I have a trusty old Dell laptop - Latitude C610 -
that has been running XP/SP3 just fine.
Recently, swapped out the 60GB disk for a 120GB
that I partitioned into 80GB for XP, and 40GB for ??

I've booted the Knoppix CD every so often to tinker
and let my son see what a Linux world looks like, etc..
Even read about and looked at installing the Knoppix CD,
but didn't go thru with it just yet.

I'd like to install some distribution on my open partition,
but am concerned about issues like the dual boot loader,
stepping on the XP partition,
or physical/logical sector issues with the 2nd partition, must be under
xxGB, etc,
or just generally installed Linux and not have it do bad things...

Any really simple cookie cutter approaches to installing Linux
onto a perfectly happy XP/SP3 laptop with an extra partition...

--
----------------------------------
"If everything seems to be going well,
you have obviously overlooked something." - Steven Wright

"ps56k" <pschuman_no_spam_me@interserv.com> wrote in message
news:h3rdb3$830$1@news.eternal-september.org...
>I have a trusty old Dell laptop - Latitude C610 -
> that has been running XP/SP3 just fine.
> Recently, swapped out the 60GB disk for a 120GB
> that I partitioned into 80GB for XP, and 40GB for ??
>
> I've booted the Knoppix CD every so often to tinker
> and let my son see what a Linux world looks like, etc..
> Even read about and looked at installing the Knoppix CD,
> but didn't go thru with it just yet.
>
> I'd like to install some distribution on my open partition,
> but am concerned about issues like the dual boot loader,
> stepping on the XP partition,
> or physical/logical sector issues with the 2nd partition, must be under
> xxGB, etc,
> or just generally installed Linux and not have it do bad things...
>
> Any really simple cookie cutter approaches to installing Linux
> onto a perfectly happy XP/SP3 laptop with an extra partition...
>
> --
> ----------------------------------
> "If everything seems to be going well,
> you have obviously overlooked something." - Steven Wright

This should help:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=dual+boot+xp+linux

I have not tried this myself but I recently did a dual boot with Vista
and XP using instructions from the following website. The
instructions were layed out very well.

The link below is for XP users adding Linux

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_w...lled_first.htm

ps56k wrote:
> I have a trusty old Dell laptop - Latitude C610 -
> that has been running XP/SP3 just fine.
> Recently, swapped out the 60GB disk for a 120GB
> that I partitioned into 80GB for XP, and 40GB for ??
>
> I've booted the Knoppix CD every so often to tinker
> and let my son see what a Linux world looks like, etc..
> Even read about and looked at installing the Knoppix CD,
> but didn't go thru with it just yet.
>
> I'd like to install some distribution on my open partition,
> but am concerned about issues like the dual boot loader,
> stepping on the XP partition,
> or physical/logical sector issues with the 2nd partition, must be under
> xxGB, etc,
> or just generally installed Linux and not have it do bad things...
>
> Any really simple cookie cutter approaches to installing Linux
> onto a perfectly happy XP/SP3 laptop with an extra partition...
>

Most of the modern distros will do exactly what you want. Just pay
attention when you get to the step about partitioning. If the automatic
option does not seem to be what you want, click back to the manual option.

Linux will not hurt Windoze at all. It will continue to function
normally. At boot time, you will be presented with a selection menu
that lets you decide whether you want Linux or Windows.

I have been running my home machine, a Dell 400SC and my laptop, a Dell
D600 dual-boot XP and Linux for a few years.

Ubuntu is rumored to provide the most user-friendly experience. I run
Kubuntu on the laptop -- it is a distro of Ubuntu with KDE as the
desktop environment. I originally chose KDE over Gnome since it is more
windows-like. I have stayed with it simply because that is what I
learned first.

http://www.ubuntu.com
http://www.kubunto.org

In both sites, you download an ISO file and burn it to a CD as an image.
You then boot from that image. It will boot a "live CD" much like
what you saw with Knoppix. Once it boots up and you are happy that
there are no major hardware conflicts, you can click a desktop icon to
install ubuntu on your free partition.

There are several NNTP newsgroups dedicated to Linux.

comp.os.linux.setup
alt.os.linux.ubuntu
comp.os.linux.misc (but this one gets a lot of spam)

Good luck.

JimR

"JimR" wrote:
> [.....]
> Linux will not hurt Windoze at all. It will continue to function normally. At boot time, you will be presented with
> a selection menu that lets you decide whether you want Linux or Windows.


