Re: REQUEST FOR: Dual Boot instructions for single hard drive laptop

On 13 Jan 2006 22:12:21 -0800, diegoarbe staggered into the Black Sun
and said:
> After hours fighting with my laptop I give up.

What exactly did you do, what did the program/distro do that you didn't
want, and what error messages were reported? It's usually easier to fix
things when that info's available.

> Sager NP 3790 single hard drive laptop, Windows XP Media Center
> Edition Installation Discs, SUSE 10 EVAL (5 cds) installation discs.
> I want to have both Windows XP in a NTFS partition, SUSE 10 and a
> FAT32 partition to share docs.
>
> Could someone please give me instructions on how to do this?

Use something (Linux CD?) to partition the disk. Set up a layout like
so:

/dev/hda1 NTFS 0x07 >= 8G
/dev/hda2 extended 0x05 rest of disk
/dev/hda5 FAT32 0x0c or 0x0b whatever you need
(NOTE: c for > 8G, b for < 8G. Windows will get annoyed if this is not
right. Also, you cannot have a primary FAT and a primary NTFS; Windows
doesn't like that.)
/dev/hda6 Linux 0x83 / , probably at least 5 G
/dev/hda7 Linux 0x83 /home , rest of disk
/dev/hda8 Linux swap 0x82 256-512M, you may be forced to create
this because of SuSE's installer

Install the stupidest OS ('DozeXP here) first. Let it do whatever. It
shouldn't see or mess with the 0x82 or 0x83 partitions. Then boot from
the SuSE CD. Install it, putting its / and /home on the partitions
you've decided to use (hda6 and hda7 here.) Install the bootloader
(probably GRUB) on the MBR of the disk. This is the easiest and safest
thing to do. When you boot the laptop, you should see a GRUB menu that
allows you to choose between booting SuSE or Windows. HTH,

--
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin / mail: TRAP + SPAN don't belong
http://www.brainbench.com / "He is a rhythmic movement of the
-----------------------------/ penguins, is Tux." --MegaHAL
.

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