XP AND Linux

Well, instead of doing it with the disc, you can also partition your hard drive, install Windows to one partition and Linux to the other, and then the computer will just ask you at boot which OS you want to run.

That's what my machine at home does (dual booting).

Here is a video about dual booting.

You could always try running Linux in a virtual machine, save the hastle of dual booting...

Yeah, I'd recommend a VM as well. You can get prebuilt ones from the VMWare site too, so you don't need to go through the install process.

can someone give me a basic idea of what a virtual machine is? I dont want to dual boot because I'd lose all my data. Thanks.

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Original post by brandonman can someone give me a basic idea of what a virtual machine is? I dont want to dual boot because I'd lose all my data. Thanks.

In this instance, a PC emulator. Virtual PC 2007 is free. Create a virtual hard disk drive, pop in your install CD and off you go. [smile]

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Original post by phantom You could always try running Linux in a virtual machine, save the hastle of dual booting...

Dual booting’s fine — as long as you start with a clean computer and install your first OS (Windows, usually) with dual booting in mind. If you’ve already assigned all your hard drive to one partition where you’ve got your data, setting dual booting up will be pain.

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Original post by brandonman Is it possible to have windows xp and be able to boot Linux from a disk? I'm interested in linux, I like how the source code is open soure. I'd like to normally boot XP, which is what im on now, and be able to boot Linux when I have a linux disk in.

you can boot from a CD, popular distributions that do this are Knoppix and Sabayon

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Original post by benryves Quote: Original post by brandonman can someone give me a basic idea of what a virtual machine is? I dont want to dual boot because I'd lose all my data. Thanks. In this instance, a PC emulator. Virtual PC 2007 is free. Create a virtual hard disk drive, pop in your install CD and off you go. [smile]

so, would this be like having 2 hard drives, 1 for linux and 1 for XP or what?

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Original post by brandonman Quote: Original post by benryves Quote: Original post by brandonman can someone give me a basic idea of what a virtual machine is? I dont want to dual boot because I'd lose all my data. Thanks. In this instance, a PC emulator. Virtual PC 2007 is free. Create a virtual hard disk drive, pop in your install CD and off you go. [smile] so, would this be like having 2 hard drives, 1 for linux and 1 for XP or what?

No, your XP install stays where it is. The virtual machine is just a bunch of big files that you put in a folder somewhere. It's like having an entire second computer contained within the first one.

I'd recommend VMWare over Microsoft Virtual PC because the VMWare site has a load of pre-built virtual machines you can download and get up and running with immediately - like getting a computer that has Linux and a bunch of applications already installed.

so do I choose between the actual machine or the virtual machine at boot?

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Original post by brandonman so do I choose between the actual machine or the virtual machine at boot?

That would be dual-booting.

If you use a virtual machine, you have a window inside your XP Operating System that contains another OS. It's like having a second PC in a window, that you can minimize (or even close) when you're not using it.

When you want to, you can maximize the window and work only in the "Guest OS" (Linux, or whatever). Also, you can have it non-maximized and use apps from both OSes at the same time.

The main advantage is you can boot up a second OS without closing the first. You can have Media Player playing sound in the background while you're working in Linux.

Ubuntu is also a distribution that can boot from CD so you can try it without actually affecting your computer. Also if you choose to install it, Ubuntu can sort your partitions automatically to dual-boot. It also has an active community here if you get stuck or need help with anything.

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 and VMware Server (both free) emulate (as in simulate) the hardware of a complete PC.

The contents of each emulated PC's hard disk are stored in a single large file, so you can copy this virtual hard drive around, burn it to a DVD for later use or duplicate it to have a backup in case you want to try something with the virtual machine that might go wrong.

The virtual machine will run a bit slower than your real PC, but there are many advantages:
- You can at any time just save the virtual machine's state, turn your PC off, come back the next day and continue exactly where you left.
- At no point will you risk destroying the contents of your real hard drive
- You still have your original operating system running, so you can still google for help, ask in forums and so on whilst configuring your new system

-Markus-

EDIT: Fixed some spelling errors

[Edited by - Cygon on July 26, 2007 5:17:30 AM]

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Original post by brandonman I dont want to dual boot because I'd lose all my data.

No you won't. Using any old partition editor (I recommend the GParted Live CD) you can shrink the Windows partition and create a new partition for Linux in the free space you created. Then simply insert a Linux installation CD, choose manual partitioning and assign it the newly created partitions. The install will work, it will install GRUB to give you a boot menu and your Windows + it's files will be fine (in 99.99% of cases).

Remember that you need to create two partitions for Linux. One to hold all the files and one for swap. The swap should be 1-2 times the amount of RAM you have.

I hope he knows, he isn't required to use all his HD as one big space. Splitting physical drive into multiple logical drives severally simplifies maintenance, and could save the butt if there would be anything wrong.

Actually it will be four partitions. \, \BOOT, \HOME, swap. 1.2-2 GB of swap is often enough. If he will use some program that could copy RAM of the Linux to swap, and resume on demand, he needs slightly larger swap than size of RAM + used swap. Luckily majority of such programs drop the ballast, and gzip RAM before storage.

The best idea is to leave unallocated free space 20 GB or so for second OS. Considering it's unwise to allow Windoze work on Linux partitions, smart dual boot Linux user would have at least one partition formated to NTSF as shared between Windoze and Linux. (And yes it's unwise to allow Linux programs to blast out of Windoze installation. So two NTSF partitions one for Windoze, one for work are quite useful.)

ok... I'm downloading Microsoft Virtual PC 2007... Hope it doesn't screw anything up.

it didn't want to work with my version of xp, so I'm getting vmware-server.

I tried installing ubuntu with Vmware server, and I get this along with stuff about putting in a disk:
No Bootable CD, floppy or hard disk was detected.
What do I need to do? Do I need to get an ubuntu disk? I figured VMware did that and it didn't need a disk.

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Original post by brandonman I tried installing ubuntu with Vmware server, and I get this along with stuff about putting in a disk: No Bootable CD, floppy or hard disk was detected. What do I need to do? Do I need to get an ubuntu disk? I figured VMware did that and it didn't need a disk.

When you create a new Virtual machine, it is blank - no OS. To add an OS, click "edit virtual machine". Find the cd section (working from memory here, but the names should be similar). You have 2 main choices. You can either use your physical disk drive as the Virtual Machines disk drive (you will have to burn or otherwise obtain a linux install CD) or you can download an ISO image and tell VMware to use the ISO file as the CD drive (spare yourself burning an extra disk). Boot the VM and install as you would a real machine!