I have recently begun running Linux on my Desktop. However, I am forced to dual boot with Windows for a few apps I need (Dreamweaver, Flash, etc.) and for other work stuff.

I originally installed Mandrake because I heard it was good for people newer to Linux. It was great as far as easy install and autodetect of hardware, etc. Because I've been using Linux for servers for awhile, I was comfortable with installing new software and configuring stuff in Mandrake pretty quick.

I've recently become interested in installing Gentoo, because it sounds like it has some interesting features. However, the installation instructions are quite daunting compared to Mandrake, and I am worried about messing up my Windows setup. Mandrake installed Grub and dual booting with Windows pretty much automatically.

Will Grub get installed during the Gentoo install the same as Mandrake did? Can I use my existing Grub install, or will that go away along with Mandrake? Am I likely to screw something up with my Windows / MBR config while trying to get Gentoo working? Does dual booting Gentoo and Windows have any special caveats of which I should be aware? Any other advice you would like to offer?

Thanks,

~ Justin

This is what I'd do if I were to add another distro. But this is not gentoo specific, I never used gentoo. So, use it cautiously.

When you get to the installing of boot loader part, tell gentoo not to install one. Instead, tell it to create a floppy. If you can boot gentoo from a floppy and mdk/win from grub, everything is ok.

Also, smart boot manager can help you. Its a piece-of-art boot loader:

http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/


After you did that, and all systems are ok, you can begin to hack your grub until it boots gentoo. Its not difficult to edit menu.lst, and you can't do harm adding entries. The worse thing that can happen is grub failing to boot the new entry, but booting ok the old ones.