The Linux installer, though, will substitute Grub for Windows
boot manager, changing the MBR in the process. If the user wants
to put the Linux boot manager in control, fine. But if one wanted
to revert to Windows' boot manager upon removing Linux, say,
one would have to rebuild the MBR.

*TimDaniels*

ps56k wrote:
> I have a trusty old Dell laptop - Latitude C610 -
> that has been running XP/SP3 just fine.
> Recently, swapped out the 60GB disk for a 120GB
> that I partitioned into 80GB for XP, and 40GB for ??
>
> I've booted the Knoppix CD every so often to tinker
> and let my son see what a Linux world looks like, etc..
> Even read about and looked at installing the Knoppix CD,
> but didn't go thru with it just yet.
>
> I'd like to install some distribution on my open partition,
> but am concerned about issues like the dual boot loader,
> stepping on the XP partition,
> or physical/logical sector issues with the 2nd partition, must be under
> xxGB, etc,
> or just generally installed Linux and not have it do bad things...
>
> Any really simple cookie cutter approaches to installing Linux
> onto a perfectly happy XP/SP3 laptop with an extra partition...
>

All previous answers correctly tell you that Linux will change your
present MBR, which is not necessarily a desirable thing since in case of
trouble with Linux, you indeed have to rebuild it.

One way to make this inconvenience a lesser one is to first install
System Commander and to get familiarize with the way it works. Read the
manual thoroughly before you install Linux using its partitioning utilitie.

Then, instead of having a not so nice menu at bootup offering the option
of Windows or Linux, you will be presented System Commander's menu. This
is way nicer and then, you can access various utilities which come in
handy at boot time.

I insist that you must get familiar with System Commander before you
attempt to use it to install Linux.

Bottom line: I have done what you intend to do ... it works, but after a
while, I reverted on Windows only, discouraged by the various problems
which crop up once you get to the point you want to do more than stare
at a desktop fairly similar to the one you have in Windows. Everything
gets complicated very fast.

If you are serious in your intention to work on Linux, my best advice
would be to get an inexpensive used machine which you would devote to
Linux. Doing this will save you a lot of headaches down the road.
--
John Doue

"ps56k" <pschuman_no_spam_me@interserv.com> wrote:

>Any really simple cookie cutter approaches to installing Linux
>onto a perfectly happy XP/SP3 laptop with an extra partition...

Wubi installs Ubuntu in a regular Windows directory, so there is no
messing with partitions. It dual boots just like a regular Ubuntu
install. But if it messes up or you don't like it you can delete it
simply by removing it like any other application in Add or Remove
Programs in XP's Control Panel. A very safe way to play with Linux.

http://wubi-installer.org/

On Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:44:55 -0500, "ps56k"
<pschuman_no_spam_me@interserv.com> wrote:

> I have a trusty old Dell laptop - Latitude C610 -
> that has been running XP/SP3 just fine.
> Recently, swapped out the 60GB disk for a 120GB
> that I partitioned into 80GB for XP, and 40GB for ??
>
> I've booted the Knoppix CD every so often to tinker
> and let my son see what a Linux world looks like, etc..
> Even read about and looked at installing the Knoppix CD,
> but didn't go thru with it just yet.

Knoppix is designed for use as "live CD" - it's possible to install it
on a HD bat that wasn't the purpose of Knoppix - I'd recommend to look
for a distribution other than Knoppix if you plan to install it on
your HD - if Knoppix worked nicely on your Dell and supported all your
hardware without problems, the fact that Knoppix is based on the
Debian distribution might be a good starting point to look - apart
from Debian itself you'll find quite a handful of other Distributions
that are based on Debian and for a couple of reasons more popular than
Debian itself - Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mint and others come to mind...

For a closer look and additional info, http://distrowatch.com/ might
be a good starting point...

>
> I'd like to install some distribution on my open partition,
> but am concerned about issues like the dual boot loader,
> stepping on the XP partition,
> or physical/logical sector issues with the 2nd partition, must be under
> xxGB, etc,
> or just generally installed Linux and not have it do bad things...
>
> Any really simple cookie cutter approaches to installing Linux
> onto a perfectly happy XP/SP3 laptop with an extra partition...

