WinXP and Linux on same hard drive

[bluestrobe]

I've am going to try to get WinXP and Ubuntu on my g/f's computer using some online setup guides. I haven't been able to find two guides which have the same information and really want a simple dual boot process for her. Right now I have (1) 20GB WinXP partition (NTFS), (1) 15GB unallocated partition (for Linux and it's swap), and one 70GB partition for data (NTFS) all on a WD 120GB IDE drive.

I know I can google and find 1000+ guides but they are all different with varying levels of experience. I have XP installed right now with the unallocated partition waiting for Linux. I want to setup so she can reboot and chose what OS to go into without pressing a key combo or typing a command in at a command prompt. I did this long ago with open SuSe with a boot manager but forgot which one I used and how I did it at the time.

 

[xtknight]

There should be no other method, period.

1. Install WinXP (done already)
2. Install Ubuntu (will auto-detect and add XP to a boot loader)

When you install Ubuntu, tell it to use that free space.

Just as long as you don't install the OSes on anything radical like HW RAID controllers...that's really the only way you could mess it up. There are tricky things too like having a partition bootable and the only first few megabytes of the HD being bootable on some old PCs but I don't think any of that is an issue anymore. As long as GRUB is in the MBR (the first 512 bytes of the HD) there shouldn't be a problem. And by default, it is installed to the MBR. If you install GRUB on an NTFS partition you risk corrupting it so I don't suggest that. It should only be installed to the boot sector of Linux partitions, or else the Windows disk checking tools will get confused and mess your partition up. None of that should be an issue just so long you follow the standard installation procedure. If for some reason you're asked to enter an address to install grub to, enter "(hd0)", and never use "(hd0,0)" if you have an NTFS partition first.

 

[bluestrobe]

The order my partitions are at the moment on the drive:

20Gb XP|70GB Data|15Gb Unallocated

That installation method is the one I'm going to try. I have found about 10 different ways to to the XP/ubuntu thing and they all have their ways.