Dual Boot

Forum: HD Install
Topic: Dual Boot
started by: TeamOverload

Posted by TeamOverload on July 10 2006,22:31

First of all, I just wanted to say nice work on DSL. I rely a lot on Windows for things, but I like Linux a lot more. I was wondering if it is possible to dualboot XP and DSL? If so, can someone explain it to me or point me towards a tutorial? Thanks in advance.

Posted by TeamOverload on July 11 2006,00:00

Anyone? I really would like to get this working.

Posted by TeamOverload on July 11 2006,14:56

This forum isnt very helpful.

Posted by underdog5004 on July 11 2006,22:42

Hmmm, I tried a search on "Dual boot", and nothing noticeable popped up. A good general outline for dual-booting any computer (windows/*nix) is to install windows
first on its own partition, then go ahead with the linux install. If you don't, then Windows will overwrite the
MBR which is where the GrUB is located. If it was me, I would boot from a dsl livecd, then I would

Code Sample

sudo cfdisk /mnt/hda1

and partition the drive into a fat32 for windows, an ext2 for dsl, another ext2 for storage on dsl, and a swap, for swap. After that, go ahead and install windows, then install
dsl (frugal). Remember that Windows will format the fat32 partition as NTFS. Edit the grub.lst (I think that's the right file) to include
the Windows installation. I think that should do it, although I haven't tried it myself...

-Matthew

Posted by brianw on July 12 2006,01:04

Yes, make sure windows is installed first. When you install DSL to the hard drive you can either do a full install to another partition or do a frugal install. If you do the HD install you will be promted to install a boot loader. If you do the frugal install you can choose to use lilo or grub. I think grub is easier to configure (at least with a HD install, not sure about frugal).

By the way, this forum is not real time (although some people do visit often) and people have lives. Especially in the Summer you can't expect an answer like you are paying for support, be patient. There are only two developers and everything, including development and support, is volunteer work.