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Linspire Dual Boot

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AEsnowboarding

AEsnowboarding

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Joined
Jan 20, 2002
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Folding In Minnesota
Ok I want to Dual Boot XP and Linspire. Now I know how to dual boot with seperate versions of windows but how am I going to do it running Linux and Windows? I was thinking all I have to do is make a seperate partition for Linspire but I really don't know. Any help would be great.
 
Yes, you need a partition for Windows and Linspire each. You also have to edit your bootloader config file. What bootloader does your linspire use? grub or lilo?
 
Ok so when I install Linspire on a seperate partition is should load itself in the MBR? But to get it to dual boot with XP I have to put linspire in the boot.ini ?
 
Ok, the best way to do it is to partition the drive first. Make a windows partition, a linux / partition, a linux /boot partition, and a linux swap partition. Now install windows on the windows partition (obviously). Then install linux. At some point, the installer will probably just install lilo or grub (or give you a choice). It should be very easy. You don't make any changes to windows. You just overwrite the mbr that windows wrote with lilo or grub and it will boot windows or linux from its menu when you start.

The windows boot loader sucks and is totally inflexible. The linux boot loaders can handle linux, windows, and a lot of other OS's with ease.
 
linspire will most likely install grub/lilo by itself so you don't have to worry about it.
 
Thanks guys. So let me double check this. On my WD 80GB I have my windows xp partition. I was going to put Linspire on a seperate Hard Drive and on a seperate partition. So it will go like this. Windows on C: Linux on E: on a seperate drive. That should work right? Also I wont have to re-install XP will I? Hope not!
 
C: and E: are windows designations, so that means nothing to linux.

If you mean that you want to put Windows on one hard drive and linux on the other, that's fine.

Just put all 3 linux partitions on the other drive. Make /boot about 100 mb, swap about 2x your ram, and / the rest.

You will still want to install grub/lilo on the MBR of the first hard drive, and it will load the 2 os's from there.

You should not have to reinstall xp.
 
MRD said:
Make /boot about 100 mb, swap about 2x your ram
Click to expand...
That is quite a bit larger than my boot and swap. My /boot is 32 mb, my swap is 512 MB (same as my RAM), and I've never run out of memory, but I guess it can't hurt to have plenty of headroom.
 
I've always heard to make your swap 2x your ram. I can't say I've benchmarked though to see if there is a benefit.

If you have a small drive, can shrink boot some. If you are running one distro you can probably get away with 32 mb... However, I have multiple distros running, and I'm not going to notice 50 or 70 mb, so I make the /boot as big as I will need it.
 
i've never made a /boot, and both of my os's work just fine without one. regarding the swap partition, i've heard to make it double your ram up until you have 1gb ram, no one needs more than 1gb of swap.
 
*shrug* I've always heard make your swap about the same size as your RAM, but who knows, your probably right.

I only run one distro, so I think 32 mb for /boot is plenty for me. (That is the size I chose because that is what the Gentoo Handbook says in the example. :p)
 
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