Most of the recent distributions should be able to install a Linux
side by side to a Windows XP without you having to do any additional
handiwork - when you arrive at the partitioning during the install
process of Linux, the partitioner should automatically recognize the
XP partition and offer you the choice of a side-by-side installation
and from then on the Linux boot loader will give you the choice of the
OS on boot time...


....just a thought though: depending on the resources (RAM) and
performance (speed) of your Dell, another way of playing around with
different operating systems including the full installation of such
would be the use of virtual machines like VirtualBox (
http://www.virtualbox.org/ ) - on my current Laptop I have XP and
Vista in dual boot and VirtualBox as host running under XP for playing
around with different guest systems like Windows 7, Ubuntu, Kubuntu,
Mint, Mandriva, Fedora, Debian & OpenSUSE - all of them run reasonably
well on my hardware without having to mess around with additional
installations, but it depends on your RAM and your CPU if that would
be a viable option - the advantage of virtual machines are that
whatever problems or mistakes might happen while playing around with
the guest OS will remain in the virtual machine and not affect your
main operating system - and if you're done with playing and testing
you can simply delete the virtual machine...

Good luck

T.C.

On Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:35:06 -0700, "Timothy Daniels"
<NoSpam@SpamMeKnot.biz> wrote:

>
>"JimR" wrote:
>> [.....]
>> Linux will not hurt Windoze at all. It will continue to function normally. At boot time, you will be presented with
>> a selection menu that lets you decide whether you want Linux or Windows.
>
>
> The Linux installer, though, will substitute Grub for Windows
>boot manager, changing the MBR in the process. If the user wants
>to put the Linux boot manager in control, fine. But if one wanted
>to revert to Windows' boot manager upon removing Linux, say,
>one would have to rebuild the MBR.
>
>*TimDaniels*
>


Another suggestion but with a cost $$$, is to tell the OP to use
vmware to avoid the worry of messing up the mbr or OS. This makes all
his testing in a virtual environment so it never touches his real OS.

"ps56k" <pschuman_no_spam_me@interserv.com> wrote in message
news:h3rdb3$830$1@news.eternal-september.org...
> I have a trusty old Dell laptop - Latitude C610 -
> that has been running XP/SP3 just fine.
> Recently, swapped out the 60GB disk for a 120GB
> that I partitioned into 80GB for XP, and 40GB for ??
>
> I've booted the Knoppix CD every so often to tinker
> and let my son see what a Linux world looks like, etc..
> Even read about and looked at installing the Knoppix CD,
> but didn't go thru with it just yet.
>
> I'd like to install some distribution on my open partition,
> but am concerned about issues like the dual boot loader,
> stepping on the XP partition,
> or physical/logical sector issues with the 2nd partition, must be
> under xxGB, etc,
> or just generally installed Linux and not have it do bad things...
>
> Any really simple cookie cutter approaches to installing Linux
> onto a perfectly happy XP/SP3 laptop with an extra partition...

Well for starters, the story that Linux won't hurt your Windows XP
installation *isn't* so! For example, Ubuntu Live ran from a flash drive
toasted my XP install on one of my EeePC. As in the taskbar, I run iBand
in the toolbar. And after running Ubuntu Live, it would hang XP with
just a background and a window showing Windows Installer and nothing
else. I had to boot up BartPE and rename the iband.dll to something else
to get it working once again. Also restoring the registry back with
ERUNT works too. I ran Ubuntu two more times just to make sure it was
Ubuntu that was screwing up XP. And yes it was.

Now for booting XP and Linux, Microsoft did something really nice with
Vista and Windows 7. As they changed from MBR to BCD for booting your
OS'. Not only can BCD boot Vista / Windows 7, but also DOS, Win9x,
2000/XP. Linux and anything else you can think of. Plus you can have
zillions of primary partitions too. It is really nice.

Problem is, Microsoft's tool to edit the BCD is a command line utility
and it is just awful! Luckily you don't have to use it. As NeoSmart
Technologies has created a free version called EasyBCD to edit it. You
don't need Vista or Windows 7 on your drive to use it. As it runs under
older versions of Windows too. And it is really slick. And you can
create BCD or MBR, or toast either one as well. It sure made my life so
much easier. I would not be afraid to use it under any multi-boot system
running any OS. Well for all of the well known OS anyway. <wink>

And if something ever goes wrong, just recreate the MBR once again. That
will get XP up and running once again (assuming your boot.ini didn't get
toasted). And once XP boots, then you can use EasyBCD once again to get
all of the other OS to boot up too. <grin>

--
Bill
Windows Ultimate (build 7100)
Gateway MX6124 - 2G RAM

"RnR" <rnrtexas******.com> wrote in message
news:3ih365duuta7r2v3finto72jbrfdqt05k3@4ax.com...
> Another suggestion but with a cost $$$, is to tell the OP to use
> vmware to avoid the worry of messing up the mbr or OS. This makes all
> his testing in a virtual environment so it never touches his real OS.

