Dual Booting Windows XP and Linux

In this article we will explain how to dual boot into Windows XP and Linux by using the NT bootloader.

Hardware Setup
One 40 gigabyte hard drive
512 MB Ram
Two CD-ROMs

Boot Manager
I will explain how to use the Windows XP boot manager (which seems to also be the same as 2000 - minus a few changes) to load Windows XP and RedHat Linux (using the LILO boot manager).

General Notes
I have not tried using anything other than the Windows XP boot manager. When I installed Linux I used LILO as the boot manager, but did not install it to the MBR.

I have also used NTFS, which does not seem to be as popular to use when dual booting. I have had no problems what-so-ever with it, however.

RedHat 9 has the newer LILO version, so you shouldn’t need to change anything to get it over the 1024 cylinder limit. I didn’t have to change anything as to how LILO was setup.

Hard Disk Drive Setup
What I did was put Windows XP at the beginning of the drive, and formatted in NTFS. NTFS is much more reliable and I’d recommend using it over FAT32. I made the NTFS partition 30 gigabytes. When I installed Linux, I just used the “Auto partition” option, which made a 100MB boot partition and a 6.8GB main partition and a 1019MB swap partition.

Install Windows XP
When I installed XP, I simply made a 30 gigabyte partition, formatted in NTFS file system, and installed XP.

Installing Linux
When I installed Linux, I used “Auto Partition”. Once I got to the LILO configuration, I went to advanced settings and changed it from MBR to first sector of boot partition (I believe). Then I finished installing Linux as I normally do. I do, however, highly suggest you make a boot disk when setup asks you to do so.

Setting up Dual Boot
The way I got dual boot to work was by running, BootPart (http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm). To run BootPart, run the following commands:

BOOTPART.EXE

Some text should be outputted, such as:

0: C: type=7 (HPFS/NTFS), size = xxKB
1: C: type=83 (Linux native), size = xxKB
2: C: type=83 (Linux native), size = xxKB

Next, run:

BOOTPART.EXE 1 C:\LINUXBOOT.BIN Linux

Change “1″ to wherever you placed the boot partition. Mine was the second partition (the information from running the first command should help with this, the first number you see in the output is the partition you use).

Reboot
Now reboot, and try it. You should see Linux as an option, and, if all goes well, Linux should boot. Once you select Linux, you should notice the LILO boot manager comes up and asks you witch to boot to. On my system I changed “DOS” to “Back”, as indication that I can go back to the Windows boot manager. But you can do whatever you wish, or just remove it completely by editing to LILO config file (should be stored at: /etc/lilo.conf).

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One comment

  1. See my profile on MyBlogLog.com! Garth Warren Says:
    April 19th, 2007 at 11:06 am

    First off I’d like to mention that I very much enjoy your site and wish you all the best in the future. I have a question that no one seems to be able to help with and, time permitting, would value any assistance / direction you may be able to provide. I would consider myself in the intermediate skill set when it comes to pc’s. I have run linux and windows in various stand-alone, dual boot, and kvm switch configurations for many years. I recently purchased an HP Pavilion (apr. 2007) stocked with XP SP-2. I partitioned and installed Suse 10.1 to create a dual-boot machine. I cannot get on the internet with Suse. I have Suse (10.1) installed on a Dell workstation and it runs flawlessly. When my initial attempt at configuring the dsl failed, I replicated the settings on the Dell machine to no avail I utilized the same port in the D-Link router and, when that didn’t work, tried bypassing the router by connecting to the modem. Still no luck. Any insight you may be able to give would be greatly appreciated.

    Thank you,

    Sincerely
    Garth