Linux / WinXP Home dual boot fun-ness

I've gone through this headache once before in the past, so before I go and obtain another one on this newer system--has anyone done this?

Anyone have any good tips or anything? I haven't decided on a Linux distro yet, either. (Are commercial distros much better?) I'm not a Linux expert, just a tinker so don't go suggesting that I use Slackware or Debian.

The one thing that really worries me is the friggin B00T LOADER. I've used both LILO and GRUB but I have no idea which I like better. But the thing that I worry about is that whatever I use won't be able to "see" my default WinXP install and I'll have to go through some total craziness to get that fixed.

I shouldn't have any problems with partitions, since I'm using an old crappy hard drive for Linux. (Although I think the new drive has a master boot record on it with LILO, is that gonna cause a problem when I hook this drive up as a slave? Ack)

Garoad, you need to install Windows first, then Linux. If you do it in the reverse order, Windows will overwrite the LILO or GRUB code in your boot record. After you install Linux, you may need to add another boot menu entry in your GRUB/LILO config file, to boot the Windows partition (/dev/hda0, presumably).

(Caveat: I've done this with Win98 2nd ed., and Win2K Pro. I don't know if there's any extra voodoo you need to do for WinXP.)

I prefer GRUB myself, because you can simply edit the config files and not have to worry about re-running LILO afterwards to copy your changes to the MBR.

As for distros, you might check out http://cheapbytes.com/ and buy a copy of their MONDO Pack. It includes copies of Fedora (nee Red Hat), Mandrake, Slackware, and Debian. (I use Red Hat myself, and haven't yet moved over to Fedora Core.)

HTH

If you think Slackware and Debian are distros for experts, I probably shouldn't even think about suggesting Gentoo or Sorcerer.

I prefer LILO because it's established and very self-contained. Either GRUB or LILO can handle any version of Windows just fine. Just remember that you need to install Windows first and then Linux, otherwise Windows will overwrite the Linux bootloader in the MBR.

Alternatively, you could skip the bootloader in MBR stuff entirely, install LILO in the partition boot sector for your Linux install, and use fdisk to switch active boot sectors every time you want to change operating systems. It's slow and very clumsy, but you don't need to worry about conflicting operating systems.

I know about the Windows first thing, that's already installed. But I'm definitely not fdisk'ing to change OSes, I want to switch more casually than that. I guess I'll use Grub since I think I read somewhere that LILO is "legacy".

It's not that I think Slackware/Debian is complex, I've never used either so I'm just basing that on reputation. I thought they were the more "hands on" distros (apparently not) but of course my knowledge in that area is limited. What I'm used to is Mandrake...maybe I'll just stick with that. I don't subscribe to the school of thought that things have to be as unconvienient as possible to function well.

Thanks for responding btw.

Oh, now I have new concerns. I have an integrated NIC--hopefully that won't be an issue. I'm also reading something about Dell computers with "LG-based" cdrom drives having problems, hmm. I have alot of research to do still...

If only they'd make a Second Life Linux I'd be much more encouraged to go ahead with this, hehe.

Try Knoppix and boot from CD. You can set up the spare drive as your /home, then specify it at the boot prompt. The disadvantage, of course is that it will access the CD whenever you load a new app.

Alrnatively, I think you can also install Knoppix onto the HD, then boot from the HD using the CD as your boot loader. This would allow you to use the hard drive without needing LILO or GRUB on your MBR.

Finally, if you find that you like it, you can do a full install, with LILO at the end. Just be sure to look on the internet for the name of the magic install script; the docs on the CD (I'm basing this advice on Knoppix 3.3_2003_08_24) are out of date.

Oh yeah, rumor has it that you can carry your /home around on a USB miniflash. That and a Knoppix CD will allow you to travel to a friend's house and have acess to your familiar environment on their computer, all without messing with their HD. You just have to do is specify the USB device at the boot prompt.

Thanks Andrew I'll look that one up.

I don't own a USB miniflash but that's seriously cool. Booting from a CD wouldn't be too bad, maybe that's a good idea.

Half the reason I'm doing this is just so I can mess around with trying to get SL running via Wine. lol
Hopefully we'll have a real Linux SL client someday...

If you are going to try SL on top of wine, I would, of course, recommend using wineX from Transgaming. It is probably the only version of wine that has any hope. I haven't used it yet.

SL uses OpenGL instead of DirectX. In fact, I think don't even use DirectX for audio anymore. That may have some impact on whether it will work on wineX or not, since most Windoze specific games are using DirectX and that is probably what wineX is focused on supporting. Dunno.

If you want to install wine, then you will probably need to customize the install a lot. Booting from CD everytime will be useless unless you at least store your /home on the HD, because these days the bulk of the wine configs are usually in the user's home directory.

If you decide to try wineX then you should probably use the distro that Transgaming supports the most, which is probably RedHat.

Ahhh, well maybe my decisions are made for me already then! Thanks!

im a gentoo freak but its quite hard to use

why not get two machines - one XP, one linux?

Have you considered:
VMWare

or
MS Virtual PC

instead of a dual-boot?