That requires a vmware compatible processor though. Many of them are
not. Especially in the laptop / netbook departments.

--
Bill
Windows Ultimate (build 7100)
Gateway MX6124 - 2G RAM

In news:h3rf2a$ibk$1@news.eternal-september.org,
Jerry typed on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 23:14:27 -0400:
> This should help:
> http://lmgtfy.com/?q=dual+boot+xp+linux

Hi Jerry! That only allows Linux to boot as default. What happens if you
want Windows to boot as the default? A lot of times I reboot and leave
the room to get a cup of coffee or something. Under this method you
mention, you have to wait for the OS to shutdown. Then wait for the boot
menu and then select the one you want to boot.

Why not just use BCD and the free program called EasyBCD? It can boot
anything and you can select the timeout and the default OS on the fly.
You need the folder called Boot from a Vista or a Windows 7 machine
first though (remember Windows 7 is free right now). Here is the FAQ:

http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/FAQ

--
Bill
Gateway MX6124 - Windows XP SP2

In news:pZd8m.20$Qt5.0@read4.inet.fi,
John Doue typed on Sat, 18 Jul 2009 06:29:41 GMT:
> All previous answers correctly tell you that Linux will change your
> present MBR, which is not necessarily a desirable thing since in case
> of trouble with Linux, you indeed have to rebuild it.

Hi John! EasyBCD (it is free) will boot anything, even MacOS, and it
keeps your MBR too.

> One way to make this inconvenience a lesser one is to first install
> System Commander and to get familiarize with the way it works. Read
> the manual thoroughly before you install Linux using its partitioning
> utilitie.
> Then, instead of having a not so nice menu at bootup offering the
> option of Windows or Linux, you will be presented System Commander's
> menu. This is way nicer and then, you can access various utilities
> which come in handy at boot time.
>
> I insist that you must get familiar with System Commander before you
> attempt to use it to install Linux.

System Commander costs $69.95 though. EasyBCD is free. You also need the
folder from Vista or Windows 7 machine called Boot. But Windows 7 is
free right now, so cost is nothing. And BCD is the best boot manager on
the planet right now.

> Bottom line: I have done what you intend to do ... it works, but
> after a while, I reverted on Windows only, discouraged by the various
> problems which crop up once you get to the point you want to do more
> than stare at a desktop fairly similar to the one you have in Windows.
> Everything
> gets complicated very fast.
>
> If you are serious in your intention to work on Linux, my best advice
> would be to get an inexpensive used machine which you would devote to
> Linux. Doing this will save you a lot of headaches down the road.

I bought spare HDD carriers for my laptops and I have spare SSD for my
netbooks. But I also use dedicated machines too. But with these spare
HDDs and SSDs, I can swap out in seconds and I can try something new for
a change. Also handy to make sure your backup and recovery plan actually
works as well. Nothing worse then making backups for years and then
later learn the hard way that the silly thing won't create a working
copy of your system anyway. <sigh>

--
Bill
Gateway MX6124 - Windows XP SP2

"BillW50" wrote:
> [....]
> Now for booting XP and Linux, Microsoft did something really
> nice with Vista and Windows 7. As they changed from MBR
> to BCD for booting your OS'. Not only can BCD boot Vista /
> Windows 7, but also DOS, Win9x, 2000/XP. Linux and anything
> else you can think of. Plus you can have zillions of primary
> partitions too. It is really nice.
>
> Problem is, Microsoft's tool to edit the BCD is a command line
> utility and it is just awful! Luckily you don't have to use it. As
> NeoSmart Technologies has created a free version called
> EasyBCD to edit it. You don't need Vista or Windows 7 on
> your drive to use it. As it runs under older versions of Windows
> too. And it is really slick. And you can create BCD or MBR,
> or toast either one as well. It sure made my life so much easier.
> [....]

