Greetings:
I'm new to Slackware but have used previously Fedora (a year back). When I had to setup an XP/Fedora dual boot, I had to install XP first, then create a first 100MB partition for Fedora, otherwise I won't be able to install it afterward (due to some problem with disk size/head positioning). Can someone point me to where to find info about dual boot with XP? What are the requirements for partition size, specially partition position (for instance: first partition has to be XP, then next one must be /boot for SW, etc.). Anything that I should watch out/be careful during install for a dual boot?

Thanks in advance for your comments/suggestions.

I don't think there any similar issues with Slackware You create Windows XP partition, install XP, * make linux and swap partitions from raw space, then format linux partitions and install Slack. Actions after the * are performed during Slackware setup.

If you are installing to the same hardware, you probably will have the same issue. grub/lilo have long been fixed - but if Fedora had an issue with the loader, Slack probably will too. If the BIOS doesn't support extended int 13 calls, you have to ensure the boot code is located below cylinder 1024 (generally within the first 8 Gig).
I always allocate a boot partition at the front of the disk - just in case.

Thanks you all for replies, could you please tell me what's the size of the partition for /boot? Fedora used to be 100M, will it be the same for Slack? By the way is there any install manual for Slack? I can't find it in the Slack site.

ps: I'm trying to install SW 12.

100 Meg is fine. Install is really straight forward. You'll need disks 1 and 2 for a normal install, plus disk 3 if you need additional language support. Some of this info is dated, but should still help you: http://slackbook.org/html/installation.html

this is really up to you, not much lives on boot. I get by with 50-100MB size for /boot partition.


I liked shilo's guide (its stickied 'how I do it all') in the slackware forum when I first started.

You will need to decide whther to install lilo (or grub) to the MBR or to the root partition of you slackware installation.

If the former then you will booting straight into lilo and choosing XP or slack from there.

If the latter you will need to create a linux.bin file with something like

dd if=/dev/sda5 bs=512 count=1 of=/media/flash/linux.bin

copy this over to XP and then edit the boot.ini file XP. In this method you first go ito the XP booter and choose eithe XP or lilo.

Here is a link for booting a distro with LILO using NTLDR in XP.
http://jaeger.morpheus.net/linux/ntldr.php
and here is one for grub.
http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux...w2k-HOWTO.html

I find it easier to load grub in the MBR, after installing XP, and chain-load XP. Here are some HowTo's for grub and lilo.
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/4622
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LILO.html

If you have your XP install disk look at FIXBOOT and FIXMBR in the next article, just in case.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

Good luck.

Thanks you all for your replies, sorry for the delay, I had some hardware problem that I had to fix first, then I messed up with the partition and had to reinstall XP again. When I tried to install SW, I noticed the following (I'd like to make sure I'm doing it right, as I'm new to this and I want to understand/learn from your experience):
- I've left a 50MB partition for /boot, but during install, it never asked me about the /boot partition, did I forget something?
- I have XP installed and would like to use GRUB as my boot loader, based on the replies it seems GRUB does not come with SW, I have to download it, compile it and install it myself. If so I've installed already LILO, what's the procedure to uninstall/remove LILO and use GRUB instead? I've installed LILO into my first Linux partition and not to MBR. This is how my partition looks like:
hda1 XP (NTFS - 8GB)
had2 FAT - 50MB for /boot
had3 linux swap 1GB
had4 Data (NTFS - 56GB)
had5 linux 10 GB
- I've installed SW without any problem but I can't boot it due to install of LILO into first linux partition, I guess I have to use the install cd to get into SW. If I can boot with cd, will I have access to command line or menu?

It's much appreciated if you can give me step by step instructions because I'm not familiar with Linux.
-

If you installed LILO to the root partition than use the following link to use the XP bootloader to load Linux.
http://www.softpanorama.org/Unixific...ual_boot.shtml
note you don't need to worry about a separate boot partition just get the first block from root partition.
To access your root partition use a live CD like your slack installation CD. Login as root and make two directories, 'mkdir /slack' and 'mkdir /fat' without the tics. mount the the slack and fat partitions on these directories:
#mount -v /dev/hda5 /slack
#mount -vt vfat /dev/hda2 /fat
Windows can't access Linux partitions and Slackware doesnt contain out of the box the ntfs-3g driver so it can't write to ntfs partitions. both can deal with fat so we will use the fat partition to store the file in step 5
#dd if=/dev/hda5 of=/fat/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1
the output should be
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
carry on with step 6.
Let us know how this works

Thanks jfxg for your reply, I made a mistake in doing SW reconfiguration before reading your reply, then tried to follow your instructions, but there's no file generated, I went to /slack and it's empty, so I'm afraid when I did the reconfiguration, it wiped out my install, so I had to reinstall again. After the install, I followed your instructions and it worked just fine. Now I have 2 different and new problems:
1) with your instructions, I have a menu in XP asking me which OS I'd like to use, if I select SW, it goes to LILO and ask me again, how do I go directly into SW after choosing my OS in XP loader?
2) after SW is loaded, it went into command mode and not X Windows, did I miss something? As far as I can remember, with FC after booting, it went straight to X Windows. How do I have to do to start X Windows after SW boots up?

I'm glad you're this far.
here is link to a HowTo for configuring LILO:
http://www.control-escape.com/linux/lilo-cfg.html

also see 'man lilo' and 'man lilo.conf'. It looks like you can comment out 'prompt' in /etc/lilo.conf, I don't know how much you know about editing text files but if you need help write back and tell us what editor your using. you should have 'vim' and 'ed' out of the box, 'pico' and 'nano' I don't know about.

before worrying about graphics I would add a user and not use root in the graphics mode. look at 'man useradd' for the options.

Thanks jfxg/arubin for your help, I have lot of reading/learning to do, so it'll take a while for me to get back to you with new questions.