Taking the leap to a dual boot machine… for those that don’t know what that means… read on. A dual (or more) boot computer basically gives you options during the boot sequence to choose between installed operating systems that are on the hard drive (or removable media, or thumb drive….).
If you’ve got the average Windows box and have never done this before, you have a single partition on your hard drive. If you’re lucky enough to have an empty spare drive laying around that you’d like to drop into the box, that is probably the easiest. If on the other hand you don’t… here’s the most nerve racking part of the whole process.
The first step is to… you know what I’m going to say….
BACK UP EVERYTHING THAT YOU CAN’T REPLACE
That’s the last word on that, that I will preach… if you loose things now… too bad.
The first thing you should probably do is to de-frag your hard drive. There are third party de-frag programs out there, but the one supplied with Windows (go to ‘My Computer’, right click on the drive that you’d like to work with (usually ‘C’), and click ‘defrag’) works just fine for this. It can take quite a while depending on how big your drive is… so set it up and run it over night and don’t look at the computer (it goes faster that way, don’t you know).
Then you have some choices… which is exactly what Linux is all about. If you own Partition Magic go ahead and fire it up and read the directions and make a new partition… remember that you’ll probably want at least 10 GB at minimum for a full install of Linux… but I’m guessing that Linux will be your hobby and not your primary OS, so make sure you leave enough room for M$ WindBlows to do everything you’d like it to.
If you don’t have Partition Magic, you’re not done for…. there are a couple of open source options. GParted and QTParted These two links are to the wiki’s on them… GParted and QTParted are the official web sites.
If you’re considering QTParted, your best bet is to download a copy of Knoppix and boot into that Linux OS and run it from there. You may decide that Knoppix is pretty cool and want to install it… but I’d go with another distro… but I always have a Knoppix edition around to use as a rescue tool on crashed Windblows systems (or so I can hack the Winblows passwords…. not that I’d ever do that).
The last time I did this, I used Gparted. That being said, you have two ways of getting it… as a stand alone very small live CD (or usb drive), the GParted LiveCDGParted & Clonezilla LiveCd is here. is here. Or as a package deal with Clonezilla and a number of other tools as a multi boot liveCD. IMHO, if you’re going to go to the trouble of downloading a set of tools that will fit onto a CD, get the whole set…. you never know when you’re going to need the one you would have / should have / didn’t…. get. Then when you’re locked out of your computer… and you need to correct something, you’ll have the tools to do it. So anyway, I’d go with a Knoppix distro or the GParted & Clonezilla LiveCd. (or download both, burn them after checking the checksum values, and take a look at both of them and then decide)
Anyway, follow the directions carefully… this is one of the steps that can fry your M$ system and leave you with a blank hard drive… and resize your NTFS partition, create a new ext2 or ext3 partition in the blank space that is left. Remember that you need to leave room on the M$ side for everything you need to do (don’t make the new partition smaller then the amount of information that you already have on the drive… it won’t be there when you look the next time…).
After your hard drive is newly partitioned, remove the liveCD and reboot. Make sure that your M$ system still boots and that your information is still there (cross your fingers and say a prayer).
The next thing you want to do is to download your Linux distro of choice. There are so many to choose from. DistroWatch.com Linux.org LinuxQuestions.org
If this is your first Linux install, stick with one of the bigger (more people using it) distros so that you have a bigger support network and active forums to interact with. Fedora, Ubuntu, Suse, Mandriva, or Gentoo are some of the bigger ones… and if you want any help from me… I’ve really only used Fedora. I’ve used Ubuntu but not very much. Anyway, download what you want and burn the image after checking the checksum. The bigger distros will be burnt to DVD’s not CD’s.
So, now you’re here… you’ve got a working M$ system and you have room on the HD for something else… something better…. Linux. Next, especially if you’re running a laptop, boot into your bios and disable your card reader if you have one… sometimes this messes up the drive letters when the installer is looking where to install things. While you’re there, double check that your optical drive is listed above your HD in the boot order. Drop the DVD or CD into the drive and reboot…
From the experience of Fedora… Follow the directions. When you get to the point where you will be telling the installer program which partition to install the Linux on…. make sure you pick the correct partition… or M$ will not be there when you look next time… (this is the other ‘scary’ part of the whole procedure).
This appears to be a good install guide for Fedora. And this one doesn’t look too bad either. Follow the install guides here (pick one and work through it). You should consider running without SEL enabled if you’re just doing this for fun… if you’re doing this to learn about security and teach yourself, run with it enabled but permissive (if that option is still available).
When you get to the point that you get to choose which programs you want to install, you have a couple of options (surprise)… install a minimum system now and add to and update over the internet later (which I would recommend if you’ve got a great internet connection), or pick and choose everything you want off of the DVD now and put a massive system on from the start.
Regardless, you’re on your way… pick and choose and then sit back, it may take a bit. Then follow the directions, and eventually reboot… then follow those directions and you’ll be presented with your login screen… login as a user (this may be difficult for new users to understand at first… but get used to).
Now at this point, if you have your computer hard wired (plugged into) a LAN and you told the installer program to make active the LAN (eth0), you should be online. If you didn’t enable eth0 at that time and you’re plugged in, you’ll have to ‘turn it on’ by going through System-Network Tools. If you’re running a wireless network… cross your fingers that you can do the same thing with it… but be prepared to do some work to get it up and running… usually not impossible, but can be a pain in the butt. (Forums and the Internet are your friend at this point… of course unless you have two computers… you’ll have to dual boot back and forth between the two OS’s in order to use your internet connection… like I said, can be a pain)
The next thing you want to do (one of the first) is to install yumex. It’s a GUI for installing, updating, removing ‘all’ of your programs. This is where Linux shines as far as I’m concerned… makes things incredibly easy. To do this, you’ll have to use the command line at least briefly, see the install guides. You’ll also want to install and enable other repositories (see the install guides) and pay attention to which repos you add… there are some that don’t play well with each other.
Good luck and have fun… the trip is the fun…. don’t get caught up in the fact that it just won’t work right now…. it will eventually if you tell it to.
later.