For most people dual-booting with Vista, EasyBCD
(http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBC...mentation+Home)
or VistaBootPro
(http://en.kioskea.net/telecharger/te...vista-boot-pro)
are the ways to go. But those who like "doing it themselves"
without a 3rd-party utility can use BCD directly with a procedure
that I put together from several Web articles. With this method,
I've set up a dual-boot between Vista and Ubuntu on my Dell laptop,
wherein the Vista boot manager gives the option to boot either Vista
(the default) or Ubuntu. Selecting Ubuntu brings up Grub, which gives
the option to boot Ubuntu (the default) or Vista. Selecting Vista
brings up the Vista boot manager again. So the user can use either
boot manager to boot its "native" OS. Here is the set-up procedure:

-------------------------------------------------------
USING BCDEDIT TO ADD A LINUX ENTRY TO
VISTA'S BCD STORE
-------------------------------------------------------

Install Grub to Linux partition (not to MBR)

in Ubuntu:
----------

find device names of Vista(VV) and Linux(LL) partitions
System/Preferences/Hardware Information/SCSI Adapter [CANNOT FIND]
or
sudo fdisk -l

copy the boot sector of the Linux partition
directly to the root of the Vista partition
(check the name of the Vista partition in /media)
sudo dd if=/dev/sdLL of=/media/sdVV/Ubootsect.bin bs=512 count=1

Use Synaptic to load Gparted from installation DVD,
mark Vista partition "active" to load Vista's BCD
[use Gparted's "Manage flags" to set the "boot" flag]

System/Administration/Partition_Editor
or
sudo gparted


in Vista:
--------

rt-click command prompt icon, select "Run as administrator",
show the current boot menu entries
bcdedit /enum

(if there is already an obsolete entry for Ubuntu,
delete it with: bcdedit /delete {obsoleteID} )

in Vista's command prompt, make a new BCD entry
bcdedit /create /d "Ubuntu" /application BOOTSECTOR

[rt-click|Mark, highlight "{long hex no.}", rt-click]
[refer to the returned long hex no. as "UbuntuID"]

declare the ID as a boot device
[rt-click|Paste to fill in "{UbuntuID}" in cmd below]

bcdedit /set {UbuntuID} device boot
[including the braces]

specify the path to the copy of the Ubuntu boot sector
bcdedit /set {UbuntuID} path \Ubootsect.bin

add Ubuntu entry to the boot time menu
bcdedit /displayorder {UbuntuID} /addlast

set default OS timeout to be 10 seconds
bcdedit /timeout 10

show the new boot menu entries
bcdedit /enum

in Ubuntu, edit boot menu
sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
-------------------------------------

Have fun!
*TimDaniels*

On Sat, 18 Jul 2009 10:20:42 -0500, "BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> wrote:

>
>"RnR" <rnrtexas******.com> wrote in message
>news:3ih365duuta7r2v3finto72jbrfdqt05k3@4ax.com.. .
>> Another suggestion but with a cost $$$, is to tell the OP to use
>> vmware to avoid the worry of messing up the mbr or OS. This makes all
>> his testing in a virtual environment so it never touches his real OS.
>
>That requires a vmware compatible processor though. Many of them are
>not. Especially in the laptop / netbook departments.


Well I don't think that is a real concern here for vmware workstation
6.x, see below :

Compatible processors include:
Intel: Celeron, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium 4, Pentium M
(including computers with Centrino mobile technology), Xeon (including
“Prestonia”), and Core 2 processors
AMD: Athlon, Athlon MP, Athlon XP, Athlon 64, Duron, Opteron, Turion
64 AMD Sempron

For additional information, including notes on processors that are not
compatible, see the VMware knowledge base at
http://www.vmware.com/support/kb/end...hp?p_faqid=967.

Multiprocessor systems supported
64-bit systems supported: AMD Opteron, AMD Athlon 64, AMD Turion 64,
AMD Sempron, Intel EM64T.
Support for 64-bit guest operating systems is available only on the
following versions of these processors:
AMD Athlon 64, revision D or later
AMD Opteron, revision E or later
AMD Turion 64, revision E or later
AMD Sempron, 64?bit?capable revision D or later
Intel Pentium 4 and Core 2 processors with EM64T and Intel
Virtualization Technology


I think the real concern here will be the cost which I think is around
$150 to $200 but I have to admit, it works nicely on my E1405 laptop
which isn't that powerful.