Linux / Windows dual boot

I confess I have only spent a short amount of time attempting to create a dual boot affair. After initial stabs I am considering purchasing an old computer (potentially second hand) to create a stand alone Linux affair (Fedora Core 4).

As another option, the configuration of my old XP machine is a somewhat creaky 9Gig C drive, with a slave 120Gig F drive. I am considering adding a third drive (if possible) for purely the linux install - alternatively I am considering re-partitioning my F:Drive with the necessary partitions to Create a dual boot affair.

Anyone had any 'hiccups' with attempting the above, would you warn against a dual boot and go for the simpler 'stand alone' linux affair ?

regards,

Yeah I would warn against it, but it really depends on how familiar you are with Linux. I don't know anything about it and kept getting locked out of my installation despite following instructions that were supposed to ensure the opposite (!) but that's not really the problem; the problem was getting rid of the damn thing: FDisk wouldn't touch it and it was only through luck that I had the Norton equivalent handy and was able to use that to nuke the hard-drive and start over.

I'm sure there are a bunch of Linux geeks who would read this and think "Jeez, that's not a problem at all, you simply x,y then z..." but personally I would never tempt fate again. Not worth the hassle. Use a spare machine.

No experience with Fedora, but I stuck a Ubuntu CD in my machine and installed to a second drive. It worked fine, didn't corrupt my Windows drive and even installed a set of boot options for dual boot. Ubuntu also seems to be the supported flavour of Linux if you plan to run Max on it.

@ Sledge: Thanks for that, I picked up a Red Hat Fedora and Enterprise Linux 4 bible (doorstop) from Amazon that came with software plus one or two instructions. A separate machine (from a noob) perspective seems the safest option.

@Nomen luni: Ubuntu sounds like a better option than Fedora as far as Max is concerned... shame the product I've got is Fedora...

I had the same experince as Nomen, used ubuntu & XP on my laptop.

It partitioned my single HD and all works perfectly.

Nice boot loader lets me select which OS I want on power up.

The only downside (if it is one) is that I rarely use XP anymore and I spend too much time reading slashdot.

Did the same in work with my desktop PC with 2 sepearate drives, but used SUSE, no problems there either.



From: http://elliottback.com

LOL nice cartoon.

@BlitzPlotter - Ubuntu is free if you feel like trying it.

There's plenty on his site, most amusing...

It's become a common phrase in work..

"sudo make me a coffee"

But it doesn't seem to work on my girlfriend though for certain things.


@BlitzPlotter -

For MS Products there's mastercard.

Ubuntu - Priceless.

Plus don't forget to download OpenOffice - works on XP too - for free.

@Nomen... will try it thanks

@Yeshu... thanks for the vote of confidence in Ubuntu, I've got open office on my XP machine already. Your sig... oh if only people could learn from history....

Regards,

Just a little note for everyone who plans to add dual boot and further OSes to his system:

Before you do this, try to find and print an article about how to backup and restore your boot sector using a bootable msdos floppy. Also make sure to copy the dos tools for restoring such a boot sector as well as the bootsector backup file to a floppy disc.

Usualy this is not neccessary, but especially when you are trying out various distributions there my be problems with the bootsector the sooner or later.

Yeah good point jfk - I just stuck the install CD in and held my breath but I wouldn't want to recommend that to anyone else.

Or you can just let the Windows install CD "repair" it for you.

@JFK - Floppy disc? I have thousands and nothing to put them in... pity really.

Maybe easier to boot from Compact Flash, but it will depend on your BIOS - so check out what it's capable of first.

Good idea though.

Depending on what you want to do with Linux, you may find it worth considering runnign it under VMware player, or parallels instead. No partitioning required, and available whenever you want (with windows running alongside)

Downside is that it's not really useful for doing gfx work (so if you are planning to use bmax on it, it may not be great), but if it's for doing web based stuff it works really well.

@jfk, thanks for that, good suggestion.

Thanks all, am planning to use it to help with conversion/compilation of some Unix flavoured TCP code that is destined for linux.

What's wrong with fedora and Bmax? Seems to work OK here.

just go download virtualpc2004 from MS and install Linux on a virtual machine. No dual boot and no standalone machine.

If you sign up for the beta, you can even use VirtualPC2007.

Since switching to parallels, I've not touched any of my dual boot machines.

@Kanati, virtualpc2004 sounds like a different flavour of VMWare. No dualboot and no standalone sounds interesting - less expense and potentially less hassle.

@MadMax, only reason I'm steering away from fedora is that it doesn't seem to be as noob friendly as ubuntu if going for the dual boot affair, purely from the posts on this thread you understand.

