Dual boot Mandrake 10 and WinXP problems

**Joey** · 06-18-2005, 04:56 PM

Well, here I am giving Linux a third chance. I've had nothing but bad luck, because I simply cannot switch 100% over to Linux. Sadly enough, I've got to have my WinXP.

Here's what I've tried to do:

I had a WinXP system up and running great. I decided I wanted to install Mandrake 10, so I partitioned the drive (120gig) with Partition Magic and installed Mandrake on the newly created partition. The install was successful (using the Lilo boot loader) and I was able to boot into Mandrake and use it just fine. All was looking great, and I was VERY excited to have a Linux OS installed on my system so I could start learning all I could about it. Unfortunately, all went downhill from there.

Upon reboot to go back into my WinXP partition, I would choose Windows from Lilo, and I would just get a black screen, blinking cursor. No Windows.... I tried to replace the mbr with the original bootloader for Windows, and that didn't work. I had to then do another install of Mandrake to get Lilo back, then boot ONLY into Linux. Needless to say, I had to format the HD fully, and reinstall only Windows XP again...leaving Mandrake to the side again for a VERY rainy day when I had nothing to lose.

And here I am again. I want VERY badly to install Linux and join the proud few, but I don't want to run into these problems again. What should I do?! I checked around the internet, and was told that it was because of the size of my HD. They said the Lilo bootloader wouldn't work on an HD over 60gig (or somewhere near there...but said 120gig was way too big) I sort of confirmed this when I installed both XP and Mandrake on a 20gig hard drive, using the exact same process, and it went flawlessly, booting into both OSes whenver I wanted!! How can I successfully install this and still be able to boot into both OSes on my 120gig? Or even better, I have that 20gig installed beside my 120gig in this system....I'd like to leave only Windows on the 120gig and install Mandrake on the 20gig. Shouldn't I be able to do this? If so, how do I without running into the previously mentioned problems?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Joey

**Fatal Error** · 06-18-2005, 05:35 PM

Joey, Welcome to the board!!!!!

I have used LILO with my 120gig HD but only with dual Linux OS's
Does M'drake have GRUB? I don't know if any of the members use M'drake, don't seem to remember hearing much about it.

I would try other distros if I was you, Both Knoppix and Ubuntu have dual booted
for me and I don't know much about playing with LILO/GRUB.

Did everything else work?

http://www.thelinuxlink.net/lvlinux/...landl/img9.htm
http://www.control-escape.com/linux/lilo-cfg.html

Good luck, please keep us posted we all learn from other peoples problems!

**Joey** · 06-19-2005, 02:58 AM

Thanks Fatal Error!

The Mandrake 10 I used did give me the option of installing either Lilo or Grub, I just chose to install Lilo per suggestions by others.

I have a Knoppix live disk, and that runs great on my system, but I want a dual boot rather than booting from a disk. I have both the x86 and the 64 bit versions (my laptop is 64 bit) but I don't really care much for the OS. I've isntalled it on a test system, and it just didn't appeal much to me.

When I installed Mandrake 10, it ran awesome. I was loving the OS itself, but unfortunately, like I explained above, I couldn't get back into WinXP for the life of me. I could browse the other partition and get to my files in Windows, so I didn't lose anything, but it made me veer away from Linux. (of course my lack of knowledge didn't help much.)

Knowledge of the Linux OS shouldn't bother me though, as I've learned Windows by using it...I'm sure it'll be the same for Linux.

I'll check out the links you've offered. I also look for advice from any others that may have some to help me get Linux installed on my second HD.

As I don't know much about the Linux distros, I'd also like to just note what I regularly do, and if someone could suggest with distro would be best for me, that'd be great.

- web development (editing, ftp, etc)
- writing (I am an author)
- gaming (very little though, and I understand this may be an issue with windows based games)
- music and movies (digital media is a hobby for me)

Again, I appreciate anything anyone can offer, and thank you FE for replying.

**N0thing** · 06-19-2005, 05:03 AM

When you did the partitioning did you resize the drive, if so that may have caused some issue, i have had no luck with resizing. My recommendation would be start fresh reinstall xp, then mandrake (if you prefer that). When it gets to boot loader choose grub that is in my opinion easier to configure.

You more than likely want to start out easy. There are two distros i can think of to recommend Ubuntu the i386 version, and fedora core (last one i tried was three and was like it).

It really doesnt matter what distro you choose because software can be installed by the user now applications as to what you should look for, is another thing. Note choosing a distro with good package manangement will also make the transition either.

