please help me o ut

[sud]

HELLO EVERYBODY
I am a newbie at linux and i want to install kubuntu/ubuntu(6.06) on my pc which already has winxp-sp2 installed.
my hard disk info is like this:
1) 80 gb-sata
2) 4 partitions and some unallocated free space
3) C:7gb ->winxp, D:25gb->data ,similarly E: and f: ALL FAT32
4) UNALLOCTED SPACE:10GB(i have kept it aside for linux )

NOW MY QUERY IS THAT
**I WANT A DUAL BOOT SYSTEM WITHOUT AFFECTING THE "MBR"
**SO THAT I AM ABLE T REMOVE LINUX/WIN WITHOUT AFFECTING EACH OTHER
**IS THIS FEASIBLE?
**IF YES THEN COULD U PLEASE ANSWER MY QUERY ,I WILL BE VERY GRATEFUL IF U COULD PLEASE MAIL ME AT "piyush_nsit_coe@yahoo.co.in"

** ALSO I DON'T HAVE ANY IDEA ABOUT "GRUB" AND IT CORRUPTING THE "MBR"
** ONE MORE THING I NEED IS "gcc compiler" ! DOES KUBUNTU COME LOADED WITH IT ?IF NOT PLEASE GUIDE ME REGARDING THE INSTALLATION PROCEDURE!

** DUE TO THESE DOUBTS(AND FEAR) ONLY I HAVE DEFERRED TO INSTALL LINUX!!!!!! SO IF ANYBODY COULD HELP ME OUT I WILL BE EXTREMELY THANKFUL

THANKS
sud

[mchuskie]

Re: please help me o ut

Capitals don't help, they make your post hard to read.

The "MBR" is the Master Boot Record. It points your computer to the operating system so it knows what to load.

Grub ("Grand Unified Boot Loader") is a piece of software that sits on the MBR and lets you choose, at startup, what operating system to load. When you install Linux, Grub will also be installed and you'll be able to choose which OS to load (Windows or Kubuntu).

A "dual boot system without affecting the MBR" is (I think) possible, though I don't think that's really necessary for what you want. With the standard Grub setup, you can remove Windows easily without affecting Linux, or vice versa (and then simply reinstall XP's bootloader, which is a two-line job) should you want to.

Yes, Kubuntu has GCC - install the package "build-essential" when you've got your system up and running.

[lingenfr]

Re: please help me o ut

I agree. You can install grub in the Linux partition rather than the MBR, but I don't think it is worth the headache to get your XP bootloader set up. When you want to whack Linux just

fdisk /mbr and you are good to go

[SinisterSole]

Re: please help me o ut

I have been running grub on hda in conjuction with the xpboot loader with no problem. I also think that the command for fdisk/mbr will only work with win9x os.

[mchuskie]

Re: please help me o ut

I have been running grub on hda in conjuction with the xpboot loader with no problem. I also think that the command for fdisk/mbr will only work with win9x os.

Yes, I think the command for Windows 2000/XP is "fixboot".