Help with multiple os system.

[RemyCanad]

I am wanting to dual boot Red Hat 8.0 and WinXP. Now I have did this before but it has never went very smoothly. So could someone put some setups up as to what to do, and win. For example, do I install winXP and then install RedHat and let RedHat deal with any partitioning problems....

 

[n0cmonkey]

Install Windows
Install RH
have a guiness.

 

[RemyCanad]

Thanks n0cmonkey, last time I dual booted with Linux it was back around 4 years ago.... Sounds like things are really easy now.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: RemyCanad
Thanks n0cmonkey, last time I dual booted with Linux it was back around 4 years ago.... Sounds like things are really easy now.

I thought they were easy 4 years ago :Q

I havent dualbooted in atleast 2 years, probably closer to 3.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: RemyCanad
Thanks n0cmonkey, last time I dual booted with Linux it was back around 4 years ago.... Sounds like things are really easy now.

I thought they were easy 4 years ago :Q

I havent dualbooted in atleast 2 years, probably closer to 3.

I had a dual boot or two back with RH5... It was alright, but I hated running it on the same hard drive. I don't mind dealing with partitions on a RAID Array, but I hate doing it on IDE drives for some reason... Anyhow...now I'm running all separate systems except for at work where I have one system with RH8/Windows.NET/Netware6 running tri-boot. I just like putting them together cause it's funny.

 

[RemyCanad]

Well it was just kind of a pain. I had a win95 install and decided that I would let linux do all the partioning for me. Well after it was done it somehow killed windows.... I just gave up becuase I was able to put it on another machine. Now I need it so that D2OL will fly on my 2000+ XP.

 

[seya]

I am also trying to set up a dual boot with XP/RH8 on my system.
I set up XP on one HD and RH8 on a different one.
The two HDs are on Promise ATA-Array, with ATA mode enabled.
I am having trouble loading GRUB, everytime I start up the system, it automatically boots XP.
I want to figure out how to get the GRUB to boot instead of the XP everytime.
Any one has hint on that?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: seya
I am also trying to set up a dual boot with XP/RH8 on my system.
I set up XP on one HD and RH8 on a different one.
The two HDs are on Promise ATA-Array, with ATA mode enabled.
I am having trouble loading GRUB, everytime I start up the system, it automatically boots XP.
I want to figure out how to get the GRUB to boot instead of the XP everytime.
Any one has hint on that?

You are installing GRUB ont he MBR of the first drive right?

 

[seya]

no.. because I have XP installed before Linux. I have XP on the primary, and Linux on the Secondary.
I was told not to mess with the MBR, because it may cause XP not boot.
I thought it's is recommend to install the loader on the first section of the disk where I install the OS.
I am confused. please help.

 

[RemyCanad]

Why not just switch the hd with Linux on it with the HD with XP?

Also my xp install is working just fine with the MBR modified on the same hd as WinXP

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: seya
no.. because I have XP installed before Linux. I have XP on the primary, and Linux on the Secondary.
I was told not to mess with the MBR, because it may cause XP not boot.
I thought it's is recommend to install the loader on the first section of the disk where I install the OS.
I am confused. please help.

Then use the WinXP bootloader to boot to Linux. It is your choice, but you are going to need a bootloader.

 

[Toxic]

You can safely put LILO or Grub on the MBR. When you installed RH, it would have done this for you unless you changed it. For example, I have XP (to shut my wife up ) on one drive and linux on another drive. Grub is on the MBR. No problems.
Now, if you install something like OS commander or whatever as the bootloader, you'll have some different options.

I haven't done this in a while, but you can make a boot diskette to boot into linux as well.

 

[RemyCanad]

Also, doesn't red hat (wich auto uses grub) allow you to install it in the first part of the HD and not the MBR?

 

[seya]

Originally posted by: RemyCanad
Also, doesn't red hat (wich auto uses grub) allow you to install it in the first part of the HD and not the MBR?

I did install the loader on the first part of the HD, but for some reason, it's just not working.
I guess I will try to put it on the MBR. Hopefully it won't mess up my XP.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: RemyCanad
Also, doesn't red hat (wich auto uses grub) allow you to install it in the first part of the HD and not the MBR?

Yes, but you will not be able to access grub without some bootloader int he MBR that is aware of it. NT's bootloader can do this, but from what I saw it looked more complicated than letting RH automagically set everything up. But I dont do Windows, so that was probably a big part of my hesitance towards using Nt's bootloader (I also dont dualboot).

 

[RemyCanad]

Any specific reason you don't dual boot? I am currently becuase I only have one machine that can be online. And I don't have room in my dorm room for multiple monitors and such. (No KVM either).

 

[seya]

Just Install GRUB in the MBR, and everything worked.
Thank so lot for all the advice.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: RemyCanad
Any specific reason you don't dual boot? I am currently becuase I only have one machine that can be online. And I don't have room in my dorm room for multiple monitors and such. (No KVM either).

1. Its useless for me.
2. It can be a PITA.
3. Reboots waste DC time.
4. Reboots annoy me.
5. I can do almost everything with one OS.
6. I have room for multiple computers.
7. I have a KVM switch.
8. Not all OSes run on one architecture.
9. To alleviate #3 and #4 I would use #5 to my advantage and never reboot.
10. Wastes harddrive space with an OS I wont use.

If I did development I would consider it on a laptop. I have considered it on my current laptop, but have so far decided against it because the hard drive is small.

 

[Toxic]

Well, given the choice, I wouldn't dual boot either. Other than some games and my wife's insistence on having windows to use Office on, I have no use for windows. (Heh, I installed open office on her windows. Told her to get used to it, cuz windows days are numbered on that hard drive LOL ) Luckily, the game(s) I play, also have linux installs.