Dual boot XP

[AndyP79]

Hi All,
Okay, I have been Googling, and have come to the conclusion I am lost. I have a XP box that I want to dual with Mint, and I keep coming across things that say that I have to partition Windows first?? With a Ubuntu Live Disc, I just put it in, and it does the partion for me, does Mint do it differnently? I have been using Mint on my experimental laptop for some time, and enjoy it, but need the dual boot for a few programs which I have not figured out yet........

[Alpha-Geek]

You can boot with the Mint disk, have it create a linux partition from free space & install Mint in a dual boot configuration. Just like Ubuntu.

[piratesmack]

I recommend you use the Mint4Win installer

It's the easiest way to set up a dual-boot.

[Decemberdoom]

It might be the easiest, but there are certain bugs and odd lags that are (apparently) caused by using that method. (Never tried it myself, but that seems to be the case when exploring the internet).

Dual booting is quite simple, especially with a distro like Mint. The installer Mint uses is almost the same exact thing as the Ubuntu one, it is heavily based off it. You should have no problem with Mint Dual booting XP.

[piratesmack]

It might be the easiest, but there are certain bugs and odd lags that are (apparently) caused by using that method. (Never tried it myself, but that seems to be the case when exploring the internet).

When I first used Ubuntu, I installed it with Wubi. I didn't have any problems with it.
The reason I recommended Mint4Win is because he said he was lost.
Repartitioning your hard drive is dangerous if you don't know what you're doing.
And the Ubiquity installer isn't always very smart at auto-resizing your partitions for a dual-boot.

To the original poster:
If you're interested in doing a real dual-boot, take a look at this guide:
http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_wind ... _first.htm
I recommend you do the partitioning from the latest Gparted or PartedMagic live cd. (Personally, I prefer PartedMagic since it comes with Gparted and some other useful tools)
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php
http://partedmagic.com/

[AndyP79]

Thanks for the advise. I will post my results later.

Thanks

[piratesmack]

Good luck

[AndyP79]

Okay, No Luck!

I talked to a friend of mine who is more computer savy then me, and he said I had to go into the BIOS and tell it to see the disk drive first.

Did that, no change. It seems like no matter what I do, Windows seems to try to find a way to take over. I got the live disk, so when I put it in, it asks if I want help to make it load, I have tried both ways, and it restarts and asks if I want to load Windows or Mint, so I pick mint, it shows me the boot loader picture, then i get the mouse cursor, then I get the start up sound, and then...........nothing, just a cursor, and a black screen.........I hate windows, makes this seem so difficult.

I have a laptop that I am running mint fine on, and I am even writing this on a fresh load from the DVD that I am trying to use on the other desktop, so I know it is not the disk as it loaded fine on here............

[AndyP79]

Okay, update. I did a defrag and set BIOS to boot a CD, then I inserted Mint. I got (in WindowsXP), a screen that pops up. I asked for help to install the CD. I rebooted, I hit ESC and it asked where I wanted to boot from, I choose CD. then it asked what I wanted to boot, I choose Mint, I get the boot up screen, then a black screen with the mouse cursor, then........nothing, black screen mouse cursor, I ave been sitting here looking at it for ten minutes now, and nothing................

[Decemberdoom]

Try pressing Ctrl+Alt+F2 and see if you can get into a terminal. You'll probably be able to fix up your graphical settings from the terminal, and if you are able to get into it, that tells us that it is a problem with X and not a problem with the CD or Mint.

[AndyP79]

Alright, so, her is the latest.....I got it to load. I caught something that said something about there being a problem with the ASPI(????), so i was finally able to get into the installer menu, and had a choice to load with ASPI(ASCI???) problems. Got it installed. But wait there is more....... Now, it loads, and I reboot for the first time, and it asks me the couple of questions that it normally does on initial start up, and after that.......black screen!! NOTHING!!!!! Now, i have no way of doing anything! The computer is now basically stuck in la-la land and I have tried a dozen differnet things, and nothing.........dang it! i am to the point now, that I am going to have to bring it in for repairs, and start over, this time though I am going to have them load it all for me, cause this was a pain in the rear end!

[Decemberdoom]

Have you tried getting into a terminal? This really seems just like a Video configuration issue...

Before you go spend money on repairs, you could burn some small distro onto a CD, boot into that (Puppy/DamnSmallLinux should be fine), and reformat from there if you really don't want to bother trying to troubleshoot.

[AndyP79]

Hi December,
Yea, I tried that. I can not get to a point in the boot up to get to a terminal, just darkness. And then trying to boot anything, well, now it just wont do it, I am going to spend the $100 or so to get my local shop to do it, I am already starting to go thin on top, don't want to go grey also! HAHA!

Thanks for all your time though

[AK Dave]

I say this over and over. I get bored of repeating myself. If you drop through the cracks and have already bricked your system, I can only say that the advice you needed to follow was here all along. There are so MANY good "dual boot XP and Linux" guides on the web that I am amazed you didn't find one.

google: dual boot xp linux = http://www.google.com/search?source=ig& ... linux&aq=f
Top 5 hits:
http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_wind ... _first.htm
http://apcmag.com/the_definitive_dualbo ... bystep.htm - "definitive" = CLUE CLUE CLUE
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/lin ... aptop.html
http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux/gr ... HOWTO.html
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=599

google: dual boot xp mint = http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz= ... ot+xp+mint
Top 5 hits:
http://linuxgazette.net/136/lazar.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... _mint.html
http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_linu ... _first.htm
http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_wind ... _first.htm - duplicate hit from above CLUE CLUE CLUE
http://www.linuxmint.com/wiki/index.php ... ot_with_XP - hit from linuxmint.com forum CLUE CLUE CLUE

I'll summarize:
1. Boot into Windows. Delete everythign that is deletable and uninstall everything that is uninstallable. Download and use a good defragger. Multiple times. Reboot and defrag again. Your goal is to create a HUGE blank empty wad of free space to the right of the defrag graph. Merely having free space is insufficient. Having it all on the right, the files all on the left, is important. Reboot into Windows one more time.
2. Download and burn AT SLOWEST POSSIBLE SPEED your linux iso of choice.
3. Download and burn AT SLOWEST POSSIBLE SPEED a copy of gparted live.
4. Boot with gparted. Do all your partitioning at this time. Make it right.
5. Reboot into Windows. It will want to do a checkdisk. Let it complete, then reboot into Windows again to make sure it did it right.
6. Boot with your linux iso. Install, select MANUAL partitioning, don't repartitition anything but manually select the partitions you want to use. Install.
7. Reboot. See the grub menu? Use the grub menu.

So right now you boot and get a blank black screen. Likely: X is failing at some point. Decemberdoom is probably right. Ctrl-Backspace restarts X. Or from grub (you DO see grub, right?) you can select a "safe" mode to boot. Your grub menu should include your Windows install to boot to.

Finally, do you have a local Linux Users Group you can talk to? Where, exactly, do you live? Likely there is an Ubuntu LoCo or a Linux LUG near you.