nexionly Posted December 24, 2002 Share Posted December 24, 2002 What is the best way to install Linux Mandrake 9 while keeping windows as the default boot partition. I have partition Magic and can make the linux parts in windows so it doesn't erase my windows... is that a good way to do it. and then go into the linux install and use those partitiosn that I made... and not install a boot loader and use a disc?? does all that makes sense and work well?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaisinCain Posted December 24, 2002 Share Posted December 24, 2002 Here is how I setup my XP Pro/Mandrake 9.0 dual boot system. 1. Do a disc cleanup, scandisk & defrag of XP. 2. Boot from disc 1 of Mandrake. 3. Follow the instruction for the initial setup. When it comes time to setup the Linux partitions, you can resize the XP partition (I just set the XP partition to -5MB of the original size). Next, setup the boot partition (using Linux Native- about 100MB), the swap partition (using Linux Native- about 500 something... I just did my ram X 1.5) and finally the root partiton. Use LILO for the bootloader & you're set! Good luck man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mezz Posted December 24, 2002 Share Posted December 24, 2002 What is the best way to install Linux Mandrake 9 while keeping windows as the default boot partition.There should has a option about not to bother the default boot. Also, it should ask you if you want to create bootdisk. After all, you should be able to boot into Linux when you put the floppy disk in during the boot. Or, you even can edit Windows's boot to add Linux in it to allow you select the OS during the boot.It's good to use Magic Partition for split. You don't need to put what parition it will be, because during the installtion will convert it to Linux's partition. 1. Do a disc cleanup, scandisk & defrag of XP. Yep, I recommend that too when you want to resize your Windows. It's scary when you don't do those when you want to resize your Windows partition. Next, setup the boot partition (using Linux Native- about 100MB)Do you have any of idea how big boot is? It's very small, which 16megs or less will be good idea to set. 100megs is waste.the swap partition (using Linux Native- about 500 something... I just did my ram X 1.5) ram x 2 are the best. If you have more than either 384 or 512, then it's no need to double it. Just keep it to 384 or 512, whatever what you want to. Use LILO for the bootloader & you're set! Read above again, he doesn't want Linux to poke the Windows's boot. But, I recommend to allow Linux install the LILO or GRUB, because they do the better job than Windows's boot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BroChaos Veteran Posted December 24, 2002 Veteran Share Posted December 24, 2002 i just have 3 partitions. 34.5 gigs for windows, 5 gigs for linux, 500mb for swap. then i set up the the partitions correctly (ie. set file type as swap for swap and ext3 for main partition). then i skip the whole boot loader/boot partition stuff. i just make a bootable floppy. when i want linux, i put floppy in, when i don't, take it out. doens't mess anything up. if i want to remove linux, just kill the partition. i know it's not hard to do a fixmbr, but hey, it's one less thing to worry about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MulletRobZ Posted December 24, 2002 Share Posted December 24, 2002 5 GB should be the minimum space you should reserve for Linux, no matter what distro you have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rathamon Posted December 30, 2002 Share Posted December 30, 2002 yes, just dont use Mandrake its inconsistant with the rest of the Linux world Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmd3x Posted December 30, 2002 Share Posted December 30, 2002 If you can, get a seperate drive for Linux. I got a 40GB hard drive for Windows and a 20GB drive for Linux. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parimal_kumar Posted December 30, 2002 Share Posted December 30, 2002 Alternatively, you could use a Virtual machine, using VMWare within windows! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MulletRobZ Posted December 30, 2002 Share Posted December 30, 2002 yes, just dont use Mandrake its inconsistant with the rest of the Linux world I beg to differ there! I have Mandrake-Linux 9.0 as my stand-alone OS and it's pretty damn consistent! Also, nexionly, I recommend using the DiskDrake tool during the Mandrake 9.0 installation instead of PartitionMagic. I'm not sure if it can resize NTFS partitions or not, but get another hard drive if you can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nexionly Posted December 31, 2002 Author Share Posted December 31, 2002 Originally I had a second hard drive for linux, that was a while ago. It messed things up cause I didn't know what i was doing, and I tried it again now. Howver the other hard disk is now full of mp3s and other things... so I had to use partition magic to make a small partition on the windows hard drive. and It all worked well, it dual boots nicley and all works good. Im happy with how it turned out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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