Dual boot

[Schotty]

Here is what I do and why.

4 partitions
First: Windows
Second: /boot
Thrid: /
Fourth: linux swap

This is all thats needed unless this is to be a server (and you wouldnt be dualing a server now would you). The order may still matter, but used to. Windows at least used to need to be first or close enough to first. Then /boot, since its nice to separate the bootloader stuff and kernel off onto another partition. The other two are self explanitory.

[ozzmnstr]

Since today is my only dayoff for the next week I hope to have this all up and running later today. Ya know football starting and all I do have my priorities.
Once again thanx for all the good info.
Just 1 more ??, does Ubuntu have something similar to crossover, that will run any windows aplications, hoping I can install studio 8.
Any thoughts?????

[Compunuts]

WINE probably could do that but I have no personal experience with it.

[Schotty]

If you own Cedega or Crossover or Parallels or VMWare, you can install them onto your Ubuntu install. I own most of those (lapsed my VMWare and Crossover licenses so I am a bit behind the 8ball on those two). Cedega runs very well, as does Parallels. I cant wait for full DirectX in Parallels so I can run Win2K and play the few games that are non-functional on linux with any method.

[cartmanea]

I am new to Linux, and setting up a dual boot with Windows XP x64 and Redhat 64-bit edition. It sounds like I need 4 partitions total, one for Windows, /boot, / (whatever this is), and /swap.

This is on a new dual Xeon system in my school research group....8Gb ram and 500Gb hard drive. I partitioned 256Gb for Windows and the rest is unallocated. How much space should I partition for each part needed for Linux?

Thanks!

[Compunuts]

Well, I usually put less than 50 MB (which is plenty BTW) for /boot partition. I used to do it with 10 MB and it still works but the number of kernel versions got limited by this. /swap usually is twice the RAM (technically) but you don't even need it with large RAM (my server box has 1 GB of RAM and I have no swap; still works good but mostly it's only serving up personal web pages so no problem there). / (root) can be as large as you wanted if you are only going to have that. (On Deb based systems, it's always a good idea to put /var in separate partition since apt cache its debs in /var)

Since you seems to have plenty of space and if I were to configure your system the way I like it, I would do the following.

50 MB /boot
8 GB /swap
100 GB / (root)
100 GB /home
35 GB /var (or whatever leftover)

By having /var on its own partition, you will have logs that are useful if even someone wipe your system render useless. I like having /home on separate partition. That way no matter how many times you re-install (trust me, there will be plenty) you will always have your data and your setting.

HTH ..

[zonofabee]

Hard drives are apt to go bad once in a while, and if the whole drive is gonzo, then so goes both Windows and Linux.

I found out the hard way that it was much better to install Windows on it's own hard drive, and Linux on a separate drive. The reason: If you should lose one hard drive and that OS with it, you can always use the other remaining operating system which is on the other hard drive. This way, you can still access your email and do the things that you need to do.

I've also found that two OS's on a single drive gets to be pretty cramped up, and fills up pretty fast.

But then again your needs might be different. It is just a suggestion that happens to work for me.

[dummies85]

i've experienced the broken path for GRUB and i can't boot to ubuntu, it's still recoverable though as long as you have the installation CD/DVD, just boot from it and choose rescue and reinstall the GRUB

but separating the OS is not a bad idea too, just in case something goes wrong, but what about the boot loader?

I've also found that two OS's on a single drive gets to be pretty cramped up, and fills up pretty fast

from my experience, if you never back up your drive no matter how large your space it will always full, that happen to my friend

[NightSky]

ozzmnstr, when u get to partition section are u using fdisk? If so just press p and u will see what is already on your partition and what cylinder to use for your first linux partition / root ... then go from there with whatever filesystem you want. (I didn't see where your original question was answered. lolo)