I just thought I would post that I have successfully installed a dual boot box. WOOOOOT!!!!! I would go straight linux but I am new to linux and still need winDozeXP for allot of stuff.
My pc config is; p4 1.8gighz,512mb ram, geforce 3 ti 200, 2 hardrives 80 gigs & 40gigs, generic ethernet card, BTW its a dell 8200. I have XP on the 80 gig and Man9.2 on the 40gig.
It wasn't easy seeing as how buggy 9.2 is but it was worth it. If it was easy I wouldn't of learned anything.
Heres a brief summary:

1) Xp was installed already on the 80 which is the primary drive.
2) I added 2nd 40gig hd and chose /dev/hdb during installation of mandrake 9.2
3) All went fine until I rebooted and got a screen full of; 070707070707070
4) I freaked (Cause I didn't backup my 80 gig, DOH!!!).
5) Somehow found the fixmbr command with the winXP rescue option (there is a thread somewhere here with more info on this, also I have experience with windoze). And voila I could boot to XP again, WHEW!!!
5) Did some more reading, ZZZZZ!!!! Loaded the boot floppy -> typed rescue -> enter -> reinstall boot loader, voila! a dual boot machine.

Questions:
1) I was wondering. How did lilo correct itself when I reinstalled it? I chose install to mbr on the main drive I think!
Also, how could I have gotten to the lilo config file when I couldn't boot to linux? With boot floppy? What would I have put in config file?
2) I just backed up windozeXP and I am planning to do a fresh install of evertyhing. I was planning to put xp and mandrake on the 40 and share the 80 between them on a fat32. Which should I install first? & How should I setup the partions?

Ill stop here! Looking forward to more adventures!

Jason

I can help with 1 Question. You always should have windows installed first .If not windows will rewrite the mbr. I defagged xp then set the bios to boot from cdrom then reboot with mandrake disc then used the mandrake partition tool to resize windows the installed to the free space.
Regards Sharkee

"Also, how could I have gotten to the lilo config file when I couldn't boot to linux? With boot floppy? What would I have put in config file?"

You boot a rescue CD, mount your Linux hard drive with the mount command, and edit /etc/lilo.conf with a text editor. You can use Knoppix for a rescue CD or you could build your own rescue CD using LifeBoat:

http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html
(read this web site with something other than IE)

"2) I just backed up windozeXP and I am planning to do a fresh install of evertyhing. I was planning to put xp and mandrake on the 40 and share the 80 between them on a fat32. Which should I install first? & How should I setup the partions?"

Windows will clobber the MBR. So to dual boot you should install Windows XP before you install Linux.

Linux will run faster if you spread it across both hard drives. So rather than placing Linux on one hard drive and Windows on the other I suggest that you put swap and / partitions on one hard drive and create /usr and /home partitions on the other drive. Similarly, put Windows XP on one hard drive and the shared fat32 partition on the other.

_________
Steve Stites

hehe, yeah, I was talking to someone about Linux the other day and they said they looked into it but the message boards were full of people having problems. Gee, I wonder why nobody ever starts a "everything is working great and I have no questions" thread... or maybe a "help, there's nothing wrong" thread. LOL

Here's my "everything is working great" story.

Dell Inspiron 5100
Mandrake 9.2

Several months ago, I made my first attempt into the world of Linux, and hit abject failure. This was on my desktop machine and could never get Linux to recognize the RAID controller properly (HPT-372). Went back to Win2k.

Fast forward to this week. Bought my laptop in September, immediately got sick of WinXP and swore to eventually try Linux again. The biggest hangup had always been my wireless card (Netgear MA521) and the lack of Linux drivers.

Downloaded the Mandrake Move ISO and tried it on the laptop. Almost everything worked. Once I found a working solution to my wireless card (Linuxant Driverloader), I decided it was time to give it another try.

Loaded Mandrake 9.2 (kernel 2.4.22-10) and got almost everything working. After a few days, attempted to upgrade to kernel 2.6.2. Spent the past three days going through different sets of instructions, every time trashing the system and having to reload from the 9.2 CDs.

Today, discovered Ozzzy's page. Tonight, got 2.6.2-1 fully installed and functioning. ACPI is now fully recognized (only have suspend on lid close left to get working). USB mouse and internal touchpad playing nicely together.

Tomorrow, installing KDE 3.2 and all my applications.

Finally, I feel free from the Microsoft hegemony! Still have to use it at work, but I get paid to deal with it there.

Thanks for the info and replies. I will let you know how the fresh install goes.

darkflounder....what is Ozzzy's page? Sounds like I might need it!
Thank you.

Thanks!
Just what I was looking for!

I have access to some extra hardware at work, so I thought I'd see how good the installation program for 9.2 is. Between home and work I've tried 8 different configurations (P3, P4) and I'm really impressed. There is some learning curve for setting up the upgrade media sources (search this board for 'Easy URPMI'). But if you put on 9.2 and get the latest bug fixes (KDE menu problem), then you really have a very useful and powerful workstation right out of the box.