LILO, WinXP and Slack 9.0 - need help
 

Hi everybody,

I'm a Linux newbie and going to install Slackware LINUX 9.0 from bootable CD. I will probably start with an empty 40GB hard drive.
I want to have both Slackware and Windows XP at the same disk (don't blame me for this). I've heard that if you want to do so, you have to install LILO to master boot record, otherwise XP won't start. Is that true? I'm sure that you guys can help me and give some advices about possible risks, partitioning, etc.

Thanx !!!

well, my opinion is that you should install WinXP firstly, and in the setup of xp leave unpartitioned space for your slackware. After installing xp, install Slackware, follow every procedure.. and then install LILO on the Master Boot Record. i could not make lilo start before, when i was using the default setting, i don't remember what it was called. The MBR option works nice, but the only thing is that if you install windows after you installed linux and lilo it will clear the master boot record. But you can restore it, for example by using Dos an booting your linux with 'loadlin' and then typing 'lilo'!:) have fun using slackware:)

Thank you plm. The thing I'd really like to know is... Can I share the documents between XP and Slackware anyhow? Let's say, I have a Word document stored on NTFS partition and want to open it from StarOffice. I guess Linux is able to read NTFS (only read right?) so there should be a possibility to copy the file from NTFS to Linux partition, then edit it in StarOffice and save it. But the same probably won't work in XP:( My first idea was, to create a small partition for sharing the documents, but from what I've heard, there are only "on your own risk" methods for saving the files to other operating system's partition. Any ideas?

hm I read in a recent thread here in linuxquestions.org that there was a way for read and write on NTFS. i have saved on fat32 partitions many times and had not had any problems with saving and with the files. this is not a bad idea to have a FAT32 partition, there won't be any problem if you open a document in StarOffice, OpenOffice.org, KOffice or Abiword, you can do whatever you like, and then save it.

It's a good idea to have a FAT partition to share docs between the OS's.
After installing XP, then install Slackware and install lilo to a floppy at first. This way your XP is safe. Then when you've had a chance to read up on the method for using ntldr to boot linux or lilo to boot XP from the MBR or grub to boot either one, then you can do that.
It's always safest to have lilo on a floppy, even though it's not very elegant. if your doing new installs of both it's not such a big deal. But many have had lots of trouble trying to install linux beside an existing XP. if you don't know what you're doing you risk having an unbootable XP. Do some searches here on LQ on the subject and you'll find lots of threads.