I may end up trying to install my version of fedora on a virtual machine much as Kanati and GrahamK has suggested, in fact this is looking like the most favourable option. Downloading VirtualPC2004 from msdn now... its free!

Thanks all,

@GrahamK, by parallels I presume you mean virtual machines ? you suggested VMWare first - have you some experience of VPC 07 beta ? My concern is that VPC07 might not be to stable. I envisage 04 may have less functionality - what do you reckon ?

MSDN upon install suggests VPC2004 is supported on XPHome, however the specs page on MSDN lists XPHome and the hardware requirements for it to work on XPHome - we'll see.

VM's.. yeah.
tried VMware player, using the community images for a few linux distro's... Pretty stable, free, but you can't make your own images without VMware workstation (I think), so have to rely on ones in the community area. Speed wise, was OK but nothing to write home about.

VirtualPC, I had it running fine under XPpro, not tried on xpHome, but I'd be surprised if it didn't work. Seemed ok at hosting MS operating systems, and I believe it's ok with linux (look for the web for install help though), but I found it a little flakey. Not tried 2007, but I've heard it's pretty good.

Parallels, bought this just before xmas.
Currently running ubuntu, win2k, win98 and (as of last night) win95, all very successfully. I find it a lot faster than both of the others, and extremely stable. I've been using it extensively in my recent Cobra testing (used to use 2 other machines, both as dual boot), but the combination of the speed of the VM, and the fact it's running on the same machine have speeded up the testing process an awful lot.

The best thing of all (in my mind) is that once you get a config you like, you can save off a copy of the file, and pretty much swap it at will.. No formatting, no reinstalls.
eg. I've got a win2k config, which is a completely clean. I do a install, test then replace the clean win2k after.

Well, Virtual PC installed, Fedora (apparently) installed okay, reboot request at end resulted in getting the initial five lines of text associated with booting any pc 'virtual or otherwise' i.e.:-

210MBOK
Auto detecting Pri Master..IDE Hard Disk
" " " Slave...CDROM
Pri Master: 1.1 Virtual HD
Pri Slave : Virtual CD

This info disappears, small underbar flashing cursor appears, carriage returns about 4 times then just sits and flashes with a black terminal screen all bar the flashing underbar. Quick check of task manager reveals 97% CPU power being used by VirtualPC..... ?

Prior to the 'successful installation ?' of Fedora4 on the virtualPC the CD/DVD I was using would at least give me the instaal / upgrade existing installation options. Now it seems to get bogged down at sbin/loader.....

Just attempting to get the GRUB screen working....

never tried fedora on vpc, but ubuntu and mandriva have worked just fine for me.

I have seen linux installs fall flat on their face though so it might be happening there... Wipe and reinstall. That's the beauty of a virtual pc. No REAL hassle when it happens.

Now that you mention it, I may probably see what I can do with mixing up Vista Premium and Fedora Core 6, which may go well together, but on an 80 GB HDD, such as my notebook, I highly doubt that those two will get along that well, yet keep their distance. Glad I have an external HDD, I may put Vista on there, and run Fedora Core on my built-in HDD, we'll have to see if that works out that way...

This site seems has some useful help for installing Fedora Core 4 on VirtualPC:

http://acs.pha.jhu.edu/~shy/vpc-windows/

However this suggests one CD, my install is on 2 cd's, and the first attempt resulted in VirtualPC not recognising the 2nd CD, this may have been down to not 'releasing' the CD drive despite removing the first CD and inserting the second. I am in good company on this issue as this link shows:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1522617,00.asp

I do have Fedora on a DVD but the VirtualPC point blank refused to recognise the DVD until after the first CD. The install 'appeared' to have installed suucessfully sourcing the remaining files from the DVD, the fedora install even went as far as informing 'install completed - you can now reboot'. No dice after this though....

The following link says it all:

http://aksaharan.blogspot.com/2006/04/experience-installing-fedora-core-4.html

The following suggests VPC SP1 causes issues:(I'm using SP1.....)

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1206348&page=1

Ten Forty three PM... nearly there but no cigar... Few more hair folicles gone -

C'est La Vie.

VMWare is the future... Fedora Core 4 installed and working. Steer clear of VirtualPC2004, for linux virtuals at any rate. Enjoy.

Well, Fedora Core 4's still a supported version, eh? I thought that Red Hat was up to version 6, atm. That's probably where I'm looking at, I'm waiting for Vista, so I can dual-boot at that time.

yep , its up to six, but I'm happy with 4.