Dual Booting XP and KNOPPIX the easy Way

[johnwaynegoodin]

FYI:

I had a Virus infection in XP to thank for my reinstalling my system as a dual-boot.

Regardless of what they say about partitioning Windows and creating a dual-boot system it's easy if you start with a totally blank HD.

1> Nuke everything with the Qparted Live-CD

2> Create a NTFS partition taking up the first half of the HD.

3> Reinstall Windows. Then it detects the existing partition install into it (let XP do a total full reformat of it) rather then use the entire HD.

4> Install the Debian Net small cd install and let it create the needed file systems in the remaining free space.

5> Boot a Knoppix Live-CD (Prefer the 5.11 Live-CD or 5.3.1 Live-DVD) 6.0 is a bummer.

6> Do a Konsole terminal > SU > knoppix-installer and let it install over the Debian created file-system.


Note: Step 4 is inportant. The Knoppix-installer script has to see a existing Linux partition on your HD to overwrite. Otherwize it will try to partition the entire HD nuking your Windows install.

Reminder - Partition #1 - Windows XP
Partition #2 - Linux

You might be able to have Qparted Live-CD create the needed linux partitions before the "knoppix-installer" script is run.
If you know how please add the info to this post.

My HD is a 40GB one with a 20GB NTFS partition and a 20GB Debian one latter to be repartitioned under Knoppix-installer.

[Harry Kuhman]

F...
1> Nuke everything with the Qparted Live-CD
2> Create a NTFS partition taking up the first half of the HD.
3> Reinstall Windows......
I'm not clear on what you are saying in step two. Are you creating the NTFS partition with Windows, or with Knoppix? Windows would be the prefered way, and you can certainly partition the drive during the install and not have Windows grap the entire disk for itself (I did just that when I put a larger drive in my notebook). It is generally advised ot to make a NTFS partition with Knoppix. It may seem to work, and indeed it might work out OK. But a number of people have had problems with NTFS after they wrote it with Knoppix, and at times the corruption doesn't show up right away, only some time later.

[johnwaynegoodin]

F...
1> Nuke everything with the Qparted Live-CD
2> Create a NTFS partition taking up the first half of the HD.
3> Reinstall Windows......
I'm not clear on what you are saying in step two. Are you creating the NTFS partition with Windows, or with Knoppix? Windows would be the prefered way, and you can certainly partition the drive during the install and not have Windows grap the entire disk for itself (I did just that when I put a larger drive in my notebook). It is generally advised ot to make a NTFS partition with Knoppix. It may seem to work, and indeed it might work out OK. But a number of people have had problems with NTFS after they wrote it with Knoppix, and at times the corruption doesn't show up right away, only some time later.

Step 1 and 2 go together. I do both using one session of the Qparted-Live CD.

1. Completely and totally remove all partitions whatsoever.
2. Then in Qparted I create a NTFS partition on the blank HD just for Windows before I install.
I take the total size of the HD and simply devide that number by 2.
When Windows is installed it is smart enought to see a NTFS partition is already present on the drive and will ask you if
you wish to install into that partition or if you wish to use the entire drive.
Since the NTFS partition was created via a third party App rather than Windows ifself I have Windows install do I FULL
format of the "PARTITION" rather a QUICK one.

I like doing it this way since I've heard way too many horror stories from folks trying to resize a existing NTFS that allready had Windows installed.

[Harry Kuhman]

Step 1 and 2 go together. I do both using one session of the Qparted-Live CD.

1. Completely and totally remove all partitions whatsoever.
2. Then in Qparted I create a NTFS partition on the blank HD just for Windows before I install.
...
Since the NTFS partition was created via a third party App rather than Windows ifself I have Windows install do I FULL
format of the "PARTITION" rather a QUICK one.
OK, I'm comfortable with that. As long as you let Windows fully reformat the partition you should be fine. I don't see the need for creating the smaller partition from Linux as I have been able to tell Windows not to use the entire disk when installing windows to a new hard drive (I've done that sebveral time without ever using Linux), but if it works for you, so be it.


I like doing it this way since I've heard way too many horror stories from folks trying to resize a existing NTFS that allready had Windows installed.
I agree completely. Even using third party software like Partition Magic to resize a NTFS partition is dangerous (the Partition Magic people even caution you to have a complete backup before you try). But there is no need to resize, you can create the smaller partition at Windows install time directly from the Windows install disc, no Linux needed. I and others often do this to break up a very large hard drive into a smaller "system OS partition" and then create a larger "application partition", both NTFS, later after the OS is installed into the smaller partition. This can make system backups a lot simpler.

