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Site Admin Joined: 01 May 2004 Posts: 3258 Location: Pinecrest, FL	Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2004 8:01 am    Post subject: Dual Booting Windows XP and Linux (Fedora Core 2)   With all the potential for exploits and vulnerabilities on Windows based computers, more and more users are looking to Linux to provide a powerful, safe, and easy to work with operating system for their home computers. However, most users are afraid of switching operating systems. Whether you have the fear of getting lost, breaking something, or still wanting to run Windows for certain applications, this article is for you. In this article, AI will take you step by step through how to set up a Dual Booting Windows XP and Linux (Fedora Core 2) computer. Every time you turn on (or restart) your computer, you will have the option of picking which OS (operating system) you wish to run. Let's start out with the basics: What will you need to follow this tutorial? Two Hard Drives (One for Linux, One for Windows) - This can also be done with one Hard Drive, partitioned into two sections. Your steps will change slightly, but we will go over that during the article. A Windows XP install CD A Fedora Core 2 install DVD (or CDs) Your hard drives can be whatever size you wish, but 5GB (gigabytes) or more is a good size. The Windows XP CD you will need to buy, or remove from its case if you already own it. As for the Fedora Core 2 install, you can download it free of charge at [url]fedora.redhat.com[/url]. The Fedora website has links for both 32-bit, and 64-bit downloads, in both CD (4 CDs) and DVD (1 DVD) ISO (disc image) formats. Choose whichever suits you, burn it to your medium of choice, and we can get rolling. Install Windows This step should be fairly well explained by the title of the segment. However there is one thing to be aware of if you are dual booting two operating systems on one drive. The /boot partition of the Linux drive will need to be in the first 8GB of the drive. The easiest way to accomplish this is to put it at the front. For an example: You have a 40GB hard drive you want to use to dual boot Linux and Windows. Boot from the Windows Install CD. When it asks where you want to install, it is time to partition the drive. Create three partitions. The first partition will take 100mb at the front of the drive (make this one first). The second partition will be for Linux, so make it whatever size you want (aim for 5GB+), for this example, make it a 20GB Linux partition. Then create the third partition using whatever space is remaining for Windows. Install Windows on the last of the 3 partitions. If you are dual booting from two drives, just install Windows on one of them. Install Linux: Fedora Core 2 actually makes this process very easy. Pop in the first CD (or DVD), make sure your BIOS is set to boot from CD, restart your computer, and the Fedora Core installer should take it away. You will be prompted for how to partition the drive. Delete the first two partitions (the third contains Windows). Partitioning the drive is easy, just click the "add", "edit", and "delete" buttons to go about setting it up. When finished you should have 2 or 3 partitions for Linux, and then the Windows partition. Your Linux partitions should look something like this: 100mb - /boot - This partition will hold all boot information (the boot loader will install here as well) 500mb-1GB - /swap - (Optional!) A swap partition is used just like the Windows Paging File. It is a buffer between the hard drive and RAM. Sometimes also referred to as a Scratch drive. (the rest) - / - This is your root partition. It will hold all your files (including OS files). Think of the root partition as your c:\ of Linux. It is the bottom folder. There are a few other optional partitions you can add, the advantage to adding them is you can reinstall an OS, or switch Linux OSs completely, and keep whatever files were in that directory. An example: /home - Much like Window's "My Documents". Each users has their own /home/(username)/ folder. It contains that user's documents, and only that user (and the admin) can access them. If you are installing Linux on a separate drive, just split the entire drive into a 100mb /boot partition, /swap and / (with the specs above). During the install, you will be asked for a few things you might not be familiar with (if you have never used Linux before). I will quickly cover some very basic terms to that you can have an idea what the installer is asking for. Root - Root can take on two meanings. The "root" user (all usernames are lowercase) is the admin account. You want to avoid using it for everyday activities. When installing a program, or configuring system settings, use the root account, we will go over that later. Root can also be used in the sense of "root directory". This refers to the base directory. Think of it as a tree (a directory tree, get it?), the root is at the bottom. It refers to the / directory. Terminal - Think command prompt. In Linux, the command prompt is labeled the terminal. su - su is a command that means "super-user". This is how you can gain access to admin permissions without logging in as admin. If you log in as your normal user, and type "su root" in a terminal, it will ask for the root password. If you enter it correctly, you will be given "super-user" (root) access until you exit. X Window System - Also sometimes just referred to as X. This is just the system used to display windows on the desktop. It has nothing to do with Windows (OS), it's just a name. GNOME - One of the two main desktop systems. While neither GNOME nor KDE is better than the other, Fedora Core 2 installs GNOME by default. KDE - The other of the main desktop systems. Not installed by default. How Linux describes the hard drives and partitions: hda - The first physical hard drive (hard drive a). hdb - The second physical hard drive (hard drive b). hda1 - The first partition on the first hard drive. hda2 - The second partition on the second hard drive. hdb1 - The first partition on the second hard drive. hdb6 - The sixth partition on the second hard drive. - This naming system continues. Very easy to understand, and probably just looks foreign if you've never seen it before. During the install, you will be given the option to install the Boot Loader (GRUB or LILO, choose GRUB) with other operating systems specified. Believe it or not, this is how easy it is. Fedora Core will see your other OS installed, and it will likely label it DOS. You can leave it named DOS, or change it to whatever you like. Pick which you would like to have as the default, and that's that. If your other OS isn't listed, you will need to add it. Adding an OS to the list is very easy. Just click the "Add" button, tell Fedora what hard drive and partition the OS is on, name the OS, and hit "Add". When prompted for what packages you want. Change your selection from Desktop to Custom. Custom will allow you to select the individual packages you want. The next step is to choose what packages to install. All the options are listed, along with brief descriptions of what is included in the package. If it sounds interesting, grab it! If this is your first time in Linux, I suggest you grab both KDE and GNOME so you can test each and see which fits you best. The only other thing I should mention about this section is: Add in the Development tools, Administration tools, and System tools. These will save you plenty of time later on, and add easy GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces) for you to work with. Boot it up! Believe it or not, that's pretty much all there is to it. When you boot up (without the Fedora CD) it should bring you to a nice little GRUB menu and ask which OS you would like to start. Pick the one you want and get going! Check back in a while, and we should have a basic guide to getting started in Linux. If you have any questions, please post them in the forum, we're more than willing to help.
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