more than one OS on a system 1

[byan]

Soon i am going to get SuSe and install it on my P4 along with DOS 6.22 and WinXP

I Don't really know too much about doing this and i was hoping one of you could explain how do this.

I do know that i got to split the hard drive into three partitions
WinXP ~34G
SuSe ~25G
DOS ~1G
(i have a 60G HD)

Basically i would like it to come up with a screen asking which OS i want to boot from.

If you dont want to explain everything you could at least head me in the direction of some freeware programs that i could do this with.

thanx,
Byan

 

[AP81]

In my opinion I would install like this:

primary 1: DOS
Primary 2: WinXP
primary 3: /boot
logical 4: <swap>
logical 5: /
logical 6: Shared (FAT so files can be shared bewteen linux and windows)

I prefer for Windows to run on primary partitions. However, it is personal preference. The above will invovle hiding and de-hiding primary partitions though.

This way will probably be easier:

primary 1: DOS
primary 2: /boot
logical 3: <swap>
logical 4: /
logical 5: WinXP
logical 6: Shared

You should install in the order or DOS, XP, then SuSE.

 

[byan]

thanx ap81 but that still doesn't help me too much since I don't know how to do half of that.

I know i need to spilt the hard drives into partitions then get some sort of miniOS that will start up each time i start up the computer and ask me which partition i want to boot from.

 

[danielhozac]

What you want is a boot loader. The most common ones for Linux are GRUB and LILO, most likely they will come with your distro. The distro should also be able to detect your Windows OSs and create the entries needed for those. If not, you would have to add them yourself, which is usually just a matter of editing a text file.

//Daniel

 

[AP81]

Use MS fdisk. Find it on a Windows 98PC or on the web. The reason why I say this is that it is really easy to use. Look for a tutorial on it and then try to parition. The other option is Ranish Parition Manager. Also very good. Look around on google and find some tutorials on paritioning.

Paritioning is the biggest hurdle when you first start using Linux. After you've done it once, you'll realise just how easy it is. If my 11 year olf brother can set up a dual boot system, I'm sure you can.

 

[alanchia]

hi AP81,

you mentioned having a partition -> logical 6 that can be shared among linux and win, how can this be done ? I am using grub now to multi boot.

thanks,
alan

 

[AP81]

OK,

You can format the partition as FAT32. Linux & Windows both read and write to FAT32 with no problems. Do this by using a paritioning manager. You can use the one from your Linux installer by booting into the Linux installation and formatting the partition as FAT, then exit the installation. Otherwise Partition Manager should allow to format it.

Then you can have it automatically mounted in your fstab.

make a directory in Linux, e.g

mkdir /mnt/Shared

Then mount it. e.g

mount -t vfat /dev/hdaX /mnt/Shared (where X is the parition)

Then you can add this to your /etc/fstab to have it automatically mount with read/write access, e.g

/dev/hdaX /mnt/Shared vfat defaults,auto,user,umask=000 0 0

After formatting the drive, try mounting it, then when successful, add it to your fstab.

 

[k111er]

Aaaah. This is exactly what I needed to see. I have successfully set up my machines dual-boot, but now, thx to AP81, I can now transfer files without using some intermediate storage source. thx.