I am running Kubuntu and want to install windows xp or 7 and run both OS can anybody help?

If you have hard disk space just go ahead to install the MS Windows or both of them.

The MS Windows will overwrite Grub so you will have to use Kubuntu installation CD to restore Grub in the MBR.

Let us know which partitions have Kubuntu and Windows and we could advise you how to re-configure Grub.

If you have grub.cfg in /boot/grub directory then it is Grub2, otherwise Grub1 has meenu.lst in the same directory. The re-configuration is to edit this file.

One other point, Windows always wants the first partition, which will be /dev/sda1 in Ubuntu.

You can install Ubuntu in primary or an extended partition. After installing Ubuntu 9.10 (which uses grub2) run

sudo update-grub

to automatically add the windows partition.

hal8000b,

Windows "likes" to be in the first primary partition but that doesn't mean it can't do without it.

All my 4 Windows of Win2k, Xp, Vista and Win7 are installed in logical partitions.

I have tried to my satisfaction that a Xp can be booted all the way up to sda130 which is the highest logical partition the "sfdisk" program can create.

Just a typo correction, in case it causes frustration: "Grub1 has menu.lst" not "meenu.lst" :-)

but for newbies who don't want to muck around with VMs or editing menu-lists etc etc (which is fine and dandy after a bit of experience with Linux) it's generally easier to install windows first THEN Ubuntu - if that's your distribution of choice

With grub 1 , I do :
After install win, I can boot only win, but not ubuntu. So, I boot a linux live cd like knoppix, dsl, ubuntu, etc, open a terminal, login as root and type:
# fdisk -l
this, show me where is / . roots. ex: /dev/hda1 , /dev/hda2
then I create a place where I will mount the partition that I will reuse their grub, for ex. ubuntu 9.10. If ubuntu 9.10 is in /dev/hda2 , I type
# mkdir /media/hda2
then I mount my ubuntu 9.10 in that place
# mount -t ext3 -o rw /dev/hda2 /media/hda2
The -t option can be other type of filesystem like reiserfs ext4 etc.
then I start grub
# grub
I see something like
>
I type
> find /boot/grub/stage1
to find / again . it put something like 0,1 1,2 0,2 etc then I type "root (hdx,x)" with the result of find and with the parentesis...... If you have installed only ubuntu 9.10 and w7, you don´t have to chose between severals options of roots, only that with ubuntu 9.10.
> root (hd0,2)
then I install grub in mbr (master boot record) . It is a cero "0" .
> setup (hd0)
then I exit grub and reboot.
> quit
Maybe I can only boot ubuntu, so I edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and include win option to boot both. There is an example in menu.lst. I only have to put the right partition , always seem to be (hd0,0) but....

and this is a lot of faffing around for someone new to Linux,when it's just as easy to get the Ubuntu installer to do it all for you when you install onto a machine that has Microsoft Windows already installed on it (if you want to run Ubuntu that is)

The OP has said Ubuntu has been installed first and a Xp or Win7 will be the next.

There seems to be two suggestions to reverse the process by installing the Windows first just because it is easier.

A user wanting to have two operating systems must at some times face with learning Linux and Grub. Is doing it now too much or too early?

Xp has a boot loader called NTLDR that can multi-boot 10 operating systems. Win7 has bootmgr that can boot unlimited number of operating systems. NO suggestion to offer Windows to boot Ubuntu here?

What about if the OP wants to have both Xp and Win7 installed? Does the order of installations really matter that much or just because a particular sequence has the least amount of user intervention?

Saywot,
I don´t want to scared op, when I begun with linux, I thought the only way to boot both sistems was to install win first. But, once I have linux installed and want to install win then, without unistalling linux, well, reading I saw it´s not so dificult. I gave an experience, hope usefull, if not, well, don´t worry be happy.