience. I run
Kubuntu on the laptop -- it is a distro of Ubuntu with KDE as the
desktop environment. I originally chose KDE over Gnome since it is more
windows-like. I have stayed with it simply because that is what I
learned first.

http://www.ubuntu.com
http://www.kubunto.org

In both sites, you download an ISO file and burn it to a CD as an image.
You then boot from that image. It will boot a "live CD" much like
what you saw with Knoppix. Once it boots up and you are happy that
there are no major hardware conflicts, you can click a desktop icon to
install ubuntu on your free partition.

There are several NNTP newsgroups dedicated to Linux.

comp.os.linux.setup
alt.os.linux.ubuntu
comp.os.linux.misc (but this one gets a lot of spam)

Good luck.

JimR

"JimR" wrote:
[.....]
Linux will not hurt Windoze at all. It will continue to function normally. At boot time, you will be presented with
a selection menu that lets you decide whether you want Linux or Windows.


The Linux installer, though, will substitute Grub for Windows
boot manager, changing the MBR in the process. If the user wants
to put the Linux boot manager in control, fine. But if one wanted
to revert to Windows' boot manager upon removing Linux, say,
one would have to rebuild the MBR.

*TimDaniels*

"ps56k" wrote:

Any really simple cookie cutter approaches to installing Linux
onto a perfectly happy XP/SP3 laptop with an extra partition...

Wubi installs Ubuntu in a regular Windows directory, so there is no
messing with partitions. It dual boots just like a regular Ubuntu
install. But if it messes up or you don't like it you can delete it
simply by removing it like any other application in Add or Remove
Programs in XP's Control Panel. A very safe way to play with Linux.

http://wubi-installer.org/

On Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:35:06 -0700, "Timothy Daniels"
wrote:


"JimR" wrote:
[.....]
Linux will not hurt Windoze at all. It will continue to function normally. At boot time, you will be presented with
a selection menu that lets you decide whether you want Linux or Windows.


The Linux installer, though, will substitute Grub for Windows
boot manager, changing the MBR in the process. If the user wants
to put the Linux boot manager in control, fine. But if one wanted
to revert to Windows' boot manager upon removing Linux, say,
one would have to rebuild the MBR.

*TimDaniels*



Another suggestion but with a cost $$$, is to tell the OP to use
vmware to avoid the worry of messing up the mbr or OS. This makes all
his testing in a virtual environment so it never touches his real OS.

"ps56k" wrote in message
...
I have a trusty old Dell laptop - Latitude C610 -
that has been running XP/SP3 just fine.
Recently, swapped out the 60GB disk for a 120GB
that I partitioned into 80GB for XP, and 40GB for ??

I've booted the Knoppix CD every so often to tinker
and let my son see what a Linux world looks like, etc..
Even read about and looked at installing the Knoppix CD,
but didn't go thru with it just yet.

I'd like to install some distribution on my open partition,
but am concerned about issues like the dual boot loader,
stepping on the XP partition,
or physical/logical sector issues with the 2nd partition, must be
under xxGB, etc,
or just generally installed Linux and not have it do bad things...

Any really simple cookie cutter approaches to installing Linux
onto a perfectly happy XP/SP3 laptop with an extra partition...

Well for starters, the story that Linux won't hurt your Windows XP
installation *isn't* so! For example, Ubuntu Live ran from a flash drive
toasted my XP install on one of my EeePC. As in the taskbar, I run iBand
in the toolbar. And after running Ubuntu Live, it would hang XP with
just a background and a window showing Windows Installer and nothing
else. I had to boot up BartPE and rename the iband.dll to something else
to get it working once again. Also restoring the registry back with
ERUNT works too. I ran Ubuntu two more times just to make sure it was
Ubuntu that was screwing up XP. And yes it was.

Now for booting XP and Linux, Microsoft did something really nice with
Vista and Windows 7. As they changed from MBR to BCD for booting your
OS'. Not only can BCD boot Vista / Windows 7, but also DOS, Win9x,
2000/XP. Linux and anything else you can think of. Plus you can have
zillions of primary partitions too. It is really nice.

Problem is, Microsoft's tool to edit the BCD is a command line utility
and it is just awful! Luckily you don't have to use it. As NeoSmart
Technologies has created a free version called EasyBCD to edit it. You
don't need Vista or Windows 7 on your drive to use it. As it runs under
older versions of Windows too. And it is really slick. And you can
create BCD or MBR, or toast either one as well. It sure made my life so
much easier. I would not be afraid to use it under any multi-boot system
running any OS. Well for all of the well known OS anyway. wink

And if something ever goes wrong, just recreate the MBR once again. That
will get XP up and running once again (assuming your boot.ini didn't get
toasted). And once XP boots, then you can use EasyBCD once again to get
all of the other OS to boot up too. grin

--
Bill
Windows Ultimate (build 7100)
Gateway MX6124 - 2G RAM

"RnR" wrote in message
...
Another suggestion but with a cost $$$, is to tell the OP to use
vmware to avoid the worry of messing up the mbr or OS. This makes all
his testing in a virtual environment so it never touches his real OS.

That requires a vmware compatible processor though. Many of them are
not. Especially in the laptop / netbook departments.

--
Bill
Windows Ultimate (build 7100)
Gateway MX6124 - 2G RAM

In ,
Jerry typed on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 23:14:27 -0400:
This should help:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=dual+boot+xp+linux

Hi Jerry! That only allows Linux to boot as default. What happens if you
want Windows to boot as the default? A lot of times I reboot and leave
the room to get a cup of coffee or something. Under this method you
mention, you have to wait for the OS to shutdown. Then wait for the boot
menu and then select the one you want to boot.

Why not just use BCD and the free program called EasyBCD? It can boot
anything and you can select the timeout and the default OS on the fly.
You need the folder called Boot from a Vista or a Windows 7 machine
first though (remember Windows 7 is free right now). Here is the FAQ:

http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/FAQ

--
Bill
Gateway MX6124 - Windows XP SP2