The Guide to Creating a Dual Boot Knoppix 3.4/Win XP System

[furryfren]

Hi there I've spent 2 days trying to work this out, and the following procedure has worked for me. I've done it over 4 times. Foolproof! ^-^

1. Make a backup of your files.
2. Boot Knoppix from CD.
3. Press CTRL+ALT+F2.
4. Type "knoppix-installer".
5. Select Partition drives.
6. Press Spacebar to select the drive to partition.
7. Create a swap partition (say 512mbs)
8. Create a linux partition.
9. Create a FAT16 partition for Windows.
10. Mark the Windows partition as "bootable".
11. Write changes to your disk.
12. Quit the installer.
13. Return to knoppix by pressing ALT+F4/F5
14. Reboot.
15. Pop in your Windows CD and install Windows.
16. Boot up Knoppix from CD.
17. Press CTRL+ALT+F2.
18. Type "knoppix-installer".
19. Now flag your linux partition as "Bootable" and remove the one on the Windows partition.

Optional: After this you may want to configure LILO. Open /etc/lilo.conf in KWrite. You can call your OS's whatever you want. I had "Windows XP / hda3" but I didn't like it and renamed it to "Monster Bill Gates". You can configure the delay times too. Just read the comments. Placing "#" in front of a line makes it a comment.

Go to your terminal. And type "lilo".

And you're good to go!

PS. If you're pretty sure you got the partitions right and Knoppix won't let you install, you can type "IGNORE_CHECK=1 sudo knoppix-installer" instead of "knoppix-installer".

Please let me know if I can improve on any of these steps. Hope this helps anyone!

~http://zee.webmastersdomain.net

[Discerner0]

Thanks for the Most Excellent Effort, my furryfren.

Here's a thought: Windows can be counted on to act as though it's the only OS in the world, so when it installs it simply overwrites whatever bootloader is in the boot partition with its own bootloader. If you reverse the order of your dual-boot installation -- installing Windows first then Knoppix (you can use Windows' partitoning program to create a partition for the Windows, leaving the rest of the HD unused, then use the partitioning program in Knoppix to create a partition from the unused space when you install Knoppix) -- you can eliminate the need to reinstall LILO since it will be installed by the Knoppix installation program. I think. I haven't installed Knoppix yet, but I have installed Mandrake Linux on three machines that already had Windows on them, one with WinMe and two with W2KPro, and that's how the Mandrake installation program worked. Flawlessly, I might add. The first time I did it I had to figure out how to configure LILO but Mandrake provides a GUI for the purpose.

[furryfren]

That's provided you already have your disks partitioned and set out with a portion reserved for linux. Using the knoppix-installer command allows you to do that without using a Windows utility. If you wouldn't mind paying for such a program such as Partition Magic 8.0, then I suppose its a pretty neat alternative.

You are very right about the point where Windows thinks its the "OS of the world". It overwrites your boot partition if you already have another OS installed on it.

[Discerner0]

I assumed you were starting with a virgin HD, in which case it makes sense to install Windows first, because it does not play well with other OSs and needs to be cleaned up by the more competent ones which follow.

I forgot about something when I wrote my first post: my first attempt at installing an OS inexplicably led to an accidental install of Windows after I installed Linux, but without having to reinstall LILO. It's been a few years so my memory is hazy. I had attempted to install W2KPro and in the process created and formatted an NTFS partition for it, but for a hardware reason it wouldn't install. When I finally found out the reason, I had the Mandrake install disk in the computer and so, technically, Linux was the first OS I ever installed. Then, in my nearly total ingnorance of computers, I stuck the W2KPro disk in and booted it. I don't remember exactly what happened, but somehow W2KPro installed to the prepared partition without wiping out LILO.

ok im a complete total noob here. im trying to figure out exacly how to partition my xp home HD so i can run both OS's. should i use partition magic? or (like debian howto doc says) will knoppix not recognise partition magic made partitions? in that case should i partition my drive through knoppix and is the software available to do it on the cd? lastly im mostly going to be using knoppix to teach myself programming and listening to music. i dont expect ill need a very huge swap drive. how large should i make it? erm...i think thats it...
thanks in advance

-hiro

[j.drake]

There is an application on the Knoppix CD called Qtparted. It works basically the same as Partition Magic (or so I'm told - I haven't used PM). I have used Qtparted before, though, and it's pretty self explanatory.

Do you know about the partitioning and naming conventions in Linux? If not, might want to learn that first. It's not hard. http://www.debian.org/releases/stabl...#s-disk-naming

jd

[Discerner0]

ok im a complete total noob here. im trying to figure out exacly how to partition my xp home HD so i can run both OS's. should i use partition magic? or (like debian howto doc says) will knoppix not recognise partition magic made partitions? in that case should i partition my drive through knoppix and is the software available to do it on the cd? lastly im mostly going to be using knoppix to teach myself programming and listening to music. i dont expect ill need a very huge swap drive. how large should i make it? erm...i think thats it...
thanks in advance

-hiro

Sorry this took so long. I just got back from a few days of vacation.

I've used PartitionMagic (8.0) to resize the partitions on three computers that had Windows already on them; one with WinMe and two with Win2KPro. Knoppix recognizes the partitions on all of them. I tried to use qparted to mangle the partitions but something, I forget what, prevented it from working so I used PartitionMagic.

From a practical point of view, the main difference between PartitionMagic and qparted is that PartitionMagic only runs from Windows, while qparted only runs from Linux. So if you desire to cut the strings that bind you to Windows, start out with qparted. And good on ye.

[ishaim]

1. Make a backup of your files.
2. Boot Knoppix from CD.
3. Press CTRL+ALT+F2.
4. Type "knoppix-installer".
5. Select Partition drives.
6. Press Spacebar to select the drive to partition

^ are these steps implying that you have previously partitioned your hard drive for the installation?

it's late and i have read many a forum, so i'm sorry if this is a broad question, but pretty much can i use qparted to partition, granted i use it correctly? reading threads involving partitioning has me scared to partition at all, because it seems a little complicated