I have been trying to create a dual boot system and have exerienced the following problems.

I am using partition magic to create:

*/boot as ext3
*swap as swap (whatever size I choose is always reduced to half what I stated it to be when I type "df -h command", using fdisk -l I get "command not found"
However when I check the /var/log/dmesg it looks like it has recognized the correct size.
*/ as ext3
*/video as xfs (I use disk druid for this partition b/c partion magic doesn't allow this format and at the initial boot prompt to install I am typeing "linux xfs"



1. I'm able to access both OSs a couple of times until windows eventually won't load. It lapses into a circular pattern of booting but never makes it to the final boot. The error I receive in windows has something to do with "auto chk disk" can't be found.

2. I mentioned earlier the fdisk -l command not working b/c the "command is not found"

3. The most FRUSTRATING of all the problems is Mozilla behaving slower than a "dial up" when I have a direct connection to the internet. I am having to manually switch between pcs in order to use the internet. I'm over it to say the least.

Any advice to a newbie would be much appreciated

1) No idea why it won't boot. Did you resize the windows partition?
2) Is fdisk installed? Is it in your path? Try "/sbin/fdisk"
3) How is your PC connected to the internet?

My suggestion is...esp when working with NT based windows...

1) Put a small (about 100 MB) partition as your primary partition. I have it as the first 100MB of my HDD.
2) Install XP on another partition. XP will setup its booting as needed.
3) Install Linux. Linux will handle all the bootloader needs. Ensure that the boot loader is installed on the small primary partition.

I think that should help....

Lemme know...

What's always worked for me is first setting up a partition at the front of the hdd for windows, install windows, then you use your linux install cd or livecd, whichever you distro needs to then partition the remaining empty space to however you want, i always do / first, then swap then /home and all the others as extended. When installing linux get grub and it'll normally automatically set up a option for windows. Haven't had a problem yet, though i've barely logged into windows, i keep it for "historical purposes".
Oh and once you have linux set up, NEVER use windows to move partitions around as it writes a new mbr or screws up the boot sectors making it impossible to boot any other os then windows (sometimes not even windows), for partitioning use fdisk or if you want a GUI get qtparted which is like a partition magic clone for linux.
You have your network card set up properly and all? I've never had any problems using dsl (i have a router that hooks me up). I get max speeds and mozilla works just great. Does this only happen with mozilla or do you have problems with other browsers like konqueror, or any other app that uses internet?
Good luck.

ok not sure if this will help you any but I use Slackware 10.1, what I did was created my swap which was 1.5gb then my root, then a small home partition, just decided to put everything on root for time being, when I installed slackware before getting the choice to set up lilo, it asked me a question with an option to install into MBR, when I did that the simple setup for lilo went through like a champ allowing me to pick windows or linux at boot, of course you need windows installed first.

of thanks all for the info!

david_ross you wrote:

1) No idea why it won't boot. Did you resize the windows partition?
2) Is fdisk installed? Is it in your path? Try "/sbin/fdisk"
3) How is your PC connected to the internet

Yes I resized the partition that windows occupied and created new partions using partition magic and then proceeded to install FC2 using the cds

I checked "/sbin/fdisk" and the command fdisk is there but will not work when applied as "su" it says something along the lines of "bad command" or "command not found"

i am connected directly to the internet from a router that is connected to a cable modem.

i haven't checked to see if the Lan card is configured correctly, i have recovered windows and tried to boot linux out of windows now that the grub isn't doing any of the boot loading

DoubleOTec

this may sound like a stupid question but how do I ensure that the boot loader is installed on the small primary partition?

my guess would be from the name you give the mount point?

bobbens

you wrote:

You have your network card set up properly and all? I've never had any problems using dsl (i have a router that hooks me up). I get max speeds and mozilla works just great. Does this only happen with mozilla or do you have problems with other browsers like konqueror, or any other app that uses internet?
Good luck.

i'm not sure if the network card is configured properly or not, most likely it's not but I haven't had the opportunity to check at this point. I have problems both in konkueror and mozilla so my guess is your right and it's the card that isn's set up correctly. I will look into that.

run fdisk to get the device name of the partition you want and then run grub-install <partition>

You could also set it active initially using fdisk from dos or partition magic or what ever you use...