-Web development im unsure, ftp can be accesed from a few of the file browsers.
-Writing OpenOffice, AbiWord, Gnumeric, or KOffice (recommend openofffice)
-Gaming cedega (subscription based), but i would just recommend using XP for that. However Doom3, ut200 3/4, and neverwinter nights will work on linux as well as a few others.
-Music Amarok, Xmms, RhythmBox
Movies Totem, Kaffeine Xine
-Media editing Kino, Audacity, and ardour i beleive.

For Media Editing there is a distro targeted specfically in audio editing, it is called ANGNULA.
http://www.agnula.org/
There are two versions, debian based, and redhat based, i would recommend the debian based version.

In the end i would recommend Ubuntu, or any debian based distro, the only downside is it really only likes it packages(Ubuntu).

Also check this article brand new.
http://www.tipmonkies.com/2005/06/16/linux-distros/

**Wildheart** · 06-19-2005, 05:41 AM

Bluefish for web devolopment is what I use.

**Joey** · 06-19-2005, 03:45 PM

Originally Posted by NOthing

When you did the partitioning did you resize the drive, if so that may have caused some issue, i have had no luck with resizing. My recommendation would be start fresh reinstall xp, then mandrake (if you prefer that). When it gets to boot loader choose grub that is in my opinion easier to configure.

I already had WinXP installed. I used Partition Magic to create a partition, and left it unformatted. I then installed Mandrake and let it do what it wanted with that partition. I did choose Lilo for the bootloader though, as it was chosen by default and I didn't know the advantages one had over the other, so I just went default.

My last post was kind of off, too. (sorry 'bout that) This part:

Originally Posted by Joey

I have a Knoppix live disk, and that runs great on my system, but I want a dual boot rather than booting from a disk. I have both the x86 and the 64 bit versions (my laptop is 64 bit) but I don't really care much for the OS. I've isntalled it on a test system, and it just didn't appeal much to me.

It should have read: I have the Knoppix live, and I loved it, and it ran great on my system, but I don't want to boot to a disk every time. I also have Ubuntu (the x86 and 64 bit versions) and didn't care much for it.

After making that last post, I grabbed my Ubuntu again and ran the live cd again just to give it another chance, and found that it wasn't as bad as I had first thought it was, but upon reading through their forums for a couple hours, found that they too are having dual boot problems with that distro, using both bootloaders.

I really don't have to take the major dive and demand to write, web design, game and edit media on the OS right off the bat...I really just need the OS to happily coexist with my Windows OS so I can learn the Linux system. The only thing I'd REALLY want to do on Linux is my web development, maintaining my website. Everything else can just fall in place as I learn.

I'm really, really interested in Linux though, and would really like to make my OS use at least 50/50 between Windows and Linux. It's just really important that I get Linux installed without any formatting of my current hard drive. (Again, I have a second hard drive that I want to put Linux on, it's just the bootloader issue it's looking like I'll have problems with.)

Thanks for the help, everyone. And Wildheart; I'll check out Bluefish when I finally get Linux installed.

**N0thing** · 06-19-2005, 07:19 PM

All right heres my recommendation, lilo is usually configured by default with mandrake to happily coexsist with other oses. So in the end when you did the partitioning my guess is must have somehow messed up the windows install. So heres what i would do start fresh. Boot up knoppix, back up your data from windows. Reinstall windows, if need be you can use qtparted with knoppix to create a fat32 partition for the windows installer to see it. Then install a linux distro. As i stated package management is a key thing in selecting you distro. So heres my recommendation fedora core4, i last used 3 and was rather impressed. You can install apt4rpm which ill explain later if need arise. It has alot other applications by default. What you may differ in tastes between the distros is the desktop environment. Knoppix uses kde, Mandrake KDE, Ubununtu GNOME. However ubuntu can also install kde. Thats why i recommend fedora core, it has alot of different things to try out and it provides in my opinion a good learning ground.

Heres the thing partitioning is the key, you do not want to do a resize of windows, you want to start windows off with the appropiate amount of space.

**Wildheart** · 06-19-2005, 07:47 PM

I agree with nothing, Start from scratch. Back everything up then partition your windows partition with knoppix as primary then create and extended partition for the rest of the drive. leave the extended partition unformatted then start the linux install cd.

I fought with duel booting a couple months ago and this was how I got it to work. It may not be the right way but it worked for me.

**Joey** · 06-20-2005, 02:22 AM

Sorry if I haven't been clear, but I don't want to install Linux on the same hard drive as Windows. I have a second hard drive, completely empty, that I wan't to have Linux installed on.

I also want Windows to be the main OS, so if we boot the computer and walk away, we'll come back to a fully booted Windows OS. (this is because my wife uses the computer, and she is strictly Windows.)

I'll check out Fedora core4 right now.

Thanks for the help!