[LBo] dual-boot system

[Jeff Grant]

Emen Zhao wrote:
> Hi Friends,
> 
> I am asked to install a dual-boot system - Redhat Enterprise Edition 3 and
> WXP... (a name I hesitate to say here, but hey it is just work, right?
> ;-)).
> Anyone please give some suggestion or warnings, etc I should prepare and
> watch out for this work. Thanks in advance for your help!

- Update the BIOS ASAP since most PC's only allow M$/XP to use BIOS
updates lately.
- Backup everything if this is an existing XP install.
- Make an extra empty partition for XP and RH to share, and make it
FAT32, not NTFS.
- Use gparted to re-size partitions if need be:

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

- Don't put all Linux filesystems on one partition - split up partitions
something like:

20GB WINXP (NTFS)
64MB /boot (ext3)
512MB <swap>
20GB / (ext3)
20GB /home (ext3)
20GB /share (FAT32)

The last partition being the shared space for both OS's. Keep in mind,
this is just an example layout. Don't forget to make sure that your
kernel supports FAT32, and *be careful* if you decide to add in Linux
kernel support for NTFS - read/write support on NTFS using Linux can be
hazardous!

- Always install XP first, so that it uses it's native partitioning
tools, etc.
- Use GRUB as your dual-boot manager - it will save you countless hours
of headache.
- If you're a Linux newbie, dump X (GUI) in favor of CLI (command line).
CLI is infinitely more powerful.
- Grab yourself a BASH/C/PHP book, and don't forget to email the list
with more questions!

Good luck, cheers!

-Jeff