I'm still a newbie and want to put Slackware on my new laptop. I have dual booted with Slackware and Win98. I figured installing Slackware along side XP would be about the same. However, I've come across some web pages recently that talk about allowing ntldr to handle the OS selection. One of the pages seemed to imply that for XP to load properly, ntldr had to be the boot loader.

So, can I just install Slackware and install LILO to the MBR, or should I install LILO to /boot and then allow ntldr to point to LILO?

Thanks
F_M

Just do your dual boot as you would with W98. You can use the Windows bootloader and this kinda protects you if you reinstall Windows - it won't overwrite the bootloader - but LILO works fine and will work with XP.

The only thing I remember reading is that some software such as anti-virus programs may complain if ntldr is not in the MBR.

I'm multi-booting GRUB with Win2kPro, WinXPPro and Debian at the moment and so far the only problem I have is Windows XP automatically installed itself onto a logical partition so that GRUB can't chainload it, so I have to first load Win2k, which is set up to also boot XP.

If you go with LILO just have a backup (floppy or CD) ready. I am beginning to prefer the idea of a CD backup, as my floppies tend to die after less than a year anymore...

Thanks for the quick replies. I'll load up Slackware 10.2 and start getting things configured. I don't have a floppy drive, so any backup has to be CD, which isn't bad since I've had multiple floppies go bad in the past. I may have my work cut out for me since this is on a laptop that I couldn't find a page where anyone had loaded this. I booted Knoppix and most everything was working fine. I was shocked that my wireless was working, but I was on someone else's network. I'll work on it and hopefully I'll be able to get it all documented to help anyone else do the same.

F_M

Which laptop is it?

It's a Sony VAIO VGN-FS743/W. I did some initial homework, so I knew the wireless was supported, but didn't think a LiveCD would pick it up.

F_M

You would probably be best served by starting at www.linux-laptop.net and finding a model which is close to yours (I couldn't find much on it myself) and using that as your start point.

Good luck

Yep, that's where I was doing some of my homework. The only problem with Linux On Laptops is there's not that many current models on there. I guess most people don't buy a laptop and immediately load up Linux.

Thanks
F_M