I am wondering how i can duel boot windows xp and red hat 7.2.

I heard somthing about having to use the windows boot loader. i am unsure how to do that.

so can some one please help me with it? all i want to do is duel boot windows xp and red hat 7.2, how ever i get it to happen i dont care.


thanks for your time,
Twitch

twitch_83@hotmail.com
AIM: ichossen1

there is a vast amount of information about dual booting, please search this site. there shouldn't be anything to think about really, redhat's installer should prompt you all the way through the process.

The Red Hat Installation Guide has a great section on installing a dual boot system--it would help all of us if you read that first.

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/l...-dualboot.html

Red Hat also has this great sheet on installing/setting up any of the three common boot loaders:

http://www.redhat.com/advice/tips/dualboot.html

With both of those, you should have an idea of what you are up against. Most beginners go with Red Hat's recommendation of using Grub. This usually works great. If it doesn't, get back with us.

Boot disks: If you don't have an XP boot disk, make one before you start any of this. If anything hiccups in the installation, you will need this!

When Linux offers you the opportunity to make a boot disk, make it. Again, you might need this.

Other than that, it is like Chris says. You shrink your XP partition to make room for Linux and Red Hat takes it from there.

Finally, my free RH 7.2 glitch fix. This version has a nasty habit of installing from a CD-ROM, then refusing to acknowledge the devices existence. As you learn more about Linux, block devices and dependencies will make sense. Until then, log on as root and open a terminal window. Type this command:

depmod -ae

You only have to do it once and Red Hat will forever accept your CD-ROM!

Good luck.

I have a dual-boot XP/Red Hat 8.0 on my laptop.(Although XP hardly ever gets used) The way I did it, which was very simple, was to install XP first. Linux does a little better with recognizing another OS then Windows does and I find it much easier to set up during the Linux install process.

Okay. First I installed Partition Magic on XP. Unfortunately, you can't use other FREE programs to partition XP because Windows doesn't actually run over dos. XP, and I believe ME and 2000, only emulate dos so you have to use Partition Magic or anything that works on XP.

Now on XP you run defrag. This is very important. As soon as XP is done defragging you run Partition Magic. I'm pretty sure Partition Magic will make you reboot to run it. Then just follow the steps to split your hard drive in half or whatever size you desire.

Finally, you install Linux. When going through the install you will see a section on the boot loader. It will automatically recognize the NTFS partition. All you have to do is tell it to install Linux on the other partition. Whalla!

One my compaq laptop computer, there is a hidden dos partition before the XP NTFS partition. This made it easy to install linux because the install program was able to install lilo normally. I created a dos booting partition on my Desktop, so I wouldn't have to use the NT loader for booting. You may need to run the XP's diskpart program to re-install the MBR for booting NT, making sure XP will boot before installing linux. Good Luck!

twitch (and everyone else reading), do not mess with the small hidden partition in front of your NTFS partition. It is there in case you need to repair Windows. It hurts nothing to leave it alone and could save you problems later on.

jschiwal, I'm assuming I'm mis-reading your post, because it reads as if you have to change the MBR to boot XP. Of course, you're not doing that, but I don't want twitch to misunderstand and think if he uses LILO he will have that problem. He won't.

twitch, a successfully installed dual boot system includes a boot loader that can boot both systems without problems or secret handshakes.

All of the options presented in the Red Hat tech sheet work. I have three systems, each using a different boot loader. I use LILO to dual boot Win98 and Mandrake 8.0. I use Grub to boot Red Hat 8.0. And, I use NTLDR to triple boot Win98, Win2K and Mandrake 9.0. All three if them work--when you boot any of them, you get the boot loader's menu and every option on the menu works.

Follow the tech sheet and Red Hat's instructions and you'll be fine.

"Duel" boot ?
You should give a try to Colt45_version_6.0.0.rpm or Magnum_4.4.rpm

thanks for the help everyone. but now i have a new problem. THe GUI doesnt look right...i cant read anything hell it doesnt even look like a GUI inter face with the line lines and the bright colors and the twitching (no pun intended). The xcongig is off (way off!). I am able to acces the command line tho.

i guess it is just not ment to be...

Twitch,

Start a new thread and post the type of monitor and video card you have, and what your current settings are.