[johnwaynegoodin]

OK, I'm comfortable with that. As long as you let Windows fully reformat the partition you should be fine. I don't see the need for creating the smaller partition from Linux as I have been able to tell Windows not to use the entire disk when installing windows to a new hard drive (I've done that sebveral time without ever using Linux), but if it works for you, so be it.


I like doing it this way since I've heard way too many horror stories from folks trying to resize a existing NTFS that allready had Windows installed.
I agree completely. Even using third party software like Partition Magic to resize a NTFS partition is dangerous (the Partition Magic people even caution you to have a complete backup before you try). But there is no need to resize, you can create the smaller partition at Windows install time directly from the Windows install disc, no Linux needed. I and others often do this to break up a very large hard drive into a smaller "system OS partition" and then create a larger "application partition", both NTFS, later after the OS is installed into the smaller partition. This can make system backups a lot simpler.

So you are saying as I understand it Windows install itself can be told to create a partition smaller than the total size and install into that?

Can Windows install create other partitions on a totally empty HD? Would be great to create a FAT32 Partition in addition to the NTFS partition Windows ifself is installed into. That way I would do the old trick after Windows is installed of changing the "My Documents" default location to the FAT partition. That way if Windows does totally bockers and I have to reinstall it my personal documents would be untouched.

If I can downsize my Linux partition to make some room for a Fat32 partition can both Windows XP Home and Linux both see and safely use it? Would be a neat way access my documents from both systems. If I write a class paper in Open Office and Windows does sour I can edit, save, and print it in Linux?

[Harry Kuhman]

So you are saying as I understand it Windows install itself can be told to create a partition smaller than the total size and install into that?
Yes, I've done that several times (Win XP and previous versions such as Win98) Don't ask me the exact wording of the dialog, I don't install Windows often enough to give you that, but you just tell it when asked not to use the entire disk and you get to select a partition size in the next step. Don't remember if it is a percentage of disk size or a meg/gig/k byte size.


Can Windows install create other partitions on a totally empty HD?
Once Windows is insalled to the first partition you boot Windows and then can create extra partitions. If using XP you can right click on "My Computer" and select "Manage", then pick "Disk Management" in the "Computer Management" window that opens up. This will allow you to create extra partitions with your available space, either NTFS or FAT (to create non-MS partitions you need to use third party software like Ranish or just boot into another OS like a Linux Live CD such as Knoppix).


If I can downsize my Linux partition to make some room for a Fat32 partition can both Windows XP Home and Linux both see and safely use it? Would be a neat way access my documents from both systems. If I write a class paper in Open Office and Windows does sour I can edit, save, and print it in Linux?
I have put a FAT partition on a XP system for just this reason. Remember that the FAT partition will be limited to files less than 4 gig in size, so don't use the majority of your hard drive for the FAT unless you never plan on storing videos or ISO files like the Knoppix DVD. As for resizing a Linux partition, I don't know how safe that is. If you feel you can do it safely, fine. I would have anything important backed up first. Actually I likely would just blow away the Linux install and reinstall with a smaller Linux partition and a swap partition, but I install Linux a lot.

[johnwaynegoodin]

Actually I likely would just blow away the Linux install and reinstall with a smaller Linux partition and a swap partition, but I install Linux a lot.

Once I get all my partitions in order like ducks in a row the next part is fixing the standard bugs in a Knoppix HD install. Namely the "SU Error" from KDE and the "HAL Error" then even trying to access the floppy drive.

One question I have about the 'Knoppix-Installer' is does any hardware changes I made in the Live-CD session carry over to the HD install? Say I couldn't access my Wireless Card and fixed that. Would that fix be reflected in the HD install or will I have to repeat the same fix again latter after the HD install?

At least from reading the forums I figgered out how to make a copy of GRUB's "menu.lst" and put it in my home folder.
Edited the timeout from the ridiculously small 5 seconds to 30.

What changes do I need to do to make Windows the default rather whan Linux?. In browsing over the GRUB 0.97 online help documentation it seems to me to say GRUB can remember from session to session the last used item and make that the new default.

[Harry Kuhman]

Sorry, I install Lnux, but I never install Knoppix. I consider that a blasphemy. Even Klaus says that Knoppix is not intended to be used that way.

Not sure about Grub, I generally use Lilo. I think Grub may be more complicated, but with Lilo you should be able yo change a configuration file